Color Play Friday: Smore Cookie Goodness

Howdy Hon,

It's Friday!  Time to play with some color.  I'm so glad that with my camera card issue I did not have to take any pictures for this post.  Whew, want a relief that was.  But it is a yummy looking photo taken by Trina over at In An Otter Life, one of our lovely hostesses.

So let's talk color!  Color Play Friday was created by Lorinda over at Laurel, Poppy, and Pine and her good friend Trina over at In An Otter Life.  They opened it for others to join the fun every week and here I am today, A Color Play Friday Girl, teehee.  If you'd like to get more details on CPF and how you can join the fun please contact the ladies at colorplayfriday@gmail.com.  They'll give you all the details, including next week's photo.

It's funny that I originally started my bundle choices with the thought of being woodland type creatures and camping.  Ummm, I think I got off that focus somewhere along the way.  But I like the choices I made and I like them together.  I love that pop of color at the end.  

Presenting this weeks ColorPlayFriday - Smore Cookie Goodness:

This photo belongs to Trina and the cookie was from Snohomish Pie Company.  Yummy, look how big it is.  I see how that could be considered a splurge.  She enjoyed half this big boy while sitting next to the river on a cool summer afternoon during her lunch break.  Sounds perfect doesn't it?

If you would like to check out where I found these fabrics here's where:

Foxes 

Babes in the Woods Collection

for Timeless Treasures

Paisley Cobblestone

Larkspur Collection by 3 Sisters

for Moda Fabrics

Birdsong Feather

Larkspur Collection by 3 Sisters

for Moda Fabrics

Garden Memories 

Rue 36 Collection

for Benatex Fabrics

Metallic Pine Cone

Country Christmas Collection

for Timeless Treasures 

Sea Otters 

by Michael Searle

for Timeless Treasures

(ummm, does this remind you of anyone)

I used Moda Fabrics Palette Builder 2.1 Powered by Playcrafts to decide on my color palette for the photos.  The builder gives me a selection of Moda Bella Solids, Aurifil Threads and Hex Values for each of the photos.  Then I change them at will and play around until I find that wacky palette that suits my mood.  I then use those selections to search for my fabric bundles.  I like finding "different" styles of fabrics.  Yes, sometimes wild, but hey, that's the beauty of loving fabric!  I'll also be using their hashtag #modapalettebuilder, per their request.  It's the least I can do to say thank you for providing a great tool.

There you have it hon!  Now please go check out the other ladies who are playing this week.  It's exciting to see the same picture from different perspectives.  If you would like to join us (that would be so awesome!) you can contact Lorinda and Trina @ colorplayfriday@gmail.com for all the details and next week's photo.

This week's players for ColorPlayFriday are:  

             Steph @ Shimmy and More (thank you so much for stopping by) 

                     Lorinda @ Laurel, Poppy, and Pine

                                      Trina @ In An Otter Life

                                                  Bethany @ Sew Not Perfect

                                                                   Sarah S. @ 123 Quilt 

                                                                                                                         

You can also do a social media check for our palettes by using the hashtag #ColorPlayFriday.  You can check out my previous Color Play Friday posts here!


Love and Shimmies,

Monday Mock-Up or Muck-up: When?

Howdy Hon,

Welcome Monday, yeahhhh, << ducking >>.  I'm trying to change the way I look at Monday's.  After all it's an opportunity to start over, fresh.  Do a better job than last week.

I used to make first Monday's post titled "Madness", because we all kind of hated Mondays.  It meant the end of the weekend, the beginning of the work week or school week, and the reality of appointments to come throughout the week.  But I didn't want to feel that way about Mondays anymore.  So I changed my focus for the first Mondays from "Madness" to "Mock-Up or Muck-up".

As I was thinking about some of the new products we've been trying, sometimes I thought how great it would have been if I had known certain things BEFORE I bought the product.  Naturally I figured I'd share my experiences, in case someone else was wondering the same things I was.  Since I am buying these with my own money I can be completely honest about how I feel about the product.  If I like it and it's great I'll rate it a Mock-Up, because I believe it's definitely worth having it on the market.  Hopefully others will be able to give it a try.  If I dislike the product and discover that it fail to deliver the quality I needed I will rate it as a Muck-Up, meaning it's a complete failure in my book.  This is a product I believe should be taken off the market.  Of maybe I just add my unsolicited two cents as to what would the product worthymy little coins.

The first product I decided to share on "Mock-Up or Muck-Up" plays a VERY important role in life.  There are so many of them to meet so many needs, but I needed find the right one to fit my needs.  I must have a PLANNER in my life.  Why, because I am a planner type of girl.  I warn people all the time when they what to schedule me for something.  If you don't see my planner in my hand when you give me a date to be someplace one of two things are going to happen.  Either one, I'm going to forget, I promise you I will forget. Or two, I will double, sometimes triple, book myself and you risk me not being where you want me to be because I was already promised out to two or three other places.   

Last year I had the Passion Planner.  It's a great planner and great idea. but I did not use it to it's fullest potential.  I found this planner through Kick Starter.  It was a very interesting story of how the young lady Angelina Trinidad decided to create this planner and why.  I wanted to help support her dream.  I thought the calendar was great for helping someone find direction in their thoughts and goals.  You can find the one I chose here.  The year before that I had a zipped leather day planner, I used the heck out of that thing.  I love the zipper closure, the business card slips in the carrier, note pad, built in pockets, and I could easily add the new year.  Of course of had an address book section which I never used, but it was there.  I used it for at least 2 years, I like that it also had different themes for each yearly updated inserts.  But I still wasn't quite feeling it, you know.  Not too bad on price, the initial startup being a lot more costly, but the refills were really affordable (I still have a packet of unopened notes, anyone want them?).  The year before that one I had a favorite, Betty Boop theme, spiral planner.  This is cheap compared to the others, it was also a gift from a friend who knew me well.  Ooop-oop-a-doop.  Now you know I loved that, however, it was not as efficient for daily use once my life increased in plans, ideas, assignments and so forth.  Before that I was a Stampin' Up consultant for a little while; so I had their little consultant notebook calendar, which I liked.  I was actually going to use that mini notebook to create my own calendar for 2016 (I later discovered that Target actually had a little system of small notebooks and necessities for you to create your own mini notebook calendar).  But I didn't have to, something better came into my life.  

I ordered my planner through the company website.  After it arrived I took it out of the envelope to drool over it almost every night.  I received it back in November.  It would take too much time and space to photograph all the awesome things I love about it.  Therefore I'll take the quicker and easier way out and do a short YouTube review and post it below or you can find it on my YouTube channel here.  You will get to see first hand why I am in LOVE with this planner!  If you are looking for a planner I'd say check these out!  Especially for the Passion Planner or the planner I actually chose to go with for 2016.  I have already stuffed it with stickers, bought and made (I love making my own calendar stickers, I tailor them to my needs), washi tape and place markers.  I have been enjoying this calendar for the last few months.  I love marking it and flipping through it.  I love just looking at it and it addresses ALL my needs!  That's the super cool thing about it.

Update:  So frustrating, I had these post typed and ready for pictures to be added.  Including the pictures I just took in the wee hours of Sunday morning.  I took the card out of the camera and put it into my computer and I got the stupid crazy blasted error:

Wow, are you kidding me, it's like, "No Steph can't do a post on time with all the information!"  I am so furious, what crappy timing.  All my pictures and videos are on this card.  Now I have to re-shoot everything.   Some of the things I can't because I have already given them away.  Oh my gosh, I just wanna roll up in the fetal position and disappear.  Ugh.  

I am publishing the post non the less.  You can click on the links to see that items I have reference.  I guess tomorrow I have to buy new camera card to re-shoot everything.  I will post the video next Monday.  

Oh and the calendar I ended up using for this year can be found here, the actual one I have can be found here, I have to second cover from the right on the first row.  If you place your cursor over that box a window will open to show you the cover that I have.  I added cute little lady bug stickers and flowers to my cover to personalize it more.  Please check out all it's features if you are looking for a good calendar.  You can get the full overview of the calendar on their website here, they have full pictures of the pages there.  Although you are free to re-purpose any page to suit your needs, they also offer non-religious ones too, like this one.  I got these stickers (and made my own, they are soooo cute and functional) and took advantage of these free downloads.  

Both these planners are a definite MOCK-UP!  The second one just fits my needs better at this time.

Thank you for your patience!!

Love and Shimmies,