It's been a while.........

hello,

it's been a while since my last post and before I get ready to celebrate the new year with my family, I wanted to write a few words..... so here goes.

2008 has been a year I will always remember. it's brought many changes to my life and the lives of my immediate family. Challenging changes with trails and tribulations. New friendships, New memories!

I am so ready for 2009! I am excited for the new year to arrive.

My new job starts in early Jan so that will definitely keep me busier then I am now.

I have been back and forth since we got our new home in Wheaton. Moving boxes, organizing, planning, a bit of mishapps with the new home (totally unexpected) and just stuff I have to deal with with our big move from MO. 12 years of stuff that does not fit in the new home. I guess we downsized? NOW I am realizing it. Donate, donate, donate and maybe when the weather get's better a big garage sale!

I have been blessed to have friends that have offered their free time to help me with all my boxes. HUBBY says he only has 4 boxes out of the hundred or more that we started with.

I can go on and on, but will stop here on the move issue.

I am BLESSED to be back where it all started. I count my blessings ever day doesn't matter if it's tooo big or tooo small - it's still a blessing. I have learned that I am strong and that I can make it even through the hardest of happenings. We just need to get up and dust off and keep on going. Next time I fall can someone please remind me of this post. I am just a human being trying to live my life and let live. Trying to enjoy every bit of it because you never know when it will be the last. Okay no more gloom and doom......

I wish you the best that 2009 can bring to you and yours. May it be a blessed year and may 2009 bring you many new happy memories with the ones you love!

A toast to YOU!

Just ME

Angelica Torrez

Christmas is here!

It's finally here.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Many blessings to YOU in the new year!

sneak peak

hello! I hope you are all warm and cozy tonight. here in IL we are under a storm warning till tomorrow at 6:oo p.m. and yes I am in the process of moving into my new home. the movers never came today because of all the snow we have had, but they are so nice that they are going to try to come tomorrow. so you know what I will be doing on Christmas eve.

here is a little peak into my kitchen. the stuff pictured is some goodies I had at the apartment that I took on over to to keep me busy today. this is where it will all be sorted out: keep or maybe it's time to be donated.

I think I am going to really dig our new place. I feel really great about it and even my older son said that he felt peaceful. I hope so because I plan on staying in this home till the end if GOD permits.

well just wanted to share a few pics I took tonight.

Have a great CHRISTMAS!

Feliz Navidad

we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy NEW YEAR!

Yes it's been a winter wonderland here in IL for the last couple of days. Okay ya'll even though I was born and raised in the south side of Chicago and left to live in MO for 12 years doesn't mean that I enjoy winter storms. It's pretty to look at, but I don't like being snowed in. I AM AN ANTSY PERSON. I am a free spirit. I need to get in my car and take a drive and not worry about ice or snow on the streets. My husband calls me the forest free spirit fairy. I know he is a bit kookie himself, but to be honest I am a free spirit and don't like to be confined. So right now I am aching to get out of this apartment. There are boxes all over the place waiting for the move. Hopefully it will not snow on Tuesday since our boxes/furniture from MO are coming. Thank the lord, I believe tomorrow will be sunny and NO SNOW YAYAYAYAY!!!!!!

I know I will probably be up early and ready for the weekend to be over so that Tuesday will be closer.

Just a bit antsy I tell you. Don't know how much I will be on my blog next week, but I am wishing you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS, HOLIDAY whatever you celebrate. I wish you much happiness with your family, friends and loved ones. May it be the best for you. I wish this for you from the bottom of my heart!

Peace to you,

just ME

German ornaments

simple things make me smile. here is a white bowl filled with these German ornaments I bought in MO. love them more because of their vintage distressed look!

Green + Red =

when I was in MO two weekends ago, I brought back with me some holly stems from my back yard. I can't believe that they are still looking great.

I told my hubby that once we get settled in, we will have to plant this again in our yard.

seam binding

I don't know about you, but I love rayon seam binding. I have been lucky enough to find rolls of it at the flea or at the thrift store. You can dye it, stamp on it, wet it and crush it and let it dry that way. It looks real pretty once it has dried up. I taught a class a while ago at Red Lead in St. Louis on how to dye different things (paper, ribbon). My favorite was seam binding. It came out beautifully. You should try it. I would start off with seam binding that has a lighter color/tone.

If you have not used this ribbon before you should. You will love it as well.

hope you are all doing wonderful.

I did nothing but wash and pack.

sounds boring hugh?

it's okay. I woke up this morning to the left overs of an ice storm that hit us last night. I knew I would have to get out early to scrape the ice off of my windshield before the kiddies went to school. not fun and heck yeah it was cold outside.

the only thing that saved the day was that the sun was shinning brightly.

so here is the result of a picture I took earlier. I hope tomorrow will be a little bit brighter.

Oh P.S. go check out Eddie Ross' link on the right side of my blog. He posted pics of his decorated Christmas tree. Adorable I tell ya! Eddie is a very talented individual. If you watched TOP DESIGN (on Bravo) he was one of the designers on the show.

okay y'all...I will leave you now. gotta go pack up some more boxes for our big move next week. I am getting really antsy. I need to be patient......but I don't want to be patient.

have a great week!

Just ME

Where I will be creating

I wanted to share with you my new future personal space. This will be my very own creative area.

YES all mine!

Why are you so happy you ask?

Well out of all the homes that we saw, before we made our final choice, this was the only house that had space for my art supplies.

Many of the homes in this area do not have basements. Also if there was to be an empty room that would have to be my husbands as he needs a room for an office.

We picked the house that fit's all of us as a family and as individuals.

I will have to share this room with the washing machine/dryer/storage area, but that's okay.

As long as I don't have to get rid of my rubber stamps, I am okay with sharing my room.

So stay tuned. I can't wait to get my hands on this space and turn it into my own personal haven.

LINCOLN PARK zoo plant conservatory

last weekend my hubby took me to the plant conservatory at Lincoln Park. It is so wonderful in there. Peaceful and beautiful I tell ya. They had all these cute little homes all decorated for Christmas and different poinsettias all over the place.

they also had a train sets in a few areas. my boys enjoyed that part the most.

It's a wonderful place to visit. Not that big, but well worth it to visit.

Skin Abrasions

my brother is such a great artist. I recently went to visit him at his tattoo shop in Oak Park. He has his artwork all over the place. My cousin thinks that I am a bit crazy, but to tell you the truth my brother has me beat.

he is so talented that I am a bit jealous.

Taking advantage

since the sun was out today, I took full advantage. I did not go out other then to take my boys to school. so while washing and doing other chores, I decided to take full advantage and practice taking pics.

I have always had a passion for photography. once I start working my goal is to get me a nicer camera. I believe I want to stick with Canon. I still own my ole Pentax K-1000 & maybe I should whip that out and start using it again.

I love using the sun light in my son's room. can't wait to see what kind of light I will be getting when we move into our new place. Looking forward to that.

so here are a few of the pics I took today while watching TOP CHEF on BRAVO.

more holiday fun stuff

here is more holiday fun stuff. to be honest, I don't have a tree up and will not have a tree up this year as it is in storage. we probably will not move into our new place until after Christmas. We officially recieve the house on the 23rd, but that really does not give me enough time at all to decorate.

I am looking forward to doing that next year.

This house will hopefully be mine till the end. I don't plan on moving again. NEVER SAY NEVER right? Well that is my plan.

getting ready

well I was organizing my little cupbard to see what I am in need of for my holiday baking.

I think I have enough sprinkles to last me a life time. I plan on making cupcakes and maybe a batch of shortbread cookies.

One day my plan is to learn how to make some sort of candy. When I worked at the Farm, in St. Louis, we had a co-worker that always brought in tons of different candy for the holidays. She spoiled us and she was really great at making some neat holiday candy.

Another fun thing I like to make is chocolate covered pretzels. Yummie. Last year I made some with white and regular chocolate. I believe last year I added mint pieces to the chocolate and they came out good.

So will you be baking?

some fun stuff

yes here are more of my favs that I brought back with me this past weekend.

The egg ornament I bought at the antique mall while I was there this past week. it has a 3d scene inside and I am planning on giving it to my mom. it just reminds me of her.

The other pics I took are of Christmas thingies I have collected. The two pics below that contain the vintage pics are paper ornaments I made last year. I really love the glitter card board frames that I am not able to find this year. I need to make more as they were fun and easy to make. If packed right they hold up pretty well for years to come.

Fun with the BOYS

Today my hubby and I took our two boys to downtown Chicago to have some family fun.

Ya'll it was cold outside..... just a tad I tell ya.

We took them to see the enormous tree that I believe is at the Daley plaza... don't quote me though. It's by State Street. They had vendors selling food, drinks and also Christmas decorations from different countries. Of course, they got to take a picture with non other then Rudolph. They were a bit embarrassed. I guess they are growing up. We then made our way to the Rock N Roll McDs to get out of the cold.

We got to go to the plant conservatory at Lincoln park zoo as well and I will post pictures soon. It was really awesome in there. Even though the weather was not cooperating, we still had a nice time together and for that I am blessed.

Yes, I agree with Patti. We had some wonderful snow falling yesterday. Not sure how many inches, but it looked really pretty. So I took the day to just stay in and relax for a while.

I brought back with me some of my favorite ornaments that I started collecting last year.

The antique mall I visited in MO on Friday had tons of these beauties.

I really enjoy how they show their time by the worn out colors and patina. They are so delicate. I kept them packed in a shoe box with tons of tissue.

Again here is one of the pictures I purchased. 1920s I believe.

You know I just thought of something. I believe the Kane county flea is on this weekend. I really need to stay away though.

I hope you are having a relaxing weekend. It's Sunday here now around 6:40 a.m. I am looking out my window and it's starting to show a bit of daylight. I was telling Patti that this is the most snow I have seen in 12 years. MO did get snow, but never this much in a short time span.

Okay, I am off to visit some of my favorite blogs for some inspiring eye candy.


Peace to you.

just ME!

H E L L OOOOOOOOOO!

We are back and we survived the move. to be honest it was a bit overwhelming once you start pulling stuff out to get packed. Did I really have all this stuff??????? Yikes! Definitely will need to down size once I move into our new home. My friend JLO already has first dibs, but if there is something interesting that needs a new home I will definitely post it on my blog.

We did make it though and we are back to the start.

A chapter of our life closed. It really needed to be. I fill more at peace now.

We did make an offer on a house on Friday evening before we left. They accepted! YAY! The house is close to downtown/main street Wheaton.

Hopefully, if all goes well we should be moving in on the 24Th of December. YES, Christmas eve!

Okay enough of my happenings....

Yesterday when the movers were packing up the truck, I drove really fast to my old favorite antique mall on highway 94 in MO. They had some great stuff. I bought this wonderful picture of this young lady, a few Christmas post cards, misc. vintage Christmas picks and pins, plus some other things that I did not take pictures of. (I will try to soon). I love this mall and when I lived in MO I used to frequent it at least once a week if I could. I promised the lady that I would return. Maybe sometime in Spring.

Okay well gotta run. I want to go sit at the table and look through some of my goodies I brought back with me. not sure if I will decorate this Christmas as much as I would like to, but believe me next year my new Little home will be!