justem: little bits of this and that

radio silence...

Hi! I apologize for the radio silence the last week. It was a busy week and an even busier weekend!  Plus, the end of the month means I'm up to my ears in assignments. I might even have something special up my sleeve this month... ;)  Here's a hint...

Around here...

Baby {Pebbles Special Delivery Layout}

If you told me that I would love a baby themed scrapbooking line, I would probably laugh in your face. ;) As much as I love babies, pastels and cutesy elements are definitely NOT my thing when it comes to scrapbooking. However, the Pebbles Special Delivery line really knocked it out of the park - yes, there are some pastels and a lot of blue, but there is also gray and stars and dots and stripes and elements that are cute, but not "cutesy".  Everything in this layout is from the Special Delivery line...and I really do love it. ;)  

The die cuts are a great new addition to the Pebbles lines - they come with an awesome mix of shapes and titles, like the large stars and the big baby (haha...big baby...okay...not funny) that I used as my title.

And these embellished paper clips are perfect - they add a little dimension without adding TOO much dimension. I admittedly have trouble with really big things like clothespins, but these are just the right size!

Hope everybody has a great day!!  We will be spending it outside!! Hooray for warmer temperatures!

Five for Friday:

1. Have you seen this Instagram account? I think this is so cute and clever...she takes an item and finds the coordinating Pantone shade.  So fun!

(Source: Inka Mathew/Tiny PMS Match)

2. I have decided that to survive a sleepless night (of which I have many) I need exactly three things: 1) A bottle of Bolthouse Farms Mocha Cappuccino (this is the only "coffee" I will drink), 2) my roll-on Stress Away oil (smells soooo good - yes I'm one of those crazy oil people, but this is probably the only time I will ever mention it), and 3) the Golden Oldies Pandora station - it can get you out of any foul mood!!  Seriously - those three things are about the only way I made it through yesterday morning!! ;)  

3. Super excited to have lots of friends visiting this weekend!  First, I get to have breakfast with this girl and this girl and then some of our favorite Chicago friends are coming up for a visit. My friend Mandy has amazing home decor style and a fabulous house filled with treasures. I keep trying to get her to start a home blog...if she ever does, I'll share it here! ;)

4. I would really like to read a book. It's pretty embarrassing how little I have read in the past three years. I think I read maybe three or four books last year total. Anybody out there have a good suggestion?  Hit me with your best books lately!!

5. We had some mystery flowers growing our yard that looked like mini Lorax trees. ;) I know nothing about flowers, so I turned to the experts on Facebook and Instagram for a little advice.  It turns out they are peonies.  They bloomed this week...so beautiful! I wish the rest of our yard was so beautiful - it is like the opposite of beautiful. I keep saying I want to hire someone with a bulldozer to just raze it.  I'm not exaggerating...but that's another blog post. ;)

Happy Friday!!!

It kind of feels like February today...

It's SO cold here today!! (Well, it's been cold all week!)  I thought in honor of the fact that it feels like February, I'd share some Valentine's Day cards I made for Pebbles a long while ago.  These are simple cards made with my Cameo - I just cut out the letters and adhered the negative portion of top of lots and lots of paper strips!! I used 3D dots to lift the letters up off the page a bit. They were super cute...even if my kids just destroyed them in about a day! ;) These cards use the Pebbles Yours Truly line - which is adorable. Y'all know that I'm not a big fan of "theme-y" lines, but this one is pretty perfect!

Those birds...too cute! ;)

 

And that ampersand paper????!!!!

Hopefully my buddy Spring will find his way back sometime soon... ;) Have a great day!

#workspacewednesday

I have absolutely nothing exciting to share today except this {blurry} photo of my crazy messy desk and the start of a Gossamer Blue layout. That will have to do. ;)

Thoughts on this blog...

So, I'm going to just apologize right now. I'm sorry for this rambling post. I'm sorry for the overuse of ellipses and all the run on sentences and  grammatically incorrect things I am about to throw at you.  I just have been thinking a lot lately...about blogging...about this blog and what I want it to be.  

If you look at the archives of this blog, it looks as though I have been blogging for about three years. That is incorrect.  I have actually been blogging for almost nine years.  I started blogging in the summer of 2005 as a newlywed with a new puppy, living in her first home. Nobody read my blog. But then people did.  I shared a little of this and a little of that.  I was very careful never to use my full name or my city or any other identifying facts about myself. I was terrified that my employers would find my blog - I didn't have ant.  When Blogger and Google merged, my anonymity was lost, and I made my blog private. Luckily, I reatined a lot of my readers.  In 2009 when my daughter was born, I switched to Tyepad and kept my blog private, requiring a username and password.  People kept reading, but it was private...which didn't go over well with the scrapbooking powers-that-be. I was actually told by a bigger name (at the time) scrapbooking company that they loved my work, but I had to have a public blog to be on their design team.  In 2012, I finally created this blog, which my "scrapbooking ONLY" blog.  I put scrappy stuff on here and that was IT.

Fast forward two years to now. I am busy trying to maintain two different blogs - the personal, private blog and this one.  I feel like this blog is at a crossroads. It's becoming painfully obvious that I don't scrapbook often enough to maintain a "scrapbooking-only" blog.  I would have about four posts a month.  That's no good.  I've added random bits here and there trying to keep it current, but up until recently, my posting has been pretty sporadic.  Also, for the first time in my entire blogging "career," I am not working outside the home.  I feel a little bit more comfortable putting myself out there in a way that I never would have before. I also really enjoy sharing things other than scrapbooking, and I think (hope?) that most of you are okay with it, as well.  So - this blog is going to evolve a bit...in fact, I'm sure you've already noticed it changing.

The question is...what do I want this blog to be?  A scrapbooking blog? No. We've already established that.  A home blog? No. I'm a terrible home photographer, and although I like sharing photos of my "new old" house, there wouldn't be enough of that to sustain a blog. A "mom" blog? HECK no.  In fact, while I will definitely share activities and events that include my children, I will save the personal details about their lives for my personal/private blog.  A DIY blog? Um. No.  I can't DIY anything! ;)

So, from here on out, I guess this will be a blog about a little of this and a little of that - scrapbooking, music, kid crafts, vintage finds, home posts, around Madison, etc. I'm removing "scrapbookery" from my title, though it will remain in my web adress because you just can't change those things. ;)  I apologize to those who care about the scrapbooking and may be annoyed at the change. I hope you'll stick around for the scrapbooking posts, no matter how few and far between they are.  And a big thank you to everyone who visits and reads. I know you're out there. I see it in my stats...even if you don't comment. ;)  I'm excited about the direction this blog is taking, and I hope you'll join me on this new adventure.  

Found: Garden Chair

I'm totally making up the name "garden chair." It just sounds so much better than "crappy little chair I bought from a garage sale."  ;)  Last my town held city-wide garage sales, and a friend and I headed out Friday morningto see what we could find.  I ended up with a vintage metal milk crate, a blue mason jar (one can never have too many!), an old US map puzzle, and this gross little chair. ;)

I slapped a coat of paint on it...totally NOT outdoor paint, but whatever - it's going to sit outside and get destroyed anyway - and it looks so much cuter! I felt a little bad painting over the hand-scribbled name of the child who used to own (and clearly love) this chair...but it was worth it. ;)

I put it on my porch with a few flower pots and it's perfect - exactly what I was looking for.  

I envision our stoop being filled with all kinds colorful pots and flowers - unfortunately most of our planters were left behind in IL. Friday night, my husband and I went on a date night and when he asked me where I wanted to go, I chose Home Depot - the site of all hot dates. ;)  I got a few more pots, but I want more, more more!!! Here is what it looks like now:

Our front stoop clearly needs  a lot of work.  It's OLD and cracked and pretty ugly, but hopefully I can at least make it look cute during the different seasons! I will share a photo once we get the rest of our pots.  Hope everyone has a great Monday - it's storming here right now and supposed to storm all day. Yay. ;)  I am thankful for the rain, but it makes the day go by soooo much slower!! Hope it's sunny where you are!

Around here...

Her Own Sunshine {Pinspired with Gossamer Blue}

Happy Friday!! Now only is it Friday, but Spring (or maybe Summer, ha) has finally arrived!  It was 80 degrees yesterday!  We spent the entire day outside, and I'm in a pretty fantastic mood because of it all!  Today I have my monthly "Pinspired with Gossamer Blue" challenge up on the GB blog.  This layout includes a few bits and pieces from all of the May kits.  As with most of my "Pinspired" layouts, this one doesn't really resemble my original inspiration...but I love it nonetheless! ;)  

The most prominent element here is the Simple Stories DIY die cuts - they came in both white and cream and I used all the white on my page. And look - it's my favorite black & white letters - yes, I used them on every layout this month!

The Pink Paislee Hello Sunshine ephemera pack had SO many cute elements!  I love these transparent flowers!

For more information on my layout, including the original inspiration, check out the Gossamer Blue blog!

What is on your agenda for the weekend? My husband and I are going on a date!  This is the second time in six months this has happened - so it's kind of a big deal. ;)  Have a great weekend!