all the blue light reflections that color my mind when I sleep

I love lists. Sometimes I make random "top 5" lists in my mind. Here's one that ran through my mind today. 5 of my favorite acting performances...

Babs in The Way We Were (she drips class in that last scene)

Hoffman, Kramer vs. Kramer, heartbreakingly perfect fave scene
Mr. Penn, Ms. Watts, & Mr. del Toro in 21 Grams (flawless)

A new favorite performance from an old favorite actress Ms Claire in Temple Grandin

Hilary was the Million Dollar Baby but her performance was priceless

Speaking of priceless, there is a great giveaway here.

title courtesy of Mrs. Potter's Lullaby (aptly written for a movie star, by one Mr. Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows)

wanna get me a little oblivion

sugar sweet sunshine

the great thing about this cupcakery in NYC is that it is open late. when i have a terrible day at work, i get home too late to go to cupcake a la mode. it makes me wish for the bigger city life. (only for the briefest of sugar-craving moments).

title courtesy of the epitome of "bad day blues" bands the Counting Crows: Perfect Blue Buildings

finding right in what went wrong

this is one of my ultimate favorites... so many lines that I feel hit me to the core, wrapped up as an unpretentious little romantic-comedyish.



Claire Colburn: Do you ever just think I'm fooling everybody?
Drew Baylor: You have no idea.

Lately I feel a little like I'm fooling everyone, since my promotion my job has been really uninspired. I really want to get back to what I love (which is not the clinical review process, alas it seems to be all I ever do).

Gotta find a way back to myself...

title courtesy of Jeff Finlin, from the Elizabethtown soundtrack (which is amazing from track one to fourteen), Sugar Blue

the way you can cut a rug

This girl isn't afraid to march to her own drummer, or dance to her own dj. She's one of those people who sets a goal and then reaches it, and then sets a better goal and reaches it. I am proud to have such a remarkable woman as my friend.

I can be myself, now finally

She says that her first memory of me is of me carefully applying my clear mascara in junior high. I remember thinking that she always looked so "put together". Whitney is the kind of friend that you can say ANYthing to, and know that she is still going to really see "you". She is a necessary part of my heart, non-negotiable. The page I made recently is about how lovely it is to watch her become a mother.

title courtesy of Train: Soul Sister

you gave my life direction

The second installment of my valentine-inspired girlfriend mania is my forever friend Kate. We have been friends since 1995, when we were 15. She is my compass, kind of like my true north. Even though we live in different cities, she doesn't ever feel far away and I know she never will. It's funny to go back and read all of our notes from high school and the backs of school photos, where we scrawled about how we hoped to be friends forever. At this point it is no longer a "hope" it's a given.

title courtesy of Train: Soul Sister

I knew I wouldn't forget you...

Here's to the women in my life. The next few blog posts will be the "soul sister collection". I am taking a break from my previously scheduled program of only scrapping 2009 to celebrate the impending holiday. I wanna talk about my soul sisters.

Let's celebrate love...too often we are looking for a fairy tale when we already have lifelong love. I find some of my best love from my tried and true gal pals. I know this song is from a man to a woman, but I have soul sisters too, and I love the beat.

First in the collection is my bff Bre. I met her when I was merely 18, and not really looking for her (in fact she didn't like me at first she thought I was sappy, and I thought she was snooty). Now, I can barely live without her. We've survived a long distance relationship, being roommates, as well as a million and one life changes. But there's no one I want to face the future with more. She makes everything better.

title courtesy of Train: Soul Sister

caught in between all you wish for and all you need

So there is this "photoless challenge" over at Tallyscrapper. And as I was surfing around I got a lot of inspiration from one of the efferdares and the dare itself. So here is my take. Lots of people have them: failed relationships, "the one who got away", heartbreak, etc. Here is mine.

It scanned a little wonky because of the little "love" button. Made it a little crooked and a little blurry.

The scrapping has been crazy lately! I moved my stuff into the living room (temporarily, because the spare room is FREEZING) in front of the big screen. And somehow now I am unstoppable.

title courtesy of Joseph Arthur: In the sun

it's a big enough umbrella

save your pennies in here

Ever since I moved to the 19th "richest" ranked county in the United States, my life-long practices have been looked upon as "strange". I am thrifty. I grew up watching my mom search for sales and clipping coupons and I have learned to do the same.

It's always been looked at a little strangely before because of my age. I would use coupons in my early twenties and people would be surprised that someone my age clipped coupons. Now I get poked fun at because Johnson County is not especially coupon country.

One day at the office I was clipping coupons on my break and acquired a crowd of jesters. One person asked me how much I could really be saving, and how could it be worth the time? I didn't really know the answer to this question. So I decided to find out (thus spending more time on coupons).

On the first of the year, I began a simple tracking log that tracks how much I spend and save. I wanted to know if coupons (matched with sales) were as good as I suspected. I just finished my data entry for January and I saved $133.74 for the month, which was a savings of 39%. I consider this a great success as I only use the coupons for things I am already going to purchase. The spreadsheet is organized by date and store, so I can see how much I save at certain stores (CVS is the best!).

I am sure I will be pretty proud to report at the end of the year how much extra I have in my pocket for rainy days from using coupons (matched with sales), fabric shopping bag rewards, and rebates (yep I send those in too).

title courtesy of The Police: every little thing she does is magic

you're gonna want this back.

A little more scrapping...
one for the pink ninjas:
personal motto challenge. And one for a Tallyscrapper sketch challenge.

This is a weekend full of birthday celebrations. Headed to watch Keenan in Grey Gardens tonight and then to a birthday party for my friend Josie. Keenan's 29th birthday & party are tomorrow.

Still wheel-less, but closing in on buying a car. I am so indecisive and nervous about this process.

keeping with my February country theme the title is courtesy of Trace Adkins: You're Gonna Miss This

a hundred years goes faster than you think

Where did 2009 go? I didn't take many pictures last year, so now that I have the goal to finish scrapping all of them before moving on to anything else I seem to have reignited my little hobby. I was inspired all over the internet for these recent layouts. The "g" layout to the left was inspired by an effer dare: "something lost something found" 3 of the layouts are inspired by a new challenge blog I like "scrapbook challenges" on Ning.com. And the pink layout was "scraplifted" from my bff Bre.

I'm not acutally much of a country music fan, but for the last two posts my titles have been inspired by country music songs. And today is too...it must be a February thing.

title courtesy of Kenny Chesney: Don't Blink

watch me go, I'm a happy girl.

Where better to shamelessly promote yourself than on your own blog? Nowhere.
Nestled between Brainy Smurf and Bug-out-Bob, you can see my "2009 Creative Contributions Award". The agency I work for celebrates one person per year for this award and 2009 was my year! Hopefully after I pilot my two sessions of drama camp for kids with autism they will want to award me again next year (I am not greedy, just ambitious).

It was funny, when they announced me for the award (it was super loud in the building with background noise) I thought they were calling my name out so that I could help pass out the awards, so when I got to the podium I asked what they needed me to do. The emcee looked quite confused and handed me the award. The photo of me accepting the award is truly funny as I look like I am not sure whether to reach out for it or not. If I had access to it, I would post it here. Luckily it is emblazoned in company infamy so that everyone can see my embarrassing moment. But now only my blogosphere knows the real story behind my flustered look.

title courtesy of Kansas girl Martina McBride: Happy Girl

Maybe now I’ve conquered all my adolescent fears

I want to win this!

This is what Bre got me for Christmas! Proving that blog hints do work!

30

I really got a lot of gifts this year! I am so thankful...I got a black & decker jar opener (which means I will never have to rely on a man again, at least to open a jar), two necklaces, a pair of New Balance running shoes, a candle, a pretty custom made apron, earrings, a knife set and these three things:

a yellow LOFT cardi

A yellow & brown GAP scarf

A good read

In other news, my Saturn (which I call "the baby Saturn") is going to retire to the pasture (or the scrap yard). After 5 years of ownership, many miles, lots of tires, a total cooling system overhaul, tons of sparkplugs and many loving oil changes, my 1998 SL1 had the clutch go out. It will cost about 1500 to fix her and then there is no guarantee that she will be okay after that. She is home right now, but they will pick her up and take her to recycle her.

I tend to not be attached to things...but to my car I am. I've always been really proud of myself for keeping her up so well and paying for all of her maitenance, parts, and repair. Plus, she has been parked outside of so many of the places I called "home"- Salina, Wamego, Manhattan, Mentor, & Kansas City. She's gone to Colorado a couple times, Wichita, and back and forth from wherever to Salina many times. I survived a lot of close calls in her. And she was resilient, til now.

However, this weekend I believe I finally came to terms with it and will be able to let her go with a clear head. It's time to find the next car to take me around for the next 5-10 years.

Speaking of the weekend, it was fabulous. Got to spend time with so many of my favorite people: Bre, Dave & Maxx, Mom & Randy, Dad, Tay, and Gram & Grandpa Rietzke. Went to church and the KWU basketball games to watch basketball & watch Taylor dance. And went to a get together in honor of Bre's birthday. I love going home to Salina for the weekend. It just always goes by too quickly.

title courtesy of Tim McGraw: My next 30 years

With me riding in this car, and you flying through the clouds

It's time again, to get motivated to create with Category Stories. The prompt this month is: "If I had a time machine". I chose to scrap about my lovely Grammy.

All the pretties on this layout do not reflect my usual style, but they reflect my Grandma and how she made others feel. Also the little pearl flower (thanks Ashley) made it hard to scan so it turned out a little blurry.

title courtesy of Patty Griffin: Long Ride Home