Photo: From Me To You
Well my love-hate relationship with blogging & the wedding industry has finally lead me to an official decision – I love it & miss it. I have been teetering on whether or not to start up again, I even considered starting a new, non-wedding blog, but when it came down to it, my love for wedding stationery lead me back here. I mean, I love to write and I love discovering new wedding trends, etc. but maintaining this blog is also a business decision. And everyone knows it’s a lot of work. I’m still hammering out the details on what’s next for Swatchbook Weddings so right now I’m just working on getting back into the swing of things.

It’s almost been a year since I’ve stopped blogging & doing invitations and I have no doubt let some great opportunities pass me by, but this past year has been about how to work my business into my life, not vice versa. I relaxed, spent time away from the computer, even took a trip to London!

I’ve got clearer plans for what I want to happen in my life now, and I know that molding Swatchbook back into what works for me will get me there. Thank you guys for all your support via Facebook, emails & texts, because when you’re doubting yourself, a kind word from a friend can really turn things around.

Photo by Martine Jacobsen

Well the new year is upon us, kids. I think I’m going to cut myself some slack & not post my goals for 2011. Not that I don’t have any, they are in my head & ongoing list in my notebook, but I know that most of you guys out there are like me & live each day trying to cross something off your to-do list! I only have THREE major goals this year…they are scary & huge & I’m not telling you what they are :) I hope everyone has a great time celebrating tonight – BE SAFE! – and I look forward to what you guys, and Swatchbook are going to do this year…

CHEERS!

This recipe is all across the internet right now & I might be the last person to finally try it – BUT – ohmuhlord they are the most delicious things EVER!! It’s two perfect pumpkin cakes with cream cheese frosting in the middle… AHHHH it’s SO GOOD!! This was the first time I’ve ever “chronicled” my baking & it just made me appreciate all those fab food bloggers who do it regularly! Holy cow it takes forever. SNAPS for you guys! So here you go – look, drool, MAKE! The recipe link is at the bottom…

Maybe bring these to your Thanksgiving dinner?? They’d also make yummy favors for a Fall wedding!! Here’s the recipe!

Part of my birthday weekend with my mom & big g was going up to Oak Creek Canyon/Sedona, AZ. I heard the leaves are gorgeous in the Fall…guess we went too soon! Even though the leaves hadn’t changed yet, it was so gorgeous & so refreshing to see bright green trees and WATER! Can you believe this!? Water just flows through the ground! UNHEARD OF!! We found a great little spot where we had a picnic lunch & I snapped a few photos. Here are just a couple – can you believe this is Arizona!?

I know I’ve been a little MIA this past week, and even though I don’t have a lot of time to write right now, I thought I’d leave you with this cute picture of my little guy, Winston :)

Yeah he’s adorable! My grandma got me a basket of flowers with balloons attached and he wanted them sooooooo bad.

Back tomorrow with Tuesday Shoesday!

Sooooo, this week has been totally random. First of all, you guys know I gave up my Beetle on Tuesday. It was actually really sad!! That was my dream car & I saved up forever to be able to put a good down payment on it. But alas, I only leased it and my three years was up, so I had to say goodbye. Anywho, I was cleaning it out & opened up that middle console thing & found a packet of ranch from Wendy’s & my cheap-o fake nails from last Halloween when I was Kate Gosselin. SICK! GAH ANGELA!!! I seriously can’t remember the last time I opened that console. Well, I guess it was a YEAR ago on Halloween. I thought to myself, “How white trash does this look?!” Ranch & fake nails? You’d think one Miss Spears (although I love her) had been driving my car.

So a new car was acquired. A Jetta, which I’m actually really liking! After haggling with the Dealer for hours, I drove it off the lot & headed downtown to work. As I was driving, it got really windy and then IT STARTED HAILING!! WTF Phoenix!? Since when does it even RAIN here?! We got hit by the worst storm I have ever seen.

Oh did I mention my mom & grandma were flying in on this day? Yeeeeeeah. They had to circle around for an hour, and they almost were sent back East to land in Albuquerque. Thankfully they landed in Phoenix about five minutes before the next huge storm hit! I work on the 27th floor of a building downtown so we have a pretty good view of the Valley, but once it started raining & hailing, we couldn’t see anything more than a block away. It was insane! Our CEO actually wanted us all to leave because the building was swaying & the lights were flickering! Being from the Midwest, this totally was tornado-ish, but SO BIZARRE for Phoenix!!

Cut to last night at my sister’s house – she has those sticky glue traps in her garage to catch scorpions but somehow a big lizard got in was stuck on it!! We felt horrible & couldn’t stand the thought of it just being stuck there!! Scorpions? I don’t care. But this poor lizard! So I used my phone to Google how to get an animal off a sticky trap and wouldn’t you know, cooking oil does the trick. This lizard got a $10 bath in olive oil and took off running to freedom! HOORAY!!

…I guess this whole post deserves a “WTF?”