Craigslist and Debby Schuh

I finished Eat, Pray, Love this afternoon during our daily rainstorm. Man, it is an amazing book - I hated finishing it. Such an interesting story - I hope she writes another book and soon! Makes me want to go to Bali and that's plain crazy! Yesterday was busy ... starting at By Design Scrapbook for a class with Debby Schuh. This book is absolutely gorgeous - it's a 7 Gypsies envelope album covered in Anna Griffin papers. I loved it - lots of pockets. We finished it in 3 hours. It was a fun class too - lots of a good chatter and interesting people. Debby is such a nice person and relaxed - great teacher too. Sandy who is also going to CE came and then Anita from Maridawn's - nice to be amongst familiar faces. I hated to leave but we had a family birthday party last night and I still had two cakes to make! I made a white cake with whipped cream frosting - I think that is going to be my favorite cake now. I used heavy whipping cream for the frosting and it was divine. The other cake was a German Chocolate with traditional coconut pecan icing. Does anyone know why a german chocolate cake crumbles? Made me sort of crazy - I guess I beat it too much. We have spaghetti pie and lots of yummy munchies. Our family spends a good hour at the hor devours table - my hubby never understood that but he was right up there with the best of 'em last night. Lots of presents and cake and everyone was happy - it was a fun night. But alot of work... I was tired today. I finally got busy around 3 and listed 4 different items on Craigslist. I've SOLD two of them already! Yippee - me likes craigslist. It's such a great way to get rid of stuff and make some cash. And no fees - that's the best part. I also ran a load of car load of donations to the local shelter called Turning Point for homeless over 55. Feels good to help those folks. Now the back of my car is empty and ready to be loaded up next weekend when we go to Canton! Yipee for First Monday and then on Saturday to Shreveport for a little bit of gambling. My kind of weekend! Now, I've just got to make it through the week.

A Good Read

I don’t recall who it was or what blog I was reading that recommended this book, but I am in the middle of it and it is fascinating … Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I don’t know if it is the 50 thing or what, but I am open to all sorts of things that I may not have considered in the past. Learning to speak Italian sounds possible… after reading this book – and interesting. I love it when you stumble upon some real talent - it is so intoxicating. Pure joy.

I’ve also been searching for the past several months for the appropriate container for my scrapbook projects and have vacillated between a china cabinet, armoire, and just about everything in between. Glass doors or no glass doors… Antique or new. I knew it had to be white. I’ve looked at Gallery Auction’s pictures every week, seeking a painted piece from England, to no avail. I finally found this… in all places but Pottery Barn Kids. I love what they have in that catalogue albeit part of me can’t believe that there are children in this world that actually live in those kinds of bedrooms, but whatever… I love the classic lines of this piece and opted for no glass. I keep all these supplies in bins – its time now to elevate them to the proper place. My house furnishings remodel has been in full swing for the past six months. I’ve cleaned out the sunroom, given away tons of stuff and now I have to take pics and post a handful of items on craigslist. Two weekends ago I hired two helpers from a mission – it was my single best proactive move this year. Honestly. $10 an hour for heavy lifting and we did it all in 2 hours. They worked hard. It was kind of scary to hire strangers but I did it and I am so glad I did. Sometimes it feels overwhelming – all the projects, chores, deeds to be done around the house. This was just a great way of getting it done.

I'm going to By Design on Saturday for a class with Debby Schuh. Should be great fun. Saturday night we have birthday celebration at my house for my niece, Megan and brother. Spaghetti Pie, oh my! If you've never tasted this - you are missing out! It's an old family recipe (from Family Circle, I think) with sausage and spinach and cream cheese and cottage cheese! Sounds terrible, huh! Well, it is AMAZING! It's our birthday treat.

I'm getting excited about Creative Escape, which is fast approaching. We have a pre-CE crop last weekend at Archivers for four of us - Karen Clauson, Sandy Horton and Gigi Chapman and myself. What a great group! I enjoyed meeting all of them and getting to know them - nice nice women. Sandy is taking the Debby Schuh class this weekend. We're having a second crop in August at By Design - on the 18th.

Which reminds me... I think I want to go to Round Top this year... when is it? I'm going to Canton for First Monday in two weeks. Yipee!

Crillon Stamp

Oh, if this isn't too freaky ... remember the stamp I saw at Archiver's that was embossed - from Lil Davis. Well, I've been looking here and there for it on line and its always out of stock. I look in my library of stamps and there it is, along with Crillon I. Is that too weird! I knew I loved the design - I just didn't remember buying it. Bad Bad. But good good.

Guess I should go play with it now...

I did pick up some Ranger dabbers in copper and gold. I'm not too crazy about the copper - it seems more orangy but I'll play with it. I'm also hooked on a new aqua they have called "pool". Lurve it. Okay, I'm off to play ~ just had to share.

Making up for Lost Weekends

Last weekend I missed 3 trips for scrapbook shopping - Friday night I made sure we didn't repeat history! After the storms passed, I headed out to Archiver's and saw a beautiful card made with this stamp by Lil Davis, embossed in copper. It was stunning! Apparently the stamp is new and not out yet but I'll be tracking it down. They had masked the middle and put 50th for an anniversary card. It reminded me what a dramatic and classic statement embossing makes. I need to do it more often.

I started out this morning with a pocket full of cash - I sold Rachel's car to a co-worker and they picked it up this morning! Yes! I headed down south to the new scrapbook store, By Design to check it out. Well, it's everything it seems in the pictures - great attention to details and so much HKS & Anna Griffin product! This is my favorite room. These chairs were from a garage sale and the ottoman has 2 rows of bling bling trim. Look at that clock! I was amazed at all the little extras, everywhere you looked. I visited with Tracy and Pixie, who confirmed that Debby Schuh will be teaching on the 27th and 28th. I love Debby's albums and style plus she's just so nice. I'll definitely sign up for the classes - should be fun. The crop room looks great with 20 spaces.

Afterwards, I figured out a short-cut to Scrapbook Junkie and picked up a few goodies at Beth's. She's got the best, updated product and alot of it. I always manage to find a few tidbits that need to go home with me. Today I picked up the chocolate Making Memories funky vintage letters. These acetate alphabets have swirls and flowers on them - so cool! Can't wait to use them. You know what I thought was so cool - Tracy at By Design said that all the other local stores sent flowers - I saw the ones from Just4Fun and they were gorgeous. What a cool industry - that your competitors welcome you. Now that's class for you.

I came home and made fruit salad and headed over to Michelle's, my Creative Memories consultant and former neighbor - she is such a hoot. We cropped until 9 - and ate some great food. She made Hearty Tostada Soup - yum-o! You know the kind of laughing that your eyes water - well, the stories were flowing until the tears came. So much fun, that group. It was a good day.

Happy Birthday, America!

Here's to Old Glory and this great Nation.

We're having ribs and potato salad - relaxing and enjoying this great life in America!