Tuesday, March 15, 2011

When disaster strikes, go shopping

So this past week, I have been doing a little retail therapy to replace the paper I lost during my art studio flood. I've spent a little bit too much money on paper I plan to use, but may just become my stash. Fortunately, there have been a few sales at my local JoAnn's as well as Michael's which I have to rely on because we don't have a LSS here on the north side of town anymore. In fact, I think there is only one place left in this big city of ours. We really have to rely on chains and big box stores for supplies or drive to the valley which is about a half hour away. I miss getting all of the new and latest and greatest and settling for what the chains have in stock. My old LSS owner used to go to CHA and buy the coolest paper. That store was truly current. I could order online, but there is just something about browsing and touching paper that is just so exciting to me. Even though I had to settle for chain choices this week, I was able to find a few cute things that I didn't have in my currently inventory. Here is one of my favorite pieces I bought from Cloud 9 Designs. This is Cinnamon Stick, but I also bought Chocolate Mint. Both so cute! Glad I got it because it looks like it is unavailable online. Maybe there is an up side to a chain store with old stock.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

What did you buy with your Michael's coupon?


A little more retail therapy here! Last weekend, I went to Michael's with my coupon in hand to buy something. What? I was clueless but I had a coupon that I just thought I had to use. After all, it was my birthday so I deserved a little gift right? Not that I needed anything mind you, but I wanted something new. Well, I wandered the store. Up and down the aisles. I wanted a Martha Stewart scoring board, but my coupon said no Martha Stewart products. I thought, hmmm what big ticket item could I buy. After all, it is my birthday on the 11th. I deserve something fun! Of course, no Cricut items included. So I headed to the cutter aisle thinking I might enjoy a new cutter for the cabin. Sure enough, I found this cool cutter that I wanted. Just then I looked up and saw that it was already 40% off. So I took it off the hook and handed my coupon to the lady next to me. Thing is, I like it so much that I may have to go back for another because I want this one for home. I love the pre-marked measurements. The only drawback it that it doesn't fit in my 12x12 plastic boxes which I use for hauling projects. Maybe I will just save my money.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Cute St Patty's Day Idea from Obsessed with Scrapbooking


I saw this cute St Patrick's Day card at Obsessed with Scrapbooking using the Heirloom Imagine Cartridge and Give a Hoot from ProvoCraft. I find the cutest things on that blog. It just makes my brain start swimming. One of my favorite parts of this card is that the inside has, "Have a Sham-rockin' Day" in it. Too Cute!

I don't have an Imagine nor do I have Give a Hoot, but I do have a Cricut and a Gypsy with 20 or so carts which made me think about how I would do this card using my Cricut, my Gypsy and patterned paper. I have even gone so far as starting the LO on my Gypsy on my way up to the mountain.

Cute Cute! Maybe I will even get a couple of these done for my daughters who are going to college before St. Patty's Day 2011. Or, not since for me the designing is often more fun that the actual creating part and my Art Studio is still buried. Stay tuned and find out if my design gets off my Gypsy and onto my Cricut!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Standing in line

Saturday was a day of early morning fun. My oldest daughter and I got up, grabbed some coffee at Starbucks and headed downtown to get in line for Wicked tickets along with somewhere around 400 other Spokanites. Tickets went on sale at 7am at the box office and then online at 10am. We wanted to make sure we got some decent seats in our price range so we braved the morning and the cold to get our five tickets.


After that we wanted to run to Auntie's Bookstore, an amazing bookstore in downtown but it wasn't open yet so we ran over to Atticus for a cup of soy chai. Atticus is a coffee and tea shop here
that also has some of the coolest gifts and books. A guy I went to high school with owns it along with his wife who was also one of my daughter's teachers. It was there I found this amazing hanger
for which I am now saving so I can hang it in my art studio. I cannot wait to buy it. It will be perfect to hang over my washing machine where I can attach snapshots and postcards. I won't be able to get it for about a month or so. I hope they still have it! (Sorry about the photo quality. I used my Droid and I had chai in my hands)

Friday, March 4, 2011

Too Many Photos

I just had to pick out my photos out for my i.Scrap class. I am supposed to pick out nine photos from last year to go with my i.prompts. Wow did I take too many photos last year! I love to take pictures and I am always worried that I may miss that one great shot so I take about three of everything. I think when I am done here, I need to go through my photos and do a spring cleaning as I'm backing them all up to my external hard drive. I did finally get down to nine. Here are a couple of my favorites pictures of the year. I have uploaded all of them to Walgreens so I can pick them up tomorrow and then get started on the rest of my assignment. I am probably about a day behind, but it won't take long to catch up. One thing I do know is that based on all of my photos, 2010 was one amazing year! By the way you can still sign up for this fun class at BPC.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Another fun crafter to follow!

Here is another great lady that loves to craft. You should take the time to get to know her by following her blog. I first met Missy when I somewhat randomly became her roommate at the SLC Cricut Swarm. We had the best time! She is a warm, funny and creative person who I would bunk with anytime. Missie is also full of great ideas she wants to share with you. Hop on over to her blog, Created by Missie at http://createdbymissie.blogspot.com/ She has so many creative projects to share with you!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

i.Scrap

Well, I did it! I dove in and just signed up for the i.Scrap mini album project with Stacy Julian on Big Picture Classes. Stacy is the co-founder of Big Picture Classes (BPC) and was the editor of Simple Scrapbooks, one of my favorite publications although it is no longer in print. To top it off with a big red cherry, she lives right here in the same town I do! I am so excited! I think it is just what I need to get a little motivated to scrapbook right now. I need to create. I feel a need to create. This will get me off the couch so to say. Plus, it is online so I don't have to leave my snowy driveway except to go to work and pay for said scrapbooking classes and paper addiction.

I love this project album because it is about "I" statements. We have to come up with nine photos and "I" statements to go with those photos. What I like most about the project is that it focuses on me and allows me to tell my own story which I said in an earlier post is so important. No one else can tell people who you are or who you were or if they do, I know they will get it wrong. It also allows me to go through a years worth of photos and figure out which ones I really love. It is almost like scrapbooking my year in one little album. I haven't come up with my photos yet and I haven't gotten my i.Statements figured out, but you better bet that I will be thinking about it all day when I should be doing other things. Bonus: I get to go do a little retail therapy after the loss of my paper in the laundry room flood. I am soooo excited about this project. Did I mention that already?

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

When Disaster Strikes...

It really started when we had a horrible snowstorm last Thursday. Schools were closed and many offices in town were closed. My university was the only institution of higher education open so I had to go to work although we were delayed an hour and a half. I dug my car and later my Expedition out of a total of three snow drifts in order to get out of my driveway but I made it to work on-time and picked up a Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks on the way. What was drifting snow quickly turned into subzero temperatures.

My washer and dryer are currently located in my Art Studio so it isn't always that warm out there as it is in another building next to our house. It was actually our woodshed that my husband rebuilt for me. The washer often freezes up during very low temperatures if we don't use it regularly so I did three loads of laundry Thursday to try to keep the water from freezing, but by Friday morning we were frozen and all I could do was wait for my husband to thaw it out. Seriously, I could have done it, but it makes a good excuse not to do laundry. Plus I had to work and get my daughter to the mountain. He had been out of town all week and wasn't going to be home until Saturday and our youngest had a commitment to coach for the ski race team on Saturday so we headed to the cabin.

My husband came home Saturday night and early Sunday morning he got to work on the water and some carpet cleaning. He thawed the pipes, started a load of laundry and when back to cleaning. He went back out to change the clothes and found the place flooded with five or so gallons of water. He'd forgotten to put the drain hose back in place.

I came home thinking that I might make some cards. I didn't feel well, but I was in a bit of a crafty mood. He told me that I should probably go out and see what the damage was to my scrapbooking paper before I got too excited. Sure enough, I had been stupid enough to leave some paper out on the floor when my daughter and I were getting ready to go to the cabin. We were going through paper to take some up there. Well, the damage included about half of my paper. I was able to salvage some of it as in many cases it hadn't reached the whole 12 x 12 piece of paper. I took out my trusty giant Fiskars paper cutter from Costco and began cutting the wet pieces away from the dry parts often leaving me with a 12x6 piece of paper. Unfortunately, a lot of my ski and winter paper was a total loss, but I was able to keep some of my Stampin' Up cardstock. Well, lesson learned. Put your stuff away. Isn't that what I tell the kids. Things don't get ruined if you put them away. Had I taken the time to put my paper back in the cabinet, it would still be here and I would have had some time to make cards on Sunday. Crafting will have to wait for another weekend.