Friday... Friday... Friday...

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

                                                                                                  - George Eliot

1. fruithead-gang-2, 2. Cupcake Carosel, 3. Untitled, 4. melon soda puccho cupcake, 5. Love Is In The Air, 6. Monster, 7. French Macaron Soap, 8. .how to get to cloud 9., 9. Mushroom Parade, 10. It's all closing in on me... 178/366, 11. Fisher Price Turtle, 12. Pink Champ-rain <3, 13. Shades of Pink Cake, 14. I Dream Of Candy, 15. giraffe tub, 16. It's almost time,

My very wonderful regulars know that I leave you all with a quote for inspiration every friday. As each friday approaches I start to reflect on what type of inspiration I'm going to need for the up coming week.  Most people see the weekend as the end of the week. I actually see it as the beginning... mostly because my work week starts on Saturdays, but also because when I'm not working its the start of weekend adventures. Friday always seem like the perfect opportunity to reboot- to work free of this weeks struggles and look forward to new opportunities. So... In accordance with thinking positive on Fridays and starting the weekend with fresh inspiration I'm going to be adding a mosaic of flickr images that inspire me each week. It will be kinda like a visual journal of all the things that made a warm fuzzy feeling in the bottom of my tummy. I hope you will all enjoy this addition to Fridays Quote. I personally think a bit of eye candy does us all good.  Do let me know if you like the idea or if you liked it better when I tried to tie one spacial image into my quote. Happy Weekend Everyone!

P.S. I have really great and wonderful things to announce next week! I'm bubbling over with excitement... but you and I are both going to have to wait patiently. I know its hard but the best surprises are the ones we wait for. I think! Oh geez, I better send off this post before I spill the beans!

Bling!

My poor sweet Miller Dog is not feeling well. Not his happy trouble-making self today, 

& I wasn't feeling much better :( 

But Miller did manage to get himself in just a little bit a trouble:

He kinda destroyed one of my old sketchbooks!

So I was picking up the remains and stumbled upon this drawing I had made Jimmy of my dream wedding ring. I also still have a clip earring that I gave Jim way before he was ever ring shopping. I found it an an antique store and they didn't have the match so they just gave it to me. The ring hunt was actually kind of a crazy. First I wanted a pink stone. But they were either to much or not durable enough. Then I really wanted a opal. But once again not durable enough. I was bound and determined that I didn't want a diamond. One day we were shopping at Costco and Jim pointed out this ring. I saw it and fell in love instantly.  So I started out not wanting any diamonds to getting 38 of them! Funny how those things happen! 

Anyways... just another trip down memory lane.

My Very Absolute Flickr Favorites

1. junior deluxe, 2. Sprinkled cookies with pom garland, 3. Green Apron, 4. Vintage ribbon, 5. dear my..., 6. candy jar, 7. Have a Sweet Weekend, 8. Pink Retro Beads, 9. vintage red beads, 10. Gumdrop wreath in the kitchen, 11. elly-white5, 12. taking a walk - day 247, 13. pink ballerina party: abandoned, 14. Little Miss Sunshine! <3, 15. elephants, 16. margie

Ever wonder how your blogger friends shared their flickr favorites 

with all those links... all that work? 

Well its not really much work at all at big huge lab. Try it- it's fun :) 

4 out of 5 dentist recommend it! HEHE!

Birthday Party Fun & Other Wonderfully Sweet Things

When I first started blogging I did a post on napkins. I has scoured the city looking for cute and fun napkins to match my mismatched china. For christmas my mother surprised me by giving me the place mats from that post (the seller was out of napkins). I didn't even know my mom read my blog. It was SO touching! But never the less I still didn't have napkins. But then one day I was surfing Etsy and found Lars & Addie. I fell in love with theses coasters she made. Actually it wasn't really the coasters but the fabric. I'm not sure what to do with coasters :).

I asked really nicely if she could make me napkins with the same fabric and also challenged her to bind them with ric-rac. She said yes... and today I am the happiest little house wife ever! They are PERFECT! Thank you, Thank you, Rhena! They are everything I dreamed of!

Something else fun happened today!

We had a Birthday party for little Lisa the Mushroom! 

(made by Effunia)

Lisa was my very first Etsy purchase!

I love her to death - and it makes me feel good that I've now really caught the buy homemade bug. It so wonderful to support other crafters... and I one day hope that others will love what I like to make too! I'm getting so close to opening my little Etsy Shop. I've been very busy making the Cake Jewelry boxes. I'm thinking about calling them keepsake Cakes. 

What do you think?

Last 2 images feature my "keepsake Cakes"! I would love your thoughts about them!

Its easy to live in our own little bubble admiring our creative genius and entirely missing out on the most important part of the creative process - the critique!

A little positive criticism is the best way to grow as an artist 

and produce the very yummiest results!

Bee Happy It's Friday!

Finding fun in simple ways makes the happiest days.

Does anyone have an answer to our poor honey bee dilemma?

... I need to read more about it 

but I haven't seen a single busy bee this year!

Working Towards A Happier Me!

I'm working towards a more happy and better me. 

1. Don't get sooo stressed out about keeping the house clean

2. Work on one project at a time... try not to get overwhelmed

3. Get organized

4. Take vitamins and floss more

5. Try new things

6. Give

7. Cook more

8. Stop Dreaming - Start Doing

9. Be more careful with my money

10. Just Be ME!

So to keep me on track I'm going to try to blog about what I'm doing and NOT doing:

Today I:

1. Tried something new

 - I did my hair and kept it down all day

2. Be better with my money

-I opened a new checking, savings and business account 

(so that I can track where my money is going.) 

-I also got a new Drivers License today. I

 am now officially Mrs. R. Only took 13 months

3. Get Organized

- look at what I did with my craft supplies for my Etsy project. 

All my supplies in one place! WooHoo!

4. Cook More

- I went to grocery store with a plan today. Recipes in hand!

tonight - tuna casserole

tomorrow - scalloped potatoes and ham

5. Clean Without Stress

- a whole afternoon of cleaning without hyperventilating or getting grouchy with Jim.

I also didn't stress about getting the whole house done- it can wait for tomorrow.

Wish me luck! I want to be a more up-beat happy girl! 

I've never been one to make lists but you have to make changes to see change!

What do you think about my new glasses?

I think I love them!

New Stuff That Makes Me Happy!

Found a great pack of ballerina cake toppers for my cake jewelry boxes. Love the elegant little posses. I was a  ballerina once upon a time. Unfortunately I was never very graceful and I always had short hair which is very much against proper ballerina etiquette.

I got Tiny Tim the turtle for a bargain price. He no longer chatters and he's lost his string... but all of his original charm is still in tact. What a cutie!

My wonderful sister in-law gave me this train. Somehow it has never been played with! Its like new! That won't last long!!!! Thanks Sammy ~ I am just crazy about it!

We're Back....

Oh, the places we go... 

Here are a few shots from our trip down to Idaho. The above shots are from Eastern Washington where my husband grew up. Only he and a few others know where the old abandoned houses lay sleeping. I wish we could have gotten closer but it was very hot and I wore the wrong shoes. Maybe next next time.

The adventures we had...

It's always an interesting adventure when we bring our puppies along. They love to visit the farm and their grandma. I can't imagine leaving them at home... half the fun comes from their happy faces and the unexpected dilemmas. 

Once more Jim and I tried talking Jim's dad 

into letting us rebuild the families 1952 Dodge. 

No Luck! But we haven't yet given up!

The last night together we all got together to make smores. Yummy!

Charlie and I have played to hard. We are tired and ready to go home.

I still have to take pictures of my new lovelies from antiquing. 

I hope you all have summer trips as fun and memorable as ours was!

Notice Anything?

I am such a lucky lucky girl! Last week I won a blog re-design from Chelsea at Aqua Poppy Designs! She was so wonderful to work with! And I have reason to believe I may have been a little difficult. :) It was a little hard to hand off the creative control of my precious blog... but Chelsea was so patient and gracious of her time. Within a few e-mails she was able to create a design that I think perfectly represents my quirky yet cute and bubbly personality. I hope you will all like the new design as much as I do. And If any of you need a fresh new look I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Chelsea's wonderful services! Her prices are REALLY reasonable and the whole process was easy and fun! 

Thank You Chelsea!

Can't wait to start up-loading images from our trip! 

Come back soon and see all the fun we had...

I'm Off....

"One way to get the most out of life

 is to look upon it as an adventure."

                                                                             -William Feather

I'm off on a little adventure with my hubby and puppy dogs. We are heading home to Idaho for a family reunion and some much needed time away from the city. We will be back next Tuesday. Hope you all have a lovely rest of the week! I'm leaving you all with the quote for Friday :)

Her are some better close-ups of the new fireplace decor. Gosh I see the painters tape in the background... I've got to get my lazy but in gear and finish the last wall!

The Unexpected Wonderful Surprises Of An Ordinary Day

Sometimes Life has a funny way being absolutely wonderful! I am a pretty happy person... but I pout and mope around plenty. I have mood swings and "girly" problems. I feel tired and lazy fare to often... and I hate going to work. But it doesn't take much to make the gummiest of days bright and cheery and full of goodness. Like today-

Today was a very very long day of work! I was so tired and ready to go home when Jim came to pick me up. But when Jim suggested we do some errands... I gladly said yes - mostly because it meant going to the craft store. Unfortunately this craft store had the same sad results as the last three - out of stoke for the one thing I need most! Grrrr.....

So there I was tired and frustrated and going home to a dirty home...

When I walk in to find the lovelies gift from Gina from La Belle.

All week I have been so excited and a bit nervous about this special arrival. 

Why nervous? Oh, because my basset hound eats mail! Yupp... it comes through the mail slot and right into his little mouth. Little twerp! Well sadly he did get to my gift - but Happily he just opened it for mommy - what a sweetie!

Thank You, Thank You, Gina! I LOVE everything you sent! 

We also had a bit more fun tonight...

Jim picked up some Japanese treats for our evening tonight!

Yummy Motchi ice cream and Saki in Asahi Beer! My favorites!

Its little surprise like these that brighten my day! 

I hope you all find moments in your week as wonderful as mine!

Collections

When Jim and I got married one of my first chores was to put to good use his childhood key collection. Before it was just in plastic bags, now it's a fun and interesting visual display. A true piece of art! And yes I have changed the fireplace mantel again! 4th time this year!

My candy colored pyrex collection. Always makes me happy!