Making Me Happy

Pretty happy with my shopping trip to Kohl's last night. I needed some things for our upcoming vacation and had a 20% off coupon. All but 2 things I bought were on clearance and the other 2 were on sale. So I got 7 pairs of shorts/capris, 6 shirts, a pair of shoes, a purse, sunglasses, a scarf and a watch for just over $150. I call that a score. Since I hate clothes shopping, that makes me happy. And it was done in just about an hour.

Love it!

I was home on Monday sick with an yucky bug and Mike had taken the boys out so it was quiet. I was sitting in the chair feeling awful, but then I looked out the window and saw this dragonfly just resting on a leaf. Well what is a girl that is taking a photography class to do? Grab the camera of course....

He was pretty cooperative, even with me trying to change my settings and figure out how to do that best with the zoom lens. He even scratched his nose at one point, too bad I didn't get that.  I also played with some flower photography here...

I'm pretty happy with these straight from the camera shots. I am excited to go to full manual this week in my class. I'll share some photos to date tomorrow from the class, it is amazing what you can do with a camera when you begin to learn how to use it.

Don't you love days where it all just clicks creatively? I have had a couple recently. I really wanted to update a the banner that was hanging on our patio door for awhile. We decorated for fall over the weekend and I was inspired to finally get to it, but at first I was stumped with exactly what to do, then it started flowing.

Then again tonight, I planned to just watch Glee (which was recorded on the DVR in my scrap room). I didn't plan to do anything crafty. Then I picked up the Jenni Bowlin Limited Edition Vitange Halloween Kit that I am pretty sure I ordered the last one of....

and before I knew it I was singing along with Glee to Empire State of Mind (New York) and creating something I love.

I can only share peeks right now, because these are may be future DT projects. But I love when creativity hits and you can just jump on it. Don't you?

Something else that is making me happy this coming weekend, Bazzill.  If you live in the Phoenix area this Friday and Saturday is the Bazzill warehouse sale. I haven't gone in a few years, but I plan to head over and see what I can pick up. I'm sure I'll at least get a pizza box of cardstock (not like I need it). Click on the link for the info.

Happy hump day!

Finishing up Week in the Life Pics, a Layout and JoAnn's Finds

Sunday I talked about my discovery of the new EK Success jumbo border punches. I would have thought we were going to  have to wait to see them in the store, but I soon discovered they had been sighted at JoAnn's.

I headed over to JoAnn's after my dentist appointment yesterday. Which by the way, I was told at that appointment that I will need a root canal for the random pain I have been having, fun stuff. And I just thought I was going for my regular 6 month cleaning. I like my dentist a lot, but I didn't want to see him again until February.

Anyway, back to JoAnn's.  They had lots of the new jumbo punches at 30% off, so I picked my favorites to start with. I am sure I will see what others do and find some more favorites. I also saw the Tiny Attacher on clearance for $8 (normally $15), I have heard lots of people say they like it. I am not sure if it's much different than my stapler, but for the price I'll give it a shot. Plus it jumped in my cart.

Since the rest of the scrapbook section was 40% off I picked up a couple of other things as well.

I am taking Kelly Purkey's Sketch 2 class over at Studio Calico. This is my interpretation of Day 2 using the Studio Calico July kit. My August kit should be here tonight (according to the UPS website this morning). Yippee!

And to finish up my Week in the Life I have days 6 & 7, Friday and Saturday (July 30 & 31):

Friday

Humid, rainy, hot, sticky, just dropped Nicholas off at pre-school, off for the day's errands...

Grocery store, filling the cart with produce...

My little helper, we don't get a lot of one on one time, so this was fun....

After picking up Nicholas from school, off to Costco....

Stocked up at Costco, so hopefully Mike's next trip will be lighter on his knee...

Mike always takes the boys to Taco Bell after Costco, and Nicholas informed me I was expected to do the same....to prevent Jackson from napping on the way home we sang, "If Your Happy and You Know It" really loud all the way home....

After lunch boys are all napping....

Instead of enjoying quiet time with something relaxing, cleaning and reorganizing the pantry...

Then I made dinner, while my mom visited....

Random Thoughts from Friday:

• Morning school rush
• Sticky yucky weather
• Groceries
• Singing really, really loud
• Easier day
• Cooperative kiddos
• Thankful for naps
• Exhausted
• Homemade pizza
• Thoughtful parents
• Spending time together

Saturday

A bunch of leftovers in a skillet makes a great breakfast with lots of weekday leftovers....

This is what Jackson can do in mere minutes....the toys have all been banished back to their rooms....

And he thinks it's funny....

Watching a movie together, Nicholas makes sure daddy has lots of pillows to make him comfortable....

Yes, this is how I found him napping a little while later....

She slept all day too...

Mike finally feeling up to doing something, experiments with his new microphone....

Piles of laundry to fold....

Reading and tucking Nicholas into bed....

Mike and I hold off dinner, so we can have a peaceful one after the kiddos are in bed....

Random Thoughts from Saturday:

• Early morning train horns
• Breakfast from leftovers
• Down time and relaxing
• Afternoon coffee
• Thankful for naps
• Laundry
• Delicious food
• Late night scrap inspiration embraced

This may not have been a typical week for us, but it is one I am glad I documented. It was a special week of sorts, Mike having surgery, me being home to take care of the boys, etc.

My week days are filled with work and I don’t experience as much of the routine day to day of our family’s life. So this was a week in our life, 2010. 

Now to find time to scrap it.

I've been a bad girl.....but I am so happy about it...and a few Color Me Daisy peeks

Yesterday I left this message for Mike "oh good, you didn't answer so I don't have to tell you what I did at lunch".  He called back later and said "you bought a sewing machine, didn't you?".  Well I guess I wasn't getting away with anything, was I? A couple of years ago I wanted to learn to sew just so I could stitch on my scrapbook pages, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a machine. So I got the bargain basement Singer from Target on a Black Friday sale.  It took me almost 2 years to actually learn to use it. I've sewed with it some, but it jams a lot and now that I have dabbled a bit in some fabric sewing I know it isn't going to cut it for long. I had known when I bought it that if I got the sewing bug I would go ahead and upgrade.

I have been including fabric in the Color Me Daisy kits for the past year and every time I go to pick out fabrics I am so intrigued (I think it's just like scrapbook papers in that respect). I look at it and touch it and see so many possibilities.

I also want to do a makeover on my kitchen and master bathroom, as well as finishing some window treatments around the house.  They are so expensive to have done I keep putting it off. So I thought maybe I could learn to sew them myself.

So after a lot of research I finally settled on a new machine:

Isn't she pretty? This machine does 173 stitches including some basic embroidery. But the coolest thing about it (for me) is the bobbin loading. I hated the one on my old machine, this one is so much simpler. I have a class next week on how to use it, but I plan to play with it this weekend. I even have an apron in mind to try to make.

Earlier this week I went to Michael's in search of some of the new EK Success Border Punches. They didn't have any yet, but I did find a star border punch in the American Girls section. I like flowers as much as the next girl, but with 2 boys a star border is a bit more useful. Of course I found what I was looking for at JoAnn's yesterday when I bought my machine, but I couldn't justify spending even more money after the sewing machine purchase.

I also picked up some yarn to try my hand at crocheting flowers. I haven't really crocheted in years, I started a blanket when Nicholas was born but never finished it, and fortunately I didn't have to because my "second" mom is a whiz at crocheting and she did a gorgeous one for him. But I still want to learn how to do flowers. So I brought a few fun colors on sale and have found some tutorials on a few blogs and plan to give that a whirl.

And last, but definitely not least, I have a few sneaks from one of my layouts I finished with the Color Me Daisy Spring Fever kit that will be released on April 5th.

I love the Jillibean Soup corrugated alpha's, they give you so many possibilities...

The kit has 5 fabric's included and the Idea Guide included with the kit will have no-sew fabric ideas.....

and Pink Paislee's new Artisan Elements are very fun to work with....

If you want to see additional sneak peeks for the Spring Fever kit visit the Color Me Daisy Blog or  Featured Designer, Becky Williams.

Monday Musings

Happy Spring! We are loving the spring weather here in Arizona. It won't be long before we are in the frying heat of summer. (I'll apologize now for the wonky text breaks, I have spent 15 minutes trying to fix them, and it isn't working out, so if it looks weird on your browser it just is what it is).

Today Mike and Nicholas went to a spring training game (Angels vs. Dodgers) and Jackson stayed home with Nana C.

Nicholas had grown out of all his Angels shirts. Yesterday when we were cleaning out the boys closets to make room for their new summer clothes, Mike found the shirt Nicholas is wearing. It was a onesie type shirt (snaps between the legs).  Well at 3 that doesn't go over very good with the kiddo anymore. So I cut off the bottom and stitched a hem around it (not a great hem, but you can't really tell). And now Nicholas had an Angels shirt for the game today.

The shorts, well they were ones we thought he would grow out of when we cleaned out his closet last year. But as I was going through the hand me down bag for Jackson yesterday I came across these and Nicholas is so skinny he can still wear these 12 month shorts.

Mike and Nicholas had fun at the game but it was really hot. Nicholas was "all done baseball" in the 3rd inning, so they headed home. But they still had time for hot dogs and lemonade (and of course cheeze-its).

On Saturday we had a family day and did some shopping to stock up on warm weather clothes and stuff. We hit up Kohl's first and in addition to some tops and capri's I found these 2 fun spring purses. The patchwork one (1) is bright pink on the inside and the green one (2) is pink and green stripes (and is reversible). The 2 purses and the pink wallet were all 50-60% off. I also found a couple of necklace and earing sets. This one (3) is perfcet with one of the flower clips (4) I recently bought from my good friend Jen. She has recently started making and selling these cuties and other hair accessories and adorable tutu's. They are selling at local craft shows and on their site and will do custom orders as well. You can find them at Princessories.net.

We headed to the mall to have lunch and hit Children's Place and Baby Gap for the kids and American Eagle and the Gap for Mike. We ate at California Pizza Kitchen. and Nicholas took several pictures of Mike and Jackson, this is one of my favorites:

After shopping we stopped at Coldstone for some ice cream. Nicholas was in ice cream heaven with his chocolate and M&M's ice cream:

Sunday we hung out at home. I started a re-model on my blog and played around with some fabric flowers. I also got to work on my Color Me Daisy April kit layouts.

The sneak peak is up on the Color Me Daisy blog...Spring Fever...Catch It!

I finished one layout last night and will share a sneak tomorrow.

For now I will leave you with a bit of scrappy stuff I did this weekend with my Studio Calico March kit:

A really cool thing happened Friday morning when I got Jackson up. He was still a bit sleepy. I took him back to our bed for a little while and we just cuddled. While this may not seem like a big deal, for us it is. For months now he has been all about Daddy, and I have been only good enough if Daddy wasn't around, but not really unless he wanted to eat or if he was upset. But something has changed in the past couple of weeks and we are bonding again. I knew it was a phase, but there were times I missed his snuggles. So I just enjoyed every bit of that "Mama moment" Friday morning.