My addiction to Stampin’ Up! started when a friend of mine invited me to a card party at her house. She said that she held them four times a year, and that we’d be making cards with stamps, all materials provided. I have been a scrapbooker for as long as I can remember, but I had always avoided stamps… they seemed like so much work.

But let me tell you – I am fully addicted now. ADDICTED. I’m not sure if I’d love any stamps as much as I love Stampin’ Up! stamps. Really, it’s obvious when you use them, their products are super high quality. They have beautiful cardstock, and it’s all super smooth, so images come out very clean.

Since our big move to California, I’m looking for a demonstrator in Orange County that hosts parties… I already miss my friend’s parties. But at least they just put all of their products online for sale through individual demonstrators, so I can still order.

One of my favorite Stampin’ Up! demonstrator blogs is The Sunset House. She is a Stampin’ Up demonstrator, but doesn’t do events, she just became one really for her own purchases! She has beautiful projects, and has a few video tutorials which are great.

Maybe I’ll become a demonstrator after we have a few more kids and I get to stay home full time.

I made the card above as a thank you card for my friend LeeAnn. I used all Stampin’ Up products: the Bella Rose cardstock, the Priceless stamp set (all of those stamps in the middle and on the right side are part of this stamp set), Elegant Eggplant and Riding Hood Red inks.

I can’t help but feel like this is something that I absolutely need to post.

I don’t know this family, but I can only imagine what they are going through. My heart aches for this sweet baby and those that are close to her.

“Mia was born with a dysfunctional heart and is on a waiting list in Seattle for a heart transplant. Mia has been patiently holding on for the past 3 months. But, she’s one of 8 babies in the Seattle Children’s Hospital on the Washington waiting list. In order to put Mia on other waiting lists, the McDonalds need $450,000.00 up front for the heart transplant. Sadly their insurance is falling short of paying for the surgeries and health care Mia has already received.”

I feel so blessed, so very lucky, to be a parent of a child born with no major issues. I feel like it’s a great thing to be able to help those that aren’t as fortunate as we are. So, I have bid on an item for Mia, and I will donate to her cause even if I don’t win.

The auctions are ending tomorrow, so it’s important to bid on anything soon!

Visit here for the auctions: http://therufeners.blogspot.com/

Visit here for Baby Mia’s website: http://helpbabymia.blogspot.com/

Well.. this last month has been quite a month.

With a little over three weeks notice, we packed up and moved to Southern California for Steven’s job. I am amazed at all that we accomplished in three weeks – and when I say we, I mean Steven. It’s hard enough to pack up your life in a short amount of time, but even harder with a baby. So, while I finished my quilt (!) and took care of our five month old, Steven cleaned out, threw out, organized, boxed up, and busted his butt to get us to California.

And, so, with an acquaintance, mutual friend, and family member here or there, spread out over the state, we are here. It was quite a journey, and I’m still getting used to the fact that I’m not going home.

It was hard to leave my house. I complained about it often – the house, I mean. I didn’t like our neighborhood, or the fact that the neighbors always parked on our front curb, the location… but I loved our house, because it was ours. It was the place we bought when we married. It had seen our wedding, my graduation from college. It was the home we brought Emma to from the hospital. It had seen late nights with friends, laughter, parties, tears, love, joy, stress, and sorrow. And to walk away was hard.

We kept it and we are renting it out. I keep the keys on my key chain as a reminder of home, because I will miss it, no matter how much I wanted to live other places and explore. The ghosts that live in that home are mine, and although someone else’s ghosts will now live there as well, I’m happy we always have it to come back to.

So, in the week before we left, I finished the quilt. It’s my first big project to finish, and even though it’s very far from perfect, I was proud of it. The recipients, Laurel and Jennifer, seem to be really happy with it, and that is what matters to me.

More details:

On Saturday, I stood with two of my dearest friends, two of the most incredible women that I have ever known, as they were married in front of friends and family. They had a cupcake tree as their cake, and I took the above picture of the top tier. These top two cupcakes were dusted with a pearly powder that glimmered slightly in the light.

The wedding was outdoors, in a park amongst peacocks, and it was incredible. Every detail was perfect, everything was thought of, and there was such a positive, loving energy surrounding the whole place.

I’m still working on my quilt for them. I think I would have had it done by now, except for one small detail that threw a wrench into my plans: Hurricane Ike! My mom had volunteered to monogram a square with their names and wedding date on it. I thought that would be an amazing idea. Ike decided to visit soon after that, however. My parents live on the beach on the Gulf of Mexico – literally, their backyard is the beach – and they were DIRECTLY in the path. They had to of course evacuate, and returned home to find a house that was standing, with thankfully minimal damage. This put my quilt on hold for a while, which was fine with me – the important thing was that they were safe! I told Laurel & Jen to expect the quilt after they return from their tropical honeymoon. Although, they still don’t know it’s a quilt. I’m sure Laurel has figured it out by now, but I’m going to keep my mouth shut all the same.

Another bit of news for the weekend.. we are moving to California! Specifically, Orange County. We have been in Texas for a while – Steven, his whole life; me, the last 16 years – and we were ready for a change. The opportunity presented itself for Steven to take a job out there, and he loves the company, people, and the project, and so we’re off! I’m excited, anxious, nervous (especially about moving with a 4 month old) and a little scared, but mainly just because I’ll have to make new friends, all over again. I’m not sure I even remember how to make new friends. I guess I’ll join a Gymboree for my daughter, join a gym or yoga studio for me, find a local crafty group, or maybe start a west coast version of the crafty group I belong to (although, I doubt I’m that brave).

I also took a wrap skirt sewing class this weekend. I had a bit of bad luck, really.. I signed up for the class online, and the system indicated there was one spot left out of 4. Cool! I showed up today (the last one there, of course), the class had already started, and there were… 4 people there. They counted and confirmd only 4 people had signed up, so they started getting our names to double check the list. Turns out that two of the ladies had signed up under the same e-mail address, so it only registered them as one person. So, they pulled out a spare sewing machine for me, which turned out to be a nightmare. It locked up every few stitches, so I had to pull my skirt out, fix the bobbin, fix the needle, start again. I’m really glad I used black thread on black bias tape, because my stitches look atrocious. But, the skirt is beautiful, and I’m going to post a picture as soon as hubs takes a picture for me while I’m wearing it. I’m so proud of it. I want to make a million more, it’s so flattering! Well.. it’s probably the most flattering piece of clothing I’ve had on my lower half since having a baby, that’s for sure.

More updates on the quilt as I finish it! I’m leaving for Vegas on Thursday (grandma is coming to watch the little one!), so I hope to have it done by then.. fingers crossed.

Ha.

Anyway, Amy Butler came out with a new line for Mikasa that made me rethink my whole china boycott:

How gorgeous! I already told my husband I’m going to save up for it, and my mom is going to gift me a few pieces for Christmas and my birthday. I’m pretty sure that Amy Butler could design a potato sack, and I’d buy that, too.

But do brides even still register for china anymore? I only got married three years ago, but it seems like things change so fast! I haven’t seen china on a registry in ages.

Speaking of.. our third wedding anniversary is Wednesday, October 1st. Happy anniversary, Steven! I love you for always.

I have this thing… I don’t like hurting people’s feelings. I mean, I can be brutally honest, but if I feel like it might cause irreparable harm to someone (which is most of the time), I try to sugar coat it a little bit. This can be either good or bad, depending on your point of view. This is one of the (numerous) reasons that I could never be a professional critic.

So, because of this, I probably won’t be brutally honest about how I feel about some of Twilight. She will never read my blog, she will never know (or probably care about) my opinion, but I just can’t be unforgiving about something that someone poured their heart and soul into.

I had actually resisted reading it for a long time, because it was one of those books that I turned my nose up at. I wear my English degree like a badge of honor, as if it implies that I Know Good Books. Even though it does not at all mean that, I still can distinguish good writing (by my standards, which are fairly universal, I believe). I understand I’m probably one of the few that have an English degree and actually are happy about that fact – most people, it seems, get the degree just to get something and be done with it.

I was actually pretty burnt out after graduation. I found myself really unable to read like I used to, after years of devouring books at a record pace. I turned, then, to semi-mindless fluff that I developed quite a love for, such as Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code. Really, I have a strong affinity for the Harry Potter series, and love to re-read those whenever I can.

So when I started reading Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, I wasn’t expecting a great work of literature. I knew that there would be mistakes, and I knew that it would be far from perfect. I definitely did not expect to love the story so incredibly much. As a devoted Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan (okay, it’s pretty much my religion) I was reluctant at first to read the series – I didn’t want it to cloud my feelings or vision about the awesome vampire world in Buffy that I love so much. And honestly? It didn’t at all. It actually made it more complete for me, in the sense that she didn’t take any part of her ideas from Joss Whedon’s Buffy-verse.

While I did love the story, the writing was mediocre to fair. It had high points and low points. Phrases were used over and over again, character development was lacking, and it felt contrived, even for a fantasy world where vampires walk among us.

I couldn’t bring myself to read Meyers’ attempt at an adult sci-fi novel, The Host, because I didn’t really want to be disappointed. I don’t love her writing and I don’t even necessarily like her, but the woman can tell a vampire story, people. And this is why I will continue to buy everything Twilight-related in book or movie form… because I am a ridiculous fangirl.

I love books that can bring you in and really make you feel as though you’ve stepped into their world. I’m currently a little ways into Tasha Alexander’s And Only To Deceive. I really like it so far, and I hope I love it enough to purchase the next two books in the series. I think I will constantly be in search of my next Harry Potter/Twilight-like book obsession after this.

Since then, I’ve changed my mind quite a bit. I LOVE to collect things – fabric, yarn, scrapbook paper, whatever. So I saw an opportunity to buy a bunch of cute coordinating fabric, use ALL of it in a mish-mash of fabric explosion, and then display it! Put it on my bed! Give it to my friends! Cute fabric!

On a mission, I not-so-subtly bit my friend Julie with the quilting bug. We took a class together at a local studio here in Austin, and behold, the fruits of my quilty labor:

It’s a table runner or, alternatively, a decorative wall hanging. I fell in love with the strawberry fabric and decided that I should choose all of the other fabrics to match that one, but then it quickly became something resembling a Christmas quilt. I threw in a little yellow and ta-da! Year round quilty goodness.

I’m currently working on a large quilt for my friends’ wedding. And me being me, of course, I bought the most expensive fabric that I could afford to make said quilt out of. Smart idea for my second quilting project… ever. Hey, I took a class! I know what I’m doing! Sigh.

Fabric for said project:

Well.. if I mess up, at least it will still look gorgeous!

No, seriously. A lot of hobbies. Most of them are of the crafty persuasion.

I seem to go back and forth, though. My specialty is being a jack of all trades, master of none… or, at least, very few. I will be obsessed with a particular craft for a few months at a time, like sewing, and then decide to devote time to something else, like scrapbooking. Then, I’ll pick up my knitting needles after seeing a  pattern that I JUST HAVE TO MAKE RIGHT NOW, and that will be my free-time waster for a few more months. Throw in an unhealthy obsession with literature, yoga, perfume (and other various smelly-goods), wine, and vampires (yes, really) and you have a pretty good picture of Who I Am.

I have always been envious of people who can pick one hobby and diligently stick with it. I have always kind of wanted a blog where I could keep track of my crafty endeavors without forcing anyone to read it except for me.. and a few select friends. I like to keep track of books that I read, exciting websites that I find, products that I love. I don’t expect anyone to really find this interesting except for me, but that’s good enough.

So, here I am! Crafty, sometimes a wallflower, with a lot of hobbies.