Shop Suggestions, Please

Posted on | September 24, 2010 | 18 Comments

As the title suggests, I need to get the names of UK shops, whether it be online, Cambridge, or London that sells petites sizes and more less like Anthropologie, JCrew or Ann Taylor (Loft).

Back in Missouri, I could grab clothes from Ann Taylor, without trying them on, especially pants, and they’d fit great. I love Anthropologie’s style (and that store in general, my favorite store for inspiration) although I couldn’t wear most of their long pants because I could never find a petite/short and the stuff on the sales rack can be slim pickin’ for my size. As for JCrew, their shirts fit me well. As much as I love shopping I hate clothes shopping; I hate trying things on. So when I find stores and models that fit me I stick to them.

I never buy clothes full price. I would either get them from a consignment store or on sale. I just like the stores above because they wash well and there’s ALWAYS something for me in the sales rack. I found some pants at Ann Taylor Loft for $10 once!

So far I’ve only been shopping at Boden (there’s also a US store) and learned about Joules from our neighbor friend who I think invest in that company (ha!) but I need some other suggestions (and Joules isn’t quite my style in the dress and skirt dept. although the polo and shirts + kids + wellies are cute). I’d like some dresses and skirts and for those I need to try them on because I’m all messed up in terms of fitting for those two pieces.

I tried Googling but nothing interesting came up. Thanks in advance!!!

As for the card, I made this using colors from Embellish Magazine. I also did some background stamping per their challenge request. For the background I used Versamark and then clear embossing powder. I also stamped the doily with the same stamp from WPlus9: Ever After. I LOVE this color combo. So classy don’t you think? Makes me want to get a gray pencil skirt, a white ruffly top, a yellow cardigan and black tights with some awesome almost to the knee high boots (with a bit of heels).

Materials:

Cardstock: Stampin’ Up!
Stamps: WPlus9 Ever After and sentiment from Woodgrain Silhouette
Accessories: Seam binding from Etsy, doily from Walmart, flower from some craft store somewhere in the UK (I forgot where), embossing powder
Pattern paper: The flower was cut from a GCD Studio piece
Ink: Versamark and black

Memories…

Posted on | September 23, 2010 | 6 Comments

EDIT: There’s a giveaway at the Pebbles blog. Check it out!!

Sometimes when I look at an old photo of me, especially when I was little, I’d wonder what the occasion was or why I (almost always) looked sad. As I got older I smiled more but I’ve wondered about myself back in those wee days. I was very lucky though. We didn’t have a lot of money back then but my parents had a camera and enough cash to develop the films. So at least I had pictures while many Indonesians would be lucky if they have just one. Although my dad was very good at writing down the location and date he never really journaled, which for most people, especially back then and in Indonesia, it’s quite normal.

Granted that I have many photos of the girls that will never make it to even the printer (the effect of digital photography) I want to be able to pick and choose the favorites, the specials, or the memorable ones and put them on a scrapbook page, title it up and now and then, if the title doesn’t say it all, add a story to it. That’s why I love scrapbooking so much. The shopping is fun and I admit I do go a bit overboard (and I hoard) but the best part is always when I sit down (on the floor usually) and put everything together. Even with a sketch I never know how the page will end up looking like. I never really care because it’s the process and the memories that I have while looking at the photos that keep me motivated and inspired. Childhood memories don’t last, even adult memories come and go, and I want my girls, our family really, to be able to use the pages I make as a trigger to either remember or to tell more of what happened that day. I do this already with M. We love going through the books and talk about the different pages.

Page details:

A page using a lot of Pebbles goodies! This time I used a lot of pieces from the Twitterpatted line. Lynn, the DT Coordinator at Pebbles, asked some of the team to create something with Pebbles paper flowers and this is my take on that challenge. I love flowers so this wasn’t too hard for me and of course I had to add a few sprinkles of butterflies here and there {::SMILE}. I love the colors too. Yellow’s my favorite color and it always looks good on brown!

I love the candy dots too! They’re the ones on the butterflies and the center of two of the smaller flowers. They’re a great size and glittery!!! Now, you can’t really see it on the photo but the white flower has some Tattered Angel’s mist on it.

On this page I also used the Pebbles Stackers. See the flower below? See the clear pink and green flower and leaf pieces? Those are stackers. It gives the flower extra dimension. To adhere everything the brad really came in handy!!

So that’s it. If you want more details on this page do visit the Pebbles blog today! You’ll also see all the other DT’s take on the paper flower challenge. Have a great one and more later!!!

Some Favorite Things

Posted on | September 22, 2010 | 13 Comments

First most recent favorite thing: Potato and leek soup. I found it on AllRecipes and of course I had to tweak it just a bit:

2 good size garlic cloves chopped
2 shallots sliced
1 tsp white pepper

I also didn’t have any American bacon (pork belly and more fatty) so I used 250g (about half a pound) British bacon (from the back cut of pork which is less fatty) and I added a tbs of butter. But if you use American bacon I’d not use the extra butter.

In terms of cooking. I let the potato boil with the broth (I used cubes) as the original recipe directed but for the other portion I sauteed the bacon first for about 4-5 minutes (English bacon doesn’t get crispy), then I added the butter, garlic and shallots, and then gradually the leak until the leek was soft. I think this took 5-10 minutes. Then I dumped everything into the pot of potato and broth. Last was the cream and pepper. I let it mix for around 5 minutes.

Here’s a garlic tip. When chopping garlic use your knife to cut the rough edge off. Then put the flat side of your knife on the garlic and smash the knife (or push down hard if you’re the stronger than me) with your hand (careful not to cut yourself!). The wider the knife the better (I chop with a chef’s knife). After it’s smash just pull the rest of the skin off and use your knife to chop the already crushed garlic a bit more so that it’s finer (unless you love chunky garlic). Here’s a video that does more less of what I usually do. My friend in college taught me how to chop this way. Before this I had to painfully remove the skin first and then chop.

Oh, on the cream, hubby got double heavy cream and the recipe only requires heavy cream. I don’t know if this made a difference but goodness, the soup was DIVINE!!! Wish I took a photo of it. We were too hungry {::SMILES}.

Second most favorite thing: Baby Signing Time. Not only is this Jovie’s most favorite video series they are also teaching her how to communicate with us. While she’s getting there in speaking she’s still mostly babbling so signing has helped us quite a bit! Here’s a little sampling of the video:

If you have little ones I seriously recommend teaching them how to sign. It’s also suppose to increase their IQs too and speech. While M loves My Baby Can Talk for her first signing video (she went to Signing Time later on) Jovie doesn’t care of that much and prefers the Signing Time series. They’re both excellent though and I highly recommend them. M spoke early, at 14-mo, but she knew how to use 2-3 words in a sentence right away. Jovie, while just going bok bok (book) or mo mo (more) she can already sign using 1-2 signs at a time. On average kids don’t start putting words together until at least 18-mo. The only downside is that at 14/15-mo-old she’s already very demanding. She’d wake up asking milk, cereal AND ice cream. In the middle of the day she’ll sign bus which basically means she’d like to ride the bus that goes to Cambridge. She always tells me when there’s an airplane nearby and when she wants water or a bath. Jovie’s hand never stops talking that’s for sure!!

Third favorite thing: Just living here in the UK with the family. Life is wonderful and I’ve never been happier!!

Card info:

I made this card some months back for the Embellish call but never formally submitted it although I did email it to Ash. I dunno, after looking at it I didn’t feel like it was pub worthy. The theme was using buttons creatively and I don’t think my button usage was very creative. There’s nothing new there don’t ya think? So here it is. For the card I used Practicing Creativity’s stamps. The punch was Martha Stewart’s and the twine I got from Etsy, Annie42.

The Perfect Pair

Posted on | September 21, 2010 | 39 Comments

After a long blog break it takes me a while to get back into it and into project making. But, being a part of a few teams (they make me feel like I’m not totally unemployed, ha!) have been useful in terms of motivation. So today I am participating in the Perfect Pair Blog Hop and on this post I will be showcasing Creative Cuts and More‘s fun die-cuts, the Apron Pocket and Self Closing Box, and Clear and Simple Stamps‘ Christmas set called Cookie Bake.

There are two prizes to be won and IF you came to this post via anything but the Creative Cuts’ blog do start there first if you want to be eligible for the prize. IF you did start out right then you’d have been at Darsie’s blog before you got here.

My projects are fairly simple. The apron was all about gluing, trimming and putting a few elements on the right spot while the self closing box is about practicality. I see the below as little gift boxes to give at parties. They’re cute as is and just need a small bit of personal touch. The best part about the box… NO gluing!!! I really like these die-cuts because all I had to do was fold and glue (or no glue). I just have to think about decorating. LOVE!!

After this, do stop by Noelle’s blog and leave your comment there. Have fun!!!

If you’re curious, other accessories are as listed:

Ribbons and Button: PTI
Twine: Olive Manna Etsy
Baker’s Twine: Annie42 Etsy
Jute Twine: Etsy
Digital Paper: Karla Dudley from the DigiChick

Sept 11th

Posted on | September 18, 2010 | 14 Comments

Today I have a card using the new Waltzingmouse sketch. It’s a simple one and this is my interpretation of it.

As for the title… even though my spiritual believes don’t put a lot of weight on the body and what happens to it after the soul has left it I respect what an individual has done in his/her lifetime. Granted that we weren’t in NY it was still something we thought about when we were visiting the largest European American cemetery: Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery on Sept. 11th.

Here are some pictures from that day. Since hubby was at school in Germany, work related school, he had his uniform in the car and so he put everything on (right there next to the car parked just to the left of the photo) so that he could salute and pay his respect to the Americans who fought and died during WW1.

Just a close-up photo, one out of 14,246.

Just them three walking up to the little chapel.

This was a different area. This was Verdun or Douaumont. In that building are the remains of the unknown soldiers. Hubby said when he took a peak into one of the window there were bones everywhere, all sorts of them, skulls included. I didn’t look. It was a bit creepy for me.

Trenches ?of the bayonets. This is a burial site. During the war this was a trench with soldiers carrying weapons hiding in it. A bomb went off covering the trench with dirt and the men were buried alive. You can to really look but you can see the end of their bayonets sticking out of the dirt.

The day wasn’t all gloomy (or the History Channel). We ended up in Bouillon that night (it’s only 46 miles away) and got to see this fortified castle (first mentioned in 988 AD although the exact year it was built is unknown) and had the FABULOUS dinner that I shared yesterday.

We didn’t spend a lot of time in Bouillon. It was just dinner, chocolates, and a night but we will come back to do some sight-seeing and relaxing in this area. This is one of those places that you want to get a week home rental. Very beautiful, lots of trees, lots of little villages to see, etc. While driving to the different sites there was a car with a wild boar on it and I had to laugh out loud. It was an Asterix moment for sure – my favorite comic book growing up!!

Have a great one!!

Materials:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse
Pattern paper: Digital paper by Quirky Twerp from the Digichick
Accessories: Ribbon, ?twine and button