today...

* i actually bought two cd's; "elephant shell" by tokyo police club & "when life gives you lemons, you paint that shit gold" by atmosphere. yes, that is the best album title ever.

* i'm using my new black, yellow & cream purse and rocking my huge, mustard yellow sunglasses.

* i am also rocking my "tough girl" hair-do! haha, gotta love the pouf & ponytail combo! especially when combined with big earrings and lots of eyeliner for the full look.

* i think i might be a spam-bot because i can never type those word verification thing-ers correctly.

* i'm heading to trish's to scrapbook after work with a 6 of blue moon in hand.

* i ordered awesome shoes, a cute vest that ties shut with ribbon, woodgrain sunglasses & a coral and teal necklace from delia*s with my leftover christmas merch credit. yay! now i just need to make fun plans and have places to wear these cute things.

* i am in love with train conducter/railroad type stripes like the old osh kosh overalls from when we were little and need to find it in a pair of pants, stat.

* i'm working on fun mixes for some rad ladies!

kit madness!

i know i know... i was most defenitly burned by poppy ink, but i just can't help myself, i've fallen back in love with kit clubs!

i have had an awesome experience with the first month of a two month guest dt spot at an awesome kit club, but am not sure wether i'm allowed to spill the beans yet! let's just say the may kit was totally yummy to play with, hehe.

i'm already stalking my mailbox for the april kit, "hand-picked", from studio calico. the mix of all that rad sei and sassafras lass with a little touch of american crafts? genius! and i know that i can totally cut my own woodgrain alphabets with the cricut, but i just love sassafras'! after seeing the kit in person while scrapping at nicole's last night i am totally dieing to get my little scrappy hands on it! especially those sei epoxies!

then i went ahead and caved to a 3 month sub at scarlet lime, and nabbed a couple of must-have stamps in their stamp/paper kit sale while i was at it. they always have the most killer universal use type stamps and they are def one of those kit clubs that puts stuff together that just gels in the most lovely way!

and let's talk about some drool-worthy sneak peaks... umm hello story of my life! sara you are killing me with little peeky! i want to see more!

alright, i'm off to work on the wedding part of the layouts i'm doing for kelly. does anyone else find wedding layouts way daunting? i feel like they need to be way traditional because that's the kind of wedding it was. plus, it's just a lot of pressure scrapping someone else's wedding! i know she already has the photographers wedding album so that takes a little bit of the pressure off, plus i know she will love whatever i do...but still! eek! especially since the wedding was so gorgeous and in this amazing church in new orleans that isn't there anymore. no pressure, y'know? blergh!

spring is here!

finally! obligatory spring related list starts here;

* riding around with the windows down to spoon, rogue wave, say anything and rilo kiley as well as summer jams old and new. i'm going to start making new mixes this coming week, who wants to trade? for reals trade. i'm already starting random themed mixes as we speak, hehe. i tried pandora since everyone is always talking about it, and i have to say i'm not that into it. i like my music to be eclectic, i don't want to listen to a bunch of songs that all sound the same. i wish it would let you type in your top 10 bands and then stream the music based on that, rather than just one band or song. oh well, it is pretty good in short spurts at least.

* spring means new beginnings right? well, say goodbye to my old job and hello to my brand new job at scraptasia! that's right, i'm out of here. dawn has been so absolutly awesome to teach for, talk to and collaborate with that i can't wait to start working for her too!

* i cleaned out soooooo much stuff at the scrapbook garage sale that it's crazy. barely any came back to the house and i'm probs just going to keep it in a container and add to it along the way for the next garage sale. i already started spending my cushy credit yesterday. it's so fun to let myself buy things that i've been wanting but didn't want to spend the money on, but with the credit it's almost like found money, hehe. i picked up this alphabet i've been wanting, one of these 17 x 23 mats for my scrap table, some more of this and lots of other stuff like fontwerks labels, thickers, journaling stamps and other fun goodies.

* i've been scrapping like crazy lately; circle journals, class samples, store layouts, stuff for a guest dt spot, an album a friend is paying me to do and i had forgotten how much i love to do this! it seems crazy, but i just wasn't making anything and now that i am it's like a fresh breeze and i just want to do it all the time! i'm scrapping with nicole tommorow and with my sassy scrapper ladies friday night and at work inbetween and i wouldn't have it any other way.

* i've been going a little crazy with the spring clothes shopping lately too. marykate and i went shopping sunday and i did some more damage on my way home from mlpa yesterday too. a cute dress, adorable flats, a couple tees, a really cute new bag and some easy-breezy-throw-'em-on-and-go tops.

* i also nabbed the most adorable reusable shopping bags at target. i already had gotten the cute grocery type bag a couple months ago, but now they have a bigger, clothing shopping type bag that folds and snaps up and really cute little tote type bags that fold up and then zipper around to about 3 x 6. they are perfect for just keeping in my purse for whenever and they happen to safely fit 12 x 12 paper without bending anything! how rad is that?

* loving weeds on netflix instant play. instant play on my laptop has gotten me through many days here. i've also watched all of the office, 30 rock and the first season of dexter. obviously i am in love with jim, want to be bff's with liz lemon and have started reading the dexter books.

* i am also on the hunt for cheap, but not horrible, cross trainer sneakers and comfy workout pants and the gym membership comes next week. i can't wait. i like that i'm at the point where i'm looking forward to excercising. i have kind of fallen off the eating well bandwagon, but that comes back next week too. it all changes.


so yup, new music, new scrappies, new job, new clothes and new workout plan. sounds pretty spring-y to me.

rock me.

1. white stripes 2. wilco 3. the weakerthans 4. spoon 5. wilco 6. yo la tengo 7. rogue wave 8. cat power 9. ray lamontagne 10. neko case 11. the new pornographers 12. belle and sebastian 14. tv on the radio 15. modest mouse 16. band of horses 17. broken social scene 18. death cab for cutie 19. ben gibbard 20. the von bodies 21. rilo kiley 22. arcade fire 23. el hijo 24. surefire 25. 30 seconds to mars 26. nada surf 27. nicole atkins 28. bright eyes 29. sufjan stevens 30. minus the bear 31. ladytron 32. elsie's concert poster 33. orange twin night 34. a stitch up 35. death cab for cutie 36. a stitch up

loving the concert poster inspiration that's out there, and totally needing some new music inspiration. it's windows down cruising to music weather and i need some fresh new music! i am looking forward to
the new death cab for cutie and some new mates of state hotness. mates of state are just total spring/early summer jams for me, they've got that breath of fresh air thing going on, y'know?

what are you loving lately? what new bands are you digging? what old faves can you totally not live without? anyway loves, who's got some new music for me? post something i have to listen to or trade mixes with me!

you are a head liz lemon.

top 5 jobs i wish i had been told were possible by my college & career counseler in high school:

01. music director (putting together soundtracks for tv shows & movies)
02. packaging designer
03. creative director (putting together collections and lines, preferably scrapbooking related)
04. label exec (preferably a small label. it seriously never occured to me that a business degree could lead to job that i wouldn't find completely boring.)
05. marketing (i kid you not, never came up as an option.)

i'm still looking for a job that doesn't make me want to claw my eyes out and at this point i'm exploring a ton of options and finding that it might just be a matter of coming up with the right combination of smaller jobs.

sometimes i really wish i could go back to high school knowing what i know now. i really don't think i had any idea what options were really out ther for me, or what you needed to do to get to the types of jobs that i thought were really cool. it just never occured to me that i could have them.

who knows, there could still be something around the corner.

astericks.

* fun at the crop saturday. (where vee took that rad picture to the left, love our suitcases!) i actually got a lot of stuff done and hopefully it's kickstarted my ability to actually produce all the projects that have been running around in my head.

* finally had a day to just lounge and enjoy the new furniture, bedroom and such.

* figuring out how to piece together a living.

* been planning some, what i think will be, really awesome things for the near future.

* finding that distraction is key.

* psyching myself up to get back to eating right and to start the gym part of this weight loss thing. this book is pretty interesting.

* wishing that i wasn't screwed on taxes since i would normally use my tax return for fun spring clothes like this, this or these or maybe a new tattoo.

* looking at art schools i probably couldn't get into, and def can't afford.

* finding inspiration in random places and using that to produce little projects that make me do "mickey hands" like nicole.

* refusing to wear real shoes (at least my foot is a lighter shade of purple now!)

* hoping things move forward rather than sideways.

done and done.

my new bedroom is finally finished. there are a couple of things that are slightly off, but they will be fixed over time. it has a bit of a foresty vibe without me really realizing it until i was almost done, which i like. it just kind of came together that way.

the print wall is going to be added to and rearranged on a pretty constant basis, i'm sure. and i love the way the color coded bookshelves look. i think my absolute favorite part is the jewelery trees though, thank you ikea. the curtains and tree branch tie-backs from urban were another necessary bit that i really love, especially from outside at night.

and, as in any room, it's the small touches that really make it for me. the little owls katie made, little dishes and drawer pulls from anthropologie and little plush friends.

you can see the actual pictures in my bedroom re-do flickr set.

i'm really hoping that settling into my new digs will help center me in some way. i'm still having that constantly on the verge of a panic attack feeling still. there are just so many things that i need to be re-working and doing and enjoying and i can't seem to get to that level point of dealing with everyday life things, nevermind the extra. so, maybe this will work... a new sanctuary = a new center. here's to hope.