Card Making

I realized my usual birthday card stamp (the Whoo Hoo Dress by Paula Best) was not going to cut it for someone I know (not really her style or attitude), so I broke open my new Hero Arts stamp set and had fun today. Tired fun, since Ben woke up crying an hour earlier than usual, and woke me out of a dead sleep. Good thing, though, because I was having a very sad, bizarre dream about him. Sigh. I hate those dreams.

Since I don't like to dirty up a stamp set (especially an acrylic stamp set, once I've found all the different-sized blocks I need) and only use it once, I went on to make some Thank You cards as well. Running low.

I heard scraping on my front porch yesterday afternoon and opened my front door to find a neighbor trying out in his new double-handled shovel (the one we introduced him to after our first big snow this winter). He told me he thought we weren't home and it was coming down pretty hard yesterday, so I used up the last of my Thank You cards when I went over with some fresh-baked scones last night.

No wonder I couldn't get out to shovel my own driveway and walk; it took me and hour and a half to make three cards today...mostly thanks to coloring each. little. matroshka. At least it was relaxing.

All Things Tim

To keep me from thinking about the huge flame war/phone call fight I'm in the middle of with family (Merry 'effing Christmas, eh?!), I'm over at Tim Holtz's blog, enraptured by his 12 Tags of Christmas tutorials. Oh, and I've posted some holiday music, which you can turn off if it makes you crazy.

Speaking of going crazy, I had to go to special notice at the All Things Tim Yahoo group, as there are about 900 members and over 200 emails a day coming off of it. But it's a fun place for swaps and ideas and talkin' Tim.

Here's a bit of Christmas knitty goodness for ya...I'm halfway through Mom's Noro armwarmers...luckily I think my brother and I have kept her out of our happy holiday battle (it's been a long time coming, is all I can say about that).



I'd better go cast on arm warmer #2...peace out.

Monday moanin'

Well, that wasn't TOO bad...Dr. Roy was done in about a half an hour with Tess, she only cried when she got the "sleepy juice" (novocaine), a concept that originally made her laugh. Our dentist is great with kids...told Tess she had some "cavity bugs" he had to put to sleep (thus the sleepy juice) and take out for her...although I knew the real procedure would not make her laugh...she's at school doped up on Motrin, hopefully she'll get through her day okay.

It was wonderful to be out in the morning, even though it was cold. We went to the Dexter Bakery as a "treat" (yum...get a filling, fill up on a sugary donut...brilliant, mom!) since she wasn't going to make her bus and needed lunch (yes, I know, a donut...) We wandered over to the downtown Dexter Pharmacy, one of those wonderful old teeny tiny family-owned pharmacies, something that actually gives us one up on snooty old downtown Chelsea, our artsy-fartsy neighbor to the west.

The pharmacy had a bunch of tiny 3x3 encouragement cards marked down to 50 cents; I bought a handful to put in Tess's lunch on Fridays. Yes, I know, I should actually MAKE her little cards, I used up all my little card creations (so far, need to make more) on her earlier this year. I can't believe she has only 7 more weeks of school left.

Tonight is my Stampin Up Stamp Club...my last for a couple of months, since I am still saving for Creative Escape. I'm pretty much caught up on my registration fee, but I still have to get airfare and save up to pay my roommate, whoever she may be...I've decided not to get a hotel room, but instead depend upon The Kindness of Strangers. Good thing I'm in the Yahoo Group, lots of roomie connections there.

Here's this month's swap card...I went to my cardstock stash and picked a color (CTMH's Barn Red) I'm not all that fond of, that was masculine, that I had a lot of, and added some copper accents (embossing powder and metallic paper) for an elegant-yet-whimsical Father's Day card. Crown is Anita's, argyle background is SU, letters are my current favorite CTMH alphabet, Tiny Typewriter. Which reminds me...I have a new CTMH shipment coming today, including a new Summer catalog...to be released Into the Wild May 1st...I'll be listening for my Man in Brown for the rest of the afternoon...ready to pounce!

A near-perfect Sunday

Yesterday was nasty. The boy behind us (12) had friends over, and for some UNGODLY reason they were up at 7a, in the backyard, shouting and laughing and causing a ruckus. AT SEVEN A.M. Gah. Thank goodness the reigning adult over there finally got done with his/her 30-minute shower (I'm horribly biased, I'm guessing it's a him) & settled them down, but it was too late for me. I had gone to bed at 1a after cropping in Chelsea, and I was awake for good. Actually, awake for the worse.

Today went much better. E took the kids at 9a to our gym's daycare, then took them swimming there, then visited his mom for the afternoon. A whole day to myself! I almost wasted it sitting around drinking coffee (in PEACE) and reading the paper (again, in PEACE).

I finally got motivated, showered, and spent about an hour working on my Thanksgiving swap cards for stamp club ("the first rule of stamp club...we don't talk about stamp club"). I won a pound of handmade paper at crop Friday night, and I've already started using it for cards. Some of it is really pretty. I used up some of the uglier stuff for this card, and now I find I have a fuzzy sort of fondness for the crinkly brown paper I used. Go figure.

Then, I ran my favorite Sunday afternoon "errand" -- hanging around poking through the stacks at the Ann Arbor Library's Friends of the Library Book Sale. They have raised their prices drastically, though, so I had to do some serious weeding before I got up to the cash stand. Two bucks for hardcovers and trade paperbacks! Zut alors. Anyway, here's what I snagged:

Great Little Quilts, Eleanor Levie -- just for the fleur-de-lys pattern, and the elephant and donkey picture quilts
The House, Teresa Waugh -- started reading this at lunch. Gotta love eccentric British characters
Pushkin's Children, Tatyana Tolstaya -- just trying to figure out E
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls -- to help me get over my mild childhood
To Hell With All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife -- I need a laugh
Made in Detroit, Paul Clemens -- because I collect Detroit books and I've been meaning to read this.

I ate lunch (in PEACE) at Seva's, one of my favorite restaurants (and vegetarian, so E never wants to go there) and had two of my favorite dishes: Enchilada Calabaza (stuffed with butternut squash -- hee, I can sense my friend Gabby curling her lip in disgust already) and Cocoa Cake, which I was surprised to find on the menu. A waitress there told me a while ago that they take it off the menu when the temperatures get over 78 degrees. My piece was certainly refrigerated, but still good. I can never finish it, though. Mmm...late-night snackage.

Came home to an EMPTY house, had coffee, relaxed before E came back with the kids. He put Ben straight to bed and Tess is listening to Harriet the Spy on CD. Hee. I'd better go in there and listen, too.

Some creative time

Okay, after the bitching yesterday, I have to say I did manage to get in *some* crafting time. I'm going to make about 60 of these postcards to send out. I wanted to make sure the bear-in-a-box was secure on the front, so what could I use? Something I have plenty of...packing tape! Naturally.

Too bad CTMH is retiring this set. Stampin Up retired *their* Just Moved set in July, so I had to go with this one. Looking back at the SU set, I like this one better after all. Certainly more for the money -- 15 stamps to SU's 7, for $18.95 versus $23.95. Acrylic is cheaper, after all. It'll be interesting to see what both companies comes up with for this theme in future catalogs.

Today is the last day of summer vacation. Tess was very excited to learn that she starts school TOMORROW. More to the point, that she is going to see her friend Mackenzie then.

I'm putting her on the bus, for now, and letting it drop her off in the late afternoon. I think she's going to be on the bus home alone, almost -- everyone I talk to is picking up their kids from school. First of all, I don't want to wait in the long, loooong line in front of the school with a baby in the back, and secondly, I don't want to waste a moment of Ben's nap time, either when Tess leaves or when she comes home. We'll see how she does. She's sensitive, but has her tough side. I hope she doesn't need it on the bus.

Ben is still a bit all over the place with naps; for the most part he takes two, but sometimes he skips a morning nap and takes one monster afternoon nap. Tess gave up her morning nap altogether when she turned one, and her afternoon nap was gone when she turned two. Hopefully everyone's prediction that two kids can be very, very different will come true in my kids' case.