Just because it is cute

Sometimes I like to just play around with some of my favorite products.  Just because.  So here is a list of my favorite things:

Pretty printed paper bags

Turquoise

Glassine bags

Colored (and white!) shipping tags

Aqua

Doilies

Washi tape

Clips

Twine

Wood Veneer Shapes

Pink

Mix them all together and Voila!!

So much fun.  And so darn cute!!


What are your favorite go-to products?


Have a beautiful day,
Stacey

O Tiny Christmas Tree! O Tiny Christmas Tree!

Seeing as I rarely post to this blog (are you all super sad?), I decided to show you a little project for Christmas time.  Something in advance!  woot.

For starters, this is a simple little project using just a few items/tools:

• gold thread
• a Tim Holz bottle brush tree (comes in a pack of 5)
• Heidi Swapp Gold Lame' Color Shine (I am almost OUT!! yikes!)
• a handful of Freckled Fawn wood veneer star-ish shapes
• hot glue gun (and glue)
• a cardboard box

Start Here. :)

I started out by spray painting the wood veneer star shapes. (NOTE: I ended up needing 50% more than are pictured here.) I usually put a scratch paper in an old Studio Calico box. The pizza box style is great to catch the over-spray, and compact enough to close up and put out of sight when done.

A couple squirts was enough.  I just pushed them around to cover on both sides.

This Color Shine is seriously amazing. The goldey-shiney-sparkley goodness is unattainable in photographic form!

 I then hot glued the little stars along a length of gold thread.  Word to the wiser-than-me: don't squeeze a crap-ton of boiling hot glue onto your fingertips and scream like a little girl.  I'm sure you wouldn't anyway, but take it easy out there.  I spaced them approximately (because I did NOT measure) 1/2 inch apart.

 Now, I am not one to brag - but I am a genius.  The little tree kept falling over.  They are made out of whisps of the wind or something.  So - BAM! - my genius thought hits me: "Stacey, use those removable Glue Dots that you have never used and are entirely useless for nearly* everything else you do!" So I applied on to the tree "trunk" and it worked! It really did! It stayed standing!

(*note: to be fair to the otherwise lovely Glue Dot Corporation, once I used these particular Glue Dots to hold an envelope closed so I could open it again)

 Look how cute this tiny little garland turned out! Gold. Bam! Instant awesomeness.
I also glued one of the stars to the top.  Every tree needs a topper.  Amiright?!

String the little garland around your tree, and voila!  So beautiful and simple.  AND GOLD.  I'm dreaming of a white (and GOLD) christmas.


Just add Frankincense and Myrrh.


Much love and cheer,
Stacey

This is a scrapbooking process post

Sorry to all you multitude of blog readers who check in to read all about my emotional waxing of poetic verbiage regarding my life, God, and other random thoughts.

This blog post is only scrapbooking.

Last month I took these photos with my cell phone as I went through the steps to complete this scrapbook page about my son's birthday:  

As you can see, I started with a sketch.  This particular one was from a blog post from Studio Calico.  On the left you see my stack of photos with the sketch, and on the right my completed page.

And, now for the excitement!  The process is simple:

1. I cropped my three photos to the same size (3.3x4.5) down from the standard 4x6.

2. I trimmed my white cardstock down 1/2 inch on two sides.  This creates a nice frame to show on the background orange cardstock.

3. I laid out my photos and measured where I wanted my title to go.  

4.  I cut out my son's name with my Silhouette Cameo. 

5. I backed all my photos with a different pattered paper - leaving a very thin border.

6.  I decided to back my die-cut title with various patterned papers.  So I trimmed small rectangles out and glued them to the back of the die-cut white cardstock.

7.  Here is how it looks from the front - with the photos adhered also.

8. I adhered small foam Thickers to the title by first sticking them to a ruler.  Then I moved the ruler (with the stickers on it) around to decide where I wanted them.  Once I was happy, I carefully stuck the top half of the Thickers in place and peeled away the ruler.  A super easy and great way to get placement right.

9.  Lastly I added three shipping tags to the top of the layout.  When I trimmed the excess off, I reverse mirrored them along the bottom.  This continues to draw the eye down the page, past the title, then photos, and to the journaling.


So that's how I went from sketch to completed page:



Easy, Peasy, Lemon Squeezie!


Have a lovely day,
Stacey

Is it JULY 20th yet?

Bass Lake

I want to go to there.

Only 30 more days.


Aaahhhh,
S-Dub

Project Life: April

Yay!

More documentation of my "mundane" life :)

I just got off the phone with my friend - my BFF from high school.  What a great moment to hear her voice after such a long time!  She & I haven't spoken in who-knows-how-long, but we just picked right up where we left off.  

Do you have a relationship like that?  Someone who may be far away (physically or situationally) and yet near and dear to your heart forever?  I am so grateful I have a few ladies in my life like that.  

My Project Life album is documenting these amazing blessings that are my women friends.  Clearly I NEED them in my life, and I appreciate them soooo much!  Although my daily life is focused on my kids and making them my priority - it is important to me to make personal connections with my friends.  That is truly what I am all about. 

In Week 14 I was so super duper excited to celebrate my other bosom buddy: Marisol!  What a joy it was to watch her lovely smile as she excitedly anticipated her upcoming wedding at her bridal shower.

In Week 15 I was so happy to celebrate my friend Kelli's birthday by throwing her a  little dinner at our house.  She is wonderful.

In Week 16 my AMAZING friend/cousin took my kids for the week of spring break so I could work (training some swimming instructors).  She is a gift to me!  Then we got to Easter plan and shop and talk and drink and laugh and play and hang out, too!!

In Week 17 I got to spend a little adult time with my homegirls Liz & Yvonne.  We shopped and day-drank.  How great is that?!

In Week 18 I spent one afternoon (National Scrapbook Day, People!) with my crafty friends Christina & Marty.  We mostly ate and talked, and why shouldn't we?


As you can see, I love people.  I am blessed beyond measure with enough food, shelter and clothing.  But I am especially blessed by the friendships and the real connections we can make through them.  You want to talk makeup and clothes? - I'm probably not your gal.  You want to talk deep thoughts, longings, childhoods, and joys?  - Oh, heck yes.


Loving reality,
Stacey

Deep Thoughts, by Stacey Wilson

My last blog post left me feeling a little bit of a liar.

Like I am actually all peppy and excited about stuff that is annoying.

And, let me tell you, I am NOT.

Which is why I am trying to change that part of me: the whining, complaining, angry-at-everything part of me.  It is why I have challenged myself to write down 1,000 things I am grateful for in 2014.  Sometimes I think it is helping.  Sometimes, not so much.

But I wanted to be clear:  I AM NOT THAT SWEET.

Here in Internetland, there is much fantasy.  Not as much reality.  I saw a commercial tonight where a mom is away on business and Skyping with her husband and kids back home.  They are all like, "yup, we're good.  Totally took baths and ate dinner" with a spotless backdrop.  She says goodnight, screen goes dark, and then we see the full pan of the filthy spaghetti-slung nasty kitchen: but they had wiped one square of the wall clean.

THAT is what Instagram is.  And Facebook.  And pretty much everything that we want to project to others even in "real" life.

And it is totally ok.  It is ok to be proud of the one clean room in your house, fo sho.  It is also ok to admit that the other nasty dirty rooms are stressing you out.  Or your functioning brain cells vs. your non-funcioning ones.  Or your career vs. your mommy guilt.  Or a multitude of other things that are shiny on one side and corroded on the other.

It. Is. OK.

Lest you believe that I have no dirty/stressful/non-functioning/guilt/corroded parts, I have an embarrassing story to share...


It all began the day before my dear friend was to get married.

(to protect the innocent, all names have been changed)

We are all checked in to this adorably newly decorated Inn.  My husband & I get dressed for the rehearsal, and walk out into the beautifully lit by the late afternoon sun lobby.  I introduce myself to another couple that is there, along with some I've already met.  Then my husband says, "can I see you in the room for a second".

awkward.

He then lets me know that my dress is completely see-through.  CRAP!  What the heck do I do?  I have no slip, no other undergarment options at all.

"Use mine", he says.

"I've been wearing them all day."

awkward.

But I do.  His saggy man-boxer-brief-shorts style chonies.

Under my silk dress.

Here I am just laughing away during the hotel happy hour with the Bride-to-be.

"Oh, hahaha" Yes, I am sooo relaxed.  

(IS EVERYONE LOOKING AT MY BUTT?)

Later, waiting outside the church.  I am trying to hide in the back.

Because, IS EVERYONE LOOKING AT MY BUTT?

Of course, during the rehearsal, I practice walking down the aisle.  

SEVERAL TIMES.  

(IS EVERYONE LOOKING AT MY BUTT?)

And, check out the static cling on that flipping dress!  What.  The.  HECK.

All night, I was tugging, shuffling, moving out of eyesight as best as possible.  Readjusting the suuuuper uncomfortable man underwear with certain bulging parts construction, you know.  Steve Erkel style was my waistband.  Somehow my butt was trying to eat the back of the dress all night.  

So..

Embarassing..

My only consolation is that I'm sure that no one was looking at my butt.  They were looking at the beautifully blushing bride, handsome groom, and practicing diligently walking down the aisle themselves.  Totally not my butt.

RIGHT?!

Please say right,

Stacey

Project Life: March

When I began 2014 with the goal of scrapbooking in the form of Project life, I had no idea that I would actually like it!  It gives me a creative outlet while documenting what some might consider the mundane parts of our lives.  

But I LIVE in the mundane, people!

The most trying, frustrating, absolute-insanity-making moments of my life are rather mundane.

"get dressed"

"get dressed"

"get DRESSED"

"GET DRESSED!!!!!"

You know those moments?  The I-am-trying-to-get-these-little-people-to-follow-my-directions moments?  

Some of my most beautiful, lovely, tear-inducing moments are also mundane.

"You are the best mommy in the world"
(spoken when they aren't even asking for ice cream)

Watching one jump higher, read stronger, play with an imagination that is so out-of-this-world awesome - this is pure beauty.

And THAT is why I scrapbook anyway.  To leave a mark in this world that we were here, dangit!

We matter.

They matter.

You matter.

{Writing the word matter a bunch of times looks weird.  It sounds weird in my head, too. }

And that matters, too.

Nothing is really mundane.  It is just part of my story.  My average, run-of-the-mill, so-so, bench-ridin', hold the hot sauce, kind of story.

And it is beautiful.

So is yours.


Fondly,
Stacey