Merry Merry mmmeerrrrrrrr.... (snore)

Well, it's Christmas Eve, the presents are wrapped and the stockings are hung, the cheese ball is made and the cookies are decorated. You would think by the look of these two snoozing on the couch, that they were more help with said accomplishments! Instead, this is where they have spent most of the day - napping! I think this their plan in order to stay awake all night in hope of chasing some reindeer and eating the cookies left out for the big guy in the red suit! Priorities, people, priorities!

Here's to a happy, healthy and well-rested holiday!

Keeping it real...

I saw this on a blog somewhere along the way and I thought it was a really good idea. Sometimes you just have to keep it real - I think it's a good thing. I just decided that I should put it out there to remind myself to...

• learn to embrace my imperfections
  
• choose to eat healthier foods
  
• create more often
  
• write love notes
• be motivated to exercise more
• choose to wear more color
  
• express appreciation
  
• send more thank you notes
• adore my home and my family
  
• try yoga - maybe
  
• dress up more often
• organize my closet
• clean house more often

Here's to a fantastic 2009!

Christmas Cheer...

My friend Jen tagged me for some holiday questions. Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay,here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Tag as many people as you want to....

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I am big fan of wrapping paper, but sometimes the item is a better fit for a lovely bag. I LOVE ribbon too - so a package coming from my house is never complete without some great ribbon tied in a knot or a simple bow.
2. Real tree or Artificial? I love the smell of real trees, but that wears off after a couple days and then the whole fire hazard thing scares me... so I will say artificial. I am dreaming of buying a old vintage aluminum tree, something about those trees is so kitschy and cool.
3. When do you put up the tree? Sadly, I haven't put up a tree since my days back in Cali. I know... I know... I need to get on that!
4. When do you take the tree down? I don't have to worry about it since I don't have one right now! But, otherwise I would always try to take it down before my birthday in January.
5. Do you like eggnog? I really like it, especially with Sailor Jerry's spiced rum - that'll warm you right up! We call that little concoction "Christmas Cheer" at our house!!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I think I am going to say my teal blue Beach Cruiser bicycle. I thought I was hot stuff riding around the ol' hood! I HAVE to dig up a picture, I think I am wearing my handpainted (puff paint days) pink sweatsuit. See I told you - HOT stuff for sure!
7. Hardest person to buy for? This year it's Mark - hands down. There are so many things that I really want to buy him, but they are car related and out of the budget this Christmas.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Hmmm...? Maybe my Grams - she is always so sweet about whatever you buy her. I think that's just a Grandma thing!
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes... I believe so. I think it might still be at my parent's house. I think I need to check into that. My little sister and I used to fight over who got to put the baby Jesus in the nativity scene. It cracks me up today! The irony of fighting over our Lord and Savior - I think Jesus is laughing at us too! At least I hope he found it entertaining.....
10. Mail or email Christmas cards. I love mailing Christmas cards. I am slow this year. I think I will shoot for New Year's cards instead.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? That's a pretty hard question... I will have to think about that one.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? All-time faves are National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story. A recent favorite is Elf.
13. When do you start shopping? Around Thanksgiving or so. We have really tried to limit the "gifts" we give and really try to spend quality time with friends and family throughout the year. I much rather sit down with our friends and enjoy a meal and wine and laughter.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Pleading the 5th!
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? When we are at my parents we usually do something like cinnamon rolls and my Dad's famous "rationed" bacon. Seriously, we really give my Dad a hard time about rationing 3 pieces of bacon for each person. He likes to buy the bacon from the butcher, rather than the packaged and he always counts the people... yada- yada... hell hath no fury like my father finding out that SOMEONE ate four pieces.
16 color lights on tree? White. I love the sparkly golden color.
17. Favorite Christmas song? I am such a music person, so this is another hard question. I really start the season out loving all of the Christmas tunes and by the end - dreading them. Favorite? I would have to say Carol of the Bells - I remember as a child being fascinated by ALL of those words and thinking SOMEDAY I will learn how to sing ALL of those words...
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We usually travel, I long for the day that the family comes to Dallas for the holidays.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? All eight of them? Or course!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? There is a star on top of my imaginary tree
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both, Christmas Eve and Day!
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The traffic. I swear everyone becomes an amateur driver these days... what is it about the holidays?
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I am feeling very sentimental lately and I really love the idea of all of my childhood ornaments.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Who knows? People can cook (and drink) in my family - so they are all favorites!
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I really just want to spend time with my family and friends. Oh and that really want that beautiful watch and red wool coat- (oops was that my outside voice?)

I made it through and you can too! I'm tagging Lainey and Kia and whoever else wants to play along! Just leave me a little comment so that I can go check out your answers...

Love/ Hate...

I thought I would go ahead and get it out there. My concern is that if I get it out there I would fall off the wagon and back at square one. In the past month or so I have started the dreaded journey and I am embracing my love/ hate relationship with the gym. I have never been the type to *enjoy* the gym/ exercise experience. The other aspect to working out is finding the time - I am not a morning person and thought the idea of getting up at 5:30 AM or earlier was out of the question. Going to the gym after working all day? Uh, no thanks! So... I need to make time. I need to make it a PRIORITY! So there. There you have it folks - I am putting it out there on the blog in hope of it motivating my lazy behind and being accountable. Also, in hope of someday, maybe one day having that a body like that chick's the picture above (I need to print it out and place it on my fridge! Hey... a girl can dream, right!?) I'm saying it here... Because, I certainly don't want to let you all down.

Now we're cookin'....

I have discovered that I can actually cook! For so long I thought I was pretty unskilled when it came to whipping up Martha's latest recipe. And just because I have a subscription to Everyday Food certainly did not mean that I knew what I was doing. But, guess what... I am pretty good at it. Mark always says that I cook really well, but he also knows that he lives with me and wants a happy life he better compliment my cooking. So he is biased. Not really! Lately, I have been cooking and baking for us and for our neighbor friends. And they say it's pretty good too! So there you have it folks - I am a good cook! Every good cook needs good cookware - well at least a cook needs cookware. I have been making do with what we had. Mark and I both had hand-me-down Teflon coated cookware that was BAD! BAD! BAD! The Teflon coating was chipping away. If I recall, that's pretty bad and if that stuff ended up in your food it could cause cancer. YIKES. On Sunday, we ran to Macy's (surprise, surprise - they were having a sale). I picked up this NEW glorious cookware (isn't it beautiful!) and I didn't spend a fortune. I figure I will do that on my next set - when I decide I am bound to be the next Food Network star!

Tonight we are off to The Swell Season concert here in Dallas. Mark and I fell in love their tunes when we saw the movie Once almost two years ago. We have been looking forward to this show for months. I can't wait!

To "do"...

Wow! Wow! Wow! Check out that hair do! I saw this website on my friend Kia's blog. I was laughing hysterically all by my lonesome little self. This is I what my high school yearbook photo would look like in 1965-66 - the same year my mother graduated. Now you have to check out the site and morph your photo into a photo from the early 1950's to 2000! Too much fun to be had... Now I'm off to see what Apollo and Abby's high school yearbook photos would look like. Enjoy!

Nudge... Nudge...

(Oh, look - It's an update from your *favorite* slacker/blogger!)

I thought I would take this opportunity to brag a bit. *New Flash* If you haven't figured it out yet, We are BIG fans of some good tune-age at my house! Even our dogs - they LOVE it too! *End News Flash* I know... I know... we share juicy knowledge on the ol' blog! Anyway... back to bragging. Mark sent me a "nudge- nudge" email the other day asking me if we planned to be around October 11. He attached the Nokia Theater fall schedule. I took a little look... and to my surprise I saw "RYAN ADAMS and THE CARDINALS - OCT. 11th!" Oh yeah! Seriously? Mark and I have always dreamed of seeing him. In all of the shows we have been to together - NO Ryan! I can't believe it. My love of Ryan Adams' music is one of the MANY reasons he fell in love with me! I had to get us tickets - and preferably not $200 tickets. On Friday night, I logged on and snagged us the goods. Two seats, lower level - for $35 a piece. Well, minus that "pain-in-the-you-know-what" $10 service charge, but let's forget about that! $35! We are SO excited. This is also a little lesson for your favorite slacker/blogger - Procrastination is bad news! It felt so good be ahead of the game for a change. Thanks to the little nudge.

Pause the tunes to the right (If you haven't already) and enjoy this little gem...

One word...

I am desperate for a blog post. I am sorry for the lack of posting lately. Life has been crazy busy lately. I know... excuses, excuses - yet again.

I stole this from Jen's blog - who stole it from Paula's blog... and so on. I liked the idea and I knew it was just what my poor ol' neglected blog needed today. You can only answer the prompts with one word. Give it a try.

1. Where is your cell phone? DYING
2. Where is your significant other? TRAVELING
3. Your hair? CLEAN
4. Your mother? CONFIDANTE
5. Your father? AMAZING
6. Your favorite thing? HOME
7. Your dream last night? NONE
8. Your dream/goal? HAPPINESS
9. The room you're in? LIVING ROOM
10. Your hobby? ART
11. Your fear? LOSS
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? HMMM?
13. Where were you last night? COUCH
14. What you're not? ORGANIZED
16. One of your wish list items? LE CREUSET
17. Where you grew up? CALI
18. The last thing you did? READ
19. What are you wearing? PJ's
20. Your TV? OLYMPICS!
21. Your pet? LARGE
22. Your computer? MAC
24. Your mood? CONTENT
25. Missing someone? MARK
26. Your car? DIRTY
27. Something you're not wearing? MAKEUP
28. Favorite store? TARGET
29. Your summer? ENDING
30. Love someone? FOREVER
31. Your favorite color? TURQUOISE
32. When is the last time you laughed? TODAY
33. Last time you cried? MONDAY

My assistant....

I got home from work today and thought I would work another hour or so. I really enjoy sitting in the front room of our house. It's the perfect room - it's quiet, the light is just right. It's also the room where things go that we don't quite know what we are going to do with them yet. For instance, I have a couch in there that is pre-Mark. I love this couch. I can't begin to tell you how comfortable it is. It's all down filled - it's comfy-goodness. The upholstery fabric needs to be updated, but it's in great condition. Mark HATES the couch. I LOVE the couch and it stays. We compromised and the couch stays in the room where things go that we don't quite know what we are going to do with them yet. Miss Abby also LOVES the couch. She dutifully sat next to me and worked as my assistant. Well, technically... napped as my assistant. Abby is a very good assistant - that is as long as the whole napping thing doesn't bother you. Just before her little nap I snapped this treasure on my trusty little Photobooth camera on my beloved computer. Doggie cuteness to kick off your weekend.

M.I.A... Again.

Layout features our "Sprinkles" line of papers.

I'm sure that you have found out by now that we had a very busy, exciting and successful CHA in Chicago. My awesome co-workers, Emily and Jen have kept you all updated with the Luxe goings-on. I thought that I would share a couple of the layouts that I designed to feature some of our new releases at the show - I know you are all tired of looking at my cupcakes post below... I hear you!!!

Layout features our "It's About Time" calendar line of papers.

(Yes... I might have cheated and used the same photo from a previous layout - but I like the idea of doing a "A Case of the Mondays" layout... and I didn't have a "Monday" photo. But, you get the idea... Right?!)

Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate...

... Delish! I am feeling rather domestic these days. Mark and I have committed ourselves to cooking at home more often. I have discovered that I really enjoy cooking - I sure that I couldn't fool the most discriminating palate, but I do okay. I, also really love to bake. I have a couple of recipes for cakes and cupcakes - but I cheated this time! Recently, I picked up the Sprinkles cupcake mix at Williams Sonoma - this little mix will make you look like a chef! It even comes with the adorable dots to decorate the cupcakes. Snack time!

Another winner....

....

TCake said...

very kooky...just like carrie...loving this....have been a bit obsessed with satc on blog....pop in to see..Tx

June 1, 2008 7:44 AM

Okay... so I have to admit I picked this one because she is "tcake" and Mark calls me Pamcakes (he thinks he is SO clever!) TCake - email me with your address and I will send your goodies to you.

I am first to announce my winner. Make sure to watch the other blogs for their winners - they will be announced tonight and into tomorrow.

Thanks for everyone for playing along. Giveaways are too much fun!

Finally....

Seriously. I am the Queen of the Procrastinators. I am completely and totally aware of it - I have come to embrace that aspect of my personality. Well, almost. With that in mind, I have been telling myself and promising everyone in my family that I will start a little shop on Etsy.com. I started the promises about a year ago - or more.

Finally... I did it! I sat down and just got it done! And I feel so much better about it. I named my little shop Pamcakes. Mark gave me the nickname when we first started dating and I thought it would be a really cute name for the shop. Right now, I just have some greeting cards that I designed. The photo above is one of my little cards. I have hope of adding a few more goodies to the site very soon. So... stop on by my little Etsy shop when you have the time.

Luxe and the City...

Carrie is witty & funny. She is the creative one and deep down she just wants to be loved This kit was inspired by Carrie's funky chic fashion sense and was put together in honor of Sex & the City's opening weekend at the box office. Join the Luxe and the City Celebration and post on this blog by Tuesday 5 PM CST for your shot to win "the Carrie". Check the other Luxe girls' blogs for "the Samantha", "the Miranda" and "the Charlotte". Also look for "the Manhattan" on the Luxe blog and our"If Carrie and Charlotte got together to crop..." t-shirts on our Facebook and MySpace pages. Have a fabulous weekend and LIVE LUXE!

Sometimes...

... you just need a S'more. The other night I thought it would be fun on my way home to pick up stuff to make S'mores. We have a gas stovetop at our house and I can roast a marshmallow like the best of 'em! Mark has never experienced "indoor S'mores" - so, I thought I should let him in on my skills. It was the best dessert ever. It took me back to my SoCal roots and bon-fires on the beach.... Ah, the good ol' days.

Even Miss Abby wanted in on the action... but really who am I kidding - she's up for anything involving food. However, she did con us into a graham cracker... sneaky girl.

In the know...

Just a little insight to being a "professional" scrapbooker - you can't always scrapbook photos of your family. Honestly, you get a little tired of looking at their mugs (no offense.) So, you have to ask friends for copies of their photos etc. When you have exhausted all of those options - you have to turn to stock photography. I diligently peruse pages and pages of photos until I find just the right one. Here are two examples: One is a layout using a great photo from my friend, Paulo. And the other from a stock photography site - isn't she a cutie.



It's a little running joke in the office. I make pages like this and say... "I'm sure 'someone' loves her." Or sometimes I give them names... but you get the idea. The hardest part is to make sure you keep the same name if you intend to use the photo on another layout. The best part is being able to name them names that you have always liked, but weren't sure that you would ever name your child that name. Kind of silly - but now you are in the know.

So simple...

A couple of things that I have learned over the last week:

a.) Plumbing will always get the best of you - emotional breakdowns are to be expected.
b.) Employees at home improvement centers have a gift of explaining projects that make them seem simple.

(Oh, look who is in the picture saying hello... well, I guess it could be the Chairman Mao statue that Mark's buddy so lovingly brought home from Singapore for him. Mark thought that our kitschy little phone center would be the PERFECT place to display it. I'm sorry, is the sarcasm that apparent? But, really it's Apollo.)

This bathroom is exhibit A. Our house was built in the sixties. When we first moved in here. I thought I was going to HATE the vintage tile in the bathrooms. We were pleasantly surprised at how it had a way of growing on us. Now we understand that some individuals have been blessed with avocado green, harvest gold or Pepto Bismol pink tiles. We, however, were one of the fortunate houses that reserved themselves from the trend and went with white and black. Praise the good Lord! As a design girl I thought, "hey... I think I can work with this." And we started our "little weekend project."
a.) We needed to paint the walls.
b.) We needed a new faucet. (thanks to my 'rents... they put that in for us in November.)
c.) We needed a new light fixture.
d.) We needed a new shower head with an extension to raise the shower head above our heads. We were both a little tired of a short shower.

Sounds pretty simple, right? Yeah.... well we got through steps a-c relatively easy. It was step "d" that beat us down. I made the mistake of thinking that I could easily take the shower head off myself and replace the pipe thingie with the new extension. WRONG. OH, SO VERY WRONG! I broke off the old rusty - crusty- been there since Kennedy was in office-pipe and left threads behind in the said pipe. Two trips to the HD, 5 days and two emotional meltdowns later we still didn't have the new fancy shower head installed. We finally asked our trusty handyman to help us and in NO time at all and very simply I might add... he had it fixed. Behold our finished little vintage tile bathroom.


I think it really came together nicely. I think the mirror is my favorite part of the whole space. I have actually had that mirror for over 4 years. I used it as a full length mirror until we moved to this house. It couldn't have worked out better in the bathroom. I LOVE when things can be re-purposed.

A new winner...

... and I choose lucky number 7.

Steph said...

I love the layout you made! Such a fun picture!

So... Steph from Nashville, Tennessee - email me with your address and I will send you the goods.

A big thank you to all that of you that played along. Please check back from time to time... I LOVE giving away goodies.

.......................................

And here's another layout... just to keep the ol' blog looking pretty. Enjoy.

Getting into my groove...

... and blogging. I think I may have even surprised myself. I have blogged three days in a row. I will be the first to admit that I am terrible about updating. I am making it one of my goals to blog more often. Even if it's as simple as just uploading a new project. So there it is... it's on the blog for all the world to see - not that I think the whole world reads this thing, but if they wanted to... they certainly could.

I thought I would share another layout created for Emily's Luxe challenge. It has been such a fun and inspiring few weeks at Luxe. I have completed more layouts that I have in a long time. I have so much to share with you all - so keep checking back.

Mark took this photo at the Polyphonic Spree concert a few months ago at the House of Blues. I think it goes so well with the diagonal stripe paper from the Polo Shirt line. Enjoy!

Faking it...

... yep! We faked it for one really quick photo. Just a little background on this layout, Mark and I have a lot in common - including our fear of ferris wheels. Especially, the "fair-type" ferris wheels! And one poor choice in judgment, fueled by a couple of beers and peer pressure from friends... we decided it wouldn't be SO bad. WRONG. Oh-so-very-very WRONG! It was sheer terror for what felt like an hour, which in reality was only 5-7 minutes. Although, you would never know with those faked smiles!

Back to blogging...

... and loving the color pink. (And the color turquoise! I will share that later.) And... loving a giveaway. I thought it would be fun to have another giveaway just... well it's really because I forgot about National Scrapbook Day! So here it is....


Leave a comment on this post to enter in the drawing. You have until Friday, May 9! I am looking forward to hearing from you.

I created the layout pictured above, last week. It's part of the "Scrap your Stash" challenge with Luxe. Make sure to check out the fun stuff we are doing over there too!

New Winner....

Well, I have yet to hear from Miss Connie (if you are out there - fear not! I will still send you a little something.) Sooooo... I am picking a NEW winner for the Lime Simply Luxe goodies. I picked comment number 37. Back story on that fabulously random number: My friend, Emily turns 37 next week.

And the NEW winner is...

jen said...

tis very lovely indeed. thanks for a chance to win some of it. green is my favorite color. :)

Thank you for your comments and for playing along. Please check back from time to time - you never know when I will be giving something away.

We have a winner...

I apologize for the delay in the announcement, but without further ado - The winner of the rockin' Lime Simply Luxe Collection is...

CC said...

Lime is such a summer color. And I can't wait for a few trips to the beach.
And off topic, one of my favorite songs started playing when I came to your blog. And I see that you have a lot of great songs in your playlist.
Connie

April 12, 2008 8:38 PM

We love the number 12 in our house, and I decided that it would be fun to choose the twelfth comment. A big thank you to everyone for playing along! Connie, email me ( pam AT luxedesigns DOT com) with your address and I will send the goodies your way!

Giveaway....

Well, everyone loves a giveaway! I'm going to give away some brand-new product to one lucky blog reader who leaves me a comment on this post between now and midnight on Friday the 18th. If you haven't guessed already - I am SO into the Lime Simply Luxe! I'm giving away a rockin' stash of Lime Simply Luxe - the whole darn collection - two sheets of each of the papers, a set of the Jotters, label stickers, alpha stickers, our brand new epoxies, AND - just to make it even more ROCKIN' - the flower set from our new Luxe-urious Stamps! If you have been hunting, this is part of the Luxe Mega Scavenger Hunt - congratulations, you have found the 3rd set!

I got nothing....

... That's it. I got a whole-lotta-nothin' for you today. (Well, I do. But you know what I mean, I'm not feeling very bloggy inspired.) That means that you get this lovely photo of our handsome boy, Apollo for your viewing pleasure. My sister took this picture of him soon after we moved into our new home. Please ignore the tall grass, it was obviously before we hired someone to help us with our yard.

Also, listening to the Juno soundtrack today - really good tunes for creative time!

Enjoy...

Lazy....

The weather here in Dallas is gloomy. I'm working from home today, creating new art for the the summer releases. Apparently, the weather has the same effect on the dogs (who am I kidding - they are lazy ALL the time) as it does on me. It's time to turn up the tunes and for the caffeine in my coffee to kick in. Listening to British Sea Power - gearing up for the concert on Friday night. Please send good creative vibes my way today!

Challenged...

As a result of the Simply Luxe papers, I have been feeling pretty inspired lately. This is a layout I did last night (while watching a marathon of The Office.) It's part of the "Stash Challenge" that we have going on within the office. Check out more on the Luxe blog.

Mark took this photo of me while on our recent trip to New Orleans. He is rather proud of it. In fact, I think he has an eye for composition. I like how he captured the hustle and bustle of Cafe du Monde in the background yet maintained his focus. I also LOVE the green sign in the background!

There will be more layouts to come from this challenge. Keep your eyes peeled.

Let's try this again....

Much to my chagrin, I am giving into the peer pressure at the Luxe HQ and starting to blog again. I was terrible at keeping it up-to-date and like I said in my profile - I am not a gifted writer. We brainstormed an idea to have a "just look and listen" blog - one that I can post interesting artsy stuff and music that is inspiring me etc. So, to kick this blogging thing off I thought I would share a a few layouts that I did in the past few days. I was so excited to use our NEW Simply Luxe sub-brand of products. It just hit our warehouse this week! Enjoy...


If you have a chance to check out some new tunes, a band that caught my ear recently is The Fashion. My fiancé was a on a business trip in New England this week and heard them on an indie - college radio station. We can all credit Mark for that find!