Showing posts with label About Me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label About Me. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Welcome to the Whole NEW Asylum!

We have been very busy here at the Asylum lately:  cooking, crafting, cleaning... You know, the usual crazy stuff.  At the same time I have been helping out a lot at my husband's wildly successful law firm.  We have spent many a Friday evening followed by Saturday mornings getting legal stuff done.  All that business has kept me away from my blog for too long!  I have folders full of photos on my computer that are full of fun projects and adventures to share with you! 

I am so excited to reveal the new look here at Greetings From the Asylum!  I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!  Everything you see here was designed by the completely talented designer who designed my husband's website HERE.  She did some AMAZING work on the straight jacket don't you agree?  :)  Email me if you would like her contact information!  You too could have a stunning new look!  I cannot decide which I like better:

With a fancy frame

Simple clean lines
What do you think?

Here are some random shots from my life the last few weeks:

This pumpkin makes me SOOO happy!

Here is a peek at my Thanksgiving decor!

A pomegranate from Besh ba Gowah

You are getting sleeeeeepy............Happy Birthday to my guy!

Our office..

I met Bev from Flamingo Toes!!!  HOORAY!  I'll tell you all about this in a few days!
This little guy lives outside of our office!  CUUUUTE!

I have so much to say about a plethora of topics.  I just have to find the time to sit down and start saying them.

I would love it if you would become a follower of this blog.  Just click the sidebar!  Also, you can follow me HERE on Pinterest, or HERE on Facebook.  Make sure you add Greetings From the Asylum to your news feed so you see all of the latest news and updates from the Asylum!

Thanks for visiting!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

I'm Baaaaack! (Kinda)

Whew!  We have been so busy lately getting the business up and running. I have lost 15 pounds on the "Harrison Law Diet."  I realize that it is time to go pick up my son from Kindergarten and I have been so busy that I have missed lunch completely.

In more somber news, my father passed away on Labor Day.  It was unexpected but not surprising.  He'd been in and out of the hospital several times in August, and it was just his time to go "home."  His services were very nice and now my son thinks that every funeral includes a bagpiper.  :)

Here is some happy news...My husband's website is up and running.  Click HERE or on the logo below for a look.  Tell me what you think...(but I LOVE it)!  Our graphic designer did a wonderful job!  I especially love our logo!

It is awesome, right?  I absolutely LOVE how the two "R's" are turned into the scales of justice.  COMPLETELY COOL!

Have no fear.  I am still making yo-yos, I am still cooking, and I am still working on crafts.  I hope to soon have some time blog about it all.

Have a great day!


Monday, July 25, 2011

Blogger M.I.A.

Hey!  I am so sorry that I have been keeping all of you from my crazy blogginess.  My life has gotten EXTRA crazy of late. 

Here is the great news why...

My husband is in the process of opening his own law firm!  Hooray!  (Can you hear the cheering?)   Everything that goes into that has kept me on my toes, on the Internet, and on the phone! 

I have been doing small projects and making fun (read that easy) recipes; the photos are waiting patiently on my computer for me to tend to them, but I simply run out of steam once my kids are in bed. 

SOOO...If you live in Arizona or Utah, keep Harrison Law, PLLC in mind for all of your legal needs!  :)

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Lovely Blog Award! Who, Me?

I checked my comments a few mornings ago to find that Lesley from Life of the Cocktail Party had given me a Lovely Blog Award!  Wow!  Fun!


To accept this award I am required to tell you all seven things about myself that no one knows.  I have been wracking my brain trying to decide what to say.  I'm still not sure what I can say, but here goes...

1.  I grew up in a house that was next-door to the house in which my father grew up.  My grandmother lived there until I was 10.  Then she moved a few miles away.  I grew up in the Phoenix/Metro area without air conditioning!  Yup, no a/c!  We had an evaporative cooler, but during the summer monsoon it was little to no help.  My husband teases me that I married him just to get air conditioning, but my parents had a/c installed in their house during the winter before we got married.  I was never living in the house when it was functional!

2.  I have played several instruments throughout my life.  I played the piano first, the alto saxophone in elementary school, the oboe in junior high, singing in the choir in high school, and the cello in college.  I was even a councilor at band camp for two summers.  It was pretty fun!

3.  I was on the pom line in high school.  I managed to get some kind of injury every week.  I was hit in the head with something from the stands one week.  (Scalps bleed a lot.)  Another week I fell getting onto the bus after an away game.  (Shins bleed a lot.)  Then there was the dislocated thumb after the jump splits.  (Twenty years later and it still looks funny.)  Fortunately for me, our sponsor was the school nurse.  (She really was!)

4.  I participated in musical theater productions in college.  During one performance of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (with my future husband in the audience) I suffered a PG wardrobe malfunction during the "Spring Dance" scene.  After a quick change of costumes, my zipper got stuck and refused to go either up or down.  My dresser found a giant safety pin to secure the top of the dress and my partner and I went out to do the dance.  The stage manager even tried to tape the hole closed in the middle of the dance.  You could feel the tension in the audience building as the dance progressed, but we got the biggest round of applause when the dance finally ended.  (I still wish I had thought to throw some of the set decoration straw in my hair and into the hair of my partner to "explain" our tardiness.  That would have been funny.) 

5.  I was born on my uncle's birthday, and when I was pregnant with my son, he was due on my birthday too.  He was born 11 days early so our birthdays are not the same!  One of my church friends was due on that day too.  Her son was one day late so our boys' birthdays are 12 days apart.  Then the next time we were pregnant, we were due 5 days apart.  We totally didn't plan that!

6.  I have my own candy business called "Sugarthumbs."  I LOVE to make candy, but I never want to eat it after I have put so much work into making it.  I guess that is probably a good thing.  I have filled orders for major holidays and for special occasions such as birthday parties and business celebrations. 

7.  The man that was my sixth grade teacher was later my principal years later after I became a teacher.  The gal that was my fifth grade teacher was in all of the classes for my Master's Degree.  She seemed a little surprised when she walked into class on the first day to find me sitting there.  We had a great time!


I am presenting a "Lovely Blog Award" to the following completely wonderful blogs:








Stop by and check them out!

I am linking this up to  Alphabe-Thursday!  Come and check out all of the fun.  Use the button below!

Jenny Matlock

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Happy Fourth of July!

HAVE A WONDERFUL 4th of JULY!

At my house we'll be doing a little bit of this:

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 Some of this:



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 We'll be listening to this:

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And of course we'll be watching these:

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But---We'll also be celebrating my daughter's third birthday!  She came into the world with a BANG on the 4th of July in 2008!  This year for her birthday she wants these:



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  She is SURE that she will get one of these (in pink of course):

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Shhh...she is!  ;)

I'll tell you all about it on Tuesday! 

Have a wonderful 4th of July!  Happy Birthday America!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

All Buttoned Up!

Years ago my husband and I were visiting my grandfather one evening.  We had dinner with him and his friend Bob at their retirement community dining room.  After dinner we went back to his apartment to chat.  At some point during the visit, my grandfather went to his drawer and brought out my grandmother's button box.  Her buttons were in a beautiful old-fashioned tin decorated with Scandinavian imagery.  Bob left and returned soon after to bring me his wife, Audrey's button box as well.  She had passed away some years before.  Wow!  I had been given not one, but two beautiful pieces of history!

I have looked through the boxes many times over the years.  The other day I got the button boxes out to share them with my daughter for the first time.  She had a wonderful time sorting, matching, and discovering all of their treasures. 

My grandmother, Barbara's, button box on the left.  Audrey's on the right.  She can hardly wait!

I love the designs on the tin, and the "Joy" on the other box is so cheery and fun.

Here we are digging into the boxes...

Open up!

Each box contains so many fun things.  Audrey's box has lots of buttons still attached to their original cards.  Awesome!  I love the six black faceted buttons on one card for 29 cents!  29 cents - imagine that!  Look closely and you can see an applique "H,"  a pair of yellow earrings with screw backs,  tiny seed pearls, and even a marble.  My favorite button is the blue button with white accents (it is around the middle on the left side of the picture).  It reminds me of Wedgewood china.  Which is your favorite? 

Here are some of the amazing finds in Audry's button box. 

Chloe had lots of fun sorting!  She was a great helper!
We had some fun with some of the buttons from my grandmother's box.  We took out some of the most unique and colorful buttons and arranged them into a sort-of spectrum pattern.  I love it!  What do you think?


Shot #1 Click to enlarge ~ It is AWESOME!
Do you see the large brass button on the left-hand side?  Come back Friday to see how I used it!

Shot #2 Click to enlarge ~ It is AWESOME!
I must admit that I had Chloe run out to get her toys to "see" our creation so that I could get these shots without her hand in them!  :)  We played together for over an hour in all of the buttons.  It was so much fun!  Go dig in your button box and see what you find!

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I am linking up to these and other great link parties.  You can find a complete list by clicking here or on my Linky Parties button on my header. 

Thanks for visiting!

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Vintage Thingie Thursday



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Thursday, May 19, 2011

Happy Mother's Day - Now Get to Work!

For Mother's Day I received this:

My children were so proud of their cards, and I LOVE them!

I also received this:



Aaaand something like this:


Oooooo!  Aaaahhh!  :)

Now, before there is any outrage, I really wanted these things.  My husband is a sweet flowers kind of guy.  I love that, but right now I just can't spend money on something that will be gone in a few days.  Instead, we spend our gift money on practical things that we need (or sometimes want).  That precedent was started on our first Christmas together and I asked no BEGGED for a paper shredder.  It was not a romantic gift, not even close, but it was AWESOME!  I was tired of shredding everything by hand.  Every time I used that shredder and now its replacement, I think of that first Christmas.  Just like I think of Valentine's Day when I use my stick vacuum to suck up crumbs or our anniversary when I use the garage door.  Call me crazy, but it makes the everyday things a little more special for me.

Alright, after all of that pontificating...I needed a new iron because my old one had a trick cord.  I was constantly jiggling it to make sure that it was actually heating.  I needed the freezer because of this:

*Insert horror movie scream here*
This is the inside of my freezer.  I am amazed that I could get this picture without anything falling out and skidding across the floor.  What is in there?  Is that chicken, frozen vegetables, definitely orange juice, maybe some butter, um-pork chops, what about an ice pack?  Is there an ice pack anywhere in there?  Sheesh!  What a mess!

A few years ago my freezer organization worked like a well-oiled machine.  I was in a frozen dinner group with several of my friends (that is a post for another day, but it is in the plans).  I kept things neat and tidy so that I would always know what I had and where it was.  Since the frozen dinner group ended, nature has reclaimed the interior of the freezer for its own.  Everything has been getting progressively worse and worse.  I have been putting off cleaning it out for what seems like FOREVER!  So believe me when I tell you I was super excited to get the chest freezer as a gift for Mother's Day!  That meant I could ORGANIZE (picture me saying that it an ultra-happy sing-song voice)!  :)  Click here or on the "Organize" page at the top of the page to check out some of my organizational projects. 

We picked up the freezer, this beautiful freezer, on Saturday!


Hello, lovely!  Thank you for coming to my house!

We added bike reflectors to help us not hit it in the dark.  :)  They were a BEAR to find at the store!
I threw in some things in a haphazard fashion on Sunday afternoon after I searched through the freezer on the hunt for some frozen vegetables.  The freezer came with one hanging basket, but that was simply not enough organizational storage space for my liking.

I went to Walmart on Tuesday morning and carefully perused the shelf aisle.  I got a few of these and one or two of those and came home with a pile of various shelves and bins for use in the freezer.  (I got A TON of stuff.  I have no idea how I thought I could use them all inside this freezer, but I did.)

I first tackled the inside freezer.  Surprisingly there was not that much spoiled food that needed to be thrown out.  I got rid of one pound of ground beef that was freezer burned, two pork chops dated from 2007, and a Frosty Bear ice pack that had a hole in it.  Considering the above jumble I was pretty amazed!  I used two small shelves out of my pile from the store on the inside freezer.  I originally thought that I would have to go back and buy some more (shaking head).  That was pretty silly.

Here is how the inside freezer looks now (minus some chicken breasts that we had for dinner tonight).

The top shelf is for large bags like chicken breasts.

The second shelf is for potatoes, smaller packaged meats,and that awesome bowl of chicken broth.

Fruit bars, frozen fruit, and bread can be found here.

The bottom drawer is ALL frozen vegetables.  (I knew I had some stowed away somewhere in here.)

I found the ice packs too!

After lunch I went out and tackled the chest freezer.  Here is the result:

Here is a good shot of the shelves and bins I added to the inside.

Here is the inside with the basket. 

Here is everything all neatly arranged.  The upper basket is full of lemon juice so that I can make a lot of this.

I am absolutely delighted with my gifts!  And now it will be Mother's Day every time I go reach into this freezer to pull out a Popsicle!

I had an extra shelf left over from all of this I put it on top of my laundry cabinet and got even more love out of this project!

This is a huge improvement!
Happy Mother's Day!

I would love it if you would "Like" the Greetings From the Asylum page on Facebook.  There is a button on my sidebar!

I will be linking to some great link parties! Click here or on the Linky Party page at the top of my blog for a complete list.

Jenny Matlock

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