turntable tuesday: the stones.

hello.
today i thought i'd share our rolling stones collection...
i didn't have a ton of time to take photos this afternoon, so pardon my bedspread as the backdrop.


first and foremost i have to say that i'm not the biggest rolling stones fan. i like them, and can listen to whole albums... but i'm in no way a stones aficionado. all of our rolling stones records are from joe's dad's collection. i don't think my dad really liked them (i could be wrong on that but to be honest i don't remember having any stones records or cds in the house growing up).

that said. our rolling stones albums are some of my favorite in our collection for their cover art. which, if you ARE into the stones probably isn't a surprise. i photographed my favorites, except for "their satanic majesties request" because i'm pretty sure trying to photograph a hologram will trigger a migraine.

my favorite album cover is "some girls." i love advertising from the 50s + 60s (see my posts on marshal mcLuhan here + here). my favorite albums to listen to are "sticky fingers" (also cool cover with a real zipper on the front), "some girls", and "beggars' banquet" (which i'm listening to right now).

our full catalog goes like this (random order):
some girls
let it bleed
beggars' banquet
their satanic majesties request
sticky fingers
it's only rock 'n roll
goat's head soup
exile on main st.
emotional rescue

to be honest i haven't even listened to all of them yet because a few are still in major need of a good cleaning... so there might be more favorites in there that i haven't discovered yet.

i do still intend of having joe "guest" blog soon. he knows so much more about the vinyl we inherited from his dad. soon i hope!

off to work on some things for the house and SC's sunday sketch.

love.

sleepy monday.

mondays are always a good nap day but today is an especially sleepy day for little miss. i think it's because it's so overcast and rainy outside... plus she's worn out from our errands and daddy time this weekend.

this week not too much is happening. st. patty's day is coming up so i have a few things to do for that (the 17th is also my daddy's birthday!) i really hope it's nice out for the parade, i'd also like to go to church with abby at st' patrick's cathedral if we can.

i have some layouts i'm working on, it's way too overcast to take photos today but i'll share them soon. here's the page i finished last week. sorry for the ugly photo of it but i'm out of practice taking page shots and i'm certainly not used to taking photos of two pagers. i don't think i've done a two page layout since 2007. i really like it and currently have a thing for yellow. maybe i'm just ready for spring!


this layout was done using the napa valley kit from studio calico. joey got me a subscription to sc for my birthday in november and i really love it! the kits have exactly what i like, new product, not too much frill (i'm so not a frilly shabby scrapbooker), great embellishments + stamps and amazing color combos. this month i bought my first add-on ever and i'm so excited to get it... check out what is headed to my doorstep in march...

main kit: into the woods

add on kit: sunny clearing

if you are interested in getting kits from studio calico you have to act fast! they sell out so quickly... march is all sold out (there is one add on left: wildflower). to sign up for april you can send an email to info@studiocalico.com to set up your subscription.

i think that's about it for right now. i hope everyone has a great week!

love.

omg. she scraps...

hello there.
check it out.
i'm actually scrapbooking...

and it's on it's way to becoming a two pager?

grab your children the end of the world might be coming.

it's been a good day in the house and i'm finding that it's not quite as hard to scrapbook while watching little miss as i thought it would be. i'm actually really happy to be finally getting some of her pictures on paper. unfortunately the photos i just printed for the right side of this page are the last i'm going to be able to print because i'm completely out of photo paper and had no idea. ugh. i'm also now considering getting a new printer because the quality on mine is starting to seriously suffer. but... that's a worry for another day.

i hope everyone is having a great wednesday! only two days to the weekend... oh how i love short weeks.

love.

turntable tuesday: fantasia

hello again.
so today i am in a big fantasia mood. and this might be a turntable tuesday cop out because while i do listen to the record, i really enjoy watching my fantasia 2000 dvd collection. it has the original fantasia along with fantasia 2000 and bonuses. i do cherish the fantasia album set i've been handed down from my parents and i adore what good shape the book is in...


i'm not sure is fantasia 2000 was recorded on vinyl or is available anywhere but it's for sure something i'd like to get if i can... although really my favorite from fantasia 2000 is the rhapsody in blue piece and i NEED to find a copy of that on vinyl asap. rhapsody in blue is probably my favorite orchestra piece of all time.

and i promise a deeper look into our collection next week... i think maybe it's time for joey to choose a few for me to share from his dad's records.

love.

use it or lose it: love pennant garland.

good morning.
over the past two years i've been doing some major purging of my scrapbooking supplies. i still have so much and there are lots of things i've kept with the intention to use it in 2011 or to pass it on to someone who will.

i probably have 5 years worth of valentine's day/love themed paper and cannot let myself buy any more until i use up my stash... so i made this pennant garland for my little corner!

it's simple, and was pretty quick to make. i was able to do at least one pennant per naptime along with my other mommy duties. i left plain pennants in what is probably my favorite love themed paper that i've ever collected... it's from the sei jolie chocolat line. i love the text layers + it allows me some room to add in photos as our family grows.

some other "oldies" i used are: making memories 'love notes' 8x8 pad, ki memories 'wild thing' & paper + embellishments from their valentine's day holiday collection (must be from 2006-ish??) and grungeboard.

i barely used up any of my valentine's day stash but the little dent i did make to create something sweet and simple for my space makes me very happy!

love.

p.s. turntable tuesday coming up a little later today, little miss and i need to decide what kind of music mood we are in...

catching up: some be-lated love.

happy president's day + happy belated valentine's day.
my apologies for the late wishes of love... we had a beautiful busy week and since joe had today off this weekend was our holiday time to be together. which means i finally have several minutes in a row to catch the blog up.

our valentines day was very quiet. joe was able to be home before abby's bedtime so we had a nice evening together. dinner and our favorite new thing... going to bed. we are such night owls so we are trying to resist the urge to stay up all night during the week, it's hard. we talk a lot.

mid-week i finished up my valentine's day banner. a closer look at it is coming. it's nice to have my new little corner decorated. especially after a week where keeping it clean was a challenge...

little miss spent her week practicing her crawling, helping mommy + daddy do laundry, playing with her new favorite toys (a pixar character set from grandma + grandpa), teething on everything, and generally being a cute goofball.

by thursday spring started teasing us. the sun shone and it was 70 on friday afternoon when we went into the city to see joe. it was nice to be across the hudson, we hadn't been over since just before christmas. so good to see abby enjoy the city in a whole new way... she was awake the whole trip and was smiling at people and looking all over the place. i'm setting us a full city activity schedule the moment the weather warms up for good...

it was so cold again by the weekend but it's been nice having joe home and the extra day today has been perfect. joe changed our tire this weekend, and we did a lot of grocery shopping...

little miss was beginning to get low on a few things so i went a little crazy with the produce. joe was such a trouper and went to several different stores with us to get the organics we needed to stock up on. blueberries, bananas, kiwi, avocado, mango (abby's most favorite), pears, sweet potato, plums, carrots, zucchini, papaya (on joe's insistence although it's not the prettiest papaya i've ever seen), and a gorgeous butternut squash. we bought tofu for her for the first time which will be an adventure for later this week.

today we woke up to snow! ugh. i love snow, and i even had a moment of happiness today when i thought we might be able to get abby into her snowsuit to enjoy what might be the last snow of the year, but it was just a dusting and enough to make everything wet, cold, and gross. so instead we get to enjoy a cozy day inside and hope that today was just winter's last hurrah.

well, i think that catches me up for a week of no blog time. to say i have a lot of pureeing to do this evening is an understatement so i'm off to the kitchen.

happy monday!
love.

tgi-thursday + a few valentine's day fails.

thursday is almost over.
the little one is long in bed... and making her dreaming noises.
i swear she dreams SO MUCH. and i'm not sure what makes her so sad in her dreams but her little cries pull at my heartstrings whenever i hear them. shouldn't babies dream of care bears, and furry puppies, and fluffy clouds...

today little miss and i finished putting away her laundry and cleaned her room. she played in her crib the whole time and every once in awhile she'd get really quiet. i'd turn around to check on her and poof... a little flutter of her bumper flipping back into place and a giggle. she was spying on me! peek-a-boo is currently one of her favorite games, although she much prefers to call it 'where's abby,' and she came up with a new way to play all on her own.


it took me forever to snap a few photos... camera ready, folding clothes on her changing table, then i'd hear a little giggle so i'd turn around quick to catch her and she'd pull back laughing. she only let her guard down for a second when during one round of the game she thought she'd try out the bumper as a teether.

the rest of the day was spent playing + napping (by the little one), and stitching, finger knitting, and a little frantic brainstorming as i came up with several valentine's day fails.

first ditched project...


meet the hugbot. now this little guy is not an altogether fail. i'm sure i'll use him for something else at a later date. but as a stitched valentine's day card for the great-grandparents etc. i'm way over him. he may look great sitting in the bin but in reality he's messy and his eyes are torn... just an altogether hot mess. it's ok. my other stitched valentines are great (also patterns by sublime stitching but you'll have to wait to see them!) and i found some leftover valentine's that i never sent a few years ago that i still love and will work great for the ones i had to ditch. besides, the important part are the sweet photos i'm sending off to the family of abby.

my other fail was actually yesterday's failed garland... i was attempting to make a garland out of some cheap cheap foam conversation hearts that i found in the michaels $1 bin years and years ago. in theory my idea was great... in practice, not so much.

panic? nope. back to the drawing board. and i decided on a project that i have been wanting to do for awhile. i chose to do a finger knitted garland...


i love finger knitting. my grandma cisowski taught me to finger knit when i was young (i think probably to make up for not wanting/not having the patience to teach a lefty to crochet, but i digress). i used 3 chunky lion brand skeins that i had on hand... i'll give the specs and more info tomorrow when i do the real post on it.

after i finished the finger knitted garland i knew it wasn't enough so i'm actually working on a pennant garland to hang with it as well. i swear i'll have all of my decorations up by the 14th. maybe.


now it's just about friday... so happy.
less than 24hours and it's the weekend.
daddy time!

(and some mommy scrapbooking time too... it's long overdue!)

love.

turntable tuesday: abby's collection

well things are quieting down with the little one for the night and although this is coming a bit later tonight than i had anticipated i'm excited to start sharing 'turntable tuesday' again. today abby and i listened to a few of her read-a-long records so i thought that this week i would share her vinyl collection!


a few of her records are mine from when i was younger. mostly the read-a-longs and some of the 45s (fraggle rock, donald duck stories, etc.).... and a few of them were gifts from a friend who was going to be passing them along in a garage sale (i was SO excited to get at them first!)


right now her favorite is the winnie the pooh record. she loves the title song, up down, and little black rain cloud when i sing them to her and when they play with the music she gets so excited. winnie has always been a favorite of mine too...

i really love the walt disney songs for bedtime. we played it for her a lot when she was a little little newborn and every once in awhile i'll put it on during her before bed bottle if she's not in the mood to listen to a book. it has some really great songs on it... la la lu from lady & the tramp, a dream is a wish your heart makes, and irish lullaby/too ra loo ra loo ra (for my good little irish catholic girl).

one of my favorite activities when i was younger was to play my read-a-longs on my sesame street big bird record player so i'm really looking forward to passing them onto her when she's at their reading level... i'm so happy they were kept in such great condition so that she can enjoy them and maybe even share them with her kids!

love.

in the queue: valentine's day ♥

happy monday!

this week i'm working on a few valentine's day projects and i'll be sharing them throughout. i am about 75% done with my cards that i'm sending out to a few friends + family members. i have to redo one of the designs because it was pretty much a fail from the start. i have some diy decorations to share and i'm working on the perfect pattern for a dress/jumper for abby. it's going to be a great week!

love.

4 simple goals: q1

it's time to share my simple goals for the first quarter of the year. i'm going pretty easy on this first one since i was a little ambitious for the holiday season and totally failed on getting everything done. ha.

1. learn a new knitting stitch. there is a cowl that i'd really love to try out here that requires a herringbone stitch. it's a gorgeous project that i think would be great in my etsy shop so i need to learn it super quick!

2. start abby's 1st year scrapbook. i know. bad mommy. she's almost 8 months and i haven't done a thing. ugh.

3. plan abby's 1st birthday party. i'm 99.99% sure i have the date so now i need to get out those invites out!

4. schedule some me time. i have done absolutely no pampering for myself since before abby arrived. i need my hair colored desperately and trimmed up so i can continue growing it out. i would LOVE a spa day (hint hint if a certain someone is reading this...) or even just an afternoon to take a class at purl soho.

we are all still suffering from colds here in the taylor house so a lot that needed to get done today didn't (i.e. a trip to the laundromat). i do think we are getting better, it's just been super rough getting abby to stay asleep for any real amount of time. how do you explain to a 7 month old that a. if she blows out instead of sucking in when i'm trying to clear her nose she'll feel better and b. that if she sleeps it off, she'll feel better. it breaks my heart.

oh well... hopefully we get a little peace tonight for me to get a few stitches in.

love.

putting the pieces back together.

they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions... and well, i had the best of intentions for this blog in december and january. the reality of our situation the past few months however has been pure mayhem. not bad, scary, or unhappy mayhem... but mayhem just the same.

after the holiday traveling settled we completely threw our little 16a home into disarray once again. with abby working very hard to become a more mobile baby i desperately needed room in our living area that we just did not have. i also needed to finally have some workspace that i could actually work in... instead of a jumbled mess of random storage and a dining room table that was almost always covered with piles of whatever.

then just to top it off my computer decided to break down on me. which is why this post will not include the before photos that i want to share of my space... joe tells me that all is not lost but i'm still quite nervous that i may have lost the first 6 months of the little one's life. i'm trying not to think about it.

so the good news... it's done. well my space is. the little middle room that was first a bedroom, then a dumping ground is now this...


i have the expedit mega shelves that i've been dreaming of for so long. for those ikea lovers like me i'll explain... it's the expedit 4x4 bookcase with desk and then we added the smaller 2x4 on top with flat brackets. then just for now and because i had room (and always need more room) i added my craft cubes on top. i could sit and look at my shelves all day... they make me so happy.


and all of that storage space means that i don't have a single thing cluttering my desktop. there is nothing like pure empty workspace. ahhh....

oh, and did you see the room for the vinyl. bliss.

the living room isn't quite done but the space that we have in there now is amazing. we have a little nook for our dining room table where we can actually eat as a family, an amazing concept (oh and it's also clear for the first time in 3 years!!) and i am pleased to say that abby has a big open space to roll around (and maybe figure out the crawling thing).

so i'm back in business. now i just need to salvage my computer's memory and finish setting up joe's computer to be compatible to my ocd organizational standards... i can't even explain the mess his filing system on this thing is in.

and did i mention all of this we keep getting...


well... that's all the update for now. the whole family now has colds so it's time to get back to my sniffly little cuddle bug who currently wants to help with this post. i don't usually like to post photos out here in the wide open web but i can't resist just one...


she loves her puppy (but it will need to major sterilization after this bout of nasal drip).

this weekend:
stitching valentines
more paint swatches
a quick knit for abby

love.

daily december: week 1.

again. sorry for the delay!
the blog is still the one area of my life that seriously suffers when we are all feeling under the weather. but i'll write more about that later...

since i'm playing catch up with sharing my daily december journal i decided to share the first "week" of december in two parts... above is through december 4th.

for this book i'm using primarily basic grey "eskimo kisses". i love the colors of this line (especially the pink and green!) other products i'm using:

elle's studio journaling & christmas tags
sassafrass lass numbers chipboard
making memories fa la la
hambly christmas decor rub ons
alphas: scenic route, adornit (carolee's creations), making memories,
& american crafts

i might be missing some things but i'm sure they'll show up on another page and i'll list them then... if you have a question about something just ask!

december 1st is a library pocket for my goals for this holiday season...

sometimes i just hate tab labels - they never seem to stick and stay stuck for me. this one will get a staple before the month is over.

as i'm not usually interested in a bunch of journaling i decided that each week one of my days would be used to sum up the week...

hope you like the journal so far... i absolutely love it and can't wait to share the other half of the week tomorrow!

p.s. i know i'm missing this turntable tuesday, i'm going on a christmas vinyl dig tomorrow in the city and will share my spoils on thursday!

hope everyone is staying warm & cuddly...

love.

coming soon.

sorry for the delay.
nursing little miss who developed a bit of the nasal drip.
finishing up in between sneezes.
putting together a list of the bits & pieces.
love.