Tuesday, May 30, 2006


My previously crappy teeny tiny rosebut that has become enormous and beautiful

My pink rosebud
So...lots of fun with the camping, although it rained from an hour after we got there on Friday until late Saturday night, with a brief break, then rained again from first thing Sunday morning until Sunday afternoon. Not a downpour, but we did end up using umbrellas over our chairs if we were sitting out in front of the fire. It was still fun, though, despite the sogginess.

Happiness is hearing your husband giggle like a nine year old girl.
As I went to bed Saturday night, I could hear the fireside conversation going on, and it made me smile. SOmeone, we will just call him drunken idiot, decided to put his soggy shoes by the fire to dry out, then later (a couple hours), stumbled off to bed. We all forgot about the shoes, being that they were not OUR shoes, and commenced with the rest of our evening. Apparantly, shortly after I went to my tent, the left shoe burst into flame. NOt a little scorched, but a burst of actual flame from the heel. It was quickly put out, but there was much giggling about what to tell drunken idiot about his shoe come morning when he wanted to put it on. They decided to downplay it--tell him it would buff out, or he could put a little white out on it. Remember, there were some serious flames coming out of this, and half the heel was missing. These guys were giggling so hard with all their suggestions.....all in all, a nice evening. SInce the shoes in question were quite elderly, and that being the reason they were taken camping, it was not that big of a deal. The shoe owner ended up cutting the entire back off of both shoes, and wearing them like flip flops the rest of the stay.
But it was funny!!

We had lots of good food, good conversations, the beverages were plentiful, and the bocce ball was fun (except that I suck.) Maybe next time it will be drier, but that is the only change needed.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

I am going camping this weekend! I love camping. Although.....it is supposed to be not warm and fairly rainy, which is not ideal.....but still will be a ton-o-fun. We are going to the same place we went last Labor Day, Rasar state park. Ethan and I are staying Friday 'til Monday, but some others are staying an extra night. We are all set with camping gear now. We have our ginormous tent that Mom gave us years ago, an air mattress (that we got for when Mom came over), a tarp (we bought it Wednesday.....hard to believe we had no tarp), a fancy schmancy electric lantern (Justin had one last year and it was REALLY bright and nice to have), and a big cooler with wheels. It is, sadly enough, too tall to fit in the trunk, but it is a nice one. It is square in shape instead of rectangular, and taller than most, and has some cup holders cut into the lid. We needed a really big one for when Ethan goes boar hunting--he will have 100lbs at least of meat to bring home. He may end up buying some cheapie styrofoam ones to fit everything in...this one is 70 quarts or 70 gallons or whatever they measure coolers by. 70 something. The only bigger one I saw was the one that fits across the bed of a truck. Seeing as how we have no truck, we decided against going with that one. And by 'we' I mean 'me', since I was the one doing the choosing and purchasing.
So....tent, tarp, air mattress, cooler......we still don't have sleeping bags, but we have a million quilts that mom has made us, and they work just fine.

Last year there was a torrential downpour of rain, and we improvised a roof by tying grocery bags together to make a rope and using them to hold up a tarp over the picnic table. Hopefully not quite so bad this year.....only 30% chance of rain for saturday and sunday, and Monday should be nice....but a 60% chance of rain on Friday........

AND.....I bought a wacom tablet to use with my laptop. It is still taking a bit to get used to it, but I like it so far. Lots of possibilities. And, the pen is pressure sensitive, so if I push harder I draw a thicker line, and if I push softer it is a thinner line. Pretty cool! There is a mouse for the tablet, too, and it works like a regular wireless mouse. Very exciting. I did a layout yesterday of Ethan at the microbrew festival we went to in Reno last year. Entitled :Got beer??. Very exciting. I will finish tweaking it and add it to my digiscrapping website at some point. Not my finest work, but my first digital layout attempt in a couple months. Actually, maybe more than that.....it has been quite a while since I did that......

Lots o scrapping. I have to choose paper or computer now, too many options! I discovered that I can play a DVD movie on the laptop while I scrap in my little room, so I am entertained while I make a mess. And I DO make a mess....I need to wheel my last cart in there, it has a drawer of paper scraps, and I need to add all the ones taking over the desk into the drawer so I can actually SEE the desk. And figure out everything else, too. I still need a chair that is adjustable in height, and can swivel. I like swivelling. The desk is a bit tall now, I find myself kneeling a lot of the time (until my feet fall asleep). The cats have taken to hanging out in the shelves below the desk (which is fine by me...nothing they can hurt down there), or sitting on my lap while I scrap (Shadow), although the lap thing doesn't work well. Shadow can see what I am up to, then he notices the strings and teeny bits everywhere and wants to play with them. We can't let him into the computer room, either. He wants to chase the mouse across the screen. Cute, because he is a cat and it is a mouse, but not so cute when he furs up the keyboard and sits on it.

What else....oh--we are so in love with a new show! Actually, it is an old show, but we recently found it and really like it. Anyone remember a movie that came out last year called Serenity?? Billed as possibly the best sci-fi movie ever?? I don't think it is the best ever, but it WAS good. We found out that it is based off a TV show called Firefly that was cancelled after its first season. We found some episodes, then bought the entire season. What a great show!! I can't believe it was cancelled! The show is basically a sci-fi show with chinese and western influences. I know, I know.....sounds really odd, but it is good! The chinese influence is in some of the clothing and decor, and whenever people get upset and curse, they switch to speaking in Chinese, so the censors don't get upset. People generally argue in chinese/english, and yell at each other in chinese/english. It really works. The western thing is that the show is about people who are not happy about the new government that is taking over all the planets and trying to rule them, so these people have gone to the very edges of civilization, where there aren't always futuristic amenities--people ride horses instead of cars or flying machines, and live on ranches. Almost feels like the 1800s. Such a good show, though!! The show is based on a group of people living on a ship called Serentity, and working as sort of theives to do jobs for money , and try to screw over the government that they don't like.

Sounds really stupid, but it is a really good show. The one-liners they have are just so funny! Excellent writing.

Anyway..........Camping, scrapbooking, TV watching........busy life for a busy girl!!

Monday, May 22, 2006

The Auntiest

I just thought about it, and I am the Auntiest person in this family. I have three neices, and almost 1 nephew. Who else can say that??? Sounds like I will become more Auntie and have an actual nephew sometime this week. Is everyone ready?? I have the car on standby (meaning I drove to work instead of taking the bus), Ethan on standby (meaning there are lots of easy to make frozen foods he can heat up and eat if I must leave town suddenly. All set!!

Sunday, May 21, 2006


Finally.....my first paper scrapped page that was not stolen from someone else's sketch or totally crappy....I am still adding a fancy tag to go under the vertical picture on page 2 with the beads (the picture is on pop dots), and I want to add some inky edges to Skye to make it stand out a bit more...but....I used patterned papers (thankyouverymuch), and it turned out okay......rubon letters, stamped letters, clear stamped letters (awesome!!), cut out shapes, corner rounder (well, whoop-de-do on the corner rounder, but I didn't used to have one, so it IS a bit new to me.....used to just hand-cut the rounding...talk about pain in the butt!!).....anyway....it is a start, AND features the worlds cutest bumblebe on the tip of the paisley thingie. And yes, I AM flexible enough to pat myself on the back, thankyouverymuch.

Page 1

Page 2

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Botanical update

The two rosebushes with no markers as to what color or type they are have started to bloom! One has a very sad teeny orange rose that is not a bud anymore, but is not really a flower...it is like an inch and a half tall and sorta moldy looking. Not my best example of growing stuff, and nothing I will photograph (unless I get some awesome ones later for comparison...), but it is there. There is another teeny orange bud on the same plant that is growing, and the larger rosebush right next to it has a glow in the dark bright pink bud that is an inch and a half tall, but still a bud. Maybe it will be a bigger flower than the other sad orange one. We shall see. AND...my hostas are hosta-ing, they have big stalks sticking out of them that are gonna bloom any day now, although it appears that the flowers will be white instead of purple as I was told....whatever. If it blooms I will be excited!
AND..I have been told that the enormous purple flowering bush in the corner of my yard is a lilac bush (thanks, Cynthia), and I have lavendar in my back yard, as well as rosemary (knew about the rosemary, but not the lavendar). I bought Ethan a freesia as a gift (along with a nice card.......), and it is living outside on the back railing. If it stays alive, I will plant it next week. Ethan thoughtfully demolished the ugly yellow and black flowery bush in the back yard that I HATED, and I now have an empty area that needs SOMETHING.

No sign yet of the callas that I planted, or the begonias, and Heidi is looking a bit peaked (actually, she looks dead.....but I am told not to lose hope....since she was forced to bloom in a greenhouse, she is not happy with the cooler arrangements outside, and will be a turd for this year, but come back strong next year if I keep watering and feeding her)

So, some growth, and some death, but overall more growth than death, especially if you count the weeds that are sprinting across the yard.

Goings on

So, yesterday we went to see the Da Vinci Code, (overall kinda disappointing, but not really a bad movie, just not as good as the book...), and as we left, Ethan decided he wanted to get some more blank CD's so he could burn more music from the computer onto them......we go to Tukwila which is a teeny suburb town consisting of the Southcenter mall and a bunch of megastores....I don't think anyone actually lives there, just the stores.......
Anyway, we went over to Best Buy and found the appropriate CDs (after figuring out the difference between CDR and CDRW), and got caught up in the computer section, specifically the laptop section. Okay, so it was ME getting caught up, but Ethan indulged me. After some discussion with the Best Buy computer guys, we decided that a particular computer would be the most appropriate for what I want in a laptop (great graphics, and enough oomph to run PSCS2 without stalling all the time, like our desktop does), and we left to go to Red Robin for our obligatory meals (shroom burger for Ethan, and baked potato soup with side salad and ranch for me..........we ALWAYS go to the Red Robin after going to a movie, although this time was a bit different. I usually get a Jamaican shake to drink, but I switched to a vodka and cranberry juics instead. Ethan did in fact stick with the large Alaskan Amber as is his norm)


Sorry.....got a bit lost there

So we had our meal, then went back over to Best Buy and purchased said laptop, receiving a 10% discount on the CDs for our troubles.

At home, I consulted with Matt, the family computer guru, about the safety of connecting my external hard drive to the laptop (the laptop is NOT going to be ever connected to the internet, this way it stays safe from viruses and rifraff). I need to get my pictures and scrapbook files (there are as of last night over 16 thousand of them in total, about 20 gigabytes worth) off of the external hard drive and onto my laptop. Matt gave me some instructions on how best to do this, then I was off. Have I mentioned how much faster this laptop is than my desktop?? Blazing speed! I have everything moved over, and just need to go back to take PSCS2 and Picasa and move them over to the laptop, and voila, I have a functional, portable scrapping machine!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006



Okay, something crappy going on with Hello.....pictures do not seem to be able to be totally loaded.....but here is one of Sabrina and Raegan.....more over on my digital craft blog.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

A couple of firsts

So, yesterday I spent some quality time out on my fancy deck with Ethan, listening to some music and reading a book, and I managed to get my first sunburn of the year. It was nice and sunny outside, but I never even thought about the possibility of a sunburn.....

AND....last night I went to my first Cirque du Soleil performance. It was great. Our seats were fairly crappy, considering that we had 'tier 1' seats, which were the first step down below the VIP seats, and paid a pretty penny, but it was still a great show. Lots of flexibility, strength and flipping of people. Cool music, lots of French speaking that I did not get, but good sign language so I could figure out what they meant.......all in all, a really good time.

Saturday, May 13, 2006


New paper scrapping layout...used the clear acrylic stamps for the first time...those are AWESOME!! I can stamp stuff and it doesn't suck! I did stamp some crappy flowers, which I wish I hadn't, but I covered them up with some paper ones to hide them a bit....not a great layout, but I am heading that way! Not done with this one just yet....there is a pocket on the second page that I will put a tag into with some journalling, and gotta do something to finish up the first page, too.....but getting there!

Second page

Thursday, May 11, 2006

I need to be stopped!!

Gotta quit going to the scrap stores. Really. I keep getting caught up in them. But I have lots of cool stuff now!
I did get a discount card, with two extra tags that I can give to other people so they can get 10% off anything they buy at PaperZone, in person or online, and in addition to any other discounts they are having.....so the first two people that let me know they want them can have them.....

Went to the doctor today. I don't really like my doctor, but the one I tried to get is not accepting patients right now, so I am stuck with my old one until the new one will take me!! The new one is used by pretty much all the nurses at work (it seems like). She is an OB/GYN so I can use her for primary care, but when we get around to having kids, she can do that too. And...she delivers at Swedish, which is where I would prefer to go. The nurses who go to her just LOVE her and rave about her. My doctor is okay, but just abrupt and I don't feel that she LISTENS to me. So there. My cholesterol is up a bit over last year, but my good (HDL) is up a bunch over where it was before (it was too low before) , so she is happy with the numbers. Go me!!

Atteempting to get inspired for scrapping, so I am going over to the do it yourself channel where they have scrapping shows, and digging through my scrapping magazines for ideas and inspiration to use my new goodies.....

My take for today......two foam alphabets, a clear stamp holder and two sets of clear stamps (one alpha and one flowers and doodads), a bottle of blue and browns flowers, a set of chipboard alphabet letters, and a stack of 6x6 papers in the'sugar' collection, pretty pinks with yellows and peaches. AND I got a frequent buyer card for 10% off every purchase I make, $10 off todays purchase, and lots of coupons in the mail. AND when I got home I read the receipt and realized that she charged me $.23 for the chipboard letters, instead of the $10 they were supposed to cost, AND they come in a neat metal container with a window on top, and I can use that for something, I am sure...

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

My husband loves me

He just brought me a glass of Watermelon flavored Smirnoff Ice that he shook up for a couple minutes, then put in the microwave for a little bit. Because I don't like carbonation very much, and I don't like drinking cold things (except milk). All out of the blue, as I sit here adding pictures to my blog. Top that!!!


AND....he 'got' a new microwave and toaster for my unit at work because ours suck and did not function properly. Even though that is not his department. He figured out what needed to be done to get us working equipment, and did all the legwork and brought them up. After having crappy ones there for YEARS. There was a sign over the toaster saying 'use at your own risk'. Now everyone loves him!

Okay, okay, okay....Mom asked nicely, so here it is. My scraproom. I have come to the conclusion that it will NEVER be done, so here it is today...This is the upper half of the main wall (standing in the doorway looking straight ahead) Moslty albums and storage containers for pictures on the top.

Lower section of the main wall in my scraproom, with my messy desk and lighting systems...

The side wall on the right. I can't back up enough to get a good picture, but these are the lower shelves, and there is nothing in the upper ones. I really want to get a wide angle lens for issues like this!!!

Teeny drawer chests with alphabet sets, file folders, and chipboard in the white one, and tags/tag supplies, distressing supplies (couldn't remove the old sharpie writing where it says ink + dye), and pictures in progress. Rub-ons live above the white drawer set in a plastic folder, and chipboard doily things that don't fit in the chipboard drawer are in their package on top of the blue drawer set with a tin of flowers

Bottom section and back of my desk

Trays for adhesives, pens, and pictures. And small box of random crap that has no home

Small embellishment containers and tool kit

My inks and paints

Foam alphas

Foam alphas #2

My paper

My first actual scrapping in a long while. It is on the wrong blog, I know, but they are MY blogs and I can do whatever I want. Pbbbbbt!!.

San Fran finish of layout started at the convention

Worlds cutest bumblebee charm. I went to the worlds largest bead store today (Shipwreck beads) and was in awe. That place is bigger than Costco!! I got a couple of these little guys, and a bunch of others, including bags of alphabet beads for Morgan and Raegan's names (there are only three letters that they do not share. Did YOU know that??), and lots of cute things....and a 600 page catalog for FREE.

Monday, May 08, 2006

National Scrapbook Day

In honor of National Scrapbook day, and because Ethan was at work and I was home alone, I did some actual scrapbooking in my new scrapbook room. And, since it is the first paper scrapping I have done in over a year, it sorta sucks. BUT...the important part is that I DID it. So that was good. I did a page with a picture of Shadow, and used a very large letter S piece of chipboard that I covered with some yellowy patterned paper that matches Shadow's eyes and did my first usage of my foam stamps (which I apparently suck at) and some other doodads. It doesn't TOTALLY suck, but it pretty much does. It has no flow and no creativity and I dislike it, but not enough to dismantle it.
So there.
I have decided that I will NEVER get my scraproom all organized. I have too much crap. As in pictures. As in pictures that fall into so many categories, I can't organize them. Too, too many. I have lots of room in there, lots of cubbies, but need to figure out better how to do it all. Because, I have pictures of things, for example, my honeymoon. I have honeymoon pictures. I put them into an album (because they all fit in there), but I have doodads and napkins and brochures from Jamaica, and where do I put those?? I have some shoebox sorts of things that I have divided up by categories-one for Alaska, one for Hawaii, one for Bend and one for Crane. And some empty ones for who knows what. I need to break them down more, to make them more accessible (because I am SO not going to look through a billion pictures in the Bend box to find that one I remember where we are all sitting at the reindeer farm in a sleigh. Not happening). I bought some sorta clearish folders big enough for 8.5x11 stuff to store, and I put all my wedding mementos in one and labelled it, and put my honeymoon stuff in one and labelled it, but do I need to get a billion of them for the other stuff?? I have wedding and graduation announcements, wedding programs, certificates for various things that I have pictures to go with, etc, etc, etc. TOO MANY CATEGORIES!!
I did buy a nice (albeit cheap) natural light-light to give me better lighting in there. I also have the overhead light and a little clippy light that clips wherever I want it. And the cats are being good about not terrorizing my stuff while I am in there. Mostly because there is no room for them.
I do have a little tray for all my adhesives--glue, tape, 3D dots, etc, and one for my pens/markers and one that currently has packs of pictures that are labelled as to what they are pictures of, but need another home. Not sure what I will use that tray for. I have a medium size three drawer chest that has chipboard in the bottom, various alphabets (rub on, stickers, etc) in the top, and......I can't remember what in the middle section...something......anyway, the small three drawer chest has pictures in progress in the bottom (pictures I have done something creative to--cut out, matted, etc, but then abandoned and am not using for anything in particular), distressing tools in the middle (sanding block, sandpaper, pacman distressor thingie and Q-tips for inking edges), and tags and tag supplies in the top (tags and that skinny brown cord that is good for tying tags on with. Those are set. I also have little cubbie things with a lid that stack together, and each teeny cubbie has a single punch in it-corner rounder, star, tree, etc. They are labelled on the front so I know what is where.
On the back of my door, I have a shoe organizer thing that has pockets for shoes, I think 25 or so pockets altogether, and I have my shapie scissors and stamps and all sorts of things in there. It is right behind my chair and easy to reach. I do need another chair, though. Mine is too short right now, and I need one that is adjustable and can swivel. I like swivelling. And leaning back. But not TOO far.
So, that is where I am. I have a bunch of albums from Ethan's family (left by his grandmother--there is one really cool one that has pictures of her and her siblings from the 30's or so. Really cool, and another one that is her wedding album. Ella looks just the same today as she did when she was a teenager!) and scrapbooks we did a long time ago, and those are all set. I had some empty albums that I filled up with pictures, like honeymoon, Cuba, etc that I had a bunch of pictures that fit the category, and they were small enough and a small enough number that I could put them all into the album and label it. That works for some pictures, but I still have several piles of crap that has no category right now. For now, I am just shoving them to the side and working in the middle.......