Day 5 & Day 6 of 30 Day Gratitude Photo Challenge

Day 5: Knowledge

I was sick! I felt off Saturday and at times on Sunday I felt downright bad but didn't think I was sick.  Then on Monday I woke up with a terrible headache, body aches and a low grade fever ..... so the flu hit my house.  I felt pretty bad.  So I looked up all my symptoms (really just to say I told you so to my husband) in the WebMD app.  It's a pretty good app and I have to say having that knowledge at my finger tips is nice.  So anyway because I felt so bad yesterday I didn't blog.

Day 6: Memories

I am a scrap booker.  I've always scrap booked even as a child before I really knew what it was.  So this is a bookshelf in my craft room and all those are scrapbooks I have done over the years.  They start in my elementary years and go to 2010 (I am about 2 years behind in current scrap books).

Fun with Instagram

I know I have posted about the fact that I love the Instagram app for my iPhone.  But I seriously do love it.  I find myself taking pictures of everyday things but it makes them new to me.  So here is a selection of the last week or so.  It also gives you snapshot of what I did for the last week.

 

 

 

Handful of stars for a baby mobile for my good friend Meg.

Two weeks ago my friends and I hosted a baby shower for a good friend and I of course wanted to make her a mobile but seeing as she is having a boy the flower mobile was out.  So I had been forming a star mobile in my head and so I cut up all the paper for it.  I made some of the smaller stars so she could see what it would look like.  I took the bigger sheets of paper to the shower and had all the guests write blessings for the baby on them.  I thought it was a nice way to put some good energy into the mobile.

My scrapbooking table at my weekend scrapping getaway!

Last weekend I went to a beach retreat scrapbooking weekend with two of my very best friends.  We spent all weekend scrapbooking and just having good girl time.  We did leave the hotel on Saturday night to go out to a nice dinner.

My awesome friends & fellow scrapbookers!

My lovely friend Meg & Me.

I have been trying to make myself go to bed earlier and when I do I am rewarded with this view from my bed.  I just love my star lantern,

The view of my star light from my bed.

I had started this star mobile almost a month ago and just had not had the time to finish it.  I decided I wanted to get it done so I could see what the finished mobile would look like.  I think it came out fantastic!!  It's much bigger than I had initially envisioned but I really liked it!  It was almost 3 1/2 feet long!

Brand new Star Mobile prototype!

Day 16 & 17 of 30 Day Photo Challenge: Gratitude

Day 16: Animals

I have already showed off a picture of my dog Frodo, so for the animal day I had to include our cat Rio.  She is 12 years old like Frodo.  We got both animals after we got married and moved into our condo.  Rio was a Hurricane Floyd survivor.  She and her brothers and sisters were tiny kittens who were rescued by firemen in the Triangle area where there was a lot of flooding.  The firemen had the kittens spayed /neutered, got them their shots and had them declawed.  My mom found out about them and asked us if we wanted a cat and we did.  So we got Rio (river in Spanish).  So named because of all the rivers that overflowed and cause the flooding that brought her to us.

Day 17: Memories

I am a scrapbooker.  So when I saw that the theme for today was memories I could not not show off one of my scrapbooks.  I just pulled a random scrapbook off the shelf and found a colorful page.  This happens to be the pages for when my grandparents came to visit and then just a week or two later my daughter Marley was born.

Ten on Tuesday

I'm back for those of you who missed me last week .... did I just hear crickets.  Yep I'm sure I did.  So for the one other person besides my mom who reads my blog I was in Walt Disney World last week for Thanksgiving with my family. It was so fun but also exhausting!!  As soon as I download my photos I will do a post about it.  But to download my photos I need to find the cable which is somewhere in a suitcase I have yet to unpack ..... so in the meantime enjoy a ToT!


1. Where are you from? Have you lived there your whole life?
I was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado but lived mostly in and around Boulder, Colorado as a child.  But then we moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina when I was about 8 for my father to finish up his post-doctorate work.  I lived in Chapel Hill until I went off to college at 18.  I moved to Wilmington, NC to attend UNCW and never left!

2. How would you classify your clothing style?
Casual.  Lately whatever is cheap and looks pretty good.

3. What kind of car do you drive?
Honda Odyssey mini van.

4. What would your dream home look like if you could have it (or already do!)?
I actually love my house.  That doesn't mean that there aren't a few hundred things I would love to do to it or change.  First off I would like to add an addition off the back to add a little extra space to my master bathroom and the kitchen.  I would also love new counter tops and cabinets in the kitchen.  I would like to extend the hardwood floors we have to all the rest of the downstairs and up the stairs too.  And lastly I want to add a bunch of built in bookshelves and cabinets to the craft room/living room.

5. Do you have kids, and if so, how many and how old were you when you had them?
I have 2 little rug rats.  Noa is 7 and I had him when I was 27.  My baby girl Marley just turned 3 yesterday!  So if you can't do the math I was 31 when I had her.

6. What is your favorite hobby?
Scrapbooking and going to movies.  I also like crafts in general and like to try new ones.

7. Are you going to have any New Year’s resolutions for 2011?
Nope.  I never keep my resolutions anyway.

8. What is something, if anything, that you’d want to change about yourself?
One thing??? More like several but I think I would like to try to be less harsh on my husband.  He tries his hardest but I don't give him enough credit most of the time.  I need to remember it may not be done the way I do it but at least it's done.

9. What is something that you love about yourself?
I will go out of my way to help a friend or loved one.

10. Pick one of the following: Someone to cook for you, someone to do your laundry, or someone to do your dishes.
Someone to do my dishes!!  I don't mind cooking and I actually like doing laundry but I hate doing dishes.  I especially hate it after I have just cooked a big meal.  

Tease...

Just a quick post to play catch up.  I spent all day Saturday scrapbooking with some great friends.  I got about 20 pages done which isn't bad for me.  And I am almost all the way through 2008.  Yes 2008 I am OVER a year behind in my family album.  I am Just about a year behind in Marley's.  I spent today catching up on the house and reorganizing our mail/junk pile situation.  It's almost under control (I just have to get my dear husband to put up the wall mail organizer we bought at Target today).

But on to my tease ... make sure you come back tomorrow because I will be doing a giveaway.  Yes I said giveaway.  I tried it once before but only for coupons so it wasn't a big hit.  But I will hint that it will NOT be coupons this time but something pretty and useful.  That's my hint for now.  So come on back tomorrow and find out what you will be getting a chance to win and how you can win.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Of your current hobbies, which would you choose to spend more time, money, and effort on? Why?
I would have to say scrapbooking.  I have not been as diligent about doing it as I should be.  Right now I am only scrapping at the big all day events I go to with my Creative Memories partners.  And that sadly is slowly getting less and less.  Our business is not doing well as of late which also effects how much I spend.  I am over a year behind in my books and that bugs me!
 
2. List the two other hobbies/habitual activies (not chores) besides the one listed above that you regularly do now and didn’t choose in question one.
Making frames and reading.

3. Why are you spending time on the above two hobbies/habitual activies at all if you really wanted to spend your time on the first one you chose?  …or to put it another way, what are these two hobbies/habitual activities fullfilling that the first one doesn’t if you don’t want to put all your effort into the first hobby?
Well I am trying to sell my frames and making them is a creative, relaxing outlet.  And I just love reading and again it's relaxing.  I guess scrapbooking has become somewhat stressful since I am behind in my albums and I am really worried about the business and my partners.


4. Read John 3:16 in the bible… In what way does this passage affect you?  What are your feelings towards these words, positively or negatively?
Ok I am agnostic.  This means that I believe in a higher power but not any specific god or religion.  So I don't have a bible in my house (if I do I have no clue where it would be).  So I have no clue what John 3:16 is about.

5. M&M’s: nuts, no nuts, or peanut butter?
Plain old M&M's!!!

6. Putting away the feeling of pride being a bad thing; what secretly/openly are you proud about yourself?
I am proud of my children's behavior (for the most part) in public.  I think I have/am doing a pretty good job raising polite, well mannered kids.

7. Given one room in the house to do with what you want, not changing the actual size of the room and with all the money you would need, what would you do, and be specific? 
I want to redo my master bathroom.  It's a plain old bathroom and my old condo had a fabulous one I miss a lot.  So I would like to reconfigure the space and put in a corner, jetted, soaking tub and tile the whole thing (floors & walls).

8. What’s the next movie you’re going to see?  Not what you’d LIKE to GO see, but the next movie you realistically are going to watch.



Either Alice in Wonderland or The Bounty Hunter

9. Use the keyboard only and make your best smiley/funny/cool face –> like this! 8^)
>8-)

10. What makes you cry? What makes you pray? What makes you laugh?
I am an easy crier so .... sad movies, injustice, my kids in pain are sure bets.
I don't pray perse but I send good thoughts and usually this goes along with finding out someone is sick or needs help.
My husband, my kids, The Big Bang Theory, Two and Half Men.

Crafty crafty

March is National Crafting Month, I didn't have a clue until I saw it posted on one of my friend's Facebook status messages (thanks Candy!).  I consider myself purdy darn crafty if I do say so myself.  I have store on Etsy and I get some commissions for frames (ok so it's family doing the commissions but it still counts).

 My most recent commission my Sister-in-law requested for her friend's new baby boy

I scrapbook, decoupage, make candles and other crafts that cross my fancy.  I have tried quilting (even made a baby quilt once), sewing (made the curtins in my son's room), and knitting (really failed with this one!).  So when I realized that tomorrow was the day all the kids at my son's school could go to school dressed as their favorite Dr. Seuss character because this week was Dr. Seuss' birthday, I thought no big deal I'm crafty!! Ha!  Well my son wanted to be the Grinch.

I knew we didn't have a Santa hat let alone a child sized Santa suit nor does he have a green shirt or pants.  And considering I am no seamstress that option was out.  His next choice was the Cat in the Hat.

Simple enough he has black pants and a shirt.  I whipped out a red bandana to use as the bow tie and we were gonna make the hat but as soon as my son saw the bandana and the cat ears he had put on in the mirror he decided it was just too embarrassing.  So after some arguing about how the cat ears and bandana bow tie looked fine, I gave in and started looking on the internet for ideas.  I came across a picture with a bunch of Dr. Seuss' charters together and saw Horton for Horton Hears a Who.

I then suddenly remembered we have a Horton board game that comes with a Horton mask you wear to pick up clovers.  So as soon as I mentioned that he was happy.  He has a Horton mask and clover to wear to school and not be really embarrassed by his mother's lack of crafting ability.