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« January 2011 | Main | March 2011 »
I need some ideas for a tutorial. Is there anything you've seen me do here that you'd like more info on... besides slicing my finger with a paper cutter. No one wants to see that one again.
Seriously... all ideas are welcome. Nothing is too great or small. In fact, I prefer simple! Hee hee!
Everyone who answers will be put into a drawing for some brand new SRM Stickers!
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GREAT NEWS! Scrapbook.com is now carrying the 6 brand new lines from Nikki Sivils! Check it out here!
Just for what it's worth... I hope by mentioning that I took a vicodin on Thursday night, that I didn't come across as a pill-popper. After one of the comments I received, I thought maybe I should explain. I gave myself more than a minor cut. I left a small piece of my finger on my craft table. It hurt like a mother f-er when I did it and even worse when I finally decided to seek attention for it. I have a very high tolerance for pain (I am a woman after all... you know what I'm sayin'), but this stupid self-inflicted wound HURT. BAD. The tips of your fingers are nothing but nerve endings. The same wound somewhere else may not hurt so bad.
I think vicodin is WAY over-prescribed & was just saying that very thing to Bob on Thursday night. I've been given a prescription for it multiple times in the last year for major dental issues... new teeth, root canals... you name it, I've been there... but I haven't filled them. Ibuprofen is fine for me and I don't even want to take THAT if I can avoid it. I didn't fill this prescription either, I took one that Bob had from a recent surgery, because it was the exact same dosage prescribed for me AND I had major throbbing pain and wanted to sleep. I know this isn't necessary to explain, but if I'm going to inspire anything at all on my blog... it's hopefully just creativity & exercise... not painkillers. ;-)
Moving on and speaking of pain...
I had my follow-up today with urgent care to see how I'm healing. The little piece of dressing on top of my cut was stuck to my skin, obviously, so she had me soak it in a saline solution for about 10 minutes to see if it would fall off on it's own. It didn't. Yay me! So... she had to pull it off. I'll just say it felt like I sliced my finger open all over again. Put a freakin' bullet in my head and put me out of my misery, is pretty much all I could think. Good news is, no infection so far. Bad news is, I have to go through this redressing process every day on my own (probably about 2 weeks) until my finger grows some new skin & it closes up. Should be about a month until I'm fully healed.
So my dad, always the comedian, said to me after lunch today, "Is this going to change your fingerprint?"
Why yes... yes it is. LOL!
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I've thought for quite some time now, that I really do need to get rid of my paper cutter. The thing doesn't always cut a straight line, which totally aggravates me. It does, however, have the ability to cut a chunk of my finger out. So clearly it's still sharp after about 10 years of crafting. After 4 hours of bleeding yesterday, Bob came home from work and drove me to urgent care. I was getting a headache & starting to get a little woozy. I pulled the band-aids off for the nurse (3 to be exact... plus a kleenex wrapped around it all... note to self... buy some guaze + tape). She sprayed some alcoholish-feeling cleaning agent on there almost sending me through the roof. She said, "Yeah, you got quite a chunk out there." Then she wrapped it in guaze & said the doctor would be in soon. Thankfully Bryn insisted on coming in with me & she became my comic relief for the next half hour of waiting... and throbbing.
The doctor came in, sprayed again (love that stuff!) & then cleaned up around the wound. She said, "You're handling this quite well." REALLY?! My entire body was shaking it hurt SO BAD. The cut was also bigger than I remembered it being earlier. Nice. There was nothing to stitch together, so she said she was going to put Neosporin on it and then wrap it up. I'll need to leave it wrapped until my follow-up visit tomorrow (Saturday) when she'll see how it's healing and whether it's getting infected. May have to do antibiotics... AGAIN. Just finished taking them a week ago for an infection in my finger nail on another finger... same hand. I am a hot mess right now. The vicodin helped last night & for once I went to bed early and slept like a baby! As Bob was leaving this morning he reminded me again NO running today and to keep it elevated. I will be doing Zumba tomorrow though even if I have to hold my hand in the air for 75 minutes... just sayin'.
In other amusing news, the DVD has been cut and we had a little get-together on Sunday night to watch it. The 4 of us found it highly amusing... mostly cringing & laughing as we sat there. I think we're all in agreement that a reshoot is in order. Next time, without the nerves. Seriously. I think I was less nervous about being on TV. I don't know why.
Bryn's art work was picked as one of 10 pieces, out of hundreds, that is being displayed at a local professional art gallery. The artist reception is tomorrow afternoon. She is quite proud, as are we! Coincidentally, the art gallery is just a few blocks away from the urgent care, so I'll be heading over there for my follow-up after the reception. Hoping for NO infection!
Hope your weekend is wonderful!
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...well not really, but it is pretty darn cold & cloudy today! Hopefully spring is right around the corner though & this new "It's Raining, It's Pouring" line from Nikki Sivils is perfect for springtime photos!
I made a quick & easy page using some cut-outs, stickers + a large photo...
Check out the Nikki Sivils' blog today for more inspiring ways the team has used this line! There are some paper rainboots that are just the cutest ever!
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I love all the new Echo Park lines. (I love the old ones, too!) "Playground" is adorable... have you seen it yet?! And even though I don't have a little boy at home, I think the "Litte Boy" line from Echo Park is so cute! I almost bought it at Archivers the other day, but decided I had too much new product that I hadn't used yet & I should maintain some sort of control. So unlike me... LOL
Anyway, I think it's versatile enough that you could use it for travel pages, too. I love the little airplane, clouds & train. I'm on Jessica Sprague's email list & have often thought of purchasing from her website even though I'm not a digital scrapper. Today though, when I received an email about the Little Boy downloads for $1.00, I decided to buy... and downloaded the Element Pack. I was hoping I could just print & cut. It worked great!
Just mixed in some random coordinating product... Nikki Sivils, We Are Memory Keepers & a Bella Blvd word bubble... and the page came together pretty quickly.
Now that I've done this, I may be back on "One Buck Wednesdays" more often. I'll keep my fingers crossed that "Playground" is on there soon...
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Update regarding my prior post from earlier today...
If you would like to donate to MS on my behalf, you can do so on my page. Thank you SO MUCH to Julie for being the first to donate! You ROCK, girl!
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Had a really FUN weekend... especially on "date night!" Had a great dinner at Copia... calamari, salads, seared ahi for me & ribs for Bob + a very chocolatey dessert. We were planning to move on from there to listen to a band, but opted to make it an early night instead as we'd done a bit too much partying the night before. So we headed to our hotel after dinner. When Bob booked our room several weeks ago, they asked if we were celebrating anything. Bob said, "Well, we're celebrating that it's date night." She said, "Ok, well I'm just going to tell them it's your anniversary." So when we had checked in before dinner, the lady at the front desk said, "Oh and I see it's your anniversary. Happy anniversary!" We both said, "Oh, thank you!"
We weren't back in our room a half hour after dinner when there was a knock on the door. Bob answered it & the guy said, "I have your amenities for you." Bob walked back in with a tray... a big platter of fruit, cheese & crackers, a box of chocolates, a wine bottle-shaped chocolate topped with whipped cream AND a bottle of champagne with 2 glasses! There was also a card with a little note wishing us a happy anniversary & thanking us for spending it with them. It was pretty cool, I must say! Only problem was, we'd just had a huge dinner AND dessert and didn't need anything else... so we ate some of the fruit in the morning, took the box of chocolates home & gave the bottle of champagne to my mom when we picked up Bryn!
I'm thinking we might be celebrating our anniversary more often... ;-)
Happy Monday!
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Had a blast last night going out to dinner & then to see the show "9 to 5!" Always a lot of laughs when I'm with those two. We intended to go to Mangia, since Marci had a Groupon for that restaurant, but when we got there it was closed. Some people passing by said they were renovating it. So... we walked down Grand & ended up at Cafe Natasha's. The food was decent, but the wine list stunk. So Marci & I got one of their special martinis. Mine was pomagranate & Marci's was cherry. My mom stuck with wine & had a flea attacking her for it the entire dinner. And even though Marci forgot to bring the tickets with us, we had ended dinner early for once & had time to run back to her house and still get to the show right at 8pm. It was a funny show and Diana Digarmo (from a past season on American Idol) did a FABULOUS job in Dolly Parton's role that she played in the movie. Her imitation of Dolly's voice was spot-on! Amazing!
We have a BUSY weekend ahead of us beginning today! I have lunch with the girls, some errands to run & a hair cut this afternoon. Tomorrow Bryn is headed to my parent's house with her cousin for some fun in the afternoon PLUS a sleep-over, so that means that Bob & I have "date night" Downtown including our own sleep-over at a hotel! Looking forward to going to a restaurant that we haven't been back to since some idiot disgruntled employee tried to torch the place & they had to renovate. Then we have a birthday party lunch to attend in Illinois on Sunday & my dad's birthday dinner to attend on Sunday night! No crafting for me this weekend, but there will be some photos taken. ;-)
Hope YOUR weekend is FABULOUS!
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I went into Archivers the other day looking for some of the new product lines that just debuted at the Winter CHA. I was disappointed to not find much in the way of new product, but did end up leaving with some not-so-new things. I couldn't go in armed with a 30% off coupon and not buy SOMETHING, you know. I picked up a couple sheets of paper + the chipboard stickers from the boy-themed Fine & Dandy line by My Mind's Eye. I loved the yellow, orange & blue color combo of that line (and of course the suns, clouds & owls!) and was hoping it would work with my photos from the Zumbathon I attended because I was thinking it was a similar color combo while in the store. Thankfully when I returned home, the colors worked with the photos...
I also used my new SLICE for the first time to make my Zumba title letters... love that little machine! And I used a couple SRM Stickers for my page... one from my fishing set of stickers ("Hooked on") and the other is the athelete definition sticker that I adhered directly to my big photo.
And speaking of Zumba, I've done it the past 3 days in a row (not normal circumstances), so life is GOOD! I am happy, happy, happy!
Bryn has a 1/2 day of school today, no school tomorrow because of teacher's meetings & no school on Monday because of the holiday. Will be a fun & long weekend! I'm going out to dinner & then to see the Broadway show "9 to 5" tonight with my mom & sister! Heard it's a good show. Has anyone seen it yet?
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Our Valentine's dinner was really yummy... lobster, crab legs, salad, pasta, a bit of champagne, wine, raspberry lemonade & some cherry pie for dessert. I'm so glad we started this tradition years ago because we all look forward to it every year. I'd much rather spend Valentine's Day celebating with my TWO loves. We have all year for romantic dinners alone.
I decided to keep the decor simple this year & just hung some heart shaped lights & a homemade doily banner on the mirror, foregoing any hanging pom pom balls. You'll be happy to know that everyone enjoyed dinner without anything falling on their head last night... always a plus!
Bob bought the lobsters at Sams & they were so HUGE that we didn't eat the crab legs. Well, actually Bryn ate all her lobster, 1 crab leg, her salad and about 5 servings of pasta. Thankfully I didn't eat any pasta or she may have gnawed my arm off in attempt to take it away from me. She's a bottomless pit, I tell ya.
And today there was a little bit of dancing going on... with a videographer.
More on that later... maybe. ;-)
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Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Since today is all about LOVE... I have a little LOVE mini album that I made using the Maya Road mini book included in the January HIP 2B SQUARE kit. I just recently made one of these LOVE books for CHA using my new Nikki Sivils products (posted here), so I thought I'd make this one for Bryn in lieu of a Valentine's card...
Once I painted the base of the book, the rest of it came together pretty quickly. It's not my most detailed mini book ever, but I really wanted the focus to be on the sentiments, and not necessarily the photos or embellishments. And well... I was in a hurry to finish it before Valentine's Day! Heehee!
I have a ton of things to do today before our special dinner this evening, but I'm looking forward to celebrating with my 2 Valentines! I hope you enjoy your day with those you love...
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Bryn asked me what "holla" meant after we opened our bag of candy hearts & saw all the funny sayings. We've been walking around saying it to each other ever since.
Looking forward to an extra busy, but FUN week ahead... starting with our annual Valentine's Day dinner of lobster & crab legs at home for the 3 of us. And hopefully we don't end up with any homemade decor falling onto Bob's head in the middle of dinner like we did last year...
Holla!
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There's always a TON of product included in the HIP 2B SQUARE kits every month. I was able to make 5 layouts (which I posted yesterday) all these cards plus a mini book using the main kit & the add-on kit! There's still plenty left-over, so I may just make a few more Valentine's before all is said & done.
My first card is based on this Card Maps sketch that was given to our team this month...
I used the ribbon in the kit to make a flower & then just added one of the My Mind's Eye buttons on top...
And just a few more Valentine's here...
The Pink Paislee flower rub-ons in the main kit look SO realistic! I rubbed them onto white cardstock & then added a pop dot underneath each one to give them a bit of dimension...
The coordinating envelope for the next one was made using one of the Maya Road envelopes included in the add-on kit...
For this one I used the Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze Paint (the Flirty color) I received as a freebie from Northridge Publishing to cover my chipboard LOVE piece & then added some pink glitter on top. I love that the Glimmer Glaze paint includes a little brush like nail polish has...
And just a little pillow box here for holding sweet treats...
I'll post the mini book I created with this month's kit on Monday! Check out the HIP 2B SQUARE blog for more information on their monthly kit club!
Happy Friday! I hope you have a FABULOUS weekend!
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The HIP 2B SQUARE kit for January is fabulous! I love the combination of products and the sweet Valentine-ish theme to the kit. Even still, the kit is quite versatile & can be used for topics other than LOVE!
For this first page, I paper-pieced my own TV. I also added a word bubble so I could quote the introduction that the host made on my recent TV appearance. I hand-wrote & then cut my title letters using the brown cardstock in the kit. I have decided it's the last time I'm going to do that myself, as I just ordered the Making Memories Slice + the "handwritten" cartridge to go along with it! In fact, I may just go back & redo my title after I get it. Yay... can't wait!
Just a series of small photos from our at-home pedicure session the other day during one of our no-school snow days on this next page. The flower was just cut from my Basic Grey paper, hand-cut my own stem & then used my Martha Stewart fence border punch. The "sweet" in my title was cut from the Pink Paislee packaging...
Just a simple 8 1/2 x 11 page here with an old photo I found the other day while looking for a photo of Bob's dad for his funeral. The page design is very similar to a Nikki Sivils page I made last summer...
I love when there's black + gold in a kit and I have Mizzou-related photos to scrap. The photos taken on this night weren't of great quality (probably because I had the good camera with me that night & I wasn't there!), but one doesn't always have magazine worthy photos & even still the memory should be documented!
And finally... my 2-pager based on this Creating Keepsakes sketch that was given to the team this month...
My horse is just some clip art downloaded from the internet & then printed onto my paper that was included in the kit...
I also made a few cards + a mini book, which was included in the January add-on kit. Stay tuned for those! Check out HIP 2B SQUARE for more information on their monthly kit club!
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As I was looking through some old boxes of photos & things from school, I came across a sketch pad from my sophomore year of college... 1987 to be exact. I had decided I no longer wanted to major in education, but rather I would change it to art. Mind you... I hadn't had an art class since 6th grade. Clearly it was a transitional year, one in which I really didn't know WHAT I wanted. Looking back though, I now wish I had stuck with that... rather than ultimately graduating with a degree in Marketing. It's obviously where my heart is... being creative.
It was an interesting year though, involving many art classes including one where we had to draw the nude models who arrived to class every day. I knew I was in way over my head, but did my best & learned a lot. On this particular day though, we had to draw a self-portrait using a mirror that was attached to our easel. I'd like to say that my hair wasn't really that big, but it was the 80's... so unfortunately... yes, it was. Perhaps I missed my calling & should've been the lead singer of an 80's hair band?
Freakin' hilarious.
I'm happy to say that I gave up the Aqua Net & getting perms a LONG time ago, but I do still like hairspray. You can take the girl out of the 80's, but you can't take the 80's out of the girl...
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Your own odds
+++++++++++++++++++
In many of the things you attempt, the odds will be against
you. Fortunately, the odds don't really matter.
After all, the odds were very much against you ever being
born in the first place. And yet here you are.
Whether it is with your health, your wealth, your
relationships, or anything else, the odds don't determine
your results. Your thoughts, actions, words, focus,
commitment and persistence are what create the results you
get.
You can control those things, no matter what the odds might
be. Pay no attention to the odds, and direct your focus
toward doing whatever is necessary to get where you wish to
go.
The odds do not take your level of determination into
consideration. So when it comes to what you intend to do,
those odds really don't have much meaning.
Step forward, take action, and keep going until you reach
the goal you've chosen to reach. Make your own odds, and put
them one hundred percent in your favor.
Ralph Marston
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What a FUN weekend! Had "Girls Night" on Friday, including happy hour + the movie "The Roommate..."
Woke up to 3 more inches of snow on the ground on Satuday. Had a little creative time with the January HIP 2B SQUARE kit & "game night" with Bob & Bryn, that didn't end when Bryn went to bed that night. Bob & I decided to stay up too late playing the "80's Game." I won... ahem.
Last night we went to a friend's house for a Super Bowl party. LOVED the half-time show. Could've cared less about the rest of the game, but yay for the Packers. Or actually yay for the chicken wings... since really I was just there to eat & hang out with friends!
Love those girls!
Had a little more time with my HIP kit tonight, too...
It's a FABULOUS kit this month. Check out all the details here to get one of your own.
GLEE rocked as always! Oh and did you know we're supposed to get more snow this week? Can't wait!
Or not...
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Just a little of what's been going on around here lately...
A 3-hour Zumbathon at the Y...
Bob & other former Mizzou basketball players on the court at half-time during the MU vs. Iowa game...
A birthday party...
A reunion of friends at a funeral...
Silliness...
A science fair project gone-wrong...
Beautiful flowers & yummy fruit from friends...(pay no attention to the wine & popcorn...)
Nasty weather requiring a hammer to get the frozen mailbox open...
Awesome pedicures...
Lots of time to play with friends...
Too much time chatting on Facebook with friends who are also stuck at home due to snow...
And finding time to make more thank you notes... (we ran out of the set provided by the funeral home)...
Thank goodness for SRM sticker sentiments & Quick Cards. They really do make cards look good!
TGIF and school is back in session! I'm off to the Y for my Sculpt class & then tonight is "Girls Night Out" with happy hour + a movie... "The Roommate." Pretty sure it's going to scare the poo out of us... or maybe just me. ;-)
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Even though we've been stuck indoors for a couple days, I haven't had much time to accomplish a whole lot. My "creative time" has been spent trying to creatively figure out a way to keep Bryn entertained, so I can sneak in some work. ;-) I did finish most of this new page after she went to bed the other night though... before Bob managed to successfully lure me away from the craftroom, that is. The rest of it had to wait until the next morning.
I wanted to do some paper-piecing on here by making my own chalkboard. I also asked Bryn if I could have the little girl sticker. It's from her American Girl paper pad. I swear I think I use that paper pad more than she does. The photo quality isn't so hot in my photos, as I was sitting as far away as I could possibly sit in the gymnasium, but that's ok with me. I told the story & that's what matters the most in the future...
The other day I received my copy of the October Scrapbook Trends magazine + some free supplies in exchange for my page they published...
Gotta love the "Boo-tiful" line from Nikki Sivils!
I told my dad he was famous now. :-)
Thank goodness we have a treadmill since the Y was closed on Tuesday (not my normal day to go anyway) and then opened late on Wednesday, leaving my Spin class cancelled in the morning. Seriously think I'd be going nutso with all this bad weather, if it weren't for being able to RUN!
And even though we have no school again today... I say YAY for normal hours at the Y today and my favorite class... Zumba!
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Today is the last day of all my Winter 2011 CHA projects using the brand new releases from Nikki Sivils! I know I have already mentioned this, but these 6 new lines are my favorite of all her CHA releases since the start of her business. I'm looking forward to hearing about the success of this trade show and I'm also happy to report that Scrapbook.com is going to be carrying all 6 of her new lines soon! Finally!!!
So anyway... last, but not least, it's Max & Mollie... the cute little skunks! I love the pink & green color combo and the cool retro images in this line...
I also love the little sun cut-outs and doubled them up to add some dimension...
Have you noticed there's a lot of flag banners in Nikki's new releases? Love that!
And to wrap things up... I, along with some of the other Nikki Sivils' designers, had the honor of designing for Page Maps this month! Becky Fleck sent me a 2-page sketch & I used the new "Beatrice" line to create my page...
Check out Page Maps for ALL the sketch designs for the month of February. It was fun to be part of it!
And speaking of fun... all this snow & ice is NOT. Another day of no school...
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So what do you think of all the new releases from Nikki Sivils so far? Aren't you loving all the fun cut-outs that are included with each line?
How about some more with the new "We Are Family" line! Another perfect line for the SPRING time (and it can't get here soon enough... SO over all the snow right now!)...
I bought a cheap unfinished wood heart frame from Michaels... I think it was only a dollar. After painting it white, I just embellished it with some of the paper & cut-outs plus a little baker's twine for the kite...
Love the fun trees, houses & kites in this line! There's also a full sheet of fun journaling tags with this line that I love!
Ok... so no school AGAIN today due to all the ice on the ground and the "blizzard" in the forecast of up to 12 inches of snow. A lot of businesses are closed today, including the YMCA, and Bob is home from work, too. Yesterday school was released 2 hours early due to ice. At this rate, we'll be going to school until July!
What a crazy winter this has been. And it's not even over yet. Thank goodness we made plans for Spring Break. Something to look forward to...
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