And the lucky winners are...

Katie, Whitney, and Emily!

Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!

I'll be emailing you this weekend to get your addresses.

Come back next week for something new and exciting.

Yipee!

Thankful Thursday

"Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart." --Seneca

This week I'm grateful that it is only three weeks until TSH is home. And I'm grateful that tomorrow is Friday. They're simple things, but that's what I'm thankful for this week.

What are you thankful for?

What the?!

Have you ever come upon a scene in your house, or elsewhere, and wondered what someone else would think if they saw it? Well, that's the thought that went through my brain when I walked into my bathroom and saw this:





So, what do you think is going on here? Post a comment with the craziest, most creative reason for a little boy's chair and a maze book to be in the bathroom. This weekend I'll reveal to you what really happened.

This is supposed to be fun, so be silly and enjoy yourself. We're all friends here, right?

Magnet Monday--I'm in the mood for love...

...simply because you're near me!

And because it's Magnet Monday! Woo-hoo!

Magnet Monday--Love Edition
Originally uploaded by La Dama de Collage

This week's magnets are my world-famous collage magnets. This set was made awhile ago and they've been hanging around on my fridge. There will be three lucky winners this week and each will receive one awesome fluffy-romance novel collage magnet. Again, just leave a comment and the names will be drawn on Friday. Get two (or more) chances to win by telling your friends and/or family about Magnet Monday and having them leave a comment on this post with anote that you told them about Magnet Monday. Ooo-ee-ooo.

And I have cupcake magnets in my Etsy store now, if you're interested. Only one set is listed right now, but I have three sets. And more fun magnets will be coming soon.

Which Austen Heroine Are You?

Take the Quiz here!

How funny! I hoped that I would be most like Anne Elliot because she really is my favorite of Austen's characters and Persuasion is probably my favorite of Austen's books. But I was sure I would end up an Emma or an Eleanor. I'm quite pleased that I am Anne Elliot.

Drumroll, please!

And the winners are...

Heather and Megan! *wild applause*

I decided to pull two names for my first Magnet Monday Giveaway, so that's why both Heather and Megan get magnets. And, since Heather hasn't read Twilight, I'll send you the cupcake magnets, and because Megan is a crazy Twilight fan, much like myself, I'll send you a set of Twilight magnets. So, I'll be contacting you two to get your addresses.

To the rest of you: Do not worry! There will be many more Magnet Monday Giveaways. I already have some in mind for next week.

Oh, and Nicole and Heidi, I had to take your names out of the drawing this week because you're already getting cupcake magnets! Nicole, you would have had them today, but I actually got lost in the fog trying to find your house. It took me about 20 minutes to find a street I recognized, and by then I decided to just go home. When it is less foggy, I'll bring them to you. And, Heidi, I put yours in the mail today.

And, if you would really like to get your hands on some cupcake or Twilight magnets, email me. I'm going to start making some more for my Etsy shop (which is very empty right now), but we can work something out if you'd rather just pay me or do some kind of trade.

Thankful Thursday

Free To Use
Originally uploaded by Suzee Que

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardners who make our souls blossom." --Marcel Proust

Today I am thankful for my blogging buddies. To all of you who read my blog and make comments even though you probably really have something better to be doing, a huge thank you! I don't know if what I'm doing is worthwhile to anyone else, but it certainly makes me happy and I'm glad that you take a few minutes every once in a while to read my meandering musings.

It's Just Another Magnet Monday

Ooo-eee--ooo.

Okay, so it's the first "Magnet Monday" not "Another Magnet Monday" but it just works!

I've been jealous for awhile of Nicole's "Name that Movie Mondays" and "Flashback Fridays" and totally wishing I had a cool day of the week. And, just a couple of minutes ago while I was changing the baby and talking to TSH on the phone at the same time, it came to me. Magnet Mondays. So, here's the deal. On Mondays, I am going to show you a new magnet that I've made. And sometimes (often, I hope) I am going to giveaway a magnet or two. Yipee!

The first set of magnets I've made are my Sweet Stuff magnets. Don't they just look deelish!

The second set are some Twilight magnets. I made another set for Amy for her birthday last week.

Now, here's the deal: Leave a comment on this post, telling me which set of magnets you would like. On Friday (after I leave work), I will draw one name for a set of magnets. And then I'll make you some like you see above (they won't be exactly the same, of course, because all of them are handmade and so subject to the whim of fate and other stuff).

I'm so excited! The first Magnet Monday now commences!

The Island of Yesterday

On the Island of Yesterday
My laundry is piled up
Washed but not folded
The dishes are in the sink
Starting to stink up the kitchen
The garbage is bagged up in one, two, three bags
Waiting to be thrown away

On the Island the Yesterday
The bathroom still needs to be scoured
The kitchen still needs to be mopped
The front room still needs to be vacuumed
And the fridge needs to be cleaned

On the Island of Yesterday
I left so much undone
There was so much I wanted to so
But I've sailed away from that Island
And I'm on my way to
The State of Dreaming about Tomorrow



This was inspired by my new book The Awe-Manac and I've also made an art journal page based on my poem.

All I Really Need To Know...

I learned from making art.

1. Art is messy. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

2. If you screw up on something, don't toss it. Try and cover up the mistake with a button or a paper flower. You might find that you like it better anyway.

3. Look for materials wherever you go. You can find inspiration in the most unexpected places and at the most unexpected times.

4. You'll be inspired to work as you work, not as you're looking at pictures of others' works on Flickr (although that is certainly fun).

5. It is possible to let art overtake your life and your home. And, again, that's not necessarily a bad thing.


Where have you learned the important lessons in your life? Blog about it and then let me know. I'd love to read your important lessons.

And if you've never read Robert Fulghum's All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (which inspired my five lessons), I hope you'll take a couple of minutes and read it.

Make that to-do list!

It's the new year. Time to make new lists full of fine resolutions. And then...don't complete them.

Want a list that you can actually get done? Here's "The To-Do List You Can Actually Do" from this month's issue of Real Simple magazine.

• Hit snooze.
• Shampoo; rinse; repeat.
• Forget to floss.
• Eat a bagel.
• Forget to put laundry in the dryer. Clothes can be permanently pressed (whatever that means) tomorrow.
• Screen phone calls.
• See mailman coming and realize Netflix and bills are still on the kitchen counter.
• Get sucked into movie on Lifetime.
• Grow anxious as Meredith Baxter (Birney?) murders the dad from 7th Heaven.
• Put off remaining duties while reading celebrity gossip.
• Decide for yourself "Who Wore it Best?"
• Skip Pilates.
• Eat a burrito.
• Pick up The World Is Flat on the nightstand.
• Read paragraph. Put book down.
• Leave eye makeup on.
• Lights out.

Ha ha! I'm going to cut this one out and laminate it. But I think I need to add, "Check blog to see if anyone made any comments," and "Check Facebook to see if I have any new friends."

If you happen to be at the store and you see Real Simple, pick it up for a minute and read "Lists of Legends" on page 102. Very funny.

Win Stuff! Like totally for free!

If you're interested in stamping, card making, and general paper crafting, check out the Simon Says Stamp Blog. You could win some cool stamps or other fun crafting things. You can also enter up to 10 times, so, ya know, do it...if you want to.

Whoa! Is it the new year already?

I don't know about you, but does it seem like this year has just flown by?!



I hope you all have a wonderful new year and I'm putting it out in the Universe that you will all receive blessings galore! (You know, because the Universe and I are super-tight!)

The 12 Troubles of Christmas

Okay, I have to start out saying that Christmas really was quite lovely, and, overall, the holiday break has been very nice. But it seems that I've had a few more "troubles" over the past week and a half than I would like. Some of the troubles were mere annoyances. A couple were a little more excrutiating. And I don't know if there were 12. Why don't we count them and see?

1. The snow. I hate driving in the snow! Before my accident last January and then getting stuck in a snowbank on my way to work on Valentine's Day, I hated driving in the snow. Now I despise driving in the snow and sometimes I even think about not going to work when it is snowing (it hasn't happened yet, but don't rule that out). So, I am counting the snow as one of the troubles of Christmas because it took me about an hour and a half to get home from school after we got out for the break on the 19th. Then I got stuck about 4 times between my in-laws' house and our apartment. What usually takes me about 5 minutes took 15-20 minutes to get home.

However, on the positive side, it didn't snow on Saturday and there were no problems picking up TSH from the airport.

2. The food. I had decided to make waffles for Christmas breakfast. Mmm, waffles.... Oh, where was I? Oh, yeah. Christmas breakfast. So, I started making the waffles using my trusty Krusteaz belgian waffle mix and instead of actually reading the package, I instead decided that it needed 1 1/3 c of oil instead of 1 1/3 c of water. Just so you know, even if you decide to add a little more mix and some water to the batter, it will not work! Instead, it will leave a mess in your belgian waffle maker that you will have to clean out later on. I guess I should do that today.

Another food related trouble is that I ate too much junk food and I was sick for a couple of days. That was totally my own fault. I'll take the blame for that. But who can resist all of those yummy goodies?!

Yet another food related trouble is when we took the boys to IHOP and Andrew had a fit the entire time and refused to eat anything and spent about a half hour embarrassing me.

But TSH and I went out to dinner by ourselves one night (thanks to the parents for taking the boys for the entire night!) at The Training Table, and it was delightful.

3. The movie. TSH and I decided to take the boys out to see The Tale of Despereaux Christmas morning. And while we were there, the power surged and went out at the theater, so we only saw about a half hour of the movie. We were given passes to go back later, which we finally did on Saturday. But the theater was freezing and I forgot my blanket in the car! (I had remembered it on Christmas.) The manager said that ever since the power outage, they hadn't been able to warm up that theater. Lovely.

But on the happy side, we did get to finish seeing the tale of the little mouse and TSH and I went and saw Twilight (1st time for him, 3rd time for me). And it was still totally awesome!

4. The ouchies. After we gave up on the movie on Christmas Day, we all got into the car and drove to my parents' house. Unfortunately, before I got in the car, I hit my head and it hurt so bad I thought I was going to have a concussion. No conussion, fortunately, but I did have a bruise on my head until about, oh, yesterday.

Then, early Monday morning (about 3:30), Nathan woke up and I decided to be nice and let TSH sleep (that was my mistake right there!), so I got up and fixed Nathan a bottle. I then decided to sit on the couch for a little bit because my stomach was making some rumbling noises (see #2. The food). After about a half hour of watching QVC sell canes and other items to people who need some help moving about the house, I turned off the TV, got up off the couch, slipped on some Christmas toy packaging that had yet to be thrown away, and hurt myself so badly that I wondered if I would have to go to the doctor. I was sure that I had screwed up my knee and I couldn't get off the floor by myself (fortunately , TSH had heard "a scream" and then noticed I wasn't in bed, so he came to find me, or else who knows when I would have been found). Good news, I didn't screw up my knee. Bad news, I did pull a muscle in my leg and it's now Thursday and I'm just starting to walk normally...and it still hurts. It's a good thing that we live on the bottom floor and that we don't have any stairs or I would be in big trouble. I'm not handling stairs very well yet.

And now I wish I had bought that cane that rolled which I saw on QVC just before I got hurt. I could probably use one right now.

And there is no good side to the ouchies. Except maybe that I didn't end up in the emergency room for either of them.

Alright, so maybe there weren't 12 troubles of Christmas, but what kind of post title would "The 4 Troubles of Christmas" be?

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you didn't ruin the waffles or do yourself bodily harm.

And to all a goodnight!