New Studio J Layouts to share...

I've been having fun creating layouts using Studio J!  I'm now caught up through June of 2009.  This feels like a huge accomplishment because I've done practically ZERO personal scrapbooking since we brought Ruby home - except for the layouts that I've made for her birth mom.

Here's a layout I did of Sam's 4th birthday.  This kit is for members only and is SO cute!

This one is using the Lucky kit - which I really love using.  It is so versatile!

And in the "old" house we did a room makeover for Samantha.

I'm also completely caught up with my daughter's class album for this year.  I'm the class photographer, so I've been creating scrapbook layouts of each event all year.  Then I've printed a copy for Sam's teacher.  She keeps the book in the classroom so that the students and parents can look at it.  So fun!

I won't post those pages, because I don't know how all the moms feel about their kids faces being online, but I will say that it only cost me $128 to order 18 layouts, including shipping - that's 36 PAGES!!!  And that's not with any consultant discount - only a Studio J membership (available to anyone).

Want to try Studio J?  Check out my friend Christine's website and click the Studio J link!

Birthday Bread

My daughter's teacher had a birthday last week, and Dave graciously offered to bake her a loaf of our favorite Potato Chive and Cheddar bread. 

He's been baking bread like crazy lately, and even started a blog to journal his thoughts, recipe modifications, and baking process.  It's an awesome blog, and you should check it out by clicking HERE!  However, I don't recommend reading it on an empty stomach.  :)

Here's a close up of the bread (He baked 2 loaves so we could have one too.  YUM!)

Antique Jar Needle Storage

I haven't posted what's "on" my needles in a while (save that for the next post), but today I'd love to share "where" my needles are.

While antiquing over the weekend, I happened upon a beautiful old jar filled to the brim with knitting needles.  Immediately I was overwhelmed with pure, unadulterated, instant LOVE!  My needles are always all over the place.  When they are put away - which isn't often - I store them in really ugly, but useful, cardboard tubes labeled by size.  But I use truly lovely needles (Harmony by Knit Picks) and stuffing them in these tubes makes me sad.  I want the world to see how pretty they are!  Additionally, it's much more handy to have them out in an easy to reach place rather than shoved in a drawer.

Solution.  Fabulous antique jars filled with my knitting needles.  Genius, I say... pure genius!  And in the process I cleaned off the top of my desk too.

The empty jars will have needles... they just happen to be in use at the moment.

Party Pennants

I have a new paper passion in the form of party pennants!  I've been working on making a few over the past few months, and even made one as a decoration for Wendi's surprise birthday party.  While antiquing last weekend, I saw them everywhere - wood pennants, fabric pennants, paper pennants, ribbon pennants.  Oh my!  Looks like pennants are all the rage!

Here is the one I did for Wendi.  Her party theme was in the colors of chocolate brown and tiffany blue.  I used mostly CTMH supplies for the pennant, including the chipboard triangles (My Creations Banner), Cardstock in Chocolate, Heavenly Blue, and Pacifica, and patterned paper from the Bliss paper packet.  I also used chipboard letters and prisma glitter.  The cupcake on the first and last triangle is a Stampin' Up punch.

Here are each of the panels close up:

Weekend Away...

This past weekend was PERFECT!  I took my best friend Wendi on a "girls weekend" to Portland to celebrate a milestone birthday.  We ate, and shopped, and ate, and shopped, and ate some more (and my scale and bank statement prove it!).  What she didn't know - and came to find out - was the culmination of the weekend was a surprise birthday party for her!  She was totally and truly shocked, which was awesome.  And she felt completely loved and blessed by her friends - which was even better than the surprise...

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Let's start at the beginning.

Friday, 8:30 am, I pick up Wendi and we head to our favorite donut shop, Frost.  I had a coupon - buy 2, get 1 free.  So I had an old fashioned chocolate, Wendi had a blueberry pancake, and then we split the bacon maple bar.  Mmmmmmmm...

Next we hit the road.  We were headed to Portland, Oregon, but made one quick stop in Centralia.  Now, I'm a pretty good driver, but a TERRIBLE parker.  And on this trip I got to practice parallel parking a LOT, and most of the time it was in the rain, on busy downtown streets.  But, thanks to Wendi's expert tutelage I perfectly parked not once, not twice, but THREE times.  I'm so proud.  :)  Here's a shot of my first "success".

The first antique store we stopped at in Centralia was a bust.  But the second was a GOLDMINE!  (It's called Painted Lady).  Look how adorable their checkout area is!  We saw a lot of trellises made from doors/windows and twinkle lights on this trip.  So pretty!

This was my score - The window frame and the white lattice screen behind me!  They are going to be awesome for the Edmond's Summer Market.

We quickly got back on the road, and made it to Portland by mid-afternoon.  We stayed at the Kennedy School - a McMenamins hotel named the "quirkiest hotel of 2010".  It was incredible, and boasted a movie theater, heated soaking pool, restaurant, 6-7 pubs, and brewery.  But the coolest part are the guest rooms, which are actual classrooms from this 1915 elementary school.  

This was one of the corners of our room.  The original chalkboards lifted up to reveal coat rack, closet, and Murphy bed.

After checking in to the hotel, we ventured back out for more shopping.  We stopped at Monticello - the most amazing antique shop either of us had EVER been.

Saw cool pennants like this everywhere - more on this tomorrow...

We found treasures galore, and some of them even got to come home with us...

...alas, some of them did not.  I found this little 10 foot (or more?) wonder - complete with twinkle lights.  But at $4200 I don't think Dave would have been too happy with me bringing it home.  And our neighbors probably wouldn't be thrilled with it sitting in our yard either.  Sigh....

After antiquing for a few hours, we decided we needed a fiber fix.  We made our way to Twisted - and if you read my blog regularly, you'll know that this is my "most favoritest, all around best, super wonderfullest" yarn store of all time.  It was so great to be there in person again.

...and we both found a few treats we couldn't live without.

Of course we were starving after that.  So we made our way to East India Co. for one of the best Indian meals I've ever had in my life.

Then we made our way back to the hotel and crashed.  Saturday was just as packed.  We started the morning a bit more healthy than Friday - with Oatmeal from Starbucks instead of donuts.

Then we found the "Goodwill SUPERSTORE" - it was gigantuan.  We actually wondered if this place sold groceries or appliances it was so big (they don't).  But it was clean, and extremely well organized (we're talking kitchen wares and ceramics organized by item AND color).

From there we found the Sellwood district, which is a definite can't miss destination for antique and boutique lovers.  Our favorite shop was Tilde, which featured items created by local artisans.  Everything was incredibly unique and VERY cool.  We both fell in love with the featured artist's work.  Her name is Trish Grantham, and she does watercolor/acrylic paintings over pages taken from antique Japanese books.  Then she pours resin over the piece to make it shiny.  The finished pieces are amazing.  I wanted to take all of them home with me!  (But had to settle for a few prints, for now).

We also ate lunch at Jade Teahouse and Patisserie.  WOW.  Amazing.  Really, there are no words to describe how awesome the food was here, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The menu.

My coconut rice noodle soup (with shrimp, crunchy veggies, and shredded chicken):

chocolate mudslide cookie with sea salt for dessert (yes I make that goofy face a LOT):

Wendi's salad and truffle oil fries with S'mores cookie:

Thoroughly filled to the brim, it was time for more shopping!  We made our way to the Mississippi district on the advice of the Tilde shop owner.  It was kooky, and silly, and very fun.  We had hoped to make it to the Portland Saturday Market as well as Voodoo Donuts too - but ran out of time.

We got back in the car, and headed for home.  I had told Wendi that we were meeting our husbands and kids for dinner, and had cooked up an elaborate scheme to make a quick pit stop at a friend's house (for a computer part for Dave).  What was actually waiting at the pit stop was a house full of Wendi's family and friends (over 50 people!).  She was beyond surprised - and was a little mad at me for lying and not making her dress better.  But in the end we all had a blast.  It was the perfect weekend!

Congrats!

Congratulations to Sheila H. who commented on my "Blog Makeover" post.  (Post #2)

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: 

Result:

2Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Shelia - you won a paper crafting template of your choice!  Click on the Papercraft Template tab, and let me know which one you'd like.  Then email me at nonapearl@firebin.net with your email address and I'll send it to you!

Keep coming back for more cool contests!

Harley

I haven't had much time to knit or paper craft over the last two weeks.  Turns out that having a puppy is much like having a baby, and if I'm not playing with, walking, supervising, or feeding the dog, I'm playing with, feeding and supervising the human kids.  I'm exhausted!

But boy is Harley cute, and such a good boy.  Here's my favorite shots of him over the past few days...

Smiling doggie...

I took Harley for a walk, and Sam took Ruby.

   

Our handsome boy.  You can really see his white fur coming in.  When he is full grown, he will likely be completely silver/white on his head.

I like my new bed, momma!

Blog Makeover

I've been playing on my blog tonight!  Check out the new blog tab I just posted titled "Nona's Papercraft Templates"!  People have been asking for my patterns for a LONG time, and now that I'm not a CTMH consultant, there's no reason I can't share them.  In the future I hope to release more templates featuring products from other companies as well (since my craft room is pretty well stocked).  If you have ideas of something you'd like to see, shoot me and email!

I'll be working on adding more tabs as the days/weeks go by.  I'm thinking a tab for knitting patterns, a tab for stash busting (aka - crafty garage sale), and perhaps a tab for my favorite new blogs/websites.  Tabs are fun!  Additionally, I'll have some fun prizes and giveaways soon, so be sure to check back.

In fact... how about I do a little giveaway right now!

Leave a comment about what you think of my new tab content, and at noon on Sunday (Pacific Time), April 17th, I'll pick one lucky person who will win any one template of their choice!

New Directions

You may or may not have heard, but I thought I would post an "official announcement" here on my blog so there aren't rumors started or strange untrue stories going around.

Last month I resigned from Close To My Heart.  It was a decision that has been years in the making, and something that I took very seriously.  After many tears, long heartfelt discussions with my best friends and my husband, and much prayer, I decided that resigning would be the best decision for my business.

I've been making business decisions far too long based purely on emotion, and the fact is, emotions don't pay the bills.  My leaving is not political in any way.  I dearly love the corporate staff of CTMH, I love my fellow consultants, and of course my customers were the BEST!  The product is amazing too, and I still plan to use CTMH supplies even if I no longer sell them.

Everyone who has heard this news has been very supportive and understanding of this decision.  I'm excited for the future and what new business ventures will come my way.  As of today, my knitting is taking up a HUGE amount of my time and energy and I fully intend to continue marketing my patterns, and selling the finished wares locally and online.  Additionally, I do have a few other ideas in the works, which I will happily reveal as they are ready.

I still plan to post about both knitting and paper crafting, as well as my family, and other random tidbits here on the blog.  I hope you will continue to follow me, or pop in on occasion and catch up on what's going on.

New Patterns Released Today

I have two new patterns for sale on Knit Picks today!

Check out my Adult Cupcake Hat Pattern - a great addition to the cupcake knitting line.  Now you can sport this trendy accessory along with your kids!

Also new to the pattern line up - my Fern Ear Warmers.  Perfect for breezy spring days (and those early morning dog walks).  Fern will keep your ears warm with no hat hair in sight.

Pick up both patterns at Knit Picks - and soon on my Etsy and Ravelry pages as well.  Special thanks to my best friend Wendi for modeling for me!

BIG weekend in a little package...

Something BIG happened in our house this weekend, but he comes in such a tiny package!

This is Harley - the newest member of the Davenport clan.  :)  He is a 7 week old Yorkshire Terrier.  He is currently about 1.5 pounds, but will be between 6-7 lbs full grown.  He is so soft and cuddly, and he's learning quickly.  We're still working on sleeping through the night (he gets a little lonely at around 3 am, and has been letting us know vocally).  He does have the potty thing pretty much down though.  He goes outside or on his potty pad about 95% of the time.  It's been a long time since we had a dog, and we are all so happy he's home!