My Memories Awesomeness+A Giveaway!!

I have had the wonderful opportunity of reviewing My Memories Suite {v.2} this past week and I am in love! I did not know that I could be in love with a computer program {I am NOT computer saavy} but My Memories Suite is so much fun to use! I'm sure this is partly because I got to make pretty pages with wedding photos on them but mostly it's because digital scrapbooking is a blast! I think all scrapbooking is fun but I recently gave away most of my scrapbooking supplies because I was never using them. I didn't like how much space they were taking up in my home and I never got it all out because I didn't want to deal with the mess. I kept a couple of things to make cards and stuff but using My Memories Suite I'm not sure I'll even be using those supplies! Although My Memories Suite is technically for making books I thought it would be great to use for Christmas cards, Thank You cards, Invitations, etc. It is going to be the most used program on my computer pretty soon! 

These first two pictures will be in my first ever My Memories Suite digital scrapbook about my wedding!

{Photos by Sierra Studios Photography} 

This last picture is an idea I'm thinking of using for our Christmas cards this year. What do you think?

I'm in love with it! There are so many colors, backgrounds, fonts, etc. to pick from in the My Memories Suite and then there are even more you can purchase on the website!

{Photo by Busy Bee Lauren}

This last one is something I made that I plan on printing and framing. 

I am going to have a blast making things like this for my home because I can't afford to buy prints all the time but I do need to decorate my home! And this was super easy to make and it turned out pretty cute! {Now I just need to find cute quotes to put around my home!}

I think that everyone should have some kind of digital scrapbooking software! I am in love with mine so I want to share the wealth with all of you!

First off,  I would like to share with you all a coupon code worth $20! Did you hear that right? $20!!! The coupon code works towards $10 off of your My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and then another $10 off of anything else in the MyMemories store! Shop away! {Coupon Code: STMMMS77047}

Secondly, I have a giveaway for you! I will be giving away one My Memories Suite {version 2} digital scrapbooking software package! Who's excited?! I am excited for you--So you had better be excited! :]

Here's what you can do to win this wonderful software!

First Entry:

Be a follower of Race & Emma via GFC

Head over to My Memories and tell me what your favorite Digital Scrapbooking kit is.

Additional Entries:

Find me a good quote to post around my house using the software!
Follow the My Memories blog.

Follow My Memories on Facebook.

Follow My Memories on Twitter.
Visit Autumn's blog to enter the same giveaway!

Enter away! And head on over to My Memories to see what all you can do with this wonderful software! This video is also super helpful and provides you with TONS of ideas on what all you can do with the software so check it out! {The giveaway will close on Tuesday, November 1st}

P.S. I have an outfit post over here! Check it out! 

{Not a Sunday} Outfit Post

I wore this outfit while lazing around the house today and also when I went to take my husband some cookies and milk at his work. I just made the skirt last night and I LOVE the way it turned out. It's a maxi skirt too which is something I've been wanting for a while! At the time of the pictures I hadn't made a slit in the back so it was super hard to walk in but I fixed that when I got home and now it's perfect! I will probably end up wearing the skirt for church on Sunday so this isn't exactly a non-Sunday outfit post...

Breakdown: 

Shirt-Old Navy 

Belt-Off of a skirt from Kohl's {I also sewed the belt to make it smaller. The elastic was HUGE and I had it bobby pinned to make it smaller before}

Skirt- Made by me! Fabric from JoAnn's

Shoes- I think Wet Seal...I know that they only cost me $6 though

Purse- Old Navy 

Other good things from today:

• It rained all day
• My chocolate chip cookies are delicious
• I got to hang out with my husband on his break at work
• I looked for jobs {I'm not sure if this is a good thing--I hate job searching}
• I talked to my mum and my daddy-o and my sister
• I helped sew buttons on a friend's shirt now that I'm a 'pro' sewer {aka seamstress}
• I got to be lazy and sleep in. 
• There's so much more but basically it comes down to life is good and I am enjoying my last little bit of summer!

{Kinda Crafty} Future Tutorials?

I am THINKING about doing a couple of tutorials. Let me preface this by saying in the past I have not been a very crafty person. So, anything I may post on here will not be anywhere near perfect. I am learning and having a lot of fun and just thought I would share some of what I am learning with the blogging world. :]

Recently I have made lace slips to go under my skirts {to make them longer and more stylish}, hair flowers and fabric headbands. I was thinking about doing a couple tutorials on some of these things but wanted some helpful hints and tips before venturing into the land of tutorials. If anyone has any advice on how to do a good tutorial it would be greatly appreciated!


Also, here are some pictures of the things that I have been making:

The slips:

The hair accessories:

 

And finally, this is me in my cute headband enjoying a delicious fudgesicle. Mmm! Mmm! Good! I love summer treats!

{Kinda Crafty} Part Four

Click here to view this photo book larger




I had a gift-card to Shutterfly.com so I made this cute little photo book to have on our coffee table. I don't really know if this counts as being crafty since I left it pretty plain. But I love looking at it and I love showing it off to people. My mom even borrowed it for a couple of weeks to take to some of our family reunions to show off to people. :] It was so fun and easy to make and now I am working on one for my Grandma and Grandpa Olmstead's 50th Wedding Anniversary. I can't wait to show that one off too!

{Kinda} Crafty Part Three Featuring: The Husband

So Race's family makes these really cool kinds of scrapbooks. You find an old book with a cool title, you cut out some of the pages {leave any cool titles or pictures or things you like in} and then you staple the rest of the pages together and scrapbook on top of them. How cool is that?! I am sure that some of you other people out there in the blogging world have heard of this before but I had not and was so excited to receive one made by Race for my birthday! He had kept it a secret the entire time and had been working on it diligently for months. He even let me get away with being mad at him for "playing too many video games" all the time while he was secretly slaving away on this project. He did have the help of his sisters Teal and Anetta and his mom helped him find the book so thank you to all of you as well because I think otherwise Race might have gone a little crazy trying to figure out the whole scrapbooking world on his own. Anyway, I wanted to share my special book with all of my blogging friends. I just have to show my husband off! :]

Cover {Race found a book called "Sweetie Baby Cookie Honey" which I think I will use to make him one of these books one of these days...or years}:



Inside the Cover:



Title Page:



Pages 1&2:



Pages 3&4:



Pages 5&6:



Pages 7&8:



Pages 9&10:



Pages 11&12:



Pages 13&14:



The End:



Well, there it is! My beautiful book made by Race W Ashby, my wonderful, thoughtful husband! I love it and I can't wait to try to make one of my own!

{Kinda} Crafty Part Two

After I blogged about my headband crafts on Saturday I actually got my sewing machine out again and decided to try another crafty project. I got the idea from my sister-in-law who got it from the blog Dear Lizzy (I will post a link later...I am blogging from my phone right now). I took two turtleneck shirts that I never wear and cut off the turtleneck, cut it into strips and then sewed ruffles onto the shirts. On one of them I did some flowers also. Take a peak!







These shirts actually don't fit me anymore so I took them to my sisters. It was fun to try something new and actually have it turn out cute!! Hopefully I can get some pictures of my sisters wearing them sometime soon. :)

{Kinda} Crafty

Race wants to spend all day EVERY Saturday playing video games. I obviously do not want to play video games or just watch him play video games so I decided that Saturdays are going to be "teach myself how to be crafty days". Today was the first time I tested this out. And...I feel so crafty already! I brought home a sewing machine from my mom's house last weekend and I promised her that I would use it. So today I went to JoAnn's and bought some of the necessities to get sewing. Also, all week I have been searching online for easy, fun sewing ideas. I found this tutorial for a t-shirt headband. I then went through my clothing drawers and found a ton of old t-shirts that I don't wear anymore [good spring cleaning technique, eh?]. I got started and ended up making seven of these cute headbands. I started out not too great, especially on making the flowers but by the end I think they were turning out pretty cute! Here are some pictures:

These are all of the headbands that I made. There are seven total :]

This is the first one that I made. The t-shirt was not made out of quite the right type of fabric but I still like it!

{Also, notice my pretty nails! I just got all into paiting my nails recently. My sister-in-law had this color nailpolish and I really liked it so I went out and got some of my own. It's called Mint Sorbet by Sally Hansen. Now my nails are a more teal color called Rise and Shine by Sinful Colors...I can't decide which I like more and I bought a few other colors to try out. I used to be an all red nailpolish girl and only on my toes but the times are changing. Haha. Anyway, enough of that rambling.}

This is the purple one I made after the maroon ones. The fabric was much much bettter.

And finally the teal colored one. I think this one is my favorite :]

I am still figuring out how to make the flowers without all the hot glue showing. I did a lot better towards the end though. :] If anyone has any other ideas for crafts to do I would love that! I do not have too much sewing skills but I am up to try anything. Also, if anyone in Flagstaff knows how to sew and wants to teach me I wouldn't mind that either!

Well, hopefully you will now at least be getting one update a week on whatever craft I decide to work on. But I will try and update more regularly on other stuff that's going on in the lives of Race and I also. Tomorrow will be our first Sunday teaching the six-year-olds...wish us luck!