moments inked planner-unboxing {scrappy shopping}

I was super excited when I first heard about the Moments Inked Planner by Papertrey Ink. I read every blog post I could and watched all the YouTube videos I could find. And then I placed my order.
And I waited. And waited.
It took about two weeks to arrive. Which was disappointing, BUT I think a one-off because I ordered right in the middle of their annual anniversary sale (aka their busiest time of the year). So I'll give them a pass on the delay.
The planner arrived today and I wanted to share my initial reactions from my unboxing.

When you purchase the planner you have to buy a cover separately. They arrived in a box-the planner was securely shrink wrapped and the cover was loose in the box.

I immediately put the cover on my planner.
Love this color combo-makes me happy just looking at it.

The coil is rather large but it's very flexible and I don't feel like it will get in my way at all. The planner overall is MUCH smaller and more portable than anything I've ever used. I really happy with the "petite" ness of this planner. It feels perfect in my hand!

Oh, you guys, the paper. It is soooooooo nice. It has a slight texture feel to it. It is really the nicest paper I have ever seen in a planner. It's such a huge difference from other planners. I won't show you every layout in the planner but I do want to show you a few that I thought sets it apart from other planners.

The beginning of each month has a full page quote. Love this.

Monthly spread (I've already started adding a few stickers here and there...)

Weekly spread (similar layout to Erin Condren Morning, Afternoon, Evening layout, just smaller)

Daily pages. Oh, can we talk about how much I love these daily pages. Full color daily pages. With everything I've wanted in a daily page for as long as I can remember, DREAM. COME. TRUE. And, yes, each planner comes with monthly, weekly, AND daily pages. LOVE. :)

The back of the planner has address pages (so pretty), notes pages, and a year in review.

I am so beyond happy with this planner. It really has exceeded my expectations on first impression. I will give a full review after I have been in it a month or so. But for now, I'm in planner bliss.
Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or want to see more photos. I was in no way compensated for this post-PTI has no idea I am writing this and probably doesn't even know who I am. I'm just a crafty momma who likes to be organized.

hello there

I'm still alive. I haven't scrapbooked since last October and that makes me really sad. I spent some time this week organizing my craft room and putting together some pages kits. I've been reading some blogs again. I'm feeling the need to create again. To write again. To SHARE again.

Anyone else out there have to step away for a really long time to get perspective? How did you start back? I want to just jump back in but it feels so overwhelming.

Hoping to get at least one layout done this weekend. If that happens, I'll share it with you. If not, maybe I'll just share what's been inspiring me lately. :)

In fact, I'll start with this:

I just purchased this beautiful planner from Papertrey Ink. I can't wait for it to arrive. The colors, the set up. Everything about it just speaks to me and inspires me. And you all know how I love my planners. :)
I'll share some pics when it arrives.

What's been inspiring you lately?

the patch {a scrapbook layout}

The weather is turning colder in Ohio. We've been in the full swing of football season for the past 6 weeks and Cross Country season just ended for the twins.
I'm pretty proud of the fact that I have already gotten my Halloween decorations up (they were up October 1st!), the boys costumes purchased, and candy bags ready to go. I even hit the Kroger's candy sale and got a decent amount of candy for our Trick or Treaters! Yay, organized me!
With all of this talk of Halloween, we are going to a local pumpkin patch this weekend. This will be our first year going to this patch-we made a quick visit this past weekend to make sure it wasn't too "country". We are going with our adult Sunday School class (that my husband teaches) so we wanted to make sure it had plenty of attractions but wasn't too big.
Super excited to spend some time with my family and our friends. Moose and Jackson are VERY excited about getting a pumpkin! The twins are just looking forward to shooting a "corn cannon" (I have no idea).
In honor of this weekend's outing, I thought I'd share a layout I did of our visit to a local pumpkin patch in 2012. (Last year was a difficult year, and we never did buy pumpkins-oops!)

Pretty simple layout using some leftover paper from a Close To My Heart page kit. I glitzed it up with the pumpkin bling sticker I got from Tj Maxx. (It's from Martha Stewart Crafts-I think I paid $1 for it?)

Super fun! happy Wednesday!

friday i'm in love...{good stuff}

Sharing some things I love on this beautiful Friday.

• The flavoring factory down the street is clearly making maple syrup flavoring-so the whole neighborhood smells like pancakes. Love.
• Someone brought in donuts from Holtman's and I managed to get the one with apple filling. Love.
• I found a website that sells amazing dresses that you can customize to fit your height, sleeve length, etc. And it is affordable. I just ordered my first dress from eShakti this morning, I am super excited to get it-I am on the short side and really hard to fit, so this is a HUGE find for me. LOVE.
• Walgreen's prints Instagram photos and the quality is really, really good. I needed about 75 Instagrams printed (I know, I've been slacking on printing photos) and my usual printer for Instagram photos-PostalPix wanted $45 to print and ship. Ouch. Walgreen's did them in hour for $15! Same quality, more convenient, much more affordable. Walgreen's for the win. Love.
• Have you seen the new Heidi Swapp Project Life kits? I may or may not have purchased the Foil and Overlay kits for a project I am working on this weekend. Love.
• I am crafting this weekend. I haven't done that in a very long time. I am really excited about the project I am working on and can't wait to share it. Love.

Hope your Friday is full of things you love.

Ten on Tuesday {ramblings}

1. My oldest sons returned from a week at a church youth camp in Michigan on Saturday. Our whole family dynamic shifts when someone is gone. So glad to have the boys home. But could have done with our the three loads of stinky laundry they brought with them.

Tired and not happy with a photo but HOME!

2. I haven't created a scrapbook layout in 3 months. Yes, you read that right. 3 months. This makes me sad.

3. I have, however, decorated my planner. For years, I have used a paper planner to keep my life organized. I started using Franklin Covey planners just out of college. I switched to an Erin Condren Life Planner about 4 years ago. This past year I tried a Plum Paper planner (significantly less expensive and I was able to customize with my family's information). In the past few months, I've discovered planner groups on Facebook and the joys of decorating my planner. I'm not sure what this says about me.

Weekly Layout-each person has a "box"

Monthly Layout

4. It has been so unseasonably cool in Ohio that we have been in our pool exactly one time since coming back from Florida. I need some 90 degree weather.

5. I found out last week that I will be teaching first graders this fall in our church's Master Club program on Wednesday nights. I'm starting to work on my lesson plans and struggling to find resources. If anyone knows of some great websites-send them my way.

6. We have a garden in our back yard again this year. And the weird Ohio weather means our tomatoes are still green but we have TONS of hot peppers. No one in our family eats hot peppers. :/

From the Lakes Family Garden

7. After visiting Universal Studios & seeing the whole Harry Potter area, I finally broke down and watched the first two movies. I know. I must be the last person alive who hadn't seen them. And....I was underwhelmed. The scenery was pretty cool but I don't see what all the fuss was about. Sorry! {And I definitely don't see why people were willing to stand in line for EIGHT hours for the new Diagon Alley park while we were there-it opened the day before we went!}

8. I am currently obsessed with Orla Kiely make-up bags at Target. Because you can pretty much use them to organize ANYTHING. I have two of them in my bag-one for make-upy type stuff and another large one for other random stuff that I used constantly have to dig through my purse to find. Trying to resist the urge to buy a third for my work bag.

9. Did you know that Michael's stopped selling LePen pens? Ugh. After Archivers went out of business, Michael's was my only source for my favorite writing instrument. They have the Recollections brand that look like LePens, but they just aren't the same. Do you use LePen? Where do you get yours?

10. I still love my new job so very much. I have never felt so at peace with a decision. It completely changed my life in a good way. Happy Tuesday friends!

on my shelf... "i love you" {a scrapbook layout}

well, hi there. apparently things have changed a bit in the world of scrapbooking. no more two peas. no more magazines. wow.
and yet for me, nothing has really changed. i'm still old school -- layers of paper and photos. i'm "classic" like that. let's call it vintage. ha ha.
i keep a layout on my shelf above my supplies that is my "current favorite" in a cute holder.
this is my current favorite.

why yes, i am still using kraft as my background paper all. the. time. and yes, i am framing my photos with layers of patterned paper (this time it's peebles family line-love these papers, GREAT for boys!)

looking at this makes me happy.

what have you been up to? :)

blog redesign means...

I might just come back to this space and start writing again. :) I have loads of layouts waiting to be photographed and lots of posts written (in my head). Just need to schedule the time to type it all out and get it all uploaded.

So glad I walked away for awhile, it was desperately needed. I actually stayed away from all things scrapbooking (message boards, websites, stores, EVERYTHING) for about 3 months. I did stay updated on some of my scrappy friends via Instagram and Facebook but for the most part, I totally disconnected. I felt good.

I found that when I slowly started to returning to message boards and peeking at websites (still haven't returned to stores!), I could care less about the latest and greatest. Whew. And I decluttered and destashed a TON. I still feel like there is too much-thus the "no store" rule but I am getting to a much better place with simplifying. It feels good. I feel good.

I know my layouts will never earn me a spot on a design team, on a website or in a magazine (wait, do those even exist anymore?) but I love the community I formed with other women online.
Can't promise I will post 2-3 week like many of you - super women!-but I will post as often as I can. I'm okay with that-in fact, I won't feel guilty at all about that. I work full time and I'm raising four awesome young men. They get my time before anyone or anything else. But, I love writing, so when there is "me" time available, I'll spend it here. I feel good about that too.

So, there it is. Where I am right now. I feel like I am in a much better, happier place than I was last year. It feels good.