The New IOS 9.1 EMOJIS

My husband and I are always sending each other emoji text messages.  It's fun and random and who doesn't smile at random emoji texts.  A random animal as you are tired of your daily hustle and bustle. It will bring a smile to anyone's face, or at least I would hope so.

For the longest time I've said there needs to be new emoji's.  I've just tired of the same ol' ones.

Introducing the new IOS 9.1 Emojis!!!

This link will take you to a list of all the new ones and what they are.  So if your scrolling through them and see one and you're like "what is that?", this list will help with that!

What's your favorite????

BOOK REVIEW - an egg on three sticks

An egg on three sticks by Jack Moyer Fisher

This book was published in 2004, over 11 years ago.  While reading this book, I felt like I was reliving some of my thoughts when I was a teenager.  I didn't have to go through a lot of what she had to go through but I found I could relate to the main character Abby quite a bit.

She was your typical teenager who lived in a strict house.  With lots of rules and a father with a "nothing changes" attitude.  Soon everything changed as her mother started drifting into a serious state of depression.  There eventually seemed to be no rules and no more family dinners.  Her mom eventually ended up trying to commit suicide (i hate that word) and went to a psychiatric hospital for about a year.  It was her, her sister Lisa and her father.  Things started to feel normal when all of a sudden mom was coming home.

Lisa was trying to figure out this new mother she had at the same time trying to figure out the teenage feelings she was having.

This was a great book, a bit different from what I was expecting but a good different.  I tried to find other reviews on this book aside from Amazon but couldn't find many.  Not even an author website. From what I can see she didn't write other books.  If you've read it, let me know how you feel about it!

Our Wedding Guest Book

Our wedding had some pretty sweet details to it, if I do say so myself. ;) One was our guest book.  I got this unique idea from Pinterest (are you seeing a pattern? I need to start creating on my own).

The frame was the hardest part to figure out with this project.  I knew it had to have a bigger gap than normal picture frames.  So I didn't stress about it, I just made some "blank" and "signed" containers for the reception and I would figure out what to put it all in after the wedding chaos.  So I found these frames during one of my many trips to Hobby Lobby during the creating part of getting things done.  I put it in the back of my mind until after the wedding.

Once the wedding was over, I gathered all my supplies and hearts and got that frame from Hobby Lobby.  I started playing around with how I wanted it to look.

 I realized I didn't have enough signed hearts to fill the whole 12x12 frame so I played with the idea of the last name or the first names and the date. A lot that I say had just the initials and then the date on just one heart.  I liked the whole name and each date digit on one heart.  The rest of the room I had, I filled with hearts I put words that meant marriage to us.

Overall I think it turned out pretty cute and is now hanging on my wall finally.  I mean it's only been almost 4 months since the wedding. ;)

So it's been out for a while, It's new to me!

Have you ever bought a few things and not wanted to open them because they are just so pretty and fantastic looking while still in the package;  But you are dying to start using it and creating with it?

I have that problem...

About 8 months ago we started to get ready to sell our house and move.  I had to pack nearly everything in the house so we could stage it.  So this meant that I had to pack all my crafty stuff away.  I had just purchases some new fun things and one of those "things" was the Becky Higgins Project Life Trinket Value Kit.  The past year is seems we are seeing a lot more pastels and golds in the scrappy world.  I LOVE THEM! Ever see a color you love and you just feel like you need to buy everything in that color scheme? 

I have that problem...

Anyways, the kit is beautiful!

The amazing Pastels with just enough brighter pinks and even PURPLE! I love this purple and gold together.

The Project Life brand doesn't have a lot of purples let alone a beautiful lighter purple like this.  The embellishments are just as pretty as the cards!  With most of them having the foil gold accent to them, its just enough.

I discovered Project Life by accident one day on....you'll never guess...PINTEREST! I was looking for original scrapbook layouts and ideas when I stumbled upon this magic that would forever change my idea of scrapbooking!

It was introduced as a way to keep track of your weekly events and happenings.  Each layout would represent a week and so on.  I knew I didn't have time for this so I just create... I'll share some of my favs one day. :)

Let the creativity begin

Finally I'm getting into all my crafty fun stuff.  I feel like it's been forever since I've been able to sit down with all my stuff and either just stare at it (admit it, you've done it too), or use some of it.  I've even started some reorganizing of it.  But...it's a disaster area right now.  I have to label and still put a lot away, find homes for a few things.  I honest feel like its never ending trying to get it neat looking and I have SO MUCH stuff that can just go, but do I sell it or throw it away.

You'll have to excuse my poor pictures.  I take them with my cellphone usually and the lighting really sucks downstairs so the quality of a lot of my pictures aren't the greatest.  But they give you a picture and that is what matters right?

So I got this AMAZING roll-top desk for my wedding from my old boss.  I had my eye on it for a long time when it came into our warehouse (he stored it there).  So when we all lost our jobs and corporate closed the door, he handed it over as a gift. :)

I need to REALLY organize it but I love it.

Pinterest...oh Pinterest.  How I love you! I get so many ideas from there.  I love organization, but don't have the other family members to help me enjoy my love for it.  So I often find ways to do it in my own world.

My awesome peg board that I painted myself.  And this little treasure I picked up at Goodwill.  It's an old tape holder. It holds Project Life / Pocket Scrap-booking cards perfectly.  I'm still trying to weed some of my cards out because I have found what colors I like the most and in my journey to find them, I kind of created a good collection. Tomorrow I'll show you one of my newest favorites.

When I run into something way too cute to resist for organizing any of my craft stuff, I have to get it.

Like this thing that I found at Office Max for like $10 for the whole thing.  It is perfect for all those smaller things like buttons or charms or thumb tacks.

I also like turning things made for one purpose into something useful for me. ;) This idea came from something I found on Pinterest...of course. Here's the Link to that blog.

This Fun thing was found at Salvation Army.  Can you tell I love to treasure hunt?  I put labels on the inside of the drawers and filled them with all my die cuts and things.  I love how it turned out.

Please share a link to your blog if you have had fun ideas for organizing.  Check back tomorrow for the opening of a new item that's been sitting in storage for WAY TO long!

Keeping The Moon By Sarah Dessen

You know, I'm a mom; you know what that means?  I can't run away when I want to.  So why not mentally run away in a book? If you don't like to read or just don't do it, it works, trust me.

So here it is...my FIRST book review.

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen

Sarah Dessen is an author writing for young adults.  Young adult books tend to be faster reads for me. This one I started a few months ago, put it down while moving and finished a majority of it within the last week.

The main character - Colie was a troubled teen who spent her life moving from town to town while her mother tried to create a stable life for the two of them.  They were both overwheight until her mom found her calling being a fitness guru and became known world-wide. Colie followed her mothers diet and exercise plan and soon became a healthy weight herself.  But the "fat Colie" never really went away.

Her mother decided to have Colie stay one summer with her Aunt in a new unfamiliar town.  She wasn't thrilled but soon learned to deal with it and meet new friends.  Colie spent the summer with her Aunt Mira learning how to love herself and how to let things go.  She got a job at a restaurant, by accident, called The Last Chance.  Here she met the girls that changed her looks and feelings and met the guy that made her look beyond what was on the outside.

I did find this book to be a tad slower and kinda boring, but like I said, Dessen writes for young adults.  It was good though.  Made you want to "let go" of that inner fat child. ;)

If you read it or have, let me know what you think of it.

Let the Lake memories BEGIN

My parents bought their dream house on a lake and with this lake comes a lot of fish. :)  We are a family that loves to fish...not to eat them, but to just....fish.  On Labor day we went there for dinner and some time on their beach and did some fishing.

You can see how shallow the water is where they are fishing.  That's where all the little fish were that were dumb enough to bite the worm.  ;)  It was FUN though.  Of course, though, it being Nevaeh's first time fishing, she thinks fish are suppose to bite right away.  Oh well, she loved it.  And she loves the beach.

Connor decided to take the line off one of the polls because I guess it was too weak or something...

It seemed to take him forever to get it done.  The new line that he put on wasn't working right for some reason, or operator error, however you want to look at it.

He finally got it done.....

and casts it out.

And...

All the pulling of the new line off of the poll (or whatever you call it - I don't know fish talk) he didn't have enough line to fish with....HAHA the line went in the water along with the bobber and bate.  

Oh good times.

I love that this is just the start of many memories to be made on this lake.