fear

I love challenge blogs, although I'm usually so wrapped up in my Chronological Scrapping that I just don't have time to do them, or my Mojo is using her frequent flyer miles when an intriguing one comes up.

I tend to go all out and support new challenge sites, like Julie's My Favorite Things (did the first one, but they come & go so quick I haven't had a chance to do more...working on #4, Food, but doin' it digi so I may never get it Quite Right, KWIM?) (digi takes FOREVER, BTW, but when I don't have internet -- a daily occurance, grr -- I turn to PSE training).

I've met a number of gals on the Point Blank Period start-up team, and have long admired the work of pretty much all of them, so I was really curious to see what they'd come up with. This one, about What Holds You Back (in a nutshell...there was more to it than that...) was instantly inspiring.

I struggle with the concept of having my own personal Style...I like to experiment, so I don't stick with one thing for long, however, I tend to latch on to trends & look back later to say, "ugh." But I have a rule, Never Re-Do, so I'm going to take my own advice here and Let Go.

The one thing I enjoy doing now that I have been tinkering with PSE7 for a few months is vintage tinting of my photos. My last 3 favorite projects have been about using this technique. I'm not sure yet if it is going to become a signature "style" for me (perhaps only on single-photo LOs) or if it is just a passing fad. Time will tell.

Here's a gift I made for Jan, my fantastic Secret Sis at SISiversary this year. She usually sent along a Starbucks gift card with my goodies, so I had a feeling she was in SBs a LOT :) I put a gc in with the personalized mug I decorated:

I was very proud of myself for figuring out how to use a brush to highlight Jan's cool new tattoo -- the cross above her heart -- without having to consult a PSE textbook. The vintage tinting tends to make details soft & dreamy, so I wanted to pop that tat and tuck a relevant Bible verse right next to it.

I used rather thick Stampin Up papers & embellishments, and some details curled and crumpled as I rolled this up and put it in the Create A Mug, so I'm glad I got a shot of it before it got damaged.

Deee-troit

I got a call a couple of weeks ago, the entry we put in while cruising the A2 art fairs at the Doug FM booth yielded a one-year family membership to the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, but we had to go downtown to the Fisher Bldg to pick up our prize.

What with weekend getaways and Varsity Day Camp and general summer runaround, it took me a while to get down there (I had to do it within 30 days...I think we just made it!). I brought a party pack of Zingerman's magic brownies to say thanks, the promotions gal who came out to give us our prize was thrilled. I believe she actually hugged the brownies.

It has been a while since I've been to Detroit, and it doesn't get any better the longer I go without a visit. Buildings, houses, factories disappear, and construction alters my memories of the Motor City (best billboard: "Recession: this is a test, not a final" -made me smile)!

First of all, I promised Ben a Giant Tire, and I-94 delivered:

I took a detour (some would say This Way Be Dragons), knowing the Fisher Bldg is on West Grand Blvd, but not taking the right exit for it. Grand Blvd (hasn't been grand in about 40 years) runs in a half-square through the New Center, and I took the wrong half. Oh how I wish I could have seen it Back When. There were some grand old houses and apartment buildings, but as Ben aptly put it, there were many "sad" houses, and a few "bad" houses. I wasn't too confident about stopping & whipping out my camera, too bad as there was one old house with a flower garden out front worthy of Ann Arbor (and that, my friends, is pretty dang grand).

Almosted ended up on the bridge to Canada...

Yeah, THAT'S a detour, people! And saw another great billboard:

Now THAT'S ghetto...LOL...finally got to mecca, the gorgeous Fisher Bldg, after a detour up Cass Corridor (REALLY didn't want to slow down and whip out my camera there)...past my alma mater, Wayne State (go Warriors! and, thank you for not being Tartars anymore --WTH, anyway?!)...

Ben ran right under the ropes and on top of this worn emblem:

Sorry, Fisher Bros.

Before we left, we had to stop in the restroom. Check out the swinging double doors and cool tiles:

Last stop: City Knits. Picked up the last of my Summer Tweed for my Kaffe Fassett afghan (yeah, right...intarsia, in Summer Tweed! Nutso) and some Tofootsie sock yarn. Got on their mailing list. LOVE their new space (well, 2 year old new space, but much bigger & more light...not in the bowels of the Fisher Bldg. anymore). All in all, a great trip & I'm glad my kids got to see a bit of Detroit. Even if it was from the car (perhaps more appropriate that way...)

Last pic...a beautiful mosaic wall...

Yup, the entire building is a work of art.

Knitting again.

Last night I went over to the Dark Side, and went to a Meetup Stitch n Bitch. I realized as I (re-)introduced myself that I hadn't been to this group in 5 (!) years. They met a bit too early for my schedule (6:30p) and I really liked the Ann Arbor Knit In group I was part of for 3 years or more (which would go until 10p or later). That group has fallen apart in the last year, as graduate students graduate and new ones don't come along to fill in and members start spinning instead of knitting (it happens...and there are different meeting groups for THAT obsession!)

The Meetup group is moderated by someone who used to annoy me; perhaps I've become more Zen in the last few years, because she sat right next to me last night and I just knit away, silently enjoying myself & the conversation around me. It was sooo relaxing to finish up an old project (well, except for the stuffing and sewing, but that's easy enough) without a toddler pulling at me.

Went into Cynthia's Fine Yarns in Mackinaw City on Monday before we left, and Tess found a knitting loom she wanted to try, so I am finishing up the baby seal toy I started for her 3 or 4 years ago, so that she's inspired to keep at it. She's done pretty well with the looping and "knitting," but it's a slow process. I'll try getting her to do some actual knitting -- on needles -- again sometime soon.

I'm thinking I need to use Mandi's kit for a knitting project album; the handmade wood album covers she made for the kit are warm and natural and would be a perfect beginning to keeping a record of my (finished) projects. The papers she created are inspired by vintage clothing, some even have a hint of a knit pattern in the background that will also be perfect for a knit project album. She has some kits left and the price was reasonable, check it out:
I'm looking forward to playing with this kit soon...

Seriously. Exhausting.

You would think having Gma along to corral the two kiddoddles would help just a little. Woke up in Mackinaw City to pounding rain and thunder and thought...oh well, the carriage ride should still work. Then the skies magically cleared and the day brewed up sunny and HOT. We got on Shepler's ferry at 10:30a, and got off the carriage around 1:20p, thirsty and hungry. Ben was just melting. Ate up at the fort and that perked us up just a bit, enough to shop in the Fort & walk back into town.

I had plans to take the kids to Mill Creek today, but was just too wiped from yesterday to even consider it. When does school start again? And why am I not putting Ben in preschool yet? Oh, yeah, potty training. Absolutely no progress there.

More pics up at fb, if I've friended you. If not, why? ;)

Absinthe makes the heart...

We went to Weber's for dinner last night...E is a "frequent feeder" so we have mad coupons...one for $75, even, but we'll hang on to that one...our little family could never spend that much there. Last one we had we used for Mother's Day with the whole famn damily.

I mentioned it on facebook a while back...absinthe is "legal" again (but I'm guessing no where near as potent as it was before it was banned a century ago), and Weber's offers it. If you like ouzo (and oh yes I do), it is the same taste, strong licorice you have to cut with ice water and a sugar cube (to release the "green fairy"...didn't you see Moulin Rouge?).

It is a weird buzz...I find myself strangely alert when I drink it, and very talkative (like that never happens, LOL). But this morning I woke up very fuzzy-headed, and I even got to bed earlier than usual last night. We did NOTHING all day today, except get out to grocery shop very late in the afternoon. Later I made borscht with the GIANT head of cabbage we got in our half-CSA share late last week. I had just made stuffed cabbage so I couldn't use it for that (still have stuffed cabbage in the fridge!), but borscht only takes a half a head...so, yay me, I FINALLY got out our new vacumm sealer and shredded & froze the other half.

Right now it's the only thing in our new ($50 Craiglisted) upright freezer downstairs...pretty silly-looking all alone in there, but we hope to hook up with a quarter side of grass-fed beef some time before winter.

That's what I get for listening to this book with E on the way home from Florida earlier this year...it's what prompted him to start a(n overcrowded!) garden, buy the freezer, and get us into a CSA this summer.

Worth the price of admission...

...oh wait, this is a FREE class over at Jessica Sprague! I don't know if you can still sign up for it, but I'm learning some useful things, like creating this vintage-style, hand-tinted photograph:

From this:

Of course, Tess liked the bright greens of the original, but when I saw this photo in the LCD screen on my camera, the image I had for an eventual LO was more toward the vintage image I finally created. Hey, it's my hobby, after all ;)

Looks like Friday night cropping will continue, thanks to my cropping buddies. Tonight we're all crowded into Kelly's, last week it was Shandra's. Tomorrow I actually crop ALL DAY, the final crop at Scrapbook Memories, a goodbye crop for Patti, the owner. I need to organize some page kits, because it's going to be too crowded for me to bring ALL my crap.

Finished this LO yesterday, after running to the Big M chain with my 50% off coupon so I could nab the last MS butterfly punch. I saw it being used all over the place at SISiversary and just fell in love with little patterned butterflies everywhere. And I'm not a butterfly person, in general (as I'm not a bird-on-a-branch scrapper, or the flourish type, either...)

This is my next-to-the-last birthday LO from 2008-2009. I have been DREADING getting these done, as I do every year, but my goal is to have a decent birthday memory book for each of my kids, as I have NO memories of my own birthday celebrations (such as they were with 4 kids and a working mom in the house). I just need to change up my approach from year to year to keep it fresh.

I am just about done with 2008 overall; the next pages I'm dreading are holiday (Oct-Dec) pages. I've done a couple pages for 2009 already, mostly everyday happenings, which are more interesting for me. Doing Project 365 last year gave me waaaay too many photos to scrap, which is why I am so "far behind" (I'm a bit anal, and *like* to scrap chronologically, so bite me Stacy Julian, LOL). Hopefully my Friday night crops continue, so I can keep up. I'm a happy scrapper when I'm all caught up (and it HAS happened before)!

Worth a listen...

NPR's reading of the Declaration of Independence.

History. It's a good thing to remember now and then.