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Stephanie Howell

reading, organizing, shopping, momming too close to the sun. Home is wherever the Army sends us.

Rainy Day Sunshine | A Scrapbook Layout

Happy Thursday!

So glad you stopped by today. I have a scrapbook page to share with you!

Lately scrapbook pages have become much more about being creative. About getting my hands messy and playing with product and making something tangible. My Project Life has become much more about multiple photos and memories. 

You will see more single photo layouts from me because I think of pages as a creative release. Does that make sense?

I had my Gossamer Blue November Kit remains out on my desk and wanted to use them up so I grabbed some of my staples (ribbon, doilies, label stickers) and got to work.

Here’s what I came up with:

Supplies: Gossamer Blue November Kits and Addons//Freckled Fawn wide washi tape//BasicGrey chipboard accents//doilies//Chic Tags alphabet stickers//Recollections alphabet stickers//Studio Calico gold label//May Arts chevron twill ribbon

When I was working on the layout I really wanted to use this Crate Paper vellum, but I just couldn’t make it work.


I decided to turn it over and use the back side, and that made it much more subtle and usable.

I know that this pretty ribbon will get smooshed when I put it in an album, but I’m okay with that! Perfection is ovverated. 🙂

I hope you have a beautiful day!

xo

S

wordless (ish?!?!?!) wednesday

 

(sign found taped to Harper and Sadie’s door).

I feel that this could be the sign that best represents Jimmy’s life.

Total Girls Club.

**but dad is alowd.

 

Veneto Life

Happy Monday morning, y’all! Today I thought I’d share some photos I took this weekend…and pepper some interesting Italian facts throughout the post.

Note: this is just my experience in the Veneto region of Italy so far. I know that not every part of this country is the same, but these are just some fun and quirky facts about the part of Italy I live in. Or at least what I have noticed!

1.Italians don’t touch their produce. There are special gloves at the supermarkets that you have to put on.

          

2. When you eat at restaurants in America, they bring out everyone’s food at once. In Italy, they bring it out plate by plate. You are not to wait until everyone receives their food…that is considered an insult to the chef. You are to enjoy it immediately, the food is made with that intent.

3.You can find baby wipes here, but they don’t really use them. That’s what bidets/sinks are for, I suppose.

4. You don’t say “Ciao” to great someone you don’t know. You use the more formal bongiorno or buona sera. Once you “know” someone or see them regularly, ciao is just fine.

5. Italians don’t really wait in line. They kind of just cluster. It can be frustrating at times, not gonna lie.

6. The highways here are called the “Autostrada”. Pretty sure no one observes the speed limit, and I’ve never seen anyone get pulled over here.

7. Wine and water only with meals here, nothing else is really available. Coffee after. Strong coffee.

8. No one in this part of Italy wears color in the fall/winter. I’m not exaggerating. Lots of beige, black, gray, camel, and brown. I stick out like a sore thumb in my red, green, and blue.

9. There is no |h| sound/ h in the Italian language. Hospital is “ospedale”, Chinese food is “Cinese” and Harper Howell is “arper owell!”.

10. To take a shopping cart into the store, you have to insert a euro coin to unlock the cart. When you return it to the proper place/re-lock it…you will receive your money back. Hence no errant carts!

11. You have to pay to use many public restrooms here.

Have a beautiful Monday!

xoxo

S

Let’s Go Now | A Scrapbook Layout

TGIF y’all! Today I have a layout to share with you. It came together super quickly and makes me ridiculously happy!

I started by printing these two photos. I love them both dearly and they share a common theme. In Sadie’s photo she is packed and ready to go to Lake Como. In Cate’s photo she is packed and ready to go to France.

I knew I wanted to use them on a layout about traveling and our adventures.

Here’s what I came up with:

Supplies: Gossamer Blue November main kit, Gossamer Blue November Add On 2, Gossamer Blue November Bits and Pieces, Studio Calico Double Scoop project life kit (gold labels), sequins, doilies, MME tiny word stickers, BasicGrey Micro Monogram stickers, gold foliage from Michael’s, American Crafts thickers

I’m really happy with the layering and clustering I achieved on this page. I tried not to overthink it…but I did move things around a bit more than I normally do..

The gold leaves (from Christmas foliage I got at Michael’s last year) add a nice sparkly touch.

And I added some fun accents (like the vellum postage stamp under the ‘o’ in go).

I have to tell y’all that I’m rather obsessed with Heidi Swapp mixed company ephemera right now.

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\I have been using these embellishments all over my Project Life and they added the perfect touch to this page.

I love that the embellishments are mixed. Some cardstock, some acrylic, and some vellum. Just right for layering.


I don’t own a die cutting machine (yeah, maybe I’m the last crafter on earth who can say that…and I’m okay with it 🙂 so I really like that I can add fun die cut embellishments with this pack.


Of course I had to throw in some doilies and sequins, too…it’s a compulsion. 🙂

That’s it for today, just a fun creative share. Hope you enjoyed and can find some inspiration from it this Friday!

oxox

S

Anthéor ,France (Cote d’Azur) + Monaco + Monterosso (Cinque Terre)

We had the most wonderful adventure this past weekend!

Warning…this post is very photo heavy, so if that isn’t your thing or if that annoys you, don’t say you weren’t warned. 🙂

We had a four day weekend (due to Veteran’s Day) and took a trip to the French Riviera.

I (again) used Airbnb to find a house for rent and we were stunned when we discovered how beautiful this property really was.

We stayed in Anthéor . Anthéor is right by the town of Agay on the French Riviera (Cote d’Azur) and right down the road from Saint-Raphaël.

We drove through Cannes and Nice to get there.

Our house was right on the Mediterranean Sea. I have never seen anything so beautiful.

We booked our trip to the French Riviera in the off season. It’s not the time that most people want to go…but we avoided the crazy crowds of tourists and the inflated prices.

The red rocks (Cap Roux) were absolutely STUNNING.

Here are a few photos of the house and the view.

Panoramic view from the parking spot (above the house…that’s the attic roof).

Stairs down to the house:

Our “back yard” for the weekend. Jimmy and the big girls had a BLAST exploring:

The gate to the house:

The views from the house were the absolute best part. The girls had a sweet little room with two bunk beds (they LOVED it) and we had a bedroom with a view like this:



Out of this window, every morning, I got to see this:




There was a terrace upstairs (which Cate and Lucy immediately took to):

After the chickadees went to bed each night, Jimmy and I would stay up talking,drinking wine, listening to the waves crash, and enjoying this view:

Our time in France was super laid-back. Exploring, eating, and drinking. And that’s about it.

One of my favorite “explorations”? A French supermarket. We came home with eclairs, baguettes, cheese, rotisserie chicken, macarons, and of course wine.

On the way home from France, we decided to drive through Monaco and explore a bit. I mean…it’s Monaco. We had to.

I have always loved Grace Kelly so it gave me the chance to pretend I was Princess Grace for a moment.

Can we please discuss the amount of money in Monaco? I couldn’t even handle it. It was a last minute decision to drive through…and let’s just say my yoga pants and sweater were NOT cutting it.

HA!

We drove by the casino in Monte Carlo. If I was pretending to be Princess Grace, Jimmy was pretending to be James Bond. I’m sure of it.

And all the while, cars like this were passing us left and right:

Yep. We felt pretty awesome in our swagger wagon/Howell family minivan. That’s how we roll in Monaco.

After Monaco I thought we were heading home and I was loving the view (you won’t believe how many times we pull over to take photos!).

This one was taken as soon as we crossed over the border back into Italia:

But it turns out we weren’t heading home. J surprised me with another detour.

At this point I was clapping and bouncing up and down in my seat. I mean…what a great day.

My enthusiasm quickly turned to white knuckles and a few muttered curse words when we started to make the trip down the mountains to the town of Monterosso.

The roads were super narrow and winding. All of the curves were blind (we had to honk to warn people on the other side) and some of the road was even falling off of the mountain. Harrowing to say the least.

What’s that you say? Minivans aren’t meant for the Cinque Terre? Yeah, that’d be correct.

Jesus take the wheel.

Once we made it down the mountain we explored the town of Monterosso al Mare. And fell in love.


The waves were spectacularly violent.


We just stood and watched them for quite some time.


These little Italian boys were running around with sticks and my girlie girls were TERRIFIED they were going to fall into the scary waves.

Harper said “Mommy, that’s not very responsible!” HA! And I told her they have probably lived there their entire lives and they were just fine.

And I loved watching this group of men talk and tell stories:


You know the Italy that you read about and imagine? Yeah, that’s Monterosso.

We need WAY more time to explore and I can’t wait to go back.

So there you have it…our weekend adventures. Sorry this post was so long, but at least I warned you! 🙂

Ciao Bella-

xo

S