Minibook Monday// NYC the Final Chapter

So we are at the end of the NYC Minibook! I cannot express how much fun I had making this book. Going through all of the photos that were taken that weekend and reliving the memories was great. Having Berkeley around while making this book really helped. He had little tidbits to add in here and there as well. Right now, I am having trouble finding a naturally lit space to take photos of my books in right now, so I apologize for any weird colorings/blurriness of the pages.
These two photos were shared with me from other guests at the wedding. Both came with the different color filters on them. I love that they were so different yet still the same. On the left in sepia is the flower girl beginning her timid walk down the aisle. I love the "Behind-the-Scenes" feel of the maids of honor in the hall behind her. On the right is a black and white of MJ being walked down the aisle. I had these processed through Shutterfly as 4X6 and just added them in.
Another photo grid on the left and a full page photo on the right. All of these are from the ceremony.
As the ceremony ended, we got two of my favorite shots. I scaled them to roughly 2X3 and in a similar manner as the photogrids. I used the same creamy background color. The other side of the spread is another journaling page using the same Bazzil Basics cardstock and gold gel pen.
That journal page, and the rest throughout the book are double sided. I broke up the ceremony and reception with glittery accent page.
The left page is just another 4X6 and it faces another layout with the lyrics of important songs from the weekend in the background.
More photos from reception. It was a great reception!
More reception photos! These are from the latter end of the evening.

I made a pocket and placed our return flight boarding passes in there. I sealed it up with the dark brown glitter tape.
The last of the journaling on the same paper, with the same pen.
And the back cover. Again, adhesive cork covered with a decorative paper.

The whole book can be viewed here.

Now that this book is done, I have a few more I will be working on in the coming weeks. I also need to post the last of the summer book (slacker!). Later this week, there will be some fun stuff posted! Yay! Don't forget about taking a look at the Ornament Exchange.

As always, all products and services I talk about on my blog are presented with my honest opinion. I am not paid for my review of these products or companies and was not compensated in any way to give the reviews I provide. The mentions I give are presented solely on a informational basis and my personal preference.

Minibook Monday// NYC pt 3

Round 3 of the NYC Minibook updates which is on a Tuesday, Yay! Speeding up the unveiling. The next couple posts will be bulkier with all of the pictures of the ceremony and reception. Hopefully, the following week I will have another book to start sharing my progress on. Like always, don't hesitate to ask any questions about the book or my process.

Day two of sightseeing started with Rockefeller Center then walked down 5th Ave and then to Grand Central. Along the way we stopped at Theodore Roosevelt's Birthplace. The main photos were used as a grid. I used a pocket page to hold a map of everywhere we visited that day.
The other side of the pocket holds additional photos from the day. I used a gold metallic Recollections opaque scrapbooking pen for the writing next to each photo. The opposite page was a last minute add with part of the informational booklet from TR's birthplace.
The backside of the timeline and a journaling page. Same gel pen and brown cardstock as the other journal pages.
Again, I backed the journal page with the accent paper. Opposite of it is the invitation for the wedding.
The back of the invitation is a photo grid with the images from before the wedding started, including us ladies getting ready. More journaling including a section about how I could not hail a cab if my life depended on it!
Instead of adding the accent paper like all the other journaling pages, I made a double sided page. Opposite of it is a grid using pictures of the bride (photo credit Erin). Just like the grid in the first NYC post, I added lyrics to the background. The lyrics this time were from the song she walked down the aisle to. I ove the quality of these Shutterfly prints so much! I highly recommend their print services if you have a lot of pictures to process!

The whole book can be viewed here.


As always, all products and services I talk about on my blog are presented with my honest opinion. I am not paid for my review of these products or companies and was not compensated in any way to give the reviews I provide. The mentions I give are presented solely on a informational basis and my personal preference.

Minibook Monday//NYC pt 2

So a lot of these pages are the same style using some of the same complementary papers. So I am not really gonna spend a lot time on the details.
The back of the journal page for Friday travels was backed with another paper that fit in with the overall color palette . The paper is another piece I found in Open Stock at Michaels. Facing it is another postcard type piece from MJ's invitation suite. The front shows the sign/logo for the restaurant which hosted the rehearsal dinner.

The back of the postcard has the details of the rehearsal and dinner. Opposite is a grid of photos from the dinner.
Another photo grid faces the menu options from the dinner.
The menu was backed with the accent paper and faces another pocket style page. This page was made using plastic scrapbooking page protectors. When they sent out the Save the Dates, they sent out an additional one to wedding party and close family for the rehearsal dinner, The Golden Ticket! I also dumped some glitter in there too!
Back of the ticket is just golden cardstock. Opposite is just a 4X6 from that night!
On the back is another 4X6 full page photo (photo credit Erin) and another page of journaling.

The whole book can be viewed here.


As always, all products and services I talk about on my blog are presented with my honest opinion. I am not paid for my review of these products or companies and was not compensated in any way to give the reviews I provide. The mentions I give are presented solely on a informational basis and my personal preference.

Minibook Monday// NYC pt 1

While my printer has been down and out, I have had to put the Summer Minibook on the back burner. I have all the pages planned, I just have to get it finished! Once I set the final date for the Summer book I started in on a minibook for our trip to New York City in December. Before I get into the meat of the post, I do want to send out a huge Thank You to those we met in NYC that shared their photos with us including Allison P., Blake B., Natasha B., and Erin M!

For this project, I started from scratch. I tried to pick out papers that matched the overall colors of the wedding. Once I had a color palette in mind, I worked on the pages with multiple pictures on them. Then I picked out the full 4X6 page pictures. I uploaded all the image files into Shutterfly and had them shipped for less than $5 and they turned out great.

My local Michaels doesn't carry plain pieces of chipboard so I used thin sheets of cork I found in the Open Stock paper area. The back was adhesive so I lined the covers with a patterned paper matching the color scheme. I used a scrap of that paper for the front label along with gold alpha stickers.
Part of the paper suite for the wedding invitation, there was a map and accommodations list. I trimmed the top "Welcome to New York City" header off and added it with roller adhesive to the inside cover. The RSVP was a vintage style postcard that I just put right in without altering.
On the back of the post card, I added the itinerary for the weekend. Facing it is the map. Plain and simple. To jazz it up, I rounded the corners.
Facing the back of the map, I added a photo page from out first night in the city. This page was made using the same methods as my Photoshop photo grids inspired by Elise's video. To incorporate other details, I added in the lyrics of a song that fit the feeling of that night.
The back of the photo grid is another photo from the night as well. It is of a whole group of us on the escalator going up to the subway platform (photo credit Erin). Facing that page is just a dark brown piece of Bazzil cardstock with journaling from the day. I used a gold acid free gel pen. On the top I just used an office date stamp and gold ink.
Friday Dec 17, we did a quick tour around the lower part of Manhattan including Battery Park, St Paul's Churchyard and Ground Zero. I used a another photogrid for the page. Opposite is a pocket style page. I added 2 of our many MetroCards as well as some small images from the day. For these pocket pages, I used clear plastic used for cardmaking. The open edges were closed with Recollections brand glitter tape!
The other side of the pocket page allows you to still see the images from the grid page while reading the journaling from the day's events. This page just documents the touristy side of that day. Same paper and same pen as the other journal page.
The whole book can be viewed here.


As always, all products and services I talk about on my blog are presented with my honest opinion. I am not paid for my review of these products or companies and was not compensated in any way to give the reviews I provide. The mentions I give are presented solely on a informational basis and my personal preference.

Wedding Food and Swag

Being a part of the wedding party allowed me to experience and acquire some awesome stuff. Honestly, I felt like a VIP or celebrity the whole time we were there. We had dinner some really delicious places, fancy and casual.

The first place we ate out at while there was Sal's in Little Italy. We originally only wanted slices, but we stepped into this place and decided to sit. The place was small and quaint. It was a family run operation. After being served drinks, we ordered a baked sausage and pepper filled calzone. This thing was huge and stuffed with cheesy, sausage goodness!

I have never ever eaten a calzone as good as this thing was. The other option for their calzones was deep fried!! I hope the next time we are in NYC I have the opportunity to enjoy the deep fried deliciousness. The last calzone I had before this was nothing compared to Sal's! The difference is in the ingredients. They were fresh and tasted amazing! Nothing will ever compare.

Later that night we ate at Gemma which is attached to The Bowery Hotel on the East Side of Manhattan. The food had an Italian flair to it. The restaurant had a great ambiance and the service was great. They were very accommodating to our huge party. The beautiful table setting was my favorite.

We were served a full dinner with each course having two options. My dinner included a Burrata caprese starter, a watercress salad, chicken entree and an apple crostata with oil olive gelato. Everything was super delicious!

The Burrata Caprese was a no brainer for me. I love that combination of tomato, mozzarella cheese, basil and olive oil. The cheese was perfectly balanced with the acids and saltiness of the tomatoes. The watercress salad was pretty lousy. It was mixture of watercress, pear, almond and Gorgonzola, but was lacking something and I regretted ordering it. As lousy as it was, it wasn't the worst salad ever.

The "Pollo al Mattone" entree was superb. It was "Amish organic chicken" served with roasted potatoes, cipollini onions and frisee/curly endive. The skin of the chicken was crisp but the meat was tender and moist. The roasted vegetables were a nice compliment to the chicken. The apple tart crostata was amazing. The olive oil gelato went perfectly to the whole meal and rounded out the experience.

Let's get to the free stuff. On to the swag! Besides all the gifts I was given previous to the wedding, we got some cool stuff while in NYC too! At the rehearsal dinner, the attendants and family of the bride and groom were given little paper sacks of coffee beans from Little Amps in Harrisburg, PA. I am not the biggest coffee groupie so I figured this would be a gift for BK. One of the first mornings we were back he ground and brewed some. Oh boy was it delicious! I am not one for strong dark coffee and usually I need a few spoonfuls of sugar and a nice pour of milk or creamer to get my coffee just right. Not this time. The roast and brew were amazing. I do admit I added a touch of both sugar and milk but nothing compared to the norm. This stuff is so good, I am even thinking about signing up for their coffee subscription. The other take home item was the actual wedding favors: D.L. Jardine's Texas Champagne Cayenne Pepper sauce. We have yet to taste it, but I hear it is a must have at every dinner table in TX!

There is a small run down of most of the worthwhile foodie experiences during our short trip to NYC. We plan on going back in the next year or so. That means more reviews and pictures!

Year End Wrapup

On our 100 published post, I am gonna do an overview of our year ending activities, projects and stuff we have been too busy to talk about lately. And I think we are gonna try to tackle this chronologically. So buckle up and hold on while we get through as much as possible.

At the beginning of December I had a few different projects going on. The biggest one which I really started in November. It was a picture frame specially made for Elly Johnson. The background is white with different colored polka dots to match the letters I made earlier this year. I put her whole name, birthdate, weight and length on it.

I personally think it turned out great and I am very proud of myself. I only hope Elly and her parents love it as much as I do. To the right is a small peek at the finished frame. I also managed to hand sew some letters from a geometric patterned fabric onto a fleece blanket I found months back. I won't get into all the boring details here but maybe over at the Nine14 Design blog since those details are more suited there.

On December 3rd was BK's birthday. We tried a new place we hadn't tried before with his parents. Criollo is one of the places on my Bucket List and is quite the swanky little joint with really great prices. I'll probably do a complete review for the FBL later this week! After lunch we had a party and I got to meet BK's "sister". It was a great night altogether.

BK's birthday was shared with a baby shower for some close friends from church. They have a daughter already and have some things so the biggest thing they wanted was diapers and wipes. So I took the opportunity to make a diaper cake. And for those readers that don't know, it is a cake shaped structure made from rolled up diapers.

I based my design off of the Alphamom tutorial and decorated with dark chocolate brown and olive hue ribbons instead of the typical choice of receiving blankets. This helped because they wanted more gender neutral colors. I ended up using a felt owl that I made myself to finish the whole thing.

After the craziness of BK's birthday, Christmas card making was in full swing. And at the very last minute I decided we needed to order those Shutterfly prints. That pushed the mailing of our cards back to after the NYC trip because there was so much that needed to be done. I managed to pack everything and get my siblings presents made and get everything together during finals. I was going a bit mad, but I managed it all even a small assortment of Christmas decorating.

The NYC trip and the week before Christmas were such a blur. I cannot believe it is already almost New Year's Eve! I am working on a Flickr set with all of the photos we got from our trip. I wish I could have spent more time in New York City, but I am glad we didn't get stuck in the storms while trying to fly back. For anyone that has family stuck somewhere away from loved ones my thoughts go out to them for a safe arrival back to where they need to be.

Well, I think that about sums up all that we have been doing the past month. More details coming as soon as I have more time to sit down and write!

On the Right Track and Keeping Pace

Back in late June and early July, I came up with a to-do list for the rest of the year. I am happy to note that out of the original 16 items on there, I have 100% completed 7 of them. I know it is less than half, but I think what I have done is pretty awesome for being low on cash and busy in class.

Most of the remaining items are long term reminders and goals. If you haven't noticed, I started my Noshing on Nachos project (see post below). I also have nailed down the plane tickets and hotel reservations for the New York City trip in Dec. Now I just need to figure out how to make it out there in Oct. for the bachelorette debauchery!

Our trip plans are as follows:

12/16/2010
	8:10 AM	Flight	Arrive in NYC at 4:55 pm
12/17/2010
	4:00 PM	Rehearsal	Bowery Hotel, NYC
	5:00 PM	Dinner	Bowery Hotel, NYC
	7:30 PM	Cocktail Party	Downtown Galway Hooker
12/18/2010
	7:30 PM	Arrive	Bowery Hotel, NYC
	8:30 PM	Wedding Ceremony
12/19/2010
	7:50 AM	Flight	Arrive in Tucson at 1:16 pm

If you notice there are huge blocks of time to do a little bit of exploring. I plan on doing some general walking around. I don't need to do a million different things. I do think we will go to the Museum of Natural History and Central Park on Friday. Depending on time restrictions we may even head to Battery Park, the Empire State Building and Times Square.

Overall, it has been a busy few weeks since school started. I am really trying to stay caught up with everything in my life but graduation is in May, so I really need to buckle down. Fingers crossed I can do it all.

Apple Brown Betty

So after posting my initial jewelry entry, I had overwhelming response over the Apple Brown Betty necklace from All Things Tinsel on etsy.com. The shop owner creates all the pieces using vintage materials. Everything on her site is just absolutely beautiful!

This specific piece has soft antique golden grosgrain ribbon woven with roughly 5 different kinds of chain including, double link bronze, gold bar, dainty gold and dainty copper curb chain. This twisted mess of chains and ribbon is adorned with pearls of all different sizes and glass beads. This whole thing is finished off with a rhinestone brooch.

At first, I was a little apprehensive about it. All these twisted/cluster pieces are becoming really popular but a lot of them just look poorly put together. I didn't want to pay out the money for a piece that was gaudy. On top of it all, I am very simplistic person. My jewelry from day to day mainly consists of a diamond and silver band my mom gave me. Very rarely, I will throw on a pair of earrings too.

So all of these layered chains, wrapped in ribbon and embellished with beads and pearls was pushing my limit. There was just something about it that really was peeking my interest. Something just pulling at me. But not just me, MJ and her mother but loved it too! So I gave in to buying it, and Mama Shari decided she wanted to purchase it for me (thanks a million!!). A few days later, whether it be anxiety or excitement, I had a weird pit in my stomach over the necklace. I checked with the seller and the address was wrong on the package. And the necklace was on its way to Texas!

This delay led me to think a million different things before actually getting to see it! First, I was thinking that it was a sign. The necklace was getting delivered to someone else because it wasn't the right thing for me. Then from there, I started thinking all sorts of things. In a matter of five days, i had worked myself into a frenzy over this dang thing. Then it arrived.

I opened the mailbox and my heart skipped a beat. This was it. I opened the package, untied the ribbon and unfolded the tissue paper holding the necklace. The weight of it allowed the whole necklace just slip from the last tissue paper fold and I was left with this amazing golden piece of art in my hands. I don't know if it was the anticipation of the delivery or the anxiety and fear of it not being right, but it was like I was floating upon looking at it. I had flutters. I was jumping inside.

This necklace is absolutely one of the prettiest things I have seen! It was what love at first sight probably feels like. The colors and adornments just meld together and give off this warm, golden, luxurious aura to it. I hope I feel this in love over something at first sight when my children are born!

Jewelry!

This is a post dedicated to the pretty things in life. The sparkly, shiny, pretty things that make all girls like birds! Cuz ya know, birds like shiny, sparkly things. This is like a wish list of jewelry that I mostly am considering for the wedding!

Bracelets
from Stella & Dot

• Soiree Pearl Pave Bracelets
• Grace Pearl Bauble Bracelet
• Heirloom Deco Bracelet
  

from etsy
I love this one shop called "All Things Tinsel". Her jewelry is all handmade and one of a kind. She made everything from vintage pieces during pregnancy.

• Sparkly Blue Billows Cuffs
  
• Navy Seal Cuff Bracelet
• Golden Girls Green Team Paisley Party
  

Other etsy.com stuff

• Pearl of Great Price Bracelet
• Bird Branch Bracelet
• Smoke and Pearls
  

Necklaces
all things tinsel

• Apple Brown Betty

other etsy.com stuff

• OtherFlower Pendant with Ivory Pearls
• Floating Pearls
• Sunny Necklace