design. wash. rinse. repeat.

it's a blogiversary! free products anyone?

I completely spaced my blogiversary! typical. but before September is over and done with i thought i'd make note of the milestone. My ideal celebration would include cupcakes. preferably made by Sue (truly the most melt in your mouth delicious things i've ever tasted), but my sister's wedding is in just two weeks and if i'm ever going to be rid of these last elusive pounds i need to buck up. as a result, today i'm settling for drooling over this photo (from my sister's sushi themed wedding shower... more on that later) and sipping a tall glass of ice water. mmmm, not much of a party. so, how about a product giveaway for a little needed excitement?!! I'm thinking an entire collection pack of your choice from one of my newest BasicGrey lines (Urban Prairie, Eva, or Offbeat), and perhaps a few random extra goodies. to play along just leave a little comment as to your favorite celebration treat, and i'll use the random number generator to pick a winner (or two)! *winner(s) announced Oct. 7!

freebie :: lollipop flower pattern

A while back Cath invited me to join the Paper Crafts Editorial Board. I can't tell you how flattered I was (and am!) to be included in this group of incredibly talented gals, many of whom i have admired from a distance for years. They are each brilliant, and getting the chance to meet them in person was in itself amazing, but then spending two days with them dishing about the industry, trends, and favorite products and techniques was a dream. so thank you Cath for including me, I left feeling inspired. and rarely do I get to spend an entire day playing with paper, so it was nice that at the end of the week my cute niece kynzi had asked to come craft with me. She loved a project i did for Paper Crafting 3 Ways so much that she wanted to create her own variation, so she came over and the two of us got busy crafting. we had a blast, and it occurred to me that one of the projects, a lollipop flower i created for Lily Bean's birthday invitations, would make a fantastic freebie pattern. Mine were constructed from various BasicGrey Urban Prairie papers, but you could use any number of paper options to achieve different looks. Some rich red and green tones and these could easily mimic Poinsettias! The freebie pattern download here uses samples of paper from the Flutter digital scrapbooking kit. enjoy!

for kynzi's projects pictured above we used mostly BasicGrey papers as well as some flowers and the fantastic Butterfly punches by Martha Stewart Crafts.

m is for mmmmmmm

lil'k hit two milestones this past week: 01 > starting pre-school, 02 > celebrating her 3rd birthday. (or maybe these were milestones for me, i'm not sure, since both occasions made me weepy... my little girl isn't so little anymore!). Her first day of school M was the "letter of the day", and ever since she has been pointing out the "M" in every sign or text she sees, and she's giddy when she figures out a word has an "mmmmm" sound. On her birthday she was admiring her beautiful princess cake that our friend Sue made and said "i'm going to eat that cake, and i'm going to say mmmmmm....", then, an instant later a light went off in her little brain and she exclaimed "like 'M'! like in Monkey!". she's too cute, and talks nonstop (if i hadn't birthed her i would wonder if this was my child). like most 3 year old girls she's obsessed with princesses, so naturally that was the theme of the big day, combined with her two favorite activities--baking and "decorating" (drawing, gluing and glittering everything she can get her hands on). First we made princess crowns:

then we iced flower shaped sugar cookies, and for favors we gave the attendees princess necklaces, a wand (found for under $1 at the party store, then added ribbons and a bell), and a pink favor bag with lipgloss, a huge diamond ring, and a tin of pastel colored mints.

sue, stace, and rox spoiled LK with enough princess dresses, shoes, bags, and crowns etc to last a lifetime (there are endless amounts of wardrobe changes going on around here now)

the above pose was completely unsolicited... a true princess!

and at the end of the day LK told me "thank you for my cool birthday party". ha! and i was questioning if all the effort was worth it!

I'm a list girl, so in honor of LK turning three, here's her top 10:
10_her sister eva, and her imaginary sister "kawettie" (not sure how she would spell that highly creative name!)
09_reading
08_singing
07_cheese quesadillas
06_baking cookies
05_drawing, and "decorating"
04_Nana, and cousin cal (sadly living two states away as of this week)
03_the bla bla doll she has christened "hot pink"
02_princesses. all varieties.
01_dancing around mom's office with utter abandon (especially to Abba's "Mamma Mia", which she insisted i download on itunes because she fell in love with the song after seeing ads for the movie)