A cool valentine project

I stole this idea and instructions from another blog (http://www.notmartha.org/)



http://www.onehourcraft.com/?p=442

Moving Along

I have my recipe, I have my layout and I have almost all of my stamped images stamped and ready for enhancements. I just need some black cardstock and some white cardstock, which I will be picking up at lunch. This evening my fingers will be working away at my recipe layouts so that I don't get kicked out of the swap group. (Maybe if I bribe the SwapMaster with fabric I can have an extra day).

Since I don't have a digital I will be taking regular pictures of both my recipe swap and the scrapbook for Cindy and when I get the film developed will get a CD so that I can upload (?? correct term ??) them to this blog so that I can get some constructive criticism.

Now if work will just complete itself and I can get out of here at 5:00pm I will be on the right track.

I'm Old and Cranky

I must be getting old and cranky because this event that happened recently bothered me.

I was shopping early one morning at my local Jewel food store.
As usual I didn't make a list and had to go up and down the aisles to refresh my brain as to what needed to be purchased for my household.
I encountered this family on the grocery side of the store and they seemed to be within one or two aisles of me throughout my entire shopping trip.

The family consisted of a father, mother and a boy child approximately 5 years old.
This family thought that the store and the products in the store were there for their own amusement.

In the produce department the family took turns sampling the "finger foods". The father and son had a grape toss contest where they tossed grapes up into the air and tried to catch them in their mouths.

As I shopped up and down the grocery aisles the father and child would come whizzing by as they attempted to play either tag or hide and go seek with the mother. It was at this point that I began to get annoyed. They by no means were using their "indoor voices". Instead it was full out loud talking and at times yelling.

Over in the non grocery section (shampoo, soap, gift wrap...) the father and son found the toy aisle. They were literally playing catch the length of the entire aisle. The mother even took part in the play time as they played keep away with a ball.

It was good to see that the family made the best of what is a mundane task.
But am I that prudish and old to think that perhaps just a little thought of the other people in the store should have been considered? It was early morning but there were still at least 35 or more people in the store not counting the staff of the store. Another interesting thing is that no one working in the facility thought to ask them to tone it down.

I MUST be getting old, because if I ever acted that way in a store my parents would have marched my little behind out to the car where I would have sat out the remainder of the trip.

Procrastination

I complain about tension and stress and yet I often wait until the last moment to get things done.

I AM A PROCRASTINATOR!!!

I am in a recipe swap that is due on Thursday of this week. (We had MONTHS to do this swap!!)

I received the stamp set that I am going to use last week.
Sunday night I cut and mounted the stamps.
This morning I cut the 14 6x6 pages that are my base for the swap.

I don't know what recipe to use, I haven't stamped my images, I don't have a clear idea of what the layout will be, just a gazillion ideas floating in my head.

I have been consumed with my first scrapbook adventure (see previous post) that I can't seem to get anything else done. Only part of that statement is true because I sat mindlessly working on an afghan last night (5 rows) and knitting a scarf (10 rows) trying to think of a good simple recipe that the people in the swap will want to make. The only thing that came out of my "think fest" was 5 rows on the afghan and 10 rows on the scarf and the background paper.
Yippidy Do Da!!

I actually made a list of 10 things that I wanted to complete last night and was able to only complete 3. How sad is that? I need to give myself a quick kick in the bum and get going.

I also need to get myself one of those little dictaphone tape recorders because I come up with my best card phrases and journaling while I am laying in bed. Of course I am too lazy to sit up, turn on the light and write it down so often those great quips and stories get lost in my brain. I wonder if this is how novelists write their novels with little handheld recording devices or if they simply sit down at their keyboard and the muse takes over. I am really not going to ponder this too much because I don't intend to write a novel anytime soon and really need to get back to coming up with a good recipe.

My recipe for myself, get the swaps done, get a load of laundry done, and read my textbook for class on Saturday. If I get these done tonight I will be SOOOOO HAPPY!!!

Wish me luck!

A new adventure

I am just about finished with my first attempt at scrapbooking.
I have to admit that the driving factor in this project is that it is not for me.
I am scrapbooking the photos from the Winter Wonder Fest (see previous blog from December) for my sister Cindy who lives in California.
Most of the photos are of her grandkids and she hasn't seen them in over a year.

Granted I cheated and bought a "kit" that had co-ordinating papers and embellishments so it is coming together quite easily. I just have my journaling to do and one more layout and it is completed.

I am really liking this whole layout process but must admit that I fret over just the "right" look and waste a ton of time moving the pictures from one position to another.

After this one I need to start scrapbooking all the photos from all my trips. The hard decision will be which trip will be the one that goes first.

Lady Luck

Lady Luck was with me on Saturday.
My presentation at school with my project partner Andreea went very well.
Neither of us stumbled or stuttered.
The whole thing was over in 15 minutes and thankfully no one asked us any questions.
Even the professor didn't put us on the spot.

Later that night I went to play poker with my sister, two cousins and their spouses.
I had quite a few good hands but two hands that were freakishly rare.
During a hand of seven card, I was dealt four jacks with a pair of aces as the kicker.
The even more freaky hand was a game of five card stud. We needed jacks or better to open and trips (three of a kind) to win. I was dealt three fours.

Two great hands that I have never had before.

A wonderful night filled with great food, good fun and tons of laughter.

Pain Free

Late yesterday afternoon after I finished my PowerPoint slides for our case study presentation in class tomorrow my pain began to lessen. By 7:00pm last night I was pain free and LOVIN' it.
This morning I woke up and I was back to myself again. I hope as the presentation nears (Saturday a little after 8:00am) that the pain doesn't come back. I need to nip this tension thing in the bud. I DON'T want to live this semester as a freak that can't control stress.

Anyone have some good tips on how to remain calm and tension free?

Tension

Tension should be a four letter word. To me it has the same distaste that a four letter word that we all know we shouldn't use but often times do in times of anger or stress. It is still crazy busy at work and with our fiscal year end soon approaching the pressure to be on top of everything is great. Add to that the new semester of school which is like Greek to me (International Acctg) it has led to some very painful days just recently. I have had sinus pain due to the cold and the dry air in my office and home. Couple that with work and school and you get a painful headache with sinus pain. Nothing really seems to take the edge off. So, last night I slept with the vaporizor on in my room just blowing nice moist air. That has helped my sinus cavities. The headache / stabbing pain is from tension and I am making an effort to relax when I begin to feel the tightening across my shoulders and neck.

So remember to stop for a minute when you feel uptight and take a deep breath.
I have to heed my own advise and "find my happy place" when I feel tense, and relax, because if I allow myself 2 minutes of calm, I will avoid the pain and accomplish so much more.
or
Maybe I should play the lottery so that I can win and quit my job and school and become a "Patio Princess". (my happy place, lol!!!)

Things that haunt

My past has come back to haunt me.
I don't mean this is the "my illegitimate child has resurfaced" or "I was once a serial killer" or "if only I hadn't had that nose job"

Just to clarify, I have NO children, have never murdered anyone and the nose I sprout is my own with no enhancements.

Saturday at school we delved into our term paper. The word term here is critical because it will probably take all term to complete the necessary requirements.

Back in the term when my Dad passed away I had to do a term paper that was 40 or 45 percent of our grade. Needless to say with Dad in the hospital for weeks and me skipping class to go to the hospital it is no wonder that my term paper was lacking all of the necessary calculations and research that would have given me a good grade. That coupled with the fact that I had missed many classes and was very sad after Dad passed away, I ended with a "D" in the class. The professor that taught that class (Intermediate Accounting II) was the only professor that required a paper for that class and to complete the paper you had to buy his book in addition to the regular textbook. So needless to say, I avoided him like the plague and took the class again and passed with a "B".

As we were going over the requirements of this term's paper the name of the icky professor reared it's ugly head all over our project syllabus. Here comes the haunting part. Not only do we have to do the project in the same vein as the one that I didn't do very well many years ago but I had to buy the icky professor's book, AGAIN!!! I thought that when I sold that sucker back to the bookstore at the end of the term that it would never cross my path again. No such luck, there it was, in black and white (with a new cover) for me to buy, at the tune of $41.65.

Thank goodness I have a great project partner named Andrea. She also bought the book during our break and we came up with the two companies that we want to analyze. We have chosen to analyze the financial statements of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

I am printing the 2005 annual report as I type this entry and when that is finished I will print the 2004 report. Andrea wants us to wrap this up early in the term and not wait until the end. She is the exact opposite of "stink boy" (see previous posts).

Hopefully, I'll still be able to have a life during this term.
Wish me luck and give me a call now and then to get me out of the house.

Da Bears!

Well it sure was eerie to see the snow yesterday afternoon.
Twenty one years ago (give or take a day or two) I was sitting in the stands at Soldier Field at the NFC championship game when it began to snow in the second half. The result was the same, A BEARS WIN!!!!
I watched the game at home this time and like the first time my brother Rick was with me. I asked him yesterday if he remembered whether we stayed for all of the festivities or did we try to get out of the parking lot. Neither he or I could remember but I do remember not getting home until very late that night so I'm am going to guess that since we were both much younger then that we stayed for the festivities and then went out to celebrate with all the other crazy fans. The 85' Bears team was so dominant and at times the games became a bit boring because they had large leads. The 06' Bears sometimes have you on the edge of your seat more often than I care to experience. Sometimes that is a good thing because when the game is so close I move around and clean, so thank you to the Bears for the nice clean living room that I achieved while watching the game.
Gosh, I wish I was vacationing in Miami two weeks from now!!!

The High Cost of Beauty

Trying to be an attractive woman, girl, chick, broad... is a tough job.
It can be very costly and it is not only in dollars that I speak.
If you read a previous entry then you know that I cut my hair and had a not so great experience.
Well yesterday I went back to have the color corrected.
I must say that this experience was MUCH better than last Saturday when I got my hair cut.
Margaret (my stylist) was VERY NICE and I am getting used to the changes that she made.
I have had my hair as one color for so many years that the highlights that I have now just look different and so I am still getting used to them.
The entire process was a bit costly in dollars and I decided it was my birthday treat as well as a new year splurge.
The other costly thing in my pursuit of beauty was the "cost" of time.
My appointment was at noon and I got there at 11:30 am.
I was taken back and shampooed at 11:45 am.
Four shampooings later and at 4:30 pm I walked out sprouting my new colored locks.
Wow, was I glad that I didn't make any plans for my afternoon or they would have been ruined.
I started and got 50 pages into a book during the times that I had to sit for "processes" to "cure"(that's my word not one used at the salon).
Well, my very dark, almost black hair is now a warm brown with red/caramel highlights.
I WON'T even tell how much lighter my wallet is, LOL!!!!
However, I think it may be the cut or Margaret just loves the "That Girl" flip, because that's what I went home with again.
LOL!!!

I Did It

Yes, I did it. I cut my long hair to shoulder length. Drastic change and I must admit that I was a bit freaked out on Saturday afternoon after the deed was done.

I like the haircut and will have fun experimenting with what can be done with various products and a blow dryer.

I didn't care for the service.

I ended up making my appointment on Friday at lunch at a salon that is in the same strip mall where I get my manicures and this is where my cousin Fran has her hair done. So I drove the short distance from work to make an appointment during my lunch hour on Friday. Fran's stylist wasn't working and will be off for awile to recuperate from a car accident. I knew that if I didn't make an appt. now while I had the nerve to cut my hair that I wouldn't do it so I went with a different stylist. My stylist wasn't working at the time that I made my appt. so we both met when I showed up for my appt. on Saturday afternoon.

I had a picture of a cut that I wanted and left it with the owner on Friday. My stylist had the picture and didn't ask me any questions. She is young and I don't think that she has learned the nature of tactful conversation, because here are some of the things that I was told/asked during my hair cutting experience.

"Do you color your own hair?" " Yes" I have been coloring my hair for many years now, sometimes it was done professionally but most of the time it was a box from the store and my bathroom.

"Do you cut your own bangs?" "Yes" Since my hair was all one length with bangs the only thing that I did regularly cut were my bangs. I knew that I didn't do the "professional" cut but they styled well and I felt that they didn't look that bad. Apparently, I was mistaken.

"Your hair is green" Yes, the stylist proceeded to tell me that a patch of hair that, to me, just looked like a lighter brown color due to the fact that the hair underneath was gray and the dye was beginning to wear off. In her opinion it was green, and in the harsh florescent light at the right angle you could imagine it was green. Either way you would have thought that I had walked into the salon with a screaming head of kelly green hair all ready for St. Patrick's Day.

"Your hair color is uneven, you really should address that problem. See here, the back and bottom are not the same color" Well, since I usually only dyed the root outgrowth and didn't pull it down into the lower part of my hair to help prevent the damage from coloring, yes there was a bit of color difference.

"Your hair color is much too harsh for your coloring", Hmm, that one she will have to take up with God because the color that I have been dying my hair is what was my natural hair color all my life.

"Please don't ever cut your bangs, I'm having a hard time fixing them" Again, like I said, I couldn't see spending money on an easy trim.

Now, in defense of my stylist I am going to admit that I was very FREAKED OUT when she began the cut by taking all of my hair and holding it just below my shoulder and WHACKING it all off in one full swoop, and throwing it down on the floor. I have to admit that the remainder of the time in the chair I was a bit timid and didn't talk much (unusual for me). The fact that I have had very long hair for the last 15+ years and it was all sitting on the floor made me very scared, timid, defensive....

The last thing that made the experience a bit undaunting was the fact that I walked out of there with a Marlo Thomas "That Girl" flip at the ends of my hair. YUCK!!!!

So you have allowed my to tell of the icky parts of my experience and now I will end on the good, positive aspects of my hair cut.

The owner of the shop is GREAT!
Very personable, very welcoming and not at all critical of who cut or what you did to your hair prior to your arrival at her shop. If she was a stylist I would be going to her.
The cut is cute.
I can put it into a pony tail which was the only instruction that I gave my stylist. (If I had known that she was going to layer the back on my hair I would have told her no. I didn't know that a bob had layering in the back).
My hair is very curly now that the weight has been removed. I don't remember this much curl or waves in my hair. This morning all I did was wash it, dry my bangs, put some mousse in the remainder of my hair and scrunch and out the door. A great thing because my biggest fear on getting my hair cut was the whole styling thing. I didn't want to have to spend alot of time "primping" my hair before going out.
Reasonable price.
The cost of the shampoo, cut and blow dry was $30.00

I am going back this Saturday for a color. (She is going to "pull out" the current color and add a more warm, subtle brown).
I am going to give the stylist the benefit of the doubt that I was just super sensitive because of the shock of seeing all my hair on the floor. My stylist from the haircut is going to do the color. (After all, my color is uneven as she so kindly informed me more than once).
If I have the same bad vibes or that feeling that we are just not "clicking" then I will go to the stylist that Fran goes to or if she isn't available I'll try another stylist.

Hair

I have been toying with the idea of cutting my hair.
I am not talking about a simple trim that I have been getting lately but an all out change.
I have had my hair long for eons and I don't necessarily want to go super short but I do want something new.
I have been thinking about a bob or a shag.
I want something that will not require alot of prep time or take a ton of product to make it presentable to walk out the door.
I wash and dry my bangs each and every morning now so I can put up with a 15 minute styling schedule.
Now comes the hunt, to find the right style and the right stylist that isn't going to take all of my disposable income every 6 weeks.
If you know of a good reasonable stylist please let me know.

The big 47

Well, here we are another year has passed and I get to put another notch in my belt.
Yup, today is my birthday and I am one more step closer to fifty.
At least I can still say that I am the youngest in my family and furthest from that fifty milestone.
Nothing special planned, maybe a special dinner and a relaxing evening.
Enjoy the day, I know that I will!!!

Chirstmas clean-up

Why do I always feel both sad and exhilerated when it is time to put away the Chirstmas decorations?

I know that I feel sad that after all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays that it is such a short time that the decorations are fully appreciated. For me, the before holiday crunch (and it was such a crunch this year, no cards out the door, no baking done) that I hardly noticed or appreciated the many nice decorations that I have either received, made or purchased. It was only after the actual Christmas day, when things slowed down that I was able to look and enjoy. Then, it was time to put it all away. So, as I packed each Disney ornament back into it's box it was like saying so long until next year. A sad time.

However, once the tree was safely back in it's box (after leaving many scratches and cuts on my hands and arms) the mood turned to a feeling of freedom and space. I guess this is all because my house is small and in order to put up my Christmas tree I have to relocate furniture and everything becomes very tight and cozy. With the removal of the tree and the new resolution to become more organized and live a simpler life it was like a new beginning over the weekend. I moved all of the furniture back into place and instead of just putting it back I did a complete cleaning. I even put thought into the items that sit on top of the old Singer trundle sewing machine that is used as an end table next to my chair. I went through the drawers, cleaned all the wrought iron on the base, and polished the old wood. Did I really want or need to display or keep some of the items that my sister Cindy would call knick-knacks? As this is an ongoing project started before the holidays, I just added some stuff to the two bags I had for the Salvation Army and dropped them off this morning. Now, the challenge is to keep up the good clean that I did over the weekend and continue moving into other rooms. With any luck I will be living a more organized, productive and clutter free life by the end of 2007.
Wish me luck!

Catwoman

I am the super-hero "Catwoman".
(Was Catwoman a super-hero in the true sense of the word? Wasn't she Batman's nemesis?)Strange because when I was in grammer school I was told that I have "cat eyes".
Go to this website and see what super-hero you are.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

What type of accent do you have?

So I took an online quiz to see if I have an accent.
My results: I speak with "An Inland North" accent.
Here is the explanation: You may think that you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop".
The results were dead on. Having travelled to some states out of the Great Lakes region, I have been asked the Chicago question and I do call Diet Coke, pop.

Go try it for yourself. (I hope that I copied the link correctly).

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have

Moving

I was informed recently that our offices will not be moving to Bensenville at the end of this month as was previously scheduled. There have been some delays at our new location and so the move has been postponed until the end of February. YEAH!!

This commute is half the distance that it will take to get to the new location so I am happy that for one more month I can avoid the longer drive.

Hopefully there will be other new and exciting news when we move and maybe everyone won't be coming to the new location which will reduce the stress level in my department.

Keep your fingers crossed.

A very hard New Year's resolution

One of the resolutions that I made this year is going to be a difficult one to keep.
I don't think that I would have a hard time with this resolution if it wasn't for one person in my office.
This was day one of work in the New Year and I have only 1 hour and 13 minutes left until I can breathe a sigh of relief.
The resolution: Don't speak poorly of another person.
So, wish me some luck with this resolution as during the work week it will be difficult for me to keep this resolution.
Hope that you all have an easier time in keeping your resolutions.

I just keep thinking of karma.

I was a cat

What Animal Were You In a Past Life?http://www.blogthings.com/whatanimalwereyouinapastlifequiz/

I am soooooo bad

Thursday 12/28 was my Mom's birthday. We made plans to have me take her to lunch on Saturday and that is what we did. I stopped by my niece Jennifer's floral shop and picked up a vase full of carnations for Mom. Carnations are my favorite flower as well as Mom's favorite too. Jennifer did a FANTASTIC job of arranging and once the lovely gift was made off it went to Mom's.

Jennifer joined us for lunch at the Olive Garden. I am NOT a lover of salad, but the soup and salad combo that the Olive Garden does is great. I ate my fill of minetrone (sp?) soup and salad. I can do without the black olives, hot peppers and onions but those are easily picked out of the salad. I almost broke down and ordered what Jennifer had, fettucini alfredo, MY FAVORITE. Something that I love to order out since I have no desire on messing with the whole preparation thing. Let someone else make the mess and have to clean it up is my motto. Since I didn't partake of the alfredo I now have that on my brain and see that perhaps I will have to get that for my birthday dinner in the not too distant future. LOL!

So, neither of the two events written above are the reason that I was sooooo bad.
Nope, while out in the burbs on a Saturday I of course went shopping to two stores that I often don't visit because of the distance and the fact that one of them is not open on Sundays. I stopped off at Hobby Lobby and a scrapbooking store in Hoffman Estates.

I picked up new Mickey Mouse fabric (for the MM quilt that I am going to make "someday") and of course some rubber stamps and stamping supplies. At Creative Scrapbooking (I think that is the name of the store) I got some great papers that I haven't seen anywhere before. Chicago Cubs, Bears and Sox papers. I also got a cool Chicago Bears die-cut and some paper. A couple of X-mas stamps that were on sale. I need more rubber stamps like I need a hole in my head but then again I haven't ever been afraid of the holes in my head, after all I have thirteen ear piercings.

Oh, I just remembered that on my way home after work on Friday I stopped by a craft store near my house for their after Christmas sale and special discount day and bought a few more stamps and a cool paper quilling kit.

So with my sins confessed I should also admit that I have made a New Year resolution to get down to some serious crafting this year. My first project is to take those giant panorama pictures and make a scrapbook for my sister Cindy. I think that I will start that today.

May you all have a great New Year and may the resolutions that you made be easy to keep.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!