The Eights

Found this little list on Jenn Olson's blog and thought it would be fun to play along. Plus, I don't really have much else worth blogging about this week. So here's a little list of things:

8 Things I am passionate about:
1. family
2. friends
3. my job
4. autism
5. making things handmade
6. issues of race and equality
7. living green
8. music

8 words/phrases I often say:
1. use your words
2. think about your body
3. yeah, yeah, yeah
4. seriously
5. whatever
6. shut it
7. arrrgh
8. let's see...apparently I say this a lot because the kids I work with parrot it back to me often

8 Things I want to do before I die-
1. be a mom

2. travel, travel, travel
3. learn another language

4. get my master's degree

5. see a cure for cancer

6. see a cure for autism

7. open a school or therapy center for autism

8. live at the beach

8 Things I currently want or need:
1. clothes that fit me
2. a cleaned out, replanted front garden

3. new kitchen

4. new floors

5. a week off (paid)...ha! Wouldn't that be nice!

6. Obama to win

7. a "painting fairy" to sand and paint my walls

8. to be able to eat what I want without discomfort

8 favorite T.V. shows:
1. Fringe

2. Criminal Minds

3. Heroes

4. Grey's Anatomy

5. CSI NY

6. Bones

7. Brothers and Sisters

8. House

8 favorite restaurants:
1. Dick's Hideaway

2. Phoenix City Grille

3. Postino

4. La Grande Orange

5. El Bravo

6. Remington's

7. Barrio Cafe

8. Los Sombreros

8 things that happened yesterday:
1. home made apple butter for breakfast

2. work

3. lunch with Kellie at Pita Jungle

4. bought Halloween candy

5. TV with Shawn

6. leftovers for dinner

7. filled out my mail in ballot

8. knit

8 things to look forward to:
1. being a mom

2. weekends

3. the holidays

4. lots of traveling (someday)
5. paying off my debt (again, looking forward...)
6. vacations

7. Twilight movie

8. a world without violence and hatred

8 obsessions/collections:
1. scrap stuff

2. yarn

3. red things

4. magazines

5. natural beauty products

6. books

7. shoes

8. crafty books and supplies

Catching Up

So I've been a busy girl lately. This week I checked a lot of items off of my never ending to do list, which always feels good, and I've managed to have a little crafty fun too. This weekend went by rather quickly. Friday night Shawn and I got take out from Greek Pita and finished a few more episodes in our Lost marathon. Saturday after work, I ran a couple errands than headed home for some playing in the kitchen. I made some banana bread and my first ever attempt at apple butter and canning. The apple butter took me a bit longer than I expected, mostly because the apples took a lot longer to cook than the recipe said (I think it was the size of my pot) and I needed to figure out a good system for mashing and straining the apples. Now that I've done it, I think I can make it much quicker next time. It is, by the way, quite delicious! Next on my list is pumpkin butter, which I was going to try today, but got side tracked with other things, so maybe next weekend.

Sunday I met up with my fellow SCer Ally and we went to scrap with Kimberly and Lisa. I managed to get 3 1/2 pages done with the Scrap for a Cure November kit and start on an ATC card. We also took a nice lunch break and headed to My Big Fat Greek Restaurant. It's been a Greek kind of weekend for me I think! This morning I continued the scrapfest while doing my laundry and finished up my page from yesterday as well as several 52 Cards.

Here are some sneaks of my Scrap for a Cure pages. There are two kits this month, a Girlie Girl kit and a Rockin Boy kit. I worked with the boy kit, which is full of amazing papers and lots of fun to play with. Check back in a few days for the full reveal of the kit and my pages.




52 Card Scrap Up officially came to an end a couple of weeks ago, but I just finished my last few cards today. This has been a great little project over the past year. I've loved making these ATC's each week and am thrilled to have this little time capsule of the past year neatly displayed on one big binder ring. I'm thinking I want a new weekly creative project to tackle for next year....any thoughts or ideas? Here's a look at my huge ring of cards, one for each week October 07 through October 08:



Here's the last eight cards in slide form. Much easier than posting each photos individually. Enjoy!

Today's Ten

1. Ok, some of you have asked about the email I eluded to here. Several weeks ago I participated in the So You Think You Can Scrap contest at Scrap for a Cure and won third place and a free kit. Well, they emailed me later and said that they had some design team changes and wanted to offer me a three month Guest Design Team spot! Of course, I was thrilled and begin designing for them with the November kit, which arrived at my door on Saturday. It's a fabulous kit and I'm so excited to play with it! Scrap for a Cure donates a portion of their profits to a quarterly charity, which I think is amazing, and I am honored to be a part of their team.

2. In other exciting news, I am also now a member of the design team at Scrapgal. I found this out on Thursday night and the news was made public yesterday. So very excited! Scrapgal is a great site and I will be working with some fabulous ladies! I can't wait to start creating pages for Scrapgal and am already spending lots of time on their fun message board. Come check it out!

3. The good keeps on coming...I made the Catwalk at SIS for the second week in a row!

4. Our wine delivery from Husch came yesterday. We had a picnic and wine tasting at Husch the day after our wedding and have recieved twice yearly wine club deliveries ever since. Let's hope my reflux allows me to enjoy some of this wine sometime soon!

5. Speaking of reflux, my new medication is helping and I am having fewer issues. I am knocking on wood right now, because as soon as I say something.....

6. In other health news, I had a CT scan last week because of a large lump in my neck that has been there since before I got sick in April. Turns out I have "inflammatory lymph nodes" in my neck, which is pretty much what the doctor was thinking. But, I also have nodes on my thyroid. I have a follow up appointment for this in two weeks. Not sure what this means for me. I had elevated thyroid antibodies in some blood work this summer, but just had a second blood test last week that showed normal thryoid levels. We shall see....

7. Shawn and I are now fans of Lost. We had never watched it before but were interested. So Saturday we rented some of season 1 on DVD. We are only about half way the first season, but totally hooked. We've got a lot more catching up to do though before the new season starts next year.

8. Headed to the dentist this afternoon for a cavitity that needs to be filled and may turn into a root canal. The dentist says it looks bad on the xray, but it's not really hurting me, so he's not sure yet if it needs a root canal or not. I certainly hope not. I've never had one before and would kind of like to keep it that way. I will know in about 3 hours. Cross your fingers for me!

9. Because of said dentist appointment and the fact that my mouth will be all numbed up, I have cancelled much of my afternoon. It's kind of hard to sing with a numb mouth. Plus my appointment lands squarely in the middle of my afternoon sessions, because I couldn't get a morning appointment anytime soon. Since I already have a shorter schedule on Tuesday's, I will actually only see one kiddo than head to the dentist today.

10. The pumpkin patch with Stephanie and Amelia was lots of fun yesterday. The one negative though was that is was HOT yesterday. Like mid 90's, which puts a damper on the whole "fall" experience. Poor Amelia was a trooper though wearing the hat I knitted despite the heat. Here are some pictures:

Apparently, I'm a Circle

After seeing it on Emily's blog, I took this quiz. I always enjoy these little personality quizzes and think they are fun, regardless of their validity. Below is my profile, pretty accurate I think, well except for the gossip thing.

You are a circle
The circle is an ancient symbol. It is the most used shape in religions. Circles are the people who seek harmony. Circles are the caretakers, the peacemakers, and the nurtures of the world. Circles simply need to help. They love people with problems! They are the huggers and the smilers. The circles motto is "forget your troubles and just get happy!" Circles are the teachers and office workers who put smiley faces on things. Circles are the sales associates who always say, Have a nice day. Circles are talkative, self-critical, warm, caring, sensitive people. Circles are real people persons, with lots of friends. Circles love to gossip, but generally not maliciously. It is just that everybody tells them everything! Circles cannot stand conflict. They are joiners and often belong to many clubs or organizations. If we consider how circles think, they are both linear and non-linear, left brained and right brained; they can think in both styles and are the only shape that has this duality. Circles combine their thinking styles in a unique way that makes them somewhat intuitive. They have a sixth sense when it comes to communicating. Why? Because they can read people. They are the best communicators of all the shapes. Jimmy Carter is a circle.

Well, I'm off for a late breakfast (pumpkin pancakes I hope) and a trip to the pumpkin patch with Stephanie and Amelia. Hoping to get a lot of great photos that I will post later.

Never Ending

Is it just me or is your to do list a never ending log of things to get done? My list, or lists I should say, are totally out of control. It's not even holiday season yet. I sometimes feel like I will never get caught up. I will forever be in a perpetual state of crossing things off my list. Now to be fair, some of my to do's are not necessarily have to do items, they are "want to" and "someday" items, but on my list nonetheless. Here's a little glimpse at the lists in my life.

My must do list for today:
laundry
clean the house (vacuum, mop, dust, bathrooms)
sweep back porch so that Shawn quits tracking stuff in the house
water plants
get contact solution

Must do for tomorrow:
two letters for work written and sent to support coordinators
finish C.M.'s reports and email to support coordinator
groceries

Want to's for today and tomorrow:
ATC's for swap at SC
knit for my "Handmade Christmas" gift plans
work on "Week in the Life" album

Must do in the next two weeks:
emissions testing and registration paid
Finish and send ATC's by 10/31
scrappy assignments (more on this later)
vote and mail ballot
clean out and redo front garden
clean up front courtyard
thank you notes written and sent

Here's a few items that have been on my list for awhile and will get done one of these days:
sand and paint walls in hallway
sand and paint wall by kitchen
mirror and shelf for blue bathroom
finish England album
wedding album
knit sweater
figure out dining/kitchen plans on a tighter budget

Got any tips for me on how to manage a to do list. How to get more done, while still finding time to work, spend time with family and friends and relax? What's on your to do list?

Ten on Tuesday

1. Made the Catwalk at SIS today!

2. 10 more reports for work checked off my list!

3. Enjoying Pumpkin Oat Muffins I made yesterday. I modified this recipe....changing the flour to 1 c white flour, 1 c wheat flour and 1 c oats, oil to 1/3 cup canola oil and 1/3 cup applesauce and sugar to sugar in the raw. YUM!

4. Photographed this project:



It needs a different home, but I haven't decided where I want to hang it yet.

5. Honeycrisp apple...need I say more?

6. lessons on Kung Fu Panda and "Chinese tag" with "Chinese friends" from one of my kiddos

7. new knitting pattern from Ravelry

8. Fringe

9. headache and achy body all afternoon....better not be getting sick

10. to bed early

Scrapalicious

Scrapping and knitting a lot in my spare bits of time lately. Here are pages from the past couple weeks. The above page of Kellie's standard "Cheers" pose ( I have several photos of her with this pose) was a sketch from Gretchen at SIS from a few weeks ago. This next one is a lift challenge from Scrapgal.


I'm working on using up older kits. These pages mostly consist of either the Apple Orchard kit from Studio Calico or the October 2007 kit from Cocoa Daisy. Trying to free up space in my kit basket and use my stash.

Dare #112--Color


From Stephanie's journaling challenge at Studio Calico two weeks ago.


I've been playing with stitching a lot lately...in fact, I have a bit of a callous on my right thumb from stitching on a project I will post later this week. Below are Kellie and Lucy.


Another page about Miss Jessie:


I'm slowing starting to scrap some pictures from my childhood. This one is a classic of me as a toddler, refusing to eat my meat...see all of you, I've always hated meat! Blah!


Thanks for looking at my latest creations. Off to clean and grocery shop...fun, fun!

Hey Jude

It's Good to be Boss

This week is fall break for many of my kiddos and I've had kind of a weird schedule the past few days full of cancellations and changed session times. Today I had lots of cancellations. I had a rescheduled kiddo at 9:30 this morning, than I came home with no more sessions scheduled until 4:30pm. I got a lot done in the late morning and early afternoon, but I was dreading driving 45 minutes to an hour in rush hour traffic to see my 4:30 and 5:30 kids, only to return home with another 45 minute to hour drive at the end of rush hour. So, about 3:15 I decided to call and reschedule my two late afternoon kids and add them to my Saturdays for the next two weeks. In exchange for an extra hour to my schedule this Saturday and next Saturday, I got a whole afternoon and evening at home to enjoy traffic free. Luckily, Shawn was home and we were able to spend the afternoon together enjoying some quality time.

For the most part, it's been a good week full of fun surprises. Here's are few more good things from my week.

1. This arrived at my door on Tuesday:



I'm pretty excited about this new toy and can't wait to start making mini albums and other bound projects. I'm thinking I might be binding a lot of Christmas gifts this year!

2. Yesterday, I found two $5 off your $20 purchase coupons in the shopping cart I selected upon entering Fresh and Easy. This was pretty exciting as it turned my $41 grocery bill into a $31 grocery bill. Always a good thing.

3. A email with some exciting news that I shall discuss a bit later...

4. This kit and this add-on arrived today. Yeah!

5. Actually did some paperwork today and can check 9 reports of my list!

6. Another short day tomorrow, which means I might get to do some scrapping.

Birthday Fun

For my birthday yesterday, we had a little family picnic. After changing our plans a few times, we ended up heading to Woods Canyon Lake. It was a beautiful day, a bit chilly, but kind of nice to be chilly and have it feel like fall. Mom packed a picnic, complete with mini pumpkin bundt cakes with chocolate ganache. We ate, enjoyed some wine, went for a walk by the lake, shivered a bit, ate pumpkin cake, opened presents and enjoyed the day. It was a great birthday.

Here are some pictures from the day:













When we arrived home last night, I had these on my doorstep from Heather and Angie. So sweet!


Family picnic, several renditions of "Happy Birthday' on my phone, lots of calls, emails and cards in the mail, breakfast with Michelle this morning, a movie and lunch with Shawn this afternoon, crafting and dinner with Stephanie this evening.....all in all its been a wonderful 31st birthday!

Birthday Eve

Saturday's a work day for me, but this morning I was able to sleep a little later because one of my poor kiddos has chicken pox. Here's me driving to work:


It was overcast today, which made for a nice drive:


By the front door when I arrived home today...happy birthday to me:


and inside the box was this adorable bag from Jessie, made by Andrea:


I hadn't changed my office calendar until this afternoon:


My messy desk, full of in progress paperwork, billing info and some to do in Photoshop projects:


Scrapping a bit this evening and doing my new favorite thing, sewing on pages:


Strawberry milkshake to celebrate my birthday eve:


Another night with a gorgeous sunset...my photo doesn't quite capture the bold yellows and oranges:


Today:
up at 8am
shower, dressed, morning routine
cereal and berries
email, internet, chat with Shawn
off to work
drive and NPR
session with C.M.
made plans with Michelle for a birthday breakfast on Monday
stop by mom and dad's
mom tells me my pants are way too big on me, which all of my clothes pretty much are right now
go shopping in mom's closet and leave with 2 pairs of size 4 jeans and 1 pair of capri's that are too big for mom but fit me pretty well
drive to next kiddo
session with T. F.
drive and eat a few bites of my lunch
talk to Kellie
session with S.S.
drive and eat more of my lunch
session with M.P.
drive home with windows down!
arrive home to birthday package from Jessie/Andrea and a card from Erin
also in the mail is my mail in ballot for November's election
try to nap with Shawn but my head is too busy
finish scrapbook page I started last night
photograph new purse and finished page
head to my office computer to upload page and today's photos
post page and check in online
eat apple
print some things from my email
return to scrapbooking and finish another half done page and start a new one
Shawn interrupts my page to say let's get ice cream
talk to mom
Freddy's Custard for milkshakes and dinner
hang out with Shawn
surf the internet
upload photos to laptop and update blog

Eat:
cereal and berries
Kashi cereal bar
hummus, carrots, pita
apple
veggie burger
strawberry milkshake

Tonight:
hang out with Shawn
knit or scrap
read

Thoughts/Observations:
today is my last day being 30
loving the cooler weather today
wondering if we'll need to change our plans for tomorrow due to cooler weather this weekend
lots of creative ideas today
need to get some paperwork done next week
wanting to get clean up courtyard and get fall planting done in the garden
loving my Halloween decorations
should have done laundry today
need groceries
gorgeous sunsets lately
love lazy Saturday nights with Shawn
looking forward to tomorrow's birthday picnic

Friday Fun

Notes from today:
up at 7:30
shower, dressed, morning routine
cereal and berries
email
curl hair
off to work as Shawn orders my birthday gift (new bind it all!)
drive and call mom
session with M.M.
head back home
internet
spend time with Shawn, watch Cold Case
snack on challah
put away scrap stuff
cut Wilna's art for canvas
finish 52 card "Play"
cut an apple, fill water bottle and head out the door to work
drive and Science Friday on NPR
session with M.G.
check in with Mom
call from V.P. canceling A's session...chicken pox!
drive and beginning of Oliver Sacks interview on Fresh Air...need to get podcast and finish listening
meet mom for lunch at Herb Box
talk about birthday plans
drive towards Fountain Hills, listen to ipod
kill time at Target, buy eye drops and notebook, contemplate a book and John Derian items
session with N.E.
drive home, NPR, phone tag with Jessie, talk to Shawn, talk to Kellie, call in takeout
pick up dinner at Greek Pita
talk to mom
take pictures of beautiful sunset
dinner
load dishwasher
chat with Shawn
read mail
internet
upload photos
update blog

Tonight:
scrap?
chat with Jessie?
read

Eat:
cereal and berries
slice of raisin challah
apple
veggie wrap, grapes, sweet potato chips
hummus, pita, cucumbers, spanikopita

Thoughts/Observations:
I like my downtime on Friday
nice to be able to be lazy with Shawn for a couple hours this morning
excited about getting a bind it all and a (free) slice in the same month
I desperately need a pedicure!
cloudy afternoon and cooler weather (90's)
lots of project ideas running through my head
wanting time for house projects and garden clean up...maybe next weekend