Friday funk.

I've felt so BLAH the last couple of days! Just very nothing-going-on-upstairs. Blank, blah, blue.

I tweaked my neck and shoulder, either flying kites on Tuesday, or sleeping on our hard hotel bed Tuesday night, and that is definitely slowing me down and adding to the blahs.

In lieu of anything more interesting, here's a layout I did a couple weeks ago for an ongoing contest at Scrapforums. The topic for the first challenge was to use any part of the lyrics of the Dixie Chicks' new song, "Not Ready to Make Nice." We could use all of it or just a word or two, in the title or in the journaling.

The song is a pretty mad, defiant song, and I really don't "go there" in my scrapbooking. Plus, I'm not really in that kind of place right now in my life. I pulled virtually the only positive sentiment out of the song, the line: "It turned my whole world around, and I kind of like it."

I was going to scrap about some things in my life that seemed negative but turned out to have positive results. That seemed too complicated (and I'll be honest--too much thought involved), so I decided to scrap about how scrapbooking has turned my world around. I took pictures of all my tools and radiated those around my paper-pieced globe. I'm pretty pleased with it. I took it out on the sunny deck to photograph it, so the lights and shadows look a lot more extreme than they really are.

Got my "40 Techniques" book in the mail today, along with all my cards, so I updated my resume while I was thinking about it. It's seriously time to start submitting again!

Happy birthday, Grandma.

Thought I'd give Grandma her own separate post, because she deserves it! My Grandma Martin is 86 years old today. In the past five months, she's experienced a broken hip, with surgery, and a bad gall bladder, also requiring surgery, but she's doing well. I know life isn't completely easy for her, but she gets through with grace and a good spirit.

This picture is one that Grandpa took of her around the time they got married in 1943. It's been through quite a few years of bad handling since then. A couple months ago, Grandpa asked my mom to see if she could get the photo restored.

I talked to my dad last week, and he said the restored copy came out wonderfully--not a crease or rip to be seen. When my mom gave it to Grandpa, he got tears in his eyes and said to my dad, "Wasn't she beautiful?"

Well, she still is, of course. And she is very loved, and I hope she feels that love today in abundance. Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Mini-break.

Ever since I read Bridget Jones' Diary to Todd several years ago, he's been fascinated with the concept of a "mini-break." It's just a weekend getaway, but "mini-break" sounds so much more...Continental.

So that was my "pack a bag" surprise yesterday for our anniversary. First, Todd came home at lunch time, bringing me my present: a teeny tiny MP3 player. Then we went to our favorite diner for lunch, and then down to Mt. Trashmore in Virginia Beach to fly kites. Then we stopped at the LSS there--and they had the new Paper Crafts book that I contributed to, and that I've been DYING to see for months! So we sat and looked through that, and found all my cards. It was such an unexpected treat!

Then we went over to Portsmouth and had dinner at our absolute favorite German restaurant, the Biergarten. Their claim to fame is having umpteen-dozen fancy beers on tap, but since I don't drink beer, and Todd doesn't drink at all, that part is sort of lost on us.

What they do have is fabulous bratwurst, knockwurst, cabbage, sauerkraut, dilly green beans, German potato salad, of course...oh, and Black Forest cake. And excellent coffee. It's delectable.

Then we drove back up to Yorktown, walked along the river in the dark, spent the night at the hotel on the river, got up and took another walk along the river...then we had lunch, and Todd went off for an afternoon at work.

Wasn't that a nice mini-break? I'm happy Todd thought of it.

Here's the cover of the book--I'm kind of surprised they went with this all-white look for the cover, but the book is really excellent: spiral-bound with a built-in stand, tabbed sections for each set of techniques, designer and theme indexes, and a DVD with 40 extra cards. I'm really thrilled it's finally out...it was fun to do the projects for it.

Pretty girls.

Apparently Todd was lying when he said we were going to celebrate our anniversary on the weekend, because he e-mailed me this morning and told me to pack a bag and that he was coming home at lunchtime. So I'm sitting here waiting for him to get home any minute now. I'm all curious!

Thought I'd blog while I was waiting and share this layout I finished yesterday, which I really like. I like the big picture of the girls at the bottom. They are both so beautiful!

The journaling is probably not legible, so in a nutshell--this is my sister's daughter (the big girl) and my brother's daughter (the tiny girl). They are both the second kids in their families, and it's been funny to see how Marissa, the baby, is so much like Kylie, the big girl, was as a baby. Kylie was the squirmiest, movingest little thing you ever saw--crawling on stuff, climbing like a monkey, absolutely fearless. And Marissa is the same way. They both have the same little spark of devil in their eyes. This was the first time I've seen them together when Marissa was really old enough to respond to Kylie, and they really just connected. I just think they are the loveliest things, don't you?

Oh, and Kylie is the very little girl in the Father's Day frame below. She is growing up so fast--well, they all do!

Sunny Sunday.

Just another quiet Sunday here. Todd's been out fishing all day and I've been hanging out in my PJs, doing laundry, messing around on the computer. It's a nice day to be inside, with the windows open and the ceiling fans blowing a breeze around.

Yesterday we went down to the Outer Banks for the day, to celebrate our....drumroll, please...fourteenth anniversary. Fourteen years--and I'll go ahead and trot out all the clichés here:

It hardly seems possible!
Seems like our wedding was just yesterday!
Time flies when you're having fun!

...because they're all sort of true. It's definitely been fun. Lots and lots of life experiences between that day and this, lots of laughs and giggles and shared jokes, blessedly few tears, lots of places we've been and things we've seen together. I love being married to this guy and hopefully he feels the same!

Our actual anniversary is Tuesday, but as Todd pointed out, yesterday was really the anniversary, as we were married the third Saturday in May, so it made sense to celebrate on the convenient weekend day.

It was a gorgeous day...we hit a few shops in Kill Devil Hills and Nag's Head, spent an hour on the beach at Nag's Head, ate lunch at our favorite BBQ place, and had dinner at a tiny local bar/seafood joint. We honeymooned on the Outer Banks, and the weather was gray and cloudy and COLD, the whole week. Yesterday couldn't have been different, except for one thing--the water was just as freezingly cold!

I felt like I should take tons of pictures, but it is such a pain dragging a camera around. I did get a few, but I don't know if they were any good. Todd took the camera on the boat with him today, so I can't check yet.

Todd called a few minutes ago and said he's bringing home some freshly caught sea bass, so I suppose I should do a little Net research and find out the best way to cook it for dinner tonight!

At last!

I found something exciting at Barnes and Noble today--my Father's Day frame on the last page of PaperWorks magazine. I've been waiting for this for like eight months! It's the first time I've ever been published in this magazine.

This is a picture of my brother-in-law Ky and his kiddies Tanner and Kylie, taken on Father's Day, as a matter of fact, by Todd. We were in Missouri for a family reunion, three years ago. The kids look so little! Especially Kylie.

It's a drop-dead gorgeous day today--breezy, sunny, even a tiny bit chilly in the wind. I love spring days like this. I had to run a couple errands today, and it was such a pleasure to drive around with the windows down and the radio on.

I'm trying to get a couple layouts done for the CK Idea Annual call--deadline today of course. It's been a long time since I've scrapped for a CK call, and I'm finding it just as creatively stifling as ever! Seeing something I made in print always sparks the spirit, though--makes me want to keep trying.

Layout.

I scrapped one of my rose pictures the other night, just because I couldn't wait any longer. I love Rhonna Farrer's new papers and rub-ons, so I used those. I think they were just made for this picture!

I also made my own printer paper block by printing a poem on a white crackle paper. It's from "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick. The opening line, which may or may not be legible on my layout, is "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a'flying; And that same flower that smiles today, Tomorrow will be dying."

Which seems like a truthful sentiment, if not perhaps profound...until you read the rest of the poem and see that what's he saying is. "Hey all you young hotties who are saving it--you need to get laid now, 'cause you ain't getting any younger. And by the way, how 'bout it?"

At least that's what I got from it. Heh. I think Herrick was a player.

Not older than dirt...yet.

Someone posted this at Two Peas today...I remember 12 of these things.

Older Than Dirt Quiz: Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3 Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5 Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (OLive-6933)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H Green Stamps
16 Hi-fi's
17 Metal ice trays with lever
18 Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age
If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

I remember how candy cigarettes seemed soooo cool and sinful. I still remember how those wax bottles tasted when you chewed them. I remember my mom collecting S&H Green Stamps when I was very, very little.

I remember my small collection of 45s...I got to the age of having disposable income just a couple years before 45s were being phased out. We also had children's music on 45s, too, and I think we had a tiny record player, too.

I remember mimeographed school papers and how they smelled. And I remember blue flashbulbs and how they would look all milky and melted inside when they'd been popped. And metal ice-trays make me think of going to my Grandma Martin's house.

It's so funny how those products that we never paid any attention to way back when can unleash a flood of memories years later!

Lovely words.

I saw these lines on another blog yesterday, and I want to put them here so I can see them when I need to. I hope they speak to someone else, too.

“Ring the bells that still can ring-

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.”

-Leonard Cohen

Happy scrappy stuff.

The challenge at Two Peas today is to blog about something in your scraproom that makes you happy. Here's a couple of things I enjoy:

I've had this poster for 10 or 12 years...I bought it in Idaho. I've had it in several homes and on several different walls since then, but it looks the best on my teal wall here.

I got this wall vase and silk flowers at Jo-Ann's and stuck them in a corner that I thought needed livening up. Seems like they get lost here, but I do like the way they look.

I think my mom got this old jar for me, and I've never found the perfect use for it until I realized I could keep my ribbon odds and ends in it. I have a rack for the spools and the really long pieces (wound onto paper towel rolls) but those little snippets needed a home. I like the way they look in here.

Cards.

Here are the cards I created for my "at home" class last Friday. Kay, Pat, and Rosalyn all came, and we had a terrific time. It's so much more fun to teach at home than to teach for a store, where you have to use the stuff they carry and want to sell. Teaching for myself, I can grab and use anything that catches my eye, as long as I have enough of it!

Sunday.

Well, the yard sale was perfect. Perfect weather (sunny, warm, breezy), lots of people stopping, and lots of compliments on how well-organized and displayed our stuff was. (Finally some pay-off for my 13 months of retail work!) Our neighbor came over and sat and chatted with us most of the time, too, so it was great to get to know her better.

And...we made $400! Much better than I had hoped! About half of that is mine, from the sale of my craft stuff and my clothes. It will all go back into the house one way or another, though.

Today I am totally beat. And a little sunburned. I'm glad it's Sunday, so I can feel justified in lounging around.

Happy Mother's Day to my sweet mom and my sweet mom-in-law! Love you both!

Yard sale prep.

You know, I've never thought of us as conspicuous consumers...but how in the world did we accumulate so much crap otherwise?

Yes, it's yard sale time tomorrow, and I spent the afternoon and evening hauling things out of boxes and closets and slapping on price stickers.

In my defense, about 60% of the scrapbooking stuff I'm getting rid of was sent to me, not purchased by me, so I don't have near as much money sunk into the pile as it may appear.

But the clothes? Yeah, that's all my money. Sigh.

My back is killing me! But it's going to feel so good to rid ourselves of all this stuff.

I didn't realize till today that I was going to get rid of as much scrap/stamp stuff as I did. I called my friend Cheryl and asked her to spread the word among her friends. She called back a couple hours later and said she was spreading the word on the Internet, too. ***forehead slap*** It's so nice of her to be my brain when mine is vacationing. If only I'd realized the scope of this earlier in the week, so I could have really promoted it all week!

It's supposed to be a gorgeous day tomorrow, so fingers crossed that we can make a bundle!

Anybody else swoon when Jim kissed Pam on "The Office" last night? Mm mm mm mm MM. I can't tell you how many years it's been since I was all agog over a season ender and all upset because I have to wait four months to find out what happens!

Quickie.

Just a quickie, as the big thunderstorm hits and I wrap up my computer time and cross my fingers that we don't lose power or satellite before "Earl" and "The Office" finales tonight!

Thanks so much for the nice comments about my previous soul-searching post...I appreciate it a TON.

I took some pictures of the last of my gorgeous roses last night...thought they'd look lovely in my McCoy vase and I was right. I'd love to add to my McCoy collection of one, but I just don't see them in antique stores any more.

Okay, that rain is coming down HARD. Time to wrap it up!

Sleeplessness.

1.

I've been having a really hard time going to sleep at night this week. I know a couple of nights, the problem was a cup of coffee and a cup of tea, respectively, but I also get this way when I have a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head, or when I feel like I'm on the cusp of something, be it a cold or a paradigm shift.

2.

I've been thinking a lot about creativity for a couple of months now. I am seeing that it's like anything else worth doing for yourself--you have to push yourself into the flow despite the resistance.

I've seen myself as creative for quite a few years now, but seldom have I felt it to be WHO I am. It has never pervaded my life...rather, I have tiny to moderate bursts here and there, always in the proper format. I feel like maybe there's an ocean hiding in me and I'm trying to access it through a straw stuck in a brick wall.

I read several blogs by scrappers and paper crafters who seem to have art pervading their entire lives, from the stuff they hang on their walls to the shoes they put on their feet. They are who I think of as artists--people who live in creative parts of the country (West Coast, especially), who are younger and hipper and way thinner than I could ever be. I think of artists as free-spirited, and I have never been that.

3.

Maybe it's easier for people who grew up in artistic, creative environments. My mom is creative with a sewing machine; my dad is creative with gardens, but those are practical expressions, rooted in necessity at some point, if not in the present. Creating for the joy of it, along with questioning--which I see as perhaps the one absolute requirement for creativity--not things that anyone I knew ever seemed to do. And since I never got to see creative joy modeled for me, I never got to see the other part which would have been even more helpful for me: creative discipline.

Because I don't kid myself. I know that I am lacking in discipline...in the ability to make myself do that which I know will help me grow.

4.

I have a handful of issues of Somerset Studio and Legacy magazines, which are both magazines about paper arts and where they can take you. The artists are just that--artists, and pretty serious about what they do. I was never interested in the style or the message of these mags...until a year or two ago, when I picked up an issue here, and an issue there, and somehow, through reading and re-reading over a series of months, came to the realization that these people's works and their stories and the way they were presented--this is all really speaking to me now. I'm not sure what that means. I'm not a collage artist and I dont have room to store a million art pieces. I don't know how to use gesso!

5.

I made my submissions for the Fiskars insert last weekend, and of the six projects I made, they asked for five. I am so pleased about that!

But, I have to confess, the creating part was not exciting. I didn't feel challenged. I've been getting the designer e-mails for upcoming issues of magazines that I submitted to a LOT two years ago...and I'm just not feeling interested. Part of me thinks I just need to push myself, and part of me wonders if I've moved past that part of my creative life. But if I have, what part of my life am I in now?

Something's brewing, I can tell. I'm just not sure what. But I still want to cling to what I've done in the past, because it made me happy and I got paid for it--poorly and irregularly, yes--but still! I want the recognition and I want to be a designer.

I'm just not sure how to get that anymore.

6.

What I think maybe needs to happen is for me to look at all of my life with a creative eye, not just the parts I've set aside. And to really open the door and let who I am join up with that creator part of me.

I used to read self-help books a lot 12 or 14 years ago, when I was working my way through a major depressive episode--my first and worst. I've gotten rid of most of them, because there was a lot of New Age-y mumbo-jumbo running through that movement and a lot of it just stopped being relevant for me.

But I did keep a couple of the best books, and one that I pulled off my shelf the other night is called Finding Joy by Charlotte David Kasl. I started reading it a little at a time, and I'm so glad I kept it. It's such a simple book, but reading it is like remembering all the things you used to know about how to treat yourself and how to get through life and enjoy it at the same time. It's helping me, to go back in time as I read the book and think about where I was then and how it's different from where I am now. But the issues are still the same--ack.

Movie reviews.

This was a movie-watchin' weekend at our house. Two movies Saturday night, two movies Sunday night. Todd has been on a total movie kick lately, and I've been making him watch by himself, mostly, because I seem to have a hard time devoting two hours to anything anymore...but I switched into total couch-potato mode this weekend and made him happy.

First was Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I'm still not sure if I liked this or not. A little too violent for my taste, but there were some humorous tidbits, especially in the first half or so. Angelina Jolie didn't seem to put too much into her character--seemed like Brad Pitt carried the whole thing. I've never been a Brad fan, but I appreciated his humor in this one. But the whole scenario, and especially the over-the-top stunts and effects, seemed beyond unbelievable. When Angelina's hit-woman team zip-lined out of the 99th floor of their office building...that's when I started to lose interest!

That same night we watched Bruce Almighty. I didn't intend it to be a Pitt-Jolie-Aniston love triangle night--they just came from Netflix that way, honest. I liked the movie, overall...how can you resist Morgan Freeman as God? Jennifer was quite good, too...and I even liked Jim Carrey. He usually annoys the bejeebers out of me, but he's becoming more likeable as he ages, I think. I liked him in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, too. The movie got awfully sappy, which I don't have a lot of patience with...I thought they could have gotten the desired character growth without going all sappy, but overall, a fun movie. It was especially fun watching Jim Carrey run amok as he starts testing out his God-powers.

Sunday night we started with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I wasn't at all sure what to expect from this one, because the book looms extremely large in my childhood religious life. I really didn't know if they could do it justice. Overall, I'd say they did. Since the story really pivots around the character of Lucy, I knew she'd have to be really well-cast...and she was. The little girl who played her was truly wonderful--I instantly loved her and sympathized with her, just the way you do in the book. The rest of the kids were really well-played, too. Some of the effects looked awkward or funky, but Aslan seemed fairly real. Not as impressive as I felt he should have been--his presence dominates the book, as I remember, even before you meet him, but for a computer-generated character, it was probably as good as could be expected.

The only element I felt they missed was C.S. Lewis's gentle humor that really makes the book come to life, particularly the scene where Aslan frolics with the girls after he comes to back to life, but before they head off to the battle. That was always one of my very favorite scenes, and right after, when the girls ride on his back to the battle--that scene didn't have any of the wonder of the book.

There were a few moments, though, that improved on the book--Lucy's huge grin of amazement as she enters the world of Narnia, and each time she returns to it; the moment when Peter and Edmund embrace after the battle and forgive each other; the Witch in her chariot fighting Peter. She wasn't quite scary enough to satisfy me, but she did seem evil.

Anyway, it's fascinating to see a childhood book come to life. I really enjoyed it. Watching it on the small-screen made us really wish we had made it to the theater to really experience it...but we were in the middle of our move when it was out and never found the time, darn the luck.

After we wiped away our Narnia-induced sniffles, we took a major turn and watched The Island. I've wanted to see this ever since I saw the theater previews and realized it was a remake of parts: the Clonus Horror, which the guys at MST3K spoofed. The Clonus director, Robert Fiveson, filed a copyright infringement suit against Dreamworks and Warner Brothers, who produced the film, and I think he definitely has a case. However, since this movie had a budget increase of about $99.5 million over the previous version, it was a lot better! Todd and I are both big fans of Scarlett Johannsen, so we liked seeing her in something really different. Lots of chases and things exploding--very cool--but you really do feel sympathy with the characters, and that's because Scarlett and Ewan MacGregor are so good. I thought it was terrific.

I bought the Entertainment Weekly summer movie preview issue last week, which is a little ritual of mine every couple years. It's fun to read about what's coming out and what I might like to go see. Summer is movie season for us, and I'm looking forward to The DaVinci Code, Superman Returns, The Break-Up, Pirates of the Caribbean, among others. I think it's time to gear up for movie season!

Needed a small avatar for another site...just ignore!

Playing around.

I made a couple small quickie cards tonight, to tuck in with the boxes I'm sending to my mom and MIL for their combined birthday/Mother's Day presents. (Both my mom and Todd's mom have early May birthdays.)

I love all the Hero Arts images that you can layer and combine for an artsy look with minimal effort. Every stamp on these cards is Hero Arts, except for the key. It's been ages since I stamped anything for real, beyond swiping distress ink on stuff.

I scribbled over the flowers with one of my new Glaze pens, the clear one. I got a set of Glaze pens and also a set of Soufflé pens at AC Moore last week, after seeing a few rapturous comments about them online. Doodling is a huge trend in scrapbooking and paper crafting right now, and although I do like to doodle, I never really do it as an art thing. The trend is moving away from polished, professional types of layouts and projects, toward a more freeform, handmade, artsy look, which is very far from my comfort zone. I thought it might be good to venture that way just for fun, though, and the pens are one of the few art tools that one can find in this creatively-deprived area.

(I've been feeling a tremendous amount of dissatisfaction with this area now. We've lived in Hampton Roads for three years, and I've always liked it fairly well--more than many other transplants I've met--but lately I am SO ready to move on to better things. I like our house a lot and enjoy it so much...but this neighborhood is gloomy, and Newport News is pretty run-down. I think moving into NN from the more "rural" part of York County is what's inspired some of this disgruntlement. I also just really want to live somewhere with a little more life and energy. I guess this is one of my periodic "homesick-for-Columbus" phases.)

Anyway, the Glaze pens are supposed to produce a raised, glossy line, and the Soufflé pens are supposed to produce a raised, puffy line...well, not so much. It's certainly not as dramatic as I expected. I'll need to play with them a little more, I think.

Summertime dessert.

Today's blog challenge at Two Peas:

Blog about your most fave summertime dessert!
What do you really enjoy each and every summer?
Share the recipe if you can!

Dairy Queen soft-serve is my favorite summertime treat, but as for a real dessert with a recipe and all...that would have to be strawberry shortcake, as we had it when I was a kid, with homemade pound cake, sliced sweetened strawberries, and vanilla ice cream. No sweetened biscuits or those nasty pre-fab circular shortcakes you get at the store. And no whipped cream or Cool Whip...although I guess that would taste pretty good, but ice cream is better...it soaks into the cake quite nicely.

Here's the pound cake recipe, straight from my mom's old Betty Crocker cookbook:

Loaf O' Gold Cake

2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. shortening
1/4 c. softened butter or margarine
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x5x3" loaf pan. Measure all ingredients into a large mixer bowl.Blend 1/2 minute on low speed, scraping bowl constantly. Beat 3 minutes on high speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan. Bake 65-70 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Another Saturday night.

What a pleasant day we've had...I did laundry and worked on projects all day, and Todd worked in the garage all day. After supper we went to Borders and I got a book and some coffee...now Todd is watching a movie, and I am trying to distract myself from my headache by doing some light online putzing.

[This headache is becoming a problem...I don't know if it's eye strain or TMJ or sinus or some combination thereof, but it is AWFUL. And it won't go away.]

Thought I'd post the only decent picture I got last weekend...this is my brother's daughter Marissa with my sister's daughter Kylie. I love this shot, because these two girls are kindred spirits. Kylie was a super-active, super-independent, crawling, climbing, exploring baby--and Marissa is very much the same. Both are the second-born kids in their families, coming after more compliant, over-achieving, people-pleasing older sibs. I could immediately see the connection these two made with each other, now that Marissa is old enough to really respond to people. Love these girls!

I got three small projects done for the Fiskars insert today, and a fourth larger project about half done. I have two more projects in mind for tomorrow, and that should be plenty. I also need to make a few cards for various upcoming birthdays and get-wells. I wish I could lop off my head so I could think clearly, but I guess that would sort of defeat the purpose.

Friday night thoughts.

I'm sitting here tonight with my perfect cup of Constant Comment tea and a roiling headache. I've had it most of the day. I've actually had a headache all week and today was sort of the culmination of the all the headaches from the past five days. Delightful! The tea helps.

I've been thinking tonight about an acquaintance of mine on the Two Peas boards who seems to have come up against some cruel misuse of information she wrote in a blog a year or so ago. The blog is inactive, but someone seems to have unearthed the stuff she wrote, which was sexually explicit, and has used it to try to discredit her at her work and in a few other areas.

I can remember reading her blog at the time and feeling afraid that she would be sorry one day for putting so much out there. I hate it that it's actually happened after all this time.

My friend Cheryl told me last week that some ladies were talking about me at our other local LSS. Nothing bad, but they knew my real name, my Two Peas username, and my blog. These were not people I knew--I know very few local scrappers who are also Internet-savvy.

It freaked me out. First, because I had written some thoughts about my old job that were not really for local dissemination. Second, because there are people who apparently know me--who I don't know. It's a peculiar feeling, since I believed I pretty much flew under the radar in my real life as well as my Internet life.

Anyway, it's definitely food for thought. Just because I don't have any interest in tracking people down and learning about them, doesn't mean it can't be done to me. It's a fine line to walk--knowing how much information is too much.

In other news, I spaced out this week and found out today that the deadline for the final Fiskars/Paper Crafts insert is Monday. So I'll be creating this weekend! The way this week went, I probably would have procrastinated it to the last minute, anyway, so it'll be fine.

I had my mini-class this morning, with only one friend here, but we had a lovely time anyway. Maybe next month a few more of them can come. Here's the card we did...I can't open my software to stitch the layout for some reason:

The background papers are from the Urban Couture line from Basic Grey. Scrappers have been having ecstasies over Basic Grey ever since they debuted a couple of years ago, but although I have a few sheets from various BG lines, I've never gone gaga. Until Urban Couture. These papers are so drop-dead gorgeous!

One last thought--did anybody see The Office last night? When Jim gave Pam her Coke and looked at her and said, "Hi"? Did anyone else's heart go pitter-pat??? He is yummy-yum!

Wish me good creating, headache-free vibes for the next couple days, okay?

Roses.

I wanted to show off the definite high point of my day yesterday--I pulled out of the driveway and slammed on my brakes, because the roses at the bottom of the driveway are blooming!

This bed was, according to our neighbors, full of roses, until the previous owners (aka The Plant Haters) ripped out every bit of trees and shrubbery that they could manage in their two-months' time here. All that's left are these two tiny bushes, which I thought were one bush until yesterday, when I saw that one has pink roses and the other, yellow.


I was taken aback to see that two of the roses were past full bloom--and how had I missed it? The answer, I guess, was that we'd been gone for three days over the weekend, and I hadn't left the house Monday. And since roses don't bloom in Ohio until June, I wasn't even casting any glances at our little bushes yet. After three springs in Virginia, I'm still surprised by how soon things sprout and bloom here. So it was quite a surprise.
And a really delightful one...I love roses. I mean, I LOVE roses. Not the ones you get from the florist that don't have any smell, but "real" roses, on bushes, in gorgeous colors, with heavenly scents! The pink ones smell stronger than the yellow ones--and they are absolute heaven. But the yellow ones are nice, too. I have always wanted to grow roses, and to have these little gems coming up is like a gift.

Flat Tanner.

My nephew Tanner's second-grade class is doing a Flat Stanley project, wherein you make a "flat" version of yourself, mail it to a faraway friend and have them take some pictures and send you a letter and souvenir from where you live.

Last week, my ten-year-old friend Matthew helped me take Flat Tanner around to a few places. On the left, Flat Tanner with the ships at Jamestown.

And on the right, Matthew and Flat Tanner in the stocks at Williamsburg.

Matthew and I had a great time seeing the sites. He's such a sweetie-pie, and I was glad he was on his spring break so we could hang out togther.

I'm putting together a small mini-scrapbook with the pictures--VERY simple--and I need to get it mailed out by the end of this week, but I have no energy this week. None at all. I think it has to do with the hormone supplement I'm taking and where I am in my cycle, but OY. I hate feeling so uninspired and unmotivated.

I am also having a few of the ladies from my stamp store classes of yesteryear over to my house Friday morning for a mini class, simply because I miss seeing them on a regular basis, but again, no inspiration/motivation, and it would be good to get that mini class prepared! The clock's a'ticking and I'm puttering aimlessly. I need a B-12 shot or something!

Checking in.

Someone linked this Myers-Briggs site in a thread at Two Peas today, and I had my first guffaw of the day reading this little prayer for my personality type:

"Lord, help me to be more laid back and help me to do it EXACTLY right."

Scarily accurate! I'm an ISFJ in the Myers-Briggs personality test. You can find your type on this site, without having to take the test, and see what your characteristics are, as well as find your own little funny prayer!

We took the Myers-Briggs test as part of our freshman orientation in college, and my type hasn't changed since then.

Had a very nice weekend back at Jeremy and Tracy's house...Marissa's dedication at church was on Sunday, and my parents and my syster's family also came down from Ohio for the weekend so we could all be there for her dedication. In the Mennonite church, since we don't baptize infants, we have a small ceremony during the service where the parents bring their baby up front, pledge to raise her in the faith, and then the congregation also takes a pledge to nurture the child and her family.

I like it that the congregation has a role in this dedication. I felt loved and nurtured by my church family as a child, and that was very valuable to me. In the world of today, I think a kid needs as many loving adults in her life as possible, don't you?

If I could track down where Todd secreted the pictures from this weekend, I'd post 'em. Maybe tomorrow.

I was lazy today, but I have so much to do this week, I need to find my mojo! Maybe tomorrow. LOL.

Playing around.

Thought I'd change the photo on my sidebar to something slightly more current--the old one was almost four years old. This one is about 6 months old. Maybe I can get something decent and newer soon. I'd like to change my header to something cool and custom like all the bloggers have, but I have NO CLUE how to do so. Just getting this blog set up was a total test of my computer ability, LOL.

Sites to see.

The blog challenge at Two Peas today is to list a few of your favorite websites, so here goes:

Lileks.com: The website of James Lileks, a columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Lileks is a lover of all things ephemeral, and has several sections of the site devoted to old cookbooks, old matchbooks, old comic strips, old photos, old ads...it's a history-lover's dream, complete with witty comments. Check out the Institute of Official Cheer, featuring the Gallery of Regrettable Food.

Prints and Photographs Reading Room at the Library of Congress site. I could spend hours looking at the past on this site. Plus, you can order prints for yourself!

American Memory collection, also at the Library of Congress site. I've barely stuck my toe into these waters--tons of pictures and documents and films to look at.

Threadbared:This site just makes me happy. I love smart-alecky comments.

The Garden Path: Lots and lots of thumbnail references about various herbs, flowers, and types of gardens.

Rotten Tomatoes: This is where I go to see if a movie is worth my time! I love reading the reviews.

Easter pics and a recipe.

We had a really nice, relaxing Easter with Jeremy, Tracy, Natalie and Marissa, and Jeremy's friend Chris Yoder. We didn't do anything spectacular, just had lunch, hung around, played with the girls, and then had supper, which was a repeat of lunch!

Here's Natalie in her Easter dress and hat:

And Marissa playing with plastic eggs:

Todd, Jeremy, Tracy and Chris, who were standing around looking perfectly nice and natural until I picked up the camera, and then got all weird and self-conscious-looking!

Me with my squirmy girls. Marissa is the squirmiest baby ever, and Natalie wasn't much better at that point. This picture cracks me up.

And a close-up of the pretty dogwood outside their house:

I made some cheesecake cookie bar thingies for lunch, and they're good, if a little rich. Perfect with a cup of coffee.

Cheesecake Cookies

Crust:
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
2 cups flour
2/3 cup melted margarine or butter

Filling:
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all crust ingredients until light and crumbly. Remove 2 cups for topping. (*Note: I remove less than 2 cups, or else there's not enough to make the bottom crust.) Press remainder in 9x13" pan. Bake crust for 12-15 minutes. While baking, beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Beat in eggs, lemon juice, milk and vanilla. Pour into crust. Top with reserved crumbs, and bake 20-25 minutes. Cool thoroughly, cover and refrigerate.

Hope everybody had a great Easter!

Life in the neighborhood.

Busy but beautiful day today. Todd worked in the garage and shed, continuing to put things away and get organized...I made potato salad for dinner tomorrow, did laundry, and got hanging baskets for the front porch and some flowers for the planters on our deck. It was warm and sunny...all the neighbors were out cutting grass and working on projects...the neighborhood kids roamed and played...and a breeze blew through the open windows. Heavenly!

Here are some pics of what we've done to the front of our house so far. Here's the house as it was when we bought it in December:

Here it is after we added the boxwood "shrubberies" in March:

And here's the stone border Todd built last week:

I love this border. Love it, love it! Once we get some more soil for the bed, I'm going to load it with flowers. Not sure what yet, though. I can totally see white alyssum fluffing over the wall at the front, but I have no idea what to put behind it. Petunias seem so...obvious. But they are cheap and would probably do okay in that full sun exposure.

Meanwhile, the back yard is really getting "leafed-in." The trees in the ravine behind us are filling out so much that it's getting harder to see the houses on the other side of the creek. Todd cleaned off the wooden steps that lead down the hill to the creek:

The chain link fence to the left is a dog kennel--I can't WAIT to get that out of there, but I'm afraid it will be a major undertaking. When we get that cleaned out, I'd like to do a little woodland gardening down there...nothing formal at all, just some ferns and maybe some blossoming trees or shrubs (rhododendrons?). Stuff that will look like it came up naturally in the wilderness! It would be lovely to have a bench or picnic table or some sort of spot to sit and enjoy the shade, too...although the neighbors say that the mosquitoes swarm around the little creek down there. Ugh.

One of the neighbors on the other side of the creek told Todd the other day that that neighborhood was where they housed the Mercury astronauts when they came for their training at Langley. Thus I assume that neighborhood is much older than ours, but I've never actually been over there--just gazed at the backs of the homes through the trees. Our library up the road is named for Gus Grissom (and is pure 1960s industrial-grade architecture--ug-LEE) but I never figured there was such a close connection to this neighborhood. Kind of cool!

Scrapping.

Scrapforums is holding a cybercrop right now; it started last weekend, and I managed to get a few things done for it.

My nieces at Thanksgiving, when they practically lived in their fairy princess dress-up stuff...the large photo is one of my very favorites. The title is "Princesses in Our Family"--the word "family" is a little hard to read in the scan because I covered the stickers with silver-leaf pen to make them match:

Todd and our niece Natalie last fall...he brought his remote control plane to their house, and she was really fascinated with watching him fixing a crack so it could fly. I called it "A Meeting of Minds" because they are both so smart and curious:

And a shot of our niece Marissa, also from last fall. This was the day we got to meet her for the very first time:

Last and least, a couple fall scenery shots:

I am basking in the glow of my first work-free day...off to the grocery store for me, after a morning of puttering around the house. Bliss. Well, except for the grocery store part, heh.

A sigh of relief.

Today was my last day of working at the LSS. I've been holding my breath for three weeks until I could slip away, and I think I've finally done it.

The job was not a bad job. It was the easiest job I've ever had. The owner is a sweet person and easy to get along with, and she really relied on me. Which was a bit of the problem...

The store is failing. It's been failing since I started over a year ago. At first I tried to come up with ideas...kits to promote and sell, classes and make-and-takes to offer, cleaning things up, rearranging and organizing....but none of that will work if the person who makes the decisions isn't backing you up. I had responsibility for maintaining day to day, but no power to make the decisions and changes that could have helped. And I felt, and still feel, I knew the things that would have helped.

One thing I learned from my 13 months at the LSS was that I know more than I thought I did: both about the SB industry in general, and about running a store in particular. I hadn't realized how valuable the past eight years of being steeped in the scrapbooking world has been for my knowledge and experience. And I found that my common sense is real and deep and that I need to rely on it more. I pinpointed problems with that store, then came across business articles and trade journals, weeks or months later, that completely affirmed my instincts. I know more than I gave myself credit for.

It was a mostly good and valuable experience. But I felt myself getting more and more unhappy, especially after I decided to stick it out after we bought our house. Business had picked up after Christmas, which helped, but soon I was back to sitting in an empty store for hours at a time, bagging die cuts in the back room. More of a punishment than a job!

I felt so guilty, being so unhappy at an easy and mindless job that could bring in extra money for the house. What did I have to complain about? Meanwhile, the house was filthy, we ate out way too much, and I couldn't keep up with anything at home--because I was coming home every night exhausted from my empty day. It was like I was absorbing failure through my pores, working in that failing store and powerless to do anything about it.

So one day, I took an old Somerset Studio magazine to work for something to leaf through while eating lunch, and I got all weepy while I was looking at it. The magazine is total eye candy, lots of paper art pieces from artists big and small, and although I don't aspire to that level of artistry, I got teary-eyed about halfway through it, overwhelmed at the nice things other people were creating while I slid die cuts into plastic bags 8 hours a day.

That was when I finally, finally realized it was time to let it go.

Todd said tonight, "So are you going to pick up your blog again, now that you have some free time?" Isn't that DARLING of him, to miss reading what I write??? He's so precious.

And indeed I was and am planning to start writing again. I felt like I couldn' write, talk, or think until I had that job out of my life and was safely away. And now I am, and now I am going to enjoy having my life back in my own hands again. Hooray!

Catch-up.

I've been trying for over a week to post some pics of the bushes we planted around our house last weekend, but Blogger simply refuses to cooperate. Is anyone else having Blooger issues lately?

I guess you get what you pay for, with Blogger. Pppppbt.

I came to a breaking point last week and decided I couldn't deal with my part-time LSS job anymore, for a variety of reasons that I can't get into on a public blog, but might, after I've quit once and for all. I gave my notice today and hope to be out by Easter at the very latest.

When that happens, I'll be overhauling my blog, my home, and my life. That's the plan, anyway!

This week, however, it's work, work, work. I'll keep trying to post those pics, I know everyone is breathless with the desire to see our shrubberies!

Trees.

Oh, what a change a week makes! Here are our flowering backyard trees now. So gorgeous.

If anyone can tell me what these trees are, I'd be most grateful. They're taller than almost any flowering tree I've ever seen, except for the sour cherry we used to have in the front yard when I was growing up.

Isn't our yard heavenly? I can't wait till the trees at the back leaf out, because then it will just be stunning. I have so many things I want to try in this yard...landscaping, and little pretty spots scattered about, flower beds and tchotchkes...it'll take years to get to it all.

The yard is full of birds right now, fluttering around, building nests and screeching at each other. I think some mourning doves are nesting in the magnolia beside my deck. This yard is my favorite thing about the house...I hope we can make it live up to all its potential!

A few layouts.

I had the most fabulous weekend...I scrapped all day Saturday and most of Sundayafternoon. It was heavenly. I can't remember the last time I made a page just for myself.

Anyway, here's the highlights of what I did. I started with my most recent photos and worked backwards towards the beginning of this year:

Todd's birthday:

My viola/pansy pictures that I posted here last week:

Todd's striper fishing pictures from early February:

And pages about Natalie and Marissa from our January visit there:

Off to work now. It's over 80 degrees here today--amazing!

Blog challenge.

I already wrote my post for today, but there's a blog challenge at Two Peas today, and I wanted to do it, for once.

1. List the people from your past who you would like to reconnect with through Email.( if only you could find them...)

I can only think of one, and that's Brent Shrum from college. Well, there are a few people from high school I'm curious about, but...eh. I know I could track Brent down if I really wanted to...he's a reporter for a paper in Montana. I guess I need to make the effort!

2. List the companies you wish you owned.

I wish I owned Land's End because my first Owner's Decree would be to supply me with a hundred pairs of petite yoga pants in every color of the rainbow. Then I'd put them to work on petite jeans. Not "petite" as in five inches too long for my short legs.

(Can you tell I had a bad jeans-buying experience this week?)

3. List the things you do to defy aging.

I act as immature as possible. *smirk*
I sing along with the radio a lot...make up words for the fun of it...don't mess around with my face too much, as far as my skin goes...drink lots of water...color my gray hair when I remember...play with kids...
I guess there's a difference between aging mentally and aging physically--I don't want to do either one, but the mental part is the only thing I can do anything about.
(Things I should do to defy aging: learn a foreign language, walk, lift weights, eat more veggies, get good at crossword puzzles...)

4. List what you do to snap out of a bad mood.

Play music loudly and do some cleaning and/or organizing.

Welcome, spring?

If I had any doubt spring was here, today would definitely prove it to my satisfaction. It's sunny and in the seventies and just beautiful.

Here's the trees outside my upstairs deck, blooming their little hearts out. I have to find out what all these trees in the yard are--I hate feeling so ignorant about my surroundings!

Another sign of spring--I delved into my box o' flip-flops today for the first time. Last summer I bought so many pairs of flip-flops that I had to also buy a big Sterilite tote to store them all when cold weather came. Can't wait to get more flip-flops this year! I even took a picture of some of them last summer, planning to do a layout about my newfound love. I never did, but maybe I need to!

So when I took out the flip-flops and stuck my pitiful winter-pale feet into them, I realized that the next thing that needed to happen was a pedicure. So I went and got me one this afternoon.

Here's my toes--still pale, but at least colorful:

Now I guess I need to break out the spring clothes. I hate that part of spring. All those clothes that you were almost too fat to wear at the end of summer, and told yourself you'd lose enough weight over the winter so that they'd look good next year...yeah, right. Who loses weight in the wintertime?

And spring reveals your figure flaws that you'd semi-hidden under jeans and sweaters all winter long and pretended weren't there. Ugh.

And spring also means new clothes shopping--for me, anyway. All that too-tight stuff has to go, and you're shopping for roomier capris, like maybe circus-fat-lady style. Do they make 'em that big?

Hm. I definitely have mixed feelings about spring.

In other news, I got a call from Borders that a CD I ordered came in, so I dropped by and picked that up. This was a weird thing...I found out about Pandora Radio a couple weeks ago, which is a free site where you type in an artist or song name, and the site generates a "radio station" with artists that share traits with that original artist.

So one of the first artists I entered was the Beatles, of course, and I was puttering around listening to the various songs that popped up, and this amazing-sounding song came on. I rushed over to see what it was, and it was called "The Weakest Shade of Blue" by the Pernice Brothers. Never heard of them in my life, but I checked out their albums and made a mental note to try and get the one with that song on it.

A couple nights later, we were watching yet another Gilmore Girls DVD, and this snippet of a song played over the beginning of a scene. It was that song! And it sounded just as amazing. So I went and got the CD--had to special order it and everything.

The album is Yours, Mine and Ours by the Pernice Brothers...I'm listening to it right now and really enjoying it. Great for a spring day.