Finds, Flowers, and Fruit!

Once again I have a hodgepodge post to share today! It seems that's all I share these days, but hopefully I will have some remodel posts coming up soon since we will be remodeling our guest bathroom soon and then the master. We are planning to start soon!But, for today, I will share some happies from my week. 

You may remember I was out of town for a workshop Sunday night and Monday. It was awesome! Tuesday I only worked a half day due to my endocrinology appointment. I met with the doctor that day but she was unable to do the ultrasound and biopsy that day so she scheduled my for Thursday morning. So, Tuesday started out at work where all the teachers received a beautiful rose as a thank you from a local resident. Then, I picked up my Mama and we went to Gainesville to the doctor. After that, we stopped by TJ Maxx. I was excited to find the perfect suitcase for my trip! I will be posting some of my purchases for my trip soon!

Moving on, I went to work Wednesday and then took Thursday off to go back to the doctor. The hubby took off to go with me. I was a little nervous, but have been through this procedure before so I knew what to expect. The doctor was able to get a good sample of cells to send off. She looked at them herself under a microscope and she said they looked like normal, healthy cells. I'm praying she's right! Anywho, I only had to endure three needle sticks. The first two were not too bad. The third was a little uncomfortable because she aspirated the nodule and drained the fluid out. This took 3 or 4 minutes. She got a lot of fluid out and is hoping it might not fill back up. All this time, I was leaning back with my head down and I was getting nauseous and light headed. That was the worst part! Anywho, as long as the pathology report comes back clear, then I will not be having my right thyroid lobe removed right now. If this continues, then in a year or two, I will go through with the surgery. I will go back and see her in 6 months to reevaluate if the report shows no cancer. After we left, I did a little shopping at Tuesday Morning, Target, and JoAnne's. I was so excited to find these adorable plates at Tuesday Morning! I can't wait to set a table with them! They are just small dessert plates but will look cute stacked on some plain red, green, black, or white plates.

Not sure which one I like best! The hubby likes the truck the best. I just can't decide!

I found a few crafty things there as well. 

The gold and black Christmas stickers are actually from Target's Bullseye's Playground...formerly the Dollar Spot. I got a great deal on the Tim Holtz products! The small paper is travel themed and will be used to document my trip to Prague! 

Here are the Target and JoAnne's goodies. The little trees and rhinestones are from JoAnne's. The 3-pack of red jars was just $3 at Target. They also had bigger ones. I bought some trims from Target too. They had lots of great items for Christmas for $1-$3. 

These were $3 each at Target. I am planning to use them to hold fresh greenery for Christmas. I will probably hang one on the door. I love the copper colored one!

They are flat on the back for hanging. I couldn't pass them up!

After we shopped, we had a nice lunch and then went to see this movie.....

It was an awesome movie! I always like movies that are based on real life events. I'm sure you remember when the copper and gold mine collapsed in Chile back in 2010. Unbelievable that these men lived for 69 days underground. I highly recommend it, but take some tissues! 

On to Friday....I went to work and had fun making some Thanksgiving things with my kinders. I completed my lesson plans and a few other things after work for when I return on the 30th. I came home and got ready to go watch my nephew and our local football team in a district playoff game. We lost, but our boys sure played with heart! Saturday morning I went to see my hairdresser for a trim, came home and the hubby and I went to pick up a new bathtub for the guest bathroom, and then we went to my mother-in-law's to visit.

She has a tangelo tree growing in her backyard and it has lots of fruit this year. They are so sweet and juicy! 

We picked several to bring home.

I had to take a picture of this gorgeous and unusual flower. 

They look like raspberries before they open up. So cool!

The little lavender blooms remind me of bells.

My mother-in-law used to make crafts to sell. She still makes a few things but she has been trying to downsize her craft supplies over the past year. I went in her shop and rummaged around and she gave me what I wanted. Look at this beautiful biscuit tin she was storing things in! Isn't is gorgeous?

It is quite large too. That's my sewing chair it is sitting on and it is pretty wide.

The tin was made in Germany. I cannot read what it says but I was able to fin some similar ones on Etsy going for $30-$60 something dollars! I will be keeping mine and probably storing whatever I am currently working on in the living room.

She gave me a box full of different size Styrofoam balls. I just went to Michael's last weekend and paid around $3 or $4 for 6 and that was with a coupon! I'll be returning those now!

I have the tin crammed with several yards of fabric, fringe trim, a small tree for my kitchen shelves, a pink feather boa, pearl trim, chenille stems and so on. I need to find homes for all of it!

Not the best picture, but she also gave me this metal basket. It looks like it is designed to go on a bike, but I have other plans for it. It is really neat!

And, that my friend, is it. Sorry this was so long! If you stuck around to read it all, thank you! I hope to be able to post a couple times over the break. I am so happy to have this week off work. I have been needing a break. I want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers for my thyroid. Hopefully I will have results soon. I thank you for your thoughts and prayers for Heather too. I saw her last night and she is doing better. Her most recent x-ray on her lung showed improvement. You all are the best! I hope you have a wonderful week ahead. 

Until next time.....

 

 

Feeling Crafty!

Well, I'm back! Two days in a row, which is miraculous for me...lol!

I shared this monogram I bought to make a wreath out of in yesterday's post and told you I would show you how it turned out today. So, here it is! I chose to paint it a shade of aqua blue. Big surprise I know! I added a bow I made from burlap ribbon and called it done. Here it is on my door.

I also told you I would share something I got in the mail. I love happy mail! I recently installed an app on my phone called Chatbooks, It pulls photos from my Instagram accounts and when I have 60 photos that I approve of to be printed, they publish them in a little book and send it to me. They are just a few dollars and you can get your first one free with this code if you are interested....2URKUYWF.

You can title your series. See mine below....

This will print on the spine of each book along with the volume number and the dates of the first and last photo they use in the book. I started my IG account a few years ago but didn't use it much until the past few months. Now I have two IG accounts. You can find me here....@jovic4 or @vickyshappyplace

Here's the cover I chose. My kids look so much younger here!

And here you can see the size of the book. I can't wait to have a few on my shelf! I love the idea of printing these random photos from my daily life. How cool will it be to look back in the years to come. :)

I came home today to more happy mail. My Wal Mart Beauty Box came today. This one had some pretty nice products inside. If you're interested in subscribing, just google it. They are delivered quarterly and are only $5 each. I like trying new products but hate it when I buy a full size of something only to dislike the product. This gives me a chance to try products before I spend money on them. Sometimes they send full size products. My last box had a nice tube of lipstick...I just strongly disliked the color! 

Moving on, I also had some stickers in the mail today! I love stickers for my planners and my Project Life album. These are so pretty....they are by Simple Stories, the I AM collection. I put them under the lamp so you could see the gold foil. 

Speaking on planners and Project Life, here are my weekly layouts in my Kate Spade desk planner and my Color Crush personal planner. I decided to go with a fall theme in the Kate Spade, even though it doesn't feel much like fall here in Florida. We have had a few glimpses of fall recently though and that gives me home that it is on the way!

I just love this week in my personal size. Isn't that book washi tape the cutest ever? My friend, Heather was kind enough to share. I wrote book quotes on each date. I still need to finish filling in all my to do's for the week.

I also wanted to share the Project Life pages I worked on over the weekend. I want to document Sadie's life so I had several pictures printed from the time she was a puppy. Oh, how I miss that sweet baby face!

Sorry about the glare in some of these.

Cute or what?

Well folks....that's a wrap! I seriously need to get to work grading some tests and finishing some paperwork for school. I will be at school tomorrow but have meetings throughout the day so I had to leave plans for a sub. I detest writing sub plans! I hope your Monday was marvelous and your Tuesday is too!

Until next time.....

Project Life and Catching Up!

Hello there! 

How are you on this beautiful day? I truly hope you are doing well! 

Once again, it's been a couple weeks since I posted, so I am going to share what's been happening in my life lately.

Last night was the hubby's 30 Year Class Reunion! Wow...that means mine is just a couple years away! Anywho, it was a wonderful evening even though only a few of the classmates could make it. We had such a nice time catching up with friends and sharing what's going on in our lives. 

The hubby bought a new "toy"! It's a Volkswagen rail buggy and it's street legal. He has promised me our first little road trip will be to a local area called Shired Island. I want to take some sunset photos! He has a few things to do with it, but isn't it cute? 

I have been busy trying to catch up on life...both at work and home! I am finally feeling like I am getting there. Today I had time to "play" in my happy place!

This is what I was doing!

I am so excited about my latest hobby! I have been watching tons of YouTube videos about the Project Life process and I was thrilled to start on it today. I got a great deal on my supplies to get started at Michael's on Friday. I went in to purchase just a box of the page protectors with my 50% off coupon, but they had the albums for 60% off, so I got the two albums and the box of page protectors for just a couple dollars more than the page protectors normally cost! I love the design on these two albums!

This lovely saying is on the inside of the album on the hard plastic page protector piece. I feel that I already cultivate a good life, but I wasn't so good about recording it. I plan to change that! My goal is to document my life through these photo & journaling spreads. I want to do a page every week or two of just random moments in life. I will also create spreads for special occasions. 

My first spread is my recent trip to Mexico Beach. I love the way the pages turned out! You can click on them to enlarge if you want to see a closer image.

I created 4 pages using photos from my trip. I am pleased with how my first attempt at Project Life style turned out. Let me know what you think.

I also had time to clean up and organize in my craft room today. I found this beautiful box at Tuesday Morning to hold my washi tapes. I LOVE this stuff and use it in my planner every week and will also use it in my Project Life albums.

You can see it on the side of my desk in the photo below.

I also reorganized my Raskog cart. The top tray holds all my journaling cards and a few other items. The middle holds various planner supplies and punches. The bottom holds my paper cutter, a large punch, and my fall and Christmas stickers and supplies.

I think I shared my planner obsession in an earlier post as well. I am still going strong with this and love decorating and filling in my planners each week. This first one is my Happy Planner. I won it a few months ago in an Instagram giveaway. I already had my desk planner and my purse planner on the way, so I decided to use this one to document blessings and happy moments in my life and well as recording who and what I am praying for. This week, all my planners are dedicated to Miranda since she turns 26 on the 27th! I can hardly believe my "baby" girl is that old! We'll be celebrating via Skype on the big day!

My desk planner has a garnet and gold theme for her alma mater, Florida State University. The feather washi along the bottom represents the Seminoles. It's very simple but I love how these pages turned out. I will fill things in as the week goes on. So far, this week is pretty empty!

This is my personal size planner. It finally came in a few weeks ago. It is a Webster's Pages Color Crush planner. I carry it in my purse. Isn't it pretty?

Sprinkle washi tape  and cupcakes adorn these little pages. I am thinking about turning this one into a wallet/planner. That's what a lot of people do and I like the idea. We'll see!

Earlier today, I went up to the pasture to see if I could get some photos of my Uncle's new baby calf to send him. He and my Aunt Loretta are out west visiting with all their sons (all 8 of them) and their families. The calf was born after they left. I thought I would show you a picture of the little cutie too.

He is such a pretty boy!

While I was up there, I snapped this random photo and thought it turned out so pretty. I added a nice quote to it. See the reddish blur under the words, if you truly? That's one of the big cows!

I hope you enjoyed this random post. I wanted to thank those of you who are taking time to visit Miranda's blog. She has enjoyed you following along on her journey! She is doing so great! I admit I was missing her terribly yesterday, but today was better. Christmas will be here before I can turn around and I don't want to rush life by. So, I am being patient and enjoying any correspondence I can with her. Hope you have a blessed and beautiful week!

Until next time.....