Remembering October 2009.

Umm... October was a VERY stressful month in 2009. You know how I know?! The ONLY photos I took were of HOUSES! LOL.

October 1st: Started loan process.

October 2nd: Pre-approval and house-hunting commenced. (Honestly, when our processor told us we could find a house that weekend and put in an offer that weekend, I pretty much told her she was NUTS! LOL.)

October 2nd-5th: We viewed TWELVE houses in FOUR days. Our realtor = AMAZING-NESS.

We first thought we were going to get this house, which we LOVED, but it was one block from a busy street AND railroad tracks (read: You could see them both from the backyard). It ended up that it wasn't even available for sale... the listing agent totally took us for a ride (our realtor was NOT happy with the listing agent's lack of ethics)... what a disappointment the house wasn't available. It had the MOST amazing scrap room (and backyard)... EVER.


When this fell through, we were crushed, but we were confident that it wasn't meant to be, and that we'd find something better!

October 4th: 10th and 12th houses (viewed by Jeremy and our realtor, while I was at work) were moved into the Top/Final Two. He loved the 10th house most (I got rid of the photos, darn it!), but he knew I'd love the 12th house most (I was in love, just by the photos)...



Seriously... how could I not love these beautiful floors and all this open space?!

October 5th: 12th House was made 1st choice because it had just about everything we wanted (save two things). 10th House had a beautiful yard (read: lonely, elderly Korean man who loves to garden = immaculate back/front yards), but we decided we could make the 12th House yard wonderful AND have the inside how we wanted, and we put in an offer.

October 6th: Offer accepted!

October 11th: Inspection done. We passed! ;-)

October 12th: We ask them to fix the roof.

October 17th: Still talking about the roof... LOL.

October 18th: They agree to fix the roof! (It was covered under insurance anyway! :-D )

October 21st: Appraisal done. (Note: I was SO stressed and PETRIFIED that this would hurt us.)

October 22nd: Appraised for more than we were paying, so we were in the clear! PHEW!

We pretty much visited the house four or five more times during the month of October. We set closing for November 4th... less than one month after we put in the offer! WOW!

I did NOT get my hopes up or start packing our apartment this WHOLE time. I'm usually very optimistic, but this time, I was VERY wary. Pretty much all my friends and family thought I was CRAZY. LOL. Thank GOD Jeremy stayed very patient and calm through this whole process because I was a WRECK! LOL.

I also did only ONE layout (I think) during October. Well, maybe I didn't do one at all, but I *posted* one in my gallery! ;-)


And that was October. We were on our way to becoming homeowners! Gosh, it went by so quickly, but it seemed to last FOREVER! ;-)

Sharing a confession and a video.

Just a quick one today.

Confession: Every time I go to the grocery store and see Nutella, I'm tempted to get another jar... even though I know very well that I have a jar at home! What's *that* about?! Sheesh!

And here's a video I made about how I store my clear stamps. :-)



Thanks for stopping by today! :-D

Re-Capping Valentine's Day!

Cardstock (tree trunk): Bazzill Basics; Other Papers: American Crafts; Wood-grain Rub-on: Hambly;

Birdie Stamp: Studio Calico (seriously?! How cute are these?!); Title sticker: Anna Griffin; Mini alphas: Making Memories; Border punch/Scallop punch: Fiskars; Heart punch: EK Success; Pen (to color in birdies): Copic

Can you guess what the inside of this card says?! LOL!

So here is our Valentine's Day re-cap. One of my favorite days EVER! Hey, maybe I'll start to be a fan of Valentine's Day after all...

9:15 am: Wake up, eat breakfast, get ready

10:30 am: Church (I rarely have Sundays off, so it was great! We were able to find a church within 8 minutes of our new house, and we LOVE it!)

12:30 pm: Lunch and a nap for Jeremy (he works 60-70 hrs a week, so he naps as much as possible on weekends)

3:30 pm: Ice skating! (It was SO crowded... we didn't stay long...)

4:30 pm: Starbucks. He had chai (as always), and I had a latte (as always, but I DID try a new flavor, Toffee Nut!)... I also had GF cookies. :-)

5:30 pm: Nordstrom Rack. After church, as we were chatting with our new pastor (they're just a few years older than we are!), he mentioned that this was his favorite store. But we had never been, so we decided to stop by. We ended up getting each other gifts: both shoes. Jeremy picked out shoes for me BY HIMSELF! And they are so cute. :-) Now I have one pair of shoes to match all of my summer dresses, and I'm stoked!
The shoes I got him are pretty cute too! Well, you know, not cute, but cool! ;-)

6:30 pm: Make dinner and make chocolate cake.

7:30 pm: Make each other cards in the scrap room. This was SUPER fun... crafting together in my scrap room. Jeremy's card was so cute and sweet. :-) (Mine is up above in this post.)

8:30 pm: Eat chocolate cake.

9:00 pm: Get ready for bed.

10:00 pm: Lights out!

It was such a wonderful day. :-D

Sharing news today!

*Cartoon credit: Joseph DeLeon

I'm not sure what to share first! LOL.


News #1: Today, Ruby and Amber are featured over at Coffee with a Canine! I had so much fun with that interview, and I just loved going through super-cute photos and stories of them. :-D Marshal, who runs the site, is so wonderful! He even linked a photo to Kissa (our kitty). How sweet is that? Thank you, Marshal, for loving animals so much!

News #2: I've been asked to join the Creative Team over at the Journal Challenges blog. SO exciting! This is SO up my alley. I can't wait to get started! :-D Christa, is also a fellow-SCer, so that's cool! And I think Tracy is one too! (...as I spy kit wonderfulness in her layouts! ;-) )

News #3: I had SUCH an awesome last two days at work. Monday was the last day of the elfa sale at The Container Store, and it was CRAZINESS! I ended up working nine hours (when only scheduled for 5.5), and I was Elfa Sales Manager (my favorite position at the store) for most of that time, so it was an awesome day. (I also designed three spaces when we were short on designers... WOO! Go me!)

I did my best to keep the employees and designers calm, cool, collected... and most importantly, smiley. :-D LOL. My General Manager and General Area Director (who was visiting our store from Dallas) said on two different occasions how impressed they were with my demeanor (and smiles! :-D ) during stressful times. That made me feel SO good... like a million dollars. :-D

And then they celebrated us...


They put an ad in the New York Times (Sunday) with a list of all the employees (for the whole company), and you can see MY name just above the "The" in the ad! WOOHOO! *My* name was in the New York Times! LOL.

News #4: Jeremy got a raise! I can't begin to tell you all how proud I am of my husband. He works SO hard for his company... above and beyond what they ask, and every week, using his free time to better their business (while still making time for "us"). This photo shows it. HA HA! Caught you with a programming book... AGAIN! LOL.

News #5: Okay, this really isn't *news*, per se, but it's nice to share anyway! I had the BEST Valentine's Day EVER! We did EVERY.SINGLE.THING. we said we were going to do! WOOHOO! I'll post tomorrow what we did. Super fun. :-)

News #6: My Blog-iversary is coming up on March 5th. Yes, kids, it's my EIGHTH Blogging Anniversary! WOOHOO! That's only 16 days away, and I have a BIG giveaway! Scrappy stuff, Container Store stuff, some vintage goodies, and much more too! ONE lucky winner will win it all! :-D You won't want to miss this. Promise.

Umm... and here's a card I made...

Papers/Thickers: American Crafts (patterned paper by the fabulous Paige), Stamps: StampCraft,
Border Punch: Fiskars, Pen: Uniball Signo, Ink: ColorBox

I have a BUNCH of friends having babies right now, so I thought I'd get started on the cards. Not sure who this is going to yet. :-)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a fabulous Wednesday!

Altering Inspiration.

Sometimes, I go to start a layout or project, and I get distracted. This time, I got distracted by my little box (which I altered with some October Afternoon! HEEE!) of favorite embellishments...

It sits next to my pens, so it's right in front of my eyes all the time. Every once and a while, I like to fish through it. It's like a treasure hunt! Favorite buttons, tags, flowers, vintage stuff. I LOVE this little box.

So... I'm going through this, and I'm like, "I need to USE some of this cute stuff! I can't just have it SITTING here! I want to LOOK at it." So... I decided to grab a bunch of it, and glue the stuff to my embellishment drawers... LOL...

Okay, I know... that looks so random and hodge podge, but I love it. Makes me so happy. All these favorite things I've had *sitting* where I couldn't see them. And now I can! Yay! :-) The "28" may seem random, but it's my favorite number... and my age right now. :-)

And here are some bookmarks I threw together the other day.

I realized that I had been using my stylist's business cards along with magazine offer cards as bookmarks. So I got out my Studio Calico stamps (and bits from my favorite embellishment box) and had some FUN! I love how they turned out. :-)

Do you ever hoard a bunch of embellishments? (I KNOW you do!!) I've discovered that I need these types of favorites to go on decor and/or altering projects, so they can be enjoyed "properly"! LOL.

Creating Valentines.

First off, my Ruby is famous! She's featured on the Scrapbook Trends blog today! Oh, she's so cute!! :-D

Valentine's Day is not my favorite holiday. I don't like red and pink and cheesy stuff. I don't like girly, sappy poems and decor. LOL. It's funny though... I still want to *do* something cool on Valentine's Day. I think we'll go ice skating... LOL.

Anywho, I made these cards two years ago, but I was thinking of re-making them again this year because they're cute. I thought I'd share. And if I decide to lift them again this year, I'll let you know. ;-)

This first one, I gave to my parents. But as we were unpacking boxes last month, I found it. Hmph. Did I send it and then get it back? Did I forget to send it? Now, I'm so confused!

This is the front...

It's red cardstock glued to the front of a white card. And then I used my heart punch to punch a heart at the bottom. You can see the inside (white) showing through the punch. And then you open the card to see this...


I used my very best, childlike handwriting for that one! ;-) I traced the outline of the punch, so you could see the heart on the inside too. :-) Next time, I'll use red cardstock for the whole card, and glue a white punched heart on the inside, I think. :-)

This one was featured at Basic Grey in 2008. I made it to look like a little girl's dress. Tee hee.

And I made a Valentine's Day layout too. You may think it would be about my husband, but you would be wrong, my friends. There's no love like the love I have for my earplugs... ;-)

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; Patterned Papers: Basic Grey; Alphas/Stickers: KI Memories;
Punches: Fiskars, Martha Stewart Crafts, Marvy and McGill; Pearls: Crystal

Journaling reads:

Dear Earplugs,

I’ll admit it... at first, I didn’t like you. As a matter of fact, I hated you. Mom told me you were the best; she said she couldn’t live without you. I didn’t think you were for me. But then, I didn’t have a choice. I had to give you another try. (Oh, sweet sleep, how I missed thee.) And you, dear Earplugs, you sent me the greatest gift: the gift of restful sleep. Your softness, your comfort. You drown out the ice maker, the garbage truck, even the dogs next door. You and me? We’ll be together forever. I know this is love. I can’t live without you now.
I love you, dear Earplugs! XOXO

That's *my* kind of Valentine's Day layout! Cheesy, silly, ridiculous. And on white cardstock! ;-)

So have you made any Valentine's Day themed projects? Link me up!

Going Through Old Love Notes.

Photo by Jeremy (with the help of PhotoShop), 2005.

I was going through my scrapbook (read: love notes and memorabilia in a magnetic album) from 2000-2003 yesterday. I wasn't a scrapbooker back then. Well, not like I am now. I collected stuff and memories and stories and photos, but I didn't use any pretty papers or punches. ;-)

I kept every single love note hubby gave me while we were dating. (He kept all the ones I gave him too, so they're in that album as well.) I found this one, and I had to share:

November 22, 2000 (we had been dating for less than three weeks)

Reyanna,

I just stopped by to say hello. My dad and I spent the morning at the tubs [natural hot springs in Pagosa Springs, Colorado]/hanging out, and we wanted to know if you and your sister wanted to play Monopoly some time tonight. Are you still going to the play try-outs?

Anyhow, I actually broke into your house to leave this message. So, I'll be going now...

I do miss your smiling face!

Jeremy

Read other side too...

By the way, while I was here, I used your restroom. That's all, though.

No. Wait. I petted your animals too... and tried on some of your clothes, and drank some water, and ate some candy, and baked a cake, and read your journal, and peed in your bed, and rubbed Kama Sutra oil all over my body... then licked it off, and I also stole all your nude baby photos...

I should go. :)

And that's all. LOL. I still think he's hilarious. We just *get* each other, you know?! We're very silly. :-p

I feel the need to explain the "nude baby photos" part (and the Kama Sutra oil, for that matter). LOL. You see, my dad was a professional photographer. And you ladies and gents know this! When you are a professional photographer, and you have a cute baby, you lay her on a rug in all her bare, baby bottom glory! You know... for your portfolio. :-)

So this photo just happened to be hanging in my house... 11x14 or 16x20 size! And I think while we were dating (and you know, me being 19 at the time), hubby found this weird. LOL.

Okay, now I feel the need to share the photo... LOL. (Sorry for the poor quality. Can't find my scanner cable, so I took a photo of a photo.)

It's still Jeremy's favorite photo of me... as a baby. (Or maybe... of all time?!) ;-)

And as for the Kama Sutra oil thing. That was a TOTAL inside joke. Neither of us actually *owned* any, but we knew someone (two people...) who received it as a gift, and we have this VERY funny story about it, but I'm not sure I can share that here. LOL. Like I said, we are very silly. :-p

Anywho, I love re-reading old love notes from Jeremy. I wanted to do a layout of older stuff, so that's how I came to open this album. Maybe I need to make a mini-album of all his love notes. :-)

And of course, I should share something scrappy. :-) FINALLY got something hung up in our room. Oh, decor. Mmmm... Makes our bedroom feel homey. :-)

That sconce was only $5 at a really awesome, vintage store in Belton, TX. The silk flowers are from Michaels' Clearance section. The frames were $4 for the set. I've had them for two years now, I think! LOL.

Hamby doily rub-ons, Jillibean Soup (and some random others) brown buttons, and American Crafts & Bazzill cardstock. Most all that stuff from Studio Calico's January kit. :-)

I chose papers that match with our quilt. I think they look so lovely! :-D

Jeremy said I should have put the largest doily on the blue paper, so that one could have gone in the middle. Yes, I would have liked to, but the doily actually stuck down where I didn't want it to, and there was no turning back! LOL. Ah well. :-)

Thanks for stopping by today! :-D

Remembering September 2009.

In September 2009...

... my sister re-did her daughters' room! It looked SO cool! :-D She's so talented! She painted that Eiffel Tower herself!


I sold my Corelle dishes on Craigslist...

You may not think that selling dishware warrants a photo and a mention, but on the contrary, my friends! These dishes were a gift to me when I was... I think, 12. I LOVED them, and my mom got them for me for Christmas... for my Hope Chest.

I was ECSTATIC! LOL. I couldn't wait to use them, but I had to wait until I was 17 and went off to college (June 1999). So yeah, I used them from then... till September 2009. Then I got FiestaWare. :-)

We finally filed a claim with the insurance company (regarding the Hail Storm of 2009), sold our cars to them, and bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I LOVE this car. And I LOVE the pretty, blueberry color. :-) Mmmm... blueberries.

I cut my hair... shorter. ;-)

I was able to visit two very special friends from Colorado. Bethina (left) moved here to Texas, and her sister, Holly, (right) was here visiting from California. They were actually my sister's high school friends, and when I came home from college, I was able to hang out with them too (or you know, shuttle my sister to and from their house... LOL). I love that we're still friends! We were able to spend a whole day scrapbooking. And I had so much fun that I ended up spending the night! LOL.


And of course, I got to spend time with Bethina's super-adorable boys... who apparently, were playing camera-shy in this photo.

And my favorite page from September was made with that month's Studio Calico kit, Cotillion. SO much blue and green yummyness in that kit! :-D

Loving my puppies.

I love my puppies. Love them so much. I love to cuddle them and kiss them... let them lick my face. I just love having dogs. :-)

Today, I was looking through photos of them throughout the years. It brought back so many memories. I really should scrap them more!

So I thought... maybe in the next week, I'll get my favorite photos and memories and put them here before I make some layouts. I feel like I use my blog to organize layouts sometimes. LOL.

And here's a photo hubby took of me while I was cooking dinner (in my super-adorable Anthropologie apron!) tonight. We got to have dinner JUST the two of us tonight... at a reasonable hour! Shocker! ;-) It was awesome. :-)

Here's a super-quick layout I did for Lisa Day's Challenge of Me class at BPS. This photo is what home feels like to me. Jeremy, Ruby and Amber... all cuddled up together. Throw in this JBS paper (Lemonade: wish I had a million of them!) that is probably one of my most favoritest pieces of paper EVER. I'm using it bit by bit... and not throwing away even the tiniest scrap. LOL. My family and JBS paper.... Mmmm. ;-)

(Layout inspired by Liz T. at Paislee Press. Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Patterned Paper: Jenni Bowlin Studios,
Alphas: American Crafts, Flower: Prima, Pearl: Crystal Stickers, Corner Rounder: Creative Memories)

Thanks for stopping by! :-)

Remembering August 2009.

And then came August 2009...

One morning at work, I accidentally knocked the automatic door off its hinge. Oops. I tried to put it back on... with my hand. NOT a good idea. Next time I'll get gloves. Or you know, ask someone else to do it instead... ;-)


We honored a group of people, who were celebrating five years at work with The Container Store. One of my *favorite* people on *Earth* received her 5-Year pin that night. Pima. Oh, Miss Pima. Seriously... the sweetest, southern lady you'll EVER meet. Calls me "Darlin," "Sweet Pea," and gives me a hug every time I see her (several days a week). I heart her so much. She's my hero.

And I babysat for my friend Shannon's little girl, Lily. Lily is seven. And Oh.My.Goodness precocious and out-spoken. I love her TO PIECES. We spent FIVE hours together that day, and when her parents called to tell me they were on their way, I told them to do a few loops around the block, so I could just have a few more precious minutes with this kid!


Seriously, don't you want to eat her up?! Perhaps, some day soon I'll show the whole photo shoot. I got some awesome shots of this kid. (It was her dad's birthday, so we printed them up and made him a mini-book with reasons she loves him. Cuuuuute.)

She said THE funniest things that day. After the first gem...

"My dad was prepared to turn 44 today, but he's only turning 43."

... I decided I needed to keep a notebook and pen with me at all times when in her presence. I made a layout with my favorite quotes (I'll be sharing soon).

I handed her the camera too, and this is the shot she got of me...

And my favorite projects for the month of August. I created A LOT in August, so this was REALLY hard to narrow down. LOL. This altered art, which sits on the secretary in our entryway...


And this totally fun one about hot air balloons...

And this one I did as a guest for a Studio Calico blog challenge (5-Product Challenge)...

August was fun! I need to have Lily over again. That day was too much fun! :-)