Technical Difficulties

Sorry the blog is all funky right now, photobucket is having some technical problems, but it should be resolved later today.

a little more technique

I've been trying to add a little more to my scrapping lately, a little technique or depth, 

whichever seems to work best with the page.

I worked on this layout last night. I combined masking and embossing for my title work.

Here is a detail shot.

First, I softly adhered some Pink Paislee Hometown Summer alpha stickers. 

Then, I coated the page with some MayaRoad Bubblegum mist and waited for it to dry.

After I made sure it was dry, I carefully pulled off the letters.

I used my new Zig embossing pen, to color in the negative image and then I covered it with white Zing embossing powder.

I used my heat gun that my sweet Mother-in-law let me borrow to set it.

Voila!

I really love the way it turned out.

I changed my blog layout to hopefully allow for bigger pictures.

I always feel like you can't see the detail in the photos when I make them fit inside the margins.

So I changed the margins :)

I'm currently typing as I sit next to an ornery toddler who is refusing to eat her dinner.

We've been here for 45 minutes.

Thank goodness for laptops.

Well I'm off to bake some well deserved cookies for me, myself, and I.

XOXO,

Holly & CO.

Buzy as Bees

Well, we said goodbye to Idaho this weekend.

Everything packed and moved.

We're settling in here in Utah. It's nice to be closer to the city.

Yesterday, we went to lunch at JCW's, in Highland.

We were impressed.

 It reminded Ryan and I of Stan's, the little burger joint in Provo where we had our first date.

I also got to break into my Studio Calico April Kit, and I'm in love.

After I started working with our wedding photos for my Polka Dot Whimst, April kit, I can't seem to stop.

Originally, I had wanted to do my wedding album in one color scheme throughout the whole thing,

But I think I'm really liking the "one page at a time" version.

I'm just going to put all the wedding layouts into one album together.

I really loved the mix of embellishments in this kits, especially the exclusive Cosmo Cricket Labels. :)

I'm still having so much fun with embossing. I love that white zing.

This layout, the original version, I ripped the pictures off and threw it away.

It was just not turning out.

Thank goodness I threw away that first version, this one is much better.

Happy Sunday!

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

Our Last Cupcake Trip {for awhile anyway...}

Yesterday we visited The Cocoa Bean Cupcake Shop one last time.



It was our friend Connor's birthday last week and we missed his party.

So what better way to celebrate than with cupcakes?!



There were 7 flavors I hadn't tried yet, but we only bought 6, and I only tasted 5 of them.



First up, my favorite of the day, Caramel Apple Pie.

It was like Thanksgiving in a cupcake, a mix between pumpkin and apple pie, with caramel mixed in. Yum!



Next up, Ultimate Brownie.

You can't even see all the goodness in this one. The bottom layer is a brownie mixture, with cheesecake on top of that, marshmallows stuffed in the middle, covered in sweetened condensed milk, topped with chocolate frosting. It's not for the faint of heart, definitely rich.

Then comes, Red Velvet.

Usually Red Velvet is really rich, especially the cream cheese frosting, but this rendition was surprisingly light :)

Not too rich, just enough sweet and topped with a chocolate covered strawberry.



Next up, Chocolate Malt.

This is chocolate, chocolate, then more chocolate. The cupcake is more of a dark chocolate flavor, topped with chocolate ganache and then chocolate frosting. Very Rich, would be great after a savory meal.



Last up, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup.

I've learned that their peanut butter frosting is way too much peanut butter flavor for me. Even in small doses it's overwhelming for my palate. The cupcake was good, and if you love peanut butter, you would love this. I guess I'm just not a huge peanut butter fan.



The one I didn't taste, was saved for our sweet babysitter, Karli. It's Lucious Lemon Raspberry.

Ain't it pretty ?

I think it has a lemon pudding type layer in the middle.

 I'm guessing it was close to the Lemon Blueberry cupcake.

This will be the last of the cupcakes for awhile.

 But I'm excited to make a mini book out of all of these pretty cupcakes. 

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

I love this girl!

When I saw this photo I laughed for a long time...Aly can witness.

This is just typical Zoe, always keeps up laughing.

Yesterday I had a tough day. I didn't feel well, on top of the stress of getting things ready, etc, it was just a tough day.

And out of frustration, I snapped at Zoe, and made her cry.

I felt to terrible. She wasn't doing anything wrong, she was just trying to play and I was trying to work on things, and she got in my way.

Ryan took her to McDonald's and let me get some stuff done and have some alone time.

When they came back, we got her ready for bed, and as I was about to tuck her in, she asked me to sing to her in the rocking chair.



As we sat down in the chair, I looked at her and apologized for yelling at her.

 I started to tear up and she took my face in her hands, and she said,

"It's OK mommy, please don't cry, it's OK."



I asked her to forgive me and then she said,"

"Yes, I do mommy, let's be a happy girl!"



Then I asked is she was still my friend and she said,

"Yes Mommy, You are my friend forever."

I love the capacity of little children to teach us.

After I put her to bed, I said a silent prayer of repentance for my actions and gratitude, for this special little girl who came into our family. Who keeps us laughing, reminds us to love unconditionally and forgive openly.

I challenge you today, to make time to say "thank you" and "I love you" to those around you.



{Photos all by Aly Willis, Although I took creative liberties in LR 3 with the editing}





XOXO,

Holly & Co.

PDW April Revealed

I'm excited to share my Polka Dot Whimsy April Layouts! I absolutely LOVED this month's kit. I used the kit to finally scrap some wedding photos.

What a Hunk!

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but before I had the guts to tell Ryan, "I Love You," I would say "You are my Favorite," in it's place. 

It's kinda our thing :)

I had totally forgotten about this picture.

I can't believe I forgot about it, because it's one of my favorites from our wedding day.

It was at our reception and we finally got a chance to sit 

and be together and reflect on the big step we had just made.

This layout took a long time, but it turned out just how I had wanted it to.

Sometimes, I get stumped on how to use all the ribbons and embellishments that come in the kits.

Lace + Wedding photos just seemed natural.

My sewing machine actually broke before I made this layout and I didn't want to staple the lace, so I used my glue gun....very carefully. 

I put teeny tiny dabs underneath the largest part of the lace all across the page.

I only got to make these 3 layouts so far, but I'm hoping to get to play more after we move this week.

XOXO,

Holly & Co.

I'm Back

Zoe and I took a last minute trip down to Utah this weekend.

This meant I packed up as much as I could in about 5 hours to bring down to my parent's house. 

We had some extended family that was in town, so we spent Friday evening hanging out with them.

I snapped this picture of Zoe and Great-Grandpa.

I realized I have hardly any pictures of my or Ryan's grandparents with Zoe.

and that made me sad, so I am determined to take more!

Saturday and Sunday, we spent the day listening to General Conference and eating lots of yummy food :)

This week is going to be busy with finals and packing but I'm hoping we'll have a little bit of fun thrown in.

XOXO,

Holly & Co.