LiFe {unscripted}

NYE 2011

Not sure if I can manage another late night post without misspelled words.  So in order to make some sort of sense, I thought I'd post our NYE in Instagram photos with time stamps.

 

8:24 PM Fogo De Chao

Our first time to enjoy this dining experience.

8:25 PM the first (of too many) meat variety of the night

8:28 PM getting stuffed but not miserable yet...

9:14 PM the birthday girl cake and after dinner chocolate martini - yum.

9:59 post-feast freshen up trip...pretty sure we are in a meat coma

10:15 PM fresh air after dinner walking downtown SA

11:31 - back at our hotel Bar Rojo

11:40 PM Us girls made the call...bar or pjs for the countdown?

11:41 PM If you know me, you can guess what we chose by my happiness

11:52 PM ahhh, pajamas + stretchy pants = comfort!!!

11:56 PM Rachel drinking beer from her Birthday girl wine glass - we perfer classy glasses ;)

January 1, 2012 - 12:02 PM Happy NEW YEAR!!!  Fireworks show was awesome - and we had the best view ever. 

January 1, 2012 1:08 AM  - one of the first photos of 2012.  Adam trying to call room service to order a pizza.  In retrospect, thank God the wait was 2 hours...we did not need any more to eat that night.

It was a wonderful New Year's celebration of food, friends, and fun memories made.  Check, check, and check!

Thanks for dropping by :)

 

Christmas Eve eve...duh...

Reading this today, i can tell just how tired I was writing this last night.  duh.

Title is supposed to read Christmas Eve eve "New Years Eve eve."

We made it to San Antonio.  My sister's favorite place to celebrate her birthday. 

We arrived at our hotel in the early afternoon and officially began our holiday weekend.

I snapped this Instagram of Adam and Rachel in the background (on her iPhone - just like I was). 

I snapped a few pics with my Photobooth app - my hair in a ponytail due to it's horrible oil slick action that's been going on since Thanksgiving...bleck!  A whole other post in itself...

We met up with our best friends, Tammy & Josh and headed down to the colorful and historic San Antonio Market Square.  I made Rachel pose for a picture with this new addition to the square :)

We ate at the amazing Mi Tierra restaurant.  It was delicious as always.

That place has had the same magic and hospitality since I was six years old.  My mom and dad used to take us on summer trips to SA to enjoy the food and the amazing history in SA.  The Mexican bakery at Mi Tierra was one of my favorite places to go.  And the pan dulce (sweet bread) was the BEST the next morning. 

Later that evening we snapped a few pics of the "prank" our friend, Josh, left in our room....that's my left over bloody from our hotel bar, Bar Rojo. 

This owl was left on the light fixture in our hotel bathroom.  Rachel and I were sharing the bathroom to wash our faces and do our bedtime rituals in chatty conversation when I just happened to look up and see our friend staring down at us.  After the initial OMG we had a laugh that continued through the weekend.

The next morning we enjoyed a killer bad-A work out at Gold's Gym San Antonio doing Body Combat, Body Pump with amazing instructors.  It's always a goal of ours (us & our friends) to work out hard so we can play hard when on vacation.  And we met that very goal on New Years Eve morning for sure. 

____________________________________________________________________

It's been a productive and enjoyable weekend - hope yours was as well :)

 

after Christmas

I always look forward to the week after Christmas.  It's nice, as a teacher, to have the week after to spend time at home and get ready to go back for the Spring semester. 

I usually have HUGE dreams for things I will get crossed off my to do list that week.  Clean house, find new places for things that have been getting out of hand during the fall semester, clean out my closet, throw things out, sew a quilt, scrapbook 100 photos, do several craft projects from my Pinterest list, re-decorate our bedroom, paint a room...

See that's why I call them "dreams." :) 

That week, instead, went like this

sleeping in till at least 9 am with this sweet boy.  Which meant that by the time I got up, got dressed for the day, I had about 4 hours before it was time to meet Rachel at the gym :)  So of course, I put off the scrapbooking of 100 photos and probably the quilt...I didn't even have the fabric cut after all.

Enjoyed an awesome manicure night at my grandma's house with my sis, aunts, grandma, and cousins.  Rachel got all of these OPI's in her stocking and brought them over to share and play beauty parlor ;)  And my cousin brought over her copy of The Help, so of course after "beauty parlor", we had to watch it. 

I did manage to get one closet cleaned out a bit, wash and dry my old robes and hang them in said closet.  But gettting rid of clothing?  Well, I chunked out an old fax machine, a scanner, and a few blankets.  But no clothing was gone through.  Unless you count the robes, of course.

More quality time with this sweet face.  How could I resist the face and personality?! 

Enjoyed another family dinner at my grandparents house.  I sort of worked that night on processing and burning photos.  My grandma insists on giving Henry a snack when we he comes over - he gives her puppy dog eyes everytime and gets this.  Lunch meat and chips.  It's no wonder he gets all excited when we say her name.

Thursday I woke to a phone call from my mom (who is also a teacher and is home during the week after Christmas).  She had experienced chest pains during the night and waited till morning to call anyone.

We spent the day in the ER. 

Closets and projects became trivial.

Luckily, her tests were good news.  A week later she had a stress test and bloodwork done - all of which were good healthy news. 

Thank God.

And finally, on Friday we headed to San Antonio to celebrate the new year and my sister's birthday weekend.

I'm a girl with high expectations and lots of dreams of achieving that never-ending list of "to-dos."

But I'm also a girl who enjoys quality time with the people I love. 

Not that I don't love sewing, scrapbooking, crafting, decorating, photography, and and cleaning...well maybe not cleaning, but I recognize that special times with family and friends sometimes trump those things.  Because that's what they are.  things.  And they will always be there.  But a mani/pedi with my grandma, aunts, cousins and sister might not be.  Watching a movie like the Help with my grandparents, who lived during those times, is precious precious time.  My sweet Henry might not always get want to sleep in late with me.  Heck, I may not always "get" to sleep in late the week after Christmas.

Life is about experiences. So if the clothes in my closet stay there until spring break, I will be ok. 

No one ever talks about their life "flashing before their eyes" and all they saw were the closests that never got cleaned out, right?! 

Thanks for dropping by :) 

 

 

 

Christmas

Christmas Eve we made homemade noodles just like Adam's mom and nanna make for Christmas dinner.  This was how our kitchen counter looked with freshly iced sugar cookies and noodles drying.

Christmas morning at my moms house.  Same tradition since we were kids - mom heats up my grandmas tamales for us, and I always have to eat a freshly peeled grapefruit with salt with breakfast.

The trunk of my car upon arriving to my mom's house. 

And finally one of the few photos I snapped at my grandparents house on Christmas day with my iPhone.  Everyone sitting in the living room (small living room), the kids piles stacked up in the middle.  The youngest goes first.  That has always been THE moment of Christmas for me.  Being with all of my family - aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. on Christmas Day eating, laughing, sharing stories, and opening presents.  That moment is when the feeling of Christmas sinks deep my heart and stays there until the next year.  What makes all of the shopping, gift wrapping, crowded long lines, baking, cooking, and decorating all worth it.  That moment is something that cannot be sold or bought, but only felt. 

Thanks for dropping by :)

everyday happenings

that make our lives full of ups, downs, happys, and not so happys but still ultimately grateful for this life. 

Saturday I came home from the gym to this

ay yay yay.

Let me back track a few days.  I complain to Adam after getting out of the shower that there was "more water coming from the spout than the shower head!"  He takes a look at it and decides that he will either have to break the tile on the shower side to fix it, or go in from the other side.  The wall with sheet rock. 

So I guess I should have taken that as my warning.

But it still did not help my shock when i turned the corner into our bedroom to see the hole in our bathroom. 

Joys of living in an old 1930s house.  But I wouldn't trade it. 

Just part of it - and lucky for me, I have a husband that knows how to fix things. 

I've also been seeing things much more clearly too.  Literally, clearer:

in contact lenses :)

And I'm getting to wear sun glasses again.  Thanks to my eye doctor fitting me with contact lenses that feel so much better than the ones I tried wearing years ago.  My 45 minute drive home with the sun is a lot nicer without squinting. 

And finally, my sweet boy also has been enjoying the little things in life

Carpet. 

My mom has carpeted living room and bedroom floors.  Henry loves playing chase and actually having traction when he runs around her house.  But he also loves laying on it (must be a lot softer than hardwood!) while my mom pets and sings to him. 

Tomorrow I will pick back up with Christmas (LOL!), but I thought today I'd post about everyday happenings that are simple but make me happy. 

The Christmas Card 2011

© www.twopeasinabucket.com

We celebrated five years of marriage in October.  Five years of living in our home together and five years of sending out our Christmas cards from this address.  Because of that I decided to create a photo strip of all the past four cards to use as an embellishment on our 5th card. 

I also decided that this year, we would take our photo inside.  Which ended up being harder than I had expected.  We had quite a few outtakes 200 to be exact. 

Adam and Henry waiting patiently while I set up the tripod+remote.

Henry looks thrilled to be wearing that Santa hat, no?

I was gently trying to get H to face the camera instead of looking out the window. nice.

We tried to make H happier by taking off the Santa hat (and me cooler=less sweaty by changing sweaters)...

Uh, no luck.  He was clearly done with this nonsense by the 200th picture.

It is hard work taking photos with a tripod+remote+cute dog.  Gives me great respect for those who take self-family photos with tripod+remote+dogs+kid(s). 

Thanks for dropping by :)

Linocut

**a temporary break to share my first linocut**

Last week, my classes started linocuts.  Having never done one myself, I decided it might be a good idea to work on one too.

Of course, I chose my favorite subject

The process of linocut can be quite confusing at times - the whole process of designating what will stay and be part of the image, and what will be cut out.  My brain, that tends to complicate processes more than they should be, struggled a bit.  But once I decided to make my lines bold and thick, it was easier to tell what I needed to cut away. 

The cuting is quite relaxing to me - tho can be a bit dangerous because of the sharp objects - but I enjoyed each cut and shave. 

I brought mine home and decided to print a few for examples for today. 

Be still my heart. 

I literally squealed out loud when the first print came out. The linoleum blocks really yielded a lot more detail than I expected. 

And finally, I decided to frame it - the frame is not my favorite, but it's one I had laying around the house. 

If you are interested in trying a linocut - I definitely recommend!  It was a fun and semi-short process that equals so much reward. Supplies from DickBlick.com

Speedball Linoleum Cutters

Blick Battleship Gray Mounted Linoleum

Blick Water-Soluble Block Printing Inks

Brayers

Block Printing Paper

You can also watch this how-to video for extra tips - from Dickblick.com

 

Thanks for dropping by :)

 

"we need more cowbell!"

tell me you thought of this

when you saw that title?! Image from this website.

laugh out loud, it's ok.

In our home, we like to use that term to mean anything that needs an extra zip.  A bit more flair.  Spice it up, if you will. 

That's what Adam and I decided about our Christmas lights this year. 

We he (as in Adam, my exterior-illumination-expert-husband) added the extra lights around the two sets of windows to the left of the photo. 

And we he added the lights around the three windows next to the chimney, and the rest to the right of the photo which is the old driveway (now our laundry room). 

For four years in a row we would talk about adding more "cowbell" to our lights after they were already up on the roof.  We'd think of different ways and places to put more lights, but ultimately decide that we would just wait till the next year because by the time we'd find them and put them up, yadda yadda yadda. 

But this year, Adam ordered lights early.  Several strands - and even a box of bulbs that blink (he put those around the door). 

Our my end goal is to look like Clark Griswolds. 

image from this blog.

I kid...sort of ;)

During the Christmas season, I love driving home after dark and being able to spot our house from several blocks away.

Hope your weekend includes "More cowbell" in whatever you do!

Thanks for dropping by :)

Pretty Packaging

Each year since I've been a scrap booker (like forever ;D) I've always tried my best to have unique Christmas packaging.  I just like to add a personal touch to our gift tags mostly.  For the past couple years that Henry has been in our family, he has adorned our gift tags.  This year was no different.

I created our tags in Photoshop, misted white card stock with Maya Road metallic mists, printed them out on misted card stock, and added Henry's sweet mug which was printed out on an adhesive transparency. Sounds like a lot of work, but really, this is the most wonderful time of the year for me to create.  I love this part of gift giving, so I don't consider it "work" ya know?!

Gift under the tree with tags, bakers twine, and toole

I also borrowed an idea found on Pinterest to wrap a gift for my brother-in-law.  I ran out of tags and did not want to print another sheet for 1 tag... I used a similar stamp to this one, which is also from Hero Arts.

The original pin can be found here.

And finally, I just had to snap a pic of the EXTRA special gift I gave my mom.  See the package with the pens drawn on it and doily?! 

I ordered a print from these wonderful artists on Etsy. 

Inside the beautiful package is this print - ordered for my mom's sewing room.  I grouped it with a frame and mat to put it in.  She loved it.

I just adore Suzanne & Edgar's work - and when they send your order in special Christmas packages like this - I mean, WOW - how can you just not LOVE their work more?!!! 

Oh yes.  Pretty presentation is a wonderful part of gift giving to me.

Thanks for dropping by :)

i fell in love with felt in 2011

December. 

It can be a tough month for an art teacher.  I looked for projects that would last a few days at a time.  After Thanksgiving holiday, it's tough to plan a project that will last just long enough to make it to Christmas break - but not too long that it will need continuation after the holiday.  With exam schedules, and activities going on - I was in dyer need of a fun project that my students would enjoy, but also would not last too awful long. 

Then came the day that a few of my students (senior boys) began discussing how they did not know how to sew on a button because in their words, "I'll just go buy another shirt or pair of shorts.  Duh!" 

Being a wife of a dude who can do MANY THINGS, but when a button falls off needs major help, I knew what I needed to do.  It was my duty as their teacher to make sure these boys (and girls too!) would learn for life how to sew a button to fabric before they graduate.  Along with threading a needle, and a simple stitch.  

BINGO. 

And so came the felt ornament project that would last perfectly until the holiday. 

And along with that project, became my love for felt and all cute things involving felt. 

There was the cute owl ornament (inspired by this one - found on Pinterest).

and the Domo cell phone case my 12 year old cousin had requested for Christmas - of which, I had to ask my students for the actual name of the character.  I gave them this description, "you know the brown square with the chompy teeth!"  Luckily, they knew exactly what I was talking about and Googled him for me so I could have a visual :)

the back

then there was the Henry ornament which will make my heart smile each year I put it on the tree

the earphone strap inspired by this item - made out of necessity for the earphones I keep in my school desk for students who borrow them.  With a velcro dot, it really does help to store them without tangles. 

another ornament after I learned how to blanket stitch using a super helpful  and handy PDF from Paper Crafts Magazine.  If you would like to download the PDF file you can visit their website or click here

Download Embroidery_stitch_guide_764 .

and finally this laptop sleeve.  no padding, but does help to keep it from getting scratched when on my desk or bedroom floor

yes, I fell back in love with felt in December 2011.  Still am thanks to all of the great ideas on Pinterest.  Hoping to have more time to create with felt in 2012.  Also hoping to experiment with wool felt, too.  I do not know the difference yet.  So far I've only used poly blend, but I will update when I find out.

My students ornaments turned out really AWESOME too!  Most of them were really excited to take them home and put them on their tree.  And the ultimate goal - did they learn how to thread a needle, sew on a button, and basic stitch all before Christmas break?

YES! They sure did!  And it seemed like they had fun doing so. 

Thanks for dropping by :)