Sunday, January 30, 2011

Of all my scrapbook embellishments, friends are my favorite.

Yesterday's craft day with friends was a huge success!
My face hurt at the end of the day from smiling so much.
:o)
We took lots of photos so I'll let them speak for myself...
And here's a group shot of our best friends from Recollections scrapbook store in Chandler {so sad when Michael's closed these stores!}. In front of me is Betsy {our store manager and best-boss-ever}. Then behind Betsy is me, Hollie, Carrie, Janae, and Barbara. Back row is Dana {Janae's mom}, Deb S., Michelle, Jacie, Jessica, Venessa, and Jennifer. {And Corri came a little later...}
Amazing that Marcus could sleep through all the chatter
{I think he might be faking.}


What a great day with an amazing group of women.
Carrie and I can't wait to do it again!!!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Crop/Eat/Craft/Talk/Create/Laugh Afternoon

The title of this post is the same as the title for the event that Carrie and I are hosting this afternoon at my house. We are SO excited to spend the afternoon with ELEVEN of our crafting friends that we know from our time spent working at Recollections scrapbook store a few years ago.
Carrie and I have been finding so much inspiration from a blog called AshleyAnnPhotography. A couple of weeks ago Carrie featured Ashley's idea for a craft jar in her Friday Favorites and I loved the idea. A week later I saw this post on Design Aglow (which was Ashley's design) and I loved that too. {Phew! That was a lot of links!}
Last weekend Carrie and I did some thrift store shopping and wound up with some basic jars for cheap. The duty of washing and drying and making them pretty fell on me {it's great to be the mom}, but filling them up and making them really pretty was for both of us! :o)
We also made a trip to our local craft store and bought a few goodies from the dollar bin, as well as a couple of bags of Valentine embellishments to split amongst the jars...
...and some buttons, a few punched shapes, and some chocolate.
I wanted red, Carrie wanted pink so we met in the middle and did half of them my color and half of them hers. {sigh. Always compromising...}
Add a tag that doubles as a Valentine greeting and we have some sweet party favors/table decorations for our guests.
Carrie and I were so giddy and happy putting these
craft jars together for our dear friends ~ these ladies
that we love so much.
.I hope you're having a great weekend.
I'll be cropping, eating, crafting, talking,
creating, and laughing with my friends.
~ loves ~

Friday, January 28, 2011

Just a quote for Friday

2011 Project 365 / 25
."We are shaped by our thoughts, we become
what we think. When the mind is pure, joy
follows like a shadow that never leaves."

Buddha quotes


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Thursday, January 27, 2011

A birthday note to my niece, Presley.



Dear Presley,

Happy 6th birthday, sweet girl! I hope you got your birthday package and you like what I sent to you!!!
.
I can hardly believe that you are already six years old! I will never forget the morning you were born. I was at work when your mom called me. She was crying happy tears and as soon as I answered the phone she said, "She's here!" Oh my gosh, Pres, your mom and dad were both so happy! :o)
.
And I was happy too. I had been hoping for a sweet niece just like you to love and have fun with. I'm so glad that God made you part of our family. He made a really good choice for you.
About a month ago I was out shopping for your birthday present and I found this cute turtle. I snatched him up and bought him for you. Don't you think he is so cute and sweet and lovable? I really wanted to keep him for myself, but then I decided that you would love him and take such good care of him. {Just so you know, when I come to visit you I will probably want to sleep with him.}
.
I hope you have a fantastic birthday this year, Presley! I know your mom and dad will make it very special for you, because you are a very special girl.
.
I love you, Presley! Have fun being six! I will see you at Uncle Ron's wedding!!!
xoxoxo
Love,
~ Aunt Deb

PS: I wanted to show you this picture I took of my cat Whiskers {the one you call Hissy-Poo} while I was wrapping your birthday package. This is why Uncle Doug calls him Rotten.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Hidden camera shots.

Remember the trail camera that I blogged about last month? It's a motion sensor camera that Doug got for Christmas and we initiated it by taking random photos of our pets on Christmas day. Well, he couldn't wait to take it to his favorite hunting area and put it in place. He did so at the end of December with intentions to go back the following week to retrieve it. Problem is that it snowed before he could go back, making the roads to that particular location impassible so he's been waiting...

This past weekend he was able to retrieve it, and you can only imagine his excitement when he called to tell me that there were 87 photos on it. The vast majority of the photos were of does {a deer, a female deer...} but he did get this shot of a bobcat {that I was most excited about!!!} as well as one of a coyote but it was really dark and I decided not to post it.

For the record, Doug had placed some deer attractant on the ground at this spot, that's why the animals are drawn to there.
When I got my new point-and-shoot last year I gave Doug my old camera and started bugging encouraging him to take some pictures on his outings. I'm happy to report that he did just that this past weekend. Check out this sunset that he and his brother witnessed! Arizona sunset at it's finest {with a big storm rolling in behind it}.
And this next photo is for Carrie. Doug took his first self-portrait!!! {I'm posting this with his permission.} He's hiding behind camouflage and gee, I can hardly see him...

{Shhhh...don't tell his brothers.}
.
Fun stuff, eh?

Sunday, January 23, 2011

The whole enchilada on a lunch hour.

Occasionally I impress myself {and Doug}and plan ahead for dinner.
.
One of the perks of being me is that I get a 2-hour lunch break. Perk #5,381 is that I live close enough to the office that I can come home for lunch. Sometimes I prepare dinner during my lunch break so that Doug can heat it and have it ready when I get home at 6:30.
I think that kind of makes Doug feel somewhat
useful himself...helping with dinner, you know?And I always leave dinner directions
disguised as a love note.
Yummmmm...chicken enchiladas, hot from the oven.
These were made with leftover grilled chicken I had in the freezer, a can of green enchilada sauce with sour cream whipped in, some cheddar cheese, diced green onions, and corn tortillas. No photo of the plated-up-enchilada as they always fall apart on me when I dish them up. {Don't you know that this annoys me to no end because I'm all about the presentation!} The trick is to make sure Doug is good and hungry so he doesn't mind {not that he does anyway}. And, I told him it was an enchilada casserole. ;o)
.

Thanks, Doug, for helping!
I couldn't have done it without you.
xo

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Polariods + Felt = This:


Santa gave Carrie an Instax camera for Christmas. Have you seen these things? The little Polaroid photo that comes out is the size of a credit card. Cute and little. So when Doug and I Santa decided on this gift for Christmas, I got to work on a little book to hold the small photos.
I used felt for the entire project, give or take a doily here, and some buttons and flowers there....

I used page protectors cut down to size and machine stitched them onto the page before I hand stitched the pages together..

Most of my embellishments were cut without patterns {save the large bird below and the big butterflies}. The white scalloped piece was a scrap I found in my felt box that Carrie had cut a while back.

The only Polariod shot I had was the one Carrie took of her dog, Marcus at Christmas - kind of a goofy shot of him, but it's ok. We love him even when he takes goofy pictures..

I was finally able to use some of the little flowers I crocheted last year during my I'm-gonna-teach-myself-to-crochet phase. The centers turned out kind of wonky, but it's nothing that a little felt heart couldn't conceal.

Or a little bird on a button nest...

The same goofy photo of Marcus...moved from page to page for this photo shoot...

Carrie has added a few more photos to her book, but not many. Funny thing about having a camera that requires film - she's reluctant to blow through it so she's hoarding it a bit. {This gives credence to my declaration that digital cameras are one of the coolest inventions ever.}

This was such a fun project ~
I loved making it, and Carrie loved receiving it.
And I hope you enjoyed seeing it.

Happy weekend everyone!
xo

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