Just a few pretty pictures

I finally got a few pretty pictures edited and stuff for online. So, I might as well share them right?
These are really some of my favorites that I've taken lately. I love love love when the flowers and trees start blooming. Fresh flowers in the window cutout above our kitchen sink are definitely a favorite of mine. I'm going to have to get a potted plant or something, cuz it gets too expensive to buy fresh cut flowers every 2 weeks or so.
This one is of a carnation. I cropped in nice and close and I really like the texture and the white tones within it.


This is of a tiger lily. I really hope that Jordan will let me plant a few somewhere in our yard. I just LOVE lilies.


These next to I am definitely printing and hanging up somewhere in the house. I LOVE them. I still can't believe that I actually snapped this picture of the bee. I had to crop in close to get this final shot, but I'm so excited that the bee is IN FOCUS! Lol!


And this one is of one of the big bushes in the front that was her when we bought the house. I'm really not sure what it is, but it blooms so pretty and pink and vibrant each year. I love the way I got this one bunch of blooms in focus and threw the rest out for some nice bokeh.


Not a whole lot else going on. Jordan is heading up to Pittsburgh tomorrow night with a friend to help move his best man into their new house. I'm staying home because I promised Gidget I would come down to VA and go to a Wine Festival with her, which should be a TON of fun. I'm hoping to get some more stuff done around the house, and for the wedding too. I've been putting the wedding invitations together in spits and spurts, and I think it'll make putting them all together much easier. I got a few random projects done this past weekend, so that was good too. But the lists are never ending, lol.

Catch you later :)
~Col

Memorial Day - 2009

(Image by David Goldman, as taken from The Big Picture)
Always remember those who have fallen to protect your freedoms.
God bless America. God bless our troops.

Well well well, long time no see!

This is how it usually goes for me. I blog for a while, then I disappear, then I try again. I fell off the 365 wagon during April. April was ca-razy for me! Our families came down for Easter, work was insane, lots going on. Life in general has gotten a lil busy, and we're not even in the full swing of wedding stuff. I'm working on a better time management schedule for myself. 1 or 2 hours a week doing wedding stuff, 1 night a week editing photos and playing in lightroom, and then working on my hybrid assignments for SSD and the other crafty things I want to do. We'll see how it goes. I did pretty well last week, we'll see how this week goes. We're working 4-10's so we can take friday off to go to Jadyn's college graduation. That cuts into "my time" every night by 2 hours, but we'll see what happens.

Anyway, I figured a good old "From Our Blog to Yours" from SSD would be a good way to get back into the swing of things. So, here you go. My Star Wars name.

Your Star Wars Name Is Colbr Mabro

Your Star Wars Title Is Ydacho of Nadroj

What Is Your Star Wars Name and Title?

We're officially less than 5 months away from the wedding, which is NUUUUUUUTS!!! The bridesmaid dresses have arrived which is SUPER exciting. I need to call the bridal store and find out when my fittings will start, but they've had my dress and veil for a few weeks now. So all that is wonderful. Jordan's mom called last night, and there is potential for a problem with the hotel block we set up, so I need to take care of that this week. I'm working on a mock-up of the favors, and will be ordering the final pieces this week as well. I have half of the pieces of the invitations put together, which is awesome. They don't take long to put together, but I think it'll be easier if I put the different pieces together, and then put the entire invitation together. I just LOVE the invitations, I'm so happy with them.

I think that's enough for now. Hopefully tonight I'll get some more photos from the last few months edited and online so I can share. :)

Have a great day!
~Col

My birthday! And random P365 photos

Hellooooooooo! So, I meant to post, and I meant to post, and I meant to post, and now I'm finally posting :)

Last friday was my birthday (WOOT!!). The big 2-6. It feels no different that 25, lol. Another year down the drain. But, there are lots of awesome things to look forward to this year, so it's all good.
Here's my P365 for friday. We went out to a happy hour with a bunch of friends and had a blast! We don't go out a lot, which we should really work on, but we always have fun when we do. :)


I'm keeping up with Project 365 pretty well so far. The only thing I'm running into, is that I'm so spoiled with my D80, that I don't want to take pictures during the day with my point and shoot, lol. Although that photo above is from my point and shoot, so I shouldn't complain too much. I brought my big camera in to work today so I can get a shot of the ice storm outside. We got some snow yesterday, and then a lot of sleet/ice overnight and into today. I'm gonna run outside in a second and snap a picture before it all melts or something. I do have to say that I LOVE editing my photos in Lightroom now. And the combination of lightroom and PS is just AWESOME!
Here's a sunset from Jan 16th. The windows in my craft space overlook the backyard and face west-ish so the sun sets over there everyday. The winter sunsets seem to be extra bright and gorgeous lately.


Here's a shot that I made vintage-y. It's the view of our parking lot from the stairwell on my floor. The P&S didn't take a great photo, so going vintage was my best option.


My mom gave me 2 of these mugs, and a matching bowl over Christmas. I LOVE it! It's so fun to look down and see a cute lil snowman peeking up at me. The bowl is in the living room with M&M's in it :)


One of my Christmas presents was also this adorable Breast Cancer Mouse :) She sits on my desk at home all cute and fluffy with those feathers. Probably going to retake this one, and move my pen storage out of the way so it's not as distracting.


Tiger had a lot of fun running around outside on sunday morning while Jordan was washing the cars. She's so cute in that jacket when the hood flops forward, and then she was playing on her own tossing the ball around. I just HAD to snap some shots :)
Here, the ball had the audacity to roll down the side of the yard into the driveway. How rude!


This one is funny.


And I LOVE this one, despite it's total lack of focus, lol.


That will be all for now. My mojo took a long walk off a short pier in the beginning of the month and it's starting to bother me. I've gotten 2 hybrid projects done, and I'll post those tomorrow (hopefully). We're driving up to NY tonight so we can go to a tasting at Patriot Hills tomorrow night. So fun!! Have a great day :)

~Col

Puppiesssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!

Ok, so I've got a TON of P365 photos that I finally got off my camera and edited and whatnot. But, it's a lot. And I don't want to bore you. So instead? PUPPIES!!
My girlfriend Sue (the maker of the glorious roasted chicken) seems to have a knack for finding strays. A while ago she found a litter of abandoned Labradoodles in the gravel pit behind her house. She nursed those babies back to health, found them homes, and kept one for herself cuz she'd grown so attached. Last spring she found a huge male dog, near death from starvation wandering in an empty ball field near her house (that I drive past 2 times a day!). If she hadn't gone for a drive that morning, he probably wouldn't have survived. She brought him in, nursed him back to health, found him a good home. Are we sensing a pattern? I thought so.

A few weeks ago her husband was at the grocery store and he spotted a starving femail running around the parking lot. She was VERY friendly and running up to people (looking for food I'm sure), but since she's a pit bull, people were terrified of her. So, he scooped her up and brought her home. They thought that she had just birthed a litter of pups as her teats were hanging really low. They started feeding her and she fattened up FAST. Too fast. She was still pregnant, she hadn't given birth yet. So, about 3 weeks ago, she gave birth to a litter of 9 puppies. 9!! Apparently it was clear that it was not her first birthing, as she took everything in stride.

So, this past saturday I stopped by with coffee and donuts to gab and catch up and of course, see the puppies! Momma has been named Trixie and is the tiniest, sweetest little thing ever. She ran right up to me and jumped to see what I was carrying and say hello. And the puppies, ooooooh the puppies! I've never seen puppies so teeny tiny before. The one that Sue claimed for me was OBVIOUSLY the loudest one of the bunch ;)
Here, are my 3 favorite shots. Thank goodness I shot in RAW cuz the light was really low (even for my 50mm f/2.8 all the way open), but Lightroom saved the day :)
They were SO cute. They kept burrowing underneath each other into a big pile of wriggling, squealing, wrinkly cuteness :)


All piled up.


And this guy was just the CUTEST. He looked so content laying there half under the pile, half out of it.


I so wish that Jordan would let me bring one home. I want Tiger to have a brother SO BAD, but he's really against a 2nd dog right now. Well, ever really. But I'm hoping that I can wear him down if given enough time, lol.

A lot of my 365 photos from last week feature Tigah-now. She's just so dang cute I can't help myself! Here are a few :)
She took a nice little nap while the Giants were losing to the Eagles.


She finished off her month of antibiotics for Lyme Disease.


She hijacked my spot in bed while I was in the shower.


And she loved on her Daddy :)


I think that's enough for today :) I'm all caught up on my photos so look for another post with some of them soon. :)
Have a good night and a good day!

~Col

This could become a problem....

Seriously. My love for all things crafty will probably be my undoing. I need to learn to finish one project before I try and start another, lol. I bought a TON of fabric last night for 3 new projects. But first, I need to make 2 of the projects I started for SSD. Oy, lol. I just get so excited about an idea that I run out to start it, and then realize crap, I can't do that yet!

The other problem is going to be that I am NOT good about taking my photos off my camera for P365. I don't like to upload photos 1 by 1, I like to do it in bunches. I think that for this project though, that's really gonna make the project hard for me. I still haven't uploaded my photos from the end of last week. So I need to work on that.

Not a whole lot going on otherwise. I'm really busy at work, which is good and bad, lol. Good because I'm grateful to have a job in this crazy economy, bad because I don't like being SO crazy busy. I feel overwhelmed sometimes. I'm working on a plan set submittal, but this is the first time my boss is letting me do all the checking on it first (usually I print it all and he makes the corrections). So I'm a little stressed about that, but I do have to learn it to grow and move up in the company. Such is the life of a grown up right?

I can't leave without posting some more LO's. This one I started over a month ago. I redid it like 7 times before I finally bought the kit I ended up using. I REALLY like the way it turned out.


This one is for my Project 365 photobook. I'm going to use Viovio to print it since Shutterfly can't handle the number of pages I'm hoping to do. I'm going to make it's an 8.5x8.5 pro bound book hopefully. I want something nice that I can put out on the coffee table next year :) I'm not sure this style is one that I want to keep throughout the whole book, but it's a LO done and that's all that matters right now, lol.


That's all for today :) I'll be back soon with more 365 photos to share, and hopefully my first official project as a Hybridbabe for SSD!! WOOT!!

Have a wonderful day :)
~Col

Oh My Stinkin Heck!!!!!

I am having the BEST WEEK EVER!!!

Ok, so Monday blew. I was cranky, I did NOT want to be back at work, and my boss drove me a little insane. Jordan and I were both really snippy with each other too, which always gets to me. I haaaaaaaaaate fighting with him or being mad at him. So Monday was not so hot.

Tuesday was better. I was in a decent mood, I rode the bike for 20 minutes (WOOT!), we had a good dinner. I bought myself a custom font from Darcy Baldwin @ SSD, and I was all excited to get it made. Life was good.

Then came Wednesday. Ooooh wednesday. I have a great group of friends whom I met on myspace a few years back. We've had our fair share of ups and downs and drama-rama's, but there's a core group of us who have always stuck together and been really close. For the past few years we've decided to do a Secret Santa to keep costs down for everyone during the holidays. Well my SS informed me of herself, and she happened to be my good friend Sue who lives like 2 miles away. So instead of buying me something, she gave me the best gift ever. A huge home cooked meal for Jordan and I, delivered to our house!! She made us a delicious oven roasted chicken (which Jordan LOVED so I have to get her recipe, lol) with carrots and potatoes, a salad, biscuits, an appetizer of cheese and crackers, and a dessert of angel food cake with vanilla topping! FREAKING DELICIOUS!
So as if that wasn't enough for the day, Jordan surprised me. He knew I really wanted this dinner to be just for us, to share together, by ourselves. Well his brother was still in the house, but while I was down the hall he set the table in the dining room, turned down off the lights, and lit candles and opened a bottle of wine. It was just exactly what I needed from him amid the stress of life at home as it is currently. He really surprises me sometimes and sweeps me off my feet all over again. We had a wonderful dinner and enjoyed each other's company both during and after :P
As if that wasn't enough to keep me happy for several days, I got the GREATEST PM ever later that night. From Robin Carlton, the owner of Sweet Shoppe Designs, asking me to (finally) be a Hybridbabe!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! See, I'm even up on the staff page (scroll down, bottom left corner)!! I've talked to Robin a lot in the last year, to find ways to improve myself to try and make the team. SSD is my digi-home, and to be on the site team is truly a dream come true. I've been waiting for almost a year, but it was 100% worth the wait!! The funny thing is that after the last round of rejection, I had decided to "give up" on making the team in a way. Not literally give up, but try to not make it my main focus and just do what I do because I love to do it. Well boy did that pay off! LOL! I'm seriously seriously, SO excited to be an even bigger part of the most amazing digi-scrapping community out there. There are some big things planned for the future and I'm so excited to get to be a part of them from the start!! So Wednesday was amazing. I was literally like a kid on Christmas eve that night. So excited I couldn't sleep!

Thursday was excellent. I got set up in the "behind the scenes" forums at SSD and worked on catching up things. Robin announced that myself and another wonderful scrapper, Jen Tapler, had joined the team, and I basked in the awesomeness that was my life. And then the next most awesome thing happened. Darcy finished my font!!! I consider my handwriting to be a mess. It never looks the same way twice, which makes it rather difficult to create a sample LOL! But Darcy persevered, and here's my font!! I LOVE it!!


Friday was excellent because a)it was friday, but also because of b) we booked the flights for our honeymoon!! WOOT!! We're flying into Paris on the 13th and out of Milan on the 30th. 17 days in Europe!!!! OMG I'm SO freaking excited.

So yea, best freaking week ever. 2009 is off to a very very good start. Fingers crossed it stays that way for a while :)

Ok, time for some 365 photos. I'm almost done with my LO for week 1, which is good since week 2 ended today :P But I'll talk about the LO when I post it.

Day 6 was Tuesday, which was the first day I used the new exercise bike.


Day 7 was Sue's glorious oven roasted chicken.


Day 8 was my debut on the SSD staff page!!!


Day 9 and 10 are still in lightroom. I'll post them soon. :)
I spent a lot of today organizing my scrap space AGAIN. But it's got some fun new things in it thanks to some metal bins from the new tv stand that Jordan didn't want to STAY in the tv stand. So I took them :) Now I have bins for my rub ons, my acrylic stamps, my endless amounts of chipboard, and my card bases! I'm loving the way it's working into my current system so well!! WOOT! Plus, that means my desk is almost cleared off and I can get back to crafting! WEEEEEE! I've got some card sets that I want to make for friends, and that's my first project :)

Ok, enough rambling for tonight. Have a good rest of the weekend everyone!
~Col

Helloooooooo 2009!

Phew! I finally grabbed a second to get this written and posted. The holidays were great. Super busy, and too much traveling, but great. :) We got an awesome exercise bike from my parents, and I got Lightroom 2.0 from Jordan's parents! WOOT! So exciting, it's my new favorite camera accessory, lol.

Again, this year for SERIOUS, I'm doing Project 365. I say for serious, because SSD is playing along too and has a whole forum set up for it! WOOT! Now lots of my friends are doing it, and I'll have oodles of motivation. And to share, here are my first 5 pics :)

Tiger LOVES to lay in front of the wood stove when we visit Jordan's parents in the winter. She lays there until she's so hot she can't stand it any longer, goes and cools off for a few minutes, and then goes back and lays down again. This night, the fire was apparently too low for her, because she was practically laying underneath it, lol.


Day 2, playing with my favorite new toys :)


Day 3, her pathetic/sad/stop taking my picture face.


I spent some time on sunday, Day 4, going through piles of scrapbooking magazines and pulling out inspiration from them. I pull articles and layouts to lift for those times when my mojo is running low.


Yesterday we took down the tree and I took down most of the decorations in the house. I don't have an ornament organization box, so the bulbs all just go in one big rubbermaid bin :)



So 2008 went way too fast. It was a good year, but I really can't believe it's gone already! But the good news is, WE ARE GETTING MARRIED THIS YEAR!!!!!

Can you tell I'm excited?? We ordered our invitations while we were home in NY for Christmas, and I'm SO excited to get them in. They are so perfect and elegant and wonderful. STOKED! We did hit a snag with the hotel situation, which is a huge bummer. Apparently all the hotels in the area are WAY overpriced, so guests are gonna have to travel a bit I think. So bummed about that. We'll just have to see what happens I suppose.

Since we got the exercise bike for Christmas, I'm hoping to make a solid effort at exercising more this year. I figure if I can't lose weight for the wedding, then it's not meant to be. Jordan loves my body, all the pressure definitely comes from me. I'm not crazy, trying to fit into a size 2 or something. I just want to lose 20 pounds, which would get me down to a good healthy size. That's all I want, is to be more healthy. I'm working on taking multi-vitamins, and drinking more water every day. I hope to use the bike 3 days a week and try and do pilates the other days. It'd be nice to keep that plan going with the bike, because then when I start training for the 3Day (2010) I can walk the other days of the week like I'm suppose to. That's the plan anyway :p The best laid plans of mice and men......

So getting healthy is one goal for this year. Another goal is to really really really work on my photography. I would really love to eventually (like, a ways down the line) get into photography as a business or a side business. Holly McCraig has a dog portraiture business called The Little Dog Smiled. SO AWESOME! I mean that, THAT would be what I would want to do. Run around taking pictures of awesome dogs all the time. PERFECT!

Mmm....ok, I think I'm done rambling for today. Hopefully I'll be back again soon :)
Have a great day!!

~Col

Poop Face

Yes, you read that correctly. Poop face. (Yes, yes I'll explain, just hold your horses!)

We're doing a monthly team challenge over on Bree's Team Blog called Mix It Up. Once a month, we pick a template, and then scramble it all up and make something TOTALLY different with it, and then show the LO's off. A lot of people think that once they use a template, that's it, game over. NO WAY MAN!! That's what we aim to show you with the Mix It Up posts (the challenge will be up sometime today). Kim picked a LO from Bree's newest Collection, #23:


As soon as I saw the 3 smaller photos, I knew I wanted to do a LO with my scanned pics of my brother and sister and I as babies. So next, I hunted for pics of us as babies in similar positions. I had a few to choose from for my brother and sister, but there was really only one for me. So, I edited the pics, changed them to a sepia tone to match the kit I was using ("Heart Strings" by Laurie Ann) and went to town. I REALLY like how it turned out. I used all the pieces that came in the template and didn't even resize or change them. I just moved them into different positions (and changed the large photo to a block in the center. Here's the LO:



So I'm in the top left, Caitlin is top right, and Patrick is on the bottom (hence the little monogram type letters on the photos). Now, look at that face I am making. If that is not a "I'm pooping" baby face, then I don't know what is. I STILL cannot stop laughing just looking at it!! What a moment to catch on film, thanks Mom and Dad! Hahahahahaha! Oh goodness, I love it.

So last weekend Jordan went through the GIANT PILE of clothes that has been sitting in the corner of our bedroom for over a year now, waiting to be sorted and taken over to Goodwill. I decided that instead of holding onto some 10 pairs of jeans that no longer fit, I was going to donate them. I'm tired of the subconscious pressure I put on myself to lose weight every single time I opened the closet and saw those jeans. So, peace out jeans! Hello clear conscience!
I bought 2 new pairs of American Eagle jeans, and I feel like a new person. Yes, they're a size 12 and it still makes me cringe a little to think that (I thought 10 was bad enough), but they FIT! Comfortably! No doing lunges in the morning in a lame attempt at stretching them out to make them easier to get on! I feel good in the morning. It feels awesome.
Yea, I still wanna lose weight. We're getting an exercise bike for Christmas and I hope to get myself on it M/W/F and really make an effort at it. But you know what? If I don't, I'm not gonna let it get to me. I look HAWT in my wedding gown right now, as a size 10/12. Yea, it would be nice to lose 10lbs (more like 20 but whatever), but I figure if I don't, and my wedding isn't motivation enough, then it's not meant to be. Jordan loves me despite the size of my jeans, and that's all that really matters.

So, if you're hanging onto old clothes because you plan on losing weight to fit back into them, just get rid of them. There are plenty of ppl out there who can put them to good use RIGHT NOW, and when you do lose the weight, do you really want to wear old stuff? Heck no! You want fun new clothes for yourself! So let goooooo of the baggage!!

So in crafty news, I followed along on Tim Holtz' blog for his 12 days of tags (I triiiiied to get on here to post about it, and then never did, oops). Absolutely amazing and inspiration stuff here folks. Makes me want to run out and buy every single he makes or touches. For reals. It also makes me want to run home and get my hands all dirty and play :) I bought a little wooden house back in October to make a Haunted House with, but now I think I'm going to make a "gingerbread" house with it instead. HOPEFULLY I can work on that sometime this week. But I suppose we shall see.

Oh, and remember that whole "I'm going to bed early" thing from yesterday? Totally didn't happen. I got sucked into finishing that LO and was up til 11:30. Awesome. LOL! At least I'm only working Monday and Tuesday next week, so I'll have lots of time to catch up on my sleep :)

Ok, I think that's all I wanted to say today. Or at least it needs to be so I can finish off this plan sheet. :p
Have a great day!
~Col

What? 2 days in a row?

Saaaa-weeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!

I'm just tired of working on this plan set. Drafting gets to me after a while. So, I came here to be a little random for a bit.

1.) I bought this adorable hat off etsy ( crafttealady.etsy.com is the shop I got it at). I wasn't sure it would look good on me, but it was red and cream and screamed my name until my willpower crumbled and I bought it. I fought the urge for a good 2 minutes! :p Turns out though? I look freaking CUTE in this hat! And I don't care what Jordan thinks, I'm wearing it all the time now. Well, not all the time, but you know what I mean. :)



2.) I really like my most recent LO. I didn't even know I had gotten that smaller photo, and I totally love it. I'm gonna print it and frame it and stick it somewhere I can see it everyday :) The kit is Preppy Autumn by Traci Reed and it's one of my most favorite kits of hers!


3.) Jordan bought a huge tv for the bedroom this week. Found a deal he couldn't pass up, and we just got our bonus checks from work, so, he bought it. It's 46 freaking inches! Unnecessary for a bedroom I think, but whatever. I know better than to argue with him on some things. I voiced my opinion on the size and it was disregarded and that's life. And besides, who complains about a pimp 46" tv?!?! I'll just be buying one of the things on my "Camera stuff I HAVE TO HAVE" list next month for my birthday :)

4.) What the fuck kind of time warp do you get thrown into when you graduate college? CHRISTMAS IS IN 8 FREAKING DAYS!! When did that happen??? Thank god for a free month of Amazon Prime and free 2 day shipping, that's all I'm gonna say on that matter.

5.) If I don't get Tiger to the vet this week, I'm gonna hurt myself. She's overdue for shots by about 2 weeks, which isn't a big deal, except one of them is her rabies shot. Which I find mildly important. *pauses* She has an appt at 11:10 on saturday morning. Done. Excellent.

6.) I've been EXHAUSTED lately. Staying up too late is not good for me, especially not for like a week straight. I'll be going to bed early tonight, come hell or high water!

7.) I never shared this LO and it's FREAKING ADORABLE. So I'm sharing it now. The kit is "Jingle Baby" by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Meg Mullens. Isn't my lil bro CUTE?!



8.) I think that's all for today. It was extra random, you'll need time to recover. ;)

Have a great day!
~Col

2 weeks! Sheesh!

Man, I was all excited about posting every day for December Daily. We all see how well that turned out! LOL! It's ok though, because I'm still thinking about the project and taking pictures, and making notes about what I want to write down and such. One of these days when I catch my breath, I'll get some stuff done for it. I'm not too worried about it :) I did get a few photos edited to share though, so here are those!

The double rainbows on the 1st that I posted about. The second is hard to see, but I know it's there and that's all that matters :p


Jordan and I at our company party on the 3rd (hard to edit, our faces are a little blown, but whatevs)


The beautiful sunrise that greeted us as we left for work on the 8th


Work has been crazy, the holiday season has been crazy, life is just crazy right now. All sorts of little things have popped up here and there that end up taking a ton of time. But, that's life, and this holiday season has been wonderful. Lots of time with friends and family, and I'm so thankful for that. But man, it'll be nice when the craziness is gone again! LOL! I still can't believe that Christmas is only 9 days away. That's some kind of crazy holiday time warp that's going on! Thankfully 95% percent of the presents have been bought and have arrived, so all I have to do is get to wrapping and making gift tags. Wrapping is my favorite part, so I think I'll save that for this saturday morning when I can do it in some peace and quiet while the boys are still sleeping. We're doing big fat NOTHING this weekend and I can't wait :) I'm hoping to get to finally sit down and put some of these December Daily and Journal Your Christmas thoughts down in my album. I really love the base that I set up for it, so I'm excited to get stuff put in it :) I am really really loving the prompts we get every day for the JYC class.

I think that's enough rambling for today. Hopefully I'll be back soon with another post and some of my album to share!!
Have a great day!
~Col

December 1st!!

Hooray! It's December! I can finally start decorating for Christmas! WOOT!

After a long weekend of traveling, I'm pretty exhausted. I shouldn't really be, but I am. Who knows. Thanksgiving was great, it was so good to see Jordan's family in Pittsburgh. I got to visit with Julie and my wonderful little "niece" Olivia. Naturally, I had plans of taking a bajillion photos of everything, and then didn't snap a single one! Oy! LOL!

This December, I'm working on a project with a bunch of friends from the Sweet Shoppe. We're following along with Ali Edwards "December Daily" project. Documenting the things that we do through the holiday season. Many people are doing it as more of a "Holiday Daily" and started on friday, to document all the things that are done throughout the holiday season. I am starting today, and will go a little ways into January as well, to document our time spent with Jordan's family over New Year's (we spend New Year's with whichever side of the family we don't see at Christmas).

I also signed up for another class, that is a December Daily in a different way. It's called "Journal Your Christmas" and is run by a woman named Shimelle. You can click away to read more about it :)


I need to download and read today's prompt still. I wasn't planning on using a photo for today, but then as I was driving home through the rain, I saw a double rainbow!! SO COOL! So I had to snap a few shots of that, luckily my point-and-shoot was in purse :) I'll get that one posted tomorrow. I like Ali's approach in that she doesn't do anything for that day until the end of it, or the next. You can't do it before it's happened, you know? :)

Aside from that, life is good. Work is still busy, and now I've got all kinds of holiday projects to work on. Unfortunately I've also been sucked into the world of Twilight, not that I'm surprised. I get this way with books. Especially good books. I just get so wrapped up in the story, that I can NOT put it down to work on something else! Even worse with a series of books. Thank goodness I read Harry Potter last summer (in just a few weeks), I got NOTHING else done while I was reading those! LOL! Thankfully, I'm on the last book now. It'll definitely be done in a few days. I swore I wasn't going to read any tonight, and then I read 145 pages. I figured I would read while ACDSee unzipped my goodies from the digi sales this weekend. And naturally, once that was done (all of like 10 minutes, had to do it 3 times to get them all saved everywhere I needed) I was a goner. Thankfully this last book is broken into small sections. Not that it matters, the first section ended with such a freaking cliff hanger I'm DYING to get through the next section and get back to the first character (that was probably confusing, lol, sorry). See! I'm even rambling when I WRITE about Twilight!! I never should've resisted so long, what a fool I was! LOL!

Ok, ok, enough is enough. I have scrappy stuff to do! Have a great night, I'll hopefully be back tomorrow :)
~Col

Rambling Tuesday

So, I'm getting sick. I can feel it. My throat hurts, my back is achy and my stomach has been acting up for a few days. So NOT how I want to spend Thanksgiving weekend and 10 hours in the car (give or take). I'm drinking tea and sucking on Halls like my life depends on it.

This weekend I finally finished a hybrid project I've had in the works for what seems like forever. It took a long time to paint it (2 coats) and then it took forever to finish it off (waiting for the mod podge to dry). But, I love it. I'm probably going to make a few more and give them to friends with little girls as christmas presents. It's small, but perfect for little bows and hair ties and barrettes :) I couldn't get all the yellow tones out completely in post processing, but it's a cream colored paint. I used the new kit by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Susan Bartolini, called "Live.Laugh.Love."




Since Thanksgiving isn't over yet, I have not done anything in terms of Christmas. No listening to Christmas music, no decorating house, nothing. I HATE that right after Halloween the stores started pimping their Christmas schtuff. I love Christmas as much as the next person, but come on! Give Thanksgiving a CHANCE! My designers however, have had Christmas on the brain for a while. So here are 2 LO's using recent releases.
"Tis the Season" using Arose Such a Clatter by Julie Billingsley:


And "Where are the Presents??" using And to All A Good Night by Traci Reed and Meg Mullens:


I'm looking forward to decorating the house for the season. I love the smell of the tree (which I'm sure will be 3 times bigger than necessary since Jordan goes and gets it while I prep for it's arrival), the look of the house with the lights on, and all the little details. I'm thinking of starting one of those little villages on our buffet in the dining room. My moms parents had a huge elaborate one, and I always remembered that about their tree. Grandpa built a special platform for it to sit on and everything was laid out (to perfection as that is Grandpa's way) so that all the cords were hidden underneath and out of the way. I did go ahead and buy some pretty new stockings from Pottery Barn a few weeks ago (did I mention that? I can't remember). They're going to look so cute hanging up under the cutout in the kitchen wall. I have the BG ornament set (I can't remember if it's from the Dasher or Figgy Pudding lines) so I want to get those made to hang around the house. I have so many projects I want to do! LOL! Not to mention all the gifts I want to make. I need to put on my Uber-Productive hat in the next few weeks! At least I can knit my little hands off in the car all weekend.

We're leaving for Pittsburgh on thursday morning (to try and avoid traffic). Doing random stuff on friday, including taking one of Jordan's sisters to try on the bridesmaid dress so we can order the right size. I'm hopefully meeting up with my girlfriend on friday at some point to hang out. Saturday we're driving to central PA to visit more of Jordan's family. We're either coming back that night, or spending the night there and coming home on sunday. Phew. It's a lot of car time. Thankfully we're taking the comfy new car and this time I'm riding shotgun :)

Oh! And we found a wedding photographer! After much arguing and disagreeing between myself and Jordan, he made the wise statement "Whatever you want." I think he's learning ;) We're going to go with Roy from Black Dog Photography. Friends of ours recommended them, and I'm confident they'll deliver the photojournalist style that I'm looking for, mixed in with traditional posed shots. We're having 1 for 5 hours and 1 for 8 hours. It was really important to me to have a second shooter. I want to have pictures of the guys getting ready, as well as some different angles of shots from the ceremony and then an extra pair of eyes at the cocktail hour. After the cocktail hour, Roy will probably take off, and the second shooter will stay until around cake cutting time. Just thinking about it all gets me so excited! Lol!

Well, I think I've babbled enough for today. Tomorrow I'll stop in with one of my other holiday projects (which is kind of 2 combined into 1). :)

Have a great day, and if I don't see you tomorrow, Happy Thanksgiving!!
~Col

Freaking Hysterical

I missed SNL (as usual) this week, but my sister shared this gem with me last night.
I almost peed my pants. "We're grinding." "I thought that was obvious!"

Justin Timberlake as "Single lady" with Beyoncé
by glide64

That is all for today I think. :) Have a great day!
~Col

New Hair, New wedding photographer, new new new!

It's amazing the effect an hour or two of pampering has on the soul. I went and got my hair done yesterday, and today I'm on top of the world! Jordan is not so happy with the haircut though. He didn't talk to me for like an hour after I got home. He doesn't like short hair on women at all, and we went a little shorter than normal this time. I kinda feel bad that he hates it so much, but I really like my hair short! He'll get over it I suppose, but I'm thinking of growing it out for the wedding now. It won't be nearly as long as I would like, but we'll see. I don't have to make a decision for another 3 months when it's time to get the highlights redone, LOL! Now if only I could stop biting my freaking nails, we'll be set!

We've been having a really good few weeks. We got into an arguement about 2.5-3 weeks ago about our living situation. But then we talked again later that night, and I feel a lot better about the whole situation. We still disagree, but at least I feel like he understands where I'm coming from now. So we'll see what happens in the next few months. The best part though, is that since we had the arguement and discussion, we've been better than ever. We've been extra snuggly and lovey dovey, even at work. I think I get more excited about the wedding every single day. :)

Shutterfly is having another card sale, so I'm hoping to get our Save the Dates done in the next few days and get some of them ordered. The Christmas cards came out awesome, so I'm confident I'll be happy with the Save the Dates too. I want to do cards since so many ppl are coming from out of town, I'm going to make up an information type packet to send with the save the dates. Places to eat, things to do, stuff like that. Since we're having the rehearsal on friday night and the wedding on sunday, everyone will have saturday free to do whatever they want. Which I think is going to work out really well. Or at least I hope :P

We also have to find a new wedding photographer. We were going to use a family friend, but some drama-rama has erupted. I would rather find a new photographer now, than worry and stress about it for the next 11 months. If things work out, the family friend will come as a guest, no big deal. Thankfully, we're still 11 months out, so we shouldn't have too much trouble booking someone. Plus, now I can find a photog who matches MY style, which will make me that much happier with the final product. I started searching yesterday and found some good prospects, so I'm excited to make contact with them and get the process started.

SSD is down for the next 2 days while they revamp the site and switch the store over to x-cart. I'm going through withdrawls, it's pathetic, LOL! The only good thing is that the designers are putting out tooooooooons of great products for the big reveal on saturday :) I've gotta goodies coming out of my ears! Lol! My mojo is still kinda missing, but Bree's templates save the day.

I've got serious craft ADD at home lately. Saturday I woke up and started working on a paper album. After breakfast I decided to finish sewing the 2nd curtain for the spare room upstairs. Then I started a digi LO. Then I finished the curtain, and started painting things to prep for hybrid projects. Then I started knitting 2 different projects for Christmas presents. I might officially be insane.

Today is rainy and gross. I forgot to bring anything for lunch, and we're out of lunchmeat. Fast food here I come! Lol!

Have a great day everyone :)
~Col

Truthful Tuesday #5

Sometimes, I forget that this blog is public domain, and not just a journal for myself. But out there for people to read, and possibly be hurt by.

For that, I truly apologize. I never meant to hurt anyone. I got too wrapped up in my own shit, and didn't take anything else into account before posting.

I apologize, and I hope that I am forgiven.

Lesson learned. Bigtime.

~Col

Proud Mama Moment!!

Ok. So everyone knows that Tiger is a pit bull mix (American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier mix). And a lot of people will read that and automatically think "OMG THOSE DOGS ARE VICIOUS!!!" If you thought that just now, and have no desire to hear any other opinion, please leave this blog now.

I work to fight that stereotype every single day. I always hope I can educate people and change some minds, and I know that I have. I work hard to make sure that Tiger is well behaved in public, and she's always friendly and a good Breed Ambassador.

Now, there are some things that as a pit owner, I'm inherently wary of at all times. One, is children. She loves them and wants to play, but doesn't understand her own size and strength. She ends up chasing them cuz she thinks it's a game, when really they are running in terror (I learned this very quickly when I first had her and there were a lot of kids in the apt complex). So, there's no playing with kids who are running around and being loud. She's perfectly ok with quiet children who aren't running and screaming, but otherwise, not so much. By the time we have kids she'll be like 10 years old and will have hopefully slowed down (considering she's 4.5 and still a maniac, I'm not holding my breath; it's more like praying).

The other thing, is other dogs. Tiger is an extremely dominant personality. She was a complete asshole the first 2 months I had her until I laid down the law and forced her to respect me. She is very much like a child who tests their boundaries at every chance. Except she won't grow out of it, lol. When I found her in the shelter, she was 1.5 and had been there about 6 months. Before that, the shelter said that as far as they knew she had lived on the streets. This means she had ZERO positive training with respect to other dogs and proper manners. As a pit bull, there is also always the issue of dog aggressive behavior. That is part of the breed, like it or not. Each dog is different and some dogs never ever display any aggression towards other dogs. But, you always have to be wary.

Since Tiger is so dominant, she often has issues with other dogs. But, she's also totally unpredictable with respect to what dogs she will like or not like. She likes most small dogs, whether male or female. This is because she can easily dominate them, so she doesn't feel threatened by them and can play without incident (unless the other dog is an asshole with a Napolean complex who starts shit first). She gets along with males, in general, better than females. She loooooooooved to play with the big male boxer across the street at our place. She HATES my friend Krissie's big female shephard, Titan. Like, barking and growling and freaking out if they even made eye contact from 30' away. Kind of scary actually.

Anyway. So my friend Emily bought a female American Bulldog in the spring, Kona. We always said we would get them together while she was young and small so that Tiger would be comfortable with her and they could be friends. And then life got in the way and Emily and I could barely meet up let alone get the dogs together. Such is life.

So this weekend, Emily decided to come over and watch the PSU game (I'm in denial, I don't want to talk about it, friggen IOWA?!?!?! UGH!). She asked if I thought Tiger would get along with Kona. I told her I had no idea, but to bring her so we could give it a try. If Tiger was a huge asshole, I would separate her into another room for the time they were here. No big deal.

Well Tiger and Kona are now totally BFF!! I was sooooooooooooooooooo happy to see them running around like maniacs, playing fetch together, wrestling and boxing, and just generally being cute lovable dogs. Tiger is very vocal when she plays, but Kona didn't seem to mind. Kona was submissive and Tiger only tried to hump her once (which I put a stop to, because that's just poor manners). Tiger didn't even get mad when Kona snuck in and stole away the tennis ball or the stick from her! I think all the time she spent at the lake over the past 2 summers, being forced to share the stick with the big mean labs, has really helped her out a LOT!

So, here are few photos :)
Emily and Kona


Kona


And now Tigah-now and her new BFF Kona :)




This is one proud momma :)
Talk to you later bloggers!
~Col

Civic Duty - Check Mark

I voted today, did you?

I could not in good conscience vote for either Obama or McCain. Neither of their ideals match with mine completely. I'm truly, a middle of the road voter. And there's no one out there for me (although considering most Republicans hate McCain because he IS more middle of the road, we disagree on several important things to me).

So today, when I pushed the nifty little touch screen to cast my vote, I cast it for Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party.

I know some of you are thinking: "But that's a waste! He'll never win! Why did you bother?!"

Because it's not a waste.
Because the state of Maryland will go to Senator Obama whether I vote for or against him. 3 or 4 counties in this state override the rest of the state, and thus MD will go to the Democrats. So in reality, a vote for McCain is a waste. He has NO chance in this state.

But voting for anyone else sends a message.
It sends the message that I'm fed up with the 2 party system.
It sends the message that the Democratic and Republican candidates AREN'T GOOD ENOUGH.
It sends the message that it's time for a 3rd party and a stop this nonsense.

The more people vote for a 3rd party (any 3rd party for all I care), the bigger the message.
The more votes a 3rd party gets, the greater the chances of getting federal funding for a future campaign, which brings us closer to a REAL 3 party system.

Cuz let's be serious. This 2 party nonsense is getting old, and it's NOT WORKING.
I didn't vote for the incumbent in Congress either. They aren't working out too well either, now are they?

Congress is going to have a HUGE impact in the coming years. And too many people didn't even research their congressional candidates. They think "Oh, well it's not MY guy that's the problem, it's everyone else, so I'm voting for him again." Where does that get us? NO WHERE! We end up with the same bunch of boobs in Congress making a mess of things and wasting away our money!

I am so thankful that after tonight (for the most part) this mess of an election is over.
And I truly pray for the state of this country in the future, regardless of who is elected.

I don't care who you vote for. Just get out and vote!

~Col

It's the Principle of the Matter!

Well, the day has finally come. The Purple People Eater is no long mine (THANK GOODNESS).

It wasn't a great car, but it certainly served it's purpose. It got me from A to B with minimal resistance. Except this summer. But that's a whole other can of worms. We took her over to Vehicles for Change this morning, and hopefully she will be accepted into the program. Then she can go to some poor fool who's obsessed with the Ravens, and make their day.

Of course, this transition was not without one, final problem. Since Jordan bought his pimp new car last week (an '08 TL, not an '09), and since we kept his Contour and Joey is living with us (STILL) that means 4 cars at the house. So we parked the PPE in the street in front of our house, left the new car and the contour in the garage, and Joey's car in the driveway as usual. No big deal. Saturday Jordan got up early and washed the PPE and we cleaned out the last of the crap, and then used the gas station vacuum to make her SOMEWHAT presentable (there's only so much you can do to a '97 PURPLE Neon, ya know?). Took her over to Carmax for shits and giggles ($250, no thanks). Brought her home and put her in the street again. Jordan washed his car on sunday or monday, so he was out there and didn't notice anything unusual.

So imagine my surprise when today, as we're driving to VFC he calls me (he was in his car since obviously we needed 2 cars to make the donation and get back to work) and says "Who hit your car??" Um, I have no idea what you're talking about. "There's a huge dent in the side of your car!" Um, I still don't have a clue.

Normally, I'm a pretty dang observant person. Except it seems, with the cars I drive. I NEVER notice a new ding, but Jordan can spot one 500 yards away. This morning I was all sleepy, so I can explain missing it that time. And I think when I was walking to the car in the work parking lot I was fumbling with my keys. But really, there's no excuse. The dent is HUGE! Like, replace the whole damn door, HUGE. (I'll add photos tonight, work has blocked uploads to photobucket.) I have no excuse for missing it.


It HAS to have been the neighbors across the street from us (who, are the weirdest people ever, btw). Jordan has apparently seen the wife backing out of the driveway, and she's the worst driver ever. Apparently she backs straight out of the driveway until she hits the curb on our side of the road, and then she turns. Totally. Unnecessary. And the dent isn't a sideswipe kinda dent. It's a "backing up, backing up, backing up, BAM" kinda dent. Now all things considered, we wouldn't care about the dent. It's an 11 year old POS car, and accidents happen.

BUT THEY DIDN'T TELL US!! How on earth do you back into your neighbors car and leave a huge ass dent, and NOT SAY SOMETHING?!?! I mean leave a note for cripes sake!

So, Jordan is printing out pictures and going to talk to them tonight. I mean we donated it and it's gone (as long as it gets accepted into the program, which it should), but still. It's the principle of the matter dangit! If we really wanted to we could've turned around and not donated it yet, confronted them, and possibly gotten money from their insurance, not to mention the old "hit and run" aspect of it all.

I mean seriously. What is wrong with people??

Jordan's parents decided to come visit this weekend. His dad wanted to help with some house stuff, but Jordan pointed out that the stuff he needs help with is a long weekend kinda thing, not a 1 day fix kinda thing. But, they're gonna come down anyway. So tonight and tomorrow will be spent tidying up the house, which I just LOVE to do. I don't have to cuz I cleaned last weekend, but I still feel like I should. His mom has even said to me "Please don't EVER clean just because we're coming to visit." Her mom and MIL are the kind of women who subconsciously bust out the old white glove to test the cleanliness of the house. His mom spent the whole WEEK cleaning their house the last time they visited, and she still didn't think it was clean enough, she was just tired of cleaning, lol. I think it's just a woman thing, to want a clean house to present to people.

I think that's all for today. :)
Have a good one!

~Col