Giveaway!

It's almost 11 am on a rainy Sunday morning--clearly time for a giveaway!

My giveaway box if overflowing and I need one of YOU to take it off my hands:)

There are some delicious papers:


And some fabulous idea books and embellishments that I happen to have doubles of:

If you look closely, you can see an exclusive Studio Calico stamp and some bluegrass mist!

A few caveats:

1. Internationals are welcome to enter as long as you don't mind paying shipping. Just too expensive otherwise!

2. I will try to send everything shown above, but there's so much stuff I can't guarantee what will get in there!

To enter, please EITHER
--become a follower of this blog or
--leave me your email

Otherwise, I can never find you again! If you are a follower already, you're fine.

So tell me--when was the last time YOU purged your supplies?

Fun news!

Shavuot was fantastic--aside from a twenty-minute long walk in 100 degree heat, but I've recovered from that--I *think*. Ha! I'm now in Shabbos prep (aka crazy) mode, so I'll keep this short and sweet:)


I'm so excited to be part of the Elle's Studio design team!! Being on this team has long been a dream of mine, and I really couldn't believe it when I received that email.

So that's Part I of my exciting news:) Parts II and III should be coming shortly!

What's the best piece of news YOU received this week?

More Holiday Fun!

I know what you're thinking--man, there are a lot of holidays lately! So true. This is quite the busy time of year on the Jewish calendar.

Tonight, I'm going to be disappearing for two days to celebrate the holiday of Shavuos.

What is Shavuos, you may ask?

As a Jewish holiday, Shavuos sometimes gets the shaft, since it's in the summer and beyond the reaches of Hebrew school.

Shavuot is the anniversary of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai. Not to be confused with Simchas Torah, which is about celebrating the Torah. I happen to get them confused fairly often--it can get embarrassing.

A few fun tidbits about Shavuos:

1. As the story goes, back at Mount Sinai, the night before the Torah was given, the people fell asleep. Not exactly a high mark of enthusiasm. So to kind of "make up" for that, it's a custom to stay up all night learning Torah on Shavuos. I've never actually made it all night--I think a veeeery sleepy 4 am Torah class was my peak--but I do like to spend a good few hours studying! And S plans to go all night, so we'll see if he lasts:)


2. Cheesecake. It's a custom to have dairy on Shavuos, and luckily cheesecake has become the embodiment of this custom. In my kitchen, I have a 16-piece cheesecake sampler where each piece is a different flavor. This giant cheesecake is also for a meal of only 3 people--oops!

3. Ruth. On Shavuos, we read the Book of Ruth. Easily one of my favorite Biblical stories. I took a six week class on it years ago where we really delved into each sentence, and it gave me a lifelong appreciation for the Book of Ruth.
3. Flowers. Because Mount Sinai blossomed with flowers the day the Torah was given, it's also a custom on Shavuos to have flowers in your home and in the synagogue. (flowers + cheesecake -- can you see why I love this one?)

So those are some highlights of this holiday:) The next two days should involve lots of social time, reconnecting with G-d, staying up late chatting with friends, eating through my cheesecake sampler, and remembering why I chose to live a life revolving around Torah all those years ago.

What is YOUR favorite holiday?

Q & A: Scrapbooking, Steak, and everything in Between

Happy Sunday, friends! I hope this past week was a productive and happy one for you. I had several doors open this past week, which I can't wait to tell you about.

In the meantime, I have some Q & A for ya today!


Question : How did you get started scrapbooking?
It's actually a fun story! My dad is a business consultant, and he consulted for a scrapbooking company back in the day. The company gave my dad a bag of product, which he put in the basement. I was hunting around for a photo album in the basement when I came across the bag of scrappy stuff. It included everything you need to get started--paper, cardstock, stickers, trimmer, adhesive, scissors, etc. I was immediately hooked, and the rest is history!

Question: How/why/when did you get started with design teams?
Well, I actually have a little surprise up my sleeve related to that:) But the short answer is that since I found scrapbooking on my own, I never had friends who shared my hobby. So once I discovered the online scrapping community, I was thrilled and wanted to get involved. I wanted to be on design teams partly to get some validation for my work (if I'm being totally honest!), but also to make connections with other scrappers. It took me about 6 months to get published, and around 1 year to start getting on teams.

Question: Do any of your friends scrapbook?

I have some "real life" friends who dabble in scrapbooking, but they aren't at all involved in the industry side of things. And thanks to design teams, blogging, and message boards, I now have a whole group of scrappy buddies!

Question: Is there a short explanation for the no dairy-meat mixing?

Short? Not so much. But I'll do the best I can! The origin of the prohibition comes from several verses in the Torah that say you can't "cook a kid in its mother's milk." (if you're in the looking-things-up mood, the verses are in Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, Deuteronomy 14:21).

Now here's the tricky part: Orthodox Judaism believes that there are two parts to the Torah--the written Torah (aka 5 books of Moses), and the oral Torah (the Mishna and Talmud). Certain things that are mentioned in the written Torah are explained in the oral Torah. For example, the written Torah says "remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy," but how exactly do you do that? Sing a song? Do hula hoops? Have a scrapbook party every Saturday? (that, actually, might work for me:)) The oral Torah explains the "how." Orthodox Jews believe that the oral Torah was also given to Moses at Mount Sinai, to explain how to live the precepts in the Torah.

Now that you've heard my long background, the quick answer is that the "kid in its mother's milk" part is in the written Torah, and the rest of the milk and meat in general being separated comes from the oral Torah.

Now did that work, are you just more confused?

Question: What makes kosher salt kosher?

Another aspect of keeping kosher is that we can't eat blood. Since kosher salt is coarse, it tends to draw the blood out of the meat more effectively (or so S is saying while we're getting read to leave the house). Really any salt is kosher, but that's why kosher salt is called what it is!

Question: Where did you get the dresser you use for paper?

It's actually a TV cabinet from Ikea! I added 3 extra shelves and legs to make it look more "furniture-y," and there you are. I had been looking for something like this for a long time, and even called a scraproom furniture company who quoted me $900 for it (!!), so I was very pleased to find this option:)

And now a question for YOU--what's the question you get asked most frequently?

Hope all have a happy healthy Sunday!

[Image sources: http://scrapbooking.cc/, http://www.sweet-meats.com/, http://www.etsy.com/listing/71512637/pinch-of-salt]

WCS June (and a birthday!)

Today is not only the day of the June gallery reveal over at Write. Click. Scrapbook, but it's also the website's second birthday!

( Can you find me in there? I'm the one who clearly did not write her letter thick enough. I really need to work on my letter-collage-participant skillz.)

Not only that, but WCS has a new site design, and FIVE new members! They are Alexandra Sirugue-Macleod, Claudia "Clouds" Shadler, and some of my near and dear scrappy buddies--Christa Pastenbaugh, Lisa Kisch, and Marcy Penner.

The challenge for June was to get inspired by a previous WCS post of some sort. I love the Sunday photos + words feature, so I went with that.

Here's my inspiration piece:
And here's what I did with it:

I loved the quote, and the simple design of the original image, so I kept the layout of my page fairly similar. I used lots of layering and bits and pieces behind the photo to add some va-voom.

And a little close-up:


I have a new obsession with closeup, sneaky images--they just look so pretty!

Check out the rest of the WCS gallery here.


And that's all for tonight! S is at work late for what seems like the 8,654th day in a row, but whose counting. I, on the other hand, am keeping excellent company with the Real Housewives of Orange County, New York, and possibly soon New Jersey. Good times:) I also have plenty of upcoming blog posts to keep me busy, so stay tuned!


Question: Do YOU like seeing close-up images, or just the main layout? If you blog/post layouts online, do you do one or both?

Memorial Day scrapping

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

To tell the truth, until recently, Memorial Day didn't trigger much of an emotional response in me. I didn't know anyone personally who was in the army, and was generally more focused on the sales and hot dogs.

But thanks to the scrapbooking world, I have read hundreds of words by women whose husbands risk their lives every day. So this Memorial Day, I have so many families on my mind.This post by Stephanie Howell is especially beautiful.

So it seemed fitting to show you a layout today that's all about gratitude. In an effort to remind myself of what I have, instead of always focusing on what I want, I decided to write down one thing I'm grateful for every day for 30 days.

This could easily be a great mini book or even home decor item, but when the idea came to me in layout form, I decided to go for it! It's still in progress, hence the extra lines:)


I used lots of Elle's Studio Handmade Layers tags on this one, and my beloved Studio Calico woodgrain butterflies. Seriously, woodgrain butterflies? Best. idea. ever.


So my question for you today is--what are YOU most grateful for right now? (Alternatively, how do you feel about woodgrain butterflies?)

And I'm working on that Q & A post, should be up soon! Feel free to contact me with any more Qs:)

Scarlet Lime May!

It's already May 24, and I haven't shared my Scarlet Lime layouts yet! As my South African friend says a lot, for shame.

Here's a little peek at the May main kit, Sunny Disposition. This one is sold out, but you can still view the lovely images!


The bright, bold colors in this kit went perfectly with my Purim layouts (if anyone is confused about what Purim is, refer to this post).

This first one uses a fun group photo:

This next one is another Purim layout (I had the stack of photos out, and was on a roll!) Two of my friends came to our Purim party dressed as the couple from "American Gothic"--I loved the costume, and wanted to scrap it!


The Frugal Fab kit this month was packed full of fun 7 Gypsies products.

For my first layout, I was feeling nostalgic, so I wrote about S and my first date. (No, the photo is not from the date itself--that might have been a little awkward:))

If you can't read the journaling, here's the short story: we spent our first date at Mama's Falafel in Philadelphia, which, if you've been there, you'd realize is not the most romantic restaurant, to say the least. And falafel is certainly not the ideal date food! Add to that the fact that I was coming from an interview, so dressed in a boring black suit, and got caught in a rainstorm on my way, and it's really a miracle we went on to have a second date. Ha!

And finally, a little Mother's Day card (can you tell I'm a bit behind the times here?)

And that's all, folks!

Out of curiosity, what was YOUR first date like? And if you haven't dated yet, what's your ideal date?

(And for those of you that have asked questions in the comments--I'm prepping a Q&A post for the next few days! If you have any other Qs, leave them in the comments below!)