Style Your Space

I recently Took a fun e-course called Style Your Space , and it was fabulous!

I learned so much about displaying items, scale, balance, and composition, color, etc. etc. etc....

It inspired me to do something, but there is so much that needs attention  in our home..so I started small....

One little old chair from Craig's list. I liked the color and shape of it, and it was comfy. It needed some TLC so I gave it a good scrub and got to decorating my space:

I started with decorating a lamp purchased at Kirkland Home for $15...what a bargain! I got my inspiration (OK, totally copied) from Heidi Lynn, one of our awesome teacher at the store. I know say it all the time, but Scrapbooks Etc has the best teachers, classes, fabrics, etc...if you've never been, you really need to go!

Then, Tony repainted my table he made me years ago, and I started setting up my space:

I sewed some super easy pillows to add to the chair:

and my reading nook was complete:

I love it! It was a small step, but I am inspired to continue and do more!

Just Keep Swimming

I am often asked how things are going, with the start of the new business, our recent life changes, etc.

Almost daily I think of Dory and this cute scene from Finding Nemo.

"When Life gets you down, you know what you gotta do...just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..."

I tend to focus on the negative, see the problems in things...but I'm working on it. I am definitely able to see the silver lining in all this too.

Things aren't great, but they're not too bad either.

Just keep swimming....my new Mantra...



[FRAMED]

I have been completely addicted to [FRAMED], an amazing, online photography show. They post a new episode every Tuesday featuring a different photographer. It is really interesting and inspiring!

They have a contest for bloggers to post a "photo that tells a story".

Being a scrapbooker, I feel EVERY photo tells a story!

So, here's mine:

The story this photo tells me is one of blossoming, becoming, changing. My little girl is just between childhood and full on teenager. She is changing from a cute kid, to a beautiful young lady, right before my eyes.

If you are interested in [FRAMED] click this link or follow them on Facebook here or Twitter here.

The above picture was taken of Celeste before attending her friend's Batmitzva. Here is one of her in her dress for this night:

Celeste and her friends had a great time dancing the night away, at what turned out to be quite the party!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Nylon Kites: $10.88 each

Extra string: $3.00

And afternoon at the park with the whole family: Priceless.

Sophie with her butterfly kite

OK, so Blogger automatically turned this photo, so now you can't see how high Celeste got her parrot kite.

All 3 kites at once.

And, FYI, we need to find a new park to fly them, as security informed us there is no kite flying at Tempe Town Lake because it is in the flight path of the airport, OOPS! He was nice enough to tell us as we were getting into our car, a weird end to a fabulous afternoon!

Dream Big

It doesn't hurt to dream big, right?

Alexa wanted to check out a couple of schools on her radar for college.

They just so happen to be private colleges.

Really, really EXPENSIVE private colleges.

And, of course, they were amazing!

We took tours of Pomona and Scripps, both in the Claremont Consortium of colleges.

Scripps had one of the prettiest campuses I have ever seen. In fact it is Forbes rated #4 of college campuses! Every building was unique, the rooms were furnished like they belong in Europe, and the art, fountains, and plants around the campus were gorgeous!

Oh yeah, it's a damn good school too. Amazing courses, 10 to 1 student to faculty ratio, study abroad opportunities, and SO much more.

(Alexa at Scripps)

And then there's Pomona, the largest of the Claremont Colleges. It was equally as impressive and unique. They offer many of the same things as Scripps, on a slightly larger scale. Either of them would be amazing.

So, first step, apply. Step 2, (if accepted) figure out where to get the $53,000.00 a year tuition, room and board....

Oh well, it doesn't hurt to dream big, right?

Snowed In

On our way home from Missouri we were hearing reports of a winter storm coming through. Travel was restricted from Albuquerque, through Amarillo, and to Oklahoma City and beyond. We made  it into OK city on Tuesday, just before the storm, and were able to be "snowed in" with Tony's sister, Nanci:

Tony had not seen her in 8 years! Don't they look alike?

She lives in OK with her kiddos:

Cecelia

and Adrian.

Wednesday was really cold and snowy, with wind chills of -15 degrees. The freeway looked like this:

Thank goodness we were not traveling that day! Instead we were fed homemade enchiladas for lunch, homemade gorditas for dinner (believe me these are nothing like taco bell!), and entertained by Nanci's grandkids Alejandra:

And Audrina:

They instantly took to me, Tony, not so much! 

and here is just a fun picture of me by a huge pile of snow, brrr!

By Thursday there were still warning of dangerously cold temperatures with the windchill, but the roads were clear so off we are on our way home again.

Red Velvet Art

Tony has been gone since Jan 1st working in Missouri. I decided to fly to St. Louise to meet with the customer and drive home with Tony. One bonus, I could go to Red Velvet, located on Commercial street in an old part of Springfield, MO. It is owned by Elsie who's blog I have been reading for years. Her store is full  of vintage dresses, art, handmade items, and a cupcake bakery. Well, we made it there:

Here I am just outside, but...

As you can see the open sign is not lit up and the hours say they are open Tuesday-Saturday...It was Monday...oh no!

I was so bummed! No trying on vintage dresses, none of Emma's (Elsie's sister) cupcakes or bubble tea, no fun shopping, and no Elsie! Such a bummer! But, just inside was Elsie working on a new display for the next day, and what does my {usually very shy} husband do? He waves her over and she opens for us! What a sweetheart. She chatted with us for a minute, and was so kind to pose for a picture. I got to take a quick peek into her store and it is ADORABLE! It was not quite the experience I was expecting, but how sweet of Tony to get me that opportunity to meet her:

If I am ever in MO again I will be sure to stop in during business hours, but I will never forget this experience.