matchbook notebook tutorial

I'm no good at tutorials, but maybe I should practice.  I made a bunch of little notebooks that were so fun and so easy to make.  They turned out so darn cute, I though maybe YOU would want to try!

So here's a little tutorial:

the matchbook notebook

supplies you will need:

cute cardstock, scratch paper, ruler, exacto knife or scissors, bone folder, stapler, pen

Use scratch paper to decide size and play around with the folding.  Be sure to leave room for the flap to tuck into the bottom fold after it's stapled.   When you get the size you like and the folds right, mark them with a pen as this will be your guide.

Now lay your cute cardstock on top of your guide paper, lined up like so.  Then use the ruler and bone folder to score the folds into the cardstock.

Now fold on your score lines and cut some insert paper (I use scrap paper or printer paper).  Cut the insert paper just smaller than the middle folded section of your cardstock.  Also, don't try to pile too much paper in as you will need to get the stapler through it all. 

Now tuck your insert paper in that small fold and staple close to the fold, but make sure you are still getting all the paper in there.

Now just tuck the top fold under the flap and..

VOILA!! 

A cute little matchbook notebook!

I've made lots of these and they are super fun for gifts or party favors or a fun craft for kids.

If you don't feel like making one yourself, I've got some for sale in the Pantry shop!

Yay for fun crafts!

some new things

I have been meaning to write about this for a while now.  Abe (the husband) has been busy making some fun shelves and I've been helping with the painting and sanding.  They are so lovely, I've already put my dibs on a few to keep here at the house.  But we can only have so many decorative shelves in our home, so.... we've been listing them in Pickled Pantry shop!  We've already sold one and Abe has so many more that we haven't posted yet.  He's such a talented carpenter and they are tunring out so beautifully!

Aqua shelf with lime green undercoat:

 

Black shelf with aqua undercoat and rope molding:

Aqua shelf with dental molding and an antique finish:

Aqua ribbon spool with lime green undercoat:

He has lots of colors available and more styles that we haven't posted yet.

I'm so lucky!  My husband can make ANYTHING!!

Well....,  almost.

a trip south

Last weekend we were able to escape for a short trip down to beautiful Southern Utah.  We started the first day with a short hike to the Lower Emerald Pools in Zion National Park.  I've visited this park many times before, but each time I'm there, I'm overwhelmed by it's beauty!

Here's Noah cradling Abe's head.  Have no idea what he was doing, maybe he just wanted to snuggle Daddy's head??

The next morning Abe took Noah swimming to cool off a bit from the heat of the desert:

Noah got a little tan:

The rest of the time we spent with my parents who live in St. George, UT.  It was SOOOOOO hot so we filled up the baby pool and Noah had so much fun!

We all enjoyed watching him from the shade of the patio.  Here's my mom and Abe relaxing (and me reflected in the window!):

All in all, a lovely relaxing trip.  We had so much fun!

yay for dads!!

For Abe's Father's Day, Noah and I spent some time crafting a little love note to tell him how special we think he is.  I just got a blank note card and let Noah work his magic:

I found some old stickers that I've had for at least a decade and let him go crazy with those.

One of Noah's favorite things to do is tell you what to draw and you draw it.  So on a separate sheet of paper, I drew everything he asked and used that sheet to make the envelope for the card.

We added to this one of Abe's favorite treats (PopRocks) and presented it to him with a big hug and kiss!

My dear, sweet Abe

You are such an amazing dad to our little Noah and he loves and adores you so much!

As do I.

a memorial day adventure in photos {and some shop news}

For Memorial Day this year, we joined some family for a hike up Adam's Canyon.  It's a gorgeous place named for my mother-in-law's family (Adams) just about a 10 minute drive from our house.  I've never hiked it before, but we thought it would be fun to take Noah in the back pack.  Here's the view from just 20 minutes into the hike:

Poor Abe is already pooped!

This is me.  I'm taking a turn.  Oh wait, the pack is empty.  No wonder I'm smiling.  Noah is up ahead with Grandpa Dan.

Now we're into the fun stuff.  If it looks steep, that's because it is.

But it sure is beautiful!

Taking a much needed rest at the mid-way point with Noah's favorite cousin, Jonah (they are just 4 months apart).

Grandpa Dan decided to take a turn carrying Noah.

This is Abe's tired face.  He was in the process of regretting the decision to pack all 37 lbs of Noah up this canyon.

But I feel fine! ;)

Too soon, the trail started getting a lot harder.  For those of us without a giant toddler on our backs, it was somewhat challenging, beautiful and lot's of fun...

But for those of us carrying the giant toddlers... maybe not so much.

This part, among others, gave me a minor heart attack. 

I barely enjoyed the scenery of the beautiful canyon as Noah's safety was consuming my brain!

This is after Abe took Noah back from Grandpa Dan.

This hike is a tradition in Abe's family, but he hadn't done it in quite a few years.

So at this moment I asked him, "Now that you remember the difficulty of this hike, would you do it again with Noah in the pack?"

Abe paused for a moment and said, "Hold on... I think I'm going to vomit."

I guess I'll take that as a "no".

But the end result??  A beautiful 40 foot waterfall!  Here's Noah with Grandma Eve:

And a family photo at the falls:

The way back was much easier.  Here's Noah and cousin Jonah playing at the mid-way point.

Jonah gave Noah a good shove:

And of course Noah needed a quick hug:

It's ok Jonah, Noah needs that every once in a while.

Now it's my turn.  I decided I really wanted to give packing Noah a try.

Wow.  That kid is heavy. 

I only lasted about 10 minutes.  My sister would have laughed in my face.

To my credit, I may have been able to go longer had the pack been fitted for me.

Notice how low the hip harness is.  I had 40 lbs pulling the snot out of my shoulder blades.

I'm just sayin'.

Overall we had a good time with no injuries to any of the group.  A beautiful hike on a beautiful morning!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And in shop news, I've finished 6 new paintings!  They are a farm series I've been playing with for a while and I'm so happy they are finally done.  I'll be posting them to the shop throughout the week.

Also, Abe has been busy making some beautiful shelving available in the

Pickled Pantry shop!

I'll post pictures of the new paintings and shelves soon!  So exciting!

happy anniversary to my Abe

June 1, 2007

A mutual friend of ours set us up and I almost didn't go through with it because his name was Abe.... which is my brother's name... it sorta creeped me out. AND... he has a sister named Katie! What the?? Double creepy. So we do a lot of "honey", "dear", "sweetie", etc. to keep the creepy factor low.  But I'm glad I went through with it because I knew on our first official date that I would marry him. And he says he knew even before that at our first official meeting.

Here's the story...

We met one weekend, then talked on the phone all week long.  The conversations were light and fun, until I grilled him.  I had made the decision that I wouldn't even go out on a date with a guy unless he met my long list of qualifications.  (note:  I was being super picky because of some poor choices in my past)  So I started in on my questions.  I tried to ask some questions in a way that wouldn't show what I was hoping he'd say.  Other questions were pretty direct and straight forward.  He answered them easily, then I apologized for the grilling and he told me he was glad because he thinks the same things are important. 
Turned out we agreed on just about everything we wanted and needed in life.  Still do. 

The following weekend, he picked me up for our first date.  He looked so handsome!  We clicked almost instantly and laughed ourselves silly.  It was so much fun and before the night was over I found myself thinking, "I'm going to marry this guy."  This wasn't a plan I was making for us, it was more like my inner voice trying to convince me because my other voices were all screaming, "No way!  You barely know him!  Are you CRAZY??"
But in my heart, I just knew. 
Over the next two months, we were inseparable.  I began to realize he met all the criteria I was looking for.  A year before I met Abe, I had written down about 20 or so qualities or attributes that I wanted my future husband to have.
Abe had every single one! 
So for his birthday in February, I got him a gift and a card and stuck that list of attributes in the card.  He loved it!  And to my astonishment, for HIS birthday, he cooked me dinner and then proposed with the most beautiful ring!  The whole thing was very sweet.

So we made our plans over the next few months and were married in the Bountiful, Utah LDS Temple.

We had both always secretly made fun of other couples who met, got engaged and then married super fast.  But... we can no longer poke fun, for we are now one of those couples.  We met the end of November 2006, were engaged by February 2007 and married by June of 2007.  CRAZY!!!!

We did a casual luau style reception with a fabulous band and yummy food.

We went on a very romantic honeymoon to Maui, HI.

And then to make it even crazier, we decided it was time to try for a baby only a month after we were married.  We both felt it was time and I was pregnant almost instantly. 
Noah was born April 1, 2008.

This was a little impromptu family photo during Noah's little photo shoot recently.  Doesn't Abe look handsome?? 

It's fun to be able to look at your husband and still feel all twitterpated and in love.  The other day I went to a court of honor (Abe's a scout leader for the 11 year olds) and I had one of those moments.  It hit me so unexpectedly (I mean he was wearing a scout uniform for pete's sake!), but I thought to myself..."What a handsome husband I have." 
My husband is such a good man.  He's super supportive, loving, caring, sweet, kind, funny, smart, talented, good provider, amazing daddy and on and on and on.  I mean that too!  His goal in life is to make our family happy and he's very good at it.  And I know for a fact he has a daily goal to make me laugh at least once, if not more.  He almost always succeeds!
He's truly sweet and wonderful and I love him so.
We have the best time together!
I love you, dear!  Happy anniversary!