Amanda Rose Zampelli | the blog

snippets / november 2014

• Rita, D, and me at Danielle's Baby Shower (baby girl due Christmas !!!)

• Elisa, Nat, and me at mt faux birthday party

• mom's new kitten, Jack Black

• my Dallas TX 30th birthday entourage 

• my very first shiny heads-up penny from Nana found on the floor of a Whattaburger at 2am on my 30th birthday

• my Hard 8 birthday BBQ lunch after church

• up and down every aisle at Costco during holiday time

• Anna visited; we didn't stop; us on the rickety boblsed ride at Six Flags Over Texas

• planning / crafting / stamping / wondering / thinking / marking / hoping

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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'. :)  

What I find I usually include are those images that get lost in the shuffle -- ones that I would probably never include in a post or instagram, but are attached to a fun memory or a highlight of the month.

I plan to post snippets of my month on the last day of every month. 
(see snippets of Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct of this year) 

my '30 IN 30' list

I turned 30 years old on November 9th, and I decided to make a birthday list of thirty things I'm goaling to do in my 30th year: my 30 IN 30. I've seen lists like this around the internet (here and here and here) and even made a couple myself in the past. I felt inspired to try it again this year because I believe it's necessary to write down good things to try and look forward to.

Some things on the list are reminders to do those little happy things I can completely control: like #25: wear something sequins or #16: dress the cats in costume. Some things are new and exciting experiences that are going to be happening this year: #7: become an auntie (twice !!) and #15: CHA! Winter Show! 

Some have definite beginning and end dates, and some are ongoing goals that need consistent practice. All have been on my mind. All are things I believe my future self will thank me for. All are adventures in some way, and I feel ready to embark. ♥ ♥ ♥

my Project Life COMEBACK // the intro

A month ago I mentioned that I'm not into the idea of Project Life catch up, but I'm THRILLED over the idea of a Project Life COMEBACK!  In that post, I said that with my 30th birthday on November 9th, my Project Life comeback would commence.

Well, here are the first few pages in the 6x8 album: the 29 years leading up to where I am today...

I used the number stickers from this me & my BIG ideas sticker pack to mark the years. The clear stickers are from a new 'birthday' themed me & my BIG ideas clear stickers pack. 

The black & white striped paper is from this 12 x 12 mambiSHEETS paper pack. (Also used here.)

To overlay the numbers and stickers, I trimmed a few clear transparency films down to size, and adhered the stickers to that rather than the actual pocket pages or photos:

This way you could see the photos by themselves, unembellished, while still knowing what year of my life the photo portrays.

I used a simple paper clip to keep the embellished film overlays attached to the pocket page. That way - when the pages are turned, they turn together.

I like how these first few pages came out. I had something like this in mind after being inspired four years ago from Mayra doing the same kind of thing leading up to her 28th birthday in this blog post. Isn't it amazing how sometimes inspiration lies dormant until the right project comes along for it inspire?

Thanks for viewing! Stay tuned for future pages of this album documenting my journey through 30.

To see past pages of my Project Life albums, go here. || All about Project Life itself, go here. ♥

30 Years of Friendship album / Part III

Hi, readers and peepers from the We R blog and beyond! 

Thanks for stopping by and happy Friday! Today I'm coming at you with the final Part III of my '30 Years of Friendship' album bunch of posts. See Part I and Part II.  Today's post is the final product!

One of my oldest pals Danielle (see her in this post from last year's birthday trip to Atlantic City) turned 30 yesterday, and I plan to gift her this gold mini IG album filled with pictures of our years as friends tonight at her birthday dinner.

Keeping with the 'gold' theme, a lot of the labels and embelishments are gold.  I kept the journalling to a minimum because I didn't want to over-tell any of our stories.  Instead, I want people to ask her about the pictures and have real-time onversation occur. Yay!

Now, without further ado, Danielle & my '30 Years of Friendship'...

These cuties are so petite and perfect for gifting. I placed it in a pink box, wrapped it in gold wrapping paper, surrounded it with pink tissue paper, and placed it in a gold bag. I plan to video my friend Danielle opening this at dinner tonight, and maybe you can spy it later on my instagram.

You can find me elsewhere on twitter | pinterest | or bloglovin'. ♥ Have a happy!

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!

After-Birthday Cinch Book

Hi, readers and peepers from the We R blog and beyond!

Thanks for stopping by. I'm 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!

Today I'm sharing what I'm calling an 'After-Birthday Cinch Book'.  It's the mini book account of my mom's 56th birthday dinner that we had just this past Monday at our house.  She knew my sister and I were going to make dinner, but she didn' know we had invited her sisters and best friends, and it was going to be a 'thing'.

I like the idea of gifting the celebrant an after-birthday present like this, especially when the event you document for them was a surprise.  My documentation of it was informal as well, so that made for some low-key, real sweet at-home birthday shots.  Take a peek:

The outside and inside of the front and back cover were decorated with paper from Amy Tangerine's Plus One line.  For the inside of the covers, I used that black and white number paper, and highlighted the '56' which happened to be conveniently next to each other. 

My documentation of the 'story' was done by just printing one or two photos on a page, digitally jotting what was happening in the image(s), and finished off the page page with stamp or two.

Notice the pink 'pinch' binding rings I used for this cinch book, as opposed to the white coil binding rings I used for last week's cinch book.  

I love a table full of people, so the above 'after' photo is my jam. Add food to the mix (see below), and I'm in heaven. So good.

I've been designing lots of product with We R Memory Keepers gearing up for future release. Stamps are one of the products in the works, and are probably my favorite way to embellish a photo. 

Hopefully with this project and future Friday projects I post on this blog, you'll get a feel for my style and can anticipate some of my products that'll hit the market. ;)

The tags below covered up a botched stamp application. ;)

The neon pink ink is Hero Arts, by the way.

...and have you noticed the black dashes and X's throughout the book?

I made those with the We R Sew Stamper tool. 

It's so much fun! Self-inking, and easy to apply. Like the TAB Punch, I have to get my hands on more of these!

Does the '5' and '6' look familiar?  It's the same ones I used for the cover of the book.  I was inspired by this pin on Pinterest, and above is what I came up with.

More We R SewStamper touches and other happy stamps. :) 

...and after birthday tiramisu, my cousin Lauren, and I tried this amazing water marble nail art trick (best results below).

Then, late night (too late for a Monday) karaoke was sung:

...and some scratch offs before everyone left.

The next day convo made up the last page of my mom's After-56th Birthday Cinch Book:

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Thanks for allowing me to share!  I've been in a mini-book making mood lately.  The Cinch arriving on my doorstep had something to do with it I think. Did you see last week's watercolored Day in the Life mini book? Yeah, mini book city.

Next Friday, I'm taking my mini book mood and combining it with my love for pocket-scrapbooking. Stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, 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. ♥ Have a happy weekend!

Happy Birthday, Grams.

Today is my grandmother's 81st birthday.

Last year, with it being her 80th (!!!) she flew in for a long weekend and on Saturday, the 26th, we had a big family birthday party.  

As her present, Mom, sis and I customized the song "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Frankie Valli and The 4 Seasons to fit Grams and all we love about her.  I sang the song to her as her birthday present, and below is the video.

Pardon the not so good audio.  My mom made a DVD of the party for my grandma and I had to video the video in order to get in on here today. At least there are subtiltes. Oh, and pardon my singing voice...yeesh! Haa haa!

Grams, you will forever be an inspiration of love, strength, and more love!...and even though you won't ever see it on this blog space because you don't really know how to work computers, it must be said:

Happiest birthday, Grams. Love you, miss you, and enjoy! ♥

an IN HOUSE birthday for my sister's 25th

Birthdays are great.  When a friend has a birthday, and you get to go out and party, that's awesome.  But what I think are even more fun are "in house" birthdays -- birthdays that belong to people who live with you -- in your house.  They're different than ordinary birthdays because from sun up to sun down, you are in the world of that person's birthday, with the goal (if you love them) to make every single birthday moment special.

Yesterday was my sisters's "in house" birthday.  First thing I did was to send the 'new Hallmark card' a.k.a some personal birthday message written atop the most adorable baby picture of said in house birthday celebrant.  Then I posted the 'new Hallmark card' on all social media platforms.

Next, I woke up much earlier than her and wrapped her presents.  I drove mom to work, and before returning home, picked sister up her favorite Starbucks treat and wrote a birthday message on the cup.

I then got to work on some birthday cupcakes, filling the house with warm bakery smell -- the greatest smell to wake up to.

While I baked, the cats hung out with me (as per usual).  Snow & birds outside made for some entertaining cat t.v.

Finally, the birthday girl awakened to her presented few presents.

Easy chatting, gift wrap ripping, sips of coffee...gasps of sweet surprise...these are what good birthdays are made of.

My mom got her an engraved plaque for her desk that read her name and title as a registered dietician.  I got her an exercise outfit, some translucent pink essie polish and an eos chapstick egg.  Did you know e.o.s. stands for evolution of smooth?  We had ourselves a laugh over that.

She was excited about her legit workout gear so she tried it on and fake-jogged around the living room.

Once half of that venti cinnamon dolce latte was consumed, it was time to face the grave outside.

We got a good foot of snow Tuesday-into-yesterday.  Public schools were still open, but they shouldn't have been.  It was sister's and my job to finish clearing the sidewalk and driveway and clear the cars.

We returned to our nice warm inside and casually ate some lunch while we defrosted.  I thought up an on-the-go ketchup container invention mid-lunch and shared it with my sister.  We laughed and pretended to act out how the infomercial for it would go.  It is moments like these that fill my soul.

More house-cleaning. Dad came by to hang out for the rest of the day.  Mom had to get picked up from work.  Very boring. Very routine.  We all just sat home with each other for a while.  Talked about Nessa's presents; about my job search; then closer to dinner time, I took everyone's order and went with dad to pick up my sister's requested birthday burritos.

The best part about my sister requesting a burrito on her birthday is that I get to have one too!  
Chipotle is love.

We finished the night with hot tea and the birthday cupcakes.  Mom lit three candles scrounged from the junk drawer for Ness to wish on.  We then watched the movie Prisonsers with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhal (not bad) and it kept our attention until night time.

Ah, in house birthdays.  Especially when it's my sister's, I just like to keep it tension and argument free (ya never know with our parents under the same roof) and made up of special touches.  For the most part, I think it was a success.

Days like yesterday make me think of how I want to celebrate the in house birthdays of my future family.  I love this lady's family tradition of breakfast in bed on the celebrant's birthday.  I also love the idea of DIYing crowns or something fun like that.  Birthdays are gravy.

I'm glad my sister had a good 25th one. I hope this is her best year yet.

Happy birthday, sister, and what can I say?  Sometimes we bloggers have to document an event that's not even ours.  You'll thank me one day...one day when you're 25x3.  Ahhh!!!

celebrating Danielle's 29th in Atlantic City

Every predicted occurrence I wrote about in last week's post came true (except the fake tattoos -- I couldn't find where I put them) and I'm still smiling about it all.  I've only been to Atlantic City once or twice, and it was with Tomas, so I had no idea of the hunting grounds for singles A.C. actually is.

Haa haa!

So much fun was had, from almost getting arrested to this guy Terrance buying Jamina and I shots in an attempt to menage-a-tois with us (don't think so, pal) to my red tomato chafed thighs to dancing down an escalator into a random strange guy's arms to chillin' by a fountain at 5:30am with a Robert Barone look-alike and his pals to staying up the latest I've ever stayed up in my life.  

The last image above is of the final four standing -- at around 6:30am -- with the sunrise shining on our backs.  We had the option to go to our rooms and sleep in cozy queens size beds or go down to the beach.  

We chose beach. :P

This picture is priceless.  We thought we'd be lying out in the warm sun, tanning and finally resting.  Instead, it was cloudy and cold, and those tractors were whizzing past us, feet from our heads.  Too funny, and the perfect way to wrap up the weekend...uh...24 hours. ;)

I'm so grateful for my tiny clique of ladies I see on a regular basis, because they so often save my life.

Thanks for viewing!

"To hit the jackpot in the future, you might have to bet on where you are in the present."

I'm headed to Atlantic City this morning.

Well more specifically...

...my sister and I are getting Dunkin' Donuts breakfast,
picking up my friend Jamina,
then following the GPS south 2 and a half hours to AC,
where we're meeting up with my friend Danielle and two of her friends
to celebrate her 29th BIRTHDAY!

I plan to chill by the pool,
put on fake tattoos,
take too many videos,
maybe gamble,
eat Cuban food,
order a mojito,
shake what my mama gave me,
and stay up late!

Last night I watched "Luck be an Old Lady" -- the Sex and the City episode where the girls go to Atlantic City.  That was such a good episode, and the title of this post -- what Carrie says right before betting her $1000 chip on '36' -- hit me.

I am the worst decision maker on the planet. I mean I make decisions, but lose sleep over each one for weeks.  I decided to not be with Tomas (sorta).  I decided to not teach next year.  I decided to go to design school starting in September.  MAJOR MAJOR life decisions that I don't know will work out for me or not, yet I made them.  ...and you have to.  Like Carrie said, "To hit the jackpot...THE JACKPOT, for Christ's Sake!...you have to bet on the hard decisions you have to make NOW -- the ones that leave you feeling unsure in the PRESENT.  
I totally related (as usual, Miss Carrie B.)

...and this morning, that's ALLLL the deep thinking I'm alotting for my brain.  

Now's the time to focus on FRIENDS, FOOD, and FUN!

Adios, New York!

...until tomorrow.