Still Waiting

Oh yeah, it's about 10pm on Friday night and I'm still waiting for my husband to come home....supposedly he's on his way...I'll believe it when I see it!

In the mean time I have been scrapping and finished my Oregon Trip mini album. I started it awhile ago, but lost my mojo...found it again tonight. If Shawn doesn't get home soon I may keep scrapping. Here are a few pages from the mini:



You can see the rest of this album here. Used the Studio Calico August kit. I adore SC kits! So much fun to play with! I also made this page with the kit about a week ago.

I'm off to do more scrapping and waiting! Happy long weekend to you!

Not My Favorite Week

So, I've been on a "don't sweat the small stuff," life's too short to be stressed out sort of kick lately....but seriously, this is not my favorite week and here's why...

Shawn is still in Tucson with one car problem, non part delivery day after another....it's getting a bit ridiculous...here's hoping he'll be home in time for the weekend...
It's a full moon...if you have read my blog before, you know what this means for me and work...
I went home a bit early yesterday feeling like I was going to throw up...
I was attacked by the sweetest, but largest 14 year old boy with autism today...not fun for either of us...poor kid, poor Erin's head...
I have a half finished mini book and tons of fun scrap supplies to play with and I'm not feeling it...
the house is a disaster, a serious one, and I need like a week off to deal with it...
the paperwork still lingers over my head....

Let's hope tomorrow goes well...I have 2 groups full of little guys at an autism school tomorrow...I hope lunar eclipses don't have lingering effects...

Time for a glass of wine...

Knitting & Messes

What on earth is this mess, you ask? This is what happens when you have been winding balls of yarn for too long and its late and you are really tired, but want to finish! I couldn't find an end to this skein of yarn so in my effort to find it, I lost the shape of the skein....disaster ensues! At least its my last of 8 skeins to wind into balls.

I've actually been in a knitty mood lately. In the past ten days or so, I have knitted one and half scarfs, which is nice mindless knitting that I can do in front of the TV or while on the phone. I also started prepping for the intimidating blanket project. I typed out the pattern line by line and its 5 pages long...yes 5 pages. Last night I decided to wind balls...why I'm not sure....there are 8 different yarns for this blanket...took me forever....now I just need to get the courage to start the darn thing. Why am I scared of a blanket, you ask? Basically, I am a fairly new knitter with only scarfs and lots of practice squares under my belt. I wanted to make a blanket and the girl at my knitting store suggested this blanket kit, so as not to be bored with knitting 125 stitches and several dozen rows of the same yarn, same stitch.....so I brought home an expensive bag of 8 yarns and a semi complicated pattern and there it has sat since early June! To be fair, knitting mohair and wool when its 110 degrees outside just doesn't seem right on most days. Plus, I don't want to ruin this expensive yarn, so I've been practicing on cheap yarn first. So someday, maybe a year from now, I hope to have this fabulous scalloped blanket.

In other news, Shawn called me yesterday evening around 5:00 and said he'd be leaving Tucson in about an hour, they got a little delayed in working on his car. Than he calls me around 7:30 and says, "I'm still in Tucson and my transmission just died in the driveway!" Lovely! This means he won't be home for a couple days probably. He's taking the car to the shop today...we'll see what they say. This is why I wasn't to thrilled with the purchase of a project car. He says I should consider it a mini vacation from him and his messes....problem is he left his messes behind because he was in such a rush to get the car ready for this trip.....hopefully the car gets repaired without much problem and he's home by tomorrow, just in time for his night to make dinner!

Pay It Forward...not a hoax!

Ok, so sense I'm being accused of not following through with the pay it forward contest....I decided it was time to pick a winner and post. Truth be told, this has been on my to do list for a couple weeks...so it is high time to post about it! So the winners of my little drawing are:
Starr Altered
Andrea (the accuser)
Jill S.
Since two of you are new posters to my blog, please email me your address at smither77@hotmail.com and let me know your likes and dislikes, or wish list for homemade goodies. And Ms. Andrea, please be patient, but something fabulous will arrive at your doorstep eventually!

Lucky Girl

I've been a lucky girl lately in terms of scrappy love! I participated in a mini album swap on SIS and sent some wedding photos to my partner Albertina. She made me this lovely little book based on the lyrics of one of my favorite Norah Jones songs. Isn't it beautiful?!



I have also won several RAK's over the past couple months. I won a fun green RAK on Breanne's blog and got some cool embellishments, thickers, and ribbons from her. When Elsie was answering questions on her blog several months ago, she picked one of my questions and send my a goodie bag full of fabric scraps, buttons, and trims. I also won this beautiful altered journal from the amazingly talented Kerry Lynn. It's full of fun graph, kraft and pro/con pages for me to play with!

Thank you to each of these ladies for the fun little packages and goodies I have received! I'm so glad that this crazy scrapbooking hobby has brought me so many wonderful things and opportunities. I am lucky to have found the perfect hobby and creative outlet for me (well, outside of music) and am so lucky that I have met and encountered so many wonderful, generous and talented people through scrappy land. Here's hoping my luck continues.....

The Sunday Dance

Sundays for me are a balance between getting things done and needing some time to rest and rejuvenate before the work week begins again. This is especially true now that I am working 6 days a week. Yesterday was my first working Saturday with my new schedule. It's only a half day of work, but it alters my usual weekend routine. I used to spend Saturdays doing my thing and saved cleaning, laundry, groceries and other chores for Sunday afternoons. I may have to rethink this plan and do the chores and errands after work on Saturdays and leave Sundays for me.

Yesterday, however, I came home from work exhausted, much like I used to do on Friday nights. I think this was due to a mixture of usual end of the week fatigue, a late Friday night at my parents for Kellie's birthday and a week full of playing vacation catch up. Plus I stayed up even later Friday night to submit my Studio Calico design team application....we'll see if I get lucky with this one. So Saturday afternoon was spent mostly lounging around, trying (unsuccessfully as usual) to nap. I did manage to start some laundry, unload the dishwasher and make stuffed zucchini for dinner before heading to hang out with Stephanie last night.

Which leads me to today's dance between wanting to relax and play a bit and needing to accomplish a few things on my to do list. I have managed to almost finish the laundry, complete a few work related tasks and bake zucchini chocolate chip muffins this morning. This has been mixed with sleeping in, internet surfing, reading some of the newspaper and Sunday ads, and a completed sudoku. Now I'm off to clean bathrooms and mop floors.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 27th Birthday to my wonderful sister Kellie! May you have a perfect birthday weekend and a fabulous 27th year!

The Kit Obsession

Ok, I'll admit it...I'm obsessed, really obsessed with scrap kits! I subscribe to 3, buy a 4th every now and than, covet several, and just got an email today from one I put my name on the waitlist for......just when I was actually thinking I need to back off the kits and maybe even cancel one...now I want this new one....

What's a crazy paper obsessed girl to do? I need some feedback. The true problem is that I am getting too much stuff each month. I know, this doesn't really sound like a problem to all you scrappers, but my kits are piling up on my desk and making it a bit too chaotic in my scrap room. I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with fun stuff...where to start, which one to play with, what to do with the others in the meantime. I don't like to separate my kit materials until I've at least made a couple pages or mini albums with them. Thus, these little bags of stuff pile up and pile up. I did recently purchase a desk organizer that has the perfect slot for kits, but it only holds 3 and that's pushing it. I'm really thinking I should cancel one membership and only buy an extra when I HAVE to have it...which really is quite often. The real question is which to cancel. I have subscriptions/memberships with Studio Calico, Cocoa Daisy and Jenni Bowlin. I sometimes buy the SIS collections.

I adore Studio Calico, so this one's staying. It's the one I play with most quickly and think matches my style the best. Before Studio Calico arrived on the scene, I was favoring Cocoa Daisy and am dying to play with my new August kit. Plus, I'll be Guest Daisy Diva in November and am thrilled I was offered this. This leaves Jenni Bowlin as the one to discontinue. Truthfully, I've not been thrilled with the papers or color schemes lately, but LOVE her little box of goodies and journaling cards that come each month. This is the kit that sits the longest untouched though. Should I cancel?

Furthermore, should I reply to the Cupcake Scrapshop email and say add me? They just picked an amazing design team....the kits are definitely my style.....doesn't make much since to drop one and add another though does it? Really, I could spend less money on the kit thing too...have not been going to local stores because my budget and my space is full on kits....

Help me....what to do? Ideas anyone?

Oregon Adventures--Part 2

The rest of my trip was full of fun and girl time. We managed to cram lots of fun things into my 7 day visit. I crossed most things off of my Oregon to do list, the things I don't want to miss when I visit...the coast, Wild Pear, Busick Court for pancakes, Java frosties from Java Crew...the only one of my usual places I missed was Tidal Raves, which is apparently not as good as it used to be....

Saturday included lunch at Wild Pear and some shopping at Ma Valise and Arbor in Salem, up to Portland for Noah's Bagels, Ikea, margaritas and the airport for Andrea and Matt. Here Jessie with a watermelon margarita...the girl doesn't much care for Watermelon, but throw a little alcohol in there and apparently she's all smiles!

Sunday included my favorite apple walnut pancakes at Busick Court, shopping, pedicures, Starbucks, rented movies, mojitos and dinner on the patio, ice cream sandwiches, wine....could a day be any better?

Monday was wine tasting day for me and Jessie and we spent the afternoon in Dundee, OR visiting Sokol Blosser, Erath and Argyle. We drove to a couple more, but alas, they were not open on Mondays! Here's the view from Sokol Blosser, which was probably the prettiest winery of the day.

We took lots of pictures here, including several silly shots of each other and a few self portraits.

On our way home we stopped for milkshakes and finished off our evening with dinner at Red Robin with Jessie's birthday coupon and more movie watching.

Tuesday was crafty day. First we hit the scrapbook store to spend Jessie's gift certificate, than we headed to Silverton to Jessie's favorite knitting store the Purl District. Silverton is a cute little town with cool old buildings, pretty houses and hanging flower baskets everywhere.

After some crafty time at Jessie's house we headed to Corvallis to hang with Nicole. We had pizza and drinks at American Dream, yummy gelato next door and back to Nicole's for a little mini book project.

Wednesday was sadly my last day with Jessie. We spent the day hanging out together, eating lunch and drinking wine outside and shopping in Portland before heading to the airport. I won't be moving back to Oregon anytime soon, but I sure do miss hanging out with Jessie and Nicole and wish we had more time together.

Oregon Adventures Part 1

I just returned from a wonderful trip to Oregon to visit my girls. Summer is the perfect time to visit, you almost forget how gloomy it gets in the winter when you are surrounded by nice temperatures, mostly sunny skies, lovely green trees and hills and some of your favorite people! It was a busy week and I have lots of pictures and stories to share.

When I arrived Thursday morning, Jessie's 30th birthday adventure was already underway and I had missed 3 trips to Starbucks, a trip to Laura and Mark's and the unveiling of the fabulous 30 shirt created by Andrea. With my arrival we hit Starbucks #4 for me and headed for a day of shopping, lunch and cupcakes on NW 23rd in Portland. I created a 30th birthday challenge book for Jessie full of things she needed to accomplish all related to 30 and birthday. Here's a picture of the birthday girl in front of her first completed challenge, a building with a 30 on it.

Later that evening we had an almost surprise party at the Wild Pear. She saw a couple guests and their cars on our way in and became suspicious, but really thought we were having a BBQ at her house up until that point. The party was lovely and we had yummy food, good company and hummingbird cupcakes.

The next day we headed to the coast, hit the outlet stores in Lincoln City and headed to Depoe Bay for some whale watching....here's where we lost our keys in the ocean...oh yeah I'm serious! Poor Matt tripped on this lovely curb and caught himself and his camera on the sea wall, but lost the keys over the edge and into the ocean at least 20 feet down!

Go here to read more about how why Jessie and Andrea look so sad and see the video reenactment here.

Stay tuned for more fun pictures and stories!

More Birthday Wishes and other business

So I am officially on vacation!! Nice that I had 3 kiddos on vacation today too, so I got to end my day early! Tomorrow I leave for some girly time in Oregon with Jessie:

Tomorrow she turns 30! Happy Birthday Jessie! We (me, Nicole, Andrea and Tim) have a big day planned for her. I hope she has fun! I will be staying for a week and am so looking forward to spending time with her. We don't get to do it often enough!

Since I will be gone and away from blog land for awhile, I must also post Happy 30th Birthday wishes to Oszkar who shall celebrate later this week. Here's wishing you a chocolate filled birthday my friend!

In other news, I must thank Michelle at Purple Onion Designs for the fabulous prize. I won a prize from Michelle or mizzm's challenge a couple weekends ago on 2 Peas for CHA in spirit celebrations. The prize was generously donated by Purple Onion and she sent me a fabulous package of new stamps. If you aren't familiar with Purple Onion, you should totally check it out...good stuff! I could take one of each, really! When I return, I shall post other things I have received lately from scrap land...I have been a very lucky girl!

If you're interested in participating in Pay it Forward (see previous post) please post and let me know...I will pick a winner when I return!