Friday, 10 pm... are we seeing a pattern here?

I know I need to post cards.  I have been creating a TON, so I have to get them ready to post.

Tonight I took myself out on a date to see my favorite podcaster/comedian, Pete Holmes.  To use his word, he was a delight!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE him and he made me laugh for nearly 90 minutes.

I would like someone to clone him and leave the clone in Portland to entertain me for the rest of my life.

Still working on trying to get this house business in order.  Buying a house is not easy and I wish I had someone to do it for me. 

Friday, 10 pm, going to bed?!

This getting old thing is for the birds... I'm tired and at 10 pm on a Friday night, I'm taking Dexter: Season Five to bed and calling it a night. 

Figured I'd share some of my latest projects with you, just to prove I have been busy:

Sunday, er, um, Monday post...

Hope you had a nice Memorial day off work.  

Been a while since I posted, but here's one I can't resist posting.  It was so fun to make.  It is for a co-worker's son who turns 18 & works at Baskin Robbins.  I know it has pink on it, but hopefully he still likes it!

I've been busy making cards and looking at houses and trying to line everything up so I can have a successful house buying experience.

Lots more to post, but need to get some rest.

Unity Challenge April/May 2013 entry

http://www.theunitystampco-challenge.blogspot.ca/ :

Almost forgot I made this for the Unity Blog {Be Inspired} Challenge
Unity stamps (sentiment & camera), labelmaker name, AC rub on, DCWV glitter paper, random polka dot ribbon, tim holtz film strip.

  I love the color combination.

Latest cards/shows watched.... update

Hey everyone out there in blogland.  How is life treating you all these days?  Well, I hope.

Life continues to move on, days go by in a blur... Some days pass too slow for me and I'm checking the clock every five minutes and others I look up and the day is nearly over.

Work is fine, home is fine, I have shelter above my head, clothes on my back (& front) and food in my belly so I can't complain.

That being said, I'm going to start seeing a therapist in the very near future.  It has come to my attention that I have some ANGER issues.  While I don't like admitting these types of things in public, I am doing just that.

In the meantime, I'm making cards like a mad cardmaker and attempting to organize as I go.

Here are my latest projects:

I seem to dig the fishing cards.  They are super fun to make.  Stickopotomous stickers, CI fishing lure paper, Basic Grey "Hey Boy" collection pattern paper.

Fun firetruck/fireman themed card.  Love the wood and red paper and the thing that looks like a fireman shield.  You will never in a million years guess where I got that shape for my Slice.  The last place you'd ever look.

 A nice birthday mom card.  I color pencil colored the entire door stamp.  Unity door stamp.

A birthday card for my #3 customer.  This was super fun to make.  Glitter, star, bows 3D tape and Voila! 

 Fun France themed card for a coworker.  More from the Hey Boy collection pack.  I clearly love that paper right now.

 Envelope for the France card.  Cut from an old map.

 Card for a coworker/friend/customer.

Finally getting around to some generic Mother's Day cards. 

Almost forgot to mention what I've been watching lately.  I finally saw Argo, End of Watch, third season of Dexter,  third season of Brothers and Sisters, It Happened One Night (with Cary Grant), Father of the Bride (with Elizabeth Taylor), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (which I LOVED), Scotland, PA. I started (but haven't finished yet) Hitchcock, the series "The Comeback", season one of Frasier...

Weekend is over already?!

Yesterday was difficult (Pat's funeral), but it was nice to see all the other "kids" there.  I had a lovely drive down, despite missing my turn for the "back" way to Silverton.  I have never been to a Catholic funeral (nor have I been to the graveside ceremony) and I actually had no idea that Pat was religious, so it was interesting to hear Marta and Earl talk about that in their eulogy of their mother.  I like that she kept it her personal thing.  People spend too much time shouting about their faith from the rooftops and spirituality is a personal thing, each of us will digest and feel and experience in our own way.

 Funny how much time passes and how weird it is to see us older.  The weirdest thing to me was seeing Abe.  He's looking older, the same as I remember, a bit rounder, and just a little white in his beard.  Today I reflected on the young years we spent together.  I wish I made more of those years.  I wish I fought less and loved more, stressed less and had more fun.  That isn't to say we didn't have fun, but we could have had more.  We could have made "us" work. 

What I took from the funeral was "I wish I would have talked to Pat about Abe and I when we were having troubles.  Shame on me."  Listening to Earl and Marta talk about how awesome their mom was (rightfully so) and cite examples from their life experiences with her, made me regret not tapping into what was surely a fountain of wisdom and guidance.  She accepted me into her life (as all the Hazekamps have) unconditionally.  It is a remarkable thing to experience and something I don't see in my own family and surely never seen replicated by anyone else in my life.  This world needs more Pat Hazekamps in it... We need more unconditional love.  More acceptance and more politeness and more moms who stand up for their kids when they are being bullied.   More FIERCE people... that was how both of her kids described her and it was an accurate description of how she lived her life! 

As I drove home, it dawned on me that Mr. & Mrs. H. were a year from celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.  That thought brought tears to my eyes.

I made cards for Earl and Marta.  I gave Mr. H. a pretty photo card that I purchased from a woman at work's husband (who takes phenomenal photos).  I wasn't sure what kind of card to make him.
Just like I wasn't sure what to write as there are no real words that will accurately express my sorrow for their loss.

I had fun making this one for Kristina at the office.  I loved the colors and playing with the cute baby stamps and tiny details.  How cute is that bear?!?!

 This is for the guy who sits across the cube from me.  His cousin is having a baby girl.  This was so fun to make, again with the baby stamps.  I am not sure if it picks it up in the scan, but I sprayed some sparkly mist we got at convention over the entire thing, such a subtle, but cool effect.

 Boss lady's (aka customer numero uno) parents are going to Spain to celebrate their anniversary, so I made them a Spain-inspired card, complete with an envelope I made from an old National Geographic map.  Kind of simple and basic, but I love the finished product.

Envelope

I recently purchased Cardmaps 2 & 3 by Becky Fleck.  I can't tell you how helpful the sketches have been.  So worth the money!

Been busy, but working hard on not glorifying busy these days....

I had a bizarre week.  Over the weekend, I received a card from my friend's sick mother.  By Tuesday I was seeing FB posts that made me wonder if she had passed.  Took a couple more days to get confirmation about it.  In the end, she had indeed passed.  :(  My brain had a really hard time wrapping around the fact that I had received a note from Pat over the weekend.  She couldn't be gone.... just couldn't....

 So sad, she was such an awesome lady (always sunny and happy).   I have many fond memories of her during the holidays.  I'm sorry that my friends lost their mother and have no clue what to say during times like this.  I will be at the funeral on Saturday, so hopefully my presence is enough since I don't have the right words.

I will definitely make a card, or three.  :(

I haven't even cried until just now writing this, but Saturday will be messy and I'm bringing a whole box of kleenex with me.

Been making cards as usual and starting my organization of my zillions of scrapbooking and cardmaking supplies.  I probably go halfway through my 12x12 paper.




Cute card for a coworker.  This was fun to make and for a guy, he really likes my cards!

I didn't decide what "mom" occasion I will make this one for!  I guess I should do Mother's day, but could also be a mom birthday!

This is for my friend's almost 95 year old mother who hasn't been doing too well lately!

Thank you card by special request! Greens and blues and flowers were the inspiration!

 This was fun.  I got to use my new SU! pattern paper and some really really old flowers!

Had a good time making this one.  The april birthday  flower is daisy and the stone is diamond.  So I used some sparkly rhinestones on the daisy centers.  She's a hairdresser so I found some really old comb & blowdryer stickers and covered up the hideous colors on the blowdryer with sparkly rhinestones!  Polish it off with some SUPER OLD stickopotomous star stickers that matched the green color perfectly!

Fun generic baby card, super simple!  LOVE the tiny onesie!

 Another generic baby card, neutral colors!

 Love this card for Kristina at work.  I got to use the new OWL brad.  That ties it all together, don't you think!

 Older card I made for Kristina's stepson: 

 Cute tropical card.  Again, not sure if I posted it here already.  Love the way this one came out! Silver martini punch, tropical flower and a fun palm tree, including coconuts!

Post consumerism guilt?! Nah, not much....

Well, I spent a bit of money at the CK scrapbook convention, but really tried to get stuff I will use.  We will see how it goes!  I had fun with Melinda: taking classes, going out to eat and making dinner at home!

Friday we had early classes, then did some shopping.  Saturday we had classes later in the day and then finished our shopping at the vendor faire.

Back to making cards Sunday, after organizing some of my stuff.  Last week, I got rid of my paper scraps.  I gave them to my boss's daughter to play with.  She is 10 and will create some awesome projects, I'm sure.

The rest of the week was scrambling trying to make some last minute cards with deadlines.

Finished the first season of Boardwalk Empire.  After a rough start, I found myself hooked.  Very well done show in my opinion.  VERY GRAPHIC (sex, violence), you have been warned.

Getting organized with the SCRAPRACK system is tops on my list these days.  It will be a long process, but worth it in the long run!

Made this one for a person, who decided he couldn't fit in meeting up or picking it up before delivering it.  Um, one word: Douche.  So it's up for grabs if anyone is interested.  Inside is blank (room for you to pour your heart out to your mommy). If not, I will add it to the stash or send it to my mommy.

One for my favorite guy friend, Jose.  He loves hockey (Winterhawks) and soccer (Timbers) and I couldn't decide between them, so just went with a generic hockey theme!  CTMH hockey stamp set, Slice die-cut hockey sticks, fun new skull brad (came in a pack with guitar brads) and stars with brads to top it off!  Really fun card!  :)  The envelope was the best part: made from an atlas page of South Dakota (where he is originally from)!

 Fun card for a coworker.  LOVE this background paper and have been dying to use it.  The puppy is cut from velvety paper and a tiny bow, dangly tag and star brad finish it off.  Let no one tell you otherwise, the tiny bows are a pain in the ass to make.  Perhaps just because I have ginormous fingers...

 Fun card for my Aunty Kitty.  :)  Simple stickers on vellum and trimmed a border around the edges on a black sparkly background!

 This is for Ruby (#1 customer's niece) who likes preppy clothes (argyle pattern paper), giraffes and One Direction.  I had to do research on One Direction, as I don't know ANYTHING about 'em.  They are no "NKOTB" (ha!)  I tried to mimic their logo.  Background is sparkly coral paper.

Fun BMW-inspired card for #1 customer. The recipient loves BMWs and was recently pulled over for a speeding ticket, so that is why there is a tiny police car.  That was fun to make.  Took a CTMH car stamp and added two tiny pieces of foil paper in red and blue.  Fun WASHI tape, a BMW logo and voila!

 I have issues with this one, but for the most part, I like it.  It is for my number one customer's husband's 45th birthday.  He is going to Vegas for a boys' golf weekend! Instead of putting the number 45 on the card, I tried a sneaky approach.  See if you can spot it!  Fun golf stickers,  gambling pattern paper, star brads, die stickers, embroidery floss (stitching) and a dangly tag finish it off.  I used my cutout corner punch.  I love that thing!

This was fun.  My friend Sandra has tea parties (complete with singing "I'm a little teapot" with her toddler grandson.  She wanted to introduce him to the concept of receiving mail.  Neat idea, huh?  I cut out a teapot and teacups then dangled the teacups from the teapot labeled the cups "Nana" and "Bode".  The inside has the rest of the "I'm a little teapot" first verse.

Next up: April birthdays off the calendar and Mother's Day cards...

Almost the end of March?!? How can that be.....

Whoa!  Can time please stand still for a day or a week or so.... haha....

Saturday Theresa and I went to sign up for a sewing class!  Wish me luck... at this point, I'm not good at sewing.

I had a good, productive weekend and now I have a short week... Not a fan of short weeks to be honest... while yes, it is nice to have a day off... I always have to make up for the time off by working extra hard when back in the office.  However, it is for a good cause this week - CKC Portland!!

Watched a ton of movies and TV shows:

----Ricochet (again) - old and dated, yes, but love young Denzel Washington and Ice-T and crazy, young John Lithgow! 

----Get Him To The Greek - fun fluff and actually kind of funny.  I love Jonah Hill and Russell Brand and their silly, crude humor.  I laughed watching it a second time, so that must mean it is good, right?! 

----Boardwalk Empire - I could only watch a couple episodes of this.  The story is interesting, but it is set in a time when women are abused and mistreated.  I have a hard time watching things like that. It also has a LOT of violence, which I also don't like to watch very much of. The news is enough violence for me.  I will try to watch an episode or two at a time.

----Playing For Keeps - Four Words: Gerard Butler Rom Com.  Enough said.   I have had a crush on him since PS I Love You.  95% of that crush is his accent.

----The Paperboy - Wow.  This was an interesting story.  I watched it blindly (only got it because I saw ZE is in it) not knowing what it was about.  I found a lot of it disturbing (to the extent I'm still thinking about it and shuddering a day later).  John Cusack can sure play a creepy, disgusting, swamp trash character.

----To Rome With Love - I liked this one.  Interesting little vignettes all kind of tying together at the end.  I think it is interesting that Woody Allen continues to put himself in his films. A lot of it is in Italian.  I might have missed some stuff, because I was busy making cards and the way I watch movies and shows much of the time is listening to it with headphones and looking up now and then.  Works very well if I have seen the show a million times before, which is why sometimes I'll put something on I've seen many times before and know well.

Easter cards:  Had fun with these.  Got my inspiration from the back of the current PaperCrafts magazine.  I threw in a chocolate bunny on a few.  These got snatched up at the office today.  I have one left.