Giveaway!!!

I'm happy to announce that we're giving away a few of our great Nerd Nest products!






































Head over to our new blog, nerd-nest.blogger.com to enter to win!

I'm a night owl...

...so check back for the Giveaway Post around 5:00 P.M. CST

I"m off to grab a Carmel Vanilla Latte from the coffeehouse across the street (YAY!).

Tweet tweet

I caved, I'm finally on twitter! Big week, huh? You can follow me at http://twitter.com/thenerdnest!

In addition, here are a few more cool things you can find in the shop.

I love these awesome fabric flower headbands (most of which are made from some of my favorite Amy Butler fabrics).

This one's my favorite. I think it'll be great for Halloween.


My little sister Taylor totally rocks the metallic look!



P.S. I'm super excited that we can swap clothes now. I'm so borrowing that dress.


My favorite thing is these little mini-books made out of vinyl 45s. I mean, what's more nerdy than records?








I'll be doing another update sometime next week with more headbands, minis, and (shhhhh) a few typewriters. You'll have a chance to grab up some of the new stuff Sunday though. We'll be doing our very first giveaway! Be sure to check back then!

Nerd Nest Esty Grand Opening!

We, Jake and Megan, are celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary today! We're glad that we actually remembered it this time.
















We thought that it would only be appropriate to launch our new joint venture together, Nerd Nest, today. Nerd Nest is a place to find fun handmade and vintage items that celebrate our two favorite things, nerdyness and homeyness. We've got some great things in the shop and are working diligently on a beautiful new blog to go with it!

More about that soon. But for now, here are some great items you can find in our shop:

I am in LOVE with this globe. I have a twin one that I'm keeping for our loft.
























We've put up a great three page class kit that would showcase any cute little baby girl perfectly!
























We've also put up some fun embellishments that would be great for scrapbooking and cardmaking.













































Our favorite thing is this upcycled vintage 45 record holder.















































We were so excited to learn that it was featured on Apartment Therapy LA. Thanks Beth! This re-purposed record holder/mail sorter has already been sold, but we'll put up some similar items next week.

There are tons of other fun goodies in the shop. I'll blog about them a little later.


Check back soon for a GIVEAWAY!!!

Scrap Pink

The Race for the Cure last weekend got me in the mood to scrap using pink! I almost never use pink backgrounds, except for baby pages. I guess I got in touch with my inner girl.

Here's my Race for the Cure page:


I also made a page with one of the few photos that I have of Grammy (whose real name is Shelly, if you're wondering about the "s") and Eliza together:



My Mom, cake maker and quilter extraordinare, had a birthday this week. (Happy birthday Mom.)


I made her (what else?) a scrapbook for her birthday. I used the We Are Memory Keepers 4x6 photo sleeves. I'll share photos when I can wrestle it back from her, but in the meantime, here's a page that I made with a poloroid I found while organizing my childhood photos for my mom:



***EDITED: I've been telling you that I have a secret forever. If I've sparked your interest, check back on Tuesday for the big reveal!

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure

Today I put on my running (walking) shoes with family, friends, and 28,000 other Kansas City dwellers for the 2009 Susan G. Komen Kansas City Race for the Cure.
















Jake is missing from the photo, as he was taking the pictures and is reluctant to hand his SLR over to a stranger. We need to invest in a point and shoot.
















We were walking in memory of Grammy, my grandma Shelly Kiekel.




























































































It was awesome that there were so many people there and it was beautiful walking through the city. There were even live bands every couple of blocks!





















I feel like a wimp because I've been exhausted all day. Maybe this would be excusable if we ran it, but we walked it. In my defense, they picked the route with the most possible uphill climbs. It was a great morning either way and was a wonderful bonding experience for our family. We also saw a bunch of funny shirts, like "Huffin' for Healthy Hooters" and "Hell ya, they're fake. The real ones tried to kill me!" We will definitely be doing it again next year.

Now for some scrap love.
























I wanted to do something that reminded me of Grammy before the walk. Nothing says Grammy like homemade chocolate chip cookies. Except for the background page, everything here is from the July Vintage Plum kit. It's kind of mostly scraplifted from a wonderful page by the amazingly talented Dani Johnston.























I also just got around to scrapping some Easter pages. This one is my favorite.























Lastly, I couldn't resist this amazing self-portrait Jake took. He didn't even have a tripod, he put his camera on his bike. Talk about resourceful!


P.S. Check back later this week for a big reveal!

I Love Livin' in the City

Things I love about living in the city:

1. Cool photo backgrounds

















2. Fresh, local food.
















3. Coffee!
















One of the coffee shops by us, Eljay's, closed it's doors recently for good. A reminder to support your local businesses!
















4. The View
















5. The Park Across the Street.
















Eliza is in heaven. There are tons of puppies.

6. These two love it too!
















7. Portable porch. We can just stick our furniture out of our window.


























































P.S. We love our window, but this dork:
















(Charcoal) jumped out of it when Jake left for work yesterday. We put up fliers, visited the pound, and looked for him for hours. We left the window cracked at night, and he just moseyed back in. I found him snuggling Jake when I went in to go to bed. I'm very thankful he came back okay, but we're going to have to keep a closer eye on this naughty kitty.

Hello August.

X marks the spot.



As I said last post, I got to visit RVA on the way home from the lake.



I was so surprised to see that Elsie was actually working! I was feeling super shy, but she was so sweet! Jake made fun of me because I didn't talk very much, but what do you say when you read a person's blog everyday? Makes me feel like a stalker...



Even though I'm a huge dork (and look horrible after a week on the lake), I'm so glad we went. The shop is adorable, and I am now 100% in love with Jeremy Larson's music. We bought his album Salvation Club and played it the whole way back to KC. The next day, I had to buy his self-titled album on-line as well. You can find them here. Check him out. He's magical. You'll be seeing my other RVA goodies I picked up in posts soon to come.

Now, because I haven't been posting very much this summer due to the most horrible combination of difficult summer courses ever invented, here are all of the July pages I've been holding onto without sharing. Sorry, but they're pretty blurry.

First up, I finally finished our Table Rock Lake album from 2006. This means you should probably be expecting the 2009 album in about 2012. Here are some of my favorite pages.




My favorite part is the hand-drawn woodgrain. I love Crayons.


I am a huge bookworm and am one of the few people alive that actually enjoys Shakespeare. Yes, I am aware that there should be an "e" at the end. Bad spelling is part of who I am, and this trait will make it onto my pages from time to time.
We love to go watch the free Shakespeare in the Park every summer. Nothing like a picnic and a play! Hopefully, this is a good example of how to work with not-so-great photos.

My grandma, Grammy, was a huge part of my life. She is my role model and inspiration. It is hard for me to scrap about her, but it is also therapeutic. It's important to me to make sure that I scrap about my memories of her, so Eliza can know how great she was.

My sister, Taylor, is also one of my best friends. She started playing softball as a Freshman last Spring and spent a great deal of it benched. She rocked that bench though. Nothing like some Lady Gaga shades to jazz up a uniform.

Our friends Steven and Michelle. These photos were taken at a Thai restaurant, so I wanted the page to feel Asian-y. You should definitely try Lulu's in the Crossroads district if you live in KC. This is also my first attempt at wet-embossing, which is my new favorite thing.

Last but not least,I said goodbye to The Scrapbook Page in July. Though I'll no longer be working there or teaching classes with them, it's still my #1 LSS. I'm embarking on new journeys in life, and am making room for some wonderful things.
I'll be sharing them soon, but for now, I'll be keeping secrets.