The Weekend

This weekend was a busy one. Saturday I was at the Chihuly crop from 9 am until 5 pm. I actually finished eight pages. Which is a miracle for me. (I am very "anal" and SLOW when I scrapbook) I really like the way the pages have turned out. I decided on a very simple layout, where all of the pages pretty much look the same, but I am using different colors to mat the pictures with, and the embellishments may be in different spots on the pages. The glass featured in the pictures is so beautiful that I didn't want to detract from them at all. So, simple and elegant was what I was going for. (I am including some pictures of the layouts I completed. I really should scan them because it's too dark to be taking pictures in the house right now. But at least you can see what they look like)






I had lots of fun seeing and chatting with everyone. And it was so cool to see how everyone did something different. Even more amazing was seeing how different everyones' pictures turned out. A different angle, different lighting, focusing on different areas of the pieces. There were so many possibilities, which turned into some very unique photographs. It was truly breathtaking and inspiring to see all of them. (I actually had customers stop at the table and ask me "WHAT IS THAT?" They kept saying that the colors of the glass were so vibrant and stunning. They walked away wishing they had gone to see the exhibit in person for themselves).

I did end up buying a new "toy". It's called the Cuttlebug. It's a machine that will emboss or cut words and shapes. It is very COOL. I used it for all of the scrolls that are on my Chihuly pages. I am on a scroll/flourish kick. Anything that has that look to it has become something I MUST HAVE. It's a look that is so easy to use. They can take on a totally different look or feel depending on how you use them or what embellishments you add to them.

All in all, I would say the crop was a good for me. My creative juices are flowing again, and I got something accomplished. I even talked Carla into starting a blog!! YEAH!! Now who is next?? LOL

Later that evening, Mr. Mister and I went out to dinner with R & M (friends of ours that we have known since the late 1980's while stationed at Vandenberg AFB). We had a great time talking, having a few drinks, and eating. Afterward, we came back to our house where the conversation continued and we drank wine until 1:00 am. WHEW!! Anyone that knows me, is really shocked by that!! HA HA I am NOT a night person. But, I cannot wait to do it AGAIN!!

I have to admit that it was a little "rough" getting up for our Sunday breakfast with the kids. After coming back home I "tried" to take a nap. HA! I should know better than that. Taz decided it was time to start squawking at the top of his lungs, while Dink jumped up on the bed next to me and began taking one of his hourly baths. I decided to get up and pay $4.95 to watch "the Secret" online. I am so glad that I did. I cannot wait until my copy comes in at Borders. I know it is something that I will keep going back to for encouragement and perspective in my life.

And that...........has been my weekend.

A Bright Sunny Day!!

It feels SO GOOD to see the sunshine and feel a bit of warmth in the air. Today is supposed to get into the 50's (again) and it's so bright and sunny. This is walking weather! I just may end up at the park enjoying this day.

Another sign that Spring must be getting closer is that we have a bunch of little spiders running around the house. Have I mentioned how much I dislike spiders? I feel all those eyes looking at me.......watching me.........while they plan their attack!! My morning started with one bungee jumping down from the ceiling in the bathroom while I was brushing my teeth!! How does something so small cause a grown person's heart to stop beating and your stomach to end up in your throat? Well, I am assuming that the thrill ride was over when I decided to see how much my "friend" liked swimming in the toilet. It didn't appear to be it's sport of choice.

What else have I been up to? Well........let's see.........I have become obsessed with "The Secret" (as seen on Oprah). Unfortunately, I missed the actual show and the follow up. So I have been looking it up on the internet. I purchased the book (on cd) and have my name on the wait list at Borders for the movie. It has sold out everywhere. (I could order it online but figured I would just wait for it).

I uploaded my "Chihuly" pictures to Sam's and decided to print all of them in 5" X 7" because it shows much more of the detail in the larger pictures. I cannot wait to start scrapping them this Saturday at the "Chihuly Crop" I am hosting. Everyone (well....almost everyone) will be working on their Chihuly pictures as well. It's going to be fun to see how everyone decides to showcase all of that beautiful glass in their albums. If you ever have a chance to see a Chihuly exhibit you HAVE to go. It is stunning! This is one of my FAVORITE pictures.

I Found Them!!

YAY! I found the votive cups today. So here is ANOTHER picture of my bedroom. Are you tired of seeing it yet?

I am not sure how often I will be lighting all of those candles though!! That is a lot of tea lights! But it sure will come in handy when the power goes out.

Aren't the colors on the panels perfect? They pull the color from the walls, fireplace, and other items we have in the room. Now we just need to buy some palm trees and other plants to had some "life" into the room (well........besides us........LOL). Of course, we still need to buy more "dust collectors" so that the fireplace doesn't look empty. It's going to take some time, but we will get there.

Bare walls.........BE GONE!!

I am SO EXCITED!! After almost three years of living in our new home we have FINALLY hung something up on "one" of the walls in the bedroom. Better yet! It looks AWESOME!!! I cannot stop looking at it. I will take pictures of the whole area (you've seen the fireplace & lamps already) once I find more votive cups. The tin panels we purchased each hold ten votives or candles. I had purchased a couple of orange votive cups from World Market a few of years ago and they were perfect, so I went back to buy more and guess what??? They don't carry them anymore. The hunt begins! I have tried several other stores and no luck. My next stop will be Pier One Imports. Wish me luck!!

Shopping!!

Mr. Mister and I went shopping today! We are trying to work on some of the unfinished projects around the house (believe me........there are A LOT). While out looking we decided to stop by my favorite furniture store (Ashley Furniture). We found some really cool lamps for the bedroom. I am wanting a Moroccan feeling in there, so I thought these would be perfect. As soon as we came home, I plugged them in and LOVED them!! They add such ambiance to the room. We have them sitting on the bookcases next to the fireplace. We also found some tin panels to hang above the fireplace. (You can see a portion of them in the first picture) They had a matching mirror that I had decided not to buy, but I have changed my mind so we will be going back for that tomorrow. The panels are not really "Moroccan" but the colors were perfect for the room. I am so excited to see some progress, even if we still have tons more to do. I think we are going to try and stick to one room until we finish it, and then move to another. Otherwise, it's just way too overwhelming.

Goodmorning!!!

It’s time to wake up the one "my" human always calls my “Grandma”. I think she is too comfortable in that human cat bed. GOOD she is laying on her back, I think I will just walk across her stomach (why does she jump like that when I step on something she keeps calling her bladder?) and lay down on her chest. It’s OOOOOO so comfy here. UMMMM hello? I am here!!! Hmmmmmmmm…..maybe if I purr she will notice me? Come on “Grandma”, if you wake up I “might” let you scratch my head for a moment. But, only for a moment, because you know that humans have cooties, and I will have to take a bath afterwards. Nothing!! She’s not moving! OK let’s try this again. I am going to jump off the human cat bed and sit on the floor for a second. Hey the side of the bed makes noise when I paw at it. Maybe, that will wake her up? Pawing……..Pawing……….looking up to see if she notices…..pawing……..pawing. She moved! OK quick……..jump back up. I think I will walk up, turn around, and twitch my tail so that it hits her in the head. She just pushes me away saying something about my butt and not wanting it near her face. I just look at her and blink. Does she realize who she is dealing with? And besides, I am still mad at her for letting that man who says he is NOT my “Grandpa” back on MY side of the bed. I think I will step on that bladder thing again. That usually seems to work after a few tries. And she’s up and running toward the room with the super sized cat bowl in it. I hear a noise and the water twirls around in the bowl. I think she is aerating the water because she read somewhere that cats like their drinking water that way. How nice of her to think of me. Now where is my FOOD? She is walking toward the door and the animal they call “Shelby” is laying there. I believe she is what they call a dog. Aren’t cats supposed to be afraid of those? She always runs to the big see through thing that slides back and forth and waits until the “Grandma” lets her outside. I wonder why I’m not allowed outside? I mean…….the “Grandma” wouldn’t have to clean out my litter box if I was allowed to go outside. Speaking of litter boxes, why do you feel the need to put that smelly white stuff in there when you clean it out? It makes my paws smell like a girl. In case you didn’t know it. I am a BOY! OK……….back to the food issue. The one called Shelby has eaten all of mine again. Can you PLEASE do something about that? The "Grandma" is reaching into the closet and scoops out some of that dry stuff. AWWWW…….that stuff is sooooooooo boring. I was hoping for the wet stuff that comes from a can. I guess I will take a few bites. She is looking at me weird as I walk away from the food she just poured into my bowl. I guess I wasn’t as hungry as I thought I was. What to do with myself now? WAIT there is the other one like me. The humans call her Tori Belle, but she keeps telling me her real name is “The Princess”. WHATEVER! She is giving me that smirk that says “You know that she never gives you the wet stuff in the morning” “You are such a dumb CAT” I think I will walk by her and smack her in the head……..yeah………that will really make her happy. She had a hissy fit and ran off. Big baby, I didn't even hit her that hard! Who is the DUMB cat now???? Next time, I think I will see if she wants to wrestle instead. The “Grandma” has let Shelby back in and is now walking back toward the human cat bed. I think I will run in between her feet to see if I can trip her. Watch it there!!!! That is my tail you are stepping on!!! She has the nerve to direct a few choice words at me!!!! I’m the one who got stepped on!! Now she's back in bed and is looking in the direction of this box thing that has some numbers on it. It appears to be 4:30. Maybe that is why it’s still dark outside. She is laying there staring at the ceiling. Is there something interesting up there?? LOOKING……..LOOKING……..no….I don’t see anything. She’s weird!! Well I am tired ……..I think I will go into what these humans call a living room and take a nap on one of the large cat beds they bought just for ME. YAWN! Tootles!
Dink (the “Grandma’s” favorite boy kitty in the whole wide world!)

Happy Valentine's Day

I had to work today. Imagine my surprise when the door chimed and in walked my husband. He was hand delivering these pretty flowers and a box of chocolate covered strawberries. Isn't he a SWEETIE!! Years ago, he started the "tradition" of buying me chocolate covered strawberries. Now, Valentine's Day wouldn't be the same without them. I look forward to them every year.
It was nice to smell the roses as I worked. Thanks babe!!! I love you bunches!!

We also went out to dinner at our favorite Mexican food restaurant called "Margarita's". It was DELICIOUS as usual.

What about that storm that was heading our way?? It came! It dumped freezing rain, sleet, and about 3 inches of snow on us. It left! But, not before ushering in high winds and very low temperatures so that we can continue to freeze our patooties off! I had hoped to take some pictures but haven't had the chance. Maybe next time!

Can I just say......

That I LOVE the television show HOUSE M.D. I discovered this show about 5 months ago and it quickly became my favorite. I received seasons 1 & 2 on dvd for Christmas!!! Hugh Laurie is brilliant, hilarious, witty, and just so fun to watch. He makes me laugh, and that is always a GREAT thing!!

Another Round

We have another storm heading our way. Here is a look at what they are calling for. (We live in the 3 - 6 inch area)

I guess I will just have to light the fireplace in our bedroom (we bought it as an anniversary gift to ourselves) and snuggle down under a pile of warm comfy blankets. I absolutely LOVE this fireplace. It is definitely one of the best things we have bought for the house. The great thing about it, is that it can be moved wherever we want it to be. It is not electric. It burns 1 pint cans of gel fuel. Each can will burn for approximately 3 hours. It even crackles like a real fireplace, and really helps keep our room warm.

Now...............where is my hot chocolate?

So Yummy!!

Look what one of the girls I work with brought me today!!! Not only is it a chocolate covered apple........but it has a layer of caramel too!!! I am drooling!! YUMMY!!

Mini Album

Here is a project I made for the store that I work at. We had Rebekka Erickson coming all the way from Australia to teach classes at our store and the owner wanted us to make up sample projects using Rebekka's product. I used her paper, album cover (it comes plain and you decorate it), and rub-ons. The pictures were taken at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, Rio Grande Botanic Garden in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and my front yard. The quote on the cover is by: Hugh Johnson. I LOVE the way this turned out.
I also used tons of dew droplets in this book. They are my favorite new item. So far, I have 14 bottles of them. I first saw a similar product used in a book called "Embellished Emotions for Scrapbookers" by Trudy Sigurdson. This book is AWESOME!!! Since seeing them in the book I have been searching everywhere for them. Finally, one of the girls that I work with found these from a company called "The Robin's Nest" and we begged the owner to get them in at the store. Needless to say, we have sold out of them, and the book several times now. I just LOVE those GOTTA HAVE products!!!

Things I should be doing.......

There are so many other things I should be doing today. Like getting ready for Rick to come home, cleaning the house, going grocery shopping, creating SOMETHING........but here I am!!! Sitting here......reading blogs about people that I don't even know.........and thinking to myself............I really want to start a blog.........but what in the world would I talk about?? My life tends to be quite BORING!!! YAWN!!! Maybe this is what I need to make me stop being such a hermit and start having some fun?? After all..........I need to have something to talk about on here don't I? So I am starting!!

I am going to try and figure out this blog stuff.

I am going to ramble on and on about things that may not matter to anyone but me.

I am going to prove to myself that I actually have a life worth writing about!!

Excitement here I come!!!!

OK..........I am off to go put the laundry in the dryer................HA!!!