Where have I been?!

I've missed you!  And I even see that I've gained a few new followers, despite my absence.  Welcome, guys! :)

While at the mall shopping for some red bridesmaid shoes for my brother's upcoming wedding (next week!), I stopped in a Barnes&Noble to get some iced tea at their cafe.  I decided to sit down with the tea and a magazine for a little break and I found this magazine:

It's called Artful Blogging and it's packed full of inspirational words from crafting and artist bloggers around the world.  I couldn't put it down, and even though it was $14 and my student loans are running dry, I splurged and bought it for myself.  (Who needs shoes at a wedding, anyway?)

Flipping through it some more at home made me realize just how much I've missed crafting and sharing my creations with the world these past few weeks.  I know it's only been about four weeks, but, man, it seems like forever!  Don't worry...thanks to this magazine, some Easter ideas are cooking in my head.  So, stay tuned for an exciting Easter tutorial that you'll be included in!  And maybe I'll finally have some time to finish the Peep bunting I was working on a while back and give you a tutorial review by the end of this weekend.

Since I haven't been around much lately, you might be wondering what I've been doing that could keep me away from the sewing machine for so long.  Well, I'll tell you.  In a photo montage.  I tried to do it in words, but then decided the post was too wordy, so I've gathered pictures from my iPhone over the past month that should say it all.

A lot of my time in the past month has been spent doing this:

Looking crazy. 

And making faceplates.

Okay, so my time hasn't necessarily been spent doing those things, but they are the result of spending way too much time on campus (overnight, even) to finish up my media plan for the National Student Advertising Competition, which I'll compete in on April 28 in Miami.

 I'm also going out of town next week for my brother's wedding (which I already mentioned) and I'm to be a bridesmaid.  It's a more laid back wedding, so bridesmaids are just wearing their own black dresses and red shoes.  So, of course, that meant I had to shop for a black dress and red shoes.  Normally shopping is a lot of fun, but I'll be honest.  It's kind of a hassle if you've got other things you need to be doing.  After visiting only one store (yes!), I got this dress on sale for $39:

What a good deal!  (P.S. If you're noticing the William-Sonoma bag in the background, look out for another post that's coming up soon.)

I had to make yet another late-night emergency vet visit for a pain injection for Monica's medial luxating patella a few weeks back.

And we also had five tornadoes in one day recently, and I had to spend part of the day in the bathtub.  

This is the cat, laying on a towel and being angry that she's in stuck in the bathroom with me.  I spent the rest of the day obsessively checking the weather and driving like a maniac hoping not to get hit by a tornado when I tried to make all my appointments for the day, despite catastrophic weather.

And there's something else that's kept me quite busy, too.  But you have to promise not to cry if I show you!  Okay, promise?  Here it is:

 

My poor puppy had her second knee surgery!  Pobrecito!  We're doing physical therapy now and she's doing a lot better than she was in these pictures.  Notice the miniature rice therapy pillow I made just for icing her knee. :)

To sum up, I've been monumentally swamped with things to do/take care of and probably will be until graduation, which is three weeks from now.  But, have no fear! I've still got intentions to stay in the blogging world.  And in more ways than one, perhaps! 

A lot of you probably recognize this logo:

A few months back, I started noticing this logo on all the big blogs I read, so I looked it up and found out that BlogHer Network is an organization that connects advertisers with its own network of bloggers.  Naturally, I wanted to be a part, but after looking at the guidelines for how to get on the network, it seemed like a long shot, especially since there's a wait list for some categories, even!  (You may wonder where I'm going with this.  Hang in there.)

Well, you may already know that I'm about to graduate with a B.A. in Advertising.  I specialized in media.  If you don't know, basically media planners/buyers are responsible for planning and making media buys for their clients, the advertisers. When I found out what BlogHer did, I figured, "I can do that.  It's basically what I do but on a much smaller scale."  And how exciting it would be to get to work with crafting blogs and advertising at the same time! Are you putting this together? If not, I'm going to apply for a job with BlogHer.  Wish me luck!

Well, it's been fun flipping through pictures on my iPhone and letting you guys know what's been up with me, but vacuuming and a six-page paper for my practicum await me now.  Don't forget to keep your eyes out for a few more posts.  I'm going to try to post more often again, but I can't make any promises.  Until next time, happy crafting!