A bit of a Sale...

Well actually a pretty big bit of a sale... 25% off the entire shop until Nov 30th!!!

Keeping Creative...

I am trying to keep creative even though I work with numbers for 10 hours a day only to come home and study about numbers.
In order to try and keep my creative juices from drying up... which they often do, I signed up for a whole bunch of ATC swaps on Swap-bot

A Daisy themed swap


A Mushroom themed and a Bee themed swap ( they kind of go together)



Somehow the mushroom came back in this Ladybug themed swap



Roses - each piece was cut by hand



I want to sign up for more but at the same time I am always soo late in sending them out...

Happy Halloween!!!!

Somehow I went from planning to be a pirate for a year.... to maybe Batman (yes I realize I am a girl and still BatMAN) to a hastily put together fairy. And after a lot of great anticipation I felt extremely tired yesterday and the night almost didn't happen.
But it did and I had the perfect excuse to play with my make up ....

In cooking news...

I don't know how I caught the cooking bug, but I have and I am not sure that I want to shake it.
I think it is the new job. My coworkers love to share their food at lunch and are always bringing in new things and so I had to follow suit.
I started out with the simplest and most yummy Banana Bread



Lex's Banana Bread (named after my coworker's wife, whose recipe this is)

1/2 cup of creamed butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3 very ripe bananas
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Cream the butter and add the sugar, egg, banana and milk together. Blend well. Add all dry ingredients together then add to the wet mixture. Should fit into a 9 inch, greased baking dish.
Bake at 350F for 35 to 40 mins. Simple I told you!

Apart from desserts, I have also ventured into my favourite mama recipes too.



Moussaka

and finally today I made Thanksgiving dinner for my sister and friends.



and the BIRD!!!

Happy Sunday...

oh how I wish Sundays did not end with Mondays...

This weekend I found myself living the life of shut-in as my only venture into the real world was a quick but expensive trip to the pet store followed by another quicker trip to the art supply store.
The rest of the time I was somewhere in between the piles or should I say mountains of supplies that I own.



I gathered and packaged my Journaling supplies swap



Two packages to fly of to different sides of the world.

I also completed another swap titled "Flowered ATCs: Daises"



I haven't worked on mixed media projects in a while and I thought that the best way to get myself back in the groove would be if I signed up for a few swaps.
My style is a bit different now and the whole process has evolved for me. I actually sketched, picked out the papers & organized them prior to starting. I used to just splash things together before.
The swap called for 2 ATCs and I created one slightly different to put in the Shop! as an ACEO.



"Dream Big"

In reading news...

Class is fast approaching again, my first assignment is due on Oct 9th.
In a race against time I am trying to read as many books before I hit the study books again. Once it starts I won't be able to come up for air until next June.

In the last month, I finished the 5th installment of Stephen King's Dark Tower series (I have been reading the series on and off for the past 5 years).



Interestingly enough this book mentioned a devise called a seeker and a little wizard by the name of Harry Potter. Yes Stephen King manages to bring in all kinds off strange things in his books, usually it is characters from his other stories.
So guess the title of the next book that I read...



A while back I decided to give in and read the Harry Potter books. I had never read them or watched the movies, so I decided to catch up with the world. One of my new coworkers handed me the first book in the series the morning after I finished the King book. Coincidence? Or in the words of King "ka" ;)

I finished Harry Potter in one breath, well a week. Now I must watch the first movie and see the visuals.
Next on my reading list is


I usually let some time pass between the Dark tower books but as I told you I am in a race against time.

After this I want to read



Finish the dark tower series and Harry Potter. I don't think I will get pass the the above book in time though, but we will see...

The last week in review

...getting used to the new job is taking it's tole on me.
My brain is overloaded and I can't wait until I understand it inside and out. Luckily at least corporate finance is the same across the board, it's the ins and outs of my new company that are 'interesting'. So far I do like the people and atmosphere, it is nothing like my old company (well more like my department was managed poorly).

Since I am trying to get used to a new schedule, I have been having a hard time falling asleep and thus more playing on the computer.

Last week, I worked on my first 'Self Portrait Thursday' photo in months


I also uploaded my skydiving video