Inspirational Sites

Ok, so many of you have replied that you want me to continue blogging... so here you go.
These are my current list of inpsirational websites I've recently been to.

http://www.tarawhitney.com/ LOVE her style and her pix

http://www.jeremycowart.com/ DUH! He's amazing and that's that.

http://www.pauloctavious.com/ Super cool and authentic photographer. I really like how creative he is.

http://www.crumplerbags.com/ I am getting one of these... and this might be the coolest website I've been to in awhile...

Ok, and finally, a must see... http://thepioneerwoman.com Her website, sigh, is a dream come true... Oneday I too will be like her... great cook, author, awesome photographer, nice person, etc. etc. You'll see. Go there. Right now. You'll see.

More will come!

By the way, I did some photography "research" tonight... and found some SUPER cool locations in downtown minneapolis to do some neat urban stuff... so keep it in mind if you're looking for something totally different and rad!

G'nite peeps!

Days 6 & 7 of A Week in the Life of Shelly

A Week in the Life of Shelly
Day 6 : Friday


Clockin in, and headin to the bank to make the deposit.


Grab a quick, cheap coffee, and it wasn't that good, while listening to I-Tunes in car... Today it was Sheryl Crow.

Hello ladies! My co-workers today. I warned Mel... "be careful or I will blog you." HA! Seriously though, have I mentioned that I work with awesome people? Totally the best ever!

I think this tree is my enemy... full of pollen. But I love him still.

Here's where I go often for lunch... they know what I want when I call, and sometimes, even give me a discount because I'm such a regular. Also, I have two favorite waiters who work here... Chris and Ty. I think they're roommates, too. Anyway, I like going to this place and the people who work there.

Today I had a side salad and some of a grilled cheese. It was pretty tasty.

On my lunch break I visited this awesome blog... http://thepioneerwoman.com/. It was here I discovered a recipe for Pasta Carbonera from Pastor Ryan. I think I might make it sometime this weekend, because it sounds and looks awesome!

Here's my lovely Kirsten. I sometimes like to call her my "slave" at work because she does everything I don't have time to do. I like her a great deal.

This lady has a heart of pure gold. Seriously. She's one of the original employees of our store, and the world is a better place because she's in it.

Mel trying to elude the blog... but look at this, I got her! And I am blogging her right now!

Here's another really nice lady! She's my regular mania hostess!

So, there are no more pictures from day 6 because I went home after this from work and when I walked in the door had the worst allergy attack I've ever had. I had to use Wesley's nebulizer and took two benedryl and immediately went to bed. Allergies suck. Have I mentioned that? They are really, really doing a number on me. I wasn't even able to blog last night! My world was coming to an end! Thus why these two days are combined...

Day 7

A week in the life of Shelly...

First things first... this one I like to call "my starbucks." It's on the corner of 75th and Lyndale... about 4 blocks from my house. They know me there, and know what I like to drink. Usually they have it ready for me before I even pay. LOVE IT!

Any guesses? First person to email me what I ordered today I will send a $5 Starbucks card. :)

At work I saw Maia, and she showed me her new I-Phone. I admit, I have I-phone envy... someday maybe my Sprint store will carry them and then I'll buy one. For now though, my little HTC Hero is working out quite nicely... and it's major "google-ific!" I love it!

And, Beck and I worked together today and got to have a little visit from Ang! That was sure nice!

I don't think I'm supposed to say this, but this is my favorite customer. Charlotte comes in at least once a week to scrap in the back workroom. I have learned a great deal from her, just by observing her life. She is the greatest example of faithfulness I have ever seen. It's people like her that make the world a better place for me every single day.

At this time, I left work because of another allergic reaction to air, I think. I immediately went to my favorite Urgent Care facility, because it was that bad, and I met a handsome, single, doctor. Ang, Beck, and Sondra, I asked if he'd be willing to be set up on a blind date with ya'll and he said he'd think about it. :) He prescribed what he called "magical" meds that he promised would immediately make me feel better. So, I immediately drove to Target pharmecy to pick up these magical meds. I'm crossing my fingers they work.

Here's what my eyeballs looked like when I got home... not so hot.

I did feel better when I got to the back yard and found these lovely people. OH how they make my heart sing!

At Target, they gave me these... I immediately took them and then went to my room like a good girl. OH, and I "borrowed" this add from the Urgent Care waiting room for my "inspirational wall." Someday I'll blog about the wall... later. But this is important to me b/c it's Annie Leibovitz-World famous, amazing photographer. Actually, there aren't words to describe her ability to capture people. I noticed in the pic that she's shooting with the same camera I do, and that makes me feel like anything's possible, folks. I've got the whole world at my fingertips. Expect great things. I feel like I've only used a small sliver of what I'm capable of! I'm really, really excited.

In my room, while waiting for the allergy meds to kick in, I decided to watch this movie.... I paused it about halfway to cook dinner, so I'll let you know what I think at the end. Here's the essential things I needed while watching the movie... kleenex, remotes, and of course, Samoas. Thanks Maddie and Tay, my favorite girl scouts! There goes my "no carb" diet.

Remember yesterday, me talking about Pastor Ryan's recipe? Well here it is on my plate. Brian said I could make this meal once a week and that would be fine with him. Also, note: it's NOT low carb. Tomorrow's going to be a purge the carb day I guess.

Here's the happy family, eating the carbs. I think this picture of Owen is amazing... don't know why, but I do.

Oh, and during dinner we had this creature visit our yard! Hello, we live on the corner of 494 and 35W! Does this bird not know this is NOT really an animal haven? I hope he's OK right now because he was headed right toward the exit ramp. Funny stuff.

And that, finally, is the end of a week in my life. I had a good time remembering each day... and I think I'm on an amazing journey towards... more of me. It's good. Real good.

I hope you are on an amazing journey, too. I really think, if we look hard enough, that each day is full of many, many treasures and moments that are very teachable and valuable. I love this about life, don't you?

Thanks for listening, friends.

Day 5 Peeps

A week in the life of Shelly, day 5... here we go.

Me and the little guys on our way this a.m. bright and early...



Kirsten letting me know I looked terrible, and then took my picture to prove it. After I dropped the boys off I must have gotten pollen in my eye... had a full out allergic reaction. Took allergy meds, eye drops and a benedryl upon arriving at Archiver's... it was not pretty friends. Not pretty at all.

Still managed to get the day rolling depsite extreme sniffles and pain... as I write this my vision is still blurred.

This helped a little... can you guess? Americano with cream and cinnamon powder.

I had to hang these up this AM... buy $15 worth of Hero Arts product and get an idea book for free! Started today and goes until supplies last. I sound like a commercial.

I worked with these lovelies today. I was never so thankful to see Sian... it allowed me to leave early and take more allergy medicine...

I had this for lunch... well, some of it. I'm not gonna lie, it was terrible. I ate about 4 good bites and threw the rest.

This nice lady stopped by. I heart her. A great deal.

I made this layout today for the new KI Zoo line. I like how it turned out!

I had leftovers for dinner, the kids had mac n cheese, and Brian... well he had bacon flavored spam, friends. He tried to get me to try it but I didn't fall for it. GROSS!!

Here's me saying goodnight to the two squirrels. Notice the still-red eyes... I'm never going to get over these allergies!!!

We watched a little TV tonight... Brian's favorite shows... Survivor and CSI. Go Russell!

And, I did laundry. Earth-shattering stuff friends, but it is still my life, and I still love it!

OH, and the best part of all, my friend Beckie sent me this link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LacC2gN_M7w

Let's just say we'll be getting tickets to the midnight showing people.

Till tomorrow friends...

A Week in the Life, Day 4

Day 4... today was my "day off" from work. I sometimes have these randomly in the middle of the week because I work retail and thus, weekends. This weekend is my weekend to work, so today... was my Saturday... sort of.

This is Bella. She's our 6 mth old puppy and she was very very happy that mommy stayed home with her all day. She followed me around all day, and we had the best morning together.

I met this dear lady, Kelly, for coffee this morning. We discussed the amazing Jeremy Cowert Vision Seminar that I recently got home from in Nashville, TN. I told her all my hopes and dreams, and together we decided she should also pursue visual arts! I'm so excited for her, and I think she's maybe one of the best people in the universe.

Coffee with her is going to need to be a regular thing from now on, FYI.

I met Owen's preschool teacher, "Miss Angie" for his parent/teacher conference this morning. She's pretty much amazing, and Owen absolutely adores her. She assured me that he's more than ready for Kindergarten and said he was a JOY to have in her class!

Then I met this lovely person for lunch because he forgot to pack one. So, it was a "date!"

Today I took some time to think... journal, read, journal more. I discovered that God is in the business of changing the way we think. I like it, because a lot about how I think has been challenged lately. So, it was confirmation that what I'm going through is good.

Change is good... repeat after me, change is good...

Because of too many other things last night, I wasn't able to watch "Glee" when it was on... so today I took some day off time to catch up! SO stinking good!

When that was over, I took a nap, but didn't take a picture because I was sleeping.

After I made dinner for the family, I worked on Brady's invitations to Confirmation next week. He and I decided on a navy and orange themed invite! They're cute, yet still manly enough for a teenager to not feel weird about! Going to mail them in the AM.

I dropped Brady off here, at the "mega-church" as we like to call it, for Weds. night youth programming. He just informed me that he's looking forward to going to the "high school" aged group this summer! That struck me... my baby's going to be in High School! YIKES!

While Brady was at church, I went to Cracker Barrel with my friend Kellie... it was so nice to hang out and chat. We always have fun conversations about life, and my favorite thing about Kellie is her compassionate heart.


And now, the end of this day has come, and I'm going to go to bed and dream of wonderful things that are yet to come. Till tomorrow...