Anniversary + B-Day = Disney & Vegas

Hello everyone! I had the most exciting week, and I can't wait to tell you all about it! Last week was our six year wedding anniversary and a couple of days later was my birthday. We decided to celebrate both occasions by going to Disney and Las Vegas! Actually, my good friend was getting married in Vegas and it just so happened to occur at a great time for us, so we turned her wedding into a little mini vacation for us. As for Disney, you get in free this year on your birthday, so I thought, "Why not?!"

The day we went to Disney was perfect! It was sunny, but mild. A soft breeze cooled us off in the afternoon and kept the air nice and fresh. When I went to redeem my free pass, I received a button that said, "Happy Birthday, Samantha!" I wore it proudly all day long, and so many people wished me a happy birthday! Of course, I wasn't the only one celebrating that day. You always think that your birthday is special and it's always a surprise to meet someone else born on *your* day. I mean, you know you share your birthday with millions of others, but you don't truly appreciate that fact until you're at Disneyland where every other person seems to have a "Happy Birthday" button on, too! It was really fun to see people of all ages celebrating that day.

For lunch we ate at the Carnation Cafe on Main Street. We were hungry by the time we got there, and we had to wait about 30 minutes for a table, but the yummy food more than made up for the wait. Our waitress also brought out a surprise mini sundae because it was my birthday! How cool is that?

Oh yeah, it was good! After we ate lunch, we headed over to the newly refurbished It's a Small World ride. It looked like they put a fresh, crisp coat of paint on the outside.

The line was LONG, but it moved very quickly. They changed a few things inside, but it's still the wonderful nostalgic ride I remember from my childhood.

The absolute longest line we were in was for Indiana Jones. We waited about an hour. I {heart} this ride! It's so original and so much fun. And, we scored a front row seat as we had done all day long. I don't know if it was the magic of my birthday button or the luck of the Irish :)

The next day we were off to Vegas! Although I was pretty tired, I was really excited to see my friend get married. I was also totally excited to crash in the awesome hotel room I booked for us. We stayed at the new Red Rock Casino and Hotel. It *rocked!*

Our hotel room was spectacular! The view was breathtaking, and the amenities were just perfect.

See that nice TV above the tub? How cool is that? I did soak in that crazy deep marble tub and I did watch TV while soaking. It was heaven...

The wedding was just beautiful. It was held at a location that specifically does weddings and banquets only. She got married outside next to this gorgeous waterfall (unfortunately, it was hard to hear the service because of said waterfall), and we walked about 100 feet to the reception area. Perfect!

I even managed to get the hubby out on the dance floor. No pictures of that (bummer), but here we are enjoying the evening. I would have taken more pictures, but my camera died, and the back-up batteries were dead, too. Rats.

The following day was good and bad. It was good because we ate at the Red Rock's fab buffet for free (it was part of the package deal I got) and then we went to the movies since we got free movie tickets with the room package as well. We saw "Knowing" with Nicholas Cage. Great movie all the way up the cheesy ending. I don't recommend it, but then again, I'm super picky about my movies.

The rest of the day was a downer because I wanted to go to a few scrap stores and my favorite bead store. The first scrap store was a bust. They just didn't have anything that floated my boat. From there, we went to the bead store, and when we finally got there after fighting traffic for what seemed like hours, we found them out of business. I was really quite upset not only because they were my all-time favorite bead store, but also because they didn't announce that on their website which I checked that morning. By that time, it was too late to go to the other crafting stores, so we headed over to Outdoor World, our last planned stop. I love this store.

And that was my week! I do have a wedding card to share with you all, but I'll do that later in the week. I need to head to bed!

TONS of Blog Candy

Hello everyone! Today I had some random desire to enter a few give-a-ways (okay, more than a few, obviously), and I wanted to share them with you. Have fun and good luck!

Cat's Whiskers is giving a way a fun blog candy prize! Hop over and enter yourself before midnight tonight.

Artfully Ila is giving away some stamps! Fun! You have to enter by tonight to win.

Crafter's Kitchen has a bunch of unmounted stamps to give away, but you only have until midnight GMT tonight. Hurry!

The Crafting Adventures of a Left-Handed Blonde is celebrating her one year anniversary. Enter by March 26th to win!

Zoe at A Personal Touch is giving away some lovely blue blog candy. Her give-a-way ends March 27th.

Love to Doodle is also giving away some candy. You have until March 27th to enter.

Imgaine, Inspire, Create is also having a give-a-way ending March 27th. Enter here.

The Paper Gourmet is giving away some fun stamps! Enter by March 27th to win.

Tiffany is giving away some great SU stuff in celebration of her trip to Hawaii this week. You have until March 27th to enter.

Scrapishments is hosting a blog candy, too! You have until March 29th to enter.

Helen's Craft Haven is celebrating 5,000 hits. Enter here by March 30th to win some great stuff.

Sonia at Scraps 4 Fun is having a give-a-way, too. Enter by March 31st to win.

Olde Country Creations is giving stuff away, too. Enter by March 31st to win.

Glitter me Silly is celebrating her 100th follower and has some great stuff to give away. Enter by April 1st to wn.

Want to win 72 Copic Markers? You have until April 10th to complete the requirements for this huge blog candy. Click here to read more.

My first Birthday Card!

Hello bloggers! I am still getting over a nasty little case of what I can only assume is the flu. Chills and fevers, achy body, terrible congestion, and extreme fatigue kept me in bed the majority of last week. I'm slowly but surely getting out and about, but it's been a slow process. In the meantime, I received my first birthday card yesterday! Woo-hoo! I L-O-V-E it! My friend, Patti, has such a unique style. She's always making shabby-chic cards with a twist.


Isn't it just beautiful, and isn't it so me? Thank you, Patti! You brightened this sick girl's day more than you know :)

My postings will probably continue to be sporadic, but bear with me! I plan to get my groove on soon.

PS - Happy St. Patty's Day!! Now go kiss a cute Irishman :)

My current favorite place

I am so sick :( I have spent the majority of my day here, in my bed with the humidifier on and the cats snuggled up against me. Whatever I have started last night around 10 when my friend and I were crafting. It was weird. I could just feel my body getting sick. It started with sneezes, then graduated to sniffles which led to a stuffed/runny nose (how that happens at the same time, I do not know). Then my throat started to hurt and my ears got plugged. Before I knew it, my entire body was achy and just screaming to go to bed. So that's just what I did. I'm now hopped-up on cold medicine :)

I did make some cards yesterday, but I just haven't had the energy to photograph them and download them to the computer. I think I'm going to take it easy for a while, so I may not post again until next week. We'll see.

Oh, and before I forget, the Vanilla Joy blog is giving away a free Cuttlebug. Just enter before midnight March 11th. Good luck!

Yippeeee-Skippy!

Hello bloggers! Gotta love a good Monday morning feeling, right? Did everyone remember to spring forward over the weekend? Yeah, I kind-of flaked out on that one. Needless to say, I slept in a little past my normal wake-up time yesterday, but that's okay. I'm back on track today.

I'm happy to report that I had a fabulous weekend. I spent Friday night at my friend, Ana's, house making cards and chatting away with the gals. Could it get any better than that? Yes! Saturday we went over to a BBQ at my other friend, Jackie's, house. We ate, drank, and were quite merry! Sunday was even more exciting because my hubby finally found some time to install some shelves in my craft room closet as well as hang my $5 scrapbook garage sale find above my new table. I spent the rest of the day moving stuff around and organizing some more. You know, I really ought to organize for a living. I mean, I love to find long-term storage solutions not only for myself, but for others, too. I've helped many friends get their areas squared away. Who knows? Maybe I'll start my own business! LOL!

Without further adieu, here is my new and improved space. First up, a before picture of my shelves:

This system was working okay for me, but I really didn't like having my Stampin' Up sets out in the open. It was too cluttered in my mind. So, here's what it looks like now:

I moved all of my Stampin' Up sets into the newly installed shelves inside the closet. All of the ink pads went with them. The individual wood-mounted stamps got moved to a new, better location which you'll see in just a minute.

Now let's move onto my main creative space. Here's my new table before my honey put up the $5 garage sale find:

And here it is after:

I moved the wood-mounted stamps that used to be on the other shelves above my table so that I could see them while I'm crafting. I also found a new home for my spice-spinner that houses most all of my buttons. You'll see where I put that in a minute.

Here's a quick pic of that $5 find I found at a garage sale:

I love, love, LOVE this shelf unit! I like that I can have my favorite wood mounted stamps out and in the open where I can see them while I create. I still have room for more stuff, but I'm going to leave it like this for now. I don't want it too cluttered. Eventually, I plan to paint it, but for now, it works.

Now here's what table looked like underneath before:

And now here it is after with just one more 12x12 paper storage unit added. I still need to sort through my drawers and organize them a bit better. I'm probably being neurotic, but I'm okay with that ;)

My honey also installed some shelves inside the closet for me. I don't have a before shot, but there really wasn't anything there to see anyway. Now, I have three shelves that hold my Stampin' Up sets and Paper Trey Ink sets as well as my ink pads. My button spice rack is also now located inside the closet. The top fourth shelf already existed and currently holds old Big Red (i.e., my old Sizzix die cut machine), dies, and my PaperGator.

Here's the other side of the closet:

This side houses the rest of my wood mounted stamps as well as my clear stamp collection which is located in the black binders and in the two 12x12 d-ring albums (with the black and pink spines) on the top shelf. The large basket houses my polymer clay tools. As you can see, I also have some of my favorite magazines in here on the top shelf. I got those magazine holders at Target for $1 AND they have birdies all over them! Can't beat that.

To finish it all off, I actually did a little scrapping last night! Woo-hoo! Here's what I'm working on:

It's a 12x12 page for Sedona's album. Obviously, I still have some pictures to add, but at least I got to try out my new table. Yay! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Just for fun!

Hello! Today I want to share a quick video of my Great Dane, Sedona, running around the yard with her favorite toy - her basketball. You're about to see 175 lbs. of pure muscle prancing around the yard. She also growls at the ball, so if you want to hear her, turn up your volume!

I don't have anything crafty to share with you today. I've been swamped with work (thanks, Staci)! I will see you all soon, hopefully with a card or something. Later!

PS - Did anyone watch American Idol last night? Oh, that poor guy who sang that Elton John song...Alex Wagner...poor kid. He was not on top of his game last night. I thought Scott MacIntyre sang with a lot of passion as did Jorge Nunez. Felicia Barton sang well and so did Kristin McNamara. I thought the judges were too harsh on Kristin. They keep telling people to make songs "their own" and she did! Those judges don't even know what they're saying half the time. Also, I liked Ju'not Joyner's smooth performance. Gosh, it's going to be a tough call! I can't wait until the results show tonight!

Out with the old and in with the new!

Howdy, bloggers! I've missed blogger-land these past couple of weeks, but honestly, nothing exciting was going on around here for me to blog about. I'm happy to report that I finally have some new projects and a new crafting area! Woo-hoo! Let's start with a couple of Stampin' Up lovelies.

First up is a very simply, easy-peasy card. It took me about 15 mintues to put together, seriously. I did a little embossing on the hearts which are from the Sale-A-Bration set Polka Dot Punches, and I used the new large heart punch to get those hearts just perfect. A little Certainly Celery ribbon from the Sale-A-Bration catalog finished it all up.


Remember, Sale-A-Bration (SAB) runs through March 31st. For every $50 in merchandise you spend, you get to pick an item from the SAB catalog! And, if that wasn't enough to get you excited, Stampin' Up is allowing its customers to order certain stamp sets from the not-yet-released Occasions Mini Catalog this month! To see the flyer, click HERE.

My next little project is a 6x6 scrap page. Nothing too fancy going on here. Just a little stampin' using the Eastern Blooms stamp set and some brads.

Want to see my new craft area now? First, let me remind you what my old area looked like:

It wasn't a bad little space. My only complaint was that my work surface just wasn't big enough to accommodate the stuff I normally keep on the table as well as the mess I made while creating. So, I traded up for this beauty:

Isn't it pretty? Not only is it bigger, but it's higher, too, which will allow me to create standing up or sitting down on my oh-so comfy draft chair. I've always liked to craft standing up, so when I saw this table, I knew it would be perfect for my needs. Plus, I was able to take down the tall stack of paper containers and store them under the table.

I still have more than enough room for my legs when I'm sitting down, and as you can see, I have room for two more 12x12 storage containers! Although it's functional, I still have some work to do in this little corner. I'm planning to possibly shift the four pink bulletin boards up since they no longer work at the height they're at now. I'm also contemplating hanging this really awesome shelf unit I got at a scrap garage sale for $5 :) I might even put up some more 12x12 frames so that I can display my recently completed scrap pages. Maybe I should put up another inspiration board. Some clipboards? A picture? So many possibilities! We'll see how this area takes shape. I'm really looking forward to jazzing it up and actually creating something on my new table.

That's about all from my end! I'm looking forward to American Idol tonight. It's a guilty pleasure, and I LOVE IT! Catch you all later!