Twenty Years

Well there's nothing like taking a two month blog break and not even posting about our biggest event this summer - Hubby and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary on August 21, 2013. TWENTY YEARS. Holy freaking cow that is a long time. I love this man so much and I am so looking forward to the next 20 years.

"You Make It Look So Easy"
by Eric Church

I got a hard head,
I get that from my dad
And I can overreact maybe just a tad
I put up walls to show the world I'm tough
When i don't get my way, I get difficult
But when it comes to lovin' me
Baby you make it look so easy

You're my refuge from the road
A safe place to go
When I'm out here livin' on this ledge
And when I'm circlin' the drain
You keep my crazy sane
And quiet all the voices in my head
I'm probably wrong more than I say
And I'd point that out if you were that way

Yeah I'm hard to love and ever harder to live with
And I know there's days when you just want to up and quit
But when it comes to lovin' me
Baby you make it look so easy

You're my compass when I'm lost
My anchor when I get tossed
And the right way when all I can do is wrong
Sometimes I drink 'til I fall down but your arms save me from the ground
And hold me 'til all the hurt is gone

I got a hard head, I was born that way
And that makes me wrong more than I say
But I thank God you got a hard head too
I guess he must have known you'd need that
To get us through
'Cause when it comes to lovin' me
Baby you make it look so easy
Yeah baby you make it look so easy

The Titanic...in Albuquerque?

I was so excited when I learned that the traveling exhibit of the Titanic was coming to the Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque, I LOVE the Titanic - the splendor, the beauty, the tragedy... Miss S and I took advantage of the free museum admission day for New Mexico residents in June and spent the morning at the exhibit. We both really liked it. I only had one complaint - it was TOO small!! It left me wanting MORE....so now I will definitely visit the permanent Titanic exhibit in Las Vegas. I've hemmed and hawed about visiting that one cause it's pricey but the docent at our exhibit just raved about it and said it's about 10 times bigger than the traveling exhibit. It also has a section of the actual ship as part of the exhibit - SO cool!

One of the coolest parts of it was our boarding passes - we each received a boarding pass with the name and information of an actual passenger. Miss S and I were both women traveling alone with our children and we were both second class. Then at the end all the names of those that died were listed and you had to find yourself on there to see if you lived or died. We both lived. It was a very powerful way to visit the exhibit - spending the whole time wondering if you lived or died. if you ever have a chance to visit this exhibit I would highly recommend it.

Carlsbad Caverns

June has been insane!It's been filled with lots of mini trips and experiences and adventures that I can't wait to share.

Our first adventure was with Miss S's girl scout troop to Carlsbad Caverns. I wasn't supposed to go but we had an emergency with the other leader so at the last minute I got to tag along - I was thrilled as I'd never been to the caverns before. Located about 6 hours southeast of Albuquerque, Carlsbad Caverns is freaking amazing! It felt like we were in an ice cave or on the moon when we down in the actual caverns. To get down there is was about a mile and a half hike down 900 feet into the earth - totally surreal.

We also got to see the Bat Flight program - from May to October millions of bats roost in the caves and each evening they exit the caves to hunt for the night. No pictures are allowed so we got to just sit and enjoy a little program and then sit very quietly for about half an hour as the bats flew out of the cave. These beautiful little babies leaving the caves to hunt - sometimes up to a 30 miles radius from the cave.

The girls and the leaders all had a great time.If you are ever in that area I would definitely recommend visiting the caverns - it is a national park so admission is very reasonable and they also have a junior ranger program for the kids. 

What's Old is New Again

I recently became the owner of my step-dad's hutch via my baby brother Chad. This poor little hutch had seen better days and was an awful shade of oaky brown with yucky bronze hardware. After a little TLC this baby looks AWESOME!! It is now in the kitchen and as Miss S exclaimed "It really warms up the kitchen".

Here's what I did:

1. Cleaned it REALLY well.
2. Removed ALL the brass hardware
3. Roughed up the paint a little with sandpaper
4. Tried staining it dark brown, which was not working - went to Home Depot and got paint
5. Painted it with two coats of a a beautiful semi gloss - I think it was Behr. The paint color was Bitter Chocolate.
6.  Went back to Home Depot and Lowes looking for the perfect hardware
7.  Returned the hardware cause it wasn't right.
8. Finally ordered hardware off of Lowes.com
9. Moved that sucker in to the kitchen after bribing Chad to help in exchange for dinner
10. Waited 10 LONG days for the hardware to come in.
11. Made lovey eyes at Hubby until he put the new hardware on for me.
12. Filled it to the brim with kitchen stuff
13. Stood back, admired it, and am now on the hunt for my next project!

The Before:

And After:

 
 

What do you think? What projects have you been working on?

A Little Completed WIP

This sweet little quilt has been a year in the making and I'm SO grateful to my darling partner who so patiently waited for it.It measures probably 10 by 12 inches (surprisingly little for how long it took me to finish)...it was just one of those projects that I was all excited about then it got pushed aside. All fabric came from my scrap bin and I bound it with cute black and white patterned fabric. It turned out so cute and my partner loves it - YEAH!!!

What WIP (work in progress) are you currently working on?

Happy happy Monday!!

Make this Monday a GREAT one. It's not my favorite day of the week but at least it's a short work week for me - just today and tomorrow and then Wednesday I leave for the second week of BSA Wood Badge training!! WOOHOO!!!

 

Why Howdy There!!

Suffice it to say, this is fitting to be posting on Administrative Professionals Day! For the last month I have been busy beyond belief at work and in life. To catch you up a little bit, I'm a paralegal for a family law firm. Our other paralegal left due to health issues about 6 weeks ago so that means for the last 6 weeks I have been the only paralegal at work juggling ALL of our cases....it made the time go by really fast but I have been working my butt off!! Last week our new paralegal started and it is a paralegal that has worked for us before so that meant NO training, NO newbie stuff, NO getting them up to speed which has been AMAZING!! PHEW!! Today we were spoiled by our boss with a fancy schmancy lunch and gift cards for all of us.

Additionally, I've been hard at work with Boy Scout commitments - staffing at the current Wood Badge course which started last week and our annual Blue and Gold banquet. Blue and Gold was last nice and it's so nice to have that crossed off my list for another year. Next week is the second half of the Wood Badge course and then that can be crossed off my To Do list also!! My poor husband and daughter have hardly seen me the last month, well at least it feels like that. But those who know me know that I really do like to be busy but this has been a little TOO busy.

We also fit in a quick trip to Golden CO for my brother Ian's Un-Army party. After 3,456 days in the Army he is now a civilian!! WOOHOO!!! Golden was AMAZING and we packed a lot of fun into the 48 hours that we were there.

Mixed in among all these I have fallen madly, deeply and obsessively in love with The Walking Dead. I'm on my third watching of Seasons 1 and 2 and am chomping at the bit for Season 3 to come out on DVD. I tell you guys - I'm obsessed. And Daryl Dixon is my new heartthrob. Eeehhhhh gads I love him!

Quilting

My latest blocks - these will be sent off to my three partners today. One set to England, another set to Australia and one set to the USA. Once these are mailed off I'm taking a little break from block swaps - I have so many AWESOME blocks now that I need to get some quilts actually put together and finished up.

These blocks were SO much fun to make - I used all scraps and just randomly pieced them. I pieced them while watching some Top Gear, Glee and Once Upon a Time. It's always fun to quilt and watch TV - I just carry my Ipad with me to my sewing table or my ironing board.

Here's the tutorial I used if you'd like to make some of your own. Super super easy - but does take a little  time and a little concentration on putting your squares together.

My Poor Neglected Blog

Why hello there!!! Holy moley - I did not intend to take a two month blogging break. I have been crazy busy since the first of the year though so blogging took a back seat to my increased activity on Facebook, Instagram and Flickr.

In January I took a daily class from my friend Lain Ehman about Crafting Your Biz.....I've been contemplating starting an online scrapbooking/crafting company. Crafting is such a huge part of who I am that it's time that I start nurturing it more, sharing it, and hopefully making a little bit of money from it too. It's still in it's infant stage so I have a ways to go still before it becomes reality.

Then in February I signed up for the LOAD challenge, again with the fabulous Lain Ehman. LOAD = Layout a Day challenge and it was FABULOUS!! We had daily prompts, discussions and so much fun posting our layouts in our Flickr group. We ended with just over 6000 layouts posted for the month - I think there were about 450 participants. I personally completed 38 layouts which is more than I've done in the last 3 years COMBINED.



This is my final layout - highlighting what I accomplished this month.This was such a kick in the pants for me - I learned, stretched myself creatively and had an amazing time. The theme for this LOAD was Scrap Happier and I really really did. I will cherish these pages I created. Visit my Flickr page to see the rest of the layouts I completed this month.

One Little Word

Thanks to help from my Facebook friends, I've decided on my word for 2013. MORE.

As in...
More positive.
More organized.
More peaceful.
More present.
More time with family.
More faith.
More meal planning.
More proactive.
More dedication.
More action.
More learning.

I want to take the good parts of my life and make MORE of them. Do you choose a word as your theme for the year? If so, please share! I love this method of goal setting.