A little of this and a little of that

So it's been a bit of a crazy week here, yesterday especially. Though I did not forget about it, I did not get to post a Happy Anniversary message to my parents yesterday. I hope you two do some celebrating this weekend! I don't know why, but I love this picture of my parents taken at my wedding rehearsal.
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

My week has been full of crazy kids, including a hitter, a biter and a spitter, parents who forgot about therapy times, traffic, possible ear infection, billing screw up with the state (no August pay check yet....) you know, fun crazy life! But I've also been doing this, looking for patterns here and I finally got this happy mail from Silvia that she sent weeks and weeks ago. Do you see the fun red felt flowers, adorable bird bag and cute gnome stamp?

Also finished this mini album. You can see more here.

Ten on Tuesday--Photos

In part because of this fun photo challenge that inspired me to take some pictures around my house yesterday...and because Andrea continues to pester me about pictures of my scrap space...today's 10 on Tuesday will be photos from my untidy scrap space. I finally decided it would never be clean enough..it's almost always in use and I tend to scatter things about as I create. So here goes, messes and all!

The messy scrap space...I recently changed all my storage to put supplies out in the open in buckets and baskets. I find that I use things more when I see them. Hence, the peg racks and hanging things too.

Albums, idea books, baskets full of journaling cards and embellishments

More embellishment storage using those lovely Target $1 bin metal buckets. Inside the doors of the cabinet I store my stamps in the same metal buckets.

I'm a stand up scrapper, so here's my counter height work space, basket of mini's and mini in progress...

More stuff...

Some eye candy....and a clock that need new batteries!

My fun pottery barn postcard rack hold's some favorite minis and products I'd love to play with, but haven't gotten too...


Here's the desk I never sit at, but use as in progress projects and kit holder....as you can see, I need to figure out a way to store kits that I haven't used or still want to keep together as a kit. On the left are piled my Shimelle class album and supplies and wedding photos...tons...that I want to get to some day! I also save little bits of life her for those daily life pages with brochures, tickets, receipts, etc. I need a better system here...it gets pretty messy.


So my scrap space shares space with the laundry room and storage for cleaning supplies and household tools...so here's what the other wall looks like. You can see in the first picture posted, under my E collection on the far wall hang several brooms and mops.

Bad Blogger

Ok, so I've not been the greatest blogger lately. It's been a busy week and I haven't had anything that exciting to post anyway. I did have a good weekend. I only had one kid to see on Friday, so it was almost like a day off. Of course, I was wide awake by 6am on my day to sleep in...figures! Since I was up, I got a ton of things done by noon, including baking these fabulous Banana Coconut Muffins...kind of like a lighter, muffin version of hummingbird cake...delicious! Here's the recipe:

Banana Coconut Muffins

1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cups sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup flaked coconut

I added 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin tins.
Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
Whisk together bananas, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla and 1/2 cup coconut (walnuts too if desired) in a large bowl until combined well, then fold in flour mixture until flour is just moistened.
Divide batter into muffin cups and sprinkle with remaining coconut. Bake until golden, 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.

I also made a yummy tortellini salad for dinner Friday too. Spent Saturday working, having lunch with Kellie..the best veggie burger ever from Four Peaks Brewery...doing laundry and hanging out with Shawn. We had a little date night and went to eat at Dick's Hideway, where the food is always amazing. Today I've been doing the usual Sunday thing and scrapping a bit. I finished this little 5 Favorite Things album I started at least a week ago. I'll post more of it later.

I've also had tons of scrapping ideas in my head this weekend thanks to the arrival of We Dare You and Keri Smith's Wreck this Journal in the mail on Thursday. Total inspiration...I highly recommended them if your a scrapbooker or artsy type. I'm off to heat up leftover tortilla crusted halibut from last night...yum!

Ten on Tuesday

Ok, I totally lifted this idea from Elise's blog...but it may become a regular Tuesday feature. I think I just like the alliteration.....

1. Enjoyed a lot of fresh fruit today...strawberries and raspberries in my cereal, a peach for snack, apples and peanut butter with lunch, another peach fresh from Utah courtesy of one of my client's mom.
2. Took my laptop to work today and actually did 10 reports...yes, that would be paperwork...while sitting at Starbuck's drinking my afternoon order...iced venti green tea, unsweetened or no classic depending on which store you go into
3. Was told this joke by a 10 year old with autism...
knock knock
who's there?
boo
boo who?
you don't have to cry about it
4. Listened to a lot of 9/11 commemoration on NPR
5. Learned more than I ever wanted to know about the types of boats and trains in the world
6. Drove way too much
7. Made fresh guacamole to go with my yummy black bean and veggie burrito...Shawn is sick, so he got out of his 3rd week of Tuesday night dinner....he so owes me!
8. Admired my purchases from the Target dollar bin...which I mistakenly left in the car last night
9. Got nothing but junk mail today
10. Going to bed early

A little virtual shopping spree

Why is it that weekends seem to fly by these days? I don't know, maybe it's because I work Saturday mornings now, but it seems like this weekend was over way too fast! Not much to report this weekend. A lot of the usual, laundry, cleaning, groceries.....

Saturday I got both the new Studio Calico kit and the new Cocoa Daisy kit....both of which are amazing! I can't wait to start playing with all the fun papers and embellishments in these 2 boxes. I almost have so much good stuff I don't know where to start! First I need to get caught up with my Learn Something New Everyday album. I'm taking this class from Shimelle, but haven't gotten much done other than the title page and album cover. I have been keeping notes on things I've learned throughout the week, but for some reason I just can't get going on this little mini....I'm hoping my mojo kicks in soon so I can get caught up. I think this album could turn out really great, if only my creativity would cooperate!

In other news, I've been in the mood to buy things, but have been fighting the urge. I did give in to a few new candles at Stephanie's Party Lite party last night and am seriously considering a cute new t-shirt from Andrea's new Etsy shop and a fun piece of jewelry from here. And there's always this chair from West Elm to go in my bedroom and of course my dream desk in mahogany from Pottery Barn...oh and than there's the kitchen remodel with new cabinets and appliances and these floors throughout the house.....I really must snap out of this little dream shopping spree....

A Birthday and a congrats!

So if I had changed the setting on my alarm last night, I would have woken up in time to post this early this morning before leaving for my longest work day of the week. But, I didn't and woke up with 10 minutes to get out the door....argh! So, I'm sorry this is getting posted late!

Happy Birthday to my fabulous mother in law Ellen!
I hope you had a wonderful day and promise you will have a lovely surprise from us by the end of the week!

A huge CONGRATS to Stephanie and Paul who are expecting kiddo number one! So exciting. Stephanie called me last night asking about knitting baby blankets and totally confusing me until she said, well it would be for me! WOW! Steph, I'm totally your girl for reinventing the music room and making it the cutest baby room you ever did see!

Happy Wednesday!

Busy Creating

In between running errands, doing laundry, cleaning house, doing billing and other such chores I have been a scrapping fool this weekend. All weekend I've been working on the darejacks. For my non scrappy friends, there's a challenge site called The Dares and another site called Scrapjacked...darejack is the scrapjacked girls lifting pages from the original Dares girls. The challenge this month has been to lift these girls along with them. It was quite a challenge, but very fun. I created 7 pages this weekend (actually 8, got an extra one done too) many of which pushed me a bit out of my comfort zone. Here they are.

The first one is a lift of Kristina Contes. I think I could lift this one over and over again!

This one is a lift of Meghan Dymock...definitely a stretch in style for me

This one is the darejack of Genevieve Simmonds--I love how this one turned out.

This one is of Nisa Fiin, who's style I love.

This one of Amber Nichole-another one I love how it turned out.

This one of Ashley Wren-a fun one I think.

This one is a darejack of Missy--using up my Studio Calico scraps.

Thanks girls for giving me lots of scrapping inspiration this long weekend and for helping me to continue to procrastinate the dreaded paperwork!