It's a highly contageous sickness

I stamped today and no, I haven't taken pics of the results yet, I lag. I also finally went to Stamp Antonio which I've been meaning to get around to. It was nice, nothing stellar but then again I'm very difficult to impress when it comes to the art of scrappin and stampin. The kid came in with me and she was just a doll through the whole thing, she's a very serious shopper. Her purchases were gem stickers that were used with in 10 minutes of sitting down to scrap at home. Mind you though, they were used very well, just in serious concentration. I'll post pics tomorrow, promise. I bought 2 more Stickles, I really must make an order some place online and just invest in getting a boat load of colors for cheap. I also tried my hand again at heat embossing and have decided I must be doing something wrong. I can't get it to work. It gets cloudy and dusty looking but never glosses up. I can go so far as to burn the paper but not get it glossy. Maybe it's the powder? I tried different pigment inks but not a different powder. I dunno. Tomorrow I'll try a different brand of powder and give you the verdict. I did, however, make more birthday cards for my stock since I am running low. When Carrie (SU rep) sold a bunch of stamp sets from the last catalog that were retired my kid chose one called Girlfriends that I never thought I'd use. I've been wrong before, this is not new, really! Anyway I made a cute b-day card using it and a few stamps from other sets (Birthday Best) and some watercolor crayons (more on that in a sec). The daughter noticed what I was doing and had to make one just like it. So I stamped it out for her and we proceeded to color them in, mine I did with water color crayons, hers she did with pens. I didn't want her trying to use the Aqua Painter and getting frustrated. Anyway I'll post the pics together and you can get a feel with how far she's come with her coloring expertise. And on that pen note...I have been wanting the Stampin' Write Markers from SU for awhile but it's gone up in price (and it was already expensive!), 48 pens for $132.95 plus tax and shipping. Gack, urk! I don't think so. Anyway I found (on one of the forums I float on) a woman selling the set for $80. She's had them since January so they are not that old. Well I had to get it. We'll see how it turns out, you never know...
Then there was that other SU spur of the had to do it shopping moment with the Color Caddy. I have my inks stacked precariously on my work table, they aren't all the same brand much less the same size nor the same shape, it's a mess. Drives me nuts! Still, $59.95? Plus $14.95 for the extender? Add tax and shipping? Gah!! So on another forum...a woman was selling hers, new, with the extender, including shipping, for...(insert drum roll here please)...$50. Had to do it. Couldn't stop myself. It's a sickness. Sadly, I think I've also passed it onto my daughter. Poor thing...

Polycarbonate sheets for clear stamp storage

There are a multitude of different ways to store clear stamps. Many people use cd cases, others use tins. The EZ mount people make some sheets that may even work. This woman made a cute little cardboard book too and another used picture frames. My solution was to purchase clear polycarbonate sheets, cut them in 8 1/2 x 11 sheets and punch 3 holes in them so that I can keep them in a 3 ring binder. Why polycarb and not acrylic? Acrylic is too brittle, it tends to shatter ever time I go to put a hole in it or turn the page. Polycarb is soft enough to punch a hole into using a crop-a-dile or similar tool. I then place the stamps on the back of the sheet and put a white sheet of paper behind it, ink up the stamps and stamp them on the white sheet. That way I know where to put them back!

UpdateOmatic

Alright I haven't updated my blog in DAYS! It's been since Tuesday, that's just awful! I must have a bad case of the lazies. Not much has gone on though. One thing of note, the little girl made it though her entire swimming program at Swim Masters. We started her last November at the local competition pool (new and very impressive). There were so few students then she practically had a private instructor. She's continued on with classes with only a few weeks break over the summer because the classes were booked (it gets really busy during the summer) and we were in San Diego then anyway. She started out not knowing how to swim at all. She can now do the butterfly. I mean WTF, she's 5 yrs old. I was on the swim team in high school, I never even came close to doing that hellish stroke. She's not mastered it mind you but you can easily recognize the stroke when she's doing it. I just end up sinking myself....
Anyway she's now moving up to the big kids levels, the 6-18 yr old levels. Her father was not only on swim team in high school he was able to do all the strokes and compete. Like really compete on a state level. I suspect not only is her body style like his (she's long and lanky, I'm more of the short stocky type) but that she's going to go farther in the swimming field than she did in ballet. She doesn't groove on team sports, her friends do soccer and when we asked her if she was interested it was an immediate "No". I think her face probably had something more like "Are you smokin crack?" written on it but she's not quite that worldly yet. She is interested in martial arts though and the hubby refuses to send her to Karate classes like all her friends. No, he's a martial arts SNOB. She'll be going to Krav Maga, Isreali street fighting. Yeah, go ahead, fuck with my family. Did I tell you how excited B was when his ccw license came in the mail? Like a kid on Christmas, he was bouncing. What ever.
On that note there was an email going around to local San Antonio moms because there's some predator dude that's been going to homes during the day and knocking on the door pretending to be a contractor or something to get the woman to open the door. Then if they don't open the door he starts getting aggressive and beating on windows yelling threats, making the kids cry, etc. I read it and was disgusted, could you imagine what would happen if someone like that would try that at my house? First they'd have to get through the dogs. Not the easiest trick. Then there's one of the things we love about Texas (and are just waiting for an excuse to exercise), you can shoot people. Ah yes, people tell you to go and hide with a phone and call the police if someone is breaking in. Yeah, no. Sorry ain't gonna happen here. Threaten me and your life is forfeit and that's after I feed you to the dogs. But that's only if they managed to get through the door. I have no problem shooting some dumb ass through the door. And it's legal. I love Texas.

Soo tired!

It's 9pm and I am just finishing checking my email after having meetings all afternoon. I hate it when work runs late but it seems to happen regularly. Sometimes I'm not home until 9pm, these meetings can last forever! I'd like to be able to say that they are productive too but I just don't know. Really, this commercial real estate business is just strange business. It's a ton of money involved though so the payoff is big. Or so they say....

Rusty Pickle giveaways!

Rusty Pickle has started their own blog and is giving away free stuff to some lucky commenters! Yeah, I know there are those non scrappers out there that are looking at me like WTF but hey, it's scrapper thing. I've taken a few of their classes, the husband taught both of the ones I took and let me tell ya, the guy hauls ass. I couldn't keep up to save my life. Total short bus moment at the back of the class but I didn't care. I still got to use a ton of their products and learned new techniques (and acquired a love for the Jaquared Lumiere paints to boot). They used to have unmounted stamps that I really liked. Rubber stamps on a EZ mount type backing so I can use them with acrylic blocks, my favorite way to stamp! They now have gone with clear acrylic stamps, I'll forgive them since it's obviously market driven but only for this one offense. Only just this once though because I was able to buy the stamps I wanted in rubber back in the day....

Love My Pet Fair

Love My Pet Fair, Saturday October 6th at the Alzafar Temple on the 1604 north central. I volunteer for a rescue group (FBRN) , rescuing is something very near and dear to my heart. Both my boxers were rescues (our frenchie was more of a show dog flunkie). This picture of our Roxy was taken the first night we had her home after she was picked up as a stray in Chula Vista, CA. She stayed at the shelter for 2 weeks before she was available to adopt. They were so overflowing with dogs there that they had 2-3 dogs in each dog run. We were second on the list to adopt her and were there 30 minutes before she would be available. Fortunately the people who were on the list ahead of us didn't show up. She was was spayed the next day and we picked her up that afternoon. I took her to the vet a week later and they said she had a heart murmur so bad that they didn't expect her to live. We didn't care. We took her home and plumped her up since she was sooo thin, she obviously just weaned some puppies (and by the looks of it her 30th litter!). We waited a few months and took her to a cardiologist for a full work up. No murmur found. Apparently she was so emaciated when we got her that her heart could barely function right. Our boy Jayne was a 3rd time re-home. His previous homes couldn't handle his mental issues. He's a good boy, just a bit autistic. As long as you understand his issues and can read his signals it's all good. Had he been sent to a shelter he wouldn't have survived, they would have put him down. Now his mental ass is with us, lucky little brat.
I encourage anyone in the San Antonio area to come out to the pet fair! It's supposed to be the largest animal rescue event in the region and all of the shelters, Humane Societies, and rescues will be there and pets are allowed. The best part is it's air conditioned and there's never anywhere you can bring your dog that has a/c so I'm sure there will be a large turnout of our furry friends. I also understand that the shelters and Humane Societies will have pets there for adoption which is great. The Greater San Antonio region has an insane amount of homeless pets, more than any other city I've ever lived in. Help us find them new homes!! Oh and for those shoppers out there there will be lots of stuff for sale!

The Monster emerges...

So our little girl is a wonderful child. She's an only child so more is expected of her but she also gets a lot more just for her and her alone. She's a very happy child, demanding but giving also. She's very active, loves swimming, dancing, performing, and really enjoys school. Given the choice of staying home and watching tv or going to school, it's school hands down. This past weekend though, it's been trying. She has been just atrocious. Not listening, flying around like a whirling dervish, behaving badly when her friend came over to play. The honey went to take her to the community pool and didn't even get to the end of the block before coming home and sending her up to her room.
Now this has happened before. If she's really really bad like monster horrific and just beyond all rational it's a huge indicator that she's going to have a temperature within 24 hours. It's really weird. Most kids get difficult and cranky and tired and all that but she doesn't do that. She just gets difficult. There's no cranky, no tired, no whiny, just social misfit stuff, future miscreant, you know what I'm talkin' 'bout. The up side is that once she gets a temperature it's gone. Of course I don't know what's going to happen if it turns out that she's not sick....

Dead Dogs

It's a term we use when the dogs are sooo lazy they look devoid of life. Now we have 2 breeds (3 dogs total) in our house. Mind you boxers (the 2 big ones in the house) are known for their exuberance, joie de vivre, bounce of the friggin walls kinda joie de vivre. I swear to god these toads are the biggest, sloppiest couch potatoes I've ever seen in my whole life. Not that I want bouncy freaks, no I got over that one with the lab I had previously. It's not so much a complaint as it is an observation, these dogs are LAZY SLUGS. We try and take them on a walk every morning. It's about 8 blocks before Roxy is done. She'll just start going slower and slower until she finally hits a shady spot that looks good to her and she stops. At 55 lbs it's funny to see B pick her up and drag her home. If it's really hot out (yeah, Texas) we'll cut the walk short, about 5 blocks. And even the big burley dog Jayne will come in the house and collapse onto the hardwood floors as though we'd just walked a million miles. The rest of the day is then spent in recovery mode. Different spots of the house are chosen to flop upon with eyes rolled into the back of the head with little paws twitching as the imaginary bunny is chased across the fields. Yeah, like their lazy asses would last that long. I can hear the bunnies laughing as I type.
Our most recent doggie addition was the frenchie I have been searching for the last year or so (see blog banner for the little man's face). French Bulldogs were bred as companion dogs. At least he can use the excuse that he's supposed to be a useless couch potato. Those stumpy excuses for legs and the smoosh face that can't get air to his lungs no matter how hard he tries, well yeah, he should be lazy but he's 11 months old! Just a babe! He should be bouncing off the walls just on principle. Nope. That one walk kicks his butt. When we first got him a month or so ago he was totally out of shape, couldn't even make it the whole 8 blocks. I had to carry him for the last 2 and he couldn't keep up with the big guys during the part that he could walk. He's in much better shape now and is very excited (still panting his little noggin off) to be able to keep up with their hind legs (he still can't quite keep up with the front legs yet).
I'm not sure what would happen if we just let them go to pot. Would they get bored and chew up the house? Would they turn into flabby blobs that perked up only at meal times? Ah to be a dog in todays world....

Prickly Pear order

So this nifty online stamp store called Prickley Pear was having a 50% off sale for all of their unmounted stamps. Yeah, like I was going to pass that one up. Anyway it's another one of those 'one woman show' deals so the catch was that shipping was free but was also going to take 6-8 weeks. It was cheap, I was still game. Wonders beyond wonders it took 11 days, I was thrilled! Since my EZ mount already arrived all I need now is a hot knife to make the cutting nice and smooth and I'm ready to go! I ordered a few images in both small and large size, a few birthday sayings and a background stamp. For reference the cutting mat they are pictured on has 1" squares marked out on it.

Blech

I have a cold, cold, cold, and I'm not happy about it at all. I just don't have time for it. There's a required class I have to take tomorrow (A requirement when you join Texas Association of Realtors) from 8 am to noon. Not optional at all. I then have the kid's teacher's meeting at 3pm and a work meeting from 5:30 pm to about 8pm. I'm not going to look real good by tomorrow night. I already look like crap so I suppose that's really not saying much.

Stampin Up Stuff

So we got together, I got my hostess bonuses, yay! It was a really efficient evening too, usually we take forever to get a project done but they started quick and we were able to do a card and a layout in no time. I guess this every month get together ends in November though so we may not continue to get together, we'll see. Carrie (SU rep) will host it at her house of we want to so maybe we'll get enough people together so that we still do something. It's a nice time for a scheduled get away from the house time. I need to, at the very least, use all this fun stuff more often in my own house. I have no excuse other than pure laziness.

Sock Dreams

OK so I'm watching the Disney channel with the kid and Mylie Cyrus comes on with a little video wearing thigh high tube socks and sock wristlets. Now mind you some of these Disney hookers look really trashy in their outfits but I really like Miley and she pulls it off in a tactful manner. But it reminds me of Sock Dreams, the coolest niftiest online sock store. And for you gentlemen out there who have a little thing for thigh highs on your women (those little short skirts don't hurt either) they're your place to go. They have sooo many different varieties it's amazing. Plus they post up reviews of each done by their employees, including the shipping guy. It's mostly women there (with large feet too but that may be the perspective of the camera) but people usually prefer pictures of womens legs to men so it's an obvious selling ploy...

Stampin Up get togther

So I have a regular group of ladies that get together and do a Stampin Up party the 3rd Sunday of every month. It has it's benefits and draw backs that all get togethers of women do (especially ones that include shopping) but it is a nice scheduled time for me to get away and just do a wee bit of scrapping without the kid. I LOVE the fact that my little girl loves scrapping but then it becomes a time to help her out and not get something done on my own. The Stampin Up thing can be expensive though, their stamp sets usually run $20-30 and if you like 4 or 5 it adds up. Meeting every month kind of spreads it out though. This month is my month to hostess though so I'll be buying a bit more than normal. Scrapbooking really is an expensive hobby! Maybe I should just pony up and be a rep...

Early Mornings

So any one that knows me well knows I don't do early mornings. Even my 6 y/o dd asks her daddy why mommy sleeps like a teenager. She comes in our bedroom just before she leaves for school and gives me a kiss. I wake up when I hear her coming be she knows not to bother mommy on weekends. Daddy's the go to guy if she wants to be entertained and fed. The addition of the new puppy makes it even worse for him, the pup needs to go out immediately after waking. Anything shy of immediately will result in clean up on aisle 6. My poor honey, 'cause you know my butt isn't getting up...
Speaking of tortures suffered by the dh, I was taking a shower this morning and kept the pup in the bathroom with me. All things that he'd get in trouble with were put up (we put the trash can in the tub) except for what I thought was just the dh's boxers. Corbin (the pup) likes to drag them around. He doesn't damage them or anything. Frenchies have such wonky jaws they can't really do anything serious with their mouths. Anyway I didn't notice that dh had left his shorts down there too. I get out of the shower and there are two very wet pockets and no buttons. I check out the front to make sure that the button above the fly was still there (it was) and blew it off. You can tell an experienced dog mom when ingested items are ignored if they aren't bigger than the dog's head. Or a morning star.

And all I wanted to do is add a friggin header...

Like all things computer done it sounded so simple. Unfortunately you Google a topic and get five bazillion different answers. Too many decisions for one little itty bitty brain. Anyway I managed to find one website that just took a picture and cut it up to be the size of a banner. Damnit. So simple yet not. And the website had some funky name too, Big Huge Labs? Doesn't that sound wrong? Oh well, if I find all kinds of dino sized water dog pictures on my computer tomorrow at least I'll know where they came from.

It has begun....

Finally! I keep wanting to start a blog and never get off my lazy, internet surfing butt and do it. Quite literally I had to stumble across a post on a scrapbooking forum and click randomly on someone's blog. Then hey, look, it's a little button that says start your blog! How sad is that? Is it not just a testament to just how laggin' our society is? I will write something of moderate interest later, I promise. Right now I must figure out how to customize said Blog space! Oh and for those computer stupid like myself here's a link that was mentioned in the scrapbooking forum that was meant for us stupid ones:
http://www.squidoo.com/customize_blogger/
And someday I'll figure out how to hyperlink too...