Sweet Shoppe Designs

Hello Sweet Shoppers, it’s Keely here today, I’m going to talk a little bit about journaling.  In the scrapping world the word tends to draw strong reactions in both the positive and the negative, but today I want to talk about personal journaling. I’m pretty sure somewhere there’s a study or statistic to support the statement that journaling is a positive and therapeutic activity. ( 100 Benefits of Journaling ) I’ve had journals off and on throughout the years of my life, the consistency and type of writing has varied a great deal. As I’ve gotten older I’ve discovered that my memory stinks, things I swear I’d remember I don’t. But sometimes the approach of journaling can be overwhelming, I mean some days feel pretty redundant, when there aren’t big highs and lows going, it can be hard to find the motiviation. I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t have to be a big production and that if you can get pen to meet paper on a fairly regular basis, it’s going to be a good thing.

So let me tell you what I’m doing for the year 2012. My main journaling is this:

Isn’t it fancy!? (haha) I found someone doing something like this last year in a real journal. I tried it out for a bit and fell in love with it. It’s not pretty but it’s about the easiest, low pressure way of memory keeping. I have a sheet for every week that I keep in my main Keely binder (where I keep calendars, to do’s etc) Once ( or several) times a day I jot down daily happenings, the weather, things we did, something said, a news story, or just  doodle.  I may not be pouring my heart out but I’m documenting our lives in little bits and I have something to look back on.

I also have another journal, one that I don’t pressure myself to write in daily. I use it for feelings, when I’m feeling PMSy or over/underwhelmed or when I want to jot down a quote I come across and love, or if I’m feeling like I need to document some gratitude.  It’s not fancy either….

It’s a composition book that I had on hand, I believe a two for a dollar variety. A little digi-magic with La and Shawna’s Imagine and it looks like this…

I’ve been pleased as punch with my latest journaling routines. I think it’s going to help with those scrapping journaling blocks as well, a definite bonus. Until next time, Happy Scrapping (and maybe some journaling too).

Hey readers!! Meg here bringing you a special spotlight today There are soooo many fabulous scrappers in this community and I think it’s important to really show off one every now and then. Today’s scrapper spotlight is Natalie aka NatalieKW..She happens to be on my creative team so I might be a tad biased but her pages have caught my eye for a long time and she’s super sweet on top of that! Read on to learn a little more about Natalie

Name: Natalie Whitworth/NatalieKW

How long have you been scrapping: I started in May 2007 and scrapped for a couple of months until I met and started dating my husband, who took all of my spare time. I took a almost two year break until my oldest was born. I took it back up in the Summer of 2009 and have been addicted ever since.

Three favorite layouts:

Do you have a certain style? Well…I don’t know. I have more of an eclectic style, I think. I love papers! My favorite kits, and resulting pages, have awesome papers. On the other hand, I have a hard time not using most of the elements too. I think the most consistent thing about my pages is that I like them pretty full.

What inspires you when doing a layout? The kit itself. I am on some amazing teams and when I buy kits, I buy them from some pretty amazing designers here. Nothing inspires me more than being excited to use an awesome kit. I guess I should say that it’s my pictures that inspire me, but honestly, the pictures, title and journaling are usually the last things I do on my pages.

What do you do when you lose your mojo? Browse the layouts I have in my favorites across the open galleries and Sweet Shoppe’s gallery. If that doesn’t work, I always browse Aly’s gallery. Her attention to details are amazing on her pages and it usually pushes the “scrapper’s block” away.

Are you a one kit scrapper or do you mix it up? I’m usually a one kit scrapper since I mostly scrap for my creative teams. However, I love multiple alphas on a page. I also love Traci’s stitches and have been including those on my pages a lot lately.

Do you have any other creative hobbies? I’ve been known to make some really big bows for my three girls. I also create some custom vinyl designs for people to use in decorating their homes. It’s kind of like word art for your walls. I wish I could crochet and knit, but I don’t want to sacrifice the scrapping time to learn.

What is one little known fact about you? I say some words wrong. I call a wolf a “woof” and a drawer a “jore.”

Do you have any scrapping tips that you would like to pass on? Hmmm… I can’t really think of any tips, but one thing that I always have in my mind while scrapping is to push myself. Yes I scrap to preserve my family’s memories, but I also scrap because it makes me feel good. It helps me get through the stress of having three kids under three. I’ve found by warping my shadows, using actions on my photos, making my journaling look real on the page by blending it ever so slightly, have all helped me take my pages to the next level. I love finishing a layout that I can’t stop looking at because I love it so much!

I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about Natalie!!

***Now for a bonus challenge. Look thru Natalie’s Gallery HERE and choose a layout to SPIN and LIFT..ev1 loves an old school spin a lift challenge right? Just put it on your portfolio tracker post as Spin A Lift Bonus Challenge and link it up!! Enjoy ***

This is not what I had intended to write about today, but today just hasn’t been one of those normal days.

I took my older two children to school and my 3-year old, Sadie, and I headed back home.  I was stopped at a red light at an intersection only a few miles from my house.  After the light turned green, I hesitated for just a second because there was a truck that I wasn’t sure was stopping for his red light. Once I was sure it was clear, I started through the intersection only to see a different pickup truck barreling through the intersection straight at me! I slammed on brakes and caught his rear driver-side tire with my front bumper.

Thankfully, a police officer was the first one at the intersection going the opposite direction I was, so he saw the whole thing and was immediately able to help.

Sadie and I are both fine. The airbags didn’t even deploy. My bumper is gone, but that is replaceable.

As I have replayed the whole accident in my mind, I realize that if I had not waited for a second before going when the light turned green, I would have been farther through the intersection and he would have t-boned the side of my car. This accident could have been so very much worse than it was. I truly feel that we had angels watching over us!

It’s funny how, sometimes, it takes situations like this to remember to have a thankful heart. We celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday a couple of months ago, but do we take the time to be just as thankful in January? I probably don’t. But I think I will now!

Have a great and grateful day!

Hi, sweet shoppers, it’s Rebecca… and I’m going to be talking about cooking.

Secret Recipe - Dani Mogstad; DJB I Love Me Some Aly - Darcy Baldwin; Date Bits 12 - Misty Cato; Blissful Stitches - Traci Reed; Waiting for the Rain (alpha) - Shawna Clingerman.

I don’t mind cooking… in fact I find it relaxing some days. I love finding new recipes and rarely do I make the same thing twice… I also almost never follow a recipe.   I must add my “flair” to it by adding an ingredient that isn’t listed or change up the spices… my hubby likes his food with a bit of “fight.”  This style of cooking is way different from what I remember of my childhood.  My mom cooked many of the same recipes that her mom and aunt would cook… those down-home comfort foods. Mom made meals with my grandfather in mind, who she would run over meals daily to him. My dad, drove milk truck and worked many long, long days… some times not coming home until 8:00 at night… and for a number of years, she was an emergency medical technician, so given she could be called out on an ambulance call at any moments time, she needed recipes that were quick and could be reheated many times. We ended up rotating through 10 of the same  recipes… all recipes that were passed down through the generations.

Fast forward to 2012… it will be 3 weeks today that my father was rushed to the emergency room with severe leg pain and light headedness. They found out that he had developed huge blood clots in both legs, triggered from his prostrate surgery this past November.  Five years ago when he had surgery, he also ran into an issue with clotting and they had to put a screen in. Thank goodness they left that screen in – otherwise he wouldn’t be with us today. So, you are probably wondering, what the heck does this have to do with cooking? haha… well, my father has been at our house recovering since he was released from ER. So, this means that I have had to actually cook 3 meals a day for the last 3 weeks!! I’ve been so spoiled living in the city that when I don’t feel like cooking, I just have my hubby bring something home after work. My dad isn’t use to that life style, nor is it healthy for any of us… he also doesn’t care for spicy foods and he likes the traditional style of cooking. So, I have had to dig into my childhood memories for recipes.  It has been trying for me to stick with the same foods over the last few weeks… and the same foods that I served just two months ago when Dad was staying with us after his initial surgery… I’m so hungry for Mexican food at my favorite restaurant… but on the bright side, we have save money because 1. we aren’t eating out as much and 2. I’m actually planning ahead what we are making. Menu plan has always been one of those goals I want to achieve, but I don’t like knowing what I’m having two days from now… I’m a bit spontaneous when it comes to my meals…  So, today I’m going to share a recipes that has become a favorite with the boys in the household… I have made it twice already this time Dad has been with us… *sigh* this cooking is just not good for my diet goals…

Beef Pot Roast (crockpot)

• 1 two pound boneless beef chuck pot roast
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 3 medium potatoes (or sweet potatoes), cut into chunks
• 3 small onions, cut in wedges
• 8 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons of instant beef bouillon granules
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• salt and pepper

Trim fat from the roast and then in a large skillet brown meat on all sides in the hot oil.  Place potatoes, carrots, and onions in cooker. Place meat over vegetables. In a small bowl combine the 3/4 cup water, Worcestershire sauce, bouillon granules, and oregano. Pour over meat and vegetables. Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours.

To make gravy, place 1 1/2 cup of cooking juices to a saucepan and combine a 1/2 cup of cold water and flour and stir into the juices. Cook and stir until thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Rice Pudding

• 3/4 cup uncooked white rice
• 2 cups milk, divided
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2/3 cup golden raisins
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. In another saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg and raisins. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm.

Enjoy!! And if anyone has a great old family recipes they wouldn’t mind sharing with me… I could use some different tonight for dinner.

{{hugs}}

Rebecca aka mamabee

Hi it’s me Darla and I will admit I am a technology junkie! I will spend hours combing the web to find interesting things or trends going on in the world of technology. When I have a computer problem, I turn to google and hunt for a solution. When I got a nasty virus on my computer, I again turned to the web for answers. So it seemed quite natural when it was time for me to upgrade my cell phone, I turned to the web to find out what phone – android or Iphone – would best serve my needs. After a great deal of research, I decided to go with an Iphone and was so excited when I received my phone after Christmas. Having had an android phone for 2 years – I was already accustomed to having plenty of apps to make my life a little easier and so it was my hope I could find the same alternatives on the Iphone. I was definitely not disappointed with all the different apps out there but feeling a sense of uncertainty on what might be best for my needs – I again turned to the trusty ole web for suggestions! Here are a few apps that I found to help make your life a little easier or at least a little more entertaining!

Camera +

My android phone had a terrible camera and I was super excited to have a phone that might be able to take photos on the fly. Camera + is a great photo app that allows you to edit, crop and add special effects to your photo. You can also use it to post to facebook, email or text it to a friend. I have to admit I am eager to play more with it but am seriously happy using it over the stock camera app on the phone.

Mspot Music

My daughters have an extensive music catalog on their Itunes account but did not want to transfer all these songs to their phone and thereby take up precious storage that they may want for something else. So we searched around and found this awesome app that scans your Itunes library and stores it in a “cloud” for you to stream on your phone whenever you want. You can choose to upload your entire library or there is an option to select only certain songs for the account. You will need to download the app on your main computer that houses your music library and then add it also to your Iphone or Ipad and sign in and your music automatically appears. We tested the streaming for a week or two and have not been disappointed with the service. Personally, this is what the Icloud feature should be but isn’t. Thank goodness someone had the sense to create this as it has made my little one a very happy kid!

Movies

I had this app on my android phone and was so happy to see it was available also on the Iphone. The app lists all the movie theaters in your area along with movie times, ratings and reviews. There are also some trailers that help make the time go faster when your child is bored. Another neat feature of this app is that it has partnered with Ultraviolet – a service that allows you to play back DVD movies you have purchased on your Ipad, Iphone or android device. You just enter the codes that come with your movie and it uploads to your movie (Flixster) account for you to view anytime you want. As you can see from above, my little one has added Harry Potter and Dolphin Tales to our movie list to watch when we are on the road a long time!

Pinterest

Ok I was really excited to get the Pinterest app for my Iphone! I love pinning new recipes, craft ideas for my girl scout troop or new hair dos for the girls and now I can do this while waiting for my kids or at the doctor’s office. What is even better is now that the SSD Portfolio challenge has its own board – I can peek at the various challenges and come up with ideas offline on what page I might create! I will admit since I got the app for my phone I have become of a pinning junkie….but justify my little addiction when I see how happy my family is with some of the ideas and recipes I have shared with them!

Scramble With Friends

Ok I am a huge Words with Friends fan and was so excited to see that Zynga has released another new app called Scramble with Friends on the Iphone. On my android phone, I used to play Wordroid all the time and this is similar to that. There are four rows of letters and the challenge is to find as many word as you can in 2 minutes and hope that you find more than your opponent! I have to laugh at how competitive my daughters and I have become just playing this game the last 2 weeks. Someone is always gently reminding you to check your phone because you have a game to play lol!

Tiny Towers

Tiny Towers is a cute featured app I found where the concept is to earn enough money to build a tower of various floors that house different kind of businesses or people called blitzens. The game syncs with your game center account and you can see the towers that your other friends are also creating. Right now, my daughter and I are in a match to see who can have most floors…and sadly she is winning – for now!

Waze

Living in Southern California and driving the freeways here – you cannot be without a proper navigation app. I had an awesome one on my android phone and was definitely disappointed in the stock one on the Iphone. Then I stumbled upon a cute little app called Waze. It gives you the traffic view of the freeway and also updates if there are accidents or problems ahead on your route. The unique feature about this app is that the updates are by other people in traffic using the same app. You get points for alerting others to traffic conditions or accidents similar to a game type app. I love that it gives you alternative routes when traffic is bad and also gives you the time that you will arrive at your destination. There may be a better app out there – but I really love the fun graphics that helps relieve the stress of driving the Southern California freeways!

Kindle

I love to read and do own a kindle so this app was a natural choice for my Iphone! I often on the run and there have been times in which I forgot my kindle at home or in my purse and having it on my phone allows me the freedom to read when I can. It is not unusual for me to whip out my phone when I am waiting in a long grocery or store line. I love how it syncs with my kindle so I never have to worry about where I was last and of course, all the books I own are stored in the archive for future use.

Instagram

Instagram is another camera phone app that I love. The app allows you to take a photo and then offers some really cool filters to enhance your photo. You can then update your photo to an account you create to share with all your friends and family! You can “follow” your friends and various media outlets, and if they follow you back your shared shots appear on the feed for everyone’s viewing and commenting pleasure.

These are just a few apps that I love but there are so many more out there – for the music lovers, TuneIn Radio and Pandora are great to have. For games, Angry Birds and Words For Friends are a must! For the Disney fanatics – Mousewait is a must to navigate your way through Disneyland and California Adventure. The developer makes one also for Walt Disney World that is something you will find especially helpful on your magical vacation! Open Table helps you find reservations for local restaurants in your area while Yelp helps you find things to do wherever you might be. There are banking apps and store apps to help you pay bills, transfer money or spend money while on the go. There is even a Directv app that allows you the opportunity to record a show on your TIVO box that you might have wanted to watch and forgot to record when you were home. Photoshop Express is a mini version of photoshop to edit and enhance your photos. In a nutshell, there is so much out there that I could not cover it all here but if you are in doubt, go to the web and do a search – you might be surprised at all the wonderful apps you find that you can not live without! Have fun searching!

Hey ya’ll … Amy here. Better late than never, I slept most of the day today, that’s what my brain thinks rainy Sundays are for. Anyway, my post is really about yesterday. My very close friends and I went to the beach. Yes in the middle of January. I am just that crazy of a beach lover. They were having the 147th anniversary re-enactment of the Battle of Fort Fisher (North Carolina) one of the last battles of the Civil War. Fort Fisher is what allowed the blockade runners to keep bringing supplies into the south during the war and it’s fall is one of the things that ultimately cost the South the war. It was very interesting and we learned a lot about the weaponry of that time and how people lived, etc. Ever since my husband started his second job, we have not spent much time together on the weekends and it makes me sad. Last year he and I went to this event together, just the two of us, so I was a little sad. But it’s a wonderful thing to have such close friends. My “ex” boyfriend from high school and his wife are my very very best friends and I love their children like my own, so it was really funny to go with them and see my favorite place on earth through their eyes. The three year old especially loved the firing of the muskets, while his mom wasn’t quite so sure!! lol I can’t wait to scrap the pages with my memories from yesterday. I want to tell the story of how Ron came back into my life, and how I met my bestie Melissa through him, I want to scrap the raw emotion I feel every time I see the ocean. I want to scrap the wonder in Chase’s eyes at the guns, and the tears on his cheeks when he fell down and scraped his chin. I want to scrap the memories of events that molded our nations history, for better or for worse. It’s amazing to me how many ways you can look at one day and think about what you want to take away from it and document so you will remember if forever. I’m glad I’m getting my camera out more and I’m gonna scrap more and 2012 is going to be the year of memory keeping for me once again!!

p.s. if you wonder about the title of my post, those are the words that came out of my mouth as we were walking back up to the car after I had danced and twirled on the sand with the kids, just like I was 8 years old myself. The ocean is a spiritual thing to me, I can never describe how it makes me feel and people sometimes look at me silly when they see how emotional I get over it, but i NEED it. I read somewhere that we have 90% salt water in our veins and I said I knew that I had the ocean in me!! Till next time, sweet shoppers! I will close with a few pics of the day and maybe some of you can suggest some kits for me to scrap them with?

Happy Saturday Sweet Shoppers! Your favorite day of the week is here, and I have a slew of inspiring new goodies to share with you tonight. Before I get to that though, please accept our apologies for the zillion copies of our newsletter you may have gotten last weekend. It seems our newsletter software was a bit glitchy, so fingers crossed that it doesn’t happen again tonight!

In any case, there are some adorable kits making their debut in the shoppe tonight, and I don’t want to keep you from them a moment longer, so without further delay, here’s your first look at this week’s sweet new stuff along with some gorgeous new layouts from the Babes too…

My goodness… SUCH yummy stuff! Speaking of yumminess, did you see that we have a brand new featured designer? That’s right, on the 16th, we switched things up on you and put Julie in the spotlight on the Sweet Shoppe Blog. She’s also created an absolutely amazing kit which is yours FREE when you spend $10 in the shoppe now through January 31st! Forevermore will be automatically added to all qualifying order totals in your cart, so head to the shoppe now to snag it!

Finally, I always try to keep you guys in the loop on great opportunities to work with our incredible designers, and there’s a pretty awesome call happening right now! That’s right, Kristin is looking to add some talented scrappers to her team, so check out the details here and in our forums and get those applications in! I know you’ll love working with her.

On that note, I think I’m off for the night, but we’ll see you here in your inbox next weekend with lots more sweet new stuff. Until then, keep making memories and scrap more!

p.s…

Can you believe it? I can’t!!! It seems like yesterday I announced on Twitter that I was pregnant and it was a surprise and I was asking for prayers because I didn’t want to miscarry like I had so many times before. I remember getting a message from Traci Reed saying that she was pregnant too and it was so fun having that little secret and encouraging each other along hoping and praying that in 9 months we would get to hold our little ones. The community here at Sweet Shoppe was so fun, checking up on me and then waiting to meet Asher for the first time. I remember the morning we went to the hospital it started to snow, and it was literally storming outside by the time we got to our room and stormed all day. I was thankful we had to be there before the storm had started and that my parents were already in town from Michigan to watch Moriah and Isaac. I remember Mark texting Laura the news so that she could let you all know the news on the Sweet Shoppe forums, and then I remember having to text her again, asking for prayers since he had fluid in his lungs and he was with the NICU doctors and we didn’t get to be with him for several hours. I remember posting pictures and I had even pre-made a layout so that all I needed to do was add a couple pictures and the stats to it and shared it with you guys as soon as we got home.

Do you remember this layout?

This past year has gone by so fast… on one hand it feels like he’s been a part of our family forever, but on the other hand, it seems like he was just born yesterday. For many years, I wanted three kids and I had given up on the thought that that would happen because of our infertility and chronic miscarriages… but here I hold my sweet boy who is my third child and such a miracle!!! I’m so incredibly blessed to have him in my life.

So, here’s a little pictorial walk through of him growing up this past year…

We had a birthday planned for him this past weekend with just family, but with a crazy series of events and both of the boys being sick we ended up canceling his party. My parents still come from Michigan even though the snow storm was supposed to be bad around the lake, but they made it and only stayed for a couple hours before heading back home. We ended up just getting some takeout and will postpone his party for the spring. Surprisingly, this is the only party we’ve had to cancel considering we have two winter babies.

I’ve been joining in on the Project Life bandwagon… it’s kind of my replacement for P365 and P52. I really like not having the pressure of taking pictures every day or picking one picture for the week and scrapping them. I’m really liking the simplicity of Project Life and still making it my own. I didn’t buy the actual Project Life kit, but am using Traci’s Document Life Sampler freebie from the shoppe and enjoying using a different kit for each 2 page spread. It’s still cohesive using the same template but still has a ton of my personality using different kits. I’ve also been really inspired going through the thread in the forum of everyones’ layouts. You guys are totally rocking these projects!!! I can’t wait to see as we have more weeks under our belt how they’re looking!!! That being said, I did one side of my 2 page spread with Asher’s birthday celebration or lack thereof LOL. It has a little sneak peek of something coming from Jenn this weekend… which was so fun to play with!!!

Sooooo…. I wanna thank you all for letting me share my sweet little miracle boy with you all. It means so much to be able to call you all friends and to share this amazing journey of life with you all!!!

Here in Singapore the school year starts and January which means that after five fun weeks of vacation every mothers are busy preparing and making sure all the little ones that needs to go school are ready. This means weeks ahead school fees are paid, uniforms are bought (washed and ironed), shoes and school bags are prepared and the said student well rested for the big first day of class. It is bittersweet for me this year as this is my eldest daughter’s last year in preschool (wasn’t it only yesterday that we were both excited for nursery class?) but she’s very excited to see her friends once again. We’re looking forward to a year of learning, growing and all sorts of fun things we get to do in K2!

My daughter loves to read and this year I want to encourage her to read more so I made her a reading log she can use this year. It will be fun to record all the books she read and have her write a few sentences on what she liked about each of them. Just think of how fun it would be to see this log a few years from now. One of my plans this year is to document our everyday life and this would be a way for me to record this stage in her life. I’m just sharing the cover I made at this point, my printer is out of ink so I can’t print and assemble it yet but it’s pretty simple anyway.

That’s it for me today, it’s homework time

Hi sweeties!  Libby here today, and now that I’ve successfully managed to get a cheesy 80′s song stuck in your head, I thought I’d share a little of what’s been keeping me so busy these days!

We are in the home stretch for little Chloe coming to join us!  I’m 36 weeks along today, so she’ll be here before we know it.  Everyone keeps saying how the 3rd trimester will probably drag by for me, and to that I say… BRING IT ON!  We’ve still got so much to do before she’s born that I welcome all of the time available to me to get it all done!

While Jeff has been on winter break from class, he’s been extra busy with projects around the house.  Our big project has obviously been getting the nursery ready.  In the past couple of weeks, he has cleaned it out, painted it, put the crib together, changed out all the electrical outlets (we have a really old house), and even put a cute little hanger bar in her armoire so that I have a place to hang her precious little clothes.  While we are nowhere near “ready” for her to arrive (in the giant check-list of things that I want to have done), I at least feel comfortable knowing that if she does come early, at least we have a place for her to sleep, a few clean sleepers, and a couple packs of diapers.  LOL I wish I had some super cute completed nursery shots to share with you at this point, but I don’t.  We’re still working in there and have a lot to do before we will consider it finished.  So, here are a couple of our “work in progress” photos.

So between all of these projects and the mountain of design work I’m trying to catch up on before she is born, you may not be seeing me online very much in the coming weeks.  Never fear though… I’ve already signed up for my February blog spot, and I plan to have LOTS of adorable newborn pics to share with you then!