Welcome to the first of my 2014 Project Life “catch-up” posts!  Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting all of my 2014 weekly spreads that I have completed to date.  Now that I have a blog, I thought it would be nice to house them here so that I’ll be able to look back on them in the future.  Since we’re half way through the year, I have a lot of catching up to do so I’ll be sharing multiple weeks at at time until I’m current.  Here are Weeks 1 through 4:

I pretty much use the same format each week:  Design A page protector, Ali Edwards digital brushes with the week number and then a whole bunch of cards that go with my photos for the week.  I embellish a little bit here and there, print my journaling and then call it done.  Some weeks I’m more ambitious than others and include a lot of digital brushes on my photos.  When I’m in a hurry or just trying to catch up, I just print the photos after a little editing and move forward with my process.

If you have any questions about my process or any of the products I use, please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.  Thanks so much and hope you’ll continue to join me on my Project Life journey!  🙂

 

A couple of weeks ago I shared a bit about our recent trip to Rome.  In addition to the tours we signed up for in Rome, we also signed up for a small group day trip from Rome to the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii.  It was a really long day since we were picked up at our hotel at 7am, returned after 9pm and spent over 6 hours in a minivan but it was totally worth it!  We saw some picturesque, quaint little towns and were amazed by the ruins of Pompeii that still stand today.  Below are some of my favorite photos from the day.

The Amalfi Coast (Amalfi and Positano):

While we made several photo stops along the Amalfi Coast, our first real stop was in the cute town of Amalfi.  The little limoncello shop was my favorite and I loved all the lemons we saw everywhere.  Later in the day we stopped in Positano for lunch and it was even more beautiful than I expected.  Isn’t it amazing how they built this colorful town into the side of a mountain?

Pompeii:

Pompeii is an ancient city that was buried under volcanic ash for hundreds of years after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  It’s amazing how they discovered this city and how much is still in tact.  As soon as we arrived, it started pouring rain so the pictures are a little gray but we were fortunate that it stopped raining just as our guide was ready to begin our walking tour.

I still can’t believe that all of the above was covered under ash for so many years!  It was fun to learn the history and hear stories about what took place throughout the city.

Overall, it was an awesome day trip and I’m so happy we got to see such a beautiful part of the world!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I’ll be back tomorrow with the first 4 weeks of my 2014 Project Life album if you’d like to check them out!  🙂

 

Hi there!  I’m still here.  The past couple of weeks have been hectic.  We went on a little road trip (which I’ll share later) and last week I had gall bladder surgery so I’m slowly recovering.  I haven’t been able to post as often as I’d like but I’m getting a little better each day and hope to post more regularly.

In addition to my 4 series of 40, I’m also going to share my Project Life album here on the blog.  Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be doing several “catch-up” posts so I can house all of my weekly spreads here.  Up until now, I’ve been posting them on Instagram but now that I have this  blog, I’d like to have them here so I can look back at them in the future.  Once I get the first part of the year posted, I’ll continue to share future pages as I complete them.

Today I’m sharing the title page of my 2014 album.  It’s very simple but I love how it turned out.  The photos were taken at the end of last year during a trip to Asheville, NC and the filler cards are from Caylee Grey, Studio Calico, and the Midnight Edition of Project Life.  Thanks for stopping by!  🙂

Last week I shared how I store my embellishments in my Alex drawers from Ikea.  Today, I thought I’d share how I store my punches.  I love seeing little bits of people’s scrapbook spaces in “Workspace Wednesday” posts around the internet so I thought I’d participate too!

My punches are also stored in my Alex drawers.  Two drawers are dedicated to punches and I love that they’re easily accessible and I can grab one whenever I need one for a project.

I’ll admit that I haven’t been using my punches as much lately since I often use my Silhouette Cameo electronic die cutting machine but I still love these punches and think they are really versatile and can be used on many projects!  So there you have it – my punch storage!  How do you store yours?

I love to see other people’s scrapbook rooms and how they organize their supplies.  I actually love seeing anything organized and dream of my entire house being perfectly organized.  I’m not sure if that will ever happen but I try to work on organizing little bits of my home whenever inspiration strikes.  I love getting ideas online via blogs and Pinterest and finding new ways to organize my scrapbook supplies.  After seeing the Alex drawers in a few crafty spaces online, I knew they would be perfect in my scrapbook room.  These drawers hold a ton of stuff and they also serve as the perfect stand for my printer.

Today, I thought I’d share a peek inside two of the drawers as the first post in my series of 40 PEEKS.  Over time, I’ll share the rest but here are the top two that hold many of my scrapbook embellishments:

As you can see, these hold mostly die-cuts, flair and other random embellishments organized in clear trays I found at Target.  I love that I can see everything and have them all easily accessible.  I’ve found that if I leave these types of embellishments in their original packaging in a drawer or in a basket, I don’t  remember what I have and don’t end up using them.  Since moving these items into these drawers, I find that I reach for them more often and love this method of storage.  It’s pretty, neat, clean and functional!

(If you’re interested, the trays in the drawers above can be found in the closet organizing section at Target.  They are 3 compartment trays and I have 5 trays in each of the drawers above.)

How do you store your embellishments?  I’m always looking for new ideas and would love to hear yours!  🙂

I love to scraplift!  I love finding scrapbooking inspiration online and then recreating the same or similar layout for myself.  It’s a great way to use my supplies and I almost always end up with a layout I love.  As many of you know, last year I started a #scrapliftingmarathon as a way to get more layouts done and use my ever growing stash.  I’m excited to continue it this year and share my finished pages here.

Today I’m sharing the first layout in my series of 40 PAGES.  To go along with the “Rome” theme this week, I used a photo that was taken in one of Rome’s Metro stations.  I absolutely LOVED this tile wall as soon as I saw it and, of course, it was the perfect photo op.  It’s so much fun to visit new cities and find surprises like this one in the most random places.

 

This layout is one I scraplifted from the super talented Kelly Purkey.  It was the first layout she shared in her most recent Sketchbook class over at Studio Calico and I knew I wanted to lift it as soon as I saw it.  Her class was awesome and there are tons of sketches I want to use so I’m sure you’ll see more layouts based on her class here on the blog.  Thanks so much for the inspiration, Kelly!  🙂

Yesterday, I shared a little bit about our experience in Rome and today I’m going to kick-off my 40 EATS series with a fun food experience we had while touring Rome.  After several hours at the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica, we were starving and asked our tour guide if he had any recommendations in the area.  Since we were in a really “touristy” area, most of the good restaurants were further away so we were hoping to find something decent close by.  The tour guide mentioned a little pizza place that he said was really good but he didn’t know the name of the place (which we thought was really strange!).  We followed his directions on how to get there and found this cute little hole-in-the-wall place that was packed with people.  We walked up a few steps and were greeted by someone behind a long counter.  We placed our order and they cut the pizza into rectangular pieces and then sold it to us by weight.  It was super cheap and absolutely delicious!

The place didn’t have anywhere to sit so we joined the rest of the crowd and sat on the steps or stood outside to eat.  While we were standing around, we looked up and saw the sign that said “Pizza al Taglio” and thought “oh, that must be the name of the place”.  As we made our way back to our hotel, we saw other places also called “Pizza al Taglio” and for a few minutes wondered if it was a chain.  Later that night, I was reading through one of our Rome guide books and learned that “Pizza al Taglio” means “pizza by the slice”.  My husband and I both started laughing since we were obviously so clueless and finally understood why our tour guide didn’t know the name of the place!

If you’re ever in Rome in the vicinity of the Vatican, you should definitely try out this hidden little gem.  When you exit St. Peter’s Basilica into Piazza San Pietro, walk to your left and through the large columns.  Then walk straight and turn right at the fourth street.  There will be a free-standing news stand on the corner.   Walk a few feet and you’ll see the little “Pizza al Taglio” storefront on the right!

Thank you for all the sweet comments on my first blog post!  Welcome to the first post in my series of 40 PLACES.  To celebrate my 40th birthday, my husband took me to Rome and it was awesome!  We actually went before my birthday and flew to Rome the first week of April – the perfect time of year!  It was my husband’s first time there and my second.  (However, my first time was part of a whirlwind “backpacking around Europe” adventure right after college so this was definitely a different experience!)  We took off from Tampa and flew through Newark to get to Rome.  We arrived early the following morning and spent most of our first day getting acclimated and rested.  And then the fun began!

The Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica

We signed up for a couple of “skip the line” tours prior to our arrival in Rome and I’m so happy we did.  When we arrived at the Vatican, I was floored by how many people were waiting in line to get in.  We would have been waiting for hours!  With the tour, we met our group and got right in.  The Vatican Museum was beautiful with such amazing works of art and the Sistine Chapel was spectacular to see in person.  Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the Sistine Chapel so I don’t have anything to share but I’ll tell you it’s definitely a site to see!  After spending some time in the Sistine Chapel, we were taken into St. Peter’s Basilica which was another grand experience.  I don’t have the best photos from inside since it was quite dark but I think you can get a sense of what it’s like based on the photos below.

The Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain

I loved that our hotel was in walking distance from the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain.  It was so much fun to wander and watch the hundreds of tourists visiting these landmarks.  One of the funniest things I saw was the number of people taking “selfies” at the Trevi Fountain.  I wish I took a picture of it because it was hilarious!  There were tourists from all over the world – all taking selfies!  I even offered to take a photo for one couple and they said “no thank you” because they wanted to take a selfie instead!  Too funny!

The Colosseum

The Colosseum was another place where we opted for a “skip the line” tour.  The tour was awesome because we got so much detailed information about the history, what took place inside and lots of stories and tidbits about life at that time.  It’s amazing that so much of this structure is still in tact and it’s even more amazing to imagine what it was like to attend an event at the Colosseum based on the stories told.

I have hundreds and hundreds of photos from our trip but just chose a few to share here to document the highlights of our journey.  We also went on a day trip to the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii during this vacation and I’ll be sharing that with all of you soon.  And, make sure you come back tomorrow for my first edition of “40 EATS” – Roman style!

Hello and welcome to my blog! Today is my 40th birthday (yes, I’m 40!) and I decided to start a blog that celebrates my past, present and future. Over the next year, I’ll be sharing the following 4 series of 40 to commemorate this milestone in my life.

40 places | I love to travel and have been fortunate throughout my lifetime to visit many fun places. I’ll be sharing pictures and stories from 40 places I’ve visited over the years. There will definitely be some “vintage” photos from my childhood and I really think this will be a fun trip down memory lane. Of course, as I go on new adventures, I’ll include them as well.

40 eats | Who doesn’t love to eat?! I’ve been to some fun restaurants and made some yummy recipes and I’ll be sharing them here. The restaurants will include anything notable from our travels as well as a few local ones here in the Tampa area. Recipes will be some of my tried and true favorites, Pinterest finds or anything else I come across that’s worth sharing!

40 pages | I love to scrapbook and started a #scrapliftingmarathon last year to use up my never ending stash. I will continue to make more pages this year and will use this space to share layouts I’ve scraplifted, layouts created from online class inspiration, layouts from sketches and maybe even a few designs of my own!

40 peeks | I read tons of blogs regularly and it’s always nice to get a little peek into other people’s lives. In this series, I’ll be sharing little peeks into my heart and home. Special stories, peeks into my scrapbook room, organizing projects (I’m hoping this will motivate me to get those unfinished projects finished!), etc.

In addition to the above, I’ll also share some of my Project Life spreads and other fun tidbits along the way.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please leave a comment to say hello and I hope you’ll wander, explore and create with me! 🙂