Merry Merry Christmas

Feliz Navidad!

Love to you and your family,
xo Debee & Mr. Handsome

Garlands = Love

The Shop is live :)
(Sorry for the delay, it took me a lot longer to edit pics and take them but hopefully the wait was worth it!)



Having these beauties around has been quite charming.



It's funny what a difference a little paper and string make when adding it as decor.



I've certainly enjoyed them in my home, I hope they make you happy too. :)
And that cute little butterfly frame I thrifted yesterday for just .25 cents!
i LOVE thrift stores xoxo

Happy times and lots of paper garland love to you
xoxo
-d

I *HEART* Kenner road xo

I'm not one to gush all over paper.
who am i kidding?
i can't pass a papyrus store without drooling and begging mr. handsome to let me into the store just to be in the presence of pretty paper! Well, Decembers KR kit had major pretty paper AND the embellishments are to die for! I couldn't help myself :)
Look at this beauty.

I recently had some Anthro gift cards to spend so I bought this pretty head band. But it needed something. When I received my december kit and saw this pretty flower i knew it would fit perfectly with the headband. xoxo Major crush! I just added a bobby pin on the back of the flower to attach it to the band. pretty pretty.

And don't even get me started on the pretty little flower sequins in the kit oh my goodness xoxo!

For our family Christmas exchange Mr. Handsome and I are gifting these little pretties filled with gift cards. It was so easy to make, the kraft envelopes are awesome and dainty. I LOVED the felt flower embellishments!
I have a hard time using them because I feel like hoarding them for my little one ( when the time comes). Wouldn't they look cute on onesies? I have been wanting to try and work more with felt lately... more to come on that end ;)

I'm such a fan of MOO cards. I had some little cuties made a while ago using the pictures in my Flickr stream. I had made this layout of my cute little sister Chicki ( aka- Gabby). We recently celebrated her birthday and I just HAD to use the little card to give to her. I made the kraft box out of one of the papers in the KR december kit, added the pretty yellow ribbon and cute little flower - so easy and perfect for a handmade gift.

I made a pretty vintage looking piece for my living room. I have a TON of frames. I have been buying frames since forever but I have never hung one. Or even filled one with a picture. I am non-commital about stabbing the wall full of holes. ( I used to work in an art gallery and vowed to have art hung everywhere - I just change my mind ALL the time lol ) And when friends come over they notice there is no art or pictures hung up. So time for a change. Thanks to Mr. handsome's little sis for taking this photo of me and the mister on the beach xo.

This little cutie pie was born on thanksgiving day. She's just so adorable and wonderful. She is my best friends first baby. And I am so so excited for her! I made her this little art piece to hang in her baby's room. I made a cute little star garland on the layout. I cannot stop making garlands :) They are so addicting. ( speaking of which I made some to celebrate my sisters birthday and now they are just hanging around my room... looks like they will make their way to my ETSY shop this monday morning so check it out if you are interested :)


And here is a sweet little reminder for you to SOAR and spread your WINGS ! That's my resolution for this coming year. Do it do it do it. Not just think it. *smiles.
So that's what I made with just pretty paper and some crazy sewing... I don't think I will ever get over my paper crush xoxo
Happy creating!
I will be back Monday with a live link to my shop update and some pretty pictures to ooh and ahh over ;P
Have fun creating,
xo
-d

Gimme gimme

It's perfect for you.
:)

Just hop on over here for your chance to win this sweet hearts garland for sweet little you. xoxo

I just don't know what else can make your friday better?
lucky you. >)

xo
-d

making time

Sometimes it's hard to get back here. But today I'm making time to share some art and ideas I've been loving.
::UPDATED!! see bottom of post :P



Pictures in my home. Hanging art up just to glance and sigh every now and again. It's a shame to keep my LO's stacked on the ground in a pile. Smooshing each other to death. So I've been filling our home with pages I love. All of course made using the awesome Kenner Road kits :) We recently purchased this little wonder: We bought this coffee table from hereIt's so fun, the table has a huge drawer split into 4 large 13x13 squares under the glass. So I decided to showcase some of the following pages into each of the 4 squares. they fit perfectly! Kind of like a mini gallery in there. I love it so much. The pages stay flat and pretty for a little while longer before heading into the inevitable pile. Even still... it's perfect to see art even in the most random places. xo

I think the only time I make art now is right after I receive my KR kit. Pure JOY. Sometimes I just let myself think, scheme and process what I will create next. This time around I actually started ahead of schedule. I layed all the items in the kit out... stared. processed. spray painted. dried. stared. processed. cut cut cut. added. subtracted. stared. processed. and repeat. 3 days. then this: { Happy } No journaling. Just art. a flow of ideas all mixed up in glue and stitching. My little camera is making me very happy right now. Happy to create. To capture. To feel this happy.



my art process: ( I have a gold bird that is just perfect. I scanned it in and printed it out b&w on one of the patterned papers in the kit. Then watercoloured it and added pencil colours for depth. Perfect. I love this pattern paper but I made it more subtle by spraying it with white/antique spray. I think it brings out the details in the raindrops and picture.

So who's a Mickey Mouse kid?
I am!


We celebrated Mr. Handsome's birthday by having a blast at Disneyland :) I had told my mister that I had ALWAYS dreamed of getting a Mickey Mouse hat since I was little. But it wasn't possible, I come from a pretty big family and just getting to Disneyland was a treat. And so Mister Handsome made my wildest dreams come true. Right before closing he purchased a hat with my name on it! Hello. I'm 30. I really can't pull the look off anymore. But I cannot tell you how excited I was! I even got on all the rides. ( I am such a chicken about rides. I'd rather stand in like for a churro :) lol ) So late as it was, mr. handsome took a picture of me. smiley. happy. silly little old me. I'm a Mickey Mouse kid now people. thank you. thank you very much. (smiles)

The only ride I didn't go on was the tea cups. I refused. I wouldn't be able to keep my $3.99 churro in. and there was NO way I was loosing my churro. I LOVE churros. amen.



So I watched mr.handsome and his sisters rock the teacups. In this picture there was a couple sneaking in a kiss and in another teacup there was a mom and dad taking photos of their sweet little girl. I thought the picture was precious. Everyone seemed happy. It was very sweet.

So me and the mister had to go check out Minnie Mouse. We were chillin' in her house and I found a cute vanity mirror where she powders her cute little nose. I had mr. handsome steal a kiss :) That man just gets me. gotta love that. xo



And last week a sweet co-worker celebrated a birthday so Mr. Handsome and I made chocolate covered oreo cookies and made these little cuties.



mr. handsome got a special box wink* wink*



And some for my ladies in my small group.





See that pretty garland in the background? That's my latest garland. I think it's so perfect for this season. I will be putting it up in my etsy shop hopefully as early as tomorrow. So if you are looking for a festive and sweet garland to decorate your home, check it out :) I will be including a free gift with the purchase & free shipping xoxo.

updated::
What's coming up,
:: Photo of my baby crochet afghan ( yay I finished it!)


:: Photo of my new cowl ( just made it yesterday and i'm wearing it right now :) soooo cozy. xo


:: Photo and live link to my new garland in my etsy shop






So it's back to work for me, and date night tonight with mr.handsome. Sending and wishing you a happy day. Hope you enjoyed the eye candy :) Happy tuesday !

xo
-d

stay awhile

*updated! see below



Having fun snapping photos around my home. I took these photos with my little seagull buddy Mr. Handsome gifted me for my birthday. I LOVE the grain in the photos. I miss that. I miss film. But I don't miss the cost of developing. Oh goodness that was shocking. I really do have to be careful and plan out some shots to make it worth while. I used to jump into the photo lab and reel the negatives and develop them myself. I plan on looking into renting a darkroom and processing everything myself. I always enjoyed that part :)

I also enjoyed playing with this months Kenner Road kit and having some pictures to create art with. It was so easy this time around. I usually regret not taking enough pictures throughout the month that when it comes time to create something I'm left using the same pictures in previous pages. (I'm such a picture repeater-shame shame i know).

Here are some pretty sunflowers for you to enjoy :)

And here they are again with a cute little cluster and my favorite little bird. I like how the yellow pops out of the page. xo


I think one of my favorite rooms in our home is our bedroom. It's simple and sweet. I heart that little R!


I just LOVE the bird tags that came in the kit. I cut these little love birds out of one and added them to this page. It makes me want to rest and dream a little. I don't dream too much anymore and I think that's kind of sad. Do you still dream ?


Me and the mister. I have so many fond memories of my birthday just last month. I'm trying to plan a little surprise for Mr. Handsome's birthday coming up in November. He's such a sweetie. He doesn't like getting his picture taken lol! Even still, he makes me happy :)


***** Updated the shop with the garland mentioned here: click here to visit listing
So last time we talked I had mentioned putting garlands up in my etsy shop. ( If you'd like to reserve one or have a custom one made please e-mail me) I had so much fun I made one for this page. XOXO. So the garland really isn't stitched to the page, it's taped down. I wanted this garland to be free. I couldn't decide if I wanted to hang it or stitch it down so now it's a little of both :) The pictures are just taped down over it to look like they are swaying in the air. The little bits of paper brighten any room.


What's happening around here:
Designing my sister's wedding invitations
Taking more photos
Still working on my webpage re-design
Finishing up a baby afghan. I will crotchet until my fingers bleed. I just started the little blanket yesterday and need to finish it by this Saturday. Yikes! (Wish me luck- lol)

I hope you have a happy week!
bye loves xo
-d

festivities & paper

Hello sweets.
I just dug myself out of my studio to share this little cutie I made using the Kenner Road kit. I really need more projects that help me use up my pretty paper scraps and this one was perfect. I think it took more time editing and staging the photo than making the tag lol! Ahh. Hope it inspires you to make a couple.



I also made this little paper garland to help celebrate my birthday.



I wanted to make something very pretty and whimsical. And a garland was the best fit. I just sat down behind the sewing machine and sewed these little beauties together and I think it came out so lovely. Everyone kept asking where I bought the garland. It was nice to say it was handmade. ( psst...I might be putting this in my belladrummer etsy shop soon. I just need to get more shipping info) There's more than enough paper hoarded up in my studio to make plenty more of these. I might make one with fall colors and one for winter... I just loved the welcoming colors!



I had so much pretty paper confetti stored up for a while, it was nice to finally see the pieces of paper displayed all together. We kept the garland up for a few weeks after my birthday just to enjoy it a little longer. xoxo so so so sweet.

Lately me and the mister have been making our home look cozy and sweet. See?



We waited forever for the sofa to come in. (Almost 2.5 months) But I think it was worth the wait :) We haven't finished putting the final touches on the living room but it seemed peek worthy. :) Just don't look at the remote and the tissue on the ottoman. I'm so glad the sofa shopping is over. My feet and back were killing me after all the store hopping!

The white, striped and leaf pillows are from IKEA. The Elephant pillow is from my trip to Cambodia. The lamp is from West Elm. The huge floor mirror in the back, the white vase, white ottoman and white side table are all from from IKEA. The sofa is from Pottery Barn. ( The room has changed quite a bit since this photo was taken, will update soon. promise!)

Still making progress on my art studio. Paint needs to go up. I am itching to spray paint all over it. OOOHHH wouldn't that be cool? I'm scared. I totally could mess it up. I keep telling myself to be brave. Very very brave right? It's either spray paint or some sort of wall instillation piece. I'm gonna head over to starbucks later this week and sketch a few ideas out... will share that too.

Hope you are having a happy October!

xoxo
-d

goodbye 29

hello 30 :)
Seems like this birthday crept up on me. I still feel 25. I don't think of myself as "older". I hope maybe a little "wiser". But definitely happier. 29 you've been a pleasure. I'm sad to close this chapter (marriage, love, Mr. Handsome) but I'm ready to go onto the next. I anticipate many more happy memorable moments. He's the best pre-birthday party date ever.

Pre-birthday celebrations started with this little guy:


I haven't shot film with one of these since college! Yikes. I got nervous all over again :) I LOVE this camera. I can't wait to share new prints from this little guy. I had once mentioned to Mr. Handsome (at Urban Outfitters) how cute and cool these cameras were. How we'd never be able to afford one. How it's expensive. How they take the coolest pictures. How much fun i had shooting with one of these back in the day. I put the camera back and that was the end of that. Mr. Handsome loves to surprise. :) He got me good.

Next: He took me to see my FAVORITE of all time group The Gipsy Kings. Hayayaay! I am not much of a dancer but my heart could not stop dancing and I could not stop smiling all night :) Wow! Even still. WOW.

And just yesterday we both took the day off and we headed up to MOZZA (go figure lol) next a shopping trip to Anthropologie and last to potterybarn ( all things I really wanted to do to celebrate my birthday). 5 hours plus 300 miles later, we were home. Tired. But very happy after a day well lived and full of happy moments. And i hadn't taken ONE single picture! I asked Mr. Handsome for a pic and he was wonderful enough to pose for some sweet shots xoxo.





Silly us. I am totally head over heels for him. He puts up with my crazy. ALL.THE.TIME. LOL!
(pray for him)

To top it all off, i had the chance to make some art pages with KR's September kit. <3
Inspired by matisyahu's "for you" lyrics. Totally making me happy :)



And a page dedicated to Mr.Handsome and I staging our engagement for his mom's camera. I'm glad we did. I think this beginning part is just as important as every part of our relationship. I totally wish i had a picture of my parents during their engagement time.



Totally missing playing the drums. But Just another page with feelings and love for the drums. (head over to your local music store and hit some for me!)


Remember the crazy times you had when picking your hair style for your wedding? This is a page for mine. I had so much fun buying stuff on etsy and planning the hair style I felt best made my special day perfect. I LOVE my sweet sister in law Sara. She just worked her magic and voila! I think she's amazing xo. She made me feel pretty and happy.


And lastly, this page completely inspired by the amazing Sabrina W. Harrison.


Today, go treat yourself to something. Celebrate life. Move yourself to do something that makes you feel happy. I hope and pray you have an amazing week. Sing at the top of your lungs while driving in traffic. Get down and bust a move in your copy room. Or even treat yourself to some Starbucks love for me. :) Today . We celebrate!
with love and blessings,
xoxo
d