Getting Crafty

This past week or so has been pretty busy, but I have managed to get a lot of crafting done in the evenings after work. I finished my knitting project, a cute striped bag. It still needs to be felted, so I will take pictures this weekend after I wash it and attach the handles. I have also started knitting a blanket...not the crazy difficult one, a much easier one for now. I'm still overwhelmed by the other pattern.

A couple weekends ago I did these two pages for the BHG "Make it Yours" call....no luck getting selected, but I love them anyway and I was able to use a couple pictures that have been sitting in my to be scrapped pile for awhile.

Last Sunday I scrapped with my scrappy friends from SIS. We were pretty chatty and managed to spend a bit of time shopping...I'd never been to the store we scrapped at, so I found a couple things I needed to have...I did manage to get two pages done using the Cocoa Daisy kit from September, one I had yet to get around to using. Again, I used some photos I've been wanting to scrap for awhile.

I took Monday off, I usually don't take smaller holidays off, but I had lots to do. I spent most of the day cleaning and doing things around the house. I did manage to get the front garden dug out and hopefully got rid of the blasted mint that was overrunning everything...fingers crossed...next weekend I plan to plant some new flowers and herbs. After the garden work and a nice hot shower, I decided to do some Christmas crafting. I don' t know why exactly, but this year I am getting into Christmas earlier than usual. I typically don't start Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving and even December 1st, but this year I'm already getting into a Christmasy mood. It's a wonder too, since it's still NOT cooling off here...It was 87 yesterday for goodness sake! Here's a couple Christmas projects I finished. This cool star came from Melrose Vintage. I covered it with Paperbox papers I've had in my holiday stash for a couple years now. I plan to hand this up and use it to store Christmas cards. I'll post a better picture once it's hung.

I've been stashing these cool page frame clear stars with the intent of using them to make Christmas ornaments. I just used the Hambly Christmas rub ons on them, poked a hole at the top and attached some ribbon. I think they turned out pretty fun! Again, I will post when the tree goes up and they have a better place to hang!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Here wishing you a very happy birthday today Dad! I hope you have a great day and a great week. Looking forward to celebrating with you later this week!

Searching for Music

I've been spending a lot of time on itunes lately looking for new music. I'm wanting to find new artists and bands I don't know, so I tend to jump from link to link looking at songs or artists that are similar to what I already like. I've been listening to a lot of mellow music lately. Lots of indie rock and artists itunes refers to as folk. Tonight while I downloaded new songs to create a new playlist, I decided to create an imix of songs I've been listening to lately. Here's the link to my mix, which I've called long day because it's perfect for my drive home after a long day of work. Check it out, you might find a few new tunes for your playlist.

What are you listening to? Any songs, bands or artists I should check out?

52 Card Scrap Up--Sweet Treat

This week's prompt comes from Andrea and was "Your Favorite Sweet Treat." I'll have to admit this was a tough one for me. Though I'm not a huge sweets person, I do love a yummy baked good or a nice bowl of ice cream. I'm also totally into pumpkin treats right now--every October and November I get excited about all things pumpkin. I decided to go with cookies, because I not only do I love to eat them, I also love to bake them. Nothing like a fresh baked, gooey chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven!



Next week's prompt comes to us by our very first 52 Card Scrap Up, guest artist--the fabulous Elise Blaha! Elise's daily cards were part of my inspiration for starting this group, so it made perfect sense to have her be our first guest artist. I love how her cards are often inspired by her daily life...the things she sees and does and touches each day go into her art and I love that! Elise created a beautiful card and prompt for us, which you can see on her blog. Her prompt for next week is "Song Lyrics." I hope you'll play along. We'll post cards for these prompts on Friday.

Thanks Elise for being our first guest host and creating such a fun prompt for us!

Searching for Balance....

As we approach the super busy time of the year, I find myself searching for balance. Balance between work and home and crafts and life....so much I want to see and do...so many commitments or things I need to do....if only I could add more hours to my day. I am not one of those people who can sacrifice sleep for more productive time. I need my sleep or I don't function well. I'm not a late nighter at all. So for now, I must continue to figure out how to:
-finish my current knitting project
-start the new one I just bought yarn for
-use up my ever growing stash of scrapbook supplies and kits
-make all the holiday projects I'm seeing and wanting
-dig up and re-plant the front garden
-plan my kitchen remodel
-pull up the gross carpet
-re-finance the house
-put in new floors
-finish paiting
-clean up the back patio and yard
-work on the pond with Shawn
-find more new music on itunes...more on this later
-finish my paperwork

All this and more, plus working and household chores....oh and spending time with family and friends and generally enjoying life......the ever present quest for balance!

The Usual

Well this weekend has been the standard no plans weekend. Worked on Saturday than met up with my mom and sister for lunch at Orange Table. The food was yummy and we enjoyed some delicious mojitos as well! I got home after 4pm and did the usual laundry and cleaning routine. Saturday night was supposed to be a date night, but I was tired and Shawn was doing goodness knows what on his new laptop for hours and hours. I'm a little jealous of this new laptop...its pretty cool and he seems to enjoy spending time with it more than me....at least I get his old laptop, which means I know longer have to lug around my terribly heavy, seriously slow ancient Dell laptop when I want to do paperwork during the day. We all know this happens so often! I am however excited to have a new laptop with Wi-Fi so that I can spend even more time on the internet than I already do!

Today was spent reading the newspaper, doing lots of stuff for work, paying bills, finishing laundry and going grocery shopping at my new favorite "get everything done all at once" spot, Super Target. I love the new Super Target! It is a bit dangerous though, because I can waste money at Target buying things I don't need but have to have a little too easily. Grocery prices are good though and it saves me my separate lists of Target items and grocery store items. I mean seriously, where else can you buy clothes, furniture, scrap supplies, groceries and dollar bin goodies all in one place?

Now I'm off to finish making dinner, write thank you notes and sit with my knitting in front of my Sunday night TV shows.

52 Card Scrap Up #3--Favorite Moment

Jessie picked this week's prompt for 52 Card Scrap Up--"Your favorite moment of the week." Here's my card, inspired by my lunch at Postino today.

I love Postino's bruschetta and looked forward to this little outing all week. Me, Angie and Kelly met this morning at Melrose Vintage to do some shopping. Tons of fun scrappy stuff and lots of vintage items. I ended up purchasing a few things to alter, one for a gift and one for my holiday decor. After shopping we headed to Postino for lunch where we enjoyed wine, bruschetta and salad. It was tons of fun hanging with these girls, though we missed Heather. I was sad to have to head to work at 2pm.

We have added a few more players for 52 Card Scrap Up and welcome anyone else who might want to play along. Next week's prompt comes from Andrea and is "Your favorite sweet treat." Stay tuned for a challenge from a guest artist the following week.