It's Been Good

I HATE to fly.
I do it because I know it is the fastest way to travel large distances allowing me more time to enjoy my destination.
So, tomorrow morning I will be boarding a plane for California.
In the event that something happens I just want everyone and anyone that reads this blog that I had a great time putting my thoughts and crafts out into cyberland.
Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll be back with plenty of wonderful pictures to share.
See you after the 20th! (fingers crossed and prayers being muttered).

Mickey Wonderland - Part III

Here are some pictures of my tree. The close up pictures are better lit than the two at the bottom in which I was attempting to get the whole tree in the picture but couldn't do it. I should have had lights on and not relied on the illumination from the tree.

A Mickey Wonderland - Part II

Here's little Gidget on the couch watching as I decorated all around her.

Mickey as Santa hanging on the left side of the opening between my kitchen and dining room.

Minnie cooking hanging in the doorway between my dining room and kitchen.

A paper mache' Mickey

A Mickey Wonderland - Part I

One of the towel holders in my bathroom The other towel holder in my bathroom.

Mickey and Minnie in their pajamas sit atop my brass headboard.

The Grand Finale

This is Audrey II's grand finale. She has bloomed the four flowers associated with this stalk. She may grow another stalk but until then, this is the end of the Audrey II photo shoot.

Funny Friday

You are probably sick of seeing Audrey II and I apologize. I just had to show one more pic before the weekend showing that her third flower will probably open this weekend.

I have been working like crazy and not crafting at home. I will be putting my tree up this weekend and decorating the house so I promise to take pictures of my Mickey Wonderland. For those of you who know me well, I have been collecting Mickey since high school so you can just imagine my Christmas collection. I will load the digital camera software into my home computer (see I spend too much time at work) and download or upload? the pictures of my home this weekend. I also have to pack my suitcase this weekend because I am going on vacation to California to see my sister Cindy, whom I have not see in over 2 years and I leave next Friday morning and want to have most of my packing done before the work week starts.

We're Bustin' Out in Blooms

Audrey Has Bloomed

Audrey II Update

No craftiness, just a plant update. It looks like we will have two blooms for sure, maybe four if we are lucky. I took this photo while Audrey II was on the floor and I was standing directly above.

This is a close up of the flower pods.

This shows how tall Audrey II has gotten. I don't have the official height measurement but you can see how tall she has gotten.

Bad Blogger, Bad, Bad, Bad

I have been a very bad blogger. I have been working on my personal Christmas cards and getting my house decorated and have not crafted anything new. So, I came across this scrapbook (my first and only to date) that I did very early this year to give to my sister Cindy in California. This book is filled with pictures of Cindy's grand kids (Zaine and Hannah) that were taken at Navy Pier's "Winter Wonderfest" in December 2006. Please excuse the bad photos but this was before I went digital. The pics were taken with a regular camera and I used the original pictures for the scrapbook. I came across this picture disk that came with the developed pictures and that is what I am sharing with you, (cuz I feel guilty for icky posts of late). So look them over, understand that it was my first attempt at scrapbooking and I hope to have some new cards to post soon.

Reality Television

I am addicted to Reality TV. I watch Survivor, The Biggest Loser, Project Runway...

So, is there anyone out there that watches Project Runway?
Do you find the guy who is always crying a bit odd?
Jeez, I'm peri-menopausal and even I don't cry as much as this guy appears to cry and were only on show three!!!

Leave me a comment if you watch these shows and the funny quirky things that annoy you.

Sorry that there has been a dry spell of crafty goodness posts. I hope to begin creating for Christmas very soon.

Audrey II

Audrey is 18 inches tall. Pretty soon she may bloom.

Workshop Card

Here is the card that I copied and used at my SU workshop last Saturday. You can see the original card at Diane's website, the November 15th post. I modified my card just a bit. Diane used a SU red ribbon and I substituted the patterned paper which was the only non SU ingredient in the card. I also used a different stamp set for the snowflakes. The patterned paper came from a winter stack pack purchased at JoAnn Fabrics. The other materials used were SU Night of Navy for the card and the backing piece behind the "let it snow". SU Bashful Blue and Whisper White. Inks were: Night of Navy, Bashful Blue and a Waterproof Black (oops, one more non SU ingredient). I used Crayola colored pencils to color in the stamped image (yikes, another non SU ingredient). The stamp sets used were: Big on Christmas, The Snowflake Spot, and Flaky Friends. I used Night of Navy ink on the Bashful Blue paper but I stamped off first so that the ink wouldn't be super dark. I used the Bashful Blue ink on the Night of Navy cardstock and stamped the entire back of the card with snowflakes from The Snowflake Spot and Flaky Friends. I worked on cutting the ingredients for my personal Christmas cards last night while watching TV. Did you know that you can burn 60 calories watching TV for an hour? Can you guess that I was watching "The Biggest Loser"? So I guess I burned 120 calories watching that show and producing parts of my Christmas cards. I am going to think of that as being productive during the evening. Well, I must start working so have a good day!

Just a General Update

This post is just a general update since I haven't crafted anything lately. Thanksgiving was wonderful, laid back just me and my brother Rick. I cooked a small turkey breast with all the trimmings and had just the right amount of leftovers. The rest of the family was either down at Wally World or at their own houses. My sister Caryn hosted Thanksgiving for her in-laws and my nephew (the one in chef school in Vegas) did the cooking. According to Caryn, she will be making a turkey in the near future since the Thanksgiving dinner included a goose and other fancy chef school dishes that she was not excited about and she wants all of the traditional stuff that we had growing up. Caryn is a very picky eater so it was funny to me when I heard of the menu that was going to be served at her house.

Friday, I was one of the frugal (a.k.a. insane) shoppers out at 4am. I ONLY got up and went to the store because I was having a bout of sleeplessness and was back home at 4:35 and back in bed and actually slept until 8am. (unusual for me). I only went to one store, got the two things that I went there for and felt that I had the Black Friday thrill without the tired body that a day of shopping would produce.

Saturday I had a SU workshop and a giant thank you goes out to my hostess Sandy. One of the cards that the guests produced was already posted in an earlier post (the joy card). The other card I will photograph and post along with the information and credit to the person that I copied it from. Saturday is also the day that I made it back into the garage!!!! YES, I AM ONCE AGAIN PARKING MY CAR IN THE GARAGE!!! After more than a year out on the street (after a flood in my basement caused me to bring many of the contents out into the garage) I have purged and sold (on e-bay) some of my hoarded decorations and stuff. I have an office/craft center downstairs along with many Rubbermaid containers that still need to be purged or are full of crafty supplies that need to be transformed into crafty goodness.

Sunday I wrapped the majority of X-mas gifts that I had purchased awhile ago and some general sorting through of craft supplies. I will be posting more blog candy soon.

So, all in all I had the most relaxing weekend, one in which I did NOT go into work and I enjoyed every single minute of it.

Audrey II Update

Came to work this morning and Audrey II did some serious growing over the weekend. At last measure on Wednesday (11/21) Audrey was 8-1/2" tall. As you can see from the 12 inch ruler, she is over 12 inches tall now. The last picture shows that there looks to be another stalk ready to sprout. Gotta do some work, more updates later.

More Thanksgiving Therapy

These are the cards that I created last night. I am trying to use up some of my fall patterned paper and the many Thanksgiving/Fall stickers that I have in my stash. I apologize that I didn't write down the ingredients for these two cards. The cardstock is SU, no stamps just stickers.

An update on Audrey II (see previous post from 11/20/07). She is now 8-1/2" tall. It will be interesting to see how tall she is come Monday.

Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Gobble till you wobble!!!

P.S. Sorry about the photo quality. I took these right at my desk because I needed to get a bunch of stuff done while posting.

Blog Candy Winner

A big drum roll please, brrrrrrruuuuuuuummmmmmm.
The winner of the blog candy stickers is:CAKVD
I will have these stickers in the mail to you today if you leave me a e-mail with your mailing address.
Congratulations, I look forward to seeing anything that you create with the stickers.
Please send me an e-mail: konnie1960@yahoo.com
Thanks for playing and come back next week for more blog candy.
I'm thinking some paper needs a new home.

"Seymour, Feed Me"

Last year I bought these plants for myself and my co-worker Sharon. We both love flowers and plants. This year I did the same. Below is the picture of mine which is growing like CRAZY. It has grown 1/4" just from this morning. Kerrie, another co-worker thinks it looks like a "penis", and has come to refer to it as the penis plant. I think right now it looks alot like a candle with a flame on top. We have named the plant Audrey II from The Little Shop Of Horrors. Right now Audrey is 7-3/4" tall. She started out the day at 7-1/2" and last night she was only 7". When Audrey grows up she will be an Amaryllis. Sharon's is only about 3" tall. I think that here in the accounting office it is much warmer and the sun (when it's shining) hits Audrey. Sharon who is our receptionist is closer to the front door and the cold wind from outside. I'll keep you posted on Audrey's growth.

Therapy

The company that I work for is experiencing their first ever IRS audit in over 30+ years of business. I have only been with the company for 7 years and thankfully I don't have to actually sit with the woman auditor. (She is not a very pleasant person) Thankfully our outside C.P.A. firm is here to answer all her questions and it's my job to fetch the items that she requests that are beyond the laundry list that she requested prior to her arrival yesterday morning. Needless to say I have been very busy at work and stressing out like crazy. Eating poorly, sleeping badly. The only good thing is that at night despite how tired my mind is I want to craft to relax. So these are my creations from last night.

No stamping, just patterned paper (Reminisce) and stickers, Martha Stewart's leaf punch and SU cardstock.