My fun weekend.

This weekend was definitely full of activities, which is a huge change since usually I stay home on weekends and hang out with Wade. On Saturday morning I met my parents in Irvine and we say a live-feed of Puccini's Il Trittico. I was really amazing! Then after we went to the Cheesecake Factory with some of their friends. Saturday night I met up with my girls (Chris and Mihaela) and we ate at a wonderful Japanese Restaurant called Fukada. After we got our udon on, we headed over to Timeless Treasures for a night crop. We definitely had a great time there, but I was sort of hoping to meet other scrappers. There were about 15 other ladies there, but we were the youngest by at least 10 years and most of them were either talking about their kids or about calories... weird.

But it did give me and my girls a chance to evaluate our new friendships with each other (we started our "friendship" mini-albums). Chris wrote the sweetest journal entry in my album and Mihaela and I got a chance to talk about how much we love our new threesome. Whenever we end a perfect day like Saturday, I am always the first to ask when the next time we will meet will be. I'm so happy they are letting me force my scrapbooking junk on them! (Chris even used the word "crop" in a sentence! I was so proud of her!)


I decided to try to sew today (Sunday). I haven't sewn anything since I started scrapbooking, so I had to rummage through all my boxes of old material. I had so much fun making things! I think I'll go to a fabric store tomorrow to find some yummy prints for future projects.

Here's a new bag I made today. It's dark blue denim on the outside and has a patterned cotton mix on the inside (cream with muted red stars and moons). It has two cell phone holders (one for me, one for work) on either side of the bag (inside).



Here's a close up of the detail. I just used a sewing machine to make the bird and stars.




That was my weekend. How was yours?

Thoughts for Today

It's 8:44am and I am trying to motivate myself to start getting ready for the day. I have plans to see my folks for a morning show and lunch, then to dinner with some friends, then to a crop night from 6 to midnight (my first one!).

Getting a bit stressed out because my Snapfish photos haven't arrived in the mail yet and if they don't come today, I won't have very many pics to choose from for the crop tonight.

Got my twopeas order yesterday... can't wait to use my new Hambly overlays and SEI tags... if I get the pictures on time that is...

I went to Albertson's last night at 10 o'clock because I had SUCH a hankering for some mangoes. I bought 6 and ate 2. I love that I can't eat them without getting it all over my hands and face.

My printer is stressing me out. It keeps printing with these horizontal stripes and I thought I fixed the problem, but after a few good pics, the rest were stripy. Why couldn't they be vertical stripes? At least they're slimming.

Our East Coast Trip is coming soon!!! End of may. I can't wait. 4 days in DC, 3 in Boston and 4 in New York. Hopefully it will be enough time to do all the things I wanna do! I keep thinking of things I need to do before going like buying a new foundation compact, getting some more rechargeable batteries, getting another memory card, etc. etc.

Well, have a lovely day. It's coffee time for me!

She's Amazing

I've been working on my mini-book tonight with My So Called Life playing on my laptop for background noise. I am so amazed by Claire Danes' performance on that show. She is SO good!!! I think I've cried at least once during every single episode.

Wash Your Mouth Out With Soap

I've only just recently entered the wonderful world of blogs. I regularly surf the Internet looking for some inspiring soul to be my muse. Most of the blogs I have found have been fun to look at, interesting to read, and all that jazz... but I've definitely noticed a theme...

For one, I am only really interested in Scrapbooking/Artsy blogs and most of the people I have found are mothers and ALL of their posts are about their kids. Not being a mother myself, I find it hard to relate. Not only that, ALL of their layouts are of their kids... how they walked for the first time, how they looked last Halloween, how much drool they expelled yesterday... All very exciting stuff - just not to me.

Another thing I've noticed is that everything is so positive in the blogging world. Nobody really bitches and moans about things they don't like or people that drive them crazy. It's all sunshine and inspire-this and create-that... blah blah blah.

BUT THEN THE MOST AMAZING THING HAPPENED!!!

I found a scrapbooker who CURSES!!! It's so beautiful! She has the word SHIT in her entries, she titles her layouts with the F-BOMB and she embraces her cynicism! She scraps, she's honest, she's brazen, she's GREAT!!! And just for a little icing on the cake, she doesn't have kids! WOO HOO!

So, if you wanna read a REAL person's blog, go to the link on the left of this page under "The Only Scrapbooker Who Says 'Shit'". I promise you won't be dissapointed.

I Can Jump On The Bandwagon...

7 Random things about me... (I don't have to be tagged to join in, do I?)

1. I constantly count things... my footsteps, stairs, bathroom stalls, the number of squares of toilet paper I will use, the seconds that pass while I'm waiting for my curling iron to do its job... anything and everything...

2. Sometimes after Wade leaves the house for work, I turn on These Boots Are Made For Walkin' by Jessica Simpson and dance my heart out.

3. I have a mini crush on the kid that plays Oliver Wood in Harry Potter. Realistically he is only 4 years younger than me, but when I first saw him he was only 18 so I feel kinda dirty...

4. My favorite cereal is Product 19.

5. I've only read about 20 books in my adult life (meaning that I'm not counting the endless Babysitters' Club books I read as a pre-teen!), but I've read each of them at least 4 times.

6. I hate it when pens are out of ink. For some reason, Wade doesn't throw them out and it's very frustrating.

7. My memory isn't what it used to be. I am trying to fight these small battles against old age, and the memory battle has been a long and drawn out fight scene... and I'm losing.

YOUR TURN!!!

My Current Project

I've been working on a mini-book. Here's a page from it. I am trying to use more of my own writing in my work to make it more personal.



Some of my doodles are based on drawings made by my niece, Leelee.

Doodle One:



Doodle Two:


Last I heard, she was just going by the name "L".

Wade Fell...

Wade fell today at work and got this hideous red mark on his side. He landed on a wood frame and all of his weight was thrown onto his ribs... very sad. When I took this picture he insisted on having his shot glass in the frame... boys are weird.

Then I took this picture...



He's so pretty... I love his face (but he needs to shave... morning kisses are getting a bit painful!). The black/white photo doesn't do his eyes justice; they're a beautiful blue and sometimes green! I heart Wade!

Happy Birthday, Jeannie!

Today is my sister's birthday. I came across this picture yesterday, and I just had to post it! She is SO beautiful!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JEANNIE!!!

Friends Photo Shoot

I recently decided that the reason I have been in an artistic slump lately, is because I lack good photos. In order to remedy this, some friends and I went out last Saturday for an all day photo shoot. We got several good shots, and hopefully it's enough to pull me out of my slump!

Kamikaze Animals

Our neighbors (who live behind our backyard) have been sacrificing their beloved animals in order to torture (or feed?) our hounds. It's still unclear as the purpose of this activity, but the result is very clear: when we get home, it looks like FAO Schwarts exploded in our backyard. These poor creatures lie on the ground, while our dogs walk on them, chew on them and I'm sure pee on them (hopefully in that order!). Wade tried to return these poor creatures to their rightful owners, only to be confronted by a woman who didn't understand his intentions (she doesn't speak English) and kept shaking her head "no" to him. Perhaps she felt that he was offering some kind of love token to her in the form of dirty, stinky stuffed animals. So Wade had no choice but take back the animals and subsequently threw them away.

And I think, "What a sad life these poor Kamikaze Animals have. First they sit in a store just waiting for some snot-nosed to take them home. Then, just when they think they have it made in the shade, the kid sends it FLYING over our fence and into our backyard only to be chewed on and eventually thrown in the garbage.

Now our garbage cans are filled with these homeless fliers, but I figure, eventually the kids will run out of things to throw over the fence, the parents will come to our house to try to claim their lost goods, or the garbage man will have some nice gifts for his garbage man friends.

Thanks Chris!

My friend Chris gave me a gift card to a local Scrapbooking Store for my birthday and FINALLY yesterday I had a chance to go and use it! I was in the store for about an hour (a record for me... usually I can't get out of there sooner than an hour and a half!) and found lots and lots of yummies!





I'm most excited about my new Hambly ScreenPrint Overlays... Can't wait to see where they'll end up! THANKS CHRIS!!!!

Tonight...

I heard snoring in the guest room where Wade was supposedly reading... only to find this scene below...





Two lazy boys, sleeping on the guest bed... BOTH snoring... both drooling... so sweet.

Thank Goodness It's Friday!

I'm so glad this week is finally over! I had SO much work to do, I didn't get a chance to do any of the things I love (spending hours surfing the internet, scrapbooking, reading, napping, etc.). Finally tonight I got a chance to take out some of the fun things I got from Wade for my birthday (all scrapbooking supplies!) and have started a new minibook.

Yesterday I was SO grumpy because I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and had to work ALL day long. I had some girlfriends over in the morning and we had a great time making breakfast, eating too much, and talking. Right after that I had to go to work and I didn't get home until around 7:30 at night. I thought for sure Wade would be home by then with dinner prepared (like usual), and he was nowhere to be found. After 5 calls, he finally called me back, frustrated with work and being very curt with me, and of course I snapped at him. He immediately hung up the phone and called me right back so that we could "start over". When I answered, his tone was much sunnier than before and he let me have a "do-over" with this second call. It was such a sweet way of letting me know that he knows he was being snippy, understood that I was cranky, so let's start the whole thing all over again... He's been really sweet like that lately; I love it!

Have a great weekend!

My New Love

I've recently fallen in love!!!



My new love is sweet, colorful and is always there when I am feeling crabby. My love is never unkind, never judges me, and never disappoints me.
My new love is...






Almond M&M's...

Silly

Why does Jeannie always make faces when you take a picture of her? She is so funny! Our dad is like that too, only I don't think he does it to be funny; he just has really bad timing...
... every time I look at this picture it makes me laugh out loud!

Jump

Here is a layout I did of some pictures I took last summer at a friend's house.

Angry Fruit Face

Frana didn't think I'd actually post this...