Daily Craft - Fun with washi tape

Not sure if you've heard of washi tape, but it seems to have exploded out of nowhere.  For a little while I've been wondering about it and when I saw some in the clearance section at Target, I had to buy it.  (Does anybody else cruise the end caps for random clearance items that you didn't know you needed, or is that just me?)

Last weekend, I had a vow renewal to attend for some good friends of ours and, in that I did forget to buy them a card at Target, I decided to play with the newly acquired washi tape and make my own.  I embellished "Congrats" using some stickers (also from Target).  The heart was made using a trick I'd spotted online - to cover a piece of paper the necessary size with the tape, then cut out the shape.  I also added some tape to the envelope to tie both pieces together.  I think it's simple, but cute!

The other card I made is for a friend's baby shower.  I used the washi tape as a background for the 3D stickers, then hand wrote the "congratulations" message.  I'll admit that hand-writing makes me nervous as, while I do have good cursive, it can be too easy to be critical of how the end result looks.  An alternative would be to print or stamp the message, but that's for next time! 

My favorite thing about washi tape has to be that it's completely re-positionable so, if you mess up, you can pull it off and start again.  There are so many cute tape designs out there and I can see how many potential uses it has.  Really, you could put this stuff on just about anything! 

Have you tried it?  I would love to know your favorite uses if you have.

Daily Ramblings - Happy Anniversary my love!

Three years ago today, I married my best friend.  There's so much I could gush about, but I'll keep it short and sweet. 

Brian - thank you for being my partner in crime.  I love you for being as silly as I am, for making me strive to be better, for your support and loyalty.  It's a little disturbing when you know what I'm thinking before I've even finished the thought, and I wonder how you got in my brain (but I know I poke around in yours sometimes - so there!)  I'm looking forward to the many wonderful things that we have ahead and I'm proud that you'll be by my side.  I love you always!

Daily Travels - CA to AZ and back again

This weekend, I enjoyed a long weekend away in Arizona visiting friends and attending a wedding.  Husband and I have a couple different sets of friends out there so figured it was a great excuse for a road trip to visit!

We left for Phoenix on Friday morning, drove through 300+ miles of "scenery" (that basically looks like this picture the entire time), and a brisk 7 hours later, we arrived in the armpit of hell.  You know there's something unhealthy going on when the weather goes up a degree every 10 miles you get further into Arizona!  Sure enough, it was about 109 degrees when we finally arrived at our friend's house and not a half hour later it was time to hop in the pool.  It's pretty strange to get in a pool that's nearly 90 degrees and have it feel cold because it's just that much cooler than the air.  Anyway, enough about the weather...

Saturday we spent more time in the pool where I worked nicely on my tan and tried to teach my friend's 1 year old daughter to swim.  I also discovered that there's a talent to being able to stand on top of a water noodle while drinking a beer!  It's really easy to spend hours in the pool just floating around while attempting to avoid the heat blazing down from above.  (Sorry, talking about the weather again).  The wedding itself was on Sunday, where we all got nice and dressed up then headed out for a night of good times with some of our best friends.

It's amazing how refreshing a weekend away doing nothing in particular can be.  I'm thrilled we had the opportunity to spend times with friends who are close to our hearts but not so close in distance.  Thanks to them for allowing us to invade their home (and pool!)  As you can tell, I may not exactly be in love with Phoenix -- yes, yes, on account of the weather and, of course, the lack of grass -- but I'm hoping we can find another time to visit our friends again sometime soon.  That quality time makes it all worth it.