10 out of Tenn Show

Oh my, we had so much fun at the show last night! All of the artists were truly amazing and it was great to see them all sing back up for each other and rotate through the different instruments. The playlist included Trent Dabbs, Andrew Belle, Erin McCarley, Tyler James, KS Rhoads, Andy Davis, Jeremy Lister, Katie Herzig, Butterfly Boucher and Matthew Perryman Jones, not to mention Will Sayles, who played drums for the whole set. There were no other backup musicians. These singer/songwriters literally took turns playing all the backup parts for each other. AMAZING! I can't wait until they come back through town.It was great to see Katie Herzig in person, since I've just recently discovered her through Noisetrade, but I have to say that it was Butterfly Boucher who really rocked the show. Now I want to write music too (and play bass and cut my hair really short). ;) Dang, too bad I have no talent in the music realm at all. I can hardly even carry a tune these days. For my own consoling on this note, I took it upon myself to come home with all 11 CD's they were selling at the show! Now, I should mention they gave us a killer deal so it was hard to resist in the first place. And hey! Now I have loads of great music to keep me company while I wait for them to come back to SLC. Yay me!

Photojojo Shop-o-rama

Ooh ... these items are all on my wish list this year! I have loved the projects posted in the Photojojo Newsletter, but visiting their store is a whole new kind of medicine for me. Just look at these great finds!The Fuji Instax Instant Camera, the new polaroid phenom, at just $90.The Bad-Ass Bowler Camera Bag is as sexy as a camera bag gets for only $50.The uber cool Monsterpod that sticks to over 1.000 surfaces and is the ultimate other-worldy tripod for your point and shoot.And then, of course, there's the infamous Photojojo book, chalk full of DIY photo project goodness and ringing in at $22. Yay! Where to start? I'll talk one of each please.

Catching Up

It's here, the holiday rush. Hustling and bustling around town has only been semi-productive so far. I have little gifts taken care of and that's about it. I've hit most of the holiday boutiques in the area and have taken advantage of every $10 gift card Kohl's has sent my way. At this point I'll take just about any discount I can get my hands on!

I'm just glad that before things really got crazy, I was able have a wonderfully calming morning in Heber at the letterpress class. Eva and Kirk were fantastic and the small class size kept everything nice and cozy. They explained a some of the history of printing, showed us the mechanics of their lovely press and went through the process from start to finish and then we were off! My dear friend Wanja (the coolest girl on the block) and I went first. We took turns printing and inspecting each other's cards. It took a few tries to finesse it, but we got the hang of it and the rest was cake! I felt so industrial. ;)After that, Kirk was kind enough to cut them for us on their heavy-duty-yes-this-can-cut-all-your-fingers-off machine. Whew! We spent the rest of the time cutting envelope liners to pretty up the presentation.Talk about a great way to spend the day! Now I have small buds of a dream forming to get my father-in-law's printing press cleaned up and working again. Ooh ... definite project potential there.

Puppy Update: I am officially a dog person, or at least an Izzy person. I can't believe how much I love this little ball of fluff. She's naps while I'm working and is my buddy when the kidlets are at school. She hasn't asked talked back or asked me to buy her anything yet. She's perfect! :D

Surprise! Introducing ... Izzy

Drumroll please .....

Meet the latest addition to our family, Isabella (aka Izzy)! Isn't she the cutest? We've been planning this little surprise for the last couple of months and were lucky enough to find the perfect little pooch this week. We went over and met her family on Monday, fell in love with her instantly and purchased her on the spot.After that, it was just a matter of deciding when to bring her home. We had originally planned on December 18th, but had absolutely no will power and didn't want to miss these precious puppy days ... so we chose Black Friday instead. We picked her up around noon today and had a nice car ride to her auntie's house where she was able to meet her cousins and have a nice bath.It only took the short drive home to get her calmed down again and then we placed her in our lovely gift box. We told the kids we had an early holiday present for them and they all lifted the lid together. I don't know what they thought it was going to be, but no one predicted a puppy. I've been pretty adamant about not having a dog in the house.What can I say? She's completely won me over and I'm undone. Can you blame me? Jut look at that face!And she has been absolutely perfect ALL day. She's very affectionate and seems to love all of us. She is right at home in her crate. She hasn't whined or whimpered a bit and has a perfect record on the potty count so far. Yay!

So Much Fun!

What a day! What a weekend! If I'm not careful I'm going to ruin all the surprises here. Let's see, let's see ... today our family is going to receive a HUGE surprise. I can't wait. Hubby and I are in countdown mode, but it's still too early to spill the beans here. You'll have to check back tonight to follow along.

In the meantime, I'm also so excited to take this class tomorrow with a dear friend. We'll drive out to Heber tomorrow morning where we'll get to meet the lovely Eva and Kirk Jorgensen and their letterpress. I can't tell you how much I love getting my hands into a new craft. I'll admit, I'm a little teeny bit of an addict. (hubby would argue the 'little teeny' point) I just can't help myself. It's completely therapeutic to me and keeps the wheels turning. Besides, I'll get to spend the afternoon meeting some wonderful new people, learn the basics of letterpress printing and come home with 50 Christmas cards that I will have printed all by myself. Yay!After all this, it will be our little one's birthday on Sunday. He's turning seven ... SEVEN? How is this possible? It's like I blink and another year has passed. We'll have a big birthday breakfast for him and a fiesta in the afternoon, complete with sombrero and little black mustaches for everyone.

Now I should really get back to my regularly scheduled morning sneakiness before the other kidlets wake up. Stay tuned for the photo play-by-play and have a wonderful Black Friday.