Two Fun Days

Yesterday was a great day. I stayed in my PJ's reading and working on art projects until two in the afternoon when I was forced into the shower so that I cold be decent to go buy New Moon, the sequel to Twilight.

I'm not the type of person who can just sit around usually, I'm always on the go. It's the one thing that makes Jim crazy. He's always saying, "Can't you just relax for a little while." so yesterday surprised him a little bit. I was super excited to get back to Twilight and did not put it down until I thought I couldn't read any longer without falling asleep- not from the plot but I just don't sit well. I was also anxious to make a Halloween garland for Deb, who decorates for Halloween in August (Yes, really), with the paper I got At Frenzy.



Satisfied with the outcome of the Halloween garland I went back to my book. The publisher of the Twilight series is very smart! At the end of each book they also publish the first chapter of the next book in the series. Of course it was a nail biter and I had to get New Moon right that second so that I would know what had happened to the main characters before I was scheduled to meet up with Ayesha, Deb, and Ben for dinner. Deb loved her garland and convinced Ben it was close enough to August and he eventually agreed that she could hang it already.

Today was hair day, which is always fun, but today I got to give Buffy and Kakes there Adore book. Kakes appreciated the giraffe tissue paper it was wrapped in and Buffy loved the book.

I had my hair styled diffrently and I love the way it turned out. (You can kind of see it in the photo below.) After Buffy, Kakes, Mom, Shannon, and I all had our hair done we went to lunch. The best part was watching Kakes try to feed herself the dessert. Sure I was holding her but Buffy agreed to this. Buffy loves to give Kakes all kinds of experiences even if they make her messy and tired. While I'm sure Kakes was learning about how to feed herself we were all enjoying the experience as well.



After getting home from Mesa I was ready for a nap and then I was back to reading. For the benefit of those of you who are keeping track of my reading progress I'll say I'm about 150 pages into New Moon and am missing Edward. I think I read much more quickly when he is around.

Notion Inchies

And...with my notion inchies finished, I am done! I just need to label their bags and I am on to the Halloween projects just as soon as I am done reading Twilight. Off to page 308 right this second.

Dilated eyes

I went to work in my class room for a few hours yesterday and then headed off to an eye appointment. As I was waiting I was reading Twilight, of course. The first eye girl calls me back says she's going to dilate my eyes. I say yeah sure because it's never been a problem for me before just inconvenient. Apparently I've never tried to read before with dilated eyes because instantly I could not read. It was even difficult to see the glasses that I was trying on. (Although I found a very cute pair with lots of bling on the side. I can't wait for them to arrive in about two weeks. And, the best part is that my prescription did not change so I can use my pair now that I love as a backup without replacing the scratched lenses since I won't wear them every day.:)

I found myself irritated that I could not read my book, tried to do it anyway even though I was reading very slowly and ended up having such a headache that I had to just take a nap. Finally at 6:00 after my Weight Watchers meeting I was able to read normally. I still have my headache this morning. Was it worth it you ask? Yes. I can't believe that I'm hooked on a vampire book but it's true.

I did manage to finish my purple inchies.

Fun At Frenzy + Buffy & Kakes Adorable Book

First let me tell you that Debbie got very cool Halloween scrapbook paper in Yesterday! If you love Halloween you need it! Go get ti now, you know there won't be any left in October. :) It has tons of tiny little details and just wait until you see my idea. (It's great in my head anyway!)


Next, class with Rosie was so fun. I learned all about using the Gocco Machine, got to burn my own screen, and experiment with printing on tons of different papers. I totally need a Gocco machine of my own! (Does this sound like how I needed a button machine after her last class?) Rosie is going to be an expensive habit for me I can tell already. I love it!


One of my friends came to Frenzy last night to surprise me with this cute ornament. Not only is it ice cream which I love she noticed that it would match my black & white Christmas tree. How cute that they all have black & white scaves! :)


After my post yesterday all of the excitement of the day before started to settle in with me and I realized I was a little tired. I decided to check out only one scrapbook store. Scrap Happy Sisters is the store closest to my house. (You can see the full review on Yelp.) I picked up a package of pink flowers, some pink bling, and some tiny purple bling for my inchies but forgot to take a picture because I was too excited to start working on the book for Buffy and Kakes. I finished it up this morning because I needed to buy black bling at Frenzy last night. I love this book and can't wait to get Buffy's reaction!

Adventuring In Mesa

I might have mentioned before that after adventuring to all the coolest art stores in CA I was wondering why I hadn't tried it in AZ. I LOVE Frenzy Stamper and am always able to find my allowances worth of art supplies and Debbie is so wonderful that I really had little need to look elsewhere I guess. While Frenzy is still my favorite shop, after all Debbie lets me openly shout out when I discover something I love, I went on a fact finding mission yesterday.
You see, I fell in love with the Yelp web site a few day s ago and am addicted! (If you are interested you'll be able to read my full review of all the places I visited at my Yelp site.) That in combination with how much fun I had in CA and the desire to check out AZ store too led me to explore the stores in Mesa yesterday. I recruited my super friend Shannon to accompany me on this journey. Shannon lives in Chandler/Mesa, more importantly can read and understand directions 14x better than I can (at least!), shops at several of the stores I wanted to see, and knows how to find all the best restaurants!

We started the morning with a bagel and a diet Coke at Einstein's. We needed energy to start this adventure. At 10 am we headed over to The Scrapbook Barn. I know, I know you don't know if you can handle the name. I don't get it either. I picked up one piece of Buddha paper and a super cute book that says adore for a special little project for Buffy & Kakes. I know that you are shocked but remember this was only a fact finding mission.


Our next stop was Scrapbooks Etc. I had not been to this store in years and was shocked to see that it had expanded to double the size! If you are looking for scrapbook supplies and only have time to visit one store this would be it for sure! For me I bought a few sheets of skull paper I'd never seen, some red polka dots, a cute bird book and chipboard wings by Maya Roads. For the Buffy and Kakes project I found some cute pink and black paper that is grungy on one side and clean on the other. I'm all about the grunge.


Next, we went to Mystic Paper. While I enjoy visiting scrapbook stores it was nice to be in a paper art store, you can just tell a huge difference. Scrapbook stores are filled with people asking for help choosing coordinating colored papers and paper art store are full of people asking what can I do with a light bulb and a plastic doll head. (Exaggerated on both accounts but you get the picture.) This shop was very cute. I bought one sheet of bird paper, a purple/orange paper, an Halloween rub-ons from the clearance section, and one package of 1" square memory frames. I had been regretting not buying them in CA but didn't want to get carried away because I think Frenzy will be getting them soon.


At this point it was lunchtime, and we noticed an adorable restaurant called Sweet Cakes Cafe just a tiny bit down the street. When we asked the lady at Mystic Paper about the store she lit up so we headed over. This place was too cute! The first thing We noticed was the wall of cookies, bars, and brownies, and Shannon said, "Jeane, I think we might be in trouble here!" But it as the kind of trouble we wanted to be in so we stayed! Our lunch was so yummy it was ridiculous. The portions were huge and the cookies were out of this world! So soft and just perfect! We ordered a peanut butter cookie and a sugar cookie to share even though we knew we would get one with out lunch. We justified this by noticing the lunch size cookies were smaller than the ones in the wall of trouble.


Once we were adventuring again we headed to the now closed but still has their blog up Annalis Scraptique. After looking at the blog again today I notice the closing deal emails but I hate driving to a place only to find it closed.

Our final scrapbook stop was Devine Memories. This was a cute little store. It had some of the coolest bird paper that I'd never seen. I also found a cute tattoo like bird stamp that I had to have. While this is not the biggest scrapbook store it is a very cool stop and their is something to be said for supporting a smaller store like that.


To end the day Shannon took me to The Golden Spoon! Oh, mama! It is fat free, have a medium or large or only 3 WW points, does not taste like diet, frozen yogurt. I wish we had one on this side of town! It was a really fun day! The shopping and eating part was fun but the company was better. It did feel like a little AZ vacation!

I plan to check out a few more stores closer to home today and have class tonight at Frenzy with Rosie! I can't wait.

*Don't forget to click on the Yelp link above to read my full reviews of the shops!

Bits and Pieces

This week marks one year with Ayesha & Deb! The Gwen Stefanni surprise was a somewhat cheesy cover for a video I made of all of our adventures in the last year. I tried to up load the iMovie but it will not work for some reason (Even after waiting over night!)


I finished my metal inchies. They probably took the longest time to make and they are not my favorite but they will be interesting I think in a collage of inchies. I cut apart a Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi can and added a pop top to each one.


After hearing so much about Twilight I finally bought it last night. First my assistant principal told me that his wife made twilight inspired jewlery and sold it on etsy. Then Dawn told me she thought she'd never be in into a book that had a teenage main character who falls in love with a vampire but loves the books. And the series just kept popping up everywhere. I was shopping with Ayesha and Deb who were both mildly interested n the book so I justified the purchase as an investment for the three of us. I am the guinea pig to read it first. :) I am totally sucked in. I started reading it at 9:15 and the next time I looked it was 10:45. Keep in mind my beadtime is usually 8:30 so this says a lot! I'll let you know how it's going.

Friday Field Trip

The idea of the Friday field trip didn't exactly work out as a weekly trip (Mostly because Kakes napping schedule didn't line up with mine :) but we are excited to adventure out whenever we can. Today I went with Buffy and Kakes to meet Malissa and Baby T. As soon as Buffy put Kakes pink Converse on her she ran and grabbed her tutu. How cute is she???


Once the tutu was off we headed out to inflatable baby play land. (I don't remember the real name.) Kakes loved jumping and playing in all the inflatable playthings but especially loved the big slide. She climbed this very tall slide several times and had so much fun sliding down with Mommy and Auntie J. Check out her hair while she was sliding with me!


After a LONG nap I finished up my D ATC's. My D is for distress, dominoes, dice, & diamonds.