Already??

Unfortuately, before it's even really started, my blog will be taking a (hopefully brief) hiatus. This is due to the fact that Dell is evil and hates me and my laptop is now dead. As in, won't come on, isn't charging the battery, won't even work with the power cord, might as well go "Office Space" on the stupid thing dead. Dead. I am less than pleased. Obviously.

So, don't leave me. I'll be back. I swear. I like this blog. Just be patient with me, I need a working computer and then the hiatus will be over. Pinky swear.

More wishful thinking....

I know it's been a few days since I posted, but I've had some personal stuff going on at home that took priority. I don't have anything real exciting to post about, but as I've been sitting around the last few days I've done some more fantasy window internet shopping. So, I thought I'd post some more of the pretty things I've found for everyone to look at and be happy!

This dress is too cute. It's BCBG Maxazria.
And these shoes are almost exactly like the ones she has on. They're from Forever 21.

This dress is also BCBG Maxazria, and I think it's gorgeous!
And I personally think these Steve Madden shoes go much better than hers!

And I just couldn't resist a cute bag!! This is a Franco Sarto, listed on Zappos.

A new hobby. Oops.

So....today I kind of found a new hobby that may eventually get me in trouble when/if I ever have money. I dubbed it "fantasy shopping." I was partially inspired by this blog that I found that my friend Tori follows. I love looking at it, because she always has really cool stuff she's found and her outfits look so good even though I'd be too scared that I would look ridiculous to wear them. But I was also partially inspired by the rerun of "What Not to Wear" that I was watching this morning (again, too much TV, I know) where I saw Stacy London wearing THE CUTEST yellow heels! So this combination spawned my brilliant idea to get some retail therapy without actually spending any money (since there's none to spend anyway). So I just kind of floated around on the internet for a while, and ended up with a bookmark folder titled "fantasy shopping." Most of these things I wouldn't ever actually buy for various reasons, but in my dreams they would all be in my closet and I would love them and they would have a good home!! So, I'll share some of my favorites that I found......and I'll stop using the word "so."



This dress from Macy's.

Definitely with this bracelet from Express in yellow. And of course these yellow earrings, also from Express.

With these super cute black shoes listed on Amazon, which also come in red!!


And this super cute little bag for a pop of another color!! It's posted here, and comes in yellow and white, too.

And, I got a little distracted by pretty shoes. I'm a sucker for shoes, and I love when they are unique and funky! I don't usually buy heels, because I don't wear them when I go out with my husband (since we're about the same height). But I loooooove me some shoes! Like these......


















Ok, I'm done for today. But I'm sure this new "hobby" will catch my attention again soon. Plus, that was not all of the bookmarks I got today. :)

I like it! I like it a lot!

Alright, so maybe I watch a little too much TV because I can totally picture the guy who played Harry on "Third Rock From the Sun" saying that phrase in my head. Perfectly. So sue me.

I like to cross stitch. Yup, I am just that much of a loser. Maybe I was born in the wrong generation. Or maybe it's because I grew up watching my mom do it so much. Whenever we were going somewhere that she knew we'd be sitting around, she would take it with her. And in my bedroom growing up, there was always a framed piece that she had finished that matched the decor. Even know, there are several pieces that she finished and framed hanging in the kitchen. So either I was born in a generation that was not meant for me, or I inherited my love of all things creative from my mom. Or maybe both. I don't know. But either way, I like to cross stitch.

To me, it's the perfect craft for when you're sitting (like watching TV, or in the car, or whatever), doing something, but not really doing something. It keeps your hands busy without taking your focus away from the original task. And it doesn't require staring blankly into a computer screen until someone updates their Facebook. So I can still watch my favorite TV shows and hang out with the family but not be totally bored. And I can still be the dutiful passenger wife and stay awake on long road trips while my husband drives where ever.

A few Christmases ago, my mom got me all kinds of cool supplies and almost all the colors of thread they make. Hoops, things to stitch, books, organizers, all kinds of goodies. Unfortunately, with our current lack of space, my goodies have been reduced to this.

But I'm okay with that. Because at least I have space for it. It keeps me sane. So, I have all my pretty colors of thread, all organized in numeric order, in their little boxes. Which are labeled of course so I know which colors are where, with my dry erase marker so that it can be easily changed if necessary but is durable enough to stay legible.







Well, most of the colors fit in there. There are a few that didn't, but I didn't need another bin, so I made do with this other organizational tool that mom thought was cool.
Don't like it as much, but it works.














Anyway, I do a lot of baby bibs mostly right now, which is a whole separate post that will have to wait until a certain package arrives at its destination, but I do other things too. I've been working on this Precious Moments pattern off and on between other projects for like a year now. It's hard, which is why I had to color some of it, because there are so many different symbols that I couldn't see straight! I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it when it's finally done, but I like it.










And some of the other things I've finished, my grandma has made into pillows for me (or is in the process of it anyway). I haven't learned how to do that yet, but maybe someday.
















So now you've seen a little deeper into my slightly more old-fashioned hobby. In the future, I plan to post about the baby bibs I cross stitch, my actual scrapbooking, and maybe even my dabbling in photography. That is, if anyone is interested of course!

Um.....

Apparently I'm applying to be a graduate student.

This is a very foreign concept to me, and I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it just now.

So far, the only clear thoughts I've had are "This is intimidating." and "Am I absolutely crazy?" The only clear emotions I can come up with right now are 70% scared and 30% excited.

Really, I'm having a hard time processing this, so that's all I have right now. As things happen, and as I get a firmer grip on this, I will certainly elaborate.

kthnxbai!

Hokay, so...

Here's da Earth. Dang, that is a sweet Earth you might say! Wroaeng!!




Alright, so I have this problem. When I have serious things that I'm supposed to be thinking about, I try not to. I know, completely weird for a logical person like myself. And I'm sure my husband would tell you I'm lying because I am always trying to get him to discuss thoughts and feelings about serious things. But that's different. Because he's not inside my head, so if I don't talk to him, he doesn't know all the craziness that is within my head. But left on my own, my thoughts tend to overwhelm me. And all that craziness inside my head, just keeps fueling itself to get more and more crazy. And then I tend to try to avoid sorting through it all because it just rolls around in my head becoming a more and more overwhelming chaotic mess. Which is why I spent the entire late afternoon/evening playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. A complete and total waste of my time. Sure, I could have worked on my cross-stitch project, or researched family history, or blogged about the craziness in my head, or taken a pile of boxes to the storage unit, or any number of other productive things. But no, I played games. Because I didn't want to have to think about it.

I am considering the slight possibility that I may be looking into getting my master's at TCU. Maybe. Yeah, that's all for now, because now that it's 11:15, I just don't feel like getting into it tonight. So that's all you get out of me at the moment. And on the off chance that my brain doesn't explode from all the craziness, maybe I'll be able to elaborate at some point.

What can I say, I'm ambitious.

For Christmas in 2008, I made my two sisters-in-law scrapbooks. They loved them! That is my favorite part of Christmas, giving people gifts that they love and seeing how excited they get about it! So, for Christmas 2009, I thought, they liked the scrapbooks so much that maybe I could do something similar. We had decided to do Christmas on a budget between us siblings, so that was all the more reason for me to get creative. I'm a scrapbooker, so of course I figured this would be a piece of cake. So, I mulled it over and came up with....calendars! Having worked at Archiver's, I knew this was a common project, they sold them, and it would only be 24 or maybe 26 simple pages. No problem!

Ha! I was maybe a little over-ambitious! Turns out each calendar has space for 14 months, and eventually you run out of simple page ideas. Who would have thought? Plus, I was under the impression that my Cricut Expression and all the cartridges collected between my mom and I would be so helpful and make this project so much better. Again, wrong! By the time I finished I was so frustrated with the stupid Cricut that I was actually glad to have to put it in the box and back out in the garage (because we don't have room for it anywhere inside the house)! My biggest frustration was that the different cartridges all seem to cut differently. I planned from the beginning to cut all the month names the same size (1 1/2"), but each set of letters seemed to come out just a slightly different size. Some were much more obvious than others. Even some things from the same cartridge, set on the same size, were way out of proportion with each other. I have a whole sandwich baggie of pieces that were the wrong size, but I couldn't bring myself to throw away. Some of my smaller frustrations included paper getting ruined instead of cut, paper not getting cut at all, replacing the blade, and just keeping the creativity flowing in general.

Now, don't get me wrong, I know that sounds like a lot of complaining. But seeing the finished products made it all worth it (even if was at 2:30 AM the morning we were supposed to head out of town)! And seeing how excited the girls were to open them was even better! And, just this past weekend, I noticed while at my one sister-in-law's house that she actually hung her's up and had written important dates on it! The warm-fuzzies made all the work and frustration so worth it! Anyway, now on to the good stuff!

While working, I ended up finding a couple websites that were pretty helpful, that I thought I'd share. The first being, of course, Archiver's. Specifically, the ideas pages. I didn't actually outright copy anything, but when I did get stuck it gave me some ideas for combining things or what colors to start with, or even just sparked a thought. I also found this site, which was awesome! I was trying to use at least two different solid colors for accents on each page, just to give it a spark since it was not my typical scrapbook pages, so this was really great when I was staring at some paper thinking, "What other color goes with this?"

So, for anyone interested in scrapbooking, my basic game plan here was to have each page have a spot for one 4x6 photo of their choice. I left the pictures open simply because that way they could make it personal (and possibly save them) and, frankly, I knew I wouldn't be able to find enough pictures. Now, this in itself was a challenge because I generally put more than one picture on a page when I scrapbook. I also planned to use patterned paper as the background and solids for the accents, matching the name of the month to one of the accent colors. That way the pages were exciting, but not overwhelming. This is also not my typical style, and turned out to be more difficult that I expected. But with one trip to Hobby Lobby, and a lucky streak hitting their paper at 3 for $1, I managed. I also cut little labels for the important holidays and for the 12 family birthdays in red to glue in the squares on the calendar. And I wrote the dates with scrapbook-safe permanent markers, because it was just faster and easier. They turned out great (if I do say so myself) and I was pleased, though if I ever do this again, I'll have to start in like, June. So, here are a few of my favorite pages! If I left anything out, feel free to ask!

Bragging on my nephews!

Because they're just so darn cute!!

I have two wonderful nephews that I love very much. They both had birthdays in December. I don't have anything super exciting to write about at the moment, and my day was kinda negative. So, instead of sharing the negative, I thought I'd be positive and share the cuteness. Since I don't have my own kids to show off yet, I hope my brother-in-law and sister-in-law won't mind me borrowing theirs to show off!



Conner is two. He got a tent for his birthday!


Alex is one. We got to go to his party!

Ok, that's all I'm gonna post for tonight. Tomorrow I'm thinking maybe sharing some of the calendars that I made for my sisters-in-law for Christmas. Sound good? Ok, I thought so, too. See ya then!

Isn't the customer always right?

Hm. Well, I'll start by saying that my plans to blog on Saturday were obviously foiled. I spent the majority of my afternoon Saturday cleaning around the house, particularly in our room, and packing for our short trip this weekend. We were only gone two nights, so packing didn't really take all that long, it was just the fact that I had to get everything we had unpacked from Christmas put away finally before I could actually have the space in our little room to pack again. Then, I went to church with mom, and right after I got home, James got home. We ate real fast, then hit the road headed for Round Rock. We got to Round Rock just in time to watch Texas Tech win, and by the time that was over, I was exhausted and it was way too late to blog. Yesterday was spent driving to Houston, celebrating a birthday, and driving back to Round Rock, which I'll discuss more after I upload my pictures to include. Today, after a couple errands, we made the drive back up to Fort Worth. I hate that drive.

Anyway, one of the errands we ran this morning was to Plato's Closet. All I wanted to do was exchange a Christmas present from my sister-in-law. No big deal, right? You wouldn't think so, but apparently this is becoming increasingly difficult. And not just at Plato's, either. I've found in the last week that all of retail is making it harder and harder to make exchanges and/or returns. Which leads me to the question.......WHY?? You are still getting the same amount of money for your merchandise, as it has already been paid for, I just want a different piece of said merchandise! Now, I am all for policies and whatever, but as long as I'm not asking for anything ridiculous, I don't understand why you can't make minor exceptions for Christmas gifts. And while you're at it, how about not giving me such an attitude? I've worked in retail, I know it's annoying, I know people suck, but I didn't do it, so don't take it out on me! It just makes me crazy. And several times this week, it's made me not want to shop at certain stores with my own money after the poor service and lack of common sense. Like today, at Plato's. The girl told me about five times that "normally" they wouldn't do returns without the original receipt, but they would today. This was after I had explained that I didn't have the original receipt because it was a gift. Now, to me this seems strange, since they are a buy and sell type store, but if it's just me, that's cool. And on top of that, this was after finding out from the store in Euless (17 miles away from the house in the snow) that they can only do exchanges at the store it was purchased from, which is why we made the special stop in Cedar Park today on our way home from Round Rock. It just seems a little ridiculous to me. I mean, it's not like I asked for money back. I just wanted something that fit so that the gift would get put to use. It just seems like we've gotten a little too uptight about exchanges in the retail world. It just seems to me that as long as the store isn't losing money, policies should be able to have a little leeway.

All this to say, I suggest gift receipts. While this does not completely solve the problem (as I had issues with those exchanges as well), it does help some. So next time you're in the store, buying a gift, make sure you get a gift receipt!! That is my warning to you all out there in blog world! Because otherwise, people get screwed and upset, and the whole point of giving the gift in the first place (to make people happy) is ruined. And if you work in retail, I suggest bringing this up to your company. Because when you make people mad, and cost them money unnecessarily, they tend to not want to come back to your company (as well as tell all their friends not to shop there) and then you've lost a lot more money than it would have cost you to just waive the policy in the first place!

That's my two cents.

I'm a slacker.

I am totally disappointed in myself! I really wanted to start the new year off with a great post about my day on Thursday. However, I got distracted by football. Which was fine, until the announcer was completely biased and would NOT SHUT UP about stupid Tim Tebow!! I am so glad he is graduating because if I had to listen to everything about his career for one more game, I probably would have cried, just like HE did after LOSING to Alabama!!!!

The end. Goodnight. And I promise better tomorrow!