Hello world.

I can't believe it's been two months since my last post! I don't think I've ever gone this long without updating my blog. I guess that's a sign that I've been super busy! So what have I been up to? Lots...

Travis and I have been enjoying the awesome weather and hanging out with friends. Spring is definitely upon us. Check out all the wildflowers on the side of this canyon we recently hiked with friends.

Even the kids enjoyed the hike including the 22 month old! She insisted on walking the entire distance all by herself. Too cute.

Travis and I climbed to the top if this really neat rock pile where we could see the entire canyon floor. I'm so glad my friend was with us to snap this picture since we rarely get photos of the two of us out in the field other than the infamous out-stretched-arm self-portrait.

Speaking of outings, back in mid-February, we invited our friend and her little girl to go to a festival of sorts. It was right off the river, and it was so much fun! We went antique shopping (yup, found myself a great find) and had a blast browsing all of the outdoor vendors.

My friend's little girl desperately wanted to get her face painted. Unfortunately, there were no face painting booths to be found, so I improvised with some lip stick and a lip brush. She was one happy camper after that!

During my blog break, I celebrated my 29th birthday...again :)

My FABULOUS BFF actually made me a quilt! It's gorgeous. I almost can't wait for winter to come again so I can use it! Almost.

My wonderful friends decided to surprise me and take me for a picnic at the LA Arboretum. What a fantastic idea!

It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day for a picnic - blue skies, mild temperatures, no wind. Perfection.

The birds thought it was a good day to be outside, too.

The master-mind behind this trip is my very good friend. We've been chilling together a lot lately. Such a good soul.

Speaking of friends, I've been crafting a lot with them lately like at this charity crop back in early March.

I've made a few jewelry pieces like this owl lanyard for my friend, Taylor, over at Taylored Expressions. I was lucky enough to see her on my actual birthday! She was teaching a class locally, so I spent my birthday evening creating fun Easter cards.

A few days before my birthday, Travis and I celebrated our seven year wedding anniversary. Wow. Has it really been seven years already? A few days ago we celebrated thirteen years of knowing each other. Happy Anniversary, hun! You're the bestest :)

(Picture taken August 2003)

Running has also become a big part of my routine again lately. I had to take a break earlier this year due to constantly being sick, but now I'm up to running 4 miles five to six times a week. Half that distance is straight up hill. Talk about a work out!

I can't guarantee that I'll be blogging regularly again since I'll be embarking on a new endeavor soon, but I hope to pop in more often than every two months! See you soon!

Birds & Dogs

TGIF, my friends! I'm proud to have made it through an entire week of blogging just as I said I would try to do. Yay! Today I was outside enjoying the weather with Sedona, and I spied with my little eye a white crowned sparrow. These sparrows are pretty common in the general area where I live, but he's the first I've seen in about a year. He's too cute with his bright orange beak and black and white stripped head, don't you think?

While I had my camera, I took the opportunity to film Sedona playing with her basketball. She's so funny!



I'll be back on Monday to share pictures of my weekend. We're going to a festival, so I'm sure I'll have lots to show you all. Have a great weekend!

Kiss Me - It's almost Valentine's Day

Yee-haw it's *almost* Friday! Why am I so excited about the weekend? The hubs and I are going to a festival of sorts with our lovely friend and her girls, so I'll be outta here for a few days! It's going to be super fun, and I'm sure I'll have a few pictures to share with you all next week.

For now, I have this super simple, super fun Valentine's Day card. Normally, I only make a Valentine's Day card for my hubby, but this year I decided to expand my horizons and include a few extra special people. Since I had more than one card to make, I wanted a simple design. Here's what I came up with.


It's hard to tell from the picture, but I did put some Glossy Accents over the heart to make it all shiny and dimensional. I thought the yellow bling gave the crown exactly what it needed - sparkle!

I'll see you all tomorrow with one last project for the week!

A more detailed look at my craft room

Howdy folks! Today I have another quick video to share showing a few more details of my craft room. In the last video, I wasn't able to show everything due to time limitations, so I thought it would be fun to show you all what you missed as well as give you peeks inside drawers and baskets. Maybe you'll find one of my organizational tips handy for your own needs! Enjoy :)

Another Fun Necklace!

Hello everyone! Today I'd like to share with you another ID badge necklace I made for my BFF. She requested that I incorporate the colors of the agency she works for into the design. Since green and blue are the predominant colors of the agency's emblem, those are the colors I went with.

I used Swarovski crystals and pearls as well as silver-lined seed beads to really make this one sparkle since she's all about the bling!

Finally, she wanted me to use the butterfly charm to tie the necklace together.

All in all, I'm super pleased with how this one turned out! Who knew green and blue would work so well together? See you all tomorrow!

Fun & Fashionable ID Badge Necklaces

The other day I was chastised by a few of my friends who read my blog regularly. They said I wasn't updating it often enough, so I'm going to try my best to blog Monday through Friday like I used to do. I may skip a day here and there, but I'm going to do my best!

Today I'd like to share with you some ID badge necklaces I made a few weeks ago for some friends who attended the Stampin' Up regionals in Arizona. Each lady had a specific request in terms of color and theme. I had so much fun creating them, and I think they came out pretty nice! If you want a personalized necklace to hold your ID badge, just shoot me an e-mail and we'll talk!

First up is an all purple necklace. I used a mix of amethyst stones and glass beads as well as Swarovski crystals to create this monochromatic look.

This next necklace is all about nature. I used olive green glass beads mixed with brown Swarovski crystals to achieve this look.

My friend also wanted to incorporate butterflies and flowers. Although it's hard to tell from the picture, there are actually hand painted pink flowers on the green glass beads that are sandwiched in between the silver bead caps.

To add in the butterfly, I used this very pretty charm to hold the entire necklace together.

Last but not least is this fun pink and green necklace. My friend wanted me to use the antique copper flower charm to hold the necklace together, so I looked in my stash and found a bunch of butterflies and round beads in that same color! To tie it all together, I adored this one with pink glass beads and Swarovski crystals.

I hope you enjoyed looking at these fun ID badge necklaces! If you're interested in having one made just for you, please send me an e-mail at nature_journey@yahoo.com. I'll have more of these necklaces to share with you later in the week. Until then, have a good one!

Organzing your stamps + a video

Hi everyone! I wanted to share a quick video I put together showing how I organize my Stampin' Up stamps, my random wood mounted stamps and my clear and unmounted stamps. Please let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy!

My Craft Room and CHA 2010

Hello bloggers! I am so excited to share with you all the fun things I've been up to these past couple of weeks. I think the most fun thing I did was go to the CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) consumer Super Show in Anaheim last Friday. What a crazy day! I had to drive through snow, fog and rain to get to the show, but just like the post man, nothing was going to stop me from getting to my destination! After all, this was the very first winter consumer show that CHA has sponsered, and I wasn't about to miss it.

I met alot of great people at the show, and I even bumped into a few friends as well. My first stop was at the Split Coast Stampers (SCS) booth. I made a cute button and had a chance to chat with Lori Craig ("stamp_mama") from SCS. She's such a sweetie!

I roamed the first few aisles just admiring all the crafty goodness that sparkled before my eyes. It wasn't long before I ran into a couple of very familiar faces. Anyone recognize these two ladies?

That's crafting queen Carol Duvall (L) and Hot Potato Fabric and Wall Stamps owner Mary O'Neil! I've been watching Carol Duvall ever since I was a little girl when she first started appearing on the Home Show regularly in the late 80s. I was tickled pink when she got her own show on HGTV, and even to this day, I enjoy watching re-runs of the show. Mary O'Neil was one of Carol's regular guests, and she offered unique ideas on using potatoes in your crafts while dishing up some good old fashioned southern humor. They were both a delight to talk to!

After meeting my crafting hero, I stumbled upon my friend Taylor at her booth, Taylored Expressions. I was so happy so see her again, and I was thrilled that her booth was busier than ever. Way to go, Taylor!

On my way down one of the last aisles, I spotted a very familiar face. Any guesses?

That's Robyn from My Pink Stamper, and she's just as cute in person as she is on her blog! She's full of energy and spunk and it was a pleasure talking with her about her crafts as well as her running journey (she ran a marathon last year!).

Honest to goodness, I thought I was going to CHA to do some major shopping, but it turns out I had way more fun meeting people than anything else! After finishing one lap around the show room floor and thinking that my day couldn't possibly get any better, I was wrong! I found the insanely talented Lisa Pavelka doing a demo at the Bezel Blanks booth. She is such a sweet, sweet person, and I've admired her work with polymer clay for many years. She, too, was a regular guest on the Carol Duvall Show.

I picked up her new book, The Complete Book of Polymer Clay, at the Barnes and Noble booth. She signed it for me, and we had a lovely conversation.

After that, I wandered around the show picking up things that I had seen earlier and wanted to get. I passed by the Hancock Fabric booth for the third time and decided to put my name in the drawing for a serger. I set my cell phone alarm to five minutes before the drawing and continued on my way. I was about to sit down and do a felting make-and-take when the alarm went off. I walked back to the Hancock Fabric booth and waited until the drawing. The representative came out, took the box, and had the lady next to me pick the winning entry. When he called out my name, I was in total shock! I started jumping up and down like a little kid. You would have thought I won the lottery! I couldn't believe I had just won a Juno by Janome serger. Woo-hoo!

That night, my friend and I went to the Cheesecake Factory to have dinner, and while waiting for our table, I saw Tim Holtz leave the building! He debuted some pretty nifty things at the CHA trade show this past week. I can't wait to watch his YouTube videos, but it seems there's a bit of a delay in getting them uploaded on to YouTube. Guess I'll just have to be patient.

On a random note, before going to CHA, I won a vintage typewriter off Ebay. I've been wanting one for a while, and I wanted it to be a small, portable and baby blue. It arrived yesterday, and I'm very happy with it so far! I think it needs new ribbon, though, but that's easily doable.

Lastly, I made a short video showing my current craft space. Because I'm always bringing new stuff into the room and because I'm an organizational nut, my room is always in a state of evolution. For now, I'm happy with how I have it, but I'm sure it will undergo some type of face lift in the future.



Tomorrow I'll share with you a video I made showing my how I organize my stamp collection, so stay tuned for that!

Oh Fffffffffffffffffudge...

Did you all miss me? LOL! I guess I took a bit of an unintentional blog break, but with the rush of the holidays I suppose it's to be expected. Now that the start of a new year has begun, I'm ready to dive back into blogging. Today I'm going to share with you my adventures in fudge making! I actually did this a week before Christmas, but I thought it was worth sharing.

Now, take another look at the title of my post and name that movie! If you're a fan of the classic tale A Christmas Story, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you're as lost as a polar bear in Hawaii (yes, that's a stab at LOST), then check out this short scene from the movie:

I tell ya, that's one of my favorite all-time movie scenes. I could potentially watch this film all year long, but seeing as how I've practically burned a hole through my DVD copy from over-use, I'm switching over to my other favorite movie, Pollyanna.

To get started making fudge, I put on my cutest (and only) Christmas apron:

Then, I combined all the really fattening stuff together in a bowl.

Next, I melted even more fattening stuff on the stove:

Step three is to stir until your arm feels like falling off:

Next, I combined all the ingredients:

Lastly, I stirred as quickly as I possibly could until I felt my bicep getting bigger and bigger:

Whew! What a work-out, but it was all well-worth it in the end.

I have LOTS more projects to share, so I definitely be back with more. Stay tuned!

Craft Fair #2

Hello everyone! I hope this blog posts finds everyone in high spirits and good health. It seems that I've finally kicked the bug that had me down for so long. I'm still amazed at how sick I got this season. I sure hope that's the end of that nonsense.

This past weekend I attended my second (and final) craft fair. This one was a doozie, and not in terms of sales, but in terms of the weather! Oh my goodness was it W-I-N-D-Y. We had gusts from at least 30 mph all the way up to 60 mph. Mixing paper crafts and wind is definitely not a good idea. Set-up was miserable and keeping product on the tables was even worse. We finally packed up our stuff after having been there only an hour. It was way too much to handle.

However, before the wind knocked everything down for the ump-teenth time, I was able to take a few pictures of my set-up. I had quite a few new items this time around that I was super excited about, but sales were dismal. It may look calm in this still photo, but check out the table clothes flapping in the wind:

My mom and my good friend, Ana, helped me set up (and later tear down) my booth.

As I mentioned earlier, I made a few new things for this fair including these fun new ID Badge Necklaces. None of them sold, so if you're interested in purchasing one or two or all of them (LOL), they're $18 each plus $2 for shipping and $0.50 for each additional item. All of these necklaces slip on over your head.

This first necklace is one of my favorites! It measures 15" from the back of the neck after you put it on to the tip of the large gold lobster claw clasp. I used Swarovski glass pearls and gorgeous sparkling red seed beads. I really love the angels on this one!

This next necklace features beautiful white angels and Swarovski glass pearls. It measures 16.5" from the back of the neck after you put it on to the tip of the large silver clasp.

Next up is a lovely white and blue 17" necklace featuring snowmen made with Swarovski glass pears and Swarovski rondelles.

Looking for something fun and funky? Try this pink and black number. It measures 17" and you guessed it - those black bicone beads are genuine Swarovskis!

Last up is a lovely lavender and Swarovski glass pearl necklace that measures 16.5". Those sparkly lavender bicone beads are Swarovskis, too!

For this craft fair, I decided to make some more angel scissor charms and key chains. I used my new jewelry tree that my mom gave me to display them all. I've been making these angels for years now, and they're always a big hit! They make great little gifts for co-workers and teachers. If you're interested in purchasing one, they're $8.

Next up is a first for me! I saw these gorgeous red and green cloisonne beads and knew I had to have them! Cloisonne (pronounced cloy-ze-nay) means enameled metal. Cloisonne beads often resemble mosaics or stained glass. These earrings are a steal at only $12!

After making tons of jewelry, I turned my attention to some paper crafts. A new item I added to my inventory are these lotion/body scrub buckets. I got the bottles at the Target $1 spot for $0.50 each! Talk about a great deal. I wrapped the bottles in patterned paper, put them in some baking baggies and stuck them in the buckets. The tag was made using one of PaperTrey Inks Holiday Tag stamp sets. Fun stuff!

I also made some more paperclip bookmarks using stickers! Forget the stamps and the mess - slap on a sticker and you're good to go!

The only thing that sold pretty well that windy day was the Post It Note holders. This time around I added the matching pen. I'm really pleased with how these turned out!

Another new thing I tried was stamping on candles. I learned this technique from Gina K over on Stamp TV. I got the candles at the Dollar Tree (and they smell wonderful, by the way) and went to town! I ended up wrapping the candles in treat baggies and spruced up the packaging with ribbon and a handmade tag.

Another favorite are the decorated pencils. I added the pixie sticks this time around, but I still have all of them due to the darn wind! The pencils nearly sold out last time.

WHEW! That was a lot of stuff! If you're interested in any of it, please leave me a comment or drop me an e-mail. Now for my final thought of the day - be leery of the what you buy at the Dollar Tree:

There's a reason it's only a buck!