Simple Pleasures' Bag Sale!

Suggested Retail Price = $488
Actual amount I spent = $20

This weekend, my favorite local craft store Simple Pleasures had a fantabulous promotion - as much stuff from their clearance section as you could fit in your bag for $20. The ladies who checked me out said I may have had the biggest before-discount total... I am a good shopper and a VERY good packer to have gotten all of this into my bag =) Most of what you can see in this photo is about half of what it actually there - I tried to buy at least two of everything so I could share the bounty with my Mom <3

Blue Christmas & Red Hot Thanksgiving

This week, my parents came to visit for Thanksgiving. I was so excited to have them come here! My mom is by very best friend and usually I only get to see her once or twice a year. My dad is a cool guy too and I love doing things with him. When I go home, we often go fishing together. This weekend, we took a drive up to the Florissant Fossil Beds and took a short hike - although the melting snow made the trail alternately slick and muddy. We had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner and did some Black Friday shopping too.

My mom shares my artistic interests and we do a lot of projects together, often participating in online swaps through Paper Traders or other groups. As I posted earlier, our Paper Traders group puts together a CafePress calendar each year. We had to come up with one more spread for December so mom and I watched a few of Teesha Moore's tutorials and then put our heads together for this collaborative creation using magazine ads:


I had so much fun with this! It is unlike anything I've ever done and was very freeing... I think I'll try doing an ATC this afternoon in the same style. Take some time to watch Teesha's how-to videos... she's so easy going with her art - I love it!


UPDATE: Our extra calendar page wasn't needed after all but there are still many lovely pieces of art to display, including my pear mosaic. If you're interested in a calendar, you can order one here: http://www.cafepress.com/PaperTraders.324251835

Happy Birthday to ME!

This is the pretty e-card I got from my Mom for my birthday today. When I got up this morning, I was feeling a little bummed that I am so far away from all my friends and not having anyone to celebrate with... but then I found gifts and cards in my mailbox, received several phone calls today, and my email and facebook were filled with well wishes - I love all my friends and think they're so awesome for remembering me across the miles.

Today, on my way home from work, I took a drive through the Garden... it was so nice and relaxing. I noticed that some of the trees are losing their summer greens already - I'm excited for Fall to get here!

Today it is very hazy here and they said on the news that it's due to smoke from the California wildfires - my eyes are dry and burning and my throat is scratchy. Having experienced the Alpine and Cedar fires of San Diego and working in the insurance industry as well, I have a lot of sympathy for those who are facing this fearsome enemy... my thoughts and prayers go out to them - I hope things improve soon!

Scrapped Out

I just got home from an arts/crafts-filled morning. My friend Stephanie and I stood in line for an hour to get in to the Rubber Stamp & Scrapbook Expo today... I had heard they were giving away tote bags to the first 50 people and my mom said that the last time she went to one of these shows, the bags were filled with goodies... Well, these bags weren't - they were just the cheapo bags that you get everywhere as an eco-friendly alternative to grocery bags, and the free gift was a teeny tiny acrylic stamp worth about 25-cents.

Despite that, we did enjoy the show. There were lots of booths to browse through... many were having free make-&-takes. Several tables had clearance items for super cheap so we did pick a few cute things here and there. But my favorite find was this stuff called "Flower Soft" - oh my heck, it is so cool! It's a kind of fluffy product that you can glue on to give dimension like tiny little leaves or flowers and such. They had tons of colors and varieties to choose from but I only bought one (Heather) to start with. I've never seen this anywhere before. Most of the other booths had products similar to what you can find in other art/craft stores but it was still nice to have so many all in one place.

After that, I took my coupons to some other scrapbooking stores in town and spent more money... yeah, I'm officially broke again until next payday; but at least I have plenty of stuff to play with for now. After all that standing and walking, my feet sure do hurt... I'm looking forward to an afternoon recuperating at my art table =)