Blogapalooza with Chic Tags!



Hello & welcome to our April #SMBiGblog hop! Each month we feature one of our favorite companies, and host a blog hop of inspiration, showing off the products and our designers, as well as a guest from the company. THIS month, we were lucky enough to have the entire Chic Tags team join us for a BLOGAPALOOZA-- over 20 projects to inspire you to get those Road Trip goodies out & start creating! Travel along with us, starting at the Chic Tags blog, here. Along the way, there are plenty of prizes and freebies-- Die cuts, printables and chances to win some of your favorite Road Trip paper goods, and one GRAND prize winner of the Road Trip, Everyday Life II & Birthday Wishes collection!!!! Good luck, and happy hopping! If you would like to purchase some of these adorable products, head on over to the Chic Tags website!

I was blown away by the generousity of Chic Tags!  We got tons of goodies to play with, so I was excited to find a project that would feature as many of these great products as I could!  I decided the slightly muted colors of the Road Trip collection would go perfectly with photos from my childhood.  I went to my mom's house where I searched through years of photos to find some I wanted to feature in a mini album.  I decided on photos from a road trip we took to Colorado in 1985 when I was six. 

First of all, I must give a shout out to my Mom:

Look at her journaling!  She would label every photo she had printed (even the bad ones) with location, people and date!  I remember her sitting at her desk some afternoons working on this project for hours!  It was time consuming, but I'm glad she did it!  It certainly helped me to fill in the gaps in my memory when creating this mini album!  Thanks, Mom!!

I was inspired by one of Caz's sneaks of her project on instagram.  She created an album by simply stitching her paper down the middle.  Well, my sewing machine is new (to me- it is actually pretty old), and I couldn't remember how to thread it.  I decided to just hand stitch my pages together. 



 Once the album was assembled, it was time to record the memories I had.  I will let the photos speak for themselves:

(You can thank my dog, Emma, for the photo bomb!)

Thank you for looking!  I loved working with all the beautiful Chic Tag goodies!  Remember, to keep hopping through the blogs because there are prizes you can win!  Continue with the hop by going to Jen's blog where she has some prizes just for you!

Enjoy the many projects and may the scraping-force be with you as you sign up for those prizes!!

Bad Blogger! Bad!!

Oh, this blog has been calling me for weeks, but I just couldn't find the time!  It has been crazy!  So, just like all my previous posts, I will be catching you up!  Hahaha!!  Be ready for picture heavy craziness.  Are you ready to go?? :)
 
First of all, I DID finish the 30 Days of Lists challenge!  I also finished it. . . . .drum roll, please. . . .in SEPTEMBER!  Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Think Kermit dancing!)  If you know me, you'll realize that me finishing something on time (well, something crafty) is a strange thing!  I was determined to finish in September.  I got behind, but I also got caught up!  It just makes me happy! 
 
** No worries if you missed the September edition of 30 days of lists.  If I understand correctly, it should be back in March! 
 
Ok, here are a few of my favorite lists from the second half of the month:

List 19: Events I'd like to attend:

List 23: My Current Favorites:

List 27: The Bravest things I've done:

 
List 28: Little Joys in my Life:

 The 30 Days of Lists was a lot of fun!  It was neat to record a snippet of my life in lists! Plus, it will be a fun way to look back!  Next time, I think I will make it a little easier to complete.  I plan to just do a little journal or Moleskine notebook with maybe a picture and a simple hand written list.  Nothing fancy and no pages to make.  However, in doing this challenge and mini-album, I allowed myself to use whatever supplies I had in my stash.  It helped me to see great uses for the items I had in my scrapbooking stash.  I think it safe to say that I know have a new-found love for letter stickers and their versatility!  LOVE them!  Hee hee.

In addition to the 30 days of lists, the end of September held other exciting things including the DallasChocolate.org's Chocolate Conference and Festival!  My boss at Sublime Chocolate allowed me to help with our booth.  It was so much fun, but it was so crazy!  There were an enormous amount of people there.  By the end of the day, my throat was sore, and I was exhausted.  It was a great experience, though!

 
We made so many chocolates for this event.  We brought three truffles, and we made around 700 of each kind.  Plus, we brought a traditional Aztec-style hot chocolate (made with cocoa, water, lavender, chili peppers, and honey- spicy, but tasty!!), chocolate covered dates stuffed with an almond and a pistachio, and our Melange which is a layer or dark chocolate and toasted coconut, a layer of milk chocolate with pistachios and a white chocolate lattice on top!  People streamed by our tables all day!  When we had a few minutes, each of us got to walk around and see the other chocolatiers and chocolate makers and try their products!  It was fun, but by the end of the day, I was completely chocolated-out!  Yep, me! 

October came, and I can hardly believe it is nearly half over. Can you? Where has this year gone???  With the new month, came my awesome loot from the Studio Calico Swap Your Stash swap!  I was paired with Nicole (gothamgirl).  (Ironically, Nicole and I knew each other from 2Peas!)  She was so very generous!!!  Look at what I got!!!

 
This picture is just cute.  One of my dogs, Emma, is my Parrot-Dog because she likes to sit on my shoulder.  I finally got a good picture of her and I with my phone!

The Texas State Fair is one of the things that Hubby and I do together every year!  It is just something we love to do.  Eat and enjoy the sites and sounds plus spending the day together.  This year, we tried Fried Somoas!  Yeah, you know, the Girl Scout Cookie??  They were fantastic!  Look: 

 While we were at the Fair, we looked at all the people selling their products.  While we were walking through a tent, we saw a lady demonstrating this little guy.

She drug the stick (in his mouth) across the scales on his back and them tapped his forehead.  It made the sound of a frog.  It was so awesome.  I had to stop.  I tried all the different ones she had out.  I decided I had to take one home.  Hey, he's an instrument!  (For those of you who don't know, I'm a musician.  I have always loved instruments.  I always buy fun ones along with traditional ones.  I hate to see neglected instruments, and I always take them home.)  Naturally, this guy had to come home with me!  Love him!

October 6 was World Cardmaking Day!  Studio Calico had challenges on their blog (which you can still participate in until October 15!)  I created two cards.  I hope to get a couple more done, but I don't know when I'll have time.  Here are my first attempts!
 

 

The next picture is just one I had to share.   Hubby and I were playing bowling on the Wii.  I was laughing at his posture.  He would roll the ball and then hold the pose.  Funny, huh?

 
Here is a quick look at the Washi tape I got from Rosalie in the Studio Calico Washi Tape swap!  Aren't they the coolest!  I LOVE washi!

 

One last thing that happened at work yesterday. Troy and Sublime Chocolate were filmed for an episode of Storage Wars Texas. Apparently, a spray rig with a little chocolate in it was found in a storage locker.  They contacted Troy to have him talk about it.  They came to the shop yesterday to film.  They were there for about 3 hours for what will be a 3 minute clip!  Crazy, huh??  Oh, to quench your excitement, I will not be in the episode.  They asked us workers to stay as much out of sight as we could.  However, it was still very exciting.  The episode will air in January, so keep and eye out!

 

 This is Troy, Bubba, and Ricky in front of our store (and the store next door!)!

 

 

Thanks for sticking with me. . .even though I'm a bad blogger! ;)

August Recap

Hello again!  I'm back with a monthly recap for you!  I got this idea from Kristin at Rukristin Papercrafts.  Every month, she does a recap and provided links like in her August reacp here. 

This is my first recap, and it is fun to see what you did in the last 30 days.  Plus, it will be neat to go back and look at in a year or two.  I encourage everyone to play along.  If you do, leave a link in the comments and also let me know what things I should do this month! :)

In August I. . .

Ate
Fried pickles at Hooters
"Jahiem Special"- a special margarita made a local Mexican Resturant
Swiss Mushroom Bacon Meatloaf
Pepperjack and Spinach Stuffed Cajun Chicken Breasts

Watched/ Saw
Season of the Witch
Serlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Footloose
Hop
A Blue Moon (8/31/12)

Made/Did
Many cards (see here, here, and here)
Two Mini-albums (1 and 2)
LOTS of chocolate
Ice Cream without supervision at Sublime Chocolate
Learned how to run the new soundboard at church

Hooked on
Studio Calico
Instagram (follow me "krisstarfish")
Rita's Ice-Custard Happines!

Fall is coming!  I hope everyone enjoys the coming months that bring cooler temps, pumpkin-everything, and pretty natural colors!!

New things this week!

Hi!  I'm back to bring you up-to-date on my adventures! :)  I've been busy this week.  I've made all kinds of new things from food to another mini-album!  I LOVE being creative!!!

 

First of all, I joined 30 days of Lists!  It is too late to join now, but in case you are curious, visit their website: http://30daysoflists.com/  Daily, they post prompts, and the partipants make lists from that prompt!  I am an avid list maker.  It is the only way I can get things done!  I had to join this.  For this project, I created a small mini-album to house the lists I make. 

 

I used up some of my old/hoarded supplies.  I wanted to use some of my favorite patterned papers, so I could enjoy them instead of keeping them hidden in my closet!  For the cover, I used supplies mostly from Studio Calico's Summer of '69 kit add-on called Six String.  I had a blast making the cover!  Plus, I discovered that Scrapbooking Flair is AWESOME!  I'm so in love.  I've even found some on Etsy, that I really want to purchase!  (Check out AFlairforButtons on Etsy!)
 

At home, it is just my husband and myself along with three crazy dogs.  I usually make dinner because I'm home earlier.  Well, I get tired of the 'same old thing', so I get new recipes off Pinterest.  You can follow me here if you need some ideas!   I have so many recipes to try, so I experiement with a few a week when we can afford it!  This week I tried two receipes: Swiss Mushroom Bacon Meatloaf and Pepperjack and Spinach stuffed Cajun Chicken Breasts! 
 
The Swiss Mushroom Bacon Meatloaf was AMAZING!

I am NOT a big meatloaf fan, but mu husband is!  I usually just make it for him with the McCormick's seasoning packet.  However, when I saw this recipe, I knew we had to try it.  How can you go wrong with Swiss cheese, bacon, and mushrooms??? It was the BEST. MEATLOAF. EVER!!!!!  I'm not lying!  Try it and see.  I don't think I will ever make any other meatloaf EVER again! 

 

The Pepperjack and Spinach stuffed Cajun Chicken breasts were quite good, too!  They were a pill to put together, but otherwise, very tasty!!

Try them and see!  They were worth it!  We had them with rice pilaf and carrots. 

 

One more thing: Today, being September 1 (can you believe it??), kicked off the 30 Days of Lists.  The prompted was "I am a lister because. . ."  I shortened it to "I am a lister. . ."  Here is my page (through an Instagram filter!):



Masculine Travel Mini-album

Hi all!  I just wanted to post this masculine mini-album I did for my pastor.  I wanted him to have somewhere to record his travels should he even go on missionary trips or traveling as an evangelist!  I gave it to him today.  He really liked it!  I do, too!

Please excuse the not-quite-straight photos.  I was photographing this before work one day!!  I used a lot of supplies I had on hand, so some of them are OLD!  Most of the patterned papers are Paper Studio except for the cover- that's Karen Foster Designs from 2005!  Haha!!  Stamps are Stampabilities, Tim Holtz, Stampin Up, Making Memories, 7Gypsies, and probably some others I've forgotten.  I used so many embellishments.  Washi is from Le Box Boutique on Etsy.  

Thank you for looking!