It's Me, KP

Moda Bella RAK

Life is busy, not much time to blog lately.  But yesterday was ACDT box day and since I had received a box a few weeks ago I figured I could do a RAK during my blogging slump :)

It's all American Crafts Moda Bella.  Delicious.  I love this line, especially since it's fashion inspired.

And I think I have some more Thickers to throw in there too.

I'll leave up the RAK for the rest of the week... just leave a fashion related comment... your favorite store, favorite piece of clothes, favorite designer, who you think is going to win Project Runway -- anything!  I love fashion talk :)

Scrap Insanity

I am *almost* done with an insane scrapping marathon trying to finish up projects for a book by tomorrow morning.  This weekend was spent working non-stop and staying up til 3:30 Friday & Saturday nights.  Ay yi yi.  Mostly because I would glue things down then 10 minutes later change my mind.  Some of my pages have like 4 layers of things I just kept covering up... anyone else do this?!?

Last night I took a little break for dinner downtown and Cirque du Soleil Kooza...

A photo of the tents from my point & shoot camera.  

The show was AMAZING!!!!  Probably the best show I've ever seen... and I've heard that the permanent shows in Vegas + Orlando are even better.  Wow.  So many incredible tricks and they were doing jumps and things that were so crazy it was making my palms sweat.  As soon as it was over I asked Kevin if we could go again ;)  This show is traveling the rest of the year so if it's coming by you GO!!!!!

And now back to scrapping :(  Have a good week everyone!

Chaos Theory Cakes

I hate to tell you, this week really hasn't gotten more exciting.  Mid-term, work, scrapping.  Oh and cupcakes :)  A new bakery opened down the block called Chaos Theory Cakes.  It's owned by Bleeding Heart Bakery, which is also right down the street, and famous for vegan and organic baked goods.  Absolutely loved the decor and original flavors...

Kevin got chocolate peanut butter... and yes that is bacon on top. Bacon.  I think there were also bacon pieces in the cake...

I'm not sure how well he liked it ;)

I picked out jalepeno cilantro lemon and a curry with chocolate ganache...

As much as I hate to say it, I think I'm just plain vanilla ;)

Sunrise, Sunset

Dear Google Reader readers... just a heads up for you, I re-edit my posts quite a bit.  You've probably figured that out by now ;)  A few weeks ago I signed up and put all my favorite blogs on GR (how much do I love it!) but never checked out my own.  And now I realize that every time I publish the blog, it shows up as a new GR post.  Pretty much every time I post, I will go back and change something... sorry that it is showing up like 5 times on GR.  I will try not to be so picky about posts :)

Anyway, this morning I got up really early (to me at least) and went down to see the sunrise on Lake Michigan.  My timing was a little off but it was still gorgeous.  So cool to see it rise, when I am used to (and always more awake for) it setting into the lake from West Michigan, where I grew up.  

Here is the sun coming up in Chicago, looking towards Michigan.  And here is the sun setting last May in Michigan, looking towards Chicago...

And the city being slowly lit by the sun...

It's so peaceful in the morning.  There are so many places that I still want to live in my life, but right now I am happy to be here.  I am still in love with Chicago.  I ride the train on a bridge over the river every day and the view never fails to make me look up and feel happy.

Here is a layout I did for the deal of the day at 2ps about my love for the beach and Lake Michigan...

 

You Know Me So Well

Today was a long and boring day. Bad combination. I got cranky.

But after several mis-happenings, my coat finally arrived. Yay.  And then I got a new email from JCrew.com titled "Pretty. Little. Ruffles." Can you picture me in this outfit? Wait, here's a little help...

I'm sold. Especially on the yellow. Doesn't take much I guess. Just a little photoshop ;)

And then Kristina emailed me a link to this Etsy store. Word bubbles and labels. Yes, please!

Those were the highlights of my day. Awesome. Sorry boring blog post... hopefully the rest of the week will pick up ;) Hmmm, so how 'bout a jumping pic...

And why don't I throw in a cupcake...

Cupcakes and jumping. My life in a nutshell.

Wonderful Weekend

I always dread starting the work week again after a fun weekend.  More fun, more fun!!!  Lots of good times with friends Saturday + Sunday...

Kevin's friend Tim came to town...

We went out for Mexican and margaritas.  Yum.  And then my best friend Heather + her husband and sister-in-laws joined us.  So happy to see Heather again...

We all moved on to some Wrigleyville bars.  The boys love Oberstein, a German bar...

We did a little dancing before I headed for bed :)

Today I got to meet up with Liz and her family to take some photos.  It was so great.  They are the best models and have fun ideas for poses.  We walked around her neighborhood downtown.  A few of my faves (there are so many that I love)... 

Such a happy weekend :)

Come Chat with Me!

Maybe this post should be titled Please Please Come Chat with Me! ;)  Tomorrow and Friday 2ps is doing a Back to School online crop + classes.  There are cool class projects, challenges, and I think I heard prizes mentioned as well :) 

You can come chat with me about my class on the education board tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. CST.  I'm not going to lie, I always get time zones confused so just to help you out it's 10 a.m. EST, 8 a.m. MST, and 7 a.m. PST... wow, early for you West Coasters (or early to me at least, ha ha!)

So please come chat with me so I'm not the crazy girl sitting there talking to myself... would could still be entertaining... ? ;)  See you there!

The Library (and a Winner!)

Thank you so much for all the comments on the Hero Arts giveaway!  I love reading the recommendations, those are my favorite kind of comments :)  The winner is...

I am so enjoying fresh, local fruit. Here in Ca we have pluots (combo between a plum and apricot). Super sweet and a beautiful purple.

Posted by: tammy g | August 05, 2008 at 12:22 PM

Tammy, email me your address (link on the side) and Hero will get those sent right out to you!  Thanks everyone for playing!  In case you didn't know, Jennifer McGuire is doing a class at 2ps on stamping on transparencies. She does such an awesome job, I've learned so much from her tutorials!

One of the few perks of paying thousands of dollars to go back to school is taking advantage of the library (and flashing my student ID to get cheaper movie tickets ;))

I have just recently discovered what an awesome resource this is!  Since it's a design school there are so many books that I want to borrow.  I took out a stack on web design, Photoshop, CS3, and photography.  Can't wait to dig in.  The magazine racks are awesome too.  I had no idea there were so many out there on art & design.  The school also has a culinary department so I always stop and pause at the many food mags too... but who am I kidding, those are way over my head ;)

And I was delighted to get a comment from Kimmie recommending Mr. Campy from Cosmo Cricket!  Last night I stopped at Windy City and was excited to see they had him in stock... I bought tons.  Even though I had some work to get done last night, I had to play a bit and make a Mr. Campy layout just for fun.  I love him :)

Hero Giveaway!

Hero Arts is one of those companies that I absolutely love... great people, very generous, and they make awesome products!  I love checking out the Hero Blog everyday because there are tons of ideas and tips over there.  So fun!

This week Leslie Lightfoot (how much do I love her work!!!) is hosting the blog and asked me to contribute a card using this color scheme...

You can check out what I did and also what my sweet friend Becky Novacek did with her color scheme here.

And Hero Arts is so cool, they told me I could give away this set of stamps...

Love this set... there are tons fun possibilities with it!  Just leave a comment with a recommendation for me - anything that you are loving right now and want to share :)  I will draw a winner tomorrow night.

One more thing... here is my first layout that went up in this month's Garden at 2ps.  It uses this Hero Arts alpha set that I love :)

Girls and Boys...

**sorry... i decided to give my blog a little makeover and ending up re-posting this post.  thank you for the comments, and so sorry they got deleted!!!**

Lots of photos to share from a fun weekend!

Saturday = Scrapurday... Liz, Mara, Emily, and Josie came over and we got scrappin'... and I made them indulge me in some photos. I've discovered how hard it is to get 4 people mid-air at the same time...

I love hanging with Liz because she will always ham it up for the camera. I got some great ones of her and this is one of my faves...

Mara...

Em & Josie...

And this is what happens when I'm in charge of the camera remote... (I love it because it looks like Em is telling me to "get down right now!" ;)

Then on Sunday I hung out with the boys... we went downtown to see Batman. Finally. They wanted to see it on the IMAX, and I guess it has been sold out for 2 weeks. The boys are not so willing to pose for pics like the girls...

Batman was SO GOOD!!! It was cool to see so much of Chicago in the background. Especially when the two boats were pulling away from the pier... which was Navy Pier, where we were watching the movie :) I took a ton of photos before we went into the show, there is a great view of the skyline from there. Here is Gotham City...

Have a good week, everyone!!! :)