House Cleaning...

...or should I say Studio Cleaning.  So today after I got back from the PO to mail the swaps, and the new catalogs, (don't forget today is the LAST day to order out of the current catalog.  The new one starts tomorrow, the 1st, at noon)  I thought I really need to do some cleaning, purging and dusting.  I think it is also called procrastinating, as I had some other stuff to get done, but hey, there's always tomorrow right.

So this morning pest control came to sprinkle stuff in the house.  I wrangled my first scorpion of the season the other morning, so wanted them to come and sprinkle stuff to hopefully get them.  We always toss the pillows off the bed when we go to sleep and then when I make it in the morning, I pick em up and bang em together just in case before I put them on the bed.  So the other morning sure enough I picked up the pillow...well hello Mr. Scorpion, of course I had just taken off my flip flops, not that they would kill him on the carpet, they are pretty hard buggers to squish.  Luckily I had thrown Toby up on the bed, since I had been headed to the shower.  So he ran under the dresser, so I went off to get the fly swatter, and I was dragging it back and forth under the dresser trying to get it to come out, it did just a bit and ran back under. So I went to get the flashlight, took two different ones till I found the one that the batteries worked, cause no way was I not killing this sucker.  Toby is too small and I am afraid a scorpion bite would be lethal to him.  So I laid down on the floor with my flashlight and my danged old tri-focals, it's kinda hard to wiggle your head up and down next to the carpet so I could find just the right dang spot I can see out of, but there he was up against the back wall.  So I got the yard stick, and squished him and cut his tail off and killed him.

So tonight I was walking from the living room and I passed the front door and saw something down by the threshold and up the door a bit, and I thought crap, a scorpion, so I took my foot and tried to hit it but it hopped down, thank goodness I missed, look what it was...

...aint he sweet? So Jeff and my BFF Tracy both said, oh is it one of the babies from under the treadmill?  I sure hope not.  Jeff said he saw a little one up front the other day, so I am sure he just scooched in tonight when the door was open.







Here he is on the tip of my finger, I so wanted to keep him, he got pretty tame after a while, when I let him go, I really had to coax him OFF my hand.  But outside is better as he would die inside, cause what would I feed him?

I am glad that American Idol is replaying the Micheal Jackson songs they sang during the contest.  I watched The Jackson 5 movie on tv this weekend, and boy their Dad was a real creep. At least the movie made it appear so, he was so mean to those kids, no wonder Micheal had issues as an adult, he was never allowed to be a kid.  Such a sad story, cause he was truly talented in his days.

Well I am off, I still got some more tidying up to do.  Have a great Tuesday, and thanks for stopping in!

TLC Class - Faux Wood Grain

I'll be floored! Ha! Okay it's late, and that is as good as I could do.  Today was a lazy kinda day, I slept in a little, and was actually still in my nightie (note to self: buy a new nightie) when Betty (hey Betty!!!) came by.  I did venture out and get groceries (note to self: you are your own boss Di, don't shop on Sunday) it was busy.  I got my swaps all sorted and packaged up and I will head to the PO in the morning and get everything, including the brand new catalogs mailed. I wanted to get them out on Friday, but I was stuck at home with no vehicle since Jeff's truck was in the shop. 

They say the monsoons should be starting this week, we really need the rain, so hopefully we will get some, it seems like all the people in town get the rain, us country folk with all the dirt just get our dirt blown all over the place.  Jeff needs to replace the vent cover on the top of the camper trailer so I am hoping the rain holds off a day or two till he gets that done. (note to Jeff: hint! hint!) Gotta love me! Well he does...right?

Well just a quick card to show you all tonight, this is the second technique everyone will be learning at my TLC class in July. I love this technique and it can be done in any color really, I am just going for the standard wood grain, but imagine it in blues and stuff...yum.

Stamp Set: Totally Tool
Paper: Basic Black, More Mustard, Very Vanilla
Ink: Basic Black, Vanilla Craft, Close to Cocoa Craft
Misc: Sponge, sansodor, stumps, watercolor pencils, art pen

I popped the saw up a couple times on glue dots. Cool eh? My Poppa ( I love you Poppa, and miss you) was a carpenter and an electrician, and oh my gosh he could play music by ear, I would come home with my violin and practice and he would listen to me and figure it out on his own violin.  When Poppa died, he left me his violin, I treasure it, and want to take lessons again one day.  I don't know if I would remember how to even read music, and I know the violin needs tuning, but I can't part with it long enough to leave it anywhere for someone to do it...weird I know....anyway,  when we grew up, my Mum, and my sister Jax and I lived with my Poppa and Granny (hey Mum, tell Granny I got some light green TicTacs for her), and Poppa always said it was better to learn to do things on your own, we weren't rich so that is how it was.  Poppa taught Jeff how to do electric stuff when we lived in our old house, so I like this set, cause I know Poppa would love these cards, and I love the greetings that go with them.

Well I am gonna clean up my studio so I can start fresh in the morning...to make a mess again!

Have a great Monday, and thanks so much for stopping in, I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate it!

The Bots & The Bees...

When we moved to Queen Creek (which might be called San Tan Valley some day...who knows....grrr), 11 or 12 years ago there was nothing out here where we built our house, the real estate guy just drove us basically out in the desert and said "do you like this property?" and we really did, the borders were just marked with a little stake in each corner.  So we made our bid, and bought the property, and then eventually the house started to get built.  One day we came out on the weekend (we came out every weekend to check on things), we were like hey we had neighbors, there was a house being built not too far away, so we walked over there to say hi and danged if the guy didn't work at the same place as Jeff, cause they recognized each other.  So anyway, when my Dad came to visit one time shortly after we moved in he was walking around, and he found a little cactus, just a flat little thing in the back yard.  So after all these years, it is getting taller and taller and it blooms every year.  We love it, cause it was just here all on it's own. We didn't plant it, Mother Nature did.

Here are the flowers on it.  They are not all open yet, and they open and close throughout the day. Eventually I think when they die Jeff picks them off and throws them on the ground for the critters to eat.

But look how funny this little guy was, there were a few bees flying around and he was right in there and digging and digging I mean eventually...

...all you saw was his little butt sticking out, it reminded me off the Bee Movie, remember that one?

You can see all the pollen they are getting on the flower.

They must not have been killer bees cause they never messed with me or anything, they just buzzed around content to be in the flower, of course I didn't mess with them either.  I did not fall off the turnip truck yesterday.

So today I was working on my swap, yeah I saved it till the last day, but hey it was not like I had to deliver it...to myself...I will get them sorted and put in the mail on Monday.  Wanna see it?
I did the Lots of Bots set again.  Hopefully you aren't sick of it yet.  We only had limited amount of things that we could pre-order, so come July 1st at noon, look out, the catalog will be live, so all of us, you included can be ordering brand new stuff...tick...tock...tick...tock!!!

Stamp Set: Lots of Bots
Paper: Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Razzleberry Lemonade
Ink: Basic Black
Misc: Melon Mambo Polka Dotted ribbon, Clip Assortment, Scallop punch, Watercolor Pencils, Sansodor, stumps

So while I was playing around with the SU! watercolor pencils, I realized a few of them kinda match the new In Colors, so that is cool. Cause you know how I am addicted to the sansodor and stumps now. Copics Schmopics!

So I installed Firefox so that I don't have those stupid error messages all the time from Windows Internet Explorer. I just have to get use to Firefox, the fonts look way weird, and instead of favorites I have bookmarks.  I don't like the way the fonts look on my blog, it was nicer with the IE, so I hope it is just me, and that it looks nice for all of you. I would hate that all this time, it looked like a yucky font.

Well I am calling it a night, my buddy Rhonda just left, she dropped off her swap, we chatted for about an hour, but if her hubby asks, it was 5 minutes...ha!

Have a great Sunday everyone, and thanks so much for stopping in!

TLC Class - Magic Pop-up Card...

...well it seems kinda magical, cause it tricks your eye a little bit.

I wanted to show one of the cards that the girls will be doing in my TLC (Technique Lover's Club) Class 2.  This is a technique that I showed a card for a while back with the Easter chick and I made it into a baby card.  I learned how to do this at a class that MAMMa taught, (added: MAMMa learned it from Elizabeth) now of course I can't find the post.  I hope it shows up in the little Linkwithin thing on the bottom and if it does, I will fix my post and add it.  added later: thanks to my BFF Tracy, she found it, AND corrected my spelling too...must have been tired last night...so here is the chick card and the other post. I wanted to use the set Under the Stars cause I have kind of abandoned the dear old bear for quite a while, so this card shows that he is trying to show off so that I won't let him collect dust in my stamp cupboard any more.  He is juggling the skeeter spray when he should be using it on the skeeters, look at poor old racoon trying to hide by the bear so he doesn't get all eated up by the skeeters.

Now this is the front of the card...nothing fancy here, nothing magical...the magic happens inside.

I left the front kind of plain cause I am thinking you would probably, maybe give this card to a guy.

I did use a saying from "On your birthday" on the front.

It will make more sense once we open the card.

Ready?

Stamp Set: Under the Stars

Paper: Garden Green, Whisper White, Flock Together DSP

Ink: Basic Black, Creamy Caramel, Really Rust, Bashful Blue

Misc: Window sheets, scallop circle punch for cloud stencil, watercolor pencils, stumps, and sansodor, word window punch

Now the magic is hard to see, the bear, racoon and sleeping bags pop up when you open the card, and the skeeter spray cans are actually floating in the air as the bear juggles them...cool eh?

So I got a nice call today from a fellow Demonstrator, and I am gonna send out a "Hey there girlfriend to Memphis Robin" - there now you have to comment. Ha!  See you at Convention!!!

A bunch of people tell me to switch from Internet Explorer over to Firefox, and that will stop that stupid abort operation error message, and I am so tempted to do it, I just hate changing my computer, I am a worry wart when it comes to that. So we will see if I get the guts to do it or not.  My sister Jax (the computer guru) says to do it.

Oh and any of you that use the RED antifreeze in your vehicles..ask your mechanic if you should be using it!  Or maybe it is just an AZ thing I don't know.  About 2 months ago Jeff put the red stuff in, it is better for the environment or something...well the other day his truck overheated and he had to take it to the shop.  The red stuff was sludge, and totally ruined his radiator, so he had to get a new one.  $425.00 later...I think the red stuff company owes me some moolah!! It's back to the old green stuff.

Well that's it for me folks, got a busy day tomorrow. We were gonna go to a movie, but with the truck expense, we are thinking staying home might be better. Ha!

Have a great Saturday and thanks for stopping in!

Punch Book & Artisan Award Invite...

...I think the one question that I get emailed me most is, where is...? like where is the faux wood grain tutorial, where is the paper piecing card, and where is the punch book etc.?  So off to the right are categories, and under that list what I will categorize things in my blog post.  Now when I first started blogging I had no idea what I was doing and all these nifty little things, so you may find that things are missing...then holler at me and I will find it and categorize it.

So in 2007 I did a punch book class, this class was very popular, here is my original post, and what I did was put the class pages on my blog so everyone could see them and get ideas, and well copy them, I mean if we didn't want to be copied we wouldn't post right?  What I usually think is blogger etiquette, is if you post something on your blog you really need to give credit, and I do that, and if I ever miss anyone, I want to be told so I can fix it.  I did that recently when I had no idea what the technique was called that Patty Bennett had a tutorial on her blog for, later I found out the proper name and I fixed it, heck we are all human.

So I took this punch book with me on cruise to share and everyone enjoyed seeing it.  So to make a long story short, I have added a Photo Album on the right where you can see the pages a lot easier.  It is labeled of course Punch Book.  A few of you have asked why I don't do more punch critters etc., well I just might have to and add them to my book as I go. There are some talented girls out there thinking outside of the box punch.

So a couple weeks ago I got my hand stamped card inviting me to the Artisan Award dinner while we are in Salt Lake City during Convention. It does not say who stamped it so I am gonna pretend Shelli made it.

Stamp Set: Razzle Dazzle

Paper: Old Olive, Pale Plum, Whisper White, Razzleberry Lemondade DSP

Ink: Perfect Plum

Misc: Scallop punch, clip assortment, satin ribbon

Pretty eh?

Oh and look what came today. My boxes of new catalogs...or should I say, YOUR boxes of new catalogs. 

Aren't they beautiful?  Well I can't show you the actual catalog...but the boxes sure are pretty!

Have a great Friday, and thanks for stopping in!