I'm back!

Sorry it 's been so long! Like this little guy (from our backyard, last winter), I've been up to my eyeballs!

I've been:
-working on sewing and knitting projects.
- tasting cake and wine
- shopping with my lovely ladies
- organizing our crazy apartment
- and keeping up with everyone else's blog but mine!

Not to mention doing the work I actually get paid for.  But I'm back!

I'm a winner! (again!)

Wow. I really must be lucky... or maybe its just the enormous amount of blogs that I read that have contests I enter. I'm a little obsessed, but came you blame me? I keep winning! Now, I just need to win something for the wedding.

So, Thank Yous to:
VintageGlam Weddings and {sweeter than me} designs (a great Etsy seller!) for these two pairs of great earrings! I wore the ones on the left for my graduation. They both have the romantic vintage feel that I love! Thanks so much ladies!

My second round of thanks goes to Focus Organic and Niagra Conservation for this lovely little house...
filled with eco-goodies!It includes a whole bunch of things to help make our house more energy and water efficient. We definitely could have used these in our crazy old house this past winter! I think we're going to hold on to the stuff and install it in our next place, once we find out where that will be!

Thanks again for all the great giveaways fellow bloggers! Keep it up! :)

I'm a winner!

The luck of the Irish must be with me lately!

I've been having some good luck lately as far as giveways go. I've won 2 prizes from blogs and one from a bridal show! I enter tons all the time and I'm hoping that this good luck streak will land me with a prize for something for the wedding! Fingers crossed!

The first prize, from the bridal show, was courtesy of Pampered Chef. It is a great batter bowl with a lid. This will really help me out in my cooking endevors in the kitchen, including the possible attempts at wedding cake....?
Here's a picture of it, the "Classic Batter Bowl". Thanks again Pampered Chef! I'll definitely be looking into registering with you for the wedding!

Next, I got word that I won a giveaway from Wedding Chicks, another on the great wedding blogs that I read frequently. The prize was a 10 oz. bar of Cor complexion soap. If you know me, you'll know that I've been struggling with my skin for a long long time, and even under the care of a dermatologist I haven't made much headway. So I'm going to give this soap a try and hopefully it will do me some good! I'll let you know after I've used it long enough to make a determination. Either way, it would be one more thing to try, so thanks Wedding Chicks!


Then, after all this good news, I got another notice that I was a winner! This time it was from With This Ring, yet another GREAT wedding blog that I check out pretty much daily to help me get ideas. This was for a sound track for the movie "She's Just Not That into You". I liked the sound of it online, it made me think of the driving down the highway. I haven't received the CD yet, but I heard from the people the other day. They said that they were sending it out shortly and asked for my shirt size too! So thanks to you too, With This Ring!

Hello, Goodbye!

A quick note before I head out of town. I'm flying down to North Carolina to visit my brother and his wife and "the boys" (their two enormous Boxer puppies). (Isn't that a cute picture of them from their wedding last year!?) I'm hoping thaw out a little bit down there! Whoo upper 50s!

You may have noticed my blog has been spruced up a bit with a lovely little background, thanks to Simply Chic Blogs. Thanks to them for helping me make this place a little less boring, all for the wonderful price of..... free!

I'll be back Thursday night, pending good weather. It will be just in time to dive into my study materials for my certification test! Take care everyone!

Morning Elegance.

Wow! Posting three days in a row is an unheard of record for me... mostly because I am NOT studying for my upcoming teaching certification test- oops.

Now a days, I have quite a commute to school which means a really early wake up and trust me, there is no elegance in it. Just a lot of stumbling and groaning.

I found this beautiful song/music video called "Her Morning Elegance" on Black*Eiffel, which is another lovely little blog on my long list of daily reads. I think the song is beautiful and catchy and the video is so clever!

I really wonder what I would look like if I was videoed in my sleep. I'm sure it would be an interesting experience!


*I couldn't figure out how to embed the video, so here instead is a picture of the morning elegance that Mike captured coming over the mountains at Alta. :)

Stuff

I really should be working on finishing up projects or packing for the Utah trip (we're leaving in 32 hours! Ah!) but instead I'm surfing my way through google reading. Bad me. I found this neat list and thought I'd share.
I promise I'll get more of my crafty projects up soon, I just need to get on loading the photos on to the computer.
I'll be gone hopefully enjoying the snow out west and will be returning, hopefully with all limbs intact on the 7th.
Have a Happy New Year!

Things you've already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicize
Things you haven't done and don't want to - leave in plain font

1. started your own blog
2. slept under the stars
3. played in a band
4. visited hawaii
5. watched a meteor shower
6. given more than you can afford to charity
7. been to disneyland/world
8. climbed a mountain
9. held a praying mantis
10. sang a solo- I was about 7 and it went horribly wrong.
11. bungee jumped
12. visited paris
13. watched a lightning storm at sea
14. taught yourself an art from scratch- if sewing, with a little help, counts
15. adopted a child
16. had food poisoning
17. walked to the top of the statue of Liberty
18. grown your own vegetables
19. seen the mona lisa in france
20. slept on an overnight train
21. had a pillow fight
22. hitch hiked
23. taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. built a snow fort
25. held a lamb
26. gone skinny dipping
27. run a marathon
28. ridden a gondola in venice
29. seen a total eclipse
30. watched a sunrise or sunset
31. hit a home run
32. been on a cruise
33. seen niagara falls in person
34. visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. seen an amish community
36. taught yourself a new language
37. had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. seen the leaning tower of pisa in person
39. gone rock climbing- only indoors. I'd like to go for real sometime soon.
40. seen michelangelo's david in person
41. sung karaoke
42. seen old faithful geyser erupt
43. bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. visited africa
45. walked on a beach by moonlight
46. been transported in an ambulance
47. had your portrait painted
48. gone deep sea fishing
49. seen the sistene chapel in person
50. been to the top of the eiffel tower in paris
51. gone snorkeling
52. kissed in the rain
53. played in the mud-I miss the mud!
54. gone to a drive-in theatre
55. been in a movie
56. visited the great wall of china
57. started a business
58. taken a martial arts class
59. visited russia
60. served at a soup kitchen
61. sold girl scout cookies.
62. gone whale watching- we tried to once when I was a kid, but the weather was too rough. Then the door fell off our van...
63. gotten flowers for no reason
64. donated blood- but I can't anymore because I keep passing out!
65. Gone skydiving
66. visited a nazi concentration camp
67. bounced a cheque
68. flown in a helicopter
69. saved a favorite childhood toy
70. visited the lincoln memorial
71. eaten caviar
72. pieced a quilt
73. stood in Times Square
74. toured the everglades
75. been fired from a job
76. seen the changing of the guard in london
77. broken a bone- I'm pretty surprised about this one. Knock on wood. (doh... big ski trip coming up!)
78. been on a speeding motorcycle
79. seen the grand canyon in person
80. published a book
81. visited the vatican
82. bought a brand new car
83. walked in jerusalem
84. had your picture in the newspaper
85. read the entire bible- I tried to once for a class. I got bored.
86. visited the white house
87. killed and prepared an animal for eating- if a fish counts
88. had chickenpox
89. saved someone’s life
90. sat on a jury
91. met someone famous
92. joined a book club
93. lost a loved one
94. had a baby
95. seen the alamo in person.
96. swum in the great salt lake.
97. been involved in a law suit
98. owned a cell phone
99. been stung by a bee

These are a few of my favorite things....

There are a lot a great websites out there for me to stare at when I don't want to do work and don't want to go to bed yet. One favorite is Etsy. I don't remember how I first found it, probably another blog about pretty things, but there certainly is a lot there for me to drool over and be distracted by.
Etsy is a website that is all about things that are handmade. Sure, there are the expected things like art, knitted things, knick nacks, but there are some other amazing things that you wouldn't expect! For now, i've just been favortiting all the things I love, and some day, when I have the money maybe I can get some of these pretty things:)
Here are a few examples of the great stuff I've found!
Beautiful Vintage Jewelery from Sweet Vintage


Cool Vinyl decals for putting everywhere from Tasty Suite

Beautiful, PLANTABLE cards from Grace Graphics (I actually bought some of these :) )


Fun and funky pins from Button Empire (though I can't quite buy these ones yet...)




There is tons more great stuff on the website, and everything is continually changing. They also have this great feature called Alchemy where you can request something be custom made for you. You include the details and a suggested price and sellers can bid on making it for you. With such a huge community of creative and truely skilled people you can end up with something really great for a cheaper price than you might find else where. I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard of it being used for all sorts of things, from wedding dresses to toys.
Now that I've gotten the idea of putting images into my blog (yay!) I'll try to occasionally post some of the cool stuff I'm finding in my internet wanderings. Maybe I can get someone hooked on these things like others have done to me!