i'm heading out!

just one sleep until i head out for cha in chicago tommorow morning, yay! pray that my travel is easier than it was for last years summer show, haha. i can't wait to hang with kristina, vee and the sis ladies, not to mention all the yummy new product to drool over, plan classes around and order! eep! can't wait! catch you on the flipside (mmm.... must watch boondock saints soon!)

oh, and speaking of movies... just finished watching penelope. i thought it was really cute and her bedroom was total eye candy, not to mention her amazing dress! i def reccomend it for a cute quick flick. the day after i get back from chicago i'm heading to the king of prussia mall with rick, ryan, ian and some other people to see batman: the dark knight at the imax theater, should be fun, even though they are total crazies and want to hang out at the mall for like 4 hours before! haha.

i'm sure i'll have lots of lovely pictures when i come back!

say hello to my current guilty pleasure.

so this is going to be a quicke, but i just had to share this business...

i know i'm not 15 anymore, but i just can't resist this song by metro station. so shameful! it's really the video that did it for me. the singer in the red pants and ninja shirt? i just want to pinch his little cheeks! haha. plus i've always been a sucker for a good dance movie and i guess that applies to videos too!

so, is anyone else out there thinking of going to the all points west festival at liberty state park? i just just heard about it on left of center. it's 3 days, the first weekend in august, and the line-up is pretty killer; css, duffy, mates of state, the duke spirit, radiohead, kings of leon, animal collective, metric, the roots, the virgins, sia, cat power, the secret machines, matt costa, de nova dahl, rogue wave and like 20 others. so, who's down? i have no idea if i'll do all 3 days or what, but in classic festival method, there are at least 2 or 2 bands i want to see each day so it would be really hard to pick just one! eek!

mucho fun in the sun!

so, i spent wednesday night at nicole's enjoying a little impromptu surprise belated birthday celebration while scrapping (she made me my fave cupcakes, funfetti, and got me the cutest little mustard colored purse evs!) nicole of course got some major cute-ness finished and i kind of pushed things around forever and then gave up and pulled some different stuff out and banged out a cutie layout in about 30 minutes. love when that happens!



while i was at nicole's marykate called to see if i wanted to head down the shore the next afternoon for the 4th of july weekend. after a little mental inventory of what clothes i actually had clean i said "of course." so, after a little late night laundry i got some sleep and headed to meet mk at her house and we headed down. maggie rode on my lap the whole way down and mostly just slept.


we had a lot of fun. lots of reading, really awesome food, some beers, a couple of days out on the boat, some mini golf and TONS of fireworks. of course charlie had to set off the professional ones from the back deck and everyone along the lagoon had one type or another. we played a ton of "left, right or center" too! i totallly need to pick me up some of those dice! it's a really fun game to play, especially with a big group. you can play with $3 for a really long time, haha.


so here's a little list-y of things i've been doing, digging on and dieing over;


* rock band for wii- hello! i totally knew i was going to love this! i spent 6 hours singing all the songs at the too of my lungs the first full dya i had it. now to perfect those pesky drums! my highest score songs are def "i think i'm paranoid" by garbage, "say it ain't so" by weezer (that one was bound to happen, i've been singing along to it for 10 + years, haha) and "dani california" by the red hot chili peppers.


* "lamb: or the gospel according to biff, Christs childhood pal" by christopher moore - pure hilarity that is def not for the overly serious! i'll let you know if i still love it when i'm done!


* cute new bags - they're everywhere right now! what's up with that? total torture! i had another one in my hand last night and i just had to say no. i am loving my fossil one though and the bag switching is getting out of control!


* major etsy love - i haven't really been exploring etsy lately, but when i went on to get kristina's awesome mini kit i started doing some browsing and holy heck! i came pretty close to getting myself into some trouble! i got a couple of things though. obviously i needed this typewriter necklace from boygirlparty and i threw it's octopus counterpart in as well. then, while i was on the necklace kick i grabbed this cute bird on a swing! eek! so cute! pluse the custom wallet and business card holders i'll be receiving from dear sukie any day now. seriously though, how could i pass up a wallet made with that beloved sassafras lass dear paper? there was no way! i'll have to blog about the other items i'm lusting after someday soon!


* cha - i've been mentally packing for about a week now, haha. that's not saying that i won't find some things i "need" when i'm in philly tommorow getting my hair did, but y'know. i bought some more travel toiletries yesterday at target. that travel aisle is totally evil! i always end up buying things i will never need because they are cute and tiny! and has anyone else noticed the total lack of peaks this year? i've seen american crafts, pink paislee and a couple of other really tiny peaks, but where are my precious basic grey, hambly and sassafras? the suspense is killing me! also, i have been wondering about a SIS meetup for forever, so i just checked with jj and picked a place and set a date & time, haha. someone had to take the reigns, right?


alright, i'm off to work on my class sample for august. it's one of those projects that i'm so excited about that i just can't seem to really get it done! there is too much pressure with all the cuteness involved! i'm using the prima acrylic build-a-book and the sass "sunshine lollipop" collections with touches of thickers, hambly, bling and bunches of bling!

inspiring a re-do

here's the quickie layout that i was talking about! i love it. so not my normal look, what with the bright colored zebra-type-stripes and all., but it just totally came together and i'm digging it.

so, it's inspired a little bloggie re-do that is already in the works and i'm digging it!

i did end up finishing the curious incident of the dog in the night-time the other day, out on the deck rather than in the grass on the hill, and i really liked it. it was a nice easy breezy summer read but still had some substance to it. the story was quite sad in bits, but the way the boy told the story was a little detatched and it softened the blow a bit

well, off to get ready for work tommorow. i'm debuting my fun new summer dress with the perfect flats and then tuesday means a matinee of wanted with my movie buddy, rick.

i did it!

i've actually kind of been scrapping like crazy the past couple of days! first at the store and then again today at trish's with my sassy scrappers! yes, i have made a couple of minis for store samples, but i've also done 3 layouts for the store and a quickie one that i love, but won't be able to photograph 'til tommorow, for myself.

oddly enough, the past 4 i've done have been 12 x 12, which is a size that i've moved away from mostly until now. i guess all those years of strictly 2 page 12 x 12's burnt me out, but sometimes there is just too much fun to be had on a page for it to be a smaller size!

i've been love, love, loving the october afternoon we finally got in, and mixed with love, elsie woodgrain from the forrest collection? perfect! that little journaling spot there is something else i'm totally in love with lately, a little something spotted in a catalog that we ordered on a whim and it's worked out so well; they're these layered sticker and chipboard mini sets from paper bliss and i can't get enough of them. the set i used here is one of my faves, along with the owls and flowers that remind me of dawn's orla keiley bag! sorry, i can't find a good picture of them online. : ( you'll have to either take my word for it that they're awesome or come by to the store! anyway, i'm also loving the new hambly fancy frames rub-ons and super bright colors, it just seems like the right time of year for those!

let's see... i've been getting some nice outside time, laying on my bright polka dot sheet and reading or chatting in the sun, can't beat that. tommorow the plan is more outside time reading the curious incident of the dog in the night-time (probably finishing it) and listening to some of the newest music on mypod like the ting tings, santogold, my morning jacket, the new-ish maria taylor and the always present mates of state! i've been really making an effort to bring my music collection back to life, until lately it's been getting a little stale but man do i think i'm back in the game now! i wouldn't say no to anymore suggestions though, i do have mucho mixes to work on!

i might get around to a layout one of these days.

so here is some sort of scrapiness, as promised. this little guy over there to the left is a little banner i made using the maya road coster albums and a bunch of the not-so-new-anymore heather bailey papers. can't get enough of those! the coaster books are the best thing ever; cheapy, small and fun to make a mini mini out of!

speaking of mini mini's i finally got around to re-stocking my little etsy shop, left and leaving, with a bunch of little blank storybooks i've been making over the past couple of weeks. just add a title, photos and whatever you want to write and you have your own little storybook.

i've also been getting back into stamping and making my own cards since working at scraptasia. being surrounded all day by adorable woodmounted stamps and acrylic sets i had to start playing again! i've been slowly branching out in the ink department, thanks to dawn, and playing with fun things like glossy accents, flocking and glimmer mists. i used the way to awesome sushi set from a muse and the "get happy" collection from cosmo cricket to make these cards as thank you's and random notes to have at the ready. it was so fun to be playing with colored pencils and coloring again!

i would like to actually get around to making a layout or two at some point soon. it will be kind of interesting to see if my style changes at all since i've been working in all these different formats lately. plus, i've been so out of touch with the online scrappy world lately i'm wonderign what i've missed. what's everyone loving right now? i don't even know. going through my scrap bins to make all the little blank storybooks i unearthed some bits of paper that i really can't wait to use again, that's for sure!

let's see, what else is new? ooh! i'm pretty proud of myself for acting more age-appropriate lately, haha! i've been having almost-dates and meeting friends for nights out followed by diner re-caps and i have to say i'm feeling way more energized and not quite so old, haha! i'm also starting to discover that there might just be some fun new people around here after all!

okay, i'm off to catch up on some bloggies before i finish getting myself together for work tommorow!

are we ready...

... for what will probs be the longest catch-up blog post evs? k, let's have at it then, shall we?

umm first of the national stationary show in the city with nat and k was pretty much an inspiration overload. here are some of my fave sightings, in no order at all;

* whigby = a teeny little company from canada who make the raddest graphics ever seen on wrapping paper. my faves? obvs "the birds of whig harbor" & "they came from planet whig."

* motormouthpress = the creators of the "letterpress birdies series," cute little cheeky conversating birds in cute little bird houses, cupcake shops and such. they also make a couple of really rad self-mailers!

* paper + cup = adorable married peeps who make totally drool-worthy items such as; these completely lovable photo insert journals with twitterpating line drawn silhouettes that slide over pretty picces. and also, the bon bon button cards because you know i can't say no to a good button badge, my fave is the kisses card with the "essence of kisses" button.

* dee & lala = some really adorable card series sets, my faves being "watch and learn" and then it's a toss up between "follow the leader" and "pet shop collection." you decide.

* elum = purely beautiful, timeless, breathtaking lovliness that totally knocked our socks off the second we entered their booth and then again when they gave us their entry to the calendar, so yum! the four seasons calendar must make its way into my little nest asap. also, feel free to lust after just about all of their newly released cards while i plot a way to be able to afford to send out all elum letterpressed holiday cards this year! also, imagine how psyched i was when i received the julie west letterpressed print i had ordered a week or so previous to the show and realized that it was printed by elum!

* egg press = one of my many dream jobs, letterpress company based in portland, i'm totally destined for that city, who make hilarious and also adorbs things like; the woodgrain collection, cutesies onesies, which seems to be a common thing for stationary companies to branch out too, and about 25+ other awesome cards that i can't find pictures of on the internets.

* whimsy press = such major love that we're figuring out a way to maybe bring them into the store, and to hold me over in the meantime, i already received my own little package of lovliness from them, including bunches of gift wrap, awesome sticker tags (two of which in each set don't have "to and from" and are perfect for journaling spots) & i've already been rocking my "it's good to be green" tote and i'm not going to lie, i'm still lusting after the "be green not mean" tote as well. and all that rad-ness doesn't even touch on their super amazing ocassion cards! if i really, really like you, you may be catching one of these in your mailbox at some point! : p

* night owl paper goods = falling further and further in love with the company kristina introduced us all too with the "hello" card in her SIS kit. my faves this time around were the blank wood cards, wood calendar and this hip looking owl.

i had a lot of fun hanging out with miss natalie for a few days before she left on her crazy awesome adventure in taiwan. so missing her already though! i keep pickig up the mobile to call her on my way home from work or text her about something exciting and, alas, no nat! so psyched for her though!

okay, on to other things... let's see... umm ooh! i went with rick, ryan & ian to see "the strangers" a couple of weeks ago, all terrefied out of my mind because i'm a total baby about scary movies, and then nothing! not that scary! mostly because they show you too much and so it's not creepy and also because the scariest part was paying full movie price for a movie that was only 1 hour and 10 minutes long! wtf? at least we got to check out the overnight shooting of transformers 2 that was going on over at bethlehem steel, or atleast tried, haha. they had such crazy lights that this is about the best shot i got. that's rick and ian walking towards the set.

i've been really making an effort to actually go out and do things lately, rather than stay home because it's easier or i feel self-concieus. i have always known that i have fun once i'm out there, but it's sometimes hard to make myself get out in the first place. so there have been houseparties, scrap nights, walks and laying in cool grass and other fun things that make me not feel quite so old!

speaking of old, i'm officially getting there! i turned 26 on the 5th and it was a pretty rad day. my mum was refusing to tell me what my big birthday surprise was, not even when we got in the car to go there. so, i don't know if i've blogged about this before, but i've been on this kick where i want to be a helicopter pilot really badly. so, sure enough we pull up to sky manor and i get surprised with my very first lesson! it was so completely amazing up there and i even had all the controls on my own for a little bit, while threatening the instructors life if he didn't put his hands back on, haha. we were taking tight turns, following the roads and the poor guy was trying to teach me how to hover too, haha. here's one where i look a bit more confident since i'm back on the ground;

marykate got some pretty awesome shots with our little point and shoots and i'm psyched she was there to send me positive vibes from the ground and snap some pics too.

we hit a crazy delicious mexican 'straunt for my birthday dinner after all in all, i'd say it was a sucessful birthday!

let's see... ooh! cha! dawn is sending me to chicago/rosemont next month to do cha and i'm so psyched to be going again, especially for such an awesome store with such a fun customer base! so, who else is going? where are you staying? who wants to get together? let's figure it out ladies!

here's a question for y'all... laptop or fancy camera? i'm torn between a macbook, which would be my first mac, or a nikon d60. i'm leaning towards the macbook at this point because as much as i love photos, i find that i'm barely pulling my easy to carry point and shoot out anymore so a d60 would be a heck of a toy to leave in it's bag. especially since i just snagged the diana + special edition from urban and ordered some rolls of expired film, a flash & a couple of lens' for it on the lomography website. that might be enough fun with film for the time being. who all has a macbook? do you love it? will i hate the switch from a pc? i know i won't hate the switch from a dell, that's for suresie!

so, since i'm breaking out phrases like, "for suresie" it's probs time for me to head off to sleep. know that i've gotten all of this done i can return to normal blogging! if you've stuck through this 'til now, then thanks! i promise i'll get back to the scrappies asap!

bits of today.

some of my favorite things spotted from the window of the train to philly;

* a mustard yellow couch accompanied by some comfy looking sitting logs next to a rocked in fire pit on the river bank.

* a whole clothesline full of grannie jammies.

* lots of crazy tags.

* a cute little deer bum as the little reddish brown guy jumped back into the forest as the train flew by.

in other, related news... i had a nice little trip to philly to get my hair done today, although it was already too hot in the city for my taste! heading into the city for a haircut is totally worth the super cool atmosphere at american mortals and the fact that heidi always understands just what i want and isn't afraid to tell me when i'm wrong, haha. i'm pretty much in love with my new spring/summer hair color! yay for being an orangehead, or maybe it's carrot stick! obviously this is not the most flattering photo but, like i said, it was a long hot day in the city!

i also snagged the new mates of state cd, "re-arrange us" and i'm already in love with it. you may be thinking, "well duh morgan, you love them!" which is true, but does not make it a no-brainer. i usually don't like new albums from artists i already love, at least not right away. usually i have to come back to them a few months later, at just the right time, and then i fall in love. but, i am loving this one right away! i def suggest it make it's way into your spring/summer rotation!

i also got to have catch up coffee, or atleast coffee shakes, with my friend tim which is just about one of my favorite things to do in the city. gotta love that effortless friendship that just works in its' own little way, y'know?!?

anyway, tommorow i promise to actually type out the stationary show re-cap entry that's been in my head for about a week now, promise!

crashing through the barrier!

yes, it has been like two weeks since i last posted, and yes, i have come up with post ideas just about every day since my last post. for some reason i was just kind of not wanting to get on here and actually get to posting. so here's a nerd-o post to at least get myself back into the swing of things.

here's a little catch up;

* i've really dug stuff
* i've been annoyed by stuff
* i've gone places
* i've made plans
* i've done stuff

okay, now that the catch up is out of the way i can get back to normal blogging tommorow, haha.

i'm at my new job, which i am totally in love with, waiting to teach a class, then i'm heading home to do some last minute cleaning before natalie gets here, yay! can't wait to dive into the fun couple of days i have with this lady, and some special "guest stars" before she leaves us for taiwan!

you know i love a good list.

things i am absolutely loving right now (mostly scrappy);

* the amazing new amy butler "lotus" collection, specifically the "faded china" line. i mean really, the paper is rad enough, but then add the fabric tags and fabric tape, super drool-worthy!

* the "indie art" mini cricut cartridge. i can't wait to cut that casette tape out of woodgrain contact paper!

* love that!" for sure! as soon as i saw this set come into the store i knew i had to have it! i can't wait to sit down and make some little lovelies with it!

* internet radio, i listen to left of center on sirius at work, and thanks to katie i figured out how to use pandora correctly so that it actually mixes up stuff that's similar to a bunch of my favorite bands and i am def embracing it.

* picked up these awesome glimmer chips the other day and i can't wait to play with them. i love that they are embossed and the shapes are so cool. i'll let y'all know how it goes!

* i'm not sure if maya road can do any wrong in my book. the journaling card office sheers, the noah chipboard letters and the really rad houses with books in them, i love the bungalow best!

* the cool mini clear boxes i got at work yesterday. most of my wood stamps actually fit in one. it's nice to not have them falling over everytime i reach for something. although, the fact that i only have enough wood stamps to fill one is pretty surprising. but, i bought three so i guess it's time to fill those babies up! i guess in all my acrylic stamp obsessing i've neglected my wood friends!

* flocking! have y'all seen all the awesome colors it comes in now?!?! i was working on an upcoming class sample and i had totally forgotten how easy it is to use. so now i'm pretty much just deciding what else needs to be fuzzy!

* mix tapes! i'm working on a bunch to swap with different people and i can't wait to finish them up and make fun covers! my fave right now has got to be the "synth love" mix!

alright, i'm off to finish my laundry and work on that class sample, i love when something comes together just the way you envisioned it!