PINCH ME!

Good Morning! A VERY GOOD MORNING here with a super exciting news! I am so honored to have been selected as a guest designer for this winter over at Les papiers de Pandore! You can visit their site for the announcement HERE, and while there check their amazing products! (Девочки проверьте пожалуйста и скажите мне что это действительно правда)

I will have a privilege to work with their two beautiful new lines. Here are some awesome products they make.

As you may have noticed, grey is my favorite neutral right now. I'm always drawn toward collections with grey in it. While I'm still processing the news, I will try my best to get the layout on my table done, so I can share it with you.

Thank you everyone who stops by! Thank you Les papiers de Pandore!

Have a great day and I'll see you soon!

A day in my life...

Today I am...

 ...listening to the music of winds and rain outside my windows. This duet has been performing nonstop since morning and should continue for another day at least.

...cleaning one corner or another. It seems like as soon as I'm done in that second corner, I might need to start at the first one all over again.

...eating salad "Olivie" for lunch. Added two cans of peas to it for a little healthier version and used less mayo. Liana didn't notice the difference which means it was still good.

...smelling the just out of the oven homemade bread. As soon as my three loaf batch was ready for the oven, the electricity went down. I was a little more than upset, since yesterday the same thing happened when the bread was already in the oven. I kept pushing the dough down, thinking of other options how to bake it but luckily the electricity was fixed. Bread turned out very nice and soft after raising for five times.

...wanting to work on my Project Life so bad. I ordered seven weeks worth of photos and now am so anxious to put them all in place, add the dates, week titles and some notes. Love when the girls are willing to help.

...looking through my old Creating Keepsakes magazines and still finding ideas for my future projects. Even though products change all the time, great design and story telling ideas are always inspiring me.

...hearing kids around the house and that makes me happy. Love when all of them are home. Suzanna was so excited to have a school cancellation, that it almost felt like an early Christmas break to her.

...loosing the battle of staying away from the cookies that Suzanna made. I love cookies. Especially homemade. I don't like what they do to me but I can't eat just one.

...being tested for patience. Just some little things like placing baby for a nap and hearing him cry in five minutes. The windows make noise and he doesn't like it. I take a deep breath and repeat the steps - wrap, turn the music on, hold, sing, kiss, carry around... place in his crib, hope he will sleep for a few minutes longer. 

...feeling thankful for the help from my older girls. An extra set of hands is a great reason to be thankful for and they always offer help when they are home. Love you girls.

...feeling blessed for what I have. Being without electricity for only a few hours reminded me of how good we have it and how we are used to all the conveniences. Thankful for the shelter, water, food, and comfort. Thankful for the family, friends and health. Thankful for the life of abundance.  

Now some scrapbooking related rambling... 

Today I got the chance to finish a page that was sitting on my table for two weeks. It is a very simple layout with a whole lot of "white space", which is a little unusual for me.

When I saw a page by Jennifer Gallacher in her "Words Unsaid" class, I knew I would scraplift that page someday. I've cut the letters of the alphabet on a cream cardstock with my Silhouette and placed little pieces of paper behind each, since I didn't have a piece of paper big enough to use as one piece...

As you know, I'm running out of supplies in my kit, so using a die cut and placing little pieces of paper behind letters was a perfect solution to stretch my supplies. Butterfly came from a "White House/ Black Market" magazine cover. I also used little white envelope to hold the journaling, but since it is more of a memorabilia then a scrapbook item, I let myself use it on my page.

Sorry for the bad picture quality. Couldn't take a photo by the window, because it was dark outside anyway. Used pop dots for the little arrow for some dimension.

Glad this type of weather is not an everyday situation. Have a great and safe day!

Until next time!

Tuesday thoughts...

Hi! I fell a little behind on Project Life. I used to order pictures every two to three weeks. Last night I was going through seven weeks of photos! A lot. But once again, I felt the beauty of this project and gratitude for what I have.

Love taking photos of these five! They are so fun and so happy when they are together. Praying their paths will always be side by side.

Yesterday, on Pinterest, I came across a link to a blog post about the birth of a little girl Nella. It was such a beautiful and emotional story. Welcoming new baby myself just four months ago, I really felt this story. It made me fall on my knees and pray for my blessings once again! When the blog post has over 3,500 comments - you know it's worth reading. If you have a few minutes go over and read it HERE. But make sure you have a box of tissues by your side. I needed two boxes.

Kinda need to catch up after a busy weekend. I hope to be back very soon though.

Have a great day!

What does it take?

Hello! I came to a conclusion that I should never promise anything again. But I'm not going to promise that, because it will be another promise.

Does your menu vary between seasons? Ours does. We definitely eat more soups in colder weather. Just looking at the bright colors of fall makes me want to cook something warm for dinner. It was nice and bright yesterday, but pretty chilly, so I made Lasagna soup for dinner.

I almost never follow a recipe exactly. To make this one in a healthier version, I added white beans to it. The kids loved it! Definitely making it again.

And now back to scrapbooking. I was carrying this idea for months, but when I finally decided to make a page, I realized there's no way I can summarize everything on one layout. Here is the first page about my husband and his "hobby". I know it's so much more than that, but we just call it so.

I used a wood grain embossing folder for the background - thought it fits perfectly for the story. To make the whole page look more manly I stayed with shades of brown. Used my Silhouette to cut out musical signs and the title. Here is the story:

 I had to use a very small font size to fit the journaling onto the space I left for it.

 
So happy to have this page done! It's such a big part of our life and it has a long and great story to go with it. I need at least three more layouts to cover it.

Very nice day out there today! Have to go enjoy it... I didn't have my morning walk, so I might go take one now with my little ones!

Until next time!

Morning walk and another page

I love morning walks! There is something magical about it. Sometimes I like to take a camera with me and capture a few things along the way. This is what my walk looked like today:

For my next page I decided to use neuterals with some pinks in the kit. Well, I had no idea how much trouble I was getting myself into. I just could not be happy with the page. I was placing it aside, thinking the next time I come back it will be easier to figure out how to fix it, but then I decided to go ahead with the story and call it finished. It didn't turn out the way I wanted it, but it's another story recorded.

Since there weren't enough of pinks in the kit, I found a card (which is considered a memorabilia) and punched a circle out if it:
 

 And for those who likes to read the story:

 Done. My next page is few minutes from being completed. I hope to get it done tonight, so that I can post it tomorrow!

Have a nice day and I'll see you soon!

Sun dried tomatoes...

Быстренько поделюсь одним из рецептов который в нашем доме повторяется. Я раньше никогда не использовала сушенные помидоры в рецептах, а после этого они у меня теперь всегда стоят в холодильнике. По цене, это не из самых дешевых продуктов, но в рецепте их используется совсем небольшое количество, поэтому одной маленькой баночки на долго хватает.

 На прошлой неделе делала куринные рулетики с начинкой из Sun Dried Tomatoes, Parmessan Cheese, Cream Cheese and Garlic. В начинку можно ещё добавлять зелень петрушки. Всё делается намного проще чем выглядит. Каждый кусочек разрезается на три, отбивается, посыпается солью и перцем, смазывается начинкой и обжаривается на масле.

К сожалению на этот раз в доме не было Cream Cheese, поэтому пришлось его заменить майонезом. Жарить советую на большом огне - тогда мясо остаётся сочным и не теряет житкость.

На сегодня всё. Постараюсь завтра вернуться со следующей страничкой.

До встречи!

Свадебные открытки

 Добрый день! Снова понедельник и на этот раз не новые планы а куча извенений. На вопрос что случилось с четвертым и пятым днём у меня ответ один - просто я смотрела на время и то что должно было быть сделано, через увеличительное стекло оптимизма. Я знала что нужно будет сделать пару букетов на свадьбу в пятницу, но ещё не знала, что ребёнка нужно будет оформлять в новую школу в четверг... вот на блог времени и не осталось.

А еще пришлось срочно сделать пару открыток свадебных которыми в принцепе и хочу сегодня поделиться. Делала все три в похожих тонах - серебрянный, белый и красный. Для первой использовала кучу pearls.

Для второй сделала кучу розочек из за которых еле запихнули её в конверт :)

внутренний карманчик - по заказу...

И вот последняя, где для платья невесты использовала кружева из doilies. Здесь вместо pearls использовала rhinestones. 

Все три оказались в субботу в корзине у жениха с невестой.

Спасибо что зашли и всем хорошего дня и Божиих благословений!

До встечи!

Day three...

Wednesday. The third layout from the kit uses up most yellow papers and some black accents from the sticker sheet. This layout came together pretty easily, maybe because I had drawn a sketch for it and ordered pictures accordingly.

I added pearls to the kit knowing myself that I can't complete a page without them...

 Loved that camera sticker. It was a perfect fit for this page...

So, that's teenagers... but before they get there, they must be toddlers first. Those are the ones I find difficult sometimes but fun too. What wouldn't you think of just so they eat their breakfast. A healthier one, not PB&J. That's the way my four year old was served her oatmeal this morning...

... with ice cream and brownie crumbs. And this photo was found on my camera yesterday after we went shopping together.

It's called "play hide and seek" while mom is doing her shopping. No the clearance price is not for the girl... that's where her sister got her. And no, again, I don't let them do that. I was probably checking out at that time.

But... all of these kids started with babies. Those are the one I enjoy the most (when they are in a good mood). And I'm blessed to have all of the above! Here is the little one in the car on the way to the store

Love, love, love him! All of them! Unfortunately, this little one is not in the best mood right now... Seems like he is complaining that his bouncer seat is too boring...

Thanks for coming over! Hope to see you tomorrow!

Happy tuesday...

It is Tuesday and I'm back with layout number two from the same kit. I used most of the blue papers here, scraplifting a page by Susan Weinroth - "Birth Day"

 Love cutting out titles with Cameo - using the same papers, you never have to worry about a perfect match!

It was another qiuck and easy page, but it documents a very special moment in our life! Happy to add it to our album.

I will leave you with a picture from yesterday - Blowing goodbye kisses to warm weather...

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you tomorrow!

Welcome October...

As the fall takes over, I notice and feel it more everyday. I'm actually enjoying it now. Especially with the weather like this - warm and sunny!

New month. New week. New goals. I'm up for the challenge again. I plan to have a post every day this week! I know I failed this challenge before, but I want to try it again. So, for Monday, I have the first layout that came from the kit. There was a scraplifting challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket at the time I was making it, so I scraplifted Stephanie Dagan's page to participate.

 

It's a pretty simple layout in blue and yellow. Love these colors a lot lately! 

 Using papers and stickers exclusively from the kit.

That top while portion looked too empty, so I just adhered three strips of while cardstock to it. It doesn't do much, but is just enough to fill the space.

And before I go, I wanted to share one more thing. I love to try new recipes. Some of them I make only once, others stay around for good. Over a year ago, my sister brought a sample of this soup to me, ever since it is one of our favorite in the house. My kids LOVE it! There were multiple times that I wanted to share it here, but each time it was gone before I was able to take a picture of it :)

For the recipe I used: 1 chicken breast, 1 can of Great Northern white beans,  2 cups of frozen white corn, three medium potatoes, i carrot, I can Cream of Chicken, 4 slices of American Cheese, 1 medium jalapeno pepper.

Chile pepper is the main ingredient in the recipe - don't make soup without it (I do make it without the chicken sometimes). Ingredients may not sound very exciting but it is a must try for creamy soup lovers. Very easy to make! It is served with white corn chips, but you can serve it with crackers too.  Thank you sister for the recipe!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you back tomorrow!