I played all day (with scrapbook paper)

This past weekend, my sister and I participated in an all day scrapbooking event given by Shelby of Embellish IT! in Charlotte, NC.  The weekend started with a bang as we had to move up our original travel plans to avoid the sleet and freezing rain that were forecast for Friday afternoon.  We didn't exactly miss it, we drove through it early Friday morning.  It was not fun, but we made it to the hotel in Charlotte iwthout incident.  We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening relaxing in the hotel (plus a nice dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with our aunt who also came to the event) and were ready bright and early the next morning for a full day of scrapbooking.  

I had not scrapbooked in several months.  Between the discomfort of standing on broken toes, and just a lack of motivation, I simply haven't felt like creating with paper.  Happily, this weekend really seems to have broken through my loss of scrap mojo.  I finished about 14 pages for our honeymoon album!  I won't share all of them today, just a few.  I used a lot of Basic Grey's "Soleil" line for these pages.  The bright, sunny colors were perfect for a tropical trip.

This first layout will be the beginning of the album.  I won't repeat my story about the leis, which is what the journaling covers:

I loved those pretty flowers.  Personally, I think we should wear leis on a more regular basis.  Next up, a layout showing off two of my favorite photos from Oahu.  The statue in the vertical photo is of Duke Kahanamoku, who considered to be the father of modern surfing.  We hung our leis on his arms on the day that we left Oahu.

Next, we have a two page layout covering our visit to Pearl Harbor.  I used a postcard and our admission tickets as part of the decorations for this page.  

This next layout covers our visit to 'Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu.  We couldn't take pictures inside the palace, so there's just the one outside photo for the layout.  I did include our tickets, which are reproductions of invitations to a royal ball at the palace.  The main reason that I wanted to visit the palace was to see Queen Liliuokalani's crazy quilt.  She made it while held prisoner in her palace by the United States.  It is a beautiful work of art.  

A closeup of the admission tickets:

Finally, here's a layout that I made using one of our class kits from that weekend.  The colors and layout of photographs was perfect to capture the walk Alton and I took through Honolulu's Chinatown in the afternoon after our visit to the palace.

I have to say that the entire day was very enjoyable and relaxing.  Shelby is a fun instructor, and the fact that we were all sitting in one room for so long, not rushing from class to class, made things feel much calmer than they normally do at a convention.  Shelby has said that she intends to return to Charlotte for another "Play all Day" event in the future.  I really hope she does, because I definitely want to do that again!

I'll share more of the layouts in the near future.  Til then, I hope everyone has a wonderful, creative day!

January 2013 WIPocalypse update

Yes, even though we are no longer 'in fear' of the end of the Mayan calendar, the WIPocalypse stichalong goes on.  If you want to know more about it, or you think you might want to join in, check out Measi's blog, here.

For this first month, we are supposed to set goals for which unfinished projects we'd like to complete this year.  So here's my somewhat lazy list:

1- everything on last year's list that wasn't complete (told you it was a lazy list)
2- Coraggio by Scarlet Letter
3- Giraffa sampler
4- Feast of Friendship by Blackbird Designs
5- 12 Christmas-related pieces (one for each month)

And now for this month's progress... I finished the stitching and 'finishing' on the Sugarplum ornament from Heart's Content.  I thought about attaching a hanger, but then decided that I was just going to hook a metal ornament hook through some of the lace:

I have also done a little more stitching on Coraggio:

Of course the over-one alphabet is slow going!  Recently, I've been working on a model for market in March.  I'll share photos of it (I hope) closer to release time.  I'm thinking that I will actually be going to market this year.  Whee!

So that's it on the stitching front.  Between now and the next update, I plan to continue working on Coraggio and finish another Christmas piece.  I was thinking that I would stitch up the large pillow I finished at the end of last year, but I might finish a Little House ornament that I stitched last year instead in fitting with the monthly theme.  We'll see what kind of mood I'm in when the time comes to choose.  ; )

In a day or two, once the sun is bright enough for me to get some decent pictures, I'll share some scrapbooking that I did over the weekend.  Yes, for the first time in a very long while, I actually scrapbooked!!!

Til then, stay safe, stay warm, and stay creative!

TUSAL and some other progress

Good morning everyone!  I'm overdue for my first ort report of 2013.  I slipped outside early on this foggy morning and took a quick photo of my freshly emptied ort jar.  The threads from this month are all from Coraggio:

If you'd like to learn more about the TUSAL, or maybe even join in yourself, check it out here on Daffycat's blog.

As I mentioned, the only thing I've worked on so far this year has been "Coraggio" by Scarlet Letter.  I've been plugging away at the top band and the over one alphabet... that over one is S L O W.  Still no word on the back ordered threads.  I'll have to put this down soon if I don't get them.  But anyway, here's where I am as of this morning:

When I went out to get the paper this morning, I noticed that the crocuses (crocii?) have started popping up in the front yard:

I love these fresh, pretty little flowers.  And I'm happy to see that the bulbs seem to have divided quite nicely since last spring.  BUT, I know that a nasty freeze will come along before too long and I will probably not see the daffodils or many of the other crocuses this year.  Sigh.  That's the life of a garden, I suppose.

I think that on Monday morning I will set to work on the Christmas ornament I mentioned in my last post.  Turns out there is a little more work to do on it than I realized.  There are supposed to be lots of eyelets in varying threads all over it.  I'm trying to convince myself to add them.  But part of me doesn't really want to.  Who will win?  Lazy robin or perfectionist robin?  Tune it later to find out!

A New Year's Start

Happy New Year!  I'm calling this my New Year's start, but I actually started a couple of days early.  I was unable to resist the stitchy goodness of my newest project.  So with 3 days of stitching under my belt, here's Coraggio as of this afternoon:

I'm enjoying it so far, but of course, the threads that are on back order are all over the place!  Hopefully, they will arrive before I run out of alphabet or the top band.  If not, I may be in big trouble.  And I still haven't decided what to do about the one unavailable color yet.

I've been thinking about what I want to accomplish stitching-wise this year.  I haven't firmed up everything yet, but I know I want to finish my Giraffa sampler this year.  I want to finish Coraggio, too.  Beyond that, the only certain goal I've set for myself is to try and finish at least one Christmas project each month.  There were just too many that didn't get done in 2012.  One month isn't enough time to make a real dent in the pile of unfinished or unstarted projects.  So I figure if I do at least one each month, I should be able to make real progress on the backlog.  This month, I intend to do the finishing on this piece designed by Maureen Appleton of The Heart's Content:

I couldn't even tell you how long this poor ornament has sat around in this unfinished stage.  Sigh.  The other thing I certainly want to continue working on is my Cabinet of Curiosities projects.  I am 2 (no, it's 3 now) months behind on my reading.  Only one project has been stitched, and none have been finished.  Gotta do something about that, too.  Oh, speaking of the cabinet, check out one of Mom's Christmas gifts to me:

Nice, huh?  I'm confident they will all be put to good use when I finally get around to stitching the panels for my cabinet.  Now I'm off to see if the wooden frame is available yet, and how much it's gonna set me back.  Hubby and I are probably due for a serious conversation here in the near future.  ; )

Hope you have a happy, crafty week everyone!