Sunday Blues

I have the Sunday blues....cause tomorrow is Monday and I am NOT looking forward to work. Oh well - it's only five days until the next weekend:)

I actually sewed today - I finally made my March project for my flickr group - Finny and Donk's Sewing Adventures. It was the pintucked table runner and I love, love, love how it turned out. It looks beautiful on our table.



I used linen for the top, and added a little embroidered "home" when I was done. I wanted it to have a really homespun look to it.

Miss S took a marathon 3 hour nap after church today. I cleaned house, and watched an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (with Chris Noth - yum) and two episodes of CSI (William Petersen, George Eads and Gary Dourdon - yum, yum and yum)

Hope you're having a great Sunday!

Worn Out Wednesday

Man, I am pooped!!! I'm so glad tomorrow is Thursday. This week has been crazy at work. I went to a hearing today with one of the attorneys - it was nice to get out of the office for a few hours. I really like going to court.


Photos courtesy of the two awesome trees in my front yard:) I love the blue of the New Mexico sky in the top photo.

Happy Easter!

What a beautiful day today. Church really strengthened my testimony of the resurrection and its importance in our lives. I hope your day was lovely as well. The Easter bunny brought us lots of goodies, and my brother, Shay, came and had Easter dinner with us.

Miss S looked lovely in the skirt I made for her - she happily whirled and twirled for me.



I love the blooms on our trees in the front yard.

I participated in Jessica's Easter swap and I received some AWESOME goodies from my partner, Jennifer.

She made these quilt squares and the little softie for me - he is SO soft!


Yes, the robin's eggs are already opened:)


And here's the package I sent her - isn't it funny that we sent each other a lot of similar items and colors?? How fun. Thanks for hosting such a fun swap, Jessica!

Enjoy the rest of your Easter! We sang one of my favorite Easter hymns at church today (I select the music for Sacrament meeting so I did that on purpose)...

He is risen!
He is risen!
Tell it out with joyful voice
He has burst his three day's prison
Let the whole wide earth rejoice
Death is conquered, man is free
Christ has won the victory

Come with high and holy hymning
Chant our Lord's triumphant lay
Not one darksome cloud is dimming
Yonder glorius morning ray
Breaking o'er the purple east
Symbol of our Easter feast

He is risen!
He is risen!
He hath opened heaven's gate
We are free from sin's dark prison
Risen to a holier state
And a brighter Easter beam
on our longing eyes shall stream

Good Day Sunshine

It is beautiful here today! I'm so sad for all of you that are having snow this weekend. For once, it looks like we will have a warm sunny Easter! We're having a cookout tonight with some friends at our house, followed by an egg hunt for the kiddos - I'm in charge of dessert and I have apple pie and blackberry crisp baking in the oven. The house smells awesome!

I'm loving my three day weekend. I got most of the chores done yesterday so that I could take it easy today. I spent this morning making a whirly twirly skirt for Miss S to wear on Easter Sunday.

I love this fabric - it's an Alexander Henry print from last yet. I have enough left to make a little something else for Miss S - make a cute little smock top or a couple aprons.

And I participated in Lain's 30 Minute Thursday challenge. I've been wanting to participate for a long time and finally did it! This page took less than 30 minutes even. The challenge was to use 1 piece of yellow cardstock, 2 pictures, 3 pieces of patterned paper, and 4 brads or eyelets. That was the minimum - I added more pictures and used more patterned paper, but kept it to 3 different patterns. I like how this page turned out - sweet and simple.

Top of the Morning to You

or more like, end of the day for this tired little leprechaun. Hope you had a wonderful St. Patty's Day! Hubby and I had an awesome dinner with another couple tonight....sans Miss S. It was our first date night in quite a while and we had a really nice time. We went to Texas Roadhouse and I could not get that Doors song out of my head "going to the roadhouse, gonna have a real - - - good time"

I went thrifting last week and found a few fun little patterns, a box of Dept 56 wooden Easter eggs (4 of them are flying to new homes in Easter pacakges), a cool green vintage pillowcase, and a little package of crochet hooks and a seam guide. I have probably 30 crochet hooks now, but I like to keep a little stack in several different places and in different project bags:) If you're ever at a loss for a present to make me, please make me a little crochet hook holder:) I only have one and I would love three or four more: )

And I reloaded my zipper coffers. I've already used three of these in making zippered bags this weekend. Not a bad haul - I think I spent $11 on everything pictured.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Springtime

Warmer weather, March winds, aahh springtime in New Mexico....it's finally here! But probably not to stay. We usually have at least one freak winter storm in March or April.
My joy for spring became all the more greater when I received this awesome package from Mary Ann. I'm participating in a year long seasonal swap with Mary Ann, Vallen and Mrs. G. Mary Ann sent me a box full of spring goodness. I swear her boxes are like Mary Poppins carpet bag - never ending and full of all sorts of fun stuff!

Stickers, paper, cards, crafty goodness, jewelry, Japanese cuties, goodies for Miss S, scrapbooking goodies and so much more...and these beautiful pillowcases. I think I'm going to put them on Miss S's bed - they would match the quilt I made her beautifully.
And this gorgeous birdie cone. I love it. It's hanging in the window in the front room. Thank you so much Mary Ann! Tell Miss C to start staking the mailman - Miss S mailed her Easter package today:)
And finally some craftiness from me! I'm participating in Mary Ann's Itty Bitty Robin Egg Blue Book Swap and these are the pages I made for it - 31 in all! They are atc size - just a little wider since Mary Ann is going to bind them all into little books for us. And lucky for you - I made 5 extras to give away! Just leave me a comment if you would like one and the first five interested will get one!


Miss S and I went and saw Enchanted today. We both really liked it. Do you have dollar theaters in your town? We have two and one is really close to the house. It shows movies about 2 or so months after they run in the regular theater and it's only $1.00 to get in. $.50 on Mondays even! We'll probably go see Alvin and the Chipmunks next. I think Enchanted comes out on DVD on Tuesday and I might get it for Miss S's Easter basket. I don't like to do a lot of candy in our Easter baskets and I usually get Miss S and Hubby a couple little gifts instead. I'm going to try to make some of Wee Wonderful's Wee Bunny's this week - we'll see how that turns out:)

The Happiest Place on Earth

Look who we ran into on our way out of the park Sunday night??? MICKEY!!! Miss S was thrilled as she had drawn a picture for him and she was so excited to actually get to give it to him.
Miss S is home sick today - she's been fighting a bug since Sunday (my first clue should have been that she wanted her sweatshirt on in the 80 degree weather). She was up half the night last night with a 103 temp and mumbled in her sleep all night and tossed and turned. Poor baby. I've got stuff that has to get done today at work so she will come with me and we'll just stay as long as we can.

Just a Quickie

We're home - safe and sound and tired:) What a whirlwind couple of days. The train ride was awesome - though next time we will bring our own pillows and a blanket. I was cold almost the whole ride!

Here's just a couple quick pictures from the weekend -

Rachel's baptism. Baby Logan (My sister's holding him) said at one point "this is a lot of family". Yep, he's right. He also said "girls have chinas" when my brother in law said something about China. It took us a minute to figure out what he was saying. No, baby boy - girls have vaginas, not chinas.

My Disney princess. Ears with her name on the back and a new build a bear with a Minnie Mouse tshirt.

Girls rule. My Aunt Sue, me, my mom, Marsha, my granny, Esther and Miss S.

My sister rocks. Need I say more?

Too cool for school. Uncle Chad and cousin Paul.

My brother in law, in grand vacation tradition, ended his weekend with a trip to the ER with serious back pain and the flu.

Disneyland was awesome - and super busy!!! Pirates of the Caribean (I cannot spell that, but you know what I mean:)) broke down while we were on it. That was an experience, but resulted in a bunch of fast passes due to it taking almost 45 minutes for us to get off the ride. Those passes saved us a ton of time throughout the day. Miss S's favorite ride was the teacups and my favorite ride was Indiana Jones.

All Aboard

Miss S and I head out this afternoon for California! We're taking the Amtrak Southwest Chief and I am SO excited! First time for both of us on a train. I'm going to try and stay off the computer while we're gone:) We'll be home on Monday around lunchtime:) See you then!!

Yummy Dinner

I love to cook, I really do - but I rarely have the time or desire. I've been trying out a few new recipes lately cause I recently joined Weight Watchers. This next week marks my 4th week and I've lost almost 11 pounds so far. Yay me!! (channeling London from the Disney Channel:))

I made this recipe Sunday night and it was a hit.

Baked Beef Ziti
Makes 8 servings
5 points per serving (if you're counting points:))

• 12 oz uncooked ziti
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 medium garlic clove(s), minced
• 1/3 pound raw lean ground beef
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
  
  
• Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and set aside.
  
  
• Meanwhile, heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat; add garlic and sauté 2 minutes. Add beef and cook until browned, breaking up meat with a spoon as it cooks, about 3 to 5 minutes; drain off any fat and set pan back over medium heat.
  
  
• Add oregano, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper; stir to coat beef. Cook until herbs become fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
  
  
• Spoon a small amount of beef-tomato mixture into bottom of a 4-quart casserole dish (just enough to cover surface); top with half of cooked ziti. Next, layer with half of remaining beef-tomato sauce and half of mozzarella cheese. Layer with remaining ziti and then top with remaining beef-tomato sauce; sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake until cheese is golden and bubbly, about 30 minutes. Slice into 8 pieces and serve. Yields 1 piece per serving.

Here's my tip - make a double batch and freeze half for another night's dinner.

Tattoo Me

Several months ago, a friend from SIStv put out a call for scrapbook layouts featuring tattoos for an article that she was writing for Skin & Ink magazine. At least 40 different scrapbookers sent in layouts, but the magazine had final say on which layouts would be published as part of the article. Each of us that participated received three free issues (the April 08 issue) which featured a 10 page article by Anam called "Tattoos and Glue - the Scrapbook Revolution".
My issues arrived a couple days ago and I was so excited to see which layouts were published. Surely, mine would not be published. Some of them were layouts I have scrapped almost 7 years ago and they seemed so "cutesy" compared to my style of scrapbooking now.
Well lo and behold, on page 71...in the lower right corner...there I was....me any my beaner, Tammy.....I about fell over in excitment:):)


I am so honored that one of my layouts was chosen! I am in some awesome company in this article - each layout is SO cool! I'm sending one of the extra issues to Tammy.

All Over the Place

The past few weeks I just can't seem to focus. I'll start a project, and two minutes into it I'm ready to move onto something else. Not a lot is getting actually "completed". I think I have serious spring fever and I am definitely ready for winter to be over. I have lots of cute pictures to share with you though:)

A cute picture of Miss S from the 100th day of school a few weeks ago.


Friday night Miss S had her ballet recital - this is her performing her solo.


This is how my desk has looked the last couple weeks. I spent a good part of yesterday cleaning it off and I'm happy to report that the piles are now down to two.

Miss Monica, my sweet Happy Zombie, and I traded Moo cards a few weeks ago. And just look what she sent along with her Moo card for me - a beautiful little holder for it and the most berry, cutest strawberry needle books. One for me and one for Miss S. I love them so Berry much!!! Thank you my awesome friend.

I received my spring apron from the Sassy Apron Swap - isn't it darling! Bethany made this beautiful apron just for me. I love it! Thank you so much Bethany!