Just Tab: February 2012

29 days in February this year. Who invented Leap Year and why? Makes no sense to me. But nonetheless, we get an extra day this month.

I have been more crafty this month and I am loving it!! I started a Smash Book. 'What's a Smash Book?' you ask. Well it's this lovely little book that you literally smash all your miscellaneous goodies in. Anything you want. It can have a theme or not. I just put in a bunch of stuff that I don't want to put on a scrapbook page but do want to keep like business cards from my favorite stores, notes from friends, pictures I love. Now most people make their own Smash Books but since this is my first one, I purchased a cute pre-made one at Michael's by K & Company. Here are a few pages:

So far I am happy with the result. I'm kind of a neat scrapper so my stuff isn't really 'smashed' but it's in there. Top pages are just random pics I took, a list of songs from a contest Nancie and I did at a scrapbooking retreat 7 years ago (yes I hang onto that crap). Bottom is more pics I took and a tag. Just random hoo-hah. Fun though.

I have also been embroidering a lot. I LOVE to embroider because it's a kind of mindless thing I can do while I watch TV or something. Plus that's my go to project to take with me for a short craft day with the girls. I don't have to haul as much stuff with me as I do when we go crop. So, to celebrate Jim's and my (?) 13th anniversary, I made this:

OMG it's my FAVORITE!!! 13 years ago on Valentine's Day we had our first date. Actually, we both kinda got dumped by our prospective Valentine's so I invited him over to watch movies. "Slums of Beverly Hills" was an embarassing choice but we've been together since. So 13 years, 3 kids and 4 dogs later, here we are. Still going strong and I love him more now than I ever did. Lucky me!

And the second one I created I stole from a Starbuck's cup. Yes, we crafty people can find inspiration just about anywhere. If you went to Starbuck's during February, they had this really cute Valentine's themed cup. So I cut it out, scanned it, enlarged it and then traced it to sew. This is the end result:

I love the way it turned out and the colors make me smile!!!

And I actually made a canvas the other day. I am really trying to break out of my shell and do more artsy type stuff but my brain isn't having it.

The dress from is a chipboard page from a Maya Road album, used a rub-on from My Mind's Eye and the quote is from Teresa Collin's new line. So pretty.

On the home front, we're all trucking along. My brother is in Afghanistan for the next year and we are praying for his safety and that of his unit. I can't wait for all of this conflict to be over!!!

And of course, let's talk about FOOD!!! Now anyone who knows me has heard me brag about my mother's homemade tortillas. This lady woke up everyday at 4AM to make homemade tortillas for my dad before he went to work. Then made them again in the afternoon for dinner. And they were literally mouthwatering. They melted in your mouth and Lord help me, we would eat them as fast as they came off of the 'placa' (Griddle to you gringos). Well once they divorced my mom didn't have as much time to make tortillas and well, mine came out like frisbees. Really. So last week I go to Safeway and find these in the refrigerator aisle:

I have tried many a 'like homemade' tortillas in my time and I have been disappointed time and again. But no more! These tortillas were JUST LIKE MOM'S!!!!!! Now it was $3.49 for a dozen but that's just about what you pay for the premade ones. And these are BETTER. I will never buy any other tortillas again. So go get some. NOW. They are in the refrigerated section of the store and they are amazing.

Last but not least, we made a couple of trips out to Hazel's in Antioch. I was raised in Antioch and had never been there. I know, bad me. But about a month ago my mom, Vincent and I were driving through and my mom said, let's go have a Willy Burger. So we pull in to this old drive-in diner. Check it out:

Mom said back in the day you would pull up, flash your headlights and a car hop would come out and take your order. So we go in and there's a large party having dinner there. And it turns out to be one of the ladies who used to be a car hopper there having a birthday dinner with her family. The nostalgia in this place was amazing. Just tons of stuff from the 50's. So much I actually had to go back with my camera to take pictures.