around here

by Amy on December 27, 2012

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no gifts christmas

hand painted cat ornaments

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Around here lately …

…. We ate outside on Thanksgiving! We went to Phoenix and ate Thanksgiving in my aunt’s backyard.

… and the same weekend (in Phoenix) we got to meet my cousin’s baby. He was born in August (that’s him with my mom).

… SO much baked goods and sweets at the day job. I work in an office with about 40 people so there is ALWAYS something.

(gratuitous kitten grooming photo)

… our nephew came by to visit us and show us how he’s standing (with a lot of help)

… Went to Andrew’s work holiday party

… Went with my mother-in-law to help her pick out her Christmas tree.

… got our own (fake) tree that the cats climbed into and basically ruined.

… We saw THE HOBBIT at 12:30a the night it opened !

… Andrew got a new iPhone. Awesome for him and awesome for me since he takes Project Life photos for me

… family craft day at my mother-in-laws. Andrew’s sister and aunt and cousin came out to make Christmas wreaths.

… friends dropped by at 10:30p in spite of work the next morning.

… wrapped gifts with small pieces of packing tape. Because apparently I still haven’t unpacked the box with scotch tape in it.

… waited up til 3a for my brother to get into town with his dog – and then having him come in too quickly for the cats to escape upstairs.

… my brother got the cats a BIG stuffed rat toy. … and they chewed the face off in the first 12 hours.

… as long as the dog (named Muppet) was sleeping or laying still, Fang could be brave and get a little closer.

… made dinner for 6 people Saturday night….

… and then brunch for 13 people Sunday morning.

… my brother taught my cousins Texas Hold ‘em.

… Fang started to get more and more brave with the dog. Until the dog decided she wanted to play and started chasing Fang through the house.

… we did Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve. We had said no gifts – only stocking stuffers – but it didn’t work out that way.

… Andrew and I also agreed no gifts – but then he handpainted ornaments of our cats. And they are amazing.

What have you all been up to?

3 comments

Christmas MAGIC

by Amy on December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas!


also: Christmas with Elvis

*If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you’re enjoying a day off anyway! :)

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CLOSED: Get your FREE Blurb Instagram book

by Amy on September 24, 2012

**NOTE: This FREE book code is ONLY good for the next couple days. Scroll down for details***

You guys.

It turns out I am a crazy cat lady.

Blurb gave me the opportunity to make a printed book of Instagram pictures and I made a 100+pg book OF MY CATS!

I have no excuse or justification…. except that they are adorable and I love them.

Ok, really … in my defense I DID originally plan on a Blurb Instagram book of our summer … I knew I wanted one-photo-per-page and thought, “I haven’t taken a ton of photos yet. A June-September Instagram book would be perfect.”

But then I imported all the photos into the book-design-software and realized I had WAY too many for a book.

So, then the next Instagram’d-story I thought of was our kittens! These little girls joined Team Schubert at the beginning of June, so my summer Instagram photos have been FULL of them.

(sidenote: you KNOW I’ve taken more kitten photos since this book was printed. Follow me on Instagram @amytschubert )

Essentially I just had Blurb‘s Bookify program import my Instagram photos, set the layout to 1-photo-per-page and asked the software to auto-fill. And then added the dates and captions from when the images were originally Instagram’d.

Here are some of my favorite pages …. and by “favorite pages” of course I mean cutest or funniest pictures of my little girls:

(note: 2 pages of gallery images)

You can see the book is soft cover 7×7″ (which I believe is the only size available for Instagram books). In the gallery above is a photo of the book next to my iPhone so you can get an idea of size.

This book has the same awesome quality of ALL my Blurb books. I am totally confident this book will last a LONG time … long after these little monsters are no longer kittens.

All the image pages are full bleed (LOVE THAT) with text on top of it. There are a handful of photos that I let stand alone with the next (alone) on the opposite page, but those are a small percentage.

I’ve looked all through this book several times. I seriously love my little kitties and they’ve already grown up so much since June. Having this book in my hands is a reminder of how much! This little book will live in our living room, so any visitor can admire the kittens too ….

My Instagram-Blurb wishlist for next time:

  • I would LOVE if we had the option of importing the photos’ captions with the photos. The Bookify software pulls your photos from your Instagram account automatically, but since I wanted to also record the (brilliant) captions I had Instagram’d I had to go back and forth from my phone (Instagram app) and my computer (book design) to type it all in manually. Definitely the most time consuming part of creating this book.
  • I would LOVE if I could use the ‘old’ BookSmart software to design the book. I like the options of creating my own page layouts (which may be in Bookify, but I didn’t see it).

TO GET YOUR FREE INSTAGRAM BOOK FROM BLURB:

(up to $19.95 value)

Click the banner above or this link and make your Instagram Blurb book.

When checking out use the discount code INSTALEMON and get $19.95 off.

The 72 hour code – INSTALEMON – is good for $19.95 off a Blurb book. It will expire at 11:59pm on Sept. 27th – so get started!

Additional notes and things to remember when ordering:

  • This coupon may only be used once by each person and on books made by you. It may not be applied towards adjustments on previous orders, gift cards or towards volume orders.
  • Feel free to share the link to this blog post but please don’t Tweet/Instagram/Facebook the code itself.
  • Remember: The promo code MUST be entered at checkout for the discount to apply and that for the best experience please make your book on a computer and not a mobile device.

P.S. If you’re not on Instagram or you don’t really want an Instagram Photo Book, you can still get 30% off of a Blurb book if you order it TODAY – September 24

Use discount code FLASH30 when checking out.

(Use this is of course INSTEAD OF the free book code noted above)

If you want to see some of my other Blurb books check out:

17 comments

around here

by Amy on September 20, 2012

In the last few weeks ….

…. Andrew got a chance to seal the grout in our new-ish kitchen floor

…. kittens discovered the underside of our armchair

….. our awesome nephew just hit 4 months (cutie)

…. Andrew has been sleeping on the couch all week because he’s been sick. Poor kid.

…. coffee in the afternoon and rereading one of my favorite books

…. kittens have been catching all the flies that come in

…. I got my package from Elise of new stamps!

…. trying to figure out how to repack our linen closet to fit all our blankets and all

…. got my Instagram-Blurb book! Excited to show you next week

…. inventing recipes that involve pork and spiciness (turned out yum!)

What have you been up to?

6 comments

Summer Lovin’ Excerpt: Changes this season

by Amy on July 10, 2012

How’s your summer so far? It’s JULY already! I can’t believe it :)

I’ve been having fun choosing photos from the last few summery weeks to create layouts for this summer mini book.

As previously mentioned, my recently released Summer Lovin’ journaling resource is 26 pages – and each page offers a summer photo and a journaling topic for your inspiration.

Some of the topics offer a couple specific ideas, some offer 8 or 10 specific ideas.

You’re sure to find plenty to keep you busy writing about and recording your summer with my Summer Lovin’ journaling resource.

Today I wanted to share with you another excerpt from that resource that has really been foremost in my mind these last few weeks:

Near the end of the summer, reflect back on what change occurred in your life over the season.

So it’s not yet the end of summer, but we’ve recently had SUCH a big change in our little family and our every day life that there’s no point in waiting til the end of the season to write about it.

My husband and I adopted 2 adorable kittens – and we are so in love!

Our whole life is different since June 9. We have to responsible for keeping a couple little animals alive, for one :)

I created a little 2-page spread about the change in our lives by getting our kittens for the summer album:

summer mini 002

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summer mini 004

They’re already SO MUCH bigger in the month since these photos were taken – so you know I’ll have to put the kittens elsewhere in the summer mini book too.

If you want to journal your summer along with me,
download my new resource
Summer Lovin’ here.

Add to Cart

Page specifics:

Supplies:

Have you had any big changes yet this season?

0 comments

around here

by Amy on June 20, 2012

inspired by Elise’s around here posts

Around here ….

… it’s all kittens all the time

… working on Project Life and my summer minibook

… keeping my office unnaturally clean to ward off kittens strewing pens everywhere

… deciding which artwork goes on which walls

… researching washers&dryers finally. To be bought SOON. Any recommendations?

… reading reading reading for the summer

… writing several guest posts for the next few weeks

… attempting to use Instagram more frequently (though so far it’s been mostly photos of kittens)

7 comments

Memorial Day Weekend

by Amy on May 31, 2012

I don’t usually post a lot of family-focused posts here …. so consider this a peek into what goes up at Those Crazy Schuberts all the time!

I’d love it if you joined me over there on a regular basis – where I write about our new house, travel, family and friends, and quirky Amy & Andrew stories…..

But here’s our recent oh-so-full weekend….

My parents came into town from Phoenix late Friday night and I put them right to work!

No, wait. … that’s not true.

Saturday morning, Andrew went to work and the other 3 of us kind of just lazed around the house. I gave my parents the full house tour since this was their first time seeing it, coffee, showers, a little interneting, a friend came by to borrow one of my lenses and we chatted a bit ….

And then I guess my dad got antsy because he kept asking me what he could do…. I showed him our FULL to do list hoping to put him off, but instead he just picked a small task and set to work….

There is a LOT of work to do around our house – it was vacant for a year – so my dad occupied himself with weeding the front yard patches that need it and digging these whatever-they-are stalks out of the back.

I went outside to take photos of my dad, and when I come back in my mom is cleaning the downstairs bathroom!

Again, I did NOT ask for any of this …. Crazy kids….

Then she got started on the downstairs windows. I *think* she was only planning on doing one …. but once you see 1 window clean all the rest look dirty ….

And what was I doing in all of this ? ….

Taking photos, for sure. But also prepping food….. We were planning on having at least 7, possibly 11 people for dinner Sunday so I took the afternoon to prep as much food as I could in advance.

All of us really just waiting for Andrew to get home, since he’s the most entertaining.

We did take out for dinner, and I got my parents started on Downton Abbey!!

My parents are SO EASY … They are excellent guests, and I never have to feel like I’m letting them down as a hostess …. Want me to send them to your house?

Sunday Andrew had off work …. he doesn’t do well with days off (needs to fill them with other activities), so he woke up Sunday morning and built a window screen.

True story …

Luckily, we had plans for some family to stop by so he had more of a low-key afternoon …

Just after noon, Andrew’s sister / her husband came by with their new baby!

Our first nephew! He is 9 days old in these photos ….

We just love him. Obviously.

I love that he just looked straight into the camera lens … No fear. No embarrassment. I hope he never learns those things …

(here we are giving him what I call the ‘Muppet face’ …. big eyes, exaggerated smile)

Not long after Andrew’s sister and family left …. I started in on cooking for all the guests coming over – the rest of Andrew’s family….

I have this recipe that I just LOVE …. turkey black bean chili. It’s delicious and SO easy …. Once you’ve chopped up all the fresh garlic. …..

Guest for dinner and dessert, more Downton Abbey before we went to bed …..

And then planning for more guests for Monday morning.

…. Monday morning bright and early Andrew changed the oil in my car – because that boy CAN.NOT.RELAX

His work ethic is legendary …. also, he’s crazy.

But I benefit from it, so who am I to complain….

Most of my extended family lives in Arizona – but I have one uncle and his family that live just a few blocks from us. So they came over for breakfast Monday morning…

My parents – bless their hearts – bought most of the food AND did the little bit of cooking necessary ….

Our family just hung out and visited all morning …. until about 2p or so when the locals went home and my parents left for their drive back.

So from about 2p until about 530p on Monday Andrew and I happened to have the house to our selves without needing to entertain.

I wanted to take a nap – Andrew wanted to work more.

I’m telling you. CRAZY.

But Monday night was what he was REALLY looking forward to ….

As you may know, Andrew has a small record label. He got the test pressing for the next release last week, and just needed it approved by the band.

Or, in this case, the band’s former frontman because the band has now broken up and the frontman is the only one who cares about this release ….

So we had a little listening party Monday night …. invited some friends over. Grilled burgers. Played some video games.

Our friends and family are so low-maintenance that entertaining is generally VERY easy ….

But I still went to bed after 1a and woke up around 530a on Tuesday morning ….. So as easy as it was, Tuesday was spent exhausted.

But TOTALLY worth it …. as you can see we had a VERY full weekend, packed full with friends and family all in our new house.

I literally only left the house for *maybe* an hour the whole weekend. And THAT was only to go grocery shopping.

I love our house, I love the people in our life …. I loved this last weekend….

I can’t wait to quit my job so I can be around weeknight evenings for guests too!

How was YOUR memorial day??

2 comments

Busy busy busy

by Amy on April 16, 2012

Such a crazy busy time ….

Here’s just a glimpse of what we’ve been up to for the last few weeks:

2 baby showers for my sister-in-law (plus another coming up this Sunday)

birthday dinner with family and birthday breakfast with family (again) …. different days.

painting the guest room gray, the living room green, the office chalkboard

building bookcases and filling them up in my office

maternity photos for my sister-in-law

kitchen cabinets being installed – tile floors should be this week soon!

stressing out over leaky windows in the heavy rain ! gah! must get that fixed!

So lots of photos for Project Life :)

Can’t wait to show you once I get them printed …

7 comments

Confession: I do not have it all together

by Amy on March 19, 2012

We had a rough weekend.

We’re having a rough week.

And I know it’s going to be another rough several weeks.

We moved into our house March 10 without a kitchen at all (which at least we knew about), and found out the next day we don’t have hot water either so we’ve been driving across town to my in-laws every morning for coffee and a shower. As of Friday afternoon our toilets won’t flush without backing up raw sewage into one of the tubs.  Then of course we have the weekend to live without bathrooms (hopefully fixed today). Then Saturday morning we come home from our showers at the in-laws to find that 3 of the windows in the house leak – so we had to stand out in the rain nailing tarps to the outside of the house since we can’t caulk the gaps while it’s wet.

On top of all of that we’re not eating well (or enough nearly enough food) because we don’t have a kitchen.

Oh, yea. And we’re completely out of money. Hopefully there’s enough available on our credit cards to pay for gas so we can get to work over the next couple weeks. But it will be close.

All of that to say …. I do not always have it together.

I may look like I get a ton of productive stuff done but I am still floundering like any one of you.

I may be blogging every day, but I am still so far behind on my email answering.

I may put forth a positive vibe 99% of the time online, but I still cried from the stress of all of it over the weekend.

This is not a ploy for sympathy …. but just one more piece of evidence that any blogger that you read has a REAL life outside of what shows up on the blog.

Try not to make hasty judgements or unrealistic expectations because you will never know what they are dealing with…..

How was your weekend? Better than mine I bet! :)

11 comments

Elsewhere

by Amy on February 28, 2012

I feel like I have been all over the place for the last few months. …. A combination of buying a house and launching March’s 30 Days of Lists ….

Here is just a brief look at what I’ve been doing when I’m not here at L&R…

30 Days of Lists! This project has been consuming a ton of time recently! ….  In addition to the brief posts and pages on the main 30Lists site, Kam and I have been blogging quite frequently on the private blog for registered users, creating future posts behind the scenes, and keeping up with the forum …

The #30Lists journaling challenge starts Thursday …. We’d love if you could join us!

Some other love ….

French Cannes Cannes included Lemon and Raspberry in her short list of 6 blogs she loves: Oh La La J’adore – Blogs I Love!

(note: If you are at all interested in reading about an American living in Paris, DEFINITELY check out French Cannes Cannes! She has such a great sense of humor :)

Holly of So Dang Brilliant reviewed my Better Blog Content Workbook! I especially appreciate that she compared it to Elsie Larson’s Blog Love ecourse (I deliberately purchased Elsie’s course to make sure that the 2 products didn’t overlap too much).

Read Holly’s review or get your own copy of Better Blog Content here….

And my favorite feature from the last month …..

A couple weeks ago I woke up to this tweet from Stephanie Dickison :

Thanks @stephauteri @amytschubert @allysonlatta for inspiring me with ur #writing + passion. Read all about it in March issue @TheWriterMag.

Um. What?????

So, that’s how I found out that Lemon and Raspberry has been featured in the March 2012 issue of The Writer Magazine.

The magazine may still be on newstands. There are several other sites featured that are well worth checking out….  … Or my mom just scanned the page for me (you can read my little blurb to the right ->> )

I’m so honored that this little site has been noticed for my writing! Thanks Stephanie!

also…. some highlights from Those Crazy Schuberts

Schubert house-hunting updates:

Visiting Edinburgh, Scotland:

(there are still 2 days worth of Scotland adventures to blog. I loved that trip…. and I kind of love dragging out the blogging of it)

Any links I’m forgetting?

If you featured Lemon and Raspberry (or reviewed an L&R product) I’d love to hear about it!

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