Me²

Happy Monday. :) Queen of Nostalgia, a lovely blogger with the most amazing paper creations (seriously- I *love* her romantic, vintage paper crafts) tagged me to share 6 fabulously uninteresting things about myself.

1. I blush easily, and in a vibrant, colorful shades of red. I think it is because I am incredibly introverted. I tend to feel uneasy in social situations. :^)

2. I can pick up all sorts of things with my feet. I often pick up things with my toes when I'm cleaning up around the house. My husband's toes are also long. My daughters were doomed to inherit these finger-like toes; hence, the pictures for today.

3. I have to sleep on the edge of the bed, facing away from the bed, with my nose slightly off of the pillow or else I feel very claustrophobic.

4. I don't like watching TV. I have to really be in the mood to watch a movie (and it better be a good one if I'm taking the time to watch it). I love the TV though when I have to stay up late with a newborn. I would rock my newborns back to sleep after nursing them watching some late night TV. A recliner and cable kept my mind off of all the sleep deprivation.

5. When I was young, I did not like the colors yellow and orange because they were too bright, but I LOVE them now. My 7 year old self would not approve.

6. I enjoy the stories my husband tells me about the coworkers he carpools with. Currently, he is carpooling with a man that calls children "yaps." One day, my husband had put our little ones' car seats in his car and when his coworker saw them, he said, "Oh! You had your 'yap-adoos' with you?" lol!

I'm tagging you. If you want to do this, feel free! Let me know if you do. xo.

Fabric tags

We are in a recession, and I'm buying tags. They're worth it though.

Brandy sells the prettiest treasures in her shoppe.

I'm a sucker for fabric paper crafts. Brandy talked about working on the tags here.

:)

I'm off to feed the ducks at our local lake. I hope I get a few good pictures to share with you, friends. xo.

I love...

yummy... boba tea. I'm craving it apparently.

Owl totes. I now have 3. One recently purchased for me by my hubby,

one given to me by my sister Jennifer:

and one that has been in my collection for some time now:

I love me some pretty owl totes. I love pretty totes, in general. Check out these handmade (hand-dyed, hand-sewn!) totes that were being sold by a tremendous artist in her booth at the Freedom Festival. (I mentioned the festival here promising pictures... I didn't take as many good ones as I had hoped. Sigh. Maybe next year. :)

See that hand clutching the pretty green tote? That's my sister Jennifer's hand, and she bought that tote. I'm jealous because I want one!

Because I hardly ever talk about swaps,

I'm going to share the latest completed swap: Vintage Summer Solstice Swap hosted by Renee at The Chateau of Remnants. Lucky me was paired up with Myrna at More than Heirlooms.
I was overwhelmed at Myrna's generosity. I received so many delights from Myrna including this pink satiny storage box (I LOVE it thismuch), this pretty pink and teal storage box:
tons of ephemera (there's a vintage music sheet mini book peeking underneath the wonderful ephemera- I LOVE it):

(some of the ephemera was packaged in these pretty stamped envelopes and stamped tags):

more pretty ephemera (pictures, vintage labels, distressed doilies, bingo cards, carnival tickets, etc!!):

lovely fabric, a rustic collaged plate:

vintage flashcards, buttons in a darling little box, millinery, ballerina shoes, rhinestones, vintage trims (LOVE these):

and an array of embellishments (chipboard, brads, quotes on vellum paper, and stickers) to add to my scrapbooking supply:

Thank you, Myrna! I love what you chose to send me! :)

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This is what I sent Myrna, which she blogged about here.
I found this pretty storage box (storage boxes are a staple in my swaps... I like to find just the right one). Myrna mentioned her recent favorite color was aqua, so I decided to go with that (color schemes are also a staple in my swap packages). I thought aqua was the perfect color to work with as this was a Summer swap, and aqua is a such a refreshing and cooling color.

I lined the box with a vintage hanky.

I made Myrna an accordion-fold scrapbook.

Myrna mentioned she liked trims, so I made trim bingo cards for her. I had a few of these handmade crochet flowers in my collection and I added these to the cards.

Myrna has the loveliest tablescapes on her blog. You have to look here. For one of her tablescapes she used ATCs as place cards (how clever!), so I went with that idea, and made her some ATCs to use as place cards in her future tablescapes.

I also included a rhinestone vintage-like creamer and sugar set for Myrna to use in her future tablescapes. I thought they would look pretty with flowers in them- I got the idea from Myrna herself in one of the tablescapes she posted about on her blog. :)

I added ephemera for Myrna's future projects, as well:

No swap is complete without an assortment of buttons:

Behind the buttons, you can see some book beads I made for Myrna to use as bookmarks for those summer reads.

This is Myrna's package all together:

packaged and ready to go to Myrna's house:

xo.

Beach Trip

This past week, I went to Laguna Beach with my family: my husband Jesse, our 2 daughters, my sisters Jennifer and Jasmine, and my sister Jasmine's boyfriend Oscar. (I realize that for most posts I say "we" as though you have any idea who I'm talking about. ;)
It was a beautiful day. There's something so calming and relaxing about the beach.

By the way, guess who's 6 months pregnant and gaining weight rapidly?

PIF

If I'm given a deadline (like I was for the PIF), I work right up to the deadline. I *finally* got the PIF gifts sent out to my friends: Carolyn, Olenka, and Blanca. I made 3 little collage boxes using vintage sheet music, roses patterned paper, and pearly trim.

Inside the box, I put a candle decorated, again, with pretty vintage sheet music, organdy ribbon, and a dangling pink charm. I also added some vintage trims on a yummy-smelling tag with a tea kettle charm.

I'm free to post about them now as all three of my sweet friends received their little parcel a few days ago. I hope you like them, ladies! :)

Devil's Punchbowl

I know. It's endearing name for a lovely place. Devil's Punchbowl Nature Center really is beautiful and scenic, and not devilish at all. The park really is shaped like a punchbowl due to a deep canyon. After a peaceful hike down the mountain, one can enjoy the river flowing at the bottom of the "punchbowl." Every summer, I like to take a youth group from my local church; have I ever mentioned that I am the youth director there? We enjoy lunch in the picnic area, and then hike down the mountain to the river.
Here are a few of the pictures I took this time around.

When we made it back up the mountain, it started raining. Here are my sweeties huddled underneath an umbrella with a friend, whose mommy was clever enough to bring an umbrella along.

I shouldn't limit the trip to once a year as I love to visit. :)