I Haz A Sad

Just a quick post to let you know I had to put my kitty down last night. Rough night. She had a blood clot, and at the age of 15, they said she had less than a 50% chance of making it, and would have a very stressful quality of life with the treatment. We had a great 12+ years together, lots of cuddles, and I will have her hair on every surface and piece of furniture forever.

Right now I'm just staying busy - purging her things (a friend will take them to where she volunteers with adoptable kitties), cleaning out a closet or two so I have somewhere to store the stuff remaining in the middle of my Living Room ... you know, distractions.

I may not feel like crafting for a while, or I may decide I need the refuge. As soon as the waterworks stop, I'll see.

Thanks for listening.

Lazy Sunday

Kitty and I enjoyed a totally lazy Sunday. Here she is in her OMG LIFE IS ROUGH I NEED TO NAP pose in her sunbeam. The door was open to let in some of the amazing fresh air, and she was zonked.

Last time she did this total zonk thing was after a day of classes, and she was so stressed from being social, she passed out and I thought she was dead. I had a little Kitty CSI fun then, so I thought I'd do it again:

Nope, she's alive. She moved:

Gosh, but her life is tough.

I accomplished two things today. Okay, five things, but I'm only going to mention two of them here. First, one of my Tweeps and Bloggie pals, Stampin' Libby, is even MORE famous now than she was already! Why? WHY?! Because she entered AND WON the Whole Foods Food Fight at the Mother Ship of Whole Foods in Austin, TX. Her recipe sounded so yummy, I tried it. This is what mine looked like right out of the oven:

... and here's a peek at the inside yumminess:

M-m-m-m-m. I made a few modifications and substitutions, as follows:
1. Spelt spaghetti instead of corn spaghetti. Spelt is brown, in case you didn't know that.
2. Poblano peppers instead of Hatch chilis. I am a wimp, plus I'm not going to New Mexico to get a Hatch chili (chile?).
3. I tried to roast the pepper on my ceramic-top stove. Not happening, so it wasn't roasted.
4. Leeks instead of onion because I had leeks from the farmers market and I didn't feel like putting them away, so I used them instead.
5. I used most of a bunch of cilantro, because I love it so, plus I didn't want it left over. I could call this a cilantro pie. Yes, a lot of cilantro.
6. I used a different smokey cheese because my Whole Foods didn't have the one she used. Mine was a hard-ish cheese, where something like a smoked cheddar would have been a lot softer. I liked the contrast, though.

See? You can totally make this recipe your own, and it is STILL yummy! Next time, and yes, there will be a next time, I'm thinking about adding grilled chicken to the mix. Mmmmm.

The other big thing I did today was watch a video about how to make tassels. You see, I have about forty bazillion skeins of DMC floss, and they need to get gone. Plus, I had an idea for making book marks to give away with my holiday craft show sales, so I could put the tassels on the bookmarks.

This is the first pass at the bookmark + tassel:

That tassel weighs about 5 pounds, and is probably a bit too hefty for the paper bookmark. I think the next batch of tassels I make will be smaller. Batch? She said batch? I told you I was busy. Look:

These are rough and unfinished, but you get the idea. I have a LOT of DMC floss.

Here's a few up close and personal:

They are really easy to make. Once they're trimmed up, they'll be fine.

Did you notice I posted NO CARDS? That's right. Not one piece of card stock gave its life for a card today. Not in my craft room, anyway. But I did empty the dishwasher and fill it up again, and cook, and make more mess, and cleaned some more. Tomorrow. I promise. Tomorrow I shall make some cards. Because if I don't, it's going to be a very, very long week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sag, You're It

I'm baaaaack, and with a little irreverence. As much as I like making cards in general, these snarky ones tend to give me the biggest charge:

I love that I can make her say anything I want to! And I also love that all of these papers came from the Scrap Heaplet. I made three of these tonight, so now I have something new for this weekend's market. Yay!

I had my Stamp Camps this past weekend, and we had an R-Rated moment I need to share with the blogosphere because it was SO FUNNY. Remember this card:

The Ladies were making paper flowers out of junk mail (which I asked them to bring since I'd recycled all of mine), when I heard a whoot and a few guffaws, and one of The Ladies held this up:

ACK! OMG, she wanted the blue from the bra advertisement, and after she'd punched it out ... well, we were all laughing over it. It was pretty funny!

And, as usual, The Ladies did me proud. I love it when they take one of my ideas and change it up a little. Remember this card:

While my twine is a little too loose (okay, a lot too loose), one of The Ladies pulled her twine a little too tight and it tore the edge of the card. Sooo, we took a scrap of the Kraft card stock, cut a strip off, covered the boo-boo edge, and she ended up with this:

Also notice her Kraft squares are actually stuck to her card and also straight. Thank goodness my samples are merely serving suggestions, and they can translate the idea into a better reality. Some of the other ladies liked this so much, they added the Kraft strip on purpose.

By Monday night's session, Kitty was in need of attention. In all the years I've been playing with ink and ribbon, she has never, ever, ever stepped in ink or gotten any on her. And she has yet to run away with any of my schtuff. But Monday, she needed to be in the middle of things, so she did this:

She is sitting on an inked stencil, and I was sure she had a pink bottom, but she lucked out and the inky side was face-down. We think she wanted to be near the light. It's pretty warm.

In other news, I am in a panic because I am having a house guest and I have no room for my stuff much less a suitcase and another person. It's interesting how one looks at their abode differently if they think in terms of someone else having to see it. Stamping is not a neat or compact hobby. This should be interesting.

At least we have several outings planned, so I will leave the house a few times and take pics to share. I may even find time to stamp something. Could happen. :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Lame Blog Post

Hi, remember me? The Olympics are killing my craftiness, so I am a little glad they are almost over. I wanted to start out today's post with this photo, so show you I actually DID put ink to paper this week. This is one of the stamps from the set I won from the Fiskateers giveaway on Twitter, and my plan for using the stamp came together quite niceyl:


Okay, it's not actually part of a card, yet, but I'm working on that. That part seems to actually be tougher than the inky part. I think my mojo took a long, long, looooong vacation.

Anyway, I stamped the image with Versamark on glossy card stock and embossed it with black EP. I originally used white on white, but I didn't like the look - way too tame (read: boring), so I went with black instead, and I really, really, REALLY like it! I used the same reinker-on-a-wipe technique I used on this card to apply the three colors of ink over the image. Me likey!

Okay, that's it ... KIDDING! As any good stamper knows, there is nothing better to jump-start the mojo than some NEW STUFF, am I right? So I called BR#2 yesterday and told her I was headed to Angela's and did she want to come along. An hour later we were on the road, over the river into VA.

I must tell you that our dear Angela is an enabler of the first degree. It's not that she talks you into anything (as if that would even be necessary), but she fails to talk you out of it, which can actually be worse. I once asked her if I really needed to take the Copic plunge, and she said she was the wrong person to ask, as she was in pretty deep. See what I mean? Sigh.

The other thing about Angela and her staff is they are fantastic shoppers, and they really know how to stock the shelves so when you see something, you need one in every color. Case in point: the new Graphic 45 papers. Let's take a look, shall we?

Here is the 12x12 pack of Le Romantique:

I mostly got this one because it reminded me of my dear Pea (@BrownEyedPea on Twitter). As most of you know, I am not a vintage-y gal, so why do I buy this stuff? Dunno.

Next we have A Proper Gentleman:

... and last we have On The Boardwalk:

Oh, did you know it comes in both 12x12 and 8x8? And guess what? I couldn't decide, so I got both:

The thing I like about the paper companies' smaller paper pads (not just Graphic 45, but Basic Grey, SU, DaisyD, all of them, really) is the smaller papers are not just pieces of the larger papers; rather they are the exact same papers, but on a smaller scale.

I like the 12x12 size for cutting the pages apart to use the individual images. Here you can see the different scale of the two. Check out the back of the pages, just peeking out at the top of the photo. I like the smaller scaled patterns for background layers. And heck, since I have BOTH now, I am set, probably for a second lifetime.

Here is a sample of the 'guy' papers:

Okay, enough with the Graphic 45. This next paper pack was the fault of MaryDawn over at MyPinkMexico. Once I saw it on her blog, you just know I had to have it.

Then I saw a pack of Road Trip papers by KaiserKraft:

Do I scrapbook? No. Have I taken a road trip lately? No. Do I ever do anything travel-related with my cards? What's your point? I ask you: are these not my colors?!?! I had to have them for that reason ALONE!

I only got three stamps this trip - seriously! This one spoke to me because the flamingos have attitude:

hee hee

Then I saw these two and walked past them, but when BR#2 stopped and mentioned them to me, I sighed heavily and went back to grab them.

I immediately started to recite from AA Milne: Christopher Robin had sneezles and wheezles, they bundled him into his bed; they gave him what goes with a cold in the nose, and some more for a cold in the head. Yes, I am weird.

Lastly, I got some "cute" papers that have shimmer and are very fun colors:

The end.

In other news, I actually had my camera with me and loaded the other night when Koshka was doing her "I need to be in your lap" routine.

First, she climbs between me and the laptop to check out the lay of the land (my lap):

Then she half-way lays down:

And finally wraps herself around the laptop:

When she finally settles in, she faces more to the left, and my left arm, in an attempt to actually reach the keyboard, is under her neck, and she has either both front feet on my forearm, or she rests her head on my forearm. It's really quite sweet, though it makes it tough to type, plus the keyboard is once again full of cat hair.

Okay, I really, really need to became a productive member of society today. There's cards to make and laundry to do and I may even clean the bathroom if I get really desperate. Or not.

I hope to have something crafty to show you one of these days. Until then, I do thank you for stopping by!

Baby Cards and Blathering

I am beginning to see a pattern with the cat. She must be ON me or NEXT to me at all times. I worry she is getting old and needy (needier). I'd rather think she is spoiled by me not leaving town last weekend and getting to vegetate with me for two extended weekends in a row. Yeah, that's it, she is stinkin' spoiled.


In this shot I think she is just this side of comatose. I can shove her over a little so I fit on the couch, and she may open a eye to glare at me. Such a tough life.

I did manage to actually stamp something the past few days, though nothing normal, for me, anyway. By now you know I do not 'do' a lot of things - Christmas, Easter. Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentine's Day, baby cards - yeah, pretty much everything. So yesterday I posted a Valentine's Day card, and today I bring you ... baby cards! I KNOW! You are on the right blog, I am just out of my element.

On to the baby cards. I spied this piece of paper in the new SU Sweet Pea paper stack, and thought it would work for a baby card. A little busy, but I like non-traditional. If I am going to step outside my comfort zone, I want to mix it up a little to make it "me".


This is all SU. The lion is from Fox & Friends, the sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes. Ribbon is the new Vanilla Satin (YUMMY STUFF!).

What's cool about this paper is I used Rose Red and Pretty In Pink for the 'girl' card, and with a second piece cut from the same sheet of 12x12, this is how it looks with Taken With Teal and Sahara Sand:


I love all the colors that are matchy-matchy with this paper pack! Even *I* can pull off not one, but TWO baby cards in one sitting. Amazing stuff, I know.

Lessee, what else can I blather about to you? I went through my boxes of Farmers Market cards and pulled out all my 'old designs', put them in a flat rate mailing box, and will send them to a Cards For Soldiers group. This is a great cause which gives blank cards to deployed soldiers so they can have something to write in and send home to their families. It also thins out my inventory and makes room for new stuff for next season.

I also pulled out a bunch of cards that I'll be posting in my etsy store as time permits. I like having the store as an additional outlet for my cards, so they do not just sit in boxes all winter.

In other news, I am rethinking my Mass Production mode of operation. I like making one or two of something, then moving on to something else. Someone mentioned a one-of-a-kind card might be perceived as more special than one of several, and she may have a point. I might try that approach this year and see how it goes.

I also want to work my way into tiered pricing, which would enable me to use a more expensive element (like a hand-made button or a charm) on a card and charge a little more for it to recoup the additional cost of materials. A good friend had suggested tiered pricing to me many years ago, and I have been too lazy to work out the pricing, but now that I am buying more specialty things, it might be time to take that leap. This also works into the one-of-a-kind approach, as I would rarely have more than one of anything like hand-made buttons.

So we'll all see how this approach works out between now and March, which will be my first show of 2010. I'll have time to test-drive my theory and change course before the farmers' markets start up again in May. ;-) I always need a safety net.

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by!

CASE Complete!

I did it! I found a card to CASE that I can actually DO first time out of the gate!


This uses one of my first must-have sets from the last catalog, and one of my least-used colors: Handsome Hunter. With or without the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, this is an easy card to make! And it has RIBBON! Nuf said.

THIS, however, is my new lot in life. If I want to sit and surf with the laptop, it is apparently an open invitation for Koshka to get into my lap and vegetate. As soon as she ... oh, here she comes again ...


Instead of sleeping in her sun beam, she prefers my lap. She is getting much squishier in her advancing years, and I have learned to type without moving my arms too much so I don't disturb her. If I wiggle too much, or reach for something, she gets annoyed and gets down. Yeah, I know, who owns who?

So my card was CASEd from this one.


Except for my choice of sentiment, it is pretty much exact. I like her dots better, though. I'll need to remember to recommend that to The Ladies tomorrow.

After I took that photo, I decided it looked not quite finished, so I quickly added the knot on the left side of the strip of ribbon to balance out the sentiment:


I like this one a lot better!

Now I need to shower, cut card stock and collate into kits, set up the tables and stations, and CLEAN! I should resurface some time on Tuesday.

Thanks for stopping by!

I Have Survived Day Four, Barely

I am still on schedule with the tasks for The Other Room, pretty much. On today's list was to go to IKEA, buy 6 more cabinet sections, and also pick up some Bygel stuff and some knobs for my cabinet doors. I was on the road by 9:30 and got there with not much traffic to slow me down.

I hauled in the 4 doors I needed to return and there was no line - sweet! She rang it up, and I went to reach for my credit card ... uh-oh ... empty pocket. CARP! I left the house with no money, no credit card, and no driver's license! The no credit card was bugging me the most. Fortunately I'd paid cash for the doors, so with $100 in my pocket, I headed back to my car to go home. Sigh ...

Made the round trip (about 45 miles RT) and got back and set in to shop! First thing I saw were these napkins:

GOR-GEOUS! I actually had a few of them in my sweaty little hands when I stood there wondering what I'd do with all of them after I'd used one to make 4 cards. So I put them back. I DID! I really wanted the ones on the top with the lines.

Here was another bin. Lots of neat ideas in here!

I finally found where they were hiding the cabinet parts I wanted (I swear they were in aisle 1 last time ...) and loaded up.

When I got home, I unloaded all of that into the house and sat down to breathe. Since I'd lost about an hour with that extra round-trip stupidity, I had about 30 minutes to catch my breath and head out to my massaaaaage. She said not going to work suits me. I guess I was not as much of a mess as I usually am, or at least everything released easier.

When I got home after THAT, I started the assemblage process. I put together 2 bases and 3 of the 6 cabinet sections. Lookie!

You have no idea how good this makes me feel! Oh, and see that pile of boxes in front of the closet? Those are now in the left-most cabinet, if only to get them out of the way for now.

The two-high section overlaps the window a little bit, so I decided to leave it at two high and stack the far end stack 4 high. I stopped at this point today because there is an outlet behind there and I need to plug in an extension cord before it is lost to me forever. Tomorrow I'll finish the rest of the cabinets and maybe work on the door knobs and attach some of the doors.

Speaking of which, here are the cheapo knobs I bought. Six for $2 instead of 2/$4.50. I think these will work just fine.

Didja notice all that natural light?!?!?! It will be even better once I clean the windows.

I also picked up a bunch of these S-hooks to play with my make-shift Ribbon Originals and Rub-ons hanging system that is still largely in my head. If they do not work out, I'll just bring them back, along with the 6 sets of doors I think I got wrong. At least my car knows the way, now.

I also had this idea that I'd check out Mike's to see if they carried the Making Memories craft organizer thing for this wall, but instead, I spent way less at IKEA and got three of these. This is a magnetic knife holder for the kitchen, but it also comes with those cute metal canisters. I plan to empty out the few boxes and bags I have of buttons and paper flowers and put them in the metal canisters and display them on my wall. Again, if I see them, I may use them.

And I got two of these lamps. They are white. They are small. They are Halogen. They are good for this space. They are now mine. I got the wrong replacement bulbs, but they'll just go back in the pile with the other stuff I'll need to return, maybe one day next week.

And lest you think I have not been stampin, well, I haven't been. Not today, anyway. But I made this beauty last night. I broke open my pack of Prismatic green papers and cut the circles the same as I did for the turtles and crabs. I used some DMC dark grey floss for the thread, and for the pesky dots on the wings I applied ... black Stickles!

Here's a side view. I have dimensionals under the top layer for ... dimension. You can see the Stickles on the wings better, too. I was thinking and thinking about what to use on those wings when I actually hollered out loud: STICKLES! I even remembered I had it in black! And who says hoarding comes to no good?! Not moi! Uh-uh!

Right now I am sitting here too exhausted to move. I might actually go to bed early and start in on the rest of those cabinets tomorrow morning. Once I have them all assembled and in place, I can get some of the crap, er, stuff stowed away and maybe even find the floor in there! Ohboy!

In closing, here is exactly how I feel right now. Check out the eyes, squeezed shut. Yeah, the pic is a bit dark cuz I did not use the flash.

This is why I do not use the flash. Ack! Bright!

Okay, that's it. I'll report back tomorrow on my progress In There. Hey, pretty soon I'll have to stop calling it The Other Room and come up with a nifty name for it. Craft Room is so yesterday's news. I'll need to work on that. I am open to suggestions. ;-)

Thanks for stopping by!

More Mix-Em Ups, and The Cat

I had the third of three Stamp Camps last night, and just to show you OTHER people besides BR#2 can change things up nicely, here are some other examples:

This one is mine ....

... and this one is different! She used one of the other stamps in the set, punched out the oval center, added some ink to the edges, and popped it up on Dimensionals. What a great alternative!

This one got an unfortunate ink smudge, so being the Queen of the Save, I pulled out the Pretties kit to look for a half-back pearl, but I had no small white ones left. My customer picked out this small flower, I added the rhinestone brad, we poked a hole in the white layer with the paper piercer - and ta-da! Is it not beauteous?! (We thought it was!)

Moving on to this card, here is my sample ...

... and here are theirs. I had mentioned how someone used the pale purple flip side of the green square in place of the white one, then stamped the sentiment on the inside. They took it a step further and stamped their sentiments on the pale purple squares. I love it!

In other news, as you probably already know, I always take pics of the cat, because, well, because I can. During my Stamp Camps, she is a chair thief, and it gets out of hand sometimes. Last night I caught her on film (digits) with her tongue out, so I uploaded it to icanhascheezburger.com so I could caption it. My first !!!!! Check it out and let me know what you think!


moar funny pictures

I took today off of work to catch up on life a little bit, but here I still sit on the couch. I will eventually get off my butt and go to IKEA to pick up some cabinets and punch storage for The Other Room. First I'll need to empty all my market stuff out of the car so there'll be ROOM for the IKEA stuff, which is why I am still sitting here on the couch. I did get up a second ago cuz my SU Holiday Mini catalog pre-order HAS ARRIVED! Woo-hoo! Distractions for this afternoon!

Okay, I'm off to look productive; I'll report back later if that actually happens. Thanks for stopping by!