Favorite Books

Thanks so much for the book suggestions, I will certainly add them to my list of possibilities.

When thinking about my list there are several that pop into my head right off the bat.  Here's that list.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

My favorite book, I've read it at least 5 times.  Ayn Rand is a brilliant writer and tells such an amazing story.  It's amazing how this book can transcend time and how even today I see some of the topics raised in this book playing out in real life.  If you haven't read it, pick it up, I promise you you'll love it.

The Fountain Head by Ayn Rand

Ayn's first book and the first one I read of her's.  Also amazing in its own right but I've only read this once.  Atlas Shrugged is my favorite but this also deserves a spot on my favorite list.

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

This book affected me in ways I can't describe.  I could care less if parts of this story didn't turn out to be exactly true.  His writing is beyond brilliant and his style is so unique.  His story needed to be told regardless of whether it was all 100% real of not.  Everyone can learn from this and become more humble from reading it.

My Friend Leonard by James Frey

A follow up to A Million Little pieces and equally brilliant.

Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey

This book follows many different people in Los Angeles, some intertwine some are only talked about in one chapter.  It's a very interesting story of the different paths and hardships of the people in this town.  I love how he told the history of the town between each chapter.

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

Oh how I wish I was a smart and creative as J.K. Rowling.  Absolutely the best kids series of all time and so brilliantly written. 

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

I think I've expounded enough lately of my love of this series. 

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

A really great fictional biography of Ernest Hemingway's first wife and their time together in Paris.  A wonderful story and beautifully written too.

The Kin of Ata by Dorothy Bryant

My husband turned me on to this book a long time ago.  He read it in a college course and I had to order it from the publisher because it was out of print.  I'm happy to see it is available for purchase without difficulty.  What a great story, at the end you wonder was it all true?  A quick read as well.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

This was the first book I read on my Kindle when I got it a few years ago.  The whole story is told from the perspective of a dog.  A bit sad in some parts but so very good too.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Project Life - Week 12

The best thing about this past week was spending most of it with my nose in a book.  It's been awhile, probably since Harry Potter that I've been so excited about reading.  I've missed it so much.  I miss becoming so engrossed in something that you become part of it.  Feeling everything the characters feel, seeing what the characters are seeing.  My love of the series is reflected all over this weeks pages.  I hope you like them as much as I do.

Here's is the full weeks spread, no insert this week. 

And the left side

I've been playing around with my Cameo a lot lately, getting a bit more comfortable with it.  I think after I finished book two I knew I wanted to talk about the series a lot this week.  I found an image on line of the Mockingjay Pin that Katniss wore and traced it into a cut file.  It found a place on the title page. The paper seemed perfect, it came in my Studio Calico shipment last month.

I found the cutest shoes at Target this week.  I saw them online and went specifically to see if I could find them, I did and they were the last pair in my size, destiny I say.

Simone drew another super cute picture of her and her buddy, she said they were in Heartland, the cutest thing ever for sure!

The other slot was of a dinner my sister in law cooked for us while she was here.  I used one of Cathy Zielske's tiny templates.

A shot I put on Instagram of Simone's growth chart.  She is in a major spurt right now.  I'm so glad I hung this up last year, it's amazing to watch. 

On the first day of Spring she gravitated toward a planting tray in the science area of school.  A reminder to plant some flowers with her this year.

My other sister in law had hand surgery recently so us girls went along for the followup.  We had lunch and shopped.  These two slots were from that day.  I got lots of use of my PicFrame app for sure.  Love that one for making small collages and then uploading to Instagram.

The "B" card is from a #3 charm I purchased at Anthropology.  It wasn't until I got it home that I realized my 3 was on a B card.  Meant to be I guess.

Here's a look at the right side

A shot of some goodies that came in the mail from 2Peas.  Lot's of the new Heidi Swapp stuff that I used on this slot.  I love the sequin pieces.  My daughter loves them more and wants to stick them on everything.  She may need her own set.

A great picture of my husband and his two sisters before we took Christina to the airport.

I knew I wanted to incorporate the books into this weeks pages so I searched for images of the covers.  I planned on just putting those in but also wanted to highlight that I read them all in one week.  I also wanted to talk a bit about what I loved about each one.  It evolved into this. 

I printed the photos and added a little tab from the Jenny Bowlin tab punch and wrote "Details" on them.  I decided to make them lift up to reveal the details underneath. 

I printed the cards and left a little tab on the top which you can see in this photo.  I scored it and flattened it with a bone folder and then used that tab to adhere the photos too.  The Details card is slipped into the page protector with the photo of the book sticking out.

The lines of the card and the "The Details" at the top were from a digital overlay kit I got from Design House Digital by Gennifer Bursett. I added the text to the center using two different fonts and two different colors. I added the day I started reading, the day I finished and my favorite part of the book using a quote. They were the parts that really moved me or struck me as important and noteworthy.

I have a feeling you'll be seeing more of this technique.

This slot on the left was inspired by something I saw on line, and again a meaningful quote from the move.  And then the same flip up for book three.

My sister in law who also read the books along with me really wanted to see the movie too so we went on opening day.  It was wonderful.  I found the movie poster image online and used a digital frame for the base of the slot.  I attached my stub from the movie with a Tim Holtz tiny paper clip, totally starting to love these little guys.

Saturday's slot is a photo of my first Birch Box shipment.  It's a online club that sends you samples of beauty products.  It's only $10.00 and its totally fun.

I do need your help with one thing.  I want to keep reading, so please leave a comment of a favorite book you've read lately, I need some good recommendations.  I'll do a post of some of my favorite past reads on Friday so we can share.

Thanks!

Easter decorations

It appears I'm on a bit of a holiday garland kick right now.  Before I had even thought about St. Patrick's Day I had already been playing around with my Cameo and made a cute little Peep Bunny shape.  I posted this picture on Instagram after cutting them out.  I managed to get quite a few bunnies on each sheet of 12 x 12 card stock and cut them out in the traditional Peep colors; yellow, blue, purple and pink.  I decided not to have the eyes and nose cut because I wanted to stamp them on myself.

I planned on using a pencil eraser to stamp the eyes and nose on but realized that was going to take awhile.  I thought about cutting the erasers but instead I ended up using my hole punch to cut circles from double stick foam tape.  I stuck them down on a stamp block in the position that worked and viola, a homemade stamp.  I used a really old Marvy Brown dye ink pad to stamp the faces on.  It was quick and much easier than an eraser would have been.



Here they all are with their faces on.

I stapled them to craft store plain white satin ribbon with my Tim Holtz tiny attacher and hung them up.  Super cute and easy.

Here's a few pictures of some other decorations.  I love filling by big glass jar with seasonal items.  I found the multi colored eggs at Home Goods last year and I got the large solid glitter eggs from Target this year.

The golden egg gets its own special dish.

I really can't belive it will be Easter in two weeks, I've super excited for Spring but fear that our late winter might mean a wet Spring.  I hope to see you back on Wednesday for Project Life, Week 12!

The Hunger Games

Four days ago I knew very little about the Hunger Games.  I had seen all the buzz and I knew everyone was waiting for this movie to come out but it wasn't really something I was focusing on.

Fast forward to tonight, 11:25pm on Thursday and I just finished book two.  I cannot wait to see the movie this weekend!  Thanks Christina for pointing me to this series, its really a great read and has my attention.

May the odds be ever in your favor...

Project Life - Week 11

I knew it was going to be all about the green before I even started and sure enough, its like St. Patricks Day exploded onto my pages this week.  We had a wonderful time this past week, my sister in law is visiting so we've been very busy in the kitchen playing around, doing a lot of relaxing mainly because of all the rain we've had this past week. 

I did another insert this week, the same size as last week.  I hope its my last one for awhile.  It's not that I don't love showing the extra photos but it takes a bit longer and I'm starting to feel stuck in a rut, like the pages are all starting to look to similar and not enough variety.  That could just be me making it harder on myself but I don't want to be just a one trick pony if you know what I mean.

Here's a look at the pages;

Here's the close up of the left side. 

I made my own title card this week with a paper that just arrived in the latest Studio Calico March kit. I also used up a few of my left over shamrocks from the garlands I made. 

A simple entry for Sunday.

I liked the way these two slots turned out, the left is a card from Marcy Penner and the right is from a digital kit that I got from 2 Peas by Erica Hernandez.

These two slots were the same day so I used the same digital paper as background for both slots so it would have a cohesive look.

The latest Studio Calico kit reveal was last week and I love the new kits coming out.  I cannot wait for the full reveal.

A few images from Wednesday, I attached the tag to the photos with one of Tim Holtz's tiny paperclips and the tiny little cloud epoxy sticker is from Dear Lizzy.

Here is the front of the insert.  I cut it down the same as last week.  That chevron background paper is also from the March Studio Calico kit.  The shamrock was left over from my Garland and I also cut out a little sticker from See's that was on Simone's little gift box.

Here is the back, all pictures from our dinner Saturday night.  I used one of the templates Ali Edwards created for last years December Daily as my base.  I ended up changing the sizes of a few of the slots and then shrinking the whole image down so I would have some of the paper peeking out. Its the back of the chevron paper and I liked it to so I didn't want to cover it up.

Here's a look at the right side, lots of color!

Another simple grid template to add more photos from one day, a field trip that Simone had for preschool.

Have you tried Smash Burger yet?  They just opened one here and its really, really good!

Lot's of images from us just hanging out with family and taking it easy.

I added a screen shot from this cool app called Swackett, they give you the weather plus the appropriate clothing options for the expected weather.  I've been waiting to add one and grabbed a screen shot when it was raining.

Are you playing Draw Something?  It's another thing that we've all gotten into around here and I've been having fun playing with my family and a few Instagram friends.  I took a few screen shots the other day of funny drawings I made, it's a lot of fun.  If you are playing and want to play me, you can find me at Babz510.





The last slot is of the process of making homemade Croissants.  My sister in law took a pastry class so she and Larry spent 3 days prepping the dough, the end result was totally worth it and we ate them all. 

I wasn't sure I was going to get these pages done today so I'm happy it came together fairly quickly.  I decided to time myself and it took me 3 hours and 20 minutes to do the whole week.  I did 99% of it digitally and printed out just about everything on photo paper except for the title page and the insert.  It worked this week, but I did miss taking my time and finding things to use and playing.  I guess I missed playing.

Here's hoping you take some time to play this week!

St. Patricks Day Recap

We had a really fantastic St. Patricks Day dinner this past Saturday with family and friends.  There was a lot of green and lots of good yummy food.  My sister in law is visiting and loves to cook and bake so there has been a lot of activity in our house this past week so we've really been eating well. 

Like I mentioned on Friday, Simone was very curious if a Leprechaun was going to visit our house like one did at her preschool so I mentioned it to my SIL and she told me about this cute idea below.  I went to Pinterest for some inspiration and help on how to achieve the foot prints, which I ended up doing with my daughters Water Color paint.  It was simple and so very effective.  It really did look like a Leprechaun stood on our potty and made it green so to speak. 

When she found it (with a little coaching) she was completely tickled with excitement that a Leprechaun not only came into our house but used our potty.

She's pretty smart so she also questioned how he got into the house.

We had a fairly large group of family and friends coming over for dinner but before everyone arrived my husband snapped this shot of me and my two sister in laws sitting at the kitchen island playing Draw Something with each other on our ipads.  We have officially lost it!  My mother in law can also be seen in the background playing Slotomania on my husbands ipad, so yes, we can include her in the "lost it" group as well.

I try to always snap a shot of all three of us before all the guests arrive and this time I actually remembered.  The menu board always gets a special message each holiday or party.  I always get asked where I got it and it's from Pottery Barn a really long time ago, like 10 years ago.

My mother in law and my sister in law, wearing almost the exact same shade of green and looking oh so lovely.

The table before the feast

Our yummy food, that Irish Soda Bread was so good!

I picked up these gold coins at See's the day before and used them to decorate the table.

The Coconut Cheesecake was a huge hit and my sister in law made Irish Car Bomb cupcakes that everyone loved too.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and St. Patty's Day!

I'm really going to try my best to get my Project Life pages done today so I can post it on Wednesday.  If I'm a few days late please forgive me, we are having less rain so we hope to get out and do some stuff this week before my sister in law leaves.

I'll keep you posted for sure.