Happy Feet

Sporting my new pedi and my new sandals...aren't they the cutest sandals you have ever seen in your life!!!! Only one more day of work and I AM ON VACATION!!! YEAH!!!

Happy Birthday You Sexy Silver Fox! MAKE IT WORK!

Happy Birthday to Tim Gunn (my secret gay boyfriend) today!!! (the rest of this post is blatantly stolen from the Bravo website)

Can’t decide how to celebrate the Project Runway aficionado’s birthday? Here are a few easy ways to pay homage to the God of Sophistication and Style.

10. Don’t be afraid to turn people down. Try a polite but firm: I would refuse.

9. Feel worried. Feel woeful. Share your feelings.

8. Be honest. If your friend’s dress looks like a coffee filter or a maxi pad, tell them, "your dress looks like a coffee filter or a maxi pad.”

7. If you are over 40, do NOT wear horizontal stripes. And while you’re at it, donate those pleated pants and double-breasted blazers to Goodwill. If you can’t do it yourself, do it for Tim.

6. Don’t let anyone question your authority. Repeat after Tim: “Do I even have one iota of doubt? No. Not one iota.”

5. It is always a good time to have a caucus. Try walking into a bar, folding your hands together, and announcing “everyone, gather around.” If you don’t have an actual announcement, give hugs.

4. At least six times today, wander into an office room and tell your employees to carry on.

3. Be prophetic, with a tinge of doom. Tell a few strangers in an elevator, “Live like there is no tomorrow. Because for one of you, there won’t be.”

2. Always look very concerned. If someone asks you what’s wrong, step back, purse your lips, and say, “I’m concerned.”

1. Whatever you do today, make it work. Even if it’s not working, or it ran out of batteries. Today you have no excuse.

I Hate My Job

Well, the title really says it all...I had about two paragraphs written all about how much I hate my job and what a sucky day I had today...but writing it all out really would just make it worse. I'll just end up getting more pissed off if I focus on it ANY more today. So instead I'll give you a little peak of the mini quilt I'm working on for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap I'm participating in.

It's my interpretation of Summer...a little green patchwork with daisies. All that's left is to finish sewing the binding, the yo-yos and the buttons. (Don't worry - the buttons won't be all caterwonky when I sew them down:)) I like how the yellow binding all the yellow buttons add a little pop to all the green.

Randomness

Two darling vintage aprons and a vintage sheet - found at a garage sale by my office for a quarter each....


I bought the little flower pin at the same sale - also a quarter. All the rest of the jewelry was in a baggie for $4.00 at another garage sale. Two necklaces, several pendants, a sterling silver ring and about 10 pairs of earrings. Several are sterling silver...not a bad deal!


These little flowers are growing through the fence in the backyard...


And this beautiful honeysuckle bush is actually in our neighbor's yard, but it hangs over our fence. I love to watch the hummingbirds feed on it...


Miss S lost her first top tooth tonight after dinner. She's quite the scraggle tooth right now. I asked her to smile pretty and this is what I got...

We leave for vacation next Saturday and I have so much to do! Laundry, swaps, cleaning, and packing all to get done. I will probably be pretty quiet this next week as I try to get it all done.

Afghan Love

A little snippet of this afghan appeared in a photo I posted a few weeks ago and I was kindly asked to blog about it:)
Isn't it a beauty? The perfect size for snuggling on the couch in the winter. And the colors make me so happy. $2.99 at my local Savers.

Miss S and I had a garage sale this morning. Miss S made $13 selling bottled water and cookies and I made about $80 - it's going straight to the Las Vegas fund. Best part was I packed up nearly EVERYTHING that was left, other than a bag of clothes to take to a friend at work and a couple things for my niece and it all went to Goodwill without a second thought and without all the worry I normally have that "I spent good money on that crap, why am I just giving it away?"

Skirt in Action

I know I've posted photos already of this skirt I made as part of the Mini Wardrobe Challenge I'm participating in...

so now you get to see what it looks like on:) It's the perfect length for our hot, and unusually humid summer this year in New Mexico. Plus my sister thought it looked like a micro-mini when I photographed it laid out on the bed. See Balls - it's appropriate:)

Holy Patch-Work

I made my weekly visit to The Bargain Box yesterday at lunch - all the housewares were half-off and I found a few little goodies. I also bought a cute denim skirt and the perfect knee length pair of denim shorts both in a SIZE 14!!! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX - that's me doing cartwheels!!! I've kind of stalled out at the 20 pound mark but I'm hoping to get back on track after school starts again and we get back into our normal routine. I would love to lose another 20 by Christmas.

SO back to my thrift store finds and the title of this little post. I found a gallon sized bag full of vintage patches.



Just look at all of them! 83 in total!!! And guess how much I paid for them??? $2.75 for the whole big bag!!! You all know how I love to share the bounty so I've got a little challenge for you. Click on any of the pictures to get a better look at all the different patches. Pick out a favorite and leave a comment telling me why it's your favorite. Maybe you like the colors, maybe you have an awesome memory of that place...whatever you like:) I'll pick a couple of my favorite comments on July 30th and the winners will win the patch they picked out:) BUT hands off the Key West patch. I'm taking that sucker to the grave with me.

I Love Me Some Durango

Each time we visit Durango I wish we could stay longer....one of these days we're going to go there to visit and never come home:) I love it there. We didn't do a whole lot this trip...just mostly tried to relax a little bit.

Miss S in her top bunk at the cabin...

We started stalking the handyman at 10:01 am to open up the pool...

Miss S requested a trip to The Durango Kid toy store to say hi to the one-eyed cat that lives there...


We had a yummy dinner at Steamworks on Saturday night...

The Animas River...one of these trips I really want to go white water rafting...

I did very little shopping this trip - a little bit of fabric and a few goodies from the Humane Society thrift store. Once I remember where I put everything I'll take a picture for you:)

Camping

We're heading to Durango for the weekend after work tomorrow! I can't wait....the beautiful cool and crisp air, our little cabin at the KOA campground, the Durango quilt shop, the fabulous thrift store by Walmart, sleeping in, staying up late, playing in the pool, eating out and hanging out all weekend with Hubby and Miss S. Sigh....a perfect weekend. We'll be home late Sunday. I have a little idea for a cute mini scrapbook of the trip....I'll share it when we get home:)

MORE winners!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO:

Laura J and Carrie

for winning my birthday and blogaversary grand prizes! Congratulations ladies - I'm so excited for you both!!!!! And today is even Carrie's birthday!! Pop on over to her blog and wish her a happy birthday:) Please email me your addresses at raeshadrz at yahoo dot com. Laura, I'm pretty sure I have your address somewhere but please send it to me again:) THANKS!! And thank you all so much for your wonderful comments and birthday and blogaversary wishes. I appreciate you all so much and each and every comment is such a joy and so much fun to read. I'm slowly responding to as many as I can so please be patient with me: )

It's A Mystery

A Hanna Andersson catalog mysteriously appeared in my mailbox today...interesting, cause I've never signed up to get their catalog, interesting cause I love their clothing and shoes, interesting cause I found at least 10 things I wanted to buy, least of all these fantastic clogs:
Or how about these awesome boots....


Or how about this dress....
Wouldn't it look awesome with either the boots or the clogs?

The mystery was solved when I finished reading the catalog and noticed that it was addressed to my fairly new neighbor. Now I'm debating whether to take her the catalog, or keep it for myself:) Holy geez...I just noticed it's 11:16 pm and I should have been in bed over two hours ago. Only one more day to leave a comment on my birthday and blogaversary grand prize post! I'll draw the two winners tomorrow evening.

Winners!

I just realized that I have not announced the winners for giveaways #5 and #6!!! Be sure to stay tuned cause I'll announce the winners of the grand prize winners for my birthday and blogaversary on Wednesday!!

NOW on to the current winners:
The winner of Giveaway #5 (atc series) are:
Lady Bracknell and Jenny from Fated Follies Studios!!

The winner of Giveaway #6 (stickers) is:
Brenda from It's All Good

Please email me at raeshadrz at yahoo dot com with your snail mail addresses and I'll get these gifties in the mail to you!!:) CONGRATULATIONS!!!

My Life

My sister requested pictures of my new haircut....so here you go, Balls....

Front view: (i have the front up in a little clip)


Back view:


Side view: (reminder: sit up a little straighter when covertly taking pictures of yourself in your office:))


My boss keeps the office at about a cool 60 degrees...she's been having hot flashes for about 6 years now. I wear my little grey sweater almost everyday at work.

I did take it off for a few minutes today to show of my outfit....another episode of thrift style:) Merona top and Gap skirt...both from the Goodwill in Santa Fe and both about $3.00 each.

I found this little meme courtesy of Coffee Mom. The rules? Answer each question with only one word....and ONLY one word. See #8 where I agonized over how to make Diet Dr Pepper one word:)


1. Where is your cell phone? cupholder
2. Your significant other? gaming
3. Your hair? up
4. Your mother? work?
5. Your father? heavenly
6. Your favorite thing? love
7. Your dream last night? weird
8. Your favorite drink? soda
9. Your dream/goal? SAHM
10. The room you’re in? office
11. Your church? Mormon
12. Your fear? without
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? SAHM
14. Where were you last night? patio
15. What you’re not? patient
16. Muffins? Chocolate
17. One of your wish list items? order
18. Where you grew up? Silverdale
19. The last thing you did? walk
20. What are you wearing? pjs
21. Your TV? off
22. Your pets? three
23. Your computer? chugging
24. Your life? busy
25. Your mood? calm
26. Missing someone? Tammy
27. Your car? Subaru
28. Something you’re not wearing? chapstick
29. Favorite store? Target
30. Your summer? Durango
31. Like(love) someone? everyday
32. Your favorite color? purple
33. Last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? recently
35. Who will repost this? you

Leave a comment if you play so I can read all your fabulous one word answers too:)

A day late (more like three or four)

Miss Derfward Manor challenged us to feature the "heart of our home"...I'm a few days late to the party (actually make that 11 days late, but who's counting). My bedroom is the heart of my home and I wanted to show it off all sparkly and clean, but that would never happen. So I finally broke down and took several pictures of my bedroom in all its glory.

At least the bed is made. I asked Miss S to sit on the bed and pose cute and this is what I got. Kind of bride of Frankenstein, accompanied by her belly up stuffed turtle.

My sewing corner. It's a wonder that I get anything done. Just this morning I moved the pile off the stool so that I could sew a patch on a shirt for a coworker.

Moving to the right of the sewing corner we have the treadmill. I'm currently watching season 2 of NCIS while I walk.

Here we feature my dresser...how it normally looks...piled high with clean clothes waiting to be put away. I cannot even believe I am showing you all this picture. But hey...don't Miss S and I look cute all dolled up for church?

So this is the heart of my home for right now...where I sleep, sew, create, read, fold clothes, iron, walk and watch tv. Better late than never.

Now THAT'S What I Call a Giveaway:)

FINALLY!! May I present to you the two grand prize giveaways for my 2nd blogaversary and for my recent 36th birthday.....drum roll......

Up first - we have my birthday grand prize giveaway - a little Longaberger basket full of sewing goodies, vintage and new....I'll throw some other goodies into the box too:)


And my 2nd blogaversary prize - more sewing goodies, a creative memories photo holder, a darling apron pattern, and again, I'm sure some more goodies will make it into the box:)


Leave a comment to be entered and I'll draw a couple of winners probably around the 15th.

And here's a couple pics from my birthday party - thanks Moki!! Moki brought me a disc with all the pictures she took at my party. I was totally excited about that cause I took a whopping three photos during the whole party, which I then accidently deleted from my memory card....

Raesha and Shay

Cake time!!!

What the Heck??? And some Lion Love

I just caught myself singing along to the theme song for "This is Life with Derek" Yep, that's me. Totally rocking out to the Disney Channel.

I bought a bag of scrap fabric at the thrift store last week just to get this little piece of lion fabric I could see peeking out.

His mane is pink..Pink..PINK!! Isn't he adorable? And imagine my utter delight when I got home, ripped the package open and found 2 FULL YARDS of it! Would I look absolutely ridiculous if I made a skirt out of it?

Happy Independence Day!!

We celebrated today with a bbq with my brother, Shay, and his family. The kids went in the hot tub, had a water balloon fight, had a water gun fight, and we all ate until we all about exploded, and in general had a lovely day together. I'm sure everyone will sleep like a ROCK tonight!

Miss S lost a tooth while we were there!

Mini Wardrobe Challenge

I really am participating in Stephanie's Mini Wardrobe Challenge....and here's proof...

I've made two skirts this last week using the skirt pattern in the Sew U book - I love them! I have two more cut out and ready to be sewn. Super quick and easy. I wore the daisy like one to work last week, and the black one to church on Sunday. I could totally imagine wearing one of these type of skirts everyday.