Want to go on a hike with us?

We headed to Torrey Pines yesterday (are you detecting a pattern here?) and we decided on the way there that we were going to try to park close to the reserve side of the park so that we could do a hilly walk rather than a beach walk. The weather was nice, but not the pure summer weather that we have been having. Some clouds here and there, warm, but breezy. We couldn't find parking so we had to park kind of far away. It was okay though.

We started by the train tracks.... The fields have been filled with yellow flowers lately. It's like everything bloomed at once.

Then we walked along the beach down to the entrance to Torrey Pines State Park... It was so windy people were flying kites! So colorful! And this one that looks like a seagull! How funny! It's really a kite I promise! Hard to tell from the picture, but it really was. I don't really like the seagulls at all, and there are a lot of them on the beach. I'm never really tempted to take pictures of them, but I thought that this was just so funny!

We then trudged up the hill and found this little path that cuts back west to the water. Not a strenuous hike at all, this was pretty flat once we were on the trail.

We passed a dad with two kids, a boy and a girl. The boy asked the dad, "Dad, if you were a bee, what kind of bee would you want to be? A carpenter bee, honey bee, or a worker bee?" and the dad responded, "A honey bee, for sure!" And the kid said, "I'd want to be a carpenter bee..." and continued to discuss this with his dad, which I thought was pretty cute.

Then we got to where we could see the water ahead of us again:

and it got windy and cold!! But so pretty! That's La Jolla in the distance...

Here are the waves below where are when we walk along the beach:

After that path we decided to head back to the main road and continue all the way to the top of the hill. There is a Torrey Pines Lodge up there! We never knew about that. We made it to the top, turned around and started back down to the beach. On the way we saw a hang glider:

Then we got a better view of him as we turned the corner:

We walked back along the beach and under the train tracks back to our car. It was a really nice break in the middle of the day and a memorable part of the weekend. Hope you had a great one too!

Hearst Castle

I try to rotate the pictures on my desktop every couple days or so, but I usually keep pretty recent photos on there, a lot of them are some of the ones I've put up here. However, I recently put some pictures up from our trip last summer to Hearst Castle. It was really gorgeous and I thought I'd share it with you as well. Here is a link to the castle's website. It's not very convenient to get to, there aren't a lot of places to stay close by. We were staying in Morro Bay, which was nice, but definitely a sleepy town. We took the experience tour, which is the basic tour you should takle if it's your first visit to the castle, but a friend told me that they had been to the evening tour, which sounds like it would be really cool. They have actors dress up in period costumes and wander around the castle, so you can see it in what it must have looked like "back in the day". San Luis was great too. We ate twice (on our way up and our way back) at this little organic cafe in town. Big Sky Cafe- it was really yummy and felt good to be enjoying the local, organic agriculture. Friends have also said that you can go to farmers markets there on Thursdays and it's supposedly a cool event, local bands, great food stalls, people just getting together and lining the town streets. We had a super time there, and I think we'd go back in a heartbeat. The only annoyance is the drive through LA. The traffic is totally unpredictable. The trip was totally worth that little hiccup though. So as I turn my attention back to work and power through the last few hours today, I will be reminiscing about our little trip this summer. Please share a great trip memory if you are thinking about something in the comments section! Have a great Thursday afternoon

New new!

Did you see the new D. Reeves albums?? Pink, and white, and pink, oh my! Ummm, when you thought that you never could want anything other than clear... they certainly threw that theory out the window! I am drooling over here. Trying to decide what sizes.... I think the mini albums are so cute, but I struggle with getting everything I want in that little space. I have a hard time doing a 12x12 1-page layout! Any ideas to help? Crop, crop, crop, I guess. Don't even know when these are going to be available, they have not hit http://www.scrapbook.com/ yet. I have a question into Diane at D. Reeves, so I will let you know if I find out. Ali is doing a super cool 4x6 album with the white. Looks very do-able, so maybe I could try the 4x6. Might have to increase it to a 6x6 but I should probably try to break out of my square little box! Rectangles can be cool...

I had a dentist appointment tonight, and I got 3 sealants. They are much better than cavities, so I can't complain too much. However I am thinking I need to parlay this into the golden spoon treat that we missed on Sunday. We shall see. Hope you had a good Tuesday!! Just think, by this time tomorrow we are 1/2 way to the weekend. (Sorry Mom and Erin, don't mean to be wishing away your spring break!! You have a ton of time to enjoy off!) Love you guys! Talk to you soon!

Lunchtime observations

Warning!! Random post!

Okay, hopefully the posts up to this point have been well-thought out and interesting, which I assume is correct, because you are still reading! ;) This is just a stream-of-consciousness post which is funny to me, but maybe I am in the midst of cubicle-induced boredom!

Lunchtime observations:

• Easter-egg shells in the sink. I am probably the only person in the office who didn't bring hard boiled eggs in my lunch today. Also, I noticed this recipe in my new Ellie Krieger cookbook, so if you are getting sick of those eggs for lunch, here is another, healthy idea! (Don't feel too sorry for me about not having hard boiled eggs, I am not too sad. My favorite egg preparation method is to cream them into butter and sugar and make cookies... hehe)
• Cafe Du Monde coffee cup next to the sink. Reads "Coffee, Chicory, and Beignets." WHAT? Why does someone need torture me with this at work. Everyone knows that there is no shortcut way to beignets! Here is Emeril's approach... Which now I might have to try 'cause now I am craving them. Unfortunately, the only place I know where to get them is at is Downtown Disney, which is not close by. Humph. Dilemma!
• Easter Candy. We finished ours this weekend, so I haven't been able to stop eating the office candy today. Plus we tried to go to golden spoon yesterday and it was closed! Bummer. (can we say justification?!)

Hope you're having a good Monday!

The creations

Rustic white baguette, Blueberry-Oatmeal Muffins (with streussel topping), and Christopher's turkey meatloaf. It was a nice relaxing day yesterday. I wanted to kick off the weekend to a healthy start. I bought Ellie Krieger's new cookbook The Food you Crave at Costco on Friday night. I really like her approach to cooking more healthful meals. It's not about taking things out, or excluding things from your diet. It's just thinking through what we eat and trying to add in more nutritious ingredients when you can. For example, my muffins weren't from a recipe in her book, but following hear lead, I only used 1/4 cup of oil for all of them, and then I also used about 1 & 1/2 cups of fresh blueberries in them. It made the content of bread in each lower and fruit higher. I used a lot of oats in each too. I used all-purpose flour, but you could easliy and tastily substitute whole-wheat pastry flour, which is my favorite kind of whole-wheat flour. I would recommend the book, it isn't groudbreaking, but it provides a lot of ideas and techniques that I wouldn't have known without her nudging.

We went for a long walk on the beach today, we walked for about 2 hours. It was almost like a summer scene, there were families and beach parties everywhere. It felt like summer, but I guess there are a lot of people on spring break. It was a beautiful day. Perfect weather for a long walk. We came home and had chicken fajita salad for dinner, which was really yummy. Chris grilled the chicken and I skewered the vegetables for him to do right there on the grill as well. Nice, quick cooking, healthy way of doing it.

As we finish up the last of the laundry and get ready to watch the next installment in John Adams, I am wondering (as always) where did the weekend go?! But even though it's not a 10 item list this weekend, it was packed with events as always. Hope you had a wonderful weekend and hope to talk to you soon!

Off...

• Off to relax
• Off to create (hopefully scrapbook love to share on Monday)
• Off to spend time with Chris
• Off to see the sunshine (I haven't mentioned it lately, but it is really gorgeous here these days)
• Off to spend a weekend on 10 things at least!

Happy, happy Friday and hope you have a wonderful, relaxing, productive, and restful weekend!

Genius- Les Francais...

Started my day with a latte and a chocolate croissant, which I rarely do on a weekday! I try to have something healthy with protein first thing in the morning. But today I was craving a change from starbucks, and this french bistro has great coffees. So I gave in. And I just have to say- halfway through both my coffee and croissant... the french are genius. Maybe not in warfare, but in all things bread... genius.

Hope you are having a fantastic start to your Friday! Happy Easter weekend!

Close of the season

And with a lackluster loss to West Virginia in the first round of the NCAA tournament, the Wildcats bow out of an unusual, speculation-ridden, sad season of basketball. These kids worked really hard over the last year, but it just wasn't enough for our Wildcats- injuries, controversy surrounding coaching, lack of depth on the bench. Too many factors presented themselves that the 'Cats just couldn't overcome. Here is to the hope that the seniors move on to great things and that the rest of the team comes back for another year with Lute.

Congrats to the team on making the 24th entry into the NCAA tournament for the University of Arizona and keeping our streak alive. Here's to next year!

GAME DAY

Alright everyone- it's game time! U of A faces off against West Virginia tonight, 6:40 PDT. It will be a tough game, but I think the 'Cats can do it. Get ready to cheer them on tonight! BEAR DOWN!

Bear Down, Arizona! Bear Down, Red and Blue! Bear Down, Arizona! Hit 'em hard, let 'me know who's who! Bear Down! Bear Down, Arizona! Bear Down, Red and Blue! Fight, fight, Wildcats Fight! Arizona, Bear Down!

John Adams

Okay. The first thing that struck me was the feeling of law-lessness of the "new world". And yet, in the first episode, they present a trial where John Adams represents a British Capitan when no one else will. Very To Kill a Mockingbird-esque. This shows that Mr. Adams' principles were more important to him than popularity. So interesting. Laura Linney does a great job of playing Abigail Adams- oh to be a woman in that time would not be easy. It was clearly a physical life, no running water, etc. Yuck. You can feel the tension between the British soldiers that are there and the Americans. These were citizens of England, and yet it really already felt like an occupation by a foreign power.

Two really graphic things touched me- during the portrayal of the Boston Tea Party, they show someone being tarred and feathered. That kind of always sounded like a silly treatment of a criminal (which, in this case this person was mobbed, and certainly had not been tried and convicted as a criminal), but when you see it happening, it appears to be one of the most brutal things you could do to a person. I just can't fathom that happening to a human being- so intensely cruel.

They also show the family getting "vaccinated" against a pox that was spreading in the area. I say "vaccinated" because basically they just infected the patients with the disease. I guess that the medical advancements weren't really there, and smart people knew that it was better to expect the sickness than have it sneak up on you- (maybe?). Just watching the portrayal of that kind of illness and imagining no antibiotics, no neosporin, no band-aids, etc. Wow. We are really lucky.

I am super excited for the rest of the shows in the series. There is even one when they go to France! Which is totally Marie Antionette meets John Adams, literally. We were remarking on the lavishness of that time period and the images it conjuires up in your mind, and then to think that the French were bankrupted by these 'cowboy' Americans... talk about ironic. And yet, the thought of what they were doing, and how unprecedented it was to even think about starting your own form of government. We should all be grateful for those decisions and that bravery. I can't imagine anyplace I would rather live than the United States of America. Hope you catch the show either now on HBO or later when it's out on DVD. It's worth it.

Baby card

Photos courtesy of my cell phone camera- so sorry that they are dark! I got to work and realized I hadn't taken any pictuers of this cute card that I made for a friend's baby shower gift. I got her a pottery barn kids gift card, but they gave me the most plain jane box to put it in. So since she is having a girl, I figured you can't go wrong with pink and white. It was a fun process.

I have these stamps (see the December Kit of the Month) and I haven't used them yet! There were a bunch of cute things done with them in the most recent scrapbooking magazines too. Most people seem to use them with acrylic paint, not stamping ink, so I suppose I will have to give it a try. Has anyone out there tried that yet?

Check this out- you can download Ali Edwards beautiful handwriting as a font on your computer! Click here to get the download. I had to save it on my desktop, then open my C drive, go to Windows, and then fonts, and drop it in there to see it in Microsoft word. If your font folder isn't in the same place, try doing a search of all your files and folders for anything with .ttf in the name. (ttf=true type font) That should tell you where you font folders are. Good luck! I can't wait to use this!

Hope you are having a great Tuesday!

Uneventful weekend?

Yesterday afternoon around 5pm I was surprised at how quickly the weekend had gone by and I thought, "Wow! And we didn't really do anything!" Which made me try to think of everything we had done, and I realized, that totally wasn't true, we actually did quite a lot! So, I made a list:
1. I went to EY scrapbooking on Friday night for a few hours
2. We went to 10,000 BC on Saturday afternoon
3. I made roasted chicken and then made it into chicken chili
4. We went to Costco on Saturday after the movie
5. We went to Golden Spoon and got a yummy frozen yogurt treat (I had chocolate, strawberry, and St. Patrick's day mint)
6. We had crab legs for dinner and watched American Gangster on Saturday night
7. We washed our cars on Sunday morning
8. I went shopping for and made sushi for the first time on Sunday (turned out great!! so fun)
9. Yesterday was Selection Sunday, and the University of Arizona Wildcats are in the NCAA tournament as a 10 seed for the 24th year in a row!! Hooray!
10. Did all the normal weekend stuff- laundry, cleaned, cleaned out the fridge- yay. Those things have to get done, but how often do you give yourself credit for doing them? Give yourself a pat on the back for that today!

I was amazed that there were over 10 distinct things that we did this weekend, and I didn't even feel like it was a big weekend. What are some things that you did this weekend? I would love to know if you have a second please leave a comment!

We also watched the first two installments of John Adams on HBO last night. Let me just say... It's not tv, it's HBO. So far the show is really well done and totally interesting. I will share some more thoughts on this in the near future. Lots to think about there.

Finally- CONGRATS to our U of A 'Cats. The ASU Sun Devils did not make the tournament. At first, I felt kind of bad for them, because they have had a pretty good season. But, in typical ASU fashion, I think they are a bunch of thugs, and I don't really feel all that bad that they didn't get in. They didn't play really any tough games aside from the PAC 10 conference play. Now, I think that conference play should count more than it does. I think this year, the PAC 10 could have easily had 7 teams get into the tournament. I have been listening to the forums and they say that also the number of teams competing to get in has grown by almost 100 teams since the last time the tournament was expanded to include 65 teams. Maybe we need to make the tourney bigger. But all that speculation and reflection will subside on Wednesday when the play starts. And I will be glued to my tv to watch us take on West Virginia. I'd love to see a 10 seed knock off an 7 seed on Friday!! BEAR DOWN.

Happy St. Patrick's day to you and hope you are having a great Monday morning!

and defeat...

They really looked like they could have done it in the first half. We came out on top 6-0, we were tied at the end of the first half. We were playing run & gun U of A basketball. Chase Budginger was hot and was rebounding against players 5 inches taller and probably 50 lbs bigger than him. He looked like the freshman player that we got so excited about last year. Nic Wise was on fire, hitting 3's and moving so quickly he was hard to follow. But that was only the first half. The second half we were slow. We gave in and played down to their type of basketball, which only works if you have at least two big guys. It could have been different. The game just changed completely. The refs called ticky-tack fouls on our guys. Our players got discouraged. The momentum was lost. There are 4 teams left in the PACA 10 tournament. They are ranked #1- UCLA, #2- Stanford, #3- Washington State, #4- USC. Tonight USC and UCLA face off as well as Stanford and Washington State. It will be interesting to see if (consistent with the last two days of play) only #1 and #2 are standing as of tomorrow...

I wanted an upset!! ;) Hope you are having a great Friday!! Hooray for weekend. I am heading to EY scrapbooking tonight, so should have some fun pictures to share this weekend.

Victory!

The Wildcats pulled off a victory last night against the OSU Beavers up in LA during the play-in game for the PAC 10 tournament. The 'Cats play again tonight at 8:30 against Stanford and their 7'+ twin powerhouses, Robin and Brook Lopez. It will prove to be a very difficult game for the 'Cats, but we hope that they can ride a little of their high from last night's win to the game with Stanford tonight. It's that time of year where you have to win to keep playing, so hopefully that will spark some energy in the team. Point guard Nic Wise continues to amaze us after returning just recently from orthroscopic knee surgery. Playing in white tights last night to keep his legs warm, he helped the Wildcats maintain a breakneck pace against OSU. Probably my favorite player of the year, Wise has really been a big part of the heart and soul of the UA team this year. So many of our players have battled injuries at one time or another, it's great to see a relatively healthy team face off against the other PAC-10 schools this week. It's still hard to see freshman phenom Jerryd Bayless with a bandage over stitches on his right cheek and a black eye after a collision with an OSU player a week ago. Hopefully also spurring the Wildcats on is the announcement of Lute Olson's plans to return next season as the 'Cats' head coach. Lute was the commencement speaker at my graduation from the U of A in 2001, so he holds a special place in my heart and I look forward to his return. Hopefully there is a place for both him and interim coach Kevin O'Neill in the UA program.

Well, if you don't have plans tonight at 8:30, tune in to watch the Wildcats and the Cardinal... let's go Arizona!


Edited to add: Just checked ESPN and I noticed that the Lopez twins are only 7'0" tall. So really, what is there to worry about?! AND, there are only two of them, so it's not that many. Oh- and Stanford is only ranked #11. In the country. Tough game tonight guys, I have faith, we can do it! BEAR DOWN!!!

Does the internet ever cease to amaze?

Clicked over to foodnetwork.com today and found a listing of food blogs that they feature. I haven't even had a chance to scratch the surface- happy reading to come tonight and later this week away from work- but there are so many that look great. Already smitten by this one - Smitten Kitchen. Dying to go home and make the homemade pizza that she profiles. Poor Chris, that guy has to deal with my pizza obsessions weekly. We definitley have homemade pizza once a week, and if I have to make dinner for myself only there are rarely other choices considered. I seriously could eat it everyday and not be bored. I think it has to do with my Italian blood- with which my Grandma would surely concur and say, pass the spaghetti! Happy pizza eating!

happy somethings

It's Tuesday morning, I drove by the absolutely gorgeous beach today and I was dying to have to go to work and not be able to just stop and take in the sight of it. The tide was out and there were a TON of seagulls standing out where the water empties into the ocean. They must get fish or something when the tide is out because there were so many of them all in one spot. But I guess if there has to be something good in the having to go to work part, I have a new pair of jeans on today and it totally is making my day! They are so nice when they're brand new and they fit great, they are long enough for heels... and the fact that I can wear jeans to work. Hooray! Don't even get me started!

We went to The Other Boelyn Girl this weekend because I finally finished the book on Friday night. I read the last 100 pages that night, which sounds like a lot, but it's such a fast fun read. So the book was amazing. It's always kind of a bummer when you finish a great book because you're kind of like, "Now what do I do?!" ha! Maybe it's just that those kinds of books totally hold me hostage when I am into them. The movie was good, and the actresses are amazing. I wasn't overly impressed with Eric Bana, and he's usually great. He wasn't bad, just not great. I think that the book was a million times better than the movie. You could totally go see it before you read it too, because they aren't exactly the same. They had to cut out a ton to get a 670 page book into a 2 hour movie. The costumes were beautiful, but not close to Marie Antionette. I think Sofia Coppola made a masterpiece there. Completely deserving of the Oscar. The book that that was based on was also super interesting, but it's actually a biography, not a historical novel, so it does not go fast at all. I got through 2/3 of it and really enjoyed it, but I just couldn't finish it. HUGE kudos to Chris for going with me. He was seriously like one of three guys in the whole place, and was definitely the only guy there under 75! Thanks babe! I owe you a war movie... sure that we will find one soon.

Actually, speaking of guy shows, that I am totally excited for as well, HBO is doing a miniseries on David McCullough's Pulitzer prize winning book John Adams. It starts this Sunday, so we are super excited to watch it. Looks like it will be awesome. For all you non-HBOers out there, we will record it.

Check out Heidi Swapp's blog for an interesting post on her life in China. It's under the "still me" link above. She used to live in Phoenix and now moved to China (Bejing). She shares some really interesting aspects of living there through the eyes of a Zonie. Hope you're having a great Tuesday!

Organized, and it feels so good

The three black files are the new Lisa&Becky paper holders. These are actually liftable onto my shelf and they hold quite a bit of paper each. I also got the dividers since I will have several lines in each folder. So far all of my patterned papers and coordinating 12x12 products are in there- all the Basic Grey, American Crafts, and My Minds Eye. All my bazzill is still in the large box. We'll see if that changes, but I like this system for now. They are definitely the nicest thing available that fits scrapbook paper, but they aren't as nice as the orange West Elm office supply holders. I'd say go for the mix and match if you are interested...

Now to the next organizaiton project... ;) The Orange Crush page is my first page in my everyday something album for 2008 and the other layout is from our trip to Santa Barbara this past summer. I actually had misplaced this layout because I was working on the back side of it for another project. Glad that I found it again! Friday night is the EY crop night, so hopefully I will have more work to share after that. Hope you are having a good Monday night!

Edited to add: Note, these are (of course) now on sale at two peas for $10 each. (I spent $15... grr.) Hope you get the sale price! :)

Summer?

We went for a long walk by the beach yesterday, and seriously wondered if it had somehow become summer all of a sudden. The temperatures were in the 70s at least and we walked for about an hour and a half. It was great to be out in the sun and feel the sand, surf, and see all the happy people. If I had known how gorgeous it was going to be, I would have worn my swim suit! I luckily left my sweatshirt in the car, but it was breezy when we got out of the car, so I thought about bringing it with me, but was so glad that I didn't. If we had taken water with us, we probably would have kept going for another hour or so! I wish I was more motivated to get up in the mornings and go to the beach to walk. It's about a 7 minute drive to the beach, so it would really be possible, that is if we could wake up early! Today was the first real morning of Daylight savings time and it felt like the alarm was going off at the crack of dawn. I reset it for another half hour of sleep and then hit snooze once... so really 45 minutes of extra sleep than planned. But we got up and made it off to work relatively close to the regular time. Hopefully it will start to feel normal soon!

I am dying for my scrapbooking stuff that still hasn't come in the mail. I am getting antsy and I even went to one of the scrapbooking stores here in SD to see if they had anything good. Unfortunately they looked like they could go out of business any minute, which was a total bummer. I didn't buy anything because it all looked really picked over. Hopefully my stuff will come soon! :) Hope you are having a great Monday!

Costco Salad Recipe

As I sit here eating my lunch I figured I would share my yummy salad recipe for eveyone. Chris and I are obsessed with these cobb salads lately, so we've been enjoying them quite often. It's kind of a kitchen sink recipe, so go with what you've got or what you like, when in doubt. And honestly, everything tastes better with bacon, right? Right.

Roasted chicken breasts or rotisserie chicken, cooled, and diced into cubes. If you aren't using the rotisserie chicken, look for half breasts in the fridge sections (at the back of Costco, not the middle) roast in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Baste with olive oil and the chicken juices throughout if you want, not necssary.

1 head of romaine lettuce, shredded
Tomato, avocado, cucumbers, celery, purple cabbage, 2 green onions- chopped.
(Here is where you go with what you like or what you have on hand. Almost any combination is great.)
Top with goat cheese, feta, or shredded cheddar.
4 slices of cooked turkey bacon, chopped (or regular if you prefer, costco carries both)

Dressing- In a small container with a tight fitting lid combine 1 tsp of dijon mustard, 1 T of evoo, 2 T of red wine vinegar and a pinch of kosher salt. Tighten the lid and shake to emulsify.

Crack black pepper over the top of the salad and dress and serve immediately.
Serves 2 dinner size portions or 3-4 side portions.

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Recipe Book
Enjoy. You will find that this is super fast and easy when you have the chicken and bacon done ahead of time. Pretty soon you'll be addicted too! Happy weekend and happy eating!

And even more inspiration...

And just when you think you are over something, you realize why you fell in love in the first place. I do think that scrapbooking is a little bit more exciting when you have kids, but we should all at least try to keep a record of our daily lives. Today's post by Ali Edwards (click on the {A} link above to redirect to her blog) features her 2007 album which she reogranized recently. She shares a ton of pictures and has a really creative approach to the presentation of the album. If that doesn't make you want to run home and create, then I don't know what to tell you. Scrapbooking probably isn't for you then! ;) hehe. However, there are so many options now that make sense, and I think we would all love to look back on what we were thinking in the day-to-day in a previous period of our lives. I wish that I had kept better details on what it was like day-to-day at U of A. I think the naivete of being away from home for the first time and yet the freedom as well would have shown through. Not that I was that far away, but it was really the biggest change in my life up to that point. I would have also loved to know what it was like in my house without me there for the first time. As much fun as I was having, I bet there were a lot of cool things going on there that I missed out on. Most of my sister's highschool experience. SO glad that we had one year overlapping. And that year would have been an awesome scrapbook. Luckily my sister and I have really good and strong memories of those days. But who knows, maybe one of these days we'll pull out the pictures of that year that we do have and collaborate to make an album of what it was like. Seriously, that was one of the most fun years that I think we both ever had. So, if scrapbooking isn't your style, hopefully you will be inspired to keep a journal, or a blog, or at least keep the pictures of your life close by to look back on and remember.

So on that note, I guess I will get back to work, but if you have a chance to check out Ali's blog, do so. You won't be disappointed. Love you all and so happy you are in my life today!

So you say you need a little inspiration??

Now I am dying to scrapbook! Still wish that my stuff would come in the mail, but I am axious to get down to business, and soon! Not sure exactly when that will be since tonight it is already too late, and tomorrow night the Cats are playing!! We play Oregon State, currently the #10 team in the PAC 10 Conference. So hopefully it will be a good game. They haven't announced whether Nic Wise or Brett Breilmeier will be playing. Hopefully they will get at least a few minutes in before the PAC 10 Tournement next week. Chris is going to the opening games on Thursday with Dan up in LA. I know it will be fun for him to get to see our wildcats in person.

I broke down and ordered these paper holders for my paper since it's way to heavy in that big box. I hope that I like them once they get here. I have one plastic holder, but it's not really that sturdy. I am guessing that these are canvas like the other office organizers, I guess I will find out when they get here.

Are you enjoying American Idol? Chris and I are dying to order this since we have been having so much fun watching the contestants sing these songs. So much hearing the old songs that you love. I loved the cover of Lionel Richie's "Hello" last night. It was kind of rocky, which was fun. Hope you are enjoying too!

Where there is reward, there is work

Huh? Yes, where there is reward, then there is work. We had a crazy day at work today. It wasn't as long as (so far, I guess) as some of my days at EY were, of course, but it was intense and draining. They say that perception is 90% of it, but how do you alter perception while you are experiencing something? Hehe, I think the answer is that you can't- so you just have to grin and bear it. Or rather, BEAR DOWN when the going gets tough. And then enjoy the reward when you are finished... or in today's case, enjoy the reward (new ipod) before you start. And focus on the next reward to come. Which in my case is going to be a bag of Cadbury mini chocolate eggs. You know, the kind with the candy shell but the solid chocoate inside? Purple bag... super rich, but oh so fabulous? Watch out Easter bunny... I'm coming for you. ;) Hope you had a great and relatively stress-free day!

nano nano

Check out my new friend... a brand new red i pod nano! It was a gift today at work. We had a big milestone at work, and this was the reward for the hard work put in by the employees. I hadn't even put iTunes on my new work computer yet since I left my last job, so I spent the evening loading up my new nano. Still have to get the hang of it since my old ipod was very outdated!

Very fun day! Hope yours was great also!

An Organized Start...

The box is really only halfway full of paper and you can barely lift it. Guess that's not going up on my shelf!! Well, I started an organization project in my scrapbook area today. I got these linen covered office organization things from West Elm, but I will have to expand my system somewhat. Thought I could fit all of my paper in this big box- and it currently has all of my Basic Grey, Bazzill, and a smattering of American Crafts, and some misc. other lines. I hadn't gotten to my My Mind's Eye stuff yet, and I tried to put it up on my shelf (the one my dad put up for me- thanks Dad!! I love it!) and you can barely lift the box! No kidding. So back to the drawing board, I guess. I have been kind of out of the scrapbooking mood lately. It's weird, I am kind of cynical about it, I am starting to wonder what the point is. I hope I snap out of it soon. I know that it's hard to want to do big events, but at least want to keep up with the everyday stuff. That seems to be the things that you look back to and like to see the most. Like my little everyday something book. Seriously- the 8x8 format should be easier, but I always have a lot of pictures I want to use, and I am not good about cropping. There is no option for more than one 4.5x6 picture on an 8x8 layout, so I am working on that. I also want to try to break out of the mold a little and use all sorts of different sizes and shapes of pages within the book, but 8x8 feels small to start with! I think I will get over all this and one afternoon just crank out scrapbooking like no tomorrow, but I am not pushing it right now. It's fun to get organized, even when it doesn't go completely according to plan. I am also waiting for my shipment of Basic Grey Sultry to come in the mail any day now... nothing like new product to spark the inspiration! Looking forward to it. Click on the Bits&Pieces link to see a cool project that Cathy Z. is doing with that new line. I think I'll be motivated once I get my mail...
Happy start to the week to you and hope you had a fun weekend!