Life In Color

Mind on Overdrive

I wish I could go back to this weekend and just lay around like this some more, but I really think my "lay around time" is going to have to wait until after the wedding, which is um, exactly two months away (but less really when you think about how short February is). Throw in the bridal showers (is it wrong to be so excited about all the gifts?), trips up to Portland (seriously getting to an insane amount), and work and man am I a busy girl. A lucky girl, but a busy one. I had the care of my little sister for five days. Two of those her BBF came over to hang out with us as well. I moved all my furniture in the living room and set up a prime Veronica Mars watching station, complete with in door campfire activities such as marshmallow roasting (toasting?). I am so the coolest big sister ever. Oh, but not for all that wonderful stuff, for schlepping Emilie back and forth to her poor invalid boyfriend (OH MY GOD he must get better by SWEETHEART!!!). Seriously these 15 year olds could not have been cuter or nicer. I really think if you take time to see what teenagers are interested in and really listen to them they are not the animals society makes them out to be. Maybe I'm too close in age (eleven years removed) or maybe it's because they're not mine. But I actually like teenagers.

I also like new friends, and Bj and I had some over this weekend. We invited down a friend of his from work and her boyfriend (hi Courtney and Jim!). I only met them the first time at the company party (which I do have a picture of this year, instead of a drawing, but I need to get it from Bj). Not only does Courtney read my blog, which obviously makes her first rate, but they like to play games! And they brought some! We even got my sister in on a nice round of Scattagories. We stayed up way too late to make it to Sue's crop on time, but we did drop in for a bit. I got more paper (because I so need more paper, right?). And Sue said something about me not scrapbooking anymore. And it's weird because I think about scrapbooking, and I use some of my supplies, but I guess it has been a while, and I got this pang of guilt. But my plate is so full right now, I mean I have like 16 unwatched Baby Stories on my TiVo right now, and I don't think that's ever happened before!

Other than that it's all wedding stuff. We have the reception place, Dj, band, photographer (oh ya, we need to have engagement shots taken, don't know if that's going to happen), dress (it's a surprise!), wedding bands picked out (but not bought) and... no church. I have a clear line on one, it's so spendy, but there aren't a lot of options. The list of stuff I still need to do or get is huge: chandeliers/ other lighting schemes, pick out trees, knit Violet's dress, table settings, flowers/florist, shoes, which then have to be dyed, invitations, cake, dessert bar, mini champagne, calligrapher, stamps, gifts (bj, my girls, parents, etc), magically loose 10 pounds with out working out or sweating or stopping eating the candy. And can some one tell my why there isn't "Amber green" as a general choice on various wedding related things, like table linens? Sage is so last century people.

Chillin

Here's a good chance for you to see how I will dress my future children, as I chose Violet's outfit yesterday (and she freaked when I changed her into it, Violet darling, no pain no gain). My mom and I went up to Portland yesterday and dropped me off at Michele's. After lunch (and rice crispy treats, yum!) we went to Oblation where I am having my RSVP cards printed (I wish I could have my whole invite printed here, but it is spend). Sciarrino designed these awesome simple cards that I can not wait to get back (and I'll get them back soon, I had to put a rush on the order). I brought in my own printmaking paper, since I'm a snob since I had some sitting around. When we got there and saw the type and presses, oh my gosh I just wanted to run over and play with one, I miss printmaking!!!

Then my mom and I went to Barefoot Sage for a little relaxation action. Ahhh so nice. We ran a couple more errands, hit up bolt (craft room curtains coming soon!), and checked out another possible chuch. I didn't like it, so I'm thinking of maybe just going with first pres. downtown. We'll see.

Right Here

I keep hearing "where are the kits?!?!" They are right HERE. For some reason my website isn't really sorting by newest on the new page so you have to go to page two. There was one jar left, and 18 kits at the time of this post.

The birds out of the bag

Awe, thanks you guys for all your sweet comments. And I must say, especially to my dear friend Sciarrino who I called at 2am to come spend the night with me because I was too freaked out that with out a car parked out front someone would think no one was home and try to break in. Sciarrino you rock! She and my mom also rock for helping me with another cool project. I have a new product at the ribbon jar, a Valentine kit. It's so cute, and full of really fun stuff.

I can't link it because I'm not going to release it until 9am tomorrow (jan. 23rd, pacific time), but it will be on the new page. But check it out the cool cards and things we made up this weekend with all the goodies right HERE.

Jackpot

The Sumco letters! I have them! Remember when I was all, ohhh what should I do with these? Well I have two big bins of them now. Actually it didn't take that much work to get them off the buildings. One sign was like this:

We took the sign down, then flipped it over, unscrewed and got this:

Some of them were mounted right on the building so we had to do a little prying:

I like my dad's face here, it really wasn't that hard. These letters all have screws sticking out the back. I might take them off before I offer them up for the swap, what do you think, should I?

After we got to the wall. So I think I'm going to take pictures of each one individually and then do a separate blog/photo album where I can put them all up one by one with the left over blue letters as well. Then I'll put a price or trade on them. I really want to do the trade, but I know some people said they just wanted to buy them. The metal ones are really nice, thick, must be stainless steel with a brushed finish I think. What do you think of that plan? I'm going to work on it after I get the newsletter for Ribbon Jar out tonight (cool new product coming, look for it!).

Karma

So I was walking up to my car after lunch on Saturday on the phone with Matt when Bj says, "someone broke into your car." Sure enough:

I was freaking pissed! I mean hello! I had nothing of value in there, NOTHING! I keep my car "showroom clean" just like they tell you to. So what did they go for. Well first of all they tried to get in through the front door by breaking the lock, not so easy, huh? So they broke this window and unlocked the door. At which point I'm betting my alarm went off and they only got this:

One of the faces off of my stereo, the one that isn't required to make the stereo work, so not a huge loss. But still, argh!!! I don't have the kind of insurance that would cover this because the car just isn't worth that much any more (of course to me it's priceless). So then Bj took off and went to go get clean up supplies and a plastic bag to cover the window. I'm standing there in the cold parking lot and it starts to sink in, and I'm a girl so I cry. I just stand there in my way too big puffy coat and cry and cry. These guys (soon to be known as assholes) are one row over and a few cars down and working on their car or something when they start talking really loudly (Spanish so I don't know about what). Then they start pointing and laughing at me. As I stand there crying all alone. AHHHHHHH That made me more mad than anything and I just felt so low. They drove off and Bj came back, but it was hard to get my mojo back.

The drive home did let me calm down a bit and got me thinking about karma. I mean, why me? What  have I done, I can think of some things, I'm not perfect, but lately it seems like more bad than good is happening. Still no church to get married at, the florist fell through, and I just found out that I'm not going to have a flower girl. I think you can see where I'm going with this.... Am I about to win the lottery?!?!? I just can't help feeling that I'm being set up for a great reversal of fortune. I mean Justin Timberlake said it best, "what goes around, goes around, goes around, goes all the way back around" (repeat).

Details, details

A few more details. The whole reason I called this post High Strung was because that's the name of the paint on the floor. I was at Sherman Williams with my mom and found a paint chip almost exactly the color of my Franklin planner, I knew that was THE color! The fabric for the curtains is a silk I originally bought for the Ribbon Jar to sell as these strips. It's really expensive and the strips didn't go over well, so I was stuck with it all (the curtains in the living room is the same fabric in a different color way). I'm so glad it worked out that I could find someway to use it all, because it is so beautiful. Check out the curtains open with the tie backs my brother helped me install last night:

Let there be light! And now onto the shame of my house... the lack of curtains in the craft room. A room that faces to the street, and for months my neighbors have seen sheets and an old coverlet up on sagging tension rods. This can be no more, and I'm testing out fabrics:

I was going to go all blue/turquoise, but then I found that print, that awesome colorful print, and I think I want to find more like it, or more colors like that, and do long stripes all the way down. Each curtain (there will be three) will be a little different.  Emilie and I found a curtain rod we liked at Target, so I have to go to another Target now and get one in the right size for the other window, but I hope you will see this project done soon.

And in totally other news Iman a blog reader for a long while is letting me post about her family's exciting adventure. They are in the process of making a documentary called Eagle or Ostrich. While they don't know yet if the movie will be made they don't know when the movie will come out the preview is very cool (thanks for the update Iman. It's supposed to air on PBS when it is release, awesome because we can all watch it!). It's about an American Muslim learning to fly in the aftermath of 9/11. I love documentaries, and it's one of the main reasons I miss NetFlix. Just the human interest of it all. Good luck to you Iman and family! And you just might have the cutest kids ever!

p.s. check out my picture of the day today, I think it's one of my favorites, I set it as my desktop, yummy!

Lunch, Amber Style

First gather your ingredients:

Roth's outdoor roll, Tillamook cheddar cheese, tuna fish, diet coke and pizza pan (thanks grandma for the pan!) Put into oven (on broil):

The pizza sheet makes the bread crispy on the bottom too. Put the sandwich in before the oven heats up all the way, otherwise burning will happen.

Take out of oven shot solely to show you cute oven mitt thing my step mom got me in my stocking this Christmas. Rib-it!

Lunch! This is so the quickest way to make a tuna melt, and I bet healthier too because there is no buttered bread. Pickle and two carmel rice cakes finish it off. Better than what I have been eating, huh mom?

One Side Down

I have one side of my lower floor (because it is so NOT a basement) done just the way I like it:

Looking straight at the side with my desk and shelf thing I built to the left, and cutting/packing station to the right.

The said shelf thing.

And the desk. The great thing about getting things for cheap at estate sales, like this $25 desk, that I then put about $20 into refinishing (and a lot of elbow grease) is that I don't feel bad nailing something into the side of it. On the side you can't see I mounted the power strip so now the desk is a lot cleaner. I also found how to hang stuff on these concrete walls. I don't use the concrete. Instead I hung a line down from a nail in the molding we put up, like a gallery would do. That's how I got the new Target clock to stay up. And on the opposite wall:

I think all this space really wants now is a super cute vintage step stool (I pulled the freebie plastic one I scored out for the picture. It works, but it's a bit sad looking), more art on the walls and a cool packing table instead of the fold up one I'm using now. I'm thinking old library table. Hmmm who has one of those, oh ya, MOM, aren't you sick of that thing yet?  Although the laundry area isn't re-painted yet (and may not be for a while as the floors are still not perfectly dry and I want to wait for warmer weather), I did some improvements:

These two windows Finally have curtains! Now looking at this I really wish the curtain over the sink could be full length like the rest, but with the pipes it's just not possible. I did also get the pull backs on for the long curtains. They are mounted on the frame and are hidden when the curtains are closed. Much easier than mounting in concrete. Pictures of that later, when I have a sunny day. Check out the sick curtain I made out of part of my Hawaiian fabric stash, is it not awesome? I solved a potentially horrendous rod situation by just using a shower curtain rod.

I pulled everything out that had been piling up since I got this thing, cleaned the shelves and really organized it. I'm working on getting curtain rods and pull backs for the craft room, and those pull backs come in sets of two, so I will have one extra I will use down here for this I think. I'm a little sad at using all this fab fabric that I was going to back a quilt with, but at least I'll get to look at it everyday, and I can always pull it down and use it over.

Since I've been doing all of this, plus work, plus knitting, I've fallen really behind on my emails. So if you're waiting for a response I'm so sorry, but I'm going to be ultra busy through the weekend and I may not get right back to you.

Happy Snowy Morning!

It's full on snowing here, and I love it! Until ten this morning not a car had been down my street. Ah to live on a street with such homebodies, it's great! It's been so freaking cold, barely getting above freezing for days, with out so much as a flake, so this is much nicer. It's supposed to warm up a bit, and maybe melt some of it, but then we will freeze over night, so it could be a royal mess tomorrow (you know, the day I have to drive to Portland). I stayed up super late organizing Ribbon Jar, and am going to put some finishing touches on it today then take pictures! Enjoy your weather what ever it may be!