I have to be up WAY early for a closing tomorrow morning and I’m pretty sure I’m coming down with strep throat from Paige & Corbin. I thought I’d missed out on that round since it seems like ages since I’d seen them before they got it but no such luck. I felt like crud most of the day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better but it’s midnight and here I sit just now signing off for the night.

I’ve been working on a LO that originally started out to replace the outdated bio page I have up at DDE but I’m thinking this may be a bit too freestyle to use for that now. Plus it’s not really a headshot type page which is typically what I think of when I think bio-page. We’ll see, maybe I’ll have to work on another for that use but this one was kinda fun to put together. Just a list of things that make me happy right now. Seemed like a good theme at the moment. I used mostly stuff from Gina’s Shabby Shack kit but had to use a couple things from her new office essentials kit when I saw her file folder and labels. Funny thing is I had created my own file folder with the same kraft paper for this LO and then got these goodies from Gina and liked her version much better. :)

And then I realized that I never posted the finished LO of Corbin from the other day. I posted it in the galleries but just not here on the blog and since I posted the unfinished version it seems only right that I post the finished one too. Plus he’s just so gosh darned cute. :)

Full Credits here

I got the BEST package in the mail today! I was so excited to get a pattern that Kim’s mom had made for me for the purse-making thing but had NO idea that Kim (aka OliveJuice) had made me a little sample with the pattern and it is the FUNNEST purse ever! I can’t wait to start making them myself but I’m so excited to have a special one made by one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met to start carrying right away. I switched all of my things over to it before I could even get these pictures. It’s sooo cute. I’ve got a couple of bags on order to finish up in the morning and then hopefully by tomorrow night I’ll get to play with the new pattern and see if I can figure it all out. FUN STUFF!! Thank you sooo much Kim! I know how super busy you are right now and it means alot to me that you’d take the time to try out the pattern for me and write up such great instructions (even with PICTURES). :) You’re the BEST!! Love ya darlin!!

How fun is that?!

…in case you ever cared to know them. :) First of all, I have to show you photos of what I believe to be the PERFECT public restroom. It’s in a little bakery/cafe here in town and although the bathroom alone is worth the trip, their sandwiches are also amazing. :)

This bathroom is beautiful. It’s always clean. There’s a separate room with a toilet with a solid cherry paneled door, beautiful tiled floor and walls with a pretty border and a gorgeous painting on the wall. The only thing missing are those handy disposable toilet seat covers but they keep it so clean in there you ALMOST don’t seem to need them.

That brings me to my first thought when it comes to public restrooms and a funny story to go with it. I am NOT a hoverer. I just can’t do it. I’m just not cut out for hovering above the toilet to pee. If you can do it successfully then more power to ya but if ya can’t please please PLEASE don’t try. There’s nothing worse to a non-hoverer than to use the restroom after a hoverer with horrible aim. UGH! Seriously!! Because I realize I’m not cut out to hover I choose instead to line the toilet seat with toilet paper (unless of course they have the wonderful disposable toilet seat liners available).

Funny story comes in when I got a phone call quite some years back from my sister Tammy saying ‘you’ll never guess what your Paige just did’. Well, I’d taken Paige to the bathroom (I believe at Red Lobster) just a week or so before this. She must’ve been JUST potty trained cuz she was only maybe 3 years old tops. Before sitting her on the toilet I carefully lined it with TP and she must’ve thought it was a fantastic idea because Tammy walked in on her in the bathroom at home and she had toilet paper everywhere trying to cover the toilet seat. When Tam asked her what on earth she was doing she simply told her she’d learned it from her Auntie Shawny. :) Guess I could’ve explained to her that at HOME it’s not necessarily as important. :)

Now, when it comes to designing a perfect restroom, there are a few simple things about placement that can make all the difference. Like the hook for our purses/jacket/etc. It should be in the center of the stall door about 2 feet from the top. That or on the side wall works too. NOT way at the top and certainly not right next to the edge where your purse can be seen through the space between the door and the stall partition. I’m protective of my purse and when you’re sitting on the toilet there’s not a whole lot you could do if someone decided it would be just too easy to grab it over the top of the door and waltz out of the restroom while you’re still pulling your pants up from around your ankles. Doesn’t take a genius. And it doesn’t cost any more money to put the same hook in a sensible position in the stall. Just a little pet peeve of mine. Probably one I’ve given a little TOO much thought to but I feel much better getting that out there. Maybe someone who reads this will actually be designing a public restroom and will make better choices because of this post. :)

Personally I hate those blower things to dry your hands. For one, it leaves you empty handed when reaching for the door handle to leave the restroom. We all know there are people who leave the restroom in a hurry without taking the time to wash their hands. Probably those careless hoverers most of ‘em. There should always be paper towels and the best dispensers are the ones without the pumpy handle thingys. You just washed your hands, why do you wanna touch something everyone else has touched just before you wipe them dry?! And then the garbage can should be close enough to the exit so that I can use the paper towel when I open the door to leave and then toss it in the garbage as I’m walking out of the restroom. Again, doesn’t cost more money to put the garbage can in a convenient position for optimal restroom sanitation practices. :)

Just my humble opinions of course. Don’t mean to offend all the hoverers of the world. Some of you are probably very good at it. And huge thanks to Leeandra for humoring me by locking ourselves in the perfect public restroom so I could snap some photos. She even did a LO about it that you can check out here. Did ya ever think you’d see a LO about a public restroom? Or an entire blog post? LOL

I have tons of things just waiting to be blogged about but have been spending my free time finishing up some purse orders and have actually been getting to bed at a reasonable time all week so the computer time has been rather limited. I did start on this LO earlier in the week. Hopin to maybe finish it tonight. Here’s a peek since (once again) I always like to see other scrappers works in progress. Sorta gives an insight into how LOs come together and it seems to be so different from person to person. Kinda interesting to me so hopefully it is to you too. :) I’m thinking journaling along the right there or some sort of clever title. The pictures are actually from a year ago now but I’ve always wanted to scrap them & I was in the mood to try a Beans page but I struggle with the boy pages since most of the neats happen to be girls. I used Michelle’s new All American kit.

I also have to share a new blog that Nancy pointed out over at the DST forums. It’s a blog by Melody of the Chatterbox paper line. If I were a paper scrapper I think Chatterbox would be my favorite stuff to use. Well, apparently not only is Melody an amazing artist & businesswoman in the scrapping industry but personally I think she’s missed her calling as an inspirational writer. I couldn’t stop reading post after post. The post that Nancy had linked to over on DST is about depression and something I think everyone should read. Whether you or someone you know has dealt with depression or not. I think it speaks to scrappers very specifically about "Leaving Out the BAD, SAD or MAD Parts of the Story" and just us as humans in general about understanding the disease of depression. There were troubles with typepad yesterday but you can still find the post HERE. There were two other posts that particularly inspired me. This one about slowing down to enjoy life and this one about the courage of a little blackberry bush. There are SO many more inspiring posts that I couldn’t possibly list them all. To my sister Manda, if you’re cutting down on blog reading I think it’s okay to add this one. :)

Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned it in a post here yet but you may have noticed that I added the new music player awhile back. I was concerned about the issues that people were apparently having with the videos I used to play and finally figured out how to use the wimpy player to open up in it’s own window. So now you can listen to some great tunes and surf to other blogs or make comments without it restarting each time (or worse yet locking up your computer). I’ll be changing the playlist soon but for now I’ve got some of my current favs on there and the first one is actually the song that I used the lyrics for a LO in my previous post (in case you wanted to hear how beautiful it sounds with music). Probably my other favorite song in the playlist right now would be Elisa’s – Rock your Soul. Love her voice, love the title – great stuff!

Kay, long post here. Guess that’s what happens when I go a week without posting. I have been doing the pilates though so I’ve gotta post my progress for the week so far. I’m loving the new Winsor pilates dvd with the power circle. Highly recommend it. I’m gonna get mom hooked on the original dvd’s and I know my sister Tam already does pilates so maybe we can get a family challenge going. My goal is to do it at least 4 times a week. I’d actually love to do it every day but aren’t there about a hundred other things I’d love to do if I could just get that 27-hour day thing figured out. :) So I found a couple images to use to post here when I work out (idea from carrie colbert’s blog from awhile back) so if anyone wants to join me on a blog exercise challenge we can keep track that way. Haven’t had a chance to read much on Melody’s fitness challenge yet but maybe it could fit into that too. :) So I’m posting 2 images for Monday & Tuesday this week. Yesterday I got right into sewing and actually was at Hobby Lobby waiting for them to open their doors at 9 am and this morning I got right into some heavy house cleaning & laundry so I’ve missed 2 days but I’m planning to get right back into it tomorrow morning and should still be able to get in my 4 times this week. :)

I’ve been busy busy sewing and working on websites but I’ve actually taken a little time to scrap over the past week. Usually after midnight but who needs sleep anyway right?! Got more fabric in for purses on order so that’ll keep me busy this next week. And also working the 2-job thing again this week and getting ready for Leeandra’s visit this weekend so this will probably be the last scrappin’ I’ll do for awhile.

This first LO I finished actually this morning and haven’t even posted in the galleries yet. It’s inspired by this LO by Jamie Waters and I used Jen’s Country Carnivale kit & her glitter line and the painting brush strokes are from Nancie’s Digital Distressing kit and staples by Michelle Coleman.

And this one I finished the other night. I’ve had the idea for this LO in my head for about a month now and finally put it together. It’s lyrics from a song by Natalie Grant called ‘the real me’. I kinda feel like this one’s a little raw to be sharing online but then I thought, when it comes down to it, I’m pretty sure everyone has at one time or another felt this way about things. You can find the credits HERE except for the gorgeous blue butterfly which I think I searched for 2 hours to find back the night I finished the LO. If anyone knows who’s it is please leave a comment here so I can give proper credit. I thought about just removing it since I couldn’t figure out who to credit but the LO just isn’t the same without it.

And then this last one I don’t think I ever shared here but I actually finished it about a week ago with Gina’s new Shabby Shack kit. I believe everything is by Gina from DDE but you can find the full credits on this one HERE.

And then the other night I ordered the new Mari Winsor pilates with the pilates circle and I’ve decided that I need to get back into working out in the morning. I haven’t been doing it for months even though I always feel so much better when I do. So, since I love my regular mari winsor dvd’s, I figured this new one with the circle would give me the extra push to get going again. I’m such a sucker for an info-mercial and this seemed like a great deal at $10 for a new workout routine. :) So to keep me motivated I think I’m going to post some type of symbol or pilates pose picture each day that I do the workout. If someone knows of a good place to find that sort of thing for a blog let me know. I think Shari had a fun one at one time. I found a couple pictures that could work but it’s gotta look cool to make me wanna post it on my blog at least a few times a week. And a symbol might be nice cuz I could post a few next to eachother if I do my pilates 2 or 3 times but don’t post to my blog until a few days later. So that’s the plan. If you don’t see a pilates character in my posts in the next week make sure you give me grief. :)

Have a happy 4th everyone! :)