Early Morning Crafting

I couldn't sleep this morning, so instead of just laying in the bed fretting over all the things that were laying on my desk for me to do I got up and made this card instead. I had a sticker sheet from Archiver's that I wanted to use and this is what I came up with.





There isn't alot of "sentiment" room inside the card, but I was looking to do something a little different.

From Choo Choo to BOO

I know it's summer! But I bought this halloween paper on sale and I had these chipboard letters so I put together a very quick card this morning before work.




Here are some pictures of my yard. Not much is blooming right now, just the hollyhock, the purple coneflowers and the squirrel planted sunflower. To make the patio larger we are adding patio blocks. We have put the planters that were on the edge of the patio up on cinder blocks and lumber to give more of a dividing line between the patio and the lawn.

Choo Choo

Here is a card that I made for my brother-in-law Tom's birthday that is coming up in early August. The image is retired SU, from the "All Aboard" set. The cardstock is SU and the patterned paper is leftover from a graduation stack that I bought a few months ago.



So, my brother is on vacation this week and I have taken this time to be a crafting fool. Right now I am crocheting two afghans. Two because one is a cream color and wide enough for a queen size bed, the other is navy blue with some white and orange (Chicago Bears football colors). The "Bears" one is just a lap throw. I am working on them both because sometimes the cream color one just get so boring and I need a change of color. Right now the cream color one is about mid thigh on me from the floor, so I have quite a bit to go. The navy one is only about to my knee. I hope to have both of them done for the craft fairs that I have coming up this fall.

I am also cataloging my stamp sets by stamping each set's images on a piece of printer paper and writing down the name. I then will put these images in a binder and number the pages. The number on the page will correspond to the number on the set and I will be able to easily find the images that I want to use. I often get ideas in my head of a certain image and phrase but waste so much of my precious crafting time trying to find the supplies. I am hoping that my thoughts for an organizational answer will work.

It's About Time

I started this card a LONG time ago. All of the baseball patterned paper that I was finding was not what I had envisioned. This pattern was closer to what I wanted but the aqua color was not. Since I need to get this card out because it is already late I had to change my original color scheme. This card is for my great nephew who turned 12 this month and I hope that he likes it.

I Finally Got the Answer

So recently I have been telling you how my brother Rick (who lives with me) has been extra special handy and doing a ton of projects around the house (paint the garage and shed, line up patio blocks from house to garage to look like one long sidewalk, weeding, and the most recent patio expansion).

All this time I thought it was because he was going to have some kick ass BBQ while I was gone last weekend. I came home to the house and yard looking just about the same, with the exception of him painting the door jams on the kitchen doorway and the side door exit doorway.

Yesterday, I came home from work and opened up the side door to be hit with the smell of bleach and clean. To me clean has the smell of bleach and ammonia. Of course never used together because I think those two smells make smoke and burn your lungs.

Anyhoo I digress. The bathroom was scrubbed down. He purchased a new bath mat and shower curtain liner. The kitchen was shiny and clean, the living room and dining rooms had been vacuumed. So I ask him, hey thanks for cleaning, what's up? Are you bringing that guy from England back to the house tomorrow before you take him to the train station? (Sidebar: Rick is going on a trip down to NC. Many bikers from all across the country and England are all going down to the same area. This guy from England whom Rick met about 6 months ago when he came to the states with his wife on vacation. Rick ran to the airport to meet him and his wife because unbeknownst to me Rick had invited the man to sleep overnight at our house. I do not recall this arrangement. I was with the understanding that he was flying into Chicago, Rick was to pick him up at the airport, show him Lake Shore Drive, the "Bean", Buckingham Fountain.... the sites of Chicago and then put him on a train at Union Station to go down to St. Louis where he was meeting another biker from whom he was borrowing a bike for the trip to NC).
Turns out that this scenario had changed and I either forgot, wasn't listening when he told me or he never told me. Well, all of the above will happen tomorrow, after Mr. England stays overnight with us and we host a BBQ for him to meet the local guys who are going on the trip and for those who can't make the trip this year.

Sooooo, there is both an upside and a downside to this story. The TOTAL UPSIDE is that my yard is kickin' some butt and looking quite nice. The house is clean and with just a little tweaking will be all set for my poker party to be held when Rick is gone on vacation. With all those items done I will be able to do some SERIOUS crafting. I may even bring out the ol' sewing machine and make something, what I don't know but the wheels in my brain can now do some turning and come up with a project. The bummer Downside to this story is that there will be a stranger sleeping on my couch or in Rick's room. I will have to be super quiet in the morning when I get up and get ready for work.

I sure do hope that he has a cool British accent, one that makes you just want to kick back and listen to him read the phone book. If he doesn't have a cool accent I'll be very bummed out.

A Weekend Get-Away

So, I found out that I am not good luck to "my" team the Chicago Cubs. My Mom and I went to Houston this past weekend to go to see the Cubbies play the Astros on Saturday night. We flew in on Friday, went to the game on Saturday night and left on Sunday morning. Coincidence that the Cubs lost on Friday and Saturday nights but won yesterday afternoon after we were back in Chicago?

Below are pics from the trip. I don't know why I do it but I take pics of the rooms that I stay in. So, here is our room, the view from our room and the view from our seats at the ballpark. Some of the ballpark shots have been zoomed.

This trip to Texas marks my 20th state since I started my quest to see and do something in each of the 50 states. I made this quest on my 40th birthday and have been working on it a little at a time. "Doing something" is more than just driving through a state. I have alot of states to go but feel that I have made a decent dent in the list in 8 years.



























Image zoomed

Random Stuff

I don't know about anyone else who's crafty, but do you ever get a vision of a certain way that you want a card or a layout to be and know that you have all of the elements to make it that way but you just can't put your fingers on the stuff when you need it? Or, is that my problem because I am not that organized? Well, I am working on a birthday (belated of course) card for my great nephew but need a specific patterned paper to make it like I envisioned it. So, in the meantime I leave you with pics of my kids, my flowers and the project that is going on in the backyard. Hope you enjoy!





Just sharing a chew with my friend.


What.....I'm NOT spoiled!!!


Last year I planted three hollyhock plants. They grew about three feet and never bloomed. This year I know that one for sure did not make it through the winter. They or it (one or two) are growing like crazy. Well, I was VERY excited to see my very first hollyhock bloom. I can see that there are more just waiting to shout out their beauty and I think that one of the blooms will be a red hue.


When I bought this canna this year I thought based on the color of the leaves that the blooms were going to be red. You can imagine my surprise to see these brilliant orange blooms. Lovin' em!


So, my brother Rick (who lives with me) has taken on another large backyard project this summer. He has already completed the painting of the garage and shed. He has been doing general cleaning of the yard and garage but this undertaking is quite large. He is expanding our patio area. I forgot to take pictures before this stage, yes it was WAY worse than now. These are the last two days (see date on pic) of his progress. I will remember to take pictures tonight. I wish I had the money for a new concrete patio but alas some of my income tax money is going for new gutters. WOOOO HOOOO, it's not every day that you can get brand spanking new white, don't have to paint gutters.

The Winner Is....

Drum roll please.......

Baaaa rummmmmmmmmmmmm

The winner of the two stamps and lipstick brads is Joanne!!!

Joanne, please send me an e-mail with your address and I will get the items out to you.
konnie1960@yahoo.com

Thank you to everyone who left a comment. Please stick around for more give aways as I get into cleaning/organizing the craft cellar.

Flowers and Freebies

Before we get to the freebies, you have to view my flowers.










While working down in the craft cellar this past weekend I discovered that I have duplicates of two stamps. Up for grabs are the two stamps and six lipstick brads.
All you have to do is leave a comment and I will do the names in a hat drawing thing. Deadline to participate is Sunday, July 13th.


The large Valentine stamp is from Paper Inspirations and the small words next to the vertical word Valentine are: I love you for all you are and for all we are together.
The small Merry Christmas stamp is from Studio G.

I Did Some Crafting & New Flowers

The orange lilies on the east side of the yard bloomed.



I signed up for a swap at Splitcoast and here is my card.
The swap required that you use at least one button on the card.
Mine are on the wheels and the small white ones are brads.
I think that the image is from High Hopes.

A Totally Freaky Thing

For those of you who have been reading this blog, you are aware that I "have put myself out there" on four online dating sites. For the most part there are a variety of people from all walks of life and who come in all different shapes and sizes.

Recently I had a total freak out when I opened up one of the dating sites to find my matches. Now I must put a disclaimer on this site. This is the site that brought me the man that I actually met for lunch before going on vacation. (Update on that later). My profile is normal (I had to go check). So without any further explanation I will write down the information as it appeared on the site.

Are You Looking for Someone Really Different?

Hi, my name is Lorelei and I am a CD/TV. If you don't know what those initials mean, then I am probably not for you. I am a male who likes to crossdress and go out to accepting clubs and restaurants. I love to do karaoke, even if I don't have a great voice. I am looking for someone who will accept me in male mode or female mode, who is willing to go out with me when I am dressed up and to be with friends who have similar tastes. You don't have to like to sing at karaoke, but you must like to come with me and listen...if you do sing that would be a bonus. I am very affectionate in both modes and expect my partner to be the same way. If you are non-judgemental and willing to try something just a little different, you might find it is lots of fun.

There were five photos attached. One of him dressed as a male and four of him dressed like a woman.

I found that I AM JUDGEMENTAL. The freaky-ness of that just gave me the heebie jeebies. I took pictures of his photos as they appeared on the computer screen to show my family. Some have thought that I should meet him/her so that I could have a good story to tell. Sorry readers, you will just have to live with my currently boring stories and forget about the titillating (pun intended)cross-dresser story.

If I thought that I could post his pictures from my camera without getting into some kind of trouble I would.

I guess the best way to sum up the experience:
Different strokes for different folks.

Voo Doo

This little lovely is tacked to the side of my cubicle at work. It doesn't hurt to scare some of the people that bother me with silly stuff every once in a while. In fact when recently asked by a "high maintenance" salesman what it was there for, my reply was:
It is an authentic voo-doo doll from New Orleans and I told him that I was going to put all of the sales rep's names on the wall and whomever "wins" for that day has their name put on the doll. You should have seen his face, it was priceless!!! I was kidding, but I think that he, to this day thinks I was serious.

For those of you who know that I am having a problem with my lower back and knee, yes, I checked to make sure that no pins are in that area of my buddy.

Do They Get Along

These pictures taken recently should answer the question of whether Maggie (white choodle) has fit into the household and if she get along with Gidget (chihuahua).