All By Myself

Okay, how many of you are busting out your best Celine Dion right now? I know I am! : )

I took that picture back in April when Matt was in Germany and missing both my birthday AND our anniversary... And while I'm not quite that sad, I am missing my hubby at the moment.

He left this past Monday for Mobile, AL. He'll be back Friday, but then he leaves next week for Nashville, TN. I'm going to drive up after work that Wednesday to stay with him a couple nights there... since he's flying out to Arizona the following week!

So that's almost an entire month without my hubby at home. : (  But at least I'll get to see him in between trips. And I'm excited about going to Nashville. I love going to all the shops downtown! : )  It's such a cool place.  I'm a little bummed that I won't get to go to Sweet CeCe's now though... Oh no, wait! I bet they have sorbet!!!! Yay, I hope they do! I love Sweet CeCe's. : )   *Sweet CeCe's is a frozen yogurt shop, in case you didn't know that. ; )

Speaking of, my last round of tests all came back negative, so my doctor is finally sending me to a gastroenterologist so I can have the lactose intolerance test done. I'm still pretty sure that's what it is though... I've been really avoiding things with lactose in them, and I can definitely see a difference. I'm going this Friday to get a stomach ultrasound, so that I can take it, along with all the other test results, to the specialist. I'm waiting to schedule my gastro appointment until I get that done, but hopefully they'll be able to see me soon.

So that's what's going on with me lately... Are you having a good summer? : )

Another Lovely Mail Day

Happy Friday! I had a very happy mail day today, so I thought I'd share some of the love with a mail post. Hope you enjoy! : )

Here are my latest outgoing. I wish there were more... I need to work on that!



A pen pal letter swap on Swap-bot




This is a pretty girl postcard that I sent for a "What are you currently reading" swap




This was for my other partner in the "What are you currently reading" PC swap. She collected map cards.



This the little fox cutie was for a "Woman Postcard" swap



I drew/colored this envie for a Mail Art swap partner who loved the Winnie-the-Pooh series. I love Eeyore! : )




The back... I love Piglet too!

And here are some lovely incoming pieces:



A cute polka dot pen pal letter




A PC I received in a swap




A swap-bot package I received. Love the tape!



I got this pretty envie for the Giant Friendship Book swap I host each month on swap-bot



This cute little bubbledog notepad was sent to me for the "Etsy - N is for..." swap




A pretty homemade envie




An awesome owl ATC I got as an extra in a swap




I received this for a Mail Art swap. It's hard to see, but there's a pretty white stamp on the left side.




A cute birdhouse PC I got for the "What are you currently reading" swap




This was sent to me for the "Woman PC" swap




A lovely envie I received for another Swap-bot swap

 And that's it for now. Hopefully my next mail post will have a lot more in the "outgoing" section. : )  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Versatile Blogger Award

A couple weeks ago, the lovely Kary over at C'est La Vie awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award. This award is given out to anyone who the blogger believes has truly great content. Thanks, Kary, although I'm not sure I agree with that... Ha, ha! ; )  I would say that about Kary's blog though, so be sure and go check it out!

Rules:

•Thank the Blogger who nominated you.

•Include a link to their site.

•Include the award image to your post.

•Include the award image on your blog.

•Give 7 random facts about yourself.

•Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award, including links to their sites

•Let those bloggers know they have been nominated

7 Random Facts:

1. I'm trying to learn to crochet (mostly via youtube) because my niece asked me to make her a hat. My Granny taught me how to do a simple chain when I was young, but until now that's all I knew how to do!

2. I love to lick the knife whenever I spread anything... peanut butter, mayo, you name it. But don't worry. I don't stick it back in the container after I've licked it! ; )

3. I am obsessed with Draw Something. I love it! My drawings aren't the best, but I enjoy laughing at them and some of the ones I'm sent by others! ; )  My username is angellarae if you'd like to play.

4. Did you ever see that show on VH1 called Motormouth? People set up their friends by hiding cameras in their cars and taping them singing along to different songs... Well, ever since I saw that show (ages ago), I worry sometimes that one of my friends has hidden a camera in my car. Because I sing ALL THE TIME, usually as loud as I can!

5. I think I've developed a lactose intolerance. They're still running different tests, so we'll see... Luckily they make lactose free ice cream, because I'm not sure how I could survive without milkshakes.

6. I've never had much of a green thumb. So I was really excited when I planted some green bell pepper seeds and they actually grew and began producing peppers. Unfortunately, all my peppers are turning brown, and I have no idea why! : (

7. I've never been a big drinker, so when Matt and I would be going to party where I knew there would be drinking games, I'd stop on the way to grab a 6-pack of Yoo-Hoo. : )


Okay, now I want to learn more about y'all...

I award:

Laura at Life with Laura

Gracie at Gracie Bella Butterfly

Liesl at Fabulous Fashions 4 Sensible Style

Sarah at Overthinking Mama

Diana at One Crafty Fox

Lauren at Letters, She Wrote

Hope you all have a Happy Wednesday! ; )

101 in 1001: Number 76

Hi Guys! As I was looking down my list to find this number, I noticed that I have completed several of my 101 in 1001 goals that I haven't blogged about... I need to get on that! But let's just concentrate on this one, shall we?

76. Make banana nut bread from scratch

I happened to have a few bananas that were starting to go bad, so I decided to go ahead and knock this one off my list. I love banana nut bread but had never tried making it myself. So I called up my cousin Summer to get her recipe, grabbed a few things on the way home, and put my KitchenAid mixer to good use! I wish I had taken some pictures of the process, but alas, I didn't... So you'll have to settle for a couple pics of the finished product.

I was very pleased with the results. : ) And it's rather tasty! Thanks again, Summer!
 
Here is the recipe in case any of you would like to try it out:
 
Summer's Banana Nut Bread
(It makes two loaves)
 
- 2 sticks butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
-2 teaspoons water
- 2 cups mashed banana
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
-1 cup chopped walnuts
 
Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda together and set aside. Melt butter. Mix butter and sugar together until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Add banana and vanilla. Fold in flour mixture and walnuts until all moist. Grease 2 loaf pans. Divide the batter equally and bake about 60-75 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.

And there you have it! Let me know if any of you try it out. I'd love to hear how it turned out for you. : )

A promise is a promise...

Hi Guys. So I made a promise in a previous post that I'd put up pictures of my office today, no matter how it looked. And while I did make a lot of progress over the past week, it's not even close to being finished... As you can see from the pics I'm about to post:

This is where I spent most of my time. I did a lot of organizing, and I put up the cork boards. I'm sure I'll end up moving stuff around once I get everything unpacked, but I'm loving the writing desk I found at a local Goodwill store!  Okay, the rest of the pics are awful, so brace yourselves...

I see those gray lines are back. Boo! Oh well, this is going to be my craft table. Right now it's covered and surrounded by piles of different things... CD cases, papers, art supplies, and things I still need to go through.

This area will be the book shelves and computer desk. I think I've gotten most of my books unpacked, but I'd like to have them more organized than they currently are. And again, there are piles everywhere that I still need to go through.

And this monstrosity is the closet area. A couple of those bins are ready to be put in the attic, and one is filled with things for a garage sale, but the majority still need to be gone through.  So as you can see, I still have a ways to go to get my office ready. I know it probably doesn't look like it, but I did get a big chunk done. And I threw out about 4 bags of trash/ things I didn't need, so that's a step in the right direction. But hopefully I'll keep my momentum going and get it finished soon. : )  I'll be sure and post more pics when I do.

Hope you all have a great week!