I think I will Dare myself.

Every time the Effer Dares put out a new challenge I tell myself this week you will do it!  This week you will pull out your paper and glue and take it on.  However week after week and now year after year I still have yet to try one out.  Currently they are up to number 183 so I am totally behind:)  Their prompts are totally different then other challenge sites, sort of make you look at scrapping in a whole new perspective and I sort of need that these days to give me a jump start.  Well I am going back to Dare #1 and I am working my way through them starting last night. 

Dare #1 can be found here.  Its all about heart.  As you can see from the post each of the team mates took it on in their own style.  

This is what I came up with:

This is my favorite picture of my dad. It was taken back in the sixties when he was in the Marines.  I think it was taken in Vietnam, not 100% on that fact.  For the background I created a mosaic heart which I cut out and pop dotted on top of light gray paper.  With the heart being the main event on this layout, I kept the rest simple.  Just a touch of journaling around the heart and that's it.

On to Dare #2!!!

A to Z, the Patty version

I am trying my best to blog more.  When I look back through the years I have had a blog here on blogger, I see that I used to blog a lot more just about every day life.  So that is the plan, to try and document more about my life and not just scrap book pages.  For starters I saw this A to Z thing on Amy Tangerine's blog and I figured that I would give it a shot, get that ball rolling.  If your reading this I think you should do it to and if you do, let me know:)

A. Age: 31 soon  to be 32 in December!
 

B. Bed size: Don't laugh, a Full size.  When we move wee are moving on up in the mattress dept.
 

C. Chore that you hate: Folding laundry including fitted sheets, Blahhh

D. Dogs: no dogs, but I do like to kind of count my dog back at my parents house.  Her name is Molly and she is my meatball.

E. Essential start to your day: coffee after my nap on the train on the way into work.

F. Favorite color: Hmmmmmm...........grey, is that even a color though?

G. Gold or Silver: I actually kind of like both. I used to be silver only but as long as its real gold, I like it.

H. Height: 5’5"

I. Instruments you play: I whistle?!! hehe

J. Job title: Domestic help(aka nanny)

K. Kids: none, but my bf kind of counts as one sometimes.
 

L. Live: Long Island, NY

M. Mother’s name: Louise, I call her Weezy
 

N. Nicknames: Paz and Pattycakes

O. Overnight hospital stays: never, phewwwwww!

P. Pet peeves: People who have no care in the world when I am struggling with a stroller and a door and they don't even help.  Or better yet, those that see me and open the door first and like it fly back and hit me.  I have so many pet peeves, that's a whole post on its own if I ever go there.

Q. Quote from a movie: "Well sir, it's this rug I have.  It really tied the room together"  The Dude

R. Right or left handed: Right handed.

S. Siblings: 2
 

U. Underwear: Yes.
 

V. Vegetable you hate: I suppose Okra and lima beans. Its a texture thing.
 

W. What makes you run late: The snooze button.
 

X. X-Rays you’ve had: Dentist, fracture ankle, sprained finger, back, and collarbone area after an accident.

Y. Yummy food that you make: I am pretty good at making chili and guacamole
 

Z. Zoo animal:   The penguins, monkeys, pretty much anything that really entertains me. I really love the polar bear at Central Park zoo.  He is just a lively character.

 

Some Halloween scrapping

These past two days it has been nice and cool, fall is in the air and I love it.  

I recently joined a swap where we had to create a Halloween layout and card to send to our swap partner.  It was a tid bit of a challenge, I have never made a Halloween layout before and I am not a huge card maker.  I gathered the new American Crafts Night fall papers I had as well as a few embellishments I have kept from last year and I sat there and contemplated what to do.  After moving a few pieces here and a few pieces there I settled with a design that I felt suited my style and would work for one 4 x 6 picture or a few little ones.  

 The card I made with the scraps pretty much from the layout. 

Now if I could only get started on that Fall mini book that is crying out to be made:)

Playing scrap catch up

I know I am not the only one who has photos from 1, 2, 3 or even 5 years ago that remain unscrapped.  One of my goals this Fall is to play scrap catch up and get those trips, parties, even little every day pictures onto pages.  Last night I got a bunch of little pictures together from our trip back in 2009 to Vermont for a camping trip.  This layout focuses more on the adventures at the Ben and Jerry's factory about 45 minutes from our campsite.  It was really a fun time getting to see where one of my favorite ice creams comes from.  I highly recommend visiting the factory if you are ever near Waterbury VT.  Not only is Vermont a beautiful place in general to see, it is home to a few really neat factories that offer tours, Ben and Jerry's being one of them.

 

I had fun using all of the little pictures on this layout.  I usually use 4 x 6 but I have gotten bored by that.  Now when I go to CVS I print up photo collages of 4 little pictures. I love having variety now:)

P.S Please be sure to head on over to the Creative Type, we do have a new challenge up and another chance at a great prize!!!

Who said?

We have lights, cable, Internet and the phone back after about 4 days or so:)  I think I sort of got used to the no electric part  though, outdoor stoop parties, scrap booking in the dark with a head lamp and lots of movie theater visiting.  We learned how to survive and will be well prepared for another possible power outage.

So who said turning thirty had to be boring???  I did this layout during our lights out period this past weekend.  It was for the Sassafras "Emily's challenge"  I did not even realize how many Sassafras letter sticker collections I had in my scrap booking stash, so it worked out well because that is what this challenge was all about.  You had to use three different lines of Sassafras letter stickers and this is what I came up with!

Now on to the weekend:)

The storm that left us in the dark

 *Irene 2011, view from my front door*

Well we weathered the storm, it was a rather calm storm in some ways.  However there are tons of down trees, no power still(since 8 am Sunday Morning and it is now 11:34 am Monday) my train service is not running, street lights are out causing crazy driving and well we had a bit of a cop car chase/shooting last night in our neighborhood.  Joy!!!  I am currently at a sort of local Starbucks, it is quite busy here with people just wanting  to plug in.  I got my fill and will be on my way home in just a bit but before I go, I wanted to share a layout I did during a power outage. If you could have only seen the silly head lamp I wore while making it, haha.  Well here is to hoping to electric and normal routine once again, soon!

This layout was done for the Elle's weekly sketch challenge.  I have so many photobooth pictures that we take, I just have to start using them for pages.  This one was taken in San Francisco at the Mechanical Museum.  If you ever get out that way, be sure to check that place out. Its a really neat place full of old carnival games, also they have a vintage photo booth in which I took this picture.

Ok I am off to see if our electric is back on.  High hopes!

Did you feel that??

So first off  I wanted to start off by saying that there are states and even countries that experience far worse events caused by nature then what we felt today.  To tell you the truth it was not a scary event but it is something that I will never forget.  While out to lunch today with Will we were sitting in our local Friendly's which was packed to the gills with families eating  lunch.  It was probably the worst timing for us to have gone there, our meals were taken forever and the noise, oh the noise.  At around 1:45ish or so I started to hear this thumping and my booth seat started to move quite a bit.  I of course assumed that it was the person behind me just being rude and moving a heck of a lot but then I saw that the whole place was swaying.  I looked at Will and he looked at me in a sort of confusion.  Then we looked around and noticed that some of the people were questioning what had just happened as well.  Yup it was an earthquake and compared to the disasters that have happened in Chile and Japan, this was nothing but for an east coaster like me it made me a tad uneasy and a bit concerned if something bigger had happened perhaps in the city or in another state.  Luckily it was a minor earthquake located in VA, and nothing happened after that one earth moving  moment that lasted  thirty seconds or so. 

And there you have it, my major event of the week!  Hope all is well:)

This weekend.

This weekend I tackled the large, enormous pile of unorganized chaos in our spare room.  It had become my throw all in between coming and going.  There was luggage galore, piles of stuff I wanted to give away(which found its way to the church thrift store today) new scrap booking stuff I had purchased this summer(which totally got used last night) and just lots of odd and ends including some items that need to be shipped(which I dipped into yesterday) I can proudly say that yes you can now walk through that room and I can access things so much better then before.  After all was said and done, I sat down and scrap booked.  

Last weekend Shimelle Laine had a scrap booking event all weekend on her blog, I however was upstate and was unable to play along.  She left the challenges up till midnight last night, so I choose three and finished three layouts with some spring/summer photos that have been laying around.

The first challenge that caught my eye was the "grid it up" challenge.  With a grid plan you can do anything.  You can use different small photos to create your grid, or like I did just small pieces of paper and embellishments!

This was a picture from this past May when I visited the Brooklyn Botanical gardens with Kara Haupt and Amy Tan.  I had never been  there before and have always wanted to go.  It was my last outing with Kara before she went back home and Amy had been visiting from CA so it worked out perfectly.  If you are ever in NY(Brooklyn) be sure  to check this place out. It is quite relaxing and beautiful, and there are a heck of a lot of photo opportunities!

Next up I wanted to do the "from the heart" challenge.  I decided to use tiny pictures of me and my boyfriend, and ones of just me or him.  In the past Studio Calico kit I received some of the Sassafras "sunshine broadcast" paper which is probably one of my favorites by them.  I loved that instagram sort of paper, its perfect for a background piece and it just makes everything look good.  

I do heart us, we are definitely two peas in a pod.  We always have tons of inside jokes, silly dances and voices, we enjoy the same music and some of the same movies.  I would say that we make a good pair.  I like how this one turned out, I used a dollar stamp from Michaels to stamp those frames which I then stuck  the pictures into.  Very easy, very simple but cute!

And last but not least I tried out the "starting point" challenge.  This is out of the norm for me, all that patterned paper, no regular white cardstock or kraft background.  I am not quite sure how I felt about it all, but I like how it turned out.

This past August 2nd(not July, I messed up on the date on  the layout) We finally got to see Sufjan Stevens in concert in Brooklyn.  Me and Will have been fan's of his for years, but whenever his tickets go on sale they sell out super fast.  My friend Sara who is also a fan of his was on top of those tickets as soon as the presale was released and well we finally got  them.  To say Sara is over the moon with him is an understatement, so as you can expect she was beyond excited(as were we)  I loved this picture I snapped of her at the show which was held outdoors.  It was a really nice night of good music and good people!

Well lookey, lookey.

Nope I have not fallen off the face of the planet. I have been caught up and lost in summer going ons. Trips galore, concerts, and work away from home. I have been a busy bee I guess you would say. I hope to eventually jump back into the swing of things, update my blog more often because I truly do miss it.

For starters I have my Creative Type August layout to share. I am posting this a tad early on my blog because A) I will most likely forget to post it when it goes live on The Creative Type blog and B) this was also a sketch from Shimelle Lane's blog for this week and I wanted to share it before they move on to another sketch.

The Creative Type's August challenge was scrap your Summer Vacation(perfect seeing how I have been so caught up in Summer this year) We also had to incorporate paint or mist into our piece which is easy for me because I use water color in each layout I create. 

For the 4th of July weekend me and Will headed up to Old Sayerbrook CT to celebrate with some friends.  We had a great time.  One evening we took a trip to Mohican Sun which I had never been to. It was like Disney land for adults pretty much:)  This was one of many picture me and Will took at Johnny Rockets, we are known for our silly face pictures. Now to get to scrapping  the rest of our Summer vacation adventures.

Some more optimism

Life has been a strange one around  these parts as of lately. Between teeth issues(root canal today) and just spending time with friends and family during  the beginning of this Summer season, it has been hard to find the time and blog.   I know, excuses excuses:)

However I wanted to finally take the time and share more of my layouts for the June Scrapbooking from the inside out kit.   My last month!  Bitter sweet but looking forward to just scrapping once again for myself or at least without deadlines.  I wish all of you who tried out much luck, it was a wonderful team to work for and with:) 

First layout is of me as a baby(the usual, hehe)  I have so many childhood photos that I want to scrap, so I have just been taking the time at Scrapbooking from the inside out  to do just  that.  Of course when we are babies, toddlers, children there is so much optimism in our lives.  Our parents hold much of it, hopes for our healthy and happy futures.  That is what this layout is about.

Second one is pretty much a funny sort of layout.  It is a picture of me and my best friend Sara.  We tend to take lots of what I call adventures together(i.e concerts in random places)  Our friendship has become sort of a sister-ship of sorts(is that even a word?)  I know her moods, she knows mine and sometimes during our so called adventures things can get a bit crazy, perhaps a bicker or two.  However I always try to remain optimistic as soon as we hit  that road on our way to our destination that all will go well and our crazy sides will not pop up.  She would totally get the story behind that one, hehe.

mini break

Life has come along and built a mini brick wall in my way. I will be back as soon as I smash it apart.  For now I wanted to say happy Birthday to Freckled Nest!  Her blog has turned 5 years old and is going stronger every post.  Be sure to head on over to the blog and check out all the fun things going on.  Gotta love a blog full of inspiration:)

*image found here*

Farewell May.

May has gone in the blink of an eye, wow.  Hello June!  June brings the end of my term with Scrapbooking from the inside out. It is a bitter sweet ending, I have enjoyed my time on the team and working with all the wonderful kits. I have loved digging deeper into my mind to tell stories behind some wonderful themes.  I am also looking forward to getting back to scrapping just for me for awhile, and with summer comes less time to meet deadlines in my opinion.  I do however look forward to still playing along with their great challenges and gathering inspiration from their nice community.

June's kit was about Optimism.  The kit pretty, with yellows and pinks.  I enjoyed the elements, especially the hot air balloons.  I had a lot of fun playing around and exploring the topic of optimism.  I think I came up with a few great keepers and have decided that after all is said and done, I will be putting together a special album just for my Scrapbooking from the inside out layouts.  They are personal and deep and something I will only share with a few.

 A lovely kit to end my time with SFTIO.  Go and check it out and perhaps pick the kit up yourself to play with:)

And now to share the first of the 5 layouts I made with it.

In this layout I journaled about my love for the city and suburban life but my wish to live somewhere more serene.  I am optimistic that one day I will find the place for me and for now I will just live in  the moment and love the place I am in!

Friendship Blog hop!

Hello, hello.  Happy new week.  We at Scrapbooking from the Inside out are having a blog hop all day today  and ending tomorrow, Tuesday May 17th 5pm eastern time.  

The blog hop this time is all about friendship, so each of the team members will be sharing a layout done with  the May Friendship kit, and their layout will be about....................friendship:)  At the end of the hop, one lucky winner will receive the above mentioned kit all for their very own. 

 Now that is what I call a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  Sorry for the cheesyness.

If you are just starting out on my blog, be sure to start from the beginning over on Melissa's blog then you can hop on along to all the others.

Now is the part where I share one of my Friendship layouts.  I have made many good friends through  the online scrapbooking community.  I have been very privileged  to meet many of them and get to know them very well.  One in particular would be my friend Vanessa.  A few months ago me and Kara took a trip to see Vanessa in her home town and also meet up with Mandi.  This was an extra special occasion because Vanessa just had opened her very own, beautiful coffee shop "The Green bean"  

It is always great to have some very inspiring friends in your life, they help to remind you that dreams can come true and that if you put your all in it well then you will get back that plus more.  I truly admire Vanessa and how she has worked on bringing and  still works on bringing her dreams to fruition.  She is a young, talented entrepreneur, and I find that to be so inspiring.  These are the kind of friendships I love to surround myself with, ones that push you  don't hinder you.

Now go on, hop on over to Diane's blog:)  AND have a great Monday!

NJ and a layout

On Friday me and my friend went to NJ to see Beirut.  It was a very interesting trip in deed, only an hour and some change away from us here on Long Island  but a different world for us it seemed.  I am not gonna get into it, not in the mood to offend anyone but perhaps it was the Friday the 13th and its supersticious elements. Or the New Yorker in me that is sometimes biased:)

*me and Sara on the way to show*

Later that evening we went and saw Beirut playing at Welmont Theater and it was amazing!  The opening act was equally as good, she appeared to be a one woman act by the name of  Lady Lamb the Beekeeper.   

*Beirut from way up high but still good*

After the show we strolled on down to some bar, it was a strange bar but there were some local bands playing.  One of them was a  band called Black Water which we sort of befriended and got a ride home with.  I always love going to new places and checking out what their music scene happens to be like and Friday night was one of those nights.  Of course we love meeting and chatting with new people as well, so double score.  One of the guys there had this crazy car that was painted to look like some sort of Tim Burton character, I tried to snap a picture with it and this was all I got................

Yup that is me trying to get a picture with his car, see my crazy face?  You get the idea:)

All in all it was an interesting evening as usual.  When me and Sara have an adventure, we have an adventure.  On to the next one, next time.

Rolling along with the subject of friends, here is a layout I made with the Scrapbooking from the Inside out May kit. In this layout I used a picture of my sister and I back when I was probably around 3 years old.  My sister and I have an 11 years age difference and only started becoming real close when I hit my twenties.  Well let me take that back, our relationship has changed from me being the baby of the family to me being of equal to her.  We talk about a lot more things, go shopping, the movies, travel and just have nights where we watch movies and drink wine.  I cherish time with her and our true friendship.  It is one that will last a lifetime no matter what.

The kit this month is full of mellow, pretty colors.

My favorite item from this kit has to be those pink Thickers.  I love the font of them oh so much and could have used them on everything! Loved it all:)

I will be back tomorrow with a Friendship blog hop for SFTIO!  Prizes to follow.

I am back, well at least I think:)

 Hello, hello!  Well this is the third time that I am writing this blog post, it keeps erasing on me, boo.

First of all I wanted to wish all of my friend's who are moms out there a Happy Mother's day!!!  I hope you have a wonderful day or have had a wonderful day.  The weather here is super nice and well my dad happens to be an amazing cook, so all in all we are having a good day.

I am trying to play catch up here on the internet.  My Bloglovin is crying for attention, I have almost 1200 posts to catch up on but probably will only get around to those of my friend's.  I was sick for almost two weeks with the most horrific cold that left me feeling no interest for pretty much anything except laying around and reading.  Reading books was always my favorite thing to do and I let it slide out of my life, so to reconnect with reading has opened my eyes to how much time I had wasted on the internet.  So I am just gonna find a nice balance and continue on with it.

This past  Friday we celebrated our friends Melissa and Jerry's wedding.  They are the epitome of a strong relationship, both have been thrown such detours these past few years and have pulled through, chins up.  Her maid of honor summed it up in one sentence, "Melissa has a way of making you feel like the most important person in the world" So very true.  They were chosen for a new show that will air on the WE network called "Marry me NYC"  The location was the Brooklyn Bridge Park set between the breath taking Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan bridge.  The weather was gorgeous and the guests were so much fun.

  

There was Greek dancing, a photo booth, great food, great conversation and an after reception adventure.

My night started off with a Margarita 

 And ended with me sleeping at a table at some bar somewhere in Brooklyn.  I think that equals a great time.

 

With posts like these I can go on and on uploading lots of photos.  But I  will just be adding them over on my Flickr, its less work:)

Now for something that I am 8 days late on.  On May 1st Scrapbooking from the inside out launched their newest kit for the month of May.  This month it was all about Friendship and the kit was full of pretty colors, and new scrapbook lines. Its a kit that you should get your hands on.

Here is a layout(one of 5 that I made with it)

Carrying along with the Friendship theme I did this layout about new friends and old friends.  Last year we celebrated my friend Melissa's(same girl who just got married) wedding.  At her get together I was able to connect with people I knew and people I have never met before.  We had one thing in common, we were all celebrating one special girl, Melissa and her thirtieth birthday. These are the sort of occasions I live for.

Well it was nice reconnecting on my blog, I promise to be back more often. It has been a busy month! More soon.