i need light in the dark as i search for the resolution

first things first - here's one last tiny peek of the september studio calico kit -


the new memory makers masters were announced today - huge congrats to all!! you all are in for an AMAZING year! some of my favorites are in there :) but i can't believe it's already been a year since i got my call! craziness...time sure does keep flying.

anyways. the two angels fans in our group organized a little game outing tonight. by the end of next week, i will have been to 3 a's games, 1 angels game, and 0 dodger games...what?! (yeah, i need to get my butt over to dodger stadium, sheesh)

we went out for some delicious vietnamese food before the game...


the stadium hasn't changed a bit...


it happened to be free hat day...so we all had angels caps. these two look adorable decked out in all their gear!


and she looked adorable with her rally monkey, too.


i suddenly had a craving for a chocolate malt, so i started hunting for them around the stadium with no luck. finally, we spotted the frozen lemonade/malt man...and after a bit of trouble trying to get his attention, i finally got my malt.


all of the girls...


and this is just to prove that i am still a dodgers fan, and have not converted into an angels fan!


so this will be my last post until i get up to norcal saturday night... i will be laptop-less again so i don't know if i'll check in much, but i'll try to post my studio calico LOs :) on the agenda is a date with jack johnson (...sort of. you know, with thousands of other people?), a quick trip to the lake again, another a's game, and i'm sure i'll be consuming ridiculous amounts of food as usual. we're starting to get predictable :) lol. i'll try to take more pictures than i did last time!

have a good one :)

i cross over lines and i broke all the rules

first of all - this is my 400th post!

i finally had a chance to dig into my new studio calico kit, so i get to share some peeks with y'all:

(you can click to make it larger)

i looooooooooove the colors in this kit. blue + yellow + green = swoooooon.

anyway. yesterday was allen's birthday so we went to go celebrate with dinner and some drinks. i got to hang out with all the girls...


which obviously rocked. but the best part of the night had to be allen and his birthday sombrero. heehee. good times :)


and mmm...creme brulee.


have a good one :)

could've been a night like any other....

i added a bunch of stuff to my etsy shop!

i have some word cards, in 2 color sets:



i also came up with some emoticon cards, since i'm kind of obsessed with them. hehe. these are in fun, bright rainbow colors! :)


and a set of birdie tags, using textured cardstock and vintage book paper!



more stuff to come soon :)

so yesterday, amy declared it to be "national ice cream cake day," and we all got together and had ice cream cake, and lots of other junk food. we also played a hilarious game of apples to apples, and watched the olympics. good times. it's one of her random made-up holidays, but did you know last sunday was an official national s'mores day? i can't believe i missed that!




have a good one :)

maybe we're all that we needed

i've been scrapping a bit lately, and it fee;s good, since i'd been in a rut for a little while. here's one of the layouts i did:


it uses a couple of things from my etsy shop (specifically, these and these.

so. has anyone been watching my boyfriend tear it up in the pool? it's quite amazing and exciting to watch!


i've been purging and clearing out a bunch of stuff lately and it feels good. how the heck did i amass all this stuff?

have a good one :)

scattered winds blow me cross the ocean,

we all know i'm a cupcake whore. i'm also trying to work off these 5lbs from vacation/NOT gain any more.

so i tried this experiment. linda linked me to this - 2 point cupcakes, in which a can of diet soda is substituted for eggs and oil. she told me to try it because she needed a guinea pig. since i had a can of diet 7 up that i refused to drink (that stuff is quite gross), so i figured why not.

the verdict? the texture is indeed lighter, and stickier. you can taste a hint of the 7 up. they also seem to be really fragile. also, you should fill the cups more than regular cupcakes because they doesn't inflate as well. it's definitely not the same as normal cupcakes, but they will suffice for now.

mission accomplished - cupcake craving taken satisfied.

in other news, this was awesome:

woooooot. check out my boyfriend michael phelps in there, too ;)

added these babies to my etsy shop the other day:


the top ones are flowers made out of layered vintage book pages. the edges are distressed, and each layer is held together with a foam dot for added dimension. the bottom ones are layered circles made of corrugated cardboard, crumpled notebook paper, and distressed vintage book pages - lots of texture in one single embellishment. fun stuff :)

i've also been working on some other stuff, which i'll start loading throught out the week!

have a good one :)

whispers "hello i've missed you quite terribly"

just for fun and thanks to a sudden jolt of crativity, i decided to open an etsy shop! i've only got a few things in there, but i am working on more (to be added ASAP) and have a ton of ideas swirling around inside my head. as of now, i have some photo prints and three sets of paper-pieced silhouette tags, each with 5 tags with floral and foliage designs hand cut from cardstock.





here's a layout i did with one of the tags from the yellow set:

yeah, kinda simple for me, huh? lol.

i'm working on some stuff using notebook paper, old book pages, and magic mesh. hopefully, those will be in the shop by this weekend!

the weather has been super gross (humid) here, which is making me quite cranky. took a trip to pinkberry today, which helped with the coping. maybe this weather will help me shed the 5 pounds i gained last week? unfortunately, i am also having a huge craving for cupcakes (even though i had a few from love at first bite last week).

have a good one :)

don't you wake up yet

i'm finally home! although a small part of me is kind of glad to be back, another part of me really wishes i wasn't. i had the most lovely trip, and it was as close to perfect as i could've asked for. you know it's a great trip when you come home with a nice tan and 10 extra lbs.

the boy and i headed up into the boonies (aka the lake) where, for 5 days, i got to wake up to this:




it doesn't get any better than that. oh wait, it does. i had myself a "personal chef" for the duration of the trip...somehow, i got super lucky and found myself a boyfriend who can really cook. everything he made was delicious. we also decided to have dinner outdoors on the deck every night, and that was among our better ideas. we spent an hour or two every day floating around in the water on inflatable rafts (hence, the tan), just chilling and taking in the sun, the trees, and the clean air (my sinuses, which are more anti so-cal than i am, really appreciated it). we hung out, played countless games of scrabble and monopoly, and watched a bunch of movies. we made pina coladas, whipped up strawberry shortcakes, and consumed an insane amount of s'mores (almost to the point of me being sick of them. but that will never happen. lol). it was the simple life and it was pure perfection.

i failed miserably at documenting the trip and took a grand total of 5 pictures (and did not take a single one of the two of us)...but it was kind of nice to forget about the camera.

i also enjoyed the couple of days i had in the bay area, and was in the mood for a photoshoot on the cal campus...poor, poor elaine had no choice but to oblige:





i was NOT happy coming back to super-humid weather. ick.

i'm still playing catch-up, so if i owe you an e-mail, etc. you'll hear from me ASAP.

have a good one :)