The One with Enid Collins and Eleni Creative

I found some adorable things while surfing my google reader this early evening and thought I'd spread the love.

First, from Elsie's blog, (something this cute WOULD be found on her blog...), I saw this cute owl purse ("cute" is a major understatement here)and from there researched Enid Collins and found these other amazing bejeweled purses ("amazing" is also a major understatement here).
So cute. I'm speechless. Or rather, my fingers can't translate what my brain is thinking.


Then, on the Young House Love blog, they're having a giveaway hosted by Eleni Creative. Her name is Helen. She makes stuff out of felt. As she states, "You name it, she can felt-ify it." Case in point: mobiles.
Flying pigs? Are you kidding me? Could these BE any cuter?I'm just trying to let all this inspiration sink in. There's so much talent in the world, it's overwhelming (in a good way)!

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The One with the Sunday Drive

Random intro: literally 10 minutes after I said to Chris, "I wish I could just see one of the Pasadena parrots," we stepped outside and a whole flock of them flew into the tree right in front of us. So I finally got to see them up close and personal rather than just hear them squawking by.
See if you can find all three (at least!) parrots in this tree. They sure do blend in well.Anyways, after our encounter with the birds, with nothing but a map in hand we took a Sunday evening drive to see if we could find some of the ginormous houses me and my mom saw while we were apartment hunting in June.
Success.
We trudged along and saw some amazing views of the valley.
Somehow we ended up at the Rose Bowl! Seriously, we were just driving along and we looked up and there it was. Random! We weren't following signs or anything. Whelp, now we know where it is!Happy Sabbath!

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The One with the Saturday Market

While the boys ditched us and were off playing golf, Erica and I went yard sale hopping and market shopping. There is ALWAYS something going on here.

Erica hit the jackpot of baby girl clothes. Just the other weekend I bought one little baby girl dress for $12. Erica got two entire plastic grocery bags full of cute and in good condition clothes for $10. Score.Meanwhile I held a baby for a half hour! And she didn't even cry!
Then we walked down Mission Street to see what we could see at the market.
We saw neat wood block castles.
Lots and lots of handmade jewelry.
Cool looking photography.
And my personal favorite, crocheted wire jewelry by Lisa Toland.
Who woulda thunk to crochet wire? Heck, I don't even know how to crochet!

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The One with A Little of This, A Little of That

What have I been up to lately? Oh you know. A little of this, a little of that.

1) I scrapbooked. And it felt gooood. Can't divulge the whole layout until February though. That seems forever away... I can tell you it's called "the one with blogging."

2) We went to Mariah's 1st birthday party last Friday along with every other first year dental couple in our ward. I have the pleasure of watching Mariah for a couple hours every week and she and I are becoming friends. She's just learning to walk so that opens up a whole new can of worms :)

3) We went to Disneyland at night for the first time with Erica and Blake & Brooklyn (their blog is now private, stinkers (j/k)). It was crowded beyond description, but we were in good company and we caught a glimpse of fireworks so alls well that ends well.

4) I discovered Aaron Ruell is in our ward (or it could be our stake, still trying to figure that out). The realization went something like this...
He was up on the stand giving an introduction before he delved into his talk.
Paige (antsy after taking Excedrin for a major headache and having a hard time sitting still in Sacrament meeting...) whispers to Chris, apparently a little louder than a whisper, "Did he just say 'producer'?"
Jenny, turns around because she heard me and (actually) whispers, "You know who that is don't you? Kip from Napoleon Dynamite."
Paige, "For reals?"
Paige then proceeds to take out her phone and google "Aaron Ruell" and confirms that the guy giving the talk at the podium is indeed a star. Neato.
There's a celebrity in our ward/stake. And if we ever become friends and he reads this, I apologize in advance. I just can't hold it in any longer.

5) We made chicken curry for Sunday dinner. It was delish and now that we're experts we're planning a party.
6) We were on a roll so the next night we cooked French toast for dinner. Difficult, I know. But we followed a recipe that includes cinnamon, vanilla extract, flour, eggs, etc. Dusted with sugary goodness of course. I may or may not have doubled the amount of cinnamon called for, on purpose, because I like cinnamon. That may or may not have ruined it...my bad. At least it looks good...

7) I've started blogging on the CARDS blog every Friday. Come play along!
8) We went to Disneyland today. I'm absolutely loving this SoCal resident thing. We have now gone enough times to make up for purchasing the passes. Guilt be gone! Today was the first day that the Halloween attractions were open - Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain.
As I said in my previous post, I love Halloween. Disneyland decked out in Halloween paraphernalia = one happy girl!
We showed up before we could even go on rides, so we meandered over to the "Painless Dentist" shop for a photo op.
By the way, Chris doesn't really go to USC, he ACTUALLY goes to the "Dental School Upstairs" at Disneyland. Hey, it's reputable!
Everybody headed straight for Space Mountain when rope was let down. See:
I don't have enough patience to stand in line for more than 45 minutes when there are other shorter lines so we actually didn't ride Space Mountain today. The line was over 90 minutes on stand-by. But we're going back next Thursday and I'm preparing myself to wait as long as it takes!
We DID get to go on the Haunted Mansion.
I was amazed. Astounded. Blown away.
It was like a completely different ride!
And, as I said in my previous post, I love watching The Nightmare Before Christmas so this was a dream come true to be surrounded by it.
We had a fun day at Disneyland to boot.

9) Tonight we went to a ward dental student pool party/BBQ. I swear dental students make up half the ward. Everyone is so nice and friendly and welcoming and we love it. No pressure to have a baby or anything :)
Fun people, fun times, fun, fun fun.
Now we're watching Napoleon Dynamite. It has nothing to do with statement #4 of this post. False. It has everything to do with statement #4 of this post.

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