Mango Island

Happy LOST day!

If you are a die hard Lostie like I am you are probably juiced about the premiere tonight. 

I.cannot.wait. 

Making a come back

Hey folks! It's me, the stranger. It's been awhile, yes I know. Life is still pretty crazy now with work consuming pretty much all my time. Like I said before that makes for no motivation in my craft room. But motivation struck me last night! I want to do a few Valentine's cards so I actually rummaged through some supplies and are now ready to work on them. Yay!

I was planning on staying up late last night to finish a digi LO I started two weeks ago but by the time I got Joey to bed it was already after 10 so I decided to watch Sense and Sensibility instead. I love Jane Austin's stories, though I have never been able to tkeep up with reading the books. Hopefully I'll be able to work on a few cards today and will pull an all-nighter tonight to finish that LO. 

I really need to get into the habit of just posting even though I don't have anything significant to post about. I have blogger's fear sometimes, I guess. Ok, and maybe a little laziness. :D But enough excuses right? Like the Nike commercial- Just do it!

I've got a couple house chores I need to take care of before I can start working on these cards. Have a great weekend!!

Peace.

New year, new banner

I thought that it was finally time to get a new banner designed now that the holidays are done and it's the 16th of January and all. The supplies are mainly from one of my fave designers, Lauren Reid. This kit is probably one of my all time faves that I consistently use all the time. 

Just checking in. I've been super busy with work- this last 2 weeks working really long hours- but since I've been doing a few design things I think i actually want to do an all nighter tonight to work on a LO. Designing is like working at the gym... It definitely refreshes you.

That's it for now. Sorry I haven't been checking in as often. But hopefully you'll be able to see some goodies from me real soon.

Peace.

Post New Years

It's 5 days after the New Years and I am proud to say that I am sticking to my resolutions. Are you? Remember to take it one day at a time.

What have I been up to since New Years? One word: Work. Typically the beginning of the year is such a busy time for me so I will try my very best to keep in touch here and there and hopefully be able to keep up with the many blogs I follow on my Google reader, but bare with me. :)

On another note, I have restarted Project 365 this year since I failed miserably last year. My focus is to not focus so much on scrapping these pictures but just telling the story through pictures. So I am in the process of setting up a new blog specifically for pictures. Are any of you doing Project 365 this year? The problem I faced last year was I wanted to put too much into the LO which took away from telling the story. I realized that I don't need fancy elements on my pages- just the pictures.

Well, lunch time is over so I need to get back to work. Till next time.

Peace.

Time to exhale

Hi blog. Oh how I've missed you so. I know. I've neglected you for several weeks. I'm sorry, but work has been kicking my buttocks. It still is, but I get the next 9 days to do everything but work. So I will fill you with laughter, some goodies, and some crafting. Thank you for hanging in there. I love you. :D

So since I have the next 9 days off I have a few things planned to keep me busy:

• Start on the 2 Twilight swaps I joined
• Catch up on some Sketchy Thursday challenges
• Make some crafty gifts
• Clean the house
• Do a couple of Log Your Memory LO prompts
• Shopping!
• Catch up on some blogs
• Watch the rest of Season 1 and possibly start on Season 2 of Heroes, my new fave show
• Watch the many girly movies I have saved on my DVR
• Have lunch with my best girly and watch New Moon for the 3rd time

I'm sure I won't complete all of these but I'm aiming high. Well, I better go make some use of my time!

Peace.

December is supposed to be a quiet month

 

It's been awhile since I've last posted and honestly, I've been avoiding my blog. Not really on purpose but the reality is my life is super busy right now with work being mad crazy. December is traditionally a slow month, work wise, but this year I am finding that anything and everything is falling on my lap while I am struggling to complete several major projects by year end. I'm overwhelmed at the moment, which means I have no motivation to scrap or blog. 

Just wanted to check in to let you know I'm still here. Hopefully by taking the week of Yule off I will be more relaxed and you'll see more fun stuff from me. I'm trying to keep up with your blogs still but haven't had time to comment. 

Thanks for checking in! Back to work. :|

Peace.

You can do it!

You've eating more food than you care to admit this Thanksgiving. You want to get to the gym but you feel like Homer Simpson and are struggling. I'm here to tell you that you can do it! Don't get Homer Simpson on me. If you need some incentive to go I'll tie the donut to the treadmill if you need me to. :D

*It's starting to look a lot like Yule*

What a week! I feel like I was a SAHM this week because I got so much stuff done. Ok, having 4 days off helped immensely. With it being the holidays I really kicked it into gear and Yulized the house. The holidays are my favorite time of year and not because of the gift giving or receiving, but it puts me in a cheerful mood decorating the house and putting up the tree.

BTW- We call it Yule in our house instead of Christmas. Yule is more traditional from the ancient days and actually pre-dates the Christian holiday of Christmas. It symbolizes celebrating the winter solstice, the earth, the seasons. I could go on and on about why we celebrate Yule but I have fun things to share with you instead.

I have tons of photos to share today, including the projects I made from Kayla Aimee's DIY Holiday class.

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With the success of the gingerbread cookies Joey and I made the other week I decided it was time to do sugar cookies. Joey didn't enjoy the gingerbread cookies too much but he sure did love the star and tree sugar cookies. He's becoming quite the baker. 

Joey is quite the carpenter. We picked up this wooden train you can paint and put together. He loves doing this kind of work. We think he's going to be an engineer someday because he loves seeing how things work.

I had a 30% off coupon to Beverly's craft store so I picked up some supplies for one of my projects I made today. See further down for what I made with these!

Thank goodness for Trader Joe's .99 advent calendars filled with chocolate. Joey loves these. he paraded around the house all day today with the "countdown calendar" in tote. I told him he could open it up on garbage day, which he knows is Tuesday. I think the anticipation is killing him. LOL

I love Trader Joe's, not only for their wonderful food selection but also their flower section. I picked up winter berry and tulips to beautify the home. As of this last spring I made myself a commitment to have fresh flowers in the house at all times. Thank you Trader Joe's for your unique flower assortment!

Since December 1st is right around the corner I had to make sure I took pictures of the kids today so I can get started on our Yule cards. Joey's idea of smiling for the camera is having his mouth wide open. Crazy kid! I think I'll use the other one, but Miss Akela wishes I would wrap her up in Yule lights with Joey holding on to the lights instead... good idea, but maybe next year.

The hubby and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary (almost 11 years together) at Joe's Crab Shack. It was awesome! We both had a bucket of crab legs, about one pound each, to our heads. We already want to go back asap.

My friend and I went to go see New Moon for the 2nd time, which was so much better than the first time! I'm planning on seeing it a few more times in the theaters. Crazy, I know.

Now on to the good stuff! I have thoroughly been enjoying Kayla Aimee's DIY Holiday class. There are so many projects I have yet to make, but I do especially like what I've made thus far.

The reason why I signed up for her class was not only to make cute holiday projects (and you know me, I am ALL about projects- call me Martha) but the reason I really took the class was in hopes of making this curled tree. I absolutely love how it turned out. Instead of a star on top I opted for this cute glittered bird that I got from Michaels. I'm thinking I'm going to have to make another one real quick. And yes, these are pages from a book.

That says it all. It wasn't a book I was fond of anyways. LOL

The brown tree is a creation of my own. In the next few days I will post a tutorial on how to make this cute tree. yes, those are pins holding folded pieces of ribbon on the tree. I am quite pleased with how this turned out.

The glittered tree is another DIY Holiday project using more book pages. I got really messy with glitter on this, but it was worth it.

The frame is yet another DIY Holiday project and probably my fave after the curled tree. You can use pins to hold up your pics. I'm keeping this one for myself but will make more as gifts.

Last, but not least, our Yule decorations. We got our Yule tree today and it's bright and pine smelling in our house. I love it!!

Well, it's late and I must get to bed. I hope you enjoy the pictures and crafts and had a fantastic Thanksgiving.

Peace.    

There are so many things I am thankful for

Supplies: Heart of Thankfulness, Sugarplum Paperie, The Digi Chick

Today is Thanksgiving Day and what's more appropriate than doing a post on what I am grateful and thankful for. I am thankful for:

• having the most wonderful husband. He's an awesome father and puts up with my wackiness.
• my kids, though they sometimes drive me crazy they are the joy of my life.
• my parents who raised me through some tough times and provided for me to the best of their abilities.
• having a job so that I can provide for my family.
• the friends I have who are the best.
• having the creativity bug that allows me to stay sane.
• my health. 
• having an open mind. This has opened me up to so many things, possibilities, and experiences. 
• the Twilight saga. I know, this sounds pretty crazy, but reading the books have changed my life. It is renewed my youthfulness.
• music that fills my life with so many emotions. 
• books that allow me to learn new things about our world and the world as it once was.

I am grateful and thankful for so many things. Take 10 minutes and jot down what you are thankful for. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Hopefully you didn't get down on too much food!

Peace.

Been hiding under a rock

 

I've been MIA. Have you noticed? 

I didn't do last week's Weekly Rewind. Last week was such a blur and honestly I'm sure you didn't want ANOTHER post on my New Moon ramblings because that would pretty much be what Weekly Rewind was going to be about. Now that the New Moon high has somewhat dwindled down I can return to the normal programming schedule called life.

What have I been up to you ask? Well, because I love lists here's a list of what has been preoccupying my time:

• Finalizing the last few bios for the DT bio page of Unscripted Sketches. Doing bios for 9 designers is a lot of work! 
• With the holidays right around the corner I've been crafting away through a DIY Holidays class from Kayla Aimee. This girl has mad skillz. 
• After making these holiday cards 2 years ago to sell to my friends and family, after much delay I finally set up my Etsy shop so I can spread the joy!
• Catching up on old blogs and following new blogs. I plan on doing a follow up blog post with some of my fave blogs.
• I'm in 2 Twilight swaps- one charm and one ATC. I've been trying to find something to use as the charm. I've looked on eBay, Etsy, jewelry making websites. I'm at a loss. Seriously. This is becoming more of a hassle than it might be worth. But I'm not giving up!

So this is what I've been up to in the last week. I'm so glad we have the 4 day weekend to catch up on things like house work. Oh joy. 

I'll be back tomorrow with a I am thankful post. Until then.

Peace.