From my phone again.

Testing from my phone…

… for a shameless dog picture!

I love Jack and Benny! Sometimes they just crack me the heck up!

Like this … Benny just laying on top of Jack like it’s no big deal! And Jack letting him. And he’s so polite about it with his legs crossed and everything!!

Wow! It’s been awhile. Nine months to be almost exact. Time flies when you’re … busy! There’s been a lot of change in that time.

The biggest change being that I moved back to Bellingham and went back to work for the company I worked for before. I had become increasingly unhappy with where I was at, and a great opportunity opened itself up to me! Needless to say, I jumped. For now I’m traveling again. It’s been a lot of fun, and other than the fact that I miss my dogs when I’m gone, it’s been a great move for me.

It took me until December to feel like I was actually settled into my apartment, and even now, I still have some organizing and cleaning to do – but I’m much closer than I was at the end of September. I made the mistake decision to move into a 3rd floor apartment, so after the move I was less than motivated to actually unpack. In the next year or two I’ll start looking for a house, or more likely a condo of some sorts. I’ve been really happy being back in Bellingham, and honestly didn’t realize how much I liked it until I moved back!

So, here’s a photo catch up of my last 3-4 months! Enjoy!

My first trip was to West Palm Beach, Florida. This was the view from my hotel balcony at Sunset.

From there I moved on to North Carolina for a week, but alas, I have no pictures of this portion of my trip! I flew from there into NYC and drove North into Connecticut for a week. It was beautiful up there. This is the view from my hotel. It’s a great picture of all the color that was going on while I was there!

On my way home from this first road trip that lasted 3 weeks, I flew home through NYC. I actually DROVE in Queens, as I was flying out of La Guardia. I was quite proud of myself. I was bummed that I didn’t get a chance to go to NYC, as that is one thing I’ve never done, but I did get this crazy picture of the sun setting over what I’m almost positive is Lower Manhattan (from afar of course).

November found me in Mississippi all month (with a short break that allowed me to fly home for a certain Annual Scrapbook Retreat of course). I was so looking forward to Mississippi. I knew that the weather would be a little warmer, and for the most part it was! For this trip I flew into NOLA and allowed my GPS to route me the 2 hours or so North into Mississippi. I was a little shocked to see it take me through what can only be described as the middle of nowhere. But along the route there was this beautiful little church that I had to stop and take a picture of. This picture doesn’t even come close to doing it justice, but I just had to take it anyway!

After finally making it home from Mississippi the weekend before Thanksgiving (don’t even ask me how many hours and airport delays I had that day), I had about 10 days at home for the Holiday. My original plans were to go over the Mountains and spend a couple of days with my parents and Grandma, however, I had gotten sick in Mississippi and still wasn’t feeling all that well, and on top of that, the weather over the Mountains wasn’t that great. Putting both those factors together led me to the decision to stay in Bellingham for the Holiday, and my great friend Jill was more than Welcoming for the Day. (Jill also is my “dog nanny” while I’m gone – she truly goes above and beyond for me). When I woke up Thanksgiving morning to drive over to Jill’s to spend the day with her and her Family, this is what greeted me:

It snowed several inches that day and was truly beautiful! But that night there came a chinook and it was almost all gone Friday morning!! Crazy weather!!

For December, I had two trips to look forward to. For work, I spent 16 days in Ontario, Canada. It was cold, and snowed all but one day the entire time I was there. This was an interesting trip though, as the Dealership personel were primarily Menonite. They were all great people and made for a very fun Install. I’ll actually be going back for a Follow Up visit in March, and I can only hope for better weather – though they told me not to hold my breath on that one!!! I’m posting two pictures from this trip – the first being the town “motto” that is posted when you come into town from all four directions. It made me giggle every time. Mostly because I take it to the worst possible meaning in my head, but hey, that’s me! The second picture is still a very viable way of transportation for a lot of the people who live up there. It’s almost like being in a completely different world!

When I came home from Ontario I had two days at home and then turned around and left again! This time it was VACATION. Several months ago, and for reasons that weren’t/aren’t valid anymore, Mom decided that Kevin, Laura, Me, Dad and her were going to spend Christmas in Key West! After spending 16 days in very cold and snowy weather I was looking forward to spending time in WARM weather. Mom booked us a Condo on the North East corner of the Island. We had a great time. The weather was between 70-75 degrees daily, and was just beautiful. We ended up renting bikes for the entire week we were there. It was a great mode of transportation! I didn’t know if I would be able to make it or not, but I did, and it was FUN! We rode all over that Island several times. I figured I rode anywhere from 40-50 miles that week on the bike!

This first picture was taken on my cell phone! It’s probably my most favorite picture that I took the whole week I was there! The second picture was taken one evening while I was watching the sun set! I also got complimented on my “ink” by a cute jogger-boy that night!

So, once I came home from Key West I had two more weeks at home before I would have to leave. I ended up doing some more cleaning, organizing and actually hung pictures up on the wall! It was great, and I actually look forward to going back to my apartment now!

I am currently in the great state of Iowa. Such a fine State. If you enjoy single digit temps (I’m talking HIGHS people, not as LOWS) and snow on an almost daily basis. It’s awesome. This picture was taken on my way to work earlier this week; I’m sure there was a lower tempurature than this, since this picture was taken at 8am in the morning, but luckily, -8 is the lowest temp I’ve seen so far since I’ve been here!

That brings us up to current-time. The only other news to share is that one the first day of this road trip I got a call from my dog-nanny (haha, love it) and she told me that Jack needed surgery – like, the next day. It turned out he had bladder stones and they were causing him problems. This isn’t a very good picture, but it’s one I pulled off my cell phone that makes me laugh. I got some lip gloss that is in the shape of an egg (EOS brand) – so it’s basically round. Well, it’s about the same size and color as Jack’s precious, precious ball. He saw it laying on the side table and thought it was his ball, so he just grabbed it and layed right down with it! So funny! Love that dog. I was pretty upset that I couldn’t deal with the surgery in person, but thankfully I have such a great friend in Jill who takes care of me while I’m gone. The surgery turned out well, and Jack is doing great. I can’t wait to get home and see my boys! I miss them lots!

That’s about it – that’s all I got folks. If you’re reading this from my Blog itself, you’ll notice that I put up a new theme. I like it – it’s pretty, got some pink in it, but not overly so of course! Also, about the falling snow – it’s snowing here people. The snow is staying on the Blog until I go somewhere where it’s not snowing. That’s just all there is to that!

As far as updating my Blog, I’m going to try and be better about it. I’m going to use it as a way to chronicle my travels, post some artwork, and probably talk about my health/fitness some as well. January 1st of this year saw me 30 lbs lighter than I was at the same time last year – so that has me motivated to work a little harder and get some bigger/better results! Idealy, I’d like to post 3-4 times a week, each time on a different topics – one day travel, one day craftiness, one day weight/health, and then some random something for the 4th post! We’ll see … baby steps!

Ok folks, it’s almost midnight here, and I’m ready to go to sleep! I sat here for 2 hours and wrote this up – while watching The Other Guys (HI-larious by the way; go watch it!!!). Have a great rest of the weekend, and I’ll leave you with this quote:

When the world says, “Give up,”
Hope whispers, “Try it one more time.”
~Author Unknown

I’m really pushing my deadline this week, but I technically still have 49 minutes until the week is over!

The good news is, I actually should have another card to post tomorrow or Tuesday!

This is a page I made of Jack and Benny just this weekend! Ahhh, they’re sooo cute! The paper is retired CTMH, plus Desert Sand cardstock. All the accessories are non-CTMH stuff.

This was actually a banner craft weekend for me. I made a lightbox of sorts to make my card pictures turn out soo much nicer. No more glare or weird shadows! Plus I made a fleece tie blanket – it’s almost football season and I found some Seahawk fleece at Wal-Mart that I loved!

Enjoy!

Another Serendipity card.

Everything on this card is CTMH.

I also tried something new – a Ribbon Blossum. Pam at Indigo Studio made this tutorial showing how to create this. Her’s look so much better than mine. I thought at first it was because I used primarily grosgrain type ribbon and she used more organdy type, but she went and posted a card today that shot that theory down! I think I’m just not working the ribbon enough, and will need to practice up. I still like the way it turned out, but her’s are much, much cuter!

Recipe:
Papers: CTMH – Serendipity
Inks: CTMH – Chocolate
Stamps: CTMH – Serendipity
Accessories: CTMH – Outdoor Denim Designer Ribbon, Colonial White bigger brads, Chocolate small paper flower, Colonial White brad, Cocoa Grosgrain Ribbon, Twill Ribbon

And, as I’m sitting creating this card, I turn around to this view:

How much cuter can they get than that!

I really like this CTMH set – although I think it may be retired now. This card design is taken out of the CTMH Original Book as well. It’s 8×3.5 in size.

And, on a side note, a cute pic of Jack that I took this weekend. He’s been spending a lot of time under the covers the last few days.