Tuesday, October 20, 2015

October Retreat Excitement

I guess I'm just going to post every month and then post a ton of pictures! For the millionth time, sorry it's been so long. A lot has been happening in the last month. Lots of swaps, visits, and events. First off I received the last of my four month pocket letter swap with my new friend Shauna. As usual it was beautiful! She added the cutest charms and cupcake diecuts that were just adorable! We both enjoyed this last four months so much that we decided to continue swapping PL's on our own. I'll share the one I did for her for Halloween at the end of this post. I also received the first of the other two swaps I joined. One of them was Halloween, Fall/Thanksgiving, and then Christmas.  The Halloween one was really cute and she used vintage images and spray ink which I LOVE! The other one was all about you. So our first subject was favorite movies. My partner was very creative and did an entire PL on You've Got Mail, one of the best movies! I got super creative on this one and I almost didn't want to send it away. But then they were my favorite movies and actors so that makes sense, right?!
Speaking of favorites, my sister visited for a week and we went to the scrapbook retreat which was a little piece of heaven! I love the retreat every year and am SO sad when it's over! I got more accomplished this time (a whole six pages ;-) ) and even won a prize. In fact all four of us won a prize at some point during the weekend. We all had special gifts we had made for each other too. My sister and I exchanged pocket letters with our fantasy movie husbands on them. I LOVE the one she made me! Every pocket opened up to more pictures of my man, drooling! I had a lot of fun with hers too. We also had new inspiration pages to display for the weekend. It was amazing and I highly recommend doing a retreat if you have a chance.
In other news Truman and I have been tailgating some more and celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. It was pretty low key just a nice dinner but I enjoyed the quiet and the delicious meal. Still crafting and getting ready for all the holiday and birthday fun that I hope ensues. I'll keep sharing though apparently just once a month ;-)

Sweets PL

Cute charm

HalloweenPL

Movie PL

Halloween PL I made

The PL before I cut it in pieces

The charm I attempted to make

The movie PL I made

The Jensen PL I made for my sister

Her goodies

The Renner PL my sister made me!

The inside pictures (sorry its upside down, stupid computer)

My sister arrived!

Me with some of the goodies I received, yes that's a Renner magnet

I shot of my workspace

My cousin and I enjoying our Saturday Blue Moon

Had to take a picture with my cousins ribbon collection

The decorate it yourself camera bag I won!

My Layouts




Last brunch before my sister headed home :-(

Roxy girl with her Halloween toy

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Fall and Football

So it's the end of summer, which is a little sad because I love the monsoon, though we got plenty of storms last week as a proper big goodbye. I went with a few friends down to the vineyards in Sonoita for an end of summer festival. It was pretty fantastic to be drinking wine on the covered porch of one of the vineyards as a massive storm came through. So cheers to you summer!
However it is now fall which happens to be my favorite time of year. There's cooler weather, boots, pumpkin spice lattes, Halloween and lets not forget football! Now before the tailgating season started Truman and myself played/helped in the Red Army Golf Tournament that raises money for all the tailgating costs each year. We had a lot of fun! I mean I was running the hole with beer pong with a friend after all. How can you not have fun watching all the guys play beer pong with g-strings on and then trying to play golf?! Pretty amazing! Then there was our first tailgate and the tailgate brought its friend by the name of Thunderstorms :-) Well it may have rained the entire tailgate but that didn't stop us from hanging out, grilling and all around enjoying ourselves. That's what real fans do. We were then promptly off to attend two weddings in the same weekend which was tiring but fun.
Now during all this time you know I'm crafting and preparing for the scrapbook retreat the first weekend of October. I signed up for four new swaps because I'm just that kind of crazy :-) A few are pocket letters ones so as to feed my obsession with this new art form. The others are secret sister swaps. I'll let you know how that goes but for the time being here are some pictures of the projects I've made and received lately. Enjoy fall and football season!

Chiara and I enjoying the Summer Wine Festival before the rain moves in

The Beer Pong hole at the golf tournament

Truman and his group after playing their round of beer pong

It's so hard to be in charge

The rain rolling in at the tailgate

Rain or shine we have a good time

A weekend wedding in New Mexico

An altered frame I made for another friends wedding

Altered bottle



The amazing art journal PL from my sister!

Goodies

How I wrapped the art journal PL I made for my sister

The one I made for my sister

Close up of the charm I made for it

The goodies I made

How my Things with Wings PL came from my swap partner

The front, so pretty!

The goodies she sent. I love them all!

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Swapping It Up After Vacay

          We've been back from vacation for a little over a week and I must say I miss it. Truman was gone for quite a time as he attended ComiCon in San Diego for the first time ever. I met him up about a week later to spend a few days with him and a friend and family. I was only there for a few days but I had the best time, especially since I didn't have to drive! We went to the Safari Park and Disneyland. The tigers were AMAZING! But then it is my favorite creature in the world so I'm easily fascinated but they were roaming right by the windows and quite enjoying their very large enclosures. The gorillas were also very entertaining thanks to the adolescents and the baby. Then what can I say about Disneyland? It's one of my favorite places in the universe and it was the actual 60th birthday so it was MAGICAL! I really wish I could move in.
           While Truman was away I got to see my cousins who came for a day to attend the University of Arizona kicking camp. I loved having them in my hometown if only for a day. I also am not so secretly hoping that Chandler is recruited by and then attends my most fantastic UofA :-) If it's good enough for Bruschi and Gronk it has to be great, right?!
            Also while the hubby was away I was able to craft my heart out! I have signed up for probably too many swaps considering the retreat is in just a couple months and I really want to focus on prepping for that. I received the Winter in July theme pocket letter from my swap sister and it was so pretty! I finished the August pocket letter for my swap partner and have to say it's one of my favorites because I LOVED the theme. I also did a set of vintage style ATCs and fantasy themed ATCs. Then I made some paper beads, 3X5 tags and a vintage homemade embellishment! I still have one more months pocket letter to do for a swap and maybe a set of pockets for another swap (if that goes through) but I'm closer to being able to start prepping for the retreat in October! Oh and in the middle of that crafting I decided to make a special bookmark to send to a friend in her birthday card. I'll share photos below and I'm going to make you wait a few days for the pictures of the pocket letter swap my sister and I did. Enjoy!

Tigers!

Who doesn't love a lemur?!

Happy Birthday Disneyland!

Kicking camp with amazing people

Bookmark side 1

Bookmark side 2

Vintage ATCs

Fantasy ATCs

Paper beads

Homemade vintage embellishments

Front of Winter in July pocket letter

The goodies I received

The Things With Wings theme pocket letter for my swap sister

The goodies I included