One. More. Day.

Take the Quiz

Your Mind is Purple
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Of all the mind types, yours is the most idealistic.
You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense.
Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries.
You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

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Geez, that quiz was kinda...revealing...and dead on. What are the oddz? LOL I saw it on Sarah's blog and of course had to take it. Be strong, Aimes, only one quiz a day!

~~xxxxxxxxx~~

Well, I had to pull an all-niter, but I'm closing in on my deadline. WooHoo! I'd have to say I'm not much into wanting to create anything right now though. More like I want to pretend to be a bump on a log...hibernating. Bump on a log. SLEEP. Yup, I stayed up all nite working. Could not relax enough. Tried. Failed. Way too much java and stress.

Oh, and all those goodies I bought for Hubs yesterday? Yup, I helped eat them. I probably gained 2 pounds back in 24 hours, but it was fun. Note to file: grazing as a diet strategy only works when you graze on good, healthy food. Otherwise? Worse than worse.

Well, back to work. Gonna bust outa here and crash in a bit. Ahhhh......then I can really "spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life...WITHOUT BOUNDARIES".

Bbbbwwwaaaaaa! winkwink

Fit to be Friday

Can I just say it?

I'm going nuts right now.

Several things have aligned in my life this year to cause me to have to learn to acknowledge, adapt, adjust, accept. Yeah, when I have more time, I'll elaborate...

But right now, it's being exxacerbated greatly by having to meet a tax deadline without my usual enthusiasm or concentration. So, I've understandably turned to trying to pop some pills in search of energy, stabilization, calm.

Much to my surprise, I'm seeing some improvement!

In addition to my daily Centrum and Vitamin C (not pictured), what's in the picture above is my current stash of miracle helpers.

I give 10 stars to Cinnamon and Green Tea. I've been a bad bad diet girl since my hip began hurting badly, and on April 1 I learned what a Fool I'd been...I'd managed to gain 10 pounds back, which would be no-big-deal had I been at a decent weight, but when you've miles to go before you sleep on your weight loss, gaining 10 back is basically shameful.

So, I immediately began trying to get back on track gradually (it is tax season, after all), and while I won't be able to get my exercising turned back on until next week, I have been cutting out all fast food and sweets, and I've been eating at least 3 fruits a day and eating smaller more frequent meals.

As of April 10th, Ive lost 5 of those pounds. So, I'm halfway back to zero, and I'm thankful it was just 10 pounds and not more.

I'd been advised to try the Cinnamon recently, and I can feel a lift within 30 minutes. And when I dip back down again, a cup of green tea helps get me peppy again. I've been eating a half a grapefruit and a Lean Cuisine every 3 hours or so, too. (Hubs bought this gigantic bag of the g-fruit on sale, and the g-fruit is in addition to the other 3 daily fruit servings). I read the stories about the water myth, but I'm still drinking as much as I can, because I cannot deny that when I slack off I start gaining weight. (So maybe it's an appetite suppressor, it works, I'm not picky).

Anyway, I'm able to handle the stress much better, but I've learned one thing this spring: no more tax work. I've already told 3 clients this is the final year. It's scary, but I'm so wanting to celebrate, so I know it's the right thing to do.

I cannot ever in my life remember feeling so enthusiastic about getting to play and make art! Just a few more days....

Now, if I can just get thru Tuesday with enough energy, enthusiasm and concentration. Where are those pills...?

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

Comcast kidnapped me

OMGosh, I hate our new cable and internet provider, Comcast. Time Warner skipped town during the summer and Comcast took their place. At first they were fine. But either my cable TV or my cable internet or both has been down 5 times in the last 3 weeks, and this last time it went down Saturday night and did not come back on until this afternoon.


Boy, I was livid at first, then just disgruntled, then in serious withdrawal, LOL. But, I guess I should thank them, although I don't want to. I decided to go ahead and move my computer and all the peripherals to my office. The weather was cool outside so the attic would be bearable. I asked Hubs to get up there and move my cable connection, and shock, he didn't even protest. (I've only been giving him advanced warning for like 6 months that this was coming).

Then, the hard part: move all that electrical crap and a desk and a chifferobe. Well, why not, it's not gonna move itself. Thank goodness I remembered to snap my connects on the back of the tower first (do you do that? I always do, in case I get confused putting it all back together.)

So, I worked all day Sunday on it and part of today. I had Missy's room to put stuff in (our house is so jam-packed -- ahem, cluttered, I guess -- so it's hard to move stuff around), and now there's a lot of stuff in her room. Stuff I'll have to find another place for or put back in its place, because I was also cleaning out the collected crapola that seems to accumulate.

It would have been a pretty quick job had I not had to clean, too. Missy's room was horrid, just awful. It's dusted and vaccuumed in there now. I couldn't bare to put my stuff in there on top of all that dust! LOL And then the ceiling fans in 4 rooms needed cleaning (I have to wet-clean because of my allergies). And on and on.

Finally, I got it all set back up. but not before having to slather my back in Blue analgesic stuff because it froze up on me. No wonder: my pedometer said I walked twice the steps on Sunday that I usually walk, and ditto for today, too. That's 3 miles per day of rearranging! LOL

But, it was all worth it in the end, because now my family room is on its way to being presentable for the holidays, and my office is no longer missing a computer. Trust me, I've got about another month of clean-up-and-put-away-and-gettin-just-right, because I am not killing myself to get it all done as quickly as the last 48 hours. I'll do some of it every day. But, I'm in sight of the finishl ine and it feels gooooood.

Plus, I actually followed my plan and in a timely manner, too. {Gasp!} I honestly can't remember the last time that happened. Seriously.

Freestyle Friday

Sorry I'm late to the gate today. I've been having trouble deciding on a topic, all morning. Yes no yes no. Maybe. LOL

I just gave up and decided to catch up on the blog reading I was behind on, and now I have enough of a topic gameplan.

Lynn had a good challenge from 2peas on hers. The gist of it is, share four things about yourself that make you the person you are today as a creator/artist. Lynn's answers were pretty dang good, too. I am similar to her, it turns out, on a couple of them:

1. Like Lynn, I love color! It's what first grabs me visually, with anything.
(I also am a procrastinator -- and I work slowly, deliciously so, I love to dwell in my creativity, it gives me pleasure, and I love variety and trying new things, too. But I'm going to try to think of 3 other things about me that she didn't mention per se, so as to not be a total jackstress of her ideas, LOL)

2. I'm a noncomformist. Been thinking about that trait in me lately. I was at Mackey's blog, where I contemplated it again. More about it later, but I think that trait in me has been what has kept me from playing into the whole design team and publication route during my time in that little world. So much conforming required, unless you are touched by luck. Because I'm not prone to conformity, I've been compelled to create originally, which most of the time means it's something you're not likely to see elsewhere but not necessarily cutting edge or what the majority would like. Oh well, glad those things I don't do are not a job requirement, LOL.

3. My tendency is to be a perfectionist and I fight that every day of my life. I fight it because it's so dang limiting. I have made progress, in that every thing I create has at least one flaw and usually several, and I keep going with it and just punt (figure out how to cover it or work around it). I don't think I've ever created anything that was perfectly done, and now I'm so used to punting that I am getting used to it. For a perfectionist, that's real progress, LOL.

4. I favor form and function. It's the practical teachers' kid in me, having been raised that way. I often joke that if I won the lotto, most of it would be saved because I just don't have it in me to spend it all. Too thrifty. I think that is why I packrat stuff. Why buy something when you can packrat it for later use? When I look at altered art creations, the ones I'm really drawn to are not only beautiful but practical, useful. I have very few things that are just purely pretties.

The Different Drummer

I've had times in my life when I had to conform, and when I did it, I did it well. The accounting profession is not one for sticking out and doing your own thing. It's all about conforming to the theories, the processes, the consistent steps. And after almost 30 years, I know what I know like the back of my hand. It actually comforts me to do it when I'm in the work groove. Think Rainman here, I'm not kidding! LOL Well, okay, I'm not autistic, but accounting is so one, two, three, one, two, three, that it almost makes me feel like a number (Seger fans, Unite!) That's one side of my personality and brain. Then, there's the creative side, which I never knew I had until about 5 years ago. I've always been a good writer, but to me that was more analytical and cerebral, thinking; not messy, chaotic, feeling.

It wasn't until I got into scrapbooking and ATC's and altered art that I realized their artistic connections to writing, and that I could indeed be both right and left brained. I am left-handed in a right-handed world, and therefore I'm already trained to be ambi-brained. And it goes back a ways. Even as a child, my highest aptitudes were always math and English. And in college, I really wanted to major in accounting and minor in art, but they wouldn't really let me do that. They were right - what do you do with that combo, anyway? LOL I settled for minoring in marketing with an emphasis in writing. Face it, I was all over the board. And always have been. Too many things fascinate me.

One thing about getting older is getting comfortable in your own skin, and that's where I think my noncomformist ways have helped. Now or never, ain't no dress rehearsal, real deal. So, why not be me? I've been real lucky to have a loving Hubs who indulges me and lets me do my own thing. And since I'm such a thrifty soul, I can do it without breaking the bank. I think it hurts me though, when it comes to losing weight and stopping smoking. Conforming to societal standards are huge motivators for modifying those behaviors, and I don't bite on them. Mine will have to come from within me. The weight loss has been happening because I truly want to more than I want to taste delicious food, but the cigarette is still too enjoyable.

Anyway, there have been times in my past when I resented and even hated my nonconformist tendencies, but I'm glad to now be able to embrace it at this point.

Like the man said, I yam what I yam, and what I'm not, I don't got. LOL, have a good Friday, everybody!

Watery Wednesday Wrap-ups

I do hope those of you who read this blog remembered that I was up to my arss in tax returns and would not be counted on to blog with any regularity. Just in case you thought I drowned....

I almost did, but only figuratively. Man, the procrastinators on my client list are just gonna have to speed things up next year, cuz I'm getting too old for double all-niters (yep, I did not sleep from Saturday evening until Monday afternoon, then took a nap and stayed up again Monday night, just barely making the midnight deadline on my last 2 returns). When folks bring you moving boxes full of craps on the Thursday and Friday before a Monday deadline, ya kinda haveta stay up. But, no worries, they will get theirs, for I will remember this at invoicing time! LOL

Bad thing is, I did not have time to do my usual thorough start-to-finish on each client, so all my paperwork is still to be done for them, like document file copies, printing, collating, packaging and invoicing. And that all needs to be done this week in order to get paid before Christmas, because it starts all over again right after that! And plus, I want some time off. I want to at least pretend to be a seasonal worker! LOL

So anyway, back to drowning...good segueway to the one thing I did do yesterday (Tuesday) besides sleep all.day.long. I took off with my camera and snapped some shots of water for this week's Funky Photo Friday challenge. I really had fun doing this, although it was more difficult to get interesting shots than I anticipated. Once I figured out to use my zoom, though, it got easier. Didn't get up early enough to catch sunrise and didn't want to wait long enough to get sunset, so I had to settle for overcast midday. Then, I took the photos and editied them in PaintShopPro, some lightly, some heavily. So, I learned some new moves, not that I'm gonna remember them, LOL. One can hope.

That first shot (above) looks like a waterfall, right? Well, It's not. It's water rushing out of a bayou dredging outflow pipe into a containment pond. What I did was zoom in on the water when I snapped it. Then, back at my computer, I used the curves function to add some heavy duty whitecaps. I love how it came out, but I confess I did not know beforehand that I was going to do that. I was just playing around with the different things in my PSP. I had read of lots of people using this functions, so I thought, what does this do? Me likey!

This next photo (at left) is just barely edited with an unsharp mask and a tiny bit of brightening. This is a tributary gully creek that winds through my city and has the infamous nickname Gator Gully. More than a few alligators have been sighted on its banks over the years. There's luckily a safe concrete perch near the banks where I stood to take the shot, so no Aimeslees were sacrificed for it, LOL.

I have to admit, I had the most fun editing this photo (at left). This is just a boring old shot of our dirty brown bayou and bank near my house that flows into Galveston Bay. Boring shots like these make me want to glitz them up, so I went exploring in PSP's Effects. This one was done using the Rotating Mirror Reflection Effect. What it does is rotate part of your image however you tell it. This one is a very slight rotation, clockwise -- can you see it? What is cool is that it created a digital smush in the upper righthand quadrant that kind of looks like there's a buddhist fairy with wings sitting there on the grass. Click on any of these for a larger view.

Well, I have to say that during my overtime at work I almost literally ached to do some creative playing. I missed it that much. And I even missed blogging. Yet, no rest for the weary. As I explained, I'll be working on finishing up the paperwork, tomorrow it's to the dentist for a cleaning, and then I will be on vacation until November 1. Not from blogging, I'll still blog daily (ok, that's the plan). But I won't be crafting for that time. The crafting supplies are going to get packed up and put away, and I'm going to tackle the remaining parts of our house reorganization.

My goal is to have most of it done by Oct. 28th, which is the next day off for DH. I need to move my computer and internet cable to my front office from the family room, as well as clean up all the accumulated crap from the family room and the front dining room and office. Then, once that goal is met, I can work in my spare time on cleaning out the back 10' x 22' room behind the garage and making it into our fitness gym! I am so jazzed at the thought of getting that done that the mere visualization of it is enough to get me moving, even when I'm in pain. Hubs wants it badly too, and we really only have this remaining window of time open, since I need to use Missy's room to store stuff in while I move other stuff around. And she will be home for Thanksgiving. So, the craftings gotta go for now. Also, I won't be online as much, but that's going to be a good thing, because I've noticed that my old bones are less painful the less time I spent at the keyboard, ya know?

So, you have all been told! LOL Please, if ya see me online alot, feel free to whip me and yell at me to get back on plan! I just feel that if I get somewhere with this, my life's gonna improve to the next level, cuz all of this clutter and stuff not being where I want it to be is bugging the caniption outta me. And being able to use all of our gym equipment, OMG, I literally cannot wait!

Have a great HUMPerdink DAY, everybody. (Gina, I will do your tag on Thursday, okay?)

Oh My Heck!

Usually my days are comprised of minutes that move slower than turtles, but this week things are going fast at a dizzying speed! It couldn't be the 9 tax returns I have left to do with a deadline of Monday, could it? rofl

Anyway, when things get this busy, there's always something I forget. Like in yesterday's post, I forgot to include some information that was very very important to me to post. Of course, I forgot to, right?

Instant Replay?
I am re-displaying this card from yesterday, because I used a Maria Bell sketch as my inspiration, and I totally forgot to cite that. Many apologies, Maria. I happen to have a saved image file of the sketch, which I've shown right next to my card. I had planned to get busy during October using her sketches to make what I'm calling Maria Cards, but her dang sketch site is temporarily down and it's killing me! Just goes to show you never appreciate things til they are deprived from you, right? LOL Really, I always appreciated her sketches, I just never got my act together to make some cards before now. Ten months, that's all it took. Sheesh! Hurry up and get that domain name, Maria, ppplllleeeeezzzzeeee!!!!!!! winkwink


Daily Card Trick
Excuse me for being old-fashioned, but this card makes me giddy! LOL I love to look at it and am going to rue the day I part with it. Love that music stamp I used on the tag, the image of the woman, the quote, the colors, and I currently have a love affair going on with Colorbox fluid chalk ink cat eyes (which I've had for a couple of years, sheesh again). I had always worried about the ink transferring or rubbing off, but I find that if I let it dry long enough, then take a tissue and gently rub it or lightly burnish the ink, it takes care of that pretty well. Tell me, what do you think about my card today? Hope you like this vintage style, cuz I'll be making loads of them, hehe. You were just warned.....

I am Stuck on Rutless, Cuz Ruts Don't Stick On Me
Today's 2peas blogger challenge asks: Are you a person who will go out of your norm to try something new at least once. Or stay with that your comfortable with?

Oh boy, I think I'm allergic to staying the same for too long, in certain areas. Now, my clothes and my furnishings? They could stay the same for a decade, rofl, and some parts of them have. That's "classic" ya know, winkwink. But my hair, my organization, my decorations and arrangements, my art...all fair game to moving around. Even my blogs, you know that! So yeah, I try new stuff. A lot. All in all though, I'd say I'm about half and half. Some things will never change in my world, by choice. Face it, I'm just weird. And I love it.

In China but Close to Home
I hope this doesn't tear me up talking about it, but I was watching ABC Evening news like usual the other day, and on came a story about a special needs kid who is competing in the Special Olympic World Games this week in China. He's from Richland Hills, Texas and his name is Houstin Gardiner and I'll never forget him. They focussed on him, his history, his bravery, his story. He earned a gold and a silver, and when you watch him on the bars you think he's at the real show, he's that good. Interesting guy, really sad history, he's special needs because of shaken baby syndrome, biological parents were likely drug addicts. He was adopted, though, by great people and he's blossomed beautifully, just needs a bit more time than the average person.

I teared up something awful, worse than watching one of those old AT&T commercial, lemmetellya. Well, I had to google him to spell his name right, and you are never gonna believe what I discovered? 8 other kids in the American delegation to those games ARE FROM THE TOWN I LIVE IN. It floored me. Plus, I freakin recognized 2 of them from their pics. They live in a half-way house / assisted living group home around the corner from me! Boy, I was bawling then. I have a soft spot in my heart for kids who have special needs. It's an automatic trigger on my Mama Bear hormones, what can I say? I'd never be able to work or volunteer around them, though. I tried once and could not keep my emotions in check. Anyway, please join me in wishing these kids ALL the BEST and may every kid win a medal! (I went by the house those two live at and asked just to make sure. It's them all right. They are supposed to call me when they get home. They like ice cream and I'm gonna take them out for a scoop at MacDonald's.) Oh GAWD, where are those Kleenex.......

Catchya later, Ladies! Have your best Thursday ever!