Insert Lame: 'Sorry I've Been Away So Long' Title...

Hey All!

Just a quick note that I'm sorry I've been away so long, but I'm working on getting back up and running with new posts, projects, and my newest hobby, quilting!

Thanks so much for visiting, and I'll be back on a regular schedule soon!

xo, erin.

Here's To Busy Weekends...and Our New Picnic Table!

Happy Monday everyone!

How was your weekend?  My was SUPER busy, but it was beautiful outside and I was with my family.  You can't beat that!  We did a bunch of stuff in our backyard (2.5 tons of mulch, adding lattice to our deck, staking pavers, planting mums...) and my husband built us a picnic table!

We have a patio table on our deck, but we needed something that's a bit smaller that our boys can sit at, and that gives us more seating and a place to put stuff that's close to our fire pit (directions on how to build one coming soon).

I printed this out from a Google Images search (find the picture here) and we went to buy the lumber.  Seriously-he's one of those guys that can take a picture, and make it into this:

Checking for fit for the boys before securing the bench seats.  

(and Jacob is coloring on the table with a pencil.)

But for $45.00 and a little less than an hour, we have a solid (for real-it's about 150 pounds) picnic table!  During the Summer, I've seen these at Lowe's for over $100.00, so it's definitely worth it to make it yourself, if you're interested!

However, unless you're a carpentry genius like my husband, I'd spend some time on Google looking for free plans-they're EVERYWHERE.

I'm going to paint (Robbie is cringing-he's offended by any finish other than stain on wood) the table a bright blue color...just 'cuz!  I'll post pictures soon!

Happy Monday again, and I hope you have a great week!  If you have any questions about the picnic table project, leave me a comment and I'll ask Robbie and get back to you!

Layout: Trick or Treat 2011

The weather was so nice this weekend-which is a big deal in North Carolina (it's not unusual to be in the 90's going into October).  So I thought I'd celebrate by scrapping a Fall-time layout!  Halloween 2011 ya'll!  Be warned: my boys are absolutely adorable in the upcoming pictures...just fair warning.  :)

I've tried keeping up with all the brands I use while scrapbooking so I can write them up with my posts (see here and here and here) but truly, it's darn-near-impossible.  It's just not how I scrapbook; I use lots of bits and pieces from my stash-really whatever I think looks good together.  But if there's something you see, and you'd like to know where it came from, leave me a comment, and I'll do my best to find out!

AHH!!  I could just squish my little Jacob (bottom photo)  SO flippin' cute!  But here's the whole layout: I loved the green and purple background; I thought it was a nice alternative to all the orange that's usually on Halloween pages (not that I didn't make up for the orange later, but it's not so over-powering)

 Little spiders with googly eyes?  Can't go wrong.  I used black and white baker's twine for their strings instead of plain black-I thought it was a little more eclectic...kind of in that whole Halloween vibe.

LOVE the picture of Liam walking with his daddy up the street...I thought this side of the layout needed a little something to balance out the text on the right, so I punched a circle and used some Halloween-y words.  It brought the balance of text plus some more color.

So that's it; definitely getting into the Fall spirit!  Ready for s'mores (who am I kidding-I make those year-round), a nip in the air and jeans!  How about you?  Ready for the cooler weather and holidays on the horizon?

Yay! for Friends (and Crafty-ness!)

Happy Monday everyone!  (I'm not really 'happy' for Monday but give me credit for trying to start off a Monday on a positive note...)

Anyhoo-a couple weekends ago I went to a glass fusion/inclusion/slumping class (all technical terms that I'm doing my best to remember from what our instructor said) with my bestie Amanda (check out the Teacher Appreciation 'Cake' we made here).  We bought seats in the class through Groupon and had a fanTAStic time!

Those are our shards of colored and clear glass in the bottom right-hand corner!

follow me on Instagram: l_jsmommy

So Amanda got her glass bowls back last week, and they look so awesome, I can't wait to get mine back!!!  Fingers crossed for this week!

I can't chose which is my favorite...I'm partial to greens, blues and purples, but I love the colorful confetti one...what do ya'll think?

DIY Photo Gallery Wall

A few weeks ago, Robbie and I visited IKEA for the first time.  I have wanted to visit an IKEA since I learned all about their awesome-ness...it just took me about 6 years to get there.  But I went, and it was AMAZING.  If you’ve never gone, I highly recommend it!  It was just absolutely amazing!  I can’t think of a better word to describe it!  Now, over the span of 6 years, I’d been formulating lots of home projects that required a trip to IKEA.

This one is for a photo gallery wall.  This project was a more recent addition to my mental list...it showed up about the time my boys did (go figure!).  Anyhoo, this is a really fun project, and by getting the frames at IKEA, it’s an affordable project as well.

So here’s how we did it:

From IKEA, we bought a collection of frames from the Ribba, Nyttja, Sӧndrum and Virserum lines.  I knew that I wanted an eclectic mixture of sizes and depths, but needed some way to organize the lines with a cohesive, linear feel, so we used a 1.5” thick ‘border’ through the middle of the gallery.  So the bottoms of the frames on the top row were against the same invisible line, and the tops of the bottom row frames  were against an invisible line.  (This sentence is where a picture really is worth a thousand words-see below)   I also had the frames end at the same points on the right and left.  

I had measured our living room wall before we left, and knew we had about 8’ of space to work with.  We laid out all the frames we wanted on the floor of IKEA, in a rough mock up to make sure we had enough to balance the top on bottom rows.  Nobody even blinked an eye at IKEA-did I mention it’s awesome?!

The most time-consuming part of this project was figuring out which 16 photos I wanted to use (it was a long process...days even...).

I did another layout, more specifically this time, on our bedroom floor, and took a picture, so I could line them back up in the right order in the living room.

So here’s my major tip for this gallery wall: use Command Adhesive Velcro strips!  Can you imagine the number of holes you’d put in your wall to hand all of these?  It’s too many to contemplate!  I came across this tip a few weeks ago when I needed to hang a super-skinny piece of canvas board in my son’s room.  My sister painted him a (Pinterest-inspired) really cute whale picture, but there was no way to hang it traditionally, with a nail/screw and anchor.  So Command Adhesive Velcro it was.  The instructions are on the box, but it’s a super-simple, peel and stick application.

It's really important, before you stick you first frame to the wall, that you use a level!  Once you have the first frame hung and it's precisely (or as humanly possible) level, then you can level the next frames off of that one.  There's nothing worse than getting everything hung up, then sitting down to admire your work and you realize it's crooked.  That would not be good.

So here’s the final layout; I ended up adding a few white frames that were on sale at Target, just to make it a little longer...I think I’m going to try and find a 3-picture-opening frame (like the one on top) to go underneath the last 3 frames on the bottom row (left-hand side).  I think it needs that little something right there.

(sorry for the glare...I tried taking this picture in the morning, mid-day and at night, but there was always a glare...the glare from the ceiling fan was the least offensive!)

Anyhoo-thanks for stopping by and come back soon!  (and if you’ve never gone to IKEA, plan a trip...you won’t be sorry!)

Project Life 2013: Seafoam Edition

YAY!  I have my Project Life Edition picked out for next year: Seafoam!  Becky Higgins shared a sneak peek on her blog today, and I. Am. So. Excited!  I love everything about the Seafoam Edition!  Nice and modern, lots of blues, grays and oranges, chevrons, polka dots, lines...I love it!

Everyday this week she's sharing a new release, but truly, I don't even need to see the 2nd Edition (though I'm sure it will be lovely), because I am totally ready to get my hands on Seafoam!  Just from what I've seen, it's going to work perfectly for me and my house of boys.

So that's it; just a super-short post about the newest PL Edition!

Thanks for reading!

Project Life: The Month of July

Hello All!

I've decided to start posting my PL a month at a time.  That way, I can go over anything special that I do in a month once, and it doesn't get monotonous.  So here's July!

July 2-9, 2012:  A pretty colorful spread this week; we had an awesome 4th of July in Durham with Robbie's family.  Even though we spent a lot of our visit moving furniture, the food was delicious, and that kind of negates everything in my book.

The left hand side has our 4th of July lunch with family and us just hanging around with them, and my baby boy in the quad stroller (decorated with flags!) as they went through the daycare's parade.  I added the information for the picture directly on the photo in PhotoShop.  I took them to our local Children's Museum (the best way I've found for keeping them entertained when it's impossibly too hot outside to play) and included the receipt in one of the 3x4 pockets.  I used 2 journaling cards to talk about our activities on the 4th, so I used the same design, to give it some cohesiveness.

I had 1 8.5x11 insert; 2 pieces (back and front) of publication about Andy Griffith's passing.  He is a tremendous icon in North Carolina, and I personally have watched his show and movies since I was little.  I really liked the story our local paper wrote, because it highlighted a lot of his life and time in our state.

On the right hand page I cut a 4x6 photo in half for the 3x4 pockets (in the construction area at the Children's Museum).  I also tucked in the hand-flag Liam made at daycare to celebrate the 4th.  Another reason I love PL: I don't think I would have had a place to keep something like that before, without it being buried under projects that needed to be completed.

July 9-15, 2012:

A pretty quiet week for us...I did some more type on top of a photo in PhotoShop.  I added an Instagram (LOVE Instagram, you can follow me at l_jsmommy) cropped to 3.5"x3.5"on to a 4x6 journaling card.  Liam was using his daddy's screwdriver on his brother's toy cabinet-so cute!  Robbie teaching Liam how to use a multi-meter ('cause every 2 year old needs to know this, right?  But it was precious)

A picture of Liam sitting in a big boy seat for an ENTIRE dinner out, which is quite a big deal.  New shoe shopping for both boys.  I'm trying to remember to use the arrow stickers that I have, just because I love the color it adds.

July 16-22, 2012:

 A 6x12 insert of the pictures from the birthday party the boys were invited to Saturday.  It's a standard 12x12 photo pocket page I trimmed down.

 More pictures on the back with a copy of the invitation.

 An Instagram added to a 3x4 journaling card (picture cropped to 2.5x2.5) of the banner I made for the birthday party.

And more cute-ness from my family.  I'm making an effort to get pictures of myself included.  It's important mommies!

July 23-29, 2012:

I used a picture of the London Bridge I found on Google and added text to it via PhotoShop, just to talk about how much I really enjoy the Olympics.  I watched almost the entire Opening Ceremony that Friday night with Robbie; it was pretty awesome!  The top right photo is 2 pictures-in-1.  I added a 2.5x2.5 Instagram to a 3x4 journaling card + a 3x4 picture of a Pinterest-inspired piece of artwork my sister made for Jacob's room.  I glued both to a 4x6 journaling card.  (How cute is that whale?!)

Another 4x6 photo I cut in half to fit in (2) 3x4 spots.  (I have a problem deciding on only (7) 4x6 photos every week...I can't help it)  And a picture of our newly-framed in bathroom mirror in the almost-complete stage.  (I wrote a DIY tutorial here)

So that's it for July.  I hope it wasn't too many pictures and too wordy...but I think it'll work out better for me to post a month at a time, instead of trying to do this week-by-week.

Thanks for stopping by and visit again soon!