Monday Smashup: Want want want

Oh Monday again.  Lovely. At least it was a very warm and nice Monday...too bad I sat inside at work all day and couldn't actually enjoy it. Of course it will probably rain on the weekend. Isn't that always the way?

Anyway, I got a promotion recently and now I've been thinking about all the things I can buy with my little salary boost. Thinking about it..not actually doing it.  I will probably purchase a few things I need - like new sneakers, I really really need new sneakers.

So here is my smashup entries.  Some cut outs from magazines of things I like, as well as a chinese food fortune and my ticket to the Hunger Games.

New Orleans scrapbook started

I'm so tired tonight, oh my God. I feel like I haven't slept in days. I think, even though I "just" got back from vacation, I feel like I need a major vacation very very soon. It's this long stretch between President's Day and Memorial Day that KILLS. Every week you're like, wait it's a 5 day week AGAIN? Are you joking?

Anyway, I fought through the pain to start on my first scrapbook page for my New Orleans album. Let me back up for a second.  First, I got a new printer and I'm super excited about it.  I've always been pretty loyal to HP. My first photo printer was an HP. It was a monster, took up half of my desk, and it didn't even have scanner/copy capabilities.  It was awesome though - the photo quality was impressive and it lasted SO long.  I got a replacement HP a few years ago and it's been incredibly disappointing. Since the beginning the print quality was dull and muted.  Lately it only prints horizontal lines on all my photos.  It also did not have a lot of printer options in the software. It was pretty good on ink - although I hate people who complain that it "eats ink" when they review printeres. It's a photo printer..DUH. It's like the dummies who complained on bed, bath and beyond that their shower curtain gets mold on it.  Yea, it's a shower curtain,. 

Anyway, after that frustration, I did minimal research and landed on an Epson photomate. I was hesitant at first becasue I had an Epson in college that after 2 months got the "Office Space" treatment from me, but I am SO glad I made this purchase. It's easy to use, the photo software it comes with is great and the prints were AMAZING.  The ink also dried pretty fast - another problem with my old printer, my hands were always black from ink. 

So (wow this is a long entry, probably because I'm drinking) anyway, I used the photo printer tonight to make my first scrapbook page.  A real simple 10 minute page but it works out.  The scan here is a little blurry, since the St. Patrick's day logo was raised.

Smashing Good Monday

I've decided not to include New Orleans in my smashbook. I want this book to simply be about my every day life and I will keep vacations as separate albums. I wanted to start on that album tonight but my printer made that decision for me. It has decided that printing photos is no longer part of its job description.  All my photos come out with horizontal lines across them. I followed all the troubleshooting steps on the help website but still no luck fixing it.  I purchased a new mini photo printer - the kind that prints 4x6 at the largest. This seems like an odd decision for a scrapbooker but I rarely print above that size. If anything, I print more wallet size prints than large scale prints.  Another factor - I'm picking up in store and I cant carry a large printer home. I'm a small girl!

Anyway, I still wanted to be somewhat creative tonight, so I added another page in my scrapbook.  My parents took me to see Wicked and out to dinner for my birthday. I love broadway and this is the second show I'm scrapbooking this year (and still not the last, as my mom and I always go to a show for her birthday in July).

Smash Book Update: Jack and LB

I feel like I write the same entry all the time but here we go again. I've been feeling really down on myself lately.  I'm just blah. I don't want to get up in the morning, then when I do get up I don't want to get off the couch. It sounds like an add for zoloft, but I'm not clinically depressed..just you know, blah.  I needed to snap out of it, so I pulled myself out of bed this morning and did some craft shopping at Michael's.  It felt good to be around stickers again!  I bought a new album for my New Orleans trip. Here's the cover:

It's an 8x8 album.  I attempted 12x12 earlier this year with my Europe album and I really wasn't a huge fan.  There was way too much empty space. So we will see where this new paper size takes me.

Anyway, I also made a smash page today.  This picture is from when I went to housesit for my parents the week after my birthday. My friend gave me a bottle of Jack Daniels as a present. I kept it at her house for our future adventures:

Cooking Time: Lousiana Style

I've been all about cooking lately. I bought two new cookbooks with a Barnes and Nobles gift card from my bday.  We all know how much I love cookbooks. I read them while watching TV, I'm weird like that. 

Anyway, one of the cookbooks I purchased, from America's Test Kitchen Simple Weeknight Favorites there was a recipe for Lousiana style skillet chicken and rice and beans.  Since I'm missing being on vacation, I decided to cook up some of that. It was super easy, quick and delicious.  I used to absolutely loath spicy foods, but lately I think my tastes are changing.  I bought the hot sausage for the rice and beans, and I really loved it.

Here's a pic of the chicken simmering on the stove:

And the finished product!

Smash up Birthday Part 2

I always feel bad throwing out cards, especially the sentimental cards from my parents.  Unfortunately, I always do end up throwing them out because after they've been on the bulletin board for a few months, there's really not much else to do.  This year, however, with this smash book documenting my 2012 year, I was able to combine the cards that I got into a two page spread.  It makes me feel happy looking at it too. 

I'm sort of debating what to do about my Louisiana trip with the smashbook. I want to make a separate album for New Orleans but I don't want to omit it from my year. I might choose a few group shots and paste them in. We'll see.

Back from my Extended break...

Hello!  I've been gone for quite a bit celebrating my birthday, petsitting my parent's dog and vacationing in New Orleans! I've been also really out of creative mode. Part of me is a little over scrapbooking as well. I wasn't even excited to bring home brochures and different souvineers. I'm probably just in a funk...but not a bad funk obviously, I've been celebrating my birthday for three weeks. 

I do have a bunch of smashbook pages in the works.  I do want to do a New Orleans mini album but that is a project for next month. I need to get the creative flow going.

First smashbook page of the (short) week is my birthday! So many pictures, so little space

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