friday favorites | june 29, 2012

Friday Favorites before morning coffee? Really? And by morning coffee I mean yours, of course, because coffee is one drink you never ever want to give to me. Unless you like having your sock drawer alphabetized and your car engine detailed. With a Q-tip. I'm seriously hyper enough without the coffee! So, why so early? It's because there's a Lily Bee blog hop coming up just a little bit later this morning, and I wanted to go ahead and get Friday Favorites up ahead of that.

And before I launch into this week's favorites, I have to share with you the most exciting news (and it has nothing to do with scrapbooking)...Huntsville finally has a Chipotle!!! We went for dinner on opening day, and it was fantastic, of course.

Yes, after years of only being able to chow down on their amazing food while on travel, I now have one a mere ten minutes from the house. So cool! In fact, I was laying awake in bed the other night at about 10:30, and I very quietly said to Darren, "you know Chipotle is still open..." 

And, oddly enough, this is not the last time today that you'll be hearing about burritos, tacos, and other assorted yummies from me, because my Lily Bee blog hop post has a bit of the south-of-the-border taste going on, too...but from an entirely different establishment. Please don't tell Chipotle, but in their absence I'd been seeing other Mexican restaurants.

So, now that I've typed all of that out (and made myself hungry for a steak salad with guacamole when Chipotle won't even be open for another 6 hours), it's time to get on with this week's picks!

 

From the top left:

• Rebecca Cooper shares a quick list of travel photography tips on her blog, Simple as That. She also posted a downloadable checklist of travel photos.
• Celine Navarro posted a video tutorial showing the creation of this lovely textured layout from start to finish on the Studio Calico blog.
• Take a peek inside Vee Jennings' craft space at Craft Storage Ideas.
• This gorgeous watercolor doily gift wrap was posted as part of the Color Me Pretty feature at Decor8.
• Check out the tutorial for making these fruit balloons at Oh Happy Day.
• Wendy Sue Anderson shared a quick tip for stitching with baker's twine on the Create blog.
• Scrapbook and Cards Today posted a great tutorial by Emily Pitts showing how to layer mists.
• When I first spotted photos of this lovely, colorful hotel on Nayda Rocha's blog, I wasn't quite sure where it was (since I don't speak Portuguese at all), but I've since learned from Mint that it's the Saguaro Hotel in Palm Springs, California. This one is getting added to my must-see list for sure!
• Learn how to make these watercolor flowers at GCD Studios.

TTFN!