Good Things

Here's a little list of my "good things" for today:

• made the top 10 in the "So You Think You Can Scrap" contest at Scrap for A Cure!
• on a knitting kick again, starting something from this book and working on this blanket
• drinking half a strawberry milkshake after dinner....we'll see how the reflux does tonight
• watching Obama's speech at the DNC
  
• thunderstorm warnings tonight
• very nice thank you gift from my students and parents at Chrysalis Academy
• new kit and gallery goodness at Studio Calico
• scrapping with her, her, her and her on Saturday.
  
• a date with Edward and Bella and the last 200 pages of Breaking Dawn

Enjoy your good things.

Happy Mail

I've been a lucky girl the past few days and have gotten some lovely happy mail treats. Today my happy mail from this swap arrived. Here are the lovely red contents:


Thanks Bethany! I love, love, love it all! The fish salt and pepper shakers are too cute and perfect for my red/black/white kitchen and I adore that lovely red bag you made! So fun!

A few days ago this box arrived...and sat by the front door, as boxes tend to do in this house when they aren't for me...funny thing though, this box was for me, but I didn't realize it. Shawn told me I had a package when I got home, so I went and grabbed the box from Portland Sheet Music full of lesson books I had ordered for work and figured that's what he meant. Well, there was another box sitting there for days...until this weekend when I realized it was for me from my "Jar of Whimsy" swap partner, Traci. Oops! I finally opened the box this weekend and loved what I found. Here's the contents of the jar after I started pulling things out to investigate the goodies it held:


If I were planning ahead, I would have photographed the jar all full of goodies, so you could have gotten the full effect...but I didn't...so here's the jar after most items had been pulled out. The bottom of the jar contained tons and tons of fun buttons and sequins.


In today's mail I also got a package from Home Studio. My free pendant, a thank you for blogging about how much I loved the pendants I ordered from them. How fun is that?

Yeah for happy mail! Needed the smiles after spending a fortunate to replace the AC in my car on Friday. Hopefully, it means this week is going to be a better one!

52 Card Scrap Up

Once again I'm behind in posting my 52 Cards. I usually mean to post the current week's card every Friday, but some weeks just seem to slip by me. So here are the last five cards. This week we had a guest prompter, Angie Backen, and her prompt was "back to school". Here's the front of my card:

and the back proclaims my love for school supplies:

The week before that the prompt came from Andrea and was "what's your favorite place to shop?" I pulled out some old supplies and scraps for this one:


Just a quick note about where I'm liking to shop (or wish really) these days:


Jessie's prompt was "Girl Time" and given during the week all her favorite girls (moi included) were hanging out at her house celebrating her birthday. Here's the front of my girly card:


And the back...playing with Jessie's new Cricut on this one:


This prompt, "what's new?" was given by me:


Things that were new in my life a few weeks ago:


Kristi did another guest prompt, "What's your favorite time of day?" Here's my take:


Using up supplies in my scraps again:


Hopefully you will see a current 52 Card post this Friday and I won't need to bore you with so many all at once!

Good night!

wishing and shopping and wishing some more

I've been doing some online shopping and wish listing as of late. Mostly I've been creating wish lists, as I am trying to be good and not spend too much money. I need to recoup funds due to my not working much of the summer, but darn summer sales keep popping up in my inbox and I keep running across links to new etsy stores....makes it hard to maintain my self control!

WARNING! HIDE YOUR WALLET BEFORE READING FURTHER!

I found this lovely etsy store after visiting Andrea's blog and immediately placed an order. Pendants are buy 2 get one free and perfect to have on hand to add to gifts, so how could I resist? I'm having a really hard time deciding which ones I will keep and which ones are designated as gifts, because they are all so cute. I have been wearing this one a lot since the package came:

I love this one and this one too. Go check it out. Well worth the price and so fun!

Here are a few things on my etsy wish list:

• This cute camera strap from Shealynn's etsy store.
• Red button bracelet from Button Boutique
• cute flower embellishments
• this sweet necklace
• another one of these bags in a pink/red combo
• this or this from The Vintage Pearl

I've been surfing at Pottery Barn too. I love all the green and orange right now. A few things on my PB list:

• this desk in green
• secretary hutch in mahogony
• these pillows
• this dresser

Of course I've been checking out Anthropologie too....I need

• this amazing chair
• this one too...I mean really, it's red
• red shoes
• red dress
• yes I know I live in the desert, but I would look super cute in this coat

There's a lot more to my wish list, but this post is getting long enough. I haven't even gotten to the scrapbook and crafting list.....oh to live in my fantasy land for awhile.

Happy shopping!

Carmen--Muppet Style

A little entertainment for you.

Birthday Wishes

So the day is well into evening and I'm just now getting to my sister's birthday post....


Happy Birthday Kellie!
Here's wishing you a wonderful 28th year!

Last night Kellie had a little birthday bash at Dave & Buster's. We started off the evening with some bowling, which I have to admit, despite my awful score was quite fun! The evening also include some arcade games (namely skee ball), drinks, dancing, cupcakes in the parking lot (apparently home made cupcakes are banned from D&B) and Kellie's prize shopping with her 850 pooled tickets.

Here's a picture of the birthday girl getting ready to bowl:


Kellie, mom and I:


Mom, Kellie and Toni, my sister's friend since the first day of kindergarten:


Some of the dancing action:


Happy Birthday to you!

Another exciting Friday night

Right now I should be doing a million things...like catching up on my paperwork, making my sister's birthday card, finishing up the two in progress mini books on my scrap desk, cleaning the house....but instead I am firmly rooted on the bed with the laptop on my lap, the olympics on the TV and this book calling my name. And so another Friday evening progresses. Since I work on Saturdays we don't really do much on Friday nights...who am I kidding, we are pretty much home bodies around here!

I have been thinking a lot about friendships lately and missing my Oregon girls. They are having a little slumber party tonight...wish I could be there! Sending Miss Nicole my best happy vibes and this little virtual bouquet to cheer her up:

Try as I might to stay caught up, I am once again behind on my 52 Cards...but only by a week. I still need to post the last four, but I will wait until I finish the last card. This week's prompt is brought to us by the fabulous Angie Backen. Her prompt is "Back to School" and here is her fabulous card:

Look at that stitching, she is working that sewing machine these days! Thanks for playing with us Ang!

I'm off...Edward and Bella await.

Busy, but relaxed girl

In about an hour I'm off to start my new work schedule. I've had a nice little vacation, with a week long trip to Oregon and than a weekend of hanging out with my mother in law, Ellen. Saw lots of movies, ate at lots of nice restaurants, enjoyed lots of treats, created lots of stuff and generally relaxed and enjoyed life. Now it's back to the grindstone! I shouldn't really complain, this week will be a bit easier as a lot of my clients started school yesterday and will be taking it easy with therapies this week. I do however need to get myself back into work mode and start thinking about paperwork and planning sessions....

In the mean time, here are a few things I've been working on. I made this cute little banner from the kit Kerry Lynn sent me from her class that I missed at Sisiversary.


Here's a couple of pages I did while in Oregon for my England album. My poor England album has sat pretty empty since 2004, but I managed to almost triple the size of it while scrapping with Jessie, Andrea and Nicole in Oregon.

She Returns

I just returned from here

Ok so mostly I was in Salem, not the beautiful Depot Bay, but I spent a lovely week in Oregon to celebrate this girls birthday

and to hang out with these lovely girls

and their significant others. I had a wonderful time, despite the frustrations of an annoying heart monitor attached to me for much of the trip. We celebrated Jessie's birthday, had girly lunch and shopping time, scrapbooked, watched lots of girly movies, went to the coast, enjoyed some sweet treats...hello peach milkshake from Aspinwalls...played mini golf with Beth and Adam, got pedicures in Jessie's living room, hung out in Corvallis and enjoyed some outside time. You can read the specifics on Jessie's blog as she has the detailed list of activities posted.

I miss hanging with my Oregon girls so much. I'm lucky that I get to spend time with them every summer and we've been fortunate to see each other more frequently in the past year, but it's hard to live so far away from them! I will share more pictures later, including several scrapbook pages I managed to complete while in Oregon. Right now, I'm off to hang out with my mom and mother in law for the afternoon. I like this no work on Mondays thing!