one.

So you might catch me wearing a snazzy bracelet in every single picture on here.  I got it last December from this guy I like to call my boyfriend ;)  on one side, it says "love" and on the other side, it says "10-28-11"

This date refers to the night the kid finally made our relationship official.  We started talking in April, hanging out in June, and our first kiss was July 6, 2011 (which, btw is National Kissing Day. how perfect.).  But we decided to see how things went when I went back to school.  They went great, if you'd like to know.

Someday I might write a post about our relationship because it really is (obviously) a big part of my life, and I think it has a lot to do with the person I am and the things that I do these days.

But anyway, yesterday was our One Year Anniversary! :) That's right, 366 days of this kid bein' my boyfriend. (It was leap year this year if you were confused.)

I told Roger that I just wanted to keep it low-key, as his birthday was less than a month ago and Christmas was coming up.  I'd rather get him two good gifts than three eh gifts.  So that's what we did.  I bought him a new scrapbook album and made him new pages since I hadn't given him any pages since our 6-month anniversary in April.  I'll do a separate post of these pages later.

And did he ever out-do me.  I didn't expect anything less, though.  He's always so much better than I am.  He wanted to keep the whole thing a surprise.  I'm one anxious, impatient girl.

My day started with him telling me he'd pick me up at my house around 1pm.  Well, it turns out he had so much to do to get ready for my surprise that he didn't get to my house until 2:30.  I then got a phone call from him saying,

"When I was in Washington, D.C., it led you to me."

So I was left to figure out this clue and find the next one while he finished driving to my house.  When he was in Washington, D.C. in April, 2011, he gave me his cell phone number for the first time.  So I immediately checked my phone for any unread messages.  Nada.  I then remembered that he gave me his number over Facebook chat, cute I know ;), so I checked there.

And there it was.  I realized he was sending me on a scavenger hunt.  So long story short, we drove all over finding these clues.  Some were at his house, some were in his car, and then some were at the school entrance where he saw me for the first time, and others were at the state park where we went on our first two dates and camped together.  It was really, really special.

Finally, my last clue led me to the scrapbook I'd already made him and inside it was a letter.  The most beautiful letter ever.  I almost cried.  I'm so in love with this guy :)  Then the letter led me to my gift.  He got me two necklaces.  They're both so pretty.  I'm glad he kept the actual gift-part relatively low-key, but the day was definitely a celebration to remember.  And that's exactly what I wanted.

We capped off the night by going to my little sister's sophomore class' haunted house.  I may have screamed.  And almost cried.  But he was there so I felt a little better.

Then we took some pictures of ourselves, to remember our "one-year."

So, babe...
Here's to one official year with you.  I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us.  By next October, we could be in such a different place!  I don't care though, just as long as you're by my side.  You're my everything.
Love,
Me <3

oh baby! ;)

I just realized that I never shared a huge project that started basically in June and didn't end until September 29.  My boyfriend's sister is having her first baby within the month (!!!) and she asked me to make her baby shower invitations (!!!!!).

The majority of the summer was spent with me just coming up with different ideas and turning them into samples so that she could pick which one she wanted.  The only guidelines she gave me were that she wanted them pink and brown... like the nursery.

So after a million and a half samples that I hated and didn't even want to show her, we ended up collaboratively deciding on my little mason jar invites.

When I started, I used mulberry paper over top of pretty pink backgrounds.  When I went to buy more mulberry paper, it was $2 a sheet at JoAnn's and they didn't even sell it at Michael's!  I found what I thought I wanted online, and when it arrived, it wasn't what I wanted at all :(

After a minor breakdown, my boyfriend convinced me that transparent cardstock would be perfectly fine... and it was!  It wasn't as soft and pretty, but I saved one of the "good" ones for Natasha for the baby book.

To make these, I printed out two mason jars per page of cardstock and cut them out.  I then glued them with craft glue to the scrapbook paper, but only gluing the outsides so that there weren't funny lines all over.  Then, I drew the black line and glued the flags on and then drew the little clothespins.

They were relatively easy, but when you need 60 of them, they were pretty time consuming.  Roger's mom was happy, the guests were happy and impressed, and most importantly, Natasha was happy.  I'm really looking forward to getting to do something like this again!

A little gift booklet

Roger's birthday is two weeks from today and I wanted to do something really awesome for him because he always does the best things for me (remember this??).  I've been planning his birthday and Christmas presents probably since June and they both were/are things that I knew he would love.

For his birthday, I planned to buy him killer seats to a Sabres hockey game.  All up on the ice and everything.  It would have been the best surprise ever and I really know he would have been so happy.

Well thanks to the NHL Lockout that took effect, my plans are ruined!  So I decided to give him his present today, even though it was kind of pointless and a little disappointing for me.

When I give gifts, I like to go all out.  And I wanted to do something better than just the whole throw-the-tickets-in-a-card or at-the-bottom-of-a-big-box cliche-type ideas.  So, luckily, thanks to the craftiest girl ever, I found the idea of a little gift booklet.

So I made this.  Bethany's rendition of the gift booklet called for something she called glassine envelopes, which were more transparent than these ones.  But I went to Michael's and after looking for a bit, I asked for help and the girl looked at me like I was nuts.

After being looked at like I had two heads, being told they had nothing like what I wanted, and scrounging around and finding it myself, I ended up with vellum envelopes, which are almost just as awesome and I actually liked the softer look it gave my project.  I took them home, inserted one envelope's flap into the other, taped it together, and made it look like a folder.

I just Google- and Instagram-searched photos of the Sabres logo and the Sabres arena, slapped them into a Word document, printed it off, and used those for the front page.  Instead of using scissors, I ripped the edges to make them fit into the envelopes, which I thought fit with the softer look of the envelope.  I printed off a yellow and blue rendition of Buffalove and even created my own calendar of October in Word.  I was going to circle the date I ended up picking before I gave it to him.

I especially loved this project because it had a little piece of him in it.  The aqua sparkly ribbon I used-- he bought that for me on a day that I had a migraine so bad I thought I was going to be sick.  And he knew the minute he saw it that it was the ribbon he bought me.  Another one of my favorite parts of this project was the little teeny tiny mini clothespin.

I guess it might work out for the better because if the NHL ever decides to agree on a contract, we can pick the day we go together and we can make it work better for both of us.  I was afraid the day I picked would interfere with his soccer games...

I think this project is something I'll recreate in the future because it's relatively easy and it gives a little charm to a gift that, on the outside, might look a little boring.

So, for now, I'm just looking for some other ideas for things to get him for his birthday!

#crafterprobs

(crafting for Roger's birthday)

As you may have guessed, I couldn't find my craft scissors.  That's because they were at home, not at school.  But I finally found them and was sooo excited because the paper I ordered online for my boyfriend's sister's baby shower invitations finally came in the mail!

After ripping open the packaging, I found that the paper was not at all what I needed for the invitations.  Now what?!  The shower isn't that far away... I guess a Michael's/JoAnn's trip is in order tomorrow... darn ;)

So after being a little upset for a few minutes about the paper situation, I decided to start crafting for my boyfriend's birthday.  He turns 24 on September 30, and I've known for a while what I want to get him.  I've been working on the package that I'm giving it to him in for a few days now, and it's almost done!  I'm so excited for him to see it.

But, honestly-- I'm more excited for his Christmas present.  I think he'll love it ten times more than he loves this little crafty birthday present.  After his birthday, I'll be back with updates about the present, the package, and where I got the idea.


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peace, love, and more scrapbooking

This Saturday was mine and Roger's official 6-month anniversary.  Everyone was like "whaaaat? it's only been six months??" Yeah, I know.  It seems like it's been way longer, and I guess it has.  But anyway, for the purpose of this weekend, it has been six months!

Of course, he caught me off-guard and once again got me the best presents ever.  I got a set of gorgeous pearls which I feel like I will only wear when I dress up because I'm scared and a pretty ring that was his mom's :)  So as of right now, I wear the bracelet he gave me for Christmas and this ring every day.

For him, I just made more scrapbook pages to add to the pages that I made found here and here.  I'm so lame.  I can't wait to start working again so I can get him cool presents.  I know he doesn't mind-- in fact, he absolutely loves the scrapbook.  But I mind... so it'll happen soon.

So midway through this project, I had a minor crisis about how I hadn't really been scrapbooking lately.  I had been putting pictures on a page and journaling.  I'd lost my touch.  I was being lazy, which made me freak out a little.  I'm not exactly a lazy crafter.

So this first page is one of the products post-crisis.  Not the best picture of me by any means, but I love it because it was taken a year after we met, in the place that we met.  So it's pretty sentimental.  Of course I pinterested scrapbooking ideas but nothing really spoke to me.

So i found that ribbon across the top and just kind of went with it.  I stuck it to some dark brown paper and started using different scissors and tools to texture the scraps that I added.  Then I found some sticker-borders and put them vertically down the page.

This is also one of the pages that I feel like I ruined by journaling on.  It looked way better before I wrote on it.  But it's lyrics from the Hey Monday song, "6 Months."

The next page would have been included in my Valentine's Day set, but it was too much of a short notice.  Roger surprised me with a Blake Shelton concert in February.  It was awesome.  Blake is so great. I got to see my boyfriend mid-week and guess what else-- MIRANDA WAS THERE! :)


I took these pictures with my sister's camera and I wasn't used to using it so unfortunately this page is a little blurry.  Across the top left page, it says "you be my glass of wine-- i'll be your shot of whiskey," next to Miranda's picture it says "so come and get it!"  On top of the right page, it says "my Valentine's Day surprise!" and on the bottom it says "God gave me you for the ups and downs..."

I like this page.  Not too much of a crisis here.  I think the silver and darkness is alright.

In March, we attended three separate high school musicals.  My little sister had the lead in her musical, and my other sister had a pretty big part, too, so we saw that show opening and closing nights.  It was hands-down the best musical our school has ever done.

We went to see his former high school's musical because his friend was in it, and they did Little Shop of Horrors.  I thought they did a good job.

We also went to see my little cousin in the Sound of Music at his school, which I was impressed with.  Especially with it being their first-ever full-length musical.

I definitely like the left page better than the right.  I used the front of the program, our admission tickets, and framed the page with our 50/50 tickets... which we lost ;)  I also included pictures of my two little sisters.

For the other page, I used the front of one of the programs, the ticket, and then cut the second program up a little and put it in there.  I know, it's pretty terrible.  But then I wrote in why we went to each musical.

So later in March, Roger gave me orchids that I loved one day when we were out shopping.  He surprised me with them one night that I went over to his house.  What a gem :)

I wanted this page to resemble the page that I made of the first flowers he gave me.  If you look closely, you can tell that what I used as a background to the pictures is actually the foil that came wrapped around the orchids.

So this next page might seem pretty lame, but it was actually pretty funny.  As you can see from the very front of the actual scrapbook, I still have the text message on my old phone of Roger's facebook friend request to me.  So we knew the exact date and time that he sent it.  We celebrated our one-year facebook friendship anniversary.

I wanted to make it just look like facebook profiles, so I just printed off screen shots from my laptop.  Not very hard.  However, the photo I posted to his wall printed funny so I printed off an actual picture and put it on the page. easy. painless.  And since this is supposed to be like facebook, the oldest posts are toward the bottom of the page.

The next page has pictures taken from a random day in March when he came to visit me at school and the weather was unseasonably glorious.  Me, Roger, my roommates, and my roommates boyfriends just sat outside all day by the lake and took in the nice weather.  I even got sunburnt.  These photos are courtesy of my roommate, Dakota :)

The black is just black ribbon I found in our craft room at home because my mom has been practicing corsages for prom... so I used it. whoops ;)

Next is my traditional movie ticket and such page.  We haven't been to as many movies lately because we haven't been spending as much time uptown since indoor soccer is over.  But we have spent time at the mall near my school, so we play with one particular puppy at the pet store everytime we go :)

I liked the different look of this page as opposed to my other movie ticket pages.  It looked less little kid-ish.  So then I just bordered everything in brown and put it on the pages.  Another easy one.

It just cracks me up how spontaneous we are sometimes.  We generally don't make plans in advance, and even if we try, something changes and we do something else.  So this concert we went to the day we found out about it.  It was great.

This page also came after my little crisis so you can see more scrapbooky elements... Still not the best example but I like it.

I also think the very top picture on the right is hilarious.  Since I'm not 21 yet, they always "brand" me, or so I call it, so the bartenders know not to serve me.  I also like the picture of us on the left that the photographer at the event took :)

This next page is one of my favorites.  I love the simplicity of the yellow and dark, dark gray.  It also matches my headband, and it's one of my favorite pictures of us.  I love this boy...

And when I was all done, I was sad that my crafting project was over.  So I crafted a box to put the pages in! :)

After I put the pages in the box, I sprinkled some origami hearts that I made from different sheets of scrapbook paper.

peace, love, and scrapbooking-- part 2

so after a spontaneous trip home and an even more spontaneous whirlwind trip to see the country group, Gloriana, this weekend, i was finally with my boyfriend's scrapbook long enough to snap some pictures of the new pages!
       well, not new... but newest i guess.

so here are the pages that i put together for part of his valentine's day present :)

this might drive some people crazy, but i like how this kind of shows the separation of where one set of pages ended and another began.  kind of like a break, a breather, moving on to the next chapter... it was nice.  especially since i have things that are kind of the same (movie tickets, etc.).
this picture was taken on christmas at my grandma ruth's house and i picniked it and put some lyrics on it from a song that reminds me of us-- Almost Paradise from the Footloose soundtrack.

this next page is from the big christmas celebration at my grandma ruth's.  it was poor roger's first experience.  i hope he didn't feel too overwhelmed.  but i figured that since he survived thanksgiving, he would survive christmas.  easter was a different story.
but the ribbon down the outer edges was the ribbon i used to wrap this and his other big christmas present in, so i thought it was kind of a nice personal reminder of our first christmas together.

ever new years eve, my family goes bowling in the afternoon/evening.  roger went with me this year!  it was a lot of fun and it was actually the third time we'd been bowling together, which kind of made it a little bit nicer.  i had a hard time putting this page together and i'm still really not sure that i like it all that much.  definitely not on my favorite list.  but i guess it serves the purpose.

roger bought me the most beautiful bouquet of roses and i saved some of the rose petals and little lily-like flowers that were mixed in with it.  he got them for me for no reason.  he's the best ever.  he actually picked out the paper for this page, so i like the collaboration we had :)
my middle sister got roses earlier that week from her boyfriend, too, because he was being a jerk and needed to apologize.  mine were just because :) i have the most perfect boyfriend.  but we put them next to each other and called it "flower wars."

this next page was actually the last page i did.  i chose this paper because i needed something a little brighter than the other pages i'd done.  my mom had just bought an animal print book of paper, which honestly, i love.  so i picked this and just simply put some random photos on it and journaled in reasons why i love him.  the two on the left were from random fun nights we spent together and the two on the right are screenshots from my phone.  we always make wishes at 11:11 and 12:34.

this was one of the first pages i made for this set.  we went to the equivalent of a minor-league hockey game one night in january and it ended up being really fun.  extremely cold.  but fun.  i found those strips of sequins in the depths of the scrapbooking supplies and thought they were kind of perfect for this page.

another one of my least favorite pages.  i just don't like it.  i feel like it looks little-kiddish and amateur-- not that i'm a professional scrapbooker or anything i just think it looks like i don't know what i'm doing.  but i put movie tickets on there and the joker from a deck of cards i used in a craft.  i made him a "52 things i love about you" book that i found here on pinterest.  it turned out really great!

we skype from time to time... on nights that we're really missing each other.  sometimes talking on the phone just isn't enough,  you know?  but i took some screen shots of one of our video calls one  night because he was just cracking me up.  i like the background paper i used here. i think it worked well the the skype color scheme and kept things light and airy.

the last page for this section of the scrapbook.
this picture was taken on my vizio tablet the night he gave it to me for christmas.  i was at his house and the power was out so we had to use a flashlight to even see us!  on my giraffe page, there's another picture of this night.  he made me a candle-lit spaghetti dinner :) how lucky can one girl get?

overall, i think this batch of pages was more full of content from our experiences than actual scrapbooking elements and techniques.  i'm okay with it though, because i think that's what makes it so great.  this is all about us.

peace, love, and scrapbooking

In high school, I had an on-going scrapbook that I made for my best friend.  I would make new pages for it for her birthday, for Christmas, or any other occasion I felt necessary.

Well I started dating my boyfriend officially in October, but we both like to think that we've been together since the end of June/beginning of July.  For Christmas this year, I surprised him with a scrapbook of our relationship up to that point, and for Valentine's day, I made more pages for him and added them to his book.

These are his Christmas pages:


Our journey began when he facebook friend-requested me (how romantic) after seeing me at his indoor soccer games that winter.  I managed to take a picture of the text that I received from facebook on my old phone and put it in the photo slot on the front of the album.

The next page was our first facebook interaction.  He trash-talked Rafa.  No one talks smack on Rafael Nadal and expects me to stand by and do nothing. NOT. OKAY.  But we ended up having a conversation that was nearly 50 comments long before switching to chat.

So at the end of June, we went hiking at the local state park.  It was only about the second or third time we'd spent time together.  Long story short, I took a three-foot nose dive into a creek. I had a goose-egg on my forehead and a bloody shoulder.  It hurt. To the boyfriend: I'm sorry, I should have listened to you.

Alright, next we have the Tim McGraw concert.  I'm in love with Tim McGraw's music.  In love.  Roger bought me some tickets and we went together! So much fun... it was our first concert together and I hope we can see him again!

One of my favorite pages in the book :)

So in July, Roger bought me my first flowers... it was a great night full of driving to his house in a storm, him telling me I couldn't come yet because my present wasn't ready, me waiting in the McDonald's parking lot for 15 minutes, and smiling from ear to ear the rest of the night.  Straight-up cheezin.
This is another one of my FAVORITE pages in the book, and the first one I put together.

Next, a miscellaneous page.  Surprise of chocolate-covered strawberries in the mail, and two sets of surprise roses.  He's the best :)

In October, Roger's varsity soccer team played my brother's soccer team for Dane's senior night.  It was a night game, under the lights, and the only thing that could have made it any better would have been if Dane would have been able to play the position he's made to play.

The next page is one of my favorites... not necessarily because of the layout, but more because of the meaning.  After 6 months of talking, and nearly 4 1/2 months of seeing each other, he finally asked me to be official.  Officially official.  Our anniversary will forever be Brett Dennen's birthday.  I have a new-found love for this artist.  My personal favorite song of his is "Sydney."
Unfortunately, I took this picture before I wrote on the page.  Hopefully I can get some more pictures taken next time I'm home and have the scrapbook.

The next page is one of Roger's favorites... I'm indifferent.  I save EVERYTHING so I  needed a page to put these little mementos on.  I picked the color because I didn't really have anything in this color family thusfar in the scrapbook.

The next page is another one of my favorites... both in content, experience, and layout.  I love the way the dark pops on the yellow, and I love the fact that this was my first Sabres game EVER.  It was a last-minute plan and I drove home from school in the middle of the week so that we could drive all the way to Buffalo for a game.  SO GREAT.

This page is a bunch of pictures that we took one night that we were at my house on my mom's iPad.  It was a fun night, just hanging out and joking around with my family.

This is the last of the Christmas pages... leopard print, Roger, and I go way back... so I decided it was a good choice.  If you look closely, you can see the LOVE animal print stickers in the bottom right-hand corner.

Hopefully when I go home for Easter this weekend,  I can get some pictures of the new pages I made for Valentine's Day.  Hopefully I can put some more pages together for him soon. I'm convinced I should scrapbook/craft for a living.  Not necessarily because I'm good at it, but more because I love it.

Peace and blessings,
Taurie :)