Thankyou Mr. Postman

I am so grateful that the USPS and UPS deliver on Christmas Eve.  I was *forced* to open these tonight, since I knew at least one of them would need a drink :-)

To start off, there's fodder for many a winter's night's dream: the new David Austin Rose catalog (insert wistful sigh here) and the new Life Images book from Somerset Studio.  I swear I smelled roses the whole time I did my initial flip through the catalog. 


Life Images is juicy.  Every page filled with some incredible, deep, beautiful image and the photographer's poetry or story about the photo.  I think I'll be turning to this book whenever I'm running a dryspell in my well of inspiration :-)

Isn't this bonsai absolutely beautiful?!?!  I've always thought bonsais were fussy little creatures, but I have to say I completely fell in love with this one (a gift from my dad) when I opened the box.  I'm not sure what kind of tree it actually is, but it smells wonderful.  Green leaves and wet earth, so wonderful in the dead of winter. 

  Included with the tree was an absolutely incredible Narnia pop up book.  It's hard to appreciate the sheer artistry of this book from a photograph, but it is amazing in person.  Each page is a different book from the Chronicles.  As someone who uses paper to make art on a daily basis, my jaw just dropped when I opened it for the first time.

Yankee Swap

Nothing like procrastinating. I came up with this little box idea from the Somerset Holidays Special Edition on the last possible day, but it came out pretty cute. 

The fairies on top is a sticker from Crafty Secrets and all that lovely glitter is from our new shipment of Art Institute Glitter.  I also sprinkled some beautiful Spellbinder butterflies diecut from extra heavy weight vellum colored in with spicas through out the handle.


The words inside are microscope slide ornaments.  Now I have to admit I'm really really bad at soldering, though I love the look, so I melted some platinum UTEE and dipped the edges of the slides in it.  Doesn't look quite as nice as the real thing from a skilled solderer, but it does look better than the real thing if I had done it!

Here's a better view of the top of the box which I covered in a copied scrap of an antique letter and stamped with my new favorite Penny Black stamp (it looks like a doodle of foxglove) The wire flower handle is made from some vintage bridal flowers I found at St. Vinnie's.

Getting to Know You and Me and Others

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
my grandfathers

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
yesterday when I shut my hand in my car door trying to get my seatbelt out of harm's way (see I would have been safer without the seatbelt)

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING
    generally, but nobody else does ;-)

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
    turkey (you are what you eat)

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
sadly I'm going to have to say my cat.  but you cannot tell anyone he's my baby    

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS
WITH YOU?  sure why not, I'm friends with everybody

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM ALOT?
     only in my head

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS
yep, unless those aliens came again

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
  no. no freakin' way

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
   Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cereal (it's like peanut butter captain crunch only with chocolate balls too, how do you beat that?) or granola.  I have split personalities, we like different things ;-)

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
    No, I tend to buy shoes w/o laces

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
I rearrange furniture when I'm frustrated with things as therapy, so pretty tolerably strong

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
    Chubby Hubby, sweet and salty

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
      do they require medical assistance

15. RED OR PINK?
      both! it's a strawberry shortcake world! er rather, I love reds, but I understand the Pink of Goth as in there is nothing scarier and darker than Barbie.... and I look good in corals

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOUR SELF?
hmmmmm, my inability to finish thi....    

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST
my friends, all of them, live way too far away

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU?
if they feel so inclined

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
      black velvet yoga pants and bare feet....and I've no intention of doing yoga

20. THE LAST THING YOU ATE?  spinach artichoke dip, soon to be replaced by some form of cereal

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
the Be Good Tanyas

22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
     Burnt Umber, not necessarily widely recognized as beautiful, but really really useful

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?  decomposing leaves, baking bread, coffee, recently rained on red brick, wood and grass fires

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE
PHONE?
my mom I think or michelle.  I've slept since then.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
  eh, he's pretty good ;-) (that'd be yes)

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
     synchronized swimming or ice skating

27. HAIR COLOR?
    strawberry blonde naturally, pink or fire engine red if I've dyed it

28. EYE COLOR?
     Hazel, leaning toward Big Hill Lake Green most days

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?    no, my eyelids are apparently inordinately strong and pop them out.   that or I don't trust even my optometrist's fingers anywhere near my eyeballs

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
     ooooh, steak and red wine, or by itself an orange

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
     scary but not "horror" films.  Sleepy Hollow or the Ring good, Saw or Texas Chainsaw Massacre bad

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
     Toy Story 2

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
     leaf green when compared with my crayon box choices

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?   Why always extremes?  Fall, I love the smell and the all day drizzles with random spots of pure liquid gold sunshine.  or if I must choose between only Summer and Winter, Summer for it's thunderstorms

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
depends on whose giving them out.  Hugs in general.  People don't hug each other enough.

36. FAVORITE DESSERT?
oranges or strawberries with cream and chocolate

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? no idea, depends on who is trying not to be constructive at work right now

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND
       see 37.

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? 
      A rather racy book I picked up for 25¢ at the thrift store.  and Pretty Little Things which is a book about making glass encased collages by Sally Jean, really really cool book.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?  a very grungy tweety bird that I found somewhere back in the store room, really ought to get my self something cooler.....

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV. LAST NIGHT?
      I didn't watch TV last night because I forgot about TV, but normally I watch House and Boston Legal on Tuesdays

42. FAVORITE SOUND?    katydids

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?    Beatles.  I only have one Rolling Stones song- Paint it Black.

44. What's the farthest from home you have ever been?
      Costa Rica

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
     I can roll my tongue into 3 loops.  Oh, and I can make pretty stuff and am good at rubbing muscles

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
   Waverly, IA

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING
BACK?   David Bowie's

Woot!

Thank You Shanalogic for coming out with this in plus size!




Those still looking for Christmas gifts for little ole' moi can certainly take this as a VERY LARGE HINT, lol.  And it's PINK.  Yay!


Click here to go to Shanalogic


Be sure to bop on over the Shana's other site: Pixel Girl Presents for the coolest desktop pictures on the whole world wide web.

what I do when I'm home sick

I watch you tube. Yes I'm guilty, but you can find a lot of great clips from old movies on there. Today is Groucho Day. Man, I loved this song as a kid.

Ding Dong Merrily on High

Just got back in from Kansas and a visit to the old aged Ps.  It was wonderful to see the old stomping grounds, but boy is it true that you can't go home.  They'd ripped down 4 houses on my block, so that our house is now the first on on the block (we used to be the middle).  My mother says she's thinking of setting up a croquet lawn.  Yet another example where I get my crazy from.  I dropped off her birthday present while I was down there, a couple of weeks early.  Now here is where she and I differ, I would have ripped into that brown paper hard core lickety split, but she has restraint! pffft.  Now I have to recruit my little sister to take a picture of her face as she opens it.


I've been dying to use this petaloo rose on something, so Mom got a big pink themed gift, even though her favorite color is dried blood red (her description)


The gift tag is made from a glimmer misted shipping tag, the roses from the Spellbinder Rose Frameabilities set. Those beautiful letters are hard to appreciate online, but are embossed Spellbinders alphas too.  The other side has a vintage perfume label on it.

  I also broke out my Heidi Swapp masks for the first time.  I think I'll be brining them out more often!  I just started with brown craft paper, laid the mask down, spritz spritz, and voila... not to shabby for running out of real wrapping paper and being to lazy to drive to town and buy some.

I wonder if anyone can possibly guess what's inside? If only she'd opened it! I'm so bad at waiting, makes me itchy.

Spellbinders Design Team!

http://www.spellbinders.us


follow the link and looks at the 3rd name down. Sqeeeeeeeeeee! I wasn't allowed to tell anyone before Thursday.  Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah yeah yeah!

Anthropology and Scrapbooking

Here is a documentary with a rather hot narrator about a scrapbooker's native habitiat. I laughed I cried, I stole ideas :-)

What Lurks?

So I'm driving home after a late night run to my shop and I here
scriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch. And a few seconds later I here
scriiiiiiiiiiiiitch again. And then it starts to form a regular pattern
and I'm like Aaaaagh! It's the CLAW MAN! I'm freaking out turning my
head without trying to wreck the van to see who/what is making the
noise. Yeah, about the stop sign I realize the back window wiper is
going on a dry gravel dust covered window. No claw handed man.

Does anybody have?

I'm
searching high and low for some copies of files I made a year or two
ago. Desktops specifically. Digikitten, the place where I thought they
were safely stored is no more (booooooooo). I made a desktop of Ce and
Mel at a witches conference with the photo of them in the crazy
hats..... If you have it I will personally bake and send you a cupcake
if you send me a copy.

Remember.....Jesus Saves, but you have to backup your own hard drive.

Brain the Size of a Planet

http://www.digikitten.com/

this has to be THE funniest 404 I've ever found, but then I'm a geek.

First Snow

Oh, hooray!  I love the first snow! It doesn't look like it will stick, but it's beautiful to watch all the same.  Time to pull out The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and a cup of hot chocolate.  Now I just hope that the weather doesn't slow up all the lovely packages from Copic and Penny Black on their merry way to the shop.