Rexburg Snow Day! {In Pictures}

XOXO,

Holly & CO.

Sketchy Thursday 1/27 Sketch

I've been watching the Sketchy Thursdays blog for sometime now, but had yet to participate. I had a bunch of cupcake photos I wanted to scrap and had no idea where to start, until I saw this!

Totally got my mojo back!

Here was this week's sketch.

Here's my interpretation...

I didn't mean to really do Valentine's day colors, but it just ended up that way.

Thanks for looking!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Tired of Waiting

This afternoon, Ryan and I were cleaning up the house a bit and discussing some scheduling issues we've had and Zoe wanted a snack. She kept asking over and over and I told her to sit on the couch and I'd be out in a few minutes to get her something to snack on.



Ryan and I finished cleaning and talking a few minutes later and we came out to the family room to find this little sleeping beauty. She had put herself to bed on the floor.

She slept like that for a good hour. Zoe hardly EVER falls asleep anywhere but her bed or in the car. I was shocked she just laid down and fell asleep. She must have been really tired.



I've got a couple layouts to share.

I've lost a bit of my mojo lately. I made these to hopefully jump start my creativity.

Waiting for some new kits to arrive, hopefully that will aid in some new inspiration.

We're looking forward to Rexburg Snow Day tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have some cute pictures to share when we get home.

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

~Tasty Treat~

{Warning: If one of your New Year's Resolutions was to lose weight, diet, or eat healthy, 

this post may de-rail you for a moment or two... }

I discovered a gem here in Rexburg, just after I walked through a really cool alley way. 

(Only in Rexburg would an alley way be not scary. I'll come back to the alley way another day)

 It's called The Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe.

They have 39 flavors and they change them daily. 

I asked the poor sales girl about 50 questions.

I'm sure by the time we leave here, we will have tried all 39.

This time we tried....

Raspberry Chocolate Cheesecake

and...

Party in my Mouth

This is definitely a treat to share, these are JUMBO cupcakes.

For perspective, here's the cupcake queen, just waking up from a nap, surprised with a treat.

The cupcake is about as big as 1/2 her head.

(Don't you love her ensemble? Polka dots and a cherry dress!)

I'm so excited that I've started to find some cute places like this to keep me entertained in our tiny town. Walgreens was getting a little mundane :)

I can't believe January is almost over. Whew, it's kind of a relief. I think we're finally getting settled. Hopefully no more big changes for awhile.

Happy Thursday! 

Go enjoy a tasty treat!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Take a closer look...

If you take a closer look at this picture, you will find....

-A tired mommy in sweats at 5:00pm

-Zoe in a princess dress

-Zoe with homemade sock puppets on both hands

- Zoe wearing a princess crown made by Aunt Jenni

- Mommy's bangs need to be cut

Zoe wearing some of Mommy's make up

- A few people who are sick of being inside

Also, we discovered than Ryan has some sort of food allergy. Last night, he had a couple red bumps on his arm, took some benedryll and they went away, he was fine.

Well, this afternoon, he ended up with hives all over his chest, arms and back.

We're not sure exactly what he's allergic to, but we've narrowed it down to something in the green juice he bought at the store yesterday.

Thankfully, the benedryll took care of the hives and they are going away now, but it gave  us quite a scare to see him covered in hives today.

Well, I should get to bed....

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

It's almost Friday...

is my mantra this week.



This week has definitely been tougher than the past 2.



I have to remind myself, we're still adjusting. Over and over. Lots of changes.



We will get into a routine. We will make new friends. We will get used to our new budget. We will eventually love all the time we get to spend together. We will be blessed for doing what it right. We will love to living walking distance to church and the temple. I will become a good cook again. We will still see our old friends and family.



I'm spending a lot of time on reciting this list above, in my head.



Flipping our world upside-down has been like lifting a rock will lived under for so long and it's exposing every one of my weaknesses. I'm sure that's one of the reasons we're here, but having them exposed all at once, is so overwhelming.



It's been a struggle to not find self-doubt around every corner.



When I call my Mom on a hard day, she quotes my late grandmother, "You come from from pioneer stock!"

 A helpful reminder that I can persevere and be made better for it.





Just in the short time I've been writing this post, I think I've found a new mantra, "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel." Yep, there is it. I love blogging, it's so therapeutic. Between blogging and scrapping, I think that covers a good portion of what real therapy would.



Speaking of scrapping, a few more layouts to share.



 This first one is my favorite of the bunch.

If you've spent any time with Zoe you might know that she has a great fake cry. Very believable and sometimes even tears. However, you can spot the fake cry instantaneously when she immediately stops and says," I'm done crying, I'm a happy girl now!" with a smile and a devious look in her eye.

This layout design was a lift from another scrapbooker. I loved the squares with the chipboard flowers on them so I replicated them and added even more than the original.

I've already done a cousins page of this photoshoot, but I wanted to do another one with some of the non-smiling photos. 

Well it is almost Friday. Ryan has his first big test tonight, so we'll probably end up back at Arctic Circle tonight.



XOXO,

Holly & Co.



PS. Part II of the project I am working on was a success, D.I. had exactly what I needed. Just a few more finishing touches and I'll be ready to share :)

Monday Monday Monday

We got some good news early this morning, Ryan's brother's visa went through and he was on a plane today to Mexico to start his mission there. He had been sent to the South Salt Lake mission while he was waiting for his visa. Ryan got to talk to him briefly this afternoon, he ws excited and I'm sure relieved to get out of Salt Lake and onto warmer climates.



We were lucky today, we saw the sun today for the first time in over a week. It was nice to see it peeking through the clouds, although, I'm pretty sure we'll see snow tomorrow. I'm hoping there will be some this weekend. I found a really great sledding hill up on campus today, and I'm wanting to try it out. Zoe hasn't ever been sledding, but I'm pretty sure she'll love it.





I finally got started on a little project that I've had in my head for several weeks. It's not completed yet, but here is phase 1.

I'm heading to the DI tonight to hopefully get phase 2.

I've got some layouts to share but I'm still waiting for my battery charger, so those will have to wait.

Anyone else already thinking about Valentine's Day? Every year Target has the cutest stuff and it makes me want to decorate my house in hearts. Good thing I live 25 miles from a Target now :)

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Small Town Living

Our new hometown is about 5 square miles, give or take a couple gas stations and storage facilities. For the most part, I'm enjoying our new small town. But occassionally, things get interesting.



You have to double click on the picture below, and forcus on the door. If you look closely the figure in the door looks like a man, and not just any man, it's the Golly Green Giant. He hasn't moved since I first drove by him, almost 2 weeks ago. This must be his home during the winter.

Also, when you live in a small town + lots of snow, you are subjected to cabin fever. You find interesting ways to entertain yourself.

Here is Zoe walking around in my boots + her jammies. That was an interesting day.

One benefit of all this time inside, it actually getting some thing off your to-do list.

Ryan is working on my photo wall that I've been planning out for years, just never got around to to.

I'll show it again when it's all done and not just random.

I've got to get back to some cookies that are in the oven. Happy Sunday!

XOXO,

 Holly & Co.

Up to something...

So mischievous....and such a ham...



We're definitely getting a little bit of cabin fever around here. It snowed about 6-8 inches last night, topping the 18 inches already on the ground.



The bright side of being stuck in the house is, you get a lot done.

 I actually have started cooking again, and not just baking but actually cooking.

Last night I made beef and snow peas a la The Pioneer Woman.

It was good, not my favorite meal ever, but good. It probably would've been better with the sherry, but I used other things to make it appropriate.

Other things on the menu in the next week, beef stew, chicken tortilla soup, oven baked chicken, and homemade meatballs.



Sorry for the iPhone photos, I left my camera charger at my parents.



Hopefully we'll get to explore some more of town this weekend and stave off some of this cabin fever.



TGIF!



XOXO,

Holly & Co.



PS. Happy Happy Birthday to our dear friend, Preston. Wish we were there to celebrate with you! Hope you have a great day!

Picture Perfect

As soon as I saw the bookshelf stamp for this month's Studio Calico kit, I knew these pictures were perfect.

I've had lots of fun working with this kit. I really love the tree paper, especially the little hearts carved in them.

In the little pocket, there's some hidden journaling.

I love that both these layouts came from the same kit + add-ons. So versatile.

This one is about our last girl's night out. The blurry picture actually isn't that bad.

I've spent a lot of time inside lately, as the high this week was somewhere around 26 degrees.

Which means, lots of scrapping and watching movies.

We've been building lego towers and reading lots of stories.

I've got plans tonight to go into town tonight. By town, I mean Idaho Falls, which is about 25 miles away.

My friend, Aly is going with me, I'm glad she knows where she's going :)

I've got some major errands to run, including lots of grocery shopping.

I'm hoping to try out some new recipes.

Also, yesterday was my first post up at the Polka Dot Whimsy Blog. You can check it out here!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Gotta make do

My scrapping desk situation is a little different up here in Idaho. In our old house, I had most of the  extra kitchen space filled up with a desk and a table and drawers.

Here, we're planning on actually getting a kitchen table, so the desk is in our bedroom, since it's the onle place that has extra room. I'm hoping we'll eventually be able to get a card table or something, but for now, I'm working on the top of a small filing cabinet.

It's definitely different, but it works :)

Having a small space actually forces me to plan layouts a little betters since I only have so much room to spread out supplies.

I've got a couple layouts to share today, this first one, I've had the pictures for awhile, but finally got around to scrapping them last night.

This gingham strip your see here is actually fabric tape with a sticky back that I won on a blog contest months ago. I've wanted to use it, but never really found a good use for it. Until this layout :)



The little tab on the left side actually pulls out and there's some hidden journaling about our gingerbread house building activity.

This page is actually for my sister. She will find out when she reads this.

 Merry late Christmas, Happy early Birthday!

This I made using my own copy of the Studio Calico Buster Brown add-on this month. I liked parts of Buster Brown and parts of Betty Crocker, so I bought just the pieces I liked.

This is all from the Buster Brown add-on, except for the pink photo corners, I made those out of AC Dear Lizzy fabric paper and the bird stamp (which is from an earlier kit).

Today we're laying low, Zoe finally got sick. ( and by finally, I mean, my whole family was sick over Christmas and she managed to miss it, she's about 2 weeks late on getting sick)

She was coughing so hard she couldn't fall asleep long enough to take a good nap.

I made a big batch of cinnamon rolls,my mother-in-law's recipe, ande they turned out awesome, as usual!

Ryan is making dinner while Zoe and I watch "Princess and the Frog" for the 100th time...

My first blog post on the Polka Dot Whimsy blog will be up in a couple days,

 I'll let you all know when that is :)

Happy Sunday!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Day 1 of the New Routine

Verdict: We can do this! We survived.



Zoe went to her new school this morning. It was a rough start, but when I picked her up at lunchtime, she was all smiles.



Ryan enjoyed his classes. He came home at almost 3, quickly remembered he had another class and headed back to school



I'm working in our family room, with the printer on the floor, since my "office" isn't set up yet.



Yes, we can do this.



Last night we went to the Willis' house. They were so sweet and invited us over for dinner. We had delicious spaghetti and cheese bread (seriously it was AMAZING cheese bread). Yeah, Aly just had a baby 2 weeks ago, and she's already hosting dinner guests...superwoman.



We stayed way past Zoe's bedtime catching up, but it was so nice to see familiar faces. I had a mini breakdown yesterday. It all just hit me, like a wave. But I'm doing much better now.



We spent yesterday afternoon playing dress-ups and legos.

We're loving Rexburg, even though it's chilly :)

XOXO,

Holly & Co



We have arrived!

We have completed part II of our move to Idaho.

We are here, we are safe and we are tired.

We were so lucky to have so much help from both our parents during this multi-part move.

I'm so glad it's done.

This is actually still Utah, those mountains were just too pretty to pass up.

We are already loving our new place, as Ryan and my Dad were unloading the truck, a team of 8-10 guys showed up and helped them unload the whole truck, it took about 30 minutes.

We are truly blessed.

I don't often share too many spiritual things on this blog but my heart is so full I cannot stop today.

We have been guided and protected this entire move.

Everything has worked out perfectly. and I mean everything!

I feel such a sense of gratitude. Me, little ole' me, yes I am being watched out for.

 My family is being taken care of. I know were are exactly where we are supposed to be.

It's very evident in the smile on my face.

We do miss our friends and family in Sacramento, a lot.

But we are exactly where the Lord wants us, and that feels really good.

I'm so grateful for a Heavenly Father, who loves us and guides us and gives us reasssurance and comfort when we need it.

I'm so grateful for a seriously hard-working husband, who knows exactly what I need to hear, when I need to hear it. ( And for his muscles, they really come in handy during situations like these)

What sweet famililes we have, who give up their time and resources to help us move.

Thank you. A million times thank you.

Sigh, well I'm thinking a hot shower and a movie sounds great right about now, so I will sign off.

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

City Life- PDW January Layouts

I'm so excited to finally share my January layouts with my first Polka Dot Whimsy Kit!

This one is my favorite. I knew exactly when I saw this photo.

This greeen KI calendar paper was just perfect.

I did a lot of hand stitching on this one. I wanted the circles to "hang" like oranments.

I stamped on the blank kraft tag with the new Jenni Bowlin Ranger inks.

(hint: to make scallops, I used the #0 and only stamped half of it.)

 I absolutely LOVE those inks. I have 4 already and I think I'll be adding to my collection soon.

This layout came together really quickly.

I also used the new JBS inks on this layout. I stamped the butterfly (in lemon) onto the yellow cardstock and hand cut them out.

This last one is my favorite.

I cut out the cityscape and then lined up label stickers to make the background.

To make the "starts" I stacked some on the sequins pieces and tied them with twine.

I'm hoping to make more layouts but right now my stuff is all in boxes....again.

Hope you all had a great new year.

XOXO,

Holly & Co.