Making My Way Back

For the 10 people who still check my blog - THANK YOU!!!  I know I have been gone for awhile.  I have been going through some health issues for the past year that have really zapped all of my creative energy (and my regular energy for that matter!).  Nothing too serious and hopefully something I'm beginning to pull my self out of.  Anyways - thanks for still checking!

Right now I'm working on getting a travel journal together for our Maine vacation.  I am working on a few travel journal related posts(some great ideas, at least one tutorial, and some tips) - so be sure to check back for that on Monday! 

Easter Weekend - Through the Viewfinder Photography.

Last year i blogged about my first attempt at through the viewfinder photography with a trip to the mountains.  I'm surprised I haven't really tried it again.  But I brought my vintage camera with me to my parents house last weekend and this is the result.  Not sure if they are great but they are different and I like different!

30 Before 30 List

So every January I do what I think a lot of people probably do - think of all the things we want to change in our lives and try to come up with "resolutions".  Often the resolutions are so vague - " I want to eat out less" " I want to blog more " I want to go to the gym more often" "I want to go outside more". Then I think "ehh... resolutions are stupid - you can't make me do them!" (I have a problem with authority even if that authority is me telling myself what to do - I have to say no because nobody tells me what to do - not even me!) Anyways.. I had been seeing a lot of these "30 before 30" (or 26 before 26 etc) lists on the blogs lately and I thought it was a kind of a neat way to come up with a list of things I want to accomplish in a year - some that are tiny goals leading up to those big lofty resolutions and some things that are just silly.  Yesterday I turned 29 (and I'm hoping I at least look 15 by now!) so I came up with a list of 30 things I want to accomplish by the time I turn 30 - January 24, 2013:  

1. Clean out closets and donate everything I don’t need/use
2. Learn to use camera in manual mode
3. Buy reusable shopping bags and use them at the grocery store
4. Make more of an effort to shop local
5. Go on a road trip
6. Fix my bicycle and use it.
7. Visit Washington DC
8. Double my blog readership
9. Take a photo of Dustin and I together at least once a month
10. Read 24 books
11. Try out 30 new recipes
12. Take a class
13. Get a tattoo
14.  Let go of negative memories and relationships and focus on building happier and healthier relationships.
15. Discover 20 new things/places about Richmond
16. Celebrate a holiday at my own house.
17. Sacrifice something I don’t really need in order to save money
18. Go to the movies by myself
19. Hike 5 different trails
20. Go 10 days in a row without eating out
21. Decorate my house – put some art on those walls!
22.  Make 5 projects using my sewing machine (and one of them has to be entirely made of fabric – no paper!)
23. Cut my hair
24. Sleep 8 hours in a row- at least once!
25. Make something I have seen on Pinterest
26. Go to a festival
27. Double the items in my Etsy shop
28.  Finally create a wedding album (before I forget everything that happened!)
29.  See the final Twilight with Danielle
30. Organize the house and come up with a system to keep it clean

Portlandia

So yesterday Claudine Helmuth posted on her facebook page this clip from the show Portlandia:

OH MY GOSH!  What?? That was seriously the funniest thing ever... I immediately went and watched all the other clips from the show (hey I don't have much else to do.... haha) then I went to on demand and found that there were a few episodes on that so I watched a few and now I'm hooked ... and also sad that I just learned about it! 

I seriously am way too easily addicted to new tv shows.  And now that there is dvr I feel like I can't just let something go as easily as before.  Once I watch a pilot I feel like I'm invested and I can't stop watching - I think its a sickness!  I am also really easily influenced by others so if someone says they think a show is awesome (even if I don't particularly respect there taste) I feel like I have to watch it too - this is why I have a whole season of Walking Dead saved on my dvr that I haven't watched yet but can't bring myself to delete! Please tell me I'm not alone?!?!?!

So what tv show can you not live without?  And yes I'm sure most of you will claim "not to watch a lot of tv" and maybe think of my obsessive tv watching as "sad" but I'm ok with that because tv makes me laugh and laughing is good!  haha!

And on another note... I seriously have the darkest house ever!?!?!?  Ummm maybe when you built this house you should have put a few more windows in or a skylight or cut down a few trees?? (gasp! That is a HUGE no no in this community - all about the trees and "natural landscaping" aka no grass) Its been kinda dark lately and rainy which kinda stinks when I have these great ideas for blog posts but I have to wait for a day when there is enough light to take photos - at least its winter - taking photos in the summer is impossible with all the leaves on the trees - then we seriously have no natural light in the house!!

My Weekend

I spent my Saturday in the dark praying trees wouldn't fall on our house.  Four trees did go down - one on my car - one taking out the neighbors cars, and two narrowly missing our house - luckily no major damage!  Thanks Irene...

I can't believe this didn't hit the house - you can't even see the end of the tree from here - but basically it landed on our back deck railing!  How was your weekend?

Summer Fun

So I was thinking about the blog today - and I thought "ehh... I won't blog today - I have blogged plenty I can miss a day" except that I then checked the blog and realized OOPS! I haven't blogged that much.  So where have I been??  Well here.... mostly working on the etsy shop which has taken off in a big way.  I'm in month 6 of the shop and almost at 500 sales (499).  It's going so well I plan on celebrating with a giveaway soon (maybe next week?).
      Last week I spent a lot of time in the studio trying to get that all organized and cleaned.  I have a cool project to post tomorrow.  The cleaning is taking a lot longer than  I thought.  I mean I know I said it would take all summer but I also kinda thought I could just go up there in a day and do it if I really wanted to.  But it's taking a while... mostly because I really want it to be perfect.  And because the studio is in limbo I haven't felt like making anything.  I don't want to pull stuff out only to have to put it back and I don't have space to create.  I'm looking forward to having it clean and then I can get back to creating and regular posting.
     And then there's family time - I spent 4th of July weekend down in North Carolina with my parents and sister and of course my nephew Jarmon.  He thinks his uncle Dustin is the best thing ever.  If I walk into a room he kinda half smiles and looks around (looking for Dustin).  If Dustin walks into a room he get super excited - jumping up and down (the same reaction he has when he gets a balloon).  So Aunt Melissa = Ehh.  Uncle Dustin = the best thing since balloons.  It's kinda sad.  haha
     So that's where I have been - hopefully soon I will be around more -  but I will definitly be back tomorrow - see you then

Quick Tag and My Weekend

I have a quick tag for you this morning: after taking it easy on the blogging last week I am hoping to get back into posting every day.And in other news: I spent this weekend cheering my husband on as he ran his first marathon - he finished in 3:32:43 - isn't that insane? - that's just a little over 8 minutes a mile - for 26.2 miles! I don't know how he does it! This post is linked at Sumo's Sweet Stuff and here:

806

806... the number of photos I took in the two months I wasn't blogging. I felt like I was on a roll with the blogging thing up until December then life got crazy, so here is the run down of what I've been doing when I wasn't here blogging:

Moving into our new house: Actually Dustin did most of the moving...
Did I mention we moved into the house a mere HOURS before a huge snow storm

Went to North Carolina for Christmas with the familyPlanned and threw my sister a baby shower two days after ChristmasTaught some classesWent back to North Carolina to meet my nephew JarmonTurned 27. I don't actually have a picture of this but it happened. I am now officially in my late 20s, yet I still like look I'm 13.

Ok so maybe all that doesn't sound like a lot but it felt like a lot was going on. But here I am back and hopefully I'll be posting a lot more this year. I am still working on decorating this house so expect some of that and I plan on posting more scrapbook layouts and projects, hopefully with tutorials.

Coming back soon....

If you are still out there checking my blog... THANK YOU!!! I will be coming back soon...like in a day or two... still have to work out a new background and coming up with some new blogs with lots of pictures so stick with me a little bit longer!

Getting ready for class on Monday....

This past week just flew by and I never made it back to the blog as I intended to. Lately I have been working hard to get everything ready for class kickoff on November 21st. Expect my new classes to be really heavy on this: The slice... man I LOVE this thing! If you are taking any of my classes next quarter expect to have lots of cute little slice die cuts. Speaking of which I spent tonight cutting out snowflakes for my Holiday ATC class on Monday in the West End:
cute huh? I cut them out of a book I bought at Goodwill. They aren't acid free but they are cool and vintagy and perfect for ATCs. And then as I was cutting I thought. HEY! I could cut these in 4 inches and string them up somehow and use them for decoration.... so that is an idea I'm going to try to store in my head for when Christmas comes closer. And then I also want to play around with the piece of paper leftover:How cool would these be if you sprayed them with glimmer mist and put them on a scrapbook page? Another idea to try....

And finally I've been slowly packing for the big move to our new house. We close next Friday!
I hope to make it back to the blog sometime this week. But next week expect sneak peeks of the new classes. And if you live in Richmond mark your calendars for class kick off on Saturday November 21st!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone! In honor of this super fun holiday here are some super fun pictures of me and all my different costumes growing up:
Me in 1984 - with my doll Cindy (named after Cindy Lauper of course!) - it looks like Cindy got a little too close to that electrical outlet - FYI Cindy's hair was always like that - it wasn't a halloween costume!!

Me as a clown in 1986 - the first of many halloweens spent as a clown - love the glasses though - they look a lot like the ones I currently wear

Me in 1987 - She Ra Princess of Power!!!
Me in 1992 as a witch

Me, my sister Danielle, and my best friend Carey in 1993 - I told you a clown costume would pop up again - I'm pretty sure I wore that costume for several years. - My mom used to make our costumes - notice how Danielle's costume is way cuter and has a matching bag ... hmm... and her makeup is way cuter too... nice mom ....nice

Me as Raggedy Ann in 1995 and Danielle as Snow White. This was my last year trick or treating ( I was 12).

What's in the box?

I finally finished making my mom's birthday gift (her birthday was on Tuesday). Want a peek at what I made her? .... Sorry.... can't do that! Since my mom is one of the five people that read this blog it would ruin the surprise.... HOWEVER... I can show you as soon as she opens it... look for a post later tonight or tomorrow with lots of pictures!!

Now I have to go finish packing and then I'm off to spend the weekend in North Carolina!

Quick post and a photo...

I am teaching a class tonight so I don't have a lot of time to post today but since I promised I thought I would post a photo of me dressed up for halloween in 1995:

Yep that's me as the giant Raggedy Ann doll... when I see this picture I think I look far too old (or maybe just tall) to be trick or treating but in my defense I was only 12....which isn't too old right??

And yes I know... Danielle looks adorable as snow white... what else is new?

I need a craft room...

I am in serious need of my own craft space. And I think my husband would agree... actually I know he would because yesterday after he went flying across the apartment as a result of tripping over my Making Memories slice power cord he commented how happy he will be once I have my own room. Currently I have been working out of our tiny dining space... actually that's not true... I had been working on the dining room table but then that got too messy so I moved everything to the coffee table...well.. here see for yourself...

I know ... it's bad... but LOOK! There are boxes! I am packing stuff for the big move to our house! That's positive right? .... well...actually .... I brought those home with the intention of packing for the big move but now they are just sitting on the living room floor for the cats to play in... hey I've been busy.

Speaking of being busy here is a sneak of what I've been working on:

Ok there is much more to it than this... but I can't post it yet... I will be posting it this weekend.

So far so good on my plan to post every day this week...

Autumn in Richmond

Last week the other Melissa posted this post about Autumn in Virginia. Fall being my favorite season, I immediately felt the urge to run out with my camera and find the nearest tree to start taking pictures so I could post them here. Well I did put it off a couple of days but on Sunday Dustin and I went to Belle Isle in Richmond. I took tons of pictures but after looking at them at home have realized there was a lot more green than I wanted so here are a few even though I don't think they look that much like fall....