i ♥

dare 179 is up and it is a easy and fun one! simply take a photo(s) of the things you love. it is a given that I love love love s2 but I also love a lot of other things in life. the above are a sample of such. these are a few of my current loves dujour! can't wait to see what your loves are!! check back with the dares weekly, we have some very fun things planned!!

ps, i have a giveaway (priority box full) of goodies to share with someone (US only). my space was OOC!!! I tidied up over the weekend so that means someone will get some treasure!  leave  a comment below and I will pick a winner on friday.  
sorry a picture isn't attached but good stuff included a few pieces partially used but the majority is super new stuff!!
happy wednesday!!
xo

mind the gap ♥ reveal

Mind the Gap is LIVE and it is gorgeous, love the color combo of this kit so much and the SC exclusive pattern paper is one of my all time favorite SC exclusive kit papers! Time wasn't on my side this month, wanted to make more layouts but hoping to bang out another one with this pinterest challenge via the SC message board!  OK, so here are my layouts, make sure you check out the rest of the gallery too!

I picked up addon one (knickers) and  addon three (pint)  this month and pretty much mixed up with the main again this month. It seems I am always drawn to the same numbered kits every month, lol, Also love these smash pins (so hoarding the few I have), can't believe the number border stamp is still in the shop (I have to refrain from using it all of the time)!!!

I love how s2 love eating at new places just as much as my sister and me do. My sister said recently that we are going to have a foodie summer so it prompted me to make this layout to documents some of most recent food encounters and as well as ones from last year. I mixed up bluegrass and clover mister hueys on the layout, love the two colors together. I also partial stamped and embossed the chevron background stamp with charcoal and grapefruit zing.

You know I love my circle cutter, so I added my favorite pattern papers in this kit with our pictures from our first Nats game ever! We had so much fun and can't wait to go to more games.

We were talking about our vacation to AZ last June a few weeks ago and I decided to scrap this photo us Synai and I at the Grand Canyon, it was so gorgeous there. I makes me happy to hear them still talk about the canyon and their favorite parts of our visit. Lots of paint , cut out the diamond of the exclusive stamp from the main kit and embossed it and of course  mist (clover) again.
My layouts are pretty simple this month, but I love the photos, that is how I build most of my layouts around the photos. 

have a great day and check back tomorrow for a giveaway!
xo

a good laugh

LOVed the spoof from the bet awards last night!! OMFG, so so funny and i love tami from basketball wives. great monday laugh! :)
xo

off duty: san francisco edition

I really had a fantastic time with my mom as we trekked around the bay area before my cousin's wedding last weekend. I hope my next trip will be a lot longer, i love cali!!

We love to eat and SFO,just opened their new terminal which is filled with good eats! First stop off the plane was Napa Farm Market, had the muffaletta! It was delish but I still want one from NOLA! :)

warning: this is a very photo heavy post! :) bless your hearts if you make it to the end but if I don't put them up now I never will, so here we go!
and speaking of hearts, bless my mom's because I made to sure to give her my camera to take my photo on several occasions, she was a very good sport. Since we were still on east coast time, we are up and out of the hotel every morning exploring Old Oakland and drinking lots and lots of coffee. The weather was unseasonable cool and being we had just left the heat locker east coast, it felt very cold to us.

I love how everyone is so friendly and kind on the west coast, one of the baristas at Peets told us about the ferry, so we had to go and check out the details and schedule. I was sold the first moment it hit my ears, I love traveling by water! These fire boats were docked nearby, loved the reflection and colors mixed with the shipping containers in the background.


Luckily for us there was a friday farmer's market right behind our hotel, it was so fantastic. We picked up some fresh fruit and I took photos of course. I love the abundance of gorgeous flowers available and for so cheap and don't get be started on the variety, so jelly of you west coasters! I love our markets too but the prices are higher of course.

proof of our coffee consumption: caramel latte


our view of Alcatraz from the ferry, even at a far away distance it looked haunting to me.


docked at pier 41 and immediately started searching for some lunch! :) Crabs are not my favorite seafood but these looked yummy at one of the seafood stands!


We had the best fish (haddock) and chips at sally's famous fishwich! It was a giant piece of fish, the photo makes it look small, good thing we had walked up an appetite!


I really loved all of the street performers too, live music, dancing, acrobatics but this guy asked me for a pic, lol.


Loved traveling to downtown San Francisco via cable car, our driver had jokes for days for tourist. We did a little bit of shopping and headed back to Oakland.


Saturday morning we took the BART up to UC, the campus is huge! Berkeley has a totally different vibe and so gorgeous, I liked it there!


Of course I had to introduce mommy to in-n-out, we took the BART and the bus to Pinole, it was worth the trip. her verdict: better than five guys, what?! I didn't agree with her there but now that I think about it in-n-out burgers are very similar to shack shake burgers; i like shack shake more because of their peanut butter milkshake,nom nom!


The reason we went to ca was for my cousin's wedding. It was so nice and she was the happiest bride I've ever seen. She laughed down the isle, when she was in front of him and during different parts of their vows. It was so sweet and the day couldn't have been more perfect!

loved her shoes and he had spurs on the back of his!

love the colors of their wedding, very tropical and gorgeous!!

and basically that is my trip!! Thank you for reading and I hope you are enjoying your wednesday!
xo

sun so bright...

i'm back, busy editing photos, working and getting back into the swing of things after vacation... you know how it goes! sunnies are one of my major weakness and these karen walker beauties have been on my list for months now.  be back tomorrow with a massive photo post!! five days 'til true blood FINALLY, it is almost time guys!!
xo

windows+ veneer

products used:wood veneer-frames; wood-veneer-stars; mister huey's ink (bluegrass); mister huey's ink (hot dog); crountyside harvest paper; countryside tags
happy friday, hope you are having an amazing one!! I have a tutorial up  on the studio calico blog using wood veneers and overlays. I love them both so the two together seemed a perfect fit! To see the entire process and how-to click on the above link!
xo

packedandready.com

My mommy and me are off to san francisco and I am finally packed and ready to go, we are flying out for a family wedding. It is one of my favorite cities, i totally adore it and can't wait to explore it again with her.  She and my daddy used to leave there before B and me were born.

Some of my favorite things I am taking for the journey ( and the leopard acquisitions continues, love!) and some new babbles. I am really into plastic rings now and these two are my new loves. Have a great week and I hope to have lots of photos to share upon my return.
xo

because of

products used: Wood Veneer Hearts; Clover Mister Huey's Ink; Statefair Sideshow paper; Guess Your Weight paper; Chipboard Alpha Stickers
yep, the dares are back after a crafty hiatus and we are back with a BANG! all of us were so inspired by our guest-April Foster!  My layout is about s2 daddy:without e, there would be no s2, so for that I am grateful even though we didn't work out; I have the two most perfect gifts from our relationship.

love what my girls created with studio calico goods and you have a chance to win too, go check out dare 178, what you waiting for?! :)
xo

off duty

happy monday!! We had a great weekend, the weather was great, had some great food and hung out with friends. We attended a graduation brunch yesterday, I am always amazed at how fast my children are growing but it seems like my friends' kids are growing even faster, maybe because I don't see them everyday?! But it is a two way street because they say the same thing about s2! What I wore to brunch in top two pics, had a smoothie explosion which mandated a top change; B and me finally checked out shake shack|dc, it was amazing love the indoor factor of our location. PLUS, they have the best peanut butter milkshake ever, nom nom!!

we have lots of stuff planned this week, nationals game tomorrow with s2, quick trip to San Francisco with my mommy, more scraps to share and a short work week. hello almost summer I am loving you already!
xo

ps, who esle is devastated over game of thrones last night?! oh my heart, i love NED! :(

sweet treats

Thank you all for the sweet comments on my mini, I have a couple more pages done, while I was home alone over the weekend. I have two more sets to share later this week. On Sunday, me and B went to check out Buzz Bakery in Old Towne, it has a lot of hype on yelp, but we weren't impressed. Their cupcakes basically tasted like bland cornbread, blah...don't let the pretty photos fool you, my sister had the red velvet one. The petite cheesecakes looked yummy from the counter, thank goodness we didn't sample one!



I love planting a garden and flowers every spring, Synai is always excited to help and be my little assistant. Yes, you see pink crocs (thanks to Heidi Swapp back in the day,damn lol), I wear them for gardening now !!

On the clear layer I added lots of layers and stamped the photo strip stamp on a clear overlay as another layer and added some of my favorite Studio Calico products: Calico White Mister Huey, Bonny Blue Mister Huey, Betsy paper. butterfly rubons (will never tire of woodgrain), weekday rubon (love this font) and statefair chipboard alpha. I am in love with this Basic Grey mini alpha, I want them to make this font in every color!


I had to add a small page about my newest pair of shoes,yeah hi I am vee and I am addicted to platform heels  and our city as well.:) Love living here in the dmv- so much to see and do on the daily!
yawn,....i need a nap!
xo

chicken wire stamp winner

True Random Number Result: 27
Patty said...
Lovely:) And thank you for the chance to win it Vee!!!

9:56 PM

send me your info, congrats!! 

up for grabs!

happy saturday, I have a fun giveaway!! love this stamp? ;)
now is your chance to win a new one! leave a comment below and I will pick one winner randomly on Monday! giveaway is open to everyone. :)
Good luck, and happy weekend!
xo

our life mini

happy friday y'all! I am so looking forward to the next two days off, even though this was a four day work week! I plan on having a nice relaxing first weekend of June with just myself and my sister. s2 are going to see their grandma lois for the weekend wit their daddy. Finally able to scan/photo some pages from my our life minibook made almost exclusively with the paper moon kit (hambly not from the kit). I have a not of photos that I "think" will not work for certain layouts but for sure need some lovin' too, these are those photos. Some are being rescrapped because I adore them and others are just snippets of our life together. I love looking at our everyday moments that we are building into a lifetime of memories.
I sewed together all of the jillibean folders in countdown as the pages of the mini and added clear overlays on each page to stretch the foundation of the mini to hold more photos.





I hope you have a wonderful weekend! xo

midweek fog

what day is it again, hump day already???...yay!!! Love a four day work week, who doesn't?! :) I had a nice chill holiday weekend. We had a BBQ snafu, family had a cookout but my mommy got the day wrong but it was all good because I was just as content playing and cooking with these two. :) s2 playing a little b.ball on saturday before the heat wave ensued, it's nasty hot right now in the dmv, thinking a trip to the beach is needed asap!



and i scrapped, added more pages in the minibook I made with the paper moon kit. Lots of clear elements in it-2fold pages=LOVE it. It is a mini filled with bits of us, thoughts,misc photos that really don't look great alone, but together tell a story (like the infinite amount of food pics on my phone, finally put to good use! :)  I can't wait to finish making it tonight!

The  second piece is a quick sneak at a page I made, but can't share yet, i am really loving coral lately AND at odds with my typewriter. I changed the ribbon ages ago but it slips out of the brackets so it is a battle to use it lately and I miss typed elements on my pages, :(!
xo
ps, giveaways will be posted as soon as i get the ok :)
pps, my reality slor-isms knows no bounds, will be watching paris' new show tonight on oxygen, after all she is the celeb reality originator! :)