cough. cough. sniffle.

I hate summer colds! I've been sneezing and sniffling for the past few days; right now I'm parked in the family room watching the Nascar race, with all of my pillows, some kleenex, and a diet sprite... Tom is off on a grocery store run; the list included chicken noodle soup and orange juice. And of course, I would have to get a cold just a few days before we're leaving for our trip back to Wisconsin. Well, I'm off to take some Vitamin C... hope everyone is having a good weekend!

a couple more in the "whatnot" category...

three posts from me in two days... don't get used to it, though! =) I know my posting has been sporadic lately...

Yay, I sold something today from my Etsy store! I haven't been super-vigilant about adding new items lately; I've been focusing more on making things for the trunk show in August. But, today, I logged in to see a sold order! It was for a set of cards that I added to the shop ages ago... just goes to show you that it doesn't matter how long something's there; if someone wants it they'll find it!

last night, Cleo actually came out into the living room and hung out on the couch... WITH THE DOG RIGHT THERE! Sedona started snurfling her all over, sort of holding her down to do it (I have no idea why she does that). Cleo wasn't happy about it, but she didn't leave right away. I know she misses Phoebe, and I don't spend as much time with her as I probably should, but well, the bathroom (where she hangs out) isn't as comfortable as the family room. It will probably be ages before she ventures out again, but it's a step in the right direction.

oh, and by the way, I finally started adding more pics to my Flickr account... a few pics from a hike we went on back in January, and some other cards I've made.

a couple more...

One more craft project: the Tin o' Notes. You know how sometimes you need a small piece of paper, but can't find one? Or if you do, the post-it pads or whatever are all wrinkled from floating around at the bottom of your purse? Problem solved. This is an Altoids tin (one of many empty ones I've been collecting for ages, and never knew what to do with them) that I've covered with patterned paper, a punched flower, and some leaves. Again, the paper was covered with multiple coats of decoupage glue and spray sealer. (can't see it in this picture, but the sides of the tin were colored with gold leaf marker.) Inside the tin are 25 business-card pieces of lightweight white card stock (printed with lines), each stamped with a coordinating design. Cute, huh??? I think so, anyway! Also very cute is this picture of Sedona, taken by Tom over this past weekend. He was messing around with her while she relaxed on the couch... she certainly is tolerant! This is definitely the perfect "Smiling Sheltie" expression!! (I love how her ears tip over perfectly, too!)

work, weather, and whatnot...

Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it?? Maybe not that long, but it seems like it... The last couple weeks (has it been that long?) have flown by... Our 4th was nice, although having Wednesday off from work made for an awkward work week. Because of that, we didn't go anywhere to watch fireworks- we watched the Boston Pops on TV, then watched the local fireworks from Tempe, also on TV. There were also fireworks in town, at our local park. (We found that out because we could see one every now and then over the roofs of the houses at the end of our street.) Unfortunately, we found that out a bit too late to head over there. Other than that, we had the traditional 4th of July- we grilled out, of course! We finally broke down and bought a gas grill; the charcoal Smokey Joe was perfect for me when I lived by myself, but we finally got tired of grilling in shifts to get everything cooked (we'd grill the vegetables first, then keep them warm in the oven while we did the meat... it was a pain!). The gas grill was much easier, but still took a bit of planning since we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, onions and peppers, and corn on the cob. (Yes, it was all for just the 2 of us... we had leftovers for the next couple days!)

That was the "whatnot" I guess... now on to the "Work" part of this post! Tom is working in California this week- he has next week off, to relax a little before we head to Wisconsin for our mini-vacation! It' hard to believe it's already the middle of July... I can't wait to get there, hang out in the woods around a campfire, and maybe take a dip in the pond. Looking forward to seeing everyone too, especially Mom and Dad, and Judy!!! More "work" related: we had some of the 10 month warranty work done on the house- it's really hard to believe we've been in our house almost a year already!

Now, for the "Weather" portion... it rained yesterday! Tom said he wouldn't call it rain, though, since it wasn't measurable accumulation in the rain gauge... I guess I'd have to agree with him- it only sprinkled enough that I needed to use the intermittent wipers 3 or 4 times on my way to work. Hopefully, bona fide "monsoon rains" will be here soon. There's nothing quite like the clean, fresh smell of the desert (from the creosote bushes, I believe) after a rainstorm.

Now on to more "work" with some pictures of completed crafty projects:

This pic is keychains and crafty clips. The bottom two key chains are chipboard slide frames covered with paper, decoupage glue, then multiple coats of spray sealer. The other three are dominos, decorated with various papers... the middle domino is a smidge of a vintage atlas I got at the used book sale (entire hardcover atlas for $3; I'll be using paper from it forever!) I drilled the holes with Tom's Dremel tool... finally figured out how to work it! The clips are large paperclips decorated with glass marbles and paper... these could be used as a bookmark, or just a cute way to clip papers together on your desk. This pic is two of my completed picture frames. The triptych frame was from Goodwill (see here for the before pic); I distressed the finish, then covered it with more of the vintage atlas paper. The other frame was bought new and unfinished. The bullseye-pattern paper was just the right size for the small glass marbles! This pic is a couple more little, fun projects... two sets of wooden clothespins (again, to clip your papers together, or clip your chips shut...) decorated with patterned scrapbooking paper and sprayed with sealer. Clothespins don't have to be boring any more! The other items are "matchbook" notebooks made using lined paper and heavyweight patterned scrapbooking paper... The cover is one piece of paper, folded around the lined paper and stapled to it, to open and shut like a matchbook does.