Sharing a drink and a chat...

My sweet blog friend Abi is hosting a link-up post on her blog today. She’s sharing what she might talk about over a cup of tea with a friend, and I thought I’d join in. But we’re not drinking tea over here at PaperTurtle, my friends. We’re having wine. So, what’s your pleasure? Red or white?

The weather in Arizona is so lovely this time of year, I would surely invite you to sit on our patio and enjoy your glass of wine with me {Ok, ok, I'll have some iced tea on hand just in case...}. We would sit under the red umbrella, shaded from the afternoon sun, and we would chat in real life about what's going on right now.

♥ What’s really on my mind these days is my upcoming trip with Carrie to England in March. We’ve wanted to go for a few years now, and with the departure of my mom and the receipt of a little bit of life insurance money that Mom really wanted us to use for travel, we are going! I would tell you how much my mom loved to travel and how she loved having something {a trip} on the calendar to look forward to.

♥ Speaking of my mom, I would tell you how excited she would be, knowing that Carrie and I are going to have the opportunity to meet with a few of the members of Team Teal while we are traveling. These ladies who blessed her with cards and letters and trinkets while she was ill - they became such a special part of our lives, and she'd want me to give each of them an extra hug, just for her. I would tell you how very much I miss my mom!

♥ Of course we would talk about the new pet at our house. I'd tell you that I've never really owned a dog, so there’s a learning curve for me. A work friend who is cat-crazy and reads my blog {hi Wayne} commented to me that I’ve gone to the “dark side” and even went so far to refer to me as “dog lady.” {Ouch.} I still have visions of one day being an old cat-lady with a few too many cats, but maybe I have crossed over a bit. We are really loving this little dog we’ve taken in.

♥ And the conversation about our pets would continue as I tell you that, for the first time in my life I am the proud owner of a variety of animals. Ok, it’s not totally crazy – it’s just a cat and a dog and two turtles, but still. It’s a variety. Now, if we could only add a few chickens and a goat, my idea of the perfect zoo would be complete. {Now you're probably thinking that sipping wine in my backyard with a goat might not be the best scenario for an afternoon drink...}

♥ Spring is springing around our house and flowers are starting to bloom! You would love sitting in our backyard this time of year. I would point out the rose bushes that Doug planted last month - there's new growth on them! I can't wait to have several different varieties to choose from for bouquets to bring indoors. There are sunflower plants sprouting in the backyard too, and I have plans for some tomato plants to go in the ground this weekend. Oh, and that little dog of ours? He really enjoys pulling up drip-lines in our flowerbeds. ~sigh~

So, that’s what I’d tell you during the first glass of wine. If we went for a second glass I’d probably throw in some bits about my latest squabble with Carrie, or details of a recent doctor’s appointment, but I digress.

Maybe instead of a second glass of wine we should just take a walk.
♥
Do you fancy a cup of tea to follow your glass of wine?
Head on over to Abi's blog and have a seat.

Vacation Journaling

 Good day, blog friends!

And thank you for your sweet comments yesterday

welcoming our little Lucky-Dog.

♥

Today I'm sharing the travel journal I plan to use when Carrie and I head to England at the end of next month, and I'm interested in your feedback about journaling while on vacation.

First, a little bit about my little book.

For my base, I used a plain Moleskine journal that Carrie gave me and added a few simple embellishments. {I love that the word chocolat is visible at the top of the book page scrap. I purposely avoided covering it with paint.}

I adhered a little scrap of book page with a glue stick, then a little bit of teal paint and a couple of random rubber stamps. The tie is a piece of elastic trim that I attached to the spine {with needle and thread} to hold it in place. The fact that it's elastic means that it slips over and off of the book rather than having to be tied/untied each time I use it.

I used a little stamp {from here} on some random pages inside. As I stamped it I imagined the different words I'll use to fill-in-the-blank and thought, "everyone of these will be filled with awesome." Haha - we'll see what other words I come up with during the course of ten days.

The little pocket in the back of the book holds a small bag of individual glue dots for adhering bits and pieces along the way.

While my sister and I were in California last month sorting through our mother's things, we came across Mom's travel journal from a trip she and my step-dad took to France several years ago. There wasn't a whole lot of journaling in it, but what she had written was really fun to read. It was a little piece of her, written just the way she talked, and it made me even more excited about our upcoming trip and keeping a travel journal myself.

Carrie has a little journal to bring along too, and we have vowed to remind each other to use it along the way to document our thoughts as we go.

So, what about you?

Have you kept a travel journal during a trip before?

I'd love to hear any helpful tips you might have to share.

♥

Say Hello to Lucky the Dog

So…I took last Friday afternoon off and met my sister and my niece {Presley} at the mall for lunch. As soon as we met up, Presley started in, “Please, Aunt Deb, will you come to the pet store with me? I want to show you the cute dogs and cats! Pleeeeeaasssse.” I thought it would be a good chance for me to spend a little time with Pres, since we rarely get to see each other, so we sent my sister off to do her own shopping, and we headed for the pet store.

I wish I had taken a photo {or a video} of my eight-year old niece skipping in front of me, leading the way back to the pet store where she’d already been that morning. Animals make this girl crazy-happy, and she knew the way back to the pet store.

Right away, I spotted a little calico cat alone and sad looking. My heart-strings were seriously tugged, and I took a photo to show Doug later on.

Presley led me through the store. “Look at this one, Aunt Deb! Oh! And THIS one!!! Oh, sooooooo cute! Hello, little cat. Awwwww, hello, little puppy…” It was breaking her heart to see those sad little guys in cages!

My attempts to leave the store kept falling on deaf ears, so I set the timer on my phone for three minutes and told her to make another quick round because when the timer went off, we were out of there! On our way out, we noticed that one of the little dogs had been pulled from his cage and was in the center petting area. Presley and I both went over to pet him, and I took a photo for Doug to see. Just because.

When we got back to our house I showed Doug the photos I had taken of the little calico cat. I asked, and he agreed, that we’d go back the following day and if the cat was still there we’d bring her home.

Flipping through the photos on my phone, I said, “Oh yeah, and there was this cute little dog…looks like he has a little Queensland Healer or Australian Shepherd in him…”

Within a half an hour Doug and I were back in the car, with Presley along for the ride, headed back to the mall to see about this little dog. Long story made a little shorter: we adopted him and brought him home that day. 

{Yes, he sports a teal collar}

Here’s what we know about him: He appears to be a dachshund mix – looks a lot like the slinky dog from Toy Story. He’s 24 pounds, about four years old, and spent the majority of February in the County Animal Control facility. The Arizona Animal Welfare League rescues animals whose time is “running out” at the pound, and brings them to their store on the mall for adoption. Our little dog had just arrived that afternoon, and we were happy to get him the heck out of that cage.

And he was happy too! He’s a sweet little dog and very mellow. He wasn’t impressed with the neighborhood cat {Hobo Joe} and immediately chased him out of our backyard, but when it comes to Whiskers, he's cool - and Whiskers seems very relaxed about our new roommate as well.

We kicked around a few names and finally settled on Lucky.
Oh, but make no mistake, the dog isn’t the only lucky one around here.
♥

Another Weekend

Ok, so it wasn't just another weekend.

We got to spend time with our amazing families,

ate lots of yummy food and drank a few yummy beverages.

Shared a lot of laughs and thoroughly enjoyed each others company.

Oh, and we adopted a dog.

♥

Just a Quote for Friday

"Happy people plan actions,

they don't plan results."

~ Dennis Wholey

Simply a Moment

Staring at numbers in an Excel spreadsheet, I blink my eyes a few times trying hard to focus and I wonder if I’ll ever get used to wearing contact lenses. I also wonder how I landed myself in a job that is so number-oriented when, truth be known, I’ve never enjoyed numbers. I always had decent math grades in school, and I even aced an online algebra class back in college, but math would never be at the top of a list of stuff I’d like to be doing. Come to think of it, it wouldn’t even be at the bottom of that list.

My work desk is cluttered with a wide range of projects, some partially completed, others untouched. The apple I brought to have as a morning snack remains untouched as well, and now that I look in its direction, I notice a couple of little chocolate crumbs that escaped the foil wrapper of the morning snack I had instead. Oops.

I can hear co-workers down the hall engaging in a boisterous conversation and using terms that, even after a year of employment here, make absolutely no sense to me. Electronic frequencies and devices used to measure such – it’s a mystery to me and I’m just fine with that!

My radio plays softly in the background, and if I listen closely I can hear the wind howling outside. A storm is brewing out there.

I’m suddenly startled by the buzzing of my phone, and I look to see that it’s a text from my Carrie. “One month and one day!!!” it reads, and I reply with “YAY!!!!!” We are in the final countdown for a long awaited trip to England next month, and her text distracts me from my work at hand even further than I already am.

I take a moment to jot down a few trip-related reminders for myself, and decide that a walk down the hall to re-fill my water cup and clear my thoughts is warranted. All I can think of is London, but I am on work time, after all, and that Excel spreadsheet isn’t getting done without my undivided attention.

Walking down the hall, I wonder what time it is in England right now…
♥

{I'm linking up to the amazing Alexa, and feeling grateful for the inspiration I gain from her on a regular basis. She is a fabulous photographer, storyteller, and scrapbooking genious! Alexa hosts a blog prompt called "Simply a Moment," and I'm happy to participate this time around. You can read more "Simply a Moment" posts by clicking here.}

My Nephew, the Musician

My Nephew, the Writer
My Nephew, the Artist
My Nephew, The Birthday Boy!

♥

When we were all in California last year celebrating my mom's life, my nephew Ryne played a song for us that he had written about our dear Grandma Bessie. I told him, "Ryno, if you record that song I will promote the heck out of your album!" Well, Grandma Bessie's song is going to be on his upcoming album! So...

Photo credit: Speaking of artists, Ryne has a good friend who is a

crazy good photographer - SO much talent going on with these

young people! The photographer is Robert Conrad and you can

see his work on Facebook.

So anyway, Ryne used a platform called Kickstarter to raise funds for recording fees for his first solo album. With the support of friends and family, Ryne met his goal, and we are super excited for him to complete this project and have his own music recorded for all of us to enjoy.

And here's a video he recently did with one of the songs that will be on his album. {Video also by Robert Conrad}.

We are so excited for Ryne and his talents to be recognized.

Check him out - he's awesome. And he's my nephew. :o)

Here's a link to his Kickstarter page {link} where you can
pre-purchase your own copy of his music.

♥

PS: Today happens to be Ryne's 21st birthday. {Happy birthday, Ryno!!!} I love you so much, and am so super proud to be your aunt!

Looking Up / Looking Down

♥

My friend Helena started a fun photo prompt on her blog called Looking Up / Looking Down. I finally remembered to take a couple of photos, and I'm sharing them today.

I was sitting on our living room the other day, trying to get a photo of our cat,

Whiskers Jay. From where I sat I looked up and saw our front entry way. {click}

I stood up in the very same spot and snapped a photo looking down - honest

to goodness, I did not move and the cat came to me. {click}



I loved the way this photo prompt helped me stop and be in the moment.

What do you see when you look up, and then look down.

Anything photo worthy?

♥

Our Arizona Weekend

♥

Good day, blog friends.

The weather on our piece of the planet was so beautiful this past weekend. We were busy, but we found time to relax. Here's a quick recap...

We spent some time hanging out in the backyard. Doug with his crossword puzzle, and me with a little sewing project. {eh-hm...and some Girl Scout cookies...}

Orange tree number two looks like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree at this point. Doug wanted to pull the fruit, but I convinced him to wait until next weekend. I still love the look of the orange fruit on this scrawny tree. {This little tree is planted between our blood orange tree and a very large eucalyptus tree. Apparently it doesn't get all the sunshine and/or root space it would need to make it thrive. We were surprised that it produced as much fruit as it did this year!}

Always, always, a visit from the neighborhood cat, Hobo Joe when we are in the backyard. He shows up for a little lovin', then hops back over the fence.


I got to spend a big chunk of time on Saturday with my girl C. We finally did some shoe shopping {got some good walking shoes for our upcoming trip in March}, had pedicures, attended a friend's baby shower, went to The Duce and met Carrie's friends for a drink and meatball sliders, then home to watch "The Perks of Being a Wallflower." I loved Saturday! ♥



And my weekend continues today {sort of} as I am off work for President's Day. I have lots of errands to run, and things to do to get ready for company this week. My California siblings are coming to visit and I just couldn't be more excited for all of us to be together.

This is going to be such a fun week at our place.

I wish you could all come over Friday night

for our barbecue and music jam!

xo

Just a Quote for Friday

 

"Think of all the beauty still left

around you and be happy."

 

~ Anne Frank

It's Valentine's Day

♥

Have a sweet and happy day.

♥

Hearts in our House

It's no secret ~ I love hearts.

♥

I had planned to post these photos as a "10 on the 10th," but I missed that window of opportunity. But, hey, it's the day before Valentine's Day, so I'm giving you my heart [pictures]. ♥

Any hearts in your house?

♥

Hello, Cupcake

♥ 

The first two years Carrie and I hosted our Valentine party, I made red velvet cupcakes. This year I wanted something a little different, and since one of our friends is expecting a baby girl next month, I decided we needed PINK.

I did some internet surfing and read several recipes for pink lemonade cupcakes. I put them all together and came up with my own concoction. They were seriously yummy, if I do say so myself!

This was the first time I'd ever used food coloring in cake batter, and it was really fun to create these pink colored cupcakes! Doug didn't seem to mind the pink, and he was happy when he came home on Saturday night {party winding down...} to see that there were a few cupcakes left. 

♥

I'm going to include the recipe if you'd like to give them a try,

and I'm also documenting it here so I'll remember how I made them.

These will definitely be made again at my house!

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix

3/4 c. water

3/4 c. frozen (thawed) pink lemonade concentrate

1 egg, + 2 egg whites

2 t. lemon zest

1/3 c. vegetable oil

red/pink food coloring

Prepare ingredients following directions on cake mix box.

Bake cupcakes 15-20 minutes in 350° oven.

Frost with best buttercream frosting ever {recipe found here}.

Enjoy!

♥

Valentine Crop Weekend Recap

♥

Good day, blog friends.

It's kind of hard to be super grumpy about Monday morning when I pull together a blog post with photos of such a fun weekend. Actually, these photos are just from Saturday, when Carrie and I hosted our third annual Valentine crop for our sweet crafting friends.

This is the second year that we've done "Things I ♥" as our theme. Everyone brings five of one item they ♥ and then we swap. So, everyone leaves the party with five things that five friends ♥. It's so much fun to see what everyone comes up with. My thing I ♥ is cookies fresh from the oven, so I made cookie dough, froze it into cookie-dough-balls, and packaged it up with a pretty bow. Times five.

Fun = one of our sweet friends is expecting her first baby {a girl} next month, so we showered her with little gifts at the party. We ♥ babies!

I set up a Valentine card bar just in case anyone needed a little side project or inspiration. Turns out, everyone was busy with their own projects, and I'm the only one who needed the inspiration! ;o)

The cupcake of choice this year was pink lemonade with buttercream frosting. Mmmm...I wish I'd made a double batch! I'll share more about these on my blog tomorrow.

And with that, I'm off to tackle the week ahead.

It's gonna' be a busy one, but that's ok.

I'm happy and I'm ready.

♥



Just a Quote for Friday

{Casper, our baby turtle}

 

"You can't stay in your corner of the forest

waiting for others to come to you.

You have to go to them sometimes."

~ Winnie the Pooh

Project Life: To Kit or Not to Kit

♥

Carrie and I went round and round last year on the subject of ordering a kit to use with Project Life. I argued that she didn’t need a kit – she could just make her own inserts. She did just that for 2012, but this year she ordered a kit. Eh-hm. And so did I.

It is fun to have coordinating inserts for Project Life, and I realize that particular element does help to unify a weekly spread. So, well..I’ll just say it: Carrie was right. {ouch}

But! Even though I’m glad I ordered the kit, I wasn’t real crazy about all of the papers that were included in the one I chose. I particularly liked the journaling cards, but didn’t care for some of the patterned/colored paper sheets. So, I made a few of my own.

Now, before you go thinking that I’m all “miss high and mighty” {"Anonymous" commenter!}, I’m going to tell you that while I think that Project Life is a great way to scrapbook and I do think everyone should scrapbook in some form or another, that doesn’t mean that you have to have some fancy-schmancy inserts or someone else's kit for that matter. Plain and simple would do the trick just as well.

And these were pretty simple to put together:

{A paper trimmer, a few paper punches and a corner rounder, and glue dots. The end.}

And I realize this is really early in the year to be making a decision about next year’s Project Life {2014 – yikes!}, but I’m thinking I will completely make my own “kit” next year using some patterned paper I like, along with some solid {textured} cardstock for shapes and embellishments. I think it would be a fairly easy project. Hm...but that could prove to be fairly time consuming...

We’ll see how much time I have on my hands come December…

{wink}

PS: Here's a link to a great article for anyone who is curious about the basics of Project Life: Project Life Newbies

What Can I Bring? Cheesy Bread

We were invited to my father-in-law's house for a Super Bowl party and I asked what I could bring. "Nothing," was his standard reply, "I have plenty of food for everyone!"

Mm-hmm. I've heard that before. My sweet father-in-law does well in the meat department - he had more than enough of that. But sides and appetizers and desserts? That's where his daughters-in-law {my SILs and I} come in.

Only this time it was just me. I brought this appetizer cheesy bread, and two other guest's wives brought salads. And we had meat. And fun. :o)

I've seen this on the internet in a few places, and I'm not sure who to give credit to - so if it's your own personal invention, let me know and I'll link to you! It's a great idea, and went over really well - like, it was gone within a few minutes of coming out of the oven. {Note to self: make two next time!}

A loaf of bread, cut into one inch slices once/twice across but not all the way through the bottom of the loaf. You want it to remain held together on the bottom. Then I tucked grated cheddar cheese, some diced Canadian bacon, and a small amount of finely chopped red onion into the cuts. Wrap in foil and bake at 350° until the cheese is melted - 20-30 minutes depending on thickness of the bread. Pull apart with a fork and enjoy!

Yummy!

♥

Blood Orange Margaritas {or, It's Not Easy Being Green}

Back in September 2011, our friends Adam and Samantha came to our house on the day we got the keys - before we had officially moved in. Adam is a chef, and Sam has spent some time as a bartender, so when they found out that the two sickly looking citrus trees in our new backyard were blood orange trees, they were really happy about that. We vowed to have them over for blood orange margaritas one day - once we nursed the trees back to health. Assuming we could make that happen...

Well, friends, we made that happen!

There has been something very gratifying about getting these trees back to good. And last summer when we noticed a bunch of little green fruit on them we were really excited. It has been so much fun watching the fruit on our citrus trees grow and ripen. And when we finally picked one and had our first taste of a blood orange? Oh my goodness. We were in love! {the orange wasn't bad either... ;o}

So this past Saturday, Sam and Adam came over and we fulfilled our promise ~ blood orange margaritas.

I wanted to be prepared with whatever mixers Sam would need to make these drinks, so after checking a few recipes I found online, I went to the grocery store with my list.

One of the items on my list was triple sec and I had to ask a sales clerk to help me find it. It was down on the bottom shelf, all the way at the end, and I stood there trying to guess which bottle to buy. I know that "most expensive" is not always better, but in this case I picked the one that was a dollar more and headed home. {Nothing but the best for our friends!} I also liked that it was in a pretty cobalt blue bottle, so - hey - bonus.

No. Not bonus. I bought BLUE liquor {it was blue curacao - not even triple sec! oy!}, and when it was mixed with our beautiful blood orange juice...well...they looked more like kale margaritas than blood orange. ~sigh~

Anyway! This could have been a complete fail,

but the drinks were actually DElicious!

and we had such a fun time with Sam and Adam.

I feel so happy knowing that we helped save those orange trees.

I feel so happy for friends like Sam and Adam.

And I feel so happy that next year our blood orange margaritas will be orange.

Awesome.

♥