Easter 2014 layout

Fun editing photos

I am on love with the app PicFrame. I bit the bullet and paid the .99. The best .99 cents I ever paid. I LOVE LoVe lOVe this app. Here are a few of my favorite layous. 

I cropped the pictures using the app to make two 3x4 pictures on a 4x6 photo page. These will work perfect with my project life layouts. My new obsession. 

Only a few more weeks...

The 2013-2014 school year is quickly coming to an end, but not without a lot of  stress in my department. So much it's squelching my creativity. On top of that I am thinking about all the things I want to do this summer with my time off and it's feeling a little overwhelming. God works in mysterious ways though. I read this verse today which was exactly what I needed. God is good!!!!

 

I pray that peace will be with you so that you can enjoy God's wonderful creation today. 

Love, 

Farm Girls 

Flower Girl Layout

Items used:

The Paper Studio 12 x 12 paper

The Paper Studio flower stickers

Imaginisce. plastic buttons

Amy Tangerine remarks letter stickers 

Wood veneers from Studio Calico 

January and February PL layouts

January

February 

Embellishments and kits used in these layouts:

~ Project Life Honey Edition core kit

~ Studio Calico Monthly Kits: December 2013 -Blue Note

~ Studio Calico Monthly Kit: January 2014 - Copper Mountain 

~ Studio Calico Monthly Kits: February 2014 - Sugar Rush

Project Life - Honey Edition - Journaling Embellishments

In 2013 I began a new journey in scrapbooking called Project Life. It's a pocket system using 3 x 4 and  4 x 6 cards for journaling and embelishments. After a year I have really become addicted to this system. It's so easy and fun. There are no rules except the sizing, but I have found this to be the best part. Normally pictures come in a 4 x 6 format which is why I say it's the best part. If you're interested in what the system is all about I encourage you to visit the creators website:

www.beckyhiggins.com

There are other names for this style such as daily journaling or  pocket journaling, but Project Life is the name you'll most hear about. There are also other brands which I encourage you to look into. They are just as great. 

One of the things I thought about as I got into 2014 was choosing my color scheme. I decided to build off the remaining cards that I had from the Honey edition by Becky Higgins Project Life. I had probably half the Core kit left. Last year I really didn't know what I was doing so my layouts are mostly pictures, but I love the way my 2013 albumn turned out. Through out the year I pinned lots of Pinterest pins and read lots of blogs so I am making 2014 the year of embellishments. 

I recently took to the internet to find coordinating paper and embellishments to add to my Honey core kit. I was greatly disappointed by the lack of items. There are a few out there, but I want to take a moment to share what I did to compliment the Honey core kit. This was a cheap DIY that I think you will enjoy and could very easily replicate. 

To begin I went through my cards and picked out the ones I had multiples of. Some were patterns that as a whole were too busy for me. 

To do this DIY you will need a few simple tools:

- cutting board

- corner rounder

- scissors

- punch

As you can see I am missing a few of the items I mentioned above. After completing this project I will be looking into purchasing a star, various size circles, and a boarder punch. They will make this project perfect. The scissors I have, just did not put them in the photo. Oops! 

Since this post is about embellishments I want to share what kinds I am personally wanting to use in 2014. So far I have been grabbing for banners or journaling strips to add to my picture. I also love little pictures or stickers. I found I could make coordinating embellishments right for the core kit. 

It took about 30 minutes or so to get it all cut out, but they came out great. The bottom pile is scraps for the cards I cut. I plan on keeping them just in case I need a little strip. 

So those are my embelishments. I don't have any pictures right now to use them on, but Sunday is Easter so I am sure there I will be lots of pictures to journal after that. 

Have a great day! Love, 

Farm Girls

P.s. A tutorial on creating my storage basket is coming. Here is a sneak peek...

3 x 4 punch idea ~ Birthday card to pocket card

I was doing research for scrapbooking ideas on Pinterest and I found a big one. 

This idea comes from amytangerine.com. I can't take credit for it, but when I make some birthday layouts for 2014 I can. :-) 

I am so inspired now. I hope you are too. 

~Farm Girls

Miss Emily is Three!!

My little gardener

Hobby Lobby Haul

Last week Hobby Lobby had a blow out sale on Papercrafting and the Paper Studio lines. Even though I was still recovering from my surgery I had to get and get some supplies I needed. Letter stickers are something I can't love without when I am scrapbooking. They add a special touch. I got mine in black so it could coordinate with just about everything and I found three different styles. I was running out of tape for my embellishments so I added the tape dispenser. At an end cap I saw the refill pages in layouts I didn't have so I grabbed two packages. I was tempted. They won. They are 4 x 6 layouts without journal cards slots. I have found that sometimes I have extra pictures so these will be nice to showcase those pictures. I also found a Studio Calico stamp that I can use to stamp the date or other phrases. I hope it works or I can figure it out. Stamping isn't my expertise. It should be really fun to use. 

I need to get scrapbooking again. I will post my pages soon so you can get an idea of my style. 

Target Haul

I got out of town and snuck a quick trip into Target. I found these gems just seconds into the store. Target has some real neat $1 items so I snagged these up. I got two pages of the cute pattern paper. You get1 sheet of each pattern. It's adorable and perfect for cutting into journaling cards for my Project Life scrapbook. In addition I grabbed two letter stickers, pink and gold circles. These will be used up quick. Finally, I picked up the pink tray and green cup ($3) to put my extra embellishments in. This will make choosing them so much easier. 

I am still working on setting up my craft room, but will share how I store all my supplies soon. :) 

I did not see this coming

On Sunday, March 9th, 2014 I woke up with a dull pain in my abdomen. Well, really all over and it lasted all day. I tried going to church, but ended up laying down in the room for mommies. It was quiet and peaceful. Halfway through I ended up going home and I spent the entire rest of the day in bed. I had hoped if I slept it would go away. Well, Monday came and it was still there so I cancelled going into work and went to see the dr who sent me to the hospital to have my appendix scanned. After the scan I went home to wait for results. Well at approximately 3pm I experienced the worst pain I have ever exeperienced, even worse than child birth. I called my neighbor who drove me to the hospital where I remained for 5 days.

My miracle surgeon explained that my appendix was attached to several other parts of my body and it was slowly leaking into my body which explained the sharp intense pain. He removed it and as much of the leaking fluid that very day. God was watching out for me because it was also attached to my uterus so he had to call in another surgeon to assist him. God is good because she was available that day. Because of the leaking I had to be on antibiotics until I was free of infection. That meant living on a liquid diet. Not my favorite, but I really wasn't hungry. Probably because the anesthesia and antibiotics made me nauseous most of the time. 

I lived off Popsicles, jello, and broth. Yummy, right? 

My spirit was the highest when my family and friends were around. My husband was a true angel and strength for me through the whole process. I couldn't have done it without him. I have an even deeper love for my God and husband now than ever before. I do not know why this happened to me, but if this was the reason I went through it than I am thankful. 

My first full liquid was cream of wheat. The first bit of this was like something from heaven. It satisfied my hunger and taste for food like nothing else could. I asked for it for every meal after that. Makes me think, do I crave God's love and guidance like that everyday? I do now. 

There are several wonderful people I want to thank for the smile you see on this face:

(For security purposes their names will remain nameless)

:: My loving and supportive husband

:: my church family

::my neighbor 

:my pastor and elder

:my friends who sent flowers or anything to help the environment smell wonderful

:my new angel friend who held my hand and talked me through everything I was going to experience

:friends and family who prayed

:my sister-in-Christ and her family who watched Miss Emily 

:the families who brought us yummy food at home when I was too sore to move

:and a huge thank you to my mother-in-law who stayed with me through several nights after I came home from the hospital. She taught me how to love in a whole new way. 

If I have left anyone out I deeply apologize. I know that all the love and support I have received has greatly affected me and I will never forget the kindness I received. 

God is love, and I felt his love this week. 

My New Craft Room - Phase One

I've had this space, but never defined it. The Lord gave us some sunshine and I think it sparked my creativity bug which motivated me to get to work setting up this space up. 

My room is located in the lower part of our house which means it's always cold and a little dark. So that will be my challenge with the square space. 

The materials and furniture I used was a desk given to me by a friend and the desk I cheaply put together using a sheet of old wood, plastic storage container, and storage boxes. I pretty much used what I had and surprisingly it worked. Thankfully, I mean. 

.:: BEFORE ::.

.:: AFTER ::.

I couldn't help but show a few pictures of my "little helper". She was great during the setup and a lot too silly. That's Miss Emily for you. 

Her homemade jump rope/belt and the contents of my closet in the background. Does anyone else keep bags and boxes from previous gifts? I do! :-) 

How do you spend your weekend?

I had a really good time this weekend. On Saturday I helped host a baby shower for a really good friend of mine. I had never done anything like this before so I was super nervous. Despite the cold and snow we had 7 guests. We made a cute banner for baby's room (sorry no picture) and we made a web with strings which we all wrapped around our wrists to create a braclet to remind us to pray for her delivery. My favorite part was drinking the Bath Water Punch - blue fruit punch + sprite + vanilla ice cream + rubber ducky = yum. My friend kept telling us that she was starting contractions during the shower and low and behold at 3am the next morning she was woken up by vey large contractions. At 7am she decided to go to the hospital and at 4:45pm Baby Broderick was born! Not a moment too soon. :-) 

Sunday was a lazy day for us. Emily slept 12 hours after all the fun and excitement at the baby shower so she was filled with all lot of energy. Have you ever pretended to play in the snow on your bed? Emily has now. :-) She learned you can make snow angels inside. Too cute. Doesn't she look really big I these pictures? That's what I thought. 

Silly girls having fun. 

I ended the night working on gifts for upcoming weddings. I'd show a picture, but it don't want to ruin any surprises. If you follow me on twitter you might have seen me tweet my frustrations. It was hard work, but it payed off. If you don't follow me, please do @sarawbear. 

As always thanks for stopping by. Please leave me a comment, I'd love to get to know those who follow my blog. 

~ Farm Girls, Sarah and Emily

Week Update

The last 7 days were filled with lots of excitement.
1. My husband Nate was a wonderful Valentine. He bought me flowers and took us to a yummy dinner.
2. On Saturday we took Emily to an indoor bouncy house adventure. We spent 5 hours playing on inflatables. I crashed at 6pm and didn't wake till 8am the next morning. Crazy.
3. Miss Emily's Aunt and Grandma came to town to see my husband play basketball.
4. Snow and more snow.
5. One day the temperature got to 75 degrees.
6. Wind blew so hard we lost power on Thursday. It was super hard to get dressed. I pulled my hair back which I don't do very often.
7. Ladies Night with some great Christian friends from church. I am going to really enjoy this group.
8. The week ended with a lazy Friday night, much needed.

9. Huge photo sale at Walgreens which means I am getting all 122 of my photos ordered. I spent the whole evening figuring out how to get them uploaded, but after 2 hours I had them all uploaded and ordered. I cannot wait to get back to my scrapbooking. 

Pizza Joes

I have just found the yummiest dinner and I just had to share. Please excuse the photo quality, I took it with my iPad. Anyone have a good photo editor suggestion? 

Easy Pizza Joes

Ingredients

Hamburger buns

1 lb ground beef (I used 70/30 ratio)

1 jar of pizza sauce 

I/2 cup pepperoni cut into small pieces. 

Shredded Mozzarella 

Directions

Cook ground beef over medium heat. Drain fat. While still hot, add pizza sauce and pepperoni. Stir still combined. Heat his mixture over medium low heat till just bubbling. While it is heating up turn oven to low broil with the rack in the middle. Put half of the hamburger bun onto a baking sheet. When sauce is heated scoop mix over the bun and then top with shredded mozzarella. Put in oven and Broil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cool for one minute and serve. 

Your family will love it. Miss Emily ate two. If you try this recipe I'd love to know how you liked it. You can message me here or on our Facebook page. 

www.facebook.com/kansasfarmgirls 

Love, 

The Farm Girls

Scrapbooking Update

I am so ready to get back to my scrapbooking. I have not been able to work on it since late Summer. Not because I don't have the time, but because I don't have the equipment to photo edit or upload. I haven't figured out how to upload from my phone. It's really frustrating me. I am sure there is a way. So until we can afford new equipment or find a different solution that part of my life is on hold. Sorry if I disappoint anyone. 

In the mean time I will be using my new Cricut machine to make a few gifts. I want the finished product to look like this pin I found on Pinterest. I love how customizable it is. 

If your interested I will do a tutorial on how I made it because there are several methods I found on the web. 

Love, 

Farm Girls

January Favorites

A lot has been happening here at our house. I am a little obsessed with taking pictures, especially of Miss Emily. Here are my favorites. 

So the other day Miss Emily comes running up too me and says "Fire!". I freak out and ask her to show me where. She takes me downstairs and shows me her little people all sitting around the fireplace. I think I had a little mommy heart attack with that one, but I laughed too. 

Miss Emily has also loved her building blocks and we try to make them taller and taller. We are getting close.  

After a horrible wind storm we had a little cleaning up to do in our front yard. A lot more tumbleweed than we thought. It was literally like hunting for Easter eggs. We had a blast. 

{album review}

                             

Today on iTunes Radio Switchfoot's new albumn Fading West is free to stream. I am LOVING it. I've been a fan of Switchfoot for years so I have that love to fall back on, but even if I hadn't heard of them I'd be into them. It's my style I guess. So what's my style? I like anything that is fun, happy, and layed back. I like to rock, but I'm more happy with an album that I can just sit and listen to. If an album can get me to dream than it's pretty awesome because I have a hard time letting myself relax. As I am listening to the album right now I can't help but think about cutting out of work and driving with the windows down enjoying life. If I was near the coast I'd be driving to the beach. It's funny that the cover is shot at the beach because that's where I want to be right now.  Saltwater Heart speaks perfectly to this dream. Anyone want to go with me?