A Visit to Trader Joe's

Oh, how I miss, miss, miss Trader Joe's! There will NEVER, EVER be one in Utah - anywhere in Utah! We had to go to Vegas earlier this week. I won't even begin to mention the heat - the 114° in the part of town we were in. How do I know it was 114°? The Navigator has a temperature reading that is right on target! I wanted to throw my body into one of the freezers at Trader Joe's! As it was, I kept my wrist pulse points on the edge of the freezer compartment! It didn't make a difference!

OK, back to Trader Joe's. Words like pleasurable, experimental, enjoyable, and varied come to mind! I came home with soy cream cheese, creme fraiché, marinated mozzarella balls, lime chicken burgers, buffalo burgers, salmon, shrimp, pitas, soy corn dogs (which are absolutely wonderful), cookies, cheeses, fish, bags of frozen berries, and gargantuan artichokes! There was more, but I've probably scared you off by now. The trick was getting it all back to the house w/out it melting. Enter the coolers and the ice! LOL Everything got home safely and barely thawed. Now, as I use the stuff, I have to remember to make a list so that on the next trip, I'll know what we used up.

It was so good to come home.

I did some layouts this week. Want to see them?

The first layout is of our precious Precious! She is just the sweetest animal I have ever known. She's not overly affectionate, but she is sweet, funny, and makes her wants known! Every night, she brings a toy into the bedroom just in case we decide to play. It's not unusual for us to wake up and find a stuffed animal or a ball between us! When she thinks we've left the house, she'll walk around meowing while she goes from room to room looking for us. I could go on, but that would be boring!

For this LO, I used the Basic Grey Lemonade Stand line of papers and embellishments. I thought it just went so well with the photo. DH picked this hydrangea from our garden. It was for me, but some little fur person thought it was for HER! I backed the doily with a piece of PP but didn't run the backing paper to the edge of the doily. I wanted to maintain the delicate look of the doily. The LO just needed to have that girly girl feel!


Take Time to Smell the Flowers

The next LO is of my sweetie! DS took DH to this really fun restaurant in Issaquah, Washington. It's called XXX Root Beer. The ambiance makes the restaurant a real treat! The interior is covered with classic automobile memorabilia. It just looks like a party is going on! When I decided on this photo, I knew I just had to make the LO as fun as the XXX Root Beer experience! I chose PPs from the June Bug line. I did some cutting and layering. Around the larger circle, I've added yellow Stickles for a touch of sparkle. You can't see the sparkle in the photo, though. The black flower is fabric that I've stitched and gathered. With the large brad in the center, I thought it looked like an old LP. I added a touch of bling around the title as well as lots of matching flowers. I thought that the matching sticker was perfect - "You can have EVERYTHING you want!"


Sweets for My Sweet

The last LO is of DS. I took this shot while he was eating his very first soft ice cream cone! We were on our way to Oregon for the first of our many summers on the Oregon Coast. Look at his face! I think he was really loving it! I used MME paper with lots of layers and fun stitching. I added Stickles to the ice cream cone in the lower left. I thought the paper went so well with the photo. I'll journal on the removable tag later.


Heat Wave

Well, that's about it! Not bad for a week's work! I hope you enjoyed my designs. I loved sharing them with you!

Thank you so much for stopping by. It's so nice that you chose to come and visit!

Love to you,

Chris