HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Today has been one of the best New Years Day that I can remember. I've been fighting some sort of cold/upper respiratory thing since Tuesday and today was the first time since then that I've woken up and felt....good. This is likely in large part due to the fact the hubby and I stayed in last night, hung out on the couch, and went to bed before midnight.

I felt so good when I woke up that I started my day with about 30 minutes of yoga and a healthy breakfast (eggs and greek yogurt) just to maximize all that feeling-goodness (It totally worked; I finished feeling refreshed and energized. I love yoga). With the rest of the day I've worked on some knitting, did laundry, and began organizing all of my things to be packed. In a few minutes I'll be heading over to the in-laws for dinner. It's been a day I've managed to make both productive and relaxing, which can be difficult to balance. I hoping that having such a balanced day will bode well for the new year, in terms of having a year that is both productive (helloooo grad school) and relaxing (helloooo hopes of keeping a social life!).

Lastly, I've decided to do a photo-a-day challenge for January, because apparently I don't already have enough on my plate? I'm thinking I'll update the blog weekly with my photos, b/c updating daily is a little more challenge than I'm up for. Today's photo, though, is a photo of yours truly, so here's to Day 1!

(Yes, it's awkward. I've decided I'm okay with that)

Paint Chip Art Galore!

Hey everybody! First order of business: I am blogging from my brand new Macbook! I asked friends and family to help chip in for Christmas so I could buy one before starting school at the end of January. I am so, so, so, in love with it.

Ok, now that that's out of the way, onto the crafty showcase!

So I mentioned I recently joined Pinterest, which is just amazing. I searched for some ideas of what to do with the immense amount of paint chip cards I received from my neighbor after she painted her house.

One of the first things I came across was this intersecting circles wall art from Two Girls Being Crafty, and it was amazing. So that was the first thing I tried:



(Sorry about the not great cell phone camera quality, but I actually gifted this without realizing I didn't have any better photos!)

I was pretty impressed with myself at this point, but the intersecting circles design was a little too exact, and  so I was thinking about some other things.

Then I saw this awesome fabric leaves on canvas and I thought it would work well with the paint chips. Sooo I made one of those!




Totally loved it!!

By this time, I was getting tired of cutting all those ovals out by hand, and I thought there must be an easier way to do this. So I headed over to Michael's once more after getting a 25% off coupon to look at their paper punches. I was then struck with inspiration to do a mini series. The previous two canvases are 12x12in, so I bought a pack of four 6x6in canvases...



And did the four seasons! I love these soooo much I can't even tell you. All of the above have been given away, and I have some more ideas I'm working on for family I will be seeing in January, but couldn't wait to share the pics of ones I've completed already!

Dec. 5th

So much has happened in the past 3 months, so I'm just going to jump right in.

1. Our friends Jess and Frank got married! We were able to go to the wedding, in gorgeous Santa Paula. The wedding was in a citrus grove and was overall amazing in every single way possible. As part of our trip out to CA...

2. I went to Disneyland for the first time!! We had two days to spend, which meant we got to see Captain EO a zillion times. Our other awesome friend Katy joined up with us for day 2, which was a blast.

3. I applied, and was accepted into graduate school! I almost can't believe it. I am starting San Jose State University's Masters in Library and Information Science this January!

4. Last, and probably the MOST exciting of all the news I am sharing.... MY SISTER HAD A BABY!!!! I am officially an auntie!! My lovely sister gave birth late Nov 6th to a healthy baby girl.

5. Ok, one more thing, actually, and probably the LEAST important, but I have recently discovered Pinterest and am officially addicted. I only have a short period of time until classes start, so I'm hoping to get as much crafting done before that happens b/c I know once it does, there will be very little time as I plan to continue to work full time and take classes part-time.

I'm cranky

I am currently dealing with either the worst allergies in the world or a horrible summer cold. Either way, I'm congested, sore, and cranky, and as such I've decided to channel my irritability towards something that actually merits it.

Nearly every day I have to drive past this horrible, horrible billboard. If you can't see the picture (or my crappy cell phone pic isn't clear enough) it reads: Nothing Beats a Pair, Don't Fold to Cancer. Charmingly, there is a picture of playing cards with cartoonish circle breasts w/hearts for nipples.

Yeah. Now, my brain is not on full function mode right now, so I'm going to break this down bullet-point style rather than try to continue to construct full sentences and paragraphs.

1. HEY LADIES! You may think you're intelligent, good at your job, witty, creative, a good friend, any number of things, but you know what's REALLY important? Breasts.None of those aforementioned qualities are as important as your physical appearance.
2. Equating losing your breasts as "folding" to cancer. That's right, did you have a life saving surgery that removed your breasts? That's like being defeated!
3. See points 1 and 2
4. So, when I started writing this I definitely know I had more to say, but antihistamines are kicking in and all my thoughts seem to have vanished. Feel free to leave more coherent thoughts in the comments!

Whirlwind

This summer has been full of fun and adventure. Since June, we went to Flagstaff for a friend's wedding, celebrated another friend's birthday in Bisbee ( a small mining town southeast of Tucson), and spent a weekend in Keystone, Colorado. Additionally, I made the decision to apply to graduate school and have been working on my applications. (One down, one to go!) All of it has been completely wonderful, but I'm looking forward to having a super lazy and relaxing weekend.

I've been contemplating graduate school pretty much since I've finished college, but I am apparently the world's most indecisive person.  It's even the number one item on my list (Yay for crossing out items!) I've considered a Master's in Counseling or pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology focusing on Neuropsychology. I considered going to a one year certification to be an EEG tech. I'm sure there are others. I finally settled on Masters in Information and Library Science. Random, yes, but I am really excited to get started. I'm in the process of applying at 2 schools for the Spring 2012 semester.

And since I don't know how to gracefully end this slightly rambly and random post, here is a photo of a statue in Bisbee:

Vacation, Day One

Today is my first day of a long, overdue vacation. Tomorrow David and I are driving up to Flagstaff (woo item #41!) for a friend's wedding, and coming home Sunday. I then have the entire following week off. Go me! Since I love making lists, here is a compilation of how I've spent my day.

1. Slept in

2. Haircut, also long overdue.

3. Went to Target to pick up some things we need before the weekend.

4. Sushi lunch with David, Jess, and Casey.

5. Went to David's work, saw his desk, met co-workers.

6. Picked up dress from the tailors.

7. Finally back home, let doggies out, play for a few minutes

8. Try on dress, think it fits great, admire new haircut + fancy dress in mirror.

9. Realize zipper on dress is broken

10. Freak out

11. Call tailors. Ask me to come back in so they can look at it.

12. Herd doggies back to kitchen. Zelda gives me "But you just came home!!!" sad face.

13. Return to the tailors. Looks like it was just a crappy zipper that broke, not their doing (they fixed the straps for me, the dress fit like it was meant for someone with 2 more inches between their waist and shoulders, so the original neckline went below my bra line in front).

14. Agree to fix zipper by tomorrow morning, when I'm leaving. Except, they don't have any royal blue zippers.

15. Go to fabric store, buy a royal blue 22in invisible zipper.

16. Return to tailors yet again. Realize I should know the name of the front desk lady, but I don't. We joke about my last name, she originally spelled it "Holla" the first time I went to drop off my dress.

17. Return home. Let doggies out, play with doggies.

18. Think about cleaning, packing, or any of the other productive things I still need to do.

19. Decide to write blog instead.

Still to come....

David solo show tonight at Skrappy's! Woo!

Still here!

There tend to be two major categories of excuses I have for when I'm not posting regularly, and it's usually that I'm either completely boring, not doing anything at all and don't want to write a lot of "today I worked and came home and watched TV" type posts; or I am so busy doing awesome and exciting things that I just forget about posting altogether. Fortunately for you guys, this was a case of the latter!

Since my last post

I had a birthday...

David had his 30th birthday (!!!)...

But he's still just as goofy as ever.

The doggies are still wonderful, as well.

Pretty soon I will be doing a massive checking off of list items, but for now just wanted to show everybody (all 3 of you!) that I am in fact still alive.