Wow! I am having the most wonderful time being off of work for a little while and doing some projects that I both want and need to do (often, though, it's not something I both want and need to do at the same time). I want to get it all documented here on the blog because I know that in a couple of weeks, once I'm back at work, I'm going to look back at this time and wonder what in the world it was that I actually did while I was off. :)
I started Thursday evening with a trip to Sam's Club to procure another 2 pound package of blueberries to snack on (they're $8 a crate- an awesome price!). I've also been a bit obsessed with the Hipstamatic app for my iPhone as of late- I love the look of old, really badly exposed photos for some reason. Yup, that's right, I shoot a Nikon D3, and have been known to edit my images to try to get them to look like old Polaroids.
Friday was not technically a vacation day, but I was off for my usual 9/80 Friday. As is often the case with my off Fridays I ended up running errands for the better part of the day. I picked up loads of different colors of crepe paper streamers at Hobby Lobby and Party City, and also got Star Wars pancake molds and cookie cutters at Williams Sonoma.
Friday's errand list also included stops at Anthropologie and Bed, Bath, and Beyond where I picked up some items to spruce up the bathroom, including this awesome Amy Butler shower curtain I've been eyeing. Before you see this photo, I will warn you that my bathroom is ugly. I mean really, really ugly. The brown tile is hideous and is slated to be removed at some point when I have time and funding. Mostly the issue there is just time.
Oh, and here are some more Hipstamatic photos of Bridge Street, just because I felt like playing. :)
Also on Friday our realtor called to let us know that a tree had fallen onto our garage during a wind storm the night before. This is the house we have a contract on and are expecting to sell in the next 6 weeks or so. Insurance is covering it and it's not going to affect the sale, but, still, look at that damage!!
On Saturday I picked up a few more accessories for the bathroom, but haven't taken any photos of it since I put it all back together.
I've also been working on some other house projects, such as the great Rearranging of the Scrap Room. I'll share one photo here, though I've done a lot of work and put a lot of things away since this was taken. It gives you an idea of what my desk looks like in front of the window, though- I love having it there!
Other household projects have included unpacking what seems like a neverending pile of boxes and culling items out to put into a yard sale (hopefully to be held next month).
Of course I've been spending lots of time in the scrap room, as well. I learned to make crepe paper rosettes, which I then turned into cupcake toppers. I've made a couple of different sets so far.
As you can see, I already have the 4th of July on the brain. I've even bought coordinating sprinkles!
I scrapped this page, which is pretty much a complete scraplift of May Flaum's layout here. I hope May doesn't mind that I copied her, but I totally loved her idea to just print the Spring Junque border (by House of 3) out onto kraft paper and then cut around it. I'd recently bought those borders and didn't know quite what I was going to do with them, so this was perfect.
And I've done a ton of work on my Week in the Life album. All the photos are edited and printed, and I've also printed the overlays (directly onto kraft paper) and started assembling the collage pages. Now I just need to get the rest of the photos and items into pocket pages, do my journaling, and embellish. I think that for me the photo editing is the hardest part of that entire project.
I've also been doing some reading, including this book
on my iPad (when I'm at the gym)
and this book when I'm lounging on the daybed in the back yard.
A new Star Wars book was just released today, as well, and since I had it on Kindle preorder it's now sitting on my iPad waiting for me to get to it.
On the watched list, I have this stack of movies (all watched in the background while I scrapped or edited or reorganized).
As of this evening I can also add Return of the Jedi to that list.
There are also some shows I've actually watched without another project going on- Chuck, Lost (I was very, very disappointed in the finale), the season finale of Castle (sniff, sniff), the last episode of the first series of Doctor Who (I'm going to miss Christopher Eccleston...a lot...I don't care how great David Tennant's hair is), and even some Scarecrow and Mrs. King since I finally have it on DVD. Bruce Boxleitner was so young!!
There have also been trips to the gym (I'm actually about to go run again shortly), church, groceries, laundry, and cooking (I made chicken parmesan from Pioneer Woman's recipe over the weekend) and lots of little daily things.
I've kind of fallen into a nice routine...I could get used to this not working thing. :)