Wire and Clay and Beads, Oh My!

Yes, I am allowed to do a play on words with a Wizard of Oz reference...I am from Kansas ya know?

Another craft I like to dabble in is jewelry making. This weekend I this cool necklace with three cords inter-twining with each other. It was actually a kit I got at Michael's, but now I know how to make these necklaces and can put my own spin on it. They might be a good bridesmaid gift for a wedding or something....hmmm....

I have also decided how to finally effectively use polymer clay. I can make my own beads! This is very exciting to me. I knew it was possible, but never really tried it. Now that I've tried it I'm hooked. I created these pink and white beads and connected them with chain to form a necklace. I ran out of beads and chain, so its not as long as I wanted it. So, since I don't have to go to the store to find the exact beads I used...I just made some more! Such fun happenings!



Sorry that the picture quality isn't that great. I took the pictures of the necklaces inside, but then thought I could get a better one outside so I wouldn't have to use a flash. That didn't work very well and I decided not to post those. One thing I need to work more on is my photo taking abilities. Especially with up close subjects. I better get to working with that macro setting on my camera.

Thank You Cards

Another thing I wanted to do with this blog is showcase some of the crafts I've been working on. I enjoy making cards and jewelry the most and like to dabble in other techniques as well.

I am usually pretty bad about sending thank you cards. Since I'm obsessed with making all my own cards, I have a hard time getting instantly motivated to make a thank you card after I receive a present. Its my goal to make cards in advance so I have a stock of them that I can just choose from. After my birthday, I thought it was so nice for people to give me gifts that I came up with a great idea for a card design I could do on the computer. I'm proud of it at least. Then I just printed a few out and walla...Thank you cards for the masses. Now why didn't I just think of that before? (because I'm lazy...oh yeah, that's right!) Here is a picture of the cards I made. I waited to post this until after I sent them out to people I got gifts from for my b-day.

Happy Hours!

Last night I crashed a happy hour at Trailhead in Old Town St. Charles. I was technically invited by the honoree, just not by the organizer...so I can say I crashed it and feel like a rebel. It was for my friend Juan who is leaving his current flight test program. A few guys I used to work with were there, Jared, Nate, Don, Cecil, Brain and Eugene. We had a nice time just sitting around, eating bbq chicken pizza and drinking Trailhead beer. Their featured flavor of beer was a hazelnut something or other, but we think that anyone who ordered a dark beer got it... Amber Beer, Brown Ale, Hazelnut Beer, its all the same, right? I think that is what our server thought. I was trying to be home to watch The Office, but was shamed by Eugene and Brian who gave me a hard time about getting home to watch a TV show. There are only two TV shows I like to be home for...Office and Gilmore Girls... so I don't think I'm too obsessed with TV! I was glad I stayed because it was nice talking to everyone again and reminiscing about old times. I didn't have a camera with me, so I have no pictures of last night to post. Because I'm picture crazy I decided to put up a few pictures from my trips I took for the program to Italy and Australia.



Left: The streets of Caligari, Sardinia (Italy). Right: The outback of Woomera, Australia.

I Love Shopping!

This weekend was a continuation of my birthday, because Mom and Dad drove out from Overland Park. We had a great time (and not just because I got more presents and a dinner).

Saturday was snowy and cold, but we still made it out wedding dress shopping! Jenna and Amy joined my mom and me and went to An Elegant Event bridal shop in Chesterfield. It was such a cute store. They had some really nice designer gowns. I am really liking Maggie Sottero dresses.

This would be a great place for me to put some pictures of myself in the gowns acting all pretty and princess-y. That is not going to happen because Mike is not allowed to know what my gown will look like. I think it is such a neat traditions to not let the groom see the bride in her gown until she takes her first steps down the aisle. So I won't post dress pictures until after the wedding. In the mean time, here is a picture I drew on power point to commemorate the wedding gown trying on event.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is my Valentine Monkey. I'm very proud of him because I drew him on the computer. No hi-tech software for me...just good ol' power point. I think he turned out pretty cute!

Mike and I didn't do too much for Valentine's Day since we already did the whole out to dinner romantic thing for my birthday. And, we didn't have to wait for a table since no one seems to go out on Monday nights. Mike was sweet and he brought me home some roses and a nice card.



I made him a card...I know I know...isn't that what you do in second grade for your crush? Its something I enjoy doing, so he likes getting them. At least that's what he tells me. Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

It's Still Winter?

I guess I need to move back to California because this winter stuff is killing me! Its cold, traffic is horrible, its cold! Rouge, on the other hand, seems to love the snow. I thought that was weird considering he's a southern dog.

Its been such a crazy winter because we've had two bad ice storms too. I guess the only thing

that I actually like about winter is the neat pictures I can get of frozen trees and stuff. Here are some pictures of the ice storm from December.

Yes, I shoveled the driveway (only Mike's side since he went to work) and it was all ice under the snow. Check out how thick that dang ice is on the driveway! I had muscles of steel afterwards!

Below are some pictures from the storm in January.

It came through on a weekend and the roads weren't that bad, but it did a lot more damage to trees (in our neighborhood, not our trees).

It also knocked out power to most of Saint Charles, but we were very lucky and didn't have to deal with that.

Happy Birthday to Me and My Blog!

Today is my 27th birthday and I've decided to start a blog. No, I'm not going through a midlife crisis or anything. I just thought it'd be fun to talk about my life and silly stuff like that. Hence the name of the blog. Also, I'm jealous every time I read Mica and Laura's blogs and that I don't have one! ;)

For my birthday I threw myself a birthday party. I had it on Saturday even though today is my actual birthday. I had some work friends come over, Nate and Heather, Jeremy, and Matt. Also, our next door neighbors, Amy and Ryan came and brought my birthday cake. I felt silly when people were singing happy birthday, but it was nice, so I didn't mind.


Above: Me and my cake...yum!

Left: Amy and Me...Thanks for the cake, Amy!


Jenna, Dave, and Adelle were able to come down from Edwardsville. We had not met Adelle yet, so it was such a nice birthday present. She was a very good baby and only cried in the picture we took of her with Mom and Dad.

Left: Jenna, Dave and Adelle

Below: Adelle just chillin' in her cute Valentine's Day outfit.

Before the gathering, I was worried no one was going to come over...it wouldn't have been the first time with the TR&A work group! So I was also paranoid everyone would get bored and leave by 10:30. So we had to start playing card games. After some hard thinking (thinking is harder after a few beers)...we decided to play card game golf. It was fun...Nate ended up winning, but I came in second place...not bad for a drunko-princess-birthday-girl, huh?

It was nice to hang out with everyone. We will do it again sometime soon! I'll take more pictures too. I tried to take pictures of people in action, but tried it without the flash so they all turned out blurry.

Tonight, on my actual birthday, Mike took me Lewis and Clark's on Main Street Saint Charles. We were supposed to go to Tony's but didn't realize it was closed on Monday's. Oh well. I had halibut and Mike had mai-mai. Great fish straight from the Mississippi River. Yeah right! It actually was pretty good. We are now talking about having our rehearsal dinner there. We still have a lot of wedding planning to do, but I'll save that for another post!

Above: Mike and I at Lewis and Clark's

Left: Puppy likes to say happy birthday to me too!


Thank you for reading my first blog entry. I will try to keep it up and keep everyone updated about the silly stuff that goes on in our lives.