Stuff that rocks

I often find things online that I think are awesome, and that I think you should think is awesome too. So I'm starting a little section called "stuff that rocks". I'll update it randomly as I find stuff that YOU HAVE TO SEE.

Period.

I said it, it is ordained.

First thing that I found that rocks is this cute crafty blog:

Lollychops

she makes stuff that's not junky, really cute and to top it all off darn it she's funny. You should go there. You need to like her.

Just sayin.

Everyday addicts

I have issues.

I know it, and I have visual proof:

I'm addicted to crochet again. Well, when I say again, I mean finally. I learned to crochet when I was about 8 or 9. My mom taught me the broomstick stitch and that's pretty much all I knew for years. To this day I've never seen anyone else do it except my mom.

I guess it's been easy to become addicted because I have that OCD type personality that has to be doing SOMETHING. Now something might be reading a magazine while watching TV, or listening to Dave Ramsey while editing photos, but it has to be more than just sitting there. I guess that is my Grandma Marie gene. I really don't ever remember her not having something to do with her hands.

So anyway, american idol is on again, you know that show that drags on incessently for 5 months when it could be 3, and 1/3 of it I don't even like (the part right now). I don't even listen to music!!! *sigh*

Anyway, 2 hours on tuesday and 1 hour on wednesday is 3 hours that I can't sit there. So I decided that crochet is my thing to do while watching idol. (and Friends reruns every night from 6-7, and seriously those never get old).

Last night at 6:30 I started the above scarf. I showed it to Gene, asked him if he thought the colors were pretty, and then started treble stitching away. 45 min later I show it to gene and it's 18 inches long. His was floored it was going so fast and his imitation of me crocheting looked much like the eyebrowless banjo playing boy on "Deliverance".



It warranted a belly laugh.

1.5 hours later and it was done.

Damn I rock.
Lord I'm lame.

And here is our other addiction:

And when I say "we" I mean me.

Yes folks, that's THREE family sized boxes of honey bunches of oats *with almonds*. I buy them in pairs now. Once in a while tanner begs for something else, and then it rots in the back of the pantry while we all nosh on this stuff. They sprinkle crack on it, did you know that? CRACK ppl.

*crack*

Try it. Join me. Just a little, you can quit whenever you want.

Do you want quality, or quantity? I want QUANTITY.

I wore flip flops in February.
How can that not be awesome? srsly.

Today was one of those days that made me want to go outside, throw a blanket on the ground and just stare up at the sky for an hour. It would have been easy.

Instead, I opted to run some errands. In the process of looking for comfy pants, I happened across my capris, and capris call for flip flops. It was good, and I was warm and warm is good.

I gathered up my things (but forgot the cell phone like I do about 20% of the time) and headed out the door to the car, which sits just feet from the back door. I stopped dead in my tracks as I watched a very large bird (no idea what kind) just glided around the sky, over on the east acre of our 2 acre "spread".

"I get it"

I just stood and watched him as he glided through the slight breeze appreciating the opportunity to spread his wings and if I could have spoke bird, I would have told him that I get it. I wanna spread my wings a bit and shrug off the winter dust. I wanna appreciate the sky and how blue it is. I wanna mentally glide around and shut my eyes and hear nothing but the breeze and a great big bird talking to himself.

I guess that's hard to get if you live with blaring stereos and neighbors that run the leaf blower at 6 a.m. (instead of bending their ass over to pick up the 4 leaves on their manicured lawn). I love walking out my door and seeing a mile in every direction. Not just seeing the sky, but seeing *all of the sky*.

I guess being holed up in my house for 4 months has made me a little boring and maybe a bit stir crazy too. I feel like a lot of posts lately have been "I went to town. I bought bread, and butter, cuz gene likes butter. Butter is good."

What a yawnsville. I appreciate all those that have stuck through these trying times. ;P

I think I'm going to censor my posts a bit more, which might mean a couple less a week, but I'm trying to go for quality vs quantity. I read a post from another blogger just today, about having a good blog and she said "you don't have to hit publish on every post you start." At first I was a bit aghast at the idea of working on a post, and then never posting it, but then I realized she was right. No one wants to know my shower schedule. (which btw is on the list for tomorrow :p)

Old habits are hard to break.

PS. Isn't "quantity" a weird looking word in all caps? just sayin'

Project 365

Hogsback Frog has left the building!

I like getting tagged. I like those randomness type emails you get where you answer 42 weird questions, and in the process you always learn a little about yourself, or pass a little of yourself onto someone else.

(What I hate, are those "you are loved, forward this back to me" emails. They suck. I never respond. Sorry.
You're loved back blah blah.)

Anyway, this fun tag came along that I felt worthy of posting:

Follow these instructions:

1 - BAND NAME Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random article”or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - ALBUM TITLE Go to "Random quotations"or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - COVER ART Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar software to put it all together.



I imagine it's my roving band of accordion players, in short pants.
Srsly.

And for the record, that is kind of an awesome name for a band. Kick ass random way to name a band. Just ask the goo goo dolls and a myriad of other bands.

NOTE: To be fair I must admit that I hit refresh twice. On everything. I just was not going to have a band named "Kazakhstan at the 2002 Winter Olympics" .. although looking back, that would have been a good *title* for our live album. You know, the one we cut because we're just trying to fulfill our contractual agreement. *sigh*
Burdens.

I really should actually listen to music sometimes.

uh-oh

Late friday night, I found myself searching desperately for this fabric:

I know. It's crazy, but I'm on an owl obsession lately and I want an owl purse. this is the cutest owl fabric EVER.

It's also discontinued. :(

Saturday, we kind of hung around town, went to JCPenney and picked up a couple christmas gifts and a new bedding set for our bed - regularly $275 - our cost $29.95.

Deal.

I also got this:

a new tattoo. It's of our monogram (L C G). I have moments of "this is cool" and moments of "what the hell did I do". I'll reserve final judgement for about a month from now and decide if I'm buying a skin lightener or not! (I'm not 100% happy with the tattoo artist.... long story). Hurt like a son of a gun - and I'm not sure it was supposed to.

Picked Tanner up from his trip at MIDNIGHT. I was so tired. LOL I think that should have been a husband job. *hmmpft* ;)

Sunday was quiet, I didn't get out of my jammies all day. Gene helped me with dishes so I didn't have so much to do today (and I'm not supposed to put my hands in water.. see how I planned that?). I scrapbooked a lot, he ebayed gems a lot.

Today, I was busy, I met with a new bride, her aunt and I were best friends in elementary school. Her mom and I used to work together. I hope I get to do their wedding, she's so cute (and looks just like her mom/aunt) - it would be fun to do a wedding with all these ppl I knew and grew up with.

Ordered some save the date cards, got a guestbook and sample ordered.

Supper is cooking, and then I'm taking the evening off!

New Scrapbook pages

A couple more new scrapbook pages to share:

My red dress that I wore for my reception - that I made btw.

Paper is my minds eye - from a glitter stack (of course), chipboard circles and hearts are K & Company, Glitter silver sticker letters are Making memories, I don't remember who makes the large red glitter letters, I took them out of their box! My favorite new thing *ever* right now is the Making memories journal notebooks. I have every single one I think. I buy every new one I see - which is ok because I use them on almost every page!

Ester's First Birthday Party:

Paper is Diecuts with a View - Sweet stack. Flowers are Prima (which Becky and David gave me for Christmas! I almost have them all used lol), Journal spot again by Making memories

Blog? Check!

I've always been one of those ppl that functions really well with a list. In fact, I've been known to write something on a list, just so I can mark it off and feel like I accomplished something. It's frustrating to reach the end of your day and only have 2 checked off your list of 11.

Many times the list is filled with things that fill the day that don't actually help me reach my goals. "list stuff on ebay" doesn't get me where I'm going as fast as say "work on your SEO (search engine optimization).

I saw a show once where they talked about only putting on your list the things that will help you accomplish your goals. Less "sort socks by color" and more "change your life".

I've been trying to keep these goals in mind as I make my lists, but in the end, showers and washing dishes always seem to creep back in. Sorry, but everyone around me kinda of appreciates it when I do that "shower thing".

The past 2 days have been a whirlwind of activity, to the point I've not had time to blog. (but today I get to check off "blog" on my list... whoooop). I finished up that guestbook, which was pretty much done but needed a gallery for it, packaged up all the pics for the dance, plus made flyers for the packs, caught up on some emails, made a decision about a bridal fair (which was no).

Today I ran to St. Joe. Much less productive than I wanted it to be. The day started out a little slow as I wanted to get up around 8 a.m. I woke up around that time, laid there for a second, shut my eyes and woke up again at 9:45. I *hate* it when I do that. That took 2 hours out of my time, and I had to be back by 3 p.m. to pick up Tanner from school to take to church as he's going on a retreat this weekend.

Big mistake. If you have that gut feeling you're forgetting something, then you probably are. I forgot his clothes at home! I had to come all the way back to the house, then all the way back to the school to get him then all the way back to the church. That meant crossing town 3 times, when I only was going to cross it once.

That's when it got ugly. I got stuck behind a couple moronic trucks, one I couldn't shake for about 6 miles - doing 40 in a 60. Sigh. But we made it, and he got there with 10 min to spare. *I hate being late* very much.

So basically, my good karma for yesterday didn't pull through for today, and in return only a couple checks off my list for today. It's ok, some can be done tomorrow while Tanner's gone (PARTY) ;)

In other news, the scrapbook armoire I've had for about 8 years now, found a new home last night. It was really big, and it's quite heavy and I'm really glad to see it go away. I kept wanting to take the doors off and leave them off, and then I realized that is what I really needed. I need open shelving. Yes it looks incredibly messy, even when it's organized, but that's why God made doors. If I shut it, no one will see. ha.

I'm building a corner desk, so the old computer (the one I'm on now) can get "upgraded" to the scrapbook room. I'll be doing more work in there and hopefull I will not get distracted by pretty paper and glitter. Above the desk will be all shelves, with baskets and bins filled with things i use frequently, or want to use frequently. Less used items will be sent to the closet. I will eventually have a final (ish) tour of the sb/sewing room. We'll see. I say "ish" because we still have to install all our ceilings (beadboard and pressed tin tiles) and all our baseboards. *sigh*.

Today my lightsphere came. I have been contemplating some sort of diffuser for my camera, and after the DD dance, I was not happy with how my flash bounced, so I watched this video and bought one about 15 min later:

Blogging done.
Check

Hump day

I've been working basically on ONE thing today. Well, almost all day. A guestbook for one of the brides. I'm very excited about it, want it to look really great as I'm going to order an extra and use it as a table sample. The thing is kicking my BUTT. Then, tonight on the way into town to pick up Tanner from church, I realized that I had a much easier way to do it.
Sigh

Oh well it's done now!

Also today, I got up early, as I went to bed early. I didn't want to, but I did. It made the day go much better I think. Plus, I've been trying to excercise in the morning. I'm not saying I'm enjoying it, but I'm doing something, and my legs are sore, so *something happened* apparently.

I remember my old gym rat days, after working legs, how I'd actually LIKE it if they were sore, that way I could feel every muscle in my legs and how they moved.

No, I'm not back there yet.

Instead, I've ordered a couple excercise videos off of ebay. Old ones so they'd be cheap. LOL. Right now I can't walk outside. Well, I can but I don't want to squish through mud to do it, and I'm just not going to drive all the way into town to go to a gym right now. I so would use that for an excuse. So videos for now it is.

Also today, received all the pics from the Daddy Daughter Dance and got them sorted and packed up today. Now I just need to create 70 flyers to go in them.

Simple.
I'm thinking simple.

Project 365

Lolz

more animals

Something like that, only with some butterscotch colored spots all over him.

Did you know???

That we offer design services too?
{Prolly not because that's all new. heh. }

We're now offering design work that includes:

• Save the Date postcards
  
• RSVP postcards
  
• Guestbook design
  
• Invitation design
  
• Monogram design

Send me an email and we'll talk about what you need!

OK so I lied

I intended to get back yesterday, but alas I didn't make it.

I did however, finish up this page I was working on over the weekend.

I love everything about this page. This page is so me! Bright colors with bold prints. When I found the bouncy house sticker from Jolee's (EK success) I had to buy it as it looked a lot like the bouncy house they were in. Usually I'd never spend that much on one single embellishment, but I caved. I also felt guilty for talking amber into a more expensive embellishment. (Disney castle).

The chipboard letters were an absolute steal in my opinion. I got 26 - 12" x 12" sheets of chipboard with tons of letters on each sheet. I see myself using those a lot, and already have a couple pages in my head. If I use them 5-6 times, I think they'll pay off. ($10 for 26 sheets). Letters are painted with acrylic paint and sanded along the edges.

The paper is from We R memory keepers. This has turned into some of my favorite lines of paper. The font I used is Tweed. I also stitched some "bounce" lines across the bottom, which were light, so I accented them with a platinum colored brush pen. The sticker letters are American Crafts, also accented with the platinum brush pen (which I almost ALWAYS do on sticker letters).

In other news...

Sunday was quiet. Gene and I just hung out all day. He spent most of the day looking at gems and jewelry online. That's his new pasttime. I scrapbooked, cleaned my scrapbook room some, finished up those stupid butterfly albums. *spit*. I have 3 more that I doubt I'll ever get done. LOL.

Yesterday Tanner had the day off. We did nothing particularly special. I did feel bad for him because he was working on a google earth map of Lewis and Clark's expedition *for extra credit* (which btw, google earth is freaking awesome), and 2 hours into it, it crashed. I felt so bad. :( He was pissed.

*I get it*

*been there*

I have to go to the bank today and yell at them. Yes, because they sent me a letter telling me I better pay my house payment. Oh that's funny, I did it over 2 weeks ago!! GRRR. *even cleared my account*. I am pretty pissed.

I have to work on some marketing flyers, and a pre-wedding questionare that I've been putting off for a month now, but I really need to get it done.

I also have to remail the card for V-day that I freaking left the stamp off of. DOH! Not one of my finer moments. Somewhere in there I gotta take a shower too.

Gotta hit the ground running!

Project 365

3 more days. I'm caught up yay me.

Lots of stuff to do, tons of stuff that I still have left to do and haven't even started. I'll post more later!

3 down, a trillion to go

{Check out our scrapbook supplies on etsy}

***************

not a trillion, but a bunch. I'm giving up butterfly albums for lent. *that wouldn't be hard to do*.

Cutting this paper sucked, then someone told me there was actual paper die cut already. *doh* So I went back and found it. For a $1 chipboard album, I spent as much time on those as i do a regular album!

I've decided to give these to the girls for Easter instead of Christmas. I thought it would fit the time frame better.

And me with my valentine's crab leg "bouquet". OMG that thing had to be huge.

Reminds me of when me and Tanner went to Ripley's aquarium in TN. We saw the biggest King Crab on the face of the earth. I tapped on his aquarium and said "you taste good".

I doubt he appreciated the humor as much as I did.

Happy Valentines from the cold Northwest (missouri)

Look what cupid brought me!

Snow!
OK to be fair it was a drift, but it is a good 5".


Valentine's is a low key holiday for me, mainly cuz a long time ago, V-day was kinda ruined for me, and well, that's stuck in my craw for 20 years now. Acknowledge each other, do something nice and lets get on with our day. I don't need diamonds (although they are kinda nice).

Here's gene opening his Valentine's gift I made him.




He says he likes it and wore it today. I kinda expected him to just wear it for work to keep him warm.

Here's me. This is how crappy I look in the morning. My breakfast in bed for V-day. Which isn't a huge deal cuz he does this about every other week anyway, but it was nice cuz I was tired.

Even mack and Jingles are spreading the love. Mack is doing the licking and jingles is being spoiled. Srsly, what's new?

And here's the card I made Gene. It was a making memories chipboard heart I was going to use for the wedding but got tired of messing with stuff so I didn't do it. But it made an awesome card.

Cooking my V-day gift right now. 2 pounds of king crab and T-bones. Beats roses any day.