Monday, January 28, 2008

Stardust


Adam and I watched Stardust over the weekend. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it! It's an "adult's fairy tale" - and we just LOVED LOVED LOVED Stardust!

Peace & Blessings!



PS - We also watched The Last Mimzy - also excellent!

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Faux Soldering?

I felt like a mad scientist in my stamping room with this project.

I had seen "Faux Soldering" done with a melting pot. As I do NOT have a melting pot, I had to improvise.



Famous last words.

Adam, nor I, throws away an Altoids tin. Sooooooo, I was scrounging around my stamping room trying to decide what would make a good melting pot for my little project. ALTOIDS TIN! ROCK ON!

I took a clean altoids tin, and poured in UTEE and black embossing powder. Then I set it on my space heater. As my tin was warming on my space heater, I worked on cutting the paper, stamping it up, and so on.

Then came the experiment. Using a hot pad, I got the now hot altoids tin off the space heater. Using a toothpick, I swirled through what looked like un-melted UTEE and black embossing powder. But, wait, no, the bottom was melted, it just hadn't melted ALL the way yet.

That's what I get for my impatience.

So, I hit it with my heat tool (of course, this whole time, I'm implementing the use of my craft sheet, additional heat protection, etc.!)

I melted all the powder. YAY! Then, I dipped my sandwich of microscope slides, paper, and wire into the stew of melted powders.

Not too bad. Although, this is where having an ACTUAL melting pot would have come in handy - I needed to warm up some of the drips, and the edges of a melting pot would have done nicely. Instead, I had to use the heat tool and tweezers so I didn't burn my fingers off!

I repeated on all 4 sides, and I think it really has an interesting look. Definitely something new and different - for me anyway!





Peace & Blessings

Friday, January 25, 2008

I'm such a Mainah
























You are 98% Mainah!

BORN RAISED AND LOVIN IT!!!! You are all Mainah and wouldn't have it any other way. You are the rare breed of Mainer that would never leave (even if you won them them megabucks!)



I just took a quiz on how Mainah I am.... I'm still a Maine girl, even though I've been living in New York for almost 6 years! Yessa!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Embossed Thank You Card

This is taking embossing to the extreme:

The The butterflies are embossed.... "Thank You!" is embossed.... even the brads are embossed!

Yep, you read that right: The brads ARE embossed. I didn't have any white brads, but I had white embossing powder!

Peace & Blessings

Monday, January 21, 2008

Finally, Christmas Thank You Cards

I've been hemming and hawing over getting thank you cards for Christmas and Adam's birthday done. I've finally accomplished that task. Here's some of them:


Peace & Blessings!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Lemons

I love lemons! And I've been hounding my One Stroke Painting Instructor to do a class on lemons... I'm thinking Lemonade pitchers for people?



Peace & Blessings!

Friday, January 18, 2008

Birthday Card

I made this birthday card for my One Stroke Painting Instructor, Annette, WEEKS AGO! I haven't been able to post it until I finally gave it to her - last night.


Peace & Blessings!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Yummy Yarn

I laid my eyes on this and just about freaked out!

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?!!!!???


I can't decide what I want to make with this - because it's soooooooooo beautiful, I need to make something special out of it.

Any ideas?

Peace & Blessings!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Power Tools in my Stamping Room?

I've been drooling over altered dominoes for some time now.

When I told Adam what I wanted to do, the nuclear engineer in him kicked into full gear.

He HOOKED ME UP with a drill press - IN MY STAMPING ROOM - so I could drill holes in dominoes!
I only drilled 6 to start:




And I made some rear view mirror bling for my car:

In case you haven't noticed, I value appreciation - keeps me in alignment.

Peace & Blessings!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Happy Birthday Adam!


Today is
Adam's birthday.



Today is a day to celebrate Adam!















And so, time to do a Rampage of Appreciation for Adam:


I love how brilliant you are, and that this has been acknowledged by your membership to Mensa.
I love that you make me laugh until I can't breathe.
I love how focused you get when you want to learn something new.
I love that you talked me up the Emotional Scale when I was sick.
I love that you introduced me to a book (as this has never happened - ever).
I love that there are Rubik's cubes, and twisty puzzles all over our house.
I love your playful nature.

I appreciate the little things you do for me:
Brushing my hair
Making the bed
Taking out the trash
Mowing the lawn
Brushing off my car

I love that you cook for me.
I love that you take care of yourself (you know what I mean, even if others won't).
I love that you "secure the perimeter" every night.
I love that I can "never underestimate the level of your snooglieness".

I love that we've been married for 7.5 years, and life with you truly gets better and better.
I love that we are fast approaching the 10 year anniversary of when we first met!

I love you "more and more and stuff"!

I love you!

Friday, January 11, 2008

PYREX ROCKS!

I e-mailed Pyrex to inform them about my baking pan shattering.

They're sending me a new one!

FREE!

PYREX ROCKS!!!!!

Peace & Blessings!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Chicken A La Ka-Boom!

I had a serious craving for roasted chicken tonight.

After work, I ran to the grocery store, and purchased my chicken.

I came home, did the usual prep, popped it into my Pyrex Glass Rectangular Baking Dish, and popped it into the oven.

I set the timer, and walked away.

Aaaahhhhh, roasted chicken.... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Or, so I thought....

About 45 minutes into baking, I heard a screaming loud KA-BOOM with what sounded like shattering glass.

What in the world?

I went to the kitchen, opened the oven, and my baking pan had literally SHATTERED inside the oven. There was shattered glass, and chicken juice EVERYWHERE! My chicken was also sitting on the bare oven rack.

My yummy smelling chicken - had shards of glass in it's butt.

*sniff*

It took me over an hour to clean up.

Please believe me when I tell you -

YOU NEVER WANT TO HAVE TO CLEAN UP
SHATTERED GLASS IN AN OVEN!


Seriously, take my word for it.

Alas, no roasted chicken for me, tonight.

Canned soup anyone?

Peace & Blessings!


PS - I scooped most of the pieces into a pie plate.

See what I mean - it seriously SHATTERED!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Wine Bottle Gift Bag


I honestly don't know how much use I would have for these - however I simply HAD to make one!

Peace & Blessings!

Monday, January 7, 2008

Something to think about.....

I was in a Coach U class tonight; and one of my classmates posed a question to the entire class:

"If you had a friend that talked to you the way you talk to yourself – would you continue to be friends with that person?"


Since I'm in a phase of watching and contemplating the film You Can Heal Your Life - what a GREAT question!!!!!

Something to think about......

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Loom Knitting Class

Saturday, January 12th from 1 PM - 3 PM; I am teaching a beginners loom knitting class at the Saratoga Springs AC Moore.

I will teach baby hats, and the beauty of this is: Once you know how to loom a baby hat, you can make ANY size hat!

Some examples of the same stitch, but how yarn can dramatically change the look of your project:





Peace & Blessings & Hope To See You There!

PS - Like the display I made for the store?

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Just To Make A Card.....

I have a confession.....

A REALLY BIG CONFESSION.....


Ready?


I haven't made a card - just for the fun of making a card - without a reason - without a recipient in mind....

since....

Ohhhhh....

maybe.....

October!

*sigh*

How can that be, you ask?

The Holiday Season.

Between Thanksgiving travel, and Christmas gift preparations, and then Christmas travel.....

I know, I know - I'm preaching to the choir.

Want to know something else?

Ready?

I MADE A CARDTONIGHT!

And you know the best part? There's no purpose for this card! Of course, I'll end up giving it to someone - BUT, I made it, just to make a card!

And wait, there's more!

Frosty - oh, wait, where are my manners?



Meet Frosty! He just retired from Stampin Up! So sad to see him go. I've always loved Frosty, just never laid out the cash for him to join the family down in my sub terrain cave of a Stamping Room.





Ok, now that you've been properly introduced - back to:

And wait, there's more:

My friend Michele - an AMAZING woman - gave me Frosty over Christmas. She knew I was sad that he was leaving the Stampin Up catalog, so she picked him up for me!

YAY!

AAAhhhhhhh, I feel so much better now.

Michele - THANK YOU!!!!!

Peace & Blessings!

PS - So, do you think I should give this card to Michele as the Thank You card for Frosty?

Tortured Genius?

You Are 94% Tortured Genius

You totally fit the profile of a tortured genius. You're uniquely brilliant - and completely misunderstood.
Not like you really want anyone to understand you anyway. You're pretty happy being an island.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Microscope Slide Christmas Ornaments

Before Christmas, I was bursting to share these:



But I couldn't share, because all of these were given away as gifts.

They are made by sandwiching the images between 2 microscope slides, wrapping in foil tape, then adding the jump ring for the ribbon. Super fun, super easy, and in my opinion, very elegant!

Peace & Blessings!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions - however I love setting intentions and goals no matter what time of year it may be.

Last night I asked Adam: "Even though we don't set New Year's Resolutions, are there any goals you'd like to pursue in 2008?"

Adam replied: "I just want to have more fun"

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking. I want 2008 to be the year I have the most fun of my entire life! I want 2008 to go down in the record books for how much fun we have together!

(To take from You Can Heal Your Life) My mantra is:

My life gets better and better.

In my opinion, that mantra covers all my bases.

Adam and I have also been discussing a quote we received in our e-mail boxes a while back (I apologize for not giving you the exact wording, as I deleted it), that goes something like:

You are so busy trying to create a happy life that you miss the happy moments.

We've been having a multiple day dialog around this 1 concept. The only way you can create a Happy Life is to acknowledge & appreciate your Happy Moments. If that concept doesn't suck you back into the present moment - then I don't know what will.

Peace & Blessings & Many Happy Moments!

PS - I know I've posted this before - I think it's fitting for New Year's:

Lion Chaser's Manifesto

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshiping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze new trails. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away.

Chase the lion.