Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy New Year's Eve!

             It's already time for the year to end and another to begin!  Seems like not long ago it was just starting.  The holidays in the Leong house went along famously.  Truman and I enjoyed a few parties and I got to see the lights of Winterhaven with my pup and my cousins family.  For those of you who don't know we have a neighborhood (Winterhaven) that goes all out with the holiday decorations, and I mean all out.  The electric company comes out with their bucket trucks to help decorate and the police guide the traffic while the hay rides go up and down the streets.  It's serious and it doesn't feel like Christmas if I don't get to go.
              Christmas Eve was wonderful.  I got to start the day hanging out with my cousin and her family then off to a surf and turf dinner at Truman's cousin's new house.  Then on Christmas day we had a lovely lunch here at the house.  Daddy brought ham and Truman made korean BBQ street tacos, delicious! We finished the evening at Truman's moms house for a chinese dinner.  I was very happy that I managed to watch all the Christmas movies my heart desired by Christmas.  And for my gift Truman got me a ticket for the next scrap retreat in April!  So excited to have that to look forward to!
              Ironically I am just getting around to unpacking my items from Octobers retreat and getting reorganized.  Since I always tend to make some Christmas cards and Christmas gifts my room is usually a disaster.  Not to mention I keep all the presents wrapped in my scrap closet so that takes up a ridiculous amount of space.  It's nice to see it clean again.  After Christmas Truman and I went out to the desert with some friends so that Truman and Guy could do a test run on the buggy that Guy has been building for the past few years.  They are hoping to race it in the future and needed to see how the communications, navigation, and actual buggy were running.  There were a few kinks but nothing major.  Even better we ended the day by stopping at one of our favorite vineyards in Sonoita.  It was a wonderful day.  Now that the holidays are over I can share pictures of some of the items I made as gifts!  Hope everyone has a safe and spectacular New Year!

Roxy and I at Winterhaven

Bean and I with our treats on Christmas Eve

Our annual Christmas Eve photo

The cutest Santa Bug on the planet!

My love and I

Christmas is so exhausting!

The boys nearly ready for the test run

My sisters gift in progress

The final product, a personalized listography

The homemade washi tapes I made my sister

The special magnets I made for my flappers!

The altered journals and pens

Close up of my cousins.  Her favorite color is green and she loves Alice In Wonderland

Another close up

More homemade washi tape for me!

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Thanksgiving and Then Some...

       So it's already the second week of December!  Lucky for me all my Christmas shopping is done and all the projects made, though I can't post pictures of those until later.  Thanksgiving was fantastic!  Truman and I went to my cousin's house and all the food was delicious.  My nephew decided he liked my pumpkin cheesecake the best, score!  My cousin also came up with a great idea to have everyone sign the tablecloth and put the year on it.  She said she wants it to be signed every year and one day she will give it to her daughter, such a great idea!
       There has been quite a bit of tailgating in the last month and our University of Arizona football team has made it to the Fiesta Bowl which is very exciting!  It hasn't hurt my mood any that my Patriots are also having a great season :-)  Truman's birthday has come and gone and we got to go up to Phoenix this past weekend to visit some friends and family.  My cousin's son was in the Punt, Pass, Kick competition again this year (but his last as well) and he won the competition!  It's always so much fun to get to see them and hang out and enjoy football.  I don't know what I'm going to do next year?!
        Well I must be off to finish decorating the house and wrapping presents so I can enjoy some Christmas movies :-)

My cousin, Jennifer, and myself on Thanksgiving

Bean enjoying a second slice of my pumpkin cheesecake

Caught Truman in the middle of a bite

Bean loved the idea of drawing on the tablecloth!

Tailgating with Guy

My fellow Patriots fans!

Ally-B and me

My cousin's son, Chandler, at the competition

My cousin, Truman and I enjoying the last Punt, Pass, Kick!

Hanging with friends before the game

Great seats and great company, thanks Carolyn and Peter!

Cousins

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Birthday/Halloween Aftermath

It's been a crazy month and I can't believe it's already November!  My father-in-law's memorial went very well and I got the project done just in time.  This month was filled with anniversary and birthday fun which I wasn't expecting but it was SO fabulous!  For our anniversary Truman and I took it easy and just went to our usual Red Army tailgate and then the fancy seats at the game.  It was an extended fun time starting the day before my actual birthday when I went to treat myself to lunch and use the giftcard my daddy and stepmom gave me.  Actually it started a few days before that when I had a wine and cheese lunch with them and saw my mom (loved her gift!).  Then on my actual birthday the University of Arizona basketball players came to my mother-in-laws house to deliver my father-in-laws season tickets.  My hubby had actually set up a tailgate and the players were SO nice and even sang happy birthday to me!!!  After going out to my local dive bar that night I slept in and then my husband got my truck washed and took me to a yummy dinner (sushi!) and I got to pick out a necklace at Tiffanys. To round out the weekend we drove down to Tombstone for some ole west fun and drinks!  A couple of friends went with us and got me an amazing cowboy hat, which I've been wanting forever!!  Halloween was pretty uneventful but we did hang out at a friends house and Truman actually dressed up for work.  Silly boy, I LOVE it!  So now I can hopefully unpack and get going on some more art journaling and scrapbooking, oh wait now it's time to start thinking about Christmas!

The memory board I did for my father-in-laws memorial

Happy anniversary! 6 years married, 17 together!

I love the free food in the fancy seats! No cooking on  our anniversary!

Some of my favorite tailgating girls!

Sorry it's blurry, the newspaper didn't send a very good pic but a player fell in love with Roxy!

Happy Birthday to me!!!
The hubby, Gabe York (who loved Roxy!), and myself

Who doesn't love this little blue box?!?!?


Thanks Jake and Ally-B for the perfect hat!!

Having fun in Tombstone with some locals (sorry you're blurry Ally-B!)

Tombstone wine tasting, so good!  Where else can you get a sparkling wine named Earp?!

My love and I enjoying the Old West

Friday, October 10, 2014

Post Retreat Blues

So the retreat has come and gone and I have to say I could have used another day with all my girls!  Especially since I got my all time low done...three pages!!! I'm a little horrified with myself but at least I enjoyed all the amazing company.  It was SO nice to spend time with my sister!  She helped me cook some good food and helped support me when my phone broke (believe me it was a tragedy!).  I'm hoping that at some point soon I'll start scrapbooking all the pages I didn't get to since I'm so much more inspired again.  However I know myself well enough that I will need to get past some more pressing projects before I can even unpack my stash and scrapbook again.  Here's hoping that part comes along sooner!

The "junk journals" I received

The scrapbooking goodies my sister and I put together for the girls

Just arrived and holding my box full of goodies and the amazing mat they gave us!

My workspace

Some of my girls and I preparing to take a shot out of mini solo cups (Thanks Angela!)

Sometimes there's a lot of ribbon...

...and sometimes you run out of alcohol (or maybe just the first bottle ;-)  )

More fun times (notice we are also holding the letters to throw at someone when we need their help!)
My phone before it was fixed (see a tragedy!!!!)

Some of the goodies we received and the class project I made!

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Time

Again I'm sorry about how long it's been since my last post.  Football season has started as well as finishing up swaps and baby shower projects.  My friend's shower went off without a hitch and she enjoyed it.  I finished the secret sister swap and junk journal swap as well.  I received my secret sister swap and expect to get the journal swap any day now.  It's been a little crazy because my father in law passed away suddenly last Thursday (clearly September 11th is determined to be an awful day).  Although its added a few things to the schedule it has also put things into perspective.  Time is something that can paralyze you (so much to do so little time!) or empower you.  We don't always have as much time as we think so we should spend it doing things we love and that really matter, and spend it with people we love the most.  On that note I'm very excited about my sister coming to visit next week and then getting to do a scrapbooking retreat with her, my cousin and another good friend of mine!  So what I need to do now is prep my plethora of products for this upcoming retreat so I can enjoy every second of my sisters visit!

The handmade project I made for my secret sister

What my secret sister sent me!

She made me the cutest paper bag album

The decoration I made for my friends baby shower

More homemade decoration

The first home game

The tailgate pass was the final gift from my father in law

Family

Tailgate fun with great friends