Glittery Toenails and more weekend fun!

November 28, 2011 by Alexa 1 Comment

Wanted to share with you my sparkle nails I got fo the holidays! It is basically a red basecoat with holiday sparkly colors over top. I think it looks fun and super festive. I am happy with it. Hope it lasts till Christmas!

Here’s some other fun updates from my weekend activities…

– Had lots of turkey and pumpkin pie (my fave) over this weekend. Both William and myself made the pie (me the crust, him the filling). It turned out soooo delicious! I even made homeade whipping cream for the top!

– Got to see William’s niece Sofie above. She didn’t want me to take her picture at first, but then she loosened up and let me. I have to get my kid pics in when I can! In the photo above, the lighting on her face was reflected from a yellow book. Cool, huh?

– Dexter is up to his usual tricks. This weekend he started meowing deeper and he is looking much bigger. I can’t believe we’ve only had him 2 months!

Got this cool vintage #5 from a local Thrift store. I went thrifting with William a while yesterday. This is all I came home with. It’s for the best, though. Better to come home with too little than too much. I have no place to store it!

– As you can tell, I’ve been playing around with my blog look and truncating my posts. I want it to be easier to search through for content and to be fresher looking. That’s why I opted for white. I have a lot of work to make it look nicer still yet to come, so stay tuned.

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Let’s hear it for lasagna and weekends!

September 19, 2010 by Alexa 6 Comments

You’ll get the title if you read on. In the meantime, check out the cute decorations I scored for 10¢ each this past weekend at an estate sale!

On another Halloween note, check out the pumpkins grew for me. I picked out the seeds several months back. Yeah, he has a green thumb!

I made new Fresno buttons. I guess they don’t make sense to people who live here, but locals appreciate them. The Bubba, Oz, and Zara ones are local celebrity buttons and the Madera one is for Fresno’s nearby city/subarb.

I enjoyed polishing my nails and sitting by the koi pond at William’s house.

Back to the estate sale. The lady was super crafty and had tons of needlepoint supplies, ribbon,books, and patterns. I also found her paint stash. Inside was wom vintage Tulip® packaging from my work (iLoveToCreate). Love the kitsch of old packaging!

Here’s a tray I bought too!

Here’s something I didn’t buy but rings oh so true to me! I figured it would just add to the clutter of my desk!

Here’s a pennant I bought for my friend Silvia. I hope she likes it! I think she will 🙂

I also spent time with my little poodle friend, Frankie. Here’s a video of him, just to show you what a beast he truly is!
If you can’t see it, try viewing it here.

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

My weekend in photos

March 28, 2010 by Alexa 3 Comments

Yesterday, I went up to visit William in Modesto and then we went to Sonora, California. I am not incredibly familiar with my California locations, but Sonora is what is considered the “Foothills”. It’s around where a lot of the settlers came during the Gold Rush. Certain parts of it looked really Kentucky like, but just certain parts. It’s a lot more hilly than I’m used to seeing in the Central Valley, that’s for sure.

Anyway, a few things that I did while I was there…went to a potluck, played with Sofie, William’s 18-month old niece, went to old town Columbia (it’s an old West-looking town) to watch his sister do poi dancing, visited an apple orchard and distillery (I learned how hard apple cider was made), and planted pomegranates. It was a busy day!

Anyway, here’s a few pics. It is absolutely beautiful there. Very picturesque.

William planting his pomegranates. I helped with shoveling and planting. I even got my hands dirty!

This one made me laugh…I didn’t realize till WIlliam pointed it out, but Frankie is totally peeing here!

Me on a mossy rock. Can you believe this is in his sister’s backyard??

Here’s William pondering the great outdoors.

Here’s William’s sister Heather doing her poi dancing in downtown Columbia . I think they look a LOT alike.

And her cute little girl Sofie. I think she liked me! It was my first time meeting her.

Anyway, just wanted to share. Hope you have a GREAT week!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

A long weekend

August 3, 2008 by Alexa Leave a Comment

I’m finished with my weekend but feel like I need another day! Ugh…why does it have to go by so fast!! I guess it was good overall, besides having a sick moment yesterday. I didn’t really do much this weekend besides dress shop with my friend who is getting married (she picked out her dress + the dresses we are wearing). I also helped Jeremy organize his place today. He just moved to a rather small place. It’s an apartment/studio complex that used to be a hotel. It is the craziest looking place on the inside, because it has recessed moulding that is in resemblance of castle shapes. Like there are three guards in a row at one point in the hallway, a Russian temple, jokers, etc. It’s actually quite bizarre. Chris said he wants to shoot it with his wide angle lens. Actually here’s one pic to give you an idea of the moulding. I thought this looked rather Trekkie myself.

I also watched 2 episodes of 24. Pretty compelling stuff. I could see myself getting hooked. Just what I need.

Well, I think I’m going to settle in and check out one of the mags I bought in the past couple of days…I got Country Living (actually not as “country” as you would think), Bust, Venus Zine, and ReadyMade. That’s what I call some good readin’.

Until tomorrow Swellions!

Alexa

Wow, the weekend’s over already?

July 20, 2008 by Alexa 1 Comment

I hate how quickly weekends seem to come and go. I need another day! I’d give my left arm, but I think I might miss it.

I did a whole lot of nuttin’ today. I did craft today and made some jewelry that I plan on submitting to a mag. I also watched a lot of TV. On my set today was MTV’s True Life (I’m Deaf and I’m a Compulsive Shopper), Tori and Dean Home Sweet Hollywood, and Pride & Prejudice (I could watch that one over and over).

I didn’t take too many pics this weekend, but I did take some foodie pics. I made yummy fruit salsa + cinnamon chips. The recipe for these is loosely based on this one…Annie’s Fruit Salsa & Cinnamon Chips. The cinnamon chips are a cinch as well…I just cut up tortillas, spread butter on both sides and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. It is a nice sweet summer treat!

Here’s a pic from my friend Jessica’s 29th b-day gathering on Saturday. She is the last of our little group that is turning 29, so on comes 30 next for all of us. Yikes! Here she is (she’s the brunette) with Dana.

Oh, and Tasha made these really yummy strawberry cupcakes…she’s been getting into cake making as of late. They were so good!!!

This was the group I went to see the Dark Knight with. I ended up seeing it at the drive in and I don’t know that it’s the best venue to see that movie in. It was soooo dark (the lighting in the film) and I couldn’t see details that would have better clued me into what was going on. I don’t know about you guys, but even though it was a good movie, I find action-packed movies like that hard to follow. Maybe I’m a little slow or lacking on the intellectual front? I don’t know. It just seemed that the plot was going back and forth and it was hard to keep up with all the characters. I will say that Heath Ledger was awesome. He stole the movie. He was so freakin’ creepy and the mannerisms and voice was very eerie. It’s so sad that he’s gone!

And finally, wanted to give a shout out to my friend Crafty Chica for her Innovation Award that she won at CHA Summer! Winning an award of this nature is a huge deal and hopefully a great sign of things to come in the marketplace…I’m tickled for her!

Until tomorrow, Swellions!

a weekend where a kid could be a kid

July 6, 2008 by Alexa 1 Comment

OK, admittedly, Chucky cheese could be mistaken for that other Chucky doll here. He looks insanely creepy.

My 4th of July weekend was pretty uneventful, but that is not a bad thing. Sometimes it’s nice to just have a chill time. I’m not one for a crazy, hectic, always on the go kinda time, anyway. I didn’t really do or watch any fireworks, but I did hear them popping off in my neighborhood. I’ve neven been big on fireworks, other than the occasional sparkler. I tend to photograph them anyway, and not really enjoy myself. So maybe it’s for the best.

My neice came over yesterday and we crafted quite a bit. As I’ve said before on here, she’s my crafty girl. Even when she goes to a professional baseball game, she can be found with a pen and paper in her lap! She’s always drawing or doodling and I think that it is great that she loves being so creative. I encourage it at any opportunity.

We made a few projects together. She had this really cute Strawberry Shortcake craft book and we made some fun fingerprint postcards for her to snail mail to her friends.
Ugh. She also got ahold of my glitter and I didn’t try to stop her. Thankfully, not too big of a mess was made. She kinda went crazy making her own glitter glue and had a ball doing so. We ended up throwing it out, but I guess it’s ok as long as she was having a good time! Also, I have so much glitter I rarely use, that I guess she helped me purge some of my craft supplies. Ha ha!

We also went to Chucky Cheese. Whenever one of them comes into town, I try to make it memorable. I always loved that place as a kid and rarely went. I have noticed that they don’t have that vat full o’ balls anymore, but they still have my favorite…skee ball and a knockoff version of whack-a-mole. We had like 100 tokens, so she had plenty of fun and got a pretty dinky mini connect 4, pink hair extension, slap hand, and some spinning tops. But, yeah, as a kid that is what it’s all and Taylor seemed super excited about her prizes. On a side note, the sandwiches there aren’t half bad. I wasn’t expecting much at all, but I got an Italian Sub with a side of fresh fruit and pasta salad. It was actually pretty yummy.

Here’s some pics from our trip:

My sis and Brock came for a visit today and we went swimming at the pool again. They are really great little swimmers. I was impressed.

Other than that, just gotta deal with the glasses situation (going to one of those value places to get a new lens and get my glasses clean, in general- they are always so dirty and I can’t get them totally clean). Also, have to finalize my coffee shop show, deposit some moolah, and get some packages in the mail. Geez, I hate mailing stuff and going to the bank. For me, it is never an easy task!!! I guess it shouldn’t be all that hard, but I always have a way of making undifficult things difficult.

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Weekend Update

December 9, 2007 by Alexa Leave a Comment

Geez oh pete. This weekend went by waaaay too fast. I wish i had one more day to get together, but I guess I’ll have to accept it for what it was.

Friday, I compiled all my ingredients for my cookies and did some shoppin’ at Hobby Lobby (bought some beads, like I needed more of those-ha!)

Then Saturday, I got up and going and made my cookies for the cookie party I will be attending tomorrow night. They were Butterfinger cookies. They turned out super good and I was really excited about them. Here’s a few pics.

I then got together my gifts for a holiday party with my girlfriends. The gift was supposed to be valued at $20, so I got this yummy (and pretty- I’m a sucker for packaging) candle set. I paired it with this jewelry set that I made…

I used stretch elastic on the bracelet. I saw a bracelet like that at the drugstore a few days ago and thought that was a really good idea, considering that everyone’s wrist size is different and this way, it stretches to fit, but still looks elegant with the toggle and toggle charm. I liked the end result.

I stopped on my way to Jessica’s to help her get ready for the party at our local bead shop, Dandelion Beads, but they were out of the wire I needed. I was bummed.

I then went on to the party. Everyone brought a dish (I brought pumpkin dip and brownies and cookies – you know, the good stuff). Jessica did a great job on the ham and everything was super yummy.

And, of course, Michaela (pictured) and Parker were totally cute, like they always are. Oh, I totally posed her. She’s so easy to coerce.

After our game, I walked away with this purple purse (thank goodness, I drew the last number!)

My Sunday, was admittedly lazy, but once I got out to Michael’s and got to going, I was fine. I just sometimes need that boost of motivation. I also did some laundry, watched some E!, got my cookies ready for the cookie party I will be attending tomorrow night, got some earrings ready to present, and organized my closet.YAY!

So, tomorrow begins another week. Just thrilled.

The Swell Designer

Random musings of a crazy, crafty, pop culture-obsessed girl!

Glittery Toenails and more weekend fun!

Let’s hear it for lasagna and weekends!

My weekend in photos

A long weekend

Wow, the weekend’s over already?

a weekend where a kid could be a kid

Weekend Update