Blogging: Yule Edition

I have been remiss in updating my blog of late, but what better thing to update with than festive, Christmassy pictures?

This is from the lighting of the lighthouse a couple weeks ago.

Here are a few wrapped gifts....some of the ones that got sent off to family.

And lastly, our Christmas tree for this year. We decided not to get a big one since it's a quiet Christmas this year, but it turned out really cute.

I decided to go with the red and gold theme because of the lava lamp. It's one of the original ones. I think it was Chad's grandma's. Very cool.

If you hadn't already heard, Sara at SoML is changing the structure of the kits, and going to a quarterly release. She will still be selling in the SoML shop, and releasing her super cool stamps. You can read her announcement HERE.

I've also been hard at work on lots of stuff for my Etsy Shop. I'm FINALLY really excited about something I've made to add. I just need to get some little boxes and finish taking photos, then I will update.

Have a Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays, everyone! I'm off to help finish up in the kitchen.

A New Layout.

Here is the first page I have finished with the December Story of My Life kit:

This page was a little sad to do. My Grandpa passed away a few years ago, and this is the first page I've done about him. He was one of my very favorite people. I love how it turned out, and I'm glad I was able to do one of my special pictures justice!

I have some ideas rolling around in my head, I just have to sit down and actually DO something about them. I have acquired a few new toys in the past week...a melting pot, UTEE, and a Cricut (along with the Indie Art cartridge I have been coveting since I first saw it!), so there should be all kinds of fun stuff coming out of my craft room soon.

More SoML to come, too!

Better late than never.

Okay, so I know I said I'd update on Thursdays. My family was in town, and we went to see Twilight Friday night! It was AMAZING. All I have to say is that Robert Pattinson is now officially one of the sexiest men on the planet. He is an awesome Edward.

I have a weird schedule at work this week because of Thanksgiving. So, being off today, here is everything I had to catch up on.

First...my gorgeous new Brighton purse. I am in love. Working in a place that has cool stuff has its advantages....not to mention my bosses and everyone I work with are awesome. We also sell Vera Bradley, and I am going to get a Puccini wallet to go with it.

Here are the other two layouts I did with the November SoML kit. I think I am definitely getting my groove back and breaking out of my shell of similar-looking layouts. I just love how these turned out. 

And, last but not least, my layout for the latest challenge at Inspired by Amelie. This one was fun and different. Again...loving how this one turned out. Challenge 9 is up now. It's a little late this month because everyone has been so busy, but be sure to check it out and join us!

That's it for now. More is on the way. I have the December Story of my Life kit sitting here on my desk, and it is to die for. It has a bit of a Christmas theme, but also leaves tons of room to do other stuff. It's up there on my list of favorites. You can see peekies on Sara's blog here and here. Definitely check it out on the 1st!

I probably won't get the chance to post Thursday, so I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! Is you don't celebrate it....then have a happy Thursday!

Just one thing to share.

I have finished one SoML layout so far with the November kit, and another is almost finished here on my desk. It's tough not having two days in a row off anymore...and especially after getting used to not working for three months and having unlimited time to get stuff done! Here is the one I have finished so far. I just love this picture of Chad:

Is anyone else excited for the Twilight movie? Just a little over a week, now! A group of us already have our tickets. I really hope after all the hype it's as good as it looks. I'm still a little (let's be honest A LOT) bummed that Harry Potter got bumped back, but Nobel Son is supposed to FINALLY be released to theatres in December, so that makes up for it. Just a bit. If you know me at all, it will be blatantly obvious why I am excited about it.

More SoML stuff up next!

I FINALLY stopped being lazy.

I know it's been just about forever since I have posted a proper update. Working full time at a job that doesn't have me in front of a computer all day provides little time to stay on top of my blog. I am going to TRY to update at least once a week. It'll PROBABLY be on Thursdays.

So, on to the new stuff. I added a few new things to the shop. A new style of larger crochet flowers from my mom, a new tag style I came up with, and the first of the awl/paper piercers made by my dad.

I made this card about a month ago for the Card Sketch a Day blog. It's a great blog if you're a card maker. Be sure to check it out!

Last month's Inspired by Amelie challenge...silly things you wonder about. You think this was silly enough? I think about odd things like this all the time. The new challenge should be up any time now! 

The final item from the October Story of My Life kit. A cute little haunted house mini. Of course, I haven't decorated the inside, but what else is new? I NEVER finish mini albums, but I sure do love making the outside part.

November SoML stuff and my newest Inspired by Amelie layout to come in a few days!

I promise....

....I will update soon! I have been back at work for a few weeks, so that has been taking up my time. I do have a few things to share, I just need to sit down and write out a post.

I am giving out candy to all the kids at the Halloween Walk tomorrow, so hopefully someone will get pictures. Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Tool Sneaky Peeky!

Here are a few examples of the handmade tools that will be available at Nelo Paperie at the end of the month! My mom sent me this picture of the awls that my dad has completed (I'm pretty sure he made the cup, too). Aren't they gorgeous? They can be used as paper piercers, but are strong enough to punch leather and chipboard, too. The black one has a hand-hammered copper cap on it. I'm definitely keeping one. I hope he is able to make some embellishments, too...he makes some really cool stuff, so I know whatever he comes up with would be amazing!

My latest creations...

First up, the latest from Story of My Life. The October kit was really fun to work with. It has a vintage Halloween theme, and has tons of the amazing Basic Grey Ambrosia papers. I made one of my big flowers with the sheet music that came in the kit for the first layout:

I still have to finish my project with this kit, so that will be coming in the next few days.

My First Day of School layout was picked as the Layout of the Day on 2Peas on Monday! Wow. It made my day.

I made some new goodies for my shop. I am loving felt right now. I put it on almost all my layouts, so I thought my shop could use some more felt, too. These come in a pack of two of the same color, and are about 2 1/2" across. They're versatile, too. They can be used for scrapping, attached to a gift, pinned to a hat, or worn as a brooch.

I also did a reshoot of most of my products. The white background wasn't working for me, and I wanted something that popped a bit more. Besides, woodgrain = awesome.

My Mom told me that my Dad is working away on some handmade tools for the shop, and POSSIBLY some handmade metal embellishments! They are coming down to visit at the end of the month, and he'll bring them down to me then, so keep your eye out for some extra cool stuff.

More to come soon! I have lots of things rolling around in my head, just waiting to get out.

Layout, photo, stuff....

My first day of Kindergarten. I was SO cute! I FINALLY finished this layout...I started it last weekend, and FINALLY got around to finishing it this weekend. All the other stuff I worked on was for the October SoML kit. You'll see those on Wednesday, but I will say that you will get to see a variation of my big paper flowers in action. I want to put those things on every layout.

Also, my new favorite photo. I have to say, we have some AMAZING clouds here, and the sky is always so blue. Well, except for the past couple days.

This is our range tower....and also one of the photos that will be sold in the Lighthouse Museum! I'm so excited about having some of my local photos there... it will be great exposure. Now I just need to work on an "About the Artist" page...I've never included those before. 

Off to finish with my SoML kit. More layouts and fun goodies for the store coming soon!

New in my Etsy Shop

I just love these guys. I've been on a big felt kick lately, so they combine all my favorites: felt, scallops, buttons, and blue and red together. When I was making them, I thought they'd be super cute on favor boxes or something like that, but they are also great on cards and layouts. A friend of mine in my scrap group used on on a card, and it looked awesome! They come as a set of 4, and can be found here in my shop.

I've been working with our Park's support organization putting together a blog, You Tube and Flickr accounts, adn all that good stuff for our Lighthouse and Museum. It's fun...I'm learning all kinds of stuff about the light and Boca Grande in general. You can see the blog here. I made the header, too. It was fun to break out the distress inks...I haven't walked around with inky fingers for ages!

I'm off to a 2pm-Midnight Scrap Pink crop today, so hopefully I'll get all kinds of stuff done. Have a great day, everyone!

It's open!

Finally! Nelo Paperie is now open for business! I don't have TOO much in there, yet, but there is definitely more to come. Here are a couple things you can find there so far:

I'm really happy with how it's looking. I have a lot more up my sleeve, it's just a matter of getting it done! I love for everyone to at least stop by...nelopaperie.etsy.com. And spread the word if you like what you see!

In scrapping news, Little Miss Poopy Pants is really getting around! It was featured on the Sassafras Lass blog a few days ago. I didn't even know until I got a comment on SIS TV telling me about it! Pretty cool.

I've taken up playing the Fife again. I also play the flute and piccolo, but hadn't picked up ANY of them in about 3 years. We are having a Halloween candlelight ghost tour here at the Lighthouse. I'll be in 1890 period dress and playing the Fife in the background. I was a Civil War reenactor for several years after high school. I'm looking forward to getting back to my roots a bit, even if it is 26 years later than I'm used to.

Bobble head puppy.

Here's a layout I made for this challenge over on the Challenge U 2 blog. This blog is run by my scrappy, bloggy, email friend Jen, and it's great if you need a quick idea to get you started.

I am convinced I have the cutest, squishy-face puppy ever. After I finished this, I realized the design is just like the the other stuff I've done in the past week. Oh well...who cares if all my stuff looks the same? And this one got some Bam Pop love. I love Bam Pop. And felt. And straight pins. And apparently stars, because I've had at least one on all of my past 6 projects.

There's still a week to join in on challenge 7 at Inspired by Amelie. One lucky scrapper will get a fabulous Red Velvet kit!

...even MORE SoML!

Here's the last of the September SoML projects:



This was made with a Jenni Bowlin book. I haven't decorated the inside yet. I am the worst about that...I love decorating the outside, but I never seem to get around to finishing the whole thing. It looks really pretty on my shelf, though!


I filled about 6 pages front and back this morning with sketches and ideas for my Etsy shop. The opening is still a little ways off, but I'm going to try and hit the preparations hard next week. I want it to be up and running before I go back to work, or I will never finish.


For now, though, I'm dying to get into all my new goodies, and scrap a couple things.

Random updates...

First up a card I made with the SoML September kit:

I just love how it turned out. Probably my favorite card I've made. There was just so much cool stuff in this kit.

I made the Catwalk again, for the second time in three weeks over at SIS TV! This time, it was my Little Miss Poopy Pants page, chosen by Lisa Garay. Cindy also had one of her SoML pages chosen for the catwalk, and Sally had one of her SoML pages chosen as Layout of the Day a few days ago! Cool.

My birthday box from 2Peas finally came today! Check out all these goodies my mom sent me:

I'm so glad I picked out all that Love Elsie stuff, considering that the line is no more...I will miss it, it's my absolute favorite. If you don't know the scoop on this, Elsie resigned from KI to take on some other projects. She wrote about it on her blog here, at the bottom of the post.

I also got a suprise box from Amazon, from my sister, with an Alan Rickman movie! It's The Search for John Gissing. I've been wanting to see it for ages....it was never released in theatres.

I've made a few changes in my mind about the Etsy shop. I've come up with a few new ideas, and I also decided to change the name. I always knew if I ever had any kind of shop it would be called Nelo Paperie. Nelo (pronounced knee-low) is short for Penelope. I had a friend a few years back who said once that if her name was Penelope, she'd go by Nelo instead of Penny. I've loved it ever since. So, the shop will be called Nelo Paperie and will have all kinds of cool suff, including the awesome crocheted type embellies I mentioned before. I'm even thinking of having some custom designed papers....I have to look into it. All kinds of ideas are popping out of my head!

In completely random news....apparently the new, big trend at Fashion Week was Harem Pants. Looks like I can start wearing my bellydance costumes out and about and be completely in style. Hehee.

More September SoML.

I've finished two more layouts with the September SoML kit. I'm right in the middle of more...you should see my table. It's an absolute nightmare right now!



The "Little Miss Poopy Pants" one started kind of slow, and I just started throwing stuff on the page to see how it looked. I think it ended up being my favorite! I'm really happy with all three layouts I did this month.

I took some photos of the items for the Etsy shop. I want to reshoot some, because I'm picky about my photography, and I didn't like them. I swear, I WILL eventually get the shop open, but I want to do everything right and not rush it! Oh, and if you want another little sneak...check out the flower on the lower left corner of the "You & Me" layout. 

Be sure to check out the new challenge on the Inspired by Amelie blog, which is up now. It's my first one as a member of the team. All the ladies came up with excellent designs!

More to come soon. Now to wade my way through this sea of paper on my desk...

The big 2-8.

So, I turned 28 yesterday. I keep thinking, "Wow, I'm almost 30," but then somehow it doesn't bother me. Chad is already 32, maybe that's why it's not a big deal. As I told my sister on the phone, my birthdays don't make me feel old, HERS do. She'll be 20 this year. Geez. 

Anyways, I had a great day. When we got up, Chad brought me a sweet card and a Key Lime Pie for a birthday cake. Yum! He even had the dogs bring me a card, complete with "Mommy" written on the envelope. It was hilarious, you have to see this card:

It looks JUST like Pickle, floppy ears and all.

We went up to Venice, and Chad took me to see Bottle Shock. I've been waiting to see it for what seems like forever! It was a great movie. If it's even possible, Alan Rickman's voice is even BETTER when he speaks French. If you haven't heard of it, it's about the "Judgement of Paris"...the 1976 blind wine tasting when California wines won against French wines.

While we were in Venice, we stopped by the Tervis factory store. We love these glasses. We have all these other nice cups and glasses and these are all we use. They're great because they don't sweat, and you can get lids and straws for them. I found the cutest design ever:

On top of this stuff, Chad's mom paid for me to go to our local Scrap Pink event later this month, and my mom got me a virtual truckload of scrapping goodies, which are on their way from 2 Peas as we speak. I'm so excited for both. They are too good to me, and I am so grateful.

I got my September Story of My Life kit on Thursday. My gosh, you guys, this one is awesome, you have to check it out! I've finished one layout so far, and I just LOVE it:

I've been wanting to scrap this picture of my mom. I really like using copies of all her baby pictures. They're so cute! We are so fortunate that my Grandma has always written places and dates on the pictures.

Challenge 7 over at the Inspired by Amelie blog will be up tomorrow. This was a really fun one, so be sure to drop by and join in!

The Etsy Shop is still coming along. Just a few more things to do. More layouts and maybe a few more photos from around town to come.

I'm jumping on the bandwagon....

Yep, I'm doing it....I'm opening an Etsy shop. Here's a little peek:

I've thought about opening one for quite a while, but before we moved, I was WAY too busy with my job and my thousand hobbies. Now, I still have a month until I start work, and when I do, I will have a 5 minute commute, rather than almost an hour one way. So, I figured it's now or never!

It's going to be called Punky Poo, and is going to feature mainly unique and fun handmade embellishments. The shop is kind of a joint effort with my mom. She is making some of the things that I don't know how to make....like things of the crocheted nature. She called me Punky Poo when I was little, so I thought it would be the perfect shop name. I've spent the past several days getting things ready. I still have to figure out prices, make my banner, and photograph everything, so I'm guessing it will be about a week before the grand opening. I hope you will all at least check it out!

A good day...

I'm a day behind on this but....


...I was chosen as on of the new Inspired by Amelie girls! I got the email yesterday. I am so excited about this. There are lots of talented ladies on that team, and the challenges are unique and fun.

And, as yesterday was Tuesday, the Catwalk for the week was posted on the SIS TV site. My Little Lori ATC was chosen for it by Martha Bonneau (subcultcha on the site). It was pretty cool to see my cute little card on there. So yeah, yesterday was a pretty good day.

I'm on an ATC kick.

So, it seems I'm all about the ATC's lately. I have four new ones:





Staples have been making a big comeback in my stuff. I used them all the time when I first started scrapping a few years ago, and now it's all fun and trendy to use them again. Cheap and cool!

I also made a blog header for the fabulous Sara Berry. I'm so glad she likes it...it's already displayed on her blog, so check it out! Definitely keep an eye out for the September Story of My Life kit. It's going to be Kawaii themed with awesome Sassafras papers, so it promises to be super fun and super cute!

More scrapping.

Man, I'm loving all this time I have to get scrapping done. It's been a while since I've done this much! I'm definitely going to enjoy it while it lasts. I'm sure I will be bored out of my mind by the time my job starts, though...I still have like 6 more weeks.

So, for the past couple days I've been working on the Inspired by Amelie challenge....Likes and Dislikes. This was fun. I also took inspiration from the way they described her mother and father's likes and dislikes in the movie, and structured my journaling that way. I thought it was cute and funny.

I bought the Basic Grey Obscure papers way back in November when I went to Ruban Rouge in Tampa, and I'm FINALLY using them. One of my favorite paper lines EVER.

Next up on the to-do list, a header for Sara's blog, and layouts for a couple more challenges. I also have some new photos, but I have to go through them and process them first. They should be up tomorrow. We've had to batten down the hatches in case Fay decides to visit. Luckily, at this house, we have the clear corrugated shutters, so it's not like living in a cave. My Breaking Dawn book is supposed to be here tomorrow, so I'll be able to read during the storm.

New Header.

Well, as you can see, I've updated the header. I finished it last night. I had a lot of fun making it....it makes the blog look more crafty. I LOVE wood grain contact paper. Thank you to Sara for putting it in one of our kits a couple months ago!

I have also found a new favorite website. My friend told me about it the other night. Pandora.com. It's a free site where you type in a band or song, and it creates a music channel for you with music similar to your choice. If you don't like a particular song, you can check the "thumbs down" and it won't play stuff like that any more. It's awesome...check it out!

All kinds of stuff.

I finished a couple ATCs for my 7gypsies card holder as I had planned. The first one was inspired by this post on Lucrecer's Art Slam blog.

And, as promised, I took a quick photo of my scrap room. 

I still need to get some curtains for the windows. I think I'm just going to get some short valance curtains in a funky color. Most of my stuff is in the dresser. There are 3 more drawers behind the doors in the middle. I put all my acrylic stamps on the mirror, and I found that I am now actually USING THEM! I have all my adhesives and the tools I use the most out on the table, as well as some other assorted things I like. There's a little more, but I'll take more in-depth photos later! 

Last night, I was messing around with some of the pictures of me in my costume from my performance a couple weeks ago, and came up with this. I think it turned out pretty cool. I'm using it as my profile photo on MySpace.

On the agenda today....I am going to make a header for the blog out of paper. I should have it updated sometime today or tomorrow.

Insert witty title here...

So, I have a new layout. I took a bunch of really good pictures of Chad the other day, so there will be lots of layouts with him coming up. I love this picture. Chad always tells me he doesn't like Pickle just to bug me. Now I have proof he DOES like him! Hehee.


In non-scrapping related news....we got a new toy. A freaking awesome golf cart! This will be my ride when I start working in October. It's so fun, and much easier to zip around town in. Not to mention that it's electric, so NO GAS, thank goodness!

That's about it for now. I am going to start making some ATCs, I think. I have had the 7gypsies card holder since October, so I think it's time to use it. I like being able to make something small and quick when I don't want to get into doing a whole layout. I've been wanting to follow Lucrecer's Art Slam, so now that I have time to sit and scrap, I'm going to do it on cards instead of in a Journal.

Oh, and if you haven't seen the Inspired by Amelie blog, check it out. I just found it through the SIS TV site. Two of the SoML girls are on the team, and I didn't even know about it! The work all the ladies do over there is awesome.