Quick post and then I’m headed off to work. Finally finished up the gallery area of the website for Eclectic Whimsy Bags. Not even sure if I mentioned here what name we decided on but here’s the logo. Went with one of the variations from Eclectic Whimsy Designs that I’d come up with quite some time ago. The scrapping for hire website is still a work in progress but hoping to finish that up too in the next week or so. Between sewing bags, working on other areas of the bags site and holidays and once again working 2 jobs helping out at Zeeland Architectural for Kimmy. Never a dull moment.

Anyway, I’ll be posting more bags and hoping to finish up a couple more that are on order tonight while I wait for some fabric to come in for other orders. It’s looking like my weekend will be busy sewing but still really really enjoying it. I told Jill I could do this all day every day. Each purse is so fun to see come together and finally the website thing is starting to come easier to me too. Fun stuff.

If anyone is interested in a bag posted on the site just email using the link and most often if I get more than one order I either still have or can get fabric to create another of the same bag. Just email and I’ll get in touch to arrange payment and shipping. :)

So I got to see the new movie Lakehouse this week (great movie if you haven’t seen it yet) and I fell in love with Sandra Bullock’s haircut in the movie. I think for the most part it’s just the cut I have now grown out a couple of inches all over. My sister Manda posted on her blog this week that the trend in color is more natural so I’m actually thinking about getting an all over color like Sandra’s too. I’ve done a much more auburn color for as long as I can remember and probably for the past year I’ve had the underneath layers colored more of a chocolatey brown. Sounds crazy but it’s really quite subtle and it seems like I hear at least a couple times a week how much some random stranger loves my hair. After a year though it’s probably time for a change. Plus if I’m gonna do the ‘growing out’ thing which is usually torturous I might as well at least have some fun new color. Speaking of random strangers complimenting, do you do that? It always seems so sweet when someone does but for some reason I rarely do. I don’t even know why. Plenty of times I see a cute hairdo or outfit or a fun piece of jewelry on someone and rarely do I give out compliments like that even though I know how nice it is to hear those things. I think I’m gonna make it my goal to give a compliment a day this week. Not to family, friends or coworkers cuz I think I do that fairly often but to random strangers. I guess some days I don’t really come in contact with a random stranger but I’m gonna make a conscious effort when/if I do. :) Okay, got sidetracked there, back to the new do. I found some pictures online that I’ll probably take to Kelly (the friend who cuts my hair) this week or next. Actually she was in New York all this past week for some training and a hair show so who knows, maybe she’ll have an entirely different idea of what we should do with my hair. It’s gonna be pretty tough to talk me out of this one though. It just seems to fit my personality. I don’t like haircuts that look too ‘done’. I like the fact that it can be pulled back or styled a number of different ways. Is it not just a GREAT cut?! And again, if you haven’t seen the movie it really is excellent. And not JUST because Sandra Bullock has great hair. Keanu Reeves hair looks pretty awesome in it too. ;)

So I was trying to save money and go drugstore cheap on some beauty products the past few months and have discovered there are certain things that just aren’t worth saving a few bucks over.

First of all, skincare – I tried using some face soap that I’d had from before switching to beauticontrol when I ran out of the foaming face wash. BIG mistake. Finally ordered more of the wonderful foaming face wash along with some wet/dry face powder. That powder is amazing and right now I’m rationing crumbled pieces of it until the new order comes in. I hate the feeling of foundation so I usually put a tiny bit of concealer on any dark spots or under eye circles and then brush on this powder and it just evens everything out perfectly and lasts all day.

Now, my make-up routine consists of 3 (maybe 4) things. Powder (concealer when necessary), mascara and lip gloss. 99% of the time that’s it. On rare occassion a little eye shadow or bronzer on my cheeks. Of those 3 things, if I could only choose one it would be mascara. My FAVORITE mascara has LONG been Lancome. Quite pricey but after trying at least 4 different brands over the  past few months trying to find a cheap drugstore version I’ve discovered that when you factor in the number of times I’d REapply the drugstore mascaras because of flaking or smudging it’s gotta add up to the amount I pay for Lancome’s and apply once in the morning and it looks great all day. And ya gotta love gifts with purchase because along with the mascara I got a bag with all sorts of goodies including my new favorite lip gloss – Lancome Juicy Tubes in tickled pink. :)

And then there’s hair products. First of all, you’d think clean hair is clean hair and shampoo is shampoo but NOT SO. So many times I’ve run out of ‘the good stuff’ (my current fav is by Joico) and went a week or two using DH’s shampoo until I can get to the mall and it’s amazing to me how quickly I go from good hair days to bad. Took me a long time to figure this out thinking it had to be that I was in need of hair coloring or a cut but no, it’s quite often just a matter of bad shampoo. For me it can effect whether it holds a curl or even takes curl and that’s with a super duper hot curling iron.

I’m also one of those people who needs conditioner every day. Without it even my short style gets snarly and so dry looking. Once again I discovered a new favorite by getting it free with the purchase of something I needed anyway. Along with my old stand by, Paul Mitchel Fast Drying hairspray, I gotta have Kiwi hi.illuminator polish to give my hair that piecey and healthy shine look. Same stuff as my sisters use (texture shine) but it’s got a fun kiwi scent. Switched to it when they had a buy one get one offer a few months back & haven’t switched back. Well, this month it came with a free deeptreat masque and that stuff is amazing. I’ve been rationing it because once it’s gone I just can’t justify that kind of money on a daily conditioner but I can tell a huge difference from the days I use the masque to the days I use my regular (and still great) conditioners. It makes my hair incredibly soft and yet somehow still style-able which is a tough combination to pull off. I know it’s just a conditioner but I’m a girly girl and I get excited about that kind of stuff. :)

So there’s a little product review since I love hearing other real people’s reviews/suggestions for stuff like that and I had these recent discoveries to share. :)

Didn’t get much further on the LO I’m working on and I’m doing a bit more sewing this morning before heading to work this afternoon but hopefully tonight I’ll have a LO to share and more purse pictures to post. Another multiple post day. :)

I was checking the 2 peas board and amidst all the TOU drama going on there an introduction caught my eye and I have to say I am SO excited to see what this particular pea does with digital. Her paper LOs are AMAZING! I didn’t even make it back to comment on the 2 peas introduction thread because I got sucked into looking at all the beautiful LOs on her blog. I wouldn’t even know where to BEGIN commenting in her gallery. Every single LO is inspiring. Makes me want to scrap. Her name is Michelle and she goes by the name burberrygirl over at 2 peas. Check out her blog (I’ll be adding it to my favorites list soon) or her gallery at 2 peas. My personal favorite LO (of the moment) is Beach Experience. WOW!

AND, speaking of the 2 peas drama and coincidentally another scrapper from the OC, Shannon the great (my new name for her) has taken it upon herself to set up a fantastic new forum for digiscrappers to be able to talk openly about our hobby including links and mention of designers, new kits, other digiscrapping websites and resources, etc. Check it out HERE.

Kay, finally have the VIN#’s I needed to finish up some docs here at work. Then a quick stop at Hobby Lobby for some lining fabric and then home to do some more sewing and hopefully some burberrygirl-inspired scrapping. :)

Kay, waiting on a couple faxes at work so I thought I’d post some of the new music I’ve discovered recently. Well, some of it’s actually not that new but as NBC would say ‘it’s new to me’. If Dino helps me figure out my wimpy player I can add a few songs to a playlist soon. hint hint #2 Dino :) Can ya tell he’s the computer genius in the family? I’m not sure I ever would’ve stuck with digi-scrappin if it weren’t for him. So now I need to pick his brain so I can add a player on my blog that pops up in a different window so that as you surf you can listen to the music PLUS you’d have the choice to listen or not listen although I’m not sure why you wouldn’t cuz it’s SUCH good stuff. :) Kay, so here’s some of my new favs (in no particular order):

• Michael Tolcher – singer songwriter, kinda a groovy sound, laid back but fun
• Kate Havnevik – reminds me a little of Imogen Heap, lovin’ the song ‘Nowhere Warm’
• Elisa - Believe it or not I heard a song on ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ that I loved the sound of and had to look it up. The song was ‘Dancing’ and coincidentally I found out that she has a version of the song ‘Hallelujah’ that Lauren and I had been searching high and low for a few weeks back. Not the version we were looking for but she does have a beautiful voice.
• Decypher Down & The Turning – Both Christian rock bands with new CD’s and I’d never heard of either of them before. Maybe a little heavier than the radio stations I listen to will play. It seems rare for a Christian rock group to produce an album of the same quality that the bigger bucks of mainstream can produce but so far I’m impressed with both of these groups.
• Amos Lee – Lovin the song ‘Colors’. Pretty sure I found this one from Grey’s Anatomy. One of my favorite things about that show is the great music they seem to discover.
• Eric Hutchinson – May have mentioned this guy on the blog before but I’m lovin’ his piano playin’ singer songwriter style. Favorite song of the moment is ‘Breakdown More’

Also, music related, I’m workin’ on a LO using lyrics to the song ‘The Real Me’ by Natalie Grant from the same albums as the song ‘Held’ which Lauren recently did an AMAZING layout with. If you haven’t seen it you’ve gotta check it out.

And I’m still lovin’ Ari Hest, Imogen Heap, Michelle Featherstone and Marc Broussard. Those seem to get played over and over on the ipod. So that’s what I’m listening to while I wait for Chris & Elliot’s cd’s to come out. I’m sure I’ll find more in the meantime. :)

My sister Tammy suggested a couple books on our family blog about a month or so ago and I finally got them through Amazon. I didn’t realize when you do the super saver shipping that means they’ll hold the books in their warehouse for 2 weeks before shipping just so you decide next time around that it’s worth the $10 to get your order within a month. I went with Amazon because I wanted the CD version of one of the books (the other isn’t available in audio yet) because I have a half hour drive to work (hour round trip) and I figure I might as well use that time wisely. It’s the best way for me to give undivided attention to a book. So these are the books I picked up:

Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell and Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. Anyone wanna read with me? I know Lisa and I talked about reading Messy Spirituality together and I think at the moment I have that loaned out to someone ‘cuz I haven’t been able to find it the past couple weeks. Listening to the Velvet Elvis CD will be easy for me. Actually already listened to the first hour twice yesterday while sewing. Sitting down and taking the time to actually read Blue Like Jazz may take some accountability of some sort of reading group. I’m SO not a reader. I’ve read part of the first chapter though and was already sucked in by the style of writing. So, Lisa? Anyone? You can actually buy both books together at a great discount through Amazon. Although I’d highly suggest just paying the regular shipping fees rather than doing the super saver. Although … to get the free shipping I added my favorite kids book and already got use out of that reading it to my niece and nephew Saturday night before bed. :) It’s my FAVORITE kids book and I didn’t even own a copy until now.

Kay, that’s it for now. Back later with some new music discoveries. Gotta finish getting ready and head into work for the afternoon.