Since my sewing machine came back to life, I've been using it probably more than I should, but I REALLY missed it! I also brought back my box of fabric.



Link

 I used the self timer, which getting the exact shot you want, makes exponentially more difficult, but hopefully you get the idea. :) I adore this apron, but it will be leaving my house soon. I made it as a gift for my little sister, who just started her very own cooking blog. I helped her with the design of it and you'll see some of my photography pop up here and there.
Definitely go check it out!

 Just a Pinch of Ginger

I don't post pictures of Ryan often enough. That's probably because getting him to let me take his pictures, well, those moments are few and far between.

I took this one evening at the splash park, I ambushed him! I was taking photos of Zoe, and quick, turned and snapped him. He's kinda smiling here :)

I get most of my Ryan pics on my phone. Zoe has stopped taking naps for the most part, but the other Sunday after church, she and Ryan were watching a movie before dinner, and she zonked out. They were so cute all cuddled up on the giant beanbag, I couldn't resist snapping some iphone pics.

I used some Sassafras letters, adhered them gently to the kraft background, then used my Mr.Huey Lunch Tray and misted over them. I had to wait about 20 minutes for it to dry, then I carefully peeled the letters off.

I also used some wood veneer stars, but covered them with graph rub-ons for a subtle look.
You might have noticed there's some stiching on my pages! Yes! My sewing machine that I thought was broken, has come back to life, I guess it just needed a break, and to sit in the storage unit for a few months!

Well I have to jet, my to-do list is a few miles long today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

One of the many benefits of living at home (chuckle...chuckle) is having access to all our family photos. One Saturday afternoon a month or so ago, I took my parents wedding album and carefully removed each photo, scanned it, and put them back in an album. I've been editing, restoring and cropping in Photoshop, which has been quite the project, but totally worth it.

I love the pictures of my parents and there are some beautiful ones that you will see grace my pages, but my absolute favorite pictures from the wedding are these.



These photos bring me to tears.
The title I got from a print on Pinterest, it's perfect for this page.
The beauty in these pictures just blows me away.

Beauty full women.

Hope your Tuesday is Beauty Full.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

Last week, I mention my new fave place to waste time, Pinterest.

We'll I'm happy to report, I've actually put some of those things I discovered on there to good use.

I was inspired by these two prints to make the project below.

It was a fun project for Zoe and I to work on before church this morning. I am not really an artist, and I free handed the writing and tree trunk. It's not terrible, but I would have preferred to print the text, and stamped the trunk. That's probably what I'll do next time.

We used Jenni Bowlin Seed Packet green ink for the fingerprints (yes, my fingers are still green)

 I started out with a 12x12 sheet and cut it down to 8.5x11 after we were finished making the leaves.
Then I sketched the text with a pencil, filled it in with a black fine tip pen.
I followed that up with sketching the trunk in pencil, then used a brown fine tip pen to go over it.
I cut out a heart with my craft knife and added the red paper underneath.

It would be fun to make a really big one with my entire family listed on it. I'm thinking this will be a first draft, so you might see this project come up again.

We also made these pretzel /kiss/M&M treats, I'm just going to call them chocolate buttons.

Link

The only change I made, was we used circle pretzels, that I guess are butter flavored, because the package says "Butter." Here, there is what they look like.

Ahhh, that was a wonderful 24 hours.

Ryan and I left yesterday evening for a 24 hour trip up to Idaho and back.

Beautiful Salt Lake City

We got to talk uninterrupted, eat without feeding someone else, stay up late, recharge, and just spend some time together.

It was worth every penny.

Dinner at Mama Inez in Pocatello, ID

We met our friends, the Willis' for breakfast this morning, up in Rexburg. We had planned to go to the Flap-Jack Shack, which I was very excited about, but a 25 minute wait and a tight time schedule, drove us over to McDonald's (whose breakfast I happen to love :)

On our way out of town, we stopped by our storage unit, housing all our stuff, to pick up a few things.
I was so happy to see that all our stuff was safe and sound.

I grabbed some scrappy supplies that I had been missing and my poor sewing machine, I'm hoping to get fixed.

Rexburg, ID

We packed the car up and headed back to Utah.

We were greeted with hugs and smiles from Zoe and stories about her 24 hours with Nona & Papa, and Alena the babysitter.

It was exactly the little break we needed!

And now I get to play with a bunch of "new" scrappy stuff that's been in storage for 4 months!

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

If you haven't heard of pinterest.com....it's a time sucker, but an AWESOME one.

I've pinning for the past few days and have already managed to use it for inspiration for a layout.

Link

I used this print to inspire this layout.

I never got around to scrapping these pictures from our Race for the Cure in May. I'm anxiously waiting for a box of new goodies, so I used some older pieces from my stash before the new stuff arrives.

XOXO,
Holly & Co

I've been working on adding pictures to my SMASH book for this summer and I have come across a lot of outtakes that have made me laugh and smile.

Today, I decided I would share those, I hope you get a bit of a laugh.

Happy Saturday!

The theme over at Paper Issues right now is "Life is Sweet."

I haven't made any recent trips to the cupcake shop, instead, I took the theme a different direction.

Back in May, we all visited a charming little candy/toy store in Orem, Blickenstaff's. I hadn't scrapped any of those pictures, so this was perfect timing.

I used my June Studio Calico kit, plus some stuff from my stash.

My absolute favorite picture from our trip is the one of my sisters up in the top left corner. At Blickenstaff's they had a dress-up closet with all sorts of glasses and capes, we had a lot of fun playing in there.

How had you life been sweet lately? Ryan is almost done with school, so that is my sweet treat!

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

I've had these pictures from the splash park for several weeks and really wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them. I really wanted to include lots of pictures, but I wanted them all on one page, not split up.

I started by picking out my favorite picture (the center one) and printed if off at 4x6 size. Then I selected all the other pictures I wanted to include and shrunk them in photoshop to 2x3ish. I spent several minutes trying to figure out how to arrange them. Once I got them where I liked them, I took a picture with my cell phone, so I could recreate it.

I added some patterned paper to the background, and then put all the pictures back on their place. Because I had so many photos, I kept the embellishments to a minimum, a few cardstock stickers and some bling.

I don't think I've ever had this many photos on one page before. Maybe I'll have to do this more often :)

XOXO,
Holly & CO.

The year is half-over, actually over half-over and it's time for a little self evaluation.
In THIS POST in December, I posted my goals for 2011.

Here are the goals, with my updates.
Goal 1. Make our house a home. I want to make our home feel like a place of comfort, a place to play, a place to laugh and a place to feel the spirit. I want to decorate and feel moved in. I want to have pillows on the couch, placemats on the table and pictures on the wall. This one I actually completed in Idaho. We were only in our apartment for 12 weeks, but I had lots of pictures on the walls, pillows on the couch, and we actually bought a kitchen table! (no placemats though)


Goal 2. Take care of me. I've neglected my health for too long. It needs to be a priority. Add movement to my daily routine and involve my family if possible. This is a work in progress. I attempted this a little in Idaho, but the cold + Ryan's schedule made it difficult. I'm happy to report that since being in Utah I've become much more active. I walk 2-2.5 miles regularly, I walked in Race for the Cure in May, and I just started training for a 5/10K in October.


Goal 3. Daily Scripture Study. I feel so good when I read my scriptures faithfully. I would like to start my mornings with this cup of spiritual fulfillment. Daily scripture study has always been hard for me, I'm not sure why. This probably needs the most work. I do read my scriptures more and listen to conference talks online when I'm working or scrapbooking. Needs more work.


Goal 4. Use and abuse my cookbooks. Over the past year Ryan has become an excellent cook, simply because I have not been cooking. I want to make good use of all the recipes I have stocked up. Included in this goal is family dinners 4-5 times a week, with our new schedule this should be easy. Completed. Working from home has allowed me so much more freedom in cooking. I can put things in the oven or defrost things while I'm there. My signature dishes this year have been, BBQ chicken salad, homemade pizza, and baked ziti. 


This mid-year point is a great time for reflection for me. I love knowing that I've accomplished some things I've set out to do, and re-focus on the things I still need to work on.

How are your goals going for 2011?

XOXO,
Holly & Co

Zoe is not a quiet child, at least since the age of 2 when we retired her binky :(

We've been struggling for awhile with trying to be quiet at church. Today, was my last straw. I really want to enjoy church but being there has become a nightmare trying to keep Zoe quiet.

I came home today, determined to find a lesson to teach her on how we are supposed to behave at church.

I did I few google searches, and then I remembered a blog I had seen months ago.

It's called ," A Year of Family Home Evenings." HERE IS THE LINK.

Emilie, the owner/writer, has a ton on lesson, broken down by category. I went to the reverence category and found a lesson that will be perfect for Zoe.

I just wanted to share with many of you that have little ones, that might like me, be unsure how to teach gospel concepts to them in a kid-friendly way.

I will report next week how she does.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

Last night, as I was putting her to bed, I told Zoe I would take her to the "beach" today.

This morning, it was the first thing out of her mouth. Ryan is coming up on finals next week, which meant I needed to keep Zoe out of the house for several hours.
In the spur of the moment, I decided to take Zoe to a water park in Provo, Seven Peaks.
We got there right at opening and I had purchased tickets online, and we got to walk right in.


Zoe was thrilled to be there! We went in the wave pool, around the lazy river (several times), in the kids area and even down the adult water slide. I think her favorite was the wave pool. I would have let her play a bit more in the waves, but they were out of life jackets to rent, so I kept her next to my side at all times.


I don't know if I've talked about my "Morganisms" book on here before, but it's a scrapbook I keep for my
parents. Originally, it housed all our of favorite things and inside jokes, but now it's become the family album. I usually only made pages for that book once or twice a year, but living here where the book is, makes it a little easier.

By my Mom's request, I've started making wedding pages for each of us, and will go on to make birth pages for each grandchild.
Here are the 2 layouts I've made so far.



















Also, a quick shout out to me sweet husband who drove to the craft store for me and bought me cardstock! Yay for supportive husbands!

Have a great night,
XOXO,
Holly & Co.

I realized I never shared this layout. This was from the Clark Planetarium last month. Zoe really loved being on the moon.

I added the pocket with the caption, "moon rocks" because for some reason, Zoe likes to collect rocks.
Whenever we go on a walk, Zoe picks up rocks and puts them in my pocket/stroller/hand. She collects them in the backyard or in the parking lot at Target.
I told my dad today that I bet she'll grow up to be a geologist, she REALLY likes rocks.

Did you collect anything as a kid?

I collected a lot of things, the big two were stickers and beanie babies. Yeah, I rocked the beanie baby collection. I'll share those photos in another post I have planned.

XOXO,
Holly & CO.

I noticed today while I was getting ready to write this post, that I'm only a few posts away from 500! Wow, that's a lot of blogging. But I'm WAY excited. I think to celebrate I'll be doing a blog party + giveaway, so stay tuned in the next couple of weeks!

I'm starting to feel like Zoe is getting over the terrible twos/threes. She's been much less sassy and more lovely lately, of course she still has her moments. ETA: Today she was Ms. Sassy Pants, so we aren't out of the woods yet. :(

Last night, Ryan and I went out on a date, while she stayed home with Nona and Papa. I returned home to a happy report, she was a doll while we were gone. Read stories, ate her dinner and had a bath, AND she went to bed without a fuss. Sigh, I'm happy to have my little doll back.

I have a page to share. I don't know why I struggle so hard with "event" layouts. My favorite layouts are never, birthdays or holidays, always the everyday stuff, but I forced myself to scrap these pictures of Zoe with her cake.


I like it just fine, it's just not my favorite. Maybe someday soon, I'll get over whatever causes this scrapping-event-photos-phobia.

Spending some more time on the craft table tonight. I need to get some crafty time in.

XOXO,
Holly & CO.

This year I didn't take a lot of photos, in fact I think I took about 5. I spent most of the holiday weekend enjoying my time with family and all the celebrations.


Yesterday, we got to watch my brother Ben, play in the Provo City Parade, which if you've ever been in Utah during the 4th of July, you know it's one of the biggest and best parades anywhere.

Last night, instead of attending a fireworks show, we just sat on the back balcony and watched about 13 different fireworks shows across the valley. We saw everything from Pleasant Grove over to Thanksgiving Point. I think this might be part of a new tradition.

I do have some projects to share, but am still catching up from having family here and all the celebrations. More to share tomorrow!

XOXO,
Holly & CO.

I was collecting quite a bit of scrap paper from my Studio Calico June kit, so I decided to use them up and make a card. It seems I've been making quite a bit of cards lately, which is unusual for me, but I guess it's not a bad thing to have on hand.

I've been going through all the photos I've been taking this past week and I've got a couple favorites to share.

I am one of the newest members of the Paper Issues Design Team!

I found this group on Facebook awhile back. I am so impressed with all the inspiration and amazing work that the team puts out, and I'm so glad to be a part of it!

Hope you're all having a wonderful long weekend.
I've been hanging out with family, taking lots of pictures and giving my self a patriotic manicure :).

XOXO,
Holly & Co.