{Fashion Fridays} Shabby Apple

I lovelovelove Shabby Apple!  They make such gorg dresses!  Bonus points:they're modest.  No need for a tank top or a t-shirt or a cardigan.  These beauties shine all on their own.  Here are a few that caught my eye:

Buttoned-Up

Madison Ave.

Some Good News and a Challenge

This little blog just passed a big milestone.  This week, Scraps and Scribbles passed the 40,000 page views mark!  I know that doesn't sound like a whole lot, but it's more than I ever expected when I started blogging.  

With that said, I have a challenge for you, my lovely readers.  I want to be able to offer you guys better, more awesome giveaways and opportunity, but to do that, this blog needs to make some major growth. I need your help to do that-help spread the word about Scraps and Scribbles.  We need to get to (at least) 1,000 by the end of the year.  I know we can do it!  I'll be doing my part by bringing you all fantastic, pretty things to look at and all I need you to do is tell your friends.  Talk Scraps and Scribbles up on Facebook, Tweet about the posts you like-whatever helps!  When Scraps and Scribbles hits the magic number, there's going to be a super-awesome celebration to thank you all for your help and support!  'Cause this blog would be nothing without you all to read it!

Just some housekeeping items: you might notice things moving around on my sidebars in the next couple of weeks.  I'm getting ready for a facelift and I'm trying to declutter things beforehand.

 

{Who's That} From Blank Pages

Today I'm swappin' blogs with the lovely Diane from From Blank Pages.  She is super-terrific and you all are going to love her!

Hi! :) I'm really excited to do a blog swap with Courtney today! I hope you have as much fun as I am.

First, to introduce myself, my name is Diane. I'm a stay-at-home mom of two crazy little boys and a girl that should be here any day now (ok, I still have a couple weeks, but I can hope right?!) :), and I couldn't have a better "job".  I studied Art, Horticulture and German in college, and love to create anything I can put my mind around. I love the outdoors and doing anything that involves being outside. Since having a family (and small children) I've been a little more home-bound, and thus have picked up a joy for "crafting" (I still don't like to admit that I "craft". I prefer to say that it's being artsy, but lets face it. I craft.) ;) and sewing among other things. I opened up my etsy shop just over two years ago, db By Design, and last August I started my "new" blog, from blank pages.... The time I put into them definitely comes and goes depending on everything else going on in life, but it's fun to have something that is for me, and I love it!

Originally we were going to do the blog swap earlier, but I got put on bed rest and that kind of put it on hold. I was going to do a tutorial for a cute Easter Basket... but now Easter is over, so I think instead I'll share with you a couple of other projects that I already have tutorials for, and a few of my favorite projects.

First off I will show you the Easter baskets I made... there will be a tutorial coming. I just need to finish it up and post it, so you'll have to come stop by my blog and see it when it's done. I made the first one last year for my oldest, and whipped up the second in about a day for my second boy. They like to play with them all year long, as well as wear them as hats. :)

A few other sewing projects and tutorials of late have been this Scrappy Pincushion (I have a link to where you can download the pdf pattern for this)

along with this Phone Pillow Tutorial. This works for iPods, phones, eReaders, Kindles, iPads, etc. It's really quick and easy and you can easily adjust the size to fit your needs. I whipped up a lot of these for Christmas presents this last Christmas and they were a big hit. (Also a pdf pattern)

Besides fabric I also like working with paper. This is one of my favorite paper projects: Paper Name Mobiles - with a full tutorial right on my blog. Just make sure to keep it out of reach of children. My oldest ripped both of theirs up and I cried. ;)

 

I also always wanted to bind my own books and found a few tutorials online and whipped these out for some birthday presents for a bunch of girls at my church. They were so much fun! and now that I've had a little break from the mass production I think I'm ready to make some more. 

A few of my favorite shop items have been paper and fabric matching game sets:

and these Erasable Activity Books:

Besides tutorials and projects, I also use my blog to keep track of "Fab Finds", all those great ideas and projects that everyone else makes that I love, and bookmark. It's like my way of keeping all my bookmarked stuff organized. I also keep track of "Bloggity Blogs", which are some fab blogs that I want to remember and keep track of so I can go back to often and not let them get left by the wayside. It's also a dual purpose blog and works as my keep-my-family-updated blog. All of those posts start with "Our Story:" So if your not into other people's families, you can skip those posts. ;) With getting ready for the new arrival of baby number 3, I've been a little more inconsistent with all the elements of my blog, but I'd love to meet you all, so be sure to stop by, say hi, follow along, whatever! 

Thanks Courtney for letting me stop by and take your blog for a day! :) 

Thanks so much for swapping with me today, and for sharing your blog, Diane!  I hope you all enjoyed getting to know Diane and go pay her a visit over at From Blank Pages!

Easter, Easter

Hope you all had a lovely Easter!  Ours was one jam-packed weekend!  Saturday morning our ward had an Easter activity for all of the primary kids.  They did a little mini service project where they put together hygiene kits for a local shelter, then played fun Easter games and had an egg hunt at the end.

Then it was back home to clean like a madwoman-see, I had the nutty idea the week before to have our ENTIRE family (both sides) over for Easter dinner at our house-and get some homework done.  

Sunday morning came after a long night with our poor little man having bad dreams-he ended up sleeping on a little bed my hubby made up for him on our bedroom floor.  We hid his Easter basket and he had fun looking for it.  He was very happy with the goodies he found.

Then off to church we went-I had my first sharing time this past Sunday and I think it went pretty well, if I do say so myself : )

We snapped a quick family pic of us all in our Easter best before finishing up the last minute tasks around the house before our guests arrived.  I was too busy with everything to remember to get pictures of everyone while they were here, but we had 18 people in our house!  It was our first family gathering in our new place-it was a blast!

Before most everyone left, I hid the little man's eggs (we weren't able to do it earlier because it began to rain) and he had a little mini egg hunt.  

And that's our Easter in a nutshell : )

Before I packed it all up, I thought I'd give you a glimpse at my Easter decor.  We don't have much, but I add to it a little each year.

 My little bicycle bunny-she hides treats in her basket.  And see that little {bare} tree in the background?  I've got a cute Easter/Spring project planned for it, so be watching!

Her basket holds yummy Cadbury eggs.  Most of them are gone now, though : )

This little guy is from WAAAAAY back in the day-I made him at a Relief Society meeting back when I was still a Young Woman.  Talk about old.

These little chicks were a steal-I found the pair of them in the dollar section at Target.  They, of course, came home with me.  I filled each one with a different color of Easter grass and ta-da!  fast, cheap decor.  They're hanging out next to my free canvas (from Canvas People-love it!)

And here's my spring wreath.  If you've been a follower for a while, you may remember my interchangeable wreath.  I whipped up a pretty spring embellishment for it-stay tuned for the tutorial!

{Who's That} Brassy Apple

I'm blog swappin' with the lovely Megan from Brassy Apple today!  I'm so excited for you all to meet her (if you don't already know who she is)-I just know you'll love her and her wonderful blog!

Hi! Thanks to Courtney for the feature today! I am excited to be introduced to her readers! My name is Megan or Ms. Apple as the delivery guy sometimes calls me (ha ha ha) . I am the creative force behind Brassy Apple. 

 I love to create easy to wear accessories and designs. When the demand became to much, I branched into sewing patterns and ePatterns so everyone could make my designs and input some of their own personal style and taste.

(Lucy Apron)

(Shaggy Mosaic Technique)

I love to blog and interact daily on the Brassy Apple Blog. It's where I can share all my ideas outside of designing and producing patterns.

I have a passion for sewing, fashion, DIY'ing, upcycling, refashioning, design and attempting to be fun and cool mom! I like to take things that might look hard and show how simply they can be created. 

I share tutorials and project ideas from creating with your kids...

(I spy book)

(Spin Art)

to creating a space you love or items to put into that space.....

(Ruffled Rosette Pillow)

(Winter Mantle)

to refashioning a boxy tee into something trendy and unique!

(Embellished Arm Warmers)

(Boxy to Foxy refashion)

I also love photography as a hobby or outlet outside of business. I have recently started a daily photo blog that features women all over the world! 

It embraces the fact that we are all more than just the labels or categories we are put into. It allows us to connect, laugh, cry and relate through a single photo or peek into your world wherever you are located on the globe. The theme for May's photos is - I am a Mother! I would love to feature you and your greatest creations - your children. 


It was great to share a bit about me and what I do with you today! Stop by and say hello! 

Thanks so much for coming by and sharing with my readers, Megan!  I hope you all head over to her blog and check it out-say hi while you're there, that's where I am today :)

I'm in need of a rescue

Many of you probably already know this, but this past January, we bought our first house.  It's been both exciting and overwhelming.  I feel like there's been a lot piled on me since then.  Seriously, a week after moving in, we got a puppy.  I don't think I've shared the story of how Toby came to be ours so here you go:

We moved into our house on a Saturday.  The following Monday, my husband was gone, traveling for work, for the whole week.  That's a typical week here.  During his time home the next weekend, he wanted to put our fence up so that the little guy could go outside and play.  Sunday afternoon, he and his brothers and dad are out there, finishing it up (since he had to leave the next day.  Again.) when he tells me his boss is going to come by.  He and his fiance had just gotten two golden retriever puppies, a brother and a sister, and wanted to bring one over for the little man to play with.  He knew that we had been talking about getting a dog for the little man as a belated Christmas present (we wanted to wait until we were in the house before we got a dog) so he told us we could have him. Apparently having two puppies was much more than they were able to handle and they wanted him to go to a good home.  So, before I knew it, we had a dog.  An 8-week-old puppy with parasites that wasn't housebroken.  Yay me.  I was (and still am) going to school full-time, had a house that needed unpacking, a two-year-old to take care of and a puppy needing constant supervision because he would have accidents on the carpet.  I took him to the vet, she gave him some medicine that got rid of the parasites.  He is now 5 months old and a happy, healthy (and now completely housebroken) dog.  But he's been problematic and a big source of stress for me (with my husband having to travel so much for work, I'm primarily responsible for taking care of him) at the same time.  He's the runt of his litter and has some major submission issues which means he pees when he thinks he's in trouble or gets excited or feels intimidated.  He pees nearly every time my husband walks by him.  Now, not that I am not grateful that he is a part of our family-I wouldn't give him away unless he injured someone or seriously just became too much for us to handle-BUT the whole thing was just bad timing and I haven't been able to catch my breath from it all yet.  

Enter my sad, neglected house.  Needless to say, our house is in need of some serious help, decorative-wise.

Here's our great room.  It's a nice, big space.  But it intimidates me at the same time.  I just don't know what to do with it.

Our (free) couches are in serious need of replacement.

Never mind the drum set sitting by the TV.  Not sure what it's doing there.  Or our sad TV stand.  Most of our furniture is hand-me-downs from when we first moved to Albuquerque and had no money.  Not knocking hand-me-downs, because they sure beat sitting on the floor, but they're not exactly what I would pick if I had shopped for our furniture myself.  I do, however, love that little cabinet to the left of the TV.  We use it to store our movies and games.  It needs a little fixing, but it's a great piece.  People ask me all the time where we got it.

 

As you can see, my walls are white and bare.  And my couch is sad.  Again, not awful for free, but the cushions are all starting to lose their shape and I'm not a huge fan of micro-suede.

And I'm not in love with the current arrangement of the furniture in here-it tends to attract clutter, which I don't like-but I don't know what to do with it.

With all that I've got on my plate-school, toddler, puppy, housework (oh and by the way, did I mention I'm 11 weeks pregnant?  So add just plain ole exhausted to that)-I'm just so overwhelmed by it.  Every time I sit down and try to figure out what to do with this room, I just get frustrated.

Then there's our master bedroom.

It's a mess.  Literally.  Another space I just don't know what to do with.

We don't even have a head board!  Part of the problem is, we're planning on getting a new bed, so I don't really want to start decorating in here until then.  We've already got some great bed linens for the new bed and I want to do something that will coordinate with them.  But in the meantime, I've got nothing.  Right now, it has a very impersonal feel to it (at least to me.  I'm sure my husband doesn't care.)

Here's where the amazing Mandi could help me out:

If you've never heard of Mandi and her amazing blog, Vintage Revivals, you are seriously missing out.  The woman is a serious decor genius!  

Look what she did with her own house.  

Before.

After.

Amazing.  If she can do that, then my house should be a breeze.

And she's super-generous, too.  She is having a contest in which she will come to the winner's home to give said super-lucky person a much-needed home make-over!  How awesome?!?!?!?!  I know she could give my house the help it needs and help me sort out all of the decorating ideas I've got floating around in my head.
So, Mandi, here's why you should come to my house:
1.  I live in lovely, sunny Florida and June is prime beach time.  So when we're not giving my house the once-over, you could be working on your tan.  And I know where the nice beaches are :)
2.  I lovelovelove your blog and all of your super-craptastic creations.  I truly do love your guts.  If you'd like me to go on, I can-I am not above flattery!
3.  I think we'd be friends if we were to ever meet.
4.  I think my sad pictures of my house speak for themselves, but just in case they weren't loud enough: my house, in its current state, makes me sad.  It's a nice house and it needs some love that I can't give it right now.  It meets all the criteria: it's in desperate need of a make-over, we own it so painting isn't a problem and I'm totally open to whatever fun, crazy things you come up with!
A big, fat thank you to Mandi and her super sponsors for sponsoring this awesome opportunity in the first place.  You all rock!