Woohoo - I'm Done!

I'm not done seeing all the Bead Soup.  That may take a little while longer.  I am, however, done with my Google Reader. I've been neglecting it for the past couple of weeks and I was up to over 800 unread posts.  I have been sitting in this chair for about three hours and I finally got through them all!  So excited!  This week's goal is to finish looking at the rest of the Bead Soup.

So in February, I got a big bonus at work and a pretty big tax refund.  So, I bought a new laptop (my old laptop was dying and since I take online classes, it was a necessity), a Kindle, and a recliner for our house.  I also bought some pretties.  Want to see some beady eye candy?

Lampwork from Sooz Beads.  The colors on the first one are my very favorite colors - all on ONE BEAD! (Insert scream of joy!)  And don't you love the bubblies in the turquoise ones?

Pendants from Unique Buttons.  I am loving peachy/pinky colors lately and these definitely spoke to me.

I'm in love with Czech glass lately - the colors, the Picasso finish, the affordable price - everything.  I got these lovelies from Bead and Ribbon.  Aren't they delicious?  What's even better s that I bought a ton of them and they were still sooooo affordable!

And the ones that I'm positively drooling over:

It's the Mermaid Tail bundle from Gaea!  I am a sucker for the beach. I grew up in Minnesota - Land of 10,000 Lakes.  My town was right on the Mississippi River and one of the houses where we lived was right on the beach.  My boyfriend is from Maine - you can stumble out of his parent's house and be at the beach eating lobster.  Love the ocean and everything to do with it.  Sand dollars? Starfish? Mermaids? Shells?  Sea Glass?  Gimme 'em all!

So that's how I spent a tiny bit of my bonus.  Have you bought anything beautiful lately?

The Sun in All Its Glory

After about 6 weeks of working 60 hours a week and with a new semester that started a few weeks ago, I've been a bit stressed out. My lovely boyfriend decided Labor Day weekend was a great time to whisk me away for a couple of days and basically do whatever it took to keep me away from my computer and cell phone. It worked wonders and I feel relaxed and ready to face the world!  We drove to Tucson, which is just a short drive from Phoenix, and spent the weekend in a resort. Something happened to my camera so I only got a few pictures before it broke. (Excuse to buy a better camera!).  However, I wanted to share a couple of the pictures I took.  The first is Friday's night's sunset right as we arrived at the resort. We were driving up toward the lobby and I looked to the west and screamed "STOP THE CAR!" After he recovered from his heart attack, and actually did stop the car, I immediately jumped out of the car with my camera in hand and took the pictures.

The second picture is actually a picture I took tonight on my way to school. I pulled over to the side of the road and took it. So you can see a park that's near my house and the road where I stopped.

I'm in love with the colors in these two pictures!  Arizona has stunning sunsets, although I have to say that a lot of the reason is because of the amount of pollution in the air. I guess it's worth it, though, because our sunsets are absolutely breathtaking!

I need to find that website where you can upload a picture and have it create a color palette for you. I'm finding a lot of inspiration in color lately and these pics definitely represent some serious inspiration!

August in Phoenix

It ain't for the faint of heart.

I Won An Award!

Thank you to the lovely Elisabeth of Beads for Busy Gals!  I won a Versatile Blogger award! 

Here are the rules:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award

2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Pass the award along to 15 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are fabulous
4. Contact the bloggers you chose and let them know about the award! (this will have to happen tomorrow)

Seven random things about me:

1. I don't know when I was born. I was found in a garbage can in the winter of 1974 in South Korea and taken to an orphanage. They think I was about a month old, so they gave me a birthday the month before. I was adopted when I was five months old and a few years later, the orphanage had a fire and burned to the ground. There is no record of me left in Korea that I know of.
2. I have a serious Coca-Cola problem. I consume WAY too much of it. Seriously.
3. I love my job, even lately, when I'm working 60 hour weeks. I do wish there were two of me, though, so I could get a little more rest. 
4. I started taking piano lessons when I was three years old. I attribute my ability to type 130+ words per minute to that.
5. I don't really enjoy sweets - I'd rather have a crispy, salty snack instead of candy.
6. I have never wanted to have kids, even when I was young.
7. About a year and a half ago, I decided to go back to school part-time and it was a great decision. No matter how stressed I get in a semester, I still love the fact that I'm back in school.

So the next thing to do is award this to some other bloggers. This award has been going around so long now, though, that I don't know anyone who hasn't been tagged. Since I worked 14 hours today, I'm going to give myself a free pass and work on tagging some blogs tomorrow.