As a gift for my sister, I started the foundations of a baby book for her. Right now it only includes these three pages, but I will passing over the album and supplies for her to complete the rest of it. 

Title Page

It's a little crazy to think that my little sister in now a mother, but becoming a mother is such a special thing. My favorite part about the page is the Cosmo Cricket sticker that says,

My little sister is now a mama! We went down to Utah a couple weeks ago, for Lily's baby blessing. Zoe was in heaven with her tiny little cousin. She spent a lot of time just sitting next to her. Lily was a good sport and even gave us a couple smiles while we were there.

1 Emily McDowell Card - This is the card Ryan is getting for Valentine's day. I bought another card of Emily's too. I love the honest sentiments and her hard lettering and illustration.

2. Godiva strawberry milk chocolate truffles  - These truffles are amazing! I bought them to save for Valentine's Day, they didn't make it more than a few hours in our house.

3. Julep Betty - I got this as a treat for meeting a health goal, and it's such a beautiful glitter nail polish.

4. Lindsay Letters - I have dreams about owning lots of Lindsay Letters canvases, and hopefully one day I will. I having been eyeing this one for a while now. So sweet for Valentine's day, or anytime of the year.

5. Socks - My mom started the tradition long ago of giving us cute socks for Valentine's Day and now I do the same for Zoe. These cute socks will be a big hit with Zoe.

What are your valentine favorites? Anything you are hoping for?

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

I actually used a bunch of items from my stash for this page, and I feel like I'm starting to get better at incorporating things that are in boxes, not just what is on my desk.

I loved using pink in a fall colors page. I typically wouldn't do that, but the pink from the October Afternoon leaf paper was just too pretty not to include. I've been looking at colors schemes a lot lately, not just for scrapbooking but for home coordinating.

This has been a new favorite palette of mine. I'm thinking of doing Zoe's future bathroom in this color scheme.

Photo Credit

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

I really haven't scrapbooked much the last six months.
Not sure why. 
I did a lot of creating and other things, but scrapbooking just kind of fell down the to do list. I use to crank out about a page every day or every other day.

So for the first time in a long time, I'm behind.
I've started pulling out pictures from last fall to work on and the creative flow is starting to come back and it's been really nice. It was also probably because I placed a large order at Paper Issues for some items I've been eyeing for months. 

(If' you've never ordered from Cassie at Paper Issues, I would highly recommend it! She always has coupon codes floating around and her shipping is lightening fast!)

For Zoe's first day of Kindergarten, I was with Ryan in the hospital having his back surgery. My mom was with Zoe for her first day. Before I left, I gave her a 30 second lesson on how to use my SLR camera. I was happy that she was able to be with Zoe and capture these for me.

I took this picture back in November, on Thanksgiving day. It doesn't completely show how tall she is or how grown up she acts. As my sisters and friends continue to have babies, I think how fast the time goes. I'm afraid I'll blink and she'll be in middle school.

Right now she has wiggly teeth and she likes laying in bed listening to music - Really. The baby years are definitely over. But this age is bringing some pretty fun things. She is reading and we are enjoying lots of time at the library because of it. She loves to do crafts and art projects, even photography. I love that I'm getting to share my passions with her.

This page was made with a mish-mash of items from a Studio Calico last call sale and the American Crafts warehouse sale. I'm really trying to use up my stash this year, since we are moving (again) and I don't want to haul everything I've got. I'm discovering some favorite items that had gotten lost in the shuffle, and I'm excited to put them on real pages.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

While looking for new items for our apartment and future home in Texas, I saw a pillow on Pinterest and thought it was so cute, but then I saw the price tag....$198.00! Yikes. As I looked closer, I noticed the fabrics were linen and my quest to make my own {less expensive} version began.

I settled on some linen from Robert Kaufman, I used the colors Natural (background) and Linen (hearts). I ordered 1/2 yard each, and my total was around $8.00. I used an 18" pillow form, I already had, but you can buy pillow forms at most crafts stores for around $5-$10.


Cuts:
Natural Fabric
2 - 18.25" x 18.25" pieces

Linen Fabric
1- 4" x WOF piece
1- 3" x WOF piece
2- 2" x WOF piece


From the Linen strips, hand cut hearts of different sizes. They don't have to be perfect as the edges will get washed.

Sew hearts onto one 18.25" square Natural piece. I looked at the original pillow and then just started stitching. Start in the middle and work your way out, alternating and even overlapping some hearts. Continue to sew hearts until you have about an inch border around the edges that is not covered.


Place both Natural fabric squares RST and sew three edges. Wash and dry cover.

Insert pillow and use a ladder stitch to close the cover and finish the pillow. {great tutorial here}
























Totally worth the savings of about $190! What about you? Are you getting the spring cleaning/redecorating bug yet?

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

This page was so fun to make, adding the pops of color to each frame, and cutting apart the tiny phrases. Rather then add embellishments to the page, which would cover the cut frames, I added them to the photo.

It's that time of year again, when lots of new scrapbooking products are coming out, but instead of looking at buying new items, I'm going to be working on the stash I already have. With moving in a few months, I need to lighten up the amount of stuff we need to move, so be looking for some giveaways, coming soon.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

In 2011 and 2012, I attempted a weekly project life. I managed to get about 12 weeks each year, but that was it. The weekly format for me was just too much. I felt guilty, got behind, and it wasn't really turning into something I wanted to do.

For 2013, I still wanted to capture the smaller every day moments, so I moved to a monthly format. While that worked much better than previous years, I still struggled when I got behind, mostly due to lack of planning and busyness.


Things I really like about the monthly format.

• Monthly reviews. After each month I typed up an overview of where we went, big events, small events, anything I wanted to remember. I've really liked being able to read these months later.
•  Memorabilia. I added an 8.5x11 page protector for each month to hold drawings, cards, e-mails, etc. and it's nice to have a place to hold all those. I'm thinking the giant envelope page protectors would also work well.
•  Less space to fill. With only one spread to fill per month, it's pretty easy to get it filled up quickly.

Things to improve for 2014.

• Get a good camera phone. Currently I don't have a phone with a good camera, which makes taking on-the-go pictures a lot harder. I scored a great deal on a new phone and it should be here soon. Really looking forward to having a camera with me at all times.
• Print pictures often.On the 1st of each month, spend 1 hour printing pictures. That is always the hardest part.
• Take notes. E-mail myself notes throughout the month. I'm pretty good at writing down sweet things that Ryan said, or funny things that Zoe did throughout the month, but I could do better.
• Simple. Sometimes I try too hard in my spreads to add the perfect embellies, etc. I think I'm going to work more on plain and simple this year.

I'm looking forward to adding a few more vacations and trips to 2014.With my OLW being Adventure, I'm planning on doing just that. I'm already making plans to visit the Grand Canyon and several fun places in Texas

I'm also looking forward to designing more cards for this year. You can see all my free downloads here. If there are any phrases or types of cards you'd like to see going forward, let me know, I'm happy to take suggestions.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

This year was our first year at home, just the three of us for Christmas. We had plans, but due to illness and work schedules, those plans of grandeur turned into a quiet celebration instead. Our families celebrate Christmas very differently, and each year as we've attended the alternating styles, we still hadn't really decided what we wanted to do for ourselves, when it was just us. We created a mash-up of the old and the new for this year.

Sugar cookies are a long standing tradition in our family. I remember making sugar cookies with my mother and grandmothers, it's just a part of the holidays for me.

Zoe and I participated in this necessary event a few days ago. My mom even gave her the perfect apron on our last trip back home.

To make sure the cut lines show up correctly for each cut, make sure to cut down the center first. The subsequent cuts don't matter but that first one does.


Let me know what you think. Do you prefer the 3x4 size or are you looking for smaller or different sized downloads?

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

I saw this number game going around on Facebook and thought it would make a great blog post.

1. I love to dance. These days it's usually car dancing, but I love rocking out to a good pop song. If you ever drive past us, and see me and Zoe going crazy, it's normal, don't woryy.

2. I love baths. I take at least one bath a week.

3. At 18, my life plan, was to go to college, marry an older guy and spend the next 10 years barefoot and pregnant. Yeah, ambition was not my middle name. Very glad my life plan turned out quite differently.

4. I'm a people watcher. I never really noticed that I did this until a few years ago, but I think part of it stems from my ability to read people in a sense. While I'm not as outgoing as I once was, I like imaging a story and life for each person.

5. It took me a long time to find my talent. In the process, I played three musical instruments ( flute, harp, piano) played three sports (softball, soccer, volleyball) did speech and debate, jewelry, pottery, and many more things.....I kept waiting for something that came naturally for me. I scrapbooked throughout all these many things, but never considered it as a talent. It was really my parents who opened my eyes to the fact that I had already found my talent.

6. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorders when I was 17. I spent about a year on medication and 6 months with a therapist. I feel very strongly about caring for your own mental health. I think it's often times ignored, or put off as mood swings, when in reality, it's an illness.

7. I'm never satisfied with my hair. I have had all kinds of cuts and length and I never really stick to any one of them for very long. I usually cut my hair short about every 8 months, then spend the next 8 growing it back out. During high school (see #6) half my hair fell out due to stress and it's never really been the same since. I'm hoping one day to find the perfect style/cut that I'll keep forever, but for now, it will be ever changing.

If you'd like to play along, leave a link you your little known facts, I would love to read them

XOXO,
Holly & CO.

Supplies: Elle's Studio, Freckled Fawn, Cosmo Cricket, Basic Grey, American Crafts.

I love my goofy girl. The fake mustaches at the dollar store provided many minutes of entertainment to us on a Saturday afternoon. It's pictures like these that make me wish digital cameras had been around much longer. What I wouldn't pay to have pictures like this of my parents and/or grandparents.

I was fortunate enough to get a hold of some of my grandparents pictures from their early years together. This particular one is a favorite of mine. This is a high school dance photo. Aren't they just adorable?

Season one of soccer is over! The soccer season around here is rather short, I think it was 6 or 7 weeks, which I don't mind because in October, it drops about 20 degrees.

Zoe had a mostly good time playing soccer this year. Her team was the Purple Monsters. Each kid got a medal at their last game, and it is now Zoe's prized possession. I have to beg her to leave it at home, because I don't want her to lose it.

Zoe and her best friend were on the same team, and they were the only girls. Zoe made quite an improvement from game one, where she cried and was upset the boys weren't giving her a turn. Thankfully, she figured out how to "get a turn" and actually got some time with the ball.

I bet she ends up playing in the spring, but we haven't talked about that just yet.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

My little girl is growing up. When Zoe started getting official school pictures back in preschool, I was torn on spending the money. I take a LOT of photos of Zoe and most of mine turn out better, simply because I'm in control of the situation. However, after a lengthy discussion with other parents on Facebook, I decided that they were special and almost a right of passage. I was not disappointed when I got them. The nostalgia alone, was worth it.

I am in love with the new Fancy Pants line, Collecting Memories. The color scheme is fantastic and I love the bold graphics. I loved this ruler paper, and it seemed so fitting for a school picture!

I was pleased with how her pictures turned out this year, much better than last. Last year I was sick on picture day and totally forgot, she wore a t-shirt and I threw her hair into a messy bun...but that's life sometimes.

Eventually, I was to have a school scrapbook album which contains her 8x10 pictures from each years and her first and last days of each year, along with the info about where she went to school, her friends, special events etc.

We're really lucky that Zoe loves school so much, I hope that pattern continues through the next 13 years.

XOXO,
Holly & Co.

Our apartment complex has a plethora of leaves right now. I'm not complaining, I love the sound of crunching leaves under my boots and piles of leaves to look at. It's started to get quite crisp around here, I'm enjoying fall fashion, hot chocolate and decorating for the holidays.

Zoe and I spent a little time outside playing in the leaves a few days ago, and she obliged me in throwing some leaves. After seeing these photos, I wanted to enhance them with some digital stamps.