Fun News

Go HERE now:) The lovely and talented Miss Moki is featured on the CRAFT blog today!! How awesome is that!!!

On my first day of vacation (yesterday) I got up at 6:30!!!! Doesn't my body know that I get to sleep in for the next 8 days! I got tremendously far on my list of chores to get done though so I am all that much closer to being able to craft and work on getting my scrapbooking stuff organized for the L.O.A.D. challenge I am participating in.

And for those of you that got a copy of our family newsletter....I alluded to a new calling at church and today it is official. I was released as Relief Society pianist and called to serve in the Cub Scouts as a den leader. My co-den leader is my dear friend Carla so that is going to be really exciting. I know nothing about scouts, other than occassionally going to a scouting function with my little brothers so we'll see how this goes! I have my first official meeting on Wed night. I still have my calling at Ward Music Chairman too.

I mentioned quite a while ago that I did a gift exchange for Christmas with my local ATC group - here are the gifties I received.

A tortilla warmer, fortune cookie coasters and lavendar sachets from sweet Louise:


Ornaments and magnets made from Raine's awesome photography, two charms from Leau - I hung one on the tree and I am going to put the other on a necklace, Christmas earrings from vintage postage stamps from Donna and a really cool bird ornament also from Louise:

A handpainted silk scarf also from Donna and two fabulous quilted hot pads from Colleen - I told her they were too pretty to use as hotpads and I am going to instead hang them on my mini quilt wall (which I haven't put up yet - but it's on my to do list):

These ladies just ooze talent!!! I am so happy to be able to associate and be inspired by each one of them.

And be sure to leave Moki a comment at how excited you are that she is famous!

Scrappy!

Yes, I am still a scrapper....very rarely though! But I am going to get my butt in gear cause I signed up for ScrapHappy's L.O.A.D. challenge - read all about it here:):)

I also made a layout a couple days ago that I am really happy with:)

This is the picture we sent out in most of our Christmas cards this year - I ordered 100 and ended up with over 120 on my card list this year so not everyone got one:( Next year I will order more!!!

Cold

It's 7 degrees outside....do I really have to leave the warm cozy house to make the trek to work??? Luckily, only for one more day. I have the next 9 days off but today is going to be a real humdinger trying to finish up a bunch of projects so that I can actually relax and not worry about work.

Miss S

I find it so cool that Miss S got 7 comments on her 7th birthday post!! Jacki and LauraJ guessed right - the post title was inspired by Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band - "It was 20 years ago today, Sgt Pepper taught the band to play" - so keep your eyes on the postman ladies:) A little goodie will be heading your way soon:):)

Merry Merry Christmas

We had a delicious ham dinner last night with two good friends, then we spent the evening walking through Old Town Albuquerque to see the luminarias. It was beautiful! There was no way I could capture it with my camera, so here's some photos I lifted from an Albuquerque website and a little of the history of luminarias.



"The glowing brown sacks that adorn Albuquerque walkways, churches and homes each holiday season are called luminarias and date back more than 300 years. The New Mexican tradition began when the Spanish villages along the Rio Grande displayed the unique and easy to make Christmas lanterns, called luminarias to welcome the Christ child into the world. A traditional luminaria is a brown paper bag, which has been folded at the top, filled will a couple cups of sand and a votive candle."

There are literally thousands of luminarias lining the streets of Old Town and the adjacent neighborhood. It was very cool to walk around and see them.

Then when we got home, Miss S opened up some new pajamas and we set out a plate for Santa:) Then off to bed!! I couldn't believe that it only took Miss S about 5 minutes to fall asleep. Must have been all the walking in Old Town:)


Some of the Christmas loot!! We had a fabulous time opening presents! See that Widmer box? Hubby's best friend from work bought him a mini keg of Heineken and it was in that box - I seriously think that was the hit of his Christmas:) What cracks me up is he was excited about beer and I was excited about the new scripture markers I got in my stocking:)

Miss S was again totally spoiled, as was Mom and Dad too:) We have lots of fun gift cards to spend next week too! I have Dec 29 through January 6 off and I'm looking forward to going to the mall and spending some of our gift cards:):) Thank you everyone!


Now we're off to do a little gift exchange with some dear friends, then to my brother's for a steak and shrimp dinner - YUM!!!! Hubby does not like to leave the house on Christmas but it wasn't hard to convince him with a steak and shrimp dinner on the menu:)

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!! And remember that the true meaning is not the gifts, though they are nice:), it is the time spent with family and loved ones and the remembrance of our Savior's birth.

It was 7 Years Ago Today*

December 23, 2000

December 23, 2007

Happy birthday to my sweet Miss S!!

*Name the song this title was inspired by and you'll be entered in a giveaway of "a little something handmade" - I haven't decided what yet:) - in honor of Miss S's birthday.

Success

Miss S's birthday party was a smashing success! I was telling my sister tonight that Miss S made out like a bandit! She sure has some generous friends:)



Look at all the cuties in their pjs.

The girls had so much fun!! The party went a little like this:

Story time (The Mitten)
Breakfast: OJ and French Toast Sticks
Activity: eye masks (made from patterned fun foam) and a scrapbook page signed by all the girls
Presents
Cake
Activity: Nail painting

We got Miss S High School Musical 2 as one of our gifts to her so the girls watched part of that while they took turns getting their nails painted and waiting for their parents to pick them up.

I've gotten away from doing the traditional goodie bag (a bunch of stuff that ends up getting tossed anyway!!) so for the last couple years we've been giving away books as a little thank you to the guests from Miss S. I did that again this year, and I had little Hello Kitty notebooks for the older girls that came. So each guest went home with their crown, the eye mask that they made and a book or notebook. I buy the books throughout the year through Scholastic - each month they have one or two books that are on special for $1.00 so I buy several of those every few months. I'd love to hear any great ideas you have for "goodie" bags:)

Slowly but surely...

the kitchen is almost back to normal. Moki's brother-in-law is my new hero. Mark came over Tuesday night and fixed the cabinets for us and tonight I put the last few things away. Just in time for Miss S's birthday party tomorrow:) We're keeping it simple and low key this year. She wanted to do a sleepover but I think she is still too young for that so we are doing a "Sleepless sleepover" - the girls will all come in their pajamas and bring their sleeping bags and we will have breakfast together (OJ and French toast sticks), a couple craft projects, a game and cake.

Then I hope to spend the rest of the day finishing up the last few packages that need to go out by Monday. Here's a peek at one of the presents that I made for my BFF, Tammy. A simple shell stitch scarf. I made it extra long so she can wrap it around a few times.

Chaos

Last month our microwave quit working, and about 2 weeks ago our oven stopped working. When I got online to schedule a service call I learned our dishwasher had been recalled. Why do bad things always happen in threes??? Today the repairman came and fixed all three...the bill was $342 for the microwave and oven and I guess I should be thankful that the repairman waived the $75 service call fee...and I'm extremely thankful to have a fully functioning kitchen again. I was getting sick of pasta (the stove top still works) and heating up stuff in the little $30 microwave we bought at Target to get us through until we got the microwave fixed.

While the repairman had the microwave taken down from above the oven he commented that our cabinets were coming apart from the wall...and he was right. There's a good two inches between the tops of the cabinets and the wall - I've got a kitchen full of leaning tower of Pisa cabinets. Hubby unloaded almost everything in the cabinets and then promptly left for hockey.

This is the kitchen that I came home too - the rest of the dishes are stacked on the table. What a sight. Just when I was finally conquering some of the clutter around the house, this happens. I have a church get together tomorrow night so we probably won't get the cabinets reinforced until Wednesday. Then I've got two days to clean everything up before Miss S's birthday party on Saturday morning. Holy cripes almighty, I think I'm going to have a panic attack. Please send me calm thoughts to help me get through this week!!

Production Line

I finished my ornaments for Amy's Ornament Exchange...sweet and simple crocheted flowers. I love how they turned out, but I hope the recepients are not disappointed with the simpleness of them. I had wanted to do snowflakes but after three failed attempts, I fell back on my little flower.


My ATC trade group met yesterday and this month we added a little gift exchange for those that wanted to participate. 7 of us did. I made these scarves (the cream is a linen blend) for the other ladies and I came home with some awesome presents. I have so many pictures to take and post!

These were so easy to make and they have such a wonderful Japanese vibe to them. I bought enough linen to make 6 more so that is on my to-do list this week:) I sewed all yesterday afternoon and had a wonderful time until I ran out of every lick of cream. white, and light grey thread that I own. I seriously have emptied 5 spools this last week with all the sewing that I have been doing. So I might have to make an emergency run to Joanne's after church for thread.

I love Santa!!

Especially our local mall Santa - the beard and the hair are the real deal. He's been working at our mall for the last several years and you can tell that he just adores the children. Each year the mall hosts a breakfast with Santa - there's donuts and juice, then Santa mingles, and takes the time to talk to each child individually and pose for a photo. He is exactly what I picture in my mind when I think about Santa. Miss S's requests were "I want a Barbie and a new puppy"....I'm pretty sure she will get a Barbie:) but the new puppy will most likely be a stuffed one:)


I love this little girl so much...she is growing up so fast!! She'll be 7 in exactly 19 days (December 23) and tonight at dinner she picked out her guest list for her birthday party on the 14th. She cracks me up....she had at least 20 kids she wanted to invite and I made her pare down the list a little bit. Hubby already said he's going out that night:)

For My SISTV Secret Santa (or Catch Up Post #2)

OOHH....I am getting SO excited!! As I've mentioned before I'm particpating in the SISTV secret santa swap....I SO highly recommend this site if you are a scrapbooker - it is awesome:) And one of my dearest friends is on the design team (GO Kerry Lynn!!)

So my secret santa sent me this secret message:

Anonymous said...

Hey Raesha, You are the most voracious crafter--my wheels are turning...a couple more questions for you: tell me more about what kind of patterns you like on your fabrics. Also, can you post a pic of your craft space on your blog so I can see how you work? And are you a tea/coffee/cocoa drinker? Santa is fine-tuning your list! But I certainly don't expect you to wait till Christmas--tear it open, if you must!!

Dear Secret Santa:

Thank you for the lovely compliment:) I'm looking forward to crafting my heart out this weekend:):) I love polka dots, paisley, patriotic, vintage feedsack and any other vintage reproductions on my fabric:):) You totally do not want to see my crafting space right now but I promise in the morning I will take some pictures and post them:) It looks like Hurricane Helga ripped through my desk. I love herbal tea and hot chocolate drinker - I don't do coffee (but hubby loves it:)) I hope that I can wait to open it until Christmas cause I think it will be such an awesome surprise under the tree:)

Love - Raesha

Catch Up Part 1

Welcome to a series of month long posts here at My Love :) Seriously:):) I've decided I'll just do a little bit everyday...wait...I think I already said that...anyhoo...

Here is the bag I made for the November Flickr Bag Ladies Swap - our theme was Party Bag and my partner and I chose pink and black for our colors. I love how this bag turned out. It's not wonky like this picture looks - it was just a little breezy outside when I took the picture:) I made the flower removable so my partner can wear it as a pin too. I filled the bag with some party essentials (mirror, tissue, lotion, etc) and mailed it all the way to sunny Florida. I can't wait to show you the awesome bag Trish sent me!! (It's waiting to be photographed on Saturday when I have some light)

I took Miss S to the park a few weeks ago and took some random shots of her. Now I'm certainly no Moki when it comes to picture taking but I think these turned out okay. I want to send one in our Christmas cards....which one is your favorite? I have about three days to decide which one I want so I can get it sent off to the printers.



And a belated thank you to my sweet Mary Ann who sent a surprise pacakge full of this cool wired ribbon - thank you my friend!!

Little by Little

Here's a peek at some pics from Vegas - I took over 100 pictures!



I'm still so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. Part of it might be my temporary fall of the wagon - I drank Dr. Pepper like it was going out of style all weekend! But it kept me awake and alert during my long drive there and back:)

I have so much catching up to do....but I will eventually post about the awesome swaps I've received lately, Christmas crafts that I'm working on, and I promise to get caught up on your blogs and get back to commenting!! I'm thinking about spending a lunch or two a week at the library getting caught up on my blogs - there's one just a few blocks from the office. I'll have to check it out. Today at lunch I worked on Christmas cards - I'm making about half and using store bought for about half. With a card list of over 100 there is no way I can make them all.

I'm taking it little by little...each night I'm doing a few things and I hope to be caught up sometime next week:)

Me

Tired.
Happy.
Home.

Monday, Monday

Two days until Miss S and I leave for Vegas...I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I wrapped the last of the gifts, well almost - I have a few more that I am picking up tonight from Moki - and my packing is half done.
Work is crazy busy - but my house is clean and almost all of the laundry is done. That makes me happy.
I sent off a bunch of little packages today - ladies, your Recipe Challenge prizes are FINALLY on the way:)
And I sewed:

Some skull and roses pouches and a skull apron...more gifties (I made these last weekend)!


A purse for my Flickr Bag Ladies swap - our theme this month was party bag and my partner and I chose black, white and pink for our colors. I'm thrilled with how this turned out. I cut another one out and I might make a few more for Christmas if I have time. It's the perfect little bag for party essentials:)



My awesome package from my SIStv Secret Santa - I can't wait to use all these goodies. The Starburst are already gone. I ate them while I was wrapping presents yesterday:)




And Yuki - sunbathing while I was cleaning the kitchen. I had the dog's bed outside while I cleaned the floor and washed the cover to the bed. She cracks me up.


Lastly - look what opened in Albuquerque on Friday? Guess who spent their lunch hour there? Oh my - I was in heaven. Good thing I only had $20 bucks on me or I could have gone crazy. Best thing was they already had a little clearance corner:)

I am WAY behing on reading all your blogs, and answering emails. I hope you'll forgive me for just a bit longer. I don't plan on doing much computer wise while I'm in Vegas:):)

Craft Love

I was so excited to win a couple giveaways this month from my fellow bloggers. These two packages both arrived today. First - some wonderful goodies from Rebecca at Thrifty Goodness for her 200th post giveaway - I love it all!! Vintage papergoods, table linens, ribbon, a copy of adorn and so much more! Thanks Rebecca!


And from Miss Stephanie I received a beautiful pin that she crocheted along with a prototype for an ornament swap she is participating in. Steph - I did that swap last year and it was awesome! I already put the pin on my coat and the ornament is hanging on my bulletin board until I get the Christmas tree out:) Thanks Stephanie!


I spent a good part of today hanging out with Moki, Nikki and Nikki's mom working on some Christmas crafts. Moki supplied all the supplies and a yummy lunch. It was so cool to see how our shadow boxes turned out - all 4 of us had very different results and it was fun to see our individual styles coming through in them:) I made my first peggy - we laughed that she looked like "Pat" (from SNL) until I added a bow to her hair - then she became Patricia:)

I have yet to take pictures of the sewing I have done this last week - everything is in the bedroom and Hubby is already asleep so I don't want to sneek in there. Plus the lighting's horrible since it is the middle of the night:)
Finally, I received an awesome package from my SIStv Secret Santa - oh my!! I seriously got a little teary eyed when I opened it - I'll take pics of that too tomorrow. AND Secret Santa - I normally sign my work "Raesha" :)

Three Hours

Miss S passed out on the couch tonight at about 9 and I took advantage of finally having control of the tv remote:)
I watched the premiere of this:

Two episodes of this:

And an hour of this:


I am going to have some WEIRD dreams tonight!!! What a combination!

More Veteran's Day Love

I was rereading a post I did last year for Veteran's Day and I wanted to mention these awesome men again. And because my sis and I were talking about the servicemember's in our family on my drive home from work today

Happy Veteran's Day to:

Ray Terry - Air Force, Vietnam - my dad
Grandpa Terry - Navy, Korea - my paternal grandfather
Grandpa Holguin - Navy, WWII - Hubby's maternal grandfather
Opa de Ruiter Zylker - Air Force, WWII - Hubby's paternal grandfather
Michael Linderman - Marines, Gulf War (KIA) - my dear friend from high school
Rick Hughes - Navy, Guantanamo Bay - my brother in law
Ian Terry - Army, Iraq - my brother
Grandpa Berry - WWII, the Pacific - my maternal grandfather
Ron Becker - Navy, Vietnam - my stepdad

Mom - what branch of service was Grandpa Berry in??

I'll be back in a few days with pictures of my crafting frenzy from Sunday:)

Lazy Sunday???

Hmm...let's see - what did I do today?

1. Went to church
2. did the dishes
3. vacummed the whole house
4. did two load of laundry
5. finished a little makeup bag - started two more
6. made an apron for a Christmas present
7. hemmed a pair of jeans for a coworker
8. made a patchwork baby blanket for a coworker (my first "real" commission piece:))
9. went to dinner with Hubby and Miss S
10. Seriously checked my email 8 times
11. Seriously checked flickr 8 times
12. Tried to catch up on a few of the 1200+ posts I am behind on in bloglines
13. Texted with my fabulous brother, Ian, for about an hour
14. took the vacuum to my brother, Shay's, house for them to borrow
15. put away the Halloween decorations
16. put up a couple Turkey day decorations
17. finally finished my garland for this month's Sweet Goodness Swap package
18. packed up two swap packages
19. Thought about folding the clean clothes
20. Fed the dogs
21. Ordered a pair of shoes from Nordstroms for Miss S for Christmas - Kenneth Cole's wedge sandals on sale for $16.90 plus $5 shipping - I had a $20 rewards certificate so I paid a total of $1.90 for the shoes:)

I am pooped.

Happy Veteran's Day

Veteran's Day...a celebration to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of county and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good...

Miss S's school had a special celebration on Friday for Veteran's Day - each class was visited by two veterans and they had lots of fun activites throughout the day. The kids created these veteran's walls (this is one of three) and if you look really closely up at the top right...


you'll see the stars Miss S created for Uncle Ian and Uncle Rick - she did these all on her own with no help from Mom or Dad and was so proud at how they turned out.




Saturday night at church we had a special Veteran's Day concert. Miss S sang in the children's choir and I sang with the adult choir. I was really worried because I've had a scratchy throat all week, but I had no problems (must have been all those pleading prayers:)) We also had two special memorial walls....here's Uncle Ian again (SORRY Ian! I don't think I got the dates of service right!) The concert was very cool - we had about 150 attendees.


To all our veteran's - THANK YOU!!!!!!

Finally!!

First, let me apologize to Micol for taking so long to post about the FABULOUS package she sent me!!

I participated in the latest round of Sweetpea swaps hosted by Green Bean Baby - this one was round #7 and the theme was "Something Old, Something New"... I think Micol and I are sisters separated at birth becuase we have so much in common and our tastes are so similar:)

First - all the delicious sweet treats. The Swedish fish are almost gone:)

A beautiful mix of old and new fabrics - I can't to sew with all these!


And even more goodies - Micol made me some awesome soap, crocheted potholder, a cool skinny purple scarf, woven purple squares and the coolest little bag (with polka dots!). She also included a specially made atc and atc blanks (which I've already used all up!!!), a vintage pattern (just about the right size for Miss S) a cool stack of stickers, and she hand dyed some purple yarn for me! This is the first hand dyed yarn I've ever owned!!! I'll have to find something perfect to make from it. And see that little pin on the polka dot bag? That's Micol's logo - SO cool!!!

Thank you for such a wonderful package!! I love it all....and I really love the scarf - I've already worn it to work:)

Yes I know...

I did say I was heading to bed...but the house is so peaceful and quiet that it's nice to have this little time to myself.

I'm participating in the SIS Secret Santa Swap and look at this fabulous message I got from my Secret Sister...

"Hi Raesha in Albuquerque!! I got your list! And lucky for me (& YOU!)--I've got your blog addy too, so maybe you can post a bit about what *inspires* you?? merry merry holidays! your secret santa."

So for my very cool Secret Sister:

Things that inspire me (in no particular order)
quotes
vintage sheet music
vintage greeting cards
pretty much anything vintage
other people's creations
music - especially the Beatles and Jimmy Buffett (what a combination!)
scriptures (I use the King James Version)
Japanese craft books
flickr
acrylic stamps (alphabets and solid stamps)
children's books

Look how fancy I got there centering my list!!

And blogger is cooperating for just a minute so here's the atcs I received from Amy's swap:

Such a cool variety and Amy's swap are always filled with the most talented crafters!!


And here's what I sent...the little BOO pulls out of a pocket I made on the front with the quote.
Certainly not as fantastic as the atcs I received, but I hope the recipients liked them.

Darn It

Blogger won't load my pictures tonight...gggrrr...I'll guess you'll all just have to wait until tomorrow to see the awesome package I receivedfrom Micol and the awesome Halloween atcs I received from Amy's swap:)
I'm heading to bed...the time change is kicking my butt!!!

Help me!!

I am on a big kick to declutter our house....and earn some extra money for my upcoming Thanksgiving trip to Vegas!!!
I have TONS of Longaberger baskets and I'm slowly picking out a few here and there to sell. Before I list them on ebay I thought I'd post them here...email me at raeshadrz at yahoo dot com if you are interested in purchasing any of them. They are all in pretty good condition - just a little dusty and the color weaving on a couple are slightly faded. I have a ton of old fabric garters too that I don't want anymore so if you order a basket, I'll include one of two of them for you:)

1997 Shades of Autumn Bountiful Harvest Basket - with liner and protector $40.00


1998 Father's Day Finders Keppers Basket - with divided protector and lid $40.00

Thyme Booking Basket - with liner and protector $20.00

1998 Picnic Pal Basket with liner and protector - $35.00

1996 Spring Sponsoring Incentive Basket (I earned this basket when I was consultant) - with protector $35.00

1997 Chives booking Basket - with liner and protector $20.00


Large Vegetable Basket with liner and protector - $50.00


1997 Father's Day Personal Organizer Basket - with liner and protector $40.00


1997 Father's Day Personal Organize Basket with over the edge liner and divided protector $40.00 (the elastic pooped out on the liner so that will need to be fixed)


1998 Shades of Autumn Baker's Bounty Basket with liner and protector - $40.00

1996 Shades of Autumn Maple Leaf Basket with liner and protector - $40.00
1995 Thyme booking basket with liner, protector and tie-on - $20.00


Shipping will be extra - these are all fairly big baskets other than the booking baskets so they will most likely be shipped priority mail.