i've moved....

if anyone out there still has this blog showing up in their reader.....well, i've moved! i'm happy to report that i'm back to the blogging world but you can see all my creative endeavors here 14605!

GOOD THINGS.....

....b/c i need it.

*walking around my office barefoot.

*seriously, seriously, seriously thinking that we are going to milwaukee for christmas (the cat is now outta the bag).

*greta showing me how to sew up some dresses and shirts for bella and making for of them.

*making cute lil fabric circle thingies that may make an appearance in my etsy shop.

*having my old friend amy and her hubby over for dinner in a couple of weeks.

*two good friends that listen to my belly aching.

*feeling creative and inspired despite my recent mood.

*knowing that last night after consuming three big ol glasses of wine i ate three cheeseburgers, fries, and an apple pie from mickey d's and not giving a shit! (yeah, you read that right, three cheeseburgers)

*the recent mini's i've made (stay tuned for pics)

*feeling hopeful.

*being all consumed in this book.

*wanting to redo my bedroom

what good things do you guys have to share?

THE "B" THAT BIT MY ASS!

****NOTE: IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY NAUGHTY LANGUAGE, THEN JUST GO AHEAD AND CLICK THAT RED "X" UP THERE IN THE RIGHT HAND CORNER NOW.

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

****'nother note: this is an email that i sent to my three favorite girls yesterday.

Girls I got to tell y’all a funny story. Okay, so I’m cruising around on the net yesterday on one of my favorite blogs that I’ve recently rediscovered and I see a pic of these initial pillows. I decide it’s a brilliant idea and I’m going to go home and make one for my bella*boo. So I use this great vintage pink houndstooth (greta, the fabric that I used to wrap your “g” canvas board).



So anyway, I draw this big ol “B” on the back of wrapping paper for a template which is a big fuckin’ mistake b/c the thing keeps wanting to curl. So while I’m tracing it on the fabric (with a regular pencil mind you b/c I don’t have a disappearing fabric pencil) I’m in a twister game pose keeping my foot on one end to keep it from curling while my elbow is on the other, tracing with a pencil that is barely working. So I get both sides traced and cut, and proceed to sew around the edges and the cut out middle parts of the “B”.



I almost seal the whole thing shut before I realize what I’m doing and leave about four inches at the bottom open for stuffing and think that I’m a sewing genius b/c I didn’t fuck it up.



Well that is until I go to turn it right side out.



What the fuck?



Why isn’t it coming out right. Why isn’t it in the perfect “B” shape that I worked so hard to obtain. Its just like a deformed dolls arm.

What did I do.



BOING!!!!



I sewed those damn center parts of the “B” and now it won’t be a “B”.

I get to thinking if I should use my seam ripper and rip those damn stitches out or if I should just put it aside and make bella a handicapped doll.



At this point it’s already been about an hour or so. I have another project that I wanted to complete as well and bella is going thru every lil thing in my scrap room asking if she can have this and that. not to mention, she’s asking me when I’m going to be done so she can lay on it.



I decide to throw it aside and cut out another pattern.



Insert hurt back and twister position again and the wondering if this is worth it. oh it better be fucking worth it.



So with all the wisdom I’ve learned about the 1st “B” I figure I’m a wise woman now and will have this one licked.



I’m good.



Oh shit, I’ve run outta thread.

Find a new spool.

Okay I’m good again.

Oh shit, the bobbin ran outta thread.

Let me rethread it.

Oh wait. How do you do that again.

Okay I think I’m good.

Nope.

I put the thread in the bobbin thing wrong and now it’s wanting to wind underneath it.

Try again.

Same thing as above.

Try again.

Again, same thing as above.

No bella you can’t have that. stop asking me for stuff.

Bella why are you crying?

I’m not yelling at you.

Try again.

Same thing again.

Oh finally!

I got it figured it out now.

I’ve now been working on this for three episodes of the office (20+ mins each) and 3 episodes of hunter (about 45 mins each).



Okay, I’m good now. I get to sewing. Just the edges this time.

Now I turn it right side out. Perfect.

Now I decide that I made the middle openings too big. She can’t use this as a pillow. Her head will sink in the middle. Why didn’t I just use another fabric to make the middle things (what the fuck are those called?)

Screw it. it can just sit on her bed.

But the “B” is also skinner than I planned.

Again, screw it. I want this thing done.



Bella again is asking me if I’m done yet. Ya know with that tone that implies what the fuck is your problem. You can’t figure out how to sew a simple letter. Geeez!



So now I’m stuffing it. thinking that this is taking too long and I want the damn thing done.



I’ve got those damn middle things sewn up however I prolly did it wrong b/c I did it right side out so you can see the unfinished edges. Who cares?



So I’m stuffing away.

And stuffing.

Damn this “B” is bigger than I thought.



Oh shit, some of the edges around the middle things aren’t closed all the way.

Now I’m cramming this half stuffed “B” threw my sewing machine desperately trying to get it sealed shut.

Why did I take on this fuckin’ project in the first place. Why didn't i just sew a damn "I"? her name is Isabella after all.



Finally it’s all stuffed.

Now I tackle sewing shut the bottom.

See above about cramming it thru the sewing machine b/c I think there is no way in hell I’m going to do it by hand.



It’s done.



The pink “B” is done.



Bella happily decided it was time for bed and carried her “B” with her. I believe I was declared the best mommy ever and she fell asleep in minutes claiming it was so comfy. She also has been carrying it around with her for two days straight.

so i guess it was worth it.


(note: her head can fit thru the bottom opening...bwahahhahahahaa!)

Tonight I’m making mikey an “M”.

HIYA! :)

okay, okay uncle sam!
i will :)

that's right. i quit smoking again for the 493,908,283 time. this time i hope it sticks. i acutally think i'm in the right frame of mind now. especially since i found out i had some dental problems so i guess that made it easier to drop. so keep y'alls fingers crossed for me.

i feel as if i should do a lil catching up post, however, since it has been almost six months (thanks kristy for pointing that out...bwahahahahaha!) since i last posted, that would make for an awfully long post and who the hell wants to read all that.

i will tell ya as of late, it's been all about my house. i sit at work and surf around for inspiration and dream of all the things i am going to add to my walls, shelves, etc. it's important to me that my home is very cozy and i feel like handmade and vintage are just the thing to do that.

one of my favorite walls in my house is in the foyer. however, no one really enters thru my front door but i can still see it from my dining room and living room so it still gets love.



it's hard to see all the lil details, but connie....i got that fab*boo mississippi dish towel, that i love oh so much, framed and hung up. it's one of my favorite pieces.

i did get a close up of the banner and wall plaque.





i have one more lil piece that's not in the picture and i want to make one more lil thing and then that wall is complete.

i've also recently found a good bit of decorating blogs which are great!

do any of you have any places i should check out.
sarah can i come over so we can thrift? lol....i know i'll find something up there.

hugs :)

oh lil blog.
how i miss you so.
do you miss me?
i'm sure you're angry at me for neglecting you.
but life has been busy. that's a good thing right? i'm filling my minutes with
crafting
gardening
baking
cooking
piano playing
cross stitching
and now i'm wanting to sew
along with all the chores.

so you can forgive me right?
how bout i pinky swear that i'll start to come back?
pretty please?
with a cherry?

oh you do?
thank you.

PROOF THAT I STILL HAVE A CREATIVE BONE IN MY BODY!!

despite the fact that i have been busy and blah blah, i have gotten some creating done.

a mini that i made using one of those kids lil chipboard books. you know the ones for like a one or a two year old. that's right, run around and swipe your kiddos' books and make you a mini with it...lol.






















cover of the binder for the ashley wren class that i'm taking that i mentioned below.


free bird lo


charlie and lucy



my space


okay, so earlier i had to go so i was unable to finish this post. here we go.

so for christmas the ever fab*boo got me the itouch for christmas and i have been listening to it to my heart's content. well one of my favorite times to listen to it is when it's sitting on its new dock (another christmas present) and i'm in the craft room listening to the likes of jan a.p. kaczmarek, rachmaninoff, pablo casals, and zbigniew preisner while i paint.

now i'm not painting masterpieces by any means, but there is still nothing more relaxing than listening to the above with a paintbrush in my hand.

so here is what i have been painting the past couple of weeks.


this was a painting that i did for ms. greta for christmas. i did the drawing of the octopus last year for the design of my valentine's day cards that some of you got. this was done on some paint boards that you can get at hobby lobby, michael's, etc. that i absolutely love working on.



and this is a lil mini me that i did on some water color paper with acrylic paints. i worried about the paints buckling the paper, but it turned out fine. yes, i know that she doesn't have hands or feet, but maybe that's my signature ya know....lol.

but i think she looks JUST like me...bwahahahhahaa!!!

i have some more that i will share tomorrow.

what have y'all been up to creative wise???

THE YEAR OF ELIZABETH!!!

happy 2009 everyone!!
anyone?

(don't know if i have any readers left out there or not....lol.
needless to say, the last few months of 2008 have been purely exhausting for me. i've had so much going on, there hasn't even been time to blog.)

i am sooooo glad that 2008 is over.
like seriously glad.

about three or so weeks ago, while sitting on the back porch with michael, i declared 2009 the year of elizabeth.

i have so many hopes and dreams for this year. despite the fact that i hate, and i mean hate odd numbers. however, on the way home from an errand today, i heard that odd number years were supposed to be lucky. so lets just hope that is true.

this is the year that i work on me.
the year that i focus on me.
the year that i do what i want to do.
the year to be truly happy.
the year that i try new things and become the woman that i want to be.
shit, can i even say i'm a woman yet?
i still feel like a child at times.
next month i turn 31.
when did that happen?
now its time to act and feel like it.
not to be in my head so much.
analyzing and dwelling on the past or problems that i shouldn't even waste my time on.

make every day count and be the absolute best that i can make it.

i decided to sign up for ashley wren's 2009 class over at sis and am excited to start.

i took her "evidence" class (see below) and it was amazing. i still have some prompts to finish but it was eye opening for me and occasionally i like to flip thru it and read what i wrote just a month and a half ago.

oh, i'm getting off track.

i do hope that everyone has a happy beginning of 2009 and that they have goals and dreams that they hope to accomplish this year and actually accomplish them. i wish that for you and i wish that for me as well.

i hope that 2009 is absolutely the best year ever. it has to be right? and i'm the only one that can make it that way. and that is how i plan on starting my new year.

the year of elizabeth!


edited to add: while surfing blogs today, i checked out jennifer pebbles' blog and found a link for here to get my personal number for the year. here's what it had to say

Personal Year 3. . . .Social expansion & creative successes
This is a number 3 personal year. This is a social, happy year, and it generally tends to exude bright and cheerful vibrations. This is a year when you will want to check up on old friends and broaden your social circle to include some new ones. Romance and love affairs may bloom. You are inclined to live life to its fullest now, even if you have to pay the consequences later on. You are likely to be more sociable and the bridle of responsibility will seem to be loosened a bit. You are inclined to scatter your energies and undertake too many things at the same time. You can safely take some time off to enjoy yourself, but resist the temptation to completely give in to having a good time; keep your goals in mind. A 3 personal year is a good time to expand personal creative talents, particularly those related to the arts and verbal skills. Recognition in this regard is likely this year.

While this can be a happy year as far as personal expression and activities are concerned, it may be a disastrous year on the business scene. A generally frivolous attitude in that environment can cause rash decisions and impractical, unfinished schemes. This is not likely to be a very good year for your finances, and it is fortunate that the next year is designed to compensate these effects.

i love how it mentions that its a good time to expand personal creative talents. there are some classes that i plan on taking after the first of that year that i will get into more detail at a later time.

so what's your number?

MY CREATIVITY HAS BEEN FOUND!!!

ya know, part of the reason that i haven't blogged in forever, apart from the busy*ness, is the lack of mojo.
creative mojo that is.

i don't know what happened. it up and disappeared on me.

but with a very soft and gentle push and discovering that it wasn't too let to get on a class by the fab*boo ashley wren i believe it is back and in full force.



i came home from work early yesterday and due to an earlier conversation with a person who means the world to me, i finally grabbed my vintange nikkormat, some black and white film, and hoped for the best. the only thing is i have to wait two weeks to get it back :(

after shooting with that, i decided to shoot some of the same things that i shot with the nikkormat with my luv, the rebel.



didn't like how a lot of the pics turned out. this is what happens when you feel like you've lost your connection with your camera :( i did get these though.


what has got to be the most happiest kids on earth right????



ahh...that's better!!!


once some stuff got done around the house, it was time to work on that class.
it felt so good to do something creative ya know.
like my body and mind felt alive.
this is why i shouldn't let myself get caught up in the every day and must remember to make time for creativity. my soul needs it.

so this class is all about creating a journal.

here's my cover.


copper paint over a composition book. due to the thickness of the paint, last minute i decided to stick my hand on it and love the way the compo book peeks thru.


and the first prompt!


8 happies!

i love how this is the first page in the book. a list of things that make me happy at this moment.

so tonight the plan is to go home and do the next one. i'm super excited. i've got ideas swimming around in my head and can't wait till next week when i stay the night at g's house on monday and scrap till our heart's content.

ps...don't forget to vote!


<3 elizabeth <3

IS IT THE END OF OCTOBER ALREADY? WHEN THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!?

so had no intention of taking a two month break from the blog.
seriously!

life has just been a crazy mess of soccer games, homework, boyscout events, more work dumped on me at work (which would explain why i don't get to leave many comments on blogs), a new ritual of baths in my jaccuzi tub ;) halloween parties, camping trips, the list goes on and on.

i've barely scrapped in forever (hopefully that will change this weekend) and my house never got decorated for halloween :(

i do have some exciting news though.

i've been asked to participate in the newest upcoming challenge blog FORWARD PROGRESS. the idea is just pure brilliance!!! scrap your future. i mean seriously, how often are we scrapping our past or not even wanting to scrap something b/c it happend so long ago that the pics are old, or whatever. i am constantly thinking about my future and why not scrap it?!?! i'm on a team with a great group of gals and can't wait to get to know them better and hopefully if i have any readers left....lol...you'll stop by and partake in some of the challenges. i'll let y'all know when the first one is up.

i hope that all is well with y'all and i do hope to be back sooner than later.

hope everyone has a happy, happy, happy halloween!!!


<3 elizabeth <3

THE GREAT. THE BAD. THE UGLY

THE GREAT

*michael and i spent a glorious saturday night
here for our anniversary. the room was nice and of course i love this casino/hotel. we ate dinner at the outback, had frozen custard at bops, saw a swing vote (1 1/2 thumbs down), gambled a lil bit, and then had room service the next a.m. where i had the best coffee and blueberry danish! (a mini will be coming to a blog near you soon :)

*the kiddos are signed up for soccer and mikey only has practice once a week and a game on saturday and bella has her practice before her game on saturday.

*we finally have an awesome back to school routine which comes complete with having an hour to myself in the morning after the kiddos catch the bus....bliss!!!

*michael and i decided that in january we are going to start trying for another bambino :)

*i'm about to start taking quilt classes.

*i'm going to crop at the lss friday night...whooo*haaaa!!!

*stacks and stacks of library books are sitting around my house just waiting to be devored.

*bella will be signed up for daisies soon :)

*tried a new recipe last night...tomato basil tart...which was so devine i can't stop thinking about it.

*speaking of cooking, i've been cooking up a storm: homemade bread, cherry jam, chicken broth, cookies, homemade pizza (this too will be coming to a post near you soon :)


THE BAD

*we've been so busy i can hardly stand myself.

*i haven't scrapped in weeks (that will soon change though since i am devoting the whole weekend to this).

*i'm having trouble coming up with baby names. yes, i'm a major PLANNER. if i could pee on the stick and it turn pink or blue that would make me happy. i have to have the name planned out way in advance and well, there are some rules. ya see, the four of us all have one vowel and two "m"s for initials. and we for the most part have italian names. so trying to find italian names that meet this criteria is hard. however, i think we may end up dropping the whole italian thing and just finding the vowel and two m's. and of course i only have a girl's name picked...grr! any suggestions?


THE BAD

*my bella*boo has to have surgery on her eye on september 2nd. :( she will have that papaloma removed and i've been assured that it won't come back. she doesn't know yet. we won't tell her till the day before. we have to drive to mobile, alabama to have it done. i worry that she will be like me as a child and haved to be strapped down when they give her the anesthia. oh i can't even think about it.

*and again, i've just been busy busy busy. both at work and home. there are def. not enough hours in the day.

how have y'all been?

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION HEART WALK

this year, i'm participating in the american heart association heart walk and i'm quite excited about it. its 4 miles long and will be my first ever walk for a cause :)

i kinda feel funny asking this on my blog, but its for a good cause right? so if anyone is interested in making a donation for me, you can go to my home page on the gulfcoast heart walk site and do so!!!

i have a goal of $100 and i would love to be able to go over :)

thanks in advance and i'd love to know if anyone else is doing the walk :)

hugs,
e

<3 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MY LOVE <3

wow baby!
can you believe its already been 9 years???

i love you more than anything in the world and i can't wait to share many, many more years with you.

can't wait for this weekend ;)

MY BABY STARTED KINDERGARTEN TODAY!!!

*sniff*
*sniff*

my bella boo had her first day of kindergarten today. michael and i brought her to school where we got to hang out in her classroom, have breakfast with her, give her a ton o' hugs and kisses, watch a presentation given by the other kindergarten teachers and then back to her classroom to ask any questions.

this was the second year that they did it this way and bella won't go back until monday. if you don't think for one second that i was pissed as shit when i found out about this, well, you're wrong.

but anyway.

dontchya just wanna eat her up in that jumper???




with book bag and lunch bag that she left at school {shakes head}

MIKEY'S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

bug started 3rd grade today!

i can't believe it.

not only did summer fly by, i have a child old enough to be in third grade!
what the?????

here he is all dressed up and ready to go. notice the goofy look on his face. he's def. getting to the age where seeing if he can mess up a good pic is numero uno priority!

MORE SCRAPPINESS!!!!

i have been on a scrapping rampage lately (well at least compared to other months...lol) and here are a few more los i've done.


lo for the dares


a lo for anthologies, my lss

has anyone else had mucho scrappy mojo?

QUEEN OF CRAP!!!

yay!

this week i am queen of crap over at scrap your crap.

this week's challenge is beads. i have a ton of beads since i like to dabble in jewelry making every now and again but needed to figure out what i wanted to do with them.

so this is what i came up with



make sure you guys swing over there and let me know what ya did so i can check it out :)

BREAKING DAWN

okay, so here i am at around 1:30 saturday morning after running around getting this book.

after i picked michael up from the airport, the four of us went to eat, and then headed to barnes and noble. its about 11:30. it is pretty packed and everyone is wearing wrist bands....oh no!

so instead of waiting around there, i bought the chocolate bars and headed to walmart where i stood in line with about 8 other people and had the book in my hand by 12:01.

too bad i'm disappointed with it.
i'm not finished yet...have about 200 pages yet but i'm ready to be done with it. its not what i expected but i won't get into anymore b/c i don't wanna give out any spoilers :(

b/c i can't stop painting or creating today.



on canvas board
size 12x16

THANK YOU & A MINI

thank you all for the sympathies regarding michael's grandpa. i'll be sure to let him know your kind words.

you
all
are
the
best!


okay, now for a mini.

i've had this idea in my head for about a week now and thought it was brilliant if i do say so myself...lol.

i wanted to do a mini on my name and do a descriptive word for each letter of my name that fits me to a tee!

and this is what i came up with :)





e: emotional.....i am extremely emotional which i both love and hate
l: loving........oh how i love to love and be loved
i: imagination...my imagination is both my sanity and insanity
z: zealous.......i am over zealous of most everything
a: artistic......without art i would be nothing
b: baking........baking: my therapy
e: eager.........always ready to push my own limits
t: thinker.......always in my head analyzing everything
h: homemaker.....taking care of my family and home is what i live for


this was so much fun and seriously, you should do the same. it was a lil hard for me to find a word for "z" but still...it picked a good one.

{DEEP SIGH}

that's all i can really say...i'm exhausted. so much has been going on lately. between back to school shopping, sleeping over friends, dentist appointments, running errands, and blah blah, we received some bad news last thursday.

michael's grandfather passed away last week and he left on friday to head to milwaukee. he won't be back till this friday so i took off this week to be at home with the kiddos.

we are going to miss his grandfather deeply but knowing that he lead a full life filled with love makes us feel a little bit better. i'm glad that michael has had this time to spend with his grandma and his sister. i know that is making them all feel better and i just wish that we could have went with him.

*********************************************************

on to some happy things.

being off does mean though that i do have time to get some stuff done. the house is clean (for the most part ;), i've been baking up a storm and i'm about ready to throw some dough into the bread machine and make
some of these mini vanilla wafers, some homemade chicken soup for dinner, and some cherry preserves!

i've also scrapped a very little. but you'll have to stay tuned for those los ;)

i'm super excited about this



i pick up michael tomorrow at the airport between 10-11 pm and i've already told him that we are stopping at barnes and nobel on the way home. i got an email from them yesterday that said they were having a release party (hello partying with the teens ;) and i'm hoping that i can get my hands on the book by midnight ;)

who else out there is on pins and needles.

and lets not get me started on the movie.
{deep sigh}


oh did anyone watch project runway last night?
did y'all not die when they were trying to get tim to say "holla" right???
bwahahahahahahaa!

shit i love that show.
and is anyone else ready for ms. leathaah to be cut? good grief.

oh and last but certainly not least, some fab*boo people have tagged me with this



i've been tagged by: noel, karen, and sian. some of my most favorite people ever.

here are the rules....


1. The winner can take the logo
2. Place a link to the person that sent you the award
3. Give the Award to at least 7 other Scrapbooking-Blogs, which by its currency,the issues of choice and for their designs are especially noteworthy
4. Put a link to these sites on your Blog.
5. Write a comment on their Blogs that they’ve won an Award.

i don't know who all has received this and who hasn't, but i'm tagging anyway....

sarah
who is so stinkin' cute and someone i wish i could meet b/c i know we would just jive.

josie
b/c she is just the sweetest thing ever and we share a love of marshmallow dip, books, kitchen aid mixers.

aimee
she is an awesome scrapper who has an amazing eye for design and photography.

anna
damn i love this chick. who else can ask a friend "is it just me or are you ready for edward and bella to fuck?" and she doesn't email you back with a "you're a freak. don't talk to me ever again" but toally agrees with ya!

joss
to the sweetest chick ever! to an amazing photographer who totally blows me away. a chick who can quilt with the best of em and makes me so completely crazy jealous of her skills.

andrea
a rockin' scrapper who can put the bestest swap package together ever! to this day she remains my favorite swappy partner and awesome bloggin' buddy. even though we don't chat as much, i think of her daily :)

miss leopard print
not only do i think this girl can scrap with the best of em, she's hilarious as all get out and stamped me some mr. t images. umm hello....awesome!

okay, off to start baking and possibly snugglin' up to "eclipse" again so i'm all ready for friday :)