Welcome, Christmas*

Good Morning Lovelies,

I woke up this morning so excited for today. As many of you know, I am so very in love with Christmas, it is absolutely my favorite holiday. Not for the presents, or the food, but for the kindness that seems to radiate from everyone around this time of year. We all seem to be more tolerant, more willing to help others, and just softer versions of our normal everyday selves. There just seems to be a little more love out there...

We are taking our first step towards prepping our home for Christmas. Today is the day we put up our Christmas Tree :) There will definitely be a post full of pictures coming soon! You'll also notice that I've changed the look of my blog for Christmas as well.

Something else I wanted to share was a video of the base pages of my December Daily 2011! I am so excited to finally be doing this project instead of thinking about doing it and just never getting around to it! Of course now that I've created the base pages, I keep seeing different people's versions of the December Daily Album, and want to change mine... but I will stick with what I have this year, and change it up for next year ( no post album next year, MUST be in a binder! Way easier to add and remove things!) I would love to see your December Daily projects! If you are sharing them on your blog, or anywhere else on the web, please leave a link in the comments! Now on to the video...

As you can see, I couldn't decide on one "style" of paper. I started out with all "vintage Christmas" and the added some pages that are a little more contemporary. What can I say, I'm an eclectic type of girl and all my projects seem to reflect that. I plan to fill this little book with Christmas memories and stories. If you follow this link, you will find a list of 25 ideas for your December Daily Album, created by Ali Edwards herself.

I will definitely be using it as a reference when filling in my album!

I will be back in the next few days to share images of our Christmas tree.

Wishing you all a day filled with love,

-S xoxo

Our First Winter's Night

"the lamp is burning low upon my table top,

the snow is softly falling.
the air is still in the silence of my room,
I hear your voice softly calling..."
-Song for a Winter's Night

I woke up at 1 am this morning and I could just feel it. I was so sure of what I would see when i peeked out my bedroom window. there it was... snow

instead of grumbling to myself, flipping over and falling back to sleep, I got up. I made myself a cup of earl grey tea (decaf of course) and bundled up in my blanket. I pulled the curtains in my bedroom wide open and just watched...

the first snowfall always seems so magical to me. to watch the beautiful fluffy white snow cover every surface it can find in sparkling white diamonds...

I know in the months ahead, I will grumble about how tired I am of snow and how much I long for green. but for now I am marveling in the beauty of our first winter's night

Slowing Down

I can feel it, the energy of fall...
it is a much slower energy and i am glad it is finally sinking in. Our fall has been so strange this year, with temperatures hitting almost 30 degrees (c) in late September. Yet all the leaves have been showing off their beautiful colors since late August.

I feel most myself in Autumn, when i can curl up in cozy sweaters and lovely scarves. I can feel my hibernation tendencies start to take over. I become quite a bit of a homebody in the late fall/winter, and I welcome that time. Creativity takes over, and I spend my nights working in my journals, scrap booking images, and filling my creative spirit.

I also know that with the end of Autumn, we get closer and closer to my favorite time of year, Christmas. I start preparing to enjoy that time as well.

So welcome fall, I'm so happy you've finally arrived...

Celebrating Love and Friendship*

today was a first for me.

the first time I shot portraits for a couple. Not just any old portraits though, engagement photos...

I was so nervous, and have been nervous for about a week.

I was talking to one of my close girlfriends about my nerves. I'm one of those people that needs to talk through everything. Once I get my fears out in the open, I can usually talk myself down. But for some reason I couldn't shake these nerves.

What if I screw these up? They're someone's Engagement Photos for crying out loud, maybe I'm not ready for this...

This has been my inner dialogue for the past week, and it was loud and clear this morning as I drove to meet the couple.

I've been friends with L for over 15 years, and I think she knew exactly what I was thinking as soon as she opened her front door. But instead of asking me what was wrong or trying to make me relax, she just said that she was excited to get some fun pictures. As soon as she said the word fun, my heart slowed down. She had no high expectations set, or at least none that she told me about. We were just going to hang out, and I was just taking some pictures of two close friends who happened to be in love and getting married next fall...

We drove out to our location, chatting happily about nothing in particular. D kept reaching over and holding L's hand as he drove. I started to notice how they looked at each other and started to get excited about photographing one of my best friends and the man she loves. Once the camera was in my hands and I snapped the first picture, my love of capturing moments took over and the nerves went away completely.

We had a wonderful day together celebrating love and long lasting friendship. I couldn't have asked for a better couple to take engagement photos of...

Wishing you all a Sunday filled with love

xoxo

-S

How I've Been Spending My Days*

I have a confession to make...

the reason i haven't been writing this blog lately is that i have been surrounded by paper, glue, photos, buttons, glitter, twine and all sorts of other embellishments...

my name is S, and I am a papercrafter...

I've been so busy making glorious crafty messes, that I've neglected this little space. so I thought I would come back and share some of the treasures I found today on my adventure to a scrapbook store in my city.

I'm sure most papercrafters and art-makers have heard of Ali Edwards and her fabulous December Daily Project. If not, check out the links and i can almost guarantee that you will want to make one! I've wanted to make one for the past couple of years, but just haven't gotten everything together, and of course by the time I wanted to begin, there was no Christmas paper that I loved left! So this year, I am proud to say that it is October 1st and I have purchased the paper for my December Daily Project!


I love the colours and the classic Christmas feel to this paper. There were several different papers, with completely different looks that I liked and I had a really hard time choosing between them, but traditional/vintage won in the end :)

I will be honest though, paper for my December Daily Project was not what I went looking for today. I was browsing the web, and came across a new journal that I fell head over heals with. Imagine my delight when I find out, it's not just one journal, but an entire line of products! If you love to journals, take a look at K&Company's SMASH journal . I'm excited to start pasting bits of my life into this neat little book.


Hoping your weekend is filled with all the fun things you like to do, cause with my new paper and journal, i know mine will be ...

xoxo

-S

Goodbye 26*

my 26th year has felt a lot like these flowers.
pretty, unique, waiting to bloom...

this year has been all about learning:

learning what works for me and what doesn't, learning what i need to let go of and what i need to hold on to with all of my might.

I spent the last few hours of 26 with a few girls from work, who over the past year have become a group of my closest girlfriends. As we were sitting at a table at one of my favorite restaurants, laughing and talking, I heard my heart whisper "more of this please"

So here is hoping the next year is filled with laughter, kind gestures and love.

lots and lots of love...

xoxo

Link Love*

I spend a lot of time surfing the internet.

there is something about being a few short clicks away from amazing photos, insightful blog posts and hilarious videos that makes me incredibly happy.

so I've decided to start a collection of my weekly favorites right here...

You Are Not Alone. Not By A Long Shot

It's The Reason You Are Here On Earth

The Word of The Day

On Manifesting and Introvert~ness


Wishing you all a lovely Sunday full of inspiration and discovery xoxo