little treasures

Wordless Wednesday - Yosemite Valley

2012-01-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

Music Monday- Young the Giant

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Today's Music Monday brings you Young the Giant. While these guys have been around for a year or so, I hadn't heard them until maybe last fall? I'm sure it's because I've been sleeping under a rock. This American alternative rock band has been gaining more and more momentum getting the attention of the likes of Morrissey (one of my favorite artists!) claiming them to be his new favorite band, being named MTV's PUSH Artist of the Week back in July, playing at Lollapalooza, MTV Video Music Awards, touring with Incubus and hitting #5 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. I'm really digging this band! Here's a couple of their singles to check out. Enjoy!

Cough Syrup

My Body

Out With the Old

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Just recently, I watched a couple of episodes of Hoarders. Watching that show gives me the intense desire to throw everything out! If I wasn't in the mood before to let go of things, I sure am now! I just so happen to be going through a bunch of boxes full of things that I've been holding onto for a long time. These things have been sitting in my little storage space for 10 years and it's time to get rid of the majority of that stuff. Some of these boxes have followed me from house to house and some are things that were boxed up at my parent's house (way back when I left home) that my dad no longer wanted to store for me. Memories upon memories have come flooding upon me as I open each box to discover what lay inside. I found items such as high school papers and dance pictures, my college diploma and wedding invitations, artwork I've done over the years and cards and letters from loved ones. But some of my favorite things I found were from one of the boxes that had been stored at my parents house for 15 years. That box was full of teen angst I tell ya. For my next Flashback Friday, I'm going to do a special post about the totally awesome gems I found. Stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

I decided to have a theme for Wednesdays around here...Wordless Wednesday. I got this idea from my friend Nicole over at Pinch My Salt. If you like cooking and beautiful photography, then you must check out her website! It's full of delicious recipes and so much yummy goodness! I had the privilege to meet her last week in person. She's engaged to a dear friend of mine. She is an absolutely lovely person and an incredible baker too! I'm so excited for the two of them and wish them all of the happiness in the world! Anyway, she's got a Wordless Wednesday on her blog that she features one or two photos and no words. I really liked this idea so I'm going to try to do it too. I will start this next week. Thanks Nicole for the great idea!

Instagram

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

About 7 months ago I discovered Instagram. I finally got with the times and had just gotten an iPhone. My friend told me about this really cool app that was free and that if I liked the Hipstamatic app, I'd love this one. Free app? Why not try it out? It's seriously my favorite thing about my phone. I love it! Sure, being able to check my email, connect to the internet, and play Words With Friends is great and all but I love being able to take pictures with my phone using Instagram to put different filters on my photos. For some reason it's much more fun for me to do it this way than taking the photo into Photoshop. I thought today I'd share a bunch of the photos I've taken with my Instagram app. Hope you like!

Music Monday- Say Hi

2012-01-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

New Year and a new Music Monday. I'm in love with this song by Say Hi. It's off the album Um, Uh Oh that came out last year. Say Hi is just one guy that does all of the instruments and vocals. I'm really liking his music especially the song I'm featuring today called Dots on Maps. I don't know too much about this guy except that he's from the US and is based in Seattle? Anyway, hope you like!

New Beginnings

2012-01-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe another year has gone by. Wasn't it just yesterday that we were saying goodbye to 2010 and hello to 2011? I have to admit, I'm glad that 2011 is done. Honestly it was a pretty crappy year and I'm glad it's over. Good riddance 2011! I'm looking forward to new beginnings and new adventures in 2012 and I hope that this new year will be much better than the last. Happy New Year everyone!

Speaking of new beginnings and such, I've got a couple of new projects up my sleeve that I've been working on lately and am excited to share in the next little while. The first one is another blog. I know, I know, why on earth am I starting up another blog when this one gets neglected so much? Little Treasures is still going to be my primary blog, and I will continue to blog whenever I feel like it. This new blog will be about a creative idea/project I had several months ago that I dragged some friends of mine into doing it with me. I'm hoping that it might jump start into something bigger but we'll see. It's just a little seed of an idea now. :) The other project is my very own website for my graphic design portfolio. Before I was ever a stamp designer, I was a graphic designer first. That's what I got my degree in and have been doing ever since. Even when my friend Tricia and I started up Lizzie Anne Designs, and during the whole time we were doing that, I was still freelancing graphic design. So many times through my career, I've been asked if I had a website where people could view my design work. I always sheepishly said no. I finally decided after many years, that it was time. So for the past few months I've been working on getting that up and going. I'm quite excited about both of these projects! It feels good to be excited about something again. :)

Music Monday- Idlewild

2011-11-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned before I'm kind of partial to bands that hail from Scotland. Okay, maybe more than partial. :) And if not just from Scotland, then England as well. I don't know what it is but my all time favorite bands are from there. Maybe it's my Scottish heritage that draws me to them? Or maybe the people born there just produce really great music. Anyway, today's Music Monday brings you Idlewild, a band hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland. In looking for a good description of the band's sound, I found this..."Idlewild has a sweeping, melodic rock sound and while their sound cannot be easily placed into a specific genre, they have a mature sound resembling REM, Echo and the Bunnymen, and The Smiths."

Here's one of my favorite songs by them, Take Me Back to the Islands. Enjoy!

New Stamp Designs!

2011-11-25T13:46:00.004-07:00

Hi everyone, I hope all of you that celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a nice one! I think I ate way too much food, but it was soooo good!

Gourmet Rubber Stamps just unveiled the new December Diner's Club set that we (Lizzie Anne Designs) designed for them. It's called Let's Celebrate and is full of fun designs. Don't you just love the nesting doll?! This set will be available on December 7th here.

When inspiration goes hand in hand...

2011-11-20T10:10:00.001-07:00

I have a card to share with you today. :) It features images from the Season's Greetings stamp set we recently designed for Gourmet Rubber Stamps. I'm really excited about these images! When I was designing stamps for this set, I was also working on a poster design for a local production of The Nutcracker. For the poster, I wanted to create something that said "Nutcracker" but wasn't the typical poster you see with a Nutcracker on it. This was kind of a challenge because it needed to be immediately recognizable to people, but I wanted it to be unique and different from everything else that was out there. After lots of brainstorming and many ideas later, I finally came up with the idea to superimpose the Nutcracker image onto an ornament, and have that as the main focus. Subtle, yet obvious. I liked this imagery so much I thought, this would make a cute card! So from there I designed the above stamp images to create a similar idea. Ornaments hanging on tree branches. I love when inspiration hits me like that!

Flashback Friday-Hawaii

2011-11-18T13:22:00.002-07:00

It's been awhile since I have done a Flashback Friday. One year ago today I was sitting on a lovely beach in Hawaii. I can hardly believe a year has gone by. In ways it seems like yesterday, and in others, another lifetime ago. I thought I'd share some pictures from that heavenly place. Enjoy!

View of Napali Coast from Ke'e Beach–Kauai

Kalalau Trail–Kauai

Looking down at Ke'e Beach on Kalalau Trail–Kauai

These "root trees" were everywhere. Very cool!

Giant leaf!

View of Napali Coast from Kalalau Trail

Lush jungle trail

Paradise–Hanakap'ia Beach

Hanakap'ia Beach–Kauai

Spouting Horn Blowhole- Kauai

Lush mountain peaks- Kauai

Wailua River–Kauai

Wailua Falls–Kauai

Waimea Canyon–Kauai

Oahu beach

Star flower. I have no idea what it is but very cool!

Sunset on Oahu

Aloha!

Music Monday- Death Cab For Cutie

2011-11-07T09:36:00.000-07:00

Death Cab for Cutie released their latest album, Codes & Keys back at the end of May. I love this album! I might even say it's become my favorite of theirs. I pretty much love every song on it, however this one is my favorite...

Codes & Keys

(This is not an official video of this song, but one that I found where the sound is good.) If you haven't heard this album, you should definitely check it out!

Sunset

2011-11-03T21:04:00.002-06:00

I'm in love with sunsets. I've seen thousands and thousands of them in my lifetime, but I can never get over the splendor of the fiery sky touching the tips of the mountains, or whatever horizon line it may be. Every one is different and unique. There's something magical that happens when the sun sets. It stirs my soul. Tonight after I dropped my daughter off to dance, I was able to catch this breathtaking sunset with the camera on my phone. There are a few things in life that bring me unexplainable joy. Sunsets are one of them.

Blog Candy Winner!

2011-11-03T06:00:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone, thanks for all the fun comments and to those who played with us in the Halloween Blog Hop! I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween! Candy is the winner today for the treats I'm giving away on my blog. She wins three Stick Chicks stamps shown above. Congrats Candy! Be sure to email me your address at meridith@lizzieannedesigns.com and I'll get your goodies sent off to you ASAP!

All of the GRS DT girls are posting the winners on their blogs today so if you didn't win here, be sure to stop by their blogs to see if you won. Good luck!

Trick-or-Treat?

2011-10-31T05:00:00.004-06:00

Hi everyone, Happy Halloween to all! Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. When I was a kid, I looked forward to all of the Halloween activities that would happen. From decorating our house with big poster pumpkins, to the school Halloween parade, carving pumpkins and of course, trick-or-treating! Later on it was the Halloween dances and parties that I looked forward to. There was one year in particular when my sister Tiffiny and I were in high school that stands out. She was a junior and I, a sophomore. We decided to have a joint Halloween party. Not sure how we ever got my parents to agree to that one! During the party, my sister and I decided to play a trick on some of our friends. My parents had acquired a cardboard stand-up from the video store of the lady from Throw Momma from the Train. If you have seen that movie, you know she's not a happy looking character. We decided to place that cardboard stand-up in the downstairs bathroom in the bathtub. We had the shower curtain drawn just enough so that when you walked into the bathroom, you didn't see the stand-up. However, once you sat on the toilet, you got a great view of the momma. We were giddy with anticipation just waiting for someone to discover our trick. And discovered they did. Well, shrieked with fright actually. :) It started a chain effect. Once someone was startled by it, they'd get an unknowing friend and send them to their fright. Screams and laughter were coming from that bathroom all night long. It was a great night! Now, many years later, I still love Halloween, but I get to experience it all over again with my daughter. Now I get to go to her Halloween parades and go trick-or-treating with her. I love it!

Since it's Halloween today, I've got a couple of Halloween cards to share with you. This first one uses one of my all-time favorite Halloween stamps, Mummy from the Lizzie Anne Little People collection. You can find this stamp and all other Lizzie Anne stamps over at Gourmet Rubber Stamps.

This next card uses a Stick Chicks image entitled Spider. You can also find this image and other Stick Chick images over at Gourmet Rubber Stamps.

Since it's Halloween today, how about some trick-or-treating–stampers style? I've got some treats (Stick Chicks stamps, courtesy of Gourmet Rubber Stamps) to share to one lucky winner. All you have to do is leave a comment here on this post for your chance to win. You have until Nov. 2nd, 11:59 pm. On Nov. 3rd, I will announce the winner. Once you leave your comment here, keep on trick-or-treating to the following blogs for more chances to win. Good luck, and Happy Halloween!

Deb Felts
Jeni Allen
Joslyn Nielson
Joy Stagg
Kelli Palmer
Kendra Wietstock
Pam Hornschu
Rose Ann Reynolds
Taylor Usry
Tricia Ulberg

Ogden R-Scape 10k Mountain Trail Relay Race

2011-10-26T06:00:00.000-06:00

Back in August I ran the hardest/most physically challenging race I've ever done to date. I talked about it in this post. It definitely pushed me to exhaustion but it was incredibly fun and I will definitely do it again next year! I thought I would share a few moments from the race with you.

Friday, August 12 5:00 pm- We get to the race site, set up our tent onto our 20X20 plot of grass called our "homestead."

My stuff is in here somewhere...

Setting up the homestead.

My teammates and I before the race.

Friday, August 12, 6:00 pm- The race is about to start. Solomon presents a cool video set to this song. It does the trick. We are pumped up and ready to fly.

All smiles and ready to go!

Friday, August 12, 6:10 pm- Start time. Irene, my first teammate and wife of Spartan athlete Hobie Call is off.

Friday, August 12, 7:11 pm- Irene returns and now it's my turn to run. I hit play on my iPod and I take off. The sun is still up and it's hot. It's beautiful though.

I'm ready!

Friday, August 12, 8:16 pm- I return from my first run. As I come in, my family is there to cheer me on and my daughter runs beside me in the last stretch. It's a good feeling to have that first leg done. 6.2 miles, 970 feet climbed in 1:06. Not too bad. I figured it would take me a little over an hour or so with the elevation climb up the mountain. Now it's time to eat!

My friend Michele after her first night run.

While waiting for our next turn to run, we hung out at our homestead chatting...

...or trying to sleep!

Saturday, August 13, 3:07 am- After cycling through our team once, it's time for me to run again. I'm tired. I've tried to sleep a little but no such luck. Too much adrenaline and too much distraction going on outside the tent with runners coming in and their teams cheering them on. I strap on my headlamp, put on my gloves (to protect my hands in case I trip or fall) and head out into the darkness. I hope and pray I don't trip and fall down the mountainside. There are some pretty steep and rocky drop-offs. I am undecided if I will listen to my iPod or not. With the darkness surrounding me, I need to rely on my other senses. However, the music is a good distraction. It's a bit nerve wracking to be running along a mountain trail in the middle of the night by myself. I hear noises in the bushes and pray I don't run into any unfriendly wild animals. I go slower because the trail is rocky and even with my headlamp, it's hard to see where my feet are landing. I come upon other runners only 3 times within that run. Despite the eeriness of the night, there's a full moon out and there is a beauty within the solitude of the night. The trail is lit with glow sticks and with all the practice runs I did on this trail in preparation for this race, there is a sense of comfort that surrounds me. I finish my run in 1:13:55. Eight minutes slower than my first run. I am happy with my time though. I took it easy and was cautious. Thankfully I did not fall or trip or run into any mountain lions or skunks! As I look around me back at the base, many runners have fallen and injured themselves. There are sprains, cuts, and bruises. One of my teammates has injured her IT band. I consider myself very lucky to have escaped injury of any kind. Once back at my tent, I stay awake until the next teammate comes back and then crash. I am exhausted. I end up getting about 50 min. of sleep before I'm woken up by all the goings-on.

Sooo tired. Please tell us it's not time to run again yet.

Saturday, August 13, 10:52 am- It's time for my third and final run. I feel horrible. Lack of sleep has left me feeling yucky and my muscles are spent. It's one thing to run a 10k on a relatively flat course. It's another to run it up and down a steep mountain. It's hot now and that zaps my energy too. At some points during the run, it's all I can do to keep moving. But I make myself keep moving. I keep telling myself I can do it. If I can just make it to the next mile mark...or if I can just make it to the lookout point I'm home free. I purposely didn't look at my watch during my run. I didn't want to know how slow I was going and I didn't want to discourage myself either. I was surprised when I finished to find out that I had almost the same time as my night run. 1:14. I was sure I was slower than that, but I wasn't. I was happy with my results! :)

My teammate Dyan hands off to me and I take off for my final run.

Back from my last run and handing off to my teammate Michele.

Michele comes in for the final stretch and we all run with her.

Exhausted but happy, and proud to have finished the race.

Our team came in 2nd place in our division.

Yay, we did it! My friend Angie and me.

Our team t-shirts.

I'm so glad I did this race. I definitely plan on doing it next year, especially now that I know what to expect. So what will my next big race be? The Wasatch Back Ragnar of course! :)

Season's Greetings

2011-10-25T09:25:00.000-06:00

Today over at Gourmet Rubber Stamps, they are unveiling the brand new Diner's Club set that we (Lizzie Anne Designs) illustrated for them. It's called Season's Greetings and it's full of fun images perfect to use on your Christmas cards! I have so many ideas for each of these images. Stay tuned as I will be showing them over the next few weeks.

Here's a card using the angel, and Season's Greetings sentiment from this set.

Music Monday- Coldplay and Snow Patrol

2011-10-24T01:00:00.005-06:00

Okay, so I know I've already featured Coldplay and Snow Patrol on my Music Monday posts before. But, they both have new albums coming out (Coldplay's is out today!) and I really love what I've heard so far. These two bands are both in my top 10 favorite bands of all time. I'm seriously in love with these songs. Hope you enjoy!

Here's Coldplay's single Paradise. I {heart} it!

Here's Snow Patrol's new single Called out in the Dark. I {heart} this one too!

What I've been up to the past few months...

2011-10-23T11:40:00.000-06:00

What a busy few months I've had! My next few posts are going to be playing catch-up from all the goings-on this past summer and fall. Today I'll start with Lizzie Anne stuff. A few posts ago, I mentioned that a new stamp company would be licensing Lizzie Anne images. If you haven't already heard, Gourmet Rubber stamps is the new stamp company that is currently licensing all of our Lizzie Anne artwork. Not only does this include retired sets and singles, but you can now buy single images that were included in our mix club sets. How cool is that?! For those wood mounted fans out there, you can also get some of our images mounted on wood. On top of all that, Gourmet Rubber Stamps has hired Tricia and I to design their monthly Diner's Club stamp sets. We are pretty excited about all of this and happy to still be connected to the stamping world! Be sure to check out the Gourmet Rubber Stamps website. Not only do they carry Lizzie Anne Designs, they carry a few other fun stamp lines as well. If you happen to like the Stick Chicks stamp line, you might want to check back here next week. :)

Here are a couple of cards I created with Gourmet Rubber Stamps Diner's Club set Tart and Spice.

Music Monday- Beck

2011-09-12T11:44:00.002-06:00

I can't believe summer has come to an end. As much as I love fall, it makes me sad to see summer go. I can't get enough of the warmth and sun. It's already starting to cool off here. Sigh. I've got a few posts to write about my summer, but first things first, I need to get back to my Music Monday!

It's been awhile since I've posted a Music Monday. And truth be told, I don't even know if people even read my Music Monday posts. That's okay though, because I love doing them. :) The other day when I was out running, the song I'm featuring today came up on shuffle (so typical for me) and I knew I wanted to do a Music Monday on it. It's one of those songs I forgot about but rediscovered. The song is Lost Cause by Beck. I like Beck, but I usually have to be in the right mood to listen to some of his stuff. Most people know him from his song "Loser" or "Where it's at" and he became quite popular in the late 90's, early 2000's. Lost Cause is off of his Sea Change album which came out in 2002 and is a much more mellow album than his other stuff. I love this song. I was in a melancholy mood the other day when this song popped up on shuffle and it was perfect for my mood. If you are interested in checking out another song I really like by Beck, I recommend E-Pro.

Enjoy!

A little goal of mine

2011-08-11T22:00:00.000-06:00

The course in red.

This weekend I am going to be running the race of my life...so far. Okay, that sounds really serious, but this race is seriously the hardest and longest race I will have done to date! No, it's not a marathon but it's a super challenging race that will push me to exhaustion I'm sure. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Excited because I've been working and training hard for this for months now. Nervous because this is the biggest challenge I have ever put myself through physically. This race is an 18 hour long relay race where each person on your team runs the trails along one of the mountain ranges here. The course is a 6.2 mile loop. Each team member runs one loop (6.2 miles) and then hands off to the next runner. You do this until your entire team has run the loop and then you start over and do it again, competing with the other teams to see who can get the most laps. The entire race lasts 18 hours. We've got 6 people on our team and I'm runner #2, which means I'll be running the course 3 times within the 18 hours. That's 18.6 miles! I love my teammates. They are all dear friends and amazing ladies. I'm excited to be able to accomplish this goal right along side them.

My teammates and I have been going up every weekend to the trail to run the course for the past month or so. It's absolutely breathtaking! I've never done trail running before this but I have to say now I am hooked! It's so much better than running on the road. Of course there is a drawback. Rocks. Ones that stick up from the dirt trail that you can trip over. Last weekend on our practice run I did just this. Ouch. I scraped myself up a bit, bruised my leg and even my ego a little bit. I definitely became one with the trail! I'm really hoping I don't do this on my night leg and go flying off the mountain. Wish me luck! Below are a couple pics from our practice runs.

Beautiful trail, beautiful company.

View from the lookout point.

A little scraped up, but feeling pretty good about the trail.

When one door closes...

2011-08-05T13:31:00.000-06:00

...another one opens. But before I get to that there are a few things I wanted to say. Since we announced we were closing the doors on Lizzie Anne Designs, it's been one emotional roller coaster. I've been so sad at the business closing, but so touched by the words and love outstretched to us. Tricia and I were overwhelmed with responses and comments from customers and friends alike telling us how much we would be missed, how much people loved using our products, and how much our designs were loved. Our customers were incredible in helping us to clear out all of our inventory, and so many of them leaving little comments with their orders. It really meant so much to us and we will hold all the messages we received, in our hearts forever. Thank you to all who supported us. Whether it was through and order or a kind word, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart! Thank you also to our incredible design team girls, from the beginning to the end. We couldn't have done it without you and we love you all dearly! Thank you ladies for making our stamps look so good, for all of your efforts to promote our company and most of all, for the friendships made.

Closing down was honestly heart-wrenching. It's never easy to let something go that you love with all of your heart. But sometimes letting go is the best thing you can do, because you never know what is around the corner. This proved to be the case for us. While in the process of closing down, we were presented with an opportunity that we actually feel is a perfect fit for us. Lizzie Anne Designs is going to continue on, but in a different capacity. We are essentially turning ourselves into an art licensing/illustration company. We will be licensing all of our past art out as well as new art that we create. This is going to allow us to keep doing what we love the most...creating art! We have a big announcement coming soon that entails licensing to a new rubber stamp company. :) So stay tuned and follow us on facebook to hear the news!

Time to Say Goodbye

2011-06-24T07:54:00.004-06:00

This is an extremely difficult blog to write. Saying goodbye is never easy. Letting go is never easy. I’m sure I’m going to rewrite this post several times, because how do you really say goodbye? How do you put into words all the emotions that your heart feels? How do you say goodbye to something that you love with all of your heart?

A little over five years ago, my dear friend Tricia called me up one day and said, “Hey, want to start up a rubber stamp company with me?” It really was a no-brainer. Combining my art background with my love of papercrafting? And we get to be our own bosses?! Sweet! It took me about .002 seconds to think about it and I quickly said, “OK!” We saved and worked hard and Lizzie Anne Designs was born. It was one of the best, most rewarding decisions I have ever made. I have loved every minute of it. I will never forget attending our very first CHA. Being newbies, we had our little table top booth down in the new exhibitors section. We were so nervous and had no idea what to expect! We couldn’t have asked for a better first experience. Not only were we over the moon at the response to our designs, but we made lifelong friends as well. The next five years would bring new designs, release parties, amazing and talented design team members, stores across the world carrying our product, late night design frenzies, being a SCS Member Company, more CHA’s, and of course meeting more and more of our valued customers. I will never forget the day I finally got to meet Lois “Clownmom” on SCS. What a treat that was! The past 5 years have been an incredible experience, that’s for sure.

It breaks my heart to say at this time, we are closing the door on this amazing adventure. This decision was one of the hardest decisions we’ve ever had to make. We don’t want to say goodbye, but the current economic climate makes it necessary. I wish so much that this wasn’t so. Tricia and I have had to take a hard look at our little company to see if continuing on in this environment was doable and sadly it isn’t. Unfortunately, we’ve seen many of our friends and favorite companies suffer the same fate. It’s been an incredible journey, one that I have learned so much from. I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to do something that I absolutely love! Not everyone can say that, and I feel truly blessed to have been able to do so. I have also loved the countless wonderful people I have met through LAD. I will hold every single one of you close to my heart and cherish those friendships forever.

Thank you so much to all of you who supported Lizzie Anne Designs all different capacities. Whether you were a customer, store owner, employee, design team member, friend, family member, fellow crafter, fellow company owner, or advertiser, we felt your enthusiasm and love and will cherish it always. It was so incredibly rewarding to see what so many talented and amazing papercrafters created with our images. It truly was like Christmas for us! Most of all, thanks Tricia for asking me to join you on this amazing adventure. I loved every minute of it and am so glad we did it! You are an incredibly talented woman and I’ve been honored to be your partner in crime. I will really miss working you!

I am not sure what the future holds at this time, but maybe with this door closing, another one will open someday. I do know I will continue on freelancing graphic design as I’ve always done, and I’ll continue to keep crafting too. It’s what I love and I don’t see myself ever giving that up! :) I’ll continue on blogging so stick around if you like. And who knows, you may see me and Tricia again in the future. :) Only time will tell. Since today is technically Flashback Friday, I’m including a bunch of pictures of me and Tricia and our Lizzie Anne adventure over the past 5 years.

All my love,
Meridith (Anne)

At this time we are now having an inventory closeout sale over at the Lizzie Anne Designs store. Everything is 40-50% off. All sales are final and everything must go! Go grab your favorite set or single while available!

Our tiny little table top booth at our first CHA, Winter 2007.

Here we are standing in front of our booth. I look tired! Notice the lady to

Tricia's left? She took our seat so we ended up taking our neighbor's seat!

It was a running joke and thankfully our good friends at Wood Mounts Ink

were very gracious to spare a chair!

Our 2nd year exhibiting at CHA. We got to be upstairs with the big kids!

Here we are with our incredibly talented friends Joslyn and AJ.

Tricia and I celebrated our first paycheck by taking a trip to NYC.

Here we are in Central Park.

Here we are at CHA with two of our favorite people, Lori Craig and Daven Nolta.

We have met some of the most amazing people through this journey!

CHA #3 Design Team dinner. We have loved ALL of our DT members past and present!

Pictured here: Kendra, Jeanne, Zena, Tricia, me, AJ, and Maren.

Tricia and me up at Snoqualmie Falls. This is my kind of business trip!

This was taken just before Tricia told me that bears live in this area. Yikes!

Summer CHA in Florida. Here we are with Maren.

Here we are at Summer CHA in Florida with the lovely Jenn, Beate, and Jeanne!

We finally got to meet Lois, aka "Clownmom" on SCS.

Tricia getting the booth ready for the 2010 CHA Supershow in Anaheim.

All done setting up!

Me in our booth.

2010 Design Team Dinner at CHA. Pictured here: Tricia, Jeni, Me, Zena, Tanya, Deb, and Kendra.

Thanks for the amazing journey!

Favorite Pair of Jeans

2011-06-21T06:00:00.001-06:00

I've got a favorite pair of jeans. I think most everyone does. I love this particular pair of jeans. I love the shade of blue they are, they are the perfect amount of worn in, they fit me perfectly, and I feel really good in them. I also love their length. I have long legs, so length is ALWAYS an issue for me. I hate ending up with a pair of floods! So when I find a pair that is the right length, I'm ecstatic! I have some good friends too, that are like my favorite pair of jeans. They may not be blue, or the same height as me, but they are very dear to me. They are and have always been there for me, and I love them for it. They are forgiving, fun to be around, let me be myself and love me for who I am. They always make me feel good about myself. So my dear friends, thank you for being who you are and for always being there for me. :)

Stamps used in this card are Favorite Jeans and A Good Friend.

Music Monday- Better Than Ezra

2011-06-20T06:00:00.027-06:00

Oh man, I love this band. They've got so many really good songs. I hadn't listened to them for awhile. You know how you go through phases of what you listen to. They haven't been in my rotation for some time. I was listening to my iPod on shuffle over the weekend and this song popped up. I love listening to my music on the shuffle setting. It kind of forces me to listen to stuff that maybe I normally don't cycle through, which is a good thing! It gets me out of my comfort zone and many times I rediscover how much I love something. Anyway, the song I want to share with you today is called Breathless. You may have heard Taylor Swift's cover of this song, which I think is alright but certainly not as good as the original. They are on tour right now, but sadly they aren't coming anywhere near here. Otherwise I would definitely travel to see them. Hopefully one day I will get the chance to see them live. Enjoy!

Here are their upcoming show dates just in case you are a fan of them too, and live in the vicinity of one of the venues. :)

June 30, 2011- Milwaukee, WI Milwaukee- Summerfest
July 8, 2011- Kansas City- MO KC Live!
July 9, 2011- Tulsa, OK- Million Dollar Elm Casino
July 22, 2011- Baltimore, MD- Power Plant Live
August 20, 2011- Sioux Falls, SD- Downtown Live Music Festival
September 2nd, 2011- Dallas TX- House of Blues
October 1, 2011- Shreveport, LA- Red River Revel Festival

Happy Birthday

2011-06-18T05:00:00.000-06:00

Just a simple birthday card to share with you today. It's a bit more on the masculine side. I used paper from Pink Paislee's Hometown Summer line. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Pink Paislee? ;) Love that company! Stamp image is Cupcake Birthday.

Lizzie Anne June DT Challenge- Summer Activity

2011-06-17T06:00:00.011-06:00

Our design team challenge for June over at Lizzie Anne Designs was to create a card or project that reflects something we'll be doing this summer. Since yard work didn't sound too exciting, I decided to create a card using an image I have loved from last year's July mix, Simply Sweet, but haven't had a chance to use yet. The image is of stamps and postmarks.

I happen to have a thing for old stamps and postmarks. I have this lovely little book called Postmark Paris that I absolutely adore. It's a young girl's adventure living in Paris for a year told with vintage French stamps. I won't go into details about it, but if you want to check it out, you can do so here. The stamp image I used on this card reminds me of all the postcards I would collect as a kid. I started collecting them when my dad would send them to me from foreign lands whenever he was away on business. I treasured those cards and still have them today. As I got older, every year my best friend and I would send each other postcards from our summer vacations. Mine were usually from Disneyland to her, with the exception of the year my family drove all the way across the country for our summer vacation. That trip was a great experience, crowded backseat with my sisters and all.

I still love getting postcards today. Just recently I received one from Glasgow, Scotland. A friend of mine was visiting there and sent me a cool postcard of the Glasgow School of Art. I was so excited! With the day and age we live in now and technology having changed the way we communicate, I rarely receive anything like letters or postcards in the mail. So when it does happen, it's extra special. My daughter has a pen pal now and loves getting letters in the mail. Maybe I need to get myself one too. :) Don't get me wrong, I love email and all, but there is something tactile and lovely about holding a letter and opening it to find handwritten sentiments inside. I remember when I was young, my grandmother telling me how more meaningful a handwritten letter was opposed to a typed one. I think I understand that sentiment now even more so. I guess it goes along with why cardmakers make cards. It's more personal...it's from the heart, and it's so much fun to get something like that in the mail. :)

New Stamps!

2011-06-15T08:30:00.001-06:00

Today we've got two new Simply Singles being previewed over at Lizzie Anne. They are Big Thank You and Happiness Saying. I've got cards using both to share with you today. We've also revealed the new Summer Mix. If you want to see what fun images it has, you can go here. A lot of the design team members have cards to show today using the summer mix stamps, so be sure to check out their blogs as well.

Old Card New Card

2011-06-14T06:00:00.001-06:00

It was my turn for the sketch challenge this week, so I decided to go back through my archive of old cards and base my sketch off of one of them. Here's the card I chose...

Here's the sketch...

Here's the new card...

For the new card, I used the Eiffel Tower image from our Bonjour set and the sentiments are from our Everyday Sayings set. Paper is Pink Paislee, Butterfly Garden. :)

Music Monday- Barenaked Ladies

2011-06-13T06:00:00.004-06:00

Okay, so I'm not a huge fan of Barenaked Ladies. They have a couple songs I think are pretty cool (like their version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen with Sarah McLachlan) and some ones that I really, really don't like. Like that Million Dollars song, or One Week. So if I'm not a big fan, why am I highlighting them today? Well, it all started when I was listening to the Felicity Senior Year soundtrack the other day. (I loved the show Felicity!) Their song Call and Answer is on it. I really like that song. I had forgotten all about that song and how much I like it until I heard it again. And now it's been running through my head for the past few days. So today, I'm sharing Call and Answer with you, because it's a really good song. :)

NOTE: I wasn't allowed to embed the original video of this so if you want to see it, go here.

Flashback Friday- Sweet Ride

2011-06-10T12:18:00.000-06:00

I've got a couple more fun old photos to share today. As I mentioned before, my dad has been going through all of the old photos, scanning them and putting them in a place where me and my sisters can download them. Many of these pictures I've never seen before. A few weeks ago there was one my dad uploaded that I was excited to see. I had a slight memory of when I was 2 1/2 and we were living in California. My dad had a motorcycle, and I remember him taking me for a ride around the neighborhood on it. I remember being terrified but as long as my dad held me, I knew I'd be okay. I also remember sitting on the bike with my sister while my dad took a picture of us, and being sure it was going to tip over and we would go down with it. We didn't and all was fine. The photo I was excited to see was the above picture of me and my sister sitting on the bike. :)

That same day he took pictures of us on our Big Wheels. I LOVED my Big Wheel. I was HOT STUFF riding my Big Wheel. Eventually I outgrew the Big Wheel in the picture and my parents got me another Big Wheel that looked almost like my old one, but bigger. Yes! I spent hours and hours on that thing. My sisters and I would drag our Big Wheels up a hill in our neighborhood and we'd each take a side of the street and race down the hill on the sidewalks. I thought I was tougher because my sisters had little hand brakes on their Big Wheels. I just had my pedals to stop me. Secretly though, I was a little jealous. I would never tell them that though. Despite that, my Big Wheel was cooler because I had a AAA sticker on the back. It was silver and sparkly with sparkly blue letters on it. And to top that off, my dad told me that if my Big Wheel ever broke down, that AAA would come to my rescue! I believed him of course. Take that sisters! I have towing plan and you just have a hand break! Have a great weekend everyone!

Hope Sings

2011-06-09T18:00:00.000-06:00

Have you seen the paper in Butterfly Collection by Pink Paislee? It's lovely. I love the combination of the images, textures, and typography in this line. When we got this paper in stock, I couldn't wait to use it! I almost love it so much I had a hard time cutting into it. I finally got up the nerve to cut it and created this card. I paired the paper with our Simply Single Hope. I love this quote. We all could use a little hope, right? The cute little bird is an image from our Treasured Trinkets mix set.

Surf's Up!

2011-06-08T12:11:00.000-06:00

Last week over at Lizzie Anne Designs, we released two adorable new Little People singles, Hula Girl and Surfer Dude. I've got a card to share with you today that uses Surfer Dude.

It's finally warmed up here and it makes me so happy! I was seriously ready to pack up and move to California. With the warmth, the pool has finally opened, and swimming season has begun. It's still not quite warm enough for me to jump into the pool. I'm a wimp and need it to be at least 85F outside before I do. However, my daughter is happy enough with the current temps. I am longing to hit the beach. Unfortunately for me, it is a 10 hour drive. sigh. In the meantime, I will daydream.

The Dirty Dash

2011-06-07T07:00:00.003-06:00

As promised, I have some pictures to share today of the race I did last weekend. It was really so much fun, and if you ever get the chance to do anything like it, I totally recommend it! I think we did more laughing than anything. The ladies I ran with are the best and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to get muddy with them!

Here's a description of the race...

"Have you ever said to yourself, 'Marathons are too easy, and Triathlons are for sissies?' We haven’t either… those races are really hard. Think about it…the first person to run a marathon actually died. HE DIED!...and he probably didn’t even have fun along the way! Well let us introduce you to the new race in town…THE DIRTY DASH. This race puts all other races to shame. The Dirty Dash is a mud run obstacle course where a military boot camp meets your inner five-year-old’s fantasy and subsequently converts boy to man and then…man to swine. You’ll need endurance to trudge up mountains of sludge, courage to overcome uncompromising obstacles, a complete lack of shame to wallow in pits of mud and a smile to show through at the end!"

Here we are all nice and clean just before the race.

Notice our pink socks. :)

The back of our tees.

Off to a muddy start! We had to run up a muddy hill to start off.

Holy cow was it slippery! Many wiped out right off.

Some of the obstacles we encountered. We also climbed over

bails of hay, crawled through big tubes, and ran through tires.

The last obstacle before we crossed the finish line...a big pit of mud!

This big pool of muddy water was aptly called the Pig Sty. It stunk!

A few of us at the end. Our pink socks are now brown!

If you have a minute, you've got to check out The Dirty Dash website. It's an entertaining one and is sure to amuse!

Music Monday- Queen

2011-06-06T16:21:00.000-06:00

Alright, it's been awhile since I've done Music Monday, and now that my life has slowed down a little, I'm going to get back into my regular blogging. Today's Music Monday brings you Queen. Who doesn't like Queen? Well, to be honest I didn't like them until later on in my college years. My little sister was a fan and I guess they grew on me because of her. Queen was a huge departure from my usual alternative favorites. But I do like me some Queen now! So why Queen today? This past weekend I ran in what has been the most fun race I have ever done. It's called The Dirty Dash. It was a 5k mud run with an obstacle course. I was part of a team of 20 women and by the end of the race we were all covered in mud...some more than others! All through the race I kept singing "you got mud on your face, you big disgrace!" from We Will Rock You by Queen. I most certainly had mud on my face, but I also had a big ol' smile too. :) Today, I dedicate this song to my awesome teammates. You rock ladies!

I'll be back tomorrow with a post and some pics from The Dirty Dash.

The Sweetest Surprise

2011-06-03T18:14:00.004-06:00

The other day I received the best surprise! My daughter and I had just arrived at my parent's house and when I opened the door my parents were standing there smiling with cameras pointed at me. I thought, "this is weird, why are they pointing cameras at me? Do I have something on me?" With a funny look on my face I'm sure, I asked, "What's with the cameras?" Just then my little sister Melissa peeks from behind the door. I hadn't seen her in almost 2 years! She moved away to Virginia two years ago this summer. We talk on the phone and skype, but I hadn't seen her in real life for so long! I had no idea she was coming. In fact no one did. She surprised us all! I had talked to her on the phone just the day before and she gave no hint whatsoever that I would be seeing her the next day. It was the best surprise ever! I love her and have missed her so much! She timed this trip to coincide with my oldest niece's graduation from high school and had hoped to catch our dance recital, but missed the recital by a week. It's so fun to have her here and meet her baby boy for the first time. I'm looking forward to some much needed sister time this weekend! Below are a couple of pictures from the big surprise and some pics at my nieces graduation as well.

I definitely was not expecting to see her! Just a little surprised. :)

Happiness.

Here we are after the graduation.

The beautiful graduate!

I can't believe how much she's grown up!

Mom and daughters...missing just one. We miss you Tiffiny!

Food for thought....

2011-05-20T14:27:00.001-06:00

So, supposedly the world is ending tomorrow, and if so this is my last post ever. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then go here. Apparently, I've been in the dark! The past couple of days, I've kept seeing all these Facebook posts about the world ending and all of these "rapture" parties. I had no idea! I think I've had my head buried in the ground because really, how did I miss this?!

All this talk about the world ending tomorrow has me thinking about what would I do if I for sure knew the world was ending tomorrow. (Which I don't think it is, but it's definitely food for thought.) What would I do??? Of course there is the absolute such as gathering my loved ones around me and spending time with them, but what else would I do? I would probably eat some french fries, chips and guacamole, gummy colas, chocolate licorice, and possibly some gelato, because those are some of my favorite things! I would listen to my favorite music, and go to one of my favorite spots on earth. I'm sure I would dance too. But most of all, I think I would let all of my loved ones know how much I love them and how much they mean to me. I would hold onto them for dear life. I wouldn't want this world to end without telling the people I care about, how I feel. Hopefully, I do this already. But I've always felt you can never tell someone enough how much you care about them. I'm sure I would contact long lost friends and tell them I'm sorry for letting our friendship slide away, but that I still love them and still think of them. I would would tell those that I've disappointed or hurt how very sorry I am. I think I would do a moral inventory and try to make right any wrong I haven't fixed. What would you do?

I don't think the world will end tomorrow. But I won't let that stop me from doing what I should do...letting people know how I feel about them. Because really, I believe the most important thing we have on this earth are the relationships we have...how we treat others and conduct ourselves. These relationships and experiences are what I will take with me when I die someday, and I don't want to have any regrets in this area.

And if the world truly does end tomorrow, at least I will go out doing one of the things I truly love...dancing. :)

Busy busy busy!

2011-05-19T12:09:00.002-06:00

It's that time of year, end of year ballet school recital and community ballet performances. My daughter and I are participating in both this year and it's been so much fun! My daughter has inherited my love of dancing, and I love being able to do it with her! While I am loving all of this dancing, I do admit it will be really nice to slow down and catch my breath once it is all over. This weekend, our community ballet performs The Sleeping Beauty. We perform it at an outdoor amphitheater, which is normally a really cool place to perform. However, it has been raining non-stop. We even has some snow last week. It's sooooo cold! The weather we are having here is not normal for May. We are all keeping our fingers crossed that it lets up AND warms up for the performances. No one wants to sit outside in the cold rain and watch a 2 hour performance. Who would? At least the stage is covered. Thankfully, our end of year ballet school recital. The Princess Frog, will be indoors next week!

Not only do I get to dance with the community ballet, I get to do all of the graphic design/artwork for them too. It's really a dream come true for me combining two of my loves, ballet and art. I thought I would share today the artwork I designed for The Sleeping Beauty.

Have a great weekend everyone, and please send out warm and sunny thoughts for us as we perform outside!

Simple Thank You Card

2011-05-11T08:20:00.000-06:00

I've got a simple Thank-You card to share today. To make it, I used images from our Wonderful World Sixlets set as well as a sentiment from our Perfect Phrases Sixlets set. I paired these images with paper from Pink Paislee's Hometown Summer paper pack. If you haven't checked out this new paper pack, you should! It's adorable and we just happen to have it on sale in our store right now for 20% off.

Music Monday-Shiny Toy Guns

2011-05-09T14:28:00.000-06:00

Ahh Monday. Here we are again. It's a gray and rainy day here today. I'm beginning to think the beautiful and warm Saturday we just had was only a figment of my imagination. We've had the most depressing spring here weather wise that I can remember. Or maybe I just don't tolerate it like I used to. It can't all be me though because I see my friends and family's facebook status updates being weary of it too. Either way, it's been cold, snowy, maybe warm for a day and then cold and rainy again. I honestly don't mind the rain, in fact I really love rainy days. However, I hate to be cold. Hate it. Sigh. In honor of this rainy Monday, today's Music Monday brings you Shiny Toy Guns' Rainy Monday.

I love this song. It's one that I have on my current running list as well as a couple of other songs by Shiny Toy Guns. I really like this band. Someone once gave me a hard time for not liking any American bands but only bands hailing from England and Scotland. While the majority of the music I love comes from bands formed in the UK, I do have a few favorites from the U.S., including Shiny Toy Guns. They are an American indie rock band that formed back in 2002 in Los Angeles, CA.

Music Monday- My Running Playlist

2011-05-02T06:00:00.004-06:00

Quite often, I get asked what is on my running playlist. For me, it changes from time to time. Today I thought I'd share with you what's currently on mine. I actually made this one back in November, but since I hadn't been running since then until just recently, it's still pretty new to me. I have to say, I really like my current list! It gets me moving and that's a good thing! It's quite a long list and I never run long enough to listen to the whole thing at a time, but I love everything on it. I've included youtube links in case you are interested. Enjoy!

1. Magic by Ladyhawke
2. Take It Or Leave It by VHS Or Beta
3. Temptation '98 by New Order
4. Shut Your Eyes by Shout Out Louds
5. Integral by Pet Shop Boys
6. Turned To Real Life by Shiny Toy Guns
7. Snow (Hey Oh) by Red Hot Chili Peppers
8. Dangerous Places by Alphaville
9. Bulletproof by La Roux
10. Very Loud by Shout Out Louds
11. Neighborhood #1 (tunnels) by The Arcade Fire
12. My Delirium by Ladyhawke
13. Burn It All Down by VHS Or Beta
14. Neighborhood #3 (power out) by The Arcade Fire
15. Joy Ride by The Killers
16. Girls Who Play Guitars by Maximo Park
17. Starlight by Muse
18. Love Vigilantes by New Order
19. This Is Your Life by The Killers
20. Don't Cry Out by Shiny Toy Guns
21. Second Nature by Electronic
22. Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order
23. The Comeback by Shout Out Louds
24. She Says by VHS Or Beta
25. Rainy Monday by Shiny Toy Guns

Simple Wedding Card

2011-04-26T17:19:00.000-06:00

It seems like it's the season where wedding announcements start arriving in the mailbox. I just received one the other day. This card was super easy and quick to make. All I did to create this card was to take a pre-cut white standard card, adhere some patterned paper to the front of it leaving about 1/8" of an inch border. Next, I took my Marvy Uchida scallop oval punch and punched out a window. Then, I stamped our Simply Single, Bride and Groom onto the window area and colored it in. Next I stamped "always and forever" onto a white piece of cardstock, mounted it onto a piece of scalloped brown cardstock and adhered to the front of the card. To finish it up, I tied some brown ribbon around the edge of the card and coming through the scallop. And there you have it!

Music Monday- Ingrid Michaelson

2011-04-25T14:41:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone, today's Music Monday brings you Ingrid Michaelson. I'm sure most everyone knows who she is by now. She's got quite a few songs of hers that get played on the radio, and her music has been featured several times on the tv show Grey's Anatomy as well as a few others. I first heard her years ago in an Old Navy commercial. They were advertising sweaters and playing The Way I Am. I loved that song instantly and had to find out who sang it. I found out it was her and went out and got her CD. She quickly became one of my favorite artists. I've had the opportunity to see her in concert twice. Let me tell you she puts on an awesome show. Not only is she incredibly talented, but she's super funny and entertaining as well. If you ever get a chance to see her live, take it! You won't be disappointed!

Today I'm sharing a few of her lesser known songs. They may be lesser known, but they are beautiful all the same. Enjoy!

Flashback Friday- An Easter Card

2011-04-22T08:13:00.002-06:00

Today's Flashback Friday brings you an Easter card that I had made last year. It uses our Simply Single Him in our Heart. I love this sentiment and it's a good reminder to me about what Easter is about. To see more card samples using this stamp, you can find them in our LAD Sketchbook. Have a great weekend and Happy Easter!

I {heart} San Francisco

2011-04-21T21:53:00.002-06:00

Hello blog readers! As promised, I have a few pics to share from my recent trip to San Francisco. San Francisco is my all time favorite city in the US. I love that place and never tire of visiting there and doing all things San Francisco. :) I had such a great time with my dear friends and I can't wait for the next girl's trip we take! It was such a quick trip, but we packed in lots of sight seeing. We went to Pier 39, went on a cruise around the bay, ate at yummy restaurants, went to Golden Gate Park, Haight & Ashbury, Ghiradelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf, Union Square, rode a Trolley, walked down Lombard street, and much more! Two of my friends had never been there before so it was a lot of fun showing them around. We walked everywhere. San Francisco isn't that big but it felt like we walked 400 miles each day. And all uphill too! :) Anyway, here are a few pics from the trip. Enjoy!

Walking down Market Street.

Down at Pier 39

Who doesn't love bread?

The Golden Gate Bridge

Me and the bridge

Me and my friends at Sutro Park overlooking the ocean.

What happens when your friend takes over the camera.

I dragged my friends everywhere. We walked and walked and walked. Here we are walking.

At the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park

Me and a pagoda.

Ghiradelli Square where they have a Ghiradelli store and ice cream shop!

Me and my friend Anne enjoying our yummy sundaes!

The Painted Ladies. Full House anyone?

Riding on a trolley car

One of our views from the trolley car...the Transamerica building.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back with a Flashback Friday card to share with you tomorrow.

Running to be free

2011-04-20T15:18:00.000-06:00

Today I put on my running shoes for the first time since Thanksgiving day. It felt good and I realized just how much I've missed it, and needed it. The last time I ran was for a race on Thanksgiving morning. It was aptly called the Cold Turkey Run. I think it was 9 degrees that morning. Brr. Anyway, I haven't been able to bring myself to run since then. I just haven't had the heart to do it until now, which is unfortunate as I have this race coming up in June. Sigh. Today was slow going as I knew it would be. While I haven't lost my endurance (thankfully due to ballet 3x/week,) I have lost my speed. It will come back, but I'm going to have to work hard over the next 6 1/2 weeks.

Running is such a big stress reliever for me. It helps me to meditate and clear my mind. It allows me to sift through my thoughts, feelings and emotions, and purge them if needed. I always feel better after my run, not just physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. Today was one of those purging days. I've been carrying around with me some thoughts, feelings and emotions for a long time now that I needed to let go of. They were weighing me down and I just didn't want to carry them around anymore. It was time to let go. And so I did, and it felt good, and now I am free.

Sunshiny Miracles

2011-04-19T17:33:00.001-06:00

Today I was going through my photos and found a picture of a card I made, but had never posted on my personal blog. This card uses our Simply Singles stamp, Sunshiny Miracles. This cute little Noah's Ark stamp is perfect for baby cards and baby shower invites. Tricia even stamped this image on a baby onesie and gave it as a gift. Adorable! You can see some more fun cards using this stamp, in our sketchbook.

Music Monday- Delays

2011-04-18T06:00:00.003-06:00

Today's Music Monday brings you Delays in honor of all the delays I experienced last weekend. Last weekend I went on a girl's trip to San Francisco with some friends of mine. Normally a plane ride to San Francisco is around an hour and a half for me. However, because I picked the cheapest options available, I had a layover in each direction, thus making each direction twice as long for me. Sigh. I should learn to just pay a little extra for a direct flight because layovers stress me out! On every single flight I had last weekend, there was a delay. Friday morning, the morning I was to head out, I woke up to around 4" of snow. Okay, no biggie...it had stopped, looked clear, and the flight was still scheduled on time. I got to the airport just fine, and my plane even left the gate on time. However, because of the previous night's weather, the plane needed to be de-iced. Ugh. So, we ended up sitting out on the tarmac waiting to be de-iced for an hour. I finally land in Los Angeles worrying that I was cutting it close for my connecting flight, only to find that my flight to San Francisco has been delayed almost an hour! Sigh. At least I didn't miss my flight! I arrived in San Francisco a half hour before my friends start trickling in and a great weekend was had! I'll post a few pics from the trip this week.

All weekend long San Francisco was clear and sunny...so beautiful! No fog was to be seen. So, on Sunday evening, I figured that my flight should leave on time, right? Nope. For whatever reason, my flight to Las Vegas was delayed an hour! All I could think was, oh no, here we go again! This time, I was a little more stressed out because my layover was shorter. Luckily we had picked up some time in the air before we landed in LV. So, we land in LV and I think, great, I have 20 minutes to spare...that should give me plenty of time to get to my gate. But alas, I spoke too soon. Instead of landing and pulling up to our gate, we landed and sat out on the tarmac for 15 minutes waiting for the plane that was at our gate, to leave. Oh man, I was stressed! My flight home was the last one out, and I didn't exactly want to be stuck in Las Vegas for the night. By the time I got off of the plane, I had 2 min. before my flight to Salt Lake City was supposed to depart. I literally ran down the terminal and hopped right onto my next plane. I have never cut it so close in my life! Thank heavens, my flight home was delayed by a few minutes so that I was able to catch it. So there you have it...a weekend of delays! Despite all of the delays, it really was a fun weekend, and I can't wait for next year's girl's trip!

In honor of all the delays, I give you Delays...

A little about the band..."Delays are an English indie band formed in Southampton, consisting of brothers Greg and Aaron Gilbert, Colin Fox and Rowly. The band's sound combines guitar and synths and features Greg Gilbert's distinctive falsetto lead vocals. They have released four critically acclaimed albums to date, the first three of which made the Top 30 in the UK album chart."

Have a great week everyone!

Lizzie Anne Design Team Challenge

2011-04-15T05:00:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone! I've joined in on the Lizzie Anne Design Team Challenge today. This month's challenge was to simply create an Easter card. It's hard to believe that Easter is almost upon us. Seems like yesterday it was snowing. Wait, scratch that, it's still snowing here off and on. Sigh. Anyway, without further ado, here's my card.

The stamp used on this card is called Him in Our Heart and you can find it here. The patterned paper is from the Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden collection and I LOVE it! We just got this paper pack in our store (along with some other adorable packs) and I couldn't wait to use it! You can find the lovely paper pack here. The paper just happens to be 20% off right now too! For a peek and some links to see what other DT members came up with, be sure to visit the LAD Blog.

Have a great weekend everyone! I'll be back to my regular blogging next week.

The Play Date Cafe Color Challenge

2011-03-23T22:59:00.001-06:00

Today, we at Lizzie Anne Designs are sponsoring a color challenge with the Play Date Cafe. The challenge is to use the colors white, light blue, and lavender/purple. I had a lot of fun playing along with this challenge! The stamps I used are from our Spring 2011 Mix entitled "Follow Your Dreams." For a chance to win a prize, be sure to play along with this challenge and post your direct link to the Playdate Cafe blog. To see what our design team members created for this challenge, be sure to visit the Lizzie Anne blog for a list and links.

In other news, we are having a big overstock sale today, March 24th through Sunday, March 27th. Everything in the overstock section on our website is 40% off during the sale!

Music Monday- Blind Pilot AND a really cool worthwhile project

2011-03-21T00:19:00.000-06:00

Happy Monday everyone! Today's Music Monday brings you Blind Pilot, an "American indie folk band" based in Portland, Oregon. I just discovered this band almost a year ago when my daughter and I participated in the "30 Strangers" project by photographer extraordinaire, Justin Hackworth. What is 30 Strangers??? See below the videos to find out. During the photoshoot, Justin had on some cool, mellow, slightly folk-sounding music going on in the background. I asked him who it was because I really liked what I heard. He told me it was Blind Pilot. I wrote it down, stuck it in my purse and quickly forgot about it. A few weeks later when I was cleaning out my purse, I found the paper I had written on. After listening to them again on youtube, I went and got a their CD 3 Rounds and a Sound. I LOVE it! I really love it when people turn me onto new music. Thanks Justin!!!

Here's two of their songs that I really like...

Okay, now for the really cool, worthwhile project...The "30 Strangers" project is one Justin started a few years ago. The goal: "...to photograph a different mother and daughter (sometimes a grandmother, too) every single day. 30 portraits in 30 days." The people that come to be photographed are strangers to Justin, people that he's never met before. Instead of paying a sitting fee, participants instead make a donation to the Center for Women and Children in Crisis. At the end of the project, he chooses a photo from each sitting and exhibits them in a gallery. If you are curious to which photo he chose for me and my daughter, you can go here. It's a slideshow so you can see all of the other photos he chose. It really was such an honor to be able to participate in this project. Justin is an incredible photographer. He shoots weddings and portraits, and his photos are always breathtaking. I highly recommend him! Please go check out his website and see his gallery of gorgeous photographs. You won't be disappointed, I promise.

Photo ©Justin Hackworth

Happy St. Patricks Day!

2011-03-17T13:36:00.002-06:00

I've got an oldie from last year to share with you today...

For this card, I used the clovers and clover sentiment from our March 2010 Mix set "Lucky You," and paired it with patterned paper from Pink Paisley's Bayberry Cottage 6x6 paper pad. We just happen to have this paper pad in stock, along with some brand new adorable paper pads from Cosmo Cricket. Be sure to check them out!

Lizzie Anne Designs Spring Mix Preview

2011-03-15T00:17:00.000-06:00

Today over at Lizzie Anne Designs we are previewing our spring mix entitled Follow Your Dreams. It's chalk full of fun images including the "D" and dreams saying on the card above. We actually have a gorgeous new bird in this set, but I chose to use the one from the mix set Treasured Trinkets because the bird in that mix is facing the way I wanted it to. :) To see this mix in it's entirety and to see all of the lovely cards and samples our dt members have created, be sure to stop by the Lizzie Anne Designs blog.

I was going to show you my card from the sketch challenge I posted yesterday on the Lizzie Anne blog, but I hate my card! I'm going to see if I can revamp it a little to where I'm not embarrassed to show it. :)

Music Monday- Irish Edition

2011-03-14T11:10:00.002-06:00

Since St. Patrick's Day is coming upon us this week, I thought it would be fun to highlight a couple of bands/singers from Ireland and Northern Ireland.

As I was thinking of what bands to highlight this week, I went to google and typed in "bands from Ireland." Lo and behold Snow Patrol popped up. Turns out, Gary Lightbody, the lead singer and a couple of the other band members are originally from Northern Ireland. I had no idea! I guess I always thought they were Scottish since the band was formed in Scotland and is based out of Glasgow. The things you learn from Wikipedia! So, here's one of my all time favorite songs from Snow Patrol.

Next up is Glen Hansard (from Dublin) and Markéta Irglová of The Swell Season. If you've never seen the movie Once, you've got to see it. It's a beautiful Irish film set in Dublin. Here's a synopsis of the movie: The storyline is bittersweet and eloquent; a modern day musical about two people at a crossroads in their lives when they meet. Each one gives the other one the shoulder and the shove they need to get on with and get what they want out of life. A simple, but magnificent film with amazing music and actors; the result is unforgettable. Brilliant. -Cherise Everhard. I don't think I could've said it better. If you've ever had the bittersweet experience of someone coming in and out of your life, this movie is for you. Here's my favorite song from the movie.

Everyone knows who Enya is right? Her haunting melodic voice has been heard in many movies, commercials, and of course on mainstream radio stations as well. She's Ireland's best-selling solo musician and has seen great success with her albums such as Watermark, The Celts, and Shephard Moons. I don't listen to her as much now but I still enjoy her music. Here's one of my favorites of hers...

Last but not least, the band everybody knows about (and if they don't, have probably been living under a rock,) the band U2. Surely the most popular Irish band and one of the most well known across the world. Here's one of my favorites from the band.

Have a great day everyone. Tomorrow I'll be back with a card to share using this week's sketch challenge over at Lizzie Anne Designs.

Flashback Friday- My First Celebrity Crushes

2011-03-11T09:17:00.001-07:00

We watched a lot of sci-fi shows in my house growing up. My dad was a huge fan of them so we'd end up watching all of his tv favorites with him. I was pretty little, but I remember watching Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, and of course, Buck Rogers. I looked up to all the heroes, so naturally my first celebrity crushes stemmed from these shows. Buck Rogers was on for only 2 seasons at the beginning of the 80's, I believe. I totally loved that show. I wanted to be Wilma. She was the heroine of the show. She wore this really cool shiny fitted blue suit. Plus she got to help thwart the plots of evil villains trying to conquer earth. Not only that, but she fights side by side with Buck! I remember playing Buck Rogers with my sisters. We had each gotten some kind of red plastic fake watch toy from our Burger King kid's meals. We pretended those were our communicators like they had on the show. Of course, we all wanted to be Wilma, so we were all Wilma. But I knew Buck was only in love with me! Yep, Buck Rogers was one of my first celebrity crushes. He was so cool! Looking back now, I have to laugh at it all. Whatever happened to that guy who played him? I don't remember seeing him in anything else, but then again, I was pretty young.

My other first celebrity crush was Luke Skywalker of course! Everyone knows about Star Wars, right? So not much to explain there except for the fact while everyone else was in love with Han Solo, I was in love with Luke! Of course I always wanted to be Leia but that got messed up later on when we found out they were sister and brother! Ew. My sisters and I re-enacted Star Wars as well. Looking back now, Luke annoys me with how whiny he is in that first movie. At least he had that cool landspeeder!

Pretty as a Peacock

2011-03-10T15:21:00.001-07:00

We just got in some new paper pads from Cosmo Cricket. I LOVE the new pads. They are full of gorgeous papers. And the great thing about these pads is that they are 6x6 and perfect for cardmaking. They are also great because I usually don't waste the paper. I'll admit in the past when I've bought 12x12 patterned paper, I have a hard time cutting it up. It's just so pretty! I just can't bring myself to do it. So, I don't. And so it sits unused. And then I forget about it. So, I love having the 6x6 pads around. I feel less wasteful and it's just the prefect size! I know, I'm weird. Anyway, the paper I used on this card is from their Social Club line. This paper reminded me of peacock feathers so I thought I would pair it up with the peacock stamp from our Simply Sweet mix club set. Now I know peacocks are not yellow. But I just used my artist's license (because we can do that!) and colored the peacock yellow to tie in with the paper. And now I'm off to play with more paper and the new mix which will be revealed next week!

Hope

2011-03-08T06:00:00.002-07:00

We released some new singles over at Lizzie Anne Designs last week. If you haven't seen them yet, you can check them out here. Today I have a card to share with you that features one of the new singles, Hope.

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."

Great quote, don't you think? Since the quote mentions feathers, I thought I would pair it with the little bird image from our Treasured Trinkets Mix Club set. To see what some of the LAD design team members created with this stamp, be sure to visit our sketchbook. Have a great day everyone!

Music Monday-R.E.M.

2011-03-07T06:00:00.003-07:00

Today's Music Monday brings you R.E.M. I love R.E.M. I've loved them for years. They took me through my years of high school, college and more. They have a new album coming out this week. Tomorrow, in fact. YAY! If you are an R.E.M. fan and you can't wait until Tuesday to hear their new album, you can go over to NPR music and hear the whole thing! I'm going to use some self restraint though and wait. I think. I mean, it's only one more day, right?

You know how when you listen to music it can take you back to an exact moment in time and the memory is as fresh as if it just happened? Music is so powerful that way. It can make us recall memories or feelings that we long forgot about or that maybe we thought were buried deep inside. Quite often our memories are tied with specific songs or albums. This is such the case for me when it comes to R.E.M. (Well, to be honest, it is probably the case for 90% of the music I listen to.) But in the case of R.E.M., their album Automatic for the People takes me back to my first year of college.

The college I attended, the University of Utah, is a commuter school so most of the students drive in from all around the valley. My friend Tricia and I carpooled that first year of college to save gas. We were taking pretty much all the same classes, and driving all that way was always much more fun with friends in tow. Traveling time for us to school and back home was a half an hour each direction. This left us with lots of time to listen to music, which we always did. Often I subjected Tricia to my alternative music and she subjected me to her country music. Sometimes our trips to and from school were quite adventurous in our old beat up cars. My car stalled in just about ever intersection, while Tricia's car's passenger door wouldn't stay shut and I would hold onto it for dear life praying it wouldn't fly open while on the freeway, sending me hurtling across the lanes! (It didn't by the way.) Anyway, I digress.

Back to R.E.M. As I mentioned above, their album Automatic for the People always takes me back to my college days. I remember one particular afternoon listening to that album as we drove back home from our art classes. Our friend Katie was in the car with us. We'd been debating on what we should listen to on the way home. I pulled out my Automatic for the People cassette and Katie exclaimed how she liked that album. I was so excited that she liked it too as I LOVED it! We put it in and sang along as we rode home. So now, whenever I listen to that album, I think of that day. It was a sunny day, the kind that really lifts your spirits. And really, what's better than on a beautiful day, driving with the wind blowing through your hair, listening to some of your favorite music? Maybe it's just nostalgia now, but I remember feeling really happy and thinking all was right with the world. And for at least a half an hour, it really was. :)

From R.E.M.'s album Automatic for the People, Nightswimming

...and another from that album, Everybody Hurts. One of the best songs of all time!

Music Monday-Jem

2011-02-28T00:08:00.001-07:00

Today's Music Monday brings you Jem. No, not Jem and the Holograms.

Although they were pretty awesome! I admit I watched that cartoon and LOVED it! Okay, now I'm just dating myself. So no, not this Jem...

but, this Jem...

I discovered Jem several years ago when I was in a Virgin record store. They were playing her on their sound system and I loved what I heard. I found out it was Jem and got a copy of her debut album, Finally Woken, soon after. Her music style has been described as "elements of rock, new wave-styled electronica and trip-hop." I have her second album Down to Earth, but I'm not as fond of it as Finally Woken. If you like Imogen Heap, you might like Jem. Or vice versa. Their styles are kind of similar. Anyway, have a listen and see for yourself.

The following songs are off her first album, Finally Woken.

Flashback Friday- Ribbon Board Tutorial

2011-02-25T10:47:00.000-07:00

Today's Flashback Friday brings you a project that I made a few years ago. We were getting ready for CHA and I needed a way to show off some of our card samples for our booth. I thought having ribbon boards to display our cards would be perfect but I couldn't find any that I loved and I didn't want to spend a ton of money on them either. So, I decided to make my own and share how I did it. The following is the tutorial that I came up with way back then. Enjoy!

********

I have a fun project idea I thought that I would share with you. This week I've been busy getting projects and other things ready for our booth at CHA. We leave next week and I can hardly believe it! It seems like ages ago that we signed up to exhibit. Anyway, this week I've been working on these ribbon boards to display samples in our booth. They are so fun and easy...and cute too!

Supplies:
Pre-made canvas (I used a 14" square canvas)
Batting cut to fit the size of the canvas
Piece of cloth that is big enough to wrap around the canvas
Nails and thumbtacks
Ribbon
Decorative brads (I used brads by Making Memories)
Paper piercer and scissors

Step One: Place pre-cut batting on topside of canvas, flip canvas and batting over and place on top of pre-cut material. Make sure the side of material you want to be seen is facing down.

Step Two: Wrap the material around the canvas frame and secure with nails or thumbtacks. Do this on all four sides of canvas frame.

Step Three: With a thumbtack, on the back of the canvas, secure end of ribbon onto a corner. Bring ribbon around the front and across the board in a diagonal direction, and attach to the backside of that corner. Do this again with the other corners. Make a criss cross pattern with the ribbon making sure to attach each end in the back with a thumbtack.

Step Four: Pierce the middle of each intersection with a paper piercer making sure to go through each layer. (Material, batting, and canvas.) Poke decorative brad through the pierced hole and secure on the backside of the canvas.

Voila! You have your own handcrafted ribbon board! :) To hang the board, either attach a saw tooth hook to the back, or attach a thicker ribbon to the backside of the canvas using thumbtacks.

I hope I've made sense. :) Please let me know if you have any questions on this project idea. Thanks for stopping by!

footprints in our hearts...

2011-02-22T06:00:00.001-07:00

"Some people come into our lives, leave footprints in our hearts, and we are never ever the same."

We all have people that come into our lives and touch our hearts in some way or another. Sometimes they are with us for a long time and others only for a moment. I was thinking about this and all the people that have come in and out of my life...and the effects they have had on me. Many have been wonderful, and some, not so great. But each and every one good or bad, has shaped who I am today. The first person that I can remember that really touched my heart and had a profound effect on me was my kindergarten teacher Mrs. Lizak. Like many kindergarten classes, we had a daily show-n-tell. When it was our turn to bring something in to show-n-tell, it had to start with whatever letter we were studying that day. It was my turn and my letter was Z. Or so I thought. I was so excited to bring in my zipper that started with Z. When I got to school however, I was devastated to learn that we were on the letter B. I had nothing to show with the letter B. I quickly broke down into tears. Mrs. Lizak kindly took me over to her desk and pulled out some bubble gum and gave it to me to show-n-tell the rest of the class. Much gratitude was shown through my tear stained face as I took the bubble gum from her. Mrs. Lizak became a hero to me that day. She saved the day and saved me from the sure humiliation I would've experienced. (At least in a 5 year old's eyes.) Looking back at that experience, I'm sure it was no big deal to her at the time. But for me, that simple act of kindness meant the world to me and has stuck with me all these years later. She left a footprint on my little 5 year old heart, and I've never ever been the same.

Stamps used: Lizzie Anne Designs Footprints and Damask

Music Monday- Pete Yorn

2011-02-21T11:34:00.001-07:00

Last week I went to see Pete Yorn in concert. It was such an awesome show! It had been snowing pretty hard and we almost didn't go. I'm so glad we did though! I had forgotten how much I liked Pete. I had listened to him a lot 10 years ago when his first album came out. We had gotten his following albums which I liked as well, but I'll admit, I kind of forgot about him and haven't listened much over the past few years. That has changed and thanks to his show last week, I've rediscovered my love for his music. The song I'm sharing with you is off of his first album, but is such a good song. It's one of my friend Kate's favorite songs, and so I'm sharing this one in honor of her. :) It's called, On Your Side.

Here are some pics from the show...

Lizzie Anne Design Team Challenge- February

2011-02-18T05:09:00.001-07:00

Every month we have a design team challenge over at Lizzie Anne Designs. Tricia comes up with an awesome challenge and the rest of the design team plays along. The challenge this month was to pick a card out of our sketchbook created by another design team member and make your own card based on their design. If you haven't been over to our sketchbook, there are hundreds and hundreds of gorgeous and amazing cards and project ideas posted for inspiration. The card design I chose to follow was created by the incredibly talented Deb Felts. Here's her card...

I love this card! Everything about it is yummy! I really like how she split the card into 4 different sections and brought them all together with the tomato as her central image. Great layout! Below is the card I created based off of Deb's design.

For my card, I used our Spring Rain Sixlets stamp set. I love the sentiment in this set. It says, "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain." What a great way to look at obstacles we may face in life! It's a wonderful reminder to me that we may not be able to control all of the circumstances in our lives, but we can certainly control our attitudes and what we choose to make of it. To see what other design team members came up with, be sure to visit our Lizzie Anne blog and click on the links!

Flashback Friday- Old Black & Whites

2011-02-18T00:11:00.000-07:00

Today's Flashback Friday brings you a few more old pictures. Really old pictures! Growing up, I remember my dad taking a lot of photos. It was a hobby of his and one he's recently started back up. As I was digging through some old pictures last week, I came across these old black and whites he took of me and my sisters. He usually shot in color, but every once in awhile would shoot in black and white. There's just something about black and white photos that you just can't get with color photos. There's a feeling...or an emotion that can only be captured in black and white stills. Maybe because it's simplified and pure, like a breath of a moment being caught in your hand and held so delicately. Time stands a little more still and seems a little more fragile.

I think I'm going to have to start shooting more black and whites. Have a great weekend!

Congratulations

2011-02-15T15:17:00.001-07:00

I've got a simple congratulations card to share with you today. For this card, I used our Alphabet Block Simply Single stamp as well as the congratulations sentiment from our Everyday Sayings stamp set. I paired these stamps with paper from Cosmo Cricket's "The Boyfriend" and "Early Bird" paper packs. To finish, I dressed it all up with a big Prima flower. Easy, quick, and painless!

Music Monday- Coldplay

2011-02-14T23:13:00.002-07:00

It's Music Monday, and since it's Valentine's Day today (well technically it's still Valentine's Day here,) I thought the song I post should have something to do with love. While this is not the typical sappy song you might see on Valentine's Day, it's quite beautiful and one of my favorites off of Coldplay's Viva La Vida album.

Reign of Love to me is kind of a haunting/melancholy song. I've gone back and forth about what I think this song is about. For the most part, I think it's about someone who has loved and lost. His heart is heavy and he feels like he's a prisoner of his grief. Maybe she left and maybe he regrets not holding on to her? Below are the lyrics. Thoughts? Either way, it's a beautiful song.

Reign of love
I can't let go
To the sea I offer
This heavy load
Locusts will lift me up
I'm just a prisoner
In a Reign of love
Locusts will
Let us stop
I wish I'd spoken
To the Reign of love
Reign of love
By the church we're waiting
Reign of love
My knees go praying
How I wish I'd spoken up
Or we'd been carried
To the Reign of love

And in contrast, if you want some sappiness, click on this link. One of my friends on facebook posted this today and it totally made me bawl! If you love happy animal stories and Whitney Houston, you will probably like this link. And even if you don't like Whitney Houston, it will probably will still make you bawl. Well, maybe.

Flashback Friday- The Early Years

2011-02-11T09:37:00.002-07:00

Today I'm back with more flashback photos from my past. This time I've gone way back to my early years. As I mentioned last week, my dad has been posting a ton of old pictures on facebook recently. Some of them are cute, and some of them...well let's just say some of them I'd rather forget about! I went through a horrendously awkward phase. I had ugly glasses, a terrible haircut and kids at school and in the neighborhood relentlessly made fun of me. :( Kids can to be so mean! And the thing is, it stays with you forever. Sigh. As much as it hurt, I think I ended up turning out alright and I'm not too horribly scarred. Hahaha :) Because I'm a bit vain though, I will NOT be sharing any pictures of that stage of my life. With the exception of the mean kids, I really loved my childhood. I have a great family and had some good friends too. My sisters really were my best friends and I had a lot of fun with them. My family had always been close and I have so many fond memories of growing up. Anyway, here are some of my favorite pics of my early childhood.

This first picture is of me (center) and two of my sisters and one of my most favorite places in the world...Disneyland! When I lived in California when I was young, my parents took us to Disneyland quite often. Then when we moved to Utah, we took a trip there every year. Such great memories!

One year for Halloween, my mom made us these adorable costumes...Little Bo Peep and her lost sheep. I think we might have won a prize for our costumes at our church Halloween party? I'm the one on the right with the red shoes and big smile. I think I remember my mom telling me that the costumes were itchy and so maybe that is why my sisters don't look so pleased?

I love this family picture! A typical look of the 70's! Not only the clothing but the gold carpet and rock fireplace as well. I used to try to climb the fireplace but always got in trouble for it. Apparently faux rock isn't so sturdy. Later on, my barbies had a great place to rock climb even if I couldn't. I remember that suit jacket my dad is wearing well. I didn't like it when he wore it because it felt itchy to me. I think it might have been wool? I'm the one lifting up my skirt of course.

Here we are posing with a Cylon at Burger King. A little bit random but I love that we are all happy and not in the least bit scared of the freaky robot that was going to destroy the entire human civilization! No, it wasn't Cylons that I was deathly afraid of. It was Darth Vader! There was a time we went to Sears and Darth Vader was there. We had Star Wars puzzles that we were going to have Darth Vader sign. I remember being completely terrified and so sure that Darth Vader was going to use his mind death grip on me! Cylon schmylon. Darth Vader was the real villian! I'm on the far left with the big grin.

Halloween 1978? This picture is so typical of me and my sisters, always dancing around. So often my dad would be waiting in the car in the driveway for all of us girls to come out of the house so we could go somewhere. With four daughters and a wife, my dad did a lot of waiting! I don't remember exactly when this started, but quite often as we'd trickle out of the house we start dancing and performing for my dad while he waited in the car. I'm not sure if he was amused or not, but we sure had fun!

Another Halloween pic for you. This was from the same year as the above picture. It was the year that my sisters were Miss Americas for Halloween and I was Cinderella of course. I loved this costume. No matter that it didn't look at all like Cinderella's ball gown, I loved it. I wore it several years in a row. See next picture.

Here I am with my sister Kristy a few Halloweens later. Only this time I don't have red shoes to go with my awesome costume, but I have some rockin' boots. I loved those boots. I also idolized Dorothy Hamill. So I had to have the same hair as her of course. I don't think I could be anymore serious in this picture. Being Cinderella was serious stuff though...apparently.

We had one of those above ground pools that my dad would get out every summer. I loved that thing! It looks so small to me now but when I was a kid it was the perfect size.

Well there you go. I hope you enjoyed the walk down memory lane with me. Have a great weekend everyone!

Little Apprentice

2011-02-09T06:15:00.003-07:00

My daughter loves to make cards. She'll come into my office and "work" while I'm working. It's so very sweet! She is so proud of what I do and of the images I create. It's fun to see how excited she gets when I design a new stamp or stamp set. I always hear a "Ohhhh I like that one Mommy!" She has inherited my love of crafting and is always making something. She's all about the embellishments too. She loves to go through all them and pick the perfect ones for her cards. The other day I was working and she came in, plopped herself down and started working. She was so proud of her creations and I'm proud of her too! I promised her that I would post these on my blog for everyone to see. That promise resulted in the biggest grin ever. And boy do I love that smile!

Be Mine

2011-02-08T06:00:00.001-07:00

Since Valentine's Day is almost upon us, I have a little Valentine card to share with you. I actually created this for my card club exchange. Our assignment was either to make Valentine's card or a Thank You card. Obviously I chose the Valentine's option. :) For this card I used our Vintage Valentine stamp set and paired it with some paper from Pink Paislee's Sweetness line. You can't see it in this picture, but I went over the cupid with a Sakura Stardust gelly roll pen to add some glitter to the card. Those pens have to be the coolest pens ever! I probably use them more than I should but who doesn't love glitter, and glitter that is messy free?!

I can't believe it's almost Valentine's Day. I was so happy to get rid of January that I can't believe it's almost mid February. Does anyone have any fun Valentine's plans? My daughter is off of school right now so I think I'm going to have a special mommy/daughter day with her that day. We still haven't seen Tangled yet and I know she's been wanting to see it. So, I may just take her to see it or do something fun like that. Anyone have any other ideas? Whatever we end up doing, I'm sure it will be fun!

Music Monday - Kaiser Cartel

2011-02-07T10:25:00.001-07:00

When I first listened to this song, I think I listened to it like 200 times. (Okay, maybe not that much, but it was a lot!) It's been over 2 years since I first heard it, but it is still is a favorite today. This song is off their debut album, March Forth released in 2008. The whole album is really well done and I pretty much like all of the songs on it.

Here's a little bit of info about the band from their website. The Brooklyn-based duo Kaiser Cartel, made up of Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel, have been creating luscious harmonies and infectious melodies together since 2004. Both write, sing, and play multiple instruments on the albums and on-stage. Courtney a former member of John Mellencamp's band and classically trained vocalist; Benjamin a DIY, self-taught musician. Each had their own solo projects well underway when they met, but the pairing was an unmistakable success.

I agree, they do have luscious harmonies. Anyway, hope you enjoy today's music. Tomorrow I have a card to share with you. Have a great day everyone!

Flashback Friday

2011-02-04T17:15:00.003-07:00

Recently I've been inundated with old pictures from my past. My dad has been posting (and tagging me!)all of these old photos of me and my sisters when we were growing up. It's been a lot of fun to see these old pics. Of course, some of them are painful reminders of the awkward stage I went through for about um, 7 years! Thank heavens only his family/friends can see them. Yikes. That will be a story for another day though. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to start doing posts on Fridays called Flashback Friday. I may post old pics, or old projects, maybe even old favorite songs I used to be in love with. It will be a fun look into the past I think. Today, I flashback to one of my less awkward moments in life. :)

A couple of days ago, Tricia posted a scrapbook page she created about a study abroad trip we went on together back in college. It was so fun to see it and of course it brought back many fun memories of that trip. This inspired me to dig through my old photos of that trip and reminisce. I found the scrapbook that I had started of that trip but never finished. I'll be honest, what I done was hideous. That was back when deckled-edge scissors were all the rage. All that was available back then was cardstock and fancy scissors. Thank heavens the industry has made leaps and bounds as to what is available to us now! Anyway, I thought it would be fun today to post some of the pictures of us from that trip. My, we were so young!

Tricia and I both attended the University of Utah. The summer before our senior year we went on a study abroad trip that went to Germany, Austria, Italy, and France. It was a 3 week trip that immersed us in culture and adventure. We had never been out of the country before let alone Europe! It was a dream come true. Since we were visiting art museums galore while there, we were able to get art history credit for the trip. Definitely the BEST art history class I ever took!

I was completely snap happy on that trip. I took pictures of everything and anything. I think I probably took 4 billion rolls of the Colosseum alone. Yes, I said rolls. Rolls and rolls of film. Back before digital cameras were invented! Yeah, it kind of cost me a lot to get all that film developed. Especially for a poor college student! Anyway, I don't regret taking all of those pics except for the fact that it just means I have 40 billion pictures to sift through when I finally do decide to scrapbook that trip. Anyway, here are some pictures of me and Tricia way back when. :)

Here we are at the airport ready to go!

While in Salzburg, Austria, we went on the Sound of Music tour. This

is the gazebo from the scene in the movie where Liesl and Rolf sing.

Here we are with our friend Sheryl in San Marco Square, Venice.

Ahhh, Venice!

At the Basilica di San Francesco overlooking Assisi, Italy.

On top of the Duomo in Florence, Italy overlooking the city.

Me in front of the Forum ruins in Rome, Italy.

Who did we came across in the middle of the Vatican? Richard Simmons!

Here we are with our group of friends along the Seine in Paris, France.

Our group of friends in front of the Eiffel Tower. I am in the red

and white striped shirt and Tricia is on my left.

At Monet's garden in Giverny, France.

Here we are with some of our friends at the Hard Rock Cafe in Paris, France.

Lizzie Anne New Release Sneak Peek!

2011-01-31T03:00:00.004-07:00

We've got some exciting things happening over at Lizzie Anne Designs this week. Our Winter Release stamps officially go on sale tomorrow, February 1st! We're releasing two brand new Little Bits™ sets, four new Sixlets™ sets and two Simply Singles™ stamps. Until they go on sale, we've got some sneak peeks going on over at the LAD blog and some of our dt member's blogs as well. Today, I have two cards to share with you that feature stamps from our new release.

This first card features stamps from the new Sixlet™ set Dare to be Fabulous.

I added glitter to the dress to make it pop just a little bit. Here's a close-up since it's hard to see in the above pic.

This next card features stamps from one of our new Little Bits™ sets, Bonjour.

Be sure to stop by the LAD blog to see all the images in these sets as well as more sneak peeks!

Love you a latte

2011-01-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

One stamp, two different cards. I have two cards to share with you today. They both feature our latest single Love You a Latte. Each card features a different technique. For this first card, I used a Copic marker along with some colored pencils to color in the latte cup. Pretty easy and not too time consuming!

This next card I used the paper piecing technique to add some texture to the latte cup. A little more time consuming, but a fun and unique way to make your stamped item stand out. To do this technique, simply stamp your image onto a plain piece of cardstock as well as a piece of patterned paper. Trim out the areas of the image on the patterned paper that you want to feature and then adhere on top of the other stamped image. To finish it off, I used a little bit of colored pencil to the heart in the middle of the cup.

Have a great day everyone!

Music Monday- Mumford & Sons

2011-01-24T16:40:00.002-07:00

Mumford & Sons
I'm in love with this band. Seriously. I only really discovered them this past fall but they've been around a little longer than that. Their album Sigh No More came out in the fall of 2009 I believe. They have a unique folk rock sound that is so refreshing to me. Pair that with the raw emotion that emanates through their lyrics and voices and I'm hypnotized. I could listen to their album over and over again. Just another one of those things that speak to me I guess. If you don't own their album Sigh No More, go get it. Seriously. It's excellent. Here's a few of my favorite tracks off their album...

Home Sweet Home

2011-01-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

I have a card to share with you today. :) It uses two of our newer singles from Lizzie Anne Designs; House, and Home Sweet Home. If you own our Playful Pals Sixlets set, you might recognize the little doggie in the picture here. I love that little dog! When I first drew it, I used my friend's Springer Spaniels as my inspiration. They are such happy dogs and I wanted my dog to exude the same. When it came to drawing the house single, of course I had to have a happy dog playing in the yard!

Sunset

2011-01-18T17:19:00.003-07:00

I took this picture the other day as the sun was setting. One of my favorite things about living here is the gorgeous sunsets we get. Quite often we get these dreamy orange/raspberry sherbert colors in our sky. LOVE IT! Sure, this specific beauty mostly had to do with the yucky inversion we've been dealing with this winter (as with every winter.) Sigh. At least our sky is pretty even if we can't breathe outside. :) Ever wonder why pollution makes for a beautiful sunset? I was wondering the exact answer to this and decided to google it. I heart google. Anyway, this was the answer I got: The colors of the sky result from sunlight interacting with molecules in the air. A red sky is caused by light interacting with aerosols, which can come from natural sources like forest fires, or from burning fossil fuels like gasoline.

I'll be super happy when the inversion goes away. But until then, I will enjoy the pretty sunsets we are getting.

Music Monday

2011-01-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

Music is a huge part of who I am. No, I cannot play any instruments unfortunately. I wish I did though! When I was younger I took some piano lessons but ballet lessons won out in the end. So yeah, my musical career was short-lived. My dad came from a musical family and so growing up, I was exposed to a lot of it. My husband's family is all extremely musically talented as well. I feel like a fish out of water around all of them, but I love to hear them play and share their abilities.

While I don't have a musical talent, I really enjoy listening to music. It speaks to my soul. (Unless it is country music or rap...sorry just can't go there!) It's amazing how a few notes of a song can take you back to a distant memory, or how it can evoke emotions of happiness or elation, sadness or anxiousness. "Music is an outburst of the soul." ~Frederick Delius

I've decided to give Mondays a theme here on my blog. I'm going to call it Music Monday, and highlight a song, video, or band that I'm in love with at the moment. I love discovering new music, and I also love sharing my favorites. So readers of my blog, here's my first Music Monday offering....

I actually shared this video on facebook a couple of months ago. I LOVE this song. I love Priscilla Ahn's voice and this song is just one of those that speak to me. I first heard this song when we were on vacation in Hawaii in November. My husband is always introducing new music to me and this is one he played as we drove around the island of Oahu one night. I love the innocence and imagery that this song projects. Her debut album,"A Good Day" is beautiful and has quickly become a favorite of mine. This song Dream though, is my favorite by far. This video version of this song is a little different than the album version and I think I might even like a it a little better. The stripped down acoustic combined with the looping of her voice is absolutely lovely. Enjoy!

Life is Like Riding a Bicycle....

2011-01-14T04:00:00.000-07:00

...in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving. -Albert Einstein

Hello friends, I'm joining in on the Lizzie Anne Design Team Challenge today. :) The challenge this month was to make a card based on our New Year's resolution. I don't typically make resolutions...but one I've been thinking about a lot lately is wanting to balance my time better. I was not good at this at all last year. Nope, not at all! I've got a lot of things ahead of me that I want to accomplish and I think I'll do a better job of it if I manage my time better. I thought this quote and bicycle image from our "It's Good to be Queen Mix set would be perfect for this challenge. I can never sit still for long, so the keep moving part shouldn't be too hard. :) Of course right now, I'd really love to be out riding a bicycle instead of hibernating during the winter. sigh. If you want to check out the other design team member's projects, visit the LAD blog for links. I am excited to see what everyone came up with!

Things that speak to me at the moment

2011-01-13T09:06:00.005-07:00

"We seldom witness our own personal strength. When we see ourselves crashing, others see us soaring."

I don't know who said this quote, but one of my friends re-tweeted it the other day and it felt very poignant to me. So, I thought I would share it here. Sometimes we go through horrible experiences or trials in life. It could be the loss of a loved one, or events or situations that break our hearts or change our lives whether we like it or not. Whatever it may be, it's quite often extremely heart wrenching. Usually we find ourselves wondering how on earth we are ever going to get through it...whatever we are dealing with. Never while in the depth of our despair do we look at ourselves and think "Oh man, I'm totally kicking this trial in the butt! I'm so strong...bring it on!" In fact, most often we don't feel strong in the least while going through these things. We feel weak and sometimes very alone. Amazingly though, somehow we do get through them. Often it's through the help of our faith or through loved ones cheering us on. But, we take it one day at a time, sometimes by the hour because really, that's all we can do. It's our human nature to survive though.

I really love that quote above. I think it has so much truth to it. When I've watched someone go through a hard time, I don't think to myself, "Wow, they are so weak! They are going to crash." In fact it's quite the opposite. I admire their strength and their will to prevail over whatever plagues them. I have a dear friend who is a perfect example of this. She was involved in a horrific accident over the summer. She was riding her scooter to work, was hit by a truck and dragged. She was incredibly blessed to have survived. She ended up with 3 fractured vertebrae, broken ribs, her jaw was broken in 2 places, broken front teeth, and road rash all over her face and body. It's a true miracle that she is alive today. I know it was an extremely horrible ordeal that she had to go through. The recovery she's gone through hasn't been an easy one. But, she's a survivor. I'm sure there were times when she felt hopeless and wondered how she was going to make it through the aftermath of it all. In fact, I know she had some very low points because she said so. But all I could see was this amazing individual who had the courage of a survivor and handled it all with grace. All I could see was a friend who had more strength than I could ever hope to have. She may have felt at times that she was crashing, but I only saw her soar. She's my hero. Her recovery is still ongoing, but she's amazing and she'll continue to prevail. She's a fighter, and a wonderful example to me.

So I guess what this all comes down to is this: When faced with adversity, we are stronger than we think we are. It may not feel that way when we are in the thick of it all, but we are. Remember that. We are survivors, and we are never alone.

So today I leave you with one of my very favorite Keane songs. I love the line in it "Cause when your back's against the wall, that's when you show no fear at all."

Reflections

2011-01-12T12:31:00.006-07:00

Okay yes, I am officially the world's worst blogger. Sigh. I think it just became a chore to me and not so fun anymore. In the end, I was doing it because I felt I had to, not because I wanted to. I got burned out. Plus there were other things that I preferred spending my time on. I kept trying to start up again thinking I could do it, but then ended up just taking more and more breaks. Clearly my heart wasn't in it. I finally decided to not worry about it until it was something that I really wanted to do again. I feel like I may be there now. I've missed blogging, and I've found myself with a little more time on my hands. I've had the stirrings of desire to write and express myself. So, I think that I might give it a try again. But this time, I'm really going to do it for myself and not for others.

With this new year having just started, I've been reflecting a lot on the past year. That's what we do, right? Sometimes we look back with fondness and other times with heartache. Maybe we made mistakes, or maybe things didn't turn out how we thought they would, or maybe we accomplished all that we wanted to. The new year kind of helps us to evaluate were we've been, where we are, and where we want to be. So where do I find myself in this evaluation? Well, that will be a story for another day. :)

A Little Sprite

2010-11-01T10:14:00.002-06:00

Today at Lizzie Anne Designs, we are releasing two new Simply Singles; Sprite and Starburst. The card I'm showing today features Sprite. She's our latest addition to our Little People line of Simply Singles. Isn't she adorable? Have a great day everyone!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T10:55:00.004-06:00

I have a fun little Halloween card to share with you today. I paired our Happy Halloween stamp with some Cosmo Cricket Matilda paper. I love how this turned out! Hope everyone has a fun Halloween!

Lizzie Anne Designs- Design Team Challenge

2010-10-20T01:55:00.006-06:00

Hey everyone! Today over at Lizzie Anne Designs we are having our monthly Design Team Challenge. This month's challenge was to make a card and a project using one of our holiday sets or singles. I decided to use Love & Joy Labels.

First up is the card I created. I used Tricia's sketch challenge for this week as my inspiration.

For my project, I decided to make a Bucket-O-Tags. I found this cute little paint bucket at Roberts Crafts a while ago and thought it would be fun to fill it full of Christmas tags. Wouldn't this be a fun gift for a neighbor or friend? I created all of the tags using different stamps from the Love & Joy Labels set.

To see what other fun things you can create with Love & Joy Labels, check out our Sketchbook for inspiration.

And, if you want to see what the rest of the DT came up with for this challenge, be sure to stop by the LAD blog today.

Monthly Mix Blog Hop!

2010-10-15T00:18:00.004-06:00

It's that time again! Time for our Monthly Mix Blog Hop. Today I am featuring stamps from the May '10 Monthly Mix- Dream Big. Don't you think this little birdie in the bird cage go well with this adorable Cosmo Cricket paper? Both have a fun a whimsical look. To see other monthly mix cards, be sure to stop by our LAD blog and click on the links. And while you are there, be sure to check out the preview of November's Monthly Mix, The Key to Happiness. Have a great day!

Summer Happenings Part 3

2010-10-11T11:52:00.010-06:00

Alright, time to wrap up my summer happenings posts. As I mentioned before, we took a trip to Northern California- our last bit of vacation before school started. We got to spend some time with my husband's grandparents which is always fun. The rest of the time we spent going to the beaches and exploring around. Sigh, I love California!

Lizzie Anne Weekly Sketch Challenge

2010-10-11T10:27:00.007-06:00

Hey everyone, it was my turn for the sketch challenge this week over at Lizzie Anne Designs. Here's the sketch...

And here is my take on it...

I have to say I love to paper pierce. I had fun doing that with this cute little monster from our Little Monsters Sixlet set. Nothing scary about those monsters!

Summer Happenings Part 2

2010-09-28T23:04:00.003-06:00

A couple of weeks after my race, I headed to Las Vegas to see Keane in concert! The opening acts were Fran Healy from Travis (my all time favorite band!) and Ingrid Michaelson. That show ROCKED! It was seriously so much fun! We met up with two of my friends there which made it even better! We even had front row at the concert. Yay!

A few weeks after that, my friend Anne flew into town with her husband on business, so I got to play with her for a couple of days while she was here. Here we are on hike at Deer Valley Ski Resort.

My husband went out of town, so what did I do? I painted my daughter's room of course! She picked out the color and was so excited to not have white walls anymore.

Next up, we took a trip to San Francisco and the surrounding areas to visit with family. I sooo love northern California. Such a beautiful place and I can never get enough of it.

Summer Happenings Part 1

2010-09-28T21:47:00.021-06:00

My poor little blog, so neglected and dusty! I still blame Facebook. :) I have a sister-in-law who maintains like 5 blogs AND Facebook and I have no idea how she does it. I can't even keep up with one! Anyway, I realize that all my recent posts have just been cards, and for those of you (mainly my family members) who aren't into cards, well that's probably not very exciting for you. Some have commented to me that I uh, need to update. So I thought I would post a few pictures of some of my summer adventures. :) I think I will do this in three posts so I don't overwhelm you

Over the 4th of July weekend, we hiked up Mt. Timpanogos to Timpanogos Cave which was way cool because I had never done it before.

Once inside the series of caves, we saw stuff like this...

A few days later, Tricia and our friend Ulrika flew into town and we had a little get-together with another one of our dear friends, Katie.

A few days after, that I ran a race through some lavender fields. It was so pretty!

Me and my friend Sheryl right after the race.

To be continued...

New Stamps!

2010-09-20T00:06:00.004-06:00

It's release day over at Lizzie Anne Designs! We have two new Little Bits sets and two new Simply Singles along with some NEW Digital paper! All of them are soooo cute so be sure to check them out. For the card above, I used our new Simply Single, Tall Snowman paired with some adorable Pink Paislee Old School paper that we now have in stock in our store. To see what else we have in stock, go here.

Oh and one more thing, we are also having a sale – 20% off the whole store! Wahoo! Have a great day everyone!

Sneak Peek!

2010-09-19T04:00:00.000-06:00

I have a little sneak peek to show to you today. Tomorrow we are releasing 2 new Little Bits sets. So today, I'm giving you a little peek of one of the new sets, Vintage Birthday. Not only am I giving you a peek, but I've also played along with this week's sketch challenge. To see the sketch challenge and also more sneak peeks of these fabulous new sets, but sure to stop by the Lizzie Anne Blog.

Have a great day!

Mix it up! September

2010-09-15T07:00:00.000-06:00

It's that time again! Today over at Lizzie Anne Designs, we are unveiling the October 2010 Mix- Sweet and Spooky AND a brand new Digital Paper Pack that features images from Sweet and Spooky! We've also got the mix blog hop going on today as well. I've got two cards to share with you today using the new October Mix.

This first card uses the skull, spider, and scary sentiment from the mix. Gotta love these fun and spooky images!

This next one uses the cute little apple with sentiment and frame from the October Mix along with some fun gingham paper from Cosmo Cricket.

To see all of the mix images for October, click here. To see the list of blog hop participants, be sure to go to the LAD blog. Have a great day!

Lizzie Anne Design Team Challenge- September 2010

2010-09-13T07:00:00.000-06:00

It's that time again for another Lizzie Anne Designs- Design Team Challenge. Part one of this month's challenge was to make a fall-themed card that features some of our PAST Lizzie Anne stamps. The second part of the challenge was use the following sketch.

Below is the card I created for the challenge. For this card, I've used our Simply Single Mummy and the sentiment is from our Little Bits Hallow's Eve set. Oh, and I used some adorable paper from Cosmo Cricket's new Matilda paper pack. To see what the other DT members came up with, be sure to visit the LAD blog!

Lizzie Anne Design Team Challenge

2010-08-20T07:00:00.002-06:00

It's Design Team Challenge Day over at Lizzie Anne Designs. This month our challenge was to take a photo of something we love and then use it for inspiration for a card. Without further adieu, here is my inspiration....

I love this little corner in my office. The colors...they are so yummy to me!

And here is my card....

Be sure to stop by the Lizzie Anne Blog to see what the other DT members came up with.

Sketch Challenge Day

2010-08-16T10:40:00.003-06:00

I've got another card to share today. This is one I created for our weekly sketch challenge over at LAD. If you want to play along, you can see the sketch here. I used one of our new singles "Footprints," and paired it with some gorgeous Pink Paislee paper.

Mix it up day!

2010-08-14T17:18:00.007-06:00

Today over at Lizzie Anne Designs, we've unveiled September's new mix set. Treasured Trinkets is full of charm with its vintage images and themes of art and quilting. To see the full set, go here. Not only is it the day we unveil the next mix, but it's also our Mix Member blog hop. Today's card I'm posting is part of the blog hop and it happens to feature September's mix set. To see the rest of the participants cards, go here. Have a great day everyone!

Happy Independence Day!!!

2010-07-04T00:12:00.002-06:00

Just wanted to wish you all a happy 4th of July! And for any of you who are not in the US...I hope you have a wonderful day too! Today is one of my most favorite days of the year. As a kid we would get together with my cousins for a fun day at Lagoon, (local amusement park here) a BBQ, and fireworks. The days of going to Lagoon are long gone, but I'm looking forward to a BBQ, family and fireworks tonight! Hope you all have a happy and safe holiday!

I made this card using our new Grand 'ol Flag single and the celebrate sentiment is from our Everyday Sayings stamp set.

Lizzie Anne Weekly Sketch Challenge

2010-06-20T22:47:00.005-06:00

Hello! So it's my turn to do the sketch challenge this week, and this is what I came up with...

Below is the card I created using the above sketch. I'm getting excited for the 4th of July. I love summer, and I love summer holidays! :)

For this card I used our brand new Yankee Doodle Simply Single, Sparklers Simply Single, and the celebrate sentiment is from our Dec. '09 Monthly Mix set Celebrate. I paper pieced the clothes on my little Yankee Doodle guy to give it a little extra something.

The Stars at Night, are Big and Bright....

2010-06-19T00:25:00.012-06:00

I just recently took a fun little weekend trip to Austin, Texas. I met up with some of my friends for a girl's weekend. It was so much fun! I had never been to Texas before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I had a few stereotypes in my head like, cowboys with cowboy hats everywhere, big belt buckles, cactus, dry and desert-like, and Texas accents of course. While, I did see a few cowboy hats, I did not see nearly as much as I would have thought! What I found in Austin was a lush and green landscape, friendly people everywhere, and what they say is true...everything is bigger in Texas, including their hearts.

One thing I learned about was Texan's love for Homecoming Mums. I had no idea what these were until my friend enlightened me. She was surprised to find out that most of the country does NOT do this. If you are like me and have no idea what I'm talking about, you must check out this video! It's very educational! While I was in TX, she took us into the local Michael's store where there is a permanent display of Homecoming Mums. We were truly amazed! Here's a pic with some of us modeling them.

Over the weekend, we also went on a boat ride and saw Austin's "Bat Bridge," took a bike tour of the city and walked around the University of Texas at Austin campus. It was such a fun weekend and so nice to spend time with my friends laughing and just having a good time! Here are a few more pics of our adventure.

Lizzie Anne Design Team Challenge

2010-06-17T08:07:00.007-06:00

Today is our Design Team Challenge over at Lizzie Anne Designs. Our challenge this month was to use the below picture for inspiration.

Here's what I came up with...

For this card I used images from our upcoming July Mix, Simply Sweet. To see what everyone else came up with, be sure to stop by the Lizzie Anne blog.

sigh.

2010-05-24T11:44:00.006-06:00

May 24, 2010. Yes, it's snowing at the end of May. Aside from the lame weather we are having today, I am in love with this song...