New Bracelet

My beautimus friend Amanda gave me a gorgeous charm bracelet as a wedding party gift. I love it soooo much and I wear almost everyday. I even have a name for it - my jingle jangly. You don't have to say it. I know I'm a dork. Anywho, here's this evening's work... if in a rather dark, but somehow appealing photo.

Hoo-ray for Forced Relaxation!

Well... teaching summer school is certainly something I will never do again, but on the positive side I have been forcing myself to do the following (as a form of compensation to yours truly):

• reading, even if it's just a few pages, every night (new Wally Lamb!!!)
• planning my wedding, shopping for dresses, etc. (my turn!!!)
• crafting... I even tried painting... it was going really well and then things went a bit sideways... but I have a plan of action and I will not give up on the painting thing yet
• relaxing (currently having beer with David's youngest sister and loving an evening of no work and all play!

Other happy things:
When I called home today, David said that he bought me a prize for a "real teacher". He even picked out the plant!

AND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I made another necklace. More chunky. More my style... but not in my colors. Meh! It was fun just to craft. I know Lisa, you could have done some fancy magic with my camera but I was just so excited to prove that I did something tonight I took one shot and here it is:

Look at Me Go!

I know. A post. Shocking. I'm worse than Mernickle now ;)

So me and the boss lady did some crafting this past late night crop. Here are the fruits of my labor. Lisa was kind enough to model them on her BEAUTIFUL freckled skin (I heart freckles)but the pictures just didn't have the same level of detail.

In other news I got a new camera. Hooray! And it takes really nice photos... including the first ever nice picture of me. I know. I've shown everyone... and it's my facebook profile picture... but you don't understand how I tend to ruin photos. I'm a relatively decent looking gal in real life but NEVER in pictures. Look ma! No scrunchie face!

Challenged.

So Jilly challenged me to use the following things on the following page:

• two of the almost nudey potty pics (yep, yours truly)
• the color orange
• the two pink flowers
• a Riff Raff shape

I came up with this:

The second page was one that I actually whipped up in a jiff - and if you have ever seen me scrapbook - that's an accomplishment in itself. I broke one of the rules that Anam taught me a while ago. That is, I ignored the blue in the picture and now it really stands out. But I've decided that this is a random picture that I just recently found from a trip that is already scrapped and so I went with it.

Sheesh!

Friday night I made a date with my good friend Mer to scrapbook. We both had a lot we wanted to get done but as we all know, it takes me forever to complete one page. I don't think anyone over analizes to the extent that I do. Anywho, here is the ONE PAGE I managed to get done.

This is Murphy`s hiney the day after his surgery. The little spot that looks like a mole is the beginning of a long series of stitches. Murph had a femoral head osteotomy - essentially he no longer has an actually hip joint and his body is slowly rebuilding a false joint. Recently he has started to jump up onto the couch - pretty amazing!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

Christmas!!! I do love Halloween but who can argue with Christmas?!? I had a rough day today as my own mother hit my beautiful car with her even nicer car - rest assured it was a total accident - but I was still very upset. The solution? Crafting! I really enjoy the tree that stands in front of the cash at TM. I accurately named it the "Who tree". I've seen similar trees at Homesense, etc., so I decided that I would attempt one myself. Some foam, wire, pins, sequins, a bottle of sparkles and a whole lot of craft glue later, this is what I came up with. I think it's hilarious and it looks even better in person. (Ohhhhh ... sparkles...) And I've just convinced Daver that he should make me a stand for it. Tada!

Hurumph.

I'm a little choked. This was such a cute picture/story (as per former Bella post), and I'm just not loving the page. However, as it takes me days to do anything I thought I would post it anyway. Help CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms are welcome (wouldn't want to damage my delicate ego now would we :P). but I think I'm just tired of starring at this thing. Hurumph.