Sparks of Light

It's June 20th!!

2010-06-20T07:46:00.002-04:00

Happy Father's Day to all dads no matter what form they take.

Techniques book

2010-05-25T11:33:00.007-04:00

Recently I've been doing up these technique books - actually more of a technique journal. I'll play and experiment with different mediums and tools to see how something looks and how it changes if I try something new. My problem was that something that works on paper didn't work the same way on a different surface like canvas or acrylic so I made up this book that has different mediums as pages to try it out.

The text block is made of 5 signatures. One signature was made with one pre gessoed canvas leaf and one vinyl leaf, each sandwiched between 2 sheets of drawing weight cardstock. The text block was then stitched into a hand bound cover.

This one has black gessoed canvas

Canvas and Vinyl page. Vinyl lets me see what acrylic would look like but without the rigidity.

Tip: Don't use yarn when using the Secret Belgian Binding. It stretches too much and you end up getting frustrated and throwing things.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T14:30:00.000-04:00

Happy Day to anyone that takes care of anyone.

Roses glow

2010-04-25T22:39:00.003-04:00

These were made using the Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die and My Mind's Eye flocked paper and while I thought they were pretty cool before I glazed them, I really like how they turned out after being coated with UTEE. The UTEE thing has a bit of a learning curve, I've found. One of my peeps and I were playing with her mom's melting pot and almost a whole pound of UTEE to learn that

Work fast, this stuff cools quickly
Work fast, it scorches in the pot and turns yellow
Don't work too fast, it's really hot and burns are a bitch
Make sure you use the right setting on the pot
Don't use the heat gun to speed up the melting process, it makes a HUGE mess
Not everything looks good dipped in the stuff - felt for instance. Flocked paper leaves fuzzies behind too

Books, books and more books

2010-04-04T15:21:00.005-04:00

So...I've been slack. Actually more like so busy I don't even have time to sleep. I think I've done 6 layouts since last summer? I've still managed to collect more stuff though and over the last couple weeks I've made the attempt to use my new toys AND try to reduce my stash by making books. I've been able to use up 4 whole paper collections, including the die cuts, use all my brand new Tim Holtz Sizzix dies, stabbed my fingers repeatedly AND spill an entire bottle of PVA glue across my table. Now it's time for show and tell...

Books with Japanese Stab Binding
I used My Mind's Eye Ooh La La collections for these and I stabbed fingers twice and broke 2 needles doing these.

Flat spine casing and hand sewn signatures

This one is the end result of an entire Basic Grey collection pack, 3 bloody fingertips and a whole cup of spilt PVA glue to clean up off the table and floor.

This was kinda fun, I played with the individual page edges and sizes. I want to use it for an art journal so I'm going to cut windows into some of the pages at a later date.

Last but not least, my Star Book.

I got my hot little paws on the new Tim Holtz dies from Sizzix and I was so geeked by them. I'm not a fan of die cuts, I actually have a hard time scrapping with them since I never think of using them but I'm in loooove with these. I especially like how the finished die cut edges turned out and Marah Johnaon's Chivalry line is to die for. All the edges, the flourishes and the flower are die cut from the collection. What I learned doing this one is that 8 points is too many, it gets too heavy for the book to support so when you hang it, it's bottom heavy and the star isn't symmetrical, that and if you have ink on your fingers while managing to stab yourself, you might end up with a permanent tattoo...

To Infinity and Beyond!!

2009-10-04T20:47:00.003-04:00

HAHAHA, we just came back from the 3D double feature of Toy Story and Toy Story 2. You have to love a company that can produce movies where kids will sit and watch, totally engrossed for 4 hours. They even added in extra scenes through the movies, I have to admit I enjoyed it. Only thing is that I'm not completely sold in this 3-D thing. I really don't think it's all that, I mean, to me, these 3D movies just look like high end HD/Blu-ray movies. I think I was spoiled by the 3D spiderman ride at Universal because that really made you feel like things were coming to get you. These "3D" movies just don't have the same feel.

I have to share these...

2009-09-23T08:32:00.003-04:00

These photos are crazy mad. My friend in Sydney sent them to me this morning. They woke up to find Sydney completely enveloped in a dust cloud. The dust storm originated in the Northern Territory and blew south to Sydney. That's like a dust storm in the Dakotas blowing south to Miami.

Been trying new things...

2009-08-29T17:34:00.002-04:00

Well, I was inspired by a really good friend of mine to play with a blank canvas book. Only problem was that I couldn't actually get my hands on one so I decided to make mine. With about $2. worth of artist's canvas, about $1.50 in tabletop vinyl and a couple packs of grommets and interfacing that I had lying around anyway, I stitched one together. A bit of gesso, paint and glimmer mist later, I'm pretty happy with the results. Most of the embellishments are buttons, I really like that silver 3/4 profile facial button.

The bling on the cover is another new toy I got. I forget who it's by but it looks like a soldering iron and it heat sets the stones onto the fabric. It's very cool but really requires a bit of patience. It took a little longer than I was expecting to get the cover done.

My last cool purchase is my felter! After countlessly stabbing my fingers by hand felting, I happened across a bargain I couldn't pass. I've been playing with it and came up with these beauties. Oh, and the ribbon on the book cover is felted on as well.

I've also got some new papers that I'm working with now. Will post when done...

AARRRRGGGGGHH!!

2009-07-23T09:55:00.003-04:00

Why can't there be just 1 @#$%&* version of Windows that can work??? I've just about had it with Vista!! &%&*($^ explorer keeps freezing so I can't even see my hard drive and apparently, the "fix" in the service pack is hit or miss. I won't ever find out because I refuse to install the little virus that they want to push to make sure that I have a "good" copy of Vista installed.

I seriously need to install Linux...

Presents!!!

2009-05-15T11:34:00.004-04:00

Well, it wasn't as bad as I was led to believe.

I got my 2nd fridge which I'm really chuffed over :) I've been wanting one for a while now and yes I know it's more a "family" present, I get veto power over everything that goes in it.

Meanwhile, DD picked out this...

Which is a lot better than I was imagining, apparently something with faux fur was a close 2nd because "this feels really nice Dad"

DS came up with...

He's been wanting me to get a "slider station" ever since they started peddling them on TV. For those unfamiliar with the concept, check it out here. Beware, you're going to be yelled at so turn your speaker volume down. Dad, being a good dad, used the burger thing to make dinner that night because I was sleeping off the effects of drinking a blenderful of something frosty and adult flavoured :)

It was a VERY good day.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

2009-05-08T08:48:00.002-04:00

I'm being pro-active since I can barely keep up with everything else.

Happy Mother's day to everyone out there in a mom role. Moms are the coolest, most patient people on the face of the earth. If they weren't, humans would be extinct in a generation.

Can't wait to see all the stuff that Dh has apologized for in advance, apparently my kids think my style is having no style...

Happy dance

2009-04-13T09:29:00.000-04:00

Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah! School today, quiet house. Doing a bit of code, finishing off a hat for felting and hoping to paint a bit.

Happy days are here again...

Bleeaacchh!!

2009-04-10T08:21:00.001-04:00

Spring break is almost over, 3 more sleeps and it's back to school. Yay! DS is definitely feeling his oats these days too, talk about defiant 4yrs olds! To top it off, you can really tell when he makes the effort to be good and when he's "in a mood", I guess there are some days when he figures it's no use so he may as well let it rip since he's getting into trouble anyway.

No scrapping for the past couple weeks either, I'm hoping to get some done today but it's too early to tell at this point. Hopefully, I can get some Easter pictures this weekend too.

Scrapping!!!

2009-03-17T09:44:00.002-04:00

Scrap4Life had their cyber crop last weekend and I did manage to get a few of the challenges done. Where I have been slack is with my girls on the Australian Top 50 board. With the time difference and just day to day stuff, I haven't been by in quite a long time. ASBT50 had their CC last weekend too and I'll be good and drop by to check out the challenges.

Anyhoo, here's what I managed to do. I'm really pleased with them.

BTW, good luck to Jodie and Judy at S4L. Jodie's moving out to Hawaii to start a new adventure and Judy is going to take over the business. Can't wait to get my box of goodies from them.

We've got big things coming down the track too...

Project Appalachian

2009-03-10T14:44:00.002-04:00

I get emails from my LYS and this week, they announced that they're collecting sweaters for Project Appalachian. I'd personally never heard of it but they were inspired by a story on the news over the weekend about poverty in the Appalachian mountains.

To be honest, I still don't know much about it or have bothered to research the article - my bad - but in this day and age, I truly believe that poverty, true poverty, not relative poverty in the USA should not exist. Anyway, their initiative is to collect sweaters for children and they are looking for any and all knitters and crocheters to get involved. I packed up the few that I could put my hands on and took them down and volunteered to make more as they were getting some yarn donated.

Having said that, I'm putting out a call to any that can help. My LYS is A Stitcher's Haven and unfortunately, they haven't updated the website with the details yet but their contact information is on the link.

The Cat in the Hat came Back

2009-03-04T08:30:00.004-05:00

I had to share this...

In honour of Dr Seuss' birthday - at least I think it's the birthday, DS's class did this getup, which I had a helluva time trying to get him out of.

I couldn't imagine trying to control 21 of these things - it really was a day of herding cats.

3 more days til school

2009-02-19T17:18:00.005-05:00

There's been no school this week for "Family and Friends Week" which means that I've had 2 feral children for the past 5 days. 3 more days to school and at this point, hours are worth counting.

It all started off with the Garlic Festival in Delray Beach on Valentine's day and yes there actually is a garlic festival, it's their 10th one and I was quite surprised how extensive it was. All the food of course was garlic themed - garlic pulled pork, garlic chicken skewers, garlic pizza, garlic sausages, london broil in garlic sauce...garlic ice cream which was surprisingly tasty. Kids had a blast, got their faces painted and got on the rides and a couple hours later, it was time to leave with much lighter pockets.

DS had a custom paint job, it was so worth the money. He wanted spidey and I asked for venom since it wasn't on the list. I think it got them a bunch more business as everyone that saw him wanted to know where to get it done and I believe they made the local evening news. I had to get them hats since they left the house without theirs and the sun was beating down pretty hard. Anyways, there was a local camera reporter at the tent where I got the hats and she thought they "were just too cute" and asked to interview them. The boy, just went to town with it. I don't know if it was aired or not, it's not local to us but it was funny watching them and all I could do was shake my head. Don't I have the most beautiful DD?

And look out, here comes Venom and his mild mannered alter ego; Stupendous Man

DD had her first spa experience too, one of her friends had a spa birthday party and I was really pleased that they had age appropriate activities. The girls got their hair done, a bit of glitter and eyeshadow and manicure and pedicures. It was very cute, loud but cute. We dropped her off and wandered around the mall while it was going on. They were running a little late when we got back and I went in to find about 15 giggling and talking 6 and 7 year olds parading around in their little spa robes and pedi-slippers. It really was trying to herd cats.

Oooooh!!! Tagged again :)

2009-02-05T19:32:00.003-05:00

Hi!! Long time no see huh?

I got tagged by Vicky and since I'm soooo slack, I just found out.

*****Photo Memory Game****
Here are the RULES:
1.Go to where you store you pictures on your computer.
2.Go to the SIXTH folder and pick the SIXTH picture.
3.Post that picture on your blog along with a SHORT story about it.
4.You know the rest. Tag SIX people and leave a comment on their blog or email then letting them know you chose them.

Here's my picture:

This is actually from DS's camera. He got one of those kid-proof Diego cameras for Christmas and this is from his first play with it. We were outside playing with a bubble machine so his excitement was two-fold. The bubble machine was actually working - I had confiscated it the week before because they swirled the thing around and got the motor wet so I had to clean and dry it. Second, he has "my OWN camera". He's very button happy too, I had to dump the card a couple times that day. Too bad most of the pictures were of the floor or his fingers. I believe those are my feet in the shot.

My turn now...who to tag?

I tag

Kylie
Jude
Jen
Kayla - if you get the chance but I figure you're taking lots of pictures now anyway

Glad that's over

2009-01-23T13:43:00.002-05:00

The germs have left the building!!!

I'm still not on full appetite but that pain's stopped and my body isn't protesting to everything that enters my stomach.

One of my favourite cyber crops is on tonight too. Scrap4Life's January CC has started for the weekend and the challenges are so nice and I'm going to take the challenges with me to my not-so-LSS's Friday night get together with the girls. I'm realy liking scrapping at the store since it helps me stick to the scrap diet. I only get what I need for the layout and I'm not picking up stuff for the sake of it. Mind you in a couple months when all the new stuff from CHA hits the shelves, that might change.

Having said that, my pal Vicky has awarded me with a blog award and I have yet to collect it. I will be doing that soon, I promise and I'll be paying it forward, I need to have more than 5 min blog time every 3 days or so.

Big things to come....

My kids love me

2009-01-19T19:51:00.002-05:00

They were very insistent on sharing their germs with me. I'm not feeling good...

My kids are sick :(

2009-01-19T01:00:00.003-05:00

Poor babies. DD started throwing up Friday night and it's progressing through her GI tract but it's still gross. She says that she's feeling better but I'm not seeing any improvement in her colour, she's still really pale and still has dark circles under her eyes. At least she's trying to drink, I just wish more would stay down. So far the only thing to stay down is rice and gatorade. Even tea and water is coming back up.

Then, 4 short hours ago, DS started to puke. Poor little guy is so freaked out by it. He never throws up so all the cramping and retching that goes along with it has him in tears and to add insult to injury, his birthday is tomorrow. I had cancelled everything anyway since his sister was ill but I was still planning on taking him out somewhere. Now, he can't even enjoy his own birthday.

I'm really hoping I don't get it. I've been walking everywhere with a spray bottle of bleach cleaner so keeping my fingers crossed.

Project 365 is a bust

2009-01-13T08:17:00.003-05:00

How hard is it to take 1 stinking photo a day?? Let me tell you, it's not that it's hard to remember, it's just sooooo easy to forget. When all I can think about is "Why am I the only one in the house with the capacity to clean floors", taking a photo of it is the last thing on I remember.

If I took a photo of the floor around the dining table everyday, I'd probably disgust myself. Maybe a photo journal of the way they eat would shame them into cleaning it...in about 15 years.

And what's up with this? Bedtime is 8. Maybe later on a weekend...MAYBE...sometimes we'll cut them a little slack. Anyway, last night, I wasn't gone 15 minutes and he's already been yelled at by DH for locking his door and turning the lights on.

It's about 9 - 9:30. I've yelled "Go to sleep!" about every 20 minutes to the boy and you would not believe the responses I was getting - and roughly in this order:

"I'm in the toilet"
"I AM! I'm in bed!"
"I'm putting toys away!" - WTF?
"Ok Mom!"
"I'm NOT playing, I"m not, I'm not"

Finally, there's no response and I get up to check in case he's not actually in the bed and this is what greets me in the dark.

None of that was on the floor when I put him to bed. As a matter of fact, I distinctly remember putting those 2 light sabres away when I turned the lights out because he had hidden them under the comforter at the foot of the bed and the duvet was in the closet.

I remember telling him that he had to clean up the mess in his room and I was then informed that

"It's NOT a mess, Mom. it's beautiful!"

I'm going to have to start camping outside his door when the lights go off. I really hope that this is just a phase because it's not as if he's not tired when he's put to bed, the little *insert appropriate noun here* just won't stay still.

I scrapped!!!

2009-01-10T20:14:00.004-05:00

For the first time in months, I finally got something done.

I went to my LSS and met up with the girls there and a good time was had by all. I'm quite happy with the result, there was the general consensus however, that the jump layout needs a bigwheel die cut sometwhere. (Un)Fortunately, I couldn't find one.

Let's hope this is the start of many more...

Project 365 so far

2009-01-07T07:38:00.004-05:00

I really did want to make a go of this but it's not even a week into the year and I've already missed a day, well 2 days actually but I sort of fudged one of them. As part of it, I started to journal every night too and so far, I've been keeping up with that. Just a page or so with the day's happenings so I can say I did something.

I've been painting too, which is a nice change. Feels good to smear colour again and squish stuff together.

I was slightly affronted when DH looked at them and asked if they were the right way up.

Can you hear that?

2009-01-05T10:25:00.004-05:00

SHHH!! Listen...all that quiet...no kids!! School's back in session. WOOHOO!!

Isn't that terrible? I love my kids but I was really looking forward to them going back to school.

I've had a chipboard album sitting on my workspace for , oh I don't know, months maybe? I finally decided to do something about it. I have no pictures to go into it yet but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I tried to use a bunch of stash items - beads, buttons, rubons but I didn't make much of a dent, *sigh* still a whole whack of it left. I even painted the backside of each sheet as well. I just need pictures to go in it now.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T09:04:00.000-05:00

Here's to resolutions and breaking them. I don't know which one will be more fun...

Who's game?

2008-12-31T00:08:00.002-05:00

I found out about Project 365 and I'm totally intrigued by it.

So, who else is game? I'd really like to be able to take the whole thing to the end but possessing a practical and scatterbrained ID, I'm not going to bash myself for missing a few days here and there.

LOL - I might even blog about it...

Merry Christmas!!!!

2008-12-25T17:19:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone is having a safe and happy day. My cousin has had a baby boy and the poor kid is now doomed to a life of either a big combined present or 2 half presents. Welcome Plaxico and good luck to you. No, that's not his name but it was a joke a little while ago, I'm still waiting on the official name....and the pictures.

Once again, Santa has been very good to us and for the first time in a very long time, DH had the biggest present, hands down. Only problem is that he's going to have to fight the kidlets to use it and probably every kid on the block too.

Going to play some more...

I've come in from the cold

2008-12-21T08:21:00.003-05:00

I'm Baaa-aacck!

I had to leave in a hurry, and no, no-one was after me, I just to had to catch up on some family time abroad due a sad but expected event.

On the other hand, I got home late last Thursday and realised that I had 2 weeks of baking and preparation to squeeze into 5 days otherwise it just wouldn't be Christmas.

Growing up in my family, it's all about the food. Food truly means love and the more food there is, the more love to be shared. My poor DH is having a hard time coping with that since the house now looks like a bakery exploded in it and the fridge doors are barely closing. To me, Christmas means black cake which is a fruit cake that's moist and marinated in rum and cherry brandy, pastels which is a type of meat pie that's steamed in a cornmeal batter and wrapped in banana leaves, cookies and ham. Without any of these, it's just not right. I had to make an attempt to remedy the situation so the oven's been on for 2 days and I've got most of it out my system. The ham is in the fridge and I'm making an apple pie for dessert.

This is what it looks like after I've given half the cakes and a third of the cookies away.

Black Cake....mmmmm....

Lamingtons for the DH....

Gingerbread for the kidlets to decorate

More sugar cookies for decorating

And...chocolate chips with Christmas M&Ms for the DS - by request

There are still a couple things that I haven't done that I usually do, but I'm time crunched this year. Maybe next week for New Years....

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2008-11-29T11:21:00.002-05:00

OMG, I didn't realize how long it's been since I've been back :)

Well, Thanksgiving was a pretty low key affair. We did have an invitation to go to my girlfriend's mom's house for dinner but I made a critical error. I let it slip that they karaoke and DH flat out refused to even think about going. We ended up having a nice, quiet Roast Beef dinner since we're not real big on turkey. DD was a little disappointed since they've been going on and on at school about the turkey dinner and she really wanted it but, like I said, no-one in this house really cares for it. At least not a whole bird's worth of it.

I braved Black Friday - that's traditionally what they call the Friday after Thanksgiving - and it's the day all the stores have the big sales to kick start Christmas shopping. I guess it's the equivalent of Boxing Day shopping. Only thing was that this year, it was pretty quiet compared to the past. I went to the mall around 6:30 am, the store I wanted to go to was supposed to open at 6 and I didn't realize that the WHOLE mall was open at 6 and while, there were quite a few people there, it was more like a weekend crowd as opposed to the BIG SALE day crowd. I've braved Boxing Day sales in Sydney and Toronto where I got in early and left before the riots, and I mean riots, no exaggeration. I've witnessed the wedding dress sale rush in Filene's Basement - you couldn't pay me to step foot in there that day. This year, there was nothing of the excitement of the sale which probably isn't going to be good for retailers. I also noticed that the sales weren't that great either, there was the usual electronics specials and a couple really good specials on a FEW toys but the real, bargains that you used to be able to find were almost non existent.

But, Christmas shopping is DONE!! I'm expecting the need for the last minute present as usual but family gifts are packed away to be wrapped. On that note, let me say that I don't approve of people putting up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving, even if you don't celebrate it. It just somehow seems disrespectful to me. It's like celebrating Easter before Christmas, doesn't seem right. There are quite a few houses in our area that have had their yards decked out with lights and snowmen for almost 2 weeks now and it didn't seem appropriate. And let me say for the record, in Florida, there is NO SNOW so there should be NO SNOWMEN in the front yard. Dress Santa in a Hawiian shirt and sunglasses, snowmen in 75 degree weather (22-ish Celsius) don't exist. Even if we are having a cold spell, it's still warm enough to wear shorts.

Still no scrapping :( but I'm in the (long, slow) process of clearing off my work space to set up the sewing machine to quilt. Ambitions...

Why is this so difficult?

2008-11-13T10:13:00.002-05:00

We've been trying to sort out Christmas lists. The local toystore is going to be open on midnight on the Friday after Thanksgiving so I'm getting a list prepared and for all the stuff that they've been asking for, I still don't know what to put on the list.

We narrowed it down to about 4 items each and a couple big items that they have to share but for some reason it took all morning. I don't get it.

Another thing, I don't understand why I'm compelled to get them anything at all. Little monsters still can't pick up what they've thrown down and when I was that age, I was lucky to get anything at all. My mom will freely admit that we didn't get stuff when we were kids, mainly because the money wasn't there but also, my parents would work like dogs right up until Christmas Day and never had the time to shop anyway. Christmas Day was one of the few family days that we had and that was only after they got to sleep in.

What happened?

2008-11-07T11:15:00.003-05:00

Not much. A funny thing happened though, I finished reading the Twilight series - and let me say now, I've never been affected by a story like that since I read Jane Eyre when I was 9. Ever since I finished it, I've been in a funk. I think it ended too well, too perfect and for the intended teenage audience, that's probably the perfect ending but for my jaded and advanced years, I found that I was depressed. It took a long time to figure out exactly what was bothering me and I think I was experiencing, for the first time in my life, envy. Envy that I physically cannot achieve that state of contentment and happiness that ended the story, envy that I don't have all the time in the world to pursue all the things I want to achieve. All this hit me last night and it was like a wall came down and I can breathe again.

Well done Stephanie Meyers!! You got me good and to be honest, I loved it.

Turning my attention to MY life now, quite a few things can happen in 7 days. You can:

Start, er, restart, running again
Completely overestimate cake batter volumes and end up with 3 doz cupcakes and a 15" bundt cake from the same batch
Start and FINISH 3 novels - more on those later, I hate when I finish something in the middle of an incomplete series
NOT download a cardful of photos from your camera
NOT take pictures of all the Christmas tags you've finished
Vacuum and mop up crumbs from under the dining table 3 times a day and still not see a difference
Look helplessly at a mountain of crap on and around your desk and STILL decide to do nothing about it - reading is so much more interesting
Wonder why it is your children are the ones in school but you're still doing homework
Completely ruin a dinner that's supposedly fool proof
Make new friend that could turn out to be a very distant relation

Yes, in 7 days, this and more can happen and there's still no mention of sleep in that list and a looming family crisis.

Anyway, back to the reading thing...

I think this is just to piss me off, but all the authors/books that I've gotten interested in or want to read, are not currently available in the US until sometime next year. Karen Miller's final installment to the Godking trilogy isn't available in the US until next year. I still can't find Alan Campbell's 2nd novel here -ok, ok, he's British, but it was available in Sydney when we left so I assumed that I'd find it here eventually. Brent Week's final installment to the Shadows won't be available in paperback until December and that series has been out for ages - and yes he's American so it doesn't quite suit the rant but it's my rant so piss off. Most of these books are written years in advance, why can't they be published together so I get them all at once??? No wonder I keep rereading them, by the time the last one's out, it's been 2 years since I've read the first one and the OCD in my compels me to finish what I've started. I have to reacquaint myself with the whole story and that throws me off.

Anyway, on my waiting list is Karen Miller's Godking finale, Neil Gaiman's next novel - I forget the name, oh and as a completely different aside, Coraline is being made into a movie and I'm really excited about that, I'm trying to find my copy so DD can read it. Sadly what could be Terry Pratchet's last novel is also due out soon. Hopes and good wishes to him and his family. Beetle Bardly is here in a couple weeks. I've also discovered that Lynn Fflewing has released a new series so that's on the radar too.

Onto my new friend...funny how some people seem to be destined to meet. I took the kids to a halloween party of a couple of their school friends and I met this really cool lady there. She's:

Chinese
Married to an expat Aussie from Perth
Has 2 kids - 6 and 2
Lives about 3 streets down from me
In Chinese - that is, if it was written in Chinese characters - the SAME maiden name
Totally cool

It was so funny. Bits of our conversation was something like:

"My husband's Australian"
"My husband's Australian. Where's he from?"
"Perth"
"Oh my God! My husband's from Perth!"
"Which community do you live in?"
"Savannah"
"No you don't!"

And so the night went on. It was like watching someone else have my life so we're keeping in touch so the boys can meet and the kids can play. That was one of the more profound moments of my week.

Finally, Madagascar 2 starts tonight so we're heading down to the drive-in tomorrow to check it out with a fried chicked picnic.

Ta daa!

Sigh First Halloween

2008-10-31T10:44:00.003-04:00

It's been a long eventful week and it's still not really over. No mojo to get a buzz with either, hopefully I can snap out of it soon.

The kidlets had a Halloween parade at school today and, yes, they were all very cute in their outfits, boy they're loud. About 400 kids from ages 3 to 10 packed into a gym, vibrating their way across the floor, laughing and talking and teachers on the mic and music in the back and parents yelling at their children to stand still to take photos, it was so nice to leave. Dh has some pictures somewhere....

It's not over yet, trick or treating still to come...

6 things about me

2008-10-22T10:06:00.002-04:00

I got tagged by Vicky to share 6 facts about me so here goes

When I was about 14, I thought I was going to marry an Australian. I didn't have a particular one in mind, it was more a philosophical idea - like I was going to drive a red car or have 7 kids.
I actually did want to have 7 kids.
I can't stand reality TV.
I can daydream into tomorrow if I'm not careful.
I have a basket fetish.
Ferns are my favourite plant.

My turn to tag now...

I think I'll tag Jude, Kylie and TBD

Schemes!

2008-10-22T09:35:00.003-04:00

It's no secret that one of my kids is a picky eater. DD will only eat from a list of about 10, maybe 15 things, all bland, all dry, all single foods. She won't eat anything with a sauce and hates to have her food touch or mixed. Can you see OCD tendencies?

Anyway, one of the things that she's dead set against is pizza. We only have to suggest pizza for dinner and there's wailing and gnashing of teeth. So this morning, when she say quite clearly

"Mom, I tried pepperoni pizza. I liked it"

"Oh really?" My almost nonexistent eyebrows are about level with my hairline. I'm waiting for the punchline.

"That means we can go to Chuck E Cheese now right?"

Ah, the other shoe dropped! For those unfamiliar with Chuck E. Cheese, it's a children's arcade who's sole reason for being is to take your money. In a desperate attempt to keep you there as long as possible, they offer assorted fast cardboard meals, most of which are cooked in a microwave and arrives about 2 hours after you've ordered from the 13 yr old serving staff. If I remember correctly it's either pizza substitue or wings substitute.

I can't stand the place - it looks and sounds Lord of the Flies in a room of pokie machines. I've been able to avoid the place by saying that there's nothing there that she'd eat - namely pizza but it appears that she has overcome that last hurdle. I'm going to have to test this quite vigorously before commiting to risking my sanity.

Well, I did it!

2008-10-20T12:09:00.002-04:00

After weeks of fighting with kidlets about cleaning the playroom, picking up their stuff and putting their toys away, the boom dropped. I told them over the weekend that "On Monday when you're at school, I'm going to throw away anything that's on the floor so make sure that you put anything you want to keep away"

They thought I was playing....

I collected 3 garbage bags worth of assorted trash, toys and craft items and they are currently on the curb awaiting pickup. I think there are going to be a couple pairs of very large eyes after school this afternoon. Ah....

Doh!

2008-10-12T21:55:00.005-04:00

Well, I didn't make the Scrap4Life DT team. The last challenge was a Christmas themed OTP item and I did a mantel setting. Yes, yes, we don't have mantels in Florida but I did one all the same. It started off with the clock and I decided it needed candles around it and that spawned the circular NOEL and the trees but thetrees were too big for the circle so they got their own spot. Ideally the clock would be between the 2 sets of candles, maybe 6" over the surface.

Here are some close ups -
Here's the clock. I completely lost focus on the fact that the clock frame is pink so it doesn't quite match the blue theme I was going for...

Here a shot of the candles on the table.

I was having a serious mojo deficiency with all the stuff that was happening during the week too and I wasn't sure if I was going to get it in on time but it happened. I'm a little bummed out but that's ok, it just means that there's something else for me coming round the corner. The girls that did make it are really really deserving as well so it's all good.

Ugh - it's been an eventful week...

2008-10-10T10:54:00.003-04:00

This week did NOT start well and it's ending isn't very relaxing either. Monday, we had to go to the kids' school for the little one's parent conference. After hearing that he's clearly the most advanced and well adjusted child in the class and that he's been telling embarrassing stories about me, the car decided to go on strike and not move.

Eventually it gets towed to the shop to find out that the shifter cable's snapped and it needs to stay overnight and have a new shifter installed. Thank God for good neighbours. They came out while the car was getting dragged up the tow bed and offered us their extra car while ours was getting fixed.

Did I mention that while all this was going on, DH was away? At least he was around most of Monday but with getting the car back and dealing with a bunch of crap that came up out of the blue along the way, I'm really tired right now. Tuesday was getting all the stuff I missed from Monday done, Wednesday was still playing catch up and dragging them all over for after school stuff, kids had a school holiday yesterday, DS is home today sick. At least he's supposed to be sick. If I didn't know that he projectile puked all over the back seat floor, I'd be packing him back to class. He NEVER pukes - I think I can count all the times he's puked like that on one hand - so just in case, we felt he should stay home. He's not acting sick though...

In between all of this, I needed to get my project for the DT Comp I'm in, it's the make or break it week and I bit off more than I could chew. This thing took on a life on its own and I went a little overboard so now I need a nap. It's done and photographed thank goodness. Will find out on Sunday, fingers crossed.

Round 4

2008-10-06T09:59:00.003-04:00

Woo hoo!! I've made it to Round 4 in the Scrap 4 Life DT Contest and I am chuffed!! Last challenge was to use paper piecing in the layout and that's not something I do at all. Came up with this:

Here's the fairy on the left as I was trying to leave it alone to dry

This was one of the more painful challenges since I really needed to think of something that I'd use. Die cuts and paper piecing are NOT my go to items. I am really pleased with how it turned out though.

Off to have a think now on the next one...

True Blood and books

2008-10-05T08:19:00.004-04:00

Ok, I've had a vampire fixation since I was about 3. One of my earliest memories is watching Dark Shadows with my grandparents, howling with the wolf. The last 30-humph years of my life has been littered with countless books and movies about Count Dracula and his ilk, Christopher Lee was my favourite bad guy. Needless to say, this my tastes have expanded to all sorts of other sci-fi and fantasy but the undead has always topped the list.

I'm very geeked about the True Blood series that's been airing on TV for the past few weeks, they've made a few character changes from the original books by the FABULOUS Charlaine Harris. As an aside, I've been a fan of her books for many many years and I love her books' character development and social commentary. Anyway, back to True Blood, I'm finding that I'm making time to sit and watch it and I never do that and I think part of the reason is all the eye candy that's parading across the screen. Whatever the reason, I'm there!

Now there's the Twilight movie coming out and I'm a little miffed that I don't have the rest of my books yet. I bought the first Twilight book when it first published about 4, maybe 5 years ago and I didn't get the rest because I thought the publishers were taking too long to release them, I made the decision that I'd get all of them once the last one came out. Having said that, I'm waiting for my box set and my fingers are drumming...

After all this, the only vampire books I can't read are the ones by Laurel Hamilton. For some reason I can't get into them and trust me, I've tried many times but Miss L.A Banks is my next target.

Scrap Pink Raffle winner!

2008-09-30T14:17:00.003-04:00

My Not SO LSS hosted scrap pink last weekend to support cancer research and had this GIANT pink basket of goodies up for raffle and I won!! Let me tell you, that phone call made my day and I was so excited that I unwrapped the entire thing before I even thought about taking a picture of it. It was full of pink goodness so I'll be putting out some girly pages for the next little while. As soon as their web site is back up and running, I'll have to post a link to it.

yay for me!

Onto Round 3

2008-09-29T18:49:00.003-04:00

Well, I've made it through to Round 3 on the Scrap4Life DT Contest. Last week's challenge was to do a seasonal/holiday layout using colour only, no seasonal embellishments so I did a winter one of the kidlets' first taste of snow.

I was pretty chuffed about it, there's some stiff competition over there. I've got to do some planning for the next one now - as in find a picture to scrap...

I've been tagged...

2008-09-28T13:46:00.003-04:00

Been away from the terminal for a while and just saw that I've been tagged by Vicky :)

The rules:
1.- Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

2.- Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog. Some random, some weird.

3.- Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4.- Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 facts about me:

1. I wanted a Susan Powter haircut when I was young and dumb and fit - those too young to remember her, you'll have to Google her

2. I hate sleeves. I do my best to not have to wear anything with sleeves

3. I'll read or see anything with a vampire in it. Unfortunately much of it out there isn't worth viewing.

4. I dream in colour

5. Card making is a challenge for me. Don't know why.

6. I snapped my last pair of glasses in half, right across the bridge.

7. Coffee is my favourite food

At this point, I'm supposed to tag 7 more people but I have to find them first so I'll get back to that.

I did however scrap this weekend and I was quite productive. I got a few layouts and ATC's done for a swap and met a few really cool ladies in the process as it was not only Scrap Pink weekend but also the CC at Scrap4Life. I scrapped for a bit at my not so LSS in honour of the pink ribbon and bless her heart, one of the ladies there is currently going through treatment and even though she was having a really bad day of it, she came out.

A couple of my favourites:

Awarded :)

2008-09-23T20:44:00.003-04:00

I had a pleasant surprise when I popped over to Vicky's blog. She had granted me the following award.

I have to admit I was pretty chuffed about it. LOL - at least I'm not out there talking to myself.

Having received it now, I must pass it on and here are the rules to the award:

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog.

2. Link the person you received the award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you nominated.

I don't think I can find 7 other blogs but here goes:

Jen - who's had a pretty crappy summer but keeps looking forward
Kylie and Tracy - 2 of my bestest sheilas! I miss them, especially whenever I go to a crop and I missed the matching nose rings
Kris - I've never seen someone else surf and find as much useful (useless?) crap like Kris. Let's just call her the Cliff Clavin of the, well maybe MY, blogosphere. AND she knits!

We also got the go ahead that we can blog about the Scrap 4 Life DT competition. The first challenge was last week and it involved using circles for a fun background and ONLY stickers in the title. We all got sent through to Round 2 which is this week so that was pretty exciting.

Woohoo! Onto to the next...

And last but not least, today is my big boy's birthday, he is now old enough to play on all the old timers sports teams and requires extra attention when he goes for his physical. Happy Birthday my boy. I also found out something a little unsettling - I got a bottle of Barcardi Mojito today and couldn't wait to try it when we got home. It was a little too minty, I would have prefered a little more lime but I can add some lime juice to it but enjoyable. I was about halfway through my glass when my legs broke out in hives. Don't know why, didn't make sense as I have no allergies but I stopped just in case and I had to pop a couple anti-histamine. Not happy about that, I had just had enough to where I was really starting to enjoy it. Grrrr

Ooooh so cute

2008-09-18T10:18:00.002-04:00

It was a mistake making these. I'm feeling particularly clucky right now and I sooo shouldn't be there.

I need to make another hat but this is what's done so far and they are just too cute to look at.

I also threw my hat (haha) into the Scrap4Life DT contest. Challenge one was posted this week and I can't share until the contest is over but the entries in the gallery are all fantastic. Nothing like a good competition to bring out the mojo. If you want to see them, visit the Scrap4Life gallery

New babies on the way

2008-09-13T06:43:00.002-04:00

Well, I found out earlier this week that 2 of my cousins are having babies, both are going to be their second and I felt so betrayed. Not because of the babies but because no-one told me about it. Everybody assumed that I knew and one of them sends me a message saying that the new delivery date for the baby is now New Year's. New delivery of what baby? Who's having a baby? And I saw her about 3 months ago, just around the time she'd be finding out too and no-one told me. I had to talk to her husband to find all the details. Hmmph!

Anyways, that's why no blogging recently, I've been knitting. YAY!! I also had a flash a couple days ago about something that I think would make the CUTEST table placings so I'm working through that as well.

Will post piccies as soon as something is done.

I got something done...

2008-09-08T12:10:00.004-04:00

Not what I was supposed to do - I really wanted to get in on the SBT50 CC Challenges but wasn't in the cards this time around I guess. I've been wanting to do that stitching one for a while, I found something like a long time ago somewhere, don't remember but I've been itching to do it ever since.

Oh, and I got me some Maya Mist and I love them. I'd like to see the colour palette expand a little more but it's a really nice product to work with. I used the blue and gold on the chipboard pieces in the second layout. Now, if only I felt like journalling...

Happy Father's Day to Aussie Dads

2008-09-07T11:01:00.002-04:00

This was one thing I couldn't get used to, Father's Day in September. Basically Dh made out like bandit while we were there, having 2 Father's Days a year. The traditional one (for me) in June and the one where the kids brought home masterpieces made just for him in September and then to have his birthday a couple weeks later. Some people...

It's been a little hectic, I would have liked to scrap some more but with trying to get organized for the hurricane that may close school some time next week and DH going away again and it's getting on that time of the month, I'm knackered.

Hurricane Ike is not meant to directly affect us, he's passing around the tip of Florida and is supposed to be heading up into the Gulf of Mexico. However, based on his size, there's a really good chance that we will be getting quite a bit or rain and a fair amount of wind and they may decide close school while the worst is passing. I'm really not looking forward to that scenario...

What have we done today...

2008-09-04T20:08:00.005-04:00

So, the kids come home from school and are playing outside before dinner. This involves riding bikes and drawing with sidewalk chalk. DH comes in giggling his head off.

"What's up?"

"Greg's drawn his brain, looks at Maegan and points to the ground and says 'That's my brain. It's bigger than yours and smarter'"

I had to see this...

Greg's still busy with his brain...

Maegan's trying to compete by drawing hers and making it bigger but as Greg pointed out, it's just a line

The following pieces were then pointed out to me as listed:
Dad, Greg and Dad
For some reason, Greg draws a screaming mouth - always. Hmmmm...
For visibility reasons, I had to adjust the contrast and levels so the art could be seen more clearly.

So after dinner and its usual dramas, they're both showered and changed, ready for bed, Greg comes to see me and his mouth is covered in something and he's looking very pleased with himself.

"What's that on your mouth?"

"I was eating my stamps"

"*sigh* What?"

"I was eating my stamps and LOOK!! I did this too" He painted his nails with the stamp pad *sigh* and I wonder why I'm so tired at the end of the day.

Look, look, look

2008-09-03T10:26:00.004-04:00

I am LOVING my new stamps. Like Tim Holtz says "Do you see nothing or possibilities?"

So after a couple fits and starts, I've got 2 cards done, a bunch of ATCs started and I HAD to bring out the Shrinky Dink. I really dig the little tile from the Shrinky Dink. Caution though, I needed a heat resistant surface and the closest one, because I was too lazy to get the glass mat out, is my chair. It's finished wood, an old barstool actually but I didn't realise how hot it could get :(. I ...oops...have scorch marks on it from being a little too enthusiastic with the heat gun.

Other than that, the weekend was a bust. Again a very wet long weekend, poor kids were stuck inside and to top it off, I was not feeling well. All the humidity and pressure changes because of all the bad weather blowing through has made my sinuses very unhappy. Not full blown pain or I'd be bedridden with migraines but annoying.

DH had his dive trip called 2 days early because of all the bad weather blowing in the Bahamas, he texted me early yesterday to let me know and give me pick up times. He ended up being late getting off the boat because some unfortunate fool on the boat got caught in Customs with 2 joints. DH says that in the end there were 12 officers, 2 dogs, 4 agencies and a partridge in a pear tree before they let the boat go but detained the passenger in question. He was estimating getting off at about 12 - 12:30. We ended up scramming out of there at 2:00 and had to scream back to make the school pick up. Cops were all over the road too looking for speeders. We saw one guy get stopped, he passed the cop. DUH!!! In his defense, the cop WAS teasing though, going JUST below the speed limit so you'd have to speed up significantly to pass.

Well, off to finish my ATCs, will post when they're done.

Oh, and my girls on the DIY Network msg board is having a CC this weekend. It's their first and Clarinda that's organising it is doing such a good job. CC at SBT50 this weekend as well so it looks like it's going to be a productive one.

Look what I got!!

2008-08-29T10:24:00.003-04:00

They came yesterday and I'm pretty geeked about it. I signed up for the Big Wig Bash at Big Picture Scrapbooking a couple weekends ago and I won a set of Stacey Julian's books in a random draw. I was surprised that I'd actually won anything but these books are really nice. I've always liked her style, even though I can't scrap like her, she's too organised.

Just wanted to show off....er, share. That's right, share.

Goodies

2008-08-28T16:24:00.003-04:00

I broke my scrap diet :-) and I did it with 2 eyes open and money in hand and not guilty about it. After hearing numerous rumours about an LSS, I decided that I needed to investigate and there were further rumours that the alleged LSS was next door to a YARN store - LYS. They were reputedly in a fairly familiar part of town so I made a special trip and YAY! Found them both first time, no turning around or passing by too fast.

Only problem is that "L" isn't that "L", they're in a mall that's a good half hour away if traffic's moving but both rumours have been confirmed and they do exist. I have actually NOT gone into LYS yet but it's in the plan. LSS isn't bad, there was quite a bit in it, some of which I would actually buy ;-) and they have a weekly Friday night crop. I'm particularly impressed with my new stamps, I'm christening those tonight.

I wish...

2008-08-27T22:30:00.002-04:00

I wish I could say that I was productive today but I can't. Out of my 10 items on the mental "Things I really really really need to get done today", I've done one and a half. I wish I could say it was because the one task I did get done ate all my time but again, I can't. I wish I was motivated to do the rest, but alas again, I can't. Don't you love apathy? I completed the one task and gave up, figured that I'd done enough and...

I can't really remember how I filled the rest of my day. I think I ate and drew a mental blank for a couple hours and then realised I had to do the school pick up.

I then had to deal with 2 children that are experimenting in the fine art of negotiation. This usually involves with them asking for something, my saying "No" and them repeating the question with "I really really want to..."

I don't negotiate with terrorists.

Mmmmmm Look what I made

2008-08-25T21:43:00.002-04:00

I actually was able to find the right coconut here! Not that sweetened clumpy nasty stuff in the grocery, I got proper dessicated, unsweetened coconut and the only thing to do with it is to make lamingtons. It's been a while since we've had them too and the kids were so geeked to see "Daddy Cakes".

Who's that?

2008-08-23T22:33:00.004-04:00

Conversation with this afternoon with Greg

"Greg, who's this?"

"That's me!"

"Is it? You're sure?"

"YEAH! Oh wait. That's not me. I don't have pink underwear. It must be Maegan"

I laughed - wrong both times.

CC this weekend

2008-08-22T21:04:00.004-04:00

It's Scrap4Life's August Cyber crop this weekend and I managed to get a couple of the challenges done. Thanks goodness there weren't many "back to school" type of challenges posted because I don't have a lot of those pictures.

So far, I've got these done

I'm finally getting the groove back. Slowly but it's dribbling in.

First day of school

2008-08-20T16:01:00.005-04:00

Today was a GOOD day! Uninterrupted hours of thinking my own thoughts and doing my own thing, getting all my errands done in my own time. Such a good day and they were so happy to be going to school and not having to deal with the shouting lady that keeps telling them No! No! No!

Until they got home...something about Maegan had been bothering me for a while, couldn't quite put my finger on it until I was brushing her hair and...

"Why did you cut your hair?"

"Because you wouldn't let me"

"You didn't ask"

"I did when Dad and Greg went"

"But you didn't say anything, you just said you didn't want your hair like that"

She cut her fringe last night and the shortest pieces are dead centre of her face and they're, I swear, at scalp level. Maybe a whole cm long. I actually had my face in my hands for a minute, trying not to fall to pieces because if I don't laugh, I'll have to cry. You can actually see how short and crooked it is in the picture.

IT was so cute though, when I picked them up, Greg was wearing his "beautiful crown" .

"It's not a funny crown Mom, it's a beautiful crown"

Today's drama

2008-08-19T18:04:00.004-04:00

I hate when they're bored!! Greg comes to me about 4:00 in tears, not whiny "Somebody's picking on me" tears, deep sobbing "Help me please please please" tears.

"Moooommm, I put beads up my nose! Waaahhhh"

"What? What do you mean you put beads up your nose? Come here let me see"

Yep - I look and see this blue piece of plastic wedged in there. Ok, deep breath, do I take him to emergency or do I try to get it out myself? I took another look and decided that I could probably get it out since I could see the hole. I find a hook, catch it and it's out. *HUGE SIGH*

"Mom, there's a yellow one in there too. I put two in"

Ah CRAP!! I look in there and sure enough, there's another one in the back, just at the back of the nostril but that one's sideways, no purchase. By this time, he's wailing that I'm squishing him and his hands are flailing and getting in the way and I keep telling him that he has to stop or it will really hurt or worse and I'm thinking "I better take him to emergency". After about 5 minutes of him flailing, he gets tired and I'm able to push the tip of the hook under the bead and it pops out. Just in time because he caught his second wind and he was winding up to start again.

I bet he won't do that again! That was, I swear, the most stressful 10 minutes that I've ever been through. I felt the grey hairs sprout.

Aaaaagghhh

2008-08-18T17:03:00.002-04:00

Fay's killing me and she's not even a hurricane yet. First day of school has been delayed until possibly Wednesday depending on where and how she is. This is seriously cramping my style. I had all these lovely plans on how I was going to spend my alone time since DH is away too. Now I have to entertain 2 active, trapped children ALL DAY!! For 2 days!!

On the bright side, the weather's not actually that bad. So far, rain, quite a bit of rain, but that's about it. No wind, no floods that I've heard of yet so we're not doing that badly.

On another note, how cool am I that I figured out how to get 3 columns on my blog? I've been jonesing for that little feature and I had to dig into some script - can't call it code if it doesn't run through a compiler - but I think I got it down.

I'm wondering why

2008-08-16T20:44:00.004-04:00

Butterflies are for girls and dragonflies are for boys? I mean, there are boy butterflies otherwise there wouldn't be caterpillars. Just like in "A Bug's Life", just because it's a ladybug, doesn't mean it's a lady. That thought crossed my mind when I was making this little creature and it occurred to me that I just assumed it was going on a girl layout.

I'm bent now on making a "boy" one. Btw, this isn't the idea that bloomed yesterday. I'm having a bit of an issue expressing exactly what I was thinking of both verbally and visually so I'm a little frustrated. I was hoping that doing something else would help but no luck so far.

This is cute...

2008-08-15T23:54:00.003-04:00

I got this off of Kris' blog. Give this a try Swedish Furniture Name Generator

I am:

The 2 brain cells collided tonight and a light bulb went off that I'm going to have to exorcise tomorrow. I now have to hunt for that perfect picture so I'll probably be attached to the camera all day tomorrow or however long it takes to get it.

Stitching

2008-08-15T10:36:00.006-04:00

I just love the look of stipple stitching on quilts. It just gives the finished product that much more dimension. So, I've been playing with trying to reproduce it on a scrapbook background and I've realised a couple things that should be glaringly obvious but I'm just a sucker for torturing myself instead of listening to common sense. I just need to see how something will work out.

Stipple stitching on quilts requires that the presser foot be raised while stitching so that the piece may be moved in any direction freely. When stitching on cardstock, if the presser foot is lifted, for some reason, the needle punches these GIANT holes in the paper and the result is not pretty. Not what I was looking for. I used an 80/11 needle, which was the smallest one I could find, I've ordered some smaller ones but I don't think it will make that much difference.

Polyester thread works better than cotton which works better than handquilting cotton. It could be my machine but I couldn't get handquilting thread to work, just couldn't get the tension right. The metallic threads work really nicely.

It's infinitely easier to work with a small piece of cardstock over the full 12 x 12 piece (DUH!) but I thought "Oh, it won't be that bad". Maybe it's my reliable 10 year old machine.

So I had to keep the presser foot down but because there's no nap to catch on the feeder dogs, the cardstock moved fairly easily but only in a forward direction so it can only be spiraled and the radius can be pretty small and the turns can be spiraled both left and right but for some reason, turning the cardstock counter-clockwise is more natural.

The top image is a finished one. I sprayed and stamped the background first and then ran it through the machine. I chose the yellow because I found I had this spool of metallic yellow thread from some distant project - not gold, metallic yellow.

This is the layout after I scrapped on it. Not bad, the stitching added a bit more dimension but I'm not done playing with the machine yet.

Waaahhh!!! I want to knit

2008-08-14T11:06:00.003-04:00

But it's too hot here in South Florida. With the high humidity we've been having the last few weeks, my hands are always moist. I did a bad thing and went to the Knit Picks website and now my fingers are itching to feel all that lovely baby alpaca running over them.

That's the other thing about living down here. Even on the coldest days, it's too hot for a sweater. I might need one if I'm going out in the morning but by 10, I'm shucking out of it. I haven't yet been converted to cotton knitting either, it doesn't have the same feel to me and I'm yet to get used to the reduced elasticity in the yarn.

I've knitted and crocheted flowers a la Miss Nicki Epstein but it's not the same as completing a garment and to add insult to injury, my new Vogue Knitting and Knit Simple magazines have arrived. *SIGH*

I have no stash left either, I gave about 90% away when we moved from Sydney and I really want to order more but I don't have room with all the scrap stuff I have yet to go through. I really need to organize myself more...

2008-08-13T12:51:00.003-04:00

This is a response to a product challenge from Scrap 4 Life where the challenge is to use non-scrap items. I used a paper towel, tinfoil and popsicle sticks. Actually, they're the sticks from the rubon pack so they're a little shorter than the popsicle sticks.

Not something I'd normally do but that's what a challenge is all about and I'm quite happy about it. I did figure out what wasn't sitting right with me about it and it took a while, it's the plain green cardstock that I backed it on. I think I would have been happier with a patterned but my thought at the time was that I didn't want to overwhelm the paper towel. Or maybe I should have used white or black instead of the green.

Colour Story Challenge CS7

2008-08-12T14:19:00.004-04:00

This month's Colour Story Challenge is done :)

I love the fact that they pull inspiration from a variety of ads and pick both colour combinations and design elements from it. This month's was based on primary colours: yellow background with scattered red, teal and pink accents.

I kinda stepped out of the zone a little for this one as I have a really hard time with buttons and ribbon but I DID it!! I'm pretty happy with the results, the empty space at the bottom and left side could probably use a little something extra but I think I'm OK with how it is now. I might look at it again in a couple days to see if I feel the same way.

I must say, I'm really enjoying the Colour Story Challenge blog :-)

A breather :)

2008-08-10T10:03:00.002-04:00

DH is home!! The kids are rapt that Dad's home again, the fun one's back. Hah! What they don't get is that for the next 2 weeks, Dad's going to be sleeping all day so he can watch the Olympics live all night so he WON'T be any fun during the day.

Won't matter much soon anyway, school starts in 7 days - that's 189 hours from now and I'm still scrambling on finding ways to make those hours fly past. I love the fact that they're always wanting their art box and we're working on cleaning up after they're done using the art box but that'll just need some more re-inforcing me thinks.

OOOh and Club Heidi's back and I am LOVING the new Heidi Swapp website! I'm not into the current kit, clocks don't really do it for me but I'm looking forward to see what else is coming down the track. Patiently waiting for the new Tim Holtz products and my new Gel-a-tins stamps. Wendy's so cool...

Tagged by Jude...

2008-08-07T18:29:00.004-04:00

Ten Years Ago:

August 1998: Contracted to Chrysler for application development

5 Things on Today's To-do List:

Pick up photos
Mid week shopping
Tidy up rumpus room
Clean bathrooms
Organize dinner

Snacks I Enjoy:

Anything crunchy and can be dipped :) Chips, raw veg, pretzels....

Things I Would Do if I Was a Millionaire:

Ooooh...

The responsible thing would be to set aside enough for children so they could attend any uni of their choice and there probably wouldn't be much left after that. I also have a long list of causes that I'd help if I could, I'm very supportive of any cause that gets women and children off the streets and allows them to be self sufficient for example *unashamed plug* companies like Dhoo Dhaas in South Africa. I'd also like to buy some patience because lately I've been in short supply and I need to stock up.

The indulgent thing would be to have a house in Bali and go diving there when ever the urge hit. Second thing would be to set up a studio with just my stuff - no more taking the dregs of space left after everyone's dumped their crap all over the place. LOL - probably in the house at Bali.

Places (or areas) I have Lived:

Trinidad and Tobago, Toronto (Ontario, Canada), Dallas, Detroit, Boston, Weston, Philadelphia, Sydney(NSW Australia)

4 People I am Tagging:

I'm pathetic and don't have any friends that haven't been tagged yet. I'll have to come back to that...

Facelift

2008-08-06T09:47:00.002-04:00

Trying to get my groove back and I decided to give the blog a facelift. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out but it was a pain getting that sidebar image just right so it would tile nicely. I love those coffee ring stains, a little slice of my life I guess. I see enough of them around me HA!

I'm fixing to rig up some ribbon and hooks in the kids' rooms so they can hang up their creations, just trying to decide where and how many and I need to track down clothes pegs. After being in Oz for so long, I'm surprised how scarce they are here - not that I hung out clothes down there either, but clothes lines are not the norm here. Even in Florida, just rains too much and the humidity's too high and it ALWAYS rains when no-one's around to bring the wash in so you have to do it again otherwise it starts to smell. Maybe out west in Arizona there's more of them.

Ikea's calling me, this could be interesting...

And it's only Monday

2008-08-04T22:23:00.004-04:00

Well, day 1 of DH being away. I should be used to it by now, his usual MO is to be away for 2 weeks out of the month. I guess I got used to him being around since this is the first time he's traveled since the move and that was in March. No-one told me that 3 1/2 year old boys needed a full time keeper either. He's starting to feel his boots too and he thinks that they're too small for him. I'm mis-speaking though, it's because he's 3 and not a he. It seemed like I was yelling at DD all the time too when she was that age. He just needs to grow out of it and fast. Is it wrong that I'm counting the hours until school starts so someone else can deal with him for 6 of his waking hours?

6 more days to go until DH get back and currently 320 hours until school starts...

Tapped out

2008-08-02T20:10:00.002-04:00

I've hit the proverbial wall. Out of the blue, I've gotten lethargic and just want to veg, I don't even want to read and that's never happened before. I'm in the process of making my to-do list for next week but since DH is away for the week and camp's done, I don't know how much I'll be able to complete. Maybe that's why I'm feeling tired. No mojo either.

Out of sorts

2008-07-30T22:25:00.005-04:00

There's something in the air. I don't know what it is but I feel like I'm waiting for something but I don't know what. It's definitely a "marching time" kind of vibe, it's not a bad thing, no negativity associated with it, just there's something coming down the pipe that's just for me.

Maybe I'm bored...

Anyway, I've got shots of some journal pages that I've been doing over the past few days. Some days, it just flows out of the fingers. Other days...just best to leave it alone.

It's a little obvious that I don't collage that much - mainly because I don't have the patience for it or the space and storage for keeping extra bits and pieces. Rubons, paint and maybe some chipboard is probably all I really use. I like using old book pages and acrylic photo transfers too but I never wait long enough to let it dry before putting the second layer on OR I forget to check it and I put something on top of it and there's a challenge to leave the page in one piece.

*sigh* I love paint and there's always a spot for Glimmer Mist.

And what's up with 6 year olds? I think they have too much time these days to obsess over crap. My daughter is constantly coming to me, hours after she's supposed to be asleep, to tell me about some perceived slight done to her. By me, her father, her brother, some random kid on the playground that she's already expressed at least 3 times BEFORE she went to bed the first time. Or it's a reminder about a birthday party or she has to take something to camp the next or some errand that she NEEDS me to do or get for her and it's not like I forget to do them that I need reminding, she just can't let anything go. That, she gets from her father's side.

Guess who I met?

2008-07-29T10:47:00.003-04:00

Myself!!! Isn't that cool? I was checking out that new search engine Cuil and I put my name in and up pops this blog The Knitting Maevan and cold shivers just went down my back. *Twilight Zone Music*

Turns out her nickname is Maevan - her birth name is Heather and I'm reading her blog and other assorted sites that she's got and I'm loving the vibe from her, she's so spiritual. She's this really cool kid, ahem, young woman, that is technically young enough to be my kid. It's like she's my druidish alter ego, it's great. What's a little freaky is that there a quite a few coincidences between us. She's Canadian and we're both from towns about 2 hours apart - that actually freaked me out. The only 2 global occurances (that I know of) of the name "Maevan" and they're within 2 hours of each other. Anyway, she's very crafty and loves to knit - sound like someone else? We're both in a constant search for knowledge and although we practice different religions, we're both quite spiritual. I'm so jazzed right now.

I always wondered who had the www.maevan.com and now I know.

On a search for my art journal, I'll maybe have to make another one....

Busy busy weekend

2008-07-27T19:06:00.006-04:00

It's been a pretty full on weekend. I found a cyber crop Yay! Scrap 4 Life is hosting their "Christmas in July" CC this weekend and it started midnight Friday to end midnight tonight - well, technically Monday - with a whole bunch of challenges (10!) and bonus challenges and bingo. So, it starts a little early Thursday night and I get scrapping. I realise that I don't have any photos to really get any one done by bedtime so I get a bunch ready for printing and start 2 layouts, no pictures but get them going.

Friday came with a bang, with errands and dealing with all the unforeseen stuff during the day, I just managed to get my 2 layouts done and posted before having to pack it because...

Diving Saturday!!! Oh it was so good to get wet again, only problem being that I got eaten alive by mozzies while we were going through the inlet. All over my arms and a couple on my chest and even a couple up on my hairline. I've been massaging bumps all day but it was so worth it. I got to dive with my best friend, her brother was down visiting so he came too and we found octopii! - not one but 2 and 4 dens. So cool!! As was this beautiful nurse shark that was out for a swim along the reef and all these big lobsters hiding under the reef. The hunters on the boat all perked up when we told them about it since mini season starts next weekend. Came home and crashed hard but I was able to get another 2 layouts done.

Working on a couple more to see right now to try to get in before the deadline...

Oh, and the BEST thing! I got a Fein Multi-Master - if power tools don't jazz you, turn away now. Ever since I had my bathroom problems, I've been jonesing for one of these. It's the tool you say "It's a little expensive to buy and put down" but when you need it, you NEED it and you're soooo glad to have it. I reckon that it would have saved me at least 3 days of effort off the bathroom experience.

I'm going to christen it on some acrylic tomorrow...

More acrylic pages

2008-07-24T16:09:00.007-04:00

So I got a couple more done. I really need to find some empty little spray bottles with the finger pumps. There's some paint that's begging to be spattered and sprayed over already dressed chipboard and tags and I'm tired of using a toothbrush and having no control on the spray. I need one for alcohol too, there's this resist thing I want to try - it's just an idea right now, I don't actually know how I'm going to do it but it's bugging me and it needs to come out. If it doesn't work, then I can honestly say that I tried and I can try something else.

Basically I want to spray a void on an alcohol inked background. So I'm thinking that if after the ink dries, I spray the alcohol on and blot carefully, I might be able to get what I'm after.

I found a tub of gesso in an old box too, AND... a couple of embossing folders found their way back to the light. Arrgh too many options, not enough space. I really need to get some better storage too. It's pretty bad when I scrap in one room and all my tools are in a cabinet in the hall.

Challenge blog - Color Story Challenge

2008-07-24T13:57:00.005-04:00

Well I found this great challenge blog that's right after my own heart: Color Story Challenge

This month's challenge was just what the mojo needed, having a white background with "pops of color" and here's my take on it:

It's hard to see on all of them but the darker squares are covered with white rubons - I was going for a white on white design. The cardstock used was actually 3 shades of white - according to bazzill: white, Diamond (bling) and Glass Slipper (bling) and I embossed and put some chipboard in for dimension

I really had fun doing this one, the challenge said "minimalist" to me but I can't go truly minimal - that wouldn't be me.

I'm going to be hanging out there a little bit more me thinks.

Oooh the temptation

2008-07-22T08:59:00.002-04:00

I'm on a scrap diet. With all the cool stuff that's been displayed and released last weekend and my stash ROOM currently overflowing, I'm not buying anymore paper until I can see the back wall. I did however, cave and ordered some new gel-a-tin stamps, the trees are to die for and the new embossing powders are so cute.

I'm loving the new distress items from Ranger - distress stickles? Gotta see that one and I'm dying to play with Maya Mists. Oh well, gotta wait...

I'm posting some more stuff soon, I just have to find the half hour to get images of them.

Does it ever stop?

2008-07-15T17:51:00.002-04:00

It always seems like we're on the hook to get something. As soon as I think "Ok, that's enough spending, nothing else until next month", we NEED to get something.

Take, for example, the last 6 weeks or so. I take the car in for an oil change and the scheduled maintenance check, a half day and over $1000.00 later I can take it home. That was after we declined about half of the stuff they wanted to do like rebalance the tires and fill them with Nitrogen. They called half way through to say that they THINK they found a problem with the transmission and it would be $3500.00 to replace it. The car's only worth about $6500.00. After we declined it, they couldn't find "the problem" again.

After that, I had to spend about 3 weeks with the bathrooms and while that wasn't really expensive, I did have to get materials and new tools and now that's over, there's the 3 pages of school supplies and school uniforms and in about 4 weeks, school fees start coming out.

That's another thing, we made the decision to send the kidlets to private school and that's NOT a trivial decision so my question is this: Why do I need to get them their own basic school supplies like pens, pencils, baby wipes yada yada yada? In my mind, all that money that we're paying for tuition should cover that. Why does a first grader need 4 dozen pencils and 6 boxes or crayons, coloured pencils and markers? Don't they teach these children about sharing and communal responsibility anymore? Why am I bothering to drum these basic behaviours into them when they're not being enforced socially?

I have to stop because I'm going to rant about rude and inconsiderate parents at their school next. Maybe another day...

Done, done and done!!

2008-07-12T18:42:00.002-04:00

The bathrooms are officially recaulked and sealed and the big one is graced with a new rainfall shower head fixture. I am soooo glad that's over.

So on with the more fun stuff, I'm waiting for my new Glimmer Mists to show up, can't wait to play some more. I've got this clock idea that's been wanting to come out for a couple days now but I haven't found the right material yet and I found these GIANT clock hands online, the minute hand is 20" long. I just don't know where I'd put something that big.

I need to take more picture I think...

Getting there...

2008-07-11T07:15:00.005-04:00

One bathroom is done! Woohoo! Just need to go back an clean up my mess with a razor blade and put a little sealer around the plumbing fixtures and the kids can be back messing up their own space again. Now, if the boy could improve his aim....

I was digging through a box of stamps, looking for something and I came across these.
I had completely forgotten about them. I love finding old stuff and they fit right in with a challenge I saw in one of my lurking sites; a card or layout using

scraps
red, white and blue
SLIDE MOUNT!!

Well I got excited and started playing but I forgot all about requirement 2 because when I was done, I got this
Definitely something I'll be experimenting with some more.

A light at the end of the tunnel

2008-07-08T22:47:00.005-04:00

I've been chipping grout and scraping caulk for what seems like forever but I think I'm done with that part. All the joints are looking clean and thankfully there wasn't any mildew in the back of the joints and all the old stuff came out looking pretty clean. I just have to give everything a good wipe down with mineral spirits to remove any residue, spray EVERYTHING down with bleach for good measure, let it dry for a couple days and I can caulk it and be done. I'm thinking that after I caulk, I'll reseal the grout as well because I bet it hasn't been done since the house was built. I can then tackle the 3rd bathroom which has milder issues but I don't want to think about it because I'll sideline myself.

On more exciting note, I've been playing again and I really need some of that acrylic cleaner that removes the static.

Check this out - reversible layouts

It's a 12x12 acrylic sheet. The first image is the front or the right side if you're opening a book and the second image is the back of it.

The next set of pictures is of the two sides without backing and on my messy table

Still raining and kids are getting loud

2008-07-06T14:53:00.002-04:00

OMG!! It's STILL raining and top to that, no TV because the dish can't get a signal. Soooooo DD is picking on DS who is trying to watch a DVD and they're running around bashing into things. I feel like I should take them out and get out for a bit but I HATE driving in the rain in Florida, if I see one more person drive down the road in the rain at about 20km/hr with their flashers on... well, I don't know what I'd do but I want to scream at them "Just pull over and stop trying to cause an accident!"

My favourite cyber crop is also on hold - their server seems to have fallen over.

Well I hope someone is having a nice sunny long weekend.

Rain rain go away...

2008-07-05T15:49:00.002-04:00

What a 4th of July! It's done nothing but rain. It's rained so much that the pool's overflowed! It's stopped for now but the sky's still grey and heavy so something else big is on the horizon.

Poor kids, it's their first ever July 4th holiday and it's been a little bit of a let down. All the fireworks were canceled or delayed until after their bedtime because of the rain. No cookout, we tried to get into the pool in the afternoon and got stormed out about 15 minutes later. I think the high point of their day was to go to McDonald's for lunch and the grocery after.

Maybe next time...

Woo hoo!!

2008-07-03T20:39:00.005-04:00

As promised, I'm sharing...

Here is that idea that was buzzing around a little while ago, 12x12 d-ring acrylic album. I must say that I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out and I'm thinking that I"ll be tackling a post bound one next and that will be infintely easier to engineer.

I'm still in the middle of home repair despair but it's slowly coming together. Now that I've finished the album, I'll be able to focus more on the problems at hand...

A bit of a RANT

2008-07-02T23:51:00.005-04:00

Just need to vent...

Why can't people look after their things properly? We've just moved into a relatively new home - about 8 years old and it looks like we've inherited a web of issues. Mostly with the bathrooms.

The day we moved in, I went around all the bathrooms with bleach and Tilex and sprayed all the tile surfaces which was about 75% of the bathrooms. I had noticed a bit of black crud coming up around the seams and wanted to scrub them out. About a half hour later, I check on them and they're still there but lighter in some places. Repeat, repeat, repeat...

2 weeks later, they're still there so I get down to look a little closer and I notice that the caulk's a little loose so I pull it and a line of caulk pulls up to reveal another layer of caulk that's absolutely covered in mildew and it STINKS of mold. Quick, grab the bleach, start spraying...

At this point I'm truly grossed out and start digging so I can recaulk the seams. Only to find out that there are 2 more layers just like this one and at the very bottom is cracked grout that is just filthy. By now I'm cussing and carrying about people being pigs and how can some people look at this and live in filth because if SOMEONE in the history of the house had done the right thing the first time and dug out the cracked grout and caulked properly, I wouldn't have to go through this. And this is just one item on the "Gross things I've found" list

So now my simple 2 day "Recaulk all the showers and tubs" item has turned into a 2 week "Remove old grout in joints, repair chipped grout, caulk all surface joints, reseal grout"-fest, which will probably take 3 weeks as I can't do much when the kids are home.

*sigh*

On the bright side, I get to shopping for power tools because there's no way in all that's purple that I'm chipping out that old grout by hand. Lowes here I come!

Inspired to create

2008-06-30T15:46:00.012-04:00

This is my first blog post here and I'm so excited to be sharing.

I had the most wonderful class about 2 weeks ago with an amazing lady, Lauren Nwachukwu, where it was 2 hours of play. She gave a list of skills and techniques that worked with the medium, which is acrylic, and then cut us loose. It was by far, the best class I've had in a long long time, and I felt that I got value because I not only learned a couple things, but she was able to answer every question I had. This lady knows her stuff!

After all her guidance I have this wonderful crown album. These are the individual pages - in order - and when I get a chance to dump my camera memory, I'll post a picture of the whole thing all tied up.

Having said that, I went home with ideas buzzing around my head - not in my head mind you - they might hit one of my 2 brain cells and leave me half witted, but I had to play.

This is what I'm currently processing: a 12 x 12 D ring acrylic album.

I've got my album pieces already measured and cut, I have an idea on how to put them together and I'm currently prettying up the pieces before I put them together.

Stay tuned....