I made this using some BG Fact or Fictions + Studio Calico Nov. Kit, so bright, quite different from the fall and winter pages I've been doing lately.

Fun Announcement!!
If you come here often you should notice the addition of the "Shop" tab up at the top. Right now, I've only got some stamps I've clearing out, but soon there will be some fun stuff in there. Take a look, let me know what you think.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

Recently, I had a lull in assignments and got to do a bunch of scrapping just for me, well this one is for my sister. This is my nephew, Noah, who is one of Zoe's favorite playmates.

Whenever Jenni and I are on the phone, we are sure to hear Noah in the background, he has spirit that's for sure. Our phone conversations usually take hours, mostly because we get interrupted every 3 minutes, but it makes for some good laughs. We recently started Skyping and the kids get so excited they can't sit in front of the camera for more than a few seconds, which kind of defeats the purpose.

I used my November Studio Calico kit, along with some KI memories and Basic Grey Fact and Fiction. I really wanted to feature several patterned papers for this page, so I chose a pie chart to help with that task. I use THIS one from Silhouette.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

This year, I bought a December Daily kit, from the amazing Kelly Purkey. I adore her stamps and thought this would be a great fit for my style. The stamps really sold it for me. (and all the other stuff is amazing too)

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful. We had a total of 21 people in attendance, 12 kinds of pie and more food than we could eat. We talked, played games, and I spent the better part of an afternoon with my almost-one-year-old cousin Anna, sleeping in my arms. It was such a fun and busy day, I only got pictures of the table decor.

 Rachel said...

this is cool! we found out today that my mother-in-law's microwave died. we went out and bought her a new one.

November 16, 2012 7:43 PM

 

I'm so thankful for all of you that entered, keep up the good work. This is definitely a giveaway I will be repeating.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

Supplies: Studio Calico November Kit, Prima Ladybug chalk ink, American Crafts fine tip slick writer.

I don't know who the quote is by, but it says, " When you are a parent, the days are long but the years are short." Oh how quickly they go by. Next year, Zoe will be going to Kindergarten. Like REAL school.

I was explaining the background of Thanksgiving to her today, and asked her what she was thankful for. Her list made me smile. It wasn't until number 8 or 9 that she mentioned her toys. Her first items were family, friends, Jesus, sunshine, blue skies with fluffy white clouds ( yep her words), flowers that smell good... I kept asking her what else, what else, until she got bored. It was a fun game.

Don't forget my RAK challenge below, open until next Thursday. I've got some Basic Grey Fact or Fiction to throw in there, along with some stuff I'll probably get at the American Crafts warehouse sale next week, I might have to split it up into 2 boxes....

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

I love reading stories of RAKs. Seriously, it restores my faith in Humanity, in people. I've also been blessed to be on the receiving end of so many.

Whether it be a card in my mailbox, treating me to chili cheese fries (that I'd been dying to try) taking Zoe for an afternoon so I can get some chores done or just have some quiet time, talking me through a bad day and lots of tears, they all have an impact.

I truly believe, it is small acts, that can have the most impact.

I'm issuing a challenge, along with an incentive.

I challenge you by Thanksgiving, to complete a random act of kindness. (If you have already done one this week, that counts :)

Send a card or letter.
Complete a chore for a family member.
Pay for a stranger's hot chocolate.
Contribute to a food bank.
ETC.

Come back here and leave a comment, for a chance to win a 5.2 lb box (yes, I weighed it) from my stash.

The box contains full to half sheets of paper, lots of embellies, sticker letters ( a few may be missing) rub-ons, even Studio Calico kit exclusives (remember those clouds from Buzz & Bloom, yep there is a full set in there)

Giveaway is open until Thursday, November 22nd. Because of the size of the package, I will only be able to ship to US residents, but I didn't want to leave out international readers, so I will have a drawing for a gift card to somewhere awesome for those participants.

Make sure to leave your e-mail address in the comments so I can find you if you win!

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

I finally did some just for fun scrapbooking. Lately, I've been sticking to assignments and/or specific projects, but it was nice to get back to doing pages just for me. I made this using the Studio Calico November kit - which I really had an easy time working with. I wasn't sure about the feathers, but I ended up loving them for this page.

The title of the page, is not referenced to personal beauty, but to the beauty in life. I recently purchased this pendant from THIS SHOP on Etsy and wear it daily, it help me remember to seek the good.

We've been getting snow lately, which...
1. makes me giddy
2. means we are drinking a LOT more hot chocolate
3. it's dark and wet outside making taking pictures of projects difficult.

We spent the afternoon playing in the snow with friends. The snow today is perfect packing snow. We got there when someone was already starting a fort and we just kept on building.


























It's quite a big fort. We didn't get it all the way finished - we decided to go sledding instead. Maybe some more snow will fall and we'll get to finish it.

In scrappy news, if you don't follow me on instagram or twitter (@brwneyes525 ) you missed my post about the December Scrapbook Circle kit. It is amazing! I had it for 5 hours and completed 3 layouts, with 2 more in the planning stages. That might be a record for me!

 Here's a sneak peek -

Things have been so busy I forgot to post about our cookie decorating party. I made a LOT of cookies, using my mom's sugar cookie recipe. I made regular sugar cookies as well as chocolate sugar cookies with a bit of recipe tampering.

 Jamie and I had done cookie decorating before with the kids, and the sprinkles were fought over, so I decided to give everyone their own set of sprinkle, using mini muffin cups. This was great, until the kids dumped the entire cup(s) worth on a cookie. Probably would've worked better with older kids.

 We had 9 different kinds of sprinkles. Most purchase at the Target $1 spot. LOVE that aisle. The rest were purchased at the Prepared Pantry, which is also where I got the neon food coloring. They have an online store HERE if you need to purchase concentrated colors but don't want to buy an entire pack, they sell them individually.

And yes, I took a shortcut. I used store bought frosting. But in my defense, I made like 6 dozen sugar cookies. That's a lot of rolling, cutting and baking.

 As you can see, they all ate as the were decorating. Which was fine by me. The moms snacked on some other food I made and enjoyed some good conversation.

Whew! Finally got caught up on all my editing. I tried out a new program RadLab, which is a Photoshop add-on, and it made the process go so much quicker. I've been debating which program to add to my Photoshop Elements for editing, and now RadLab is in the running against Lightroom. Sigh.

Anyway, It's actually Ms. Hodge's birthday today, so I thought it would be great to showcase a few of my favorites from their session.

Over at Studio Calico this month, there was a Breast Cancer Awareness challenge, using PINK on your layout.

Lucky for me - I happened to have pictures from Race for the Cure and the perfect pink scrappy stuff to complete the challenge! I had a great time with this challenge, I got to dig through a lot of my stash to find some fun pink things.



























I love that our family has this tradition. It's a great excuse for us to get all together and celebrate those in my family who have battled cancer.

Looking forward to this weekend, this week has been rather packed and stressful.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.