July 31st, 2008 Community Challenge on TwoPeas
I’ve posted a challenge today on the 2Ps Garden Girl team blog. If you want to participate, swing by and check it out for a chance to win a gift card to the 2Ps store. The challenge only runs until the end of today, so join in now for some fun. 
Here’s just one of the layouts I created for the challenge.
“Family Time”
(c) 2008 www.twopeasinabucket.com
July 27th, 2008 Sneak Peek: Baby Maya and Family
Introducing Baby Maya and her beautiful family. These are just a few sneak peaks from her family’s portrait session. I’m so honored they asked me to be their photographer. They were such a joy to photograph.
Baby Maya. Look at those eyes. Heart melting.
With her mama, both beautiful ladies.
Her dad and big brother. Let me tell you, her brother’s a spit fire. The perfect model.
And their toesies! Look at her chubs! Only babies can get away with chubs like these. 
Thanks for letting me share!
July 27th, 2008 A day with Divine.
Man, seriously, I am sharing a lot of photos this summer. What’s up with that?
Last weekend Divine treated me to a day of girl fun and fabulousness. We’re both pretty busy people, so it was only just recently we’ve been able to get together, just the two of us, to hang out. This outing was a belated celebration for my birthday, first with a spa appointment, then with dinner in the city.
If you’re ever in San Francisco and want to be pampered, I highly recommend the Recharge Spa on Nob Hill. I love their logo. Kinda reminds me of someone else’s.
I really like flowers in a vase. I really do.
So I selected pale pink for my hands and the sea foam green for my toes.
And here’s Divine waiting for me to stop taking photos of her.
Instead of spa chair foot baths, we soaked our feet in foot basins. Good health practice. And check out the chairs we sat in. Nice.
Check out my toesies! They look so clean. Of course, not even a half hour later I smudged the polish. I always smudge the polish.
Typical: me taking a photo of the Apple store as we passed it.
One thing I can say about San Francisco’s homeless, they have personality.
Had ourselves dinner at First Crush. The food was great. The wine, even better.
Grabbed this shot incognito through the window of a couple in love. Nights are magic.
Thanks, Divine, for such a great time. We’ll do this again for your birthday.
July 25th, 2008 Grace’s Love List - 7/25
I’ve been posting a lot of photos, I realized, and not so much of the art. I need to rectify that this weekend. But until then, the Love List!
- Lise Lefebvre’s work is very unique and her website is fun to browse through. Of all her collections, I enjoy her {tradition, traditional} collection best: handles on plates so you can lick them clean, images of utensils on the table cloth so you’ll know exactly where they go, and the ability to create your own dinner napkin. Funky and smart.
- A Little Hut has on their website tags in simple and clean designs that you can download for free . I found this particular set, which is perfect for those going back to school. I’m planning on downloading the set and creating tags for my teacher friends. Cool and free are two words I know well.
- Speaking of downloadable paper, visit www.printablepaper.net for -what else?- paper templates you can download for free! I know the paper lover in me will incorporate the templates in my scrapbook designs. But any office supply nerd can find many other uses for this site. And guess what? I’m both! Hey, you never know when you’ll need accounting paper, right? Right.
- Pretty, pretty, pretty. These silhouette images of children and balloons. I’ve been into silhouettes lately and these are a cool find for me. I think these will work well as imprints on greeting cards via a Gocco impression. What do you think?
- I love color and I’ve professed that fact often enough. But how would it be if I lived in this world as a color blind person? Colourlovers has come up with a fantastic read on how exactly color blind people see our world. Take a look at the article and check out the images that accompany it. I wonder, will Google by any other color still smell as sweet?
- Freakin’ cupcake lollipops. Freakin’ cute! Crafty Ginger came up with this delicious idea. I’m no cook, but these kinds of things make me itch for a chef’s hat. I want to try this out. I need to try this out. I must try this out. Period. [[Update: Thanks to Jo for clarifying that Bakerella presented these luscious treats on a Martha Stewart Show segment. And now I am officially in love with the Bakerella blog. Thanks Jo!]]
Time for another Heart Tap! And this one is a bit personal. I’m honored to say that I’m one of the contributing artists to Ali Edwards’ newest book, “Sharing Your Story: Recording Life’s Details with Mini Books”. This book is 164 pages of incredibly awesome work by some of my favorite artists (Laura Kurz! and Maggie Holmes! just to name two) and is now available for pre-order to be released in August. So honored to be a party of this. I’m just so happy.
That’s it from me for now. Hugs to all you guys. Big giant hugs from me to you!
July 24th, 2008 Two good things.
First, this old school Coca Cola bottle. What is it about pop in a bottle that pleases me so? It’s probably the Filipino in me.
Second, this melon green colander from the Martha Stewart collection for Macy’s. Since I don’t cook, I never intended it for food. Instead, to hold those other things that sustain me.
Thanks for letting me share.
July 23rd, 2008 Good friends, good times.
Posting photos from my trip to Chicago last, last weekend. Lent Joy a hand photographing another wedding. Unlike my last trip to Chi-town, which was only a month ago, this trip was super short - only 36 hours! But I’ll take a short trip any day if it means hanging out with good friends. Seriously, there’s nothing quite like spending time with friends to make one’s summer a blast.
Sahrie picked me up from the airport and I spent Friday night at her place. Glad to see her and MJ! Saturday morning, we headed out to meet Joy for a day of beautifying and shopping. Girlfriend time is fun.
Stopped by a restaurant for some grub. While there, I had to watch my beloved SF Giants lose to the Chicago Cubs. Boo.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I got a super cute haircut while I was there! It’s short and piece-y and reminds me of a cut I used to sport in the 5th grade. Ha! So to commemorate the occasion, we played Rihanna in the car.
Trekked it over to Joy’s place to spend the rest of my trip with her family. The last time I was there, I totally forgot to take a photo of her house rules. This time I made sure it was the first thing I did.
The last time I stayed over, little Rocket was only just crawling around. And in the short time since, he’s become a walking demon. Rocket, indeed. Glad to catch this shot of him when he was actually sitting still.
Had the pleasure of taking these family photos of the Uzarraga clan. They are a beautiful family. So happy to spend some time with them.
CONGRATULATIONS ARE IN ORDER
For the fantabulous Kelly Purkey. Who is now a Garden Girl. Who is a girl I love with all my heart. Sincerely and truly and so damn happy she’s on the team!
Congrats, KP!
July 20th, 2008 Cupcake psychology.
My cupcake is trying to tell me something, I swear it is. It’s either happy with me or aghast at something I’ve done. If you figure out which one, please let me know.
July 18th, 2008 Grace’s Love List - 7/18
And I’m back! Missed you all. And now on with the list.
- Horacio Salinas does some pretty awesome work. I enjoy how he takes everyday items and transforms them into something completely new. Good art. Good art is meant to do exactly this.
- Okay, my chalkboard fetish is getting out of hand. These chalkboard necklaces from Sherry Truit are cute, cute, cute. Great for leaving small messages. 1 + 1 = <3 is a good one, I think.
- These Neiko bags are to die for. I really have a thing for bags constructed with highly polished leather pieces. Very office-woodsy chic. I can see myself sporting these at work. Now if I can only find one that will fit my camera and her lenses….
- Did you know that your favorite movie theme songs have lyrics? Yeah, I didn’t either. But apparently they do according to this guy, Andrew Goldenberg. I loved reading the feature the LA Times did on him. I develop mad crushes on geekly, clever guys in glasses. Did I ever share that? LOL. Well I do and I love the cleverness behind his endeavor.
- Props to the “Props” collection from Hella Jongerius. Functional items with animal fable twists. I wouldn’t mind a snail-shaped vase. Or a birdie pitcher. Or a dragonfly ladel. Very imaginative.
- While everyone will be waiting in line in the theaters to watch The Dark Night, I will be staying comfortably at home watching the season premiere of Psych, a.k.a. Grace’s most favoritest show for the foreseeable future!! I love everything about this show: Shawn, Gus, Shawn + Gus, Gus + Shawn, Li’l Shawn + Gus, and all those 80’s references. I pride myself in spotting the pineapple references in each episode. And I love just how fun the show is. Hands down I will always pick a comedy over a drama. And the funny over the serious. Psych is just it for me.
And just a little of the great stuff that is Psych
SO THAT’S IT FOR ME
After a week’s break from blogging, I’m feeling restless and you know what that means. Wild, wild things will be going on and soon.
‘Til tomorrow, friends.
Yes, I said tomorrow.
G’night.
July 11th, 2008 No love for the Love List today.
But crossing my fingers for tomorrow.
No Internet because my laptop battery is dead and I left my charger in the hotel room. Brilliant, Grace.
No mobile phone service because my generation one iPhone is being “serviced” in hopes of it getting traded in for the newest one that just came out today. Hmmm…
So I’m paying for service at an Internet cafe. Just dandy. Trying to catch up on email. Trying to get phone service so I can return calls. Let’s see how that goes.
So I’m hoping the Love List will go up tomorrow. Cross your fingers for me!
July 10th, 2008 Using my stuff.
Through the generosity of others, I’ve found myself lucky enough to have a lot of scrapbook and art supplies to play with. Coupled with the supplies and tools I purchase for myself, I’ve accumulated a lot of stuff. Quite honestly, I have more than I need. This isn’t necessarily a good thing.
I have a personal rule that I started two years ago which is that I must use my stuff within six months of getting it. If I haven’t, then that item gets donated out. It doesn’t matter if it’s still in its package. If I haven’t bothered using it within six months, it gets tossed into my donation box.
Good rule, right? I’m very strict with myself and really do follow it. And it’s painful when I go through my stash and donate out an item just because I was too lazy to use it. Sucks that I spent money on something I never bothered using. Double sucks when it’s an item someone generously sent my way.
So to get out of that rut I started making my own kits. I grab different combos of patterned paper and cardstock and a variety of embellishments, put them all in 12″x13″ Itoya PolyZip Envelopes (my absolute favorite carriers), and stack them in a large wicker basket. When I feel like creating, I grab a collection and just go at it. Works like a dream. And I force myself to use the items that are only in that specific kit.
This works for me because my style of scrapbooking is such that I frequently combine odd embellishments/papers together. I create these kits immediately when I purchase or am gifted new items. I combine new supplies with older items, frequently pulling things together without thinking how they’ll work together. I don’t remember half the time what I’ve put together. And it may be months (but less than six!) before I actually pull out a kit to work with. Opening up one is always fun, though, because I find items to play with that I forgot I even had and am re-energized to use that item again.
Two thumbs up.
So that’s a little method to my madness. What’s yours?
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