Today I’m sharing two pages I scraplifted from Lexi Bridges using Studio Calico’s Penny Arcade kits.  As soon as I saw Lexi’s sneak peek for her Pineapple Whip page, I knew I wanted to lift it.  I had pictures from my recent trip to Hawaii that were perfect for this layout and was so excited when I saw her page.  So I waited for my kits to arrive and began recreating her layout.  I painted the pineapples about a week ago and then saw that Lexi recently posted a tutorial on how she created them on her blog here if you want to check it out.  I finally finished the layout last night so I thought I’d post it here as part of my series of 40 Pages.

The second layout is also a lift of one of Lexi’s pages.  I thought it was so cool how she cut out the clouds with the Silhouette and then had the patterned cloud paper peek through the back.  Plus, it was a good opportunity to use my sewing machine again since I loved all of the stitched touches she included.  The photo here is another one from Hawaii but this one is from a previous trip back in 2011.  The stamp from this month’s Studio Calico kit (“The Sky’s The Limit”) worked perfectly with my photo and overall I’m really happy with this layout.  It’s probably the first time I’ve used so many techniques on one page!  (Die cutting, stamping, sewing, watercolors and printables.)  I think that’s definitely a record for me!

Thank you, Lexi, for the amazing inspiration and for motivating me to use so many techniques on my pages!  So glad to see you back at Studio Calico sharing your work each month!  🙂

Week 17 was the week after my trips to Rome and Hawaii…back to the real world again!  Not too many photos this week so I mixed a few everyday photos with shots of some fun creative attempts.  It was also the week Studio Calico launched their new home page and I was so excited to see my photo included along with many of the other SC members.

For this spread, I used cards from my Studio Calico kits as well as the Maggie Holmes project life kit.  As always, if you have any questions, please ask in the comments.  Thanks for stopping by!  🙂

I love when you visit a new place and they have cool and unique places to eat.  That’s just what we found when we visited Seaside, Florida last month.  Lots of food trucks and cute little local restaurants.  I used to be afraid to eat at food trucks in the past but have recently discovered that in many cities, the food from food trucks is fantastic!  Sometimes they’re even a permanent fixture in certain towns like they are in Seaside.

When we arrived, we were starving and decided to try out one of the trucks in the town square.  We chose The Meltdown on 30A which is basically a grilled cheese food truck with lots of unique varieties.  Look how cute this place is:

And here’s a look at the menu.  Lots of fun varieties to choose from!

I chose the Classic American Grilled Cheese (I figured I should start with their main staple) and my husband Dhimant chose the Smokin’ Turkey.  Talk about lots of oozing, gooey cheese!  Check it out:

Both were delicious!  Next time we’re in the area, I think I’d like to try something a little more unique like the Strawberry Goat Forever or the Red, White & Blue.  They looked awesome!  If you’re ever in Seaside, stop by and check out The Meltdown on 30A for a fun, quick meal!  🙂

Last month, we took a little road trip to visit my sister-in-law in Alabama.  On the way, we decided to make a weekend pitstop in the panhandle of Florida.  We had never been there before and I wanted to check it out.  It’s a bit of a ride from Tampa (almost 7 hours) but this was the perfect opportunity to go since we were driving to Alabama anyway and it was only about an hour and a half out of the way.

We stayed in Fort Walton Beach but the real reason for heading out that way was because I wanted to go to Seaside, Florida.  I read about it online and it looked like such a cute place to visit.  It’s also where the movie The Truman Show was filmed.  We drove there from our hotel and spent an afternoon checking it out.  It was such a fun little beach town and I loved how quaint and idyllic it was.  The iconic Seaside tower served as the entryway to the beach and spectacular blue-green ocean so I couldn’t resist getting a photo of it:

Seaside has a little town square in the center where all of the shops and restaurants are located.  There’s even a street full of food trucks that were awesome!  I’ll share more on one of the places we ate in a post tomorrow.  There was also a little area called the Seaside Transit Authority where they rent bikes so you can ride around the town.  And, Seaside has it’s own post office that’s probably the cutest post office I’ve ever seen!  Surrounding the town square are tons of beautiful cottages where people were hanging out on their decks and balconies and enjoying the scene.  If I had to do it again, I would love to stay in one of those cottages but I think many of them are better suited for more than 2 people.  It would be a fun place to go with some friends or family to enjoy a beach week or weekend.

Here are some snapshots of our afternoon in Seaside:

Overall, I loved Seaside.  A quaint little place that wasn’t as commercialized as many of the other beach towns we visited in the panhandle.  Such a great place to just relax, eat fun food and enjoy the beach!

Happy Monday!  Hope you all had a great weekend!  This will likely be my last Project Life “catch up” post and from here on out I’ll be posting individual weeks as I complete them (I’m really far behind but that’s ok!).  This post is going to be a bit long because I did a lot of travel during these weeks so I’ve added inserts to accommodate all the photos I took.  I’m still contemplating doing separate mini books for these trips but for now, I’ve got them documented in this album and that makes me super happy!

Let’s start with Week 13:

Week 14 included our big trip to Rome:

Week 15 was the second part of our Rome trip and the beginning of a trip to Hawaii with my Dad:

Week 16 was the rest of my trip to Hawaii:

April was such a fantastic month!  Lots of amazing adventures with the people I love.  I’m so thankful and couldn’t ask for anything more!  🙂

Happy 4th of July!  For those of you in the US, hope you are enjoying the long weekend!  I’m back today with another Project Life “catch-up” post.  Here are Weeks 9 – 12.  As always, if you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section and I’ll be sure to get back to you.  Enjoy!  🙂

Week 9 is the first week this year that I included an insert:

Week 10:

Week 11:

Week 12:

Looking for a new recipe to take to a BBQ this weekend?  If you like avocados, Ina Garten’s Guacamole Salad is great!  I initially discovered this recipe when an old friend posted a picture of it on Facebook years ago.  She said it was really good and then another person I know commented that she loved it too.  So, I looked up the recipe and gave it a try.  It was so good that I’ve made it many more times over the years.  I think it was probably the first Ina Garten recipe I tried and I’ve since become a fan of hers!

Last weekend we were invited to a BBQ at a friend’s place so I decided to take this salad.  I followed Ina’s recipe and it came out perfect!  Everyone loved it and there were no leftovers.  Always a good sign in my book!  I even took a photo so I could share it with you here on the blog:

This recipe has avocados, tomatoes, yellow peppers, red onion, black beans and a light, fresh dressing that’s super tasty.  You can eat this salad on it’s own, as a side dish or with tortilla chips.  I love chips so that’s my favorite method!  It’s really yummy and healthy so if you’re interested in trying it out, here’s a link to the recipe:

Ina Garten’s Guacamole Salad

Hope you have a great long weekend!  🙂

It was a sad day in the scrapbooking industry last week when Two Peas in a Bucket announced the closing of their site.  I’ll be honest when I say that I was completely shocked.  I guess I thought TwoPeas would be around forever.  After all, they were a pioneer in the industry.  They created a huge community and connected many like-minded crafters throughout the world.  I can’t remember exactly how I initially found TwoPeas but the minute I did, it opened my eyes to a whole world I never knew existed.

Growing up, I always loved to take pictures, save them in albums, collect bits and pieces from my travels and adventures and sometimes even put them in a book.  I remember putting together my first real scrapbook after my Sweet 16 (photos stuck on white pages of a beautiful book with little captions written underneath).  When I moved to Florida after getting married at the end of 2005, I wanted to create a scrapbook of the new life I was creating with my husband but wasn’t sure where to start.  I was also looking for ways to meet new people and noticed a local scrapbook shop in my area so I decided to take a class and the rest is history.  I eventually discovered other local scrapbook stores, the huge scrapbooking community that exists online and was introduced to so many talented people and amazing techniques.  I’ve taken many online classes and made several new friends.  I found not just a hobby but a passion.  I love it, it keeps me busy and I’m rarely ever bored.

I say all this to get to the real point of this post which is that it’s really sad to see an icon in the industry cease to exist.  Last week, I pulled a screenshot of my TwoPeas profile page to keep as a memento.  It’s a little piece of my history and I wanted to save it here:

I also took a little trip down memory lane and found the first layout I posted in my TwoPeas gallery which is also the first layout I ever made:

So many great memories!  Thank you, TwoPeas, for the many years of fun products, inspiration, education and community!  And thank you for opening my eyes to the amazing world of scrapbooking!  🙂

I’m back with another Project Life “catch-up” post today.  Here are Weeks 5 – 8.  I love this project so much and am so happy to have all of these ordinary daily memories documented.  I think it’ll be really cool to look back on these albums years from now and that makes all the effort worth it.  Hope you have a fantastic weekend and I’ll be back next week!  🙂

I’m back today with another layout in my series of “40 Pages”.  As I’ve mentioned before, I love scraplifting and am continuing my #scrapliftingmarathon this year.  The page below is a lift of the talented Allison Waken using the Studio Calico Bluegrass Farm kit.  I love how Allison used a “summery” kit for her winter layout and immediately thought of a photo I wanted to scrap that would be perfect for her design.  I love how she used several layers behind her photo and I tried to mimic the same.  Layering doesn’t come naturally to me but I love the effect when it’s done.

The photo I used of me, my husband and my Dad was taken last December at a holiday party hosted by one of my favorite stores, Nordstrom.  I thought it was so much fun that they had a little “photo opp” area set up with props and all!  It’s like they knew a scrapbooker was going to attend and had everything all ready for me!  We had my Dad sit in the chair with Santa’s beard and then stood behind him as his little elf and reindeer.  Love how the photo turned out and so happy to have it documented here.

Thank you, Allison, for the awesome inspiration and for creating such a fun layout!  🙂