Proof Positive

The other day my husband and his coworkers were discussing salsas. Salsa is a serious business here in the Southwest. They got on the subject of pumpkin salsa ('tis the season). My husband made a face and talked about how much he hated pumpkin salsa and how it was an abomination to man and oh my heck, his wife loved that stuff and it was the worst, most vile thing ever on the whole planet.

This caused one of his coworkers to say, "I'm sure Judy doesn't appreciate you making fun of her taste." To which my husband replied, "Oh, she knows I make fun of her taste all the time. It's pretty obvious that she has lousy taste. I mean, she married me."

Case closed, Your Honor.

The Fine Print: Stamps 'n dies by Stampin' Up. CASED from Susan Itell. 

Perfectly Peachy Penguin

Seriously I really have been trying to play along with Merry Monday. I have my movie inspired image printed (from 2 weeks ago) and a bunch of tags lying willy nilly (last week) and now finally I have actually finished a current challenge!

Penguins, especially Christmas penguins just cry out to be black, white and red, so that is what happened here.  This little sweetie is ready to celebrate with a giant candy cane. Bring on the festivities!

The Fine Print: Penguin stamp by Art Impressions, ribbon from SU, herringbone from my stash. 

Senior Prom Anyone?

I didn't go to my senior prom. Or my junior prom. Or any prom. 

I don't feel a lesser person because of it.

Did you go to yours?

Was it all stars and romance?

Or just another awkward rite of passage?

Dirty Laundry

In order to avoid someone else airing my dirty laundry in public, I'll just do it myself right here, right now.  Heaps of it everywhere!

The Fine Print: Stamps by some company who name eludes me at the moment, Crafter's Kitchen or something like that.

The Mail Came!

So last week brought some mail with it that I thought I'd share. I don't share things like the electric bill or the credit card statement that has the cat vet bill on it (that gray bastard needs to get a job) because I'm sure you get enough of that in your own mailbox.

The week started with a prize in the mail for participating in a card sharing event. These are wooden embellishments, not some weird woodmount stamp (what I totally thought when I opened the envelope). I probably won't get more prizes from them because they changed from share cards to share cards with specific themes. You can't tell me what to do! Okay, you can but I do enough of those specific themed things already.

Then this cool room divider looking card came in the mail. I love fall and this stands up nicely on my shelf and reminds me how cool autumn is (in other parts of the world, it's still in the 90s and greenish [you know as green as it ever gets] here).

Then this fun card came in the mail, confusing me as to what season it really was. Don't you adore that delicate flower die cut?! It looks so fiddly to play with.

Lastly, this card came in the mail and now I truly have no idea what season it is. I love the reflective surfaces on this card. The friend who sent it is finally embracing die cuts. She was a holdout for so long that I'm glad she saw the light.

The Fine Print: So if you're like me and don't want to give Picmonkey money for suddenly going to pay-per-view then check out BeFunky. It works quite fine as evidenced by these photos here. Happy mail day y'all.

Please Remain Seated

Today was my big stamp club meeting. I have the dubious honor of being in charge of it. Actually it isn't that bad once you accept the fact that someone will always be unhappy about something. The hard part about the meeting is you never know what will happen, or not happen.

Our meeting has a basic outline of things we do and sometimes things are over in a blink of an eye and other times they drag on ad nauseam.  Sometimes they run right down the perfect middle between those two. Those are the best days because then the meeting just rolls along nicely and I don't have to do that much to guide it.

Today was one of those days. I got to sit for most of the meeting which is a very rare event for me. So rare that my feet decided to hurt in protest. How stupid is that?

Anyway I was going to share some of the cards I made for the meeting but they are still on the camera and I don't feel like fussing with them. So have a taco truck in honor of the food truck that served us lunch today at the meeting.

The Fine Print: Stamps by Stampin' Up. So who was unhappy at our meeting today? Me! I had a Cesar salad for lunch and they made it with kale. What is with people and their unholy love for kale?! That shit is bitter. But see, I lived through it and now I'm going to live longer because I ate kale or whatever benefit it is people think they are getting with kale.

I'm Not Required to Know Everything

I'm not required to know everything and some days I think they'd prefer if I knew nothing. Anyway, I often work the front reception desk. The "front reception desk" is not at the front entrance to our campus. It is, however, front and center of our department on an entirely different floor than the main entrance.

The other days someone came up and asked me where the lecture for the blah blah blah archaeology something or another was. I told him honestly that I didn't know and started reaching for the phone. The rest of my sentence, had he not cut me off was going to be "I'll see if I can find out." But before I could say that he was in my face complaining that how could I be an "information desk" if I didn't know anything?!

He made me think for a second and then I realized something--this is the front desk to our department not the whole fricken school, so why are we expected to know what everyone else is doing? And we are treated that way both internally and externally. It is extra unfair because other departments don't tell us what they are doing.

Anyway, I politely told the guy that I was the front desk for student development and if he had a question pertaining to our services I'd be happy to answer them. By the way, I had already set down the phone and had no intentions of calling anyone to find out where his lecture was.

The Fine Print: BTW, I did find out later where that lecture was. It was at an entirely different school than the one I worked at, not even a different campus, but a different school.  Cards 'n parts from Club Scrap. 

White on White

I joined a swap recently where the theme was white on white. I have to tell you that I find that to be really hard. My biggest hurdle is that not all whites are created equal. Different brands and different textures of white will vary.

My first order of business was to decide to use one big piece of cardstock to make my card instead of using all those snippets I have lying around. That way I would be sure to have all the same shade of white.

My second order of business was to use Carol's Our Little Inspirations blog to inspire me. Once you check out her card you can see how she inspired my card.  I originally planned for more foliage including paper flowers on my card but the person I ended up sending too prefers uncomplicated cards without too much bulk.

The Fine Print: We were allowed to use any non-black color for the greeting. Carol was right to promote silver.  Greeting and foliage by Stampin' Up, enbossing folders by Cuttlebug and CTMH. 

Here Today Gone Today

At work yesterday they implemented a new procedure. And by "they" I mean the people that work at the main office who don't really know what happens at the branches that actually serve the public. As soon as those in my department heard about this new procedure we came up with about 15 different questions regarding it.

The managers just shrugged and said they knew no more than we did and that if we encounter problems we should just refer those people to them.  It is all fine and good for the managers to say that because problems like to show up at lunch time when the whole lot of them are gone from the building.

Lunch time came and of course a problem cropped up but it was a problem that our department hadn't anticipated with our 15 questions. Nope, this problem involved another department--the one that takes the money.  See in the past this procedure had a $3 option and a $10 option. The new procedure was for an eight dollar fits all process.  Cashiering isn't set up to take $8 for said transaction. Their computer system bulks because it thinks you've either paid too much or too little.

Anyway, by the time lunchtime was over so was the new procedure. Now we're back to doing things the same old way with our two different price points. We haven't heard anything further since yesterday but you just know they will iron out the one wrinkle and throw it back out there for us until the next insurmountable problem comes along. It'd be easier to ask the front line people for input but just winging it much more fun and more in line with our other business practices.

The Fine Print: Stamping stuff by Stampin' Up.

September 18 Mail Day

Picmonkey is going to be the death of me. It has taken way. too.. long... to get these three photos ready to share with you. Thank gosh I didn't get more mail this week.  This first card was for a white on white swap, which is hard to photograph as the papers all have different textures.

You Make My Heart Sing

Awhile ago I ran across a card I made in a class back in the early aughts. I decided I needed to try out the technique in it again and this card was born.

It is called a grid collage. You make it by stamping some focal stamp in the middle of a piece of glossy paper. Then you use a piece of scrap paper to sponge borders around it. I used two different colors here--same color family, one lighter than the other. Then you block off each area and stamp in it.

It looks cooler if you stamp large collage style stamps in each area, but I don't have collage style stamps because collage isn't my thing. It has taken me years to come to realization. I still like how this came out.

I sent it to a friend for a "blast from the past" swap where you had to use an old stamp or old technique. These stamps are from the early 2000s as well. Once my partner received my card she said that she remember this technique from back in the day. Maybe it will make a comeback.

The Fine Print: Greeting by Rubbernecker, safari animals by Stampin' Up, inks by Memento.

Card Camp

I attended a Christmas Card marking camp today. It was a lot of fun and wore me right out. I thought I'd share my favorite card from it.

The Fine Print: Products 'n stuff by Stampin' Up.

That Murphy Guy

Yesterday: tons of time and ideas to do a blog post. No internet connect.

Today: Internet connect but no time or ideas.

Bluster off, already, Murphy.

The Fine Print: Thanks by Eat Cake Graphics, other supplies from SU and PP or my stash. PP is Paper Pumpkin you silly. 

Happy Mail

I am a woman of little words today, but here's the mail:

September HBs

I have a bunch of old cards in my photo file that I really should share with you all to start depleting the load. I do like to collect things, but then it is always good to use them too. When it comes to cards, I've started that in real life too--using up these many old cards I have lying around.

Well, now I don't have as many cards as I once did so now I need to make more but that means I'll have more photos to share... and it is a never ending circle.

Seriously though, what's with all these September birthdays?! I mean I know a new year is exciting, but not that exciting. There goes all my birthday cards....

The Fine Print: Old cards from an even older Club Scrap Kit. 

World's Lousiest Scissors x 3

Where I work we have a reception desk where we're all forced to take shifts at even if some of us (not moi) have the personality of a rabid weasel off their meds.  It's not incredibly horrible, but it does have its moments.

Like the other day I needed to open a pile of shrink-wrapped calendars. There are three stations out there but only one pair of scissors and it took some digging to find where they were at. Then, once found, they were as useful as a spaghetti noodle. They wouldn't stab into the plastic and wouldn't cut through it once I dug a hole into it with my fingers.

I finally had to manually tear the plastic apart with my brute strength, which is sorely lacking because of my bum shoulder and faux sprained thumb. I decided those annoying scissors were no longer allowed to be on the same planet as I. I unceremoniously tossed them into the trash can and then wiggled it around so they slid to the bottom (my coworkers are not above garbage can picking).

 I asked another coworker if she could order some new scissors for the reception desk and told her to get 3 pair this time.  I don't know how she did it, I don't know why she hates us so much, but she managed to buy 3 equally lousy pairs of scissors!

And here I thought the other ones were just bad because they were worn out! But no! They actually sell brand new pairs of scissors that don't cut and hurt your hands. I had no idea there was a market for that.

The Fine Print: I understand that we aren't going to buy $85 a pair finely tuned crafting scissors for the reception desk, but still! I also understand why last year when they wanted to cut tissue paper flowers they stole all the scissors out of my office (and never returned them). Elephant, balloon and HB die by Stampin' Up. 

Oxygen!

You know what is kind of cool? OXYGEN!!!  No kidding! I mean you might be all "Duh" but I'm an asthmatic so I never really saw much use for it. It never seems to be there when I truly need it.

I only ever use a little bit of it each day, but the past few months I haven't even been getting that. It's funny how that really makes doctors jump. Anyway, my allergist has me on a new inhaler. I've used it a week now and HOLY FREAKING SHIT, PEOPLE! Life is awesome again. I actually kind of feel like myself these days and not a version that got run down by a bus and left in the rain to rot and got picked over by buzzards.

Oxygen! Who knew??!!!!

The Fine Print: I am so excited to not be feeling blucky anymore!  (blucky=a combination of blah and yucky). So now I'll probably catch this cold they are passing around at work. Jerks.  Stampin' stuff by Stampin' Up. 

Apocalypse Preparation

Remember the good old days where if you saved someone's life during a zombie apocalypse (or some other significant disaster) they were all like, "Thank you for saving my life! I appreciate your every little gesture of kindness. I only have this sharpened stick but I will fight loyally by your side!"

Nowadays it is all: What do you mean you don't have gluten free rations?! I only drink water bottled in New Hampshire during the full moon! I follow a strict Paleo diet and sleep on 4000 thread count sheets. None of this will do for me. I cannot believe you have not catered to my every need. I am going to sit here and pout until you fix this gross negligence.

Yep, and that's just one of the many reasons I hate people.

The Fine Print: So true, not all who wander are lost; some of us are just trying to get away from the bullshit.  Mouse by House Mouse, greeting by Stampin' Up, dies by Spellbinders. 

Joy to the World

Hey!!!! Did you guys see that Merry Monday is back in action after a summer break?! I'm excited to see that since I really need to get into the Christmas card action. I made some Christmas cards at a friend's house recently and that helped cement the mood.

Here is one of the cards we made. This card is cooler in person. It was hard to photograph because of the  glitter tape along one edge. The card has a very nice vintage vibe. Since it has "Joy" on it, I can play along. I'm hoping I can make it a weekly thing from here on out.

The Fine Print: I can' really tell you anything about the card except the poinsettia was cut out of something like felt like shelf liner paper. 

Mailbag Tuesday?!

I tried in vain multiple times yesterday to update my blog and the powers that be conspired against me. I was willing to lay the blame right on Blogger's feet where it so often goes, but in hindsight, I think it was Firefox who steered me wrong.

And here is my September calendar:

And that is about all there is for today because today is Tuesday but since yesterday was a holiday it is really a Monday in disguise. Those are alway so tricky and mean.

September 2

So today is the second day of September but I still don't really have any words for you. I do have this card that is similar to yesterday's card.

The Fine Print: Yep, Stampin' Up again.

September 1

Today is the first day of September. That's really about all the words I have for you or anyone.

The Fine Print: All products by Stampin' Up. Oops, no calendar today. I didn't think that through. Or photograph the September calendar. Or even make it yet.  One of these days, hopefully within the next 30 of 'em.