Holiday Mish-Mash

Hello? Anyone out there?

Life has been batty this last month or so! Midterms came and went and I still haven't had time to catch my breath! There are two weeks until finals and then hopefully I will be able to relax. :)

I have a mile-long list of Christmas projects to work on after this quarter is over, I can't wait! Normally Christmas has taken over my apartment by now, but this year I am on schedule with the rest of the world. Practically moving back to my parents house for the entire month of December means I have to put Christmas decorations on the fast-track in my own home to be able to enjoy it, so at least I have somewhat of an excuse for wanting everything up so early! ...and I just really love Christmas...

The more I think about my apartment decorations, the more I realize how busy I have been this year. I still have Valentines, fall leaves, a few little Christmasy-things, and a "spring" candle holder displayed! Luckily I finally took the Halloween decorations off the front door or else it would have really been a holiday melting pot around here. :) My personal goal for next week: synchronize my decor! Crossing my fingers...

When I am not covered in a mountain of textbooks, I am following other blogs and checking in on the Silhouette store's new shapes! Tuesdays are my favorite day of the week (after Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, of course!) because the Silhouette store always has a ton of new shapes, a new free shape, and an updated clearance section. It is like Christmas every Tuesday, I'm telling you! The downside of following blogs/Silhouette so closely is getting hair-brained crafty ideas in my head that I just HAVE TO complete! I have a whole crafting "to-do" list in my OmniFocus where I can jot down ideas no matter where I am. Sometimes I read them and cannot figure out what the heck I was even thinking. Gotta keep life interesting, I guess. :)

This post ended up very wordy, so if you made it this far- I congratulate you. You will be rewarded with a little sneak-peak of a project I surprisingly had time to finish a few weekends ago! I'll go into it more later in December. Once this quarter is over I am going to be blasting your news-feeds with all sorts of Christmas crafty goodness- be prepared! :)

Hmm... I wonder what it could be! :)

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!  

Live Long and Prosper.

Star Trek, anyone?

Adam picked up his new car last weekend, courtesy of Shalee's sister! It's an Oldsmoblie Aurora which looks uncannily like a spaceship. It is extremely comfy and has all four wheels that run beautifully so there are no complaints about the car, but it has earned Adam the nickname of Captain Kirk. This has been my favorite joke all week- "Hey Captain, let's go to ____." I'm sure he thinks it is just as funny the 15th time. :)

Even the mirrors look like the SS Enterprise!

The above picture isn't his actual car, but it is the same make/model. I have a little surprise for his car next time we (the car and I) are alone. Being computer/Silhouette savvy, I cut a Star Trek (Technically, Starfleet Command) logo out of black vinyl. I can't wait to slap that baby on the bumper!

I'm not going to tell him and see how long it takes before he realizes he's been commanding the SS Enterprise. He has a 24-hour shift today, so I have to be patient for the car to come back. Patience has always been my strong suit. :)

Drowning in Paper.

Two posts in one day- this is what happens when I go on a blogging hiatus for a few weeks due to finals and now I have so many things to share! 

Now that I have a Silhouette, my obsession with paper and card making has gone a bit overboard. Luckily, I have an enabling mom and we make a dangerous pair in a craft store. I'm pretty sure my paper storage box weighs at least 25 pounds. The only solution- make cards! I have used my Silhouette a ton since "Santa" brought it in December, and my favorite things to make are definitely cards. June has been a crazy month for card making (and studying for finals too!). Two birthday cards, four Father's day cards, and one graduation card later, I'm ready to share them with you. :) 

Look how beautiful this paper is!! Swoon! 

A birthday card for someone who likes butterflies and the color purple! If you happen to see this, act surprised for me at the end of the month, okay?? I've learned not to post gifts before they're given (I'm looking at you, mom!) but I'll make an exception because I love this card so much. 

I loved how this turned out. A birthday card for my cousin Larissa, given with rustic orange flowers and a jute-wrapped mason jar, sooooo cute! Per usual, the colors were brighter in person. I really need to figure out my camera.  

Father's Day Card- outside

Father's Day Card- Inside

"Dad's Stache" filled with Sweet & Spicy Candied Walnuts.

The father's day card pictured above was made twice, one for each mine and Adam's dads. I normally do not like making repeats of cards, but this one turned out so awesome I couldn't imagine making anything different. I was really worried that I would run out of candied walnuts before I filled both jars, so I bought two pounds of raw walnuts. I ended up stuffing the jars as full as they could go, and still had an entire mason jar full of leftovers. Not that I'm complaining about having delicious nuts hanging around. Yum :)

I also made a card for each of my Grandpas and for my cousin Josh's high school graduation but totally spaced on taking pictures. You'll have to trust that they were awesome too!

I am very seriously tossing around the idea of opening an Etsy shop with cards and whatever else I decide to make. Input?? 

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I love freebies. Especially when I feel like I've had to earn them (by leaving a comment on a FB thread). I've been entering all the Craft Warehouse drawings lately and guess what? I WON!

I waited very patiently (right, Adam?) for what felt like an entire month, or like a week, and my package finally came! In the package was Bo Bunny's Hello Sunshine collection. 

See my patience? I managed to take a picture before I ripped into everything.

Brads & Trinkets (aka sparkly, shiney goodness)

Stamps, Jewels, and Petals.

Stickers, Buttons, and Rub-ons.

The whole mess. Beautiful paper and chipboard stickers are behind everything.

I cannot wait to dig in to this stash! It is all very summery and bright ....and perfect for a baby shower, perhaps?? :)

A Space to Create

At long last I have a desk to blog from! The last two years I have had a housing-provided desk and never had a reason to buy my own. When I moved into my first unfurnished apartment I have slowly added furniture when I found a piece I loved (mostly from Goodwill). The last item I was in desperate need for was a desk! Having two bookshelves, a bed, night stand, and dresser in one 12X10 room was getting a little tight so I didn't think I would have the space for a worthwhile desk. I also had a very specific criteria (which a store-bought desk could hardly meet in my student's price range). I wanted a ton of storage, enough space to store both my crafting supplies and books, and I was tossing around the idea of a standing-height desk. I was not feeling optimistic about finding all of these details until I saw a Pinterest-ing idea of making a desk out of two bookshelves with a large piece of wood on top. Since I had two bookshelves in my room already, re-purposing one into a desk was the perfect solution to making more space. Luckily I bought that bookshelf at Fred Meyer originally two years ago and not only did they still carry the exact make/color, it was on sale. Destiny, I tell you!

See my farmer's market cat picture on the wall??

It might not look like much- but I LOVE it. Each "leg" has 9 cubbies- perfect. The desk is 36" tall and deep, and 45" wide. The table top is just plywood covered in a cheap vinyl table cloth for now. Someday I'll paint the wood underneath and actually secure it to the shelves (right now there's just grippy shelf liners to hold everything in place, which seems to be going well). This was my first time ordering something from a real, live lumber store. I even gave them dimensions and they cut the giant piece down to size for me. As you can tell, I'm extremely excited about this whole thing! :)

This is what happens to my bed when I break out the Silhouette.

If only you could see the other half of my bedroom. It does not look this clean.

Here is my new space in all it's glory! I love having the option of either standing or sitting on the stool. It makes me feel like I'm burning calories while blogging/pinteresting. :)

Bonus- my Silhouette has a home! I no longer have to balance it on my dresser. I hope this means I will have a reason to use it even more than I already do.

The project I'm hard at work on in these pictures is for a class presentation. We're presenting to a group of "first time mommies" (i.e. good-humored classmates) and those are going to be the table centerpieces. More on that later. I'm off to fully organize my new desk (and, you know, do homework and things of that nature!) I'll upload prettier pictures when I get everything perfectly organized! :)

P.S.- Shout out to Mom for surprising me with a new Silhouette blade. I forgot how that machine is actually supposed to perform! :)

Mother's Day Extravaganza!

After all the gift/card making and post office visits, Mother's Day has finally come and gone. I am crashed on the couch with a big mug of D&M coffee recovering from this weekend. Shopping and eating is hard work! Mom drove over to spend the weekend with her favorite daughter (the other one was left at home and ended up suffering from a golf ball to the head- ouch!). Mom got in late Friday afternoon and we started out our weekend by seeing The Five Year Engagement. The next day we got up at the crack of dawn (HA!) and made our way to the Ellensburg Farmer's Market. Before we could even make it to the market, I experienced massive trauma:

My worst fear came true!!

I always have a huge fear that I'm going to be pooped on by a passing bird- and it finally happened! I was innocently walking along when I felt a huge SPLAT. I am actually glad it hit my hand instead of the intended target- the inside of my purse! I forgot to put my watch on that morning, so this poop-bombing went about as smoothly as possible.

After washing up, we finally made it to the market! 

A beautiful day at the market. Cowboy hats, babies, and dogs were abundant. 

GORGEOUS tomatoes.

The farmer said sometimes smaller tomatoes grow together which makes for some strange looking tomatoes.

Mom looking at these awesome benches. I have a feeling these will make an appearance  in her backyard soon. 

So many gorgeous flowers.

A funky monster mug. 

We bought this awesome cat picture.
It was wrapped in plastic so it was a little hard to see, but the cat is out-of-focus staring at the birds.

We picked up some of those delicious tomatoes for dad.

 After the market, we made our way to Yakima for some shopping and lunch. I had been wanting to try this restaurant out- and it did not disappoint.

Creekside West Bar & Grille

We both had the Cranberry and Pear Turkey sandwich, and I had smoked tomato bisque.

And mom had sweet potato tots with hers- YUM. 

 After lunch, I may or may not have gotten us extremely lost. I missed a turn and we ended up in the middle of farm country. Eventually, I maneuvered us back into civilization and we went to The Garden Girl. I found this cute little shop a few years ago and have been meaning to take mom there for ages.

This is the outside- the picture really does not do it justice. Everything is so fresh, green, and stunning. 

Lillies!

This flower was wrapped around a tall trellis.

A giant gondola filled with flowers.

Mom poking around the flowers!

These were the most unique little vines I have ever seen. They're called  Angel Vines (or something like that??) 

Agh, the store has huge old windows that do not mesh well with picture taking. This table had a killer terrarium filled with lilies and ferns. In front of the terrarium are rusty miniature bikes- so cute! 

The rest of our trip consisted of Craft Warehouse, Target, Big Lots, and WalMart so there was nothing exciting to take pictures of. I do have a full pantry now, which is very nice! Mom bought a Chocolate Mint plant and accidentally left it behind, so now it's mine. :) My tasks for this week are planting a few random herbs and flowers I have accumulated over the past week or so and to figure out what the heck to do with garlic scrapes. I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!