Scrapbook Page - Valentine's Day

Now that I moved my craft table into my bedroom, I decided to do a little scrap booking!
I printed out some pictures on my fiance's printer, but although the photo paper is 4x6, the pictures printed out as 2x3...not sure how to change that setting, so I decided to keep printing some pictures as I knew I could do something creative with them.
I decided to print my Valentine pictures. I wanted to make the one of myself and my fiance the main focus, so I printed this on plain copy paper...but it still turned out superb!
I used some cute pink and red striped paper I have on hand, and some pretty pink construction paper as the photo's backdrop. Fits nicely with the color scheme of Valentine's day, as well as my scarf!

I am learning journaling - which is actually much harder for me than one would think, but that is an issue I can get into later...lol. For my journaling backdrop, I just used a piece of red construction paper, again, to keep with the Valentine color scheme.

This is the close-up of the photo of myself and my fiance. This was taken in San Francisco, in an Irish pub near the pier. The fireplace was GORGEOUS and some very kind and very hilarious Irish bar back offered to take our picture...he also loudly proclaimed that I am so "white" that I look like the "Virgin Mary." Us Irish sure have a way with words don't we? I decided to add two cute little foam hearts on the construction sheet. My mom gave me a little bag full of them, so you may be seeing more random hearts popping up on various pages! :o)

With the small photos, I decided to do a sort of collage at the bottom of the page: pictures of my gifts from the kids, the infamous picnic basket, etc. I also added ribbon - I love ribbon - that Chris had in my picnic basket, and a beautiful LOVE sticker, just to bring it all together.

I hope you enjoy this page, I'm very happy with it, and get some good ideas from it!

xoxo

Miss Irish

Easter

I know it's belated, but Happy Easter from our family to yours! Side note, I love the gorgeously colored Easter Eggs!

Two Things Sunday

Due to the fact that I am lying in bed with pneumonia, this will only be a One thing Sunday...but the picture does have two of my favorite things! Is that cheating?
Anyway, pictured is my sweet puppy, Missy, laying as she usually is on a pillow. So cute. Next to her is a bear Chris got me from the Air Force Base PX back in February. It's just really cute and I love it...

Book Review

I just finished reading The Shack, an amazing book, and have decided to read it again. It is a gorgeous book about a man who is broken and hurting who encounters God (in the form of a big, black woman who informs him too many greens will give him the trots) in the very shack where his young daughter's life was taken by a serial killer.
I can barely begin to describe how wonderful this book is and how it has effected me. It was given to me at exactly the perfect time in my life, where I really needed the love of God to seep into me to be given to those around me. My heart and my life felt very full while reading the book, which is why I have started it again. I lost count how many times my eyes filled with tears while reading passages of the book. I've never really been able, try as hard as I might, put Jesus in the role of being "human." And it's beautiful. I encourage you to read this book, you will want to read it over and over again, I guarantee it! And I can promise that you will be blessed by this book.

Take a Bite of this Apple...

I've never really paid much attention to this before, but why o why do the evil women in cartoons have to be step-mothers?! I mean, really! You're not helping me out much, Mr. Disney.

Saturday Night...

Hey all, it's pretty late (ten minutes to nine - late for me!) but Chris and the kids are rocking out downstairs on Rockband and their off-tune voices are keeping me up.
Hope you all have a BEYOND happy Easter! Remember what it's about...Will post some pics of the kids tomorrow - we are taking them out of town to grandma's for an Easter egg hunt and lunch.
Got dragged to prompt care today to have my very swollen, very sore infected finger looked at. Turns out I've got cellulitis (open wound that gets bacteria or staph inside of it and infects the skin and tissue). Got some epsom salt to do about 4-5 times a day of soaking and a very strong antibiotic I'm not entirely thrilled about. Last time I took this particular antibiotic, it made me throw up everyday. I know, I know I'm sorry I'm so gross.
I'm willing to suffer through and take the medicine, though, so I feel better!
So...go to youtube.com. Type in "newfamilygal" just like that - minus the parenthesis, of course. There are the videos I posted, my Outfit of the Day for curvy girls. Enjoy!
xoxo
Miss Irish

Breakfast

Yummy! Thanks baby!

Two Things Wednesday

Two of my favorite things around the house....


I love anything and everything vintage! Above is a picture of my grandfather, a Naval pilot. I love this picture, he's so handsome!

Above is Miss. Monroe. She's my favorite anything of all time, I have a few pictures of her in my bathroom...this is one Chris bought me when we first moved into our new house. There ya go! Two more of my favorite things around my house!

Good Friday

Morning everyone!
I posted a similar item in my facebook page, but I'm sitting here, with my iced coffee *yummy*, working away and a song popped into my head, "Life is hard but God is good." That's not the title as far as I know, but that is a powerful line in the song...I'm going to do some research and see if I can find it so I can play it over and over on youtube. :o)
Speaking of which, I will post my user name for youtube so you can check out some videos I've posted. I'm doing an "Outfit of the Day" for curvy girls, and other little fun posts like that. I'm excited about my new vlog and blog hobby!
Chris comes home tonight, around midnight. I'm going to stop by my parents, do a little bit of scrapbooking with my mom and hang out for a bit until I can drive to the airport to get him. Hope the rest of you have a blessed and fulfilling weekend!
xoxo
Miss Irish

Upcoming

Hi all - so Chris has been dropped off at the airport earlier today with the help of my daddy, so I've been watching movies and youtube videos, finished giving Missy a bath, and ready to settle in for the night.
I'm starting on working on some blog posts, opened a youtube account and will be posting videos there, too. Some ideas on upcoming blog posts, so stay tuned!!
1. Thrifted/vintage outfits
2. More favorite items around the house
3. Favorite clothing items/accessories (including jewlery & purses)
4. My favorite places around town
and more!

Weekend check-in

Hi everyone, a lovely Saturday afternoon check in!
I hope you all are having as wonderful a weekend as I am...we had some friends and family come over last night for Rock Band fun. Miss A serenaded us on her guitar - will be posting a video of her mad skills later!


Miss D. I can't wait until she is actually my sister-in-law...she's awesome!

This morning we went to little Miss A's soccer game, then Chris had softball practice (sitting around watching people play sports in the nice sun is awfully tiring!).

Chris and I decided a movie would be nice so after a nice walk and lunch, I FINALLY got to see my Alice in Wonderland. It was excellent! Chris is packing, I'm doing laundry and straightening up the house, then we're going to have a Phase10 marathon game tonight. Tomorrow is airport...then lots of blogging I'm sure as I'll be all by my lonesome. I have lots of exciting ideas for blogging, so stay tuned!

xoxo

Two Things Thursday...or Wednesday...or Saturday Morning, whenever I get around to it

Got a really great idea from another blog (one of MANY!) that I love...I'm going to post a blog once a week showing two things around my house I love...I kind of automatically knew what I wanted to post first: Chris. He's definately something around my house I love! But, there's enough about him, so I decided to be materialistic about it.
The first picture, below, are thrift store finds. I really like vines, I think they're pretty, can be used to decorate anything, and it's very earthy. It came as is on this "gate" that although looks sturdy and metal, is actually really bendable plastic! The two photos to our left are also little finds from a thrift store. Pretty vintage looking photos, don't you think?


This second photo shows some older books - I love old books! They're so glamorous to me, the rattier, the better! I have quite a few, most gotten for a quarter at the local library, local book stores or thrift stores. They really bring some class to a room, I think. Use old books to adorn a coffee table, line shelves with them, anything! And yes, I do read them.
Next to it is a pretty balernia collectable my mommy bought me a long time ago as a gift. I may be 28 years old, but yes, I still love pretty dolls!
What do you love around your house?

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Ok, ok, I know! I'm completely out of order on my posts - this should have been posted yesterday, but here I am, doing everything late and out of order as I sometimes can be...Here is our delicious corned beef dinner...YUM!


I have to say, my hair is an awfully pretty shade of red ;o)

Happy St. Paddy's day, from us to you!

A Travelin' Soldier

Chris received his orders to head off to Virginia next week...not yet received his travel orders, so there is a slight chance he may not go, but it would be good for him.
Of course I'll miss him...that was the big thing when he was in Germany, I was sooo excited to have the house to myself and have nothing but well-deserved quiet time. But after a day, I hated it. This isn't two weeks, though, and as I've mentioned before, I'm very busy at work - this helps!
I love to blog, and I have more ideas, coming soon! :o)

Hmmm...

I guess I can blog about the bad days as well as the good, right?
Wasn't a good weekend - Thomas really crossed the line with me, then of course Chris and I got in a fight about that...Don't know how to handle it, Thomas always has a problem with his mother as well as a certain teacher, whom I think is great, and is VERY sensitive...so I really don't want to bother with him. Chris wants to sit down and talk it out, but I'm really pretty much over it.
Anyway...there's a bit of my "full-plate" life, as a good friend cleverly put it. Yes, I do have a very full plate, but if Chris and I can remember to work as a team, we should be good to go!
It's very, very busy at work, as I'm covering for a co-worker on maternity leave. I enjoy it, though, I work very well under pressure and feel more in control and in charge and feel like I can put my name proudly on the end of the day on days like this.
Despite being busy, of course I have time to blog :)

Sunday

Not that great of a day, but it has been made beautiful by reading and writing poetry...

Do you dig it?

We went shopping...I forgot the layout of uploading the pics on this thing (it's backwards!) so i'm sorry they're out of order of evens...but Chris and I spent a day gardening....this is my little garden in the front of the house...I promise I got down and dirty in the dirt, although it looks like I'm just relaxing...

Love this picture...such a gorgeous selection of flowers, vegetables and herbs to plant!

Can't remember what kind of flower this is, but it's gorgeous.

After we spend the morning at a champagne brunch! :o)

I love this guy...

Drills Weekend

Haven't had internet for awhile, but I'm back!! Posting some pics of Chris' last drill weekend.
While he does his drills, I hang out at Barnes & Noble (he can't understand how much I love it!) for a few hours. We had plans set (lunch, Science Museum, Old Town if we had time), but turns out his buddies from waaaay out of town were up for drills, so we all went to the Military Museum (a picture below), then Chris and I went to the Railroad Museum in Old Town, then met up his buddies at the floating restaurant, below...wasn't that great. Then we had night caps @ Chevy's, and had a great time....

Fun, only ate on the river once, so-so service, ok (but pricy) food and drinks.

Got a

Not Quite Clever Enough...

Grrr...welcome to my pity party, Party of One, of course.
I'll get to the point: I love Jen Lancaster. I love her humor, I love her writing, I love her blog, I love her books (see http://www.jennsylvania.com/).
She just wrote a blog about how she wanted to be a regular contributor to a newspaper so people can read her to the tune of their morning coffee, on a subway, post favorite clippings of her stories at their office cubicle's. She said she loved to write and just wrote and wrote and wrote enough to where she had enough for a book. Then she kept writing, enough to have at least a half a dozen books by now...
I remember that dream. I miss that dream. I miss the HOURS I used to spend writing, proof-reading, and submitting to a poetry or short story contest. That was one of the best, most creative and self-fulfilling times of my life! I woke up thinking of writing, I read constantly, I studied other poems and essays and short stories, would spend days on end at the library, curled up with a chunky sweater and hair up, glasses perched close to my face. I had encouragement from my best friends, especially one Miss. Jaimie, who also gave me inspiration and made me realize: Hey - I'm creative! And I love it! And I was REALLY good at it!
I miss that girl, so much sometimes it hurts. She dreamed big and really put herself out there, not letting rejection get her down. She dreamed of wall-papering her room with rejection letters and slips...and laughing gleefully the day her great novel or great book of poetry was published.
I really want her back...