Goodies
24 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in Personal notes Tags: albums, antique store, boxes, Butterflies, buttons, happy dance, little antique store, little boxes, martha stewart, pictures, scrapbook albums, scrapbooking, valentine s day, valentines day, vintage, vintage buttons
Well I decided to post some more pictures of the cool stuff I got for Valentine’s Day (even though it was the day after).
I went to Michael’s and didn’t get a basket thinking I could get out of there without half the store. I bought two 12×12″ scrapbook albums. One of them is royal blue with a swirly design on the front. The pictures didn’t turn out so I’ll have to try again on that one. I got it for half off so I was happy about that. The butterfly one by Martha Stewart was one I’d been drooling over for a long time now. It was $25 regular price and I just couldn’t see spending that much so I was always waiting for it to go on sale. Whenever it did it was not a good sale. I guess no one was buying them at that price though so I ended up getting it for $8 on clearance! I did a happy dance on the way to the register. A manager/supervisor type stopped to see if I needed any help (since my arms were full) and she carried it to the register for me.
Of course that was the same time I got the butterfly punch/stamp set.
My husband took me to this great little antique store he spotted that was in a small house. The house looked like it was very old as well. My husband got spooked when we went upstairs and he felt like he was going to fall through the floor. His head was touching the ceiling too. I bought a few goodies while there. I bought two little boxes for my collection, two necklaces, and some vintage buttons. I didn’t even realize everything I’d bought was red. How did that happen? She gave me that little cloth bag for free to put one of my boxes in. I love it.
After that my husband took me to this nice Italian restaurant called Gambadella’s. It was delicious! I actually tried something I’d never had before – Chicken Rustico. I am not sure if I spelled that last part right but it was so good! I usually take pictures of my food but my husband gets embarrassed so since he was treating me I didn’t want to do that. I want to try to find a recipe although no one would eat it but me. Maybe I should just go out to eat more often.
Well, tomorrow is Saturday and I love spending Saturday’s with my husband. I usually run errands and grab a bite to eat. I hope everyone has a great weekend.
Valentine’s Day
14 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in gardening, Personal notes Tags: alaska, cooperative extension, cooperative extension office, gardening, garlic, growing garlic, hair appointment, manicure, massage chairs, nails, pedicure, seeds, valentine s day, valentines day, weather
My husband asked for Valentine’s Day off and they gave him Tuesday and Wednesday off too. We were going to do all kinds of fun stuff today and he ended up having to go to work. I was so bummed but I still had a good day and we still have tomorrow. My husband told me to go make an appointment to get my nails done…. all of them. He told me about a new place he saw that had a sign advertising a special deal on a manicure and pedicure. I couldn’t believe it when he told me – $32 for both. Here in Alaska prices are higher and it usually cost that much for one. I wasn’t sure what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised! The man was very nice and I enjoyed talking to him while I was there. They have great massage chairs and I was in heaven! He was also really excellent at massage. I have never had that great a pedicure! He took extra time since there was no one waiting. Then he did my nails (I don’t do artificial nails) and he did a great job! My hands are so soft! I love being pampered.
My husband finally called me when I was finished up and I went to pick him up and we went to lunch at the Thai House! That is my favorite! He told me to call and make a hair appointment for tomorrow and we are going to do our running around town then. Hopefully work will not ruin our day again!
It was a beautiful day too. It has warmed up to around 30 above F and it was sunny and beautiful. I didn’t have any pain from the cold today. Hopefully the cold weather is over for this year.
I called the Cooperative Extension office at the University and got some info on growing garlic and composting. I also found out about a gardening class that I’m going to sign up for tomorrow. I want to learn how to grow plants from seeds and have a vegetable and herb garden. I tried that last year but didn’t have a lot of success.
I hope everyone had a happy Valentine’s Day or just a good Tuesday.
The making of a journal
13 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in Journaling Tags: fabric, journal, journaling, V day, valentines day, Zentangle
I made a cover for my journal and I’m pretty proud of it. My journal that I planned to keep for the year of 2012 is made up of loose pages (half a 8.5 x 11 in. sheet / page) put together with loose binder rings. The rings are huge so I will have a lot of room for a whole year of pages. I had planned to make the covers from old manila folders and I had them cut out but they were too just too flimsy. I ended up recycling a priority flat rate box I got something in. I cut out the pieces that are just a little bigger than my pages and sprayed them with spray adhesive. I then took a piece of fabric that I had cut a little bigger than the cardboard and smoothed it onto the cardboard with an old credit card. I just used fat quarters. They really aren’t very fat. Once I had that done I trimmed the edges of the fabric with scissors. I repeated that on the other side with a contrasting color fabric. One thing I learned was it is good to have a bunch of loose newspaper handy so you can spray the pieces and than quickly slide a new sheet under them so you’re not working on a sticky surface. You don’t want adhesive on the wrong side of the fabric. Then I punched the holes with a hole punch. Of course all I had was a regular paper hole punch and that was really hard to use to punch through cardboard with fabric on both sides. It eventually worked though. I’m going to have to find a heavy duty punch I can use because that was really hard on my hands.
I decided I wanted my journal to have a ribbon to tie it closed so I cut too pieces of ribbon and used a hot glue gun to attach it. I laid my credit card down flat over the ribbon that was still hot with glue under it and pressed it flat. Then I used the edges of the card to scrap off the excess glue. I cut two flowers out of the fabric to adhere over the end of the ribbon and sprayed them with the spray adhesive. It keeps the edges of the fabric from fraying too. I let the flowers overlap the edges a bit and trimmed off the overhanging fabric. And, just because I like to doodle, I did some zentangle designs on my flowers with a silver Sharpie paint pen.
I found this big book of 8.5 x 11 inch scrapbook pages at Michael’s and now I just need to cut them in half to fill my journal with pages to work on. I have a piece of cardstock that I use as a template for where to punch the holes in my pages.
This is the journal I’m using for my SOAR Journal which is a free class at Just be Yourself. It’s not too late to sign up. It is a great healing class if you have things that have been troubling you. If not. it just gives things to think about and prompts to help you think of something to write. They also provide a lot of great graphics for using in your journal.
So now I just need to cut several more pages in half for pages to journal on so I’m ready anytime I want to use it. I’ll have something to journal about the next few days because my husband is treating me to a manicure and pedicure and a haircut for Valentine’s Day! We are going to have a lot of fun. He has the next two days off!
Another Day another Love Note
07 Feb 2012 1 Comment
in music, Personal notes Tags: cd, cup of tea, earl grey, earl grey tea, husband, little works of art, love note, Lunasa, music, nicholas sparks, nicholas sparks the notebook, pink tulips, soothing music, sticky note, the notebook, V day, valentines day
This morning I woke up feeling like I just might make it. I’ve been so sick! I felt like a zombie looking for an apocalypse. I don’t think I’ve been that sick in a really long time and I thought it would never end. Finally, I feel like the end is near. I still slept for a really long time and then I actually got up and cleaned up a bit. After a while I suddenly felt tired again and went back to sleep but I’m so glad to feel like a human again.
This morning I made a love note for my husband using a quote from Nicholas Sparks’ book, The Notebook. It is a little on the long side so I wrote it out on a sheet of one of those lined sticky note pads so I had plenty of room.
“I love you. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I’ve ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours. ”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
After he left for work I went back in to check to see if he moved it where I thought he did. Sure enough, I opened my side of the mirror and on the back of the inside is a grouping of several of my love notes.
When he went to the store the other day he came home with a bunch of pretty pink tulips for me. They are so pretty! They are like little works of art. I haven’t taken a picture yet but I’ll add one later. Have you ever looked closely at the inside of a tulip? They are beautiful! He also keeps buying me packages of Earl Grey tea which is my favorite. So now I have 3 boxes of it LOL
Anyway, now that I’m feeling a bit back to normal I think I’ll sip my cup of tea and listen to some soothing music. Several years back I had the pleasure of seeing Lúnasa preform here in town. I have never forgotten how beautiful they sounded live in the auditorium. I bought their CD and this is one of my favorite songs on it. If you take a look there are several of their songs on youtube.com and it is so peaceful. Their website is at http://www.lunasa.ie/ and you can even order a CD using paypal. I copied my CD to my itunes so I could listen to it on my ipod. I bet if I didn’t it would be worn out by now.
An Easy Love Note
04 Feb 2012 2 Comments
in Personal notes Tags: bathroom mirror, heart, joke, love note, love notes, simplest thing, sticky note, valentines day
I’m sick. I seem to have caught a nasty head cold. I’d gladly give up my head to get rid of it but then what would I scratch when I’m thinking? Anyway, I made a really easy love note this morning that turned out cute and took me around 30 seconds to make. I just wrote a note on a regular square sticky note and then trimmed it into a heart so the top of the heart had the sticky part. Then I stuck it on his side of the bathroom mirror.
I used a little saying that is a joke to both of us. He will often say to me, “I’m glad I picked you out,” and then I say, “no, I picked YOU out.” So my note simply says, “I’m glad I picked you out.” Later on I noticed he had moved it to my side of the mirror as if saying it back to me LOL
Isn’t it funny how the simplest thing can be the best sometimes?
Well I sure hope I get better fast. I don’t like being sick. I have things to do, places to be…
My Funny Valentine
03 Feb 2012 3 Comments
in Personal notes Tags: Fake, frugal, frugal friday, frugal valentines, funny, Funny valentine, glue stick, inconvenient, love notes, printer paper, toilet paper, TP, valentines day
This is the third day of my 14 days of Love Notes and my husband really liked the first two. One of them he kept at work and the other is pinned to the calendar in the bathroom. I decided it was time for a funny one this time and I’m waiting for him to wake up and start getting ready for work because that is when he’s going to notice it – when it’s most inconvenient hehe
This one is a fake roll of toilet paper. It’s made to look like there is just enough left to do the deed. I took an empty roll and cut strips of printer paper to fit. I used a glue stick to adhere the paper to the roll. When I got to the end I wrote my note going backwards and then glued 1 square of toilet paper to the end. I turned it over and ran one thin line of my glue stick down the center and rolled it up so it is held together but when he pulls it will unroll. The words are read one line at a time going from the bottom up so as he pulls he’ll see more of it. Hopefully he won’t look around before he sits down but when he does look around he will find some stashed toilet paper nearby. I had planned on doing it better than this and leaving more space between each line but some days he wakes up at 4 am so I was worried I didn’t have enough time. I fell sleep early last night so no time to play LOL The best part is this valentine didn’t cost me anything to make! Since I’m not working I have to be frugal.
My fake roll of TP with a funny love note written inside
Read from the bottom going up
Ain’t I a stinker???
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Journaling and another “love note”
02 Feb 2012 2 Comments
in Personal notes Tags: cardstock, eyelashes, frog, how to, j r r tolkien, journal, journaling, JRR Tolkien, love notes, major illness, Quote, rhinestones, rough times, school, shades of brown, SOAR, stamp pad, teens, V day, valentines day
I made another love note during the night and left it for my husband to find. He really liked the first one and actually thanked me twice! Little does he know he’ll be getting 12 more! LOL
This time I was reflecting how he has stuck by my side though some really rough times for me. I know it isn’t easy for him. I’ve read stories or seen things on TV about how someone gets sick with cancer or other major illness and their loved ones leave them because it is too much to handle. I was thinking about how lucky I am to have someone who is committed like he is. He is amazing. I decided to make another scroll with a quote from a book I know he loves – Lord of the Rings.
“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.
But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now
mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
To see more details on how I made this check out my blog post The Making of a Love Note. This time I used a cream/tan colored parchment heavy cardstock. I wrote the quote in brown and used the brown stamp pad to distress the edges and then I also added some gold to the edges using a stamp pad. If you put the cardstock face down on the stamp pad and press in a few random areas with your fingers (making sure to keep the edges of the stamp pad from touching because it will leave a line) it leaves neat looking blotches that make the paper look older. Use two different colored stamp pads to give it extra character – like two shades of brown – as long as it’s not too dark to still use the paper to write on. . I did the back too since that is what shows when it is rolled up. I used a small stamping up tag punch to make a tag with his name so there is not doubt who it’s for. I did that for the last one too. It occurred to me that he might just assume it was something of mine and not even look at it. I’m glad I thought of that in time. I actually put some gold on the wooden handles too so it looks a little more like a royal scroll. He actually just called me to tell me thanks :O)
On another note: I think the medication change is helping some. I feel somewhat better pain-wise but I also feel a little out of it. It’s only been two days though so maybe things will even out. I sure hope so. I don’t want to be a space cadet all the time.
I’ve been working on my journal for 2012 that I’m combining with the SOAR journal class at Just Be Yourself. I’m doing loose pages and using loose binder rings to join them. It looks a little funny right now because there are so few pages and the rings are so big. I haven’t made the cover yet. I’m also planning to add some printed art from the SOAR class but I can’t print right now since my printer is out of ink. I’ve left some blank areas to add some of those things though. I found an old journal that has lined paper with a pretty lime green edge on the outside edge. I didn’t use it much for a journal since the cover isn’t something I want to be seen with LOL It has this big frog with long eyelashes that have rhinestones on the tips and big pink kissy lips! My teen-aged sons can’t even stand to be in the same room with it. They always turned it face down LOL The paper is perforated though and just slightly shorter than one of my journal pages so I’m going to use that paper for the actual writing.
Since January is over now I just scanned my blog entries for the whole month and then summarized the more important things. I was surprised that I wrote as much as I did! I had to glue two pages together because the pen I used bled through but that will make them sturdier too. Now I’m going to start writing a journal entry for lesson 1 of the SOAR class. I want to go through the first 4 classes quickly and get caught up with everyone else. I don’t have to though since I know anyone can join at any time.
My oldest son, Jared, who is a senior this year said he missed the bus again. I’m starting to think he is just planning some extra days off from school since he already did that once. Both times he said he was watching for the bus and they didn’t come. The last time I called the bus company and they radioed the bus driver. He said he was at that stop right on time and gave the exact minute he was there. This time I told my son BS! I called him a cab. They are going to call me when he gets there and my husband and I are going to have a pow-wow with him when he gets home from school.
My younger son, Riley, is actually doing better in school now. My husband made sure to brag to me that some of his grades are close to A’s now. He wants to make sure Riley doesn’t just hear negative stuff. He actually had a pretty good talk with Riley about how he is always beating himself up about not being as good at things as his brother. Jared is really smart – book smart – reads at an advanced level and remembers everything so he never has to study. He’s always been in gifted and talented classes gets to do more fun things that Riley can’t because he didn’t test high enough. Riley has to work harder to get good grades but his dad told him that he could actually do better in school than his brother because it doesn’t matter how smart you are if you don’t put in the time and effort. Riley grades have continued to go up since then and he told his grandmother he was going to catch up with his brother in school. Although I don’t really like them being pitted against each other I think this is a good thing for Riley’s ego. Riley is much more motivated now. He has gone from failing to almost honor roll!
The Making of a Love Note
01 Feb 2012 9 Comments
in Craftyness Tags: bamboo skewer, cardstock, crochet cotton, crochet thread, february, February 14th, glue gun, handsome, hot glue, husband, impatient, lollipop sticks, love notes, manly man, mid evil times, Rabbi Ben Ezra, rabbi ben ezra by robert browning, Robert browning, skewer, the making of, thread, valentine s day, valentines day, wire cutters
I have decided to give my husband a “love note” for every day through February 14th. I still have to think of something grand for the big day besides the steak dinner he loves so much. I have health problems that prevent me from working so I was trying to think of something that my manly-man would appreciate and do it cheap. He doesn’t like all of the corny things people do on Valentine’s Day and really, I think he enjoys spoiling me more than anything. He is really special to me though and I want him to know it!
I have decided that my love notes will come in several different forms and I have thought of the first two so far. Some of them will be serious and some will be funny. I really hope he likes my love notes.
One thing I know he likes is to read. He especially likes to read about mid-evil times – so think castles and knights, dragons and even a hobbit or two. So I decided to make this love note look like a scroll. I’m sure he’s heard of the author too. This is part of a poem called Rabbi Ben Ezra by Robert Browning.
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made
I’m having a day
26 Jan 2012 1 Comment
in Personal notes Tags: bad day, dry eyes, eyes, good day, million things, pin board, pinterest, valentine s day, valentines day, watch tv
First, it was really bad. I woke up feeling awful….. at NOON! I went to bed kinda late last night but before midnight so I really didn’t expect to wake up after noon. I’ve been having a lot of problems with my eyes burning. I get really dry eyes and I have special drops and this gel stuff that I put in my eyes at night. Apparently it’s part of the Fibro fun. It’s getting worse though and for the last few days I haven’t been able to see very well so I couldn’t read my book. Grrrrrr
Okay, so then I took some stuff and after a while started to feel better. Yay. I started thinking about Valentine’s Day and what I could do for my husband this year since I have no money. I need to get creative. My husband isn’t into the cheesy stuff so I need to think of something sweet, unique and cheap. Hmmmmmm anyway, I ended up going pinterest crazy. I pinned about a million things today. I was going to put some here but couldn’t decide which ones and there are a lot. So you can click here to check out my pin board called “My Valentine So Sweet“. If you need an invite to pinterest just holla! Of course I didn’t find what I was looking for…… but I will figure it out.
Then, when I decided I wanted to watch American Idol my TV wouldn’t work….. you know the TV that is networked to the whole house. I wish I could just turn on cable and watch TV like normal but noooooooooooooooooooooooo. I was so bummed because this is the first year I have ever watched American Idol while it’s going on. I’ve only watch youtube after it was over…… sometimes years later LOL I actually just watched the last two years this winter…..backwards. Not actually backwards but I watched 2011 first and then I watched 2010. Of course I didn’t see nearly as much as there was since youtube deletes everything. Anyway, I was pretty upset that I couldn’t watch the show but my kids told me to just wait because it looked like it was being recorded. It was set to record as a backup. That was a good idea! Well, after the show was over and recorded my kids started working on it and now at almost midnight it is actually working! So, I can finally watch American Idol today…. and tomorrow since it will be past midnight when it’s over.
So, bad day……… good day….. bad day…..good day…. done!!!!!!!!
