2nd to shoes...BAGS!

I have been helping my friend Marci pack up her apartment to move to a new house.  Lucky me she has been cleaning out her closets along the way and tonight I left with the mother load!  Most of the items are give aways (http://theeternalgaragesale.blogspot.com/) but there were two very special bags that I will keep for my very own:

They Mary Poppins Bag:

Isn't it gorgeous?!  And huge, I just love it.  Marci travels a lot and this bag had a few things that would make it much less friendly to travel with.  But for little old me...happy as a peach to take a change of clothes to Mom & Dad's in this.  OK, so I could take a change of clothes for the entire family...who cares!  I love this bag!

The Zebra Bag:

Pretty sure I don't need to say anything more about this bag.

It is FABULOUS!

It does however remind me of a jeep I saw when I was out with Lolo the other day:

...yes, I am serious.  And yes, that jeep is real.  I took this picture with the camera on my phone.  If you don't believe me you can ask Kelly, this jeep lives down the street from them.  Or you could ask Lolo, she was with me when I pulled over just past the cemetery that is right across the street...walked all the way back past the house and took the picture from out near their mailbox.  

Anyway...it's about the bags and my oh my, they are pretty!

...cold weather INSIDE update

So, after I decided that leaving the oven on all night is NOT a great option and finally turned it off I checked the thermostat.  A brisk 68 degrees and dropping rapidly!

I stood there with my ANGRY EYES...

...but nothing happened!  So I decided the only thing left to do was beat on the thermostat with my fist.  I walked away feeling defeated and certain in all my clatter had woken the neighbors and they would come calling to see what was the matter.  My popsicle toes and injured fist (see beating incident above) went back about our task of wrapping presents when only just a moment later I smelled the most exciting smell...that horrible old apartment heater smell.

So...the heat is FINALLY WORKING!  Granted, in the "ON" vs. "AUTO" game "AUTO" is losing by like a zillion points!  That only means that the heat has to stay on all night and that will really bite for the power bill next month, but who cares...my toes are finally starting to thaw!  And I just realized that if the heat is set on, say 70 degrees and the thermostat thinks that it is hotter than 70 degrees in my apartment, it will then blow COLD air to regulate the desired temperature.  So many things wrong this this picture!  I want my auto heater to work again!  Oy vey!

Happy sleeping!

Baby it's cold outside...

When I came home from my very long day the thermostat in my apartment said it was a chilly 57 degrees INSIDE!  It was on auto so I quickly flipped the temperature control...nothing!  I flipped it to "On" and the heat did kick on ~ to my huge relief.  

It has not been running non-stop for 3 hours and my apartment is still freezing!  The thermostat now says 70 degrees, but it does not FEEL like it is 70 degrees!  I finally turned on the oven...the thermostat went up a few degrees.

Now I've decided I will just go take a HOT shower, heat up my rice bag and turn on my heating pad and get in bed.  

I sure hope I can sleep...I am seriously freezing!

Fall 2008...grades are in!

I don't know how I managed to get (3) A's and (1) C, but I did.  I am a little disappointed in myself for the C, but I'll get over it.  And the best thing is that now I know not to take that professor for ANY classes EVER again.  I know, I know, not entirely his fault, but he could have done A LOT better.  Worst part is that it lowered my GPA, if I had really studied and gotten an A I could have had a 4.0.  With the C I have a 3.5 for this semester (3.2 cumulative).  Disappointing.

Now let's focus on the A in Statistics...HELLO!  
The first A in a math class IN MY LIFE!  
Wow.  WOW!  Let's celebrate...

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree...

I splurged and bought myself a Christmas tree this year:

Lauren named him "Brucey The Sprucey"

Isn't he the perfect Christmas tree for me.  I do need to find some burlap and make a tree skirt.  Matter of fact, I'm off to do that now.

Merry Christmas!

Marissa & Kelvin...wedding cake

Just delivered another cake, this one for Marissa & Kelvin:

Org Pub...final project

The semester if finally over and to be completely honest I'm a little sad.  I love, love, loved my Org Pub class and am really going to miss working with InDesign & Photoshop all the time.

We had to turn in a final project instead of take a final test.  Our professor gave choices for what the layout could be, but gave us a lot of liberty to do what we wanted.  I had the hardest time thinking of what to do until one day I just thought...I should do it about something I love!  I had already decided the family/little humans were too challenging a topic because it had to be a publication that an actual organization would use and I couldn't tie the two together.  So what would be in the top 5 favs?  SHOES!

I decided to create an auction playbill.  Like a theater playbill would tell all about the show and cast, mine tells about the shoes that are being auctioned off.  Since it's for school we don't have to worry about copy write or anything like that - otherwise this little brochure would have cost a fortune in royalties (Marilyn.)

Anyway...here is the layout as I designed it:

Here is what it looks like printed/cut & folded:
(should be stapled, but my stapler's neck is too short.)

If you look carefully, you may find I used your name for inspiration or just plain used your name as a celebrity designer.  I had to be creative and at the end of the semester with 3 other classes and a million other things going on, I needed my friends (even though they were not right beside me) as inspiration.  

I just loved this project, it was so much fun to work on and what a great end product for me to add to my portfolio.  

What is the best part, you ask?  This final project was worth 150 points.  How many points did I receive? 150 points and an A in the class.

Charley...What Not To Wear

The other day Charley was hanging out at my place.  I had layed her on the floor to change her diaper and then went to throw the dirty one away.  I left her laying on the floor but I could hear her cooing and laughing so I peaked around the corner...she had turned her head so she could see the T.V.  She was watching What Not To Wear on TLC and loving it!

STATISTICS...the final

I am leaving my apartment now to go and take my Statistics final...if only I knew what I was doing!

The Little Humans....

Tonight I got an email from Anne asking for pictures of her little ones so I started searching.  Well, you know me...I have pictures!  I found some dang cute ones of some of the little humans in my life.  SOME of those little humans are still very little, so their "when they were younger" pictures are well...when they are babies and they are mostly just sleeping.  But never fear, I'm sure I will still be wasting my "I need to be studying time" on this blog when it's time to share those pictures in a few years too.

Katie, Caroline & Alex
(sporting t-shirts from my trip to NYC)

Alex
(Pretty sure Papa is feeding her something very yummy and she's blowing kisses of it towards someone over there.)

Abbi
(Miami Vice Baby!)

Riah

(oh no!  Sure, it was just Duck Hunt then.)

Papa & Caroline

(aawww, kisses!)

And the bum belongs to...Abbi!

(looking for the kitties at Uncle Justin & Aunt Kelly's)

Tanner
(can you just eat this little guy up!)

Uncle John, Aunt Jamiee & Tanner

Grumpy T

Maddie & Riah

(you only think Riah is angry...)

OH NO...we are possing for pictures!  
(At the request of Aunt Nicki to be specific.)

This concludes our trip back in time...some from not so far away and others from what seems like ages ago.  Check back often...I have a photo scan project to work on.  Now that is going to be fun!

I so love photos!