the day after the day before! it's here!

hehe...



this was after our christmas eve "just-us" family celebration last night. notice the time on the clock on the wall. hilarious, huh? both of them, out cold. missy slept 12 hours, straight thru. dang, i think she's been partying just a tad too heartily. (her excuse? she got her grades for this fall semester and all a's and one b, dean's list again, so we can't really blame her for celebrating a bit.)

here is my present from missy: a really soft chenille/velour robe, something she knew i would like but don't ever buy for myself.



and hubs surprised the crap out of me by giving me some fur-lined crocs:



i haven't had them off my feet since i opened the package, lol.

our lunch with the relatives turned out to be very nice. i was treated wonderfully and i even got something close to an apology for being manipulated! i'll gladly take it! plus, none of the family members i had issues with behaved in the ways i don't like. everyone played nice. i did begin my visit kind of aloof, but once i saw it was going to be a good visit, i chimed right in the convos. the only disapointment of the day was that my parents didn't really want their present i'd sent (a digital phone system that was too technical for them, but my dad is going to think about keeping it for a few days).

since i always love to look at snow photos, here is another one of our december 10th snowfall. this one is what the pasture behind our house looked like. it was just the most gorgeous thing...



i am hoping everyone i know out in cyberland had a wonderful day in at least some small way.

it's really the night before!

i promised to share some photos from our snowfall on dec. 10th. here are 5 that really show it. it even lasted overnight and part of the next day, too.

see the snow drift forming against our pumpkin-colored fence?

hubs looking out from the storm door

one side of the front yard

and the other side of the front yard

the back yard deck - check out the back fence (it's leaning cuz it got damaged during ike)...

tomorrow will be christmas day. amazing. where does all that time go, exactly? i could have sworn thanksgiving was just a few days ago.

as far as exchanging gifts with the relatives, we are having an austere christmas this year like most other people i know. just a few good things, and no excess fluff. hubs and i gave both our parents the same one thing, and every child is getting one gift card. this means it was a very manageable buying chore for me. i went to kroger one low-traffic afternoon and got all of the gift cards at once, and then i ordered everything else online.

i don't do well in the holiday shopping crowds at all. it's stressful and exhausting, but i don't rebound well and i usually get pain flares for all my trouble. i do miss the feel and atmosphere of it occasionally, but i really fell out of love with it around the same time i quit trying to get missy the "in" "hot" toy (the last one i moved mountains to get her was a life-size barbie...quite a long time ago, maybe 15 years ago).

as for gift-giving between hubs, missy and me, hubs and i usually don't buy stuff for each other unless we know the other one really wants it. and then half the time, we just buy it for ourselves. we probably wouldn't even buy anything during the holidays except to get a sales price.

it's been hard not to buy everything in sight this year because of the great prices. we've been good. but i confess it's because we both are betting that those sales prices are going to last and last. maybe even get better. just a hunch. anyway, hubs really wanted the sham-wow rags this year. he also wanted a new recliner and got that earlier this month. he had been wanting a sleep number bed, but then decided he did not. so i got him the sham-wows and a wall calendar.

because missy's been in college, she knows not to expect lots of little things like when she was younger. we have been giving her one big thing and some money for a while now. this year the one big thing was some expensive adobe software for her new imac (that she bought for herself). it's called in design and she uses it all the time for her advertising classes.

as for moi, hubs asked what i wanted and i said that i want him to take me to ikea in west houston next week while he is off. and i want to buy an expedit bookcase...not for my scrap room, but for books in the family room. and he's putting it together for me. that's my present.

when hubs picked up the other recliner this morning, he talked to the store owner about an adjustable bed for me (the kind where you can elevate the head and the knees and feet...like a hospital bed). so that looks promising. i may eventually get a full night's sleep in one place yet! lol

tomorrow's the big day - a very merry merry and happy happy, ya'll

Thanks, Linda - Let's Play Hump Tag!

Missy sent me photos of her brand-new dorm room. She moved to a just-opened dorm and has a new roommate, her bff Katelyn. First, a little reclining shot on her bed...

Then, a shot of a couple of LO's I created for her. She has them in the page protectors sideways and uses the binder holes to hang them by. I think it looks cool...

I got a bit verklempt at this shot of her bedside table. She's showing off her Zapatos shoes; but, me being Mom, I spied the striped SEI scrapbook I had filled with LO's and given her, sitting on the carpet underneath the table, ready for her to look at if maybe she can't sleep at night or gets homesick. Awwww.

**********
I was tagged by the lovely Linda. All of the questions have 2 answers. After answering all the questions here, add one question of your own (this tag started with 4 questions) and then tag 2 people. Simple enough? I am tagging Barbara and Katy.

1. Name your 2 favorite scrapbooking topics:
a. my family
b. my dogs

2. What are the 2 best places you've been to?
a. London
b. Paris

3. Name 2 things you do every day:
a. eat
b. computter (computer-putter)

4. Tell us 2 things that pretty much everyone knows about you.
a. my sense of humor
b. my love of writing

5. 2 places you wish to visit:
a. Amsterdam
b. Montana

6. 2 things you may not know about me are:
a. I am such a homebody that I only leave my house once a week, if I can help it.
b. I'm a closet fan of "Little House" reruns, on the Hallmark Channel. The other day, Laura, Mary and Mr. Edwards' son got stuck on a runwawy train car and man, I was glued to it til Pa and Mr. Edwards got it stopped. Whew! That was a close one!

7. 2 nicknames you've had at some time in your life:
a. Miss 5 (as in Miss 5 Minutes Later)
b. Aim-o, Aimeless, Aimester....something usually along those lines.

8. Name 2 of your favorite drinks:
a. Green tea on ice, with mint and lemon
b. Diet Coke

9. What are 2 interesting (in a good or bad way) jobs you have had in your life?
a. Probably my most enjoyed one: in the late 70's, I was assistant controller for Pace Mgmt, which owned Pace Concerts, during their heyday as THE concert mgmt company. Needless to say, I had an awesome night life!
b. Probably my least enjoyed one: One summer in college, I wondered about quitting school to get a job and be on my own. The first job I found was waitressing at a Denny's-type 24-hr restaurant. Although the money was pretty good, I'd never worked harder physically, nor been treated so badly (very sexist). In the fall, I was signed up for those college classes again, bebe. LOLOL Thank GOD!

10. What are your top 2 fun things to do after work?
a. shower
b. put on fresh, clean clothes

11. What are 2 things I would like to learn:
a. Spanish
b. Photoshop Elements

12. What are the last 2 songs you downloaded or last 2 CD's you bought?
a. Amy Winehouse "You Know I'm No Good"
b. John Mayer "Waiting on the World to Change"

13. I added this one:
Name 2 movies you could watch or you have watched 100 times in your life and still watch again, no problem:
a. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
b. Office Space

**********
Wish me luck and cross your fingers for me: I pulled one of my famous put-aways. I put away in a safe place the memory card that holds all the not-yet-uploaded photos of what I made for Christmas gifts, and now of course, I cannot find it. I know it is here somewhere. It's just that I cannot yet remember where it is. I'm giving it another couple of days before I begin to tear the house apart, so please...say a little one for my card to just appear out of nowhere, ok? LOL Thanks [blushing and shrugging shoulders]

**********
Edited to add cuz I forgot: 2Peas Blogger challenge for Thursdayis to post your very first layout. omg. well, okay. I'm never one to say no to providing a laugh, LOL. This is my Hubs, Christmas of 1952, his first one:


Have a great end-of-week days!

How Aimeslee Gets Her Groove Back....

... or attempts to, anyway. With me, it's always done by thinking and sculpting ideas.

I thought a lot this weekend about things: life, the new year, attitude, commitment, tasks, goals, dreams. I'm not sure I reached any concrete conclusions, but I do think I have some good leads about the directions in which I want to travel this year. And as I go about writing them down for you, I'm frankly amazed, just a little.

I realized how out of the loop and clueless I was just days ago. It's as if I've been piddling along in my own little world. Well, heck, I have been doing exactly that. Things I knew in my head needed to be decided this time of year were just not showing up on my radar, and I think it was on purpose. I need to ease into this year for some reason. This must be where the "No deadlines" thing is coming from. Anyway, none of these things actually are required of me, but now's the time to set them up if they are going to be done at all.

First, I've decided that the entire month of January is my time to celebrate New Years. It's all too much for me to have in place by 1/1, especially since I'm such an unrepentant slowpoke. Longer if I need it, and I probably will.

Second, what's my Word? This is not as easy to decide as choosing focus last year. I know the convention is one word, one little word, in fact; but, the Rebel in me is yelling. For one thing, I'm not feeling any one particular word over another. I mean, I have a list of like, 6. But no luck narrowing down to one. For another thing, I'm a fan of alliterative language, and I've been very fixated on two phrases using 4 rhyming words. It sounds really cheesy too, but it's where I want to explore right now.

Dare to Bare... Share to Care....

Visions of Care Bears keep littering the view. Half of me is almost ready to just accept them and incorporate them into the view, along with the rainbows that also appear. Pesky little devils. Yup, cheesy alright. Very too much 80's, right? Don't mean to, but the subconscious must want it badly.

I've almost decided to go with this WordQuad and just be different. I'm calling it One Little WordQuad. My Rebel side loves it. (rebel = artist)

Okay, it's official: I just blogged it in a comment to Ali herself, so no turning back. (Not that anyone is going to notice it, that is, LOL).

I had so much more to mention, but I'm needed elsewhere right now. I'll close with the 2peas blogger challenge for Today:

Do you try to get current pictures of yourself by doing a self photo shoot or having someone take them of you? If you have recently taken some new photos share with us

I actually do both now. Started a few months ago and already have double the photos of myself. (This sounds voluminous, but it really speaks more to how few photos I made of myself prior to now.) I've played with making typical MySpace-type self-photos (failing miserably and looking totally dorky), as well as bugging more people to snap the shutter for me. Both have their drawbacks, but I'll continue this way indefinitely.

Here's a favorite one from the holidays, of me with my Missy:


Have a great Monday!

A Post-Holiday Post

These are fun! Played around a bit in Paint Shop Pro while transferring pics to my hard drive. This was a really dark and blurry photo improved a bit by turning it into a snow globe. I used the Circle Geometric Effect. They really ought to call it the Snow Globe effect, and put a base on it, if you ask me. Here's another one, made from a less-than-stellar shot of our front yard:
In the original photo, those pink lights are actually bright red and the blue-ish cast is really blackish-dark and drab. I like the pink and blue better, although Hubs would never go for it. Since I didn't participate in the outdoor decorating this year and had no say in how Hubs did it, I can't really complain about how much I dislike his minimalist approach. (minimalist = lazy) We have so many yard scenes in the garage attic, but he bah-humbugged all of them. Since I was in severe pain at the time he put the lights up, however, fighting with him about it wasn't something I was up for. So, I guess I'll have to be happy doing it more my way in pictures, LOL. NEXT YEAR.....

Well, how did everyone's Christmas Day turn out? Ours went well, but we were all worn out by the time we got back from festivities with Hub's family. I promptly fell asleep on the couch, as did Hubs. Missy managed to stay up long enough to go to bed early last night, LOL. I called my folks and then took another nap. Woke up again and worked on my photos, and now I am wanting to get a bit more shut-eye. But I knew I needed to get back on the blogging trail, so I thought I'd pop in and post a few lines first.

I think our weather is to blame for something. In the past 24 hours, it's gone from really cold cold-front dry cold, to stunningly sunny gorgeous and almost spring-like, to London-fog-nasty-chilly. I mean, I hardly ate much of the holiday meal today as we had a Mexican food theme (really odd, if you ask me, but Hub's sisters wanted to try it). So I know for sure that tryptofan (that turkey chemical) is not to blame for my grogginess. I suspect it's a combination of the weather, my health, and holiday stress. I guess I'll just have to sleep it off.

I ended up going to the doctor last Thursday about my ear, and it turned out I have a massive ear infection! No pain, still, so can you believe? I got a shot, and then scripts for an antibiotic and ear drops. The pills are huge and I only got 5 of them because they are Levaquin, really strong stuff. They were $6 a piece! They made me feel horrible, too, so for the first couple of days I was miserable.

Bottom line though is that my ear is still plugged up. Totally, completely. So now I have to make an appointment with an ENT specialist and just hope it's hard wax and not hearing loss and nerve damage causing my problem. Stay tuned...

Hubs and Missy are going to brave the after-sales later on, but I seriously cannot think of another thing I want to buy, and certainly nothing that I need. Santa was that good to me this year, after literally years of crap in that department. I so cannot complain.

Among my many new goodies are a Cricut and 4 cartridges, a Cuttlebug and some new embossing folders, a Bind-It-All, an Epson Picturemate photo printer, some ridiculously expensive Privo fur-lined flip-flops, and a Janome sewing machine. Both my parents and my in-laws conspired together with Hubs and Missy to get me some special scrapbooking and card-making equipment, because they wanted to thank me for the gifts I've made family members over the last few years.

It really made me tear up and was a total surprise, except for the Cricut and Cuttlebug, which I found out about at Thanksgiving. You can imagine, after knowing you are getting both of those, then to get all this other, too. I'm going to be days unboxing and setting up and trying out. And of course I cannot wait!

Frankly, I'm still a bit in shock that I actually got stuff I would love to have but wouldn't necessarily buy for myself. Hubs got money and some big honkin golf clubs (along the Big Bertha line of club, and that's all I know), and Missy got money, her favorite thing in the world to get. So, everyone was probably napping last evening out of sheer pleasure, LOL.

Well, I'm v-e-r-y groggy, so I'll sign off for now. I'm liking the idea of trying to blog a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule, so with any luck I'll be back Friday. I have to get 3 gum-line cavities filled Thursday, so please wish me luck (hate those!)...

Really really quik Update

OMGosh, I can't believe I haven't blogged in almost a week! I'm just so short on time right now with Christmas and having Missy and Hubs both home at once this week. I'm sure anyone reading this is in the same boat or worse, so in case there is one person out there who has even missed me, I'm still alive. Just don't have any time to really explain what's been going down with me right now.

Looks like it might be that way until after Christmas, so I want to wish everyone a Happy Holidays, and I will make sure I get a good blog entry in sometime next week, after the Big Day on Tuesday. And I will try to remember everything, because there has not been a dull moment, LOL.

Love, Hugs, and Peace!

The Weird and the Wacky

...is how my week has been so far. Wish I could add Wonderful to that alliteration, but so far that ain't happenin'. I still hold out hope, though, lol.

Our street's Christmas decorations were put up this past weekend by our usual tiny band of resident volunteers. The drive-thru winter wonderland is slowly taking shape. At least I hope it'll be another lit-up year. The neighbors seem to be a bit slow this year in preparations. Lord knows we've been there ourselves. LOL

The arches are really cool to drive under. Of course, not being able to leave your driveway for all the cars on the street almost every night after the 15th or so is not cool, but there's a price to pay for everything, I suppose. We are one of the top 5 spots in town for looking at lights.

***

You know, I do want to make sure that I thank all of you who have continued to read and post a comment or two during my recuperation from my hand pain problem. I really appreciate all the thoughts and concern.

I know it's the time of the year to be thankful, but even if it wasn't I'd still feel the same way, LOL. I am working on leaving everyone comments on your blogs, although it may take a while longer until I am back to my old speed. (I'm embarrassed to say this one little post has taken the better part of 3 hours on and off. My fingers are really out of shape bigtime, LOL).

I won't stop plucking away at it, though, and I hope to be back the way I was before too long. Just know I do read! With a blog addiction like mine, ya have to. LOL Thank goodness my eyes are still working....

***

Life around Casa Miguel is a bit frantic these days, as I'm sure it is at your house, too. Seems I've been doing nothing but ordering stuff online, creating gifts, sleeping, eating, and showering occasionally. Last Friday night I started feeling lousy and so I quickly beefed up my supplement and home remedy intake, as it felt like I was coming down with a cold or the flu. But by Sunday night, I realized that except for a stopped-up ear (that's still stopped up), I was feeling better.

The ear does not hurt at all, but it's pretty frustrating, especially when talking on the phone. I began using these drops I bought at CVS called Debrox a couple of days ago, and at times it almost clears up, but so far not totally at any time. It always goes back to being stopped up.

I guess I'm old-fashioned about this. Since there is no pain, I just don't believe I have an ear infection, but I know they are not always painful. Sigh. Looks like a trip to the doc may be in my near future, darn it. I'm tired of doctor visits. Stoopid ears!

***

I haven't been doing much accounting lately, but I have been having to go to get some continuing professional education. I went to a course in Houston last week and right now I'm taking an online course. This one is not really accounting, but more marketing and customer relations. It's about internet businesses. I have homework, too! So, I was hoping to get your input on a what-if scenario I have to put together. Ya'll are internet customers, right? I'll post my hypothetical scenario in my next blog entry, once I finish thinking it up, LOL. It's about general business practices that foster loyal customers or create angry customers. You know you want to help me by putting in your two cents, right? I think all of us are experts on that subject and could write entire books about it, LOL. Anyway, look for that next time.

***

How do you like my not-so-new Kandinsky framed prints? The Hubster and I finally got them hung last weekend. It only took about 3 years since I bought the prints and had them framed, LOL.

The first obstacle to my hanging them was the cathedral ceiling. It's way up there where I wanted to hang them and Hubs is too damn cheap to buy a ladder for that height (and I haven't been willing to start WWIII over it - and if it wasn't for telescopic handles on my dusters, there would be a huge dirty mess up there because I have no ladder that goes that high up). I usually get stuck doing these kinds of fix-it things on my stuff, so there I was with no solution. Time went on and I forgot the prints until recently when I was cleaning out a closet for Hubs to store some of his clothes and there they were. I then began bugging Hubs to get them hung.

So, he proceeds in his usual bull-in-china-shop fashion when he's irritated about having to do something he doesn't want to do. And, he broke the hanger on the back of the big print. Then he had to fix it. Then we ran out of picture wire. On and on.

Finally! He finally did it! You'd have run screaming if you had to endure being in the room when I was telling him where to hang them. Let's just say it was the Cuban Missile crisis redux. Almost WWIII, but not quite. This time though I was not backing down.

So now I finally have my prints of my favorite artist to admire. I just love them. When I was studying art years ago, I really connected with Kandinsky, for some reason, probably because he loaded his works with color. He's generally considered to be the first modern abstract painter. The big print in the center is the one he himself called his most intricate work, which is why I chose it. The other two I chose because they complimented the big one the best.

I have several of his prints, bought over the years when I could find them, but they are small, 5x7-inches, and since what I love about him best is his use of color, I wanted a big display of it, LOL. So, now that is finally taken care of. Amazing how a great piece of art can lift your spirits by just glancing at it as you walk by...

Oh, see the hanging beaded thing in the foreground of the photo? That's the ceiling fan pulls I beaded. Yup, no tiny little wimpy fan pulls for us. These are so big you actually pay attention to avoid crashing into them because they can bruise a forehead, LOL.

I have an ongoing feud with the Hubs about height-related things, since I'm barely 5'5"" and he's 6'1", and he of course thinks that everything needs to be at his height. Car seats, lights, fan pulls, ladders (argh). The frustrating and unfair thing is that he can always bend down -- hello! -- but I can only stretch up so far. Ya KNOW????? Ugh, men!

***

Lately, I've been inspired by:
Tim Holtz - awesome 12 days of tag creating with his products; if you like his stuff, this series is a keeper, bookmark it!
Nichole Heady - co-owner of Papertrey Ink and also the McGuyver of paper crafting! This woman can do anything with paper, seriously...
Ellen Hutson - if there's a machine or gadget that scrappers oughta have, Ellen's on the case scoping it out. I have learned so much from her about diecut machines and dies, not to mention about stamping and card-making.
Melissa Phillips - omgosh. just. Heaven. {long sigh}

***

Okay, enough. Off to create! Have a great week, I'll probably be back with a post on Friday....

"Put It On and Stay Strong!"

...Now that I have your attention and you're probably going, what the hey??? LOL

Yeah, totally lovin' that quote so much, I made it my blog entry title today. Said by one Jennifer Love Hewitt to all young women out there struggling with body self-esteem issues (that would be 99.9% of them, plus 98% of the rest of us females). Seems that the media had uploaded some candid beach photos of Hewitt in Hawaii on a vacation with her fiance, ones that {gasp} exposed her luscious curves clad in a spandex bikini. Yeah, we know what happens...ya get a few folds because spandex would squeeze folds out of a pencil, ok? People began posting she looked fat. So Love shot back, saying that a size 2 is not fat and that she loves her body. And to those young girls, she advised them to "put on a bikini, put it on and stay strong."

Now there's a great "So There!" moment. Love, welcome to the Kiss-My-Fat-*ss Club. Tyra Banks is the president, of course. You go, ladies! (Gawd, I'd give up taste buds to be a size 2...geez and double geez. What is wrong with people thinkin that is fat?)

Okay, hello everybody, TGI Friday to ya'll!Are ya gettin' hungy looking at all that candy, LOL? I am. This is what we sent Missy for her Finals Care Pkg., along with an encouragement card I made. I got to use the new KI Memories clear stamp I bought just for Missy's pages. (She loves the fleur de lis shape, in any variety.) Anyway, she called us when she got the pkg and was almost in tears of happiness. She must be getting homesick. Oh, as of yesterday, she is back with Diego now. I called my dad and told him, and he just had the best laugh. Yup, that's about all one can do. Better than getting ticked off like the Hubster, who cannot handle change quickly at all. Oh, to be young again, huh?

I made a decision this week. I am probably not going to show many or any more projects I've made for Christmas, in large part because the people I made stuff for may see and guess it's for them. It's another one of those decisions I don't like, but it's the right and best thing to do. I have been trying to decide this for a while and haven't shown several layouts I've made for presents. So, suffice it to say, there is gonna be a shipload of uploads come the New Year, bebe! LOL

I did want to talk about Christmas Planners, though. Better late than never, right? I always love looking in the galleries for the planners scrappers create, and I am forever flirting with jacking one for my own, but I continue to stick with my plain-jane planner I made back in like 1996 (seriously).

Oh, it's plain, plain, plain-o-rama, people. Here, let me show ya. I snapped photos of the sections (and I use them all every year):










Yeah, looks pretty old, huh? I think those are Print Shop graphics from back in the day, lol. But one thing new I added to it this year was sets of new pages for my sections, that I downloaded here, at Organized Christmas.

This website is amazing. 100% recommended, as well as it's sister sites for scrapbooking and household planner. In my opinion, every bit as useful as FlyLady. Check it out.

Well, it's busy here in the beehive, so I'm gonna close now. Have a great weekend, and I'll hopefully have another post on Monday. Namaste!

TOO MUCH FUN FOR ME

...or so the headline should read. oops, my bad.
Hope no one missed my absence on black friday.
had i a lick of sense, i'd have planned to post today instead of then.

after the holiday weekend.

i'll have to say that this was the best holiday for me in many years. we celebrated with the hubster's family aka my in-laws, as we've done for the last 2-3 years since my parents moved away. we brought our famous corn casserole and our equally delish green bean casserole, with the topping of french's french fried onions. everyone was there, too, so that would be in addition to hubs, me and missy: hub's parents, his brother, 3 sisters, 1 sis-in-law, 2 bros-in-law, and 6 other grandchildren. what is that, 18 people. not one dull moment all day. gawd. why couldn't the previous 19 been this way?

hub's dad recently found out he has lung cancer, so i knew everyone would be on their best behavior, but even i was amazed at how loving everyone was. for hub's family, this is not a normal behavior, lol. they may love deeply, but they don't usually show it. whereas my family over-shows it.

so i was enjoying the atmosphere thursday. only bad things that happened were no ham to eat (bah!) and i should have flat ironed my hair because the nasty wet weather we had turned it into crap. Anyway, i figure if that was all, it was a very good day, and it was indeed.

well, where did i leave off on my art every day thing? i think 11/8's was the last i've shown. so, 11/9's aedm was baking
drop biscuits. i'll just link you to my flickr, where the details are, if there are any.

11/10's aedm was a
green butterfly box that's another little stash box for a niece.

11/11, 11/12, and 11/13's aedm was a
birthday card for my friend cindy.

11/14:
toll house choco-chip cookies. and they were good, too. lol

11/15, 11/16, 11/17's aedm was a little art journal essay
about that christmas cheer.

finally, 11/18, 11/19, 11/20's was another little art essay piece
about my tradition of eating ham instead of turkey on thanksgiving.

oh, i do need your help! this is an art journal piece that i finished up saturday. I haven't offically uploaded to flickr and called it an aedm yet because i don't know if it's finished or not. and, i'd love to know your thoughts or take, etc... some advice, please:



i'm wondering if it needs a title and/or some journaling. i really felt no need to add any (and i suppose that could be my answer, but i'd rather ask your input first). i cut that little girl off some junk mail, because she really looks dreamy, doesn't she? and then i began making a sunburst quilt pattern with paper scraps around her, that being her inner light shining out. and that's really all i wanted to say. so, do you see that just from the art? or do i need to add some words to make that happen? please leave me a comment or email.

that is all i've gotten uploaded so far. there are more because i am actually all caught up on my aedm's. i very much want to be excited about completing the entire month, it is the 26th after all, but that might jinx it so i won't mention it. lol but after what all happened over the weekend and the doctor today and the dentist tomorrow, i need to upload the others later in the week.

sometime during late saturday night / early sunday morning, hub's car tires were slashed. right in the driveway, next to our 2 other cars that were spared. and he says it was unlocked and nothing taken, so we are thinking a teen prank. it's really unsettled me even though i haven't let myself dwell on it too much. where we live is always peaceful and pretty untouched by any crime, so something as petty as this is big trauma.

every couple of years we will have cars broken into or some such, but that's it. lots of folks talk about property crime on a weekly basis. and we could clean out that garage and use it as it's intended. i doubt we'll do one thing different, though.

being hit by crime is just kinda unnerving, like you had to appear nekked in public or something. leaves ya a bit exposed. i plan to do my best to keep thinking of it as random and therefore over until the next time not soon.

now this worked out well for missy who had been campaigning to take her car back to school with her. suddenly it seemed maybe safer for her to do that, so off she left sunday and nobody had to take her. sweet. her insurance will go up again probably, but what else is new. with gasoline costs, it might be cheaper. might.

she got a job at the applebee's near the campus before she came home last week. another reason for needing her wheels back. she's got big plans for making some serious bucks. she knows it's hard work. so we'll see. how better to do that trial and error living otherwise known as growing up.

she was working 40-plus hours a week at the beginning of the semester at the book store (for the rush the first month), working hard, too. and she can always quit if it gets too hard. her advisor in communications (her major is broadcast - radio, tv & film) offered to get her a job operating a camera at the local nbc-affiliate for $7 an hour, but it was right after she'd accepted applebee's, and she's thinking she can make like $10 waitressing.

personally, i think she won't make that, but hey, not my life.

sunday i was stressed and exhausted over the tires and all the homecoming. hubs and i both fell asleep as soon as missy called to say she got to the dorms safely. and today I'm still dragging. so, i'll call this done for now. i'm thinking i will try to post this friday with more art.

i'm planning to start a card crop marathon on wednesday to finish them up and get started getting them mailed off. i did order stamps, but did i order enough? we are heading into that crunch down on christmas, aren't we? dec one is this saturday. ack!

i hope you each have an amazing fruitful week, since saturday will be december one and that means 25 days countdown crunch starts. ack! let's get in gear here, aimes...

My Creative-Every-Day for 11/6 was this yummilicious dinner dish:

KING RANCH CHICKEN (ALSO CALLED CHICKEN TORTILLA CASSEROLE)
4 chicken breasts
12 corn tortillas
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes
1 lb. Cheddar cheese, grated
jalepenos or other hot peppers, sliced (optional)

Boil chicken breasts. Cool and debone. Tear into bite-sized pieces; set aside.
Cut tortillas into quarters; set aside.
In a bowl, mix soups, milk, onion and tomatoes. Butter a large baking dish. Put a layer of tortillas in dish bottom, then a layer of the soup mixture, then chicken, and then cheese. Repeat, ending with the cheese on top. Bake uncovered at 300-325F for 45-60 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Serves 4.
The Hubster fried up some extra tortilla quarters in "his" big chicken-fryin' cast iron skillet (seriously, it's his exclusively because he loves it so; I get to touch the small one to make corn bread in). We topped it off with some sour cream, a salad and some guacamole, and called it Texas Heaven. Try it on a chilly evening when you need something to stick to your ribs, as they say. Good comfort food.

I Was RAK'd!
Started out innocently enough. Went by Sherry's blog, noticed her pretty blog banner and left her a comment. Last night, I find an email from her with {gasp} a banner for me! She'd made me one. How sweet is that? Sherry, you rock, seriously! Anyway, what do ya'll think? Isn't it pretty? THANK YOU!!!!! I just love everything about it.

I really admire the talent to scrap digitally. I've been scoping out trying to learn it and I decided yesterday that I need some kind of mentor cuz I suck at figuring out some parts of the software. I'm hoping I can find someone who could answer questions if I get stuck.

I checked out Sherry's gallery at 2peas, and you should see her first digital LO: Go here and leave her some praise...that was her first one and it looks so good, it just amazes me!

http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/layout_images/1248688.jpg
I can only pray that my first digital layout looks 1/4 that good! If I can ever get through one, that is...

Well, it's another hump day. I am really feeling pressure in every area of my life lately. Have you ever felt jazzed and excited about life, yet depressed and dreadful about it, too? (I know, right? You're going "what???") Well, I have been. I think I'm really over-committed again. The Creating Thing every day is bearing down on me like a balloon made of lead. I think I'm going to have to slow it down to only a couple of times a week, because I have to do my Christmas gift-making, that was the deal I made with myself, and I've about run out of things that can be made in a day. Which of the two is more important here? I mean, "uh, sorry little Johnny and Jenny, Auntie Aimes couldn't get your gift finished because I was too busy creating a finished product every day" or "Here, you get a card or journal page, cuz it only took a day to make."

Not. So, you see my dilemma. Yeah, should have never signed up, sorry, Leah. I really thought it could work. I definitely will be creating every single day, but nothing to show for it except for every so often. That challenge is really more suited to art journal pages and such.

Well, great, now I get to feel like a failure for not being able to do it even a whole week. Man, can I ever set myself up? I guess I could try and just do a 30-minute doodle or drawing every day, pure fluff at the busiest time of the year, and call it a therapeutic break. We'll see.

So now, do you see, my attitude blows. Like, nothing to live for, even though that isn't anywhere near the truth. And, I am jazzed about learning digital and scrapping some layouts again the old-fashioned way, too. I'm burned out on cards, though. I needed a break and got a bit of one, but family birthdays are starting up again. Plus the few I make for Christmas. Back to the card factory grind.

I think I just want to be a curmudgeon. Just for that, I'm making chocolate chip cookies today. Oh, and I thought I was going to be gaining some weight (under the it-figures rule of Murphy's Law), but I actually lost 2 pounds. Didn't even walk a lot this past week, either. Must have been the yogurt and cereal. Maybe that Special K ad is correct!

Sumptuous Saturday Sightings

If you promise to come back to me, I'll share 2 glorious photos I found on my blog-trotting last night: Click here, but come back, ya hear! LOL

Scrapbookers Whose Work I'm Currently Once-Again Eye-Candying:
3. Mara-May
2. Adrienne Looman
1. Tracie H.

Moving right along, my Art Every Day project for 11/3 is a blinkie I created all on my own in Jasc Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop:



I swear I think my true calling was in advertising. I'm an idea person, through and through. Last month, I developed the idea for a sub-group on 2peas for older scrappers, and I named it AARPeas. Cute, huh?



Well, now it's an active sub-group on the Pub board. In a thread about being children of the fifties and sixties, I mentioned it and asked would anyone be interested. Yup. Marie even asked to moderate and run it, which was fine with me because like I said, I'm an idea person (which usually means not such a good action person). Frankly, it's kind of tough being an older member on 2peas. It's just the fault of numbers. The online part of this scrapbooking hobby is overwhelmingly GenX and Millenial (GenY). At least on 2peas it is. So, we mature-er ladies needed a lil sumpin' to call our own.

Now, this brings me to my latest blinkie, the CK one. I've held my tongue about the recent scandals, taking my time to really flesh out how I feel about it all. I know several things upset me about it, and geez, between the Big Picture ruckus, the CK HOF photog fiasco and now the 2peas G-Girls' private skank talk outing, I get dizzy trying to think about it at all. But, I do know my gut feeling on the HOF thing, and so once again, my facetious sense of humor honed right on in at CK's motto "CK OK" with the little check mark. Turning the phrase pretty much sums it all up for me on that particular verdict.

As for the others, I'm either still making up my mind or my cynicism over expecting any industry changes makes me want to just not think about it at all. I will confess to mulling over snarky references to gardens of eden and apples, but nothing catchy has come to me yet and may never. And to think, after 2 years of being on 2peas I finally place my first order the very same day that the "Glitch" post was made. Is my timing nuts, or what?

Speaking of orders, that 2peas order arrived today. I have not been able to find the 8x8 American Crafts 3-ring binders anywhere I usually shop, and I wanted some, dangit. 2peas was sold out (as usual - frustrating bigtime) of every spine color except the lavendar/lilac/purple/ whatever it's called, and that's Missy's favorite color. Plus that color was marked down 50% to like $6 a binder. So of course I scooped up 2 of them and had to exhibit tremendous self-control to not order more. Then, 2peas is one of the few places I know of that carries Maya Road chipboard albums and the darling little house books were in stock and at a great price, so I picked up 2 of those. Yes, I paid shipping {pout}, but I wanted those things. I through in the Queen & Co felt ribbon in the purple just for grins.

I also received my 2Scrappy Chix order. Got free shipping, and I scooped up some more felt ribbon, as well as some Marah Johnson goodies, some IP Circus Rose papers, the Cherry Arte Arcade papers I'd been denying myself, HS rhinestone stars, DCWV Rockstar shipboard alphas, and some Luxe Jotters. Nothing brand new, but all great stuff.

I had so much fun shopping there that when another ad for 30% off my entire order hit my inbox, I was back over there. I did more serious damage this time, eeks! I'll be sure and share when it arrives. All I will say is that I ordered enough to get free shipping and that was net of the 30% off. Good stuff!

A couple of days ago, I got the stamps I'd ordered from Scrap Candy. Finally, something new! LOL October Afternoon's Candid Camera stamps. I've been looking for a journaling stamp with the who/what/when/where/why questions, and this gave me 4 of those.

While it looks like I've gone hog wild with the pocketbook and to heck with my budget, let me share that all these items are part of a carefully thought out plan to one day soon be crafted into Christmas gifts. I have lists and lists on lists. So, I guess I could say I've already done quite a bit of shopping already. If the ding dang materials would craft themselves into cool presents, I'd be sitting pretty. LOL But I don't think I'll be hurting too much having to play and create, do you?

Friday's Here

My Art Every Day project for today is a cute little 'kinda' matching money box for my niece, to go with that Disney card. This is where I'll put her cash gift. That way she has 2 presents to go along with a book (I buy every niece and nephew one for Christmas just on general principles), cuz these are good for rings and 7-y-o-girl things. Polly Pockety things. Everyone needs a stash box, no matter how young or old, right?

I started about 8 of these almost 2 years ago, in addition to several that I made for Missy's friends in dance team. I got into a zone with my paints and didn't want to quit. The ones that didn't get finished were at least covered with color and could hang, waiting to be embellished. As happens a lot around here at Casa Miguel, inspiration hits me when it's ready to. I needed a little box to decorate and thought, now's the time to finish some of those that I'd started. Gotta love it, no expiration dates. That's how I roll, what can I say? LOL

In other news, I'm feeling calmer now, just about back to my status-quo. I spent last night blog-commenting, researching photo printers, watching some fave TV shows (Earl, The Office, Mad Men reruns), and a little guilty patterned paper shopping pleasure of pretty new stuff, believe it or not. (I know, I'm very bad, but I wanted it, and I'll blog about that this weekend and show what I got, maybe).

BTW, Mad Men continues its first season reruns every Thursday at 10 p.m. EST on AMC if you are interested in catching it. I myself became completely hooked on it, but was incredibly bored by the first episode and nearly didn't give it another chance. So, yes, you missed that episode but it might bode well that you did! You didn't miss anything you can't learn by starting with episode #2 on Nov. 8. LOL Let me just say, except for the Damages season finale (which was par excellence every second), Mad Men's finale was the best show I've seen in a while. Definitely grew on me....my favorite Don Draper quote: "It's not a viewer. It's a carrousel." (Ya kinda have to watch it to understand...)

Anyway, Hubs' attempt to install our new dishwasher went bust, mainly because he was in one of his moods and did not want to do it at all. I see now that this contributed to my no-good-terrible-dayness as much as anything else, by the way. {eyeroll} He did get the old one out and I managed to get all the gunk off the floor of the cut-out, and so Jose the install guy is here today.

There's also a another glitch: the front of the new dishwasher had a dent in it that neither I nor Hubs saw. The install guy pointed it out, what a guy! and suggested that he install this one, then come back with a pristine one and swap it out once they get another one (a few days, as it has to come from another store because my local Lowes is all sold out of this model now). The obvious fix, a new front panel, was not an option on this model.

So, the dishwasher saga continues, except that I have one to use and try out until my undamaged one comes. And, Jose the install guy is very nice, so I'll get to have him visit again. So sad when you look forward to having the install guy visit, huh? LOL

Well, today's blog entry is being posted earlier than yesterday's, but I would like to shoot for posting each day's entry before I go to bed the night before. I'll keep trying to shave off time and hope for the best. Thanks for reading and commenting, guys, you totally rawk!

Happy Nov. 1 ~~ I'm going bonkers...

It better not be a sign of things to come for the month, or an indication that my new meds are not going to help me handle stresssssss.... but I am just totally overwhelmed right now by alien bullsh*t... ATTACK OF THE ALIEN BS ... LOL. Well, not really alien stuff, just a snowballing of a lot of trivial, unimportant crap I've collected on my To-Do List that has decided to come home to roost and crap on my forehead on this day of all days. Is it God, telling me to take care of this stuff? I don't know, but someone is telling me to.

More later, but let me get my Creative Every Day project for November 1st uploaded and out of the way, before more alien rambling. No, I don't have a Disney obsession (no insult intended to those of you who do). This is Sleeping Beauty Princess from the SandyLion Disney Christmas Collection, and the card was made using sketch #14 from Maria's April sketches. Here's the sketch:I flipped it left-right, and now that I look at the sketch with my card, I see it would have been nice to put that horizontal layer of paper strip on the base paper, in the middle. I had been thinking it would detract from the Disney pp, but the scrolly lines are really faint on the pp. Oh well, live and learn, eh?

I bet I know what you are thinking...stickers? Well, hey, does my princess really look like she is a sticker? (A vellum one, at that.) I did lay the snowflake stickers directly on the pp, but that was because I wanted them to be in the background more. For the princess and the "Fairy Tales" text stickers, I adhered them to colored cardstock and then cut them out, thereby making cardstock elements out of stickers. I like the outline all around it. I "inked" the edges with a Marvy pen for more dimension, then I adhered the text element with foam tape to give it even more dimension. Made a crown with my crown punch, added the rhinestones with my KIGloo, added the snowflake stickers. Finally, I gelpenned and glitter-penned in a bunch of spots. Click on my card to bring up a larger photo where you can better see the glitter going on. I am developing a real affinity for glitter....

Now, say what you will, but I think this rivals a storebought card. I plan to give it to either my 7-yo niece or to DD for a Christmas card. And, I feel like I challenged myself by actually using the Disney stuff, and by creating something "not cool" according to the current "in" style. (Gotta come up with a nickname for that, because that's fast becoming my style, LOL.)

So, enough about that. Where was I? Oh, yes, Aliens. Oops, one more thing first...

I've also challenged myself for November to use Maria's sketches for my cards, whenever possible. Just so you know. All of her sketch page links, by month, are on her Stampin' Inspirations blog, and she is listed on my sidebar.

And my 3rd November challenge is to make stuff for Christmas gift-giving. And 3 challenges at one time is my limit, if not my un-doing, LOL. Maybe that's why I should be on anxiety-attack-watch? LOL

Okay, so enough about that, again. Where was I? Oh, yes, Aliens. LOL

Just for grins, I'll recap my last 18 hours or so, not counting sleep time. I was fine yesterday. In the afternoon, I started looking through my old photos that I very neatly have filed by year in my Hobby Lobby photo boxes. These are original old photos, from the beginning of time (LOL) to now. Why was I doing this? Because of Halloween. Somehow, I'd hit upon the idea, like it was an original thought, which it was to me but not to the rest of the scrapping world, that maybe I should scrap by holiday and season. Like, scrap ALL my Halloween photos, layout by layout. But, start doing that in August or Sept, so I'd have them ready to share by October. Cool thought, huh? There have been a ton of threads at 2peas titled, to the effect of, "Show me your Halloween layouts", etc. That's what got me to looking through the old photos and seeing just what I had for Halloween.

Now, I realize it's a bit late to do Halloween. Heck, it's probably too late to do Christmas now, especially with having to make gifts. But that's a neat idea and mindset, don't you think? If you aren't a chronilogical scrapper and if you are not caught up in the least. Two big if's.

Anyway, to move this along, I ran across some photos of Missy in 1992, she was 4 and that Halloween she was costumed as Simba (Lion King). I will wait til another day to share the photos, but you just have to trust me when I tell you that when I laid out those photos on my table and got them arranged like my brain was urging me to, I got the most fantastic idea for a layout. Missy's expressions in these photos are priceless. And all kinds of ideas began moving like ADD in my head. I was jazzed because the photos are good, don't need editing much at all, and they are scrapping photos! There are six of them and five of them are necessary to tell the story, and they tell a story! Anyway, I was on Cloud Nine.

And so all I wanted to do was get right on that project, right? Wouldn't you? I mean, it was Oct. 31, I'd finished my Disney card for today, and brain cells were popping!

And it was at that exact moment when all the Aliens decided to come busting out of their hiding places....

Right off the bat, you should know that in the frame of mind I was in, I was primed to treat any other requests for my time with a bit of resentment. But the first 14,000 time-suckers I managed very well, good-humored, maturely.

First, I went in to unload the dishwasher and discovered that it was kaput, DOA, not gonna be revived. This Time. (Hubs and I have been fully aware for a few months that this moment would be forthcoming, as it's going on 12 years old and has been a great appliance, but ain't it a beach when that moment comes at the wrong-arss time.) So, I called Hubs and said, look, It has finally happened, and I don't really care what brand we replace it with, it needs to be replaced pronto, asap, and there's no cooking until that happens. He says, well you are gonna haveta go online to Lowes.com and pick one out, and I'm not installing, they will have to. Okay, so I get on there and look at the ad flyer for this week, and lo and behold, free installation on the dishwasher of my dreams. Well, my dreams are quite Kmarty, but it's got a stainless tub, sanitation cycle, commercial grade, and on sale for $598. I'm happy. I've posted a photo of our particular model,but we got the black one for $100 less (all stainless on the outside is more expensive). I linked the product page cuz if you are looking for a dishwasher, this one is a great deal! I do morn the loss of the mechanical controls, though. I prefer old-fashioned dials to those electronic button-thingys. Less to go wrong and have to be repaired. Ah, the curse of old-fart wisdom.....

After that, my time was just stripped from me. One ridiculous problematic thing after another came hurling at me like elves scurrying about on Christmas Eve. I hadn't discovered the dishwasher death until AFTER I'd unloaded it and put away all the dishes, which were not clean. Had to go back and reclaim them all, then wash them all by hand. And I have to lean forward at the sink just enough to where my back goes into trauma along with my neck, which is why a dishwasher is so important to me. So, I had to deal with the pain, not pretty. I had to pay some bills that were due and had to take them to the p.o. since the postman had already been by. Then I had to go get gas, because hubs forgot to do it. Then, I forgot I was going to take shots of Halloween decs in the neigh-BOO-hood (layout idea), and since it was the last day, I had to go do that.

But it was all manageable until right before Hubs came home. That's when everything began to get ridiculous. I had to go buy something to eat for dinner, because no cooking. Then, had to go get some paper plates. Then, every single thing I touched either fell out of my grasp or toppled over somehow. Wiped up several spills and bent over picking stuff up countless times. Nerves. Raw. Need to relax.

Usually, the computer does that for me. Last night, no. Too many emails. Digital freebies that I'd been looking forward to getting so I can actually learn how to scrapbook digitally that wouldn't download, after trying again and again, and good for only thru last night. Couldn't type without a million typos because I've put off clipping my nails. They're long and pretty, but a pain in the arss. I usually wear them short for that reason. Had to go clip those. Totally forgot my usual late afternoon shower time (and still haven't had one, but I'm headed there, I promise). Totally hid out and didn't give out candy to the Trick or Treaters (this had been planned, because as usual we had an 85-degree day here and so the skeeters were rampant last night and no way are they living in my house with all the door-opening, and if I had candy and did give it out I'd have been a real witch anyway). Spilled frickin salt everywhere and had to clean that up. Then had to cajole and prod Hubs to get down to Lowes to order that dishwasher before someone else did and we'd have to wait 3 weeks on it like we did the range hood last spring. (Our Lowes kinda sucks, but it's better than our Home Depot, our Sears, and our Conn's, lemme tellya.)

Then, my mother-in-law calls. Why did I answer the phone? Had to let her tell me all about Hubs' Dad's upcoming biopsy, his doctor visit, some kind of miracle mineral water from Arkansas that the doctor laughed at but really works, and various goings-on of all the siblings. Thankfully, Hubs beeped in from Lowes, so I had an excuse to hang up and take his call. Then one of my clients I don't like calls...at NIGHT...and wants to pick up another copy of his tax return at 7 a.m. today cuz he lost the one I gave him. Dumb-arss me says okay. Then I realize, he hasn't paid me yet. Had to call him back and tell him I need my money and it'll be another $10 on top of that. He gets indignant (yeah, I'm a bad guy, it's only been 6 months since I did the return) and says okay, but he's going elsewhere next year. I say, do you promise? Oh, and deliver your payment today and once it clears the bank, you will get another return copy. He says he'll bring cash and can he get his copy. Fine. So I stay up and print that out. Another 45 things go wrong, but I will quit boring you.

This morning, I get my money (have to get up early for his sorry butt) and good riddance to him (been wanting that to happen for years), and things begin to calm down. I get a chance to deal with stuff I want to deal with, Heather wants me to look at some new art of hers and that was really fun! I think, okay, I'm back to normal. Maybe I can start that layout! Alas, I discover I need some elements that I'm either going to have to order or print out from online images. And I have a crappy ink jet printer. So, gotta attack another thing I've been putting off: researching for a new photo printer. I put in about 2 hours on that, and then I discover some ink refills I had bought for two of Missy's ink jet printers. Maybe they still work. So, I need to stop the research and instead dust those off and clean them up and put new ink in and see if they will work, because I am so cheap that I cannot just throw out the whole mess and buy a quality machine. Which I am still going to do the second I use up all this ink.

Then it all starts up on my computer. It begins freezing up on me. I don't know how many times I had to restart it, then I had to just push the button on the CPU to turn it off and then back on. Turns out that SOMEONE whose emails of their newsletter I get had a link in it that had a malicious adware program in it. I've got all the anti-whatever programs on my computer that a person could have, but it goes nuts if it actually encounters something it has to fight. Sheesh. I'd love to email this newsletter person and tell them the link they told everyone to check out is narly, so I did. She writes back and says what? Gotta be a problem on your end. I give up. Go back to trying to download the digital freebies and the dang 4shared site is still timing me out. What, did I download there once too many times or something? I give up. At that moment, the lady next door wants to chat. Got rid of her after too long. Then, I get another copy of that newsletter with a note that says the link's bad and has been taken out. And it says thank you to somebody else for letting me know. Dang, can't even get proper credit! Then, every single big name vendor alive has a holidays ad in my inbox, so it's started already folks. Walmart, Pennys, Kohls, Amazon, Epson, Sam's, and on and on. Had to read 'em all, too, cuz there might have been something in there that was on my list. There wasn't.

I kinda had a small meltdown-slash-tantrum right then, cuz it just all came to a head and I could not hold it in anymore. Then, I took a long, hot shower, followed by a big cup of Dreyer's French Silk ice cream. And now I'm blogging.

So, I am really late for today's blog entry. But after the trip I've had, I say better late than never! Have a good, stress-free night. I plan to! LOL