28 blog hop

hi guys!  welcome to my blog as you journey along this 28 blog hop started by jamie over at www.paperheartproject.blogspot.com.  if you are following along then you should have arrived here from hollie's blog - www.justmeandavery.wordpress.com/

i'm pretty excited to have you guys stop by today.  you can read a bit about me over to the right on the sidebar.  i hope you like what you see and come back over to my blog sometime.  of course you can always subscribe too!

do you guys like lists?  i love them!  there's something wonderful about being able to check something off a list that just makes me happy :-)  so today i thought it would be fun to make up a list of 28 things i'd like to do this fall.  it's okay if i don't get to cross them all off my list, but i would definitely like to try! 

1. bake a pie
2. drink apple cider w/ mulling spices
3. bake pumpkin cupcakes
4. make smores
5. bake some apples
6. eat candy corn
7. make granola
8. bake bread or muffins
9. drink hot nutella
10. drink hot tea
11. make homemade soup
12. make donuts
13. go to/have a bonfire
14. sleep w/ the windows open
15. switch out my wardrobe
16. get outside more
17. start making christmas cards
18. blog at least 10 nail polish reviews
19. film a fall makeup look
20. film a scrapbook/card tutorial
21. darken my hair color
22. capture some pics of the fall foilage
23. start training for a 5k
24. learn to crochet/knit
25. clean and really get rid of some stuff
26. send out thanksgiving/fall cards
27. read a book outside wrapped up in a blanket
28. fall in love...with something...or someone ;-)

i'll be sure to give updates along the way and let you know what all i've done so be sure to come back!

hey, would you guys like a chance to win a prize!?!  just leave a comment below and on each blog in the blog hop and you'll be entered to win a $28 gift voucher to the online retailer of your choice given by jamie!  don't forget to leave a comment as well at jamie's blog letting her know you've stopped by each of the blogs today...and don't forget to wish her a happy birthday! :-)  you'll have until 8:00pm (est) on sunday, september the 30th.

now it's time for you to hop on over to jules' blog - www.juleshollis.com!

~ jess

11.11.2011

hello!  did you guys have a good weekend?  i was totally lazy this weekend but it felt good to just get some rest.  of course now that it's late sunday evening i'm full of energy...ha!  that's how i always am - getting a big wave of energy at night.

today i'm sharing a recent layout i created.  do you ever make multiple layouts about the same things?  i found this pic that i'd taken the night of 11.11.2011 as i was on my way to a friend's wedding.  back in january i'd already created a layout about that special date, but i decided to go ahead and create another layout.

~ jess

little update note

just a quick little note... i don't know if you've noticed, but i changed a setting on my blog to allow larger pics.  this is something i've been wanting to do for quite a while now and i'm very happy with how it looks.  however i just noticed that in older posts the text now wraps oddly around the pics. so my apologies about the look of these older posts...hopefully i can figure out how to stop it from doing that...

~ jess

a bit of shopping

happy wednesday!  shut the front door...two days of blogging in a row.  what's happening around here?!?

i LOVE fashion and shopping.  a very dangerous combination.  last week i ran into tjmaxx, one of my favorite stores, to look around a bit.  big mistake!  i'd been doing so well not really buying anything and then bam...the money began oozing from my wallet.  all total that day i bought two necklaces, one skirt and two blouses.  and then the next day i still felt a bit of that shopping mojo and picked up 3 packs of bracelets from lane byant.

so i thought i'd show you a few pics of some of the things i picked up and one thing that didn't work out.

rose gold michael kors necklace from tjmaxx

tjmaxx --- purchased both of these items - calvin klein stretch skirt // (need to check brand) blouse --- still debating on returning the blouse

tjmaxx --- same skirt as above - tried on the blouse but the fit of it wasn't perfect, a bit too baggy in some areas so i left it there

new arm candy i picked up on sale at lane bryant --- if you have large hands/wrists like myself check them out for the perfect fit

now it's time to get the shopping back under control...at least until my vacation next month...ha!

ps...i kind of like this post so i'm thinking from now on i'll take more pics of me trying things on and more pics of the things i buy to share w/ you guys.

~ jess

layout redesgin

yay, i've got some blog posts ready to go this week.

last week i pulled out my scrapbooking supplies and got quite a few layouts made.  it felt good to dig back in to some creativity.

the first thing i wanted to do was redo this layout above.  when i created it i was playing around with a simplistic approach.  i just wanted a stamped background and not much else because i felt the collage of pictures was busy enough.  but i knew as soon as i created the layout that i did not like it...at all!  however i just didn't have any other ideas for it at the time.  this time however i knew exactly what i wanted to do for a redesign.

i started by stripping off the college of images.  they were all taped together pretty good so i couldn't do much about that.  i did add a couple more pics to change the size a bit.

after adhering the pics to white cardstock i wanted to anchor down the other side of the layout so i added a strip of paper and began adding embellishments accordingly.

before i added the title though i felt that the white cardstock was a bit too stark between the dark pics and the muted blue paper section on the other side.  so i thought a bit of watercolor might be nice.

at this point i was a bit nervous about trying to do some watercolor since i was nearly done w/ this layout and it was already the 2nd time i'm dealt w/ these pics.  so i grabbed a piece of extra cardstock and tried out a few techniques first.  i love the finished look that came out.

i took a watercolor 'pen style' paintbrush that houses water in it and dipped it into a mister huey in the color watercooler.  the first brush strokes were a bit too strong in color so i'd swipe the brush across the extra paper until it was the opacity i desired then i'd brush the color onto the layout.  it did warp the paper a bit, but i just used a heat gun and it doesn't look too bad.

i'm not sure i'd ever do this again to a layout, but i definitely am happy with the redesign of this one!

~ jess