justem: little bits of this and that

Autumn {Gossamer Blue Pinspired}

It's the end of the month...which is evident by my complete disappearance from this blog! ;)  The end of the month is always crazy for me since 3/4 of the assignments I have each month are due within a couple day period. Yes, I should try to space things out more during the month, but it never seems to work out as planned!  I realized there are a couple of layouts I thought I shared here, but never did. The first is my October Pinspired layout for the Gossamer Blue blog.  My inspiration this month was a quote - the entire layout was designed around it:

If I had to pick a single favorite item from October it would be these wood veneer leaves...and my second favorite paper would be the scripty paper from My Mind's Eye!

 Rubons on photos? Love.

For more details on this layout, including my original inspiration piece, check out the original post on the blog! Have a great Wednesday! (Although, I've been thinking ALL day that it is Thursday!!)

Five for Friday:

Happy almost Saturday!  :)  This has been a loooong week. I'm sitting back, watching some Parenthood, and enjoying some pizza and beer!  Here is my belated Five for Friday!

1. This has been the most beautiful fall I've ever experienced.  I like to think that it's because fall in Wisconsin is just a million times better than fall in Illinois, but I've been told by many people that this is the most vivid fall they can remember in years...so maybe it's not like this every year. (Or...obviously Wisconsin did this just for me...)  I admit, I have almost driven off the road numerous times staring at the trees and the colors in the bluffs that I pass every time I go anywhere. They are insanely beautiful. Many of the trees lost their leaves this week...which makes me think of my least favorite season...WINTER. ;)

2. I had my monthly book club last night. This month's book was The Boys in the Boat. Honestly, I wasn't excited to read this book, nor was I really expecting to enjoy it. However, it was probably the best book I have read this year (other than Eleanor & Park, which, as I mentioned before, is amazing but on a totally different scale). It's basically the story of the the 1936 Olympic Crew team. It's riveting...seriously.  I loved it soooo much. It's not something I would have ever chosen myself, but I'm so happy I read it.  You should, too. ;)

3. My newest favorite Instagram account is The Midwestival. They feature photos and stories from the upper Midwest...and anybody that knows me knows that I am fiercely loyal when it comes to my home state and I love that Wisconsin and Minnesota are so prominently featured!  I've been lucky to have a couple of photos featured on their Instagram account and I'm loving everything else I see!

4.  Have you listened to Serial? After I read a review of this podcast last month I knew I HAD to listen, however I don't really have place or a time to listen to podcasts.  My vehicle is old and doesn't have Bluetooth, not to mention that I usually have kids in the car, so that's out. But last weekend on my way to and from St. Louis, I had my husband's car all to myself!!  I listened to all of the episodes and I am hooked!  Today I actually was so excited to listen to the latest episode that I was outside in my yard raking with one hand and holding my phone listening with the other.  Yes, I know I could have found some headphones, but I like to live on the wild side. ;)

5. My buddy Ginny Hughes has been teasing me about my love for everything pumpkin...and she's right...I cannot get enough pumpkin. Yes, I drank the {pumpkin flavored} kool-aid.  This week alone we ate pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin strussel bread, pumpkin bread, mini pumpkin pies (again!), pumpkin noosa, pumpkin spice chai, and today my friend brought me some pumpkin beer...the one I was drinking tonight, in fact. Oh, heck yes. ;)

Have a great weekend!

Here Fishy... {Cocoa Daisy Guest Designer}

Hello!  I can't believe October is over next week! I feel like it just began. I realized I still have a lot of layouts to share here on the blog, so I better get cracking before I have another entire month's worth of projects!!  Today I want to share another layout I made as the October guest designer at Cocoa Daisy.  This layout prominently features one of the really cool exclusive cut files. I ended up using one of the designs and modifying it by rotating it and changing it's size to create this design.  I used a bunch of the fun exclusive patterned papers behind each cut out, and finally, I used those adorable wooden dots in the center of each.  I used the blue and yellow color scheme to mimic the colors in my son's shirt and life jacket.

The "doodles" on the page are actually Teresa Collins vellum stickers!  And those super cute alphas are from Evalicious.  This was a super fun layout to create, and I love the final result!

Around Here...

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I just arrived home from a weekend in St. Louis. This was my first trip to St. Louis and my first trip overnight away from my kids (other than when I had the baby) in over a year. It was a blast! St. Louis is a super fun town - it's small and spread out, but everything was very nice and enjoyable. We had to drive everywhere, but parking was available and affordable, which for this former Chicago-girl was a nice change of pace! ;)  We ate some great food and saw some fantastic sites!  It helped that the weather was perfect the entire time we were there!  We did a lot of fun night things, which meant that picture taking was not really possible...I would have loved more photos of the City Museum or our meals at Pi Pizza, Bailey's Chocolate Bar, and Range.  Here are a few daytime shots. I have tons more, but these are some of my favorites!

Gossamer Blue October Inspiration Blog Hop

Hello, hello, and welcome to our first ever Gossamer Blue Inspiration Blog Hop! Have you noticed that in the world of kit clubs it's always go, go, go and often before you've even received your kit in the mail there are is already buzz about the next kit? It can be frustrating. We at Gossamer Blue want you to know that we feel your pain and are here with some October inspiration for those of you who are currently in knee-deep into your October kit! Today, I have a layout to share that I created using a mix of the main scrapbooking kit and the scrapbooking add-ons:

I am totally in love with the color scheme of the October kits. The mint green + the coral + the b&w...perfection!  This layout includes a little blue, too...since both of my kids were wearing blue in the photos I thought I should try to find a way to work it in!  

I am big fan of the exclusive wood veneer that came with this month's kits. Wood veneer can be pretty hit or miss with me. Sometimes I love it...sometimes I'm just not in the mood. But this month...I was loving it. ;)

I was having a difficult time coming up for a clever title for this layout, and I ended up with the oh-so-original "At the Zoo." Because it was kind of a silly title, I went with the tone-on-tone look so it didn't stand out. ;) I tried using the triangle banners AS banners on my page, and it just wasn't working, so instead I just used them as random decorations amongst my mist!

To hop along with us, here is a list of all our participants this month!  Remember you can always reference the Gossamer Blue blog for a full list of participants! Have an inspiring day, and happy hopping!

Gossamer Blue Blog

Anabelle O'Malley

Beshka Kueser

Brenda Weaver

Cindy Liebel

Danielle Flanders

Diane Payne

Emily Spahn **That's me!**

Erin Taylor **Go here next!**

Eunyoung Lee

Evgenia Petzer

Heather Leopard 

Jill Keller

Joy Taylor

Katie Ehmann

Keisha Campbell

Laura Crosby

Maria Lacuesta

Melanie Blackburn

Michelle Wooderson

Rebecca Luminarias

Sabrina Alery

Tara Anderson

Vanessa Perry

Back to School Feast {Fancy Pants Social Media Team}

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful fall weekend! Today (and all week) it's gray and dreary here.  I had some fun outdoor activities planned, but now I worry they will need to be postponed!  Today I have another Fancy Pants layout to share with you.  This one is very different than most of my other layouts - I'm usually a pretty simple scrapper, but this is simple even for me!  I used a bunch of elements from the Burlap & Bouquets line:

 

I love those larger envelopes, but I always have trouble incorporating them into my layouts. I decided to just use the envelop along with the tag and the photo and create a blocked layout.  The big flower was a last minute addition...one I'm glad I went with!!  And that No. 1 badge? My favorite piece in this line! 

Five for Friday:

1. My daughter and I have tickets to see James and the Giant Peach this weekend, put on by the Children's Theater of Madison.  We started reading the book, and it's been so fun for me to revisit it.  I'm looking forward to rereading some of my childhood favorites with my kids when they get a little older!

2. Can we talk about black pants for a minute?  I have been going to our local YMCA and have checked out some classes.  I really haven't been to a gym in like five years. And now...EVERYONE wears those damn black pants. Everyone.  Big. Small. Old. Young. Everyone. And let's be real...my body is so not black pants friendly. UGH.  To any of my more comfortable in their black pants friends - can you suggest any good ones for me to buy?? I would love ones that are like capri length...and maybe that are a tiny bit flared vs. totally suctioned to my body. And go!

3. My mom emailed me a link to this video yesterday. I LOVE it.  The music. The video. It's perfect. :)

4. Last year when I had a newborn, a good friend of mine made me some pumpkin pie cupcakes (along with like five other awesome goodies) to enjoy.  I've been wanting to make them ever since, but now that's it's finally fall, it felt appropriate! ;) We made them last weekend and they were soooo amazing.  They aren't cupcakes exactly...more like tiny little pumpkin pies.  They are also crazy easy to make. You should try them!

5. Have you seen the sneaks of the Gossamer Blue December Memories kit?  I have never done a "December Daily" but this makes me want to... ;)  Be sure to check out their Instagram account for all the goodness! Here's my favorite sneak so far:

Have a great weeeknd!!

Love x3 {Cocoa Daisy Guest Designer}

How is it possibly Thursday night already?  Did you ever have one of those weeks that flew by, but you couldn't really even say what you did that took up all your time? ;) Today, tonight I have another layout I made as the Cocoa Daisy guest designer.  So...the Cocoa Daisy main kit came with those gold thickers - you know the ones I'm talking about. ;)  Truthfully...I'm over the gold thickers.  This was third time I have been given them to use...once in my September Gossamer Blue kit, once in the Citrus Twist kit I got when I guested for them, and now in the Cocoa Daisy kit. It's not that I dislike them...I actually like them a lot...I was just a little gold thickered out. ;) When I guest design, however, I really do try to use many of the products and showcase the kit as much as possible...so it became a little contest. Me vs. the gold thickers. I'm happy to say, I think I won...maybe...

To make the heart, I simply cut out a large heart from a piece of cardstock, and then I used the negative space as a template and just fit the letters in there the best that I could. It was pretty easy, yet looks pretty cool visually. 

The bottom half of the layout is super plain.  I guess when you have a giant gold thicker heart at the top you can leave the bottom plain.  I love that I made four layouts with this Cocoa Daisy kit, and looking at this layout versus the one I posted last week, you probably wouldn't even know they were from the same kit!  I have two more layouts I will share at some point. Maybe if these weeks slow down... ;)

Olliegator {Fancy Pants Social Media Team}

Happy Saturday!  Today is the second Fancy Pants Social Media Round-Up on the FP blog!  Our team has been hard at work all month working with these fun projects!  This is a layout I made using a mix of different Fancy Pants lines:

 

It kinds of looks like a Halloween layout - but that was totally unintentional! ;)  I might have to pull out these same supplies in a few weeks to scrap!

It's SNOWING here right now. That's nuts!!  We have some fall activities planned - I hope they aren't thwarted by this weather!!  Have a great weekend! :)

So Happy Together {Gossamer Blue October}

Good morning! Yesterday was the first (crazy!) and that means the reveal of another fabulous Gossamer Blue kit. I loved the colors and scripted elements in this kit soooo much.  It all works together so well, even though it's a mix of multiple manufacturers and lines.  Here is my Main Kit only layout - if you follow me on social media, you might have seen me complaining about this layout. First - a moth landed on my it and fluttered around in the wet mist. Then, while I was turned around, a boxelder bug crawled on  and tracked more mist around. Apparently my attic is home to many creatures! I started over with a fresh piece of cardstock, only to have a sticker sheet slide down onto my wet mist and smear it. I was feeling a little like the world was conspiring against me. But, I finally managed to finish it, and I'm happy with the result. That little green "the best" sticker - covering up the mist splotch. ;)

For tons more inspiring projects, be sure to stop by the galleries! Our design team is one of the best. ;)