friday five #21

01. spring bag options - i'm still caught between this and the vera bradley i mentioned a couple of weeks a go. i think i'm going to go with this fossil bag. it's coated for easy, no worries use and i know i love fossil's bag quality. maybe i'll just replace my current horrible make up bag with one from vera bradley in that pattern i like, rather than getting the whole bag. these are important decisions people. (except not)

02. volume two - i'm not explaining other than to tell you that i did not love, love volume one, but i lurve this one. just listen & love. (and obvs the cover artwork is lovely)

03. zombie farm - if you have an iphone, get this. it's free. it's not obnoxious for your facebook friends (as long as you don't link it to your facebook) and there are zombies to grow and invade neighboring farms with!

04. me mugs - so, i'm a pretty big fan of non-matching mugs that are totally me. wether it's my "do something creative everyday" mug from paper source, the memo notebook mug k got me, or the liberty of london mug i'm currently stalking target's for, i think it's fun to have me mugs. they making my morning coffee, on the rare days i'm home for it, all the more special. my next purchase, barring a target miracle, will be this guy from craftyfolk's etsy.

05. glee fests - i snagged "glee: the road to sectionals" on super sale at target and the boy and i have been watching (or in my case re-watching) all the episodes in preperation for the new season. don't tell his friends!

blog break

i can't believe i managed to stay pretty on top of blogging while i was country hopping, but have been completely horrible since i got home! consider this a short-term blog version of an out-of-office message. i'll be back in april (which isn't faraway at all!), i promise

what i've been up to...

* say what? - i've taught this game a couple of times over the past couple of weeks and now that i'm done using it as a class sample i'm pretty stoked to fill it with favorite quotes, tweets, status messages & things overheard. it's 25 plus pages of atc sized pages. favorite patterned papers on the front with stamped kraft paper on the back, so it would be easy-peasy to add even more pages at any time.

* st. pat's game - the st. pat's game was last night and it was everything i hoped it would be, haha. jessica & roger and doug & i decked ourselves out in red, green & white and headed to the prudential center to watch the devils rock their old school jerseys to play the penguins. the devils got the win for a complete series shut out of the penguins and we got to watch crosby eat it. loved the devils get the shut out against last year's stanley cup winners, loved the chants of "crosby sucks" and then "you can't beat us" for the final 3+ minutes of the game, and really loved being there with the boy and j & r on their anniversary!

* designing - i've been working on some more cards just for fun, a layout & a card for something fun that's about to start at the store and some other random layouts for me. but, what i've mostly been doing is a ton of class designing & prep. so many classes coming up at the store and since the product for them all has been rolling in like crazy i've got a whole bunch of plates spinning at once. i'm vending for the store at a crop all day saturday, so i'm hoping i can work on some of all of the above inbetween the obviously forthcoming barrage of customers!

so, not really seeing a friday five happening this week, but i promise i'll get back into my positive 3 a week habits starting next week!

friday five #20

01. "1 week" class - i taught a couple of sessions of my "1 week" clear acrylic mini album this week and am in love with how it turned out. i can't wait to fill it with a weeks worth of photos, lists, receipts, tags, tickets & whatnot asap! now to figure out which week to do. is it cheating if i pick a week i know at least a couple of things are going on? maybe.

02. spoonflower.com - i think i've blogged before about an etsy shop i love, craftyfolk who also is making her designs available as fabric on spoonflower.com. i really could have gone without knowing about this website. the fabric is pretty expensive, but i can see sooooo many awesome home decor items and a really rad quilt or two made with all the amazing fabrics available from various designers on the site. right this second i'm kind of dying over this cassette explosion pattern!

03. alice envy - i am so completely jeallie of all you lucky peeps who have gone to see alice already! i keep hearing it's totally amazing, although i've also heard that the ending is a little abrupt. i've heard it's beyond beautiful though, and i can't wait to see it! sadly, it's a matter of coordinating 4 schedules for the full on imax 3d alice experience.

04. new she & him single - i'm already working on my 2010 spring mix, look for it sometime next week, and part of what set it in motion was the new she & him single, "in the sun" the b side "i can hear music" is also pretty sweet. the new she & him album, volume 2, comes out march 23rd and if this is any indication of what's to come i'm more stoked on it than the first album.

05. a vera bradley bag? - really? do i really like a vera bradley bag? wha? i guess it's true. a customer came in the store last week with the stephanie bag in the "sittin' in a tree" pattern and i haven't been able to stop it from randomly popping into my head since. i think it's the birds & the amy butler feel to it. plus this bag style is not so grandma and i think it might be kind of perfect as an easy-peasy, lightweight spring bag. perhaps?

she's crafty! like for real!

i have actually been doing fun crafty things for myself! i love teaching, but sometimes i find myself only making class samples and not really taking the time to work on things that are just for fun! this past weekend i set aside a bunch of crafty time for myself and made a whole bunch of stuff i really love! k, i'll stop talking and just share now!

i made this guy using some bunnies leftover from another project that i'll be sharing on the store blog friday. it's just a quickie bright spring card, i blogged the directions and supplies over at the store blog on monday.

nicole snapped this photo of me on our little overnight to london and i pretty much fell in love with how perfectly london-y it feels!

this was a lift of a layout anam did for my minds eye. i almost always am a little stuck when i just get back to scrapbooking, so doing one layout from a lift or sketch usually helps me get comfortable enough to go my own way on the next bunch of layouts. i'm totally in love with the "quite contrary" collection from mme so i loved being able to get a whole bunch of the papers onto the layout without it being too overwhelming. the little girl is a "pure innocence" stamp that i copic-ed & paper pieced to match me.

nicole & i had such a lovely, gorgeous afternoon at the bristol city farm and i love how the pictures turned out. when "garden variety" arrived from cosmo cricket i knew it was a match made to be, haha. usually i don't love anything too theme-y, but i couldn't turn down those adorable veggie dudes! the little grass border is made of sushi grass that i held onto from my bento box dreamer days because i knew it would be perfect for something!

i'm going to try to keep up the crafty momentum this spring! here's to hoping i have lots more to share weekly!

a spring to do list...

... because i officially deem it spring simply because i just can not take any more winter! but first, let's check in on how i did with my autumn check list.

not the worst ever, i was wearing heels more than ever before in the beginning of autumn. i'd say i crossed booking my bristol trip +. perfect fall boots have been attained (even if it did happen in the winter). 3 shows is a pretty poor showing but it's almost to 5 right? i didn't get enough harvest moon for my taste, but it did happen.

and now, on to spring's edition, i'll try to remember to work on this one a little more diligently!

p.s. that first notepad is from boygirlparty and the second is from knock knock. go check out all their awesomeness for all your list needs!

the conclusion...

... to my england & more trip, in case you were dying to know how the rest of it played out, in enhanced daily facebook status update form (i filled in some gaps & added links to photos and videos all over!

day six: dublin: rhian & i rushing to our gate & getting snagged at security because we were more than a little sleepyeyed from our 2 hours sleep, a super early arrival in Dublin, a bacon butty for breakfast, a long walk to tour the Guinness storehouse and enjoy the crazy sick 360degree view of dublin from the sky bar while having the freshest of fresh pints, we snagged lots of photos at Dublin castle, st. patrick's cathedral & trinity college along the way, Guinness stew for lunch & a little nap in our overl toasty hotel room on the river liffey. walking around temple bar & grafton street, the most amazing boxty dinner at gallagher's and early jammies & girl talk while we waited for the irish dancing show to be over downstairs because it sounded like they were putting it on in our room, haha!

day seven: dublin/bristol: a delicious amount of sleep, bad irish tellie & a relaxing morning, running to a bus, flying through fog, riding through rain/snow in another bus (i really must tally at the end) and making it back to bristol to have to say goodbye to miss rhian : ( a freshly ready dinner, lots of tea and talk, attempts at blogging, planning for the rest of my stay, some british tellie, back to back skype appointments & passing out sleepy!

day eight: bristol/bath: waking up to bright sun rather than hail and nixing our rainy day bristol aquarium plans in light of the unexpected sunny day. bristol city farm to visit nicole & milo's garden allotment, talk to animals & eat at the cafe. a trip to bath to wander, snap tons of photos & listen to lots of 90's & early 00's pop rap in the car while rapping our hearts out. just barely beating the snow & hail on our beautiful drive home. amazing dinner at planet pizza. dancing & singing along to more 90s hits including veruca salt. skype & sleepies.

day nine: bristol: walking all over bristol and shopping around the college green. working on house party hopes 5: brit edition. preliminary packing. milo's amazing dinner of a chicken roast with gravy, potatoes & parsnips, stuffing and steamed carrots & broccoli. more glee, i now have nicole & milo properly addicted. unbelievable sleepypants.

day ten: wales: roadtrip with nicole to wales & conversation so good we didn't even notice we hadn't even had any music on until we were arriving. rhian, dan & zoe picking us up after i purchased more randoms at sainsbury's. a beautiful, hilly drive to swansea to walk on the beach & up and down the awesome & relaxin winding, hilly trails with nicole, rhian, dan & zoe to see as much as we could see. lunch/dinner on the pier followed by the best ice cream ever. a quick visit to the falling mumbles castle. tea at rhian & dan's and some conversation & photo swapping before our trip back to bristol to pack my things for my journey home.

day eleven: traveling: a just-about-teary goodbye with nicole at the bristol bus station as i headed out for my full day's journey via bus, express bus & airplance back home where i was so psyched to have the boy waiting for me just outside of customs. i managed to watch the first period of the usa v. canada hockey game before jet lag set in and bedtime came at just 9:30 est, haha.

i had an amazing time and am so fortunate to have awesome friends like nicole & rhian who took me in and out & about for what ended up being an awesome 3 country tour of a little slice of europe! it was so nice to come back to home & the kitties though. definitely the perfect length of time for the trip. so amazing. lot's of scrapping to come!

oops-it's-no-longer-friday five #19

01. ryvita - i am now obsessed with these crackers. rhian & i are quasi-planning on me sending her boxes full of lucky charms in return for her sending my boxes of ryvita pumpkin seeds & oats. so crazy yummy, especially with hummus spread on them!

02. whip it! - i was kind of nervous to see this since i really wanted to love it, but had heard mixed reviews of it but i did in fact love it like crazy. i definitely recommend it to any and all of you. love ellen page and love, loved kristen wiig.

03. new shout out louds - the shout out louds are one of those bands who i wouldn't necessarily think of listing in my favorite bands but i'm not quite sure why. i consistently love every album they put out and they're good, easy listening when you're around the house or on a long car ride. their new one, "work" is no exception.

04. graham carter - nicole and i saw a bunch of graham carter's work in an awesome little gallery in bath, england and kinda fell in love with it. i especially love his prints on wood.

05. st. pat's game - so stoked on the st. pat's devils game! we finally got our tickets (along with tickets for the april 2nd blackhawks game)! the devils will be wearing their old school green & red jerseys and hopefully my st. pats devils shirt will come in time to be worn to the games! here's hoping the break did the devils some good and the games are awesome.

house party hopes 5: brit edition

i will actually already be at heathrow on my way back to the states when this publishes, so we'll call it an ode to this journey, haha. it was mostly worked on while i've been here, which explains the shorter than normal track listing, i've just been doing too many things! anyway, enjoy what there is!

01. "this too shall pass" by ok go

02. "run" by vampire weekend

03. "sun hands" by local natives

04. "souls of gold" by sister crayon

05. "fences" by phoenix

06. "rome" by yeasayer

07. "i start to run" by white denim

08. "i like you so much better when you're naked" by ida maria

09. "all is love" by karen o and the kids

10. "there are listed buildings" by los campesinos!

11. "fix up, look sharp" by dizzee rascal

12. "air force ones" by nelly

friday five #18

01. skybar - rhian & i really, really lucked out with the most beautiful dublin weather on wednesday! and, because of our early (read: operating on 2 hours) flight, we had already done and experienced and absolute ton by lunch time, including a little turn about the guinness storehouse that ends in a free fresh guinness at the skybar, which is atop the storehouse with a complete 360 degree view of dublin from above. it was beyond beautiful, as evidenced in the reflection of the sky in the mirror topped table my expertly poured guinness was resting on. (also, look at this stop motion video rhian made. it causes me to explode into a semi-violent giggling fit.)

02. shreddies - i've been having these for breakfast just about every morning since i landed! they are kind of a denser version of wheat chex with a slight sweet taste, almost like a really light honey. super delicious. they may very well be added to my short list of foods that will have to start being shipped to me in the states. also, are you ready for the cutest bit? they're tag line is, "knitted by nanas!"

03. olympic hockey - this is officially the first time i've ever actually cared about anything olympic related, and it is just about completely impossible to see any of the olympic hockey games here in england. grr to that business, but yay to the fact that i've at least been able to follow the scores in real time thanks to the scorit app and team usa is winning across the board! the boy is recording all of the nasty match-ups on sunday, and you can trust that i will be watching them as soon as humanly possible upon my return to the states.

04. tea - i've only ever been a tea drinker as a last ditch effort to stave off illness... until bristol happened. maybe it's the chill i know is just outside the window, maybe it's being surrounded by interesting boxes of tea, or maybe it's simply in the air here! i'm finding it cozy, comforting and actually even pretty yummy. my favorite at the moment is clipper's organic nettle tea.

05. bristol city farm - it was supposed to be hailing today so nicole and i were readying ourselves for a day spent at the blue reef aquarium here in bristol, but what we awoke to was instead a beautiful blue skies kind of day. we threw on clothes and headed out to enjoy it for as long as it would last and our first stop was the bristol city farm! nicole & milo have a little allotment here where they work their own little bit of garden and have some veggies & such. there is also a little cafe there that serves amazing food made with ingredients grown in the allotment. and obviously i'm a fan of anywhere i can pet pig noses, talk to whooly sheep and visit with sweet little baby cows! we also went to bath, which is a story for a whole 'nother blog entry.