what's next

yay! it's friday. i'm going to have a very busy weekend, with the possibility of working the whole thing, but it's still friday which i love.

wanted to share another layout with you guys.  i'm always looking all around me for inspiration for layouts. i saw a recent post on a forum asking if you know your scrapbooking style yet...i definitely feel i'm beginning to create layouts that i love. i like a mix of the modern w/ some florals/butterflies/doilies.  some days i lean more modern such as when i created this layout.

i found the photo and knew i wanted to do some kind of pop of color to set off this bw photo. first i remembered pinning this page, specifically the layout with the washes of color blocking. i have quite a few mister huey's but some colors i just don't reach for every time and this gave me a chance to use those. i did get a bit stumped as to a title, so i just grabbed a magazine i had and started flipping through it looking for some words to jump out at me. i ran across this title "what's next" and loved the font/color and so i just clipped it out to use for the title. i can soooo see myself doing this a lot more often. this is one of my favorite layouts i've created.

it says 2011 because that's when the photo was taken...

title cut out of magazine

strips of washi tape

mr huey spray inks

the journaling says - "what's next?...that's the question that keeps popping up in my head and in my prayers. sometimes i feel that my life is currently in some holding pattern. i am trying to learn to look beyond that question and to start living my life truly fully in every moment of everyday!"

~ jess

daily pics - 01.24.2012 - 01.31.2012

it's been a while since i've caught you up with my daily photos.  in fact, i think i'll break them down into a couple of posts.  i'll at least get up the rest of the january pics today.  i'm still doing pretty good w/ the photo a day.  every now and then i miss a day.  i did see a post/pic on instagram of things you take a pic of each day and loved the idea, but only followed it one day in february... so i might try it again in march.

yes, i'm still obsessed with greek yogurt. i'm not eating it every day, but most days i am. i still have no clear favorite brand/flavor. this was the first time i've tried a flavor that is already mixed into the yogurt...usually i buy the fruit on bottom or fruit on side. this was sooooo good. it tasted exactly like i was eating a key lime pie w/o the crust.

while grocery shopping i always look to see what new items have arrived in the frozen section of the grocery store. these meals are sooo easy to just grab and take to work for lunch...otherwise i don't have enough time to fix something of a morning and end up grabbing some kind of unhealthy fast food. i found this meal at a walmart supercenter, but not the one i usually go to. and i didn't even realize until i was eating it that it was vegetarian. oh.my.goodness. was it every yummy! quite possibly the best flavor of lean cuisine i've ever ate.

just a quick snapshot i grabbed friday morning...for two reasons. first the scarf was new. i'd just bought it the day before from tjmaxx. i wasn't sure if i should wear it yet or hold onto it for a few months since it's so springy...but i couldn't resist wearing it. i love how it brightens up a dreary winter day. second was the fact that i'd just had my hair trimmed/colored the day before. i'm still loving the dark brown so i just got a repeat of last time w/ some highlights. interesting note - my hair doesn't like color. in fact my stylist has to use the next to darkest color (blue-black being the only darker) to get that color on my hair.

this is the sigma dry'n'shape system. after you wash your brushes you place them in there and then most brushes will dry in 4-6hrs. it worked really well for all my brushes except my XL powder brush which took a little longer to dry. i'll definitely be using this from now on when i clean my brushes.

julep - demi polish. a lovely vampy red shade.

a sparkly wreath w/ a peacock...it hangs between my two large windows above my bed.

i'm sure by now you've seen a million pics/recipes for a green smoothie. this was the first one i tried and if you can get past the color and knowing it contains spinach it's actually really yummy. as in if i were blindfolded i wouldn't have known it even had spinach.
well, that's it for today. see you guys later!
~ jess

blogging

good morning! it's a chilly wednesday morning here. the weather is a funny thing here in the south.  all we usually get is warm/hot weather, so the tv crews go bananas when there is a chance for snow.  and just wait until this spring when we get out usual thunderstorms...i think they live for those moments.  it's quite funny.  anyways last night they were all abuzz with "chances of snow" for wed morning. and you know what...there was no snow.  only cold weather and a dreary looking sky.

i didn't have much to share with you guys today.  but i ran across this post over on shop sweet things and some of it really struck a chord with me...like trying to blog every day.  a lot of times at night i'll think about making a blog post but then never get around to it.  i don't want to have to schedule it in, because i don't want it to feel forced.  but i do want to find a way to incorporate it more into my every day routine of life.

And because I don't want to post without a pic...

these were a gift from my secret sister at church...and oh.my.goodness are they ever yummy! of course at 100 calories a cookie they should be. not sure they are the best snack after dragging myself into the gym, but they were a sweet ending to my day ;-)
~ jess

modesty is the best policy

hope you all had a lovely weekend.  mine started off really nice.  but by sunday afternoon i was beginning to feel a bit sick.  i'm finally feeling better this evening.  hopefully the rest of the week will be on the upside.

do you use pinterest much? i love it. i'm always pinning things on there. well i'd noticed friends posting sayings on there and for a while i wasn't much interested. but then the other day i realized how great some of those sayings would be for scrapbook layouts. so i've started looking for all kinds of sayings on there now.  and that's how this layout came about. i'm always taking pics of myself in outfits and i just thought this saying fit along perfectly. i know each person views the word modesty in different lights and i try to apply it to a lot of ways in my life as well, but it definitely affects the way i dress.

~ jess

me time

yay! we are halfway through the work week.  i'm always looking forward to the weekend.  don't get me wrong, i love my job, but i just hate hearing the alarm go off at 6am...not to mention i'm a night person and can never make it to bed early.  i can only survive on 6hrs of sleep a night for so many days in a row. most people can survive on 6-8 hrs, but i'm the kind of person who needs more like 10hrs a night.

i have another layout here to share with you. the papers are from a studio calico kit but most of the embellies are from my stash purchased separately. i'm always looking for stickers and embellies to add to layouts...one of my favorite parts.

this layout is about taking time for myself.  not that i'm so busy, but when i take time to get my hair done or nails, etc it's soooo relaxing and just about me for that 30min or more.

~ jess