Ma drove herself up to the house early in the morning and we all went out to grab some breakfast.   We went to Gilbert’s Deli in downtown Bellevue.  Always good food and always too much.

Jeff then dropped us off at the Meydenbauer Center where there was long long lines to get into the vendor faire.  It was quite funny how long it was because after we got our tickets to go in, the line was already gone.

We walked all the whole faire and gazed at all the new scrapbooking paper, embellishments, and tools like this glue tape gun.  We tried it after the lady showed us how ease it is to remove the carteridge as well as place it in backwards to cover the tape end while traveling.  Very handy!  So we both got one.

We also found this awesome booth / group called Cocoa Daisy.  I think I saw there stuff before and its basically a kit company where they bundle stuff together to do scrapbooking and have a new kit every month.  I ended up signing up for their subscription.  There kits had awesome stuff like 7Gypies, Jenni Bowlin, Basic Grey, etc.  All companies that I dig.

After this booth, we found good $1 bargains as well as the booth is what I all “Basic Grey” booth where they have all new Basic Grey lines.  Wonderful paper goodness. Everywhere in the faire had awesome scrapbooking products, but we soon got through the whole faire and was tired.  So we left to go home and upgrade Ma’s mac to OS X 10.6.

While the computer was installing 10.6, we popped over to the Value Village in Redmond where there is always awesome findings, but only lasted so long as we missed lunch.  So we picked up a pizza on the way home and called it a day.

Was that enough craftiness for the day?  Sure, but I did get in a bit of actually using crafts and created the front to one of my albums.  Finally.  With my newly bought stuff too! 

Now I am tired and so am sleeping in tomorrow.

As part of {12.31} project, i’m working to find out what colors I want to use. I thought the project would start today but it sounds like it’ll be awhile before. So playing with colors and any holiday stock of paper and things to be ready for when the project starts.

Sleepy now.  Getting up early to do the scrapbooking convention and hanging out with the mother unit.  It’ll be fun.

I’m not one for words or too chatty.  I wonder if anyone even reads this blog or is even interested in anything I post on here.  Write me a comment below if you do.  I’m curious.

Things going on around here?  Well, too much work is what I say.  What too much work give you?  A sore back and hips.  Oh am I sore.   It’s so easy to get off of work and sit down to cruise the web.   So easy in fact that it’s addictive and could keep a person occupied without too much thought needed.

First your looking at your email or the news or a blog you like to read.  A topic pops out at you so you go and search more on that topic or there’s a link on that leads you to more information.  Soon enough you’ve spent hours on end just going no where.  Sure. You’ve learned a bit more about sewing, saw a cute design of a room, or found out the next soap opera moment for Jon & Kate.   Is it really worth the few hours spent mindlessly in front of a computer after the amount of time spent at work in front of the computer?  Its addictive and as bad as a couch potato.

Of course, then there’s the mobile phone.   I work for a mobile phone company and so its easy to land the latest new phone, but is that a good thing?   Everytime I’m sitting and waiting I have the urge to pull out my phone and do something.  Look at email, at text messages, at facebook, or surf the web some more.  There’s always an urge to keep busy, to get that stimulus, or to be entertained.  It makes me wonder what’s all this media leading us to?

The only thing I can imagine what all this stimulus addiction would lead to is that scene in Wall-e where all the people on the ship “ark” are sitting in floating chairs with a screen in front of them.   Barely any body movement.  Barely any phyical interaction except for through the tele that is always on and always feeding info / stimuli.

So with this back pain, stiff hips, and irritable mood, what’s really worth my time?  Sitting in front of the computer or tv?  This is what I ponder.

This weekend ending up being a pretty good one.  Usually the weekend goes by fast

and I don’t get anything done.   I’ve cleaned out my craft room and made the extra stuff disappear.   THEN on Sunday, I found a great deal on a solid wood standing table off of Craiglist.  I’ve been looking on CL for-ev-ah!!  So I had to switch my organized room around to accommodate for it.

I have a little more organizing and cleaning to do but I am SO HAPPY!  I got a standing workstation.  So awesome.

I’ve also signed up for “A Prompt A Day” by Kelly Kilmer.  It’s a month of getting techniques and prompts from a person who does fantastic art journalling and collage.   I already done the first day’s work.

The background was interesting to make.  Adding a little paint when applying and adding layers of paint as you go.   This prompt was “Things that make me Happy”  With such a great day today, it was easy to make a list.  Jeff is at the top of course and today is our 5th anniversary!  Woo hoo!  Even though we got married on a leap year day, we chose today to be the one to celebrate.

On Friday, i surprised Jeff with a cake. On our wedding day, we bought got one bite of the wedding cake we got from Hoffman’s Bakery in Kirkland.  So I ordered one with what I could remember what we ordered for our wedding day.  Well, it turned out a bit different and freakishly heavy buttercream frosting.  When we got there, I realized I needed to ask for a princess torte.  The inners of the cake was good, but the thick buttercream on the outside was nothing special.  Totally could do without it.

So all is good.   Jeff and I went to Tully’s after picking up the table and the total came to $7.77.  Then later on we went to Relax the Back for a new tempurpedic pillow for me but came out with buying a tempurpedic mattress.  They cost a pretty penny but we got a floor model that hasn’t hit the floor.  So it’s new and we get 25% off.  Such a bargain that we went with it as we have been thinking about it for some time.

I swear we need to buy a lottery ticket with this such luck.

Thank you all for playing.  It was a blast!

It’s exciting that many blog folk are doing this handmade exchange of birds to signify the new year to remind us of hope, positivity, and openness. I’ll post a picture soon but I am going along with the other blog-a-rinos and giving one of my handmade birds. So just comment on this item by Friday at 5 PM PST and I’ll randomly draw a winner. Woo hoooo!

Update: So I just added the lovely first bird I finally got embroidery done on.  Turned out pretty awesome I say.

One of his suggestions to get up early is to set a goal.  I ponder at what goals I would chose.  I could always chose something artsy and work on some art journalling.   It might be too early to work on sewing projects.  I doubt there’s a good amount of time to work on the painting in the kitchen.  It would be interesting to go out for a jog or a walk as then I would get my blood pumping, but its so darn cold out and not something I would jump out of a warm bed to do.

As I write this, thoughts of a warm snuggly bed invites me back towards the bedroom.  One things Leo writes about waking up early is the thought of going back to bed can’t be an option.  Well, I took a shower and got dressed so it be best if I didn’t go back to bed and get my clothes all wrinkled.

I could start working on my web site again or even this blog’s header.  The design of this site is from a template from WordPress and even though I dig the header, it was created by someone else.  I’d like to get my own stamp on the design and i have been mulling it over.   I want to draw something cool like one of my doodles but haven’t doodled it out just yet.

Well, I shall go to dafonts.ccom and look at some fonts as I would like to get a stamp made for my business.  A new business logo sounds like a good idea.  I’m not sure if it’s kosher in the big world to keep changing it, but I always enjoy a new redesign.

Cheers! MJ