Amanda Rose Zampelli | the blog

This is the lifestyle / craft / everyday blog of Amanda Rose Zampelli - designer, crafter, smiler, and internet friend.

around here / 6 weeks in TX

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If I were to pick any of the above images to define what's going on around here lately, 6 weeks into moving from New York to Texas, I would DEFINITELY - WITHOUT A SHRED OF DOUBT - FOR SURE - POSITIVELY pick that last one. ...especially at the end of this week.

Yesterday was a solid 50/50 mix of the dropsies and tears. I dropped a whole half-can of soda on my laptop and it and I had a melt down.  Sure other things have been happening around here like the pretty sky, planning my Project Life comeback, heading to Hobby Lobby every chance I get, crafting/painting/art journalling my butt off...but I still feel like my signal's weak.

I need this weekend to consist of two good days of solid recharge. ♥ I'll see you folks Monday!

Friday, October 03, 2014 at 04:00 PM in around here | Permalink | Comments (5)

around here / three weeks in TX

Balcony 02Carmen and sockOn the fridgeBalconyAlejandor sleep and cat hairTreadmillSolid washi tapeTwo iphonesHallway

I cannot believe I left home three weeks ago. I made it 21 days without being home. I'm pretty sure that's been the longest span ever for me. Since leaving, there has been a lot of quiet time. In that quiet time, there's been a ton of adjusting. There's been balcony meditating sessions. There's been hugs from/for my two travel buddies. Long gazes out the window. Late mornings. Heavy, heavy sleeps.

There's been thinking. There's been reading. There's been reading about thinking. There was only one day so far of treadmill action. I've developed a new obsession with solid washi tape. I now juggle between two iPhones, and dressed my incredibly active incessantly vibrating work phone in a monkey suit. There's been lots of ideas. Playing with stickers. Printing and painting. Learning product.

Overall: good, but I don't want to label things as good or bad anymore.
I want to label them as happening.

So around here, there's been things happening. I predict more things will happen this weekend, and I will go on accumulating data on these happenings until I decide to make a decision based on that data. ♥ That is all. Have a good weekend!

Friday, September 12, 2014 at 09:41 AM in around here, NY to TX | Permalink | Comments (1)

six headless outfit shots in the sun

6 headless outfit shots

It's been a loong time since I posted something I wore on this blog.  The last style file I have on record was from February, but something about summer and tanned skin inspires me to 'get happy' again in clothes, so I have...and today I have six instagrammed 'outfits of the day' that I wore over the past two weeks.

Above you can see me in a bunch of errand-running attire, my outfit for a Friday pool party (in a Guess bathing suit I've had since high school), a mini floral sundress for a Thursday night carnival, and my Sister's Day outfit.

On Instagram, someone asked "Why do you always cut your face?" ...and my response to him was winged victory of samothrace. ♥ I hope you have a marvelous Monday and 'get happy' in your outfit today!

Monday, August 04, 2014 at 07:00 AM in around here, seasons | SUMMER, STYLE FILES | Permalink | Comments (0)

scenes from a pool party

Pool Party 01 | Amanda Rose blogPool Party 02 | Amanda Rose blogPool Party 03 | Amanda Rose blogPool Party 04 | Amanda Rose blogPool Party 05 | Amanda Rose blogPool Party 07 | Amanda Rose blogPool Party 08 | Amanda Rose blogPool Party 06 | Amanda Rose blogPool Party 09 | Amanda Rose blogPool Party 10 | Amanda Rose blogPool Party 11 | Amanda Rose blogPool Party 12 | Amanda Rose blog

These are photos from our pool party earlier today. All of my white cheddar popcorn was eaten. Pink lemonade was drank. Girl talk. Nail-painting. Dancing to What Does the Fox Say?  Dunking, splashing, and diving. Some gulping and crying. Raisin fingers!!! Pizza for dinner. :)

July ♥ July ♥ July.

Friday, July 25, 2014 at 08:47 PM in around here, friends, seasons | SUMMER | Permalink | Comments (1)

get outside & breathe.

01 get outside02 breathe07 get outside04 breathe05 get outside06 breathe03 get outside08 breathe09 get outside10 breathe

Taking one day at a time. Soaking up as much of the sun as possible. Lots of breathing. Repeat, repeat repeat lately. It's all been good: the sun, the weather, the almost-there summer...

My walk/jogs that have been mostly walks the past few weeks were upgraded to mostly jogging - with bits of running (body's now ready for it. Hooray!).

My cats are my heart and my children. I love them, and they so love me back. (Speaking of, did you see this?! Crazy!)

Plus, an awesomely beautiful Mother's Day spent gifting and planting and getting outside and finding a bunch of $4 sundresses...priceless for the soul.

Hoping a lot of your May's been made up of those two! ♥ 

The above stamps came in a digitial kit along with fun others from here.

Thursday, May 15, 2014 at 08:48 AM in anxiety, around here, HOLIDAYS | Mother's Day, one little word, one little word 2014: WORK, plant life, seasons | SPRING | Permalink | Comments (2)

craftroom cleanup + some great containers

Crafroom cleanup 00 | Amanda Rose blog

I hadn't been down in my craftroom much since February. This is partly because my new job had me plenty busy the last two months, partly because I was under the weather for a bit and became "creatively blocked" to say the least, and mostly because our boiler (which sits a few feet from my basement craftroom) was leaking small amounts of carbon monoxide. Ummm...yeah. Needless to say, it got neglected a bit, and became a bit of a disaster area.

Enter Saturday: National Scrapbook Day.  If nothing else, it got me to descend to my basement, flick on the light, and get a good look at the place.  It became my mission this past weekend to make scrapbooking possible again.  Step 1: craftroom cleanup.

Crafroom cleanup 01 | Amanda Rose blog

It was really just putting things back into their places.  Then I wiped everything down with cleaning spray to get rid of the winter germs. The 'Afters' are so nice, aren't they? :)

Crafroom cleanup 02 | Amanda Rose blog

I also added some *new containers* in the space because we all know accumulation makes your supplies over-grow your storage for it, and if you get montly kits like me, it happens faster than you realize.

Crafroom cleanup 03 | Amanda Rose blog

I went to The Container Store yesterday with a list of items that needed a new home.  Such items included badges and flair, wood veneer pieces, paper clips, loads and loads of sticker sheets, and project life cards - both sizes. Above I used this container for the badges (left) and this container for the wood veneer (right).

Crafroom cleanup 04 | Amanda Rose blog

The first container I spotted when I walked into the store was the Fridge+Freeze Bin.  It's perfect for  3x4 inserts, and I can picture myself quickly flipping through them in search of the right card.

Crafroom cleanup 05 | Amanda Rose blog

I even made my own dividers using my favorite tall and thin paper pad from Target, and wrapping a sheet underneath a bunch of categorized cards.  I've seen people organize their cards by color, but I organized mine by type: full patterns, statement cards, icons, journal cards, etc.

Crafroom cleanup 06 | Amanda Rose blog

Perfecto! ...Now for the 6x4 cards, I went through many options while in the store. I'm happy I settled on the bin I did.

Crafroom cleanup 07 | Amanda Rose blog

It was a bin specially for 4x6 photos - which of course works for pocket scrapbooking inserts too.

Crafroom cleanup 08 | Amanda Rose blog

The best part is... 

Crafroom cleanup 09 | Amanda Rose blog

It comes with a few individual containers perfect for grouping Studio Calico kits or 'themed' cards together, but can still fit together in the same overall bin. Genius!

Crafroom cleanup 10 | Amanda Rose blog

Yesterday, I spent a good couple hours in my beloved designated craft space.  It felt good to be there. It felt good to be good to a space that's always so good to me.  And once all the new containers were in place, and Mission: Craftroom Cleanup was complete, I enjoyed a Sunday afternoon filled with all you see below:

Crafroom cleanup 11 | Amanda Rose blog

Crafroom cleanup 12 | Amanda Rose blog

Thanks for visiting, and shoot me any comments or questions you may have regarding organizing or crafting or supplies. ♥ Have a great start to your week! Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

See more of my pink craftroom here and here.

Monday, May 05, 2014 at 06:32 AM in around here, house | HOME | heart, project life | Permalink | Comments (3)

snippets / april 2014

April SNIPPETS

  • restarted walk/jog/runs to Alley Pond Park with my sister this month
  • that time my friend, Danielle, looked like Strega Nona in New York City
  • my cousin Marisa's low-key, intimate bridal shower at Il Mulino
  • getting to see my wonderful para, Wanda, at her mother's 83rd Birthday house party - equipped with Dominican dancing and food
  • a little Easter egg coloring therapy
  • cousin + me + sister, Easter afternoon, at the dining table 
  • cardinal telling everyone it's Spring
  • two kitty boops on their 4th birthday inviting their squirrel buddy to their party
  • excitement over my bare arm situation (finally!) the last weekend of April

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a bit about snippets:

Blogger Manda Townsend posts snippets of her life every now and then, and after seeing her ode to snippets post, I commented that I would join her this year in 'snippetting'. :)  

I plan to post snippets of my month at the end of every month.
(see snippets of January|February|March)

At the bottom of each one of my snippets posts, you'll also find a link to a page entitled "Reflections on my Monthly Goals". You can go to that page here.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014 at 05:00 AM in around here, seasons | SPRING, snippets | Permalink | Comments (0)

birthday shrimp

Birthday shrimp

Yesterday, two cute cats turned 4 years old (35 in human years).  Their mama boiled them 2 shrimps each.

#mychildrenhavefur ♥ Have a happy day!

Thursday, April 24, 2014 at 02:19 PM in around here, HOLIDAYS | Birthdays | Permalink | Comments (2)

a watercolored mini book using The Cinch

Let's take a deep breath everybody, {{inhale, exhale}}  This is a jam-packed post. Get all the way through it, and you'll find a GIVEAWAY at the end. Haa!

Happy Friday! If you are visiting me for the first time from the We R blog, then I'm very pleased to meet you!  Thanks for stopping by. My name is Amanda Rose Zampelli, and I was recently hired by We R Memory Keepers as a product designer and as a bonus: I get to blog a bit for them too!

01 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

Today I'm excited to share this watercolored mini book I created with the help of the We R tools and supplies you see below.  The Cinch, some coil binding, one of the beloved TAB punches and adhesives, and part of an AlbumsMadeEasy pocket page were the basis of what helped me construct my mini book.

00 We R materials | Amanda Rose blog

First, I cut an AlbumsMadeEasy pocket page down the middle to use the plastic 6x6 pockets as protectors for my front and back covers.

00 We R materials cut | Amanda Rose blog

Those pockets also dictated the size of my photos. Because the front and back covers were going to be 6x6, I made the photos the same width, but and inch shorter in height.  The photos were printed 6 inches wide x 5 inches long, so I would have room for the tabs.

00 We R materials photos | Amanda Rose blog

Here's where this project gets interesting. ;) I could have printed my 6x5 photos on photo paper. I could have trimmed my photos to size, put them in my mini book, and called it a memory-keeping day. I, however, had an idea: I wanted this account of my Monday to be in watercolor. Yes, it involved some extra steps. Yes, it took about 2x longer than if I just used printed out photos, but it's how I wanted this mini to go. (And I love the result!)

Okay, here's how I did it: watercolor paper (trimmed to 6 inches x 5 inches), your photos, and...the kicker...CARBON PAPER. Oh, the crafty miracle of carbon paper.

00 We R materials after tracing 4 | Amanda Rose blog

I put the carbon paper between the watercolor paper and my photos, and with a ballpoint pen, traced the edges of the things in my photos.  What results with this method is a line sketch (water-coloring book of sorts) of your photo, ready to be painted in.

00 We R materials after tracing 2 | Amanda Rose blog

Once all my photos were turned into line sketches, I put them in order, painted on them, let them dry, jotted a few notes right on top of the painted images, and attached the time via my We R TAB punch that the event occurred.

00 We R materials tabs | Amanda Rose blog

After all my tabs were on, each page was ready to be punched and binded using the Cinch.

00 We R materials using cinch | Amanda Rose blog

It's amazing how much of a 'cinch' the Cinch really is (I had to do it). So simple, and within minutes, my mini was perfectly (like, literally flawlessly) bound.

00 We R materials binding | Amanda Rose blog

The rolling and twisting of the curly white binding wire was one of my favorite parts. 

29 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

Mini book bound, tabs in place...

28 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

...and now I have a sweet little 'Day in the Life' watercolored mini book account of my March Monday.

00 We R materials after tracing | Amanda Rose blog

Without further ado, I give you my watercolored documentation - one handcrafted page after another:

03 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

04 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

05 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

06 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

07 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

08 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

09 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

10 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

11 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

13 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

14 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

15 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

16 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

17 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

18 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

19 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

20 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

21 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

22 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

23 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

24 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

25 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

27 watercolored mini | Amanda Rose blog

'Day in the Life' is a fun documentation project.  I've done some in past (see here). Documenting it the way I did above allowed me to practice sketching the lines and shapes of everyday objects, and have paint brush play with my watercolors.  I also was dying to break out that Cinch! Haa haa!

I'm coming to you next week with another Cinched mini book, but one very different from the one above. Stay tuned!

You can catch me here on this blog daily, find me on instagram | twitter | pinterest | bloglovin', or pop in every Friday to see my crafts and fun things in collaboration with my new work family at We R Memory Keepers.

...and speaking of We R Memory Keepers, they're hosting a weekend-long GIVEAWAY! How would you like to win all that you see below? An Instagram Album, Corner Chomper, and Instagram Jouranaling Card pack! To enter, go here https://a.pgtb.me/T1w4hK.

We r mem April 7 giveaway

Friday, April 04, 2014 at 05:00 AM in Alejandro & Carmen , around here, crazy cat lady, DAY in the LIFE, family, food, house | HOME | heart, watercolor, We R Memory Keepers | Permalink | Comments (9)

sunbathing Carmen + some other things

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My baby girl, Carmen, was sunbathing the other day in the downpour of sunshine through the window. Oh, the deceit! ...since the air was a mere 29 degrees that day in Queens, NY. 

On this day, last year, I completed a 'Day in the Life' challenge. It's crazy to compare the same day, a year apart, and think of all that's happened in between.

Good news: I haven't killed my office orchid yet.

More good news: I've always had a problem with jeans, but I think these might have solved them.  Great fit, great feel, and they wash well. #winning

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This lady posted so many inspiring Easter egg design ideas. I'm going to end up trying at least one.

My Easter eggs last year and from Easter 2010.

...and this would be great to do to friends and family around the neighborhood on Easter morning before church! YES!

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I now want a pair of Saucony kicks.

The song from this commerical goes perfectly with my one little word for this year. 

Sis and I are surprising my mom on Monday April 7th (her 56th birthday) with a ladies dinner. I want to do this to the birthday tiramisu I'm going to make.

I wish I needed glasses.

I want to take a disposable camera challenge.

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How long do I have to wait for this length to happen?

I pinned this image about a year ago stating "the goal".  I can't believe I've reached it. ♥

Are sis and I headed here tomorrow?

3 days left of rainy March where I'm from.

It's been 8 days of Spring so far and none of these things yet.

I look forward to to looking and feeling like this (minus the heels) for at least 30 minutes everyday.

C'mon, Summer! (1 & 2)

Saturday, March 29, 2014 at 08:43 AM in Alejandro & Carmen , around here, crazy cat lady, house | HOME | heart | Permalink | Comments (0)

older posts »

  • a Mile a Day in March
  • PROJECT LIFE 2015
  • 30 in 30 LIST
  • OLW 2015: PROOF

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Recent Posts

  • recent pins & other stuff over at amandarosezampelli.com
  • that time I was Selena for Halloween
  • Project Life 2015 // intro page for album 3
  • PHOTOBOOTH @ Danielle & Jerry's Wedding
  • my first LADIES CRAFT NIGHT
  • recent pins // OCT 2015
  • october : currently
  • snippets / september 2015
  • i Periscoped!
  • two recent projects

  • LINKwithlove

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