As some of you know I am a sucker for all things Studio Calico in a crazy way… seriously if they sold scraps off their floor I would probably buy them… so there was no way I could resist joining in with the amazing Maggie Holmes and her Happy Little Moments class. Once my class kit arrived in the mail I did get a bit skeptical about how this was going to turn out… you see my book that arrived was hideous… and orange.. I really didn’t want to have to paint so much of it! I also had no idea what to even put in the book… but I went with it… laid it out on my table with the rest of the kit, stared at it for a few hours, moved things around on the table, stared at it again for a few hours, perused through my photos, laid awake at night thinking about it. Got up the next morning and here’s what happened…

Forgot to take a photo of just the book itself before… but here is my kit including the book being stared at.. he he

Its hard to see but that orange and navy really did not go with the kit…and here is the after.. so far anyways. Last night I went to bed in frustration because I hated how it looked… this morning when I came into my scrap room and saw it on the table I loved it!! Sometimes you just need to step away and come back with fresh eyes!

I decided to put my favourite photos of Luke and I from our engagement, wedding and trash the dress photo shoots. Kinda of like a “best of” book, only photos of us… not including bridal party, family, details etc. I will save those for LO for the wedding album.

I used my new favourite paint, Martha Stewarts All surface paint. Sadly, I can’t find it here in Hong Kong and only have 2 colours I had bought in Canada to use for our wedding. I really liked the flower pattern on the cover of the book.. just hated the orange… and as I put the first coat of paint on I realized the cream made the orange go a bit coral. So, I only painted 2 coats on the cover for the pattern to peek through and the rest of the book solid. It has turned out to be a great representation of our wedding. The lace and ribbon are left overs from wraps around the bouquets and the bird charm and flower were extras from the jewelry I had made for my bridesmaids. One of the girls did wear one just like this.

Here is the book after I cut a bunch of pages out in order to make room for the photos and embellishments…a lot more will still be cut out but I will do that as I go to allow for inevitable mistakes. Its also hard to see in this photo that the top edges of the pages are a soft gold…a nice little detail of an otherwise pretty ugly book! I can’t wait to get working on the inside!

I thought to go along with this post, today would be a great day to share our wedding video trailer shot by the fantastic Mike Enns for Nataschia Wielink Photography + Cinema. We are so happy we have such awesome footage of our day! I will share the full video and some wedding photos soon.

luke + jennifer {highlights film} from nataschia wielink on Vimeo.

I also wanted to note that my amazing wedding planner who helped everything happen was Kate at The Little White Dress. All the amazing vintage items you see were supplied by the awesome Hazlitt Vintage rentals. I highly recommend this entire team if you are planning a wedding in Canada.. or anywhere for that matter.

Ali gave us the assignment to take/find 9 photos that represent our word to us. My word is SHINE and with this word I really hope to invoke a sense of success and accomplishment in areas of my life I feel need improvement or attention. I choose to take photos that represent all these areas of my life that I am working on.

I am really not a good photographer…I really consider myself to be a lucky snapper ha ha, so I didn’t think that these photos would turn out so great… and individually they are not the best but I really surprised myself how much I loved them once they were edited and put into the class template! Plus, it was fun snapping random stuff around the house… the two photos of Luke and I are from our engagement photo shoot in the fall. For blogging purposes, I have just put it on here as the pre-printed image, but I plan to cut them up individually so they fit in the backside of the divided page protector I used for my January OLW.

So, knowing that we have so many awesome blogs to hop around, I best be letting you hop on. Thanks so much for hopping by! If you would like more info on this blog hop you can find it here. Your next stop is a visit to Kara’s blog!

In case you like hopping out of order or are a bit lost here is the complete list of participants. Have fun!

Margie            http://xnomads.typepad.com

Melissa S         http://blog.mshanhun.com

Sharyn            http://LaVieEnChic.com

Kimberlee         http://scrapsandsass.blogspot.com

Jill              http://jillconyers.com/

Cheri             http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com

Cindy             www.cynthiacrysdale.com

Jenn              www.studiojenn.blogspot.com

Monica            http://scrapinspired.com/

Catherine         http://myview-catherine.blogspot.com/

Naomi             http://poeticaperture.com/

Jamie              jmpgirl.blogspot.com

Coley              www.coleybelle.blogspot.com

Melissa C          www.smudgetime.com

Donna              http://holimess.blogspot.com/

Monica B           http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/

Veronica           www.veronicanorris.typepad.com

Heidi D            http://mommy.heidimdavis.com/

Lisa               http://backtoallen.com/category/one-little-word/

Nikki              www.inkyart.com.au

Devon              http://www.youhadmeatneurotic.com

Amanda             http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com

Brooklyn           www.everysnapshot.com

Kristina           http://hrinspirationfromthe403.blogspot.com/

Jen R              http://jenritchie.com  <—————-*** Your Are Here!*** <<<<<<<<

Kara               http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com <————***your next stop!***<<<<<<<<<

Eydie              www.whatwecreate.net

Ruth               http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com

Missus W           http://www.mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com/

Marilee            http://rose-brier.blogspot.com

Cindy              http://seriousplay.typepad.com

Kaylea             http://www.myscrappylife.com

Dawn G             www.sunshineandcreativity.com

Rebekah            http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/

Becky              www.becky-handforth.blogspot.com

Orange Gearle      orangegearle.blogspot.com

Katrina            www.katrinasimeck.com

Jo                 http://www.mrsbeee.blogspot.com

Nicky              Www.seejanebake.blogspot.com

Beth               www.thesingularlyordinary.blogspot.com

Kelly              http://mindingmynest.com

Tere               http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/

Happy leap day everyone! Hope you all enjoy and do something special with this extra day of the year. I am not exactly sure what I will do yet besides going to work. I would like to document it in someway but haven’t come up with a good idea yet….

I also thought since it was a special extra day it would be fun to have my blog participate in its first blog hop and first giveaway!

A huge part of scrapbooking for me is the friendships and the international community that is built around it. One place that I love to hang out is with the young ladies at the young scrappers forum at 2 peas. They are a fantastic group of 20/30 something’s who all love scrapping, crafting and living a creative life.  To have fun and celebrate this extra day, the ladies decided we should have a blog hop with each of us sharing a new layout we have done recently. To add to the celebrations, I thought it would be fun to have my first giveaway to! I am giving away  a $5 Studio Calico GC to one lucky commentor, just leave a comment below sharing how you plan to document leap day and I will choose one lucky winner at random.

Life has been crazy hectic around here the last few weeks so I wasn’t sure I would find the time to participate but this afternoon I decided to finally scrap this photo that has been laying on my desk for weeks. This is actually the first LO I have done of Scoutie and we have almost had her a year… shame on me!! I have been feeling pretty down since the death of our bunny Pepper a week ago but creating this layout of Scoutie really made me feel better and made me realize that I should scrap our fur babies more often.

I really want to try and use more of my Studio Calico kits before breaking into the next one however I couldn’t resist the cute paper from the February kits any longer! And as it often does SC’s Sunday Sketch defo snuck some inspiration in there…

Anyways, thanks for coming and celebrating leap day with me and the YS girls! Remember leave a comment sharing how you are documenting leap day before the end of Sunday March 4th for a chance to win a Studio Calico GC. I will randomly select and announce the winner on Monday

If you are at the end of your hopping around thanks for coming on by. If your only just beginning… well then stretch your legs and you can get to hopping right here at these wonderful blogs… all the girls have awesome inspiring layouts, challenges and giveaways so have fun!!

Becks (twopeas name: yelppuppy) <– Blog hop starts here
- Rachel (RachH)
- Loni (LonR)
- Rosie (OCLittleFlower)
- Christina (hodgepodge200) 
- Monica (Monica B.)
- Caro (Caro_frenchie)
- Jen (JenRitchie) <—– * you are here!*

Now, to go a bit more into my scrapping process I usually find at least one piece of inspiration that becomes a catalyst to what I create… most of the time its a challenge or a sketch… I actually haven’t ever used anything I have pinned! I decided that it would be a fun challenge for myself to create a little inspiration board including something that inspired me from Pinterest, a sketch and a challenge. Here’s what I made….

The print was my pinspiration of choice, the sketch is the ever inspiring SC Sunday Sketch and the awesome colour board is from this weeks 2Peas weekly challenge.

I printed this inspiration board to keep near me while working and got busy. With all that font being a major part of the layout I was a bit worried my collection of alpha stickers wouldn’t have the variety in size and the right colour tones. One thing I learned is that not enough fonts come in capital letters and this probably would have been easier if I owned a Cameo! It was a lot like putting a puzzle together and I kept having to walk away from it in order to avoid just pushing it together. So here’s how it turned out…

Because I wanted the layout to be about the quote I kept the photo small…its harder to see the details of the photo in this image then it is in real life. So here is a shot for you to see.

This photo is from our wedding day and its funny how perfect it goes with the quote! It was taken right after we had said our vows and we were having a run through a nearby field clicking our heels…thankfully the huge fall we took seconds after this was snapped when we got caught up in my dress was not caught on camera.. nor were the grass stains all over both of us ha ha!

Photo credit goes to the amazing Alex Lee from Young Hearts Photography for this fun wedding photo!

Supplies used: bits and pieces from Studio Calico Kits

Thanks for Looking!

I am so excited to have finally done my first layout from some of our wedding photos! We had a photo booth set up as part of our guestbook and this series of my bridesmaids and I are some of my ultimate favs of the night!

I was inspired by two SC challenges this week; Laura’s weekly challenge to use lyrics or quotes and Nicole’s layout for the sunday sketch. One of my scrapping resolutions this year is to use my SC kits and stop hoarding neglecting them. So I set out my most recent arrival, county fair, and pulled a few other pieces from various kits and got to work. I must say I am super happy with how it turned out! I had fun looking for quotes and lyrics, and finally settled on one from the movie Bridesmaids…it just fit so perfect in every way! Journalling reads: If I had it to do all over again I would …still pick you girls!! “You are a part of me, a part that I could never live without, and I hope and pray that I never have to.” ~ said by Helen in her toast to the Bride scene from Bridesmaids.

Thanks for Looking!

This year the word that chose me was shine. This word fits perfectly into my life this year as I am working hard to focus on my goals and find success in improving many parts of my life. The word is always echoing in my head and is working well, encouraging me to keep moving forward.

The introductory prompt was to create a title page displaying our word. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to display the song “Shine” by Laura Izibour which was how my word found me. Slowly but surely I am delving more and more into creating hybrid projects and so instead of writing out the lyrics with my nasty  ugly handwriting, I typed it out and printed it on patterned paper. I love these lyrics and am really happy I found a place for them.

The second part of the prompt was to take a self portrait. I had fun with this one and took the chance to play with our camera remote which had been on my list of things to try out. Its really funny to be posing infront of a camera with no camera person. After picking a photo I used a overlay Ali provides in the class.

Welcome 2012 – I love the feelings that invokes!

Next we had to define, reflect and play with our word. I really did take the entire month to do this part. I kept a notebook beside my computer and whenever I took a break from whatever mundane thing I was doing I googled, image searched, pinterested and thought about my word to build a little inspiration. Next, I had fun with my papers, stamps and even threw a bit of embossing in there. I dug out an old dictionary I have had since grade school and cut out the definition of shine, I have wanted to cut apart some old books for a while I have just been afraid to… so glad I did. Also, when I started working on this I was typing all the text on the computer but I found the look to be a bit boring and a little cold. I really do hate my handwriting and think its way too messy, however I know that it is a reflection of me and I decided to try to learn to love and embrace it. I know in the future I will be happy I chose handwritten over typed.

I am completely inspired with how this turned out and am motivated to continue throughout the year. Here is a photo of how it looks together in my album.

Looking forward to sharing my OLW project’s February progress with you near the end of the month.

If you are interested in seeing/learning more about this project and seeing others interpretations of the prompts have a look at this amazing blog hop hosted by my fellow OLWers. You start here at Margies NiHao Cupcake blog.

Yay!! They are finally here!! Our much anticipated engagement photos are being posted! These have been long overdue, especially since Luke and I were engaged in September 2007! I guess it shows my procrastination at its best, but in my defense there was a certain look I wanted with our photos and I just couldn’t find it with photographers here in Asia. We ended up holding out until the very last minute and getting them done just 3 weeks before our wedding!

When it came to photographers to shoot our engagement in Ontario Canada there was no question who I wanted, in fact it was the only decision about our entire wedding planning process that I was sure of… I needed to have the amazing Renaissance Studios . Their modern vintage style was the exact look I had been searching for.

Although we were getting our photos done in Canada, we really wanted them to reflect our love for Asia and that we were engaged and live in Hong Kong. What better place to do that then in Toronto’s Chinatown? We also spent part of the day chilling at on one of Torontos cute beaches…kicking myself for not being able to remember the name of it right now though ugh!  Renaissance Studios had arranged for us to work with the wonderful and talented Erin Blackwood. She was so much fun to work with and rocked the camera…during the entire shoot it felt like she was someone we had always known. She defo became our new best friend that day ha ha..

Of course we needed to have a bubble tea break… I live for bubble tea!

How perfect is this graffiti?

Luke had fun being a creative director, he found these phone books on the side of the road… and I am still shorter : (

Luke’s Nanny found this vintage 1930′s Hong Kong travel guide on her shelf weeks before our shoot…so perfect.. and odd? she has never been to Hong Kong??

Even though I know waiting for 4 years to get engagement photos is a bit silly… I love that we waited. We got amazing photos that reflect us and not a bunch of typical stiff poses… although I will be honest we were a bit shy to start and there are a few of those in the bunch I haven’t shared. I can’t wait to finish painting our walls and get some of these hung up… the trouble now is which ones???

This weekend Luke and I celebrate 6 years of being together! We haven’t really celebrated this much in the past, actually to be honest we had to look back at the dates on our first photos together to figure out how long we have been together. While we were planning our wedding, people kept asking us how long we had been together  and we both kept answering different years ha ha!! We decided that this year we needed to celebrate and take a moment to appreciate the time we have had together.

Luke decided to make it a surprise date and wouldn’t tell me where we were going or what we were doing, just to meet him at the train station at 7:30. He showed up 30 min late  carrying a beautiful potted japanese cherry blossom tree.. instead of regular old flowers. So cute!  Oysters are one of my favourite foods and so Luke had made reservations at this cute intimate oyster bar for dinner. We spoiled ourself with a wonderful meal and ended the night with fab chinese massages! It was just a great night and a perfect surprise… I am so lucky to have this man in my life~

PS. Stay tuned! In celebration of this special weekend I plan to finally start posting about our wedding starting with our much anticipated engagement shoot!

I have been debating actually doing this post, but in the end I have decided that this would be a good way to hold myself accountable. Maybe some of you have the same resolutions and we can work together…

Are we really half way through January already?? wow! Now I will be honest I am super big on new year resolutions, I love them! I always take time at the beginning of every year to write down and reflect on how I hope the coming year will be….but to be even more honest it is usually about this time that keeping up with my new years resolutions begins its fast decline into epic failuredom. However, this year I have decided that 2012 is going to MY year! This will be the year I really stick to those resolutions and accomplish things. I am tired of reflecting back on the year and seeing that nothing I had wanted to accomplish ever became a reality.

I have come to realize that some of the reasons that my resolutions go by the wayside so quickly are that I feel overwhelmed at the amount of changes I want to happen and all the things I need to do to make them happen. I was only ever looking at the big picture and trying to change everything all at once. When I thought about my goals I would become stressed and depressed and would give up if I had failed to keep with the changes.

So, in an attempt to research goal keeping and accomplishing things I picked up the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubins. I am not completely finished it, I keep reading parts then going back, re-reading, reflecting and making notes. It has really been a great eye opener. Gretchen really advocates taking small steps and starting with a few goals. As those changes become habits you can incorporating more of your goals into your life. She also sends the message that its ok if one day you do something that goes against your goal, just try again the next day. She really makes the point that every little step helps… for example I want to reorganize my kitchen but the thought of spending the entire day doing just that overwhelms me and stops me from doing it. Instead, just find a bit of time one day and do one cupboard, then, when you have time again, do another cupboard! I don’t need huge blocks of time to get things done… just work on things when I can! Don’t stress when something isn’t done if you were using the time you had to work on small steps of your goals its ok! Things will get done as long as you keep working away at things! Such a simple ideas!!

I have done exactly this and the happiness, success and determination I feel already has been great. So far this month I have really enjoyed working on my resolutions and really happy to say that things are getting done.. for example one of my goals was to get this blog up and going and to be a better blogger. Did I manage to get it started in the very first week? no.. Did I do my relaunch with all the glitches and changes that I want to have done done? no… before I wouldn’t have been able to sit down and do this re-launch just yet… the perfectionist that I am would have had to sit down and work away for hours in frustration trying to make all the changes I want this site to have only to come across something that got me stuck and give up… never to re-launch! But not now…I am doing it now .. so here is the re-launch! Taa Daaaa!! I am super excited about it and the step-by-step changes that you will see me making over the next few months!

How are your resolutions going?