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.

One week countdown....

...to the Scrapbook Convention!  Yay!

I have to get my place ready for guests because Melinda will be here next weekend to attend classes and buy stuff with me!

I'm excited.  Yes, my life is boring.

I have been making cards and this is my latest.  It is rad.... I would love to receive it, so I hope she likes it!!  It was fun to make!

 

This was fun...  the girl who it is for likes neon colors and traveling. I stamped the background repetitively with a world stamp (versamark ink) and then I stamped the same world stamp onto the globe.  It fit just perfectly and I did it in hot pink ink for a subtle effect.  I used an older Hambly rubon and some blue striped washi tape. Luggage tag, globe & camera cut with my Slice machine.  I love that thing!

This was really fun to make... I guess they all are... The recipient lives in China and likes traveling. I used the same world stamp as on the card above and punched it out with a circle punch.  Anytime I can use multiple pattern papers is impressive. A few brads and stitches wrapped it up nicely. Very pleased with the final result. 

I am still watching Long Way Down and can't recommend it enough!

Kleenex....

Clearly I need a box of Kleenex while watching "Long Way Down".... I just ran out of Kleenex last night.... grr.... now it's on my list.

I took this awesome picture of the city last week.  Just looking at my pics again.... some of them are pretty rad.  :)  Portland is gorgeous if you haven't ever been here...

Of course, I've been making cards as well.... here are a few of the latest... and more to come...

 The giver of this one said her husband (the recipient) is going to squeal like a girl.  That makes me happy.... I like my customers satisfied!

I stopped myself from buying velvety shamrocks while I was at the craft store... then I came home, remembered I have green velvety paper and a shamrock on my slice design card.  :)  Happiness is using my stuff & not getting more... right?!?

Catching up, finally, uh, sort of?!?!

I have to say, it's pretty weird, blogging more this year so far than I've ever blogged before.  I know I've been slacking, but have been busy with cards and a little bit of a social life.

Another weekend passed and I didn't get nearly as much stuff done as planned, there is always next week.... I think I could say this every weekend for the rest of my life.

I started watching Dexter from the beginning (I'm currently finished with season 1 and season 2).  I like it.  It takes a bunch of unexpected turns and keeps me guessing. It is hard for me to picture the main character as anything but the brother in Six Feet Under.  :)  His hair is terrible in the second season!
 
I finished the second season of Brothers & Sisters.  I really like that show, but as one would expect from a show on ABC, it is a tear-jerker much of the time. I need Kleenex to watch it, definitely.

I just started Long Way Down, a documentary of Charley Boorman & Ewan McGregor riding motorcycles from Western Europe to the furthest tip of Africa.  It's really well done and fun to watch!

I've been busy making cards.... as usual.