Layouts of Europe

I have been quite the productive scrapper lately. I deviated slightly from my typical chronological scrapping to work on our trip to Europe. I was so excited to use a bunch of my new stash and try different techniques. I have to say that Basic Grey's Wisteria collection is my favorite so far.

Koi Fish

We just received Christmas money from my dad (thanks Daddy), which we put toward our second art purchase. We wanted a large original painting to put in our formal dining room/office and I think this one does the trick!

These koi fish are the only pets we have, so Jesse has begun naming them: Herbert, Roger, Agnes . . .

O Holy Night

Here is my big reveal of the project I have been working on for a month! When we were kids, we had advent calendars, which we used to count down the days left until Christmas. I decided to make one this year that we could use for years to come. I bought a Kaisercraft wood advent calendar and decorated the heck out of it using Kaisercraft wood flourishes, specialty paper from The Paper Studio and The Paper Company, Doodlebug Designs sugar coated cardstock, We R Memory Keepers snowflake flocked lace ribbon, American Crafts blanc white specialty ribbon, Jolee's snowflakes, Recollections self-adhesive rhinestones, Class A'Peels silver geo shapes, Prima e-line bling assortment 6, Martha Stewart gemstones, Swarovski crystals, Art Institute small glass beads glitter, Diamond Glaze, Adirondack Paint Dabbers, Liquid Pearls, and Stickles.

Ta da! (You can click on the pictures for a close-up view).

Like it? Then please vote for my project at http://michaelscontest.com/uploads/1305

Scrapbooking frenzy

I have been quite the productive scrapper this past month and it's about time I shared all of my layouts with you guys. This first layout is quite appropriate because it is about Thanksgiving. Granted, this was Thanksgiving 2006, but still!

Aww, Chloe's first Christmas. I still can't get over how cute she was in that sack! Credit for the amazing card that I used as an embellishment here goes to my talented sister Rachel.

Here are more Chloe pictures. It's so fun to make such girly layouts.

I was really excited about these pages because I got to use my Wisteria Basic Grey pack and my BoBunny chunky charms. Lovely, all.

And here is an ode to my favoriate orator ever . . . Rachel. So many memories wrapped up in one layout. Here, I branched out with my distress inks and masks. So many techniques to explore!

These pictures go way back and fill in some holes in my album. I got to use more of my flocked lace ribbon -- some of my favorite stuff ever.















This is a rather simple layout, but I am a fan of simplicity. It looks more dynamic in real life because you can see the glitter and texture. The ripped pages are core'dinations paper so there is a coordinating color core that the ripping reveals. I was very excited to use this paper!

Cleaning House

I apologize profusely for failing to post for . . . about a month! I have been obsessed with a project, which I'll reveal later (hey, you have to have something to look forward to). In the meanwhile, I'm posting about a project we finished a little while ago but never posted about. You know our front room, which used to look like this?

Well now it looks like this!

And if you think all of that was easy, think again!

It felt good to get this project done before the inlaws came to stay. While they were here, they helped us bring home and set up our newest furniture purchase: our dinette set!

Evening in Albuquerque

We were fortunate enough to host Mom and Butch for a long weekend. Our trip up to Sandia Peak ended right near sunset, with beautiful vistas our reward for braving only 40 degrees at the top.

Irony

3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result

-Merriam-Webster OnLine Dictionary

I had the idea earlier this year, as I contemplated mortality while approaching 30 years next October, to try something new and challenging, as an attempt to lift my spirits and start my fourth decade off on the right foot. I decided to run a marathon at some point next year, just to finish, and voiced this thought to a friend at work. He convinced me to try a half marathon first, a smart thought since I'd never run over 5 miles straight. He was going to run with me, and we had a race in mind for October 17.

In a result from which I'm sure I could learn something profound, but refuse to, I have pulled/torn a muscle so badly I can barely walk, and no less than three people independently attributed it to old age. It came as a result of combining half marathon runs and soccer season, a daily level of training which my younger self finished before lunch, and I can only guess that I would be dead if I was pushing for a marathon.

Setting out to prove my youth and virility, I'm now hobbling around, taking the elevator, with my wife putting on my socks. How ironic.

The Greatest Thing Albuquerque has to Offer

Guess who visited us this weeked? It was fun having some in-laws in for town for the first time, and we scheduled their trip for the balloon fiesta so they could enjoy one of Albuquerque's main claims to fame (it's the hot air balloon captial of the world, you know).

We got there when it was fairly cold and dark, and after just a little while we were able to see them blowing up the balloons. The morning started with the special shapes rodeo, which is when all the shaped balloons lift off together.

After all the special shapes lifted off, the serious ballooners came in for competitions (they had to drop a marker as close to the goal as possible, and reach out to grab a key from a poll for a chance to win a car, etc.) We were impressed with the control they had over those things!

In short, it was a pretty cool sight.

Furniture (What Else?)

I have been told that we do not post enough. The problem is, I only post when something interesting is happening (preferably with pictures to match), and nothing much has been going on lately. However, I did realize that I never posted about our first Amish furniture purchase!

We have been looking for a large bookcase to hold our enormous volume of books. I found one I loved at Pottery Barn, but Jesse really wanted to buy American. Apparently there is only one company that makes all of their furniture here, and that company is both expensive and ornate. The only other way to find USA furniture is to go Amish. While Amish furniture certainly isn't cheap, it is very high quality and customizable. I was sold when I saw this bookcase, which is practically identical to the PB one I wanted, except that it is custom made so we could choose a wood color that matched the rest of our living room!

Isn't it beautiful? And it holds all our books!

Happy Anniversary

This month marks our first year living in Albuquerque!