new blog

Hi everyone...

just want to let you all know that I have a new blog now. The address is:

Stephaniealena.typepad.com

snow day!

today we woke up to snow...and it hasn't stopped snowing all day long! There is probally 6-8" of snow out and I went to the weather website and they had a heavy snow advisory up that said to expect between 2-6" more tonight. It is crazy. and I was supposed to work today, but luckily elizabeth decided to not open the store today. We have a great view of traffic from our apt. and people have been sliding around all day. So instead of working I got a nice day off. We took pup out to play with her in the snow. At first she wasn't sure of it and would hide unfer the bushes were there was no snow, but then she changed her mind and played. Ran would make snowballs anf through then and she would chase them. Then Kim and Will (kim is a co-worked and a neighbor) bought a sled and were sledding down our hill. Randy went down once and said it lots of fun. I passed on the sledding. Here are some picts. of our snow day:

happy 25th!

I turned 25 on Nov. 17th and the tom girls all went out to celebrate. We (along with a few significant others) went to bob's burger and brew in downtown. We had our private room. It was so much fun talking and laughing with everyone. The girls got me TWO quickutz tools with dies and totes...PLUS a gift certificate to the store! I was so surprised and touched. This was one amazing birthday...I was so touched that everyone came out for my birthday and then just over the edge with the gift. The girls I have met here have become very valued friends and I am so thankful that I know them and I am able to work with them. It will be hard for any job after this one to compare...they have certainly raised the bar.

happy feet

Oh my goodness! Ran's parents sent me some money for my birthday and told me to go buy a pair of crocs. I had been wanting them for a long time but ya know how things go. So today I braved the rain and hail and went to REI to pick them out. I found my size and tried them on and holy cow it was like stepping into heaven. I have never worn a shoe that is as comfortable as thee are. I seriously wanted to go around the store and ask people if they knew just how great these shoes were. Why didn't I get these shoes sooner? LOVE LOVE LOVE them! Thank you so much steve and patty for these great shoes!

My sister and her friend and came up to visit Ran and I yesterday. They came to Seattle to go to the football game tonight. During the few hours they were up here we went to dinner, visited, and most importantly...visited maxwell. My sister had seen him since the mighty maxwell guild benefit crop back in april. She follows his blog, but boy was she excited to see him in person again.

field of screams

so last night for halloween, ran and I and some of our friends...tessa, elke, kim , and will, went to a haunted corn maze. we had so much fun. It was so so dark and there was scary crap jumping out at us from the corn all over the place. At the very end the scary guy from texas chainsaw masacre came out from the corn with a mask on and a chain saw. ah. me and ran were at the back of the group so I started running...I just left poor ran behind. (personally I was a little surprised I could actually run) After the field of screams we went to a regular, non-haunted, corn maze. It was a little wierd because it didn't say where the end was so we actually ended up leaving the way we came in. It was fun though.


Here is elke, tessa, and I in front of the corn maze sign. It had a picture of what the maze looked like. (some new Boeing airplane) If you want to see more fun picts. go visit kim's blog- the link is on the side of this page.

happy halloween

*last night ran and I carved pumpkins and this is how they turned out. and I just wanted to ntoe that I managed to clean out my pumpkin without touching any of the goop. I forgot to buy gloves and it makes me sick to my stomach to even think about touching it...ew.

been busy

working on various projects for myself and the store. here are some of the latest:

this is when davey came to visit us after he got from bulgaria and before he left for BYU for school



this is a portfolio style album I did about our week long trip to the tri-cities when davey came home from bulgaria. We have the portfolio die cut at work and the rest was so easy...just like decorating photo mats



this a book I made for a friend from high school who just a baby last week. very simple...all she has to do is add the photos.


did this one last night for the store using karen foster stuff and some of our fun pictures from the pumpkin patch

pumpkin patch

on friday ran and I wanted to go down to seattle to see the dead sea scrolls at the science center, but you know how things go. we slept in, didn't really feel like driving all the way down there, etc. so instead we went to the pumpkin patch by Everson. We had lots of fun. They had cute farm animals, a corn maze, pumpkins everywhere.


this is me with my new friend


this is ran's super duper secret job...randy the international cowboy super star


here is ran with his pumpkin


here I am with mine

together are pumpkins weighed in at 51 lbs. they must be filled with lots of goop-ew.

ah...

let the inspiriation and creativity flow.

so excited when I went in to treas and saw these. two of my favorite magazines. plus my friend alissa is in both of them. very inspiring scrapbooker-love her work. I can't wait to sit and look through these.

so in love...

sometimes I am a little busy. especially during the week. I work 6 days a week and lots of times they are long days. Ran spends his days at school during the week. its suprising how messing and out of control my house can get even when I am not spending much time there.

today I went to work planning on spending my whole day monday getting my house together. My bedroom floor is covered with clothes...I think every piece of clothing I own is on the floor. There are no clean glasses in house- dishes need to be done. one of the toilet seats broke off- I need to replace it. 3 light bulbs are burned out. I am feeling guily that I haven't been able to spend much time with my pup. My living room floor is covered with paper scraps from various projects. the garbage needs to be dumped. floors need to be vacuumed.

I came home tonight and ran had done ALL my laundry- like all 9 loads of it. he did all the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. He replaced the toilet seat. he replaced the light bulbs. he took pup for a long walk to the school and even gave her a bath. he cleaned the living room. he dumped the garbage. and he vacuumed.

he did everything on my list.

I can't even explain how happy I was to come home and see all this done so I don't spend my 1 day off cleaning (I scrapbook instead) and how great it is that he did these things without me asking. He had no idea that I was actually going to do all these things tomarrow. I am so lucky to have him.

some random stuff

sara, tammy, and I had a class on sat. @ treas. here is a layout I created for it:


after the class ran and I went to Seattle: krispy kreme, seattle pottery supply, paper zone (not impressed), and ikea. we got a new bedspread and some new pillows. i'm so excited for them, I'll have to post a picture of it later. Here is a pict. of seattle in the fog.


I am totally loving this fall weather. it makes me so happy. I just want to sip apple cider all day long. and how gorgeous are the leaves? love them.

My mom and step-dad, don, are here. My mom and I took Miss Julies great class @ treas. on tuesday. when we got home my spent like 3 hours decorating all her pages while I took a nap. She had a lot of fun.

Ran is super busy with school. He has a cermaic class and a wood sculpture class. The wood class makes me a little nervous with all those saws.

next friday we are going to the seattle science center to see the dead sea scrolls. I can't wait. I've never been to the science center. Maybe if it is a clear day we can go up in the space needle too.

Mmmmmmm

krispy kreme

a good nights rest...

ran did this project a couple quarters ago and it didn't really turn out like he wanted so he decided to learn from some mistakes and continue playing around with the idea- sleeping on clay. He worked all day to roll out slabs of clay and then laid them out on our kitchen floor:

He carfeully lined up the tiles and "slipped and scored" them together to they essentially were one piece. He then helped me drag our mattress to the scrapbook area so he didn't have to sleep out there by himself.
Here he is laying on the clay:

He slept just how he normallyw ould except with no pillow. He said the clay was very cold until it started to warm up with his body heat and then it was fine.

I am crossing my fingers that this one turns out how he wants it to.

5 wierd things...

So I was tagged a while ago by sofia
here are the rules:
List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets.
Tag 5 friends and list them. Then, those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people. Don't forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog!

So I had to think about this alot...they are things I do, so I don't really think they are wierd, but others might. Ya know? Okay so here are my 5 things:

1- I some food issues. (alot) here is just one: "rotten food." If its been in the fridge for a couple of days- I don't eat it- it's "rotten." This only applies to left overs, fruit, etc. Alos milk- if I go a couple days without opening the milk container- I won't drink anymore of it. This rule does not apply to food that you would use to make a meal in the future such as sour cream, butter, etc.

2- yes I am married- no I don't wear a wedding ring and neither does he. why not? because its just a ring. I don't need him to wear a ring to know he's committed to me and vice versa.

3- When it is time to sleep- the closet doors have to both be over on the right hand side (We have sliding closet doors) or they have to be closed- both touching each wall. If they are in the middle, of the left hand side, or just kind of open I can't sleep until I fix it.

4- I can't stand to have hair wet touching my bare skin. After a shower my hair is up in a towel until I throw a shirt on. I don't like how it "sticks" to me- yuck.

5- I clean my ears out multiple times a day. I am very obsessive about it-I have to do it until my ears feel right. In the morning after a shower they feel wet inside so I have to clean them out until they feel dry and then I will normally clean them out at least 1-2 more times during the day. I think it stems from when I was little I had over active ears and if I didn't clean them out constantly then the wax would build up really bad- so I guess I am paranoid about that.

So I don't even think I know 5 people with blogs to tag them...hmmm...Alissa, kim, Alisen- I think that's it. Maybe instead of "tagging" people, you should just list a couple wierd things in my comments- whatever.

Now you guys know what a wierdo I am!

Body Worlds

Today Ran and I went up to Vancouver to go to the Telus World of Science which had a Body Worlds exhibit there. Its a little crazy to think about- they take actual human bodies and through this Plastinization process they preserve them. They can then show them in different poses- like which muslces would be flexed if you were skate boarding or something. I was really excited to go see it. I had been looking at it on the internet for a while and I never actually thought I would be able to see it.

BUT it was wierd- nothing seemed real. They all looked plastic. It wasn't creepy or spooky (not like I was hoping it would be) it just seemed like another exhibit. It all looked fake. Whith that being said, it was incredibly interesting and I liked looking at it all. They had all the organs out for you to see and alot of comparisons- normal lungs vs. smokers lungs, etc. They also had embyos from like 4-8 weeks which was amazing to see. After we got done with that exhibit we had fun going through the rest of the science center playing with the fun stuff like using leverage to lift the weight of a hippo, etc. Also the view from the science center is amazing and once again- I did not get lost.

pet album

so I have been super busy recently...working, doing projects, enjoying that last week before school starts. Let's see if anything new has happened...not so much. It has been rainy and I love the overcast skies. I just want to go out and buy myself a pumpkin. other than that...nothing. since I have nothing exciting to say here is a mini album I just finished for Treas. for a new mini book class we have going. Its all about my cute pup...and her rules to live by. For example: When in doubt, put it in your mouth it could be food OR when compnay is visiting act really attnetion starved so they will give you extra loves. You know just her weird little habits that I love so much.




*ETA* hey look I figured out how to make my picts. normal size instead of super huge!

Introducing...

our newest additions! A cute little clark clown fish and a long tentacle anenome. We have actually had them for about a month or so...but we wanted to make sure they were going to survive. This is out first attempt with an anenome and they are very sensative to changes in temp. ph, and salt. But after a month- they are still going strong, so I think we are in the clear. The fish absolutely loves the anenome which can be a bit annoying when we are trying to feed it- the fish will eat the food off its tentacles. Anyhow got to back to work- I have a ton of projects to work on from treas. hopefully I will get them done soon so i can post them.

about me...

I love these things- why? I don't really know, but my sis sent me one so I filled it out and here it is:

FOUR JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE:
>1) Taco Time
>2) Craft Warehouse
>3) Treasury of Memories
>4) Watching the cutest little boy ever- maxwell

>FOUR MOVIES I WOULD WATCH OVER AND OVER AND OVER:
1. Pretty Woman
2. Mona Lisa Smiles
3. Good Will Hunting
4. Chicago


FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
1. Kennewick, WA
2. Bountiful, UT
3. Bellingham, WA
4. (I've only lived in 3 places)


FOUR TV SHOWS I LOVE TO WATCH:
1. Nip/Tuck
2. Project Runway
3. Six Feet Under
4. Deadliest Catch


FOUR PLACES I'VE BEEN ON VACATION:
1. NYC/Baltimore/DC (it was all on one vacation)
2. Hawaii
3. Las Vegas
4. Disney Land

FOUR WEBSITES I VISIT (almost) DAILY:
1. All the blogs I have linked to my blog, plus a couple more
2. Two peas in a bucket
3. Ebay
4. My space (only as of a couple days ago)

FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS (NO PARTICULAR ORDER):
1. anything mexican
2. Red Curry w/ veggies
3. my mom's rolls
4. White Enchiladas


FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1. Hawaii
2. Europe
3. In my bed sleeping
4. In the Tri-cities seeing family

P.S- did you know Peewee Herman is still on TV. Yeah it is 12:30 a.m. but who knew it was still on. and what's worse- I have sat here and watched it for the past half hour- it is really wierd and a little creepy.

My Space

I have been resisting joining myspace for a long time now. I did sign up a while ago, but only so I could search for some old friends. Ran has had a myspace for a few months now, but I just kept telling him that I didn't get it. I thought it was weird...stupid...waste of time...etc. Well, yesterday was my day off and I had alot of stuff that I needed to get done. Did I do it? no. Instead I decided that I should actually create a myspace page and then spend all afternoon and evening and most of the night searching for people and reading about what they have been up to. What's worse? when I went to bed I dreamed about it. Yeah, I dreamed about the comments people would post on my page and the people that I would get back in contact with. Seriously. I still can't believe that I broke down and made a page let along spent my whole day off on that site. its silly really. If you want to check out my page here is the link->myspace page

p.s. there is a cool gosling song that plays on it so you should go to it just to listen to that =)

a little gosling love

today is a Gosling love day. Ran showed a video they had posted on their my space for "Mr. Skeleton Wings." loved it. (copy and paste this url to view the video)

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1156785293

So then I decide to listen to their new album. (I haven't listened to it much) Then I am just searching for stuff on ebay and search for them to see if there is anything cool to bid on. You see, gosling used to be loudermilk. and when loudermilk put out a new album there were promo CD's and posters for sale on ebay which we got. So I wanted to see if there were any for Gosling. Well guess what I found?! A brand new- still in the wrapper- copy of their first CD as loudermilk- MAN WITH GUN KILLS 3!! Still in the wrapper!! This huge- there were only like 1000 of these CD's so to find one in the wrapper...ahhhh!! I can hardly believe it and of course ran is super excited- his copy of the CD is super trashed and he never listens to it anymore because he doesn't want to ruin it.

Anyhow- check them out at their myspace page: myspace.com/gosling

a little trip

I had yesterday off so ran and I headed up to Vancouver for the day. We went and saw the exhibits at the Vancouver art gallery. (I got us a membership to it as part of ran's birthday present) They had a really interesting exhibit of Haidia art. It was really quite impressive how extensive it was. They had wroks from a large span of time (like from 1700's to present day) so it was great to compare the works from the 1800's to the present day artists. I really enjoyed it...very interesting...glad I was able to see it. They ahd two other exbitions, but I wasn't really imrpessed with them. One was the critical works of arthur Erickson, who is an architect and has designed such buildings as the tacoma glass museum. and the other one was just some of works the gallery has collected. We also did some window shopping and just had fun. On the way home we stopped at White Rock for some amazing views of the sunset and ate at a little fish n' chips place. Very fun day...great to get away for a few hours...and best of all- we didn't get lost once! (last time we went to Vancouver we got very lost, but the time we stopped for a map, we weren't even on it anymore)

I {heart} NY

So I have really been wanting to make a mini album all about our trip to New york, but hadn't been inspired by anything. Then last night- it hit me and I was so excited to get started on it today. I copied my photos onto silver paper so they are metallic and I used this awesome 7 gypsies swatch book along with some great papers and stickers. So I worked all day on it and it is pretty much finished. (I still have a little bit to work on on) so I since I am so excited about it- I have to share:


This is a close up of the cover.


This is all the pages spread out. The fronts of the pages simply highlight all the things we saw like the met, central park, lady liberty, etc.


This is one of the backs of the pages. On the back I put some fun pictures, stickers, and this is where I will do my journaling...eventually. I think I am also going to add some transparent pages that have journaling and maybe even some transparent pockets to hold some memorabilia.
Thanks for looking!

One thing I love

about my job is how I am continually pushed out of my creative little box. I mean I have my style and certain products or bands that I prefer to use, but working at Treasury I am always pushed to use things I normally wouldn't. For instance...nobody had volunteered to do the samples for Stamp of the Month for Sept. so today I said I would do. It is a company that I normally don't go for, except for their sentiments so this is challenge for sure...THEN I find out I need to make a calendar too! I am calendar challenged...can't do them so this is a big push for me. I sketched out the cards tonight and I am exited to start working on them tomarrow...the calendar on the other hand is a whole different story- still no ideas.
Here are a couple picts. of the cards I worked on tonight for the quickutz display. I pciked out the die and was really excited to work with it. I am going to scrap some of my fun mariner's picts. with it- can't wait!

major league baseball

Last night I went to my very first major league baseball game...and I liked it. We saw the mariners play the Boston Red Sox. It was very boring at first...they just kept getting each other out, but once people got on base it became more interesting. The last couple innings were very exciting. First they would be ahead and then we would be and then they would be, etc. in the end we won- YEAH! The only that could have made it better is if I would have eaten a stadium dog.

5 years!!!

yeah...that's right, yesterday ran and I had our 5 year anniversary! Crazy to think we have been married that long. We went to the zoo just over the border in Canada. (we both love zoos) We had never been to this one before and we both really liked it. The fences are like chain link and you can walk right up to them (not on the dangerous animals) and in some cases the animals were right there by the fences. We had some close encounters with the zebras, two diff. kinds of camels, a mini horse, a donkey, and a bird. We pet the camels and the mini horse even though we weren't supposed too. We had a lot of fun. I am sick right now, so it was slow going at the zoo...the lots of stopping, but it was okay. Here are some fun picts:


Here is me with a camel. He had some very gross teeth.


Here is Ran with a very friendly goat type animal...he kept trying to eat our clothes while we were posing for pictures. funny goat.

finally home...

I really like "getting away" but I really love coming home. It feels so good to sleep in my own bed and work on my own computer and sitting on my own couch, etc. We got home from the Tri-Cities last night and I was so happy to sleep in own bed again. AND I loved going into work today to see all the new fun stuff we got in! We had fun while we were there and loved seeing everyone. We did lots of fun stuff. We had family picts. taken, celebrated Isabelle's, kate's, and Laura's birthdays, went boating ((randy even went wakeboarding for the first time!), and played outside alot. Here are some picts:


here is a cute one of Ran when we are at the park


Here is cute little natalie. We were playing at the park while others were out on the boat. Clark would pour water on her and she loved it!


Here is David, Isabelle, and Kate


Here is Isabelle in her princess dress that Patty made for her

slurpees...

I had not had a slurpee in over a year, until this week and I am on my 2nd one. So good! Actually I am eating one right now as I type this. Its banana flavored, but its color is pink. wierd.

Anyhow- here in the Tri-Cities. it has been crazy to say the least. Davio flew in Tues. night and we all went to the airport to get him. he said the first thing he wanted to eat was a nacho cheese chalupa from taco bell. That is what he missed the most. so a couple of us went on a midnight run to taco bell. It has been a little wild here with 3 little girls and 8 adults all in the same house- tomarrow we are having family pictures taken at 9:00 a.m. I don't even want to think about the bathroom situation- there are only 2.

I'll have to post some picts. when I get home. I can't wait to see all excited we got in at Treasury...sounds like lots of fun goodies.

Seattle

So Ran's parents came up last night and we went to White Rock, CA. We had a lot of fun. We ate at this super cute little fish n' chips place and then walked the pier. Really nice relaxing evening. This morning they woke up early and drive down to Seatac to pick up Ran's sister Laura and her family- they had flown in from Baltimore. We met up with them and spent the afternoon in downtown Seattle. We went to Pike Place market and then down to the waterfront. It was kind of crazy with 3 little kids, but lots of fun. After they all left to go to the Tri-Cities Ran and I went to Seattle Pottery supply- an amazing store. They have everything for ceramics from kilns, wheels, and glazes to books, knives, and handles for ceramic pots/baskets. Ran loved it and we are planning another trip before school starts. After that we went to this awesome store called Earthwise. It has all this old and antique stuff they got from old buildings and such (kind of like the re-store). It was amazing the stuff they had-it totally reminded of a place they would go to on those designer Tv shows. We made a quick stop at Crispy Kreme and then went to IKEA. It was a super long day, but so much fun. Here are some picts. from our day:


Here is Isabelle eating some yummy cotton candy.


Here is Kate-we were looking at the fish in the water.


Here is Ran, Clark, Laura, and Steve all looking at the fish

...more projects

Here are some more pictures of Ran's summer art projects. It was a little crazy how much he was in the ceramic studio this summer. The class was only 3 weeks long and he got more done in those 3 weeks than he did all spring quarter. He was just pumping out the projects.