it's been a month already???

i can't believe that it's been a month since my last post! i wish i could say it's because i have been super busy making things for my shop. but actually, i think the month flew by because we had a couple weddings and 2 camping trips.

every year we go to devil's lake state park in baraboo, wisconsin. it is our favorite thing to do, we look forward to it all year long.














this year, joe's birthday was during the trip. so i decided to decorate. i told joe that he had to leave for 40 minutes. during that time i strung the "party flags" that i cut last minute before we left. i also set up his gifts and 24 jello shots on the picnic table. i decided to make jello shots because they would be tasty and easier to transport than cupcakes.













after the "party" we went to a brewery. i had some honey beer and he had something else. i don't remember. i remember the food being better last time, but that could be because i am getting pickier with what i eat. i like my food to be fresh and REAL, not artificial. when i first met joe, i ate about 2 or 3 cosmic brownies a day. you know, the little debbie kind. but now? ew, no thanks. they taste disgusting. anyway, back on topic...












the next night we had sweet potatoes and burgers for dinner. i love sweet potatoes. they are one of my new favorite foods, along with asparagus and jalepenos. and tomatoes. i love cooking when we go camping, it's always a good time.










on wednesday we went hiking. about 2 weeks before the trip, i heard about this really neat thing called letterboxing. so i told joe that i wanted to do it. these are our stamps. i used one of my older ones (the lantern- you might remember it from last summer) and i got joe to carve his own. i am so happy with the way his turned out! it's his first block print. next weekend we might go out and hide our own letterbox, we'll see.













we did a lot of other things during our trip, but these were some of the highlights. we didn't get to go canoeing or kayaking as we had hoped, but next year we will for sure. or maybe we will during our surprise anniversary trip.

anyway, in other news- printing hasn't happened yet. i'm not pushing for any dates at the moment. there are a few changes that i have made to the whole idea, and any time i have a new idea i always hem and haw over things. i hate being so indecisive and timid about new things. oh well, at least i have a few designs ready for whenever it DOES happen. i decided that i want this whole thing to be more organized than what operation paper cut has been. so, i am working on releasing a bunch of new things at one time rather than one thing after another. you know- kind of like when your favorite store releases a new catalogue with a ton of new things at once. lately i've been painting freshly sawed pieces of wood for some of the pieces i'm working on. i will let you know when it's ready, of course. i start work in 2 hours so i am going to go paint some more until then. i might be going out of town one more time in august so we'll see what happens- i don't want to open the new shop (did i say new shop? yeah, i did) until i know that i am going to be here and able to answer emails and see what's going on...so going out of town again kind of cuts in to that plan.

anyway, i'm rambling. last night i visited a few blogs- oooh they all look so good. i found about 7 more that i've never seen before. that's one of my biggest set backs- finding new blogs to read. now i have over 100 that i read at least once every 2 weeks and i don't have bloglines or anything like that. i think i should set something like that up, hey?

until next time...