Do You Drive in AZ?

If you drive in AZ be sure you know about this law! Starting January 1st if your license plate frame covers the name of the state on your plate it will cost you $135! Be sure to check your plate before you drive today.

More Journaling and Shopping Too!

After reading my magazines until bed last night I woke up ready to work! I am also wanting to finish up my Christmas journal for the time being so that I can move on. I don't want all of the pages to be filled so I can continue adding to it as I have new memories to document. :) I finished these journal pages before meeting my mom to help her pick out new glasses. (Get ready, Plane Jane has left the building:)



Afterward we went to Ikea because I needed the right light bulbs for one of my new lights. I amazingly just bought the light bulbs and a few packages of napkins. I love Ikea napkins. Since we were already so far from home we went to Scrapbooks Etc. too! :) They were having a sale today. I picked up the end of my Christmas paper for this year- like until 12/09 I NEED TO STOP! I also discovered that they now carry Sassafrass Lass papers I was thrilled! I only needed to get one piece because I just ordered a bunch from ebay- no need to pay shipping any more, they had a great sellection! You'll notice I had to buy a cute skull stamp too!


As with most times I am in Scrapbooks Etc. insperation hit BIG! Get ready for the best I Love JIM bok ever!



Have a safe and happy new year! Jim is bringing ice cream home and we will be celebrating here and I couldn't be happier about it! I heard David Cook will be on channel 10 to ring in the new year and I can keep making art! Kelly put up the first prompt for promt a day a few hours early...OOOOH! You still have a few hours to get in on this month!

Inspiration

Sara asked where I get my ideas from the other day and while I think it may have been a rhetorical question I'm going to answer it anyway. :)

Lookie, lookie! I get inspiration from art magazines like Sommerset Studio. They released all of these yummy eye candy filled magazines (plus more) this month. I picked these all up today at Frenzy and right after I finish this post I'm settling into the library and not coming out until bedtime. :)


I also get inspiration from shopping for supplies and seeing new products like these I picked up along with the magazines today at Frenzy.



And, I get inspiration from reading other art it's blogs and taking classes. If you've read my blog for longer than a day you know I love Kelly Kilmer's blog and classes! (She will be in AZ the first weekend of February! You should take a class with her!) You can check out my list of other blogs to investigate if you are dying for more. :)

$20

I had a later start to my day than usual due to the fact that at 8:30 last night a vacant house in my neighborhood started sounding a four minute alarm every 15 minutes ALL NIGHT LONG! Jim and I both managed to fall asleep but kept waking to the piercing siren and finally gave up and just chatted from 3:00 to 4:30 when his alarm went off. After ironing for him I laid in bed with the dogs and by some miracle the alarm finally stopped. It wasn't lucky for Jim as he was off to work but I did sleep for a few hours. I will admitt I was still pretty cranky today.

I spent the majority of today running errands. After dropping off and puting away the large pile of "things for school" I ventured over to Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby is a chain craft store near my school that Ayesha tells me I don't frequent enough. I promised her I'd check it out over break and get up to speed :) Boy am I glad I did! I found all of these cool things for $20 and change! Literally everything I bought was 50% off. Talk about a change of luck! :)

Back To Making Art

Cleaning your studio can be very inspiring. I found all kinds of supplies that I'd bought with good intentions of making something with them. :) First I made this bird necklace. I have bee loving funky necklaces lately. (Check out these! I've admired them for years. My mom bought me a camera and Fire Engine Red for Christmas. LOVE them!)


This morning I worked in my Christmas memory journal. I love this journal! I have all of my Christmas things in one 12 x 12 box and it makes working in this journal so fun. Everything I need is right at my fingertips.



Now I'm off to take the tree down. I hate starting off a new year by cleaning up last year's mess. :)

AAAAH! (Set To Angelic Music Not Frustration!) Part Two!

Behold the beauty that is my studio. Dramatic I know but that's how I feel about it. :)

Before



After!



Please notice not only the cleanliness but also the new storage bins and arrangement. (In all fairness Jim's half of the studio has a large pile of things for me to move to work on Monday but my half is spectacular none the less. :) I really didn't get rid of very many things it was just the reorganization that was amazing! I can't wait to get busy on a project now!

Christmas and Boxing Day

We had a fun Christmas. Jim and I started our day by driving out to Apache Junction to see Jim's mom sister and nephew and ended the day at Buffy's house with her family and my Mom.


Kakes loved her doll. Buffy saved it for her to open last because she thought she'd loose her focus if she opened it any earlier. As soon as she saw the side of the box she started saying, "Baby, baby", and then when she got all of the wrapping paper of she said, "Out mommy, out, out." It was adorable! I haven't mentioned it on my blog before but next year will be really fun because I will have two Nieces! I can't wait!

Today is Boxing Day. (You see it every year on the calendar but do you know what it is? I always wondered about it hen I was a kid) Deb is the first person I ever met who really celebrates Boxing Day-her parents are from England. Boxing Day is a day of Goodwill. She explained it like this, Christmas is for families but Boxing Day is for friends too. Everyone gathers together to celebrate for a second day. The reason it's called boxing day is because when the holiday began people would clean out their old belongings to make room for the new gifts they had received the day before. They would place these old belongings in boxes on their doorsteps and people who were less advantaged would come and take what they needed. I think the idea of this is fantastic! Ever since I met Deb I like to package up some of my old things and take them to a donation center as my own celebration of Boxing Day.

I'm still working on my studio it's getting really cool! If you don't have a studio you are probably wondering what's taking so long. If you do have a studio you can understand the process. :) I know it has to be done by next Wednesday at the latest so I can have my work space ready to go for the beginning of Kelly's Promp a Day!

Happy Hanukkah Val!

Background info in case you are not Val: I gave Val 8 little Hanukkah gifts this year that all go together. Her gift tonight is to come to my blog for directions on what to do with the things she has received so far plus a few treats. :)

Val: (If you are here and did not open your gift yet it's safe to open it now-surprise!:)

Use your tape runner (their are directions on the back just in case:) to attach the decorative papers to the brown covers and tag board pages. I've clipped the decorative papers that go together, together. When I cut the papers I was thinking they'd go like this:

Front and back cover:



The inside front cover and first page:


Other pages:

The last page and inside back cover:



But put them down however you'd like. You are covering the front and backs of the covers and each of the tag board pages. They help to make the book strong. :) Call if you want/need help.

*****

I've been working hard in my studio and it is looking so cool! Stay posted for photos. I'm about half way through the reorganization! :) Happy Christmas Eve!

What A Deal!

Have you checked out Kelly Kilmer's blog lately? (By lately I mean in the last few hours?) She is offering a cool online class for only $25 a month! Each day she will give a new prompt and journaling ideas! That's less than $1 a day! Read more about it here and join me today. :)

AAAAH! (Set To Angelic Music Not Frustration!)

This year for Christmas I told Jim I wanted to turn the "dogs room" into a library. Like many people we had an entire room in our house that was just storing random things and not really being usable space.

Before.



Jim was happy to do this not only because it would make me happy but also because he knew I would need my mom to help me on the shopping end of things. :) My mom and I planned a trip to Ikea yesterday so we could pick out the items I needed to turn my library into a reality before Christmas. I had and idea in my head of course but when I double measured my room I discovered that one of the bookcases I was thinking about buying was larger than I wanted. My mom pointed out a great alternative and helped with accessory selection. :) (We even put 75% of the shelves together ourselves before calling in Seth for reinforcement. )

I worked on organizing and cleaning out my books last night an this morning and now I love my library! You can see the dogs still have plenty of space but better attmosphere. I was able to use some of my favorite art prints that I have been saving since I moved in with Jiim, yes for over four years, and plan on working on getting art above the dog Kennels soon!



I'm having a difficult time staying out of this room but now of course I'm moving on to the studio! You know how these kinds of things spread!

Space Bags Rock!

I bought a hanging Space Bag, you know the ones you vacuum all the air out in hopes that you will save a little space, from The Container Store a few weeks ago. I finally put it to use and I couldn't believe how amazing it was!

Here is my wedding dress before...


And after!


I loved it so much I ran down to Joann and scooped up a few more with % off coupons! I vacuum packed away my poofy hoop skirt also from my wedding, about 40 shirts for Jim a few pants and a few shorts. The best part is they all fit in the space my wedding dress used to take up!

I love these bags!

Ugly Sweater Party & More

The ugly sweater party was a huge success! We had tons of fun and over 30 people wore ugly sweaters! It was great! Bryan did win the ugly sweater contest but it's hard to top a guy in a woman's sweater! :)


It was fun to hang out with all of our friends away from the stresses of school!


We had a chocolate fountain that I put over seven pounds of chocolate in. Even though we ate a ton their was a ton left over! Deb, Ayesha, and I dipped everything in site to use up the chocolate and it ended up in the teacher's lounge today. :)



On another note, I had fun making gift tags with my button machine on Sunday! I even got to wrapping my gifts too.

Reasons To Shop At 100 Wishes

Have you ever visited 100 wishes? If your answer is no you should check it out. I waited forever to order from this site. I really wanted to buy Coccoina Glue sticks (Yummy smelling glue sticks that I learned about from Kelly) but was trying to use up all of my older glue sticks first. Well, when I finally ordered my lame o' post office marked my package as delivered and then didn't deliver it to me-ugh! Andrea the owner was super helpful and sent out a new shipment right away and it was all packaged so nicely! I was so happy to finally have my order safe and sound! I will definitely order again with such great customer service!


100 Wishes does close from time to time for holidays but visit the site and keep it in mind! :)

Tonight I made lots of necklaces to give as gifts. :) 'Tis the season!

Can't Stop Making Books...

I keep thinking of books that I should be making as gifts.:) Here's the one I made tonight. I didn't do every single page because if you've looked at my blog for the past few days you get it I'm sure! :)

I used the same idea for this book as the book I made last night.

Another Little Book (Page By Page)

I made another little book tonight. This one is for my hair dresser who always has new photos to share with us of her girls when we go in. She doesn't read my blog so it's safe to share now!