Welcome Spring!

It's finally officially here-yeah! I've been longing for it to arrive and it's finally here. In typical Spring fashion, it's gotten warmer, overcast and raining this afternoon. Quiet, big bloppy drops of cold rain soaking our yard and coaxing the green right out of the ground. Love it. And we could use some Spring at our house. We're still struggling to adjust to the time change and just as March madness gets geared up, Jeff's business does too, so we are all tired and cranky. Brady's Spring break follows Easter this year so we are all looking forward to a couple of days to catch our breath as we move into Spring. So naturally my thoughts are on the colors of Spring and renewal and all things cheery and yummy. At least that's where I'm trying to keep them. Things have been a little stressful.

The photos are of some Spring-like things I've picked up lately. The first one is my find on my trip with Tammy to Kirkwood. Found this at a great little shop called, The White Rabbit. It's some sort of gardening bin and was the perfect blue green and great for storing paints. Or displaying the stuff I bought at Red Lead and hope to use to make vintage-y eggs. Love Red Lead and always come away so inspired I'm practically hyperventilating when I walk out. I hope to tackle the egg project this weekend. And lastly, another little splurge (honey, stop reading now) from Rebbeca Sower. Just chock full of all things Spring-love it!

So here's to April showers, May flowers and June bustin' out all over!

Happy Birthday To You!

Today is my sweet friend Tammy's birthday. Got to spend the day celebrating with her on Friday. Read all about it on her blog. We both had a great time. Today is also my mother in law's birthay. She is off to Colorado to see her daughter, Jana, but hope to see her soon and celebrate all the February and March birthday's on the Mullican side.

So, birthday girls-Happy Birthday! Enjoy your day!

Isn't She Lovely?

At last, I have a printer! I think she is oh so wonderful! It's actually a very early birthday present. Just couldn't stomach paying for color copies and photo processing and all the running around and waiting that goes with it. Will now have to purchase paper and ink, but this will be much more economical in the long run. And being able to print at will is AWESOME! Looking forward to printing matte finish photos for all my minis and special projects.

Okay, off to bed. I bargained with Jeff that I'd do two three mile walks in exchange for purchasing the printer. I have one more to do tomorrow.

Edited: Couple of folks have asked what brand printer I purchased. It is an HP Photosmart C5180 All-in-One.

Happy St Paddy's Day!

Enjoy the day in all it' Irish-ness.
We have Upward awards ceremony and lunch and then Brady is spending the afternoon hanging out with his cousin Matt here at our house. I'm sure you're not suprised that Jeff will be watching basketball later today and I am going to attempt to clean up around here a little and scrapbook and stuff. I've got so many ideas of stuff I want to make swirling in my head I can hardly wait!

Have a great weekend!

Edited: Can you believe just a few days from the official start of Spring and we have snow today? Just west of us it managed to stick to the ground. Can't wait for Spring to be here for good!

Rocker Chick

Don't ya just love a rocker chick?
You know, like Heart, Pat Benatar, Gwen Stefani, Avril Lavigne. Lately, my favorite thing to do when I'm driving in the car all by myself is to listen to what I call rocker chick music. Just blaring it as I drive down the road singing along. I'm sure it's quite a show for the other drivers passing me! Very liberating and a great stress release though. Right now I'm into Barlow Girl-they kind of have an Evanescence sound, but with a much more positive lyric content. Love Kelly Clarkson and Lisa Loeb, too (although not sure they would technically be classified as rocker chicks). I think what I like about these gals is that they exhibit strength and feminity at the same time. That through their music they are able to say how they feel, think, believe. And that each of them has enjoyed success-many times in a man's world. Not bad attributes really...
Creative
Strong
Confident
Emotionally Present
Vocal
Successful

Maybe I need to tap into my inner rocker chick-hmmmm.

Retail Therapy

Had myself a little retail therapy over the last several days. Some actual old fashioned get out and walk through the store kind of shopping. One of my favorite little shops-Oma's. What a treat to go there. And after it being closed for the Winter it is always SO good to get there and see what is new. Found these 30 plus year old alphabet blocks (jar is Pottery Barn) and think I'll go back for the rest of them soon. And Michaels-there's always Michaels. Went to a different one rather than "mine" and wound up with some fun things. Yummy ribbons-I was into green that night w/ St Patty's day around the corner. And needing to get some Spring going I bought cherry blossom stems and a fun little sign.

And then there was PageMakers and Archivers on Saturday with Tammy. Don't really need an excuse, but P'makers was having an anniversary sale. My favorite purchase is the McGill index tab punch. Also, love the chipboard album, Daisy D's paper and Making Memories goodies I'm going to use to make a mini of our Easter photos this year. Rarely am I ahead of the game, but I've already purchased our outfits and this paper is perfect to go with the photos I hope to take! So many creative ideas swimming in my head right now. Need to finish up a couple of projects and move on to these new ones.

Spent alot of the weekend decompressing from a stressful week and our kitchen table shows the results. A real disaster, but it feels so good to be creative. Hope to have some completed projects to share by the end of the week.

freestylin'

okay. be gentle. this is my first real attempt at the whole freestylin' thing. i absolutely love the idea behind this type of scrapbooking. i've been wanting to try this since i first saw emily falconbridge's layout in the autumn leaves book, freestyle. my friends who do creative memories have now passed out. :)

per emily's instructions, i soaked my 8x10 photo in water, sanded, bleached and painted. then stamped, added a few stickers and some bling and journaled. i kind of like the way it turned out and it was very cathartic. i've been trying to do the whole jenny craig thing again and actually haven't been doing too bad. but i have lots of issues and this was a theraputic way to get this off my chest. i'm actually really enjoying getting to know my counselor, but if i ever do get the weight off i'd like to train weightloss center counselors on the top 20 things NOT to say to fat folks. some people have no sense!

BTW, arrow stickers are bookworks from ek success, mini flower jewels are heidi (of course!) and the stamps are serendipity by technique tuesday.

journaling reads:
Imagine, she said. As though I had never once thought of what my life would be like without the weight. Little did she know I constantly imagined what it would be like to shop at Ann Taylor, wear a swimsuit and go to the pool, be confident again, have my husband be proud of me. Have I imagined what my life would be like? Why, yes, I have.

March Madness

To most, March Madness is the culmination of college basketball season including the Sweet 16 and the Final Four. At our house it's nearly as important as Christmas and definitely more important than Fourth of July. Well, at least to Jeff. He is a major college basketball fan and I would venture to say, probably the biggest Fighting Illini fan out there. I'm told he's actually much better than he was in his more youthful days when absolutely nothing stood in his way of watching or listening to the games. I jokingly say, "hope no one ever dies during basketball season" because Jeff wouldn't be able to attend the funeral until after the game! So it's getting a little crazy around our house. Or at least harder to get Jeff's attention now that it's almost time for "the dance". Okay, okay, all you basketball fans. Sorry. But I realized today there is another kind of March Madness happening.

My friend Tammy and I laughed this morning after I had gotten off the phone with Jeff and was frustrated about something else we'd have to put off until after we find out if Illinois is going to be playing in the tournaments. I announced to her as I answered the other line, "It's March Madness!". She said, "yeah, it's march and it's maddening". I agreed. What was going on?!? We turned the page to a new month and seems like everything has gone crazy! Then we both rattled off a list of crazy things going on for both of us. And laughed knowing that this too shall pass-we hope!

Anyway, it has been crazy lately. Fighting to keep up and all the while wanting to hide from it all. I think it's Spring Fever coming on. Saw my first big, fat robin today. Ah! the harbinger of Spring! The warmer days are coaxing my daffodils further and further out of the soil and I am wanting to clean out and purge. But that will have to wait a bit longer until things calm down around here. March madness continues for us as Brady's basketball season with Upward winds down, things are heating up for me at work with lots of change there, Brady's big 3rd grade muscial is tommorrow night and of course, Illini basketball's season coming to a close. Just a few of the top things going on at the Mullican household. I am very much looking forward to Easter and a season of overall renewal. Until then, I'll just put one foot in front of the other and keep moving with the madness. Otherwise, I might get run over!

Musings on a Sunday Afternoon

all three of us went to Target after church today. i don't think we have ever done that together-a first!
could not tolerate the mall today so ordered Brady's Easter outfit online.
enjoying the sunshine streaming through the windows as jeff and I putter around this afternoon. he watching basketball and me scrappin' a little.
teresa collins is on HSN tomorrow afternoon. got TIVO set to tape it.
finally listened to my BPS class from this week. all about slowing down and deliberately living each moment. this month's art challenge is very cool, but not up to it today. love the colors she used-cocoa brown, raspberry, khaki, pink and burgundy. very feminine.
so many things i should be doing today. needed a nap, but kept fighting it off all day.
love my boys. this photo is so sweet of them. picture of the layout doesn't do it justice really. this is jenni bowlin inspired-love her. just got the Look Book so thought i'd go back to her layouts. when i was challenging myself to do three or four a month w/ the kits i felt like it really got my creative juices flowing. used her basic layout and the title, but had to switch up a couple of elements. still need to add the MM mini letter/number stickers along the journalling tab w/ the date, but oh well, here it is.
still can't get my photos of the day to load up. not sure what's going on. i've had several i wanted to share so i added one or two of them to this post. i'm SO technology challenged.

Slacker

Okay, so I was feelin' like such a slacker with the whole photo-a-day thing, but seriously, I've been trying for two days to change my photo! Geesh! What is up w/ blogger?!? So you have to give me credit for trying, right? Maybe by the time I am able to upload new images I'll have a stockpile of photos. Well, maybe not. Not a whole lot of interesting subjects for me to photograph around here. Keep trying to think of interesting ways to look at things.

Crazy busy week trying to get ready to go out of town for work. I don't usually have to do that. In fact, I'm so spoiled working out of my boss's house that I didn't even have clothes for this trip. I usually just wear jeans, a t-shirt and my crocs to work. I've gotten a couple of outfits (after two trips to LB amounting to about 4 hours!). Now I need to find shoes, but may need to make due with what I have. We'll see-only one more day I can shop! Well, I'm off to watch Idol and then earlier to bed. Lots more energy now that I'm in a routine of exercising 5 days a week, but I'm sleeping so sound I'm having a hard time getting up of a morning. ciao!

Weekend Highlights

I love Monday mornings when I have a chance to get caught up with my girlfriends about what each of us did over the weekend. So here's a little recap of our weekend...
Friday night I spent searching for a Wii. Yeah, we're not up on things and didn't realize we should have been looking for one a month ago if we wanted to give Brady one for his birthday which was Saturday.

We had Upward Saturday morning and as luck would have it, Brady acutally got the ball this week and dribbled from center court to shoot for a basket and I wasn't even there to see it! I was getting ready for our little party for him. Had the fam over to celebrate Brady's birthday. Nice time, sometimes chaotic, but so fun listening to all the laughter as everyone settled back to watch Open Season. Perfect movie since my dad and brother are avid hunters. Brady's best buddy Andrew joined us and I thought it was so cool he made Brady a birthday card. It was a good time and the Wii is yet to come. So proud of Brady for taking it so well.

That brings us to today. We had 14 kids in our Sunday School class this morning. Good class, important lesson, but a little more rowdy than we like it, but hey, there were 14! Afterwards, we headed to Willikers for our annual family brunch. I can't beleive we've been meeting there around the first of March for 20 years now. WOW! Shout out to my Aunt Wanda for organizing this every year. So good to see everyone. We've all drifted apart over the years, but so thankful that we still get together for the annual brunch. Loved seeing everyone! Planning to spend the rest of the day puttering around and maybe doing a little shopping. But tonight I have big plans to settle in to watch my girl Ellen host the Oscars.

Hope whatever has filled your weekend has been relaxing and enjoyable. If you live local-don't blow away. March is definitely comin' in like a lion!

GRATEFUL

I'm working on trying to get out of the crotchity funk I've been in the last couple of weeks. It's really been trying to take over this week, but I keep pushing it back. My BPS class this week was very timely. All about living with an attitude of gratitude and how it's impossible to be crabby when you are counting your blessings. So, here goes-
the girl who does my hair-she makes me feel so beautiful
tulips at the grocery store
vanilla scented candles
lemons and limes-they remind me of summer
our house-to me it is beautiful and home
old friends
my college education at Saint Louis Christian College-the friends I made,
places I was able to travel to, that I learned how to develop people skills, for the opportunity to use my talents
family and tradition
my children and their individuality
my beautiful husband-he is my everything.
Just a few. I think I feel better already.
Oh, and Oma's Barn-I love this place. A real treasure. They reopen March 1st and I can't wait! The photo was taken there late last summer by moi-can you believe it? Trust me-I was just lucky!

Hello, Moto

Yep! That's my beautiful new hot pink Razor phone! Very cool, huh?! I really feel like I am conquering technology. First the Ipod, then Itunes and the Ipod docking station and now a camera phone! WOW! I'm pretty impressed with myself. Seriously, I needed a new phone. The kid at Cingular said my phone was so old he wasn't sure he had the right cord to transfer my info. That's how badly I needed a phone. And let me tell ya, the kid rocked! He got me in and out of the store in less than 12 minutes. Totally, totally cool. Made my day.

Oh, and in other news. My girlfriends and I have decided to do a photo a day challenge on our blogs. You can link to their blogs to the left (Tammy and Cathy). If you check out their blogs you'll notice their photos will probably be way better than mine. I decided to do this with them though so I could try to improve my photography skills. We'll see how that goes. My photo for today is how I felt this morning. I'm blaming it on the silent passage, aka premenopause. Yeah, fun times! I pulled out of the driveway this morning with Bonjovi's Have A Nice Day blaring. Well, obviously it doesn't take much to make me happy-just a new phone. I'm off to figure out how to use all the fun features on it. So beware-I may be calling or text messaging or emailing from her! I think she needs a name, don't you? Any suggestions?

Happy Monday!

Some things that made me smile today-
Hugh Grant on Ellen-love him, love her. So funny together!
The smell of my sweetie's cologne as I got into his car.
Jenny Craig Oreo Cheesecake-so delish!
Curling up with the newest Country Living magazine-chock full of yumminess.
Brady-he's getting so tall. What a cutie!
The thermometer-got up to nearly 60 today. Bring on SPRING!
The smell of hyacinth at the grocery store.
Looks like it's going to be a good week. Hope you have a great week, too. Keep smiling!

P.S. The photo is from the new Country Living magazine. On Pam Garrison's suggestion, I've been hunting this issue down because of the special mini-mag at the back all about finding your bliss-your creative passion. Great inspiration and eye candy in this one. Check it out!

Gotta Love Thursday's

Ya gotta love Thursday's-
means tomorrow is Friday and that's a half day for me
and that means weekend's around the corner;
Heidi Swapp AYTR class is up on Big Picture Scrapbooking;
all my fav shows are on-Greys, Men in Trees.
Just a few things to look forward to every week. Gotta love Thursday!

It's alot easier to get around town with the snow that fell earlier in the week, but boy is it cold. I canNOT wait until Spring. Honestly, need a blast of sunshine and warm weather. Maybe I have that thing when you are deprived of sunlight for too long. Anyway, I have enjoyed being huddled together several times this year due to the weather. They always make for memorable days.

Tuesday when we were home I was supposed to use it as a catch-up day, but instead spent most of it making heart-shaped red velvet cupcakes for Jeff for Valentine's day. Kind of makes a mess, but the glimmer in his eye as I pulled them out of the oven was priceless. Bribed him to let me take a couple photos and love the way this collage from Picassa turned out. Just wanted to share and brag on my sweet husband. Got the most gorgeous flowers yesterday. He always sends me red tulips for V's day and tries to send arrangement from my favorite florist. She always does something really special for us.


Well, off to Tae Kwon Do and other errands and finish getting ready for Brady's party at school tomorrow. Fun, fun, fun! Have a great Thursday!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hugs and Kisses-XO

SNOW DAY = CATCH UP DAY

If you haven't already heard, a big Winter storm is passing through our area today. No school for most everyone and Jeff and I are both lucky to get a snow day as well. I attempted to go to work since it is less than ten miles, but kept getting stuck on any little hills and started sliding through stoplights. I decided it was best to turn around and go back home. So this will be an unexpected day to get caught up around here. As Jeff says, the house is "out of control". Which in Jeff speak means it's worse than normal. I'm determined to clean and scrapbook today.

Received my February Jenni Bowlin kit yesterday so I'm planning to play with that and the Cocoa Daisy one I received the other day. Also need to finish my BPS layout. Kind of lost my steam when I couldn't duplicate hers completely. Hope to get reinvigorated today. So I'm going to put on the music, light the candles and get busy. Man! is it snowing! WOW!

Vote For Missouri's New License Plate

If you are a resident of the Show Me state you can go to the Department of Revenue's website by clicking here and vote for Missouri's new license plate. One of the choices includes a bluebird so I'm sure you can guess which one I chose! Cathy and I spied a pair of bluebirds this morning at work. She was able to snap a photo, but it didn't turn out real clear. Still it was fun to see them. A neighbor in the subdivision has a bluebird box and a small habitat for them and they visit every once in awhile lighting on the cherry tree outside the window where I sit. Love it! Can't wait for springtime.

Miscellanea

Been kind of a busy weekend. Didn't intend it to be, but it's turing out that way. Friday evening I drove over to the 'ol alma mater for the annual Alumni Banquet. I don't usually get over there, but a college friend of mine has been home on furlough from Ethiopia throughout the year and will be returning soon so I met up with her there. Nice, relaxing evening. Worse part was getting dressed up. Not many occassions to do that lately so it was kind of stressful. In the end I was glad I went. Fun to be recognized again, too. Miss those days of everyone knowing who I am because of my singing. Ah, those were the days!

Then today, Brady had a ballgame and then we ran to Target. To the new one and I'm not used to it yet and forgot half of what I went for. So tomorrow will include a quick trip to our regular Target. Had lunch w/ my college friend Shelly at the Mall and then walked around for a bit. Hadn't been to the mall since Christmas so there was lots to look at. Love seeing all the new Spring stuff out and was able to refrain from purchasing any new clothes. Holding out for awhile hoping I'll be able to get some of the cute things I saw in smaller sizes (I hope, I hope, I hope!). Looks like navy is all the rage this coming season. Lots of peachy pink and cocoa brown,too. Love the Journeys store for girls called Shi and was bad and had to try out the new gelato place called Melt (what a cool name). Had a small java chip smoothie made w/ skim milk-YUM! Love everything about this new litte place-even the brightly colored tiny acrylic spoons and their super chic 4x4 menu!

This evening we're chilling out watching movies-Flicka and Facing the Giants and loading new music on to my ITunes-U218Singles, Barlow Girl and Daughtry. I'll need to put them on my Ipod tomorrow so I can listen to them on my new dock while I clean tomorrow afternoon and evening. Hoping to still fit in some scrap time after church and running a few more errands to finish valentines and my BPS layout. So psyched about it, but frustrated that some of the product isn't available yet-such a bummer! You know how I hate to think outside the box and "make it work". Got a suprise in the mail today, too. The February Cocoa Daisy kit-another happy accident. So I'm hoping to get that out and play some. Totally different stuff for me, but loving that it is so graphic and of course the aqua blue-let's call it turquoise or even better, robin's egg! :)

Well, off to stuff goody bags for Sunday school and watch movies with my sweetie. Sshhh-don't tell him Tim McGraw stars in Flicka- a little bonus! :) Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Happy Accident

What a bizarre day yesterday was! Thanks to my sweet sister-in-law, Jana, I am now the proud owner of an IPOD docking station. It all started when she sent Brady a gift card from Target.com last year for his birthday. Ever since then, if she's not careful when she places an order it defaults to Brady and his address for shipping. Yesterday I arrive home to find three packages on my front porch. Two of which I was expecting, the third a large heavy box was a mystery. Finally found the label announcing Brady as it's rightful owner and opened the box to discover it appeared to be from Aunt Jana-we assumed an early birthday gift. Thought what a good idea since he received a Disney MP3 player for Christmas, but cautioned Brady that it might not work on his player which upon inspection confirmed it did not. No worries, I told him, Mommy will just pay you for it and get you the one for your player. True to form he was fine with that. Found out an hour or so later after talking to Jana that Target.com had mistakenly sent the box to us. But lucky me, she said Happy Birthday, Brady! and glad it was at least something I had wanted. If she only knew how I had been yearning to have one of my own! Sitting on the kitchen island in all it's electronic glory-I love it! Hope it will inspire me to get my scrapbook room cleaned up and organized so I can close the french doors and scrap the weekend away.

Speaking of scrapping, today was week 6 of my BPS class and I can't wait to attempt this week's art challenge. All about feelin' the love and collaging so more on that later this weekend-hopefully. Off to browse ITunes and get me a little Gwen Stefani and Chris Daughtry!