The Paustenbaughs

Real Housewives of Montclair

So I've never been quiet about my love for all things Bravo TV, especially the Real Housewives shows.  Yes, they are ridiculous nonsense and portray women in the worst light ever.  I still love to watch the ridiculousness of it all each week. Their "reality" takes me away from mine for a few minutes.  The End.

My amazing friends threw me an awesome going away party before our move, and thanks to the Studio Calico Sunday Sketch I have now put it down on pretty paper:

This layout is based on this sketch from Nicole Samuels' flower girl layout:

I was beyond thrilled when Lisa asked if I would take part in this week's sketch.  There are lots of talented ladies to pick from over at Studio Calico and never expected an email, but so happy I was asked!

And even happier I documented this crazy fun night already while it's still fresh in my mind!  Miss these ladies so, so much!

 

They are 1 in a Million

As someone who moves every 2-3 years you would think that packing up and moving our lives, including moving away from friends, would be old hat by now.  Very much not so.

I miss my friends.  The friends that know me. The ones that don't care that I'm inappropriate, have the sense of humor of a 14 year old and enjoy brainless tv on occasion.  Those friends.

Sure, I'm meeting some incredible ladies here that will also go in this category, but it always takes me a few months to "feel people out" so to speak and figure out who I gel with.  I'll get there; I know I will. 

In the meantime though, it gets lonely.

Creating has always been therapeutic for me, but especially so during moves.  I find myself reaching for photos of family and friends and laughing while I cut paper!

Oh how I miss them all and for different reasons!  So happy to have these photos and to have this creative outlet to look back at the fun times we had!

I never know what to do with vellum so I decided to wing it and stitch a little envelope for my journaling tag because I knew I wanted more than just a few words for this layout.  I needed more than a few words and I'm so happy with how it turned out. 

Here's to making more amazing friends that will shed tears with me when moving time comes around once again in 2 years!

Numbers, Numbers Everywhere

I have a new layout up for the Ormolu Blog today using numbers in our life right now. I did a layout like this a few years ago about the numerology in our lives at the moment, and since our lives change what seems like every week I thought it was time to do one again.  Let's just say I got a wee bit crazy here and it went a little out of control.  I'm just warning you!

See? I told you so!

It started out innocent enough with some simple color blocking, then well, let's just say I may have had a manic moment and things got a little out of control here! 

Anyway, this is our life right now in numbers.  In 2 years these will all be different once again and this is why I actually used the "one of a kind" flapper as well.  I wouldn't trade this one of a kind life for anything.  Yes, even in the midst of super stressful moves, I am still in it for the love of it.  I may not know what to do when these numbers one day stay the same for many years.

On a totally side note, I think I need a thousand of these Studio Calico letters now.  I misted them lightly with Schoolhouse and love the contrast.

Have a good Thursday!

Twine Love

I have noticed for quite some time that there are very, very few layouts and projects that I have absolutely no twine on them.  I may or may not have a slight addiction to twine of all colors.  It's always one of my finishing touches on a project and I should probably take stock in it at this point!

I made a layout for the Ormolu blog last week and instead of the twine being a finishing touch, I made it the center the project-literally and figuratively!

I finally got my Studio Calico "&" mask out and used it after all this time.  After I misted, I was going to stitch around it, but instead decided to go the easy route and wrap twine around it.  The shop has some great twine colors and I went with black on this one to contrast against the yellow mist.

I always like to see the changes in the girls from the first to the last day of school and it is amazing to see literally how much they've grown and changed in just 9 short months.  The hair, the height, the grown up looks just amaze me!  One thing that hasn't changed? The absolute glee on Ella's face going into and coming out of kindergarten.  Never a dull moment with that one!

Have a great Monday!

Holiday Mini

I have a giveaway for this very kit if you scroll down to the bottom of the post!

This month at Write.Click.Scrapbook it's been mini month for all of March.  This week we are focusing on a Studio Calico kit.  Today is my turn and I made a mini about our recent (ish) trip to the Bahamas over our Christmas vacation.  I started with the smaller Studio Calico journaling kit/album and went from there!

I love these Pink Paislee mistables!  I was unsure at first, but they are so versatile with a little mist.  I've started hoarding some of them!

I'm so glad to finally get this mini album together!  It normally takes me a year to put one of these together, and I only wish I were kidding!

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And now for the best part?  I'm going to give away a Daydream Believer Kit to a lucky winner!  I subscribe to Studio Calico and thought I would need the extra to put this together and come to find out with my stash and small album I had plenty of leftovers!

Leave me a comment by Friday 4 pm and I'll draw a winner.  It will be mailed out Easter weekend.

Spring Means, uh, Halloween?

Today is March 12th, so you know what that means?!  It's time to TAKE TWELVE!  Today only you can save 12% on any 2 items, including the Take 12 Guided Inspiration Kit for taking your photos.  

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Today I have a new layout up on the Ormolu Blog and well, since it's spring I did a Halloween layout.  I tend to scrap against the grain and this is no different!  You have to go with what inspires you, right?!

I had these great Negative Number tags from the Studio Calico Brookly Flea Kit and started with those first, well, after the photos of course!

Maya and Ella decided that for Halloween this past year they would convert their pillow pets into costumes.  They loved their costumes and I think they rocked them too!  So for an evening we had some pets in the house again and the only kind of pets I want for a while-they're house trained!! 

And Ella has her costumes planned out for the next 5 years!

Happy Monday!  I'm off to continue taking my photos!

 

Summer Mini

This month at write.click.scrapbook our gallery features nothing but mini albums!  I absolutely love seeing what the other ladies came up with for their minis, and in my case, not so minis!

Today I'm going to share a few pages of mine.  If I shared it all it would be the world's longest blog post I fear, so we'll get to it in installments!  Plus, it's a light crafty week for me, so it gives me something to blog about later when I'm at a loss.

I started with a Fancy Pants Brag Book as a base for the album.  As soon as I saw these albums, I went and stocked up on a couple of them.  After using one I'm thinking I need to stock up on more!

I kept holding on to this older map paper from Studio Calico and nearly threw it away a couple of times, but so, so glad I didn't!  I wanted that to be the focus of the front since it's a travel album and went with a simple title/cover for the bottom part.  I stitched it all together, put a fabrip on for added color and called it done!

I made a very simple inside cover/first page to the album to list all the places we ventured off to during our crazy busy summer last year.  I wanted to keep the focus on the pages of our adventures.

We first headed off to our annual Myrtle Beach vacation with Grandma.  She is so extremely good to us and every year for the past 4 years has taken us down to their timeshare/condo in Myrtle Beach.  We always have an awesome time and come home with luggage that is a few pounds heavier with all the sand!

The lined pages for journaling are so fantastic in this book.  I really can't say enough about them.  I also covered several of them up with paper and photos for the book too!

Although I used a little bit of newer stuff, I tried to focus on using up some stash too and clearing out some bits and pieces I had left of Studio Calico kits.  Kind of invigorating to use up things that have just been sitting there for some time!

And those photo sleeves? Also an awesome touch with this book!  I didn't want it to be so thick you couldn't look through it, so these sleeves were great for those extra photos that didn't need another story to go with them.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back with more later!

Natural Competitor

This one:

definitely got her dad's competitive spirit.  Maya and I are in it for the experience and if we win great, and if we don't, well better luck next time.  Terry and Ella are in it to win it for sure!!

We saw this first hand last summer during swim team.  Ella started in the "mini" Rays, where it was glorified swim lessons, but she was quickly moved up to the competitive team after one practice.  She wasn't so much into the daily practices, but boy her first meet rolled around and she had fire in her eyes!

We told her what to do and where to swim and she was on it!  We watched her as she took a breath, looked around at her competition and kicked it into high gear to get to the finish line.  She didn't come in first place, but she did place in several events.

She lived for Saturdays when she could get out and race again and was disappointed if she wasn't in a particular race.  I believe this summer we have a competitive swimmer on our hands!  Should be fun to watch her bloom.  And p.s.-her dad is ecstatic that she got that competitive spirit!

I have been hoarding this Custom Flair from Ormolu for a while now and decided I needed to get it out of the packaging and actually USE IT!!  I thought it was perfect for this layout with all the intense bright colors and it sort of pops.  The ribbon was perfect too from this Studio Calico kit to highlight a swim ribbon.

I took a chance and tried some rub ons on the fabric swatch too.  I was nervous that it wouldn't work and then my absolute favorite swatch would be ruined, but yay for experiments working out!  These are older rub ons too and they went on beautifully.  I highly recommend them.

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Just a reminder that you can still save 20% on the new Ella Publishing Stamping Secrets eBook now through March 7th.  I can't say enough about this book-I'll be reading and re-reading it to help me in the stamping department!

Eight is Enough

I took the Ella Publishing challenge this week and made a layout using only 8 layouts.  I started off thinking it might be a little difficult, but not so bad.  Boy was I wrong!!  I realized how many little bits and pieces I use on my layouts that equals WAY more than 8 products. 

I chose to use 3 sheets of patterned paper because I knew that I could at least use punches to break down that paper.  I use twine on almost all my layouts so I knew I would definitely use that too.

That library card is downloaded from Shimelle, via 2 Peas In A Bucket.

And since there is a new Stamping eBook debuting this week, I dug out some stamps to use too!  Until March 7th the ebook is 29% off!!!

This book has some really great expert tips from some phenomenal stampers and includes video instruction too.  Seriously, for an amateur stamper like myself, it has some amazing tips and tricks in it!

Head on over to Ella, or you can link on over from the button to the left.

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Super Tiny Mini

I have a project up on the Ormolu Blog today that I've been wanting to make for a while.  I love the little ticket books that Kaitlin puts together and I have been wanting to make a itty bitty mini out of them, but wasn't sure how.  I kind of wanted to do more with this, but time, work and life got in the way, but I'm still proud with how it turned out!

I made a little ticket reward book for the girls of places to go (hence the GO ticket book!) for good behaviors.  I used the original tickets as a template and cut out patterned paper to use the pages of this.

To add a pop of color I embellished the front cover as well.

I stitched up the side of it and realized I had a wee bit too much paper in the sewing machine and the adhering stitch came out fairly ugly and and not stitched well!  So I covered it with some washi tape to finish it off and cover up the ugliness!

Finally, I tied it all up and voila, a reward memory mini book! 

If you are automatically a fast scrapper you won't be impressed with this, but I completed the entire thing from start to finish in 30 minutes!!  Yay for quickness!  I wasn't trying to throw it all together, but once I got going it went quickly.  This is a new record for me for sure!