This Ain't No Love Song - Trace Adkins

Here's a bit of musical entertainment for you today. This song kinda reflects my mood today. he he. 

Enjoy. 

Invites: Your Ticket to Paradise. Finally complete.

Hi all, 

It's summer and I've been super busy. School officially ends for me next week and by then I can finallly apply for my standard teaching certificate. Yay. Right now I'm teaching on a probationary certificate while I finish up all the requirements for standard certification. After I complete these 2 courses next week I will be done. 

In the meantime my co worker Ilene is getting married to Anthony and she enlisted me to make her wedding invites. She really did all the grunt work coming up with all the wording and placement but I think they came out fantastically. It took all of 3 days of camping out at Ilene's house, hanging out with the kiddos, shopping, and drama. Nothing like a good time right??? Lol. I had a blast and now, here's the fruit of our labor. 

What do you think??

 

 The Inside: Pg. 1 The Invitation & Reception info

Pg. 2 - The Cruise Info, Seating info, etc. 

Pg. 3 - Cruise details, and FYI

The happy couple and my good friends, Ilene and Anthony. 

 

Thank you for the 3 day long crafting session, the great parties, and my very first vacation (& my first cruise). It's all love and I can't wait. 

That's all for now. Hugs, 

Angee  

 

What I'm reading: Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Ever since I can remember I've been a lover of books. All kinds of books. Books on love, life, and the pursuit of happiness are some of my favorites. My favorite collection of books happen to be The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I fell in love with these books many many years ago. As a child I wanted to move from the big city of Houston, TX to the "Big Wood" of Wisconsin that Laura so vividly described. I wanted to have those same experiences and feel that unfettered curiosity that she describes in her books. 

A few weeks ago I was reminded of these books while I was searching for something on ebay. Happenstance nudged me just see how much a boxed set would cost. Much to my surprise they were pretty inexpensive, so off I went and ordered them. I knew that I had to have them and once again be transported to that place where life is much simpler and less complicated than that one I currently live. 

They arrived today, well used and worn, but the words are in perfect condition. And I can't wait to start the Journey with Ma, Pa, Laura, Mary, and many more.

For more resources on the LIttle House Books: 

Visit the Little House Books Website. 

Amazon has the complete 9 book set for $24.00 here. 

I will probably be purchasing the complete set of Harry Potter books next. I read them this year as a challenge to my students and I loved the books. (I love the movies too.)

What are you reading this summer?

Hugs, 

Angee

My Favorite Flowers

I am in a pretty colorful mood today. I'm finding all types of inspirations via the internet. Yesterday was all about shopping and midcentury modern furniture. Today is all about flowers. I've never really been a garden girl (oh, 2peas GG i wish) but never really a dirt, and sun type of girl until recently when my mom and I purchased our home did I really understand the calming, rewarding, and theraputic nature of gardening. 

So in honor of all that here are a few of my favorite flowers. 

First in line is my all time favorite. RANUNCULUS. Oh my I will have to find a way to grow these in my garden as I love them so much. The color variation is awesome. Click here for great tips to grow Ranunculus.  

Check out these gorgeous bouquets. Oh My Word. 

Ranunculus

Chrysanthemum

It is the national flower of Japan and don't your just love the tight pompons, and the beautiful range of colors. 

The Calla Lilly

I first fell in love with this flower at my good friend, Alaric's funeral. This flower is just so serene to me. It has a calming effect on me with it's simple design and soft coloring. God is awesome and this flower reminds me of that every time I see it. 

The Canna

It's the quintessential tropical flower. Don't you just love the yellow background with the orange specks. It makes me happy just looking at it. Here are a few more of my favs for your enjoyment. 

Gardenia

Hyacinth

Iris

Orchid

Peony

Stephanotis

So my favorite flower story. A good friend of mine decided to take me out right before Valentine's Day last year. I'd just gotten out of a very serious relationship and we were both working on the actual V-day so we went out the weekend before. He showed up to my door with a bouquet of white lilies.

About 1/2 of the flowers had already bloomed while the other half were just bulbs. I put the flowers in my bed room on the night stand and left them there all week. About 1/2 way through the week most of the flowers had already died. I snipped those away and left the bulbs in tact. Well to my surprise when I got home from work on Valentine's day the bulbs had bloomed. It was the best surprise in the world. I don't even think I told my friend this story. It really changed my perspective about the breakup and helped me truly move past that relationship. I don't know if he knew those bulbs would bloom within a week or not but I can't even tell you how much I loved seeing those flowers after a long day at work. So Julian if you read this thank you so much. You have no idea how much those flowers mean(t) to me. :-D I'm still down for sushi anytime. lol.

Hugs. 

Angee

Mid-Century Modern Furniture

OMG I love love mid-century modern furniture. The simple lines, clean design, and the easy access. By easy access I mean craigslist.org. lol. 

I was searching around craigslist today (for what I totally can't remember at the moment) but I came across some great vintage finds. 

 How awesome is this. I just love the legs on this furniture ($250 for all) and how it's not flush with the floor. I have an aversion to furniture resting on the floor. Weird I know.

 And then you have this awesome cabinet ($650). I can imagine this in my dining room or even my scraproom. Man-O-Man the possibilities.

Lastly is the dining set. This just reminds me of great dinners with family. 

I had a great time searching craigslist.org today. Did I purchase anything? Nope. If only I hand an extra $2K to spend and the space to put all this, I'd definitely say, "Just throw it in the bag." ala Fabolous. lol. 
 

Project Unveiled: CommemorativeWeddingGift using invites

Hi all, 

A few weeks ago I posted here about a project I was working on. My dear co-worker had a former student who was getting married and she had the super awesome idea of using this wedding invitation and save the date card as a commemorative gift. She gave me both the invite and save the date (I so was going o abbreviate the save the date but when I saw it came out to STD I decided against. lol.) And pretty much left it up to me. So off I went. 

I did have a bit of direction because the back of the save the date card was in a kind of scrap-booking format with a cute digital layout style. So I used this as a jumping off point and went from there incorporating the colors used, and a little bit of the layout as inspiration. 

Here is the layout right before it was finished. I added a few more touches to it later. 

Here it is all finished and framed. I can't believe how great the frame looks. It's sort of cream colored and distressed. The purple mat looks like velvet and then it has a small green mat beneath it. My iPhone pics does not do it justice. Linnell brought it to my classroom to let me see and I so wanted it back it was so beautiful. I wish I could say this was my idea to do this but it was all Linnell. All the papers are from a Walmart brand scrapbooking paper pack from Best Occasions punch out paper pack. The hearts were punched with the Stampin' Up! Heart Trio punch, and miscellaneous pearls and ribbon from my stash. 

 

  

Any other ideas for crafty wedding gifts?? Please leave me a comment below. Thanks.

Hugs, 

Angee

Digital Card Making

Hi all.

It's been a long time since I've last blogged, I know and I do apologize. Bad blogger, bad blogger. Today was my very last day of "official" work at school so now I will have more time for blogging & crafting for the next 3 months minus a few days for the cruise. :-D

In honor of the last day of work here is a quick little video highlighting my next endeavor...Digital cardmaking. Kristina Werner (my favorite cardmaker) did a great tutorial for 2peas on this subject. I tried to follow along and create the same card however I could not quite get it to work for me. The commands and dialog boxes were not the same when I opened my version of photoshop (I'm in CS3) and for the life of me I could not get my rounded corner rectangle tool to draw the shapes in the desired color. I guess I need lots more practice. 

Enjoy the video and I will be back very soon with more cards.