{so inspired}

i have been so inspired by the class i am taking with elsie flannigan! we are in week two of a six week time together and it is absolutely awesome! my weeks are generally too busy to work on any of the projects, but i was able to spend a lot of time on friday night working on last week's projects which included painting a new journal, creating some new journal entries, and creating a mini album - which i have only done once or twice before and never like this. i forgot to take pictures of my new journal which i love so i will have to post that later this week.

but for now, i can post the mini album pictures. this was a book i made to show some of the pictures of my sister jackie and i together when i visited her in san diego in february. enjoy!















this was so much fun to make and i can't wait to make more mini albums. i also can't wait to make more of the projects for this class.

in other news, this weekend was a blast! friday night shawn was home working on the nistico's pictures so i spent the evening cooped up in my scraproom listening to my favorite music and crafting away. it was so nice to spend that time, i haven't done that in a long time.

saturday shawn and his sister, amber, and myself ventured down to baltimore for the holiday heap craft show sponsored by charm city craft mafia. we had such a great time. there was so much eye candy, and it was so nice to see all of the different handmade goodies that each crafter had to offer. i got a few prints for my living room and a cute handmade purse and a few awesome cards to send to friends during the holiday season. after the show, we went to hampden for lunch at cafe hon which shawn and i have wanted to do for quite a while. it is such a great little place. after lunch we visited a fave store of ours atomic pop so we could each buy a munny to decorate at our munny decorating party this weekend. you can see the munny here...munny (i will have to update to include photos of the finished product after the decorating party).

sunday we had a photo shoot with zach and stacie and simon howes here at the house. we were shooting christmas pictures for them. we had so much fun with the three of them and the pictures turned out great! we are having so much fun with our recent shoots. particularly those involving the little ones (when did kids get so darn cute?!?!?) we concluded the weekend with our usual grimes/parto family dinner at outback steakhouse, which is always such a nice treat!

this week at school is american education week and i expect to have lots of visitors in and out of my classroom all week, joy of joys! wish me luck!

[things i love today...]

...i am finally feeling a little better after a nasty illness and missing three days of work

...fall is in full swing and halloween has passed with thanksgiving now on the horizon, beginning to think about all of the things i am grateful for this year and preparing for having family around this holiday season

...getting ready to take a few classes with some of the people that inspire me
elsiecake class
stories in hand

...a new president has been chosen, and man does he inspire me. watched his election night speech last night on youtube, definitely struck a chord with me

...preparing for two photo shoots this weekend, my cousins and shawn's cousin

...the cute little charlie brown christmas tree that shawn bought

...my sister has moved back home! jackie and jay have a lovely little house in the city that we helped them move into last weekend, very excited to have her back home

...my sister's dog remus is the most cutest little dog ever! very spunky, makes me miss my little brutie a whole lot

...this video, came across this today. i am loving this song right now and when i saw this it brought a giant smile to my face...

{great weekend}

this weekend was so enjoyable! despite the fact that our much anticipated camping trip with shawn's family was cancelled due to the impending rainy weather, the weekend still ended up being a lot of fun. friday was a cool and breezy day and after work i met shawn and we went to the closest park to scout some spots for a few photo shoots. after taking a new scenic route out of the park, (and having no idea where we were!) we ended up on a familiar road, then realized it was the road to chicken :) we quickly changed our dinner plans to include a trip to delta, pa for some fabulous fried chicken from hickory dicks. so we drove gleefully and starving to pennsylvania only to arrive at the glorious chicken place to find that they had run out of chicken breasts! the only piece of the chicken i eat, and they were out of it, after i drove a half an hour to get there! it was fine, i got some chicken legs and some curly fries and it made it somewhat better. after chicken we drove back home and made an impromptu stop at target where we bought a new wii game, carnival games mini golf! it was a lot of fun and of course, very competitive.

saturday had us facing some gloomy weather, but we made the best of it. we started with a kinda early breakfast at cracker barrel (yum!) and then spontaneously drove to northeast to the 5 & 10 antique shop. shawn actually initiated the trip and we had a lot of fun. we bought a few cute props for the "studio" and can't wait to get to use them. the rest of the afternoon was left to napping and wrapped up with a family dinner at squire's for my grandfather's birthday. after a stop at my other grandfather's for a quick visit, we headed out with to meet shawn's family for some late night rock-n-bowl! so much fun!! we all had so much fun, but man, my bowling game stinks! i started off strong, but quickly lost any source of talent completely!

yesterday we took to the road again, the weather was gorgeous! we took courtney to annapolis for some shooting and had a great afternoon. the weekend wrapped up with dinner with the grimes clan and parto clan at outback, which has sorta become a weekly thing with us. it's a very nice way for us all to catch up and enjoy each other's company.

i hope you all had an equally enjoyable weekend.

{a new book}

went to the bookstore tonight, one of my favorite things to do, after dinner at red robin with my dear cousin and his fiance. i purchased a few things, but the BEST thing i got was this book:

listography: your life in lists

i have been wanting to get my hands on this book for months now, and tonight while i was browsing for it at the bookstore, not knowing exactly where it would be located, just as i was ready to give up my search and walk to the check-out counter, i saw it! sitting crooked on the shelf, misplaced, with no others around it, located near some blank journals, someone had left the book i have been looking so hard for.

it must be my lucky day :)

{my loves today}

things i am loving today....

..had a professional development meeting that was supposed to last all day, got out at 1:00, woo hoo!

..the stinkin' nasty new report card that the office of early childhood developed for us this year has been canned! we are getting a new, much better report card, as common sense sets in...

..looking forward to extra time to play with photos, maybe some scrapbooking, and definitely some card making

..gathering ideas for a few photo shoots that shawn and i have coming up

..signed up for the stories in hand course and am getting excited about all the creativity that will bring forth

..super-inspired by these two things right this minute:
elsie flannigan and her things i wish i had known... post
ali edwards' clear halloween album and her week in the life project

..and finally, having time to actually post on my blog!

hope everyone else is having a great day!

thinking about...

...trying this class. definitely something i am interested in, telling more of the small stories that make up the big things in life. think it will be a lot of fun and gives me a new project to work on, something new and different.

{i am a very bad blogger...}

well it has been a disgustingly long time since i have blogged and i am completely ashamed of myself. but it was a necessary break, time needed to sort things out and get my head on straight again. so hopefully i will have some luck breaking back into this. to all of my loyal readers, thanks for checking this page looking for updates that simply weren't coming and i hope some of you are still around although i wouldn't blame you if you weren't.

i have been really inspired by a lot of other female bloggers in the last few months and have been very moved to get back to my own blog and the creative outlet that it brings.

currently i am in ocean city with shawn and his family for the maryland state teachers convention. yesterday i spent some time at the convention trying to find a reason to love my job again, unsuccessfully. so i left feeling a little more frustrated than when i entered the convention center and it pretty much took me all day to recover. however, last night i did get the chance to spend time with some friends and that was much needed and very enjoyable. shawn and i went to dinner at nick's followed by drinks at fager's island with jessop and lauren, and carolyn who was here working the convention. we had a great time and it ran into the wee hours of the morning. lots of fun!

i am not sure what the day holds for us today, but i am sure it will be enjoyable and memorable. wish me luck for more blogging to come!