pink nostalgia

better than a morning cup of coffee

It really has nothing to do with coffee.  : )

J and I take lots of selfies to send to each other...

 

...but selfies together are rare.  In fact, I'm gonna say I can count on one hand the number of times J has initiated the couple's-selfie.

 

Yep, that's them, and I haven't initiated many more.  I scrapped the first pic here.

Exhibit 4: One day last week, we were walking out the door on our way to work, and he stops me in the kitchen and says, "C'mere."  [See above bottom right.]  I don't know what prompted it, but I have learned to never look a gift selfie in the mouth! 

They're not his favorite, so he told me not to post them anywhere, BUT HE DIDN'T SAY I COULDN'T SCRAPBOOK THEM!  Ha!!  Semantics!!

I lifted this page from lapepitabonita, and her title was "coffee" (because her page was about coffee), so I just kept it.  It looked so pretty on the page.  Plus, sometimes I just like to be cheeky.  : o  But if you need there to be a meaningful connection, it's that it gives me butterflies when J initiates photos, and that butterfly-ish feeling is better than a morning cup of coffee.  Boom, full circle.

The second cheeky-ness is that I rarely drink morning coffee.  : )

So hey!  There's another meaningful connection!  Couple's selfies and morning coffee are both enigmas!

I've had that background paper for at least...I'm gonna say 8 years. 

And that is the story of why I never throw scrap supplies away.  : )

captured

I bought this sheet of paper...

... without a clue what I would use it for but knowing I would see something soon that I loved.  This was it.  I lifted this page from Ashley Horton.  The hearts with lots of white space is on my short list right now.

The scene from the photos is Alex's 9th birthday dinner + cake at our house with family.  Ethen was singing Happy Birthday and being very goofy towards Alex, and Alex was just giggling.  Giggling!  Ughh, I love it.

A big part of why I love to scrapbook is that while I'm reliving the memories from the photos, I'm creating memories from crafting and sharing.  The scene from the page is showing it to the boys.  I called the two youngest Wells boys into the pink room, and Jason followed.

I held the page behind my back and excitedly told them I had a scrap page to show them.  I got blank stares!  Out of three boys!  I know!

So I hopped from foot to foot as I do and said, "Are y'all excited??  I'm SO excited about this page!!"

So J replies, "Yeah!  We're excited!"  And all three of them did jazz hands and hopped from foot to foot.  Except since Alex was sitting in my desk chair, he swiveled.  Ughh, I love it.

a perfect moment scrapped

Here is that perfect moment on a simple scrap page.  : ) 

I lifted it from Cath4K here!

This is the first page I've made where the photo is the whole page.  This one is close:

And you can tell (can you tell?) by looking at these two pages that the styles are very different.  I usually like a lot of detail that draws you in and invites you to sit for a minute with a plate of sopapilla cheesecake.  But J liked the way it looked without all the fuss, so I left it.  Just a picture and the story (and a little bit of glitter).

I haven't thought about this in months - when we were newly dating, J once said (wrote?), "Please do not stop creating perfect moments like this one."  Mmm.  : )

31

 I blocked out 3 1/2 days to scrapbook, and really the only scrapping I did was to finish this page. 

The rest of the time I painted a canvas and watched: Friday Night Lights, The Witches of East End, Vampire Diaries, Bitten, and Grey's Anatomy. 

All. weekend. long. 

Oh, and The Originals. 

I might go back and add 20 more feathers.

Like always, it looks better in person.

You can see the other birthday-year-pages here: 27, 28, 29, 30, 32.

thirty-two

I've been very scrappy lately.  I have so many projects running through my mind and not enough time what with work, cooking, reading with Al, algebra-ing with E, watching Friday Night Lights with J, and general merryment-ing.

I'm so in love with this striped paper.  I had no idea what to do with it, but I knew I had to have it.  Then I saw Ashley Horton's page and thought, "Yep!  That's what I'm doing!"  I already had the photos from a really good hair day + my favorite shirt + J's favorite aviators.

I like doing these annual pages to kind of recap my emotional state of being.  You can find the other years here: 27, 28, 29, 30. 

The 31 page is in process as we speak.  I might be able to finish it if Jason would ever stop pestering me.  : )

nothing is perfect & everything is work

This is proving harder to write than I thought.

A few weeks ago, J and I got into a fight, which is rare enough that it still surprises me.  It snowballed so fast because each of us was expecting the other to straighten up, no one did, and by that point, it was easy to imagine future worst-case scenarios and not want any part of that.  

Surely I'm not the only one who gets into snowballs, right?

Needless to say, it was rough.  One thing that helps me is to write it down.

I put off making this page for a few days because I wasn't anxious to relive those sad feelings.  But I still think it's important to scrap the messy bits, and I wanted some kind of acknowledgement.

I scrapped this page on a Saturday morning with sunlight flooding my scrap desk.  The boys were gone, J was outside, and it was just quiet.  No music or Netflix.  I just played and poured out my heart.  : )

The self-portrait was from the day after our meeting of the minds when I was still raw and confused (and crying) but working through the resolution.

My new favorite thing is lots of long threads haphazardly (yet strategically, ha!) tangled.  I did the same thing on this page.

The emotion is heavy, but the page is gorgeous and REAL.  I mean, scrap supplies are pretty cheap therapy, right??

in bloom

Peonies are still my favorite.  I'm so sad that they're already out of season here.  Next year, I'm going to look into planting some in the backyard.  In the meantime, another scrap page.

Here's the first peony page I made.  Which one do you like better?

first ever

I'm so proud of Alex finishing his first chapter book.  He doesn't love to read (yet).  Getting him to sit down with me to read this book was mostly a matter of suggesting it (made much easier when the TV is off).  This is one of the few books that he told me, "Keep reading," after we finished a chapter.

And this might sound lame, but we read while sitting next to each other on the couch as he held the book in our laps and turned the pages.  For a dad's girlfriend role, that's huge.  : )

Of course, it's scrap-worthy.

Lifted from Pepper.

So proud of you, Hondro!  And thanks, Galaxy Zach!

muffin

 These Wells boys do not like having their picture taken except for when they do.

So when one of them says, "You should take a picture of this," take the picture.  And then scrapbook it.

Ethen is so funny - he doesn't want to be called Sweetie, Sweetheart, Honey, or Baby (J and his mom call everyone Baby).  But he requests Muffin.  

He also requests E-Money.  : )

happy

One of my favorite things in life is getting selfies from J (also on the list: making George crack up laughing).  These usually arrive when I'm out of town as a this-is-what-I'm-doing-right-now update.

Even higher on my favorite things list is getting selfies that include the boys.  I gasp at every text, and it makes my heart ache in a wonderful way.

I always wonder if J says to them, "Hey, let's take a pic!" or if he says, "Hey, let's send a pic to Angela!" but I'm too chicken to ask.

So here's the page with my favorite Wells boys selfie.

I listened to Pharrell's Happy on repeat as I scrapped it.

This page was half inspired by cat123 and half lifted from this page I made a few years ago, and lifted again, and flipped:

And now I'm very happy.  : )

the love bench scrapped

I scrapped this page while hanging on the couch with J.  Even though I have a whole pink room, he still lets me scrap at the coffee table while he we he watches baseball.  : )  This page makes me almost as happy as this bench does.

I lifted this one from Paige Evans and Erin.  As soon as I saw their pages, I knew they were perfect for the love bench!  I love the rainbow effect - it's so cheerful and perfect for a back yard page.

I think I've gotten my money's worth out of that cloud punch by now...

Ha haaa haaa haa haa haaaa haaaaaa.

P.S.  In case your wondering, the salisbury steak meatballs were just okay (J went back for seconds, but I did not), and I was really disappointed in this marinara sauce (it still tasted like canned tomatoes to me), but to be fair, my expectations were very high.  Freebirds was the big food winner of the weekend.  : )

merry breakfast

Ever since I started keeping up with the Studio Calico project gallery, all I want to do is scrapbook.   The fire is back!

Yesterday, Alex was going around the dinner table asking everyone what they were going to do after dinner.  When he got to me, I made this face (minus the sunglasses, obviously):

He said, "Okay!  I already know!  Scrapbook!!"

Five Nine Things About This Page:

1. I lifted it from Marcy Penner.

2. It's Christmas without being too Christmasy (just like this one). 

3. I love love love that striped paper (also used here).

4. It's made entirely from scraps (here, here). 

5. Those E's were B's that I cut with my paper trimmer.  Uhhhh, yeahhhh!

6. The focus of this page was breakfast and not Alex, and as he will tell you, he's a charmer with that blond hair and blue eyes.  I wanted to include his photo, but I didn't want it to steal the show, so I hid it in a glassine baggie.  One thing I've learned about these Wells boys - they don't really like having their picture taken.  So when they jump in your shot, take the picture.

7. As I was adding the bow at the bottom, I thought, "What did I ever do before these tiny bows??  How did I live without them?  What did I use??  Oh.  Buttons.  Remember when buttons were all the rage?  Lemme find a small yellow button..."

8. I journaled right onto the cardstock but hated it, so I covered it with those Heidi Swapp ledger cards.

9. I accidentally cut the number paper in the wrong spot.  : /  I taped it back together and covered up the seam with the kraft tag and "with love and dreams."

Happy weekend!

magic

To me, one thing that makes a family feel established is traditions.  It can be something as common as yelling "Hey heyyyy!" when you get home and "Peace!" when you tuck your son into bed.  It can be as simple as knowing there will be buttermilk pie at Thanksgiving.  It's something you can count on, something to look forward to, and something to get excited about.

It will melt my heart the day Ethen or Alex insist on a tradition by saying, "But we always do that!"

Since last year was our first Christmas together, it was very important to me to make it special and start some traditions.  Namely, setting out homemade cookies for Santa.

Thanks, Mom, for helping and gushing when prompted.  ; )

Chipboard?  Yes!  Book paper?  Yes!  Glitter??  Yes!!

I really really love how all of the colors go so well with the photo.  It's very soft and...magical.  : )  I also really love how you can barely make out the star glowing on the top of the tree.

I lifted this page from Catherine Brancieq.  I barely changed anything, I loved it so much.

Happy Tuesday.   : )

psa: call your family

A few weeks ago, after about a year of waiting for the time to be right, I called my grandmother. 

The last time I actually saw her was eight years ago.  We hadn't talked for a few years, but it was not for lack of her sending birthday cards.

Once I filed for divorce and moved out of the house, I thought, "Great!  Now I can call Miss Rita!"  But...I had just filed for divorce and moved out of the house, and I didn't know what can of worms I'd be opening when I called, and I wanted to see her but wouldn't buy plane tickets until I knew for certain that I wouldn't be in court.

So now, the divorce is done and I have a permenant address for this year's birthday card (because you can be sure my ex-husband didn't forward me my card from last year).

I took a few breaths and dialed.

her (she sounded exactly the same): Hello?

me: Hi, Miss Rita!  It's Angela!

her: Hey, Sugar!  How ARE you??

No fewer than four times did she say some derivation of "I'm just tickled pink that you called!"  "Oh!  I'm just thrilled!"

This is the only picture I have of the two of us together.  I did have a few from college graduation, but those were inexplicably missing when I went back to the divorce house to collect my things.

Scrapped in 2007.

So, I'm flying out to see her at the end of March.  According to her husband, she's already told everyone she knows that I'm coming.  : ) 

chilly burgers

 This was the last page I made for my local scrapbooking store.  R.I.P. my design team career!

J and I were texting, whew, almost a year ago.  He was at his house and I was at Mom and George's for the weekend.  We were rappin' (as J would say) before dinner.

The iPhone photo quality is pretty bad, but I love this photo because it was the first one that the boys "posed" for me.  He told them "Hey, let's stand in front of the grill and act like it's really cold outside!"

And on top of that, I love it when J sends me real-time-this-is-what-we're-doing photos.

Another real-time-this-is-what-we're-doing photo:

The peanut butter anchoring the tarp gets me every time.

I'm off to watch King of the Nerds.  Y's friend is on it, so we're suffering through the Japanophile to watch Chris.  : )

 

lucky

I took a reallllllllly long time making this page, only because it was so fun, I wanted to drag it out.

I was saving that heart background paper for something really sweet and romantical.

The text is a text (ha) that J sent me a few months ago.  Aww man, it makes my heart leap. 

I tried leaving out any of the three sentences so I'd have enough alpha stickers, but I couldn't do it.  Each sentence was too good!

Sigh.   It looks really good on my pink wall.  : )

this moment

Hey y'all,

It was a slow lazy weekend.  J and I are both getting over colds (read: lots of Kleenex + naps), but we're on the up and up now.  

I finished this page last week.  It felt good to break out the sewing machine again!

I asked J what he thought of the brown background paper.  He said, "It's cool.  I bet you think it's amazing, right?"  Yes, yes I do.  : )

Here's to a happy and healthy week!

sigh...ISILWY

Ha, remember when I used to scrapbook?  Alex told me that he doesn't think I'm a real scrapbooker because if I was, I would have scrap pages all over the pink walls.  I told him that most of my pages are in boxes and albums, that I only put my favorite pages on the walls.  But he wasn't buying it.

This is Jason's favorite page.  And yes, it hangs on my wall.

I made this page in about one night after I waited for weeks for the ombre paper.  The text is an email from J, unedited, although I did blur one line for the blog.  : )  It was a numbered list that was also a love letter, so...double swoon.  : )

Happy Monday!

i'd go anywhere with you

I had a really cool "Aha!" moment a few months ago.  I was listening to this country song and thinking about Jason and thinking about Jason and listening to this country song, and then... Aha!  I really WOULD go anywhere you!  

So I dropped everything and scrapped the moment.  I lifted this page.

But fortunately, I didn't have to go very far.  ; )

Song: "Anywhere with You" by Jake Owen.

it's in the bag

I finally bit the bullet after three and a half years.

I bought a camera bag.

I had put off buying a camera bag because 1. they're pretty expensive, and I would always think, "If I'm going to pay that, I should just make it myself."  (But let's be honest, I was never going to make it myself.)  And 2. I'm very picky and have a hard time deciding on all-time favorite color schemes and fabrics.

I found MainStreetCamera on Etsy.  Their prices are really good, so I just dove in.  My initial request was answered within three hours!  Jenn and I had multiple conversations (I had in mind exactly what I wanted) about modifications and fabrics.  One of the fabrics I wanted was discontinued, and Jenn sent me two similar fabric pics within minutes.  And I sent Jenn exactly what I wanted, additional pockets, additional ruffles, and the fabric that should be on each piece of the bag and strap.  I mean, I was specific.  No wiggle room.  ; )  Although come to think of it, we never talked about thread color...

She was so accommodating, sent me a photo of the fabrics together, and gave her opinion on a few things we should change.  She even relisted ALL of the details in the custom order listing so I could double-check everything before I purchased it.

The turnaround time was less than a week, and it shipped exactly when she said it would.

And I MEAN!  The mix of grays and whites and creams with a pop of pink??  Love love.