I Wish

I've been thinking that a lot lately, those two little words, I wish. When I was a child, those were almost sacred words, to be used most judiciously, lest the wishes wouldn't come true. Now that I'm grown up (most of the time), I think I might want to start wishing for my desires and as many as possible.

Like, I wish we'd had these cute little cartoon graphics on sandwich baggies when I was a kid...



And I wish that every Western Gulf hurricane goes in just like Dolly...

...not that today's gonna be a walk in the park for my part of the world. Just look at that radar image, above. That's as of almost an hour ago, 5:30 a.m. See the Houston area and all the rain we are getting? It's going to be like that all day long and maybe all night. The Houston news this morning is already predicting definite street flooding for today, since Houston floods at the first sign of spit. Brownsville and Corpus are getting the hurricane, but you hide and watch, if any rain band training occurs, some areas around me will be impacted almost as badly.

There is some weird-ass "black hole" type meteorological explanation for it, but we often get pattern "grooves" like El Nino a few years back, where storm clouds travel over and then are caught up in. So, certain areas get 10x more rainfall than other areas just blocks away.



I felt the first outer bands of Dolly exactly at 3 p.m. yesterday. I was walking out the back door to go drop off some mail and a gust of wind almost pulled the door out of my hand. It was a dry very hot wind. The second I got into the car, it began to slant rain. It squalled the entire time I was travelling, and then died down the moment I pulled into the driveway. Talk about timing!

Now, as the sun is coming up, I have been up all night and am on a naturally-wired Hurricane high, even though the dang storm is going in 300 miles to my South. It never fails. I've been this way (my "hurricane high") for every storm I've lived through since my first in 1961. I'll collapse later on and sleep, no worries, but for now, I'll just be grateful that in my alert state I've decided that I want to blog, LOL.

So, I also wish I can get back into regular blogging again. It's really tough when you're out of the habit.

Hm, I wish I could continue to create like I've been recently. I'm still working on creating organization more than anything else, but I am pushing myself to do my little art like daily exercise. Sometimes I finish in a day, sometimes in 3...




The first atc with the little boy was one that Tina liked on my Flickr. Thanks for the comment, Tina! And Reba likes the Bird of Pair-a-Dice (LOL, you know how I like my puns, thank you, Reba). I made the backgrounds for all of them: 2 of them with my new crayon pastels, distress ink sponging on one, and acrylic paints on one.

As for my organizing, my little homemade Clip-It Rack is growing and filling in...



Remember the 3-ring binder spine label I made, and said I'd probably have to change it out once I found a better use for the binder? Well, haha. It happened. I just turned the label over and made a new one on the back side. Here it is:



Then, I finally found a great yahoo group to join for trading and swapping 4x6 APC's (altered post cards). That made it necessary to create a template for this new size of art, so I worked one up (got a little silly, too):





I bought one of those templates for my ATC's at European Papers, and I like it so much, I tried to replicate the idea...really helps me visualize how an image will look on smaller-sized art.

And now, since I am seeing little lightning pops and hearing the rumbling of thunder, I'll close before we get any power interrupts, with a birthday photo of the most gorgeous young woman:



I am continually amazed I gave birth to this girl. Isn't she WOW to the 20th degree? Even though summer semester college algebra here at the local junior college is currently eating her lunch. Mega-homework and killer quizzes for a subject she doesn't really like and probably won't use much in advertising as a copywriter. 57 on the first quiz, yup, that's my Missy, LOL. I'm smelling a C, hopefully. Which is fine cuz the grade doesn't count, only the credit earned, if she passes. If she doesn't, she just tries again next summer. Since her aptitude in math is plenty high, having to take it a second time should be motivation enough to pass...

HAPPY NUT N HUMPY DAY! Do The Hokey-Pokey, ya'll!

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Thanks for all the sweet comments from my blog readers!

Haven't *said* that in a while and need to *say* it more often,

even though I think it all the time.

I love them.

Ya'll keep my little engine a-going, Toot Toot!

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Congrats to my girl!
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And a little birthday card to share, for an old girlfriend of mine who's turning 57 today (no names, please!):

I abuse my near-age friends nowadays, because they are the only ones I can use my new old-fart stamps on! Here I used a mix of stamps by Urban Lily, Gina K and I Brake for Stamps :

Here's a close-up of the lady I colored in with pencils, markers, gel pens and Stickles:

And now, the punch line:

Cracks me up every time, LOLOLOL.
Edited to Add: I did have this linked to a challenge, but I can't post my link to it, so I guess I am not entered in it, and so I'm sure not gonna advertise their challenge, ya know? Fix the link, guys! {pout}

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You Likey?

Yeppers, I cut my hair again and I'm happy I did. It feels awesome. I get to the point of not being able to stand longer hair after awhile, because I always just end up wearing it up or in a ponytail (oh the shame, it's usually a scrunchie...).

Here's this week's creation for the challenge over at Bringing It Back. We were supposed to make something with the old Making Memories Details collection metal frames and doo dads:



Now, my ornery old arss got a bit huffy at the thought of having to use a certain brand and item, so I almost did not do the challenge, but I sucked it up. And along with that goes the caveat: if it's the wrong item, tough stuff. LOLOL

I have no idea what collection that any of my stuff in my embellies drawers came from, much less the brand. But the frame I used is a Making Memories and the package said 2004, so hey, it's old.

I also used an aluminum charm I had, and I colored in the dots and ribbon with some red Stickles (which proves that, yes, Stickles can be applied to metals, in case you ever need to know that). Here is a close-up of the Stickles charm:



And, some notecards I literally threw together with odds and ends that I'd looked at for forever on my desk and finally used:



Well, today's a tough one for me, so better get a crackin'. Have a good one!

Spring has sprung

Well, don't know who is off on Spring Break because I've been such a bad blog reader lately. I've been working so hard and while I read I craft and create art, such as it is, lol. It's literally boiled down to taking each day as it comes in terms of getting things done and some days it's a singular thing done and no more.

It's times like these when the cruel realization that I probably can't hold down a full time job hits me in the most sober way. I am still too scattered brained to multi-task well enough. My blessed Hubster has gotten to where he knows these times and just kicks it up a notch and picks up my slack where he can. That took 20 years, folks. So, never say never, lol. Okay, seriously, he's a sweetheart.

So, anyway, I did a couple of atc's with this week's Bringing It Back challenge in mind. We're supposed to use punchies in our creations, and I wanted to use my frog punch and a Spring theme:



Then, I needed to make my teenaged nephew a birthday card and I was not feeling the guy-card thing at all, so I opted for simplicity and using a vellum phrase and a diecut frame from my giganta-scrap stash:


Then, I got one of those wild hairs up my butt to attempt an atc with Asian mood, but without using typical Asian elements. Whatdya think, was I close at all?:


I'm currently working on some wrapped atc background bases that are alphabet soup made with my oldest KI Memories rub-ons, and I actually have used one color completely up so far. I have six more partially-used sets to go....ho hum, lol. Next time I'll show the ones I have finished.

Wearing of the Green

Hope everyone had a great day today, and nobody got pinched. I didn't. I wore my green. Here are the rest of my Irish creations before we swing into Spring and Easter.

First, some cards:
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And, some ATC's:
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I actually made somewhat of a dent in some of my supplies categories, as in, out of ten drawers of green embellies (flowers, brads, eyelets) I probably used up half of one drawer, LOL. Yeah, ok, not fast progress, but being that anyone knowledgeable about our craft would take one look at my stash and join my Hubs in asking when is my store opening..... I tried. Gotta keep on pluggin", square inch by square inch, LOL.

And, the reader who gets used to that many art candies being shown in one day, week, etc., is on the path to a letdown. Had I posted on Saturday and Sunday as was my gameplan, I would have been able to show a few a day. Which makes me realize at this moment, I could have shown some of them during this week, strung it out. Oh well, too lazy to change that now.

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I've been quite busy at my money-making chores. The tax returns around here have heated themselves up and I must attend to them. And, I got a paying job writing for a political blog. You guessed it, ghost writing again. I must be destined to never seeing my name in lights. And, it doesn't pay much, but hey, I'm doing what I enjoy.

So, that's why I haven't been talking about that subject here. I also applied to be part of the creative team at a new blog aimed at women my age and older, and I really hope I get to be a part of that.

I can tell you that I realize and am pretty accepting of the fact that Obama will be the nominee. Accepting and approving being two different things. Hubs and I both have spent a good deal of time finding our beliefs and opinions based on the circumstances, and I've really learned a lot about how I really feel and how much (or little) my so-called beliefs really fit me. (Same with Hubs).

We discovered that we are thoroughly disgusted with the Democratic party and what it has morphed into. This is based in part on what we experienced at our primary, how skewed the rules have become. It's obvious to both of us that abandoning the winner-takes-all tradition has been disastrous, as well as making policies that punitively disenfranchise voters, particularly the one state that the GOP used to disenfranchise our voters in 2000. Even the super delegates is a ridiculous manipulation. Everything is a manipulation. To the point of smothering the voice of the people through their vote. And we lay this at Howard Dean's feet. He is an awful chairman. We should have known, too, because he was such a divider back in 2004, a fringe sitter who got his 15 minutes.

And, I have to shake my head in amazement at this: the thing that sent Hubs into orbit was the way that Geraldine Ferraro's comments were just blanketly dismissed as racist. He's one of those white guy swing voters who lost out on good employment opps back in the 1980's Reagan Recession because blacks had to be hired first. After seeing Hubs' visceral reaction, I've no doubt there are going to be other white men remembering those similar times and they are not going to be saying, oh it was for the best. Noooo. I think there is something in those Rev. Wright tapes (coming out the end of the same week) that also gels this reaction.

It will be very interesting to see how it affects Obama. I heard that one poll from this weekend had him 17 points down in his favorability ratings. Whoa. Like I said, we will see. Hubs and I know we will be voting for McCain in November if Obama is the nominee, and for all Dems on the rest of the ballot, in hopes of electing a weakened McCain, one who will be forced into having to compromise. If Dems control Congress, McCain will be a good compromiser and it should be fine. We don't want change, we want specifics and security.

Edited to Add: Correction - we have nothing against change, but we don't want change for change's sake without specifics. Further, we have no faith that it'll work because we've seen no proof for placing our faith in his hands, aside from good speeches. God and loved ones are the only ones we give leaps of faith to.

Anyway, that's just a little "I digress". I have to save my ideas for when I'm on the clock, LOL. You can imagine that this is huge amount of new revelation for me, but I see now I've been loyal to something that is not there anymore. I certainly never saw this coming, but it sure helps calm the political despair I've been feeling the last several weeks.

Possible shoe fetish...

I really want these Keen Bali Sandals. But $60? What do you think? I don't get out much, is this the going price nowadays?

This is shaping up to be a year of omens and signs for me, I'm beginning to think. The sciatica that my f-i-l suffered from (due to the same L4/L5 degenerated disk disease he and I had in common) suddenly began afflicting me the very afternoon of his burial. Yeah. Really a huge coincidence. And, it hasn't quit. It's merely lessened in severity. Still very sore and easily triggered unless I move just right.

Well, another one of those meant-to-be coincidences occurred within minutes of me posting that I was looking for the price to drop on those border die cuts before buying. I received an email advertising them for $30 off the lowest price I'd seen.

So, three guesses what I did next. I'm now awaiting taking proud possession of them from the mailman. That was enough of a discount for me. I've begun to self-enable: I now factor in something I call a wait factor cost when supply shopping. I feel it's time. To me, not factoring that in is a bit like not counting gasoline costs when pricing goods. (Heck, what with insurance, gas and payments, transportation is expensive. Our cars are all paid off, but still.)

So, anyway, the wait cost on those borders feels like another $30 to me. I don't wanna wait anymore. LOL Perhaps I should just make the wait cost be the total price. LOL No, better to save that for something I really need to rationalize on. Yeah, knowing my own game is one thing, stopping myself is another entirely....

Today I spent almost all day uploading things I've created this year so far to my 2peas and flickr galleries, and I'm still not finished yet! I need to get that caught up. I've already almost lost one image(thanks again for saving my neck, Heather), so that kind of got me back on the task. I'm a big believer in keeping images of what I make. It really paid off for me after Diego tore up that layout. Being able to look at the image of it helps me kinda forget it's not "alive" anymore.

Anyway, even more backlogged is what I've uploaded here on the blog. So, let me work on that a bit. I am very groggy right now, so I may only get started with a few, but I'm going to upload something! LOL

Where to start? Okay, here is the handmade RAK art I made for my first 3 names I drew (Heather, Gina and Lynn). For Heather, I made this:
I love to look at that atc. It's one of my all-time top five faves.

So glad to know that Lynn is now back home after her hospital surgery. I made her this to go along with one of the Twisted Valentine atc's she had commented on:

What I sent to Gina was an atc she'd commented on from that same swap along with this card: My standards for my photos are about as low as my graphic editing skills, but even I must be truly ashamed of the colors in these photos. I tried to lighten them and instead they took on lives of their own, LOL. But, the lighting was bad to begin with so... It looked better IRL, right, Gina? LOL

Well, I think my computer is telling me I've done enough image handling tonight. Time to restart the old thing. Til next time, then....

My day & a surprise RAK

Can you believe I've never done a Blog RAK? Wait, I think I did a few times like a year ago. Anyway, it's been too long.

As some of you may know, I turn 13 in Leap Years tomorrow. Since a Leap Year gives a little extra, I thought I'd honor that and do the same through my Leap Year (which technically lasts 4 years). I will definitely do 13 of them, and probably more. I could even do 52 of them in honor of turning 52. I'll get back to ya on that after thinking about it more.

You should know that I do RAKS a bit differently. You know me, the nonconformist. I pick from past comments! So, you never know when you are in the mix to be picked. Or when I'm gonna yell RAK! If someone I choose doesn't reply in a few days, then I choose another. I could bore you with my explanation how I choose the winners: the summary is that I pick a short list of comments I liked best, or needed that day, etc. Then I do the random picker thing on it, to choose.

And, this time it's a little somethin somethin hand-made.

So, without further ado, I have 3 winners today and 3 tomorrow, on my birthday:

1.) Gina (please email your mailing address to aimeslee_@_earthlink.net (without the _'s)

2.) Lynn (please email your mailing address to aimeslee_@_earthlink.net (without the _'s)

3.) Heather (I have your info, girl)

A little of my day in photos:

Big Baby Reggie


Our lunch - Grilled shrimp salad:



Something Hubs worked on:



Something I worked on:



About 1/2 way through with this, more later:

A little art therapy...

Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts and condolences. We're a little subdued here at Casa Miquel, but I'm just letting Hubs space out and chill. He says it's only bad when someone calls him and he has to think about it. Tonite's the vigil and rosary, so I imagine today is going to be more anxious for him.

I've been doing fine, but I'll probably be nervous today and tomorrow, too. I never know how a funeral is going to cause me to react, and .

I made one of those mosaics of my twisted valentine atc's, but I can't figure out where to get the code to show it here, I can only see the code to link to it there, here it is:

View slideshow

I'm sure I overlooked it. My mind has not been at its sharpest or most inquisitive this week. Oh well. I saw a psa on tv last night advocating pausing, taking longer to think. "If you give yourself a minute to think, you'll make a better decision...". Whoa. I must not be the only one struggling to keep up the pace...

I didn't feel like blogging yesterday, but I confess I only felt a wee bit guilty about it. I've been making a few things that were on my deadline list. This is an atc I made for a 1-on-1 trade with a little old lady in one of my yahoo swap groups. She had the neatest birthday party recently and everyone there had to make her an atc or piece of art. This wasn't just a ladies group. It was couples, men and women...children, too. She said she got the most fabulous art and it was better than diamonds. Anyway, she also made up some atc's that honor her birthday (I'm not allowed to divulge her exact age, but it was a milestone) and asked me to trade with her.

So I needed to make an atc that honored my birthday. I had the (SPL)urge to use my new Sizzix chandelier die, so I put that on there. She specified anything but vintage, so I figured bright and modern would be good. And the chandelier is on there to signify taking a splurge, an extravagance this year. I don't know why, but it really tickles me I'm turning 13. Won't be long now.... I've also been workin' with a bit o' the blarney, too. Since I'm a Pisces, I love blues, greens and purples. So, right now I'm digging that green. Haven't finished anything yet, but it definitely includes stamps and ink. I think I spent too much time lurking at the Splitcoast Stamper forum.

Went cyber-shopping too. Here are my new shoes, Adidas:
and, Privos:
. The fur feels awesome!