Chicago SMASH

Katrina and I had a meet-up in Chicago at the end of October. Em was there. Angela was there. Kristi was there. Christine was there.

Four of the six of us are scrapbookers. You can imagine the amount of camera clicking that went on.

All those pictures need a good home, right?

Katrina and I both brought a SMASH book along on the trip. (If you are anything like me you have a huge bin of SMASH products that you've been looking at, collecting, and drooling on without actually using.)

We saved bits and pieces from our trip, took a few (very few!) Polaroids, and did some journaling while we were there. We shared pictures after we each got home.

I developed my pictures in a variety of sizes from Scrapbookpictures.com (which I just realized closed!!!) and have been busy sticking them in and adding journaling over the past month of so.

I'm so happy to share the finished product.

I wanted some full-page photos. I was stumped at this by first because I wanted to just somehow add these to the binding of the album. I couldn't figure out a way to do that; I ended up using Washi tape to attach the photos to the pages.

I made lots and lots of fold-ups. Sometimes it was because I wanted to add more journaling than I had room for. Other times it was because I wanted to add more journaling than I had room for.

A quick note about logistics. I divided the empty album in to sections for each day with an introductory section at the beginning and a section with addresses and random notes at the end. I tore many pages out of the book. Some of the pages were torn because I just didn't have enough to put something on every page. Other pages were torn because I couldn't figure out how to incorporate the theme on them (like an accordion and the word "Polka!") cohesively into my album. I tried to leave a basically blank page with some sort of message on it as a title page in each section.

I am ridiculously excited about this little project. I think I have looked at it about a million times since I finished it.

Supplies:
International Folio SMASH book
SMASH Folder Pockets
SMASH Jumbo Band
SMASH Clips
SMASH Stickies
SMASH Stickies (red & blue)
SMASH Pad Blank
SMASH Pad Entertainment
SMASH Pad Travel
SMASH Pad Special Occasion
SMASH Pad Word of Mouth
SMASH Decorative Tape (Black Dots)
SMASH Fabric Tabs
SMASH Paper Clips
October Afternoon Mini Market Stickers (Red & Cream)
American Crafts, Hardcover Thickers (Black)
Studio Calico Scrap Pad (Memoir)
Lots of Washi tape

B&K Excellent Adventures: Chicago-style

Ah, my excellent adventures with Katrina continue.
It began on the boards at 2Peas.
It continued at CHA in July 2007.
And, again at CHA in July 2008.
I visited VT in July 2009.
We went to CA this July.
And, we met up in Chicago last week.

Our adventures involved (no big surprise here) plenty of wine. Katrina planned to drink 10 bottles from a specific list. We tried hard to find these bottles and had no success, so we tried another list. Between the two of us, we found 9 of the 10 bottles. We picked up the tenth bottle at a Whole Foods between the airport and our downtown condo.

There aren't any pictures of this, yet, but we made tasting notes about each of the bottles.

 Kendall Jackson Meritage. Egh.

Fleur Pinot Noir. Such a pretty bottle.

These two bottles snuck in. They weren't on the list.

 We had to be resourceful. Washi tape made great glass markers.

We ate a lot.

We ate in. That was one of the main reasons we rented a condo, actually. We wanted to cook on vacation.

 Dinner: Thursday night. Cacio e Pepe and Grilled Kale Salad with Gorgonzola.

Dinner: Saturday Night. Risotto with Pear and Gorgonzola. Broccollini with Lemon and Parm.

We still ate out, though.

Lunch on Saturday was Le Colonial. I haven't been there for more than two years, but it was just as delicious as I remembered.

Breakfast on Saturday was Yolk where we were forced to order three entrees because just couldn't choose.

 

 

 And, yes. Those last two pictures are red velvet french toast. And, yes. It was delicious.

We ate at XOCO on Saturday afternoon between lunch and dinner. I was underwhelmed. If I went again, I would just have coffee and dessert.

 

And, we didn't just eat in and out. We ate cupcakes.


We ate cupcakes from More.

And cupcakes from Molly's. See the Cake Batter cupcake? AH-MAZING. I'm usually a chocolate girl, but I was crazy about this vanilla, Fun-fetti-esque, blue frosted lovely.

 

We shopped at Anthropology.

We acted like tourists.

We took a Segway tour - which was so much fun!

We walked around the city and took pictures.

We took an Untouchables Tour to learn about Chicago during prohibition.

We snuggled babies.

Henry was a real ladies' man at the condo Saturday night.

And, Em and I met Lauren on Sunday.

And, excellent adventures with Katrina don't just involve wine, food, cupcakes, touring, and baby snuggling. They also involve lipgloss.

 See all that Mineral Fusion? The best lipgloss I have ever tried. Really. You can get some of your own here.

I'm so lucky to have a friend that makes me laugh, a friend that gets me, a friend that encourages and partakes in crazy schemes, a friend that introduces me to her incredible friends (like Angela and Kristi and Christine). Thanks for another excellent adventure, Katrina!