Some things I love right now . . .

Hello. I am pretty sure anyone who actually read my blog has given up on me, and I don’t blame them! I haven’t blogged in almost  year. I guess you could say I had blog burnout. I just didn’t feel like I had anything to write about – or anything anyone would be interested in. But honestly, I didn’t blog because I thought I had interesting things to share. I blogged because I look at it as sort of a journal – albeit a public one. So here I am – almost a year later, blogging again. I thought that in an attempt to get back into blogging, rather than sharing things in a traditional paragraph style, I’d just list some things that I am loving this month! So here are some things that some to mind:

1. Even though I have had some glitches with it, I am loving my new Iphone 5 that I got in the fall. I think what I love most about it is Siri. I love that I can text while driving. HA Yes – I know, its not safe to text and drive, and I’m pretty sure its illegal where I live. But with Siri I can talk and it turns to text. So cool!  That way I can keep my eyes on the road and still send a text – if its really important enough! LOL Oh – and I also love that if I ask Siri a question she tries her best to help me out! If I want to find something near me, all I have to do is ask her to find it. If I want a phone number, I ask her first before I start searching the internet myself.

2. I got an Instax camera for Christmas. First I ordered the 50s – a black one. I had until January 31 to return it. I really had no plans on returning it – until . . . I saw that a new one had come out in YELLOW. I love yellow. I always have. My favorite shade is a pretty buttery color. So the Instax Mini 8 is in pastel colors – and when I saw the yellow one, I knew I had to have it. It was love at first sight!!!

3. I had lunch with my brother last weekend, and I had my sister-in-law take a picture of the two of us with my fancy schmancy cute little yellow camera. She liked it so much she wants one now too. ha Anyway – I decided to make a layout of the picture. Its one of those layouts that every time I look at it, I laugh. It really cracks me up. I’ll post a picture when I can – right now I only have one on my phone . ..

4. I am enjoying the Bachelor. I always watch it and the Bachelorette. I know its really cheesy and the couples very rarely stay together. But maybe it’s the romantic in me – I love watching it anyway. This season I was looking forward to it REALLY bad – because Sean is the bachelor. I think he is just the cutest, sweetest, most genuine guy I have ever seen. At least on TV he is. LOL I felt that way about Ben on the last Bachelor. Then I realized he was not that great of a guy IMO. But so far Sean has not disappointed me. Whoever ends up with that man is one lucky girl!

5. Today was an unusually warm day – highs in the upper 50’s and tomorrow is going to be lower 60’s. I am loving the “spring” days that we are having in January. I know it won’t last but I am loving it while its here!

6. Right now, I’ve been taking a little break from photography. It seems that if I am really into scrapbooking, photography takes a backseat. If I am really into photography, scrapbooking takes a back seat. So right now, I’m taking a break from photography. Not that I don’t pick up my camera and take a picture here and there, but being super serious about it is just not happening right now. I won’t say that I love that – but I will say it just feels right for the moment. I do love that I have 2 hobbies that really make me happy, even if I have to alternate them!

7.  I got a cold a couple of weeks ago. Every time I get a cold, I get a cough too. It starts out as just a little cough and almost always turns into a constant one. So one thing I love when I get this is Cheratussin. This cough medicine is the BEST. The only problem is I can only take it at night because it has codeine in it. But once I take it I am knocked out and don’t cough at all during the night. Its seriously the BEST medicine for a cough – ever.

8. I love when my family is all together. This doesn’t happen very often at all. With my daughter living 2 hours away and my son always gone working or with friends, He can’t wait to move out, and I understand. He’s almost 20 and has been going to college here in town – so he really hasn’t been able to experience the true college life. I am getting a taste of what an empty nest is going to be like. I am not liking that feeling at all. But when my daughter was home at Christmas, I loved it. We were all together again. My kids are my world – they make me so very happy and I love that God gave them to me!

Well that’s all I’ve got for now! I hope everyone has a great week and rest of January!

Steph.

Oh how I love Spring!

I can’t believe the wheather we have had. First winter was the mildest ever – and now spring is here early! Not that I’m complaining because I LOVE spring! The trees and bushes are blooming all over the place and that makes me a happy girl. I could use some happiness lately after my disappointment in camera shopping. LOL I had heard such great things about the Nikon D7000, so when we got out tax refund, I ordered one. It came at the beginning of this month and I tried to love it – I really did. It just didn’t perform as I expected. I don’t know if I got a bad one or what but I had the HARDEST time getting a clear in focus picture on it. I tried every setting imaginable but it just wasn’t happening consistently. I would try the same settings on the new one as I had on my old one and the pics on my old camera were better. So after 2 weeks of agonizing over it, I sent it back on Friday. It broke my heart because I really did want that camera – but it just wasn’t meant to be. . . so now I wait for it to arrive at Amazon and wait for my refund. That in itself makes me a nervous wreck. I have never shipped anything as expensive as that before. I’m really hoping and praying it makes it back in one piece and I can get my money back!

So since the camera didn’t work out, I decided to treat myself to a new camera bag to make my old camera feel more loved. haha I ordered an Ephiphanie pink Stella. It should arrive on Wednesday – I’ll let  you know how I like it. =)  I have also signed up to audit Karen Russell’s class again. If you have never taken a photography class before, I highly recommend Karen’s Snapshots of a Good Life class. She is an amazing instructor. Not only is she very thorough but she is so good to her past students. I took the first one 2 years ago. She allows past students to audit her class for only $95.00, which to me is a great deal for so much information. When I took the last class, I really didn’t take the time to go through it all, because I got in on the last few weeks of class and by that time I just felt too overwhelmed so now I will have a fresh start and can go along with the others in the lessons. Because I am auditing I won’t get  chance to send in photos to be critiqued BUT I will have access to the message board and can ask questions throughout the entire class. That to me was worth the $$$! So, it starts on April 2 and I can’t wait. I found that over the winter I kind of quit taking photos for a while. I took some here and there but I think I was just kind of burnt out after trying to get good ones of my son’s senior pics, and not having much success. So I took a little break but now that spring is in bloom I am back to wanting to photograph everything around me, and that is a good thing. I did miss it!

In other news, I am probably growing more grey hairs as I type this, because yesterday my son got his motorcycle drivers license. He took a safety course and passed the test there and yesterday he went and got his drivers license updated so that he can officially drive a motorcycle. He doesn’t have one yet but when he does I am sure it will not be easy to get use to. As a medical transcriptionist I know what can happen to motorcycle drivers. I know that it isn’t an everyday thing but still . . . the risk is there. My brother has one and he told my son to assume that everyone is going to hit him because cars just do not see motorcycles. That sure makes me feel better.  NOT. So everyone out there – while your driving your cars, PLEASE keep an eye out for motorcyclists. Their life just might depend on it.

Well that’s it for now. Sorry for the long post but I haven’t typed one in a LONG time! Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday! Enjoy the spring weather!

Almost done . . .

Well – after working on my new scrap desk for what seems like FOREVER, its almost done!!!

I have to say, after working on this thing so long, I am really kind of tired of thinking about it! LOL For everything I did right on it, I did about 3 things wrong, too. haha But all in all I am happy with how its turning out. Its not perfect, but its cute with a large work space and tons of storage! I am on the last step – adding a few coats of polycrylic to it. That’s not going so well . . . I am seeing lots of brush strokes, which I am not like at all. I really wanted to just get a glass top for it, but I’m afraid that will cost me a small fortune to get. I really need the extra protection of the polycrylic though – this desk will be used a LOT. My last desk was glass, and it was so easy to clean up spilled glue, glitter, ink, etc. 

I tried to make it look like the PB desk as much as I could, but I did add a little extra decoration to it. I saw someone online had bought a headboard and put appliques on it. I thought it was really a cute idea so I went to DoItYourselfChic and ordered a couple of rose appliques to put on the front and back of the desk. I really like how it looks on it. Definitely very girly! :) 

So I have learned how to miter corners of wood, use a caulking gun, use wood filler, drill holes, and probably a few other things in between. haha

Well – I’m off to try to get this stupid polycrylic to go on right. Have a great evening!

Steph

In the mood to make something!

I have been on Pinterest for a while now. I have to say I am probably addicted to it. I absolute love it. There have been so many times when I have found a website that I thought was cool and either forgot to bookmark it, or then my bookmarks just disappeared into thin air (yes, I know I should have backed them up!). So Pinterest is a way to bookmark every cool thing I find on the internet. But not only can I bookmark what I find cool, I can also bookmark something cool that someone else has found! So if you aren't on Pinterest, you should probably check it out! Anyway - on to making things. On Pinterest I searched for a craft desk. I found a few that look like the thousand dollar PB desk, only way cheaper. So I got the brilliant idea to do it myself. I am known for my bright ideas that never seem to materialize - or don't turn out as planned. Well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed here and hoping this particular project turns out as planned, because if it does it will provide me with a LOT more storage in my scraproom, and as all scrapbookers know - storage is a GOOD thing! So for the last 2 weeks (by the way - in all the tutorials they say this can be done in a weekend - well apparently I am really slow. haha), I have been working on this desk. I hope to have it finished by the end of this weekend. I have made countless trips to Menards and Lowes (our only home improvement stores in town). Lowes, by the way, is the only store that will cut wood for you. I think Home Depot will too, but I am not near one. So if you decide to do a desk yourself and do not own an arsenal of saws or don't want to risk the danger of using one, then find a store that will cut it for you. I have found that some of the hardware store people are helpful and some just roll their eyes at me because I have no clue what I am doing (well that only happened once - and maybe I imagined it - but still). So when it is all done I will post some pics. I am getting way excited about it though because while I had a good desk before, it just wasn't as functional as it could be and this one will be! Stay tuned!