A Fabulously Flawed Life

Have you guys heard of Let's Art Party ? Holy smokes it is so much fun.  Tiffany invited several of us out to join in the fun and honestly I had a blast. You can bring in food and drinks so it's more like a party than a class.  The instructor stands at the top and gives you step-by-step instructions on how to paint the canvas. It's so easy a kid could do it!  I'll admit it's a little intimidating at first but the instructor really encourages each person to put their own personality into the painting and really make it your own. I went for a more muted look, while several of the women tried to copy the instructions exactly, while others took it to a new level and went wild.  {snicker}  When I showed the horse I painted to my boys there were SO impressed and really made me feel like I did a good job.  It surprised me how much they liked it.  They even asked where I was going to hang it up.  {Ahhh it's that cute!}  { image credit ...

    You may remember a while back when I made a few broken jewelry projects for Charming Charlie .  Well now that things have settled down, I wanted to use the rest of the jewelry they sent me to make a jeweled wood letter for one of my readers! On a whim, I uploaded a giveaway onto Tip Junkie a week later, I picked a random winner.  Of course, her letter was "E" one of the biggest letters in the alphabet.  {{giggle}}  That thing used SO much jewelry and was HEAVY!  Poor thing - I don't envy her trying to mount that bad boy on a frame.  {{snicker}} I think it turned out gorgeous!  It took me 6 hours to make as my jewelry supply was quickly diminishing and I was having to make cute pieces out of random pieces by hot gluing them together.  It was quite the project - but a stunning end result.  The picture doesn't do it justice - it's breathtaking. Afterwards, I was so bummed that I didn't make one for ME!  {{d'oh!}}  Dud...

Every year one of my fabulous friends hosts an adult only Christmas Gag Gift Party. It's one of my favorite nights of the year! This year the runner up for the best White Elephant gift was larger than life size stand up poster.  I'm quite sure that this is going to pop up at all kinds of places throughout the next year.  I was bummed that I didn't get it as I had all kinds of plans for it.  {{evil laugh}} Chanda made this hysterical vinyl lettering tile, "HOME Where The HO & ME Come Together".  {{bwaahaa!!}}  Holy Crap that's so funny. This year, there's been a long-running inside joke about the "panis". Therefore, Lisa D made a panis reducer complete with suspenders. It was hysterical. Urban Definition:  Medical term for fat that hangs over the waist line "like a separate entity". Lucky us, we ended up with the Luggable Loo and His and Her's portable urinals.  Yep, we were stoked.  {{said sarcastically}} I don't h...

I landed the coolest job with Charming Charlie in October. I made three broken jewelry projects they've posted them on all onto their site.  My favorite by far was the broken jewelry initial that I made entirely out of Charming Charlie accessories.  {{squeal}} I've hooked you up with video as well as pictured instructions.  Here you go:   How to Make Jeweled Wood Letters  How to Decorate a Frame with Broken Jewelry   How to Decorate a Mirror with Accessories   How to Embellish Your Handbag I'm such a dork in the videos but I really like how the projects turned out.  Each one has it's own vibe and it was such an amazing opportunity. The silver "C" I made is my favorite.  I believe they're going to give it away on CharmingCharlie.com but I haven't seen it live yet.

I'll never forget one Christmas we were having the hardest time getting Dylan to tell us what he wanted from Santa.  He finally asked me, "If I don't tell Santa what I want, will I get it?"  I had to restrain my myself as I was at the brink of frustration with him and I said, "No! You won't.  If you don't tell people what you want -  you'll never get it."  I'm quite sure everyone in the Santa line could see the huge light-bulb over my head at that very moment.  I finally got it myself.  I have to ask for what I want otherwise I'll get just that - nothing.  I had the best conversation with a dear friend about getting what you want out of life. That conversation has been so eye opening to me.  She recently went to the Mighty Summit which was a small get together of power women in social media. The entire weekend was about their Life List and making those things happen for each other. What a profound experience to be in a ro...

For my birthday, Lisa organized a girls weekend and shopping in Canton. Whoohoo!  Seriously, I could not have asked for a better birthday present. It was two days and one night of roaring laughter, a lot of great finds, and surrounded by beautiful things. The past month I've been completely overwhelmed with gratitude.  Gratitude for the women in my life who are so easy to be friends with, who are so caring and genuine, and who see me as I truly am and not how they want or perceive me to be. The older I get, the more I realize how vital these kinds of friendships are. Life is way more fun when you get to let your hair down and just laugh and be yourself. These women have the uncanny ability to bring out the best of myself.  It's what my sister calls "Fun Laurie".  {{bwaahaa!}}  So a huge huge huge huge thanks to Lisa, Cali, Chanda, and Melissa for making 34 so much freakin' fun!

I got the strangest 911 phone call from my sister, Lisa, asking if I could drive to New Orleans with her for an intervention with my youngest brother. Anyone who knows me knows that I avoid drama like the plaque.  I'm not one to get involved.  Why?     It's not because I don't care.  It's not because I don't want to help.  It's because if I've learned anything, it's that we're all on a different path in life and unfortunately we have to find our own way. Maybe it's because I'm a parent.  Maybe it's because I'm completely cynical.  Maybe it's because I've gotten beat up so many times that I know that I'm the only one who I can change.   For what ever reason, I believe that we each have to hit rock bottom for real change to happen AND it has to be our idea .  When life gets really dark, I have found that you have to want to find the light and do whatever it takes to learn, grow, and avoid those situations in the ...

While I was in Utah, I was invited to attend a Twilight Eclipse premier party at Thanksgiving Point. The best thing about it was that it was at 8pm instead of midnight.  {{squeal in delight}}  I got all the perks of seeing it first without the sleep deprivation hang over the next morning. I was a bit under-dressed as there were people dressed up as werewolves and full costume.  The party was crazy fun with mom-tini's called "Edwards Kiss" and "Jacob on the Beach". I got the hook up thanks to these lovely ladies who are also fellow bloggers. Allison , Rachael , and Marie .  {{hola!}} It was a crazy fun evening.  Miss you Carina ! Allison and I just couldn't pass up this photo op taken from someone's car!  How funny to drive around with Edward as a passenger.{{bwaahaa!}} Yep, we left with some fun swag.  VIP guest passes, "Paw-sta", buttons, cup, and necklace.  Huge thanks to everyone for such a lovely time in Utah!  ...

I still have our Utah vacation pictures to upload, but since that's going to take quite a while, I'm skipping a head a bit to officially tell Anessa Happy Birthday! We were invited to celebrate with her on a river boat and even though it was drizzling we had the best time! Talk about a wet & wild party! Anessa has the coolest job, a wonderful man, and generous spirit. 40 is most definitely fabulous! There was great food, fabulous company, and a lot of showing off. We had mens synchronized jumping, swan diving, and even some over exposures. Billy was on fire and was the most entertaining jumper!  Dudes, gotta be hurting today.  {{just sayin'}} I just love hanging out with these women.  I consider it an honor. The night ended with an impressive fireworks display and I was sorry to see the party end.  These people are the real deal - fun, easy going, non-judgmental, with no drama.  I heart them!

For Melissa's 40th Birthday we decided to meet in Austin and have some crazy girl time.  Watch out Austin, here we come! Lisa and I have this tradition of dressing up to meet up with Melissa.  We've dressed up as Neo & Trinity from the Matrix as well as Nacho Libre and Nun . We couldn't mess with such a fun tradition, so this time we dressed up as one of Melissa's favorite TV personalities; Beth & Dog the Bounty Hunter. We completely lucked out as it was the Big Ass Biker Parade in Austin that weekend and so we were surrounded by motorcycles.  We couldn't have planned a better photo op!  {{bwaahaa!}} Needless to say Melissa was completely taken by surprise! We decided to start our weekend off right with some food and shopping!  We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and then headed over to Ross and TJ Max since we never have time to brows these stores at home. I finally spent my $50 gift card I won from Tim Gunn at Fabric Care Universit...