Work Really Gets In The Way...

of blogging! The first week back after break is always so busy! I had so much to do I am just getting a chance to blog finally.


Ayesha, Deb, Ben, Jim and I all did find time to hang out at Santisi's on Friday night which was a nice end to the week.


I received two SASE in the mail on Monday. The first unmarked envelope I'm sure was from my dad due to the contents. It was a set of Harley Owners Group Patches. This is funny not so much because of the Harley part but because we always joked when we were on bowling leagues about the patches that could be won.


The second envelope was from Deb and it contained a picture of Rod Stewart, her all time favorite musician. Deb is seriously in LOVE with Rod and even took me to his concert when he was in Glendale. Rod Stewart could easily be Debs dad and somehow she still thinks he's "hot". Anyway, I digress..the envelope also contained a red feather, on green and one plaid bow, and some snowflake stickers.


On Wednesday I found an envelope sitting on my desk from Jim that had a note that said "Some pics that say it all" and a zip drive. The pictures on the zip drive were all the pictures of our road trip last summer. It was a really fabulous trip with all kinds of memories. (Isn't he cute!)


Finally, on Friday I got an envelope from Amber that had a note and a hospital bracelet. The note says, "This is the bracelet they put on me when I got my hip pinned. Kind of sums up my last 5 weeks." and the bracelet says fall risk. Amber is a trooper! She is pregnant, on crutches, had a hip fracture that needed to be pinned, and is having fun with it.


Also today Jim and I went out to Gilbert to Celebrate, my nephew, Alex's 8th birthday. We went to the Brunswick XL bowling center. A gigantic bowling center with like 40 lanes a full size arcade, bar, and sit down eating area. We had a lot of fun and I can't believe Alex is already 8! Time flies.

Speaking of time flying, while I was out on Saturday I ran into a couple who's son I had in the three year old room at Children's World in high school. They told me it was his 18th birthday. Wow! I might be getting old.

The SASE Project

So I was reading 52 Projects: Random Acts of Everyday Creativity when a project caught my eye. I drafted up a letter asking my family and friends to put something, anything into a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope and mail it back to me. I thought it would be fun to see what would come back in the mail and make for a few interesting blog posts.

Well, round one came in on Saturday. (I forgot to check the mail until Sunday) The first was from my mom. She sealed her envelope with pink cat packing tape and sent a crafty little doodad that I'm sure she whipped up just for this occasion.



The second was from Morgana & Co. Each member of her family sent me something plus they included something to represent me as well. Chocolate meal bars to represent Morgana, hot peppers to represent Todd, Spiderman to represent Dustin, Milk Bones to represent Rocky , the dog, and a sparkly butterfly to represent me!

I sent out 10 of these envelopes and left one on Jim's desk so stay tuned and we'll hope we see a few more.

Bunny Kakes

How could you not love this bunny? Kakes managed to be this cute when she wasn't even feeling well! Poor little Kakes had just been to Urgent Care with a temp of 104. I love this girl!

Ravid, I Mean Rabbit Dog

Bently the cute little puppy...



Bently now. I wish you could hear Jim's laughter for this picture!


Harley wanted nothing to do with the dog ears.

Happy Easter

Okay, this post really has nothing to do with Easter. Before I meet with Mom, Buff, and Baby Kakes to deal with things like Peeps, chocolate bunnies, and babies in rabbit ears (I'm just wishing for this one.) I wanted to post about yesterdays events.


I started off the morning by working in my newest round robin book. The topic was birds and I thought the owner preferred more unusual birds to your standard crows and pigeons. I chose to go with a peacocks. I Incorporated a few of my scraps from my clear book in to this project which always makes the art a little difficult to photograph. I can't get enough of the transparencies in my work lately.


The art start to the morning was important because Jim and I had both a funeral and a wedding to go to. Since both of the events were for Jim's friends from discover, Mar also joined us. The three of us voted and you should never have to go to a funeral and a wedding in the same day it should just be a rule.

Kelly Bell's funeral was first. As you walked in the family had made pins and magnets with pictures of her being wild and crazy and the display of her life was probably the best one I've ever seen. Her families strength was truly remarkable.

After taking Jim and Mar for a drink we were off to the wedding. The bride of this wedding was amazing! Literally nothing fazed her. While she probably never knew that the keg blew up, or that the bartender broke the corkscrew, and had no way to open other types of alcohol until a guest went to CVS to help out. She was not fazed when all of the lit candles had to be blown out due to the risk of fire damage, or when their was a risk of the kitchen being shut down. And most impressively when her asymmetrical cake actually toppled to the ground before the reception started she gave directions to get a picture of it and call for cupcakes. At least the guests had seen the cake and it was the most artistic wedding cake I had ever seen.

The bride's great attitude is probably what made this wedding so fun. She actually told us she was just worried that people would be disappointed that they didn't get any of the cake. The groom said he thought the cake was just an illusion but apparently he was wrong. The food at the wedding was great and in the end everything worked out. You can tell Jim was having fun! Just for the record I was the DD I just got caught with my eyes closed but this is still my favorite picture from the evening.

Setting The Record Straingt

Who ever thought roasted Peeps could cause family controversy? Apparently Buffy is the one who discovered the joy that is warm roasted Peeps. I stand corrected. Secondly, walla! is apparently something a muppet would say and I should have used Voila! instead. Can you hear me laughing out loud at myself?

Transparent Book

Yesterday I worked on a transparent book. I started with a cute little tabbed, transparent book that I got from Frenzy Stamper. I'm not sure who makes this book but Debbie would know and after you see this you might need go shopping at her store anyway! I used sheets of Hambly transparencies, rub-ons, and clear stickers. I also used Heidi Swaps Bling-adhesive rhinestones and various other rhinestones and clear stickers that I had been collecting. When I made each of the five sections in the book I picked three types of Hambly transparency that looked nice together and went from there. I added some layers of clear transparency when needed for the design.


This book is hard to fully appreciate in a photo as I am sure you can imagine. I took one picture of each of sections but also took a picture of each layer of my favorite section. The best part of this book, for me, is watching how a section changes as you turn each layer.

To-Do List

I heard about this book from Kelly Kilmer and being a list maker my self I had to check it out, well, I bought it from Amazon but whatever. Reading other people's list is like reading there diaries. It gives you a little glimpse into someone else's reality. The section on Ideal Mates made me think of my list that I wrote in my journal on May, 15, 1997 and inspired me to share it with you.

A) now that I brought it up you are dying to know what it says. & B) It shouldn't be embarrassing to Jim as he told me last night he doesn't actually read my blog because it has too many words but he reads all the comments. He suggested I add a cliff note version to each one or include sports scores. HA!

without further ado:
May, 15, 1997
"Blah, blah, blah,...That has made me want to make a list so I will never forget I want someone who...listens, understands and loves me for crying at movies and Hallmark commercials, really knows me, inspires me, supports me, a hero, uses the smooch pooch, challenges me to go outside of my comfort zone."

And because you may be wondering, I got lucky, and yes, Jim met all of the list items. Also the smooch pooch is the bend in your nose right between your eyes. It's the cutest kissing spot ever.

P.S. After college but before I met Jim I would always write "Fall in love" on my to do list so that I wouldn't forget I was something I eventually wanted to be able to cross off.

Junk Drawer Skinny Book

In honor of the Junk Drawer swap I first wanted to prove that I do work in a total disaster even though I usually look nice and organized.


This morning I mailed off my Junk Drawer Skinny Book pages. Although they are mostly alike I did add one miscellaneous piece of junk to each one. I am excited to see what comes back for this swap. My mom's piece fior this swap was selected to be featured on one of her yahoo groups home pages. You can see it by clicking here. You might even decide to sign up for the group while you are there.

Roasted Peeps!

It has just come to my attention that some of my readers do not know the wonder of roasted Peeps. Explaining this now is ever so timely with Easter later this week. Peeps are the sugar coated marshmallow bunnies and chicks that once only appeared around this time of year. As luck may have it Peeps are now available nearly year round with new shapes for Halloween, Valentine's Day, and other holidays.


Now, you take one of these tasty treats put it on a wooden BBQ skewer and hold it over your kitchen stove burner (my preferred way of roasting), a cigarette lighter (yes, I've done this in college), or any non -toxic flame (if you roast over a citronella candle it will taste like citronella- take my work for it don't try it) and walla! You have a roasted Peep. ONLY TRY THIS WITH ADULT SUPERVISION! When the marshmallow starts to melt it can be tricky to keep it on the skewer. When tiny bits of sugar fall to the burner you will get very small sparks. Not only is it fun to roast these treats but the delicious caramelized sugar and melted marshmallow is a combination not to be missed.

My mom taught me the art of Peep roasting only my sister an I weren't supposed to tell my dad we had done it with my mom. It was our little secret. I have taught numerous people this art. We roast Peeps and several parties including my bachlorette party. We even coxed a few of the designated drivers to come in to roast before driving their wives home!



Grab some Peeps and try them out! If you wait to buy your Peeps until next Monday they will be half price! They always have half price Peeps.

Green, Yellow-Green

While my yellow-green color wheel page was fun, it was not the right color. I was assigned green. As you can tell from teh picture below there is totally a difference between green and yellow-green. Whoops! So here is my GREEN page. I also had a fun idea. I decided it would be cool to make an ATC from the scraps of each of my projects and add them to the 7 Gypsies ATC stand that I will be buying today. I had already purchased some blank, punched cards that work with the stand so walla...my first scrap ATC!

Things With Wings & Stamp Carving

I have carved stamps before, even with the 5th graders at school, but when I saw that the GPP Street Team Challenge this month was stamp carving I had a fun idea. I decided to carve my own stamps for my Things With Wings itty bitty swap at Frenzy Stamper. I started with a stamp that I had doodled and carved with the kids for my background. Next, I carved a bird stamp that would be my focal point. I know you may be thinking why do you need to carve a bird, you have a million, and you can buy birds everywhere. While that is true this is a special bird inspired by my favorite lime green pajama bottoms. (Even after making my Color Wheel Book that I posted earlier I am still not over this bird.)


For some reason the Quick Cut I was working with would not let me transfer the bird image. Believe me I tried everything I could think of! Finally, I just cut a stencil of the bird and traced it onto the quick cut and I finally had a shape I liked. Next, it was time to carve. WARNING: Carving stamps is addictive! If you've never done it you should try! It's so fun to think I made that stamp. I always have little wavy edges or bits that I didn't all get carved out that I must leave because I like their charm.


I stamped the larger back ground stamp with a soft green Memories ink pad so that it was so light you could just see a hint of it and put the bird on top. I am always adding a quote and this one says "For a long time, she flew only when she thought no one was looking." A bit of ribbon, and a bit of my photocopied pajama paper and I was set.

I also noticed that Kelly Kilmer had a few of her carved stamps in a post the other day that were so cool!

Bound Chunky House Swap

While hanging out with Baby Kakes, Buffy, and Mom yesterday I bound my Chunky House Swapp. I love holding these little books once they are all done. It's so fun t see how everyone interprets the theme.


I was also excited to learn that Jo, who I see at least twice a week , has a stamp that I have been looking for! I fell in love with this flourishy fairy image last year at Art Unraveled in Kelly Kilmer's class. I used it lots in my project, wrote down it's info and was unable to find it. I thought that it was discontinued until Jo told me she just bought hers at the Creative Quest. I'll be out looking for it today!

March Collage ATC's

Today I made my ATC's for my swap next weekend. The theme was spring, collage magazine image. I made mini painted magazine girls like I made in Kelly Kilmer's About Face Class. This was very fun. Tricky because of size but still fun!

Creativity Returns

Yeah, just in time for spring break I've got 100 ideas and am ready to roll! First thing yesterday morning I set to work to finish the pages for my color wheel swap. Each player was assigned one color and in the end we will have a complete color wheel. I was yellow-green, which is my favorite color, but proved to be more difficult than I thought. I'm not sure why, it was just that way. My favorite yellow-green bird pajamas were my insperation. I actually took them down to Kinkos one morning and color copied them to make them into paper. This was another one of those times that I was thankful that my Kinko employees never have a clue what is going on in there store. There could be 1 person or 50 but the employees are always in hiding. It's a good thing posting those don't break the copyright law signs keep everyone from doing so. HA!


After I finished my yellow-green pages it was time to meet up with my mom to first trade our house chunky book pages, and then have the fabric ATC class at Frenzy Stamper. Taking the class for me. teaching the class for her. Playing with fabric was fun. I hope to bind my house book today or tomorrow and I'll share it when it's finished.

Kinder Portfolio Picture

Okay, tomorrow or a week later they are just as cute. But I think I may still be recovering from them. We did work in them today.