Ann-Marie Loves Paper

I don’t know what it is about me and constantly wanting to change my blog name, but here I go again! If you are so inclined to make the jump, you can now find me (with the same content, only a new name) HERE!

Hope to see you there!

happy sunday!

Yesterday John and I drove up to SLC to check out Craft Lake City in the coolest venue with the coolest artsy people. I felt like we were back in the art department at college again. (But this time with more of a “Utah-friendly” crowd and less of a “California hippy/stoner/camp-out-in-the-letterpress-studio-for-a-week-straight-without-sleep-or-showers” group of people – Ha!)

I love being around artists (and hipsters alike) with their funky style and energy. And I LOVE that Utah is of the mindset that crafts are a legitimate art form – I have found my people! Anyways…

It was amazing! I saw so many awesome things and left feeling inspired and ready to make stuff (which is all I’ve ever wanted to do anyways!)!

I picked up three fabulous letterpressed postcards from Smart & Wiley, which I plan on framing and displaying throughout my apartment (more on that later!).

Salt Lake is truly a great city. It’s an interesting mix of modern establishments and historic buildings, surrounded by trees and mountains. I can’t help but take a million photos (or art-direct John to take the photos I think would be great – “get those two buildings together, but don’t get the wires in the background and make sure it’s got the sunlight shining through the back and hurry before the cars drive through the shot!” – he loves when I do this – NOT! hahah).

And I LOVE that the Olympics were here! Utah’s a pretty cool place after all…

Today Was the Day

…I visited every store across Utah Valley. Or so it seemed. Here is a short rundown of my happy Saturday:

Visited my good friends Mike, Joann, and new acquaintance Robert (California, you are seriously missing out on this little gem!). Purchased exactly 4 sheets of paper from Roberts for 50 percent off. Because the 5000 sheets of paper that I currently own are just not enough. Apparently.

Cute little butterfly die-cuts from Pebbles in my Pocket! And my giant hand!

Found Pebbles in My Pocket and loved it! The lady who rang me up asked what brought me to Utah and when I told her about my job, she let out a squeal of delight. See, this is exactly why moving here was 150,000% worth it. People get me and my paper addiction.

Went to Target to pick up some photos. And ended up picking up a dust pan and a pair of jeggings. Almost bought a box of oatmeal but couldn’t justify my total tab exceeding 30 dollars so I put it back. Jeggings always come before oatmeal.

Some awesome grippy tape thing, a huge bag of different laces, and an awesome Pyrex container!

Planned on going to downtown Provo, but made a quick left into the parking lot of Deseret Industries (the LDS version of Goodwill). Browsed through tons of awesome things. Saw tons of denim in every form of clothing possible (it seems as though Utahns love their denim?). Tested a few typewriters but no dice. Ended up with 3 awesome, totally unrelated things all for under 4 dollars. Which I paid for in quarters. How very thrifty of me.

Drove around a bit longer and stopped at Cafe Rio. Had a lovely, calorie-laden dinner for two con mi novio. Stared at a girl who had the short hairstyle that I long to return to. Made me want to chop off my hair right then and there.

White and fluorescent pink! What a winning combo!

Stopped by Wal-Mart at 11pm and as usual, it was PACKED. Wal-Mart is where it’s at in Utah! I even saw a few couples making out, specifically in the women’s clothing section and near the electronics. In UTAH.  I know, can you believe it? I felt like I was intruding upon something private, so I bought two cans of spray paint and a box of oatmeal. Because this time my tab would not even exceed 10 bucks. Sweet deal!

Gah, I looooove weekends.

Night of the Savages

Ah, Friday. What’s not to love?

Tonight (after my THREE hour nap, I might add – apparently full work weeks are not for the faint of heart!) John made us burritos and we are now settled in for a full night of the Savage brothers, via The Wonder Years and Boy Meets World. Bringin’ it back! I LOVE The Wonder Years and I LOVE old-school Disney channel. I am especially enjoying Topanga’s super long crimped hair and super long gaudy acrylic nails. Oh, the 90’s…

Park City all vintaged-out, thanks to Photoshop Actions 135 by night-fate.

Thanks to my awesome co-worker Lindsey (who speaks the same scrapbook dialect as me), I have acquired a slight addiction to free Photoshop actions, which has lead to copious amounts of downloading into the wee hours of the morn’. It’s a vicious cycle, I tell ya, but oh-so-gratifying when with one click of a mouse, my photo looks completely vintaged-out! It’s so cool, it has it’s own made-up terminology!

This weekend I plan on getting CRAFTY. I have to admit I was kind of worried that having a creative job might suck any extracurricular creative desires right out of me, but no! I am happy to report that it actually makes me want to create even more! (And that concludes my jinxing of said extracurricular creativity.)

Have a great last weekend of July!

Working Out the Kinks

Today I woke up early to get ready for our cable to be installed. When that didn’t go according to plan (due to the fact that our balcony is just a hair away from receiving any reception via satellite and we need written permission from the landlord to rig a dish up on the roof), I decided to get to work on organizing my spare bedroom, aka the Craft Room! I can’t believe I finally have a room to dedicate entirely to my hobby (translation: a place to unload the ridiculous amount of stuff I brought over from California!). Such a thrill, I tell you.

Here’s a little sneak:

This was before I organized it. You don’t even want to know what was behind the wall to the left. Boxes and piles and boxes and piles of lord-knows-what. Actually I do know what. Just plain crap. But now that crap has a home!

And now it is sparkly clean and organized and almost up to par! I plan on taking photos of the new and improved space this week, so stay tuned!

California Dreamin’

This morning I woke up from dreaming that I still lived in San Diego. I felt a slight twinge of sadness (oh ocean, I never thought I would miss you that much!) but then I browsed through photos from our fantastic trip to Park City yesterday. Now all is well in my world again:)

See for yourself:

Shaun White. Mmmmmm…

How cute are the bike sculptures as bike racks?

John is too tall for Park City!

I want to live here in this cozy little alleyway-turned-patio!

Dinner at Blue Iguana…yum!

It’s definitely cooler up in the mountains than it is where we live. Being able to eat outside = fantastic!

Such an amazing little town!

The drive back home led us through Provo Canyon – gorgeous!

Another great adventure in the 11 days we have lived here!

I think next weekend we might go to Wyoming – how’s that for wanderlust??

Is this a Utah thing?

The first morning after moving into my new apartment, my family was standing on my balcony marveling at the gorgeous view, as seen below:

Just another day at the apartment, with the sunshine shining and the birds chirping. Look again:

I about had a panic attack for this girl who willingly climbs onto the overhang to read and lay out! And get this…other people in this complex do it too, not just her! The other day as I was coming up the stairs, I heard paper rustling. When I looked to see where it was coming from, I saw a different girl up on our overhang just plugging away at her book.

What..????

If you are aware of reasons as to why anyone would crawl out on an apartment overhang a good 20 or so feet above the ground in a bathing suit nonetheless, please fill me in. My fear of heights kicks in overdrive when I see people lingering casually on a steep slope above concrete and passersby.

In fact, I think I need to sit down.

New Gallery Up at Elle’s Studio!

This month’s gallery at Elle’s Studio has gone live! (Actually it went live yesterday, but in true Ann-Marie fashion, I am late to the party. Or maybe I’m just waiting for Christmas. Right friends?) Here’s what I put together for the lovely month of July:

One of the best things about Elle’s Studio is that the packaging is just as pretty as the actual products! So, my butterfly punch has been getting quite a workout over the gorgeous backings, especially the teal one – LOVE!

A little bit (okay, A LOT) of American Crafts plus Elle’s Studio = a match made in journaling tag/crocheted ribbon heaven! I love how the hot pinks played off of each other quite nicely. Andddd, I LOVE the teal patterned paper from the Sweet Summer Mini Papers! I’m thinking it’s a front-runner for my favorite…

As it turns out, I am a bit obsessed with glassine envelopes – they’re the perfect size for hidden journaling, or in this case, half-hidden journaling (besides, why would I want to hide such cute journaling tags anyways?). I had so much fun making these projects, I can’t wait to show you what I have up my sleeve for next month!

In other news…

I’m feeling a bit anti-summer. It is so darn hot here. I used to love summer and think that it would be horrible when one day I would have to work right through the scorcher season. Not so much anymore. Now I am convinced that working is the perfect way to spend a summer because:

1.) I get to spend majority of the day in a most lovely air conditioned building,

2.) I go back home to my toasty apartment for lunch just long enough to thaw out a bit from aforementioned ice box and be more than ready to…

3.) Return to the most lovely air conditioned building. And not only is it cold, but it smells like paper! Newsflash: I LOVE paper.

Peachy

I am in LOVE with my job.

IN LOVE.

In fact, I am still in disbelief that this is really the life I am living!

Aside from the job being the stuff of dreams for someone who eats, sleeps, breathes paper, living in Utah is not too shabby either! Tonight John and I went for a walk to the other side of town (or so it seemed!) and the weather was cloudy and breezy and a cool 90 degrees – which normally is not my idea of a liveable temp, but compared to what it has been, it’s positively chilly! Then we came back home and John handed me a cold beer and now we are watching Gilmore Girls on the couch together. Heck yeah, Utah.

Getting Our Utah On

We made it! Finally!

Does it get anymore masculine than this??? Hahah!

After 14 hours of driving and an hour of sleep and a departure time of 3am and squeezing THREE adult-size bodies into my tiny VW bug with the spare seat jam-packed full of pillows and a TV and other random crap and my mom and dad towing the rest of my stuff on a trailer behind their truck, we are finally here in Utah and settling in quite nicely! I am in LOVE with our apartment! Comparing what we had in San Diego (1 bedroom, 1 bath) to what we have in Utah (2 bedrooms, 2 baths) and reaping a savings of $500/month in rent, I am in apartment heaven! Now if only we could turn the blazing heat down about 30 degrees…

Yesterday John and I took a spontaneous trip to Sundance, which -get this-  is only 13 miles from where we live! We can’t believe our good fortune because this place is beyond amazing and it feels like a world away (and several degrees cooler)!

Sidenote: the dandelions here are HUGE!! I don’t know what kind of juice they are on, but holy moly, they are giant (and beautiful!)!

There’s green everywhere! So gorgeous!

Another Sidenote: John pointed to the squirrels we kept seeing and said “what happened to their tails??” Us California folk are used to squirrels with big bushy tails! Which reminds me of another sidenote: while flying back to California last month, my mom and I sat next to an Australian man who told us he had just seen his first squirrel while in Idaho! Isn’t that funny what we take for granted? He sees kangaroos hopping about and we see squirrels darting across our backyards and we both find this to be completely mundane. Makes me laugh!

So far, we are loving this new adventure! The apartment is almost ready to go public, so hang in there! In the meantime, check out these sneaks from this month’s Elle’s Studio Gallery – fantastic! I can’t wait to see what everyone did! Here’s a little sample of my work:

Have a great Sunday!