One Of Us

The other night I was babysitting C. We walked her dogs, went to CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) and just to check her interest level in "the crafting world" we stopped by JoAnns to "pick up some black yarn." Ladies and Gentlemen, she's hooked! She ooohed and ahhed at all the colors and fabrics and textures! When we got to this aisle she said "look at all the colors!" Then she hugged the fabric. Kindred spirit? I think so.

One In Every Color-Australia

My sister Valerie went to Australia. (Melbourne to be specific.) When she was there she saw this wall. And thought of me. And my wedding. She calls this wall "The Graduation Party." (She thinks I have too many wedding colors and that it will look like a graduation party.)

Fab Florals

This woman, Princess Laserton, knows her color therapy! I've been sitting here, not doing my work, going gaga over HER work! Its awesome!


She takes vintage buttons and felt and turns them into works of art! Bouquets like these are her specialty! Love them!
On her blog she shows how one bride sent her colors, and then she created the fabulous flowers below to insert into real flower bouquets.

These are some of the corsages she makes! There were too many great ones to show them all!

This is a one of the wrist corsages from my favorite color combination!

While "colorless" its stunning, and captivating, and did I mention I'm in love with Princess Lasertrons flowers?This bouquet is my grand prize winner! Love it! Cant get enough of it.

Really are Pals!

So I've got this love of creating, appreciation of color and color therapy. When I go into a store (yarn, fabric, paper), I feel the vibes or I don't. Love it or leave it sort of thing. The Web*sters and Lynda's Keep Me in Stitches take the cake for yarn shops. Quilters Paradise holds the title for Fabric Store, and now, Paper Pals proves itself in paper! I went to Moscow knowing I really needed to get some invitations out, but figured I'd just have to buy sup lies there. Then I remembered a scrabooking store that hosted classes in Moscow (across the street from the quilt shop.) I drove by and much to my dismay it was closed down, abandoned. What was I to do. When purchasing ribbon at JoAnnes I thought to ask one of their employees if they knew of a place that might host scrapbooking workshops since the other one had closed and she told me they still had their original location in Pullman! Woohoo!
Here you can kind of see the work tables and all the cool tools in the work station.

Check out all the colors, in order, and on display! I think I could sit an look at them for hours! Yay color therapy!

And guess what!? They wanted to inspire ME! They were so helpful! They even amped up my enthusiasm by being energetic, throwing out fun ideas, and teaching me new tips and tricks! I kept thinking to myself (and sometimes saying) "Oh my gosh this is awesome" and "I'm having so much fun!" in that giddy can't contain myself voice!

Shawna was in the store both days I stopped by. I learned about a cool project that can be done with newspaper here, on her blog.

I thoroughly enjoyed her company, as well as the other woman who was there, I think it was Karen? (She left before I remembered to take pictures.) Anyway, both were kindred spirits, when I left, I felt richer in friends...definitely poorer in the pocketbook though. I could spend a LOT there! There's more to come on what I made while in Paper Pals!

Ketchup

Yep, I know, I'm waaaay behind! I've got lots to catch up on...about two weeks worth, I'll get going! (Starting with the oldest at the beginning and working my way up to the present!

Just after Luke visited for his spring break, and we celebrated his 21st birthday, Val's boyfriend Matt came into town for his spring break...and we celebrated his 21st birthday. Just after Matt's 21st birthday (one day after, to be exact) was my dad's birthday so we were busy busy busy! While Matt was here, my mom and I were doing some serious sewing. Val and Matt must have been inspired because they busted out the (my) card making and bear costuming supplies!

Leonard was a Lion! Rawr!

Gunther was a bunny! She even gave him a little "cotton" tail! Haha

I also learned how to use the camera's color filter. Can you tell I was having fun playing with it?

Then I headed up to visit Luke, and my friends up in Idaho for spring break!

We had a golf/tennis pro party in honor of The Masters. (A prestigious golf tournament that takes place at Augusta) Check out Luke's knickers! He went without the socks since they are for some reason missing. Have you seen them? He claims he was making a fashion statement!

Lindsay was a little behind in arriving so the one above is me with all my roommates minus Lindsay (L-R Me, Kelsi, Heather, Celine) and below is the "roomies" plus Lindsay's friend Becca. (L-R) Me, Heather, Celine, Kelsi, Heather, Becca)

Luke's friend Fred (pictured below) isn't a PGM major, so he didn't really have a whole lot of golf attire. Luke and I...well probably mostly I, insisted he at least wear one of Luke's hats.

This is Melanie, Molly, and Amanda. Melanie and Amanda are Luke's group members for his business classes, and Molly is Amanda's sister! I've gotten to know them really well this year. Total kindred spirits!

Melanie came as "Tiger," can you see her name tag? Its the only way you'd know!

This guy came as a tennis pro, and to see him with Luke just made me laugh. Quite the pair. Had to take and share this one! There were lots of polos...and just as much argyle!

We also had a more mellow gathering with some friends as a sort of group 21st birthday celebration. Taco and margarita night!

The boys were there too...but not as interested in taking photos!

Now this may be more related to Cindy's post but I have to share because it's too attractive! When visiting various college student's apartments in the town of Moscow there is a tendency of the inhabitants to display various alcohol beverage bottles...sort of like a show case. Normally they didnt really impress me, and are often a sign of dirtiness...this one, however, offered a great dose of color therapy and entertainment.

Its almost as good as buying an Old Navy socks, or even t-shirts in every color...right?

You'll be glad to know that we didn't have a party every night, and that things were, in fact, quite a bit more productive. Luke, and the other U of I students were not on Spring Break, they had theirs back in March, so they were all still having to deal with life. Luke even had to do some working. So I did a very sufficient job keeping myself moderately busy. (Super busy wouldn't have been relaxing!) The weather swayed in my favor starting with snow the day I arrived and turning to nice 74 degree days! It got a little chilly toward the end of the week but considering it was raining hard in Fresno, I took it! I walked to the golf course, which was finally able to open!

On the way I saw this funny sign. One you would never see in Fresno. At least not that I know of.
It reads: "Your wife says its okay to buy a new gun." Chuckle...
I also arranged for Mark and Luke to get haircuts while I was there. Mark was sick so he wasn't too up to pictures but here are the before and afters of the haircut.
Before, and on his way to a business class presentation.
After, and just before work at the golf course. (He hadn't changed yet though.)

I went to one yarn store, and two fabric stores (one of which had Amy Buttler fabric. I bought some.) I also came across this fabulous store:

BUT it deserves its own post. Coming soon! With lots of detail.
I was there until the day after Easter, so we got to celebrate the joyous day together! The Easter bunny even left Luke a special basket. (All my mom...I wasn't going to be that motivated! haha) Apparently the Bunny didn't get the memo that I was going to be in Idaho, because my basket was still waiting at home! Before the masters were over (much to Luke's dismay) we headed north to visit some of my family, eat a delicious Easter dinner, and relax before Luke had to drop me off at the Spokane airport at 5:45 in the morning. Uck! I had a great time! I'm anxious to go back, but am spending some much needed time here getting things in order.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love wool yarn,

from a sheep in a barn.

A cupcake, I heart,

especially when it's art!

I send out a toast,

to all the ones I love most.

Thank you for reading!

More post's will be succeding.

What a Love-ly Day

Many people despise Valentine's day, calling it overrated and "national singles awareness day" etc. True, merchants have made this day one of marketing romance, but underneath it all I still find excitement.

I like to use Valentines Day to remind people I care about and love, that I am indeed still thinking of them! Rather than thinking of chocolates and candy (well those are good too) but I think of how special it would be to wake up and find happy cards from my parents! This year at my work, the kids are having a friendship party. I remember "way back in the day" when we weren't allowed to buy those 3x2 in. cartoon character cards. Instead we made our own cards out of doilies, ribbons, and beads to let people know we love them! I remember making heart shaped cookies, frosted in pink, with each persons name carefully piped in white frosting. (Okay my mom did that.) But the lesson was learned and the cookies were good! Valentine's day isn't another day we have to buy things. It's a reminder to let people know we care!

This Valentines day started early with the sighting of the Martha Stewart magazine cover, which was the inspiration for my card this year. You saw pictures of the frosting mixing, here's some fun I had with colors around the house! That and my dad's avoidance of inflated flower prices and hand delivering roses to my mom a couple weeks early! :) Then we woke up Wednesday morning to find cards from Dad outside our doors and my mom's roses (getting a little droopy) replaced with pretty red tulips! Little things that let us know he was thinking about us! He even did the grocery shopping! Haha. Anyway, I hope you have a happy day! By the time this gets posted I'll be on my way to visit Luke in Idaho. That turned out to be a happy coincidence.

Busy Bee!

I forgot to blog after superbowl weekend but here's a hint as to how busy I was, and a preview of more to come!

I learned the value of having lots of small glass bowls!

...and spoons!