Let's Talk About Swappin'!

Image courtesy of swap-bot.com

A few years ago I somehow stumbled upon swap-bot.com while I was cruising around the blogosphere.  I'm pretty sure I was checking out a crafty blog and the blogger mentioned swapping.  I had never even heard of swapping before then, but I was intrigued.  The mystery blogger mentioned that if you were crafty, and you liked getting mail (actual, postal service delivered mail), then you should check out swap-bot.com .  Honestly, who doesn't love getting mail that isn't of the bill variety?  Every time I open the mailbox and see my name and address handwritten on an envelope, I get a little excited.  Is it a card? A wedding invitation? Pictures of my nieces or nephews or the adorable children of friends? So many possibilities!! But, I digress.  Back to swapping, and more specifically, swap-bot.

This a free, crafty community where, essentially, all you have to do is sign up for an account, find swaps that you are interested in, sign up for the swap, and then send off the item(s) to another person that has signed up for the swap.  As is the nature of the word "swap", you then receive an item from another swap participant.  This is the WAY over-simplified version, of course, but you get the point... right?  For those of you worried about privacy issues regarding giving out your info to strangers on the web, the creators of the site always encourage that you use a p.o. box for swapping and they do have measures in place to always try to ensure the safety and confidentiality of their members information.

There are SO MANY different types of things that people are swapping on this website.  I had never even heard of most of the things that these crafty ladies (there are some men, but I have mostly encountered ladies there) are making and sending to one another.  By nature, I am a researcher.  I like to know the in's & out's of a situation before I get involved.  I'm totally the person that reads a website's return policy before I buy anything and I ALWAYS read instructions for use, assembly, etc.  What can I say, I'm just not very impulsive, ok? That being said, the Glossary of Terms, FAQ's, and New User Info sections on this site are totally ACE.  Before I ever even signed up for an account, I felt pretty confident that I had a firm grasp on what was going on with "the swapping".  Kudos to the site creators (Rachel and Travis) for being thorough and informative with explaining the process, and also being available to handle any administrative issues that may pop up. 

Now back to what these ladies are swapping.  There is a little something for everyone, even if you aren't all that "crafty".  People swap postcards, handmade greeting cards, ATC's (basically awesome little miniature works of art), handmade envelopes (my personal fave), bookmarks, tea, altered things, recycled things, candy, thrift store finds, and the list goes on and on and on.  I have tried all sorts of new crafty projects since I signed up.  I have also received some exceptionally creative and super-cool items in my mailbox over the past few years.  Most of the time, they arrive in pretty packages with WAY more than just a handwritten address on the front of the envelope.  I'm talking mail art, people.  Love it.

Enough talking! Here are a few of the awesome things that I have received....

Here we have some handmade nesting boxes - made from recycled materials. The picture really does not do any justice to how beautifully detailed these are!

Made by swap-bot user @Bramblebelle

 Next up, a quirky little birdy - also made from recycled materials.  Crafty, I tell ya!

Made by @wolfeagle

This awesome zombie pin.  I have a love for all things zombie, but that could (and probably will be) a post all in itself.

I cannot find the name of the awesome gal that sent this to me.  If it's you, leave a comment and I'll give you cred!

And last, but certainly not least, a gorgeous set of handmade cards featuring images of barn owls from a wall calendar.  Can't wait to send some of these out!

Made by @madcrazy

These are only a few of the things that were within reach from my desk.  There is WAY more awesome where that came from!  So, if this sounds like something you may be interested in doing, I encourage you to check it out. It's fun, it gives me a reason to be crafty, and I also get to enjoy other people's craftiness!  Win, Win, and Win!

March Is Donezo!

Amazing art by Jolie Daniels.

 Another month of 2012 - already over!  This year is flying by and it seriously just goes faster the older I get.  Has anyone else noticed this?  Quite frankly, it freaks me out a bit.  My goal in April is to actually try and slow down and enjoy things a bit more.  It seems like every week I am just waiting for Monday - Thursday to hurry up and be over already so I can enjoy the weekend.  While I'm sure that there will be days that I still want to rush through, I'm going to focus on making each day as awesome as possible.

On that note, let's take a look back at March and gaze fondly on the things that were.....

1. My BFF had her beautiful baby girl on March 5th, 2012.  You can read her whole incredible story HERE.  We were able to go and see her a week after she was born and, of course, I fell in love right away. Jolie and her hubs are pretty much kicking butt at the whole "new parent" thing and I see wonderful things in that little lady's future! So now, there is another little Pisces in the world for me to daydream with. Hooray for other people having cute babies for me to love and cuddle and buy sweet little baby clothes for!
2. My birthday happened! I turned 31 this year and it was not nearly as traumatic as I thought it would be.  My friends at work decked out my cubicle on Friday and got me all sorts of cards and gifts and a cake. It was awesome!  I felt very loved and it was a perfect way to start my birthday weekend.  After work on Friday, we went over to my mother-in-laws house in the hill country and had an awesome and super relaxing weekend.  It mega-rained the entire way there and also the whole day on Saturday.  Luckily, rain is kind of my thing and VERY conducive to wine drinking, yummy food eating, and movie watching.  We finally watched Moneyball, which I liked very much, while Mr. Nerd thought the ending was "meh". We also saw The Big Year, starring Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson.  If you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it.  That is - only if you like funny, touching, movies that star talented actors doing funny, touching things. If that's not really your thing, you should probably not see it. 
3. Once we got home from drinking vino, watching movies, meeting sweet babies, and all the other stuff in between, Mr. Nerd took me out for a most special birthday treat.  Two of my favorite things are bookstores and cupcakes; so on Monday, my actual date of birth, the Mister took me to enjoy both of those things.  Getting the cupcakes actually turned out to be quite the adventure, since the shop we had originally planned on going to was closed down.  So, three towns later, we had delicious cupcakes.  Totally worth it though. 
4. St. Patrick's Day Wedding happened.  We just talked about that HERE. Good times! 
5. On a not-so-awesome note, but still something that happened, I was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis.  Three years ago I was diagnosed with Psoriasis and as it turns out, 30 lucky percent of those people develop arthritis as a result of the Psoriasis.  Woo hoo, 30 percent! It's OK though.  I am making adjustments in lifestyle and diet to help manage it, BUT this isn't turning into a Psoriasis blog, so if you want to know more - feel free to ask me or read about it HERE or HERE. Both of those links contain gross pictures, so if you're not ready for that, don't click those!  

On to the fun pictures!

Look at that sweet, squishy face! I miss her already! 

Hey there, Birthday Girl!

Road Trip Stormy Storm!

The light at the end of the stormy storm tunnel!

 And last, but certainly not least... Bookstores and Cupcakes!! Weeeeee!

The big FU book wasn't meant to be the star of this photo, promise.

Oh, sweet, delicious cupcakes. I want you in my life right now.

So, there it was. March in a nutshell.  A big, baby-filled, rain-showered, wine-soaked, road-tripped, book-loving, delicious cupcake-filled, psoriatic nutshell.  Now it's time to make sure that April is even more awesome! Happy Spring!

A St. Patrick's Day Wedding

I know I'm a little lot late on posting about St. Patrick's Day, but what can I say? I'm a procrastinator to the core.  The Mr. and I attended a St. Patrick's Day wedding this year.  It's the first holiday wedding we've ever been to. It was a small outdoor wedding in a beautiful park setting, and of course I did not take enough pictures.  Mr. Nerd gets kind of embarrassed by all of my picture taking sometimes, but I'm trying to get him over that sillyness.

Here we are looking cute. It was a windy day and my hair was NOT holding up the way I wanted. So, frizz and flowers was the "look du jour".  Tres chic, non?

We both wore green, so as to avoid any pinching. What is that about anyway? Looks like it's time to google that.

So, I must now mention that this wedding was of a Renaissance theme.  That might help explain what i'm going to show you next.  I'm sure this was a very nice girl, but I did not get the opportunity to talk to her, so I cannot confirm or deny that.  See for yourself....

Why yes, those ARE her butt cheeks hanging out from her feather skirt.

So, that happened. The poor girl was having some trouble managing all of the grassy terrain in her spikey-heeled boots. She may have even fallen down once.  I may have pretended not to see it happen. Maybe.

Moving on - the wedding was very sweet and simple.  The groom was an old friend of Mr. Nerd's and I had never met the bride, so we didn't know many of the people that were there.  We still had a good time though, and managed to mix-n-mingle a bit.  This delicious green ale that the groom brewed may have had a little to do with the easy mingling.

It actually tasted a bit like Shiner. Deelish!

This wedding involved a lot of do-it-yourself special touches, which I liked VERY much.  They even made their own leather-bound guest book! Of course, I didn't get a picture, but I was thoroughly impressed.  Many of the bridal party outfits were handmade and so were the favors we took home.  Check out these cute little layered sand bottles.

Who didn't love layered sand art when they were kids? Only parents, that's who.

 So, overall - St. Patrick's Day was pretty swell. We looked pretty cute, had some delicious green brews, hung out with a bunch of awesome nerds, and went to a wedding that involved a ceremony that directly quoted "The Princess Bride".  I'd call that a mighty successful St. Patty's! And because I know you are dying to see it, here is a pic of the wedding party. Enjoy!

Crafty Saturday!

Today has been a pretty awesome Saturday so far, if I do say so myself. Mr. Nerd and I slept in (he slept later than me, of course). In a clever ploy to lure him out of bed, I got up and cooked us a little breakfast. We had scrambled eggs with cheese, turkey bacon, cinnamon toast and a banana. It was pretty tasty. Then we spent the next hour or so watching a special on UFO's that have been reported throughout history by NASA astronauts. Delicious breakfast AND a television nerd-fest - nothing better. Mr. Nerd then proceeded to watch a special comparing the science and technology of George Lucas films with science and technology that is actually available to us today, and I kind of lost interest. Mostly because robots freak me out. Soooo, while all of that robot-ness was going on, I decided to get crafting! Full disclosure though, the note card & envelope I'll show you was not completed in one Saturday. I've been working on it for a while now, and finally finished it up today. So, on to the crafty goodness!

First up: A bookmark that I made with the help of a recycled popcorn box, some leftover scrapbook paper, modpodge, stamps, distress inks, and a little embossing magic.

Much prettier in person, I promise!

Please excuse the quality of the photos. I'm still working on taking better pictures of the things I make. I think the scraps of words on the bookmark may be from a German dictionary. I'm not sure though. I received those little bits from a swap on Swap-bot.com. If you don't know about Swap-bot, and you are interested in crafting, you should definitely check it out. Perhaps I'll do a post on it soon.

Next Up: Note Card and Matching Envelope. These are my FAVORITE things to make. I started making envelopes out of old books and maps and things with a template that I found HERE. I eventually started swapping them on Swap-bot.com and started looking for envelopes that were a size/shape that I liked, and using those for templates. Good times!

Wouldn't this be a cute Birthday card?

So, there are the results of my awesome Crafty Saturday! Now, it's on to listing some old clothes on E-bay and more ridiculous weekend t.v.! I hope you are having an awesome Saturday as well, crafty or not!

Awesome Of The Day

Have you heard of Instagram yet?  It's an awesome Iphone photo app that makes me feel like a photographer, which I most definitely am not.  Basically, you take pictures, choose one of their cool filters to use on the picture, put a caption, and post.  It is super easy and super fun.  There is a whole network of people on Instagram, sharing awesome moments of their lives through pretty pictures. Plus, it's free, so you can't beat it! Anyway, I'm relatively new to using it, so there is a ton of fun stuff I'm sure I'm not telling you, but you get the point. 

This past month, I've been participating in a January Photo a Day challenge. Each day there is a different theme or subject - open to your interpretation.  Once you post the photo, you tag it with #janphotoaday, and anyone who searches for that tag can check out your photo.  It has been pretty fun to do and I have really been made more aware of my surroundings and photo-worthy moments.  Here are some of my favorite shots so far....

Here is the rundown on what you are looking at:

• Day 4 - Letterbox - This is the mailbox wall at our apartment complex.  Needless to say, we live in a pretty big apartment complex.  I like the perspective on this one.
• Day 7 - Favorite - The caption on this one was "My favorite way to spend a Saturday. Crafting it up with a friend." This was a day spent making goodies for the bestie's baby shower. P.S. - the lavender rose scented bath salts came out smelling delicious! 
• Day 12 - Close-Up - This is a close-up shot of some tasty sopapillas we had with breakfast on our way to Austin. Yum! If you aren't sure what sopapillas are, you should definitely look into that!
  
• Day 21 - Reflection - This one is pretty self-explanatory, yet still awesome. It's me times infinity!

There is a February challenge that has already been posted, and I'm thinking I just might participate again.  I've had tons o' fun with this app, and if you get a chance, you should definitely check it out! 

20 Days Have Already Passed!?

The month of January is quickly flying by, and I haven't updated my blog at all! I am happy to say that 2 of the things on my list have (sort of) happened.  First off, I sent out some thank you notes to some wonderful ladies that helped me with planning the baby shower of my very best friend in the world. I have tons of notecards and stationary that I don't put to use nearly enough, so it was nice to choose some pretty cards to send out to friends.  Does anyone else have 10,000 address labels that they have received from various charities and organizations?  Places I have never even heard of send me address labels.  I'll never in a million years use them all before we move.  Anyway, here are the letters I sent out!

The second thing from the list that I have managed to do (sort of) is juicing.  I've only done it once, but that is exactly half of the amount that I did it all year in 2011, so I think I'm off to a solid start!  I managed to score a practically new juicer from a coworker for $20 last year and I've hardly even used it.  I'm working on changing that though! Now, I'm no juicing expert, obviously.  I have only done a bit of research online and I've seen the late-night infomercials just like everyone else.  I can say that even after once batch of juice, I was feeling pretty healthy.  Here is what I used...

What you see here is:

• 2 Carrots
• 1 Red Delicious Apple
• 1/2 Cucumber
• 2 Plums

This is what I got from all of that goodness:

Almost one and a half cups of foamy, fruity deliciousness.  I have to admit, the room temperature juice is a little off-putting.  Perhaps next time I will make sure to refrigerate everything before I juice it. The urge to juice was sudden, so I just ran over to the little store across the street to pick up the fruits & veggies. The cucumber in this mix was a bit overpowering, so I will probably omit that next time.  Overall, not too shabby.  I tried to convince Mr. Nerd to try it, but he was not having it.  At least he helped me clean the juicer afterward!

So, 22 days into the new year and I've already done 2 things on my list. Not too bad! I can say that the past 22 days have been pretty awesome, so it seems that I'm moving in the right direction!

2012 Goals

I hope everyone had a safe and Happy New Year!! We spent a quiet night at home and had some champagne at midnight. We had a traditional New Year's day dinner with some pork chops, coleslaw, and black eyed peas.  A friend joined us for dinner and she brought her 1 month old baby girl. She was so small and sweet! It was quite a change from our usual New Year's celebrations, but still very enjoyable. I had a chance to sit down and write out some of my goals for this year. These aren't big goals, but I think that the list will probably grow as the year progresses and one exciting "BIG GOAL" will probably surface at some point.  I'm all about baby steps.  So, without further ado, THE LIST.....

1. Learn to crochet
2. Write in my journal daily
3. Write more thank you notes and letters
4. Volunteer at least once per quarter
5. Read at least 4 books ( I used to read all of the time, but I just haven't been making time for it lately.)
6. Make a lasagna from scratch
7. Go to at least one concert (another thing I used to do quite often and haven't made time for)
8. Organize my closet and the linen closet (I'm dreading this one)
9. Juice at least once a week
10. Get a massage
11. Send someone flowers on their birthday (I love getting flowers, so I'm going to share the joy!)
12. Take some sort of class

There are a few more goals of a more personal nature, but I thought these would be fun to share and document here.  I'm really looking forward to this year and making it as awesome as possible. I hope that you are on your way to having an awesome year too! Happy 2012!