a weekend recap in photos

It was a beautiful weekend for a drive!! On Saturday, we headed to Scottsdale for lunch on Saturday-- we enjoyed lunch at the newly opened Portillo's. Finally, now we have an authentic Chicago-area hot dog place here in the Valley!! It was pretty weird to walk into the place; it looks just like the ones in the Chicago suburbs... the greeter asked, 'have you been here before?' and the answer, is, well- yes, and no-- lol!! They were really hopping, but as efficient as I remember. 

And the food tastes just like we remember, too! Here's Tom's Italian beef with extra sweet and hot peppers. It's something to do with the particular combination of seasonings in the beef, and the bread they use, I think... whatever it is, it's nice to have 'a bit of home' here in the desert!

And here's my chicken sandwich, with crinkle-cut fries, just like I remember it. It was definitely worth the drive! (and after this lunch, neither of us needed dinner Saturday night, either.)

a gorgeous fountain outside a resort hotel along Scottsdale Road... after having lunch, we headed south into the Old-Town Scottsdale area.

Tom needed to replenish his humidor, so we stopped in at the Cigar Warehouse to see what they had in stock. I love walking into this place-- the entire store is a walk-in humidor, and the aroma of tobacco and cedar is like nothing else there is. 

This smell, too, is like nothing else-- orange blossoms. It's so hard to describe- sort of like grape soda, but not quite... sweet, and very heavy in the air when it's humid, or late in the evening when the air is still. 

It's tourist season right now in the Valley, since major league baseballs's spring training season is just winding down. Driving through Old-Town Scottsdale, you never know what you might see!! There were horse-drawn carriages giving tours.. and then there was this! Seeing this Segway tour go by made me chuckle- not something you expect to see driving by on the road, that's for sure. Of course, there's probably lots of things about Scottsdale I still don't know, so then again, maybe taking a tour wouldn't be such a bad thing. (I don't think I could do it on a Segway, though- I'd feel silly!)

back on the home front, this prickly pear cactus in our backyard is finally starting to take off-- it didn't seem to like where it was planted and was extremely slow to start growing, but this season it will more than double in size, by the looks of it. 

Here's a close-up of the new growth-- the pads / spines start out so soft and innocent-looking, don't they?? The problem with prickly pears is, there's the spines you can see, but there's plenty more of them that are too small to see easily with the naked eye. Those are the ones that cause the problems! You can sure feel them when they stick you! (There's just enough room between this cactus and the wall for the dogs to sneak through that space- it makes me nervous every time I see them do it, but so far, so good.)

We spent most of Saturday evening and a good part of Sunday enjoying the spring weather, relaxing on the patio-- here's Ariel having fun playing in an empty box I got on my last trip to Costco. It's so funny-- just like with kids, they can have all the toys in the world, but what they like playing with is the empty box, right?? lol!

Of course, Bisbee and Prescott had to have some fun with Ariel in the box, too... haha!! 

And on another pet-related note, Krista is going to the vet on Tuesday for a dental procedure: teeth cleaning, x-rays, and possible (more likely probable) extraction of at least 2 or 3 teeth. Think good thoughts!! 

(and lastly, how did it get to be April already, by the way?!? where does the time go??)

some crafting has been going on...

I just haven't had much "crafting mojo" lately, but I have done a couple things. (I've got a lot of things half-finished; it's completing them that's the issue, as usual, but more so lately.)

I got out my collection of cigar bands again, and decoupaged them onto a glass saucer I scored at the thrift store. The saucer is only 6 inches across, but it still took a fair number of cigar bands to fill in. I stuck with a more limited number of cigar brands, to make a fairly symmetrical design with a somewhat more subdued color palette.

I started by printing out a clip art image from my computer for the center design, but our printer ink isn't water-resistant, so I had to change my idea. I like what I ended up with, though: two Indian Tabac cigar bands that I trimmed to fit the center part of the plate. These plates take a while to decorate, and are actually quite messy to do (I get gel medium all over everything while I'm working on them!), but I really like the way they turn out when they're done. This plate is for sale in my Etsy shop, so if you know a cigar aficionado who needs someplace to put paperclips on their desk, or something to corral their loose change on their dresser, this is a perfect gift for them!! (another reason to check out my Etsy shop: the site recently changed the formatting for individual shops, so it's been redesigned a bit to make the format wider, with larger pictures... the design isn't quite final yet, but I think it shows off the items nicely! And of course, all sales right now will go towards my 3-Day for the Cure fundraising for breast cancer!!)

These tags are part of a huge pile of manila shipping tags that I hand-dyed over the last couple weeks... I have a somewhat limited choice of inks to use, but these were made by mixing butterscotch yellow and a barn red, to come up with a nice fall-ish orange color. I stamped them with Pumpkin StazOn ink, then added a couple touches of vintage dictionary paper.

I love the glowing orange color; it reminds me of autumn. (Which isn't here in AZ yet, unfortunately- it's been hot and humid, with very infrequent monsoon storms. The storms don't even clear out the humidity.) These tags are also for sale in my Etsy shop- check them out, along with others, in the Tag and Bookmark section of my shop. Look for more crafting soon. if I can remember to post the pictures, that is... :D

Christmas crafting!

so, I didn't think quick enough to take any photos of my Christmas cards (it's always a scramble to get them done and in the mail!), but there was some additional Christmas crafting going on... wanna see?? This sequined and beaded beauty (pic above) was a great score at the thrift store... it was the entire kit, never opened, from LeeWards, and it was actually pretty fun to make! Okay, so my thumb hurt by the time I was done from pushing the pins into the foam ball, but it turned out great in the end. This was actually one of my presents to Tom-- we try to add to our ornament collection every year, and he has some similar ornaments from his Grandma in his collection, so I was really happy to find this kit. (I know there are companies that still make these kits, so I may make some of these for next Christmas, too.)

These two photos (above and below) are from another of Tom's presents, which is still not quite done, but almost. It started with a clear glass plate (again, from the thrift store) and some of his collected cigar bands... I saw an article about these kinds of things in a Mary Engelbreit magazine, and thought it would be really fun to make a keepsake out of the cigar bands-- he's collected them ever since we've known each other (because I asked him to, for crafting purposes!), and has quite a few saved up. This plate also was a lot of fun to see the design come together-- the artwork on (better quality) cigar bands is incredibly detailed, in terms of color and design. It only needs a backing of paper on the backside to cover up the wrong side of the bands, and then it will be ready to hang up in his office.

a detail photo, just to show the color and design of the bands... click on the photo to see it larger.

And, finally, a couple ATCs... I rearranged the furniture in my crafting space (!! It was a lot of work, but I just had the itch... I think I did this growing up, too-- I remember rearranging the furniture in my bedroom quite a few times.) It still needs to be cleaned (as usual, of course!) but in picking up the desk, I collected some interesting scraps and put them together to make a couple trading cards. I added them to some premade backgrounds I had stored in my stash. The one above is collaged from a die-cut piece of scrapbooking paper, more scrapbooking paper, glitter, and some random words I cut from a vintage gardening book.

This one started out with another premade background of watercolor paint, a napkin, and some handmade paper... I added a tiny vintage photo print, a German scrap frame, and more vintage words. Now if I just do some more organizing, I might find some more neat stuff, and get some more crafting done!

trick or treat??

Treat, for sure!! No tricks here; just a bit of chopping and mixing after a trip to the grocery store on the way home from work...

...and voila! you have fresh guacomole. It's really not hard to make, at all. Avocados were on sale at the store, and we had all the rest of the fixings at home in the fridge.

Definitely patio weather; why stay inside when it's such a beautiful afternoon?? It was a little warm, with no breeze blowing. (can you believe it's the end of October, and we still have the A/C on?? No matter how long we live here, I don't think I'll ever get used to that...)

There's nothing like relaxing after work with a cigar on the patio... here, Tom waits (somewhat patiently) to enjoy the fruits of his labor, since he's the one who made the guacamole. He put up with my "no, move your glass a little to the left" and "oh wait, now you need to move a little" while I composed the photograph. Pandora is hanging out on top of the chair right inside the screen door, wishing she could come outside, but no luck. (The cats can get into stuff out in the yard, or actually get out of the yard! so we need to keep an eye on them when they're outside, and we wanted to relax.)

My plate: chips (with extra salt on the chips, of course!!), fresh guacamole, and a margarita with a splash of Grand Marnier for added flavor. What a wonderful way to end a run-of-the-mill Tuesday!!