someone find me a helmet with flames on the side!

maybe i'll just always update in list form, it seems more fun that way. especially since i'm sure that no one needs a play by play of my life! so, lately;

* made a quick run to philly for my haircut at american mortals, a quick stop into a doggie boutique and a magazine run into my old borders. why is it that they hire the cute boys after i leave? haha. p.s. i'm not quite sure why i look so angry in that picture other than the fact that it was pre-coffee. the next decision is wether i want to dye it dark, dark brown again and not go orangey red 'til summer, or do i dye is an auburn closer to my natural color, but with a little more pop?

* my class at scraptasia was awesome! i totally had no reason at all the be nervous! the ladies were awesome and picked up on the exacto so quickly! i can't wait to teach my next one! especially now that i have an awesome apron that rhian made me! my next class there will be in march. i'll totally post when i have a sample done and a defenite date. it really is a gorgeous store.

* kristina came jersey side and we finished up her kits, watched factory girl and some my so called life. factory girl was a defenite, "ooph" kind of movie. so good, but so sad! i want her body and subsequently her wardrobe as well. did a little shopping, some scrapbook painting and took kristina to her very first jersey diner, next i'll take her to her first truck stop diner, haha. watch out girl!

* ummmm... could i love kirsten dunst anymore? if anyone sees these miu miu ads anywhere, i would kill for them! i want to hang a couple of the pictures us in my re-done room (when that happens after the crazy month that is february)

* i am officially eating waaaaaay better and have given up soda. i just started sunday, but i seemingly have lost two pounds already, which is good because i hate all my clothes and refuse to buy new ones for this body i have now. i'm thinking of buying a cute pair of flats that will make a couple of outfits and a couple of basic tops to hold me over for cha and scrapbowl. and then after those two events i'm joining the 24 hour gym that just opened up near me. can't wait to work it all off. i'm making a "work it out" mix, haha.

* speaking of mixes, i'm also making an. "eat mosaic" mix for k & j's 'straunt and a "jetsetter music letter" mix for the plane ride, all breezy and funky and some about california, one of my top 5 states, haha. perhaps i'll post it when it's all done. i was having a total, getting tired of my music stage, but then working on these mixes has made me remember all the rad music on my i-pod, not to mention all the cd's i can load once i finally move my stuff upstairs and all the way in (yeah it's been a year, i know.)

* i'm starting to get my pictures together for the classes i'm taking at scrapbowl and getting all those plans together too. it's all just making me more and more psyched!

turning my day from argh! to yay!

i did not have a lovely morning. at all. but as to not nurture the parts of my life that make me want to off myself i am going to concentrate on the happy making things, in list form of course. because seriously, is there any better way?

* this quickie layout i did last night of nat and the rad pictures she always gets. using the shaped 6x12 was really fun because i just refused to worry about what is going on the protector behind it. flat out.

* pop off! the soup is totally a huge laugh out loud highlight of my week. i want to marry joel mchale and adopt his puppy.

* the fact that i was totally resigned to not going to cha and a certain evil genius in my life had me convinced and booked on a flight within an hour, out of nowhere. now i leave in just over 2 weeks. hehe. watch out o.c.!

* i found the perfect haircut online! it even looks like the girls hair is the same texture and volume as mine, so it should work. can't wait to get it hacked tommorow!

* i just called to double check what time i should be at scraptasia to teach my class monday and found out that my class is one seat short of full! i am so excited and totally nervous to be teaching at a new store!

* scrapbowl is getting closer and closer and i can't wait to hang with everyone; marykate, katie, nicole, natalie, vee, kristina, sara, aimee, colleen, shelly and lots of other fun ladies! so psyched!

* speaking of miss shellyb, i totally jacked this idea off her -> yeah to my thickers being in color order! i don't really know what i was thinking with them being organized by material and then font, i go searching for them by color anyway. now they look so pretty!

* i am also psyched/freaked by the fact that scrapbowl, and now cha a little bit before, are the perfect kick in the @$$ for me to drink the correct amount of water, eat healthy and join that gym so that i can live on the stairmaster when i'm not working! i know that once i start i'll stick to it and enjoy the working out, i just need ot start!

* and last but not least, i'm really excited about awesome opportuinites for awesome friends!

"guys, where are we?"

yeah, i've been more than a little m.i.a. as in absent and missing, not the tiny rapper who raps in crazy technicolor.

the "croppers care for kids with cancer" event went really well and i love that it was sucessful and now done with. i also told my boss i need sunday's off, starting this coming sunday. yay! i get to have a 5 day work week again! getting rid of that small 5 hour shift makes a huge diff for me; i can have a day to relax & a day to get things done rather than having to choose which i do, i can go out to crazy-stick-to-the-dance-floors-while-you're-rocking-out-to-jt-and-fugazi-dive-spots in philly on a saturday night and be able to join my friends for brunch sunday mornings and it's just a little less stress in my life. yay, yay, yay!

another big yay to nabbing a hair appointment with heidi at american mortals on friday evening! someone called literally 15 minutes before me to cancel so i totally lucked out on timing. so, i get to take the train into philly (i hate having to find parking in center city) and finally get my hairs snipped! i even found a couple of cute hairstyles online today. looking at hairstyles online has really made me want to dye my hair orange-y red too! i won't go that crazy yet though. but after i get the cut i was thinking about dying it dark brown again, so now i don't know what to do!

oooh! i was going to try to not get excited about this since it's just the very beginning of the process and there are about a hundred talented ladies up for the spots, but i can't help myself! i have made it to the second round of the fashionista search over at scrap in style! i'm trying to stay guarded, but making it even to this very prelminary part of it is exciting since there is a crazy sick amount of talent over there! eep! i'm excited to see how this goes!

oooh, and some of you will be very proud of me, and many of you will be shocked that i finally did it, but i have officially finished the second stage of the big scrap area clean out of o8! i have a huge plastic bin 3/4 of the way full of embellishments and a 7 1/2 inch high stack of paper, yes i measured, to sell at the next mlpa scrap garage sale! i made myself ruthlessly purge all the scrappy stuff that i have that i like or love, but will never really use. the next step is going through the stored bins and doing a last sweep of my stuff, then i get to my favorite part, the re-organizing! so far i've freed up a whole shelf worth of plastic drawers units and have gone from two yaffa blocks full of paper to 1/2 of one. yay!

on the netflix front; boo to "the nanny diaries" how could you fail me scar jo? and major ups to "bickford schmecklers cool ideas" loved it! totally quirky, but i love me some patrick fugit!

i am failing miserably at my mission to watch every episode of lost before the new season starts! i am only halfway through season one. i'm still trying though. i'm off to do that now actually. wish me luck!

"you really shouldn't mumble, i can't understand a word you're saying!"

kristina, quality control officer chloe rose and i had a lot of fun kitting sunday and monday. we really did get a pretty awesome amount of stuff done. and, having had the sneak peek of kristi's classes i have to say that everyone needs to take them! for real. and if you're not going to
scrap bowl, maybe you'll luck out and she'll have some leftover kits to sell on her blog. we watched a bunch of movies, awesome ones and ridiculous ones and kristina tried to make me only have healthy snacks, which is necessary as evidenced by that picture up there, eek!

speaking of which, i found a 24 hour gym near me, which is major for this area and you can even join on a month to month basis. so, i'm totally getting on that, as well as the big healthy food grocery shop, after this crazy weekend coming up! that all paired with a new haircut happening next week, a possible work week change and finally actually moving into my room all the way (i think i've been in denial about moving back) i should be setting myself up for a much happier me, which i usually have a hard time getting around to doing.

i finished colin's book, "when you leave..." at least mostly, haha. i still need to drill the holes at the top so that i can put the binder rings in and get it to him. i realy liked how it turned out, simple, clean and heartfelt. and seriously, what would i do without my typewriter?

and ooh! did y'all see that now you can buy individual pieces of scrap in syle's patterned paper? my favorite, of ocurse, being the label love collection. not only do i love it because it's kristina's, but it's the most versatile, by far! i can't stop using it! i have done at least 3 or 4 layouts, 3 mini's and a bunch of daily cards with it and i still can't get enough!

and, since i've been a fairly bad blogger lately, here's a little general info, haha.

reading: a great and terrible beauty (actually re-reading because the 3rd one came out.)
watching: lost in hi-def online to prepare for season 4. : )
listening: dan in real life: soundtrack perfect for this grey snowy day at work.
purchasing: little bits for my room re-do like this and this.
scrapping: valentines atc swap

and i really can't wait 'til this weekend is done and i can really work on ruthlessly cleaning out my scrap area! i'm talking about even getting rid of stuff i like, but know i will never get around to using. then it's all going in a big bin in the garage until the next scrapbook garage sale at mlpa! i just have way too much stuff to even operate over there! wish me luck!

quickie.

colin's book = almost done. i just have to drill the holes and make a back cover.
bret michaels on the soup = hilariously awful.
old livejournal entires from 2002- 2005 = hilarious and totally tragic.
jason schwartzman = yum.
my bags = packed for long island to help kit
me = exhausted. off to bed.

heart happy.

here are some things that are making my heart pretty happy right now;

* making fake polaroids - i just realized that if i use the 3 x 3 layout setting on my little photo printer and then carefully crop with my trimmer they come out looking all lovely and polaroid-ish. at least as long as you don't look too too close, hehe. i'm going to use all these for the book for colin. speaking of which,

* the book for colin - it's making my heart all skippy at least. i was going to buy soem balsa wood at home depot, but couldn't find it and then i stumbled upon a 1/4 inch thick piece o4 wood that was 6 inches by 3 feet. i had the evil man, who made me wait and then forgot me, cut it into 10 inch pieces and that's what i'm using for the front and back of the book. this is both exciting, because i already made the cover and love it, and terrifying, because i am not so sure how this is actually going to work out in the end. hence, the skippy heart. we'll see. he will love it regardless, as evidenced by;

* the fact that colin still has every crafty bit i've made him in his room at his parents' house - this is especially impressive because we dated when i was 19, 6 years ago, haha. included in his morgan craft collection are the collaged cardboard stars with quotes on the back of them that i made for his ceiling. and most impressingly/horrificly a frame i had bought him to put some of the best pictures from his bands first summer tour in, but didn't have copies of the pictures yet so i drew horrible stick figures of whatever each picture looked like and he kept them in there, haha. i'll have to snap a pic next time i'm there, haha.

* watching my so called life on dvd - and most especially, one of my all time favorite my so called life moments;



oh my god, love! look for an entire love letter to my so called life someday really soon, haha. the quotes alone, y'know?

* the preview for cloverfield - ummmmmmm must see this movie asap! i don't know why i'm so excited about it, but i totally am.

* the fact that i get to head to scraptasia now to drop off my class sample and, just maybe, do a teeny tiny bit of shopping. yay!

i'm in love with a usb drive!

his name is fu and he is from
mimobot's artist series. he was done by a really rad graffitti artist called reach and he came with a little hoodie that i can put him in when i want to bring him somewhere on my keychain. they have a bunch of really cool bots in their core series and lots of different artists in limited editions. there is also star wars, halo, domo and happy tree friends drives. i love that the happy tree friends come pre and post accident. hehe. y'all should totally check them out! i got the minimum memory because i'm going to use him to get my pictures easily from computer or disc to photo printer. he was here in like 3 days in a fun silver tube! love it!

i finally finished my "happiness is g*town" album! i was a little worried about the amount of pages (72, eek!) and what that meant when it came to me uploading it to sis, so i did it in three parts. so, if you wanna see here they are;
part one, part two & part three. i totally love it! and as littlescrapper13 put it, it's really more of a novel than a mini! hehe.



i got a text the other night, from my friend colin, who is easily one of my top 5, if not top 3, most favorite people in the entire world. he is moving to portland! what the heck?!?!? a. take me with you! b. ugh! we dated long, long ago when we were way young, hated eachothers stinkin' guts for about 6 months and have been soooooo close ever since, haha. even though we don't get to hang out a ton, we talk a lot and i always know that he is around. he is the king of the random text that will make my day. he puts up with my down moods, but also knows when it's time to kick my butt into having some perspective. if i'm having a really horrible time of something he'll call me and sing that really scary clay aiken song, "invisible" to me until i'm dieing of laughter. he is a crazy sick artist and has always been supportive of my craftiness. and, he is the best person ever to sneak into movies with! i'm going to miss him so much it's crazy! he will be around for the next couple of weeks and then it's off to portland to open a gallery/clothing company. i'm so excited for him and so sad for me!



at least we got to have some really ridiculous fun last night. i'm pretty upset about this, as you can probably tell, because when was the last time i typed this much about anything?!?! but at least i can get some of this down in a book for him before he leaves. i'm going to head to home depot after work to get some balsa wood to make the front and back covers and then make him a random stream of thought/reminiscing/encouraging art journal-y type thing. i think. i know we will come back together eventually.


speaking of which, i made this layout the other night (yeah, it's a horribly lit picture) and i'm really psyched on it for a few reasons. i was watching an old episode of "bones" and one of the characters said, "everything happens eventually." and it just really hit some chord in me. this is totally going to be my new mantra for the year. i feel like i really get in my own way a lot becuase i get so impatient. i push things rather than letting them happen, i feel i need things right away that i don't in actuality and i worry about things that are so far in the future that there is nothing to be done about it now. so, hopefully this will sink in for me. i'm also really proud of myself that rather than writing it on a scrap of paper, that would have floated around for like ever, i went right over to the scrap table and scrapped it at the exact moment i thought it up. it felt really awesome. and although it's simple, there is something to it and the feeling of just doing it that i really love.

so this is the new year...

and i only feel slightly different. hehe. you know i had to fit a little death cab in there, it's just too appropriate not to!

so, i've been playing a little scrappy catch up to start the new year off right. now that i have my very own typewriter i can finally finish my "happiness is g*town" album that i started foooooorever ago. i've worked on it the past couple of times i've scrapped, and i think i might even be able to finish it at work today. yay! i have a couple weeks worth of daily cards to bang out, oops! at least i have been keeping a running list of what happened each day, or what i wanted to do on each one, so it won't be hard at all, and they will still reflect my day. then i want to catch back up with the
this is me challenges and finish the mini mini (it's 2 x 2) from that wedding i went to with kristina that i made a cover and one page in like months ago, haha. i just kinda want to start my scrappy year off all fresh and new.

speaking of which, i knocked out my first clear acrylic album new years eve eve and new years eve. i'm pretty proud of myself for getting it done before the next year started. i just didn't want to accidentily end up with any 2008 influences in my 2007 favorites book. so here it is;


you can probably see it better over in my portfolio at scrap in style. i really like how it turned out. it was a challenge to get used to having to know what was going on the back of each page so that i knew where it was safe to use the adhesive, but i really loved the awesome layering i could get going through the acrylic.

i want to do some major new years cleaning of the scrap area. who wants to help? i got rid of a ton of stuff at the scrapbook garage sale at mlpa (that's how i could afford my clip-it-up's hehe), but i need to be even more ruthless. i have a lot of stuff that i really like, but know that in reality i will probably never get around to using. i need to make myself get rid of that stuff too. eek. the volume of scrap stuff just gets so overwhelming sometimes that it gets hard to actually get anything done over there. it will be hard, but at least i will have a ton of stuff for the next scrapbook garage sale.

i also finished my class sample for the class i'm teaching at scraptasia on the 28th so i'm going to run that down there tommorow before i head to the 'burg to do a little scrapping and maybe catch a movie with nicole. yay! it will just be another little sneak peak of how fun scrap bowl is going to be! i can't wait.

k, well i'm off to try to finish my g*town book!

p.s. spiderman 3? worst movie ever! ummm... how do you manage to make a super hero movie with 3 villians in it amazingly boring? ugh! such a total waste of time!