Finally...

Finally, I think I am officially off *Depends Suicide Watch*. I'm still not well yet, but I'm definitely on the mend and happy to be there. I'm still coughing, but not like a couple of days ago, when the post-nasal drip got so dang bad that after awhile my abs popped their elastic band and died, leaving me with nothing but the well-earned nickname I.P. Freely.

At one point, I was yelling to God at 3 a.m. after being stuck on the toilet for hours, because every time I tried to stand up I'd have another coughing fit and pee my pants even though I'd just relieved myself more than relief deserves.

I truly cannot remember an attack this bad ever in my life. Which is why I still think that I had a cold at first, and then it morphed into allergies gone wild. The doc said I had no fever and no sign of infection, and that both cold viruses and allergies are rampant right now. He said my immune system is fragile right now because of the arthritis meds and therapy I'm on, so theoretically both could have hit me.

But, back to my diaper story...

I am ashamed to say that I ended up actually buying a package of Depends, or rather, Hubs did. I initially felt I owed him a big one for doing that, until it became so difficult talking him into doing it that it wiped out all my feelings of goodwill. Let's just say I'm glad I'm in menopause, because he always refused to buy tampons, too. He had absolutely no sympathy with the possibility of me having a coughing fit and peeing my pants in the middle of CVS trying to buy them myself.

So, how did I talk him into it? I simply reminded him, "okay, then don't blame me when one day you might be shitting all over yourself and need a diaper, and I pull the same crap you're pulling now."

That did the trick. :-)))) But you know that old saying about needing stuff only when you don't have it? Fate intervened. Within hours of my receipt of said dreaded diapers, I began to improve. I was able to go get my steroid shot and the diapers remain unopened, forever to remain in the bathroom cabinet when truly needed. By either one of us. winkwink

Oh, I do wanna pass on a home remedy Hubs picked up at work: rub Vick's Vapo-rub all over the bottoms of your feet and put on some socks, and you will stop coughing for a few hours. I did it and it worked for me. This has been discussed on Snopes but no conclusions were reached either way. Another great thing it does is soften the heck out of the skin on my soles. Seriously. It's become a new tradition for me.

So, anyway, word of advice to you younger ladies who still have abs that work: Youth, Thy Name is Kegal!

My 411 Lately...

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Our "Not So Fast" ad first ran in USA Today on Friday, May 16th. Since then, response to our effort from both the media and voters has been overwhelming. For more information, contact us at womencountpac@gmail.com.
CONTRIBUTE TO WOMENCOUNT

Also, had a pleasant Mother's Day:

Missy had our fave photo of us sepia'ed and framed for my office.

Hubs got us chocolates.

And, my Muse has had me in a very anal retentive organizing mood lately. Into the minutia of cataloguing and indexing diecuts, which could last months but headway must be made before I literally go nuts over not knowing what I have that I can use to play with.

Here's a view of some of the index sheets I have completed. These are fun to look at, I think, but then I have a little bit of a diecut fetish:

Made a drawer into a basket with my antique kitchen cabinet handles:

And the Kids send Peace and Love to Blogland:

Big Red Scores Again!

Good morning. Well, today my money assignment is to watch MSNBC's key political shows and list all the advertisers. Seems there are quite a lot of folks who would like to write these companies...but let me save it for the paycheck and just say "I told you so" and get on to the art...

It may be clouding up outside my window, the economy may be heading into the nearest ditch, and the Democratic National Committee may be writing its own suicide note, but HEY! I hung onto my Big Red Sizzix instead of chucking it when I bought a Big Shot, and I am so avenged cuz I discovered that I can smash bottlecaps with it!


*******
The 3 photos above show how I did it. First, the right sandwich recipe: from bottom to top, I stacked 2 white platforms, 1 sheet of chipboard (paper pad backing), and then 2 black Sizzlets adapters. I laid the bottlecap with the inside of it up, and I made sure that the Sizzix system converter was OFF the machine. And the last photo shows the bottlecap before and after. Sweet!

I was so jazzed I grabbed my old-school Crop A Dile (it was easier to reach for than my Big Bite) to see if I could punch a hole in my bottlecap, and yes, we can (as they say in yadayada-bama land). This further excited me to the point where I quickly used a couple of smashed n punched b-caps to secure some woven ribbon onto my card box for a handle that I've been meaning to make for forever.

"Patchwork Earth" atc


"Sunflower" atc

Of course I had to make some art with my smashed caps, right? So, here are 2 of the atc's I created.

Now, why would I suddenly start using bottlecaps? (You know I'm Old-School 24/7, but still...). I should fess up: I've been really into the challenges at Bringing It Back blog. It's been fun to re-visit even more of my vast giganta scrap-stash than I've thought to use. I mean, the bottlecaps that have been sitting in my stash drawer for oh, about 2-3 years kinda frightened me. But the challenges give me courage to just experiment and play (I mean, what's the downside? This stuff is so old that if I ruined it, no loss at all. And if I don't and actually make something I like, that rocks.) And I don't have to worry about stupid peer pressure...working with materials in the BTDT category...because my "cover" is the challenge! So, hey, join us if it interests you.

Now, onto the other flowers before I get to the dirt. Been reading. A Book. Don't faint now. I do this from time to time, it's just that my tastes run towards historical and political, not Oprah-bot best sellers, so I rarely even mention them. But I want to mention 2 of them today. The one I'm reading is


Valerie Bertinelli's Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time.
It's a great read! Highly recommended, if for nothing more than all the dirt on her and Eddie. Which is pretty much why I'm reading it. I dunno though. She is brutally honest and just a nice, level-headed girl. I've always liked her and I always will. You can read a little of it at the link I provided and see for yourself.

The other book is one I ordered today:

Adam Shepard's Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream
I should receive this one Monday and cannot wait. It's brand new and I saw Adam interviewed on CNN. He basically took $25, his college degree and the clothes on his back and hit the road to find the American Dream by trying to build a life from scratch, to see if it could still be done. Everyone and thing in his life up til then had indicated to him that life cost so much to live that he might never be able to. He found out that old ways are still possible. It just takes saying no to all the spending, and in the bargain you learn and receive so, so much more.

Not only does that sound like my kinda story, but I want them to be Missy's, too. I plan on giving her both of these after I am through with them. Lots of great, great lessons. I probably shortchanged Valerie's book greatly, because it's biggest impact is in her learning to rely on and believe in herself and in not being tricked into not seeing yourself clearly.

Oh, been meaning to let you all know, I am continuing the RAK'ing, but I decided to do it privately. No deadlines, and from the heart. I've already contacted my next batch and totally aim to continue it cuz it makes me feel good and I want to give back. But I don't want to make a fuss over it, like it's a competition and that's how it was feeling to me. I am also preparing a box of handmade cards to send to soldiers, Mother's and Father's Day cards. It really makes me feel like I am making some little difference.

You know, we don't need any outside force or source to "give" us change and hope. It's within each one of us and only we ourselves can produce it. I am blessed to have known that my entire life, as I see an awful lot of younger people who have no clue of this truth.

My day & a surprise RAK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A little of my day in photos:

Big Baby Reggie


Our lunch - Grilled shrimp salad:



Something Hubs worked on:



Something I worked on:



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

Baby Steps All Around

Here's a future project. Hopefully, by the end of the year, they might get altered, LOL.

Well, overall Thursday was a bit better than Wednesday for me. I still have this bug, and I'm very depleted and tired but I really believe the intermittent nausea, cramps, etcetera, is slowing up. Not getting them quite as often. I'm thinking a couple more days and I might be feeling better. I called my doctor's office yesterday to ask if anything like this was going around, and there is an intestinal virus/flu making the rounds. Sounds like this might be that. I'll just continue to take it easy since there is little else one can do for that.

Here and there, I've been fiddling with my Goth ATC's, and applying thin multiple coats of Diamond Glaze over my rub-ons is doing the trick. So is heating the rubon for a few seconds with a hair dryer before applying them. I've also been applying them to vellum and since that is less porous than paper, I believe that helps. So, I contnue to have fun with those.

I'd sent the swap hostess the photo of them when I emailed her to drop out. She wrote back asking me to stay in it if I could and she would give me more time, because she loves my ATC's and they are exactly what she was hoping to receive. So, I'm back in the swap, I think, if I continue to feel well enough to sit long enough to do some work. We will see.

One reason I like doing this kind of crafting is because I'm learning a lot by trying different things out on the ATC's. I have different inks and it helps to know which ones dry faster and more permanently, which ones stay wet longer and can be embossed, etc. etc. I used some copper Brilliance ink to edge some vellum, and it really dried well. OTOH, the Versafine I used to edge another ATC took forever to dry, but I'd really globbed it on there, too.

Seems like I get to experiment more than when I do greeting cards, and although it doesn't have to be that way, that's the way it usually turns out. Anyway, I can take baby steps toward learning more about techniques, as well as getting experience so maybe I'll remember how to do them the next time...

Happy Love Day

I know that in yesterday's post I referenced a "final" Valentine card, but I apparently lied. I'd forgotten about these 3 ATC's I'd made for a Twisted Valentine swap and then pulled out of because I was being too slow-pokey-creative, and then I got sick. Still sick, by the way...

Then the rub-ons I'm using began acting weird, like they were too dry and cold at the same time. This is a major bummer to me, since I have 3 books of these rub-ons, by CI and Marah Johnson. I finally concluded that I'm going to have to try to seal the rub-ons on these ATC's with a very thin brushed on coat of Diamond Glaze and just hope they don't pucker any more.

You can see in the photo what I'm talking about on the Eternity heart and the baseball cap. The girl skull went on perfectly and is fine.

What do ya'll think of these? They are tons of fun to make and stretched my comfort perimeter, but I have no idea if anyone else likes them. I'm of the generation that cannot bare to mix red and pink, okay? So, these definitely were a stretch for me.

If you like any of them, tell me which one you like best. I'm trying to get a feel for people's tastes, and if you don't care for this style, that's okay to say, too. I think this would be Goth or Gothic, but a bit on the cutesy side? Any advice is welcome, LOL.

So,m anyway, startin' Day 4 with this illness of mine. Today, nausea took center stage. I felt really queasy several times, and at the weirdest times. The throat crust and runny nose gave way to that. I would call this stuff Morphing Flu because the symptoms morph into something else every day. I seriously don't like being nauseated. Hoping for the morph to a new symptom today, LOL.

Hope every one has an enjoyable Love Day!

An Exciting Super Tuesday

I wanted to wait until late to blog; then I got busy mounting some of my rubber stamps on cling foam and cutting out; then got so sleepy I was afraid to post my name, much less anything else! I napped a bit though, enough to trust myself again, so here I am, at least for a little while.

My thoughts and prayers are with all the folks who were impacted by last night's tornadic storms. My parents are in Northeast Arkansas and rode it through in their hallway. Thankfully, they are okay with just a loss of electricity. One of the tornados hit less than a mile from them, so they were indeed lucky.


Every so often in my card-making, I will make one that I just love. This is one of those. It's for my oldest sister-in-law (I have 5 of them between both families). I hadn't ever really made one for her that I liked alot or would say was really nice. So, this one was long overdue for her to get.

I got to use my Big Shot Texturizing Plate on the blue cardstock. I also used a Spellbinders Nestabilities scalloped circle die, as well as a few other assorted toys. I've been trying to include 1 or 2 different techniques or pieces of equipment in my creations lately. I don't know if I actually will make more of these, but I wouldn't mind it if I did. ;-)

Hillary is officially my girl now. I finally decided today. I particularly enjoyed seeing the media project her the winner of Massachusetts and California. The Kennedy endorsements in those states had me reacting negatively. I idolized JFK as a child and teen, but then I grew up, read several biographies and learned about his reackless behaviors and blatant womanizing (nude women in the White House pool, dating a Mob mistress then too).

I began looking at his administration critically and saw how many times America teetered on the brink of major f-up. So, I'm no longer a fan. I thought it was pretty cool that their states went to Hillary after the Kennedys came out for Obama. Other than that, I was left with excitement over how many participated in the process, and how no one is yet a runaway frontrunner. My state votes in the March primaries and I like it that it's still a competitive race.

I've decided to just award the Blogging Award to everyone on my 'Dear Friends' Links on my sidebar. I just can't pick any one over another. You are all Excellent Bloggers!

Half a Month Gone

Yikes! The realization of that hit me last night as I was doing email maintenance and trying to make myself come over here and post. Don't get me wrong, I have an almost continuous conversation with you guys, just in my head. The day they invent a think-it-keyboard that I can afford, I'm blogging 24/7/365! Til then, though, my poor readers must deal with my pain-killer-induced ADD and patiently wait for me to finally blog the old fashioned way, LOL.

Anyway, today is the 16th. Hard to believe, huh? There's just under a month until Valentine's Day. Double yikes! I really wanted to make lots of Valentine cards this year, but I have so many things artsy and non-artsy on my plate begging for service that I am wondering if that's possible now. OH, well, such are the ups and downs of Life. We'll see....

Thanks again to all of you who took the time and care to express such loving comments to me. I've been laying low the past few days, spending lots of extra with Reggie and just basically flitting from one chore to the next when I'm not sleeping. The weather down here is typical January wet cold, just miserable.And, looks like we are going to have an entire week of it, too.

I've been keeping a list of stuff to blog about, so I'd better get to it!

First up, not a toot, but a little artfart maybe. LOL One of my layouts is on the Scrap the Girls blog. One of the things I love about these kind of sites is the collective display of readers layouts. Challenge sites that have the guest designers and the design teams all the time get old after awhile. The readers gallery follows no set theme, so you never know what you are gonna see. I like that!

Next, congrats to AMC's Mad Men and its star, Jon Hamm. Hamm, who plays Don Draper, won best dramatic actor at the Golden Globes, and the show won Best TV Drama. Another of my shows won too: Glen Close won Best dramatic actress for Damages on Fx. I cannot wait for both shows to return for another season.

Next, I have a product review of a new item I just received yesteray: the second generation Crop-A-Dile, called The Big Bite! I love it! This is how it came shipped to me from HSN. I never watch the shows, I just get the email promos. HSN's shipping and service is top-notch, by the way. This is my third order since Thanksgiving, the first two being the Bind_It-All and then a card-scorer and box maker.

Right off, I encounter probably my only problem with this product: getting into the package. Boo! This is ridiculous. Took me 7 minutes with my utility scissors. I timed it. The entire perimeter of the packaging had to be cut away on the seam.

After that, it was all sweetness and light. This is all that was included in the package HSN was offering. That's over 350 gromments. I've not used a grommet yet, but I plan to compare this tool with my MM Grommet Tool real soon, for another blog review. I wanted the Big Bite, so I had to buy the grommets since they came with the tool. For now, I'll just assume it grommets nicely, too.

To test the hole-punch power (which is why I got the dang thing), I used a popsicle stick.
My guess is that the pop stick is like 3 mm thick, cuz it looks about the thickness of .03 cm on my ruler. Never could get the hand of the metric system!

Anyway, on one end of the stick is a hole made with the original CAD, and on the other end, the Big Bite. No diff. Both went thru like butta. Vundabarrrrrr!

The Big Bite is awesome because it now gives you a 6-inch reach into the page to punch holes and set metal. It has removeable feet that keep it standing upright and anchor the tool for when you press down on the handle to punch or set. It sets the same size eyelets, too, plus the grommet sizes. And we get slightly better instructions on this one. WRMK has sucky directions. They are too small and hard to read. The Big Bite's could be better, but I'm glad it's an improvement, much like how I feel about the Big Bite overall. I give it an A-, and I am very glad I took the plunge and went ahead and got one now. Lots of places are now out-of-stock. Mine only took 5 days to get to me, so I am doubly lucky.

Well, that's it for today. Have a great Hump Day and evening!

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!)...

It's In The Mail

Hey. How are you? I'm good. Late and Pissed, but good.


Before I get into my vent as to why I'm pissed, here is my Art-Every-Day for today, 11/5. Another box for another niece (I have 4 of them, just to warn you.)

Okay, for the vent: I just got through placing an order with an online scrapping site (who shall remain nameless for 24 hours, as I give them a chance to right this wrong before dissing them to the world). They put out a free shipping promo and their shopping cart was unable to account for it.

Why do store owner people do that? Don't they realize the blood pressure levels that rise? What ever happened to "a happy customer is a return customer" or "the customer comes first"?

Thing is, this was my first order with this site. I first tried to check out Saturday when the cart kept adding ten bucks of shipping in. I was able to save my cart, and I promptly emailed them to explain and ask for assistance.

Heard from them late today. They sent instructs on what to do to coax the cart to comply. (Say, what?) Oh, brother. Well, I wanted some of that stuff bad, so I did what they said.

I even went the extra mile, deleting cookies, restarting the computer, the whole nine yards. I was beginning to get a migraine and that's not good! Every time I went in Checkout, there was that shipping charge added in.

Finally, I think I just snapped, because I thought, well, I'll just pay with paypal and they can issue me a paypal credit. I was also beginning to get nervous that maybe some of the stuff would be out of stock if I waited. So, I checked out.

Now, I'm waiting to see if they will do the honorable thing and issue me the credit, or if that email promo was a scam, or if all they will do is issue me a store credit. The reason I chose to use paypal is that I'll at least have that avenue to complain to if I'm not compensated fairly. And I did save the promo email.

The site looks normal. Like it's been there a while, and their folder in my email prog has a welcome email from them from March which is when I must have signed up for their newsletter.

I probably should be less irritated about it, but it's really just fear on my part that I'm going to get ripped off. And that might be over-reacting, but honestly, it's also a great example of what goes through a customer's mind and why stores don't get return business when everything else was good to go. I'm hoping it's just stupid programming and techno-clueless ownership. Still, don't force the customer to have to suffer because of either of those. All I'm sayin.....

Now, as to why I'm real late posting this: I actually spent the entire day as if I did not have a blog. Weird, huh? I worked on stuff I needed to do all day long. In the very very back of my mind, the word "blog" did sit, waiting a little too patiently for me to get to her. (Yes, if my thoughts had a gender, they'd be female.)

***Weather Alert on the news right now: Dropping temps tonight! Jacket needed tomorrow....HERE! 39 in Amarillo right now.***

Today (though not in this order), I cooked King Ranch Chicken (recipe tomorrow with photos, ok?), I created stuff, I cleaned in the breakfast nook part of our kitchen (the nook where the table is), paid some bills, did some accounting work-work, and then I did some organizing on my Google Reader subscriptions (I about gasped when I noticed I have close 1,000 of them -- eegads, huh?).

Something else I did was keep the radio on all day instead of the TV, and I have to say that I get lost in what I'm doing more with muzak in the background. This is good and bad. Good, meaning more enjoyable. Bad, meaning less control on time management. When I did turn on the TV to watch Heroes and Journeyman as is my usual schedule, the sound sort of assaulted my ears. Whoa. It was refreshing to not have that TV on all the time.

And now I'm sleepy and still need to shower, so I'll close with something that happened this morning. My friend Vanny, who works by day as an office manager (she's actually a VP but I never call her that lest her head grow to the size of a watermelon, LOL -- you hear that, Vanny?), calls me this morning from her office. She does this a few times a week, but today she was really agitated. She starts in with "Can you believe?" A new girl who works for her called in to take a sick day because she had gotten a "beaver wax" (you can figure out what that is, right?) Saturday morning and it was already stubbly! OMG, I LMAO'd just to think someone would tell their boss that so nonchalantly. Yeah, she did, and said it would just be too painful to get out of bed, so...

Well, you really have to know Vanny, but she was quick to trot on this and told the girl (she's newly hired, remember) she was sympathetic but she would have to connect her to the big boss cuz he had to approve it because everyone was needed at work due to some kind of company files problem. So, the girl was weirded out, but Vanny cut her off and transferred her, telling her boss to just play along. A few minutes later he walks into her office and tells her the girl told him she was sick with a rash and couldn't come in, and then was like, come on, fess up, why in hell did you give her to me? (They're good friends and have worked together for over 20 years.) Vanny gave him the 411, and they were both like, what an idiot we hired. And Vanny asked Jim what would he have done if the girl had repeated the 'real' story to him? Yep, she proceeded to rib him good, and he in turn kept answering that he'd have fired both their butts. She pops back that she just wants to know, is that a legitimate excuse in the company manual for a work absence or not, because she doesn't hunt beaver so she doesn't know? Back and forth. Back and forth. That one will get tease-worthy action for months. I've have margaritas with both of them before, so I could just visualize the conversation perfectly.

I'm tellin' ya, Vanny does not let go once she has sunk her teeth in, but I love her. She's about the closest to a sister I have, outside of my closest and oldest friend Cindy.

Well, let me get off of here while it's still November 5th. Have a great Tuesday, everybody!

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?

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

Surf-Share Saturday/Sunday

It occurred to me today, as I was trying to come up with some good content for today's entry and ending up with some lame ideas all the way around, that I have a few pretty cool sites bookmarked to share. Hence, the start of something new! Surf-Share! LOL What a great topic to be able to fall back on when needed. So, without further ado, let me dig into my Google Reader for a few links to sites you might find interesting.

1.Since I still officially have a teen (who also considers herself one) until July 2008, I like being inspired by scrap layouts specifically for teens. And if you scrap for teens, you know how tough that can be! So, I consider Scrap The Teenz a God-send. There are a ton of fabulous layouts there, and the inspiration flows strong. The sidebar has links to 3 other great sites for family inspiration: Scrap the Girls, Scrap the Boys, and Scrap the Pets. Geez, what more could you need? Scrap the In-Laws? LOL


2.I lurk at Elizabeth Bunsen's web site most every time she posts a new entry. She is an artist in Burlington, Vermont, I think. Pure eye candy and quirkiness abounds. Never know what she is going to post. Mostly photos, and many times scenes of her bit of Heaven she calls her home. Man, if only I could be so lucky to have her gig, LOL. Guaranteed to lift your spirits and call you to your creative home.

3.Here's a journal challenge blog you can enjoy even if you don't join in: This Is Me Journal Challenges. They note in the sidebar, "The This is Me Journal, is designed to give you a creative outlet and way to jot down some random ideas about yourself. In 10 years, you will probably look back at these pages and laugh- and that is the idea. Not really to get too deep, but to express things that you think and do everyday- that you never want to forget!" If you already journal well but need inspiration, if you're a scrapper who needs a new way to journal, a scrapper who needs journaling improvement, or if you just like to see what other people create and think about, check out this site. Don't forget the ginormous list of particpant's links listed on the sidebar, and if you start at the bottom of the blog page and work your way up, you get all the challenge 411 from Day One, complete with slide shows of each challenge's participant entries. This site is fully loaded. It's the Everyday done in almost every way. LOL

4.Confessions of Pioneer Woman, a city girl transplanted into country life as a ranch owner's wife, and her companion site, Pioneer Woman Cooks, are delightful and funny escapes. I don't want to be her, but I want to know Pioneer Woman, otherwise known as Ree in real life. But I'll just have to suck up every morsel she throws out to her adoring fans. The woman can write! OMG. I just finished her latest entry about how she met her DH, aka Marlboro Man. And Ree only cooks fat-laden, starchy, stick-to-your-ribs, old-timey ranch hand food, and she includes step by step photos and instructions in case you want to cook it all too. What a guilty pleasure!

5.From the ranch to the farm, LOL. Sherelle Christensen's a big name in scrapbooking, but on her blog, My Crazy Life, we get a nicely written, beautifully photographed window into her simple, lovely and genuine and immensely busy life on her family's Idaho farm. I have to say, I'm just blown away by it all. Her snaps are stunning, particularly the scenery of her everyday surroundings, and also quaint, sweet and old-fashioned when the subjects are her family and the community. Plus, there are delicious farm-food recipes, oh my. Very similar to Ree (#4), but never snarky, always genuine and forthright. I crave daily feeds of her musings.

Well, that's 5 great escapes. Hope you give them a test run if they suit you. I've got a date with some cleaning and then later with the Hubs, so I'll see ya Monday! Have an awesome weekend!

We Be Cool

Good morning and happy Tuesday! Guess what?

63 more days until you-know-what!

Guess what else?

Aside from buying a few materials, I have not yet started my gift-making. At all.

How about you?

Don't hate me for bringing it up! I don't want to upset anyone or make your blood pressure rise, just puttin' it out there, LOL, for myself as much as for anyone else. We have time still.

I order most of my purchases online, have for almost 5 years now. And as far as scrapbooking supplies, one store I've bought from every year, Scrappy Dreams, recently announced they are going out of business, effective 12/31/07 (Loraine, the owner, is going back to school).

Since she's closing down, Loraine's having a 50% off sale, and I placed what I guess is my final order first thing this morning. I know that I am on a no-buy Dollar Diet, but that's a working rule. As with my diet, I stray from time to time and the rule keeps me from going wacko. I can tell you, the order I just placed was one smart deal.

Let's see, I spent $25 (plus $5 shipping), and among the goodies I got are: Scenic Route Rockland papers and Capitol Hill chipboard alphas; some black Doodlebug pp's and cardstock and some yummy striped pp's; 2 Stazon inks I don't have; some Junkitz long bradz, a few Chatterbox papers I didn't have; some 7G's Brompton pp (the last of it, I think); and some Modern Textures Specialty Paper in Purple Fizz.

She has a great assortment of specialty papers, which come in real handy in certain styles of cardmaking and altering. I would have doubled my order amount buying it all up if I didn't already have most of it. Okay, I have mostly scraps left and probably should have just ordewred it all over again at these discounts, but I was trying to be good! And I wanted to buy up every Junkitz Ringz she has, but with my arthritic hands they are sometimes hard to open. I'd decided a while back to switch to the 7Gypsies ones I can get at Joann's, but the Junkitz ones are so cutely colored! {pout}

Anyway, if you enjoy shopping somewhere trustworthy, and that's kinda picked over so you really don't know what you'll find til you look, check out Loraine's store. She may carry the one thing you've been looking all over for. I'm really sad to see her close, but I totally understand, she needs to move on to the next chapter.

Well, temperatures here are nice! Our cool front moved in yesterday and we got both rain and wind bustin' down from the north. Gusts even in the middle of the night! I sleep under a window and was actually woke up once from the noise of the shrubs lashing against the pane. And, a couple of times, my house frame creaked from the gusts. Since it's a very sturdy brick house, that's a forceful gust. In fact, it's still blowing. My wind chimes are singing nonstop, LOL.


Even so, we are sorely lacking down here for seasonal color. The leaves have begun falling off our oak tree in the front yard, so there is plenty of brown to mix in with the green lawn. But I took a photo under the tree looking up, and there is only one little forlorn reddish leaf in the entire canopy! Do you see it? Is that sad or what?

Sad for me, it is. The challenge this week at Funky Photo Friday is to photog our local seasonal changes. Well, that's my one leaf! Pitiful. Guess I won't be able to play in this one.

Well, all good things must end, and I have had nothing but annoying problems since installing my music player on my blog. So, gonna have to take the player off. I'm glad I tried it out. Learned to do something new. But, for me, choosing the songs took forever and they get old real quick, playing over and over again. The perfect player would be one that chooses congs from certain styles and always shuffles them so that I don't keep hearing the sames ones. Actually, the perfect player is one that operates as a standalone and does not suck my computer resources dry, who am I kidding? Time for me to get my Creative Zen player out and just listen to that. I have never had good luck with all-in-one devices or setups of any kind.

Which brings up a good question for those of you who download songs to an mp3 player that is not an Apple iPod: where do you get your songs? Please email me or leave a comment and tell me. I need to find some new tunes.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!