personality to spare

noah is always doing something to warrant laughs, smiles, and the shake of the head. we often ask him how old he really is, because surely he canNOT be four. maybe twenty four. he says things that seem to come out of nowhere, which seem far too mature (in a good way) for his age. i am so thankful we have such a vibrant, action-packed kid in our house! even my 'play-it-cool' nine and twelve year olds crack up at his antics. no one is immune to his super powers.





love ya sweet noah dude!

obsessions come, obsessions go

that is a truth in my life anyway. i get on author kicks. john sanford, tami hoag, james patterson, tom clancy,the nancy drew series....the list goes on. when i am captivated by an author it seems to get in my blood and i become a tad obsessed. as evidence of this i scrapbooked a page on my nancy drew kick:


enter stephanie meyer....i am totally and completely captivated. i admit it, fully and most unashamed. specifically her twilight series. i have yet to read the host (so maybe i'm not as die hard as some of you out there - and i know there are lots of you out there!). i am re-reading the series in time for the release of breaking dawn (this friday at midnight). i think i would rate my excitement for the release up there with the excitement i felt for my birthdays as a child. it's intense. i bought this magazine because of the article and pictures...i don't think i've done that since i was a teenager. again, i admit this freely and without the embarrassment i probably should feel. oh- and for the record, i am DEFINITELY, without a shadow of a doubt, team edward!!

chill weekend...sort of...

this weekend i had another visitor...my friend terri! she comes and stays with me from time to time and i am so glad she does. it was a nice laid-back sort of weekend. another baseball game, well, three to be exact. ben had a double header and kyle had one. so she endured 4 hours at the ball field in the blazing sun. then when we got home, despite the fact that i felt completely drained, physically, mentally i had tons of energy and wanted to get her birthday present done. (her birthday was in may..ahem) so i went to work on her bag with the fabric she picked out (we went to the fabric store friday night). two and a half hours later this was born:



i really like the way it turned out. she picked some lovely fabric. a nice red floral batik for the lining and brown canvas (upon my recommendation...canvas is much sturdier for a bag) with a bit of black accent fabric. she wanted brown and black to be able to go with most of the stuff she wears to work. i put a strip of the batik on the outside for just a bit of flair. i had to...it was begging for it! whenever i start a bag i get into this weird zone. nothing else matters until that bag is finally "born" into completion. when i finally emerged from my cave-like basement i had lost all sense of time. to the point of slight disorientation. but it's worth it, i think.
all in all a good and productive weekend!

snapshots from my home

i thought i would share a few of the images i see everyday, that make up my life. it's these images that we become so accustomed to seeing, and may even take for granted. i want to document even the seemingly insignificant... so here goes:


some (very little) of the things i put on that make me happy!!


my bedtime reading material. i just finished the two books on bottom, and am re-reading twilight. yep - it's sweeping me into 'edward land' again. sigh. i have a bit of a crush on edward.


but my heart belongs to this guy:



i love this random little sign that reads: on this site in 1887 nothing happened. it holds our keys. very important.

lookie what has bloomed......a plant that i planted with my very own hands!! so rewarding! :) (i'm not really sure what that tinsey orange flower-looking thing is...strange and beautiful)


another very important thing that i use multiple times a day...my wooden spoons. love, love, love them.

and our crazy, hectic family calendar. i would be utterly lost without this constant visual reminder of where i need to be and when. i am a visual person. absolutely.

this postcard on the side of our fridge is a reminder to me of how blessed i am to be a member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. blessed to have a gorgeous temple, the denver temple, so close. blessed for so many reasons indeed.

this is on the side of our kitchen cupboards......need i say more.........i am crazy in love with him!

midnight prom party anyone??

the other day, while browsing at barnes & noble, i saw a poster advertising a midnight prom party for the release of breaking dawn. i am, like so many others, totally obsessed with stephanie meyers twilight series and am anxiously awaiting the realease of this book! i informed my husband last night that i WOULD be buying this book at midnight on 8/1. he then informed me that i better sell something to get money for the book. no problem. can do. so the deal is, at the southlands barnes & noble, starting at 10pm on 8/1 they are having a prom. with door prizes and a chance to win an autographed copy of eclipse. i don't know if i am brave enough to don prom attire...but i will be going! anyone want to join me?? :)

great visit!

i am sad that my mom is gone. her visit was too short. but i am thankful that i had the time we had together. we spent a laid back weekend hanging out, starting a sewing project and going to kyles game.


it was HOT at kyles game. i mean really hot! i felt bad for the kids being out there roasting. but i guess it's all part of the experience, no?


meanwhile we stayed cooler in the shade!


let me preface this by saying, i am in no way a seamstress. i try. i do. but patterns have not been friends of mine in the past. i get frustrated and the half cut and pinned project ends up landing in the bottom of a drawer. yes, it's a nemesis, and one i want to conquer. i am ready to take my sewing to the next level and, one day soon, bring some of my clothing designs into reality. so my mom got this pattern along with great fabric for the dress that i will make for her. isn't the design divine?? i am not tackling the jacket, right now. first the sheath dress underneath that impossibly adorable jacket.



when my mom was 12, and in 4H, she won a sewing contest! she sewed a skirt, blouse and a scarf. she told me this story as we were cutting the pattern and i thought it was so sweet. she said as one of the awards of winning, she got to model her creation in the show. but the part that made me go awwww was when she told me she wore the scarf on her head. (picture a little immigrant off the boat) that was a fashionable way to don that scarf...i suppose. i have a very vivid picture of the whole scene in my mind. endearing indeed!!
don't worry mom, this project won't find it's way to the bottom of a drawer. i will finish it and send it your way soon!

etsy shop up!

my etsy shop is back again! i have put a few pieces on there...with more to come. right now it's just jewelry, but i will be putting my diaper changing packs, cute burp cloths and my bags on there soon. so tell all your friends!!! i am hoping for much success this go around! :)

i put the link to my shop on the side of my blog.

tagged!

my friend leah tagged me to do this fun little 2 by 2 question thing. i think these are fun, so here we go:

Two names you go by:
1. babe
2. mom

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. pajamas (pink, of course)
2. robe, again, pink

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. creating (jewelry, scrapbooks, sewing stuff, art journaling) - maybe i cheated a little there!
2. going on spontaneous trips

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. to still be in bed...
2. at a bed and breakfast, in the mountains with stephan!

Two Pets that you have or have had:
1. sammy, our black lab
2. teddy, our fluffy, sweet saint bernard

Two things you did last night:
1. sewed & scrapbooked
2. watched CSI NY

Two things you did today:
1. ate cereal (the day is very young still)
2. got kyle ready for school

Two things you ate today:
1. cereal (again, it's only 7:20am)
2. nothing else, yet

Two people you last talked to:
1. noah
2. kyle (waking his royal grumpiness up..not my favorite part of the day!!)

Two things you're doing tomorrow:
1. taking ben to get a physical for scout camp
2. picking my mom up from the airport!!! :)

Two memorable vacations:
1. my last trip to california
2. camping trip to new mexico with stephan

Two favorite holidays:
1. christmas
2. halloween (fall is my favorite time of year!)

okay, now i tag: kim l., olivia, stacey, ashley, jenn, toria and tammy! you're it!!!

a few new pages to share...

just thought i would share some of my latest layouts. doodling. ahh...doodling. that middle school art form that has recently come back into style. i don't think i ever stopped doodling. i just incorporate it into my scrapbooking - and it's cheap because i don't use as much product. in fact on the layout below all i used was white cardstock, sharpie and colored pencils. easy!


this is one of my all time favorite photos of kyle. obviously it was taken years ago. it captures his essence. his sweetness. his loving nature (which, these days, is sometimes masked by lots of grumpiness!).

my happily ever after...

saturday was mine and stephans 5th wedding anniversary! i know i've said it before, but i can't say it enough....i am so blessed and LUCKY that he is mine! i love this man more than i could ever express in words. so i usually let pictures tell the story. here are snippets of an album i made a few months ago:





in the inside cover i put the lyrics to the first song that we called "our" song...hanging by a moment by lifehouse. we actually saw them in concert when we were dating. in the back cover is the song i would mostly identify as our song. it's the luckiest by ben folds. wow. if you haven't heard it, you must. it's dreamy and perfect...in my opinion.
oh, here's the concert tickets from the above mentioned show. look how different we look!








then last night i made a couple pieces. i love the way they turned out. they are quite different from anything i've done, and i think that's why i'm loving them. different is good. i swear i will be putting stuff on etsy again. i am in the process of creating lots of new things to sell.

why pink tumbleweed??

i have been, on more than a few occasions, asked where or how i came up with the name of my business. there is in fact a story, or a sort of brainstorm behind it. and here it is:
i wanted something that would be unique, not boring, but simple and easy to remember. when we moved out here... to the plains of colorado...i found my creative juices had kicked into full gear! my mind was bursting with new ideas, new motivation and inspiration. it was marvelous because i had never felt such a renaissance of creativity. i have always made jewlery and cards and scrapbooked. i had even sewn a bit here and there, but now i had the desire to go to new extremes and push myself to do more. i had toyed with the idea of selling my goods, and had to friends, but never in a formal setting, such as a store or website. so, one day whilst sitting at my computer, surrounded by my creative mess of beads and paper and fabric i had an epiphany. let me quickly say that stephan and i have moved - A LOT. even before i married stephan i moved - A LOT. from one state to the next. one group of friends and family to the next group, and so on. and now i had landed on the plains, in my favorite state, colorado. i was, in essence, tumbleweed. ah ha. but not just a brown shriveled up piece of broken tumbleweed. no. a dreamy shade of pink tumbleweed. like the color of blushing cheeks, barbie's lips, rose petals, or the frosting on all my childhood birthday cakes! this wandering girls favorite color - PINK!!! hence, pink tumbleweed. a name that fits me perfectly and now you know why.

oh, and i am so thankful for all of the lovely comments left for my post yesterday. they made my cheeks turn that unique shade of ...... pink! thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

a new little lovely...

last night i created this little lovely...i, of course, will wear this with jeans, shorts, no matter what. it looks dressy, and to most it probably would be. but one of the things that makes me so happy is mixing it up with accessories! typically i have 2-3 necklaces on at all times. tacky? maybe. but it makes me happy!



and last night i gave kim her bag, so here it is for the world to see!! (or maybe just my 5 or 6 readers ;)

i tried, really tried to get a better pic of the inside. that proved to be too hard and i was in a hurry to photograph it. so this view will have to do. there are pockets on both sides and a little loop for kims keys.


and i gave her a sort of matching diaper changing pad pack. my favorite part of this project is the INSIDE fabric!!!
kind of hard to see, but if you click on the photo you can see it better. i got this fabric at urban outfitters and it is so whimsical and storybook it brings you right back to childhood. i want to build a secret fort out of it!! ;) but i won't cause i'm using it in more projects!!!

defining me now...

this is one of the coolest things i've come across
in quite some time. basically this site pulls out
different words you use in your blog and puts them
in a collage! how stinkin' cool???!!!!
check it out for yourself...just click on the cluster
and it will take you to the site.

small scale disaster = motivation

sunday we had a bit of a torrential downpour here. as a result our basement got flooded. not hugely flooded, but about an inch or two of water (in some places). well, what got hit the hardest was, of course, my scrapbook stuff. specifically my paper. gasp! i know it seems small in the grand scheme, and it is, but it still makes me sad. so i am in the process of drying it all out. what you see in this photo is a small part of my soaked stash.

but, seeing all my stuff get wet and almost ruined inspired me, no, motivated me to USE it...NOW!!




two of my favoritest scrapbook divas EVER: heidi swapp and elsie



then i thought i would post a few pics of my mad mess. my happy mess, or happy to me. i sometimes just like to sit in my little "studio" area and soak in the loveliness of it all. (that probably sounds a bit insane, huh)