Bye Bye, March!

YAY! March did indeed go out like a lamb as the old saying goes. It was a gorgeous 78 degress and just beautiful here today. The entire crew celebrated by spending all evening outside playing football, jumping on the trampoline, grilling out...and even a little sidewalk...er, driveway...art :)

Here's to saying good bye to March and hello to April! Hope you all had a wonderful day!
xoxo,
k.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Congratulations to Pegg S!! You are the lucky winner of the JetPens.com's gift certificate! YAY! Please email me at kelly(dot)goree(at)gmail(dot)com to claim your prize!!

Spring is spring-ing!

How I love Spring! And trust me (or my allergies) when I say Spring is really springing up all over the place around here! And I'm enjoying documenting every bit of it I can in my 365 photos! The color has been just amazing - the sky is a vivid blue, the grass an emerald green and bright flowers are everywhere! (Ahhh-chooooooo!) Ahhhh, spring!

I hope you all are having an amazing spring-filled week as well!
xoxo,
k.

FAQ: What white pen do you use?! (Do you want one of your own?!)

****CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. Thank you.*****
One of the most frequently asked questions I get about my scrapbooking work is what white pen do I use to do all my handstitching and journaling. Trust me when I say I've tried them all, but for me there's only one choice:

The Uni-ball Signo UM-153

Now I'm being really specific with this model number because Uni-ball also has another white Signo out there (the UM-120) but there is a difference. The 153 version is a bit wider. It's a 1.0 ball width so the color comes out nice, opaque and smooth. It's truly a divine pen and now the only one I use for writing in white.

So while the wide 153 is the only pen for me, I do have to tell you a bit more about the Uni-ball 120's - these pens are almost as fantastic and only a bit smaller in ball width (.7). The benefit to them is that they come in all kinds of softer range colors - from soft blue, lavender, pink, etc. So for those of you that love to journal in all kinds of colors, these are the pens for you! Pretty great, huh? But it gets better! (Keep reading!)

Unfortunately for all their greatness, these pens can come with a pretty hefty price tag and even worse, sometimes they are hard to find or hard to find in stock. I've searched high and low for a great place to get my pens and I haven't found any place better than JetPens.com. They not only carry my beloved Signo 153, but they do it at such an amazing price. Because they are a Japanese company, they don't have the import cost and thus really pass the savings on to you. Most US retailers charge around I think $4 for this pen, but they are only $2.25 at JetPens. (They also have COPICS and hard to find extra-fine point pens in unique colors and so much more). I truly love their site and love even more that they ship the next business day AND offer FREE SHIPPING on orders of $25 or more (Shipping starts at just $5 for US and Canada).
(Now here's where it gets really good!) Because I love their pens so much, they have generously agreed to give one of my lucky blog readers - that means YOU!! - a $25 Gift Certificate to their site. You could be like me and order 10 Uni-ball Signo 153's ;) or perhaps some Copics or try out one of the combo packs of Souffle pens or anything your little heart desires! SOOOO excited to be able to share this with you!



Simply leave me a comment between now and 11:59 pm Tuesday, March 30th, telling me what you would order from JetPens if you win the certificate! I'd also love hearing what kinds of pens and markers are YOUR favorites and why!

****CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. Thank you.*****

Also, if you might be interested in being a sponsor here on my blog, it's not too late to get in for April. Please email me at kelly(dot)goree(at)gmail(dot)com for all the details!

I hope you have had a wonderful weekend!
xoxo,
k.

P.S. I leave for New Zealand two weeks from today! SO excited but SO much to do before then!

Florals, and Dots, and Stripes! Oh my!

Hi, all!

As I sneak peeked in yesterday's post, my article on patterned paper with Scrapbook & Cards Today went live this morning! I'm thrilled to get to share it here with you and I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it and putting it together. I had some fantastic help on this article from the talented Lisa Kisch of the SCT creative team who contributed two lovely layouts to help illustrate my topic points as well as editor, Kerry McRorie, who is a genius and almost made me sound like one, too! ;)

Please click on the spring cover (by the amazing Kimber McGray) at the left, to download the entire issue. My article starts on page 21, but this issue is jammed packed with so much eye candy and creative artists that you absolutely must read it cover to cover! I'm particularly thrilled to see my girl Becky Fleck teaming up with Scrapbook & Cards Today and bringing her awesome PageMaps to us in yet another format on a regular basis! So exciting!

Have a happy Friday!
xoxo,
k.

The layout above is the article's opener and one of six different projects included!

SO excited!

I am so beyond excited! This photo is the opening page to my very first full article! I've been floating on a cloud since it arrived in the mail today!

I cannot WAIT to share the entire article with you all when Scrapbook & Cards Today's spring issue officially hits the newsstands tomorrow! The best part of this magazine is that it's FREE. Free. Yep, I said FREE! So tomorrow, I'll get to share the downloadable link for you right here and you can soak up all its goodness anytime you want!

In the meantime, here's a couple of sneak peeks from my projects for the article. Oh...and did I mention, this article is all about PATTERNED PAPER??!!



Have a wonderful Thursday! Until tomorrow....
xoxo,
k.

March 365

I know I've talked briefly before about my participation in Project 365 this year. For those of you not familiar with it, the concept is taking a photo a day, everyday, about your daily life. It seems easy enough, but let me tell you, it's not! I have been watching people do this for the past couple of years from afar because, well, honestly, I lack long-term commitment. If you ask some of my close friends, they'll tell you I have adult ADD (and it's probably very true though not diagnosed officially ;)) and bounce from one thing to another all. the. time. But I have loved the idea of this project and so I was determined this year.

And I'm proud to say we're toward the end of March and I've only missed a day or two here or there. The most remarkable thing about this project is that with these photos I've captured (good, bad or ugly), I've caught moments of my daily life that I NEVER would have stopped to capture before. That's the exciting part for me! I LOVE that! Those photos above are just a couple of moments that would have been long forgotten if I hadn't taken the time to stop and capture them. Again, I know it's the end of March, but it's not too late to get started! You don't have to wait for a new year, or even a new month. START TODAY! I promise you, even if you don't get a photo EVERYday, the ones you do get you'll cherish!

And to help you keep track of them all, there's a great little site that I've been uploading my images to that was just made for this project. It's called ShutterCal and it's fantastic. It's a free site that relies completely on donations (but you don't have to donate if you don't want to/can't). You can find more of my images there by clicking HERE. I'd love it if you to sign up and post your own pictures! I think you'll be so glad you did! And I'm going to keep posting a few of my images every week as encouragement (and accountability for me!!). I love sharing them and hope you like seeing them, too!

Have a beautiful Tuesday!
xoxo,
k.

And the Winner is....

ME!! for getting the majority of my cleaning and purging done over the weekend despite fighting horrid allergies. I can't tell you how much weight just lifted off my shoulders simply by living lighter and getting rid of things I don't absolutely love.







But seriously! The *real* winner of my endeavors is BRENDA JOHNSTON! Congratulations, Brenda! Just email me at kelly(dot)goree(at)gmail(dot)com to claim your prize!

Thank you to all who entered and have a fantastic Monday! :)
xoxo,
k.

First day of SPRING = Free Stuff!

****CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON. THANK YOU SO MUCH!*****
Can you hear me hollering wherever you are??! It's the first day of SPRING!!! Oh yes, it is! And because of that I am frantically spring cleaning (and spring planting with the boys :)) because I just don't function well with clutter. Let's not even mention I have the looming deadline of Taxes and an upcoming LSS yard sale next weekend. So much to do and it all starts with cleaning and purging! As much as I hate the actual process, I love the end result of organized space and I think you will, too!

****CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON. THANK YOU SO MUCH!*****

In my efforts, I came across an extra collection pack of the new BasicGrey GREEN AT HEART (a perfect for spring collection!) that I am willing to share with one lucky reader! Just leave a comment here telling me what Spring has you doing (PG-rated please ;)) by Sunday night March 21 at 11:59 pm Eastern Time and you'll be entered to win!


Have a fantastic weekend, all!
xoxo,
k.

Emerging from my cocoon!

Whew!

I think I can safely say that spring has finally arrived here in Kentucky and with it, I'm slowly coming out of my winter-induced hibernation. Whoo hooo! I suppose I should have warned you, but after the holidays are over, I'm not good for much of anything until about this time in March when the sun starts shining and the flowers start peeking out of the ground. It just makes me feel alive again! YAY for that!

Because I was feeling particularly happy with the sunshine and nearly 70 degree temperatures AND because I had an errand to run (for white cardstock of all things - why is it I always run out of white cardstock?), I snagged my husband and we ran off for lunch! So fun and so yummy! And let's just say this photo? Well it's my 365 photo of the day. I think it says it all! ;)

Happy Spring & Friday, all!
xoxo, k.