News

Hello dear friends!  Such a slacker I am.  But I have good reason, I swear.  Since the last time we were together, my sweet hubby and I found out some wonderful news that will change our lives forever in the best way possible.

21 weeks

That's me!  I'm now 22 weeks pregnant (this photo was taken a week ago) and filled with joy.  We found out the day after Valentine's day, had to wait a week to tell my parents so we could make the trip to Seattle to see them in person.  I went through 13 weeks of feeling sick and wanting to just sleep the days away.  Of course we couldn't tell anyone but our families for several weeks so that made it even harder.  I did absolutely nothing during that time, I'm not even joking.  I would come home, lay on the couch, and my absolutely fantastically wonderful husband would cook me dinner and put me to bed.

I woke up at week 13 and felt so much better!  I wasn't feeling sick and I was slowly gaining my energy back.  My Studio Calico kits were collecting in my scrappy nook upstairs; the house was a mess; and I needed to find something to get me energized and excited about actually doing things again!

Scrapbooking it is!  I go on maternity leave in October.  That is my deadline to get things lined up for giving my Etsy shop a boost and for working on lots of layouts so I can start posting them in galleries and on my blog.  Oh and for my birthday, the hubs got me the Silhouette!  So I have had lots of fun playing around with that.  I absolutely love it.  Here's my first layout using it.  I wanted to do something special for my husband's Fathers-Day-to-be:

I'm not a writer by any means.  But I wanted to journal something special to my husband about why I think he'll be a good husband.  Ultimately it comes down to how wonderful he is as my husband.  The photo is one I took of him sitting in Luxembourg Garden's with the Luxembourg Palace behind him.  This was our absolute favorite spot in Paris.  The garden's are so beautiful.

A few more Father's Day photos.  Better late than never! :)

I'm not very happy with how the photos turned out.  I did them in a hurry and am looking for a better place in my house that has more natural light.  

xo,

Jocelyn

Layout Love (and an extra)

My Favorite Person {Can't you tell!}

As I promised, here is my first layout I did with my Studio Calico Daydream Believer kit.  There were so many papers that I would have never thought to put together but alas, they did and I loved them all.  So much fun.  This is one of my favorite photos from our engagement session a year and a half ago.  I love how it captures our playful affection for each other.

My Favorite Person LO closeup

My Favorite Person LO closeup

If you're a Studio Calico fan, be sure to check out these sneak peaks for next months kit!

52 Things I Love About You

For Valentine's Day I decorated a deck of cards and wrote on each one 52 different things I love about my husband.  He loved it!  It ended up being a lot bigger stack than I expected so I'm still trying to figure out a way to bind them all together.  So when he opened the box he just had 2 stacks of cards to read through.  He loved it!  He even made me a card!  I love it when he does that.

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

xo,

Jocelyn

My Studio Calico Kit it HERE!

The photo above isn't actually from the kit.  It's a Valentine's Day card I made my sister from my stash of scraps.  I love how it turned out!  Funny how I can spend countless hours planning a layout before glueing it down, but when I quickly just put pieces together without worrying about how it's going to look it turns out to be one of my favorite cards!  I must take note as this is a lesson to be learned.

Products used:

My own stash

Twine

Making Memories Slice

Happy Valentines Day Card

This card I made for my parents.  I did some fussy cutting to cut the flowers and picture frame from the Dear Lizzy and Sassafrass paper.  Then I added some twine and put a few pieces from my stash together.

Products used:

Studio Calico Daydream Believer Kit

-Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Delightful Bouquet

-Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Happy Horizon

-Sassafras exclusive paper

Twine

XO card

My last card was made for my youngest sister.  I had some pre-cut hearts and kraft circle to add to the delightful Dear Lizzy papers from my kit.  I also added the Pink Paislee Mist-ables banner and some twine.

Products used:

Studio Calico Daydream Believer Kit

Pebbles Hip Hip Hooray Yay

Pebbles Hip Hip Hooray Happy Day

Pink Paislee Mistables trim

Dear Lizzy Tiny Alpha

Twine

Scraps from my stash

Making Memories Slice

No, I did not forget about my wonderful hubby.  I am working on something for him but I cannot reveal it just yet.  But I'm super excited about it.

I'm having a lot of fun playing with this kit from Studio Calico.  Here's a sneak of a layout I'm working on. {The photos have been "instagramed".  I'm so excited to finally be able to jump on the bandwagon!}

Studio Calico Daydream Believer kit layout

Studio Calico Daydream Believer kit layout

I will post the finished product soon!  I'm very excited about it.

The Card Kitchen Kit Club

Recent Kit

Features

Have you see this card kit club, The Card Kitchen?  I just came across it when I was browsing the Jillibean Soup blog, Bean Talk.  They even send you ideas and instructions for making 8 cards!  This might just be the next club I subscribe to.  There are so many out there it's hard to choose!  What are your favorite scrapbook kit clubs?

xo,


Jocelyn

My Little Paris book

Where was this before we went?  This book looks super cute.  And it's something we could have used while frolicking the streets of Paris.  We got lost a couple of times, but we found our way!  And I cannot tell you how hard it was finding a restaurant that was different from all the others.  {I am not complaining, trust me}.

 
My Little Paris presents its book from mylittle on Vimeo.


Make sure you check out this website for more tips if you ever go to Paris!

xo,

Jocelyn

2012 Winter CHA Must Haves

As some of you may know, the winter CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) has just ended and there was a tremendous amount of simply delectable new lines from our favorite scrapbook lines.  I cannot wait to get my hands on some of these. {For those of you who don't know what the CHA show is, it's a bi-annual craft show where all scrapbook companies, big and small, have booths to display their newest product lines for retailers to come and look at}.

Here is Crate Paper's Storyteller collection.  These delicious goodies would be perfect for creating layouts of our first year together.  We just had our 1 year anniversary {January 22nd baby!} and I've been collecting photos from our first year to make an album.

Crate Paper's Storyteller Collection

I just love the subtle colors of this American Crafts Dear Lizzy line, Neapolitan.  This line makes me wish Mr. Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow so spring could come 6 weeks earlier! 

Paper

American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan 

Embellishments

American Crafts Dear Lizzy, Neapolitan

I ADORE this paper from Studio Calico's new line, Take Note.  Such a great mix of patterns and colors.  Can't wait to get my hands on them!

Studio Calico, Take Note paper

And look at these fun butterfly stickers!

Studio Calico, Take Note butterfly stickers

These are just a few of my favorites.  Of course, I would love a little bit of everything.  But I don't think my bank account {or my hubby} would be too happy about that.

xo,

Jocelyn

Studio Calico February Kit

I am so excited that I have finally decided to start a membership with Studio Calico and receive their monthly kits.

Studio Calico kit - Daydream Believer

Studio Calico kit - Daydream Believer

This is their February kit called Daydream Believer.  You can choose to buy their kits with a 6 month membership or you can just buy them monthly but then you aren't guaranteed to get your little hands on one because they run out so fast!

I am so anxious to find this sweet package waiting for me on my doorstep and to get started with some layouts.  Here are a few examples I found from the Studio Calico website that I just adore.

By Susan Weinroth

By April Foster

By Kelly Purkey

By Dawn McVey

As you can tell there are some lovely things in this kit and I can't wait to get my hands on it!  All you non scrapbookers, I know you're judging me right now.  But you just don't understand the excitement!  When you have a whole room dedicated to scrapbooking and you get to fill it with all the newest trends and trinkets, it's so...FUN!  For lack of a better word.

Also, make sure you check out the Studio Calico blog.  It's loaded with sketches, tutorials,  and more fantastic layouts.  They seem to have a really awesome community so I'm excited to be a part of it.  

xo,

Jocelyn

A Paris Video

Up at 5 am this morning.  This jet lag has really got me.   So here I am reminiscing about Paris. {It is 2 in the afternoon there right now ya know.  We would be sitting in an outdoor café under a heat lamp, watching the Parisian's hustle by while sipping on une demi pichet de vin with our croque monsieur.  Trés délicieux.}


Here's a reminiscent video of Paris.  Do I want to be there right now?  Nah.  I'm pretty tired.  But that doesn't mean I don't want to close my eyes and imagine we are there.  Here.  We.  Go.

EF - Live The Language - Paris from Albin Holmqvist on Vimeo.

Some of you may remember this video from this post.  Way back when Paris was only a consideration not yet an actual realization.  I'm so glad we went.

xo,

Jocelyn

Blogs, Scrapbooking, and Jet Lag

After a beautiful, and romantic week in the ever enchanting Paris {my dream destination ever since I studied French in high school} today we are enjoying a much deserved and needed veg-out day.  Oh yes. We are spending the day in the couch, resting our ever tired feet and legs.  More about our fabulous trip later.

Today I am enjoying some of my favorite blogland reads and finds while my husband plays games on his phone with Harry Potter in the background {don't make fun, we're Potter heads}.

Here are some things I'm looking at today.

source:  It's Me, KP blog

Some scrapbook inspiration.  I love this layout.  I really need to get back into this.

Studio Calico Daydream Believer kit

And by "getting back into this" I mean getting a scrapbook kit subscription to help get my inspiration bubbles flowing {don't ask me what that means. it just seemed like the right description in my head}.  My favorite?  Studio Calico, like the one above.  Haven't quite taken the plunge to committing to a kit for at least 6 months or so.

source:  Annmarie Loves Paper blog

I am really inspired by this Project Life scrapbook idea.  The idea is to take pictures and document every week in 2012.  Well, I don't know about you but my life isn't exciting enough to document every week and keeping it interesting.  But I still like the idea of documenting major to semi-major things that happen within the year.  Maybe doing it in a way that's a little less constricting {the above one uses specific journal cards and page protectors}.  Hmmm...now THIS might be the perfect thing to get me back into scrapbooking and journaling {and for organizing my need for hoarding all movie stubs, tickets, and basically anything having to do with proving our life really isn't all that boring - because it's ours}.

source: Two Peas in a Bucket

I so want this retro blue smash book.  What a great way to keep track of all your favorite things.  Maybe this could be my keeper of the Project Life scrapbook?

source: The Beauty Department blog

In the honor of all things random, I came across this little tutorial on StumbleUpon.  Must give it a try {though I'm not sure my hair is thick enough}.

source:  Dear Lizzy blog

I just love the styling in this photo.

source:  The Daybook Blog

And of course I caught up on one of my fav blogs, The Daybook Blog.  It cannot be helped.

Now that the day is practically over and I've spent most of it on the computer catching up in blogland and gaining scrapbook inspiration, I'm too tired {and jet lagged} to pursue anything.  Plus my two kitties are snuggling me on opposite sides sound asleep making me lazy.  Please tell me this happens to you too.  "Uh oh, my cat is on my lap.  Guess I can't do anything."  ha!

xo,

Jocelyn

Countdown to Paris: Part Deux

source:  Haute Design
Louvre

Planning our journey.  I found this list which includes a woman's essentials for a perfectly planned trip.  From necessities to the just-in-case.  AND it's pretty to look at.  Bonus!  Did you know there are YouTube video's on how to fold your clothes for packing?  Yeah.  Who knew.

A few things are a must in Paris.  Here's our unplanned itinerary {remember, taking it as it comes}.

Cannot wait to stand here.

source:  Pinterest

And here {top of Notre Dame}.

source:  House of Bliss

And here {top of Tour d'Eiffel}.

source:  French Teacher

And the rest...no words can describe.  So I won't use them.

source:  Paris Perfect
Notre Dame

source:  Pinterest
Versailles

source:  Bella Illusione
Louvre

I must find where this shop is.  Repetto's ballet flats are inspired by demi-point ballet shoes.  The designer, Rose Repetto created her first ballet flats in 1956 in her studio at Rue de la Paix.  Inspired by the elegance of a ballerina.

source:  Haute Design

Don't these look scrumptious?  Can't wait to try these macaroons.  Everything tastes better in France, doesn't it?

source:  Pinterest

There's going to be a lot of this:

source:  Pinterest

And a lot of this:

source:  Marina Milojkovic

Plenty of this:

source:  God I Love Paris

And this.  

source:  Paris Apartment

This will probably be us but I don't care.

source:  Pinterest

I really want to try this.

source:  Kiss my Spatula

I plan to bring a travel journal and document everything.  We are well equipped with a camera and video camera.  Paris, nous voici!

source: This is Glamorous

Adieu!

xo,


Jocelyn