24 Olive Street

Oh What Fun Daily Dairy Kit // Noel Mignon

I can't believe we're nearing the end of 2016! And despite the fact that I have many, MANY unfinished crafty projects that I've resolved to finish I'm ready to see what 2017 has in store! But before heading into the new year I wanted to share my December projects using the Oh What Fun Daily Diary Kit from Noel Mignon. This kit was full of so many adorable holiday cards and embellishments and I had a lot of fun creating my pages.

In addition to the pocket pages that I created with this kit, I also updated my Christmas recipe album I created 2 yrs ago (see more about that here). Every year I add a few new recipes and old favorites that I come across. I don't decorate every single recipe card in this album, some are just printed recipes that I slip into a pocket. My favorites get a little more attention :)

I also like to add a photo here and there like the one from Christmas Eve with Santa's cookies on our new grinch plate and Santa bottle. The photos break up the book a little bit and add a bit more interest. You can see more on the Noel Mignon blog here.

If you have a few holiday projects that need finishing there are still 2 of these kits left!

Now bring on 2017!!!

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Fall layouts // Noel Mignon

Hello again! My poor blog has been so neglected. I've been posting on Instagram mostly the last several months and I seem to have forgotten about my poor blog. But that is about to change. I have lots to share and before I get into holiday posts I wanted to share some of my fall Noel Mignon layouts.

Such fun times! All of these pages were created with the All Fall Classic Kit and Daily Diary Kits. I believe there's still a few left if you're behind on documenting all of your fall memories! I still haven't wrapped my mind around the fact that we're nearly in the 2nd week of December!

I'll be back with some of my recent card making projects!

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newport, oregon // documented

This summer we took a trip over to Newport, OR. We love the Oregon coast and there are literally tons of towns you can visit. We had gone to Seaside, OR a couple years ago, with little side trips to Multnomah Falls, Astoria, & Cannon Beach. This year I wanted our trip to focus on relaxing and just enjoying the coast but still wanted it to be within a day's drive. I also wanted an ocean view which meant staying away from the more touristy towns like Cannon Beach because they're more pricey. After some research I settled on Newport which is a small little town and not too touristy - perfect! We stayed at Hallmark Resort which I can't recommend enough. The staff was super nice and the rooms were just right for our needs.

Hello ocean view!!! Waking up to this view every day was heaven.

During our trip we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, whale watching in Depoe Bay, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, and hung out on the beach (including smores on the beach which was totally cool!). It was such a nice trip and a much needed trip away from the every day 'stuff'.

I have tons of pictures from our trip (of course!) and after much thought I decided I'm going to do a 6x8 mini-album. However, I didn't want the trip to be absent from our family scrapbooks, so I did a couple pocket pages of my favorite photos. All pages created using the Noel Mignon Summer Lovin' Daily Diary Kit.

I didn't quite have enough photos for 2 full spreads so I cut down one of the pocket pages to fit my needs. The top 4x6 slot is a 3x4 card and photo taped together on the back.

And now I need to get to editing and printing the photos for my mini-album!

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dream today banner

Hey all!!! Are you all as glad it's Friday as I am?? I so neeeed to sleep in tomorrow morning (let's just hope my family lets me!)

The challenge this week is to use flowers in our projects so I decided to go 'off the page' so to speak and create a little banner with those lovely flowers in the past couple kits. I used the Heart of Gold and Sweet Charlotte classic kits for this project along with some corrugated cardboard from my stash that I found at Joanns on clearance a while back. When I bought it I wasn't sure what I'd use it for (although I did have a banner in mind) but at $2 for pack of 16-6x6 pieces of patterned corrugated cardboard I just couldn't pass that up! Truth be told I grabbed a couple packs ;)

I also grabbed some kraft doilies from my stash since I didn't have any left from the kits - those are some of the first items I use up because I love them so much!

I attached that pom pom fringe with my tiny attacher and added accents here and there. Originally I did 5 pennants thinking I was going to cut out the word 'bloom' from the patterned papers. Then I pulled out that 'dream today' wood veneer and once I set that on the center pennant I knew I needed to switch directions a bit. I thought about adding some glitter or paint but quite honestly I loved the look of the wood veneer on the cardboard. 

No rhyme or reason, just a fun little project that I can hang on the chalkboard in my family room as we dream of spring!

4 days

It's only been 4 days since we got back from Disneyland. Sure seems like longer! Normally at this time I'd have PDD (post-Disney depression) but honestly we've been so busy with back to school stuff, sports, unpacking, etc that I haven't had a whole lot of time to think about it...which is good!!!

We had such a great time, I have over 2000 photos and videos to go through. I bought the Photopass+ ahead of time so I literally just finished downloading all of those photos (over 400!). I didn't want to forget like last time.

After we took 3 days to drive down we had one day for hanging out at the beach. After a 1200 mile road trip we needed it!! So we headed to Huntington Beach & got to swim in some pretty awesome waves. I actually have a couple pocket style pages that I created with the Pool Party kit from Noel Mignon. You can check out more here.

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel this time which was ah-mazing. Our rooms were beautiful and spacious, the pools & water slides were so much fun (my kids loved it), and we ran into Goofy twice in the lobby!

Gotta watch out for those whiskers when taking a selfie with Goofy ;)

And the kiss goodnight on the headboard?? Oh man...only Disney could think of something like this!

When we arrived at our first hotel on the road trip home my 4 yr old walked in & said "where's the music??" She still misses that music box headboard!! Me too :)

Staying here definitely added to the Disney magic of the trip :) I'm glad I scheduled one day when we weren't at the parks so we could really enjoy the pools. I wish we could've had at least one more day...but don't you always say that about a great vacation?!! I don't know that we can afford to stay here every time but I'd definitely love to go back!!

I'll have more photos, blog posts, etc once I'm about to go through everything.

I also have my Show & Tell kit that just arrived today from Noel Mignon so I can't wait to dive into that & get scrappin'!!

As Mickey Mouse would say, see ya real soon!!

hey there!

I realize it's been quite a while since I've blogged. I didn't realize just how long til I looked and...whoa, nearly 2 months??!! Although, I'm not sure if it matters. Anyone still following my little blogerooni??!!

Hello?? lol

If you're on Instagram you can find me @24olivestreet. I post there more frequently. And facebook here. But I really want to get back into blogging.

A couple weeks ago I was a vendor at the Fancy Farmgirl Vintage Market. Getting ready for that took up a lot of my time the past month. This show is a lot of fun and this year it was almost twice as big as last year. Great vendors, great customers, great time! And I was totally exhausted after!!

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Mother's Day was absolutely fabulous. I had mentioned to the hubs last week that I thought it odd that despite the fact that I love flowers and love to garden no one ever gets me flowers for Mother's Day {hint hint} So I got a gift certificate to my favorite nursery, great handmade cards, and a beautiful hanging basket.

Guess the hints worked ;)

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I've been working on lots of projects, like these for Noel Mignon:

More on my Disney travel journal here.

More on my "So You" mini-album here.

Noel's kits always have me inspired. They are filled to the brim with scrappy goodness (seriously, you won't find another kit club out there that gives you this much bang for your scrappy buck as these kits!). We have a Disney trip coming up this summer (so stinkin' excited!!!) and I'm planning on using some of the Pack Your Bags kits for another travel journal. We also have something pretty cool coming up this summer so if you're not following Noel Mignon head over to Facebook & Instagram to keep up with all of the latest & greatest news!!

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And these for Sweet Stamp Shop:

It's been so much fun getting back into card making & stamping again. I had gotten out of it a little bit over the last few years and it's been so much fun creating fun cards again!! Nicole always comes up with the cutest stamps every month. And the planner stamps...oh the planner stamps. Love them all!!

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So, despite the fact that we are in the middle of baseball season & counting down the days til summer vacation (and our summer Disney vacation!! Woohoo!!!) I have a lot more projects I'll be sharing here :)

spring pocket pages // Shine Bright daily diary kit

This month I switched things up with Brittny on the Noel Mignon design team and she did the classic kit while I got the daily diary kit which is more geared toward pocket page scrapbooking. This is such a fun kit you guys!!! This is the time of year when I really look forward to getting Noel's kits in the mail. Don't get me wrong, her kits are always awesome. But there's something about the spring & summer kits (probably the colors) that are my favorite!

So here are some pages that I've created with the kit so far:

After doing Project Life for several years (and getting way behind) I've decided that this year I will use a more monthly approach rather than weekly.  For most months I'll have 2 - 2pg spreads (rather than 4 for a weekly approach) and that works for me. Of course, weeks that we go out of town or have something special I might have an additional spread or a smaller insert. But this usually works.

I did a lot of snipping little bits & pieces from journal cards & the 6x6 papers that came in the kit for embellishing my photos. I love the clear overlay with the gold dots!! I also created the 'march' card with one of the papers from the classic kit.

And sometimes I use pocket pages in my non-Project Life album just because it makes it easier to do a layout with lots of photos...and ease!

These pages with go in my 3 yr old's album. I have found that these pocket pages are awesome for doing kids albums!! When my 1st child was born 13 yrs ago there was obviously no such thing as Project Life. So everything in her book had to be a traditional layout. Now, with pocket pages, I can easily make pages for my littlest one's album. Thank you Becky Higgins!!

Also, my kids' & family albums are a mix of traditional layouts and Project Life style pages. I like having the combination of both!

If you'd like to see just what's in the kits you can check out my video of the daily diary kit and Virginia's video of the classic kit here!

You can find more info on my pages along with the other design team members' pages over on the Noel Mignon blog. There is some great inspiration over there!!!

We're also having a Springtime in Paris online crop next week over on the facebook group so be sure and come check it out!! Noel always has some fun giveaways for her crops!!

Love Life layouts // Noel Mignon

This week over at Noel Mignon we're sharing our projects with the new Shine Bright kits. But before I start sharing those I thought I'd share the projects I've made with last month's kit - the Love Life Classic kit.

I love this kit because it's more geared toward love rather than Valentine's Day which can be used for a multitude of projects.

Silly Selfies - my little one has figured out how to take her own selfies. So it made for a super cute layout :)

 

I Remember - This layout is all about my grandma. My kids and my husband never met her so I wanted to do a bit of journaling of things I remember about her so that my kids could know a little bit about her through me.

Lil Swimmer - that woodgrain heart paper made the perfect background for my photos. It wouldn't make sense to use summery photos since these were taken in the winter. So this kit was perfect for me to document my little one's love of swim classes.

I also made this framed art from the kit based on this project I found on Pinterest. I simply changed it to be more of a family tree.

You can see that even though this is a 'love' kit that I used it in very different ways that totally work! I have a project in mind for that great chipboard album that came in the kit but I'm going to probably use the Shine Bright kits for that. I had a lot of fun playing with this kit and I believer there might be a couple of the Love Life Classic kits and Daily Diary kits left!!

Whoa, where has the time gone??!!

How have I not blogged in over a month??!! Do people read blogs anymore?? I mean, I know I do. I have friends who blog. It seems like there's a lot of blogs out there still. But with Instagram, facebook, Pinterest, etc it seems like a lot of people are on these social media sites to see photos & not read about content so much anymore. But with those sites it's so hard to give explanations of things. They're great to share a photo but not so much detailed content. So I hope the way of the blog is not going away anytime soon!!! And honestly, I don't really think it will.

I've still been on those other sites but my blogging has been slacking with multiple kids birthdays, planning a quick trip to Seattle next month, planning our trip to Disneyland for my birthday (woo hoo!!!), getting my design team projects done. Oh, and I had walking pneumonia in January which I am still getting over nearly 2 months later.

Add to all of that I have given up Coke. And let me tell ya, that first week without the caffeine/sugar rush was horrible. Massive headaches, massive fatigue (more than my usual Crohn's induced fatigue), & all around feeling craptastic. I actually had one night that I woke up at 3am with a massive migraine. Ugh. But 2 1/2 weeks later I'm doing pretty well. I usually allow myself a cheat day a week which usually ends in me feeling like crap and wanting to cut that Coke back out of my diet. I know it's bad, I just wish I didn't crave it! But the cravings are slowly going away. Slowly.

We've had beautiful weather lately that my housework has kind of fallen to the wayside a bit. But seriously, how do you not go out and enjoy temps in the 60s with sunshine and blue skies??!

I have a million and one projects going on around the house that need to get done. But sometimes you just need to play :)

My little one started swim classes last month which she loves!

Not to mention baseball season has begun so we're up to 3 practices a week. I think next week it's 4. And my son is in archery, too. Spring is always crazy busy for us!

And after doing my hair myself for the past 2+ years (mostly to save money) I finally went and had it done. It was such a treat to have my hair done and I realized how much I missed it.

I got about 6 inches cut off and added some blonde. I have really missed having blonde in my hair! I love the ombre look (my hairdresser is awesome!) but I think next time I'm going to get it a little lighter. And after growing my bangs out for the past 3 yrs I think I've come to the realization that I need them back.

Tomorrow I'll have some scrappy projects to share!!

jobs for hire

I have a new project over on the Noel Mignon blog today!

I created this 'jobs for hire' board for my kids using the Hey Girl Classic kit & Daily Diary kit.

I've been needing a new way for my kids to earn money around the house. Lately it seemed like they were always asking me what they could do to earn money (even though they knew what jobs they could do around the house). I remembered seeing something on Pinterest that sparked the idea to create this project.

You can head over to the Noel Mignon blog to see how I created it but here's how it works and some of the 'rules' that I've set up for this jobs board (which is mainly for my 2 older kids). I will 'post' jobs that I see need to be done. Some will stay up for a few days, some will only be up for that day. For example, yesterday one of the jobs was 'fold towels'. If someone doesn't choose to do that job, I'll simply fold the towels and take the job down and they miss out. Some days there might not be any jobs available. It all depends on what needs to be done. When I post the job it will also have the payment for that job so once the job is done (and I say it was done ok) they instantly get paid. In the past we've always kept a tally and I paid them at the end of the week. And while that's how it works in the real world I found that my kids started getting lazy about doing jobs. Then we would have the inevitable 'discussion' when they wanted to buy something but hadn't worked & saved up for it (and expected me to buy it). So I think this will work better for us.

Also, these jobs are considered 'extra' jobs and so they are not allowed to do any of them until their homework is done and their regular chores (the non-paid ones) are done. My kids don't have a ton of chores so this isn't a big deal. They are also not allowed to come home & snag all of the jobs leaving none for the other person (unless the other person doesn't want to do them). The first day I put this up I immediately had one person complaining that the other was 'stealing all of the jobs' (even though that wasn't the case). So you can see why I had to set up rules!

So far it's working out well and I'm hoping it will continue to encourage my kids that it feels good to earn some money for themselves!