fall mosaic

1. Fallen leaves, 2. Last Leaf Falling, 3. Fallen leaf..., 4. The Last Fall Leaf of the Season, Vancouver, 5. Romantic Autumn, 6. the great pumpkin patch, 7. Pumpkins, 8. Amai pumpkin-cupcake, 9. Fall harvest, 10. Apple Pie, 11. Old Red Barn, 12. Old Man Pumpkin, 13. bokeh pumpkins, 14. Cider apples, 15. Autumn walk, 16. Lookout

girl's night

Every month we do a Girl's Night and take turns hosting at our house. I love making invites when I host. Here's my invite....

I bought the DCWV card sets and stamped and clear embossed the bat stamp which was a bargain at $1 at Michael's!
I also made two more of these topiaries...(this one I made a few months ago)...

They are actually pens. The "stem" is a ballpoint pen and the cap is secured in foam in the ceramic pot base. I got the idea from my supervisor. I'm planning on trying to sell them at my table at the craft fair in a few weeks.

So....last night was Girl's Night at another friends and we had so much fun. But...just got an email from her titled "Urgent." She said her husband ate the dessert I brought and is having a reaction. Apparantly he's allergic to nuts. I didn't know that and feel awful. I didn't make the dessert so I can't be sure it has nuts but it might. I feel terrible. Oh brother....

serenity

Before I start my day I wanted to post a quote I found years ago. I don't know the author - I found it looking for substance abuse and ACOA information at work. I need to keep it in mind today and thought others might find it helpful as well.

Acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation-some fact in my life unacceptable to me and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God's world by mistake. - unknown

arguing & running?

Apparantly getting in an aggrivating argument is good motivation and fuel for running? I ran/walked off and on for 15 minutes and then ran 10 minutes straight on the treadmill. Then walked the last 5 minutes. I've never ran that long without feeling like I'm going to pass out. But i'm still in an argument. :(

first day of autumn

Hammond Castle - Gloucester, MA. Taken Columbus Day Weekend 2006

I love fall. Being that it's the first day of Autumn here's a little list about why it's my favorite...

• The colors...reds, oranges, golds, browns.
• Warm apple cider
• Apple Cider donuts
• Visits to the "apple store"/orchard for cortland apples, cider, and other goodies
• The Topsfield Fair
• Hot Coffee
• Pumpkins
• The Hammond Castle Haunted House..the absolute scariest thing I've ever been too!
• The smell in the air that tells you it's fall
• Being from New England this time of year I feel so lucky
• The color of the marsh and the river turns from bright summer green to shades of gold
• The color of the trees on my usual highway route makes the commute more interesting
• Scary movies
• Halloween candy
• Hot Chocolate
• Being inside, warm and cozy with a nice dinner on a cool, fall night.
• Cooking comfort food like Corn Chowder, Beef Stew, Baked Chicken.
• Making (and eating) Apple Pies
• Eating at least one Cortland Apple a day from the orchard - my favorite...a little sour and tart
• New Beginings. Some associate Spring or the New Year with fresh starts. For me it's fall.

Happy Fall everyone!

weekend

Here's my weekend in pictures...

Made some cards to sell at the craft fair in October...

Using "inchies" in reds and browns, beads, stamping, embossing, patterned papers...

Another made with inchies, white pen, $1 stamps from Michael's, stamps I've had forever like the coffee cup, red glitter pen and diamond glaze...
I bought this stamp with the Picasso quote this weekend. I have always loved the quote...defines Art Therapy for me in a simple, concise sentence. I also bought the butterfly punch. I've been eyeing it for awhile...


Took a walk to the boulevard with Cary. Became a tourist in my own hometown...

The Fisherman at the Wheel...

The Fisherman's Wives Statue...Went to a local nursury with my mom and sister this morning...

Bought lots of mums, a cabbage plant, and some houseplants. The birdhouses I painted years ago.

After I went to the grocery store for a few things...apple cider included! My favorite treat this time of year is a mug of hot cider. Now I'm relaxing, ordering some pictures to be developed, roasting a chicken and just taking it easy before the busy week begins again.
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

ramblings

I have been a really bad blogger this week. Both writing my own updates and reading my favorite blogs. I feel like I am full swing into the semester and the goings-on of fall. Last night I spent an hour putting together a microwave stand I ordered through Target. So now the microwave is not on the kitchen floor. Still need other furniture. Need a coffee table badly. I am having friends over next month for our monthly Girl's Night and I have no tables in the living room for appetizers, snacks or drinks. Cary wants to hold off because of $. He had brake trouble with his truck and we are trying to pay some stuff off. But...meanwhile...I feel like I'm still living like a college student! Next thing you know I'll have my old plastic giant tote covered with a sheet as my coffee table! Hey...whatever works I guess! I'm such a perfectionist though...I want our place to look nice...

Tonight...after the gym I hope I'm not too burnt out and tired so I can work on some cards. I really haven't had time and I have been antsy to burn off some creative energy this week. Unfortunately everything else of everyday life has taken priority. I told myself I wouldn't do that. Monday night I took an hour and did some drawing. But that's the only creative thing I've done in a week and a half. Unless you count putting together the microwave cart!

Well...I really should be working so I will keep this short and promise to be better about updating...

Happy Friday everyone!

reconnecting

Over the past few days I've reconnected with some old friends and connections. Mainly through the internet. It really is amazing how you can so easily find and talk with people you have lost touch with through facebook, myspace, etc. I reconnected with my mentor - my high school art teacher. She was the one who introduced me to the idea of art therapy. She and her work inspire me greatly. I reconnected with an old friend from college who is from Venezuela, a friend from grad school who is from Taiwan and a local friend who interned where I work last year. Actually I reconnected with the last friend through the phone...but text messaging...which I am not good at! I'm amazed watching kids fly through the tiny keypad on their phone and type out detailed messages. It takes me 15 minutes to write two words!

Well...I'm off to motivate myself to go to the gym. We'll see if that happens. Hope to catch up on some blogs later...

a laugh and thoughts about fall

My sister gave me this card for my birthday. Cracked me up! Love it. Even considering putting it in a little frame because it makes me laugh.

Anyway...

I love fall. Everything about it. The smell in the air. The cool nights. The colors. Orange-red-gold-brown-rust. School starting. Apples. Cider. Pumpkins. Comfort food. Apple pies baking. The fair. Everything. Fall makes me so grateful to live in New England. So at the store today I picked up this issue of Country Living...

This magazine is a source of inspiration for me for my apartment, cards and layouts. I love the colors and ideas. Especially their fall issue. I also left the store with a 1/2 gallon of cider. I only went in for a dozen eggs! One of my favorite things about fall is relaxing with a cup of hot cider. Mmmm. I prefer the cider from our local apple orchard but I haven't made my first trip there yet. Maybe next weekend.

Well...off to read some blogs, my magazine and hopefully take some time working at my art "station!"

saturday

My vase of the sea lavender I mentioned in my last post. Not the greatest picture and it is hard to see the detail of the flower...tiny, purple...lacy.

Hi everyone! I'm in the midst of 3 loads of laundry...almost there! Trying to motivate my lazy self to walk to 2 minutes down to the little gym and work out. Need to work off all that chocolate cake! Today has been a day of errands. Grocery store, Target, etc. Finally dropped off some donations of boxes of books and bags of clothes at the Salvation Army. It was begining to look like I live in my car with all that stuff in there. This weekend is low key. Tonight I hope to make some cards, maybe order some pictures online and do a layout. At Target today I found this...


Making Memories page kit from thier Passport collection. Thinking I want to use this kit as the basis for a mini board book of my summer. I have a small board book I've literally had for years and didn't know what I wanted to do with it. I think it'll be cute. Now...I need to decide on the pictures and get them ordered/printed.

Like I need another project...

I have so many half finished!

I will leave you with this funny picture of my birthday cake Cary made me...where he prematurely aged my with 39 candles. Yes 39. We are lucky the smoke detector didn't go off! It tastes yummy!!!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

thank you

Thank you for all the "Happy Birthdays!" I really enjoy reading everyone's messages and seeing what is happening in your lives through your blogs. I plan on catching up on some of them this weekend.

I had a very nice birthday/week. For any Gilmore Girls fans, you know that Loralie Gilmore believed in celebrating your birthday for a full week...my favorite show and character and an advocate for "milking" your birthday...I'm all for that! Today I came home from work and Cary made me wait outside in the hall. He was lighting the candles on the cake he baked me today. Sweet. It was the first chance he had to make me one. Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Funny part was that he accidentally "aged" me by putting 39 candles on the cake instead of 31. He miscounted looking at the candle boxes! What a goof. But a sweet one! He plans on cooking his version of chicken parm tomorrow night. I can't wait...he's spoiling me and I will take it while it lasts!

Tonight I spent some time at my parents and took a very relaxing walk. Saw a little brown rabbit run right in front of me across the road. Breathed in the early fall smell in the air. Picked some "sea lavender" at the bridge. It is a wildflower that grows on the marsh by the creek/river and looks a little like dried lavender. I have always loved it. My grandmother always had some dried in her house. It hasn't been growing as much and this was the first time since I was a kid that I saw some where I could pick it. I will try and take a picture tomorrow. I love it!

Well, I'm off to eat a piece of cake and drag out this birthday as long as possible! Hope everyone has a happy Friday...

31

It's my 31st birthday today! I can't believe it. 31. How did that happen? Time goes too fast. Looking forward to seeing Cary (hopefully) when he gets back later today...then he has to run off to work at 5:30. So I'll probably only see him for 15 minutes today if I'm lucky!

Tonight I'm going out for dinner with my parents and probably my sister. Looking forward to that!

Well...back to work for me. Luckily the commute to Boston was uneventful. No flat tires today :)

happy

Detail of a Chickadee card I made last weekend. This is one of my favorite little stamps. And my new favorite scalloped square punch. Friday I went out and bought a larger one!

After the trial of the flat tire...I have had a fantastic weekend! Cary was at guard so it is a little lonely without him but I had a chance to do lots of homey, relaxing stuff.

• Cooked stuffed peppers and rice last night for my parents. This was the 1st time they've been over since the move. It was so nice to be with them and show them my space (almost) fixed up.


• Grocery shopping. Oddly, a chore I enjoy. There is nothing better (I think) than having lots of good stuff in the cabinets.


• Did a layout this morning and some fall cards.


• Took a walk on the boulevard this afternoon. Nice breeze, lots of dogs playing in the water.
  
• Treated myself to a mocha chip ice cream after my walk!


• Read the newspaper out on the patio with the day being so beautiful. Unexpected given I was under the impression it was going to be rainy all day from the hurricane...but fortunately it passed through quickly (and relatively quietly) overnight.


• Smelling a delicious mexican-like chicken soup cooking in my crock-pot. Love the smell. It was called "Tequila Chicken Soup" but I omitted the Tequila since I don't really like it. Still smells good! We'll see how it tastes later.


• Watched/listened to episodes of my favorite show "The Gilmore Girls" while I worked on art stuff at my desk.


• Vacuumed and cleaned up a little. Makes me feel content to have a clean house.

Also, I just talked to Cary. He's a little bummed out. Unfortuntaly he's not having as good a weekend. He is in N. Maine at National Guard and found out he needs to get his brakes done on his truck. So...he got done early from guard today and could've driven back...but can't. He has an appt for the truck tomorrow at 8am and then he'll drive the 6 hours home...for...my...BIRTHDAY! Yeah! He's a little down because a lot of his friends up there aren't around this weekend so he doesn't get to spend time with them. He likes staying with his unit up there because it gives him a chance to see his friends from home who he misses when he is here. Wish I could cheer him up....

Well...that's all for now. I'll leave you with a few pictures of my creations for the day!

Layout I scraplifted from someone named Ashley Calder in an old issue of Creating Keepsakes I clipped out awhile ago.

Detail of the page. I loved the original layout...lots of interested layers and details. She used a lot of fabrics in the original. I used lots of ribbon and paper scraps and various tags I've collected. On the little white brad holding the "beautiful" tag I used a sharpie marker to make the polka dots...a fun little detail.
One of the quick fall cards I made. The leaf was a leftover from the table centerpeice I posted about the other day...the sticker is an old Making Memories-Definitions...

Another leaf card...this time played around with my two different sized scalloped square punches...used a copper paper and a taupe cardstock. Added another MM-Definitions sticker.

Thanks for looking!

update from earlier post. feeling lucky.

Quick update from my earlier post...

My dad checked out my flat tire and said the wheel valve was cracked. He was afraid that was probably the case on all the tires. So the likelihood of having more flat tires was high...so....

I went to a garage and yes indeed...all the tires could have easily gone flat at any time. The valves were cracked on all of them. When I had my new tires put on at Sears 1 1/2 years ago they didn't replace the valves.

Scary.

The guy at the garage took off one of the front tires, literally touched the valve on the wheel and the air gushed out of the tire.

Scary.

He said it isn't unusual for many places to leave it up to the customer to decide about replacing the valves, etc when they get new tires. This garage doesn't do that. They add it into the service since most people don't know what all that even means.

Needless to say, I will be giving him my business the next time I need tires. He fixed all of my tires when he was getting ready to close for the day. He was pleasant and had excellent customer service. And he's local.

I'm feeling very grateful today.

Off to get ready to cook dinner for my parents in my new place.

bad, wierd day

So my day yesterday started on a very bad note.

I was driving into Boston. Nervous because I had my first class of the semester to teach at noon. I'm on 93S and a guy started making strange gestures to me in my rearview. I was thinking "What the heck?!" He kept doing it. Then a another woman did.

I had a flat tire.

At that point I was in no position to pull over. I was at a stretch right before my exit that has no break down lane. So I took my exit for Storrow Drive and found a small peice of breakdown lane. Before and after where I stopped there is nothing. Traffic was backed up and I was freaking out! For anyone familiar with (a) Boston rush hour and (b) Storrow Drive...you know this was not a good setup. So I call AAA.

Thank God for AAA.

It is the best money I spend! They put me on a "priority list" because of my location...which by-the-way was difficult to explain to the dispatcher. Then I get a call from the state police trying to clarify where I was...they were not so friendly. Traffic started picking up again and cars were flying by me and then slamming on the brakes just ahead where the traffic was backed up. Fun. I am a worrier and a cryer. I was trying not to do both! The tow truck came and then 2 cops. They towed me to the end of the ramp where he could change my tire. I can change a tire but not under those circumstances! So...alls-well-that-ends-well. I got to school in time for class and it went ok.

It messed up my fun plans after work though. Driving 50mph max on a donut will do that to you. My garage wasn't going to be open when I got done. I had planned to go to a mall with a Sephora a little ways away. Change of plans! I stopped at a few stores on the way home. On my route. Got a few birthday treats. First I got this (plus another for 1/2 off)...my FAVORITE fall candle...

Stopped at Michael's for a larger scalloped square punch and got some fallish things for a table centerpeice. I was feeling inspired by all the fall leaf colors everywhere....

Closeup of the bird and nest. They had these cute tiny bird nests attached to a real stick (I really couldn't just gotten one out of my parent's yard and saved the $...but "oh well!")
A kind of odd/funny end to my day. Last night I'm sleeping and I was woken up in a wierd way. We have a big window at the head of our bed and a slider door in the living room. At night we keep both open to get a cross breeze. Our apartment is on the top floor and the complex is on a hill so we get some nice breezes/wind at night. Well...it was breezy and raining! I got rained on in my sleep! It was kind of funny!

Later today I'm hoping to...

• do some layouts
• try out my new scalloped punches on a few cards
• cook stuffed peppers for my parents who are coming by for dinner
• prep for the remnants of the hurricane we are getting tomorrow
• grocery shopping
• clean the house a little
• maybe by some chocolates at my favorite chocolate shop!

Enjoy your Saturday!

gratitude

Picture of me taken at the zoo a few weeks ago. The sign and the picture just fits me right now. Sarcastic? Obvious? Just need a little humor. I'm tired. Not feeling too much like writing. Full of mixed emotions. Heated "discussions" with someone I love, even when they turn out ok, make me tired and have no energy. So...instead I will try to focus on some positives...a gratitude list.

Today I am grateful:

1. To have stated my opinion and asked that it be respected.

2. To have acknowledged changes I can make to how I respond to other's opinions.

3. That tomorrow is Friday and the first day of class.

4. That my birthday is on monday and I plan on getting a few small treats after work tomororw.

5. That I have food in the fridge and cabinets.

6. That I have my bills paid.

7. That tomorrow is payday.

8. That I have a nice, quiet, comfortable place to live.

9. That I have someone who loves me and whom I love back.

10. That I have nothing to do now except lie on the couch and watch TV and then get a much needed, good night sleep!

geek

In my quest to enjoy the day-to-day, I am re-living my "youth." I'm all set and excited to watch the 2 hour season premiere of 90210 tonight.



I am a geek.

enjoying the day-to-day & end-of-summer blues

Is anyone else feeling a little down about the end of summer?

I am.

Not really sure why. Why do I have to loose the feeling of summer just because the calendar says so? One thing I really want to work on changing about myself is living to get to the next day off. the next vacation. the next something. I really want to make an effort to enjoy the regular days. Work days. I always say I'd like to do this. It seems easy at the end of a long weekend or at the end of a relaxing vacation.

Not so easy in the middle of a crazy busy frustrated work day.

Sometimes I will put in a little treat to my day. An ice coffee. A gossipy magazine. A trip to the scrapbook store. But you can't do this everyday. That only touches the surface not the feeling underneath.

I read somewhere that it is important to schedule your next vacation the day you get back to work from a vacation. I did do this. Scheduled an extra day to extend Columbus Day Weekend. But that's more than a month away. And it avoids looking forward to tomorrow. Tuesday. Wednesday.

Any ideas?