my favorite tea party.

I scrapped this page for this month's Anthologie Collection at One Story Down. One more Disney page down (and a million more to go).

I just loved the 'mood board' for this collection. And, after seeing the collections, it was not hard to get inspired.

After looking through the collections and picking papers to work with I started with a sheet of white cardstock and my trusty water color set from Target by Kid Made Modern.  Such a good buy and a great variety of colors.  I was sort of going for an ombre effect, choosing colors from the collection. 

I made the papers and my photos into a collage digitally and just them apart after printing it out.  One sheet, and no waste.  I like that.  I think I would normally stress about using just a small rectangle of 'real' paper on a traditional layout.

After arranging all my papers I decided I liked the look better with a few left off so the watercolor could show through a bit more.  Sometimes less is more? (Don't hold me to that!)

I stitched down the rectangles. My stitching is pretty messy. Let's just say it was intentional. For the title, I used a journaling card and some mistable thickers (these are similar) which I dabbed them with my leftover watercolor. Waste not, want not. I'm all about going green.

I used a few of my new SC May kit stamps here and there, mostly because I was excited to use them. I stamped a bit on the edges and a map in the middle.  Not necessarily thematic, but I suppose it doesn't matter.  Consider the tea cup is really a ship and we are afloat on it. It could happen.

Here is the whole thing again. I added a few gold glitter stars (mess free glitter is always a plus) and wood veneer pieces to add texture. I used the new Studio Calico Atlantic collection for the wooden anchor and heart circle. Looking at these photos was definitely bittersweet, but I'm glad I scrapped them.



If you want more Disney scrapbooking inspiration, check out my friend Ashli Oliver.  I love her latest page using up some of that darn Disney ephemera.  I have a ton that I just can't part with yet rarely scrap with. 

I also created a Pinterest board for Disney inspiration.  I would love to get some more 'modern' Disney scrapbooking inspiration together. Leave your pinterest link or email if you would like to be added to the board!

Mother's Day: It's my party and I'll instagram if I want to ...

So, if you follow me on instagram sorry about the deluge on Sunday.  I just found it very pleasant to take a little extra time to post a ton of pictures of my adorable little children.  We had a pretty low key day in general.  A last minute decision to get brunch, then a walk in the park and wading in the Barton Springs' pool. I honestly don't remember what we did after naps. Probably just unpack more boxes.  Still no end in sight on those either.
This Mother's Day was hard for different reasons.  For obvious reasons I am not feeling like the best mother right now.  But something else about this forced holiday got to me.  I really think that setting up fake expectations based on what I see others doing to celebrate is ridiculous. 
I generally think that comparing myself to anyone else is just dumb.  Why should someone else's party blog make me feel bad in any way?  Pinterest is a bunch of pictures online, not a moral imperative. Unlike the Huffington Post, I don't feel the need to call other crafters stupid or uncool.  To each his own I say.
So what if we didn't have brunch reservations? I really and truly just wanted to eat at home and avoid the rush anyway.  I know that Avinash made me a card, his teacher texted me to let me know it is still in Houston.  So why do I feel bad about not getting one on Sunday? I loved our walk around the park and Barton Springs.  That should be enough. I need to change my own attitude more than anything.
I really should not complain at all.  My own mother was all by herself on Mother's Day.  I didn't even send her anything because I just figured my Dad could carry it with him when he flew back on Tuesday.  Still, it must have been pretty lonely.  I know I would have felt like that.  I miss her so much but we have had a lot of good talks on the phone lately at least.  Hope you guys had a good weekend/Mother's Day.  

My blogging tips

I am linking up today with Kelly's Korner SUYL, How to Find A Job. 

I want to give my tips on working from home. While I don't make a ton of money, I do like the little bit I do make and the sense of purpose it gives my blogging.

1. Getting started
Start a blog and write about what you love. I love my family and I have a passion for crafting. I start with that and go from there.  Project Life was a great scrapbooking project for me. It gave me a weekly blog topic and a way to record our family memories on a regular basis.  Find something you love and can see yourself sticking with.

2. Affiliates
Look for relevant affiliates. I joined Avant link a few years ago. It provides a commission for each sale I generate. I use it for TwoPeas scrapbooking to tie in with my layouts. I also recently joined their program for Steals.com, which has a daily scrapbooking deal as well as regular deals.
Another great affiliate program is Shareasale, they cover Simon Says Stamp, Scrapbook.com and One Kings Lane.
You can basically just show how you use products and provide links to buy in your post, which is what I do.  You can also just put out links on social media letting people know about sales or deals through Facebook and Twitter.  

3. Ads
I signed up with BlogHer recently. I get paid a few dollars each month in ads. It is not a ton of money, but it is slow and steady. Every once in a while they contact you about special ad posts which allow you to earn several hundred dollars. Those make it really worthwhile.

4. Etsy

I first opened my shop, Rainbow Scrapbooks, when I started doing Project Life. I sold handmade PL cards at first. Then I added on die cut cards and polaroid frames when I got a cameo. This year I started selling washi tape as well.

I took a few large custom orders as well recently and think it is something I need to do more often even though it is more time consuming than my regular shop.
I made a set of custom initial polaroid frames for a wedding. I also had a huge order for die cut 12*12 pages and PL cards. I do my own design work, so it was a lot of fun working with the clients coming up with fun and new designs.

I encouraged my cousin to start her own shop as well. She has a passion for painting and makes some amazing canvases.  

5. Pinterest
Lastly, marketing. I know there are a lot of different ways to market yourself but my favorite is Pinterest. I will always be something of an introvert and chatting all day long on message boards or FB just doesn't work for me. I do love Pinterest however. Because my projects are very visual oriented they are very well suited to pinterest. 

Here are my top two pinterest tips. 

Make your photo vertical.

Add some text.

That's it!
I have tripled my page views with these tips and increased my Etsy sales by at least double. 

Give these tips a try and let me know if you have questions.  I hope this helps.

My blogging tips

I am linking up today with Kelly's Korner SUYL, How to Find A Job.

I want to give my tips on working from home. While I don't make a ton of money, I do like the little bit I do make and the sense of purpose it gives my blogging.

1. Getting started.
Start a blog and write about what you love. I love my family and I have a passion for crafting. I start with that and go from there.

2. Affiliates.
Look for relevant affiliates. I joined Avant link a few years ago. It provides a commission for each sale I generate. I use it for TwoPeas for scrapbooking stuff. I also recently joined their program for Steals.com.
You can basically just show how you use products and provide links to buy in your post, which is what I do.  You can also just put out links on social media letting people know about sales or deals through Facebook and Twitter.  
3. Ads.
I signed up with BlogHer recently. I get paid a few dollars each month in ads. It is not a ton of money, but it is slow and steady. Every once in a while they contact you about special ad posts which allow you to earn several hundred dollars. Those make it really worthwhile.

4. Etsy
I opened my shop, Rainbow Scrapbooks, when I started doing Project Life. I sold handmade PL cards at first. Then I added on die cut cards and polaroid frames when I got a cameo. This year I started selling washi tape as well.
I took a few large custom orders as well recently and think it is something I need to do more often even though it is more time consuming than my regular shop.
I made a set of custom initial polaroid frames for a wedding. I also had a huge order for die cut 12*12 pages and PL cards. I do my own design work, so it was a lot of fun working with the clients coming up with fun and new designs.

I encouraged my cousin to start her own shop as well. She has a passion for painting and makes some amazing canvases. 

5. Pinterest
Lastly, marketing. I know there are a lot of different ways to market yourself but my favorite is pinterest. I will always be something of an introvert and chatting all day long on message boards just doesn't work for me. I do love pinterest however. Because my projects are very visual oriented they are very well suited to pinterest.

Here are my top two pinterest tips.

Make your photo vertical.

Add some text.

That's it! I have tripled my page views with these tips and increased my Etsy sales by at least half. 

Give these tips a try and let me know if you have questions.  I hope this helps.

Project Life: Disney Pages

This Week: We were still in California and at Disneyland mostly.  Life was pretty hard once we got back home.  I want to include it somehow, but not yet. Maybe next week.  I decided to go picture heavy instead, with just two journaling cards and a few embellishments.  Mostly labels and printables.

First Side: I used one journaling card. I bought the filler card set only for the Jade PL kit.  With coupons it was only a few dollars, and I really doubt I need the entire kit given all I have already.
I choose this card because I thought I could quickly document what happened each day of the week.
But, I quickly felt like writing, M- California Adventure, T-Both parks, etc, would have been boring.  So, I wrote about moments instead.
That is why I do what I do.
Treasuring the moments.

 

 I just love Disney pictures with the blurry castle in the background. I used Jillibean Soup white alpha stickers (total KP white alpha precursors in my opinion) and a few wood veneer stars. Very similar to these.
I added a freckled fawn 'Fly' wood chip to this Ormolu banner on the picture on the tea cups. I love the tea cups.

 

I absolutely adore this brad, but I forced myself to unhoard and just use it.  Plus, then I could feel okay about not embellishing the Mickey Photo.  The brad was making the pocket buckle something awful however so I used my scissors to open a slit in the corner and popped that bad boy out like a big blackhead. Much prettier though.

Second side: Again, I kept things simple. I definitely felt like the big DREAM banner made enough of a statement that I could keep the rest of the page pretty plain.  After I was done, I just felt like it needed more texture, so I popped on a bunch of flair too.

Another Jade filler card. I wrote about Lily and Avinash.  Seriously, I am so grateful for how joyful he is around her.

Oh, and the UP dog totally jumped when I said "squirrel". Nandini did too. Awesome moment.

Let me know if you have any questions. I use a lot of digital products, and created a FREE Printables board on Pinterest to keep track (and, I work really hard to make sure that the pins there are all 'live links' and not spam). I am linked up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday. The PL kits I am using are the Seafoam kit and Clementine kit, with multi-pack page protectors, and grid journaling cards.  Thank you so much to everyone in this wonderful community. I love all the feedback and looking at everything people do each week. It definitely keeps me motivated. Also, please include a link to your projects below so we can check them out too.

I was so psyched to see Kelly Purkey's new Project Life kit came out today.  I am definitely going to try it out this time, since I missed last month.  Just love her style and so miss her stamp desigs at SC.

It's okay to love Houston.

We have lived in Houston for nearly five years.  Both our babies were born here and I just can't help loving it.

I think it is common for people to bash Houston in favor of trendier cities, (in fact a friend of ours just reminded us how we never shut up about New York for like six months when we first got here) but it definitely has a way of growing on  you.

It is very livable.  The museums, parks, and zoo are so accessible.  And it is very family oriented. I have never had such a bountiful garden. I love the weather, and tonight was no exception.

The last few days have been rough, but all the love we've received from our friends has been amazing.  Brunches, dessert, and a good bye dinner tonight.

My parents flew down a few days ago just because they were worried about me so they were able to be there too.  They kept offering to come last week, but I kept saying no.  Finally Ryan pushed me to let them come down here.  I was definitely struggling with everything and felt like I was not the best mom.  I just had no energy or take the kids like I normally do or even play simple games with them.  It has been such a blessing having my parents here.  I need to remember that it is okay to ask for help (or just say yes to the offer!) when I am coming unglued.

Love that my friends choose a place with a sandbox.  And this really pretty view of downtown.

We are so blessed.  It makes me so sad to think of the friends our kids will leave behind too.  They literally have grown up together!

 I just hope that everyone will make it out to Austin soon so they can show us around!  If the kids look like a blur, blame the pop-ice ;)

Day in the Life: April 2013

I loved the idea of doing this project each month and putting it all together in a mini album.  I was so excited about it at the beginning of the year.  And, I have really enjoyed working on it and putting it together.  Even though my pictures are no where near as artistic or original as some, I just focus on my children like I do with most things these days.  I take very few photos of my feet or my meals.

Cue April.  I was having a pretty rough day on Tuesday.  I had another not so fun doctor's appointment (not documented) and an energy level of zero.  I decided to play along anyway and picked up the camera when I noticed how adorable Nandini was acting.  She really wanted to go out, but I was not up for it, so she just sat in her stroller eating snacks anyway.

She must have been really bored because she started climbing the ladder in our living room, which she has always been afraid of.

Avinash was game to check out the lizard outside with me.

I got fresh ramps and baby carrots at the store.  If you know me, you know that I have been obsessed with ramps for years.  I roasted them with the carrots and a little balsamic.  They did not disappoint.

And, Ryan kindly took this picture of us playing 'Go Fish'.  Grateful he was in town that evening even though he had another 5AM bus back to work in the morning.

Not pictured is my nap in the afternoon, the crying, the long phone calls and texts with friends.  Ryan keeps telling me that we'll get through this.  And, I know he's right, but I just need a little more time I think.

Suffice to say I did not work on my mini album  for this month yet.  I think I am just going to keep it super simple and hopefully won't stress about it too much.  I think the writing is going to be the hardest part.

Project Life: Week 16

Scrapbooking has always been such good therapy for me.  It gets me out of my own head. I had no clue what to do with myself these past few days other than sit around and mope.  I put this together just because I needed some kind of accomplish-able goal.  Even though Ryan was out of town and now Avinash seems to be getting sick, I got it done in bits and pieces when they slept.  I kept it very simple this week.

This week: Was my 32nd birthday.  I asked Ryan if we could go to LA instead of a party or anything.  Between flight credits and Disney points, it worked out.  I guess we didn't do much at home before we left.  I took few pictures and honestly I don't remember.

 First side: A random collection of things. Avinash's night time questions.  A few beach pictures to help connect the two sides.  We had a fabulous dinner out in LA, and I only broke one chair!
I matted our photo on this glitz birthday paper, added a few pink fabric thickers, black letter stickers.  Finally used the foodie stamp set too.  

I used an SC kit PL card here.  The die cut looking everyday is actually a sticker.  And, yes, when she says paper it sounds like papier. So cute I just want to squeeze her all the time. Then she runs away when I try to give her hugs. Weird.
The top card is also SC.  I added an Amy Tangerine sticker and recolored some alpha stickers with silver metallic. I love painting over things with a metallic sharpie.  Sharpie covers up anything. Initially I was going for the chic minimalist look with just the ormolu flair, but all the stickers kinda got away from me.

I trimmed off this misspelled SC journaling card to hold the date.  Mostly I just like that font (dotness or dotline I believe).

Look at my Audrey Hepburn baby. So glamorous. I find it so funny because she usually throws every hat off and to the ground in seconds. The little word strips are Paislee Press.  

It is so hard to find cards for these non-A page protectors.  Finally found something that worked.  I added a bit of washi and ribbon to the side to give it some definition.

How happy does she look here? I know, I know.  But she would follow that cat around everywhere.  And just lie on the bed.  Font is Savu.  A lovely handwritten sans serif.  Chipboard is old Maya Road.

Second Side: I printed out this lovely print at home.  Despite all of Ryan's incredulity, I did actually take this picture myself (and added a rainbow overlay using Pixlr, but don't tell him that).  I added two Ormolu fabric flappers (at 75% off now, I had to get second pack) and one paislee press tab.  I was going for getting it done quickly but I spent so much time staring at it and just figuring out what I wanted to do it really didn't feel that fast.

Wood veneer, trend thickers, and a little journaling. 

ps. TwoPeas is having a huge sale and I just noticed that wood veneers stars are back in stock!!  

Let me know if you have any questions. Linked up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday. The PL kits I am using are the Seafoam kit and Clementine kit, with multi-pack page protectors, and grid journaling cards.  Thank you so much to everyone in this wonderful community. I love all the feedback and looking at everything people do each week. It definitely keeps me motivated. Also, please include a link to your projects below so we can check them out too.

Thank you

to everybody who commented, called, texted, fb messaged me, helped me out with the kids, met up with us, offered a hand, and is just there for us.  You have no idea how much it all means to me.   I'm trying to keep a list of everything I'm grateful for and be sad when I need to be. 

I love you guys.

Falling down hard.

I found this series of pictures on Ryan's phone yesterday.  It struck me as kinda funny because I had no idea these pictures were taken.  I realize that maybe Nandini grabbed the camera and took half of these. Yes, that is the hem of my skirt on the ground there.  And her finger over the lens.

The last thing that happened to me before we left Disneyland was I fell flat and landed on the back of my head.  It was like being rudely pushed out of this hazy dream of characters, rides and a big pink castle, down onto the harsh reality of solid concrete. 

I fell even harder the next day. I went to see my Ob's NP because of some bleeding.  We hoped it was only spotting, but it wasn't.  She calmly delivered the news that the sac was empty.  No heartbeat, nothing. The baby was gone. 

She printed out a picture from the ultrasound machine.  I instinctively reached out for it, but as she quietly put it away in the chart I realized there was only one copy and it wasn't for me.  I felt so stupid. 

We were only 8 weeks along and had hardly told anyone yet.  We had only known ourselves for about 3 weeks. I even felt stupid for coming in at all.  For wasting her time on a baby that wasn't even there anymore. She still wants to do more bloodwork and another ultrasound to be sure, but I know it is all pointless.

Life keeps going of course, especially when you have two littles who need taking care of and don't really understand what's going on anyway.  I called a few people, left vague messages to call me back.  A few people texted me to see what was wrong.  Ryan was amazing throughout.  I was so happy last week because he really made me feel taken care of on my birthday, and he did it again this week. 

Even though it was so new and so early, it is hard not to start making plans.  We rented a house in Austin with a 4th bedroom.  We bought a little onesie set at Target, so the baby could have something new.  I started writing about it in my Project Life album.  I thought about going back and taking it out or covering it with pictures, but I don't want to pretend.  Not sure how or if I will document this loss, but I don't want to act like the baby never existed at all.  We already loved it and were so excited. 

Visiting California, seeing our cousins and being at Disneyland was so magical. Being back home is just like slamming into reality all over again.  It is hard to think about that while we there, having fun, the baby was dying, or was already gone.  I just don't know if I will ever know how to feel about that.