May 2012 Scrap-a-Latte Cards

I'm making cards for Scrap-a-Latte (blog | facebook)! Here are my cards for the gallery this month.

Enjoy Your Birthday Scene Card
I used a damask stamp with VersaMark ink to add some interest to the sky, which fits right in with this Damask & Brocade Challenge on Moxie Fab World as well.


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Pieced Chevron Hello Card


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Dress Forms Card


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Cutout Circles Get Well Card


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Enjoy Your Birthday Burst Card


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Mother's Day 2012 Cards

There's two American Crafts papers that I'm currently infatuated with and have been using a lot lately - the one with the circles and the one with the rounded corner squares.

For Mother's Day cards, I used the paper with the rounded corner squares to make a couple clean and simple cards:

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There's three shows that I've been keeping up with this season - Grimm, Once Upon a Time, and New Girl. I used to watch Glee, but I feel like it jumped the shark a little bit for me. I now mostly just watch the full performance clips they post on YouTube.

I just finished watching the season finale of Grimm and I'm feeling like, What? I have to wait until next season to find out what happens next with Nick's mom? In other words, I'm a sucker for TV.

Bachelorette Season 8 Week 1

Whoa, 3rd post for today. This is what happens when I get no personal computer time during the week because I'm super busy at work.

New season of Bachelorette started earlier this week. I'm not normally a Bachelor/Bachelorette watcher, but I watched week 1 mostly because of this guy who was an intern at my company (in the Phoenix office, no less) a few years ago.



Having never watched a full episode of the Bachelor or the Bachelorette prior to this, my previous exposure consisted of clips that were highlighted by and made fun of on The Soup. Even if I never saw silly clips on The Soup, it'd still be hard for me to take this show seriously, but whatevs.

Quotes:

• "What has two thumbs and is gonna marry Emily? This guy!" Srsly?
  
• "I'm a high school biology teacher, but I'm here to have chemistry with you." Hmm. Actually, I thought this was cheesy, but kind of good . . .
  
• "The name's Charming, Prince Charming." Whoa, dude. What are we, on Once Upon a Time?
  

Commentary:

• What is with that guy who dressed as an old lady? Veto.
  
• What is with that guy taking care of an egg like it's high school health class or something? Is that egg going to go with you on dates and stuff? Better get a man-purse for it.
  
• Cut the long hair, hippie. A.K.A. Michael the Rehab Counselor. (That comment probably makes me sound old. Or like an accountant. Good thing I'm both).
  
• WHY IS THERE SO MUCH MAN-DRAMA? Is it just built up that way because of the way the footage has been edited and put together? And the dramatic music in the background that evokes certain emotions?
  
• I don't know if I'm going to continue watching the rest of the season . . . I feel like watching the show was only marginally not a waste of time because I was uber curious about that Nate kid.
  

We Have a Walker and 10 Years Ago

Today is May 18th.

Ten years ago . . . Greg and I "officially" started dating. What!

Grad night, May 2002

3 days ago . . . Evie started walking.

March 2012:

Life goes by fast, in retrospect (although it doesn't feel that way when you're busy living it). Also known as, we're getting old. Heh.

Phoenix Love

Ahhhh, Phoenix. In the past, I've lamented its lack of a true downtown "scene." That's not to say there isn't neat stuff around. Or maybe I'm just not running with the right crowd for being in the know.

Via Frances/Smeeks (blog | facebook), I came across this list of places to visit in Phoenix from Design Sponge and was kind of surprised that we'd been to quite a few of them (plus there are some that I wouldn't mind visiting at some point).

Places we've been = crossed out

Downtown Eat:
Cibo
Matt’s Big Breakfast (blogged here)
Pita Jungle
Tammie Coe Cakes (blogged here)
Giant Coffee

Downtown Shop:
MADE
Bunky Boutique

Downtown See/Do:
Crescent Ballroom
Urban Yoga
Japanese Friendship Garden (blogged here)

Downtown Stay:
Hotel San Carlos

Midtown Eat:
America’s Taco Shop
Windsor/Churn
Lux (blogged here)
Pane Bianco (blogged here)
The Vig
Postino Arcadia
Hula’s Modern Tiki

Midtown Shop:
Frances (blogged here)
La Grande Orange Grocery
Slippery Pig
Relics

Midtown See/Do:
Snapdragon Salon
Spring/Fall Movies in the Park
Desert Botanical Garden (blogged here)

Midtown Stay:
Clarendon Hotel

Other Phoenix blog that I liked, also via Frances/Smeeks: Phoenix Style Collective

Bummer, Dude Layout

I actually finished this layout about this time last year, but never posted it.

The journaling explains the title (which, at first glance, doesn't sound like it's positive):





The border at the top and bottom are pieced together from a bunch of different punches (two styles of tags, clouds, starburt), bits of lace cardstock, and some other embellishments (felt borders and doilies).

Brad, Tara, and Creed's Family Pictures

Last month, Greg took some family pictures for Brad, Tara, and Creed, following Creed's adoption finalization:





Look at those cute little baby dress clothes!

That last picture, Greg wasn't even behind the lens when he took it, he just took it with the camera pointing towards the sky, but it turned out to be one of those un-posed, caught-in-the-moment shots with a neat perspective.

The pictures were taken on the grounds of the Mesa LDS temple, which was really nicely kept with pretty flowers and lush grass.

Orange Juice Making

Our Valencia oranges ripened this month and after Tax Day, we had some friends over for an orange juice-making party:



What Evie was doing while we juiced oranges:

The orange juice was pretty tasty, but was even tastier and sweeter the following week when Greg's parents helped us juice some more oranges. It was legit. Anyone interested in participating in said orange juice-making party next April or just getting free oranges when they're ripe, let me know!