Flashback: That's what I call Winter!

It rained all day on Nov. 30th. That was a Friday. I took those pictures on my lunch on my way to McD's. The others were taken the next day when the sun finally decided to show his face. I had just spent the first all-nighter of finals finishing up a portfolio for my Comparative Literature class (I have yet to know how I did in the class). It was my hardest class this semester because it was on Saturday mornings and by that point in the week I didn't have time to do any of the reading. I did enjoy the teacher and my classmates though. I'm hoping I did well because I got A's in my other 2 classes. So far I'm good... one more to go!!

Flashback: Black Friday

I normally hate Black Friday but this year it was fun. The day before, Trena had gone through all the ads and decided she'd wanted this flat screen TV from either Wal*Mart or one from Target. She INSISTED that she was going to get up and get it at the crack of dawn. (She didn't.)

We all met up at my in-laws to go shopping together (Matthew's sibbies and cousin Brad). Sarah brought Allie, who was all dressed up:



Those are her Princess shoes. She got a whole bunch of them from Matthew's mother last Christmas. Her other grandmother gave her the crown and a matching wand too... and now she has the dress to match! She wore that dress shopping with us and got compliments all day!!

First stop was at Nordstrom Rack. I struck out, but had fun shopping. We then went to DSW. I LOVE that store!! I got the cutest little flats. They're black with pink flowers and a pink ribbon. Similar to this one:


Aren't they cute? I get compliments on them every time I wear them. I also bought my first pair of Steve Maddens. I was OH so excited to get them. I cannot find a picture though. They're relatively plain black pumps, but they've got the name on them! ;) I've been wearing them at least twice a week now and LOVE them. I also almost bought a hot pair of Chinese Laundry heels, but Trena wisely talked me out of them. (I got the Maddens instead) They were like 5" heels and total F-me shoes but I wouldn't have been able to wear them for long periods of time.

I find it amazing that I'm even talking about shoes anyway. Show this blog to the me of 5 years ago and I wouldn't have believed it!

I'll leave you with some pictures of the craziest little girl ever. She got Uncle Keith to catch her a lizard... and she played with it while wearing her princess dress. Enjoy the irony!!

Flashback: Allie's Birthday (celebrated on Turkey Day)

We celebrated Allie's birthday after Thanksgiving dinner. Since the family was in town and they'd all pretty much be leaving on Sunday, Sarah thought it'd be more fun/easier that way.

She was so cute! She opened all of her cards first (how many 4 year olds know to do that?). Her dad, Matt, insisted it must a genetic girl thing because no dude ever does that. She got lots of fun things but the immediate favorite was her Aurora dress. She had Sarah put it right on over her clothes and then she turned around and started climbing in the bushes with her brother. She's the ultimate tomboy! :)



What a cutie!

More to come... ;)

Metal Geek Magnet

So Matthew bought a bunch of new clothes yesterday at Anchor Blue. They're really nice, but not what you'd normally see him wearing... they were really more like Aaron and Michael's style... button up shirt, pull-over sweater and nice jeans. He looks cute... just a little different than what you'd normally expect him in. I'm sick today so I was disheveled and wearing jeans and a Family Values Tour shirt.

We went to the grocery store and went down the frozen food aisle. Matthew was looking at the icecream acros the case and further down the asile from me (I was looking at frozen dinner stuffs) when this geeky box boy came up behind me all excited. "So cool! I went there too!!" And gives me this toothy grin and a double thumbs up and went on his merry little way. I just kinda nodded and smiled and went back to studying the frozen food case.

He ended up in line behind me and Matthew later (I think he was on break) so he was asking me who my favorite was and started telling me about how cool this year's tour was and he had SO much fun and... you get the idea.I was laughing about it in the car to Matthew. I said something about how he must not have very many friends who he can talk to about that kind of stuff if he has to talk to ladies at the store who are like 10 years older than him. So Matthew didn't think I was correct on the age thing. "You think he was only 18?" Uh yeah, on the UPPER end of how old he could have been. The kid's voice was still cracking.

Wherever he his he can feel glad he made a sick "old" lady feel better. I cracked a smile and even laughed a little.

Flashback: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was super yummy! Matthew's grandparents and aunt/uncles came in for a visit. This also included his cousin Brad who we never get to see so it was fun to hang out with him for the weekend.

The food was YUMMY and we had a lot of fun just talking and joking around.

Flashback: November 16, Luau!

We had a luau for our outgoing bishop at church. We had a lot of fun but the best part was watching all the kids go nuts to the music. We had a Polynesian dance troupe come in and put on a show.

Here is my friend Stephanie's little boy too. He would clap along with everyone after each little "set". He could never figure out why I kept laughing though.

Alfred Hitchcock was a master

Thanks to the writers strike I now get to play catch-up with my Netflix. Tonight's feature, instead of Dirty, Sexy, Money was Disturbia.

Shia LeBouf is freaking adorable. This movie totally freaked me out too. Loved it!!

*GASP!*

Whew! It's been an insane month! I just took the last test final last night and turned in my last projects tonight. I've only got one more final season 'til graduation! Yay!

Updates? Umm... I need to go through all my pictures to remember it all. Off the top of my head there was Turkey Bucks, Thanksgiving, Allie's birthday, Black Friday shopping and tons of homework (that whole weekend).

My Magritte presentation was awesome (for my Child Development Art class) and I had a monster project due for my comparative literature class (I'll show you the cute cover I made for it). That weekend was spent pretty much on homework too.

week's events included a cartoon about my life (we read Our Cancer Year & watched American Splendor). I couldn't come up with anything good so I drew Trena getting groped after Wicked. I realized after I'd drawn the preliminary sketches that I could have written about a couple other times that weird stuff happened to me and Trena (like that torrential downpour) so I just may do it for fun. I named my new comic The Adventures of Meghan and Trena. It made the girls in my group giggle (sorry Trena) and they all said they'd keep men nearby in H-town from now on. :)

Art class was a lot of fun these last 2 weeks as it was a bunch of presentations and hanging out with my professor. He's really passionate about art education (aren't all art teachers? :) ) and it has been an inspiring semester. I've already decided that I've totally deprived myself of FUN classes my entire college career. Granted, I've taken more fun classes and picked things I was more interested in as I went along, but I hardly count that. I'll be hanging out at the JC up the street this summer taking art classes... for fun!! Oh! Maybe a graphic design course! That would be a blast!

So... I took my final on Saturday. I was totally worried about that class, the final wasn't as bad as I'd thought and I'd gotten better grades than expected on a few things. Score! I've probably passed it. Last night's test wasn't bad either.

I pulled yet another all nighter last night though (for my art portfolio). It's still not complete... but it's awesome looking... that should count for something. At this point, done was good. I'm so tired. I'd had almost a whole Amp Tall Boy before 9 am (usually I'd nurse one until noon on a day like this). And what am I doing now? Typing instead of going to bed... welcome to my world!

Oh! I forgot... I also got 12 new shirts at Threadless the last few weeks. They're cute! This Christmas is also all about Internet shopping. It's SO much easier.

Wednesday I've got a church meeting and bridal shower on Thursday. But hopefully I'll be able to get on and post pictures little by little. I've got some really fun shots in there! (And great stories to share!)

Signing off for now,
Pixie

Wired

Like REALLY wired. I feel like I should be running around the office with my shirt pulled up on my head screaming "I am Cornholio!!" I've narrowly escaped from letting out Beavis-like giggles several times already today. I'll update more tonight to fill you all in on the last 6 weeks or so.

You've had a birthday, shout hooray!

Okay, so it's really Tuesday, but I had a very birthday weekend because Thanksgiving is next weekend (Matthew's entire family is coming into town). I still get to celebrate a few more times. I'm going to dinner with a few girlfriends tomorrow night and hanging out with my family Tuesday or Wednesday night.
My first present was actually from Trena. When we went to see Wicked she covered part of my ticket price because the cost was a little steep for me (and you already saw what crazy fun we had that night!!). Tonight she gave me a $10 gc from Starbucks too. Yay it's hot chocolate weather... yummy!!

I went to lunch with Sarah and Jenny (Philip and Gavin too) yesterday at the Olive Garden (soup and salad... YUM!). We totally forgot to take a picture!! But Jenny had bought a cute little Tinkerbell wallet for me. And Sarah got me my awesome new Tinkerbell shirt, magic wand pen, lip gloss and door hanger. Hey! I'm easy to please!

Tonight I had a yummy breakfast burrito dinner. :D And I got more awesome goodies! My mother-in-law, Melissa, got me this adorable purse (the cute flowery one) above. Even the lining is cute!! It's totally handmade and they'll repair normal wear and tear issues. I'm really loving internet shopping, you get GREAT quality stuff and you help out small businesses! Matthew got me a bag from Satchel Studio (Mine is Bici in olive). It's blank for now, but I may send it back for decoration. I really don't know what I want on it yet. Weird huh? I like Graffitti and Japanese (image 8 for both) but I was thinking a photo collage of me and Matthew and our sibbies. But I also thought that'd work better on a purse... hmm... we'll see! I'm telling you, these bags are going to really take off!!

Sarah and Michael got me black Alice style Crocs! They're stinking cute and super comfy! I swear I've thought people were exaggerating when they said walking on marshmallows... they weren't! They're also getting me a gc for GMD. Yippee!!

Thanks to everyone for the fun stuff!! :D I've got great friends and family and I got to spend this weekend with some of them (and the rest before the week is out) and that is what made it really great! (and the food ;) )

Time for an update!!

It's been a freaking long time since I've posted pictures or had a real update!



Halloween was fun. We had a quietish evening at church for the Trunk-or-Treat. I tried to get some pictures of Liam & Allie in their costumes... but that proved nearly impossible... as usual. They're just too quick!

Here's a quick recap of my October. :D

Was I too cryptic?

I totally forgot to mention... it was Danny Elfman! ;)
Answers to the post from the other day:



The Boogie Song

No One Lives Forever

Just Another Day

Wake Up (It's 1984)

Tender Lumplings

Dead Man's Party

Grey Matter

This is Halloween

Insanity

Nothing to Fear

What's This?

On the Outside

Insanity

Weird Science

We Close Our Eyes

Nothing Bad Ever Happens To Me

Private Life

Insanity

Jack's Obsession

Jack's Obsession

Stay

Only a Lad

Nasty Habits

Mary

Insects

Kidnap the Sandy Claws

A Tribute

to musician that I love and his former band.

"Oh, the sound of rollin' dice to me is music in the air"

"No one beats him at his game For very long but just the same "

"I cannot risk the bet, cause hearts are fragile toys, so easy to forget."

"He tries to scare us, with angry words but we all know that they're lies "

"'Cause promises like lives, can be bought so very cheap."

"All dressed up with nowhere to go"

"There's something inside your head"

"Round that corner, man hiding in the trash can
Something's waiting now to pounce, and how you'll scream"

"Let's imitate reality
Let's strive for mediocrity
Let's make believe we're all the same
Let's sanitize our little brains "

"But go ahead sleep tight in your beds, remember what the wise man said"

"They're busy building toys and absolutely no one's dead"

"I never was a punk
I never shot junk
I never even tried counter
Culture passed me right by
(I'm on the outside)"

"A million years of evolution, we get Danny Quayle"

"Diagrams and charts, mending broken hearts"

"We close our eyes
We close our eyes and dream
And the world has turned around again"

"Every time I look around this place I see them scream but I hear no sound."

"If you can find me come and get me out of here"

"Purify my brain and hose down my soul"

"Just because I cannot see it doesn't mean I can't believe it"

"Locked away inside, never says a word, hope he hasn't died"

"Won't you stay with me one more day"

"He's underprivileged and abused, perhaps a little bit confused."

"Do you peek at magazines filled with doggies and leather queens"

"She could look in peoples eyes and read their minds"

"They don't know what life's about"

"Throw him in the ocean then, see if he is sad."

Hopping on the Blogwagon

Look at my list of buddy blogs! It keeps getting longer! This is a great thing though because it adds to the list of family/friends that I get to spy on. LOL Let's not get me started on the people that I only MARGINALLY know that I can read up on because they're in my blog network (linked by me through another's blog... like a chain).

If you haven't visited Boobs etc. I suggest you do. She's a frigging crack up! I can't remember exactly how I stumbled upon her blog, but I'm so glad I did.

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning

palm trees are candles in the bitter wind. Wow! If you've never been to California to experience the phenomenon known as Santa Ana winds, you're missing out. No, it's nothing compared to tornadoes or hurricanes, but it's our own wind storm misery (I like it though because lets not forget, I'm only happy when it rains). I also like it because I don't live in the brush like so many stupid people around here do. There is a rule of thumb here in LA/OC, if you build a house on a hill surrounded by brush, it isn't a question of IF your house will either be victim of a mudslide or brush fire, but WHEN it will become a victim. And yet, people still live in Malibu (as anyone who has ever visited TMZ.com will know).

So, not only are we having crazy winds (worse than any time that I can recently remember) but it's super dry. This equals massive fires around here. My apartment stunk like fire last night, and we lost power sometime while we slept too. Matthew's parents also had a casualty last night; their lime tree broke in half and blew over. :( No lime aid this summer!

Pee Wee + Teenie =

My baby sister is 18 today! She's such a doll! Here's her card. Her favorite colors are black, purple and grey. ;)

Credits:

Michelle Coleman: K stamp

Gina Miller: Paper, paint

Amanda Rockwell: Flower, paint

Genevieve Sass: Ribbon

Font: CK Elsie

I laughed until I cried

It's broken up into 3 vids... I cracked up the whole time. Check him out on YouTube an Comedy Central. He's got TONS of these puppet things!

Happy Birthday Baby

Isn't he cute? I took this a week or so ago. He looked so peaceful. That's my baby!

Be Proud of Your Baggage

I am kicking myself for not blogging here sooner about my friend Kelty. Kelty is actually Trena's cousin, and I know her twin sister, Hannah, better, but you get the picture.

Kelty is an enterprising young woman thats taking art to a new form. Luggage. Check out her website http://www.satchel-studio.com. She's got some amazing designs for all her types of bags, but you can also create your own! Check them out, they're really cool!

Saving Second Base

one healthy booby at a time!

I'll post credits later... it's too late now. Whew! That's my most mixed up page ever (as far as intermingling designers).

ETA: Frames Nancy Comelab at The Lily Pad, Pink papers by Gina Miller, Torn Corner by Karah Fredericks at Blue Flombingo, Heart stitching & black paper by Shabby Princess, Rhinestones by Sweet Genevieve (shape by me); (Top right photo:)Photo actions by Laura Barden at FPD & Framing action by Valarie Foster @ altscrap.com, Fonts are Century Gothic and Scriptina.

Green green green!

Wow... now blue is actually my favorite color (since black isn't really a COLOR) but lately... everything around me is green.

We already know about my little adventure with Wicked last week...

Then there is my growing little family of LPS turtles. (That's Emma, Bree, Jonas and Rhiannon.)
And last... but most certainly not least... The Green Fairy.

Isn't she beautiful? She's a new Dell Inspiron. The mouse came last Monday, bag on Thursday and my little fairy came on Friday. I did nothing but play with her all weekend (and go see Wicked)!

Side note on the bag. That is the Kiwi/chocolate one being offered from Mimi. They were designed with the digital scrapbooker in mind. There's extra padded pockets for my mice and tablet and disks and a camera... you get the idea. I LOVE it!! The suede is SO soft too. I bought mine from scrapaddicts.com. Their customer service was awesome! I hit a little snag while trying to purchase it (my email wasn't clicking or something weird) but Maegan was super nice and held onto the bag I wanted (she's closing these out... they're on sale) for me until her friendly tech team could fix the issue for me. I started the ordering process the same Sunday I ordered GF. They fixed problem and still got my bag to me the day before I had my computer! I had also pestered her a year ago (when I thought I was going to get my computer the first time around) for details about sizes and the such and she was as friendly as can be!!

I just wanted to gloat some more! ;)

I think I'll try defying gravity

We saw Wicked last night. Tickets landed in Trena's lap on Tuesday. I was so excited I wanted to burst! It was the best thing I've seen on stage EVER! I topped Lion King and Cats (I've seen both at the Pantages previously). I'm getting the soundtrack tomorrow! (I've been meaning to anyway, but now I HAVE to have it.)

That's us right after we got out. We wanted to take a picture but that's the best we could pull off. There were a TON of people there! So as I walked along the street I took pictures of all the different signs/posters around so that I'd have enough for a page (I'll probably actually make a 2 page spread for this one). When we got to the corner, I took a picture of the Pantages' marquee from the side but the first "A" wasn't on. I asked Trena if she minded crossing only one street (we were standing kitty-corner to the parking lot at that moment) and going back up a bit to get a better shot. She understands my obsession so she agreed.

As we're walking back up the other side of the street (which has that covered scaffolding around it) a bus pulls up. My first thought? "Great... it's going to be in the way." Trena's thought? "Great... middle of Hollywood at 11pm, what kind of crazies are we going to see?" We keep walking another 20 feet or so and are now directly across from the theater. I took this picture:

Isn't it kinda tacky looking? LOL Whatever. I'm sure the ones on Broadway look tacky too. I was perfectly happy with this shot but Trena offered to take one of me in front of it all. I handed her my camera and she took 2 shots.

I notice as she's taking my second picture that the scruffy guy we just past is walking by... pausing... now stopping, behind Trena. (I only noticed him before because I was looking at all the names on the stars on the sidewalk and carefully stepped over a mysterious "trickle" running down towards the street and saw his boots when I looked up.) So I walk over to her and offer to take HER picture now only the weird guy starts cat calling. "Hola chica. Como te llamas?" Whatever. If that was supposed to intimidate us, we live in Southern California buddy, we know BASIC Spanish. We decide to start walking back the way we came at that point because we're kinda "alone." There were people all over because it was still crowded from the show but we didn't need to encourage the guy either.

We walk away quickly and catch up with a huge group of people (back under the scaffolding again). This tweaked out 80s rocker guy is standing there (think David Bowie in Labyrinth) with his back to the plywood and since it's kind of narrow we're going to have to walk within inches of this guy. Trena is a little ahead of me and he puts his hand out to grope her! Fortunately she's got a jacket on and all he gets is her elbow. She yanked her arm away, I caught up with her, grabbed her other arm and we started to jog the rest of the way to the corner.

We were laughing so hard! We kept joking about how the boys were at home, enjoying themselves while we were getting molested and walking the dangerous streets of Hollywood. She called Aaron once we got into the car so they knew not to worry and they don't answer! He called back a little bit later and said they'd just gotten out of Good Luck Chuck. So Trena told him what happened and he said they'd just been watching a porno. Apparently it was pretty low grade sex humor. I'm glad I didn't go now. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a little crudeness but if it made Matthew uncomfortable then I'll pass.

But that's the story of Meghan and Trena and what happens when we walk down Hollywood Blvd. after dark. :D I want to go back and take pictures of Trena in front too because that just SUCKS!

I took a few more pictures but you'll just have to wait for the scrapped page! ;)

Little Miss Allie Pants

Have I told you lately that I have THE cutest niece on the planet? I'm a little biased... but I do. ;) (Trena's niece Belen is a close 2nd though) She got her first haircut last Saturday and then as they were leaving from Sunday dinner she looked at me and told me that she had short hair just like me! I told her that I wore glasses like she did too and she said "Yeah, short hair and glasses just like you!"

Credits:
Genevieve Sass:
Be Dreamy Kit,
Tea Stained Ribbons
& Summer Soaked Alpha
Font:
CK Elsie

I also had to play with Genevieve's Wings set with this one. It was so cute!! :D

Happy Birthday Momma

Saturday was my mommy's birthday. I made her a card and I'm kinda mad at my printer now. Here's my digital preview... (they're clickable to view them MUCH larger)

Credits:
Kit by Tiff Brady and Gina Miller, "Party Bits"
Alpha by Michelle Coleman

Added:
Black Bazzill Bling
Colorbox Charcoal Chalk

See the difference? I liked it MUCH better on my computer! Anywho...

I framed a photo for her of us 5 (me, my sibbies and Matthew) at my baby sister's graduation back in June. I wanted to get her a GC for a book store but ran out of time. I'll have to belate that for her. ;) I printed this at Costco and got the white torn edge frame thinger added to it. Once it went in the frame you couldn't see it anymore, but at least she'll see it if she ever changes the frame out! LOL Aren't we just a cute family? That's Roxanne, Matthew, me, Katie and Adam (he's bent WAY over 'cause he's TALL).

Gotcha!

Hee hee! I snagged a victim. One of Trena's sister-in-laws (and one of baby Thyssen's many adorable aunties) emailed me the other night to ask about digiscrapping. You should have seen the novel of "basic links" I sent her. I sent her to the Piracy blog, Shabby Princess, GMD, DST, SB.C and Sheila's blogs (among many other useful places). I can't wait to see her first layout! The lucky duck already has REAL PhotoShop as her hubby is an extremely talented artist. Some day... *sigh*

I also got sucked into another fun blog yesterday. She had me laughing a lot. Then I got to THIS post. I laughed so hard I got a belly ache and very misty eyed. She is my new hero and I can only hope to be that awesome of a mom!!

And good old boys drinking whisky and rye

Every year I choose to try to reflect on how united our nation was in the first few weeks immediately following the attacks. And every year I sob. This year I was able to contain the tears mostly. I'm finally at a place where I feel like I can *talk* about it without getting too drained. If I let myself, the waterworks still come. I went on MSN.com and found TONS of photos in my search to make this LO. They were all flash shows so I couldn't use any of them, but I'm glad I saw them. I let myself cry then.

This year was the year to finally get all my thoughts about the whole thing down. I'm glad I'm finally able calm myself down long enough to capture my reaction to that day. It has already become the JFK assassination of my generation; this day has become the it in "where were you when it happened?" Before that, I thought it would have been Oklahoma City or Colombine, but neither of those situations came remotely close.

Here's my start at therapy and record keeping. I need to make another page to fully reflect what happened AFTER that day, but I can't do that tonight, I'm too tired.

Alpha & Papers: Gina Miller
Tears: Blue Flombingo

WE WILL NEVER FORGET!!

It's been a hard days night

I got a lot done today. Check 'em out!

Papers: GMD, Dreamer Kit
Bubble: GMD, Colorblast Kit
Fonts: SF Toontime

Kit: Shabby Princess, Modish Boy Kit
Flourish: SP, Ornate Stamps
Fonts: Scriptina, Century Gothic

Template, Papers, Bubbles, Swirl: GMD
Fonts: Artistamp, Century Gothic

Cyberspace Oddity

So I've been bouncing around the internet today and came up with some FUN links!!

This is a fun little store at etsy.com that sells jewelry made from Lego pieces! There is some REALLY cute stuff in there.

Elsie Flannigan has a new site coming! I hardly ever talk about papery scrappiness on here so I wanted put in this plug. I have her book and I just LOVE the challenges in it... plus there is a key to download several of her fonts in it too.

I also came across a cute paper kit club. Red Velvet was indirectly linked on Valerie Foster's blog (I just started clicking links and ended up there). And while we're talking about Miss Valerie, I just wanted to show you her new kit now on sale at computerscrapbook.com. Enjoy!

You spin me right round baby

Wow! Time for an update. Life has been a whirlwind lately!! I guess I'll start from this last weekend.

Matthew and I went to visit his aunt and uncle in NorCal over the long weekend. We started our 7 hour trek on Saturday morning at 4:45 am. I started taking little video clips at 5:00 and figured I'd cronacle a short clip every 30 minutes of our entire drive (like a sped-up drive up California) to capture the changes in light and landscape. Well... 2 hours later as we were about to make a breakfast stop, my battery died. And I forgot to pack the charger. D'oh!! So much for pictures all weekend. :( I was a sad little Pixie.

So I took silly notes the rest of the ride for fun.

7:05 am- realized in Carl's Jr. parking lot that my camera battery was dead.

7:25 am- realized that the guy sitting across CJ was sporting a great Flock of Seagulls haircut and I had no camera to capture it. The guy was probably younger than me too. How did he even know who FoS was?

7:30- back on the road

7:48- drove past some coyote road kill, we don't get THAT much in Anaheim!!

8:30- Stopped for gas & got raped at the pump... $3.49 a gallon!! I also got attacked by ENORMOUS flies and overwhelmed by the smell of cow @$$ everywhere... it smelled like the 909!

8:35- back on the road, 192 from San Francisco

That's all I wrote. We arrived around 11:30. Matthew drove the whole way so he took a nap and I hung out with Aunt Meg. We had a nice chat. Uncle Keith called and said he was on his way home and was picking up lunch. Matthew woke up just before our YUMMY burritos arrived. SO GOOD! We then decided that we'd go to the French cheese factory that afternoon... so off we went.

That place was so cool. Keith drove us up the back roads from Petaluma to this little old farm house in the middle of nowhere (Marin county for anyone interested). You walk in and it's a little store. Lots of yummy cheeses and cheese themed gifts (cheese knife sets, wines, crackers, shirts and aprons... you get the idea). The actual factory is in the cellar and usually you can get tours but they were on hold due to renovations going on. I'll just have to go back!! We bought close to $40 of cheese for Matthew's mom and a few little quarks for us (flavored cream cheeses). Matthew is lactose intolerant so most French cheeses make him sick, but it was a lot of fun for me because I've been wanting to go for years. Meg and Keith always bring some down with them when they come for visits.

We walked around the pond for a bit after that with Shasta (M&K's adorable dog). Keith let her off the leash and she would come running back when you called her. Such a good dog! On our way back, Keith drove us around the neighborhood pointing out fun little houses. For those of you that don't know, most of northern California has these ADORABLE little old houses EVERYWHERE. Petaluma started in the late 1800s so its like a little history lesson driving through the middle of downtown (and all over town really).

We then went back to their house and took another nap (we were TIRED). When we got up, Brad (Matthew's cousin) was over so we got to chat with him for a little bit. He's a real doll. We watched 300 that evening and just hung out. When the movie was over, off to bed. I still can't believe how tired I was that day!

The next morning Matthew and I got up and met my friend Peas for breakfast. I've been chatting with her on scrapbooking boards for almost 3 years now. We finally met in person at Disneyland in 4/06 and it was high time for another visit! We met her in her home town, Benicia, and had a yummy breakfast at a little place called Shoreline. We ate on the patio and just had a great time talking. We then walked along the street where it ends on a little "pier" (concrete walkway over the water really) and back. It was great to see her again and cannot wait for another chance to visit to come up!

Back in Petaluma we went to dinner at this Chicago pizza place that Matthew loved when he lived with M&K for a few months before he went on his mission. It's in the middle of historical downtown Petaluma (I sound like a travel guide). The restaurant actually used to be a parlor for a brothel. Funny huh? Anyway, he took me there last time and it really is GOOD pizza. We then walked around downtown taking in the sights and checking out all kinds of newer developments in the area. It was a lot of fun.

The next day was time to pack up. Meg made me a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs and hot cocoa (I'm not much of a breakfast person, but I was actually hungry that time). We said our good-byes and were off! A very quick trip, but very relaxing and a fun visit!!

Here are my only single pictures... since Peas is a scrapbooker too, I knew I could count on her to actually have a WORKING camera with her!


Isn't she cute? :D Stay tuned... I made another card and a couple pictures to post from work from last week. We had to say good-bye to a real sweetheart that used to work with us. ;)

All I wanted was a Pepsi

I had a weird day today. It felt like it was a never-ending conquest to find me some Diet Pepsi. Normally I wouldn't be so panicky about it, but I've been cutting WAY back on my soda intake... diet or not, the stuff is horrible for you!

Anyway, after coming home from an awesome class session I watched Some Kind of Monster while finishing Jenny's page. Sorry it's so small. I've tried to upload to DST, but yet again, I can't get the stinker to work!!

Gina Miller:
Alphas- Blue Shoes (blog freebie) and Whispers of Spring Numbers (retired collab kit, recolored)
Paper- In the Sea (collab kit)
Bubble overlays

Laura Bratcher:
Felt- In the Sea... the sand, palm tree, sea weed and water splash (collab kit at GMD)

Lauren Barden:
Photo actions- Make Me Colorful (I'm not sure which ones exactly as I used several)

Valerie Foster:
Photo matting action- Precious

ETA- Fonts: Scriptina and CK Elsie

Penny Arcade

For those of you who DON'T know... I'm a total dork. Now, I'm not as dorky as the people (the Gabe and Tycho in my life) that introduced me to Penny Arcade, nor am I as bad as those that actually read them religiously and understand ALL that is mentioned on this site... but I DO enjoy the comics quite often.

They relate mostly to the world of video gaming... some other techno speak is included, but mostly VG dorkiness prevails there. This particular comic gave me the giggles. I kinda see myself this way, especially after playing Mortal Kombat on a reincarnated DreamCast last night. I was kicking butt... but it is after all only because I'm truly talented at the art of button mashing, not because I actually KNEW what I was doing. I wouldn't dream or DARE to try something like Guitar Hero, I know my limits.

Do the iPod shuffle

I stole this from Melessa. I'm not sure how she found my blog... but she commented one day and I check in on hers about once a week. Don't you love being nosey? I do! Reading random stranger's blogs is the best! She's a bad-girl Mormon too. LOL We're the funnest types!!

She had a fun idea though... she posted the first 10 songs on her iPod that shuffled in. Here's what I got:

1. Don't Speak- No Doubt
2. Just Another Day- Oingo Boingo
3. Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds- The Beatles
4. Swing Swing- All American Rejects
5. Dude Looks Like a Lady- Aerosmith
6. I Saw Her Standing There- The Beatles
7. Stupify- Disturbed
8. Come Original- 311
9. Behind the Crimson Door- H.I.M.
10. Crazy- Aerosmith

Did any surprise you? Not me. I'm pretty good about keeping "embarrassing" music to a minimum on my iPod. I'm always afraid that Psycho Mike from KROQ is gonna show up and do the whole iPod police thing. That would be BAD. (Click here for another funny Psycho Mike moment... he has a run in with a Scientologist!)

Going to party!

I've got a birthday party for some dear friends' 1 year old and a shower for my cousin's fiance. Since the birthday was a "no gift" party all I had to concentrate on was stuff for Miss Kerry.

Here's what I created for her!

*All things found on GMD. Quickpage, Candy Coated 8/07 collab kit & Beachy kit

They already have a lot of stuff they need so the shower theme is "date night." We're supposed to bring things that would be fun for a date. I'm going to give them a popcorn bowl, popcorn, candy and a GC to Tarjay for a movie. Yay!!

Desktops

Shabby Princess has been offering adorable desktops for free through her blog lately. I don't think I've shared what I've done with them on here yet so I thought I'd post them now. ;)





Fun huh? Just wanted to post these because I really like them, but it's not like I'll use them after the month is over y'know? :D