check it out!

What the freak? How cool is this? I made the design team over at Scrap in Style TV . I'm one of the new fashionistas.
I honestly feel so excited, lucky, honored and on and on. I am so full of emotions this week. I have loved SIS since the first day i stummbled on it through elise's blog. It is such a positive, inspiring and supportive community for scrapbookers and I only hope I can do my title justice. And wow, did you see the talent in the other girls who made it too! Seriously!

Congrats to all my new Fgirls, awesome job to all who tried out. The talent pool was intense. Still pretty surprised i squeeked in. Can't wait to see what this year brings.

So, with that said,
I think we should do a little RAK to celebrate! I was thinking i should do this all week, and then i saw amber's blog and so she convinced me, time to give stuff away!

And it is gonna be pretty cool.

How does 1 roll of the coveted SIStv houndstooth gaffer tape sound? Oh, and maybe a piece of my favorite SIStv paper, the KC Label Love Chloe paper.... you know the one that is green woodgrain. hot hot hot! Plus i will also through in some other yummy goodies just for good measure.




Okay, have I got your attention? So, all I want you to do is pass the love. Go find someone elses layout somewhere and show them some love. tell them what you like about the LO. you can do this through SIS if you are a member (if you aren't a member, crawl out from under that rock and come join in the fun, jk) or otherwise find one on someone's blog or website.

Then, leave me a comment with your name and also link up the LO you gave some love to.

I'll pick a winner on Saturday.

where does it go?

the time that is. i can't believe another week has gone by. Things at the Bucks are crazy, but good crazy, but needless to say i have been busy everyday at work. Things should slow down by next week.

I have been up late playing with my Polka Dot Whimsy kit the past few days and what a full kit it is. I made 5 LOs and a mini and I still have a bunch leftover unused. I swear that Michelle goes crazy when she packs those kits cause they are F-U-L-L.

here's what i made so far.

the yellow and blue one is for my friend Debbi. She recently had to give away her dog and I know it has been sad for her so I will give her this LO to celebrate the memories of Cookie.

-n
oh, i made a mini too. it's late though and i work early so i will post that tomorrow.

some people have scrap rooms, i have a scrap house, kinda.

As much as i miss my husband (he has been outta town mon-fri for the past 4 weeks for work) the one thing i love about being by myself is the ability to scrapbook in any room of the house. seriously. right now i have stuff on the bedroom floor, my newly delivered PDW kit on the kitchen table, my studio is of course covered and until last night so was the coffee table. The hubs isn't here to get annoyed by the mini messes of creative garb and i can move to a new room based on the winds of inspiration.

Here is one the recent results of my newly converted Scrap House. Unfortunately, said mentioned scrap house will soon return to regular house on Friday, fortunately my lovely husband will be home for 2 days.

Working super early shifts the next two days so i am hoping to play with my new kit for a bit, watch American Idol and Big Brother and head to bed early.

-n

crops, classes and other things

hope everyone had a great valentines holiday.
we didn't want to wait 2 plus hours at the nice restaurants so we just hit up Baker's Square for our Valentine's Dinner. I am not one to pass up a great patty melt. And i will use any excuse to wear this favorite shirt and mix match my cons.



Made this LO on Saturday at the
SIStv crop. I didn't even finish it till i got home cause i spent most of the day talking. It was a fun afternoon and Kerry Lynn's class was awesome. Gonna finish that project
later this week.



Oh, other exciting news, I am one of the new teachers at Picture Me Perfect. My first class will be on May 24th (we will also do another SIS crop that day) and I am so excited for the class. It is gonna be all about paint on layouts. We will make 4 layouts by the end. I am thrilled. I hope if you are in the area you will make it. I'll share more details and class samples later.

gonna do some scrapping today i hope...
-n

Happy Valentines Day

wishing everyone a lovely day!

love is in the air

while i realize Valentines Day is just a halmark holiday i simply don't care... i love this month. I love the pink and red displays at all the little shoppes. I love spending hours in the card section of Target. I love filling little bowls of candy all over my house. This year we had the pink Christmas tree, so i thought it only fitting to keep it up and do a Valentines Tree. Brenda found me a pack of vintage inspired Valentines and from there i became obsessed. I found a few more at Timeless Treasures on Thursday and then yesterday I hit the motherload.

Seriously i am so obsessed with these little guys. I was at an antique store in Petaluma and found hundreds of actual vintage ones. Some have little notes on the back to the original recipeint. Some have dates, the earliest being 1943. Plus the little puns on each of them just crack me up. I am really temped to go back and buy the rest at the antique store today.

So now we are already to have a Pun-derfol Valentines Day with our festive decorations.

finally a home

for this baby. I got this dessert holder a week ago not knowing quite where it was going to go or what i would use it for. I thought maybe for my studio and then decided it fit much better in the bathroom.

The husband is still away on business so i am taking advantage and doing some projects around the house that have been on my mind. I miss him lots, happy cause he comes home today for the weekend.

TGIF!

brought to you by the letter P

Today was lovely. I slept in, drove to the city, filled up my car for $2.99/gal (most places i've seen around here it has been around $3.30), went thrifting for treasures around Portrolo Hill and south San Francisco. Had lunch at Mels and made my way to Timeless Treasures . I always leave happy when i visit this store. Today I left happy and also with a bunch of P's (for Peterson) and these fun blocks.... this is sitting over my toilet... and bye for above the front door. Such a yummy place to spend the day.

Yesterday was a good day.

Bought the new jack johnson cd.

Ate a yummy cupcake from Starbucks.

Got to see a lot of favorite customers who I hadn't seen in 3 weeks... and one who i hadn't seen in 3 years... love my customers... (most of them at least)

Finally filled up my home decor idea book.


Today will be a good day too.

Saw the yummy Hambly sneek peeks

The ants in my kitchen have not returned in 2 days... i think i have won the battle... the war however might not be over.

Gonna take my overlooked photos today before work so i can get all caught up with this project.

Here's hoping your day is good too!

it's tuesday

almost ready for normal life again

while i do love to travel.... it is quite nice to be at home in my house with my dogs and my husband.

It is nice to have a fridge stocked full of water and coke zero so i don't have to hunt out a 7-11.

It is nice to watch TV without subtitles.

It is nice to have options when deciding what to eat.

It is nice to not have to pay for internet use by the minute.

i go back to work tomorrow so today is all about relaxing for one more day. I plan to watch the game with the hubs and maybe do some creating in front of the tv.

i did rent both the Beach and Broke Down Palace when i got home, both set in Thailand. We actually went to the beach were the Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed. It is called Maya Bay in the Phi Phi islands. Here i am wadding in the water there.


Oh, and these are the things that have made me happy since i got home.
wow cool is this. converse at target and i realized on this trip how important it is to have good luggage... i wish this yummy weekend bag wasn't so pricey

oh and can i say i can't stop thinking about this lil baby... i am trying to convince myself that i need it... but i totally don't...

and isn't the commercial for it awesome... so love that song, in fact i like all her songs so far but this one is still my fav


okay, off to work on some valentines day projects...
hubby heads back to San Jose for training again tonight... sigh... :(

Overwhelmed

I have so many things i sohuld be doing today, my first day home,
but all i want to do is play with my pictures from the trip. so far these are some of my favorites.
Golden Buddah
Longboats in Ao Nong
A tree in Bangkok
Lights in Cheng Mai

I also went back and added some pictures on my last few posts... take a look.

okay, maybe i'll finish my laundry now....

back in california

made it home safe and sound with just a few hiccups along the way.

I did get up the guts to try the grasshoppers with Lisa before we left town. They weren't that bad. kinda tasted like BBQ chips...seriously.

our last night in bangkok was great. earlier that day mom and i had met 2 canadian girls at a Starbucks. They were backpacking for 3 months. 1 in Australia, 1 in new Zealand and 1 in Thailand. they mentioned they needed prescription mosquito repellent and since we were leaving the next day mom said they could stop by our hotel and have what we had left. She filled a bag with the repellent. hotel shampoos and soaps and wet naps and left it at the front desk for the girls.

Later that night while i waited for mom to shower for dinner i wandered down to the hotel pool because there were signs posted about a pool party for all hotel guests. There was tons of food and drinks including alcohol all for free. The poll was set up lovely with tea lights and flowers. Mom and I stayed and enjoyed the food (yum. tons of fried bananas)

I ran back to our room to drop something off and ran into the canadian girls picking up the bag. I invited them to the party for some free food (they were traveling on a vary limited budget) they joined us and we all sat around the pool for a few hours talking. I hit it off with them right away.

Then the hotel manager came over and invited us on a trolley ride around the city. Mom stayed back for a massage but the canadians came along. It was lots of fun riding through the city at night, talking, taking pictures and getting to know each other. We would stop at various places where the manager would give us the history and share details of the city.

I totally loved these girls. We would so be friends if they lived near me. They came back to the hotel and stayed in my room for a while more talking. I gave them my maps of thailand and my pocket calculator and we exchanged emails. They both want to come to California so I offered them a place to stay when they visit. I hope they take me up on it.

Lisa left that night around midnight and we left the next morning at 8am. The flights were fine and we were all able to sleep a bit and watch some movies. We barely made our connecting flight in Tokyo and were once again making it to the gate with minutes to spare.

Now i am back home with my doggies. I was so anxious to see them and we have spent the day cuddling and unpacking. Ron is in San Jose for the next month for work. He comes home only on the weekends. I went to San Jose last night when we got back in the country and spent the night at his hotel.

2 weeks is the longest I have gone without seeing him or even hearing his voice. I felt like a teenager again because my stomach was filled with butterflies as i waited for him to get off work. I think having time apart like that is great for our marriage because now i feel head over heels in love again like i did when we first started dating.... like when you wait with anticipation for their phone call....

it will be nice to spend this weekend together before i go back to work.

**edited to add pics


almost time to come home...

i am quite homesick and ready to be with my husband and doggies....

however, i now feel like i have not had enough time in Bangkok. I totally did not "really" see the city when we first arrived. I guess because we were just getting our bearings straight and everything...

yesterday and today however have been fantastic. Mom and I stayed out until about 2am last night, slept in a bit today and then made our way to the Grande Palace and visited a few Wats (temples)





we just took our time exploring little side streets and alleys, snapping pictures and taking it all in. Bangkok really is an amazing city. Yes, it is dirty and polluted, loud and crazy... but it has charm and character and so many wonderful sights and people.







mom was interviewed by some young teenage school children for a project. they asked her all types of questions about Thailand and her stay here. They asked what was one thing Thailand needed more of... Garbage Cans she answered. They agreed. We are always searching for a garbage at all the cities we have been to. It seems most just liter, however neither of us are comfortable doing that.

Tonight we are hoping to catch up with Karen and Lisa as they went off early this morning. One more final dinner together would be nice.

I am pretty sure i have broken the hotels computers trying to upload pics... they are now both crashing about every 5 minutes and it seems the problems began when i plugged in my camera... oops.... i did manage to load to one from our last night in Au Nong at sunset.

love.love.love!

**edited to add pics

back in bangkok.

i don't think i gave this city a real chance. we are now in a great neighborhood that is known for all the backpackers, right near Khao San Road. Our hotel even provides a free tuk tuk ride over to Khao San.

mom and i spent the evening exploring this colorful and vibrant part of town. The street was lined with food vendors, shopping stalls and little bars right in the middle of the road with plastic stools for chairs. They served drinks in "buckets" that resembled plastic sand pails.




the food was much more unique than we have seen so far. Bugs, dried jellyfish, little bitty fried eggs, eggs on sticks, fruit, kabobs and the usual pad thai and spring rolls. we enjoyed strolling from cart to cart and trying a new treat. Even the bugs. Mom was handing them out to other tourists and they all snacked on them together... and a bag of bugs for 20 baht... well that's a deal!



The shopping was a bit different than we had seen so far. Some was the same old stuff but lots of modern stuff too. Tons of knockoff clothing and cute tees. I haven't bought a lot for myself until tonight. I scored 4 shirts for a total of $12, a cute wallet with a camera on it, and i even got a pair of fun pants. Mom bought them for herself but they didn't fit so she gave them to me. I love them.

We took lots of pictures, found the nearby Starbucks (of course) prowled through the maze of people and had a great evening. Now i wish we had a little more time in Bangkok cause we are near so much at our new hotel.




Okay, i have some awesome pics that i want to share so bad but every time i try to upload even one the entire Internet crashes... urrggg... i will just have to share lots when i get home to my lovely mac. i'll try to upload in the AM... just 1 more day left...

Here are some pictures. These are mostly from our the day Lisa and I went out exploring the islands. I didn't take my camera on the snorkeling tour because i was worried about the water and sand with my camera.

Yesterday i went out on my own. I walked around with Jack Johnson on my ipod taking pictures. Then i saw a man struggling to load bottles of water on a boat. I grabbed some water and gave him a hand. He was so appreciative he offered to take me to any island for free. I told him i didn't want to go anywhere, but I would like a picture of him. He threw up a peace sign and smiled for the camera. I then began taking pictures of Thai people all along the beach. Some i asked to take their picture, but many saw my camera and asked me to snap a photo. It was pretty fun connecting with them.

I found the Starbucks here in Ao Nang and sat there for a while writing in my journal. The manager gave me her business card and asked that I send them photos from California.

That night i went to a bar up the road and watched a fire show, ate dinner and then met up with the girls. We did a little shopping and hit up another bar. It was called Rock Bar and they had karaoke going.

A few drinks later and Lisa was up on stage singing (i guess you could call it that) Sweet Home Alabama. The bassist was winking at her all night. Watch out K.C. cause she might not be coming home.....

The moms went back to the hotel and Lisa and I found another bar where we met two guys from Spain who spoke little english. I pulled out everything I learned in highschool spanish to communicate with them. (thanks Senior Barosa)

Back at the hotel we snuck into the pool for a quick dip and then off to bed. Today we leave back to Bangkok for 2 days.

Karen has pics from the bar so i will share those pics later.

Love you all!


the view from our first hotel in Krabi

first hotel in Krabi had a private Lagoon.






resturants on long boats docked right on shore






main road in Ao Nong