It's Paper Dear Package!

I love stationary! If I find that section in a store, watch out because I will be there for a while. Don't even ask me how many pens I own. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard about It's Paper Dear. It's a monthly subscription to a surprise box of stationary!

My box arrived and I was so excited to open it up! And look how pretty it was!

So many goodies!! I didn't even spread everything out because it wouldn't all fit! There was a lot of ooohhh and aaahhhing!

A pen and spools! Be still my stationary loving heart!

I already have the perfect recipient for this card in mind!




 I can't even pick a favorite thing from this box! Love. All. The. Things!!

So head over to Darling Dear and sign up for a box! She sells out fast!!

Fill In The Blank Friday

It's Fill In The Blank time!! Head over to Lauren's and play along!

1.  I am  so happy it's finally Friday! This week has felt like 2 weeks in one. 

2.   I have always    strived to be authentic and true to myself. I hope that one day that can be said about me. 

3.  I hope to    reach my goal weight by the end of the year. However, I've been slack-a-lackin and need to get my ass in gear. 

4. I can   live on cereal and smoothies for every meal. I never get tired of them! 

5. I dream of    being financially secure and owning our dream house.

6. The way to my heart is    through thoughtful surprises, coffee, craft supplies, and stationary. I guess there's a lot of ways to my heart!

7.  I am passionate about   creating things. I'm happiest when I'm making something, whatever it is. 

Swimming, Packages, And Mice! Oh My!

Alternatively Titled: My Life According To My IPhone

Last week felt like it went by so fast! And this week has dragged on! It'd felt like friday for 3 days already! But I'm not complaining! It's somehow meant I've been really productive and gotten a lot done in my days!

With the exception of a few thunder storms, the weather has been really nice! The dogs and I go swimming at least once a day, usually twice! Our large dog Kudjo loves cold weather. He usually finds the summer heat unbearable with his thick coat. So we try to give him plenty of opportunity to cool off. If we don't, he sneaks off and takes himself swimming! Before I can even say "ok let's go swimming" he runs to the lake and lays down. 

We go a second time when Jon's home from work. There is several families of ducks that are really tame.

The water has gone down a lot so we are able to swim pretty far out. This poor little guy would love to keep up but can't quite swim that far. So we made a raft for him. He actually quite enjoys it. He sits or lays on it and just floats around. 

We've recently been experiencing "Swimmer's Itch" so I unfortunately think swimming will be out for the rest of the sumner. Boo!

With all the swimming we've been doing we wanted a healthy way to get some carbs in. This Spring Time Pasta Salad wasn't too bad for calories. And was super tasty!

Last week was a pretty good mail day. I got a bunch of supplies in that I was waiting for and a couple fun things for me! 

I started a "Wreck This Journal"! I've wanted to do one for a while so I'm so excited for this! 

So far this is one of my favorite pages! It was so hard to make myself put liquid on a book! 

This also arrived in the mail! It smells and tastes exactly what I'd think Unicorn farts would!

After opening all those packages, I also sent a bunch of packages! My shop has been keeping me busy lately. This week I've shipped out two custom orders that I was super excited about! One for a baby shower and one for a wedding! 

I also made a couple cat toys. I found a tutorial online for one. Lucy just loves his! 

The weather looks too nice to be inside looking at a screen so I've gotsta get my tan on! But wait! Before you go.... check out these giveways! They end tonight!!

This One   and This One

Mary Mary Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow?

One thing I get teased about by friends is my pale skin. I don't tan very easy. at. all. I work hard ALL summer to get a little color. This year thanks to my trip to Panama I got a good head start this year and after spending hours outside every day, I'm starting to show a tan! I haven't mentioned this much at all but I spend a lot of time outside in our garden. I don't have a green thumb and end up killing a lot of plants but this year they seem to be happy and healthy.

This is the first year we've used the greenhouse so we weren't sure how things would grow in it. 

Our tomato plants before we clipped some leaves today. They're going to make a few jars of sauce! 

Week-end Look. Butch looks like he's about ready to go. He doesn't know that we just saved him from a watchful eagle eye.

The plants were almost as high as my shoulders before we snipped them!

Some of my beautiful flowers around the yard! 

An overhead shot of half the garden. The landlords have a couple of the beds but they're not out often so we're taking care of them.

Jon's proud of all his weeding work today

The other part. We're hoping for lots of peas and zucchinis! 

Kudjo taking a break in the shade

Hopefully in a month we'll be able to start harvesting!

The Beauty In A Sunset

If you were to look on the iPhoto on my laptop you'll find the majority of my photos will fit under 1 of 3 categories; pets, jewelry, or landscape. 

Since moving to the lake a year ago I take a ridiculous amount of photos of sunsets. I can't get over how beautiful the colors are. And I love the effect it has on the lake with the reflections.

Last week we were having some thunder stormy weather. We looked out the window and saw it was causing a very colorful sunset and a double rainbow. 

As the sun was starting to set, the rainbow got darker and brighter. 

As did the setting sun over the lake. It became this gorgeous orange color.

Which eventually faded to a pretty pink shade. 

I just can't get over the beauty in it.


P.S. Have you entered this giveaway yet??

Shop Love --Bonita Bellita

One of my favorite blog features to do is Shop Love I originally started doing it as a way to get to know  shop owners and their shops. For so many people owning a shop means more to them than just selling things and making money. Perhaps it's a way to express themselves. Or maybe it's about the connection between making something and someone else loving it. I was reminded of all this during my interview with today's shop owner Stephanie from Bonita Bellita

You may remember me mentioning her shop before when I bought one of these headbands in black. Every time I wear it I get compliments on it! I love it! She has so many beautiful items in her shop!

How about you introduce yourself for the readers? My name is Stephanie, I am an artist born and raised in Southern California. I am the driving force behind Bonita Bellita. I believe that there are beautiful things in this world so I contribute to creating them and sharing that with others.

How did you come up with your shop name? The name Bonita Bellita comes from several inspirations. The first is the word "bonita" means beautiful in Spanish. I grew up speaking English but I have strong Mexican-American roots, and I couldn't deny putting those in my shop name. The second word is "bellita" means little beauty in Latin. It's also an homage to my daughter Isabella. Lastly, the fact that the words are both "b" words pays respect to my mother, Bea. She has always been supportive of me. I want my label to have heritage of love.

What kind of items do you sell? Your favorite thing to make in your shop? I love to make wreaths in my shop, there is something so romantic about the ruffling chiffon, so soft and flowing. I also love making jewelry that is glamorous but unique. These are two of my favorite pieces.

Bermuda Blue Pear Jewel Earrings

Bee Earrings

Any advice for people thinking of opening one? I would tell them to follow that adventure. It's not always easy but it is always worth it. To know that someone out there wants your work, your creations... it's an honor to make beautiful things and share them that way.

Thank-you Stephanie for taking the time to talk to us today! She has offered to give away a pair sapphire blue jewel earrings to one of my readers! Aren't they gorgeous! It'll run till Thursday July 26th at midnight EST. It is open to international entries! Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pssst!! Want to enter to win something else from her shop? Head here!

What A Date!

Hi! I'm Jon, Carissa's husband. I've hijacked her blog for a few minutes while she's feeling under the weather. Hope you enjoy my post! 

For a while now I have been planing a date for Carissa and I to do together. Just the other day we finally had a chance to go out for it. This date had three simple rules and requires both partners to know a lot about each other. 

Here are the rules

First thing to do is head out to the mall. We went to the one in the city and picked separate ends of the mall. We had to text each other when ever one of us wanted to head over to the other side and arrange it so we would not accidentally see what the other was carrying. When we were finished getting our first 2 items we took turns heading over to the food court and picked out the meals. I finished first and got Carissa some Chinese food then sat at the back of the food court with my back to the vendors. Carissa then was able to come and get my meal. She got me 2 greek wraps one chicken and one beef. We shared both meals together and exchanged the gifts we had found for each other. It turns out we both didn't spend all our money! We had some to spare. 

Carissa got me Zelda for the wii as item #1 and the dutch blitz for item #2.

 I got Carissa a water colour paint set and watercolor markers for her item #1. And tri-omonos for item #2. It was a lot of fun exchanging our gift and seeing what the other person had for ideas.

When we got home we spent a lot of time playing our new games together and to date Carissa has beaten me at dutch blitz more times than I can count. That girl can move fast. 

The best part about this date is that it forces you to think outside of the box and find practical and affordable things that both people can enjoy together. We want to do this date again but change the elements a little bit. Next time we'll go to a different store and try decreasing the amount. 

Life According To Instagram

I had grand aspirations to write some real posts this week and not just fillers but I'm under the weather right now. I don't mind if the husband shares but I'd rather he didn't share his sicknesses :) So today's post is instagram photos.

We had a family BBQ to attend so I decided to wear some cute shoes. I bought these last year and am only wearing them for the first time! 

The husband is really good at knowing when I need extra pick-me ups. He surprised me with these the other day when he came come from work. Definitely made my night! 

Kudjo's girlfriend gave him a frisbee. Frisbees are one of his favorite toys! He does whatever he has to to make the catch. 

We went to the city on the weekend and bought a treadmill! I wore those cute shoes which gave me blisters only a couple stores in. The treadmill box didn't fit in the trunk all that well so while Jon went back into the store to buy bungie straps, I took self portraits in the car. 

Summer weather so far has been sadly lacking but we've recently been enjoying a heatwave. No complaints here! The dogs and I have been going swimming every afternoon, and sometimes again when Jon gets home from work.