New Blog

Setting up my new home

It will still be attached to www.briannenevill.com so no worries there. As soon as it is up and running come leave some love!

!

-Brianne

Recent Work

Life has me so busy lately, I haven't been able to post. So what I will do is share some of my most recent work!

Enjoy!



-Brianne

Awww, Beautiful October

Even though we live in Oklahoma and very rarely see fall's beauty, I still am reminded so much of what I loved back home. The leaves changing colors, the smell of bonfires, jeans, sweaters, football games, and Halloween. All of these things made up for such a beautiful time of year back home that I am not going to let distance change my feeling of it.

Yesterday was the post-wide garage sale! I spent about a week prepping for it and made around $300.00! This will go towards Rich's flight home in December!

Matthew finished up his swim classes last week Saturday. Two out of the four weeks, no swim instructor showed up. This was very irritating to me so I said something to the gentleman that runs the swim program. Being that he is one of my bosses good friends, he hooked us up with a full class free! AND because Matthew is big enough (not old enough quite yet) he is going to be moved up to the next class. That makes me TOTALLY excited!

We also signed Matthew up for Mini-mites Basketball! I think this will be SUCH a great thing for him. He LOVES to interact with other kids, as well as run around and play. Not going to take it too seriously, just doing it for fun and excersise. This will start the second week in January.

We are going to visit Rich in two weeks (Oct 17, 18, & 19)! YAY! We are going to be meeting up in Lubbock, TX. Lubbock is as close to half-way for both of us as we can get. We have a family suite booked and plenty of play time scheduled! Its only for a weekend but we haven't seen him in two months so two days is better than nothing!

Running is going really well. I have been doing it for three weeks now and I can TOTALLY see the difference. Pants are getting really loose and I have a lot more energy. We are still going to the YMCA three days a week after work. Matthew LOVES going to play there now and always asks if it is "YM-say" day?? I am trying to not get discouraged about length of time running vs. length of time walking. The plan that I am following makes it clear that you should not push yourself too hard to try to accomplish the next step until you are ready. It's been such a long time since I have run that I am still finding it hard to run for a long period of time. BUT I will prevail! I have complete faith that if I keep my mind focused on this that I can totally accomplish it! 5k here I come!

On to scrapping!

The entire month of September at Scrapstreet.com was devoted to the site's anniversary! It was SUCH a blast to be challenged by Dora every day with super-fun riddles and games! I was one of the grand prize winners for the month and won a FABULOUS goodie bag filled with Halloween yummies from Little Yellow Bicycle! Cannot WAIT to get my hands on this box!
Also, more of our CHA goodies have arrived and they are enroute to me now! My beautiful pink bind-it-all will be here this week! CHEER! Also, all the little mini letters from Basic Grey! I cannot wait to work with those!

October means Holiday Ho-HO- Derby time at Scrapstreet.com. Each day a new challenge is posted and you have 24 hours to complete them. Make sure you check them out here: Holiday Derby. The magazine staff was challenged to come up with each days events so make sure you try a few! You will NOT be disappointed with the amount you create!

Here are a few of my latest creations for your enjoyment!

Clipboard created for Day one of the Holiday Derby!

Also, made this really cute mini-album with our Halloween adventures so far:

OK I am out of here. Laundry calls and so does Matthew. Love you all!

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other. -Walter Elliot

-Brianne

Oy Vey!

I'm sorry it has been so long since I updated. Life has been too busy and has passed by in a blur.

No scrapping projects to share yet (those will all be at the beginning of the month!).

Matthew has been doing very well in his Mommy & Me swim class! Almost swimming by himself but doesn't let me go far. Hopefully by the end of the class he will let me just stand beside him :: crossing fingers ::

Rich is still TDY in TX. Matthew and I will go down to visit him the third weekend in Oct! YAY!!!! The weeks are DRAGGING on now that we have this planned.

I have started a running program. Couch to 5k. Interesting huh??? It's keeping my mind focused which is exactly what I was looking for. Matthew and I have been hitting the Y 3 days a week for me to run. We have been walking at home the other two so we are staying very active. Then with swimming on Saturday, our weeks are almost completely full!

I was completely consumed with the Twilight book series. OMG. If you have not read them, DO SO! Twilight the movie actually comes out November 11th! I read the entire series in one week. I couldn't put them down. Eat. Sleep. Play. Scrap. Read. That was my life that week LOL!

OK out of here for now. Will go into more depth soon!

Love you all!

-Brianne

A few new pieces...

Just a quick update! Gonna be a busy weekend around here but I will post an update as soon as I get the chance. Here are a few new pieces of art! ScrapStreet is doing a birthday crop this month and here are a few of the fun things I have made for the challenges.

Love you!

Fun Halloween Card:



Cupcake Card:

Light Artist:

This is for you Rich...

For those of you who don't know, my husband and I met on an online game. "Asheron's Call" to be exact. We also played beta World of Warcraft and continued playing it up until this summer. He is now playing Age of Conan but I am not. (It honestly did not look like all that much fun... and I am holding out for Warhammer). Found this little movie hilarious because we have SOO been here before.

Love you babe!

-B

Pencil Lines Celebrates 100 sketches!

WOW! I know I have been stalking this blog for a while but I had no idea they were anywhere near 100 sketches! That is AMAZING! I absolutely love the girls at Pencil Lines and their work totally inspires me. Their guest designer this week is Kelli Crowe (whom I also admire, TWO FOR ONE! woot!). She provided a great sketch this week and I thought I would give it a go.

Here is her sketch:

And my take:

Some close-ups:

It was SUCH a blast doing this layout. I have been meaning to do one of Matthew in his red car and this was the perfect opportunity. Thanks PL!

-B

Back to work!

After a four day weekend with my little man, today was my first day back to work. Twice a year our bank puts on a loan promotion for auto loans (Rates as low as 4.99%!) and our desks become COVERED with applications. Promotion actually started yesterday but I had taken off work to spend the day with Matthew due to our daycare being closed (Post Training Holiday). You can ONLY imagine what my desk looked like when I got there today. Total chaos.





Over the weekend, Matthew and I cleaned up the yard, attended a BBQ, went on walks, painted his bed, etc...


Was SO much fun! Here are a few candid pictures from the weekend:

Yes, that would be my child blowing bubbles in the beer/pop cooler with one of my bosses at the BBQ. Such positive influences in my life...

Matthew washing his car while I pulled weeds.

This is my new ROCK BED! Sweet huh? LOL! Actually, I could not manage to keep anything alive in this entire flower bed due to the sun setting DIRECTLY on top of it every afternoon/evening. So I ripped everything out and covered with with River Rock. It needs a few more bags but you really should see the before pictures. SO not even posting it because it looked awful. Yes, and that is a dent on the side of my house. Believe it or not, someone actually RAN INTO my house and never bothered to tell us about it. We live on an Army Post so it was reported to the MP's but it still strikes us as a very odd thing for someone to do.

Matthew's bed was the last major thing we did. It was a nasty off-white color before. I had bought it from a coworker about 3 years ago and Matthew never really cared what it looked like. After sighing at the poor thing every day for the last TWO years, I finally decided it was time for a paint job. Fire Engine Red! Matthew LOVES his fire engine bed. He gets so excited to get into it. Thinking of finding a steering wheel for it sometime this week/weekend.

Yesterday we also went to the LSS. It is about 60 mins away so you can hardly call it local. I picked up a few sheets of paper I had not received it, as well as some Maya Road goodness and a few Scenic Route pieces. LOVE them all and cannot wait to start creating with them!

Hope you are having a great week so far!

Will post more soon!

Love you all!

-Brianne

FINALLY! My recent work!

YAY! I can finally show my recent work!

These are from ScrapDango's September Spice Kit! If you don't have it ordered yet, DO SO SOON! This was an AWESOME kit to work with!

Helmar gave us a TON of samples to try out at CHA and we got to showcase them this month in ScrapStreet's Ezine! These is one of the items I made with their glue:

Scrappin' Sports & More also sponsored the magazine this month. Their products were VERY cool to work with. I was not used to working with this sort of paper so it really helped me think "outside-the box" with my creations.

Ok more from me later! Off to spend some time with my little man!

Smootches!

-Brianne

Weekend thoughts...

So here we are at the beginning of a long, holiday weekend and I am already craving to go back to work. This terrible two-something is driving me out of my mind! I have patience, I really do, but he will wear me down until I am almost begging him to behave. It's sad and very unflattering...

Anyway, he inspired my layout based on a sketch tonight:

You Drive Me Crazy!

I used the Cupcake line from Basic Grey for this layout. I LOVE bright colors on my layouts and that is such a happy line. The journaling reads: "Matthew, you certainly know how to push my buttons. You refuse to listen, are a know-it-all, and you love to pester Mojo. Then you go and smile at me like this... what can I say, I am a sucker for your baby blues. - Mommy" The writing around the photo reads: "No, no, no!" "MINE!" "I need candy!" "Mojo bit me!" "but whhhhyyy?" "PUULEEAASSEEE?!"

It is so him right now but I also adore the quiet moments where he lets me hold him or asks me for a hug. He also always answers my "I love you, Matthew" with a "I love you SO much Mommy". Melts my heart!

GREAT ACHIEVEMENT!

I mowed my VERY first lawn today! Can you belive it!? 28 years without EVERY having mowed a lawn and I did it all by myself today. Even started the lawn mower by myself! I am a genius, I swear it! It's not that I never WANTED to mow a lawn. My father took such pride in his lawn and always mowed it a VERY specific way. And then I have always lived in an apartment/condo or my husband handled it. With Rich gone, it was basically thrust on me and I rised to the challenge! Muhahaha!!

And to top it off, I found it very relaxing. Something about the straight lines and instant gratification for a job well done. I know, I weird, but hey, I entertain myself!

So wish me luck! I have three more Matthew-filled days before going back to work. We are going to a bbq tomorrow afternoon but other than that, we have nothing planned. Should be interesting. Send help if you don't hear from me soon! *giggle*

Love you all!

-Brianne

Was on a hunt...

I had been on a hunt for this song I had stuck in my head for DAYS. Finally spent over an hour looking for it.

And I was VICTORIOUS!

If you like rock, check out Seether's "Rise Above This".

Ok really going to bed now.

SMOOTCHES!!!

-Brianne

Undercover Scrapper

I feel like I have been scrapping so much "cannot post" stuff lately that I am an "undercover scrapper".

Feels weird not being able to post layouts right away LOL!

Anyway, I will be able to put them ALL up on Monday . I am a good secret keep but man, when I want to show off, it takes everything I have to hold back.

Also going to try to finish up the scrap room this week and post a few pictures of it as well. SOOO big.



Missing my husband badly. Did not think it would be this bad. I mean, I cook and clean for the man everyday, figured this would be a nice little break (I love you, babe). It's not. Poor little man has to suffer with easy to make dinners-for-two. Actually its more like dinner for one-and-a-half because he doesn't always eat a full portion.

Trying to think if there is really anything else new... nope, not so much. Wow, that is sort of depressing.

Ok off to read for a bit. Need to rest my mind.

Love you all!

-Brianne

Exhausted

I knew it was coming. The wall of weary. All that build-up for my dh to leave and the day after he goes, it hits me. All that stress is gone and now the "tireds" set in. And just when I have SO much to do!





Here is a new layout that I created for the crop weekend over at ScrapDango. If you get a chance, check out all the challenges here: Inspiration Crop. This layout was inspired by a VERY talented scrapbooker, Kelly Goree. If you have not checked out any of her work, DO SO! What she does with BG paper floors me, well sheesh, any paper line for that matter!






We had to create a sketch and then an example off of the sketch. Here is my sketch:

The only plus side of dh being gone for a bit is that I get an ENTIRE room to myself for scrapping. Even though I would give up what I had for space just to have him here with me. I have been overhauling the office and soon it will be one big scrap room. Will have to post pictures of that as soon as I am done.

OK I am out of here. So tired and I need to finish up a couple projects. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

-Brianne