A New way to Read..no more tv!

We'll since I am not showing you how I've painted and altered these books it must mean I'm reading them! What? Angela doesn't read.. You're right. But, My husband & I have been trying to find fun things we could do to pass the time together instead of tv so every night before we go to bed now we sit out on the porch and read. We love it so much that we've cancelled our tv service. Only movies for us now. It's amazing how lazy you feel after watching tv and it wastes so much time of your life. I realized some contributing factors to not being joyful and successful is that instead of getting out of the house and experiencing new things and meeting people we're content with the tv. So it's gone! This is the first book I bought and got all the way through. About a man who dies in a car accident, has an experience in heaven and wakes up a hour or so later. It's about his long recovery and lessons. I enjoyed the mysterious parts about his experiences but thought he spent too much time talking about self pity.


Seven Angels for Seven Days I put first because it has been my favorite so far. It's the one I haven't wanted to put down. So far it's about a Canadian couple who are later in their lives and decide to go on a 6 month trip to Australia to live closer their new grand baby and have the experiences of a lifetime. The wife, Angelina Fast-Vlaar is the author who tells of how this turned into a nightmare trip when her husband dies & they were away from home. The book is about her encounter with the angels she believed God sent her to get through.

This Angel letters book was okay but I found most of the stories to be creepy instead of peaceful and sweet which I thought it was going to be.

I'm currently on Eat Pray Love but I'm finding it hard to have a desire to keep reading it. I'm sure there will be some good lessons when I get further into it.

I quickly realized I was going to need bookmarks. I spent about 5 minutes every time I started reading trying to figure out where I left off. Here's one of the bookmarks I made. I also sent one in the Once upon a Fairy Tale Swap. I stopped after making one though because I had to get back to reading of course :)

With my love of Record keeping I decided since I had just started reading, what a great time to record all of the details about them. Here is my new Book Reports Binder. I keep it along with my Swaps binder system and my Garden Joural which I'll share in a later post.

As soon as people found out I started reading they started to tell me their favorites. So I made up this list of books , authors and who recommended them. I can't wait to hear all of your favorites. Please take a moment to leave me the names of your favorite reads to get me started. Thank you!

I will fill out a Book Report on each book I read. I think it will come in very handy when I want to recommend a book to someone & need to know who the author is or how long it took for me to read it. It is just really fun too! ~Happy Reading!

New shipment for YourAngil Adornments

Vintage Lace Roses accented with vintage Rhinestone jewelry

So here's what has been coming to life in my studio this week. Most projects are for Etsy this week and then I will be pausing a week to create 4 more Swap packages.

Blossoming Beauty Vintage Post Card Tags

A Very Happy Christmas Vintage Post Card Tags

With True Love Vintage Post Card Tags

All Vintage Post Card Tags are sold in sets of 3. Backs are ready for writing. I am personally going to use them for bookmarks but I think they would be especially pretty tied onto the handle of a gift bag or used on a scrapbook page layout.

I was so pleased to make these simple announcements for my newest nephew Xavier.

God is great!

Through the mail this week..

Once Upon A Fairy Tale Swap : Princess & The Pea Set Sent to: Mandy @ Sewspun

My vision of The Princess sleeping on her famous pile of mattresses.

Can you see it? A little pink marble bead as the pea. Amongst the gorgeous silky embroidered fabrics that only princesses sleep on.

The base of this project is a Spaghetti box cut through it's height.

Here is the VERY cool Butterfly mobile Mandy sent me for the girls room. Mandy, these butterflies and their details like the beads and buttons are amazing. It's been so hard to get Valencia to stop playing with it. I try telling her it's to hang up but she wants to her "her" butterflies so badly :) Thank you We love it!

Top of the butterfly Mobile

Dot Atcs sent to: Lee Swap hosted by: Club Creative

The following Dot Atcs are from the very talented Sandra @ The Art of Confusion

Blogger has added a VERY cool new gadget called Followers. There is a gadget on the left sidebar above my Etsy link that you can be added to be my friend & a follower of my blog. Just click it & it will add your icon and link to that gadget.

A Mother Like I Want to Be

A Mother Like I Want to Be
Each year I’m extra happy on your birthday; Your day reminds me of God’s gift to me--A mom who gave her all to raise me right,A mother like the one I want to be.
By Joanna Fuche

Happy Birthday to my Beautiful Mom! My favorite Woman on all the Earth!

4th year Wedding Anniversary.

Our Beautiful Wedding set up in My Mom and Dad's Backyard. A special Thank you to my parents for all their hard work in making our wedding the wedding of my dreams.

I thought it would be fun to tell you the story of Me & My husband's lives together so far. I think it's a very fun story & I can't wait to share it with our kids some day.
Us at 17 years old

One day my husband, (Matt), his sister & Matt's best friend came into Michaels arts and crafts for hemp and beads. Where I'd worked for a few months. Matt tells his friend Nick I'm cute and he's going to go ask me where the beads are. So as I'm in aisle 3 cleaning Matt comes to ask where beads are, which are in Aisle 4. He asks & I'm sure I gave him a funny look, maybe with an eye roll (I am after all 16 ) I tell him it's one aisle over. His friend Nick saw a Now hiring sign and suggests he apply for a sweeping position at the store. Although he lives 30 minutes away, He applies and is hired. I remember the day he came in to be trained I said "Hello!, he's cute " in my head, but I'm quiet and shy so it took me almost 2 months to even start talking to him. I would call him to the register I was ringing on to get a wreath down & He would straighten the car model boxes for me. I hated doing that. On night he shared that he & his best friend were going to play basketball. I sort of showed interest in going even though I absolutely have NO idea how to play basketball. So we met up at a school playground and played a round of Horse or something & then I had him come to my house to play some board games. Weird first date I know but as I walked him to his car. He asked if he could kiss me & we haven't been apart more than a few days since April 19th 2002 when we had our first date. Only 6 years later and we've been married for 4 of them and have 3 kids. I love him just as much as I did when I met him and even more now. I'm so extremely blessed to have him as my provider and the Father of my children. He is the most mature 23 year old I know who works hard to take care of our his wife, our relationship, his children, himself and his career. I LOVE you so much! Happy 4th Wedding Anniversary.

Our Family now

School...already?

As I was writing to my wonderful friend Jenny I met through Etsy I was going on and on about a subject i can't stand to think about. Sending my babies to school. I realized I should be sharing this with all of you. I know some of you are going through or will be going through or have even gone through this 20 years ago, so some advice would be great.

As me and the kids did some grocery shopping around back to school time, they saw their favorite characters on backpacks. They looked so cute with them on. I got them each one so my 3 and 4 year old are walking around with back packs on & it makes me want to cry every time I see it. I can't believe they are just out of the womb and I'm suppose to put them on tons of metal with no seat belts and send them to be taken care by people I don't know! The only thing that stresses me out more is health issues. Thank God none of us have. The only thing that comforts me is that millions of people send their kids to school everyday, but that doesn't bring much comfort :(

They are so small and they are just babies. I don't feel confident in any manor to home school & of course private school isn't an option. So please, tell me how do all of you do it?

Since I started dreading this months ago I decided to start a garden thinking it would get all of us out in the yard. The kids would get some fresh air and I would get some exercise. It makes you appreciate your "space" & it's beautiful to pull up and see some roses. The main reason I did it though was that I thought next year when I'm sending my first born off to school it will give me something to do to pass the time . My garden is doing well this year but I have a feeling it's going to be immaculate next year when I'm stressing out hardcore when he's gone.

Side note: A $6 wicker headboard at a consignment store for a trellis for my tomatoes.

And to calm myself down ....we'll end with some gorgeous sky creations God made this week.

Lace "Face" Lifts

Look! Look! I finally found a Millinery flower. I'm telling you I've been to tons of flea markets and thrift stores and Antique Malls & have still only seen a handful of millinery flowers no matter how big or small. I guess all of you talented shoppers/ bloggers have snatched them up:) This aqua one has just a few velvet discolored petals. I wish they made these now. The lace tags I had for sale in my Etsy shop have gotten a "face" lift. They needed more sparkles and pretties on the fronts of the tags. So here's what I came up with Blushing Beauty Lace Trim Tags

and Brilliant Butterfly Lace Trim tags

Some more vintage finds from the Antique Mall I was so excited to find. Things that would probably be abundant in California that are so difficult to find here. I intend to use these gorgeous glittered bells for garland.

One of my wonderful blog friends Sherry is having a Blogiversary party and weekly giveaways. Congratulations Sherry! I have to show what a lovely gift she sent my little Valencia for her new dance class starting up in 2 weeks. Her daughter also went to dance class and she passed on some outfits and shoes but threw in her extra sweetness by taking time to make Valencia a special Dance bag. Beautifully sewn! Thank you so much Sherry! Both girls love the bag & the outfits.