A Simple Thank You Card

A few weeks ago my blog buddy Karla had a little giveaway on her blog for a DCWV paper stack. I was lucky and won the Sunday Afternoon stack, which I luuuuuv! The colors are right up my alley right now. When I got it I was just going to jot a quick email to say thank you, but with studying right now, I have had very little time to get into my paper supplies. I thought this was a perfect excuse to make and send an actual card. One, Karla took time out of her day and money out of her pocket to send that lovely stack to me, Two, my mother raised me to send thank you notes, and I certainly didn't want to disappoint my mother right? Three, I was dying to glue something... anything.

It's nothing too awful fancy. I took a card from my stash (yes, for how little I do cards, I have quite the stash of blanks), and ran it through my L Letterpress from Lifestyle Crafts using a generic Thank You sentiment with bright green ink. I added a little piece of pretty Amy Tangerine paper and stickers, AC ribbon, and a button from Pink Paislee's Indigo Bleu(?) collection, and voila!

One thing I learned though. The ink does not dry on the cheaper cards as quickly as it does on the actual Lifestyle Crafts cards, so it smudges easily. But, other than that, I think I want to start trying to use my letterpress in more projects. It's fiddly and takes a little extra care, but I always like the looks of the ink and impressed motifs on the stark white paper.

*Affiliate links on Lifestyle

Serenity Now

I took a break from studying and made myself get out and walk the other morning. Scrapbooking podcast in my ears and sunlight filtered through leaves, making the most beautiful green ever, makes me happy.

6 more weeks until I am done with the bar. 6 more....

:)

One Pot Pasta - Yummy

I tried a new recipe this weekend, One Pot Tomato Basil Pasta (follow link for the recipe) from Apron Strings. Like a lot of people commented, they were a little unsure of cooking the pasta in with everything else, but it honestly came out perfectly. Tender and yummy! I always follow the directions to the T the first time I make a recipe, so that I can see what it is supposed to be, and then I begin tweaking it to suit Hayden and I thereafter, which is exactly what I did this time (except I used whole wheat pasta). We had it with a big, fresh salad and some crusty rolls.

Both Hayden and I liked it, but we still feel, that for us cuz we like a TON of flavor, it still needs a little bit of oomph. So, next time I think I will add 8oz of Turkey Italian Sausage taken out of the casings, a little more garlic/basil/oregano, and some feta cheese.

Any other suggestions I could try?

*Just a note, posting may get a little spotty for the next 8 weeks.  I am on the home stretch of the Bar Exam prep, I take it in the end of July. There might be a week where there are 2-3 posts and others where there are none. Bear with me, I got a ton of projects to get to after the exam!

Vintage Inspired Bobby Pins, Pyrex Butter Dishes and Lovely Sewing Notions

It has been a couple of weeks folks, I am not gonna lie. When I wrote my last post I was riding high on the excitement of a possible job in Vermont. My mind was all a buzz about the prospect of being close to home, my mom and my BFF. I made the mistake of allowing my hopes to rise, and when I got the email saying that had chosen to move other candidates on to the second interview, I crashed. I spent a week in a total funk and I completely shut down.

I am coming out of the funk now, little by little, putting a possible plan in place to get back home in the next year, and trying to make peace with my job until I leave.

But I wanted to get on the blog, and share a couple things that have been making me smile lately:

These are a couple bobby pins I made for my new short hairdo. They are necklace charms I repurposed from the Timeline and Fairy Tale lines in Hobby Lobby. They look SUPER cute in my hair.

The next two come from the awesome ESTATE SALE IN A BOX! My mom's BFF sent me a huge box full of stuff, which included a gorgeous vintage camera for Hayden, crewel embroidery wool, and other stuff, including a

Spring Blossom Pyrex Butter dish (a lovely surprise after getting home from a fruitless Pyrex hunt) and

A bag of buttons. Those white ones with flowers in the foreground are my fave! So cute.

And lastly, its not really vintage, having come from 2000, but this fabric I found at an estate sale is just too pretty. It's over 2 yards and I got it for $2. I love the colors and print, and cannot wait to make something with it.

What's getting you through the crummy days lately?

All photos in this post were edited using the two COOLEST photo apps ever A Beautiful Mess and PicTapGo. And no, I wasn't paid to say that. I bought the apps with my own $$ and think they were worst every penny!

Project Life Week 17

Against my better judgment, I took the day off from studying. Hayden is in Nashville with our friend until tomorrow and I had the house to myself all weekend. I was supposed to have the entire weekend off, but other people were out this weekend so I had to work yesterday :(. And, I had originally planned on studying today like a good little bar exam taker, but last night I realized I had typed out an entire page of an evidence law outline and remembered typing absolutely none of it.

I was mentally spent. I have been noticing that I have been getting antsy lately due to the lack of creative time I have had. I have been keeping up with my PL album, but that, and a little bit of embroidery or knitting at night, had been the extent of it.

I had grand plans of getting my PL album caught up today, scrapping an actual page, and playing with my jewelry supplies. I got the PL album done, but that took me a lot longer than I expected because I got a little more crafty with it than normal, but I didn't quite make it to my jewelry or the actual full page layout. But that's ok, because I feel a lot better just having a day where I A) did not have to run all over the place, B) played some Warcraft and C) didn't spend all day staring at books.

Here is some of the PL pages I did today. I am not entirely thrilled with how the pics turned out. I took the damn things 5 times, but either the light sucked or the page protectors reflected to much. The time of day probably had something to do with it. But, it was either say good enough and have a post or go another week with out anything.

Week 17 was super pic intensive because it was the second half of my mom's visit a couple weeks ago. The week actually has 4 pages, but I am just sharing the main 2. In contrast, Week 18, which isn't pictured, has exactly one 4x6 card with a photo. Its either feast or famine around here most weeks, but I still try to have something documenting the weeks passing, even if its only a journaling card.

So please excuse the lighting. And Mom, if you are reading this, avert thine eyes, there are pics of you in here and I know how much you hate that. That's what you get when your daughter is a famous, scrapbooking, blogger.

Er, well, at least a blogger.

Most of the pages are pictures taken while we were in Graceland. I am not a big Elvis fan, but I have a while new appreciation for him now because of the awesome 50's stuff I saw. That pink Cadillac? SWOON. I even got little pink Cadillac earrings to wear, and have gotten a ton of compliments on them.  You also might notice I chopped off 5 inches from my hair. The style is super cute, and with the new bobby pins I made from some jewelry pieces, it is totally rocking the retro look. Everyone loves it, most of all me.

I do plan on sharing those bobby pins and some more jewelry pieces as soon as I get enough made to warrant an actual post. It's the first time in about 2 years I have actually been excited about getting into me jewelry stash (which is quite big).

The supplies used are:

• Love Card Silhouette Shape
• Flower Card Silhouette Shape
• Rain Project Life Digital Kit Journaling Cards (I got it from the Digi Files, it doesn't seem to be released yet)
• Various pieces from Pink Paislee's Vintage Line (Discontinued - SAD FACE)

WIP Wordless Wednesday - Embroidery

Sublime Stitching's Epic Alphabet pattern using a mix of new, satin and vintage floss.

A New Vintage Sewing Machine - Improved New Wilson circa 1910

Isn't she lovely? I found her in an antique store in Vicksburg, MS while I was down there with my Mom and her BFF, Jan. The machine is not connected to the original table, but look at the detailing that is still on it! I feel in love with it the moment I saw it, but really had not budgeted a $50 purchase into my "mad money" that week.

Mom to the rescue! Seeing me petting it ever so gently (her name is Vivian, the machine, not my mom) and looking at it all misty-eyed, she offered to make it an early birthday present. I normally would have said no since it was $50, but the thought of not going home with this broke my vintage loving heart, so I let her.

The machine is a Improved New Wilson by A.G. Mason. I can't find a lot of info on this particular model, but from what I have read, it looks like it dates back to circa 1910-1920. Does anyone have any info on these, or know where I can find them. When I search on the net, I just find some sale listings and some history on Wilson machines, but nothing on this model in particular.