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Happy 2012!
It’s my first time blogging in a while; the holidays had me locked down up until now. After having a busy couple of weeks at the shop, it was so nice to have downtime at home and spend it with family.
Christmas, on our end, was fantastic. There was a total of four families that included both children and pets, making it 18 people, two dogs, and three cats. Now that’s what I call a full house! After breakfast and a filling lunch, it was time for the annual distribution of gifts. Mama Clause, also known as my mother, puts on her Santa cap and sorts out all of the gifts. It felt like I was drowning in a pile of papers and ribbons. Seriously, there were mounds of it, but I’m used to drowning in paper and ribbons, hehe. The dogs love Christmas just as much as the little kiddos; perhaps it’s all the paper tearing to get to a present inside. Maui and Hilo kept trying to “help” others open their gifts, hehe.
As far as gifts for moi, I’m going to have to do a separate post on that. Let’s just say that I was spoiled this year.
New Year’s Eve was also spent at home with the family. It was definitely low key; there was definitely no partying on our end. After all of the Christmas festivities, I wanted to just sit and hibernate. We stayed up until midnight, and then it was off to sleep. On New Year’s Day, it was all about playing soccer at the park down the street. Rolling around in the grass for a couple of hours in the sun felt nice, and the fresh air was just as wonderful.
Yup, that was basically my recap of the past two weeks. Thrilling?! I think not! 
PS: I still have to do a post on our trip to Kauai; I’m so behind with bloggin’. What a bad blogger!
It’s true what they say about love.
It really is like a butterfly. It settles upon you when you least expect it. Yup, that’s the case for one of my good friends, Lindsay. Her and her hubby are adorable together, and I’m so glad that they found each other.
Speaking of love, I really love this new Random collection by Crate Paper. Its versatility is endless. I could use this paper for just about anything I choose to scrapbook. I’ve got tons of leftover scraps sitting on the table, so I plan on using that at the crop tonight. Let’s hope I feel creative enough to make more projects!
I found a stack of some Halloween photos, so guess what?! I had to use it on Authentique, of course!
To make my “Trick or Treat” title pop, I pleated pretty black lace around the edges. Just by doing that, it added so much to my page. I’ve got a mini album in the works with these papers, and I can’t wait to share that with everyone.
Aside from anything scrap related, life has been life.
Recently, I’ve been feeling homesick like crazy.
In case you couldn’t tell, I’m such a family girl. I love spending time with my parents and my brothers, and it’s super hard to not have them around, especially when you need their support. I wish that they could all uproot their lives and move closer. Alas, we all know that’s not very practical. …so I’ll just keep pushing forward.
Oh, and is it just me, or is everyone and their mothers having babies?! It’s making me have baby fever, again. 
This weekend I was unproductive, and we all know that sometimes being unproductive is a good thing, haha! However, I did cross off some of the things on my 28 Before 28 list.
Try a new sushi roll.Support a local business.Learn 10 new ASL signs.Buy a lottery ticket.Go houseshopping, again.
Check out what happened when I gave the lottery a go:
I won …a free ticket! It’s a shame that I didn’t win $20. That would’ve totally made my weekend. Well, maybe the free ticket I redeem will win me something, haha.
Five down; twenty three more things to knock off of my list. Considering it’s only been a couple of days, it looks like I’m on a roll. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I can tackle one or two more this week.
On another note, I just wanted to share a couple of projects that I recently created with the latest Authentique. I love how pretty this looks.
Dress forms and pretty things?! Yes, please! I had a lot of fun using various ribbons and trims to give it lots of different textures. Plus, all of the leftovers from the dress form project allowed me to create another layout:
I have so much fun using Emily and Taylor’s little one on my layouts. She’s so adorable! Seriously, it gives me baby fever. ((Thanks again, Emily and Taylor!))
…and I finally have my brother’s pictures from last weekend. Now, I can print them and get them onto layouts. Gosh forbid that I fall behind with scrapbooking, haha!
This is a picture of me “playing” at the shop. Yes, sometimes I “play” and design projects. Most of the time, however, I’m busy working on all of the nitty gritty, boring stuff. This is definitely not my favorite picture of myself. As a matter of fact, I don’t really like it, but I thought I’d share it anyway.
Here are a few more photos from our outing to the coast in the Sonoma County area last weekend:
I love the photos of us playing in the field of flowers. This patch of flowers is located just north of Bodega Bay, and in the fall, the flowers bloom vibrant colors. It’s absolutely gorgeous.
As far as this weekend goes, it was, like I said, “unproductive”. We did, however, go out to get some deep dish pizza from Pizz’a Chicago.
They ordered a super spicy pizza, and I swear my mouth was on fire. I usually don’t have any issues with spicy foods; I actually enjoy a little bit of a kick in my food. …but this time, it was hot! I even picked out all of the sports peppers, but it still tasted incredibly spicy. Yowch! I love this joint, but next time, we won’t be ordering the spicy one.
That pretty much sums up the weekend.
It’s almost 2 A.M. in the morning, and I’m still bloggin’. I can’t seem to sleep though. It must’ve been that coffee that I had. Yikes!
The past weekend was definitely an eventful one. …and we all know how I feel about gallivanting on my days off! In honor of my brother Scott’s 30th birthday, we decided to celebrate with him by eating delicious meals and exploring the California coast out in Sonoma County.
Saturday started off with a fabulous dinner at one of my latest restaurant finds, Anatolian Kitchen! I got my brother hooked on Mediterranean food, so I thought he’d like Turkish food as well. I guessed correctly! Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of our wine and kebabs on my camera; it must’ve been because I was too busy enjoying the dishes, haha.
After a delicious dinner, we all decided to hit up downtown Palo Alto for something sweet and delectable; Palo Alto Creamery it was!
Ice cream sundaes and banana splits kept our sweet cravings satiated.
On Sunday (Scott’s actual birthday), we started the day off early. Our first stop was Wild Flour Bread Bakery. This place isn’t just any bakery, though! It’s a really, really cool bakery! This place is a double whammy of goodness — amazing bread and a charming garden to wander.
They have almost every herb, vegetable, and fruit you can buy at the grocery store. It’s pretty amazing how rich the soil in California is.
After enjoying our freshly baked bread and exploring the gardens, we headed out to Bodega Bay. It’s been about a year since the last time we made a trip out there, so we thought it would be fun. Besides, one of Scott’s favorite places in Bodega Bay is Spud Point Crab Company. They serve sandwiches loaded with fresh crab. Sounds delicious, huh?!
It’s a different story for me.
I kept my Benadryl in hand because I knew I might be allergic to crab.
(Side note: Remember when I had an allergic reaction and broke out with hives last month? Well, one of the foods I ate before the hiving was crab. I didn’t suspect it to be crab because I’ve eaten it many times before that. However, that was the only “out-of-the-ordinary” thing I ate that day.)
After a couple of hours, I started itching and random hives started appearing on my skin. It’s official; I’m allergic to crab meat! *sigh*
Aside from the crab allergic reaction, Bodega Bay was breathtaking.
…and even the dogs got to enjoy our adventure. They were exhausted on the way home that they pretty much slept all the way home.
There you have it — my brother’s birthday weekend. Happy birthday again, Scott!
On another note, today’s my mom’s birthday, and I won’t be able to drive up to my parents’ place to celebrate dinner with the family. I love where I live, but sometimes I wish my family lived closer. Eh, c’est la vie.
Over this past weekend, I was looking for some of old family photos, and it made me realize that taking photos is a must. Photos are a wonderful concept because it will always bring you back to a place and time.
This past weekend, I’m glad that my younger brother was also snapping photos of us. It adds to the memories that were had.
((I’m bummed that Maui is blurred here, Sean. We’ll try again later.))
Check out our vintage camera find!
Enjoying an afternoon on the longboard.
Hanging out with Natalie, playing our Southern accent game.
“Uncle Sean, what are you doing?! Woof. Woof.”
“Woofity, woof. It’s hot! Woof.”
Reminder to myself — I need to take more photos, even if they’re totally random. Maybe I should do one of those photo-a-day type of challenges. Hmmm, I wonder what challenges are out there.
