In my October Polka Dot Whimsy Kit, we got these great quote bubbles by Shabby Chic Chafts. I knew as soon as I opened them up, what I wanted to use them for. Zoe is constantly making us laugh with her funny phrases and interesting conversations. I needed a place to compile them. I've made layouts before with her funny sayings and I love keeping that tradition up.

As you can see, this layout is unfinished, but I know it won't take long to fill in the rest of the bubbles.
My favorite one up there, is a conversation we had a few months ago.

Me: What does your puppy eat?
Zoe : Spaghetti.
Me: What else does your puppy eat?
Zoe: Salad..
(I love that she included a healthy option.)

I made a fun Halloween project last night, and a few more layouts. We're heading down to Utah in a few days to have some fall-tastic fun with my family, so you'll be seeing those projects in my absence :)

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

I found this quote on Pinterest, and it brought tears to my eyes.
 Zoe will always be my first baby, she is the one that made me a Mother.
When we were out taking pictures she asked to wear my locket, and this picture resulted from that.
We will always have that special connection, these first few years just us.

I know this layout is simple, but the words say more than any embellishment ever could.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

This week I wanted to share a new layout, that while took my several days to complete, I really love.
I made this using my October Polka Dot Whimsy kit, that arrived this week, full of Crate Paper, Studio Calico, MME and Bella Blvd. I really love the green that is mixed in with the traditional fall colors, gives the page a pop!























I hand stitched around the leaves to bring a bit more texture to the page and used my ZIG embossing pen + AC Brown Sugar Zing, to create the movement lines.

Karli & I had a Scraperday (Scrapbooking + Saturday) yesterday, I was able to finish 3 layouts, using the pictures I took of Zoe last week. Look for more of those this week.

Our Sunday has actually been sunny, a nice, bright change from the snow earlier this week. I'm hoping it will stay a way just a bit longer. I've got some things to cross off my fall bucket list!

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

As I sit here typing, outside my window are big giant flakes of white falling from the sky. I'm not gonna lie, this makes today a GREAT day. The snow isn't thick enouogh to stay on the ground and I'm sure it will be gone by tomorrow, but I am enjoying it today.

Cold weather always makes me more productive. So far today, I've done 2 loads of laundry, baked 2 loaves of banana bread, gone grocery shopping, half-way done with dinner, made a bread starter and fixed my broken candlesticks. - Although all the cooking is making my house smell like an interesting mix of bananas and bacon....hmm....

Today, I've got a fun layout to share, along with a new technique.


































I adore these Amy Tan American Crafts thickers. I noticed the other day that the background for these was plain kraft cardstock, and therefore could be colored. I pulled out my blending foam pads and some mists and  played around.
I sprayed the mist on the pad so I could control the amount of color I rubbed onto the thicker. As you can see in the picture, the top of the amperstand is darker than the bottom. I applied a double coat to the top half to show you the difference.
Now I'm sure most of you know you could use mists to change the color of scrapbook items, but my favorite part about this is that you can see the criss-cross pattern that resists the mist! I'm going to e-mail American Crafts and request that they make more of this kind of thicker.

Here's a layout where I first used this technique.


































Thanks for stopping by.

XOXO,
Holly & CO.

I mentioned when I redid my blog that I would be adding some features, one of those being Sunday Loves. Sunday Loves meaning people/places/things that I'm lovin' on this week in particular.
This feature will not always be food, but in this case, all my loves today are food.
Good food.
REALLY good food.

Here are the links to the recipes:
Apple Butter
Pumpkin Scones
Shredded Beef Tacos

Just a quick note, we skipped the glaze on the scones but slathered them in the apple butter, and here are the reactions from our family...
Ryan - This might be the only bread I ever eat again.
Holly - I might eat this for breakfast every day
Zoe - MMM....(said with a mouthful of scone)

I only made a half batch of apple butter, but I will definitely be making lots more. Ryan was concerned that we only had 2.5 jars. He was relieved when I told him I would make more.

I'm definitely hitting the fall bake-something-every-day feeling.
I just wish it would get a *little* bit cooler, just a bit.

Enjoy your Sunday, and if you're in the area, stop by for some scones and apple butter.

XOXO,
Holly & CO.

Fall is my most favorite time of the year. Best weather, best clothes, best food....

We've spent quite a few evening at the park lately, but by the the time the sun starts setting, it's cold enough for sweatshirts. Zoe loves going to the park with there are other kids to play with.
She immediately goes up to  a kid or group of kids and asks, "Do you want to play with me?"

I was commenting to my dad that I love how easy it is at this age for kids to make and be friends. Most of these kids, she never learns their names, but for 45 minutes, they are best friends.

Yesterday I picked up a giant box of apples from an old friend, and I'm planning on making my first batch of apple butter. I'm also dying to make pumpkin scones, so I'm hoping they taste well together.

Happy Fall!

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

Doesn't get much better than this.

These two are so funny together.

Zoe recently asked Ryan," Daddy, will you get me sword lessons?"
I must explain, Ryan has recently gotten our little girl hooked on the TV show, Thundercats.
And now she wants sword lessons. Sigh.

Zoe has also been asking opinions a lot lately, she'll say, " My favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla, what's yours?" and if Ryan isn't home she always asks me, "...and what's Daddy's favorite?"

In that first picture you can just see how much a like they are, their faces, their humor, I adore it.

Last week, among the craziness, I got a chance to make this simple card. I am seriously digging this Amy Tan line from AC and I'm hoping she'll come out with another one soon.

Made using August Polka Dot Whimsy Kit

I loved all the circle stickers from the sticker book, and used my 1"& 2" punches and my regular hole punch to make the various sizes.

I'm anxiously awaiting a big box of scrappy stuff, so I'm planning some fun projects for the next few weeks.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

*My Paper Issues Blog hop winner is mommakatx6@yahoo.com. I have sent you an e-mail.* 
Thanks everyone for playing along, it was great to see so many new names :)


Next up, I traveled up to Montana this weekend, to help my photographer friend, Aly, with a wedding. I've never worked with any photographers or even shot any weddings so this was a whole new experience for me.


The venue was a barn up at Flat Head Lake, Montana. It was GORGEOUS. Seriously, every direction you looked was beautiful. It was so fun to meet Jess and Kels, and be part of their special day. They were so nice, generous and great to work with.






This is my absolute favorite so far. We snagged them right before dinner just as the sun was going down for a few more pictures and I'm so glad we did. I love that you can tell how much they love each other, even without seeing their faces.


I had a great time up in Montana, although I am happy to be home.


Happy Monday!
XOXO,
Holly & Co.

*Giveaway is now closed, winner will be announce tomorrow.*

Welcome, Welcome.
If this is your first time here at my blog, welcome. If you've been here before, welcome back!

The new theme over at Paper Issues is Tree Hugger. I wasn't sure exactly what to do, since I didn't really have any hippie related or camping material to scrap. So I went with outdoors....which turned into beach :)










I had so much fun making this layout. I used my Zig embossing pen to write ," sandcastles," and embossed using my brown sugar AC Zing, which I happen to think looks almost identical to sand :)  I loved watching Ryan build sandcastles with the kids, even though they kept wrecking it, he kept trying.

In honor of the blog hop, (and moving recently) I'll be doing a giveaway as well.
To be entered, please leave a comment with contact info.
For additional entries, you can follow this blog and/or follow me on Twitter.
Please leave a blog comment after doing so.

My giveaway is a big box full of goodies, lots of paper, even some exclusive SC papers from some past kits. This picture doesn't do it justice, but the box is gonna be packed!





Winners will be posted on the Paper Issues blog, Monday, September 19th.

Next stop on the Blog Hop is the wonderfully talented - Monika Wright.

This blog hop actually has 3 different paths, Scrapbook, Altered Items and Cards.

If you would like to visit the Altered Items path - Start Here
If you would like to visit the Cards path - Start Here

Also, special for you hoppers, here is a code for 25% off in the Paper Issues Store - HOP25.

Enjoy the hop and your weekend!

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

Well it's fall, so I thought it was time for a little change around the old blog.
Thoughts?

I'm also gonna be adding some weekly/monthly features around here, to streamline my posting, along with my every day rambling, layouts and stuff.

I never got a chance to share this layout I made with my Sept. Polka Dot Whimsy Kit.


































I snapped this picture just as we were getting ready to leave the beach. Our day at the beach really was a great day. It was probably the most relaxing day of our trip.

I know this post is short, but be sure to check back tomorrow. We're having a Paper Issues Blog Hop, with lots of giveaways and new projects to share!

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

With all the events of last week, coupled with my getting really sick, I wasn't quite sure if Zoe and/or Ryan was going to make it to the first day of school.

But, with blessings, prayers and a shot of Prednizone, we were on our way.

This is not the perfect awesome first day of school picture that I had envisioned. But, we roll with the punches and her excited smile is enough, with everything going on, I'm lucky I remembered to snap a picture.



She is loving being back at school. She had a new teacher and a new class (with some of the kids from her old class)
She is doing great with staying dry at school, and telling the teacher she needs to go potty.
She doesn't like leaving her artwork up on the walls at school, she cries everytime she has to leave her picture up.
She has been bringing toys and promptly loosing them each day, I'm vetoing that tomorrow.
She LOVES recess and talks about playing outside every day.
She enjoys telling me the entire menu for the day, including lunch and snack time. She also recalls how many bites of each thing she ate and what she didn't eat :)

Since being at school half of the day, she has become awfully snuggly at night and I'm just soaking it all up. Especially being sick, we spend lots of time on the couch just hanging out and talking.

We're still getting settled in our new place, boxes and crates in the corners, eating simple meals because I haven't the time or energy to be anymore creative.

Hoping next week will be a little more back to normal.

XOXO,
Holly & CO.

I apologize for the blog absence.
Things got rough last week. I won't bore you with all the other things that went wrong last week, none of those really matter at this point. I don't really share a lot of this intense personal stuff on my blog, but this I just needed to write.

My dear cousin David went missing last week. Of his own accord we believe. He is still MIA. I've been posting most of the info related to this incident on facebook, since that seems to reach more people, more quickly. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts, they have been felt and appreciated.

It threw me for a loop. You see, things like this happen on the news, or to friends of friends, but never in your own family. Never someone you know, and love, and have had wonderful conversations with over the years. Never someone who has drawn you pictures of the awful dates you've been on, just to make you laugh. Never someone with a funny, kind, sweet soul, like David.

Cedar Breaks Canyon, Cedar City, Utah

It's such a surreal feeling. We spent the weekend with a search party in southern Utah, hoping to turn up something. We did eventually get news that his car had been found, back near his home and the local police are now heavily involved.

Even though we didn't find anything on our search, and it made for long days in the car, and a double ear infection for myself, I wouldn't have changed my decision to go. It's events like these that make you realize, Family, is truly THE most important thing. You bet I hugged my baby extra tight when I got home Saturday night. And kissed my husband several extra times.

We returned home Saturday, only to pack up the cars and move up to Idaho the next day. It's feels strange and wrong to return to normal life, when our family is still hurting and searching.

While we are moving on with our daily life, our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with my Aunt, Uncle and their other sons.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

We're back, safe & sound.

We had such a great trip. It was so fun to see so many in Ryan's family and spend lots of time with them.
I loved catching up with old friends late into the night. I've missed having friends nearby.

When we got back, there was a package of the August and September Polka Dot Whimsy kits waiting for me! I drove the last leg of the drive at 3:30 am and had drank quite a bit of Red Bull.  While everyone else was sleeping, I snuck downstairs and took advantage of my Red Bull buzz. I made 3 layouts in just a few hours!

One of which is my hands down, new favorite page.


Made using August Polka Dot Whimsy Kit


I adore these beach pictures. Yes I ended up with a ruined camera lens, thanks to the sand, but I think it was worth it, just a creative casuality.

But now back to reality.
Our stuff in all over the place and my stress level is through the roof.
We're moving in just days.
But, it's all gonna be ok. At least that's what I keep telling myself :)

I'll be posting more layouts this week and hopefully more in the near future from my new office/scrapbook room!

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

Santa Cruz!
I finally got my wish to go to Santa Cruz and it proved to be just as wonderful as I had thought it would be.

We got to the beach around noon, but it was overcast and a bit chilly. The waves were HUGE and there were big warning signs not to go in the water.
We picked a nice spot back from the water and got to playing in the sand.


Zoe rinsed her hands and feet about 100 times. She kept saying ," There's sand everywhere." Yup. We're on a beach, that's kinda the point! But it was funny to watch anyway.

Day 5 - Pretty uneventful. Saw an old friend, work & add in a trip to Wal-Mart.

Day 6 - Drove down to the Bay to see the rest of the Humbert clan. We went to a kid amusement park/zoo, Happy Hollow. Once you pay for admission, you get to ride the rides as many times as you want, and we definitely used that privilage. Zoe loved her first rollarcoaster ride. Daddy took her the first 5 times and I took her the next 4.