Five Moments

My favorite new discovery is this website.  If you haven't checked it out, you should!  So I'm going to answer one question I found today:

Name five moments in your life so far that you believe that you will remember happily in your old age. 

#1:  The first dance Brian and I shared at our wedding.  I remember every second from that moment in time.  Really everything from that day, but that moment of love will always stand out in my mind. 

#2:  On the day I graduated from high school I remember posing for pictures in our house with Michelle.  A day filled with friends and family.  So happy despite the fact we were rained out and stuck indoors at the fairgrounds.  So happy I was able to share that moment with Michelle.  Who knew we would end up living together in college?!

#3:  Graduating from college - that moment of receiving my degree and hearing my name called.  All that hard work rewarded.  That feeling of accomplishment.  Shared with Michelle again which made it even more special.  

#4:  Holding Creighton for the first time.  Such a joy in our lives.  So look forward to watching my favorite little man grow up and being a part of his life.

#5:  Walking across the finish line after having walked 60 miles in 3 days.  The triumph of mind over body.  The pain.  The accomplishment.  Making a difference and giving back.  I will never have the words to describe that moment in my life, but I will always look upon it with happiness and gratitude for the support I received.

This will definitely be making it's way into the scrapbook sometime soon!  What are your answers? I'd love to know. :)

Back from the Beach!

And just trying to get back into the swing of things.  Today has been a long day adjusting back to working, missing my husband and dealing with kitty issues among other things. 

I haven't downloaded my camera yet, but Sandy took this beautiful picture of the beach!

While traveling back and forth to Florida, I managed to read two books cover to cover!  The Last Song by Nicolas Sparks (total heartbreaker) and Hero at Large by Janet Evanovich (good fun romance and if you haven't read the Stephanie Plum series, you're missing out!).  Bringing my total to 5 out of 30 since I started my 30 by 30 project.  Not as many as I'd like, so I'm working on that.  I'll be back soon with some pictures of the beach and results of my dedicated crafty time.

Thank you a million times over to Tabby and Heather for the blog love!  I wish I had the energy and time to pick only 12 blogs to give the sunshine award to, so to everyone reading this, I love reading your blogs!   You girls made me smile with the love ya left me. So thank you! :)

A Week in our Life: Sunday

Second day in a row I slept in until 10 am.  This time I woke up to breakfast in bed.  Bacon, fried egg, sourdough french toast with maple syrup and orange juice.  I ♥ my husband!  Up, shower, a little computer time... out the door to finish running errands.  Back on the phone.  Headset dead, sitting at a red signal, CHP pulls up right next to me.  Sees me on cell phone.  Ticket.  My lucky day!  I swear, Brian could be on the cell, driving 80 in a 55 and still not get a ticket.  I'm at a red light, NOT MOVING, headset is dead and I get a ticket.  At least it doesn't give me a point and increase my insurance.  Finally get to Target... the last few little things for Florida!

Over to Home Depot.... paint selecting time!  Now that we finally agree on a color scheme, I stopped by to pick up a few shades to test. 

Also got the two shades of paint we are considering for our master bedroom.  Head over to Costco.... photo order to pick up, the usual purchase of tortillas, bread, chicken and balsamic vinegar.  A cute outfit for my nephew's birthday gift in a few weeks and an awesome veggie gardening book.  And finally quick stop at Office Depot before heading home for a replacement ruler (mine went missing on my trip to Anaheim in January and I've been missing it terribly!).

Tested the new paint colors with Brian, easy decision:

We chose the yellow on the left, Honey Bear, as the main color for the house.  The dark blue, Mood Indigo, as the shutter/door color/porch railing color.  The dark brown, Centaur, as the garage door color.  And finally, there are two whites on top of the yellow if you look closely.  The right-hand side, Linen White is almost the same shade as our existing paint!  And the left-hand side is Polar Bear and we chose that as the trim color.   Original idea came from here:

And yes, we've been drooling over all the house plans!  It's always fun to look at house plans (not to build them out of toothpicks though, right Megan?! lol)

And here:

Photo from here.  Where the inspiration came from for the garage door color.

So here's what the house will look like when it's done according to home depot:

And according to photoshop skills (in a hurry):

A little time chatting with our neighbors about home improvement projects.  ♥ our neighbors!  Kicking back on the couch, snuggling with the puppy and hanging out.  Getting ready to head to bed after a dinner of Brian's stew.

Forgot to add to yesterday night the drama with the dog!  The cats peed on her stuffed toys and she reeked of it.  Poor baby.  Three baths later, she still smelled like it.  Finally put a 50/50 mixture of white vinegar and water on her face to neutralize the smell.  It kinda worked.... figured I would have to let it sit to really get the smell out.  She was traumatized and I sent her to bed with Brian.  She did wake up this morning with no smell.... both the kitty and vinegar smell were gone.  whew.  Dang cats!

Going to watch Amazing Race and call it a night!  A short work week this week, then vacation!  Looking forward to taking a break. So glad I made it through the entire project of week in the life.  Now it's time to condense into a mini album... if I get my act together, maybe I'll be able to pull it together in the next week!

A Week in our Life: Saturday

Oh how quickly the weekends fly by....  never long enough.  And literally, every single weekend from now until mid-June is already planned.  How did that happen?!  Slept in this morning.  So needed it and loved waking up at 10 am with a puppy licking my ear and my husband just coming in from a workout.  Phone rings within a minute... can't escape it!  Exciting news from someone we know.... more phone calls..... friends, family.... unexpected call from my cousin Jen.   Fun talking photos and computer equipment.   Brian left to run errands and work on Kathleen's yard.  Shower.  Back on the phone.... with Nancy this time.  Heading to San Jose to the mall to get a few last minute things for trip to Florida.  Quick stop for gas, drive through Starbucks.  Grande iced nonfat decaf caramel macchiato and a strawberry-blueberry yougurt parfait.  yum. 

On the road finally!  More phone calls....  Still can't seem to escape the phone.  Loved catching up with my brother, sister, parents today.  Lots of discussion about my upcoming trip to Pennsylvania in May to see Tom and Amy.  My nephew.  My Dad's health.... and apparently today that included a massive spider bite that required a trip to urgent care.  yuck!  Stopped by Nancy's house to hang out since she couldn't come out shopping with me.  Head over to Oak Ridge Mall and stop by Bare Escentuals, See's Candy, Ann Taylor Loft and Sephora.  More phone calls!  Head home.

mmmmm..... homemade pizza.  Time with Brian.  All in all a great day.  And not one picture.  Oh well! :)

A Week in our Life: Friday

It was a relatively calm day today.  The weather was cold but pretty.  Work was quiet with the boss off for the day.  Took the opportunity to clean out and reorganize.  Packed and shipped a box of stuff to Florida at lunch.  Claudia came by after work to check out my scraproom and check out the paint colors we used in the parts of the house we have painted.  Burned a pot of brown rice because I forgot about it.  Folded and put away three loads of laundry... washing two more.  Made this card:

Looking forward to the weekend!

A Week in our Life: Thursday

I didn't stop too write much of anything down today.  Or take any pictures really.  My day started with waking up late.  Missed my morning aerobics class.  Worked hard all day paying bills and preparing agenda items at work.  Brian was in Felton again today and even worked some overtime.  Talked to Susan on the phone.... and I am looking forward to seeing her in exactly one week!   I got to this point in my day, then I was majorly distracted by something unexpected.  I was looking to see if I had a picture in this filing box Mom loaned me to scan so that I could scrapbook it next week.   Well, no small task, there are hundreds of pictures in there! :)  All of the pictures belonged to my grandparents and when my grandfather died, we packed all the photos we could find into this box.  What I didn't remember was all the other bits and pieces that had been stashed away by my grandmother many years ago!   So I got distracted.  I was listening to this and digging through this box for at least a few hours!

Grandpa and I in his chair (my Dad's senior high school picture hanging above us!).  I think I'm about 3 or 4 in this picture?

I remember this trip my brother and I took with my grandparents to the Sacramento Zoo and fairytale town.  I still remember how mad my Mom was we had cotton candy!!  We joked about it when we looked at some of these pics a few weeks back when she gave me the box.  I still love cotton candy and got some at Disneyland on my 30th birthday! :)

After Brian peeked his head in and looked at a few pictures, I finally put the box away and tucked my sweet husband into bed.  Scarlet and I watched Survivor, Flash Forward and Private Practice on the dvr while I was figuring out what to pack for Florida.  Another long busy day!

A Week in our Life: Wednesday

Is it just me or is Wednesday always the toughest day of the week? I don't have a lot of words today... I'm a little sleepy tonight.  Today was just like Monday with rain from Tuesday, only Brian worked. If that makes any sense! The highlights:

Flowers and candy for admin professionals day.  Small gestures, but it was nice to have a few bites of See's chocolate and have some pretty roses on my desk for the rest of the week.  Talking to Kia on the phone during my short lunch break trip to Subway. A random drop by from a my next door neighbor to say hi on her way in tonight and to invite us to her son's birthday party this weekend. We have some really great neighbors. An amazing cheeseburger on homemade sourdough bread with grilled onions for dinner. Talking to my Mom and Dad on the phone. Lots of laughing with Brian tonight and shooting the nerf guns.... maybe he should lock them up in the gun safe afterall!  Playing with the sewing machine to get a fun project finished up. Rare moment with our 13 year old cat Nala who played with me for ten minutes. That's ten minutes more than the entire last year combined!  Usually she only wants to play with Scarlet.  Looking at photos to scrapbook, found this picture taken in January of our house:

Big project on the horizon that has been on my mind this week and discussed between Brian and I:  Replacing trim, new shutters for exterior of house and complete repainting of the exterior of the house. Been thinking on color combos for days. Seeking inspiration. Stuck with the stucco, windows and roof.... but the rest is a blank slate!

Click on the picture to read all my notes.

I'm afraid if I don't have a color combo and plan soon, I'm going to go visit my brother in Pennsylvania and get a phone call from Brian in Home Depot at the paint counter.  That's how the backyard wall project started!  Ideas tossed around so far? 

• Mustard yellow house, ivory trim, navy blue door and shutters. (Brian's favorite)
• Warm beige house, ivory trim, navy blue door and shutters.
• Same as prior only with cranberry red door and shutters. (My favorite)
• Light yellow-green house, trim 1-2 tones darker shade from house, cranberry red door and shutters. (Would look the best with stone we have put in backyard wall).
• Grey house, snow white trim, black shutters, cranberry red door.

I guess we are closer than we thought.... seems like we want either navy blue or cranberry red as our dark accent color! Anyone have any color palette or style suggestions? Sources of inspiration?

A Week in our Life: Tuesday

Today started with rain and ended with rain.  The rain greeted me by started 0.000005 seconds before I opened the garage door to go to the gym at 5:25 this morning. I ran to Anna's car got in, realized my garage door opener was not in her vehicle and had to run through it again. (I swear, I'm really not a morning person!) It left me soaking wet for over an hour!

Rainy drive to work

Looking forward to my mini vacation in Florida next week starting the 29th. 

Added a pic to my desktop to motivate me to get through the next week of hard work:

Grilled cheese on sourdough for lunch with Brian watching (what else) Law & Order: SVU. :)  Rain = no work for Brian these days.  Why no drought this year?!  Brief break in the rain during my lunch.  Really pretty this time of year when everything is green.

This will look different in a few months when the stop sign and power lines are replaced with a new signal!

Random moment of the day:

Ordered my mocha at Starbucks drivethrough around 2:15....
Barista: "Would you like anything to eat with that?"
Me: "Yeah, I'd like a package of Madelines please."
Barista immediately responds: "Uh....I think I ate them all. I was a little hungry this morning. Let me check."
Me: LAUGHING!!
Barista: "Nope we have a couple left. One of my coworkers hid a few from me."
How funny is that?! This guy is makes great mochas and, apparently, is a comedian too.  Learn something new everyday. :)

My top five favorite songs (many of which I heard today while working):
1.  OMG, Usher f. will.i.am (LOVE this.... total brain virus right now... can't get it out of my head!)
2.  Already Gone, Kelly Clarkson
3.  All the Right Moves, One Republic
4.  Whatya Want from Me, Adam Lambert
5.  Winner, Jamie Foxx f. Justin Timberlake and someone else (I'm terrible with song names!)

After a day of paying bills and doing lots of customer service today at work.  I came home to this:

Yep, still on the couch where I left him at 7:45 this morning.   A rare occasion for Brian to lay on the couch all day.  He did get up and make himself & Scarlet eggs for breakfast and after lunch baked some homemade sourdough bread.  Sooooo tasty!

And I ended up relaxing for the first time in days watching Biggest Loser, a brand new Law & Order: CI, American Idol and Glee with him.  We record everything on our dvr and skip all the commercials.  I don't know what we ever did without that contraption!  So I think Scarlet has the right idea now and I'm going to take her suggestion....

Until tomorrow.....

A Week in our Life: Monday

Many are familiar with Ali Edward's projects, including A Week in the Life, which started today.  Since I already take a picture everyday, I thought it would be fun to play along with this to capture more words to go with those pictures and put it in a mini album next week.  So here was my average day....

Up at 7:15.  Totally dragging.  Not untypical for a Monday!  Showered, dressed, played with the doggie.... dash out the door to work.  A million kids walking to school.... again normal.  Cloudy and looking foggy.  Work is busy.  Happy to have my favorite Odwalla Chocolate Protein Monster for breakfast (thanks Brian!!).  Payroll in today... budgeting to finish calculating and entering.  Lots of people calling.  Lots to get done.  Finally take a lunch break at as the clock is nearing 3 pm.  Run home, check mail.... same as usual routine, but today my new camera lens showed up!  As did a belated Christmas ornament for Annie's baby (I couldn't choose which one at Christmas... finally forced myself to choose while ordering camera lens on Amazon last week!).  Also got a box of new goodies to play with from Flamingo Scraps.  Made a spinach, avocado, cheddar and bacon on wheat sandwich for lunch.  The bacon was a bonus leftover from breakfast Brian made yesterday morning!  Played with the doggie, called and talked to Susan on the phone.  Headed back to work.  More budget, more work.  Got the desk tidied back up.  Hate trying to work when everything is chaotic and I'm wasting time trying to find things.  Actually leave on time from work today.  Brian is already home from working in Felton today.  He's annoyed with having to re-file his unemployment papers.  The intermittent work is driving him nuts!  I can't wait for the economy to fully recover.  I made this scrapbook layout:

and blogged about it.

But as soon as I was done with the layout and before I blogged, I made dinner.  Chicken Stirfry Lettuce Wraps.  YUM.  And watched CSI Miami from last week with Brian.  Fed the dog.  Played with the dog again (lucky doggie!).  Went back to the computer.  Caught up on my e-mails.  On facebook.  On scrapbook.com.  Finished my blog post and posted it.  Ordering stuff for trip next week.  Now writing this and heading to to bed in a few minutes.

I felt like it was an ordinary day for me.  Highlight was definitely this series of text messages from Brian:

B: "I got good news"
B: "I love you"
Me: "I love you too :) you're so cute!"
B:  "Matter of fact that should be considered 'GREAT NEWS!' its not new news but old news but good news.  News you already knew.  Know what I mean?"

I love that crazy cute guy I'm married to! :)  Sorry there's no other pictures.  Too sleepy right now to download them!  Thanks for reading if you made it this far! :)

Are you playing along with this project?  If so, I'd love to see what you are doing!!

Time for Spring Cleaning

Thought it was about time I updated my blog... turned out being a nice break from all the work this week and weekend!  Stop on by and check it out.  Aside from the blog, I've been cleaning out old paperwork, reorganizing my office at work and working hard long hours on budgets.  I feel like I've been cleaning and organizing for weeks on end now.  Hopefully, I'll get it all caught up soon... or at least to a point where I don't feel like I can't find anything!

And before I head off to catch some sleep, I recently downloaded the ShakeIt app to my iphone and I've been having fun taking pictures with it.  I think the dog is getting tired of posing for pictures though! ;)

I'm in search of fun iphone apps aside from games.  Suggestions?

Busy Days....

Seems like it's that cosmic time where everything is due, things that need to get done are piling up everywhere and I'll I want to do is take a nap in the middle of the afternoon!  Lately, I have been trying to keep up with it all.   Here are a few scrapbook layouts I've done in the last few weeks for the Flamingo Scraps blog:

The first layout has a color photo that my cousin Jen took of my nephew at Easter.  If you live in the Sacramento area, you should check her website out.  She has a portable studio setup and can go anywhere you want to take some pictures!

I've also done a fair number of digital scrapbook layouts too:

On another note.... we have been playing the classic 1982 Electronic Battleship complete with sound effects this week!  Brian has been itching to get one since he remembered it recently from his childhood.  He found one in excellent condition on ebay and we can't get enough of it!  I'll have to post some pictures of it soon.  Hope everyone is enjoying the rainy-sunny-rainy weather that is torturing my allergies!! ;)

Sketchy Thursdays

So I did a digi layout - yay!   It's been a little while since I've scrapped anything digi other than Project 365.  Here's my take on Sketchy Thursday's 3.25.10 sketch:



You can click on the link to see it bigger.   These pictures were taken at my sister's wedding last August by David & Christie Posey of Lexigraphics.  Thanks for looking!

30 by 30: March Progress Report

So here we are 20+ days past my 30th birthday!  I feel like I am accomplishing a lot, but due to life adding additional challenges, I have not met my full goals quite yet.  Despite not making all these goals by my 30th birthday, I will be continuing to work on this until the end of this year and, I hope, that I will be finished with it much sooner than that!



Three finished now and four in progress.   So far I have completed:

Something Borrowed...
Something Blue... and now
Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton (loved it)

Lots of progress made, here's the list so far...
Completed:
1. Bookmarks
2. Knit hat for Brian
3. Christmas Cards
4. Scarf for my sister's Christmas gift
5. Reorganize Master Closet
6. Reorganize Guest Bedroom closet (including reorganizing all wrapping paper + wrapping supplies)
7. Decorate (and undecorate) house for Christmas
8. Reclaimed Window Mirror (joint project with Brian.... we love it! Pictured above... now I just need to paint those walls.... and we need to build out our living room alcove.... it never ends!)
9. January 2010 Project 365
10. February 2010 Project 365
11. Office/Craft Room closet -- gut and remodel (helped Brian with building it out)
12.  Reorganize Office/Craft Room closet (once remodel was complete!)
Still in progress:
13. Christmas Elf Hat for my new 2nd cousin Gabriel
14. Mini recipe books for Christmas Cookie Exchange party
15. Reclaimed Window Frame (joint project with Brian.... needs glass too, then it will be a frame for pictures)
16. Gift for Nancy (almost done!)
17. 365 project every month



8/30 watched.  Not a big change since Brian and I both have been working on the projects or traveling when not at work.  And with Brian's irregular hours during winter months in recent years, we only watched one movie in two months.  Yikes!



15/30 made.  Half way is not bad considering I only cook on average once or twice a week!  And I'm a creature of habit... I usually make the same things all the time.



Last, but certainly not least.... the 5k.   I'm glad to say that thanks to the help of my good friend Andrea, I did do a 5k and while I was only a few minutes away from breaking 30 minutes, I know I gave that run 150%.  I'm really proud of my finishing time!  And I'm hoping to try again later this year in November with Andrea to finally beat that time once and for all!!

I'll be back in the next week or so to share about our birthday trips -- Disneyland for my birthday and a biking road trip for Brian's birthday.  We have had a great time in the last few weeks traveling on our weekends!

Project 365: February 2010

Catching up now... February was a busy month for us!

(If you want to see the larger version, just click on it)









And here we are in March already.... and it's halfway over already! Looking forward to getting outside and enjoying the gorgeous weather this weekend to celebrate Brian's birthday. Hope you have a great weekend!

Project 365: January 2010

So I'm happy to be on track with this project. If you haven't heard of it, the premise is pretty simple. Take a picture a day for an entire year. Some take it a step further by putting it to paper in the form of a scrapbook. I have chosen to document two ways. The first is the daily pictures and a weekly summary in a digital scrapbook which I will have printed & bound next year in January. The second is through a monthly scrapbook in paper form which will have a monthly 2 page spread of pics and journaling. I will also do a 2 page spread for any trips, special events and so forth. The entire point being to scrapbook and document more often than I do now.

So here is the first five weeks of pages. I'm still fussing around with a cover. If you want to see the larger version, just click on it!











Have you done project 365? I'd love to see your pictures and/or book if you have!

30 by 30: The Davis Stampede 5k

Well my birthday has come and gone.... lots of things were accomplished!  Over the next few weeks I'll be catching up my blog as I get caught up.  May take a little longer as I am now blogging for Flamingo Scraps and I'm working hard at getting some projects done in my craft room!

As far as my 30 by 30 goals are concerned, one of my goals was beat my best time in a 5k and, hopefully, beat the 30 minute mark.  My good friend Andrea saw my goal and jumped in to run it with me.  She was a great cheerleader and I'm glad we got to run the race together.  With her pushing me, I got an official time of 33 minutes and 45 seconds!  My best 5k time and now I know that 30 minutes is within my reach if I actually train to run instead of just working out like I do now. :)

Darn flash on the camera always gets me!

So I guess I didn't officially meet the mark on this goal, but I did complete the 5k and push myself to the edge, so I'm going to happily check this one off and next time I will definitely beat that time on the race clock!

Winter CHA in Anaheim

Finally home, back to work today and catching up again. Oh how I missed the comforts of home! So how did I get so lucky to snag entry to the show? A friend of mine, Nancy, and I went as buyers for two friends of ours, Susan and Suzanne, who own Flamingo Scraps.

These sweet ladies live in Florida and we were more than happy to take a break from our hectic lives to go enjoy the show for them. Boy am I glad we did!

We got to buy some fabulous flowers, papers, embellishments and goodies for them!! Check out our posts over here. You can see my pictures, read about our days at the show and see some fabulous new goodies coming out in the upcoming months!!

In addition, we had fun eating dinner at CPK, checking out Anaheim Garden Walk, drinking some tangeritas in the hotel restaurant, taking some classes and meeting new people along the way. I'm still worn out, but hoping that someday I can go back and do it all over again!! After spending the last few days surrounded by amazing art, artists and fabulous new products, I'm so inspired to spend some time in my craft room!