Lookie what I found!

Can't wait to get started on this.......but alas, it will probably be at least October before I can start....I got some other things I need to get done, such as painting our upstairs hallway and getting an estimate of how much it would cost to have our 2 story staircase painted.

I'll keep you posted to my projects!  Maybe I'll actually get a few of them finally done since some of you may be checking in and YES, you can leave comments......I know you're out there....lol

I'm such a Flake!

I completely flaked out on updating my blog at the end of my last vacation.  Almost a month has gone by, I've been on another stay at home week vacation and I'm getting ready to leave for San Francisco Monday.

I'm heading to a professional conference and decided to bring Fred along with me.  He has only tagged along one other time six years ago, when I had to attend a forum in Orlando, so we tacked on a bunch of vacation days and brought Connor along so we could experience Walt Disney World.

Connor isn't going on this trip because he has a job now and Fred and I need some time away.  This is the first time Connor will be home by myself, but at almost 17 he hasn't given us a reason to not trust him, so between my sister, my brother, my Aunt and Uncle, our best friend and neighbors, he'll be looked in on frequently and is even going to spend the night with a sister a couple of times.  It will all depend on his work schedule which he gets today.

Yes, I'm a bit nervous about it, but I was the same age when my parents, brother and sister went to Canada on a fishing trip and I didn't want to go, so I was left alone and I'm still alive.....LOL

I'll try and update while I'm in San Francisco and share what I'm doing and some photos.....I adore that city and I'm anxious to be visiting again and exploring some more.

Dairy of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Eleven and the last true vacation day :(

I woke up to the feeling of a kitty washing my nose with his rough little tongue.....Kirby never does that but for some reason he wanted me up at 8:00am....they had food and fresh water, but he would not leave me alone.

Stayed up late last night reading and I was surprised I was as motivated as I was when I got up this morning.  I had Connor and I go outside just as soon as my coffee was ready to water everything in sight.  All the containers, the flower beds, the vegie garden, the tomato garden, all the hanging planters.  In this heat, it has to be done every day.

Much too hot for two days in a row at the pool, so I spent a few more hours purging and organizing my craft room....wouldn't you figure, I'd get motivated to do this during the last part of my vacation.  I'm starting to get quite the pile of stuff to sell or donate.

The other day when I was at my girlfriend's massage center, she sent me home with this wonderful flower water.  It's the perfect thing to spritz your face with when it's hot.....and I love the lavender scent.   Thanks Di!  It's very refreshing!

I headed up toward Ames in the afternoon, with a pit stop in Ankeny.  I needed to pick up some green cardstock for a couple of pages that I'm working on.  I couldn't believe I didn't have the right shade of green that would work with the pattern paper I am using.  I hadn't been in Memory Bound for at least a couple of months and it was fun to see what all was new.  I did pick up some new DoodleBug Fancy Frills border stickers and a few sheets of a summer themed "Sunshine Happiness" by Bella Blvd, but that was all.

Couldn't believe I got so much done in a short amount of time.....I ended up running out of pages to do...now, I couldn't completely finish what I'd done til I got back to my craft room, but the pages were 80% done.

Made more headway in my craftroom.....the scrapbook sale pile is growing......

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Ten

I had a doctor's appointment today so I had to set the alarm to get up.....I guess I better get used to that again.   :(

After my appointment I went to Staples to find book rings for another mini album I'm finishing up and I found the cutest little desktop cube organizer that found it's way into my shopping cart and it rang up even cheaper than I thought.....yay!

I had Fred put it together and it resides on my work table and it's perfect.

Decided that I wanted to get some sun and swim some laps, so off to our local pool I went.....glad I was in the water for the most part...IT WAS FREAKING HOT!  I only stayed about an hour and forty five before heading home to a nice cool refreshing shower.   My guys gave this to me at Christmas and I've been anxiously awaiting the summer months to use it and it is heavenly.....but you must like the fragrance of pineapple and coconut.

I got to meet up with a dear friend for dinner tonight.  I've known Becky now about 12 years.  We met through scrapbooking and then found out that we only lived about 4 blocks from one another at the time.  I've also got to know one of her daughters quite well and enjoy seeing Laura whenever I can.  I've hosted both of them at my house to scrapbook a few time and we always have a great time!  Becky and I like to meet at the same place (Hilltop Restaurant) and order the same thing....two Diet Pepsi, two dinner salads with the dressings on the side and a Medium Mushroom/Green Olive pizza that we devour like raging animals....lol!  We also do A LOT of talking.......lol

Stayed up late again reading....I started two new books....Fast Food Nation and Room.  I alternating between them as they interest me.  My last true vacation day is tomorrow......sad face.....

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Nine and July 4th!

The teen spent the night with a buddy of his and is going boating at Red Rock with his buddy and his family, so Fred and I slept in and took our time having our morning coffee.

It's suppose to be 104 degrees today and that's not heat index, so all of plants and gardens got an early morning watering again.

Our plan was to go see "The Amazing Spiderman" but I guess a million other people had the small plans and by the time we got to the theater, the show was sold out, so back home we came and hung out here until our company got here for our cookout.

Since I had a couple hours to kill, I did some more reorganizing and purging in my craft room.  I think this fall I'll have a mini garage sale to get rid of just crafting supplies.......then I'll buy more with the money made...lol!

I really needed to address the closet in my scrapbook.  It's quite large and I use it for crafting stuff, so I pulled everything out of it, made piles (to go through later, to sell, to donate) and put what I wanted to keep back.  

Much better!

The bottom shelf with the magazine holders will house whatever issues I decide to keep once I go through what I have left.  I got rid of probably 60% of my magazines and idea books a couple of years ago, but still hung on to most of my Scrapbooks Etc....those need thinned out.

My sister, her b/f and my nephew Gunner came over for a cookout.  The b/f had to work, so we decided to wait on him before plowing into grilled burgers, hotdogs, baked beans, cherry fluff, corn on the cob, chips, homemade vanilla ice cream and smores........it was an awesome spread!  and very easy to put together.

After dinner, we all watched the Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynold's movie Safe House.   It wasn't bad....I got distracted by my nook.....finishing up that Steve Berry book that I probably didn't pay attention like I should have....lol

We were going to go back over to my sister's place once it got dark to watch another fireworks display, but even at 10:00 at night, it was hot and I didn't want to sit outside in it again and then have to come home and take another shower.....so we flaked out.....but it was a VERY relaxing 4th of July!

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Eight

I had to get up early today to get my car out to the dealers for a courtesy visit......boo!  and I discovered that I left my favorite to-go coffee mug at Dianne's yesterday, so since I was going to be out that way anyway, I killed too birds with one stone.....got my car serviced and picked up my mug.

I also had to stop at Hobby Lobby for adhesive.  You certainly can't scrapbook without something to put pictures on paper with.....

I did a tiny bit of weeding today and harvested some more squash and grape tomatoes from our garden.  I have to keep everything watered in this kind of weather.  The Rose of Sharon that I planted in honor of my mom has already bloomed, I usually don't see it bloom until August.  It really is quite beautiful until a strong thunderstorm comes in and blows the blossoms to pieces.  :(

I love that my newly planted day lily is doing so well....it's had at least 4-5 flowers on it already......I love the color...

Spent the rest of the day catching up on some DVRed shows I wanted to watch and dusting the main floor of the house.....black furniture and black surfaces = big time dust.
 
The other day I stopped at a farm stand and bought some Iowa grown tomatoes (our heirlooms won't be ready to harvest until late August) and they were wonderful!  We had BLT's for dinner with some excellent homemade macaroni and cheese.

A couple months ago, my sister and her family moved to a house that is very close to two different venues that do amazing fireworks displays, so we went over to their house after dark to have an up close and personal fireworks display......the local horse track and casino did theirs Tuesday night and the local amusement park is doing theirs on the 4th.  My sister live close to both of them.

Stayed up way too late putting the finishing touches on one of the mini albums I made last weekend.....it's really cute......summer inspired......I'll share later!

Dairy of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Seven

A completely lazy day!  Much too hot out to do nothing but water all of my plants early in the morning...and off to meet my oldest and dearest friend Dianne for a massage at her spa.  She's been helping me with my right shoulder and her therapy has helped.   After the massage I took her out to lunch before her next afternoon appointment and I headed out to Bed, Bath & Beyond for a bit of retail therapy.  I had 20% off coupons that needed to be used and we're still waiting on our Keurig shipment, so I bought a couple of boxes of K-cups there.

Got back home and got cozy on the couch with the book I'm reading The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry.  I'm almost done with it and it's getting really really good.  I may read in the next in the series "The Venetian Betrayal" if I can find it.  ......I even took a nap....it was heavenly.  Once Fred got home from work, we grilled out Stuffed Chicken Breasts and had some baked crinkle fries.

After dinner, I went up to my scrapbook room and got a wild hair up my you-know-what and decided to do a bit of re-arranging.  I wanted to move my desk directly in front of the window so I can take advantage of the light, plus moving the IKEA 8 cube shelf over and lay it on it's side will give me a bunch more surface space.

Before I had my desk back in the corner and the IKEA unit was standing on end rather than lying on it's side as it is now.....thus the increased surface space that I moved my printer to and I also have my Big Shot, Quickutz and a small trimmer there also.  I get a LOT more light now that than IKEA unit isn't blocking one of the windows......I think I like it.......or at least until I get another wild hair up my you-know-what.

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Six

It's been a LONG time since I've been so lazy on a Sunday.  I woke up at 7:00am and went downstairs and Kirby and I snuggled on the couch and watched the most recent episode of "The Real Housewifes of New York City" and yes, I know....I'm going to fry my brain watching that crap, but it's like the old saying goes..."It's like watching a train wreck, you can't look away"....lol!  Fell back to sleep on the couch and slept til 10:30...Wowza....I'm usually already done with the weekly grocery shopping and back home by 10:30. 

I played in my scraproom for a while and finished up another couple of pages.  Trying to decide if I'm going to re-organize it....it's such a massive undertaking and because it's not a large room, I don't have a lot of options.

I finally got myself together enough to get dressed and go to the grocery store because we were out of milk and almost out of bread.  I decided that I was going to "freestyle" the grocery store this week....lol!  I am very meticulous about planning meals, making a grocery list, knowing what's on sale and even having an average of about $10 bucks a week in coupons.  Today, I was going to "wing it"....or my own coined term of "freestyle it".

I took a list of what I had hastily written down that we needed, the store ad and my coupon keeper and off I went....It wasn't the first time I had done that, I "freestyled" a couple of weeks ago, but we really didn't need much that week.  I was surprised that I spend about $40 bucks less that I usually do....

It's been so damn hot and anyone that knows me, knows I DO NOT LIKE SUPER HOT WEATHER, but the heat has been amazing for my vegetable garden.  My zucchini and yellow squash plants are larger than I've ever seen them.....look at all the blossoms

Enjoyed watching the U.S. Olympic Gymnastic Trials and absolutely thrilled that our hometown girl Gabby Douglas came from behind and took the #1 guaranteed spot on the U.S. team!

Stayed up late reading magazine and watching (for the millionth time, but I adore it),  The Rocker.

If you haven't seen it, seriously get your butt to the video store and rent it.......Rainn Wilson is just so good...along with Emma Stone, Teddy Geiger, Jason Sudekis and even cameos by Wil Arnett and Bradley Cooper.   Let me know what you think!

 

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Days Four & Five

After staying up late watching movies last night, I slept in on Friday and had just enough time to get a shower and get ready in time to meet my Aunt Susie at the Des Moines Art Center to go see Jackson Pollock's MURAL that the University of Iowa owns and is here in Des Moines until July 15th when it gets sent out to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles for the next two years.    The painting is amazing and to think that a painting that large was hanging the the foyer of Peggy Guggenheim's Upper East Side townhouse before she donated to the University of Iowa.

After wandering through the art center, Connor, Susie and I enjoyed lunch together and then we headed back home so I would have time to get ready for my anniversary date with my husband.

We had dinner at Sam and Gabe's for the first time.  I've been wanting to eat there forever and a few weeks ago there was a Groupon, so I thought what a perfect opportunity!  I made the reservations and mentioned we were celebrating our 25th that evening.  When we got there, they had the best booth in the restaurant reserved just for us.  We had an amazing dinner.......bruschetta and toasted raviolis as appetizers, a wonderful salad with a classic italian dressing.  Fred ordered the Beef Tenderloin DeBurgo with Grilled Shrimp and a baked potato, I order one of their signature dishes, the Chicken Asiago with a side of grilled asparagus.  Over coffee and for dessert we shared a piece of their homemade Flourless Espresso Chocolate Silk Torte.....it was heavenly!

Saturday brought a long awaited scrapbook session with my good friend, Gina.  We haven't been able to see each other in a long time and as busy as we both are, we have to make plans well in advance.   Instead of trying to plan pages, I decided to work on 3 different mini album kits to give as gifts.  I've had the kits forever and this week I dug out all of my unfinished kits and projects, put everything in a big basket and sat it where I can see it in my scrapbook room with the goal of getting everything either made of completed.

This week while I was home, I did finish up a small printer's tray that I had.  I adore how it turned out!

One parting thought........I HATE HOT AND HUMID WEATHER!

Diary of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Three

WAY too hot to plan anything outdoors today!  110 heat index is enough to keep me inside all day

It is my 25th wedding anniversary toay!   I can't believe that a quarter century has gone by since I married Fred.  We're going to be celebrating it in August when we go to San Francisco with a side trip to Napa/Sonoma Valley.  Tonight we're having a friend over for dinner and then tomorrow night, Fred and I are going to Sam and Gabe's for dinner.

I'm so thrilled that on my 25th wedding anniversary, the Supreme Court handed down their decision to uphold the Affordable Health Care Act!   A landmark decision on a historic piece of legislation that will allow all Americans a chance at affordable health care.  I'm over the moon happy!

Dairy of a Much Needed Vacation - Day Two

Woke up feeling a bit hungover today.....What is UP with that?  I only had one beer at dinner and drank water at the concert!......so feeling the way I feel and as hot as it's going to be.......a day at the pool is scheduled.

It was a scorcher!  I could only do about 2 hours before I was done and most of that time was spent in the water.  I did get one Vanity Fair magazine read.  Besides, I was looking forward to the refreshing shower I was going to take once I got home.  A trip to the grocery store was a must for milk and supplies to make iced coffee...yum.....AND I ended up purchasing this.....thought this might be fun over vacation.  :)

Spent the rest of my day playing in my scraproom.  I finished a album project that I've been working on as a gift and I even finished up a complete of pages I had started from early May.  I'll post some of my recent pages and projects later.

Tried a new recipe for dinner that I got from the Betty Crocker web site; Buffalo Chicken and Potatoes.  I lightened it up quite a bit by using reduced fat cheese, light ranch dressing and reduced fat margarine to mix with the corn flakes.  Not sure if it was a keeper.....I liked it but Fred didn't.

I rented the movie "The Artist" to watch, but I didn't get to it.....story of my life....instead I got wrapped up in the season finale of "The Real Housewives of Orange County" and an episode of "American Pickers".......

Stayed up late reading The Alexandria Link by Steve Berry.  This is the second in the series he writes about his character of Cotton Malone.  It's reminiscent of Dan Brown's work and I've enjoyed what I've read so far.  I think there are at least 7-8 more books in this series.

Gotta go......

Dairy of a Much Needed Vacation - Day One

I SLEPT IN! YAY! After getting up at 5:30am to be at work at 7:00 for almost 25 years, it hard to sleep in when you want to....I'm making it a priority during this vacation.

It is my husband's 53rd birthday today and I wish he could have taken time off but the are in the middle of a big project and it's just not a good time. We're going to celebrate once his gets home by going to dinner to one of our favorite places, Olympic Flame and then to Wells Fargo Arena for the ZZ Top, 3 Doors Down and Gretchen Wilson concert.

It was such a beautiful morning that I took the paper and my coffee out on the deck to enjoy. I got Connor to help me water all of the gardens and containers both out front and in back before he headed off to a friend's house for a while.

I spent a good couple of hours playing in my scraproom trying to finish a present that absolutely has to be done by the end of July, plus I'm trying to decide what I'm going to work on next weekend when I get together with a friend who I haven't seen in forever.

 After lunch, I went up to my local nail salon and settled in for a pedicure and facial wax. I hate that I have to wax my lip and chin on a regular basic. I understand my eyebrowns...I have big eyebrows, but the hair on the lip and chin is a "getting older" thing that I'm none too happy about.

I got an awesome glitter gem polish on my tootsies.....silver and aqua......

When I got back home, Connor was back home earlier than expected because his buddy got grounded for not doing the dishes and I laughed and said "See, you're not the only one who gets in trouble for not doing as you were told".....he thinks he has it soooo bad....ha! We did spend some connect time watching "I Am Legend" together. I had never seen it and although the subject matter was compelling, I found it to be depressing and I hate depressing movies, but I can't say I hated it.

 Fred came home from work and we hustled to get ready for our night out. Connor had to work from 4 to 8, so we would see him after the concert. We got to Olympic Flame with enough time to have a leisurely meal of saganaki (flaming cheese), gyros and greek beer. Fred got a piece of baklava for his birthday!

We got to Wells Fargo just in time to hear Gretchen Wilson finish her set with covers of  Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" and Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll"......she was pretty damn good!

3 Doors Down brought the house down......opened with "Time of Our Life" from their newest CD and did everyone of my favorite songs of theirs.

ZZ Top came out and I about died when they launched into "I Thank You".....I have loved their version of that song since the 70's, and then they went right into "Have Mercy"...a blistering blues song and then after that "Jesus Just Left Chicago"......very very surprising choices to open the show with.  They showed just why they have been the music business as long as they have.

We had a great time and Fred said he thoroughly enjoyed his birthday!   

P.S.  I sat next to this awesome dude with a really good camera in his phone and he's going to email me all the awesome shots he got!  SCORE!

Dairy of a Much Needed Vacation

I'm seriously hoping that the next 12 days will give the opportunity to chill the fuck out.  Excuse my french, but my life plate has been seriously overflowing with a lot of things that A.  I've never had to deal with before, therefore I'm treading in unfamiliar territory or B.  My insane need to try and do it all.

I've come to sort of a crossroad in my life where I want to make some changes and I'm sure it has to do with Connor only being a few years away from leaving the roost and a possible retirement for me in 7 years.  I've been wanting to downsize everything.....well, except my scrapbook room.....lol.....I'm wanting to simplify and I'm ready to shake off some of the responsibilities that I've taken on because of my insane need to be in control.  I'm completely ready to give up some of that control.

I could go on and on about my job, but I'm not going to because it is what it is, it's not going to change, at least not for another 3-4 years when the current management retires, so I just need to try and keep an even keel and keep my eye on the prize of being able to retire in 7 short years.

I'm also hoping that this vacation will give Connor and I a chance to reconnect.  Since starting his new job and now being able to drive himself, we don't see much of him and I'm feeling a real disconnect there.  We're going to go to the Des Moines Art Center together sometime over this vacation to see Jackson Pollock's MURAL....$150 millions dollars worth of art that the University of Iowa was given by Peggy Guggenheim.  He likes doing those type of things with me.  He wanted to go to the Des Moines Art Festival with us last weekend, but he had to work.

Fred and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary during this vacation also and I feel bad that Fred was unable to take any time off right now.  His company is in the middle of a major project and a major remodel so he needs to be there, but we will celebrate it in August when we are in San Francisco and then Napa/Sonoma Valley.

So, now that I've got that off my chest.....here's hoping for a peaceful, fun, relaxing, lazy vacation!
P.S. I have to share pictures of my beautiful plants that my husband and son bought me for Mother's Day and they are still looking good!

My New Challenge

Today is Day #1 of the new challenge I have set for myself of a minimum of 60 minutes of activity a day, seven days a week....no more taking a break unless I'm sick.

I can split it up into multiple sessions of activity, for example....some days I walk when I'm at work...15 minutes in the morning or afternoon or both and if I do that.....then there is 30 minutes I've done and I only have to do 30 more after work, or if I'm feeling great and energetic, I may do 60 minutes more after work.  I'm still going to Kosama, but after hurting my back last week, I'm going to have to back off of it this week.  I don't want a set back.

I'm also back to using a program I really love to track my food.  Lose It! is an awesome food tracking program that I think has a great food database.  Much better than My Fitness Pal in my opinion.  I also like that it will sync up with my Fitbit that I use to track my activity.

I find that I can do one of the two things well.  I can either do really well with my exercise and activity or I can do really well with my food choices, but it's very hard to do both really well together.  I'm hoping to change that over the next two months.  Besides my goal of 60 minutes a day of activity, I am also setting a goal of losing 23 pounds before August 6th, which is when we leave for San Francisco for a combination business trip/wedding anniversary trip.   Wish me luck! 

I'm going to try and update my blog more often that I have been simply to have some accountability to my goal. I may also share some healthy recipes and some menu items that work for me. I know tomorrow I'll be having my favorite berry/yogurt/low fat granola parfait for breakfast, a big salad with roasted chicken for lunch.....dinner I'm not sure about......but I know it's planned, I just can't remember what it is. Back to work tomorrow for me.....I've been off since last Friday and it's been nice. Leaving you with a photo that I took several weeks ago when I discovered a bird had built a nest in my hanging geranium plant on the front porch.  There ended up being four eggs, two that hatched (we saw the little birds) and then.....poof.....they were gone and only one small egg remains.  This is like the fourth time birds have built nests in plants on our front porch.  I'm surprised they like that location considered how much activity there is and the fact that there are usually cat faces looking out the bay window.

A Couple of Awesome Garden Tips...plus some pretty pictures

Garden Tip #1 - Big containers look great by a gate or your front door, but it takes a lot of soil to fill them.  Most annuals have fairly shallow root systems, though, so save yourself some soil (and money) by filling the bottom third to half of large containers with something besides soil before adding potting mix.  Good "fillers" include rinsed detergent bottles (with the lids on), chunks of packing foam from appliances or electronics, or non-biodegradable foam  peanuts. (Two exceptions are tomatoes and basil - these both grow well in containers, but they need a lot of moisture to produce well, so you're better off filling the entire container with soil.)

Garden Tip #2 - Layers a plastic bag inside the coco fiber or sphagnum peat moss liner in hanging baskets will help keep your basket from drying out too quickly.  Be sure to poke a few holes in the bottom so plants don't drown, though.

The Columbine is in full bloom right now.  My plants aren't very big, but I have 3 or 4 of them scattered around my perennial bed.

My Knock Out Rose are blooming also.......I have one on each side of our "Triangle Garden"
 

I've got some more gardening to do this week......dig up an ornamental grass that's dying and I'm going to replace it with some new daylilies that I bought.  I also need to divide and transplant some of our Iris.  Once that stuff is done, then I can put down new mulch, but I think I'll wait until next weekend to do that.

Hope you're all enjoying the outdoors and digging in the dirt!

Fruits of my Labor

I haven't shared any of my scrapbook pages in quite a while and I have a ton to show off.....some of you may have already seen some of these.  I've been working pretty consistently since the retreat I attended in early February.  I ended up finishing 18 pages in February, nine pages in March and this month I'll probably get about 7 pages done.  That's pretty good for me for this time of the year.

First up is a page of Connor on his 15th birthday.  This was a fun teen paper collection to use!

 Here's a two page layout of our cats at Christmas time.  I used an assortment of Christmas themed supplies I've had forever.

 Loved using Basic Grey's "Max & Whiskers" for these photos of Oreo playing in our dirty laundry.  The little black cat embellishment was the perfect touch.

I love doing pet pages and here's one of a photo of Kirby sleeping.  He's such a snuggly cat.

One Winter morning I was able to get photos of the Hoar Frost that we had that morning.  The trees were magnificent covered in light snow.  Used some felt snowflake border and some super old Renea Lindgren stickers I still had laying around.  Those must be 10 years old...lol

Another photo of Kirby, only this time in his infamous "Kirbyball".  Very basic and simple page using cardstock, sticker borders, chipboard alphabet, thicker alphabet, small envelope and a kitty cat chipboard embellishment.

Here's a fun page of Tucker and his belly.

Connor made me the loveliest ring box in his woodworking class that semester and gave it to me for Christmas.  Of course, I'm going to do I scrapbook page about it.  Used some Basic Grey for this page.

This one I did at the retreat and was inspired by the page challenge that we had.  I mixed it up a bit with for these photos of my guys.  

 Here's another Christmas 2010 layout of my sister and Chloe and Gunner.  That Christmas glitter paper is fun!

Christmas pages are my least favorite thing to do.  It seems like I scrapbook the same things every year.  I try and think "outside the box", but I still find these pages tedious to do.  Here's my family and I on Christmas Eve 2010.

When I heard "Jersey Boys" was going to be at the Civic Center of Des Moines in July of 2010, I hopped on getting us tickets.  Fred wasn't as thrilled as I was, but admits after seeing the show, that it was really good.  Our seats were great and the cast was awesome!

And yet another Christmas page.......holiday decor.....I like looking at the various years and seeing how it's never quite the same as the previous year.

I've got more to share, but I also have some pages I need to photograph, so I'll wait until I have everything photographed, Photoshopped and resized.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my pages!

Something that make me happy!

Since my Canon Digi Rebel died last year (boo hoo) and I decided NOT to replace it with another DSLR, I decided to sell all of my lens and accessories I had for it.  I even sold the non-working body and got a pretty good price for it.......had some fun money to spend and there were a few things I wanted.

I had been looking for the perfect storage solution for my jewelry for awhile and just couldn't find anything that I thought would work for me.  Currently I was hanging my necklaces from suction hooks on my dresser mirror and I had jewelry trays in the top jewelry drawers of the dresser to hold my earrings, bracelets and rings.

One day I opened up a daily email from either HSN or QVC and I saw the perfect hanging jewelry organizer.  You could either mount it on the wall of hang it over the door (which is what I wanted to do).....

As you can see, I have a lot of jewelry, it's not expensive stuff, but there's a fair share of Brighton, Silpada and Lia Sophia hanging there, but for the most part I've either been given a piece as a gift or I have something on the clearance table.


 As Clairee said in Steel Magnolia's "The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize".

*On the Mend*

It's been 5 days since my gall bladder surgery and I'm surprised that I'm still feeling as down as I do.  Don't get me wrong, I'm WAY better than I was over the weekend, but I'm not 100% yet.....maybe 70%.  I still tire very easily, my incisions are still sore and now ITCHY.....and my voice is still hoarse.

I have to say that I am enjoying my time away from my job.  Things are weird there right now and I'm glad to be away from it for even the short time that I am.  It's been nice to sleep in, it's been nice to take my time with reading the newspaper and having that cup of coffee, it's been nice to have the house to myself while the ones I live with are off to work and school.  It's been nice to have my kitties surround me with their attention while I've been home (a couple of them camp out where I do) and I've enjoyed staying up late trying to get caught up with what I have on our DVR and starting some new books.

I'm hopeful that I'll feel well enough by Friday to go see "The Hunger Games" with Fred and then sometime over the weekend,  all three of us will go see "Wrath of the Titans".

The weather has been fabulous and had I not been recuperating from surgery, I would have definitely been out in my gardens.  They are in desperate need of attention.  The per-emergent/lawn fertilizer that we put down on our lawn a few weeks ago really did it's job.....we've already had to mow the yard and right now it looks like green velvet.   I can't wait to feel good enough to get outside and do some gardening!

It's 5 o'clock somewhere!

Fred and I thought it was finally time for us to have a grown up bar to hold our liquor, wine and various wine and cocktail glasses.  Prior to finding the cabinet, we didn't really have an organized spot for any of it and kept it where we could find room.  I had been looking for some type of a cabinet  that would match our kitchen and I found the perfect thing at Amazon.  I even got free shipping....Yay!

It fits the space perfectly and the top surface holds our wire cork holder, our Oster battery operated wine opener, a cute little "wine" sign I found, a ceramic Emeril's restaurant front I bought in New Orleans and a small topiary.  It sits below our Charles Wysocki "Ethel the Gourmet" print that has graced someplace in our home for years.  I also ordered the white Bon Appetit wall word online to go on the wall over the print.

Behind the left cabinet door is our liquor, usually a couple of different types of rum or vodka, the middle shelf holds martini glasses and has a nine bottle wine rack and behind the right cabinet door is our wine glasses, margarita glasses and our cocktail shaker.  It also has three drawers that hold wine stoppers, flasks, bar utensils, etc.

It looks great and is serving it's purpose perfectly!  Couldn't be happier!

Meow

This is one of the projects I worked on while at my annual scrapbook retreat weekend.  I just finished it up the other night and think it turned out cute!

In homage to our cats......

I used a KI Memories album that I had purchased on clearance quite a while ago and used various KI Memories embellishments with some other fun kitty things thrown in. I used my computer for the titles and some of them word blocks I used a pop dot to give a bit more dimension.

Thanks for looking and letting me share!