Play this in case of summer dullness!

I find myself playing this over and over, so I thought I'd post it here for you all to enjoy!

Hope you love it - it's like summer in a bottle for me!

This is me.

Hi. I don't think we've been properly introduced. See I'm Brittny - Britt for short. I go by Britt because, well, nobody ever spells the whole thing right. I always get asked if my name is spelled correctly, even after I've just written it myself. So Britt works.

Anyway. I started making these quick little videos for NoelMignon.com's kit club when I was accepted to the DT at the beginning of this month. And I'm liking it. So I've decided to start sharing them here with you.

And this is me. It's so weird to see a video of someone when you've only seen stills of them before. And let's face it, the photos I post of myself are the best ones I can get. The videos however are complete with double chins, wiry flyaway hair, and sometimes even a little too much cleavage. If you know me you know that sometimes I just can't keep the girls in line. I try. I really do. But sometimes there is still a severe case of inappropriocity.

Blanket appology.

So here's the damn video already. Hope you like it. Let me know if there's anything you want to learn how to do - maybe I'll make a video out of it!



Be sure to check out Noel Mignon's layout blog for lots more good stuff!

Dream Land

Gotta have this!!!



Seriously. How cute is that with the drawers and the scallops and the little photo spots. Love it! So precious!

So I searched bedroom vanity and found this site and I am in love! Seriously, doesn't get much better than this for me at this particular moment!

Can I just say that I have always had an obsession with vanities and the whole atmosphere around them? Ever since I was a little girl. Yup, just can't help it. When we moved into the rental house I got a hand-me-down bedroom set from my Great Grandma Doris and was so stoked when I realized that it came with its very own vanity and teeny tiny bench. And I thought, "Well, this is perfect!!" I had this vision in my head of how it would turn out and I immediately started sanding off the layers and layers of white and green paint so that I could restore it to its original glory. Problem with original glory is that it is totally protected under said layers and layers of paint. And these arthritic hands can only work a sander for so long before they revolt.

So when I decided that I just had to have a set of two twin antique iron swirly headboards for the second guest bedroom slash maybe for my two twin girls that I'm sure to have (Emma & Abby) ((Perfect names, dontcha think?)) I decided that I would just suck it up and buy a vanity to go with them. A vanity with no sanding required. Obviously.

So click the links above and spend some time in dream land with me! It's fun here. I think I might stay a while.

Get em while you can!!

Here is the newest kit from Noel Mignon. It doesn't get much cuter than this!! I'm loving using all the little goodies!

Sun-Kissed Kit includes the following:
Papers
Echo Park "Sweet Summertime" (Double Sided)
-Raspberry Delight
-Pinwheels
-Summer Argyle
-Flower Garden
-Journaling Cards
Making Memories "Flutter"
-Pink Brocade
-Green Floral (Glitter)
-Round Scallop Die Cut
My Minds Eye "Quite Contrary" (Double Sided)
-Sensational Spots
-Fancy Flowers (Die Cut)
Basic Grey "Lemonade"
-Picnic Table
-Dandelion
WeRMemory Keepers "72 & Sunny" (Double Sided)
-Flower Patch
-Sunkist
-Sunburst (Die Cut)
Jillibean Soup "Summer Squash"
-Yellow Squash
-Crookneck Zucchini
-Gold Potatoes
-Tahini
Cosmo Cricket "DeLovely" (Double Sided)
-DeLectable
-DeLirious
-DeLimit
-DeLicious
-Borders
Cardstock
-4 Assorted American Crafts
-1 Stitched WeR Memory Keepers
Embellishments
-4 Pretty Little Studio Journaling tags
-1 Bottle Shimmerz "Chick a Dee"
-1 Basic Grey Butterfly "Bling It"
-3 Jenni Bowlin Mini Summer Bingo Cards
-2 American Crafts Summer Flair
-2 Maya Road Rectangle Kraft Envelopes
-3 Basic Grey Clips
-1 Package Jenni Bowlin Yellow Butterfly Rub On
-2 Tropical Drink Umbrellas
-1 Sheet Cosmo Cricket "DeLovely" Cardstock Stickers
-1 Sheet Cosmo Cricket "DeLovely" Tiny Type
-1 Sheet Jillibean Soup "Summer Squash" Cardstock Sticker Shapes
-1/2 package WeRMemory Keepers "72 & Sunny" Chipboard
-4 American Crafts self adhesive 3D Flowers
-1 Sheet My Minds Eye Label Stickers
-1 Imaginisce "Lucy Bird" Acrylic Stamp
-1 Roll Pink Paislee Lime Artisan Tape
-8 American Crafts Tropical Gem Brads
-3 My Minds Eye Journaling Cars
-1 Sheet My Minds Eye Tickets
-1 My Minds Eye "Wonderful" Title
-2 WeRMemory Keepers "72 & Sunny" Die Cuts
-4 Imaginisce Glitter Fabric Flowers
-9 American Crafts Tropical Buttons
-3 Maya Road Bird Sheers
-1 Package American Crafts "Niki Riki" Sunflower Thickers
-1 Yard Maya Road Pink Gingham
-1 Yard Maya Road Yellow Stripe Ribbon
-1 Yard American Crafts Teal Ribbon

Now watch Virginia and the cutest kids ever show you it in more detail!



Click here to order**Please Note***Noel will be on vacation from June 12th-20th, so if you place your order after the 10th Noel will not be able to ship it until after she gets home...so place your orders early for fast delivery!!

Here's a layout I made today from this amazing kit:





I love that her eyes match the cardstock exactly!! Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Cheese is just so darned handy.

Recently, Fresno (where my mom lives) got a Fresh and Easy. Great place. Cheap cheese.

One of our favorite things is a good 'ol fashioned bake round of brie with roasted fruits and now that Mom's discovered the cheap cheese store, we've got a few little brie houses laying around. And we can't have that. No, we must use any and all containers for something crafty. Especially if you can put a mini album in it.



And with this little cheese house, you can definitely make a mini.
I used Stampendous stamps to make those flowers, which was something a little new to me, but so much fun!



LOVE Cosmo's Ready Set Chip letters, and how perfect do those Creative Impressions smooth bling work with the Delovely collection?



I managed to sneak in a bit of Material Girl in there - love my crafty times!!



Just can't live without foam dots. These little Mark Richards gems are pretty awesome, too. They're not rhinestones or pearls. They're like little dew drops - so cute and they come in different sizes.



Smooch Spritz - I'm learning...



Love the Tiny Type Cosmo's making now!



I wish I could make my handwriting a little more like Ali Edwards, but oh well!



Doilies are fun to play with.



I like asymmetry. But not everyone does. Does it bug you?



The End.

Ppp-oor Cinderelly....

I am so not going to any stinkin' ball. Not today. No sir. I am sitting my tush on this couch and watching a full day of Hoarders. Ever get caught in that trap? The show, not the habit!! Just to clarify... It's on all day today on A&E and I just can't help but watch it. Is it sick that I would love to be that organizer to go through it all? It is, isn't it? Whatev.



Anyway, yesterday was so exhausting, but also really satisfying. We only spent about six hours at the house, but by the end we were SO DONE. Eric and his dad worked on the outside, chopping down weeds, blowing weeds away, and ripping down Christmas lights off the house and trees, while this girlie went in circles inside. I can't even tell you about the stuck-on goopy crap that was on almost every surface. UGH. But with my trusty razor blade, bucket and scrubby sponge, not to mention the most stringent cleaner I could find, that place came shockingly clean. Which was great, but really pissed me off at the same time. This poor house looked like some old gross place, when really, it is in great shape, it's just the nasty people who lived there who allowed it to accumulate so much. And more than that, they went out of their way to spill all over the place to make as big a mess as possible for someone else to clean up. ARGH. OH! And did you see the horses in that picture up there? Yeah. We don't have any. Ehem, 'scuse me, but could you come pick up your load and cart it off, please? We kinda need to weed out there...



I really should have taken more pics of the rest of the house - especially inside. I can't wait until it is at a point where you can look at the original photos and think, "No way! That's what this place used to look like?!?" Mom, you would be proud. Terri, you've been recruited. Cinderella, you've met your match...

Hi ho hi ho it's off to Winters we go!

Going out to "the house" as we've been calling it these days - soon to be calling it "our house" if everything goes through as planned.

We've got a ton of work to do just to ensure it appraises for the value we need it at to get financing. So basically, we want to get it just nice enough that it appraises for the amount of financing we need, but not so nice that it raises any red flags.

Picture all the green areas in the photo above filled with 6' tall weeds and that's what we've got going for us. Eric bought all these fancy attachments for the weed wacker and since he just about died of hayfever five minutes ago doing the 5' patch of weeds in our backyard at the rental, guess who volunteered to tackle them at "the house?" Yeah. Wacking down weeds taller than I am. That's love.



This is what I can't wait to make a path to. That'll be my studio. That is, as soon as we clear out the chicken poopies and refinish the entire thing... Oh, but I can just see it!!

I should mention also that the shit brown color of the house is the first thing to go. ICK. Since Eric nearly vommed at the mention of a kind of pale buttery yellow with white trim, I'm thinking a super pale warm side of grey with accents of navy and white might work. I dunno, what do you think? Any suggestions? I'm open, and I love paint swatches.

Just a quick one...

'Member that Brie box I showed before? Well, it's all finished. And this is a sneak of how it turned out. There a whole mini book that goes inside it, too. Be sure to check out the Noel Mignon Kit Club Blog next Thursday to see the finished product! Lots of goodness going on over there! And ohmygosh! You HAVE to go over and look at the sneaks of the new kit that will be released on the 5th. So, after you're all finished reading my very first post, just click on over to the store and buy one for yourself. You will not be disappointed!

In other news:

I have been busily putting together lots of projects and samples for work this week.

And it has been.
So. Much. Fun.

Seriously.

We're right at that time where all the new stuff is starting to come out for sneaks right before CHA and I LOVE IT! Got the new Jenni Bowlin the other day, and can I just say, I need a little boy so that I can use every bit of it up! Loving the new rubons, too. How cute are they!?!?

I also got Show & Tell by We R Memory Keepers and am busy making up some fun stuff with that. More to come on that front!!

Here's a project I did a couple of weeks ago when I went to the studio in Fresno.







That's all for today. Gotta finish up all these fun little projects in progress so I can get my BBQ face on for tomorrow's fun times with the girls!!

Sloth and Gluttony

Coffee with vanilla chai creamer and a mini cheesecake with cherry topping. All necessary food groups present and accounted for. This is just the way to start a Monday, if you ask me. Oh, what? You didn't ask me? Well then fine, have some oatmeal and black coffee - go ahead and have a crappy day, while you're at it. Start the day sweet, have a sweet day. It just makes sense. So what if you have a little sugar crash half-way through. That's what coffee's for.

Anywho, today is the day that I veto going to the grocery store. I just can't make myself leave the house. In order to do that I'd have to take a shower and wash my hair. Then I'd have to straighten it, and if you know me, you know how long that takes. And then after that my arms would be limp and lifeless and in no shape to push one of those oversized Winco carts around anyway. Plus there's the fact that I'd be shopping at Winco, and that's never fun, and sometimes it's just downright scary. I'm just not tall enough to risk pissing off a woman with 5 kids shoved in the cart with three more behind her, knocking cans of soup off the shelves. Nope. Not tall enough and definitely not fast enough. So yeah, I just veto that. I get to do that every once in a while.

Today is the day to not make the bed. It's a day for watching season 5 disk 2 of Dawson's Creek while hand-sewing little blossoms for the hex quilt that may never be done. It's a day for eating the remaining two mini cheesecakes because Eric said he didn't like them. Did I ever tell you he doesn't like cream cheese? Is that the weirdest thing you've ever heard? Yeah, I thought so too.



I've got a ton of projects to finish up, for both work and pleasure. Projects like this which were supposed to be quick and easy, but which my bronde brain sometimes has issues with. It's like I can't let myself off easy, I must complicate the hell out of it. And yes, bronde is a word.



I also need to finish up this little ditty, who's use will be far more necessary in the coming months. You'll find out more about that later.

Okay, it's off to do a little light housekeeping to justify a day of relative sloth and gluttony.
Hopefully disk 3 shows up today...

Buck up, buttercup.

Just made cherry jello with raspberries in it, then mini faux cheese cakes with cherry topping. Did I mention the chocolate cake I made night before last? Some would call this a downward spiral. I call it cleaning out the pantry.

Looked at houses this weekend, following being informed that the house we've spent the last 14 months trying to buy is now being foreclosed on. And can I say, telling someone that and then saying "oops, nevermind," is a terribly cruel joke. Now we've opened our eyes to a whole different town which has all kinds of positives: Great area, closer to mommy dearest, cuts down Eric's drive from 45 minutes to 25, BEAUTIFUL houses which are ready to actually live in, between 2-5 acres, and totally private. Here's one that we looked at:

Yeah, for the record, fake deer are not okay.

Can we say yum? Yeah, this would be my scraproom. Can't you just imagine working in there with all that natural light? Lots of space. I'm in love.

Then we entered back into reality when the Realtor called to say that in fact the house we originally fell in love with is not actually being foreclosed on - it's ours if we want it. And we want it, we do. But... after 14 months there are 6' tall weeds over the entire 5 acres, carpet to be replaced, paint colors to be argued about, holes to patch, cabinets to refinish, exteriors to be painted, sheds to be repaired, fences to be built, and did I mention 5 acres of 6' tall weeds? Yeah.

I'll keep you updated...