red velvet art trip!

while this trip was supposed to be a weekend away from home, work, and all the worries and stresses that come with them, it ended up really being all about art.

the drive was long, but fun :] we listened to fun tunes and played the license plate game...two staples for a roadtrip!  silly cecily slept the whole way :

we visited the Red Velvet Art store this afternoon, and it was just as we had expected it would be.  in brittany's words, it was "fantastically fantastic!"  so cute, so elsie, and so fabulous.  we spent a crap load of money, but it was sooo worth it!  we got so many cute and wonderful things!

it was fun to meet elsie, rachel and jeremy...three incredibly inspiring and creative people.  they are fun and sweet and just what we expected them to be.  they invited us to breakfast in the morning, and we are super stoked to get to spend a bit more time getting to know them :]

on a different note...i've decided today, that this blog is a lot for me to handle by myself, with work and the husband and everything else that life brings, so i'm going to be bringing on another blogger to help keep this thing updated with crafty goodness!  :]  brit is going to be joining the blog and hopefully, between the two of us, we'll make this thing brighter, happier, and more regularly updated... hehe

with that said, it's time for some phase ten in the hotel room...and we're going to watch mr magorium's wonder emporium...fun fun!

excited for dinner tonight on the town, and will post more about our trip soon!

love love love

emjay

aaaaahhhh!!!!

the time is here!!!!!

red velvet art trip begins tomorrow!

can you sense my excitement?

only...

eeeeeeek!

post number two :]

as promised, here's another post for the day. i spent the morning making candies and wrapping up brittany's christmas gift. i took a break to go and meet brittany at perkins rowe for a bit of shopping and to exchange christmas gifts. i picked up the CUTEST bag from anthro, along with a french cuisine cookbook and oh-so-cute pot holder to put it in for the christmas gift exchange at grandma and grandpa's...i do believe i will have the lovliest little gift out of everyone! i'm secretly jealous of whoever ends up with it :] i also passed by sur la table (love that place!), z gallery (love that one even more!), and then a quick pass through UO to pick up a couple of new pairs of blue jeans. pit stopped at another store to purchase a few remaining items for the hubs' christmas gift then back home for a second string of candy making.

brit and liz joined me for this particular gift making session, which was great. brit had some packaging to do herself, and liz helped me dip pretzels.

brittany makes the best snowman poop and peppermint bark...mmmm

for some reason, this picture doesn't want to post facing the right direction. i apologize in advance for the crick in your neck for having to look at it sideways. :] these are my little packets of pretzels..."gone nutty", "coocoo for coconut", "peppymint" and more...

yummy...little boxes of homemade chocolates. delicious! and cute! every year for christmas, i make goody bags as gifts for friends and family. it's a more cost efficient way of giving, and i think it means more for them to know that i poured my heart and love into each sweet that's in the bag! hopefully i'll be finishing these goody bags up tomorrow so that i can spend the rest of the week working on the hubs' gift...it's a whopper, and i'm running out of time

so, for the gift exchange, brittany got me this:

it's the diana camera from lomography! i'm super stoked up!

and she got me this, just because:

it's the new keri smith book! i'm soooo excited! however, i know that once i start it, i won't be able to put it down, so i'm not even going to crack the cover until i have completed my christmas gift duties.

the gift i got brittany is still on it's way from the photographer i purchased it from, so i made her this to tie her over...

she was pretty excited, which made me even more excited about it as well!

well anywho, i'm off for the third string of crafting...i've put the candy making and baking away for the night, and now i'm on to painting gift bags and gift tags. i'll share photos when they're done! for now, i'll leave you, but i will return soon.

love love love

emjay

i know i know...

but remember? i said no promises! since it's been almost a month since i've posted, i'll be sure to have a lot of things to share with you today...but they might be split into a few different posts.

this post is probably one of the most exciting ones EVER! just a week ago, the unthinkable happened...it snowed in south louisiana. what's that you say? you don't think you heard me correctly? let me repeat it then...IT SNOWED IN SOUTH LOUSISIANA!!! can you believe it??? last wednesday, my birthday, rumors were floating around that it might snow that night. no one, especially me, took it seriously, because our meteorologists are generally off a bit, especially when they're talking about snow. i mean, our average temperature here during december is 74 degrees! last time i checked, it had to be much colder for it to snow. all the kids at work were getting super stoked at the thought of not having school the next day...but when i left work at 8 that evening, it was still 50 degrees...it wasn't looking promising.

the husband and i spent the evening at his brother's house, and we had fun watching movies and playing with our neice and nephew, and when we left around midnight, it still didn't feel all that cold. i pretty much gave up any hope i had of having a white birthday, and we headed home to curl up and get some shut eye.

around 6 o'clock am, my phone rang, and of course, it's still dark outside, so i'm unsure of the actual time, and i was thinking that something was wrong with someone...especially when i saw that it was my mom. i answered, and she was frantically shouting something i couldn't quite understand (keep in mind, i'd been sleeping very soundly and was quite groggy at this point). i shook my head to clear the fog and said "come again?" and she said "get your butt out of bed and outside! it's snowing! like REALLY snowing! big time!" i immediately threw off the covers, slipped my flip flops in and ran outside in my hoochie mamma sleep shorts and tshirt.

it was amazing.

the husband followed me in his skivvies, marveled for a few minutes and returned to bed. he said he was still tired and that he'd enjoy it after day light. i couldn't fathom how he could sleep at a time like this!

it. was. snowing.

and we've learned down here on the gulf, that in the event snow (or more accurately, an icy snow-like substance) falls here, it doesn't stick around after the sun comes up! the meteorologist had said the night before that even if it did snow, our soil temperature was too high (48 degrees) to allow it to stick more than a few hours. so here is the view i had when i opened my door that morning...




this was the most snow i'd ever seen here before. as i said before, usually what we think is snow fall here, is really just a wintry mix. but this time, it was different. huge, fluffy, fat snow flakes were falling, and they were falling like crazy! the hubs finally rolled out of bed to come enjoy it with me for a little while. we even bundled frank up in his jacket that aunt liz gave him and took him outside to enjoy the fun.






as you might be able to tell, frank didn't enjoy the snow quite as much as we did...brit was out of power so we invited her over to enjoy the snow day with the two of us. eventually, the hubs decided to return to the warmth of our bed, and he fell back asleep. brit an i continued to enjoy our time in the snow!







it truly was a wonderfully magically day...i felt like a little kid again... :) i'll leave you with a few more pics of my house, yard and neighborhood. the pics from my mom's house are muuuuuuch cooler, but i can't seem to locate them at the present. as soon as i do, i'll post those as well. now i'm off to finish making christmas candies and pompoms for my gift wrapping! will share photos of those later!

mmmm truffles

i think i might try and make some truffles today...i found this awesome recipe that i want to try!

other things to do today...

...pay internet bill
...put up christmas tree
...attempt to tackle the rest of the christmas decorations
...refinish entry table
...run errands in town
...wash my hair (it's sad that this has it's own place on the list)

it will be a busy busy day. short list, so hopefully i'll be able to finish it!

oh, and i went shopping earlier this week online at anthro...i got some of the cutest things! i can't wait for everthing to come in!

have a lovely day!
emjay

...

i've been falling way behind on the 365 project...my camera still isn't fixed. but as soon as it is, i'll have to get back on that. and post pics of my new mug! i'm sipping hot chocolate out of it right now...yummm

so here's some great news...my favorite artist, elsie flannigan, is opening up her very own art boutique! it'll be a combination of online store and brick and mortar store (located in springfield, missouri). i'm super excited...it opens feb 1st and is named, what else, but redvelvetart! i'm sooo super stoked and can't wait to see what lovely things her and the other rv girls put in there, as well as the other artists they'll be working with. i love rv!

since my camera is still on the fritz, here is a compilation of my current flickr favorites :] they are all from the lovely lucia holm or as she's better known as in the internet world, miss lulu and the teaspoon shortage. such lovely work!




brit's coming over to hang out while i cook today. :] then, off to work

3/365

there's a horrible glare of the computer screen on my glasses...hopefully my camera will be fixed soon so i can stop using the webcam for these things. i mean, it's fun every now and then, but you know. oh, and as soon as that bad boy is back in working order, i'll share photos of my mug!!! :] and some super cute perler bead animals that the sister and and i spent making last night :]

to do today, all before 3:00

1. hang up all clean laundry (ick)
2. dishes
3. wash at least 2 loads of dirty laundry (more ick)
4. make my way to the bank to pull out rent, and then pay said rent
5. run downtown to pick up sushi surprise for cecily (and maybe a roll or two for myself :] )
6. stop and pick up goodbye cake for cecily
7. make it to work a bit early for cecily's "moving to night shift" impromptu shindig

it doesn't sound like much , but oh...it will be a long day. too bad there's no crafting involved. maybe tonight?

enjoy your day!
emjay

2/365

day two and i'm sick :[ i came home from work and took a two hour nap. yeah. i made shepard's pie for dinner. i feel that i should cook since i have this lovely girl staying with me this week


so now i have curled up in one of the husband's thermal shirts, i'm watching kung fu panda with the sister, and eating some of the yummy pie. so glad i can sleep in tomorrow!

have a lovely evening and i'll see you tomorrow with day three! ooo, and i get my new glasses tomorrow! :]