 How are you all? So it's my first vlog since I got back from Las Vegas. It is Tuesday, I don't know. It's the Tuesday after I get back, so Tuesday the 11th? Um, oh boy. It was a fun vacation, but yeah, you get home and you know, life happens, right? Um, I did get some really great swap mail when I got home. Um, the rest of my swap mail from Ann and Dina. Thank you very much. I already thanked you via email and I've already put everything away. I should have done it in front of the camera probably, but I didn't. So, but everything was great. Thank you very much. I also got a piece of happy mail that again, I already put away. Um, but it was sent in this really great envelope, which I saved. Isn't like, don't you love that? It was from Jennifer. This is why I had my reading glasses on. Hold on. Let's see. Jennifer Beavers. And I already put it all away, but she sent me some really great stuff, including some in-cheese. Yay. Thank you so much. Um, I love them. Um, a bunch of stuff on my desk here. I got some other happy mail just yesterday from, it says Michelle, M-I-C-H-E-L, Chicago, Illinois. And yes, that's my dog, you know, barking at, you know, God knows what he's barking at. I don't know. Let me get something to open this envelope. I'm trying to save the envelopes now because I saw a post on Facebook this morning from, I think, Rosnelson. I think it was in Junk Journal, Junkies, where she made a junk journal out of just envelopes that people had sent her. It's a fabulous idea. It was such a great journal. So I'm going to try to do one of those because I'm constantly getting great envelopes from you all. And I don't know what to do with them. So this is the envelope for this one that just came yesterday. And I don't know what she made it out of. I'll cover up her address. But, um, a piece of scrapbook and paper, maybe? But I just love it. So let's see. Is there a note in here? I'm looking. No note. I'll see. But there is some really great stickers. Oh, yep. There's a note. Hold on. Oh, it's from Simona. Thank you, Simona. I thought that might be who it was. That name's not super common. So, thank you, Simona. So she sent me some quote words, which are great. I love you. I mean, I love the words. They don't say I love you. But I love the words very much. I'm a tad bit discombobulated and I'm going to be for a while. So you guys are going to just have to put up with me. There's a bunch of really great words and some calendar quotes. I can't go into why I'm discombobulated, but things are kind of stressful right now. There is some stuff going on that I can't talk about publicly, but with my family. So, um, just say some, you know, send some good kind thoughts out there. She made some great envelopes out of just like catalog pages. These are great. I love these. I'm going to save them to include in that journal now that I want to make. What is this? Is this another envelope? It is. Here's another one that she made. Such a great idea. Here's a calendar page and the picture on the backside is really cute. Sewing men's the and then there's a jelly print, but it seems to be a little bit stuck together. Let's see if we can unstick it. You know, I see here other artists and crafters complain kind of about some of their products in, you know, the heat and humidity. Things drying too quickly or getting sticky. You know, I'm from California, so I don't really know what that's like till you go to Las Vegas and you're journaling in Las Vegas and I gotta tell you, you know, even though I was inside of a condo and, you know, with air conditioner on, it is still so hot there that the gel medium drives so, dries so fast. Like, you just don't even know it dries so fast. Anyway, here's the, the painted paper that Simone included. I love it. Thank you so much. I came home with a bunch of, you know, different things. There is going to be a video posting on the year of my life journal slash travel journal that I always bring with me. And I'm going to be going through some of the bits and pieces I brought home and what I used in my journal and things like that. So look for that video because I talk more about the bits and pieces I brought home and why I brought them home and all that in there. But I did find two things that I wanted to look up when I got home or shout out when I got home. So in Las Vegas is this store on Las Vegas Boulevard. It's in a shopping center. No, I don't remember the name of it. Town center of all. It's called artifact. Artifact is a sort of artist cooperative store. They have different things in the store from various different local artists. And it is fabulous. So if you're in the area, I'd recommend you go. It's a wonderful place. They were really kind and nice. And they had some fabulous things. And if I had a bigger suitcase, I would have brought a lamp home because they had these cool lamps made out of old movie and film cameras. They were really cool, really, really cool. And I have a daughter who's a photographer. So yeah, can't fit in my suitcase, but they were great. They do have a website, artifactlv.com. So I definitely would recommend looking them up. The artist who makes the lamps is Eric Leans. So they were wonderful. There's also in Las Vegas and I've been there before. I thought they closed and then we found that they just relocated. And I've bought clothing from them before. The boutique is called Tatiana and they are a Betty Page inspired clothing store. And they have the most fabulous things and they're having a sale right now. So anyway, their website is tatiana.com. T-A-T-Y-A-N-A.com. Really great store. And then we were at I think Red Rock Canyon. And they had a little art exhibit and we didn't know they were having that when we went and they had this one artist who's a water colorist and I'm going to look her up on the internet. So I brought her postcard home. Her name is Susan Theal. T-H-I-E-L-E.com. She did the most fabulous watercolors of Red Rock Canyon. Oh my gosh people. So go to her website and take a look. Fabulous inspiration for our paintings and watercolor. Really, really great artist. I really was admiring her work while we were there. So I brought this card home so I could look her. Remember what her name was to look her up because you know, let's see what else. So I love Las Vegas. Obviously y'all if you follow me on social media you know that I go, we've been every year I think for three years in a row. It is not the best place for me to go with allergies and asthma between the dust and the heat and the smoke. And all of the ladies with really strong perfume I can't breathe. I use my inhaler for the first time in a long time and more than once while I was in Las Vegas. Here at home I have the same allergies. They don't go away. I just don't put myself in situations generally speaking where I'm gonna have a problem or no I'm gonna have a problem. I try to avoid those situations. Dust and pollen obviously. You know y'all know I love to go walking but especially when it's dry and hot like it is right now. I don't go walking outside. I will go instead to the gym and go on the treadmill because when I do try to go out walking outside too much I don't get very far before I start coughing and wheezing despite the fact that I'm at medication daily. So I had to still have that problem in Las Vegas mostly not from the pollen but from the dust and the sand. You know it is the desert so everything's kind of dusty. But also you have the cigarette smoke. I know here when I'm home I avoid areas where I know people are smoking. If I happen to be walking outside somewhere or you know like to my car from the grocery store and I walk by somebody smoking I actually hold my breath until I get past them because if I breathe it I start wheezing. I avoid the perfuming cosmetic departments of most stores if I can and I also have trouble sometimes in the cleaning department aisle especially if it's a store that has lots of fabric softeners, scented things, candle aisles, anything like that. Usually it will set me off and I'll start coughing so I try to get in and get out quickly. If I'm in there to buy something a cleaner for home I always buy unscented if I can and if I have to I hold my breath or I send my husband if he's with me to go or my daughter to go get it because yeah it's just not good. But when you're on vacation you can't avoid everything and when you're in some place like Las Vegas where smoking really is not banned you know in public like it is here in California you can't avoid stuff and when you're in a place like that with so many tourists you know there's women with really strong perfume and they just don't get that you know not everybody can breathe around you when you're wearing that some of us can't breathe you know and then you have all the stores that are trying to hand you free perfume samples and I'm just like oh my god and everywhere we went they were trying to hand me lotion samples or perfume samples or I'm just like oh no no thank you no I can't breathe your store makes me makes it so I can't breathe anyway so I used to love to go to bed like bed bath and beyond not bed bath and beyond sorry is it body works any of those kind of soap fancy soap and perfume stores I used to love them and I love perfume and I just I can't anymore I can't I can't breathe so that was interesting and I actually came home and ordered a new inhaler because I used up the old one so yeah um I also was cleaning and rearranging my closet when I came home um you again if you follow me on social media you know I took the tool toolbox two toolboxes out of my closet um in here in this room I had I was gonna actually go buy some shelving to put in there and my husband looked at me and said don't you remember we have shelving just like that out in the garage that we're not using I took it apart I didn't remember so that was great so I pulled the toolboxes out and put the shelving in I had other shelving that was already in there on top of the toolboxes I was able to stack them and um was able to rearrange things in there in a much more useful fashion and actually get a little more in there than was in there before and free up some floor space my easel was kind of propped up in the corner between the closet and my table and I you know I had to move it to get the drawers of the toolbox open and that was a pain now everything fits in the closet the easel and everything everything's easily accessible yay but it's also out of the way when I'm not using it yay and it cost me nothing gotta love that yeah it cost me nothing um I did go to Target and yesterday Monday Monday yeah Monday and bought some um storage bins and FYI they have some of their because it's back to school time they have some of their storage bins in multi packs so they have shoebox size and I think it was in a four or five pack for five dollars and then they had a slightly larger one in a two pack for five dollars so um that's a good deal and usually your big box stores at this time of the year will have storage things on sale so if you're in the process of reorganizing something and you need storage bins look for those kind of sales or go to the dollar store um and in the process of cleaning and doing all of that stuff I found a Altoid tin in one of my boxes of stuff this this this tin which I may save but it's full of um knitting needle tip protectors which I was like oh well I sold all the knitting needles so if any of you out there need needle protectors the tips um I have a whole box of them different sizes different kinds I don't know so if you if you know anybody out there could use these let me know I have these things too and I forget what they're for I think they're just to put on your knitting needles like to give it a grip but I don't remember it's been a while they're still like the rubber is still flexible so they're still good um anyway let me know you probably won't get the tin I'll probably just shove these in as a block bag and mail them to you but let me know email me my contact info is in the description below if you could use these I'll just send them to you free um and Cindy if you're watching this my friend Cindy Utter um I have a pile of stuff for you here that I'm going to be sending off to you we've discussed some of it already so it's here I'll get it off to you in the next day or two excuse me I'm still coughing and wheezing although I've been home since Saturday it's the 11th Tuesday the 11th um it's kind of dusty and dry in California we've had no rain so um and I'm trying to keep myself out of situations that are aggravating it I wasn't able obviously to do that while I was on vacation um um but it's difficult because you know I wanted to go hiking and between the dust and the um heat um I was coughing a lot and um it was really hot out so hiking wasn't recommended for those of us who could breathe well which wasn't me so um that was tough I don't you know it's something I'm gonna have to just get used to um but what I could see I loved and had a lot of fun I think that's it right now I've got to film another DecoArt Monday part three for the Camp Fabulous canvas series I'm gonna do that today so it will air on Monday and I did a video tape last night um some video footage on the crocheted bracelets um I don't know if I was in camera the whole time my family came home towards the end I don't know so I'm gonna have to do some creative editing and try to actually see if I can type up some written directions for you that I will try to probably post on my blog on my website on my blog page um at the same time and encourage you all if you have questions after watching the video to just you know we'll do a google hangout or something and you can ask me questions about it um I did come home with this um new um studio buddy this little frog isn't he cute I got him in the valley of the fire gift shop this little mosaic frog isn't he cute so he's sitting over here on my desk I think that's it right now I can't think of anything else it's been a stressful week I ended up going to the bank for a quick errand in it you know every time my husband says oh honey can you go take care of this uh it's always a big deal that's always complicated and difficult and there's always problems and they have nothing to do with me uh but it got it taken care of yay but yeah next time he says that I'm gonna go really why don't you just can we do it Saturday and you can you come with me because you know every time you've sent me to do this it's like an issue I have a workman's copy valuation coming up at the end of the month and then I think that's the last one I have to do I hope god cross your fingers I don't have to do anymore the paperwork was waiting for me when I got home so I had to fill that out that was stressful just you know one thing after the other after the other life right gets in the way I'll go make some more art I don't make me feel better and keep me out of the cookies maybe all right you all don't forget that all of my copyright disclaimers and information is in the description below along with my contact information so if you want to get ahold of me for any questions comments concerns or if you have a product you'd like me to review you can get ahold of me just look in the description below my email address and PO box are all down there and don't forget to go out and please like share and subscribe have a great day do something nice for yourself because you deserve it I'll see you later bye