While You Were Out

So I've been gone from blogging for awhile. Lots has happened while I was away. Since I last blogged (well, not counting the Valentine's mosaic) I have:

• Traveled to Oregon to visit this girl and this girl. We had lots and lots of fun. Did some shopping, got beautified by Erin M., made some Valentine's crafts, had a fabulous baby shower, hung out with this girl, cruised some wedding magazines, laughed a lot and generally enjoyed each others company.
• Gotten a cold and gone home early from work
• Had surgery to remove what turned out to be a vary rare form of cystic growth on my vocal cords and larynx. The ENT called me a "rare specimen" and was quite excited about discovering something in my throat that is rarely seen. Nice.
  
• Spent several days in bed in a pain med stupor.
• Read two books and several magazines
• Gotten 3 bouquets of flowers and a new pretty necklace
• Ordered a new cell phone
• Found out the state of AZ has cut music therapy rates by 54% in effect, guaranteeing the end of services for thousands of children and the eventual demise of my practice.
• Spent hours on the computer sending emails and rallying support for our fight against said cuts.
• Laid awake at night wondering what I will do if I can't keep my practice afloat.
• Visited with Ellen
• Enjoyed lots of smoothies
  
• Watched lots of TV
• Had lunch with my mom and Kellie at Pita Jungle, where I was happy to find some tasty soft food on their menu.
  
• Took some naps
• Worked half days and tried not to use my voice too much, which continues to be a challenge
  
• Participated in an online crop at Scrapgal. The deadline for posting challenges is tonight at midnight, eastern time, if you want to play along.
  

I haven't scrapped in at least two weeks, so it was nice to spend the past couple days scrapping off and on. My energy level is still not quite back to normal, so I scrap a bit than take a break before scrapping some more. Here's what I've made this weekend. This page was for my challenge, an ad inspiration:


Made this one for a song lyrics challenge. These are lyrics from Brandi Carlile, who's CD is what I've been listening to in the car when I'm not tuned into NPR.


This one is from a sketch challenge:


Digging into my old stash for this 7 Gypsies challenge:


For this page I combined 2 challenges, a use what you horde (journaling labels in my case) and another to scrap 10 random things about you. I really like how this one turned out:


This last one was for a challenge to use 3 different stamps on a page. Thank you Studio Calico for all the lovely stamps on this page.


For you Scrap for a Cure girls, this page may make an appearance on the blog tomorrow as your Monday Challenge, so go ahead and pull out your stamps!

I'm off to do more scrapping. There are still several challenges on Scrapgal to complete plus my very lovely March Scrap for a Cure kit calling out to me.

Happy lazy Sunday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

1. Valentine Cupcakes, 2. Pink and Red Heart Valentines Card, 3. light streaks valentine red heart love, 4. Happy Valentine's Day!, 5. valentines day, 6. Red rose : a symbol of love, 7. Love Letter in Red Ribbon, 8. White & Red Felt Heart Shaped Brooch, 9. X + O Valentine Cookies

7, 8, 9, 10

Today's 10 is brought to you by the letter E and the number 10

1. Currently enjoying a delicious pink frosted sugar cookie I made yesterday.
2. Loving this and this found on Ali's blog.
3. On a fruit kick lately. You would think it was summer with all the fruit I've been eating. Today I had blueberries, strawberries, grapes and an apple.
4. Am packing for my trip to Soggy Salem and my to pack list contains odd things like pink buckets and floral foam for this girls baby shower.
5. Am having a love affair with Anthropologie's dresses and am pretty certain if I had unlimited income, or weren't worried about state budget cuts effecting my contract, I would buy at least one....but how would I choose....I think I need this one, but this one is awfully cute, this one is just beautiful, I love this one...who am I kidding, I'd take any of them really.
6. Loving House of 3 and waiting to see what they have in store.
7. Playing Scramble and Pathwords on Facebook far too often.
8. Loving that I have a large stack of "to-read" books piled up just waiting to be opened. I'm almost done with this book and am thinking this will be up next.
9. Looking forward to a pedicure on Saturday. My poor toes are currently naked....the horror!
10. Peanut Butter has returned to my diet and my new favorite sandwich to make when I pack y lunch is peanut butter and honey on toasted raisin walnut bread...YUM!

Sunday Funday

I spent much of yesterday hanging out with Miss Stephanie. We started out my visit playing with the adorable Miss Amelia, moved on to making pumpkin muffins, scrapped a little and than headed out for dinner and a show. We enjoyed some yummy food at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant and than headed to Gammage for the Lion King. The Lion King was incredible! We both loved it. The costumes are AMAZING. I mean giraffes and elephants and gorgeous lion costumes...incredible! So much creativity in this show. We were singing and talking about costumes all the way home. If you have a chance to catch this show, I would absolutely recommend it. I would see it again in a heartbeat.

We missed the super bowl, which is fine by me, but it was pretty funny to watch everyone on their cell phones at intermission checking the score and getting the play by play. The crowd was definitely buzzing about the game and there were several people wearing Cardinals red in the audience.

Stephanie and I had a great time and talked about seeing more shows together. We definitely should. I always enjoy a good performance and some good food.

I've got a busy day planned for today, with lots of to do's I hope to get done. I'm hoping I can even squeeze in a little time for scrapping. The February Scrap for a Cure kit launches today. This month, I had the mini kit and even this little kit is packed with scrappy goodness. I loved the colors and the products. Here are the pages I created. Except for the Thickers and the buttons, all is from the mini kit.