Live Healthy Fridays

Getting away and taking a trip with a friend can be one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself. I was fortunate enough to get the green light from my wonderful husband to take off for three days and nights to attend the amazing Summer CHA Trade Show. But, what made it even more special was to meet up with my scrappy friend Robbie Herring. I live in Colorado and she lives in Texas, but somehow we have forged a wonderful friendship that transcends the distance between us. Keeping with my live healthy philosophy, Robbie let me plan our accomodations, so take a look at where we stayed...

I had heard that the aloft hotels were pretty cool and when I researched a hotel for us, I learned that there was one within walking distance of the convention center. Here is just a snippet about the concept for this non-traditional hotel. "aloft was inspired by the ongoing democratization of design and an emerging segment of high style, low cost brands such as Mini Cooper, Target and West Elm. Featuring loft-like guest rooms, a buzzing bar scene in the open lobby, an urban-inspired grab-and go café and industrial design elements throughout, aloft hotels are a far cry from the conventional cookie cutter hotel brands."

We definitely agreed that the lobby was "buzzing" with energy and fun, so we spent a couple hours each evening enjoying a cocktail from the bar and hanging out in the lobby. The colors have just the right amount of funky to make it interesting without being too tacky.

The rooms are really simple and sparsely furnished, but I have to say that the bed was very comfortable and I really liked the clutter free environment. It actually made me want to hang up my clothes and keep the floor space clear to enjoy the concept.

I love, love, love how this hotel chain puts an LCD TV on the wall exactly where you want it. It's accessible and out of the way and was perfect for enjoying the Oprah Winfrey show at 11:00pm, which is when I caught a couple of her shows while we were in Chicago.

The bathroom was very efficient and featured a shower only, but the cleanliness and minimalist approach actually felt good. I'm not sure if this is a "romantic" get away type of hotel, but it was perfect for a quick trip to meet up with friends and being from Colorado, I appreciated their GREEN approach and minimalist concept. Robbie and I had a lot of fun at aloft and totally think it's worth looking at again for a future trip.

Thank you so much for stopping by -

Summer CHA Part 3

I got to spend quite a bit of time with the Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker crew and these are some of the girls from Nikki's design team that attended the show and worked in the booth. From left to right: Deana Boston, Lori Roop, Rae Barthel, Susan Dupre, Nikki Sivils, Me, Delaina Burns, Sarah Eclavea.

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Nikki's husband Dan took a moment to work with Rae on the Make and Takes. Dan is really good at drawing in the retailers and showing them how the product works.

I was so honored to have two of my projects hanging in Nikki's booth and two of my projects gracing her catalogue. Nikki is so talented and it is so much fun to work with her materials. I know this is a great team to be a part of...

Nikki and I had to do a photo shoot with our cover for Scrapbooking and Beyond. Jane Guthrie, the editor of SB&B gave Nikki a bunch of magazines to show off in her booth - big smile!

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Summer CHA Part 2

CHA day 2 was just as much fun as day 1 and I got to hang out with Lindsay Bowerman a bit at the Pebbles Booth. She is half of the brilliance behind the Pebbles Graphic Designers (the talented Josh was not in attendance). The two of them have created some of the cutest and wonderful collections for this release. Last week I posted Cats and Dogs, which was created by Josh - but take a look at....

New Arrival

Pebbles New Arrival was created by Lindsay and is a gorgeous baby line with traditional elements, but a few modern twists like the super fun embossed papers. Wait until you touch the polka dot papers - they are really beautiful and add such a unique texture to a project. These are wonderful papers for babies, but they can easily be used for other occasions and the brand new felt pieces are both darling and versatile.

Matching 3x3 envelopes, pearl Candy Dots and felt embellishments are some of the other new Pebbles products in this line.

It has been a really fun show so far this week and I am having a blast, but I am also really missing the two little stinkers below and looking forward to going home....but I will have some more photos to post tomorrow too.

Thank you so much for stopping by -

Summer CHA Part 1

I am at the Summer CHA show in Chicago. This is my first time and I am having a blast checking out the latest and greatest and meeting so many familiar online faces. It is a bit hot and muggy here compared to my Colorado standards, so the shiny faces are compliments of 88 degrees with high humidity...

This is Robyn Schaub and I working with the make and takes at the Imaginisce Booth. She is a doll and Imaginisce has some really fun collections still to share this season. Stay tuned...

I got to meet up with Aphra Bolyer from The Paper Poppy and Imaginisce. What can I say...she is a kindred spirit.

Then we went shopping for future kit contents and stopped by the Echo Park booth and got to chat with Madison. They are really onto something there...

I'll have more to share tomorrow... thank you for stopping by -

Sunday Sketch and Guest Designers

Hope you still have a lot of butterflies in your stash... This week's sketch is all about summer and our little fluttery friends. It is also eligible for my July Sketch Challenge. Click HERE for more details.

Aymee Gandy is our featured designer this week and I really admire her work - always so fresh and fun. Here is a little bit about her, "I am also known as Southernbellescrapper. I am 26 years old. I currently reside in Pennsylvania, but am originally from Alabama. I have been happily married to my high school sweetheart, Brandon, for 7 wonderful years. I am an avid scrapbooker who loves to create layouts, cards, and altered projects. Scrapbooking is my one true passion in this life and I cannot get enough of it. When I am not at my scrappy desk you can find me online surfing blogs and online scrapbooking message boards. I also have my own blog called 'A Scraphappy Southernbelle.' I'd love for you to come by and visit: www.southernbellescrapper.blogspot.com. I also love to read, cook, interior decorate, travel, and spend time with friends and family."

Aymee did such a great job with the sketch and here is what she had to say about it, "I loved this sketch! I really am attracted to layering patterned papers and this sketch was perfect for this! I also adore butterflies and the sketch inspired me to use those on my layout. Depending on my mood, I sometimes follow a sketch religiously, but I also like to change things up a bit. For this layout, I went with one photo instead of two. I also replaced the circle journaling spot for a circular photo. I did a bit of rearranging and came up with a layout I really enjoyed creating. I used a pen to create some 'faux' stitching around the edges of the page, as well as the 'butterfly trails.' I do not freehand too often when scrapbooking, but I like the look the 'trails' give to my page."

Some close ups of Aymee's work

Please visit Aymee's blog A Scrap Happy Southern Belle for more information about her and details about her work.

Sandra Dunne is back again sharing her wonderful talent this week. Here is what she had to say about working with the sketch this week, "Basically I followed the sketch exactly as it was laid out... why play with perfection I say!! The only difference was that I couldn't bear to cover up the beautiful banner on my Websters Pages so I used a craft knife to cut around it and slipped my papers underneath. Anyone familiar with my work knows I LOVE adding butterflies and was quite giddy when I saw they were included in the sketch. I staggered the photographs rather than keep them one under the other and had to turn my title sideways to make it fit. I really had a lot of fun with this sketch!!"

Please visit Sandra's blog Papered Memories for more information about her and details about her work.

Sheree Power is also a returning guest designer and I love the stark colors on her layout and how they make the photos pop. This is what she had to say about the sketch, "I loved this sketch the minute I saw it. I loved the straight lines and my favourite thing at the moment...scallops. So I decided to keep as much to the exact sketch as possible and I knew this sketch was meant for these photos."

Please visit Sheree's blog Just the 2 of Us for more information about her and details about her work.

Thank you so much for stopping by -

Live Healthy Fridays

Are you getting at least 8 glasses a day?

I know this is one of those "duh" questions, but I think if most people thought about how much water they were drinking each day, they would be shocked by how little it really is...

Water makes up about 60 percent of your body weight and can be a important factor in helping you stay healthy and slim. Every system in your body depends on water, because it flushes toxins out of vital organs, carries nutrients to your cells and provides a moist environment for your ears, nose and throat. Muscle actually holds more water than fat, but water is an important catalyst for flushing fat out of your system. Think about how much water you are drinking each day, and if you are drinking soda or coffee, think of that as a negative fluid deposit into your system that will need more water to flush it out. For example, if you had one soda (diet or regular) or coffee, then you probably need to drink an extra cup of water. I'm trying to replace much of what I used to drink with water, because it really does make me feel a whole lot better.

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Love that Hat

Earlier this summer, my daughter (who is 6) asked me to take her shopping for some clothes.  She is just starting to care about clothes almost as much as toys if you know what I mean - LOL.  While we were shopping, she told me that she needed a hat that showed her style.  I was very intrigued by this idea...what could be a 6 year old's "style".   Well, she found this cute little hat at Old Navy and said that it was the one.  It was one of those things that as a mom, you love to see...  I think it is so cute that it has the word Peace stitched on it and thought the Free Spirit collection from Little Yellow Bicycle was the perfect choice for scrapping this moment.

My Walmart finally added some more Cricut cartridges, so I picked up the Feeling Groovy alphabet and used it to compliment the LYB Fabric letters - I think it is a good match.  I love how the hot pink paper looks as letters.

LYB always makes the best embellishments.  This is a huge Fabric daisy, which make a nice cluster with the chipboard phrase and green lace cut paper. Isn't it cute?  I added some tiny retro flowers with my EK success punch and some bling.

This is part of a LYB 6x6 decorative edge cardstock that is shaped like a pocket.  It had printed stitching on it, buy I added some hand stitching with green floss to make it stand out more.  This was such a perfect little pocket to tuck my 5x7 photo in and then add the wallet sized ones on top of it.

Thank you so much for stopping by -

Christmas Cottage REVEAL from Imaginisce

You have got to get your hands on some BRAND new Christmas Cottage from Imagnisce!  It is truly one of the most adorable holiday collections I have ever seen.  Can you say "Oh My Gnome," because that is exactly the reaction I have to these adorable little Claus motifs that embellish the collection.  Be sure to stop by the Imaginisce BLOG all week for an opportunity to win this collection before anyone else has it!

Don't you just love how Kraft looks great with everything???  I bought this cute little gift bag a long time ago at Walmart and when I was looking at these little chipboard Clauses at about midnight, I thought they would look really AWESOME stuck to this gift bag as a "simple" embellishment.  Then I tied on one of the medium sized Snowflake Crystals and added a metal Snowflake Glitz as the center.  Voila - ready for an ornament exchange.

I had to make a matching card to go with the gift bag, so I used the Christmas Cottage Sticker Stackers and Rub-ons to make this cute little sentiment and then used my BIG, BAD iROCK to add the little gems to the corners and itty bitty snowflakes.  I love that tool!

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Tuesday Mornings

Pebbles is showing peeks of their BRAND new Cats & Dogs collection.   If you go to the Pebbles Blog and leave a comment HERE you can be eligible to win a prize pack of this SUPER cute collection.  There will be another peek later this week of a second collection too.It is sure to become your new favorite line...with six quirky and playful patterned papers for cats and six for dogs, the line features bones, fire hydrants, balls and yarn, and mice (gasp)!  Matching carded ribbon, decorative paper clips and clasps, and pet tags complete the line and make it easy for you to capture memories of your beloved pets.

Thank you so much for stopping by -