Dreams of India, mini

I created a kit for my shop called Dreams of India. Obviously very inspired by the colors of India, but there's a story behind this kit too!

Last summer, while roaming up and down the isles of an antique store, I found an old package of vintage tin elephants. I knew I had to have them, even if at the time I had no idea what I would ever do with little painted metal elephants, they were just too unique to pass up. So, the elephants have sat in the bottom of an old suitcase, just waiting for the perfect idea to come along, for the past year.



Then..... last month, while sitting in a waiting room, there was a local photographers work , on exhibit, against one of the walls. Her photos was from a recent trip to India, and one of the most striking photographs was of an Indian elephant in full costume dress. Bright flower leis draped around it's neck and layers of textured blankets covered it's back. It was truly one of the most beautiful photographs I've seen lately, and the perfect inspiration I needed to put together a mini scrapbook!

It really is true, inspiration can be found anywhere!!









I would have loved using this kit as a travel journal,... but since we visit the zoo so often, I decided to make mine an animal themed mini and use a mix of photos. I just have to add a little journaling and a few more photos and then it should be complete!

I only made 3 of these kits, mainly because I only had an extra 3 tin elephants. I'll be adding these to my shop tonight at 7pm my time (mountain time.) Since I've had more people ask for a kit, than I have actual kits, I decided not to hold any of them and just to put them in the shop. ((I have a terrible guilty conscious and would feel bad if someone thought I was playing favorites. Sorry!))

Kitschy Sale!! Granny's Attic

Just wanted to share Kitschy Digitals one-buck Wednesday. This is one of my favorite kits that Danielle has designed, and what's not to love about so many pretty flowers!



happy shopping!

A giveaway this afternoon!

It took me awhile to decide on what I should be giving away this week. :) I'm so indecisive! But, then I started to think, because there are so many Birthdays this week, it would be fun to do a giveaway of one of my Paper Garlands. They're bright and festive... perfect for a birthday week giveaway!



Here's my question for you: What would your perfect Birthday consist of? How would you want to celebrate?

My perfect day would look a little something like this;

1. Road trip to Sedona with U2's Joshua Tree cd playing the whole way up there.
2. Hiking the West Fork Trail, through Oak Creek Canyon
3. Chinese food for dinner
4. Watching the sunset on the red rocks.




I'll choose a name on Friday!! good luck!

a sneak before bedtime..

I had originally planned to re-open in May, after all of our house guests had finished visiting.... but then I just got busy. I figured, opening the store for a little while should keep be busy and preoccupied for the remainder of the month! :)

So, there are just a handful of new things, a few kits I made with some vintagey finds at the local antique store, and some pretty handmade paperish things. :)











If you haven't checked out this giveaway on the Elles Studio Blog, please go visit them now!! There are so many sponsors and chances to win something lovely! and what grand re-opening would be complete without a giveaway or 2 of my own? :)) more about that on Tuesday!

I'm retiring early tonight, Alaina's first day of school is tomorrow, bright and early, and I have a big apt. myself in the morning too. night*night*

a giveaway from With a Twist

Hi all! I'm hosting a giveaway right now on the Elles Studio Blog. I'm also apart of the free Journaling Class that's being offered, through their blog as well, this month!

and..... I'm going to reopen my store, but just for a few weeks!!



I'll be back tonight to post sneak-peek photos!

a lazy Saturday afternoon

I love Saturdays. It's the start of the weekend, and my cleaning day. Laundry, mopping, dusting and vacuuming. I plugged in my oil warmer, and I have Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin oil, warming right now. I think my next purchase will be the Kitchen Spice, Autumn and maybe Vanilla Lavender oils. The best part of Saturday's is that there are usually great family friendly movies on tv. We watched Parent Trap this afternoon, but my favorite Sat. movie is You've Got Mail. I love cute movies!!



Today's Saturday is extra special, it's Peter's birthday today! Chase helped me make brownies this morning and Alaina helped with the gift wrapping. Those 2 are my little elves, always willing to help mommy.





Peter's niece is coming over in a bit, and we're going out for an early dinner date. I love date nights, I get to spend time with my best friend! Happy Saturday!

a thankyou and some new crafty stuff

First, I'd like to say a huge thank you to all of you who phone me, send emails and leave comments, both here and on facebook. I must have the nicest, most sincere group of women surrounding me, and not a day goes by that I don't think of how lucky I really am.

I've spent most of the day, on the phone, with cancer centers/hospitals, oncologists, pathology departments, family and neighbors and even Peter's clients. The phone has finally quieted and it's given me some time, this evening, to reflect and think about all of the conversations I've had today. From Mayo Clinic, with one of the most compassionate women I've spoken with, to my grandpa who had a stroke the day before my surgery in June. (Gramps also has 3 cancers, so we talked for awhile about the different cancer centers here in Phoenix and the bedside manner of various oncologists.)

It's easy to feel alone when something unexpected happens, but then I find myself in the middle of this huge group of people who only want the best for me. People who call, just to see if there were any updates this week and when my next apt. is. It's kind of ironic, the fact that ordinarily, I'm a very shy and private person. I'm not use to the phone ringing so much, or people wanting to know my current health status.... I'm not sure how much everyone wants to know, so I try to keep things simple, tell everyone I'm doing good, just getting ready for the next surgery and then the wait for the next set of path reports to come back. I'll admit, sometimes I'm a little weirded out by all of the questions.... but then I try to have a sense of humor and laugh about the awkward moments. :) (That's my new favorite word, awkward, I say it alot when I get off the phone...especially lately.)

So, that brings me to the photo part of this post. We've had our neighbors and friends already volunteering to make us dinner and watch the kids for us, after my surgery. (Who knew that having a hysterectomy would come with dinner and a babysitter! It's almost like having a real date with Peter!)




So last week, I started making little giftbags filled with pumpkin spiced candles and cinnamon pecan swirl candles. I'll give them away as thankyous to our visitors, but I thought it was an ingenious idea to make them now so they're all ready come next month! Hopefully our friends/family love autumn scented candles as much as I do!! If not, I guess I'll be forced to keep all of the candles and the super cute little gift bags. :)) (insert tooting my own horn *here*)






(all of the pink and red leaves are from Kitschy Digitals. Those are my absolute favorite go-to scrap item for everything I create!)

If you're still reading this, thankyou! I have a question for you... What else could I purchase as a thank-you gift? I realize that not everyone appreciates candles, so I'm trying to think of something small and simple that I could give away. Any ideas?? ~ Hope everyone is having a lovely week so far!

a guest for Simply ATC

Just wanted to share something fun tonight! My friend Angie has started a brand new challenge blog called Simply ATC. It's all about inspiration and making little ATC's and then getting to trade them with other ATC enthusiast's. There's even a Flickr Group, just for the ATC's everyone has created. Sounds cool right!?!

So, when Angie told me the first challenge was going to be inspired by Tim Burton's, Alice and Wonderland, I couldn't say no! This very first challenge is all about Alice's' pretty dresses, and Avril Lavigne's song 'Alice.' (Alaina and I listen to that song for hours while I created all of my ATC's! :))

I decided to make 4 ATC's total, although you only need to make one to swap with :)) I can get a little carried away when I like what I'm creating!! For these first 3 cards, I was so in love and completely inspired by the red & black dress Alice wore.

The Queen



The End



Wonderland



This last card was a half and half. I loved one of Alice's blue dresses, but I also wanted to incorporate Avril's song. After much wishy-washiness and rearranging, I finally decided to write down some of the lyrics to the song, and tuck the little note in a pocket made of tulle.

just pretend



If you have a chance, you'll have 2 weeks to create one Art card, play along with us!! I'll be trading one of my messy-sewn-little-art cards with someone special at the end of the 2 weeks. :)

Coffee Milkshake - recipe

**Just wanted to add my email here, I know Julie is looking for me!! email is rosas07@msn.com Feel free to email me! I also owe a few people an email today too.**

Let me first say how much I love Facebook! I wish my blog had some type of feature where I could send a reply to your comments, but so far, Facebook is my best friend. A few nights ago I had posted on fb about making coffee milkshakes for dessert. I'm not a huge fan of ice cream, but once or twice a year, I have a craving for coffee and ice cream! I've been making these milkshakes since high-school and they are still a favorite of mine. :)

So Danielle, this recipe is for you!!



Coffee Milkshake
makes 1 lrg. milkshake or 2 smaller milkshakes

ingredients
5 scoops of French Vanilla Ice Cream
1/3 cup strong cold coffee
1/2 TBLS. of Coffee Drink Mix (I really like this coffee mix by General Food International - Cafe Francais)

Directions

1. Pour all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.
2. Serve immediately with a cinnamon stick or chocolate covered coffee beans as garnish.



Hope you like these as much as I do!!

a few of my favorite things

1. Louis Armstrong music
2. Cherry Dr. Pepper
3. sunsets in the southwest



4. back to school shopping
5. craft dates on Sunday
6. play-dates with old friends
7. coffee milk shakes
8. hand-made gift tags


9. old scribbled recipes
10. flocks of doves

HoneyDew smoothie, recipe and a short story

Last week, I mentioned one of my new favs being Honey Dew smoothies! While Jessica was visiting us in May, we went up to this cute little coffee shop, that had just opened in Cave Creek. I saw a Honeydew Smoothie on their menu and just knew I had to have one! It was the greatest drink ever..... well, next to a Iced Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks of course. :)

I made Jessica try some, and although I was much too shy to ask the employees how they made it, Jessica had no issues going right up and asking for me. (Jessica, you're my hero!) and we were appalled to learn that our amazing smoothie was made from a powered mix. Gasp!

So, I received a bunch of emails asking for a recipe last week, and while I hadn't put much thought into creating one, Alaina and I tied on our aprons and went to work developing our own recipe. Here's what we came up with!!



Honeydew Smoothie
makes about 2 large glasses

3 cups or 1/2 a Honeydew Melon, cut into cubes and frozen
1 Tbls. Organic Agave Nectar, or honey
3/4 cup Greek vanilla yogurt
1 Tbls. frozen concentrate apple juice

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth.
2. Serve with mint sprigs or a Honeydew wedge as garnish.



I wanted to point out just a couple of things. :) I froze the honeydew, this way I didn't need to add ice. I think I like my smoothies ice-free, because I'm not a fan of little ice pieces in my drink. Also, unless you live in the Southwest, Agave Nectar maybe more difficult to find, but it has the same consistency of honey and tastes very similar too! I also think that mixing in some chopped mint would be good too, I'll try it the next time we make these. I'll definitely be making more of these throughout the summer!

choices and more choices.

wow, time is really going by fast!! I'm actually very thankful for that! I've been spending a bunch of my time researching and reading up on options. I feel like there has been so much info. handed to me all at once. I'm the kind of person that really needs to read and re-read everything and take time to make choices.

I did want to mention a website that I've found so incredibly wonderful. It's like the clouds parted and sent a ray of light onto a support community/website. (I know, it's a bit dramatic, but it's exactly what I needed to find!) The site is called Hyster Sisters.

The problem with being 28 and needing a hysterectomy is that, while my group of girlfriends are incredibly supportive, I can't ask them for advice with this. (Which I suppose is a good thing for them!) I have so many questions that I want to ask, but what's a girl to do? I probably should have asked here, as I'm sure someone in blogland would have pointed me to this site.

A hysterectomy, is the last thing I thought I'd be making an appointment for at 28. I'm trying to accept the fact that Chase will be my last baby. I think I'm ready to let go of all the baby clothes I've been saving from both kids. I'm giving away all of my maternity clothes, that I saved for the ever hopeful 'just in case pregnancy.' I've tearfully begun the process of cleaning out the house, and packing up all things baby related.

and while I know I should be thankful that my dr. caught this in it's early stage, I'm secretly not. I've been angry, sad.... resentful. (although I'm not sure at who exactly.) But the bottom line, is that I would do anything to stay with my kids and Peter, and if that means loosing a few body parts along the way, well, so be it. Surgery date is in 6 1/2 weeks. We pushed back the date to let me heal from the prior surgery. Good and bad. It just gives me more time to think and clean.

I tell Alaina every day, let's be grateful for what we do have, and not complain about what we don't have. I'll admit, it's much easier said than done, even for me!

I'm determined not to feel bad or sorry for myself. It's just another part of life to deal with. So after this is all said and done, you can bet I'll be advocating Women's Health Month come May and I want to do something in January for National Cervical Cancer Screening Awareness Month. Maybe a fundraiser will be in order, and I can cross that off of my check list!

a smaller list for tonight

just somethings that I love right now:

1. seashells
2. the color coral
3. summer storms
4. baskets of pretty handmade things



5. honeydew smoothies
6. little vintage cameras
7. pink peonies and sunflowers
8. sunflares



9. yellow silk
10. late night talks with my best friend

Saturday Color Combo. #6

I'm back on track with these color combinations!

I was planning on doing a post about 'things I love right now,' and on that list is the color coral or salmon. Not only do I keep seeing this color in design magazines but also in fashion mags, which leads me to think that coral, might just be the next pink. (or at least that's what I'm hoping for!)

This weeks, inspired by summer, color combination is:



Cherry Red - Coral - Wheat Cream - Banana Yellow

my inspiration this week:



and I made a LO too! yay!



My very best girlfriend sent me some wrapping paper from Holland, and it was by far, the loveliest paper I've ever seen! I reluctantly cut out some of the images from the wrapping paper into squares, and sewed them onto my card stock. (Do you have a whole stash of paper that is simply to pretty to use? I certainly do!!)



I used one of the Elles Studio journal cards and a little Wood Grain Frame from Kitschy Digitals. Those frames have such a cute vintage feel to them!



Hopefully you'll love this color combination as much as I did, and if cream isn't your cup-of-tea, swap it with a bright crisp white. Happy Scrapbooking!

today is an anniversary

I've been married to my best friend for 6 years today! It feels much longer than just 6 years, but in a good way. I'd like to think it's because we've fit so much into the past 6 years. :)

and you want to know a secret???

When Peter and I got married, we decided in 10 years we'd renew our vows and have a big wedding/reception closer to home. Last year we chose the perfect place in Sedona, right along a winding creek under a canopy of old oak trees.

So, I've been carefully planning my dream wedding and have been saving ideas for the past years, getting ready for the big event. In light of recent events, I started wondering why should we wait? Why not start planning a big celebration whenever we feel like it? Of course, it would still take me at least a year of planning and organizing but I love the idea of marrying my best friend all over again!

I also decided to finally start that mini I had been wanting to do for so long! Alaina has been asking all sorts of questions lately; how did you and daddy meet?, did you meet in Hawaii?, where did you get married? It seems this is the perfect time to be writing down all of those stories!



I'm going with a 6x6 size. Just something small and cute. I'll fill it with envelopes of all the little notes and cards Peter and have sent each other. Along with the photos and a few scrapbook pages. This should keep be busy for the next few weeks!




I'll be back tomorrow to post the Saturday Color Combo! Happy Friday!