My lens was very kind to me. My roots seem far more obvious when I’m curling my hair in the morning so I’m hoping this better represents how they look to the rest of the world. Thank goodness I get them colored tonight and cut since pigtails is about the only decent looking option lately and it’s not exactly appropriate for work. This is just one of about 130 photos from last night including some amazing shots of our dinner at Marro’s that are worthy of a scrap page all their own. Y-u-m!

And the other night I hauled out my wacom to do check marks for a LO I was working on. It’s one of only a handful of times I’ve used it since I got it probably 2 years ago now so I decided to look it up and see once what they’re selling on ebay for now days and decided holy smoley what do I need to keep this thing around for if I rarely ever use it. I think I’d probably use it a ton more if I used a desktop to scrap on but I sit on a love seat with my laptop and usually a dog sleeping next to me so there’s not a lot of room for it. I’m sure I had some grand plans to create digital elements or something to sell online but that idea never really took off. SO, since I HATE ebay and I know a majority of my blog readers are digi-scrappers and graphic designy type people I thought I’d first post it here in case anyone is interested. It’s the 6 x 8 size with all the extra bells and whistles of the intuos line of tablets and is in like-new condition (which is sad really). It sells new for over $300 so for $200 it’s a steal and includes everything pictured here plus a disk with all it’s drivers and everything you need to get set up using it. If anyone is interested just email me or comment here and maybe I won’t have to go through the trouble of figuring out how to list it on ebay. :)

Update: the Wacom tablet sold on Saturday to Nina in Norway. I’ll be shipping it to you right after work today Nina. :)

I’ll be having my niece and nephew overnight tonight (after the haircut and color) and maybe going to see the movie Shrek. Hopefully lunch at Fazoli’s tomorrow. :) And then I’ll be busy sewing in the studio quite a bit the rest of the weekend. Working on some fun new designs and finishing up a couple orders. I’ll be posting in the boutique again on Monday and I thought I’d offer free shipping again on any orders for the bags that are currently listed. If you’re interested in any of them just email me or leave a comment here and I’ll get back to you right away. :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wow, 2 posts in one day. I realized after my post this morning that I missed a few things. First I noticed that I forgot to mention a great summer wardrobe. My winter wardrobe was getting boring and needed some serious help but as I’m pulling out stuff from the back of the closet I’m remembering that I had a pretty decent collection of summer clothes. Makes me happy. :)

And then my sister Kimberly started her very own blog. I’ve thought for a long time that she totally should have her own blog but never even suggested it because she’s so not the type to hop on a trendy bandwagon but lo and behold she decided on her own to start one. I’ve gotta work on a banner for her maybe later tonight to spruce it up a bit and I’m sure I’ve got a few recent photos of her girls for her to post but go check out her new blog and say hi. You’re gonna love ‘er to bits ‘n pieces. :)

Kay, break over, back to work and then SO looking forward to hanging out in Saugatuck tonight. Hopefully my next post will have some photos in it. Kills me to post here without any. I’ll leave you instead with a little music I’m lovin’ at the moment. Okay, so I always love Ari Hest but Holding On seems to be favorite song lately. :)

Life has still been a rollercoaster for me lately. I wanted to blog while I’m at the top of one of the hills or on my way up and put out there some of the things that are making me happy at the moment. These are just a few of the good things:

Fresh vacuum lines in the carpet (LOVE that)

A clean refridgerator

Flowers on my porch (still look so great out there & I’ve been watering every day)

2 new tables for my living room (my tv & lamp won’t have to live on the floor anymore)

An apartment that I love and feel safe in. Last night I took the dogs for a walk at midnight to drop off my rent check and it’s so peaceful here. (Add to the good things list having enough money to pay the rent) :) Plus I’ve got great neighbors. There’s a young girl who loves playing with Pixel. And then there’s Kendra next door who adores Pixel so much that when her mom from out of town was visiting she told her all about Pixel and when I walked outside with her the other night her mom was leaving and stopped the car and jumped out and exclaimed ‘PIXEL!!!’ Apparently she’s the talk of the neighborhood already. :) But the apartments have such a community feeling and I LOVE that.

This story had Jill and I laughing hysterically. We were busy setting up Jill’s Etsy store so that she can start posting bags any time. I’ll be adding a link to the sidebar to it later today. :) She’s been doing some FUN applique bags and by request some BIG bags that would be great for taking to the beach this summer. Anyway, the story totally shouldn’t have been funny but we have a tendency to laugh at the most inappropriate things (especially in movie theatres). Check out the news story though. You won’t believe it. Thank goodness the guy wasn’t hurt in any way. Yikes!! LOL

This gallery that is just full of amazing scrapbook pages (paper and digital – although not nearly enough digital so get postin’ girls). For an inspirational gallery on sterhoids check out the catwalk. Such great stuff in there. I love that when you hover over a LO it expands so you can see it better. I keep hovering over LOs in other galleries expecting that to happen now. LOL Also love that when I add favorite scrappers to my list it lets me know every time I log in if they’ve posted anything new. They’ve done such a great job designing this site.

Scrapping again. It’s been a long time but it feels great to get back into the digi-scrapping again.

Sewing again. Really enjoying spending time in the studio sewing lately. Mostly been working on orders but will be posting more bags hopefully this weekend. Fun stuff in the works and gorgeous fabrics to play with. :)

Great audio books to listen to while sewing. Listening to 3 actually at the moment and kinda surprised how easy it is with audio to just listen to a chapter or 2 of one and then switch. I guess because if I were actually reading a book I can’t imagine hopping from one to another and back and forth. So far of the 3 I’m listening to I’m finding Rob Bell’s Sex God most interesting. Sounds much more scandalous than it really is. LOL It’s actually much less about sex than you would think. I found myself quickly scribbling down quotes that struck me from it though. One that hit me that seems to be a theme that keeps coming back in my life is this one. He says:

"Repressing and stuffing and refusing to acknowledge never works, whether it’s a friend or a group of piers or a priest or a pastor or a counselor we have to get it out. You are not alone, whatever you struggle with, whatever you have questions about you are not alone. It doesn’t matter how dark it is or how much shame or weakness or regret it involves, you are not alone. Some of the most comforting words in the universe are "me too". That moment when you find out that your struggles is also someone elses struggle. That you’re not alone and that others have been down the same road."

Doing pilates again. Although rather challenging with a puppy who thinks you’re trying to play as soon as you’re on the floor.

Pixel - a bundle of energy half the time and driving me nuts but my sister watched her for a day and a half this past weekend and man did I miss her like crazy. She really is a great dog but that puppy stage can be a challenge at times. I’ve gotta get more pictures of her today ‘cuz she’s starting to grow.

Getting my hair cut and colored. Not yet but I’ve got enough $$ left after the rent that I don’t have to wait till next week so I’ve put in a call to my miracle worker hairdresser and I can’t WAIT to get a new ‘do. You know it’s pretty bad when I’ve been trimming my own bangs. She probably won’t be too happy about that. A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do though. :) I’m loving what I can see of this (cute shirts too). Hard to tell from the cropped photo but it reminds me of a waitress at one of my favorite restaurants that I wanted to photograph the last time we were there. Definitely want to still be able to wear pig tails this summer but looking for something a little fun and different. I’ll keep ya posted. :)

Been accomplishing alot this week which feels good. Taking better control of my life and figuring out what that means for me. Some things I’d like to accomplish by the end of the week:

Clean car inside and out

Paint new tables for living room

Thoroughly clean master bath

Spend more time in studio (sewing & listening to more books)

Keep scrapping

Take more photos

Take a long walk or two

Focus on the puppy training (might take you up on the advice offer Audrey) :)

Kay, off to work today and then to one of my very favorite little nearby towns for some great food, hopefully some great pictures if the weather holds and maybe some celebrity spotting at the film festival. The sun is shining, there’s a nice breeze. It’s gonna be a great day. I can feel it. :) Hope everyone’s having a great week.

I picked up this planter last night that my mom painted for me and she surprised me by filling it with flowers. She always has the most gorgeous baskets of flowers around their house so hopefully I’ll be able to keep these growing nicely like she does. It’s definitely brought some much needed sunshine to my otherwise empty deck. Thanks mom SO MUCH!

After picking up the planter Jill came over and we had dinner and hung out with Pixel and watched ‘So You Think You Can Dance’. It’s not my favorite part of the show but still fun. We didn’t do any sewing so no shirt to show here yet but we did get pics of some new purses to post in the boutique so I’ll be updating that later today.

Gotta get into work this morning so I can pay the rent. :) Tonight is dinner at one of my favorite restaurants (not sure which one yet) and then go see the movie fracture again before it’s no longer at the theatre. Then camping up north tomorrow thru Sunday so I’ll have a long drive to hopefully do a little scrapping on and then tons more photo opportunities for future material. Hopefully the rain holds off. :)

Happy Friday all!

 

I did it. I finished a page. :) I think I’m finally starting to feel like a digi-scrapper again. Pretty exciting stuff. The page isn’t anything fantastic and quite honestly it’d be totally lame if I didn’t have Nancy’s fun frame templates to start with. She has completely transformed my scrapping style and pulled me out of my 1 photo per page rut. They worked so perfectly for these photos of me and pixel on our first LONG weekend hanging out. And I’ve already got two more LOs in the works using more of her frames. So great to be scrapping again. I can’t believe how much I missed it. So here’s the first of hopefully a FEW finished LOs for this week. :)

Credits here

Gotta finish getting ready and head into work and maybe pick up a planter that my mom so sweetly painted for me so maybe this weekend I can add some flowers to my sunny deck. Now if only the weather would be more like may/june instead of july/august so I could enjoy sitting out there more often. Have I mentioned how much I hate 86 and humid? Ugh!

Oh and tonight my best friend Jill is coming over. Have I talked about the shirt I made myself this weekend?! I don’t think I have. Well, I made a top that should’ve been SO cute. Perfect Amy Butler fabric, shirring, just too cute. Well it’s way too small. I’d never shirred before and clearly I should’ve practiced on crummy fabric instead of my favorite stuff but Kim gave me some pointers and I’m excited to give it a shot again. I’m sewing my own clothes, how geeky is that. LOL OR we could pretend I’m a fashion designer. I think we’ll look at it that way. :) Anyway, if I get it finished maybe I can have Jill take some pics.

On my to-do list between work and hanging out with Jill and sewing is also finally finishing up responses to e-mails and comments. I really am terrible about that so if you’re still waiting please don’t take it personally. Also need to update the boutique with some new bags and take down a few that have sold. Watch for that maybe tomorrow morning.

Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

 

edited to add: thanks for all the sweet comments about my toes. LOL Haven’t gotten a pedicure in I don’t even know how long but summer or winter they’re ALWAYS painted. I was actually kinda bummed that I hadn’t done a fancy french pedicure on myself before taking photos of my feet. In case anyone’s interested (cuz it’s so hard to find the perfect color) it’s ‘all the berry best’ by OPI which reminds me I should probably pick up another bottle for summer. :)

Kay, first off Leeandra I know you’re here looking for an anniversary post. I lost almost the entire post Monday night and have since been trying to decide whether it’s something I really want to post here with a handful of people looking to find fault in anything I might say in regards to my failed marriage. Have I mentioned here specifically that I have a failed marriage? Yup I do. Oddly though I probably never mentioned that I had a marriage at all so maybe that gives insight into how long it’s been a failing marriage. Anyway, I may change my mind later but for now it’s just not something I want to discuss here. That being said, I do want to mention that I have nothing bad to say about my ex. I think one of the most important things about the post I had originally written was that I am extremely grateful for the way he has handled the separation. Quite frankly I’m not sure I could’ve emotionally dealt with it had he handled the past few months the way anyone else would’ve expected him to. I think it’s a true example of God not allowing you to go through any more than you can handle. We make far better friends than we ever did husband and wife. Anyway, somehow that condenses about 6 paragraphs of rambling into 1 but for now that’s all I have to say here about the 14th anniversary of the day I said ‘I do’. 

So, moving onward because that pending post and a LO I had been working on has prevented me from posting about pretty much anything else. Probably 6 months to a year ago, amidst the chaos of life, I mentioned posting a list of my tags that I use in ACDSee. Have you bought this program yet? I haven’t talked about it in awhile but I still love it so much. So the following is the list of categories I use for tagging my scrapping supplies. This is the list that works for me. It depends alot on how you scrap and what types of elements you use most so you may want to use this as a starting point and add or remove categories from there. I sort my kits as I download them into folders by designer/store so I don’t use the tagging system to attach designer names. I know some people do that as well but for me it just hasn’t seemed necessary. Tagging all of my supplies really didn’t take nearly as long as I thought and I’ve done a pretty good job keeping it up. I can’t even imagine scrapping again without this program. If you have any questions about any of the categories as far as what types of things I put in it, etc just hollar. Any other questions about how I use the program I’ll try and answer here too. :)

 

Other than that I had a long memorial day weekend. Usually they go by too fast but for me this one seemed like it went on too long. Got a lot of fun pics of pixel and our activities and have a scrap page almost finished with those so I’m sure I’ll be posting that soon. The highlight of our weekend was going to the Memorial Day parade and having brunch with my best friend Jill’s family. Other than that my car didn’t leave the garage from Friday night thru Monday morning. Pixel and I really need to get a life. We spent much of the weekend doing this…

Kay, got a couple ladies coming over to the apartment tonight to pick up some boutique stuff and do a little digi-scrapping related fun stuff. Hopefully I can finish up that ‘weekend in the life of Pixel’ LO and get that posted later and start one of a few others I’ve got floating around in my head.