Monday, April 29, 2013

Stitch Fix Review #2

Hello! Today I have another Stitch Fix review for you all. Last time, I gave very specific feedback about what I liked and didn't like about each piece and I hoped for the best this time around. I was definitely happier with what I received in my box this time but had a few issues with fit.

If you are new to Stitch Fix, it's a personal styling service where you fill out a profile online giving information about your size and body type along with what category of clothing you most enjoy/dislike. You simply pay a $20 styling fee and a stylist sends you 5 items. Anything you decide to keep, the $20 fee goes toward the purchase and you simply send back everything else in a pre-paid envelope. It makes shopping easy and fun, I think plus it's a good way to add a few high quality pieces into your wardrobe.

Here is what I received this time around:

I told my stylist I loved florals, polka dots and chevron and that I didn't want any accessories this time. I also asked for items that were good for spring to transition into summer. The items in my box ranged in price from $38-$78.

1) Dylan and Rose Jakai Water Color Floral Print Dress - This is a lovely floral print with subtle peplum detail at the waist (it's hard to see in my photo). I love the print and color but I am not 100% happy with the fit. It is a tad snug in the waist and a little big under the arms. I love the style very much though!
  
2) Sweet Rain Cherry Hi-Low Racer Back Tank - The tank and print are super cute - hopefully you can tell it's covered in cherries but I am super sad because I think it's too big - you can see a glimpse of my bra and tank underneath peeking out under the arms. Otherwise, I really like this especially with some red capris! Too 4th of July, perhaps? :)
 

3) Olive and Oak Payton Sheer Plaid Tabsleeve Top - I wanted to like this one, I really did but I don't think the colors do anything for me. Something about the mint green just washes me out. My skin has a reddish undertone to it and there's just something I don't like here. The fit was okay for the most part....maybe a little too blouse-ish. :)


4) Collective Concepts Milo Pleated Detail Skirt - I adore this color! ADORE. And the skirt is flirty and fun - makes a girl want to twirl in it! :) But, it is a high-waisted skirt and I'm not sure if I like that style as much. Still thinking on this one...


5) Daniel Rainn Ashlee Floral Print Swiss Dot Blouse -  I love the fit, the color, the print...pretty much everything. It's just so feminine and lovely. And I love that I can wear it with jeans. I think it would be a good piece for spring and fall with the colors.

Here is a close-up of the details....
 

So, help a girl out! What do you like best? I only have the budget for one item so I want to choose wisely. I feel like my stylist did a great job in terms of the feedback I gave last time and for what I wanted to try on for this fix.

Note: I am not affiliated with Stitch Fix and used my own money for the styling fee and purchase. But, I do earn a credit if you sign up with my referral link

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Scrapbook Circle: Date Night

Good morning! Today I have another layout to share with you using the April kit from Scrapbook Circle. Glen and I recently had a date night when we went to one of my best high school girl friend's wedding. And it was even a date night where we were able to dress up - bonus! :)


I love that sweet scalloped silvery-grey trim from Maya Road and the Heidi Swapp transparent letters showed up great on the grey cardstock. 


The "Yes, Please" stickers from the new Amy Tangerine collection are also slightly transparent. 


I cut up the Echo Park patterned paper so I could pull out the colors I wanted and then stitched it to the layout.


Thanks for stopping by today! Today is major "Operation Clean-up" around here! That's something my mom always used to say at my house as I was growing up and it's a phrase that I now use with my own family. ;)

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Webster's Pages: Sweet Happy Day Mini Album

Good morning! Today I have a project up on the Webster's Pages blog featuring the new mini file folders that are part of the Composition & Color collection by Allison Kreft. These file folders are fun to piece together to make a sweet little album. For my album, I chose to feature a little photo shoot we recently had with the girls picking daffodils. The photos are all pretty small - around 2 x 3 and a 2.5" square.


I bound the album together with rings and tied a couple piece of trim to the top ring. I also added stickers from the collection and I love that resin frame...such pretty details!


Inside I added a card where I could journal and then simply decorated the folders with stickers and my folders. So easy!


I did end up covering up one side of the file folder with patterned paper in some cases so as not to distract from my photos.



Check out that little pouting girl... :)


And now we're sharing....


Oh, so sweet! :)


This little album came together so quick - it probably took me an hour once I had photos edited and printed. And you'll definitely see these photos again as I plan to create a layout sometime as well.

Well, the sun is shining today so I am off to be productive!

Have a good day! :)


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Webster's Pages: Sweet Baby decor

Good morning! Today I am showcasing the "New Beginnings" collection from Webster's Pages with a party centerpiece that can double as a sweet baby gift. My dear friend, Carrie, is expecting her first baby and I made this for her as a baby shower gift. The "core" of this piece is chipboard sized approximately 4.5" and I built everything around it with several sizes of patterned paper blocks, a paper doily and circle sticker as well as Webster's Pages beautifully detailed resin embellishments.


I have collected quite a few vintage wooden spools that I love using in projects like this one. A small wooden dowel was painted with white paint and hot glued inside. And how cute is that little pom pom trim? :)


 Here is a closer look at some of the details....


Thanks for stopping by today! We're in full 4th birthday party mode around here - cleaning and creating and coming up with some fun surprises for the girls' upcoming family party this Saturday. I think I might be more excited than the girls. :)

Have a great day!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Simple Stories: Pretty Easter Dresses

Good morning! This week, Simple Stories is teaming up with Petaloo for a blog hop. I am hosting day 1 on the Simple Stories blog and I would love it if you stop by!

Today I am sharing a layout using the Vintage Bliss collection and some gorgeous Petaloo flowers and pins. The girls wore beautiful girly dresses for Easter this year and the Vintage Bliss collection was perfect for highlighting their Easter photo shoot.

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Here I cut a butterfly from patterned paper and then used a Teal Mini Daisy by Petaloo and Beaded Hat Pin to embellish.

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I love those sweet little Mini Daisies and here I added one of the green leaves in the package. You'll also notice that I cut apart one of the Sn@p die-cut pages here to use as a design element.

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And here I used another Mini Daisy with a pink Dahlia to highlight the two smaller photos. I placed the flowers around the page in a visual triangle. In the bottom left corner of this photo, I also embellished my journaling sticker with one of the Beaded Hat Pins.

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Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you all had a great weekend! :)

Thursday, April 18, 2013

American Crafts: Lovely Spring Embroidery Hoop

Good morning! First things first, the winner of the April kit from Scrapbook Circle is....

the"divine"hand said...
What a super sweet layout!!!
I always look foward to spring colors!!! You just can't go wrong with them! Thanks for the chance!

Congrats! You will love this kit! Please e-mail me at cornellgj(at)yahoo(dot)com with your mailing address and I will forward your information to Scrapbook Circle.

Today I have a new project to share with you for spring projects week on the American Crafts blog. Long before I ever became a scrapbooker, I used to love embroidery and cross-stitching. When American Crafts released the new Amy Tangerine embroidery templates, I was so excited to use them and do more hand-stitching on my projects. I learned the hard way that the easiest thing to do here is place a large piece of fabric in the hoop and secure. Embroider a design and embellish and THEN cut the fabric on the back. Somebody started this project twice. Ha. :)


I used products from all of the new collections here - the rosettes are from My Girl and Yes, Please, the yo-yo's are from My Girl and the flair is Lucky Charm.


I have so many more ideas for embroidery hoops after working on this first one so you can bet to see more on my blog in future posts. Be sure to visit the American Crafts blog to check out spring projects week!

So, despite the happy colors of my projects today it has been a miserable grey, rainy spring here in Iowa. I am soooooo ready for some sunshine. I think we have had one decent day of warmer temps and sun in the past month. I refuse to put on a winter coat. Absolutely refuse. No one should be wearing heavy coats after April 1st, I say. I am pledging now not to complain about summer heat and humidity. I will think of the longest winter ever as I sweat away. :) 

Have a great day! We are in full swing cleaning and getting ready for a circus party to celebrate two little girls' 4th birthday coming up soon. Their party is coming up soon!




Friday, April 12, 2013

Emma's Paperie: The Best Parade

Happy Friday! If you are looking for the Scrapbook Circle April kit giveaway, visit this post! Today I have a new layout to share for Emma's Paperie. The design team recently worked with Authentique Paper products. I picked up their "Glory" collection when they came out with it because I loved the patriotic colors and knew that I would have a lot of 4th of July photos to scrapbook. My small hometown goes all out for the 4th of July and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else to ring in the holiday. And I love lettting my girls experience it too! Our parade is about 1-1/2 hours long and the girls loved it last year. They got plenty of candy as they stood there waving! :)


I punched some patterned paper stars and used the positive and negative images with some sequins as accents.


The wood veneer frames and stars are by Studio Calico. 


Authentique includes a lot of great stickers in their collections and I used a few hear and there. 


For a complete supply list and instructions on how to make this layout, visit the Emma's Paperie blog here.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Scrapbook Circle: Fabulous Spring Fashion & Giveaway!

Good morning! Today I have my first layout to share with the "Happy Place" kit from Scrapbook Circle. This kit has a fabulous mix of products this month! After a long winter, I was so excited to pull out spring clothes and the girls were willing and ready for a little spring fashion shoot.


I used the Dear Lizzy patterned paper as my background and built my layout from there. The Heidi Swapp transparent cards and alphabets are such a fun way to embellish and in this case, create a title. 




And I am also lucky enough to be able to giveaway the April kit from Scrapbook Circle! Take a look at this beautiful kit! All you need to do to enter is leave me a comment about what you most look forward to about spring and I'll draw a winner next Wednesday!


Thanks for stopping by today! And don't forget to comment so you can win! :)

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Emma's Paperie: Rare Night Out

Good morning! Today I have a layout to share for the color challenge at Emma's Paperie. I used the new Maggie Holmes collection for this layout. I don't usually scrapbook about myself - my layouts are about my family and a lot of times my relationship with the girls or Glen. I am in a lot of the photos I use but I decided that I needed to include a little more about who I am in my scrapbooks. I journal a lot so I know the girls "hear" my voice in my pages but they might not know a lot about me as a person. I decided to scrapbook this instagram photo of me all dressed up last fall when going to a wedding. It's very rare that I get to wear a dress so I love any opportunity I have to be all girly. :)


And I pulled out some of my favorite girly details in this collection - the florals, pink, doilies, etc.


I added a little glitz and glamor with the glitter and sequins. I love the little resin floral hair clips.


And a sweet, girly bow is the perfect embellishment!


For a complete supply list, visit the Emma's Paperie blog here.

Thanks for stopping by today! :)

Monday, April 08, 2013

Emma's Paperie: Trick or Treat

Good morning and happy Monday! I'm a little behind on sharing my projects for Emma's Paperie so this week I hope to catch up. Recently the design team featured Pebbles products. I have long been a Pebbles fan and I was especially excited when they came out with a Halloween collection last fall. I created this layout of the girls trick or treating in our neighborhood. They were really into ringing the door bell this year! :)


I added a few brads by October Afternoon.



This collection has a lot of great stickers! 


For a complete supply list and instructions how to make this layout, visit the Emma's Paperie blog here

We had a good weekend! The girls stayed overnight at my parent's house Saturday so we could go to the wedding of one of my best girl friends from high school. It was held at a warehouse building downtown and the industrial feel was so beautiful with lots of candles. I am so thrilled for my friend. I have been praying for her now husband for a long time - before he was even in the picture! :) And I was able to get a few projects done - blog posts to come soon. My leg is slowly getting better. Physical therapy is helping a lot but it's still frustrating that I am not able to exercise the way I want to. I am going to try yoga again tomorrow and see how that goes.

Have a great day! :)


Sunday, April 07, 2013

American Crafts: Splash & Be Happy

Good morning! Earlier this week it was two-page layout week on the American Crafts blog. I love creating two-page layouts so I was actually really excited about creating for this assignment. I used mostly the "Lucky Charm" collection on this one of the girls running and splashing in their rain boots last spring.


It is always my goal to create flow across a two-page canvas and I try to do that here with patterned paper strips that go across both pages. 


How cute is that umbrella? I love the little chipboard rain drops in the corner.


Thanks for stopping by today! :)

Monday, April 01, 2013

Simple Stories: Just Me & My Grandma

Good morning! Hope you all had a wonderful Easter! I can't believe how quickly Easter came up this year and where, oh where did the month of March go? So much happened in March that I wasn't able to do all my usual Easter prep with the girls but that's okay. I still might do a few activities with them after the fact. I started physical therapy on my calf last week and I'm hoping it makes a big difference. It's been so frustrating not being able to do my usual activities but I am trying to take it slow and be careful. Thanks for all of your comments on my Stitch Fix post. I ended up deciding to keep the blouse. I did like the dress but I wasn't overly crazy about the print for the price. It was such a fun experience!

Today I have a new layout to share with you using some of my favorite Simple Stories Sn@p products and the brand new embellishments (which I love!) My layout is all about Nora and her grandma. No, not either of her grandmas or her great-grandma but her imaginary grandma. Some kiddos have an imaginary friend but Miss Nora has an imaginary grandma. I caught her drawing a picture several weeks ago and asked her who it is was and she quickly answered "me and my gwandma." I knew immediately who she was referring to because she has been talking about her"gwandma" for months. Nora's "gwandma" lives in a yellow house and drives a yellow car, and Nora even has her sister in on the game because Lily also talks about "Nora's gwandma" all the time. If you ask what grandma's name is, Nora simply fires back "My OWN gwandma." Not Lily's, but hers. :)

Me_&_My_Grandma
Here I layered a sticker with one of the new chipboard embellishments and a new brad in the center.

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I love mixing and matching the Sn@p alphabet stickers for my titles.

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I am also really loving the new flair included with each collection. This Polaroid cut from patterned paper already had a heart on it so I simply covered it up with the flair button.

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The entire Sn@p brand is perfect for capturing everyday moments and events. I know I will always cherish this layout of Nora and the story about her "gwandma."

Have a great day!
 
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