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Isn't this one of the cutest button cards you have ever seen???? My friend Lorie gave it to me this weekend and I am wild about it! The graphics on some of the old button cards are just stunning!!!!
Over the past few days I have received some of the most exciting and inspiring comments on my blog.....I have met some new people and just had the best time visiting new blogs. Thank you to all who leave comments and to all the new people who have visited lately.... you all have surely brightened my days!!!
With that in mind, I would like to give you some links to other blogs that I have recently discovered........please have a visit for yourself...
Dan Drinker
This is a blog written by Dan Drinker's younger brother. Dan has Down's Syndrome. Dan knows how to live and celebrate every moment of life. You want inspiration...go to this blog!! You want some brotherly love.....go to this blog!! You want flat out entertainment....go to this blog!!! Great place!!!
Lesley's Book Nook
Lucky me!!! Lesley came to visit! Lesley writes a blog full of book reviews!!! So many great books.....it is so much fun to read...I think we have quite similar taste in books. I could spend hours looking through her blog!
Come Sit By My Fire
This is Relyn's blog and it is full of eye candy and inspiration! Beautiful photography. Wonderful sentiments. and Relyn and I have a lot of books in common too!! Wonderful blog!
Be Present, Be Here
Liz's blog is just gorgeous. It has a feeling of tranquility and thoughtfulness....and anyone who lists the movie Pillow Talk among their favorites is a friend of mine! I also just noticed that Liz is a yoga instructor in the Puget Sound area!! Liz, I am coming to Bainbridge Island in two weeks and have always wanted to try yoga! I will have to ask you if you are close to Bainbridge!
Sleeping Dogs
As titled above, this is a website with movies of dogs sleeping!!! You cannot beat that for sweetness (well, I guess sleeping babies would be sweeter, but you know what I mean!)
Fighting Monsters with Rubber Swords
This is a blog that has been around for quite some time. Is is written by a man and is mostly about his daughter who has a condition that prevents her from being able to speak. He has a new book out about it called Schuyler's Monster which I really want to read. He has a great writing style and seems really cool.....
Thanks for all the happiness and joy people!!
One day a long time ago when I worked the 3-11 shift in the psychiatric unit.......I was on my way to work, but was a little early. I went to the bookstore. I saw Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg. I didn't know who she was. I didn't really buy books, mostly I would read library books. But something happened that day, and I thought to myself, this book looks really good and I am now a successful single working woman and I think I will treat myself......so I bought the book. Lucky, lucky me!!! It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship with some of my favorite books ever. 
Fast forward several years, I was married and now I was able to buy more books because my wonderful husband loved to read too and we would go to bookstores together on "toots" and just have the greatest time. It was around this time that I noticed that when an author had a new book out they would go on tour and read from their new book. They would also sign your copy of the new book. Fun! A new passion was born. I went to a lot of readings (mostly with my friend Sharon, we had it down to a science!)
Of course, when Elizabeth Berg came to town we went to see her. The first few times my Mom and I went. Then Sharon would come. Then we would get a whole group together, you know Kathy, Pat, and Diane.......we would go out to eat and then go to the reading. It was so much fun and so great to be in the presence of Elizabeth who is just once of the nicest, coolest and greatest writers there is!
Well, tonight after work, I went over to the bookstore because Elizabeth has a new book out. It is called, The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted (see book cover below). I went by myself because I had not planned ahead for all my buddies to come with. I guess it was kind of a spur of the moment thing because I have not been to a reading for a long time, but this reading tonight was close to where I work so I figured I had better make the effort.
I am so glad I did. Elizabeth is in fine form in this book. These are short stories and the second you read the first sentence you will not be able to stop. Elizabeth has a way of writing that puts things you think, feel, love, and wish into words. She is so real and so funny. Nowadays she even has a website with great information about all of her books, her current book tour and a blog. Please check it out HERE! Check out the appearance schedule and, please, if she is going to be at a bookstore near you, GO!!! You will have a wonderful evening....and please read some of her books, they are the best!!!!!!!!
I have spent the last 24 hours reading this book!!!!! It is a must read. I say RUN, don't walk to the bookstore and get it. It is a memoir written by a lovely and funny woman, Kelly Corrigan. She recounts her youth, her cancer diagnosis and treatment, her marriage and her two daughters, and her parents with such wit and great storytelling! I could not put this book down and I wanted to tell all of you about it because I think everyone I know would love this book.
I am back baby!!!!!! I just finished with my Paralegal course........now I am going to pay attention to my creative side! Oh, and try to clean the house and eat healthy and exercise.....and basically just get "in touch with my real self" again......... First up will be a health dose of napping, reading, and a bit of stamping today! Hope to see a lot more of you around these parts as I get back to a regular blogging schedule!
Life is a blur right now! Sorry I have been so absent. The last couple of weeks have been really tough with my on-line paralegal certification class. This week promises to be another toughie! Legal Research......yikes. So, that explains my absence. My brain feels drained of any creative sparks. Several days ago I piled up some inspiration and took this picture. It turned out blurry...hence the title of the post.
My Mom recently gave me back my childhood scrapbooks. That is where all the paper goods pictured above are from. What treasure!
Other cool things going on in the midst of painful study time:
- Yesterday was club! Club is when my friends that all worked together in the psychiatric unit years ago get together. We now get together two to three times a year at one another's homes, eat lunch, talk and laugh a lot! We have been through everything together and it is such a blessing to stay connected.
- Mike and I discovered the television show, "The Family Guy." It is so funny!!! Yes, I know we are years late on this one!
- My friend Trish has become a Mary Kay salesperson and she has introduced me to their wonderful products! Love the skin care line. It really has made a difference to my skin. They also have lipsticks that are a blast to play with. Trish has a website in case anyone needs some Mary Kay products or wants to check them out for the first time. And as a testimonial, may I say that you will not find a more trustworthy person than Trish, she will take care of you. Mention my name! CLICK HERE if you want some information!
- I am finally tackling some books in my massive TBR (to be read) pile. It feels good to get going on that instead of going to the bookstore every two minutes to stock up on more. Although, I have a good list of things I want to to read in the future going too! Today I studied for awhile, read for awhile, napped for awhile, studied for awhile, etc. Love those hermit Sundays!!!!
I hope to be back again soon with something interesting going on! Everytime I have a creative burst or think of something to blog about, I am either at work or too tired to do anything about. But as soon as school is over in mid April, I will be a blogging fool!!!!
Lucky, lucky me!!!!! My banner fairy flew in for a visit and left her calling card. A banner that is just "so me" that it is stunning! Thank you to the wonderful Heather Simpson-Bluhm for this great act of art, kindness, friendship, and beauty all rolled into one beautiful banner. I must admit I could stare at it all day! If you would like to explore the possibility of such fun for yourself, please visit Heather by clicking HERE!
Where have I been????? It has been a long time since my last post. I guess I have had a bit of the seasonal affective disorder going on here in the cold and wintry Midwest. Go to work, come home exhausted, watch TV and read a bit. I am about to enter the second half of my on-line paralegal studies so I will have to buckle down with that starting next week.
I have had my senses engaged however. While visiting blogs, reading magazines about stamping and mixed-media, and just generally appreciating the simple beauty around me I have become inspired. Inspired to start a journal about the things that inspire me! I think this idea came about in parts. First, my friend Jane and I were organizing her new craft room (pictures to come!) and we were going through all of her gorgeous 12 x 12 paper. I found a piece in her stash I had never seen. It was blue and had some lovely whimsical illustrations of ballerinas!!! I felt that excitement you feel when something is just so cool and lovely and you want to jump right into the picture of it!! I then thought why not start a journal based on all of the scrapbook paper that I love......You know, that stuff you hardly ever use because it is so pretty?? This way I will always have some in a special place, and then I can use what is left to make cards for others!!!!
So, this sprawling post has lots of pictures of things that are inspiring to me. Stuff that makes my heart race a little.
If you want a quick dose of inspiration I have two suggestions to start you off:
SuziBlu has really got me excited about starting a little journal of my own! I think I will simply call it Inspire! Here are parts of the definition of the word inspire that really got me excited........to fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence and to give rise to.
I am inspired by all the photos on this blog.....Above, I am inspired by the beauty of this domestic scene (although, unfortunately, it does not move me right into the kitchen to start cooking/baking, etc.).........
I am inspired by this wall of stamps in my friend Trish's stamp room. I am inspired by my friends.
I am inspired by the beauty of these drawings! 
I am inspired by these rolls of vintage wallpaper (photo courtesy of Everyday Beauty)
I am inspired by the beauty of things I have never seen, but hope to someday. On the top is La Sagrada Familia a church designed by Gaudi (I am about to study his architecture because it is so whimsical, amazing and gorgeous!) and one of my all time favorite buildings, The Flatiron Building, in New York City which I have never seen but hope to someday!
I am inspired by so many things around me, my husband, my family, trees, birds, going to court the other day and seeing how much love a father has for his son, the patterns and colors around me, the possibility that although I know that I will probably laze around and blow this weekend in terms of accomplishing something big; that I can be happy in the small accomplishments I do make.....and the dream that someday it will all come together......meanwhile if I do a first page in my inspire journal......that will really be something.
Isn't this one of the cutest button cards you have ever seen???? My friend Lorie gave it to me this weekend and I am wild about it! The graphics on some of the old button cards are just stunning!!!!
