I've started re-reading the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling before the movie's released, in celebration of Banned Books Week 2010 . I'd love to pick up a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and wonder if I ever read that as a child or just recall the Disney movie ... hmmnn ... So, what are YOU reading?
... and new ribbon from the dollar bins at JoAnn's that I picked up after lunch today. We held our office's service awards during lunch today at the Olive Garden, thanks to Kim R's suggestion. We just LOVE their soup, salad and breadsticks combo, and hadn't stopped there for lunch in a while. We're enjoying a bit of down time at work and it just worked out for today that everyone was able to attend! We're in between sections of students right now but the freshmen will be arriving on campus tomorrow, you see.
The bookstore where I work (insert shameless plug for Kettering University here) is participating in a rent-a-text program and handing out free temporary tats in a promotion that in turn inspired today's card. I thought the postcard containing the tat looked nice and vintage-y and would work in a card using one of my fav color combos - black, white, and a splash of color - red being a personal fav! I made this 5-1/4" square card with a few stamps from a recent outing to support the local economy - in this case, Capture-a-Memory - tho' I picked up this stamp set specifically for the chandeliers (ha! spelled right on my first try! see? my college education really is working!) and ended up not using 'em on this one. The "remember" or "pointing" finger is a cute one that'll be used lots, I'm sure. Anywho, I'll have to pass the tat along to my DS who's attending a different college - UM-Flint - so he can be artsy and submit a photo to the contest! $1K grand prize and five categories winning $250 bookstore gift cards - sounds like a winner to me!
This card's not really all that frightful, butI just LOVE rich fall colors. Loosely based on Clean & Simple's FTL109 sketch, I pulled a few of my fav fall colors to pull this one together. I may have gone a bit overboard on distressing but I was too lazy to go to my stamping stash to grab some sponges so just used a dried-out baby wipe that I'd used to clean stamps recently to apply ... rather uneven but such is life!
And speaking of fall colors, I didn't catch the outrageous sunlit-drenched golden leaves, but my DH called me outside to catch what the sunset was doing to the leaves in the yard across the street yesterday evening ... this is the view from my driveway, with a tree branch from our yard that was blowing in the breeze. It's been quite breezy here lately and we had 19,000 residents without power and plenty of school closings this week due to power outages. We never lost power but two schools located in our neighborhood were closed. It's cooled considerably but the winds have died down - they're now averaging about 15 mph and gusting to 35 mph ... but it'd make for challenging golf, eh?!
Our favorite pirate ... 'nuff said!
American puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets - including Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and my eldest son's favorite, Elmo - was born this day in 1936. We'll have to celebrate and watch one of our many Sesame Street DVDs tonight! Or Muppet Treasure Island - now there's another pirate I hadn't included in my poll - Tim Curry! How could there have been no write-ins for him? Sigh ...
Another SueB buddy of mine is celebrating a b'day this week. We generally celebrate each others' b'days by heading out for movies and dinner on a weekend close to our b'days. There are 3 Sues involved (SueB, SueS, and me) and a Barb. The other Sues and I all used to be on a workplace bowling team in years past.
It's almost the end of summer and while I SHOULD probably be celebrating how beautiful it was today, in the 80's and sunny and breezy, I just happened to pick up this cutie patootie house die cut this past Saturday while out supporting the local economy! I don't know the vendor ... it's something I just happened to notice from some past project that Karen had left-overs of, so I asked for some. It's CAS and too cute to be called spooky, don't you agree?!
avast, me hearties! would ye be ready for some pirate humor now, ye landlubbers?!
... the girl who was called a "pirate's dream" when she was growing up? Ye see, she had a sunken chest. Aargh!
Avast, ye mateys! You got 2 days to Int'l Talk Like A Pirate Day ... and tho' I don't have a card to share today, I DO have some of my fav pirates thru the years. I wonder which is yours?
We're in countdown mode to get cards into the mail if we're to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day this Sunday and this one's heading to my brother ... if one of 'em happens to read this post, they'll just have to wonder who it's for, eh?! It's based on the lovely and talented Kristina Werner's Class 8's sketches (see September's class here - I SO look forward to these each month!) Arrr!
I couldn't go to bed tonight without first sharing that today has been national creme-filled donut day! We've a donut shop in the area that's pretty well-known for their donuts (Donna's Donuts) and I have it on good authority that their creme-filled donuts are 225 calories each.
... and all that you do! Remember my mentioning that I had a card that just didn't make it 'cuz the four leaf stamps were too much off-center? Well, I cut them out, matted them with black, and then double matted the set of four leaves. And my latest stamp set has such an appropriate sentiment - "so thankful for you and all that you do" can have multiple meanings!
When I stamped the card for Susan's OLW19 challenge yesterday, I was SURE I'd seen this layout - the four stamps in a square - as a layout challenge ... and now I'm not finding it! Sigh ... of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most, y'know?! So, if and when I re-locate it, I'll return to edit this post. This stamp set had been on my wish list since the 2009-10 catty was released; I'm SO thankful to have it in time for this year's Thanksgiving Day cards!
I snatched up this stinkin' CUTE dollar stamp at Mike's this past summer and would you believe this is the first time it's seen ink?! To keep it a one-layer card for Susan's OLW19 challenge (b&w with a spot of color - one of my fav color combos), I used the heart punch as a mask and sponged on the bright red heart in the center of the letter "O."
Ain't it the truth?! I almost titled this post, "be careful what you wish for," because I'd been thinking it was too bad that I didn't have any candycorn yet to use as prop items to sprinkle next to the card for the picture ... but then, if I DID have any, I'd be nibbling on them and we wouldn't have any by the end of October! This stamp set was a July purchase that was on sale - so I gobbled it up - this main stamp and 3 sentiment stamps for $4 - a deal, don't you think?! So of COURSE I kept shopping ... don't just want to ship one item and pay more for shipping than I did for the stamp, right?! So I have another BK stamp too, at 24% off its regular price. So sweet in more ways than one!
It's hard to believe it's been 9 years ... and I'll always remember when I received a call from my DH to alert me to the fact that the first of the towers was struck by a plane. My heart goes out to those who lost so much that day.
My buddy Pat and I got together after work last night to head to Angie's class where I was pleased to see we worked on 3 Halloween cards and a couple assorted ones. Here's one of the Halloween ones we made, tho' it's hard for me to pick a fav. They're all darlin'!
I was checking Facebook late yesterday afternoon, when a buddy spotted me online and suggested we head to the movies. A nice surprise, eh?! We'd had family up for a cookout and they had to leave by 3 p.m., so we'd settled down to watch a bit of golf on TV, and then my DH had snuck off for a bit of shut-eye. I figured he'd be okay with it ... so we agreed to meet later, after checking out what was playing locally, and picked the 7 p.m. show of The Switch, w Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Jeff Goldblum, and Juliette Lewis.
In 1956, Les Waas founded Procrastinators’ Club of America. Shortly after, the club’s committee designated September 5 as Be Late for Something Day to promote the positive parts of procrastination. “Most people think they don’t have time to stop and smell the roses—this day tries to alleviate that factor,” Waas says. Photo by iStockphoto.
... on September 9-11 - at the Greater Flint Art Council’s 16th annual Festival of Quilts. Amazing stuff, here, and if you like quilts, it's the place to be next weekend! Held in different locations thruout Flint, it'll feature themed quilts, demonstrations, raffles, quilt sales, classes, lectures, and more. I try to take it in each year, occasionally with my Mom or DH in tow. Here's a quick synopsis of the various sites and what they'll offer, gathered from a couple recent articles from the kind folkes at Genesee Fun and MLive:
I've been out and about, supporting the local economy again. I met my buddy Kim Saturday morning for breakfast before heading to the every other Saturday make-'n-take at Karen's Creative Stamping where we made this and another cutie card, and I made a pair of 6x6" scrapbook pages. It's the last of this themed scrapbook and we'll be taking a break while Karen develops the next scrapbook.
I'm sometimes an impulse purchaser ... ok, I admit it ... and I'm blessed to be married to someone who only occasionally teases or sighs about it. This weekend, while I SHOULD have been showering and getting ready to go meet my buddy for b'fast, I was surfing the Web and checking out blogs and came across THIS sweetie (thanx, Cath - I LOVE these "collections" inspiration posts). And the rest, as they say, is history! I'm so glad there was still one available - and tho' I don't wear jewelry very often, I've always loved lockets and realized I'd never purchased one for myself. This baby's shipped already ... it's mine in just a few short days. See Sue. See Sue smile.
... that means the new holiday mini catty's out! lots of yummy new goodies! click on the picture to see the catty!
