why do i need a blog when there's facebook?

I've finally got some new layouts to upload, and they're going here and on facebook and on SIStv... Mostly different audiences, I guess.

SO - love these new ones. Got lots of fun new stuff, as you saw in the last post. Now everything's got flowers on it! Hanging with the girls this week I mostly made fun cards with flowers for the sale.

This one's been in the works for a while, but I'm finally happy with it. The new flowers were the perfect thing for the title!



And I love this picture of Levi, so I had to get it in an album. New stamp and white ink. And the flowers...



And finally, this one - I love the summer part - I painted grunge board letters to match the kid's shirts, and it turned out better than I expected. Fun.



I want a new camera. (I almost said need, but it's NOT a NEED...) This one has had too many issues - look at how it's fading to black in the corners now. I have my eye on a Nikon D60. Mmmm.

This is why I blog - I throw the pics on fb, but none of the me stuff. This is me, all for you, an invisible audience. My imaginary friends. LOL.

speaking...

I spoke today at the Ladies' Coffee Connection at church. My faith story. Made lots of people cry. Sorry about that...! I thought I'd just get up there, read it off and get it over with. Yeah, right. God hits the cry button and off I go, but it's honest emotion, and I'm sure it moves people. I'm not doing it to manipulate people's emotions, but it does work that way! Glad it's done. Hope it made some people think. That'll be the Holy Spirit's job now.

New Stash! and an update on the stash to sell

On Tuesday we went on a field trip to a scrapbooking store located in a basement on South Albert. I like her selection of embellishments. I spent a little bit of cash.

On Wednesday, we went to Scrapbookers Delight, which is closing their doors forever tomorrow. Sad day. I stocked up on Bazzill, and I should be good for at least a year. Unless maybe I start scrapbooking more than I shop for supplies!!!

Here's a glimpse at what I got - watch for it on layouts to come! Sean's gone for a couple of days, so I'm thinking it's playtime down in the studio.



I really like Bazzill cardstock.



Here's a closer look at my new fun stuff!



Just for a laugh, I got a shot of our Chevy Ventures, all lined up outside the Accent Stitchery, Framing and Scrapbooking store...!



Finally, here's a shot of the two other patterns that I made gift bags out of. I sewed them up last night and tonight and they're all done! Now I have to get sewing the magic bag insides - I brought home the filler from the farm after Thanksgiving.



Actually, I'll leave you with one more picture - this beautiful tree is beside the church, and I can see it from my office window. I love that.

Autumn

Here's me doing my homework for the blog class... writing about autumn. I think I'll just say this - Fall is awesome when it's warm and not windy and colorful... then this happens.


Yep - we drove out to the farm for Thanksgiving IN A BLIZZARD.

BUT - It gave Sean a chance to be a hero and pull a couple of trucks out of the ditch. Together - one was towing the other. And Sean saved their day. :)

First things for the Show!

I said I was going to post pictures as things get made... here's the gift bags I made tonight. I've got two other fabrics to cut into (that I got on sale at the end of last season!) and there are a few bags that I made last year that I never used; I'll throw those in for the variety. And these are great, too, because I'll just use what I don't sell!

I had class this weekend, and sketched out about 10 layouts while I was trying to stay awake... Just ordered some photos that I'll need for them, too, so on Tuesday when we get together, I'll be ready to go. Unless I do them all up on Monday when I'm at home! It will be nice to relax on my day off and not worry about papers. I did two biggies in the last month, so I'll take a few days to breathe before the next one.

We're going on a FIELD TRIP on Tuesday with the scrappers! We're all looking forward to going down south and checking out the lady that sells out of her basement. She had a storefront for a while, but had just moved it home when I discovered her. None of the others have been there, so I'm happy to take them.

Craft Sale

I'm going in my first craft sale next month. Saturday, November 29th in Vibank, from 10-4. As I get stuff done for it, I'll post it up here so if you want something and can't make it to Vibank, you can put in an order...

Wednesday's Homework

We've had homework every day for this 'Bling out Your Blog' class that I'm taking, and I've been bad. I've done it, but cheating-like. Monday we were supposed to blog about Autumn, and Tuesday we were supposed to let song lyrics inspire what we blogged... Adding a poll about what your favorite part of fall is, and linking back to this post inspired by song lyrics from a couple weeks ago is still doing my homework, isn't it?

My excuse - I've been too busy with the BLING part! It's been fun playing around with the layout and changing things up.

I will come back to that other homework. I will.

And now Wednesday's homework: I have to invite you to be involved! My experiences with offering a challenge (in real life, yet!) were a smashing success (read that with lots of sarcasm and check out this post) so I'm making this nice and easy. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of the blog, or vote on my poll. Super simple, hey? I just want to know you were here, and who you are (and why the heck you're reading my blog!)

Thanks for playing and humoring me.

All about Brandie

Brandie had sweet baby Adrian Cole on September 7 - right on her due date! I made this quilt for her, and got it done to give to her yesterday, on his one month day.


And this is a layout I did of them - we were hanging out the Friday night before he was born,and then I got to meet him on the Sunday!

bling...!

I talked to my sister today, and SHE was the one who voted on my poll. Not Mom. LOL By the way, Happy Birthday Jess! And Happy Birthday Mom!

I signed up for an online class! It goes all this week, and I'm pretty excited about it - it's called Bling out your Blog and it's by Kimberly Brimall, who is one of the fashionistas on SISTV. Now the pressure's on! I've told you about it, so you'll be watching for some great changes... We'll see what we can do!

live goodie bags?

M had two birthday parties this weekend.

She started a new school this year because they moved the french immersion out of the school down the street, and now she gets to ride on the bus. Very exciting. She's in grade 4, is confident, and all her friends and french teachers moved to the same school, so it was a pretty easy transition. She's got most of the same girls she's been friends with since kindergarten in her class, but now there are 20 new friends! Good thing she's so social. Which, we learned, means more birthday parties to go to.

Today was a 3 hour Hannah Montana karoke party (and apparently she rocked the mic - no suprise there). Friday night till Saturday noon was a sleepover on a farm, and they had Petcetera come out with 10 animals for the girls to see / hold / get slithered on (yes they had a snake). On the farm they have lots of other animals, too - and guess what the goodie bag was for this animal themed party? The goodie bag for this one was a fish. A blue beta fish in a big jar that they got to decorate themselves.


M has wanted a pet forever. We keep saying no. And now she has one. I'm kind of glad, actually. She's trying to prove she's reliable so she can get a camera with her birthday money. This will sure give her that chance! We went to the library yesterday so she could get out a book on pet fish and how to look after them...

one from this week

Layouts usually take me more than one sitting. I get the photos and background paper maybe, then play around with a basic idea, but it usually gets put back in the 'in progress' book a time or two until I am satisfied with the layout. This one I finally had all the pictures for last Tuesday (when we get together), printed off the title during the week and took it again this Tuesday and played around with the arrangement all morning until I finally decided I liked it. I'm not sure I like the white at the sides (although it looks a lot stranger on this white background than in real life!) Oh, well, it's done! And now I can go on to the next one that's in limbo. There's a few in there.

World Card Making Day

At our weekly scrapbooking get together last week, I took a couple of pages that I had put together of challenges from a dozen of my favorite challenge sites. **note - I have never actually participated in a challenge on any of these sites; I just like to check them out now and then.** So I circulated that to see if it inspired anyone - some people thought, "hey, cool" but no one jumped at the chance to stretch themselves, they just did what they brought with them to do. Which I understand. You pack what you're going to work on, and you don't have the photos, tools, colors, or whatever to do something different.

This week I gave them a verbal challenge - "This Saturday is World Card Making Day!" I told them, "So let's all make at least one card from our stash or scraps today!" I got a partially interested "Oh...?" a head tilt with questioning eyebrows, and the best, "Why? For who?" Ah, my friends make me laugh. And I am convinced that I do not need to spend my time coming up with challenges and fun things for them to experiment with; I simply need to unlock the door, set up the tables, and make sure the coffee's on.

In case YOU'RE interested, find more on World Card Making Day here.

***shudder***

I had an experience this morning.

One I wouldn't wish on anyone.

I had just done a good work out and jumped in the shower; I was still adjusting the temperature, so hadn't put the showerhead back up yet when all of a sudden I see a living crawling thing IN MY TUB. Not funny. My entire body tensed up and got more of a workout than doing Tae Bo Flex as I tried to wash the stupid grasshopper back down the drain it had just crawled from. I finally squashed it with one of the kid's toys so it was 1 - dead and 2 - in pieces small enough to go down the drain.

Yuck.

Okay, you can stop laughing now.

new pages

Our weekly scrapbooking get together has started up again. More people this year, which is good for more laughs. I hope we meet some new girls from the community through this.

Meeting weekly means I'm actually doing some pages... I have a bunch in progress, as usual; these are the two that are done and scanned.

Mom, is that you?

Ha ha! I laughed when I saw my poll today - one person voted! That's too funny. And a family member, too. I'm guessing my mom...

BIG WINNER!

Just had to brag a little about my amazing race car driver husband. He won a big race today - his third of the year. He's won more this year than any other season. So many cars - it's a big deal to take the top spot. I'm pretty proud of him. :)

making me happy today

A day off when I don't usually get one (I swapped Monday for Thursday this week).

Staying home.

Sunshine.

The yellow tree out the office window.

The new grass growing just beside the deck.

Laughing with my husband this morning.

Not being mad at the kid when I sent her out the door this morning.

Feeling relaxed.

scars are souvenirs you never lose

We had a big long conversation about scars this weekend while we were sitting in the hot tub at the retreat.

My favorite is a two inch scar across my left knee that I got when I was 8? 10? When I was a kid, anyway. We were out at our friends' acreage and I caught it on a carpet tack sticking out of the corner as I skipped down the steps and turned to go out the door. It was the 70's - people had carpet on the walls. Maybe that trend died because I wasn't the only one getting scarred up. Or maybe just because how could it possibly last? Maybe that was a drug induced trend...

One thing I remember is hobbling out on crutches to where the other kids were playing volleyball or something, and getting ZERO sympathy. They just wanted to play with the crutches.

Another thing I remember is my parents disagreeing about me going to the hospital to get stiches or not. The virdict was no - I ended up with 3 bandaids across it. And it's a big beautiful scar today. My favorite. And I do have a few.

Part of why I like it so much is because of the 'other story.' As a counselor at summer camp as a teenager, I'd tell the campers how I got my scar:

"Well," I'd say, hesitating, "I play soccer, right? And it's a fairly physical game... sometimes it gets a little rough... So after this one game, this girl is waiting for me in the parking lot after. She starts to push me a bit, and I'm trying to walk away, cause I don't want to fight, then she pulls out this knife..." At this point the girl's eyes are wide and staring. "So she slashes at me," I mimic it, "and got me here."

"Really?" they would ask, and I'd reply, "No, but it's a better story than how it really happened!"

Ah, that scar.

PS - The title is lyrics from the Goo Goo Dolls.

Brain Games

Found a site today when I went searching for brain games so that while I'm mindlessly wasting time on the computer in the evening (after I've read for educational purposes, of course) I can be improving my brain power. That's important stuff, you know.

I found this one site with a bunch of different games, lots similar to ones we played as kids, but now for grownups... Remember Memory or Mastermind? Yeah, they're here. I especially liked the guess-the-flag game, and they had some code to copy it to your blog, so here it is for you to play. Enjoy!

great quote

"Man's maker was made man that He, ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother's breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witnesses, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die."

This is by Augustine on the paradox of Jesus' incarnation. I found it as a footnote in Philip Yancey's book Reaching for the Invisible God, which I am reading for my next class, Theological Overview.