A Few Cards

I made for some swaps... I can't remember if I posted my quote swap already, so if not, I apologize. But anyway.

One is the quote swap that Courtney hosted, one is "On the Farm" from Card Cafe, and one is "Here Birdie, Birdie" also from Card Cafe. Here they are, hope you enjoy. Eventually I will get more stuff blogged. I promise. Lef T was talking to me about that today, saying that he wanted me to update. I haven't done much other than take care of stuff here since he had surgery, etc. :)

TAG, You're IT!

I forgot that Courtney tagged me like a week ago. Apparently I need to do 7 random thoughts. I have no idea what to say... but I am going to make the attempt, since the last time I got tagged, I was having the worst migraine I've ever had and I got bitchy about it. (Sorry, Jeanette)

ok, here goes....

1. Sagittarius is my sign.
2. I am spoiled.
3. I have a tattoo of a frog on my left ankle.
4. I am in love with the 80s.
5. I miss the midwest a lot.
6. I can't check out books from the public library.
7. I have Bipolar disorder.

So, that rounds out the list for me, I guess... Some day I will try and blog about all of the stuff that I just mentioned. I STILL haven't blogged about my beef with McDonalds, so, that has to happen at some point. :)

Sometimes, I get overwhelmed...

Now is one of those times. I know I will be ok. It's just... I like routine. I really like routine.
A LOT. So, on Wednesday, my dh had a SLAP repair. No, I didn't slap him and injure him so badly that he needed medical attention. It stands for superior labrum anterior to posterior. The labrum is the lip or ring of cartilidge around your shoulder socket that helps keep your arm bone in place. Here's a link to read more about it.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/shoulder-slap-tear-topic-overview


Anyway... he's in a sling for the next 4 weeks at least. And he's hating it. Anyone who knows my dh knows that he is VERY independednt. He doesn't like to have anyone do anything for him. He doesn't like to ask for help. So, the last couple days around our house have been a little rough. He is fine, but I have taken the weight of the world on my shoulders, and it's difficult. He also is not able to sleep in bed. He has been sleeping on the reclining sofa in our room. And I miss him. I miss putting my head on his shoulder while we talk. I miss him putting his head in my lap so I can play with his hair. So I am trying to keep it together while I pick up the slack. He is the one who does the dishes in our house, so I have been trying to keep them done. It's not a hard thing, it's just something that I don't enjoy doing. I mean, REALLY don't enjoy doing.

And I need to be better about telling him how much I appreciate that he does them. Because last night when I was getting ready to load the dishwasher, and dumping out disgusting cereal and milk that was still in bowls while trying not to dry heave, I was thinking how much I dislike the chore, and how grateful I am that he has done it. I don't think I can count on one hand (ok, maybe both) the times I have done the dishes in the last five years. It has honestly been less than 10. I mean, we will make up for it now, because I've done them twice just today, and haven't done the dinner dishes yet. But still. I can't tell you what it means to know that I never have to do dishes when he's well. And the thing is, my job is laundry. My dh feels the same way about laundry as I do about dishes. But I can guarantee you that he's done laundry more times than I've done dishes.

The point of this story is, I love my husband more than anything, and he's awesome. And I hope that after this week, he will get some kind of inkling about how much I love him, because it's really hard for me to tell him what he does right. I am one of those people who says nothing when things are ok, but when things aren't ok, WATCH OUT. So, honey, I LOVE YOU. YOU ROCK. I appreciate all you do for me. I am happy to take care of you during this crappy time. And I am really glad we did the shoulder first. Because knee surgery will be a cake walk after this. :D SMOOCHES.

This is exactly what I should be doing right this minute...

Well, here's the pics of what it looks like now. One of my wonderful friends came over last night and cut my boys' hair, and then helped me with some putting away of stuff.. which was SO awesome! So, yes, there is some stuff on my desk, but it will have to wait til I get home.

And, ignore the damn sideways picture. I can't figure out how to get it off there... UGH....

I am thinking I may call this done... I am going to alter the black and white box sitting on the shelf. I am not sure how yet, but it can't stay that way. There ya go. Hope you;ve enjoyed my creative outburst.. LOL

Did I say that?????

Yes, yes I did. I said I was going to post this hilarious story from one of my groups to my blog, and in my slothfulness, I forgot...

Dee, this is for you :)
W

BANNED FROM WALMART.....
This is why women should not take men shopping against their will.
Mrs. Sousley insisted her husband accompany her on her trips to Wal-Mart.
Unfortunately, Mr. Sousley was like most men--he found shopping boring and
preferred to get in and get out.
Equally unfortunate, Mrs. Sousley was like most women--she loved to
browse. One day Mrs. Sousley received the following letter from her local
Wal-Mart.
Dear Mrs. Sousley,
Over the past six months, your husband, Shawn Sousley has been causing
quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and may be
forced to ban both of you from the store. Our complaints against Mr.
Sousley are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance
cameras.
1. March 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's
carts when they weren't looking.
2 . April 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute
intervals.
3. April 7: Made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the
women's restroom.
4. April 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice,
'Code 3 in Housewares. Get on it right away.'
5. May 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&M's on
layaway.
6. June 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.
7. July 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told other
shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring pillows and blankets from
the bedding department.
8. July 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him he began crying and
screamed, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?'
9. August 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror
while he picked his nose.
10. September 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, he asked
the clerk where the antidepressants were.
11. October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming
the ' Mission Impossible' theme.
12. October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his 'Madonna look' by
using different sizes of funnels.
13. October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through,
yelled 'PICK ME! PICK ME!'
14. October 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he
assumed a fetal position and screamed 'OH NO! IT'S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!'
And last, but not least ..
15. October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile,
then yelled very loudly, 'Hey! There's no toilet paper in here!'
Regards,
Walmart

Sorry to leave you hangin!

So this is the board I have my stickles in. I found a board at home depot in the trim section. It was a 1/4 inch thick, and it's 5.5 inches wide by 4 feet long unfinished poplar board. I drilled several holes in it with this tool:

Don't ask me what that little doodad is, because I have no CLUE what it's called. All I know is when I saw it in Home Depot, that it was what I needed to drill those holes. This size is a 3/4 inch. I came up with this measurement by taking the lid off of the Stickles bottle and holding the tools up to it until I found the one that most closely resembled the size I needed. So, my experiment is your gain. It's 3/4 inches.. LOL.

So, then I painted the board white with the high gloss paint I used to paint my door and the trim.

OH! I almost forgot, I sanded. Just enough to take the splintery parts off. And I used a Zig Writer w/ 100 grit sandpaper wrapped around it for the inside of the holes. It worked great.

Anyway, then we found some 5x6 inch wall brackets in the near the shelving hardware. Just white metal L shaped brackets. We used 3 because of the length of the board, just in case I ever want to use it for something other than stickles... And this is what it looked like after we got those mounted to the wall.

Now, I have not yet used double sided adhesive to stick the shelf down, which is what I am planning on doing, mostly because I am not sure I won't need more holes in it, not just for stickes, but other things.

So, I will be adhering it, but probably not with screws. And that will be fine, because the stickles are not that heavy.

And here is the finished shelf with the Stickles in it:

Stickles board

Ok, for those of you who don't know what Stickles are, I will show you... :)

<------

See that? Those are Stickles. And thanks to my friend Nej, I am addicted to them. I have more flavors than a Baskin Robbins. And I wanted to put them in my scrap room in a way that they would be upside-down so I could have gravity help me get every last fleck of shiny goodness...

Shoot.. it's time for the bus. Hold that thought, I will be back in a bit :)

WHY is this man in a scrap room?

OH, I'll tell ya why... Because his wife has a sweet pair of 38C aliber weapons of mass distraction... That's why!

And he's a sucker for anything that makes her smile.

And she promised to make it worth his while. After it's all put back together.. LOL

Evil, EVIL woman.

Isn't he cute??? And I never would have been able to do this without him.

Thanks baby!

Today's accomplishments

AND for those of you begging for the directions to my shelf for stickles, those pictures are taken and directions will be coming! :)

Here is the room as it sits now... We are still working, and it's almost ten.. UGH. I am hittin it hard tomorrow. WHo wants to help? I can order pizza for lunch! :)

Love,
W

moving right along...

Well, we are putting stuff back in... Here's what it looks like today.

Well, sort of... after I took these, we got the desk top in and the rest of the shelves up on the wall. I will take more today later. :)

Touch up painting

Is done. I did a bad thing, but I can't even discuss it. Well.. maybe I can. I caulked baseboards yesterday, and it said minimum of 3 hour dry time, but wait to paint til it no longer feels tacky to the touch. Well... I waited. I was planning on doing touch up last night. When we got home from the bday party for my BIL, it still was sticky. And when I was almost ready to go to bed, it was sticky. And when I got up this morning, it was less sticky, but sticky, nonetheless.

And you know what I said? Hell with it, I am paintin it anyway. So I did. And it looks fine. And I don't care if it falls down the wall in six months, it will be behind my desk, so I don't have to see it. So, I am in the process of moving SOME stuff back in, but it's going to be a bit before it's all done. I will take more pics when I get some stuff moved in. :)

AND, be on the lookout for my upcoming post about McDonalds. I am so pissed at them. I am going to copy the corporate office on my scathings.

Gettin closer!

SO, my trim is back up, caulked, and ready to be touched up. The door is painted and ready to go back on. It's coming together! And I did purchase the replacement outlet cover. It cost me a whoppin $.22

I also changed the light bulbs to full spectrum "daylight" bulbs, and I really like the effect. :) Enjoy. The next pics I take with it empty will be when it's DONE! WHOO HOO!

So,

I did some more stuff. I promise. But it's out in the garage, and I am cold and exhausted, and I don't really want to walk my butt out there to take pics of it. Is that bad? I promise it's almost done. I painted the base boards and the door a high gloss white. Well, I painted half the door. The other half needs to be done. But the door frame and base boards need a second coat. I am trying to get the energy to do them tonight. Because if I do, that means I can put them on tomorrow. But I think I am going to shower, and get clean, and then work on it some more tomorrow. I know it's Sunday... But I just have to get this done... OH, the dilemma...

Which brings me to a small piece of advice. When we built our house, we had the option to do two tone paint, which means they paint every thing the color we picked, and then they do a high gloss white on the doors and base boards. And it really made me angry that they were going to charge us $1800 if we picked this option. Because what they do is take the doors and paint them in the middle of the living room before they lay the carpet. And they paint the base boards the same way, before they are put on.

So, if you want to do it yourself, it's back breaking and horrendous, but will only cost you the amount of the paint and supplies. If I had it to do over again, I would have made them do it instead of being pissed off about what a rip off it is. Because it would have been well worth the $1800. I just didn't know it at the time.

Flooring is done

and in!

After a LOT of work.

It's been a long day. And it's not over yet. But here is the completed floor. Now all that's left is to get the trim painted and up and the door painted and on.

OH, and the broken outlet cover replaced. :)

Lunch break

This is what we've completed thus far today. It's about 1:20 p.m. local time and we are taking a break for lunch... We are both exhausted, but I am happy that it is nearing completion. I did have a little mishap when re-attaching all the outlet covers, etc. I broke one, and my drill slipped when I was doing the light switch, and I gauged the freshly painted wall... OH well...

Here are the pictures.

It's called Grass Cloth

It's now the color of my scrap room. But there is a funny story behind it.

(And, it really doesn't look as yellow as these pictures make it seem.)

Once upon a time, there was a woman. She wanted to paint her scrap room. She wanted it to be green. She could see the color in her mind. And she went to the Home Depot and stood in front of the Behr paint display and closed her eyes. And she picked a couple of samples, each with four colors on it. And she took them home.

She showed them to her dh, who hereinafter will be called Lef T. And he liked the one called Grape Vine. And she showed them to her friend, and she also liked the one called Grape Vine.

This woman, who we will call CW (Cake Whore) liked the one called Jungle Trail. But CW's friend said it was too yellow. So, she decided to get one more opinion. And this third opinion also liked Grape Vine best. But, #3 said, it's very dark.

So, CW asked her other friend if she thought it would be too dark for her north facing, tiny windowed office. This friend said, yeah, I would probably do the one above it on the paint chip if it was my room. This color was called Boston Fern. And CW thought it was beautiful, and would not detract at all from the look she was trying to achieve.

Well, presently, the time was nigh that the room should be painted. And CW went to dinner with Lef T. And afterward, CW said, "Hey, do you wanna go to Home Depot, since it's right across the street? I need to buy the paint." And Lef T said, "Do I have a choice?" CW's response was patient and kind, "nope. To Home Depot, James"

So, CW realized that she'd left the paint chip at home. No problem. There were TONS of them at the Home Depot. And she'd never forget the name of the original color. Grape something.

So, at Home Depot, she pulled out a paint chip. And the darkest color was Jungle Trail. The one above that was Grape Leaves. Above that was Grass Cloth. Eureka! She'd FOUND it!

"This is it," she told Lef T.

Then she looked again, and looked back at all the paint swatches. "Wait, is this it?"

Lef T responded by looking from her ample bosom to her eyes and said, "Huh?" (ok, that's an exaggeration, that didn't really happen. But this is fiction... sort of..)

But to a guy, it's green. It's all green. And paint is totally named for women, because THEY are the ones who remember that the white they want above all other 50 shades of WHITE is called Swan Wing. (insert eye roll here).

So, CW said, "No, I think this is it. It was called Grape Leaves, wasn't it? There can't be two colors called the same thing. That NEVER happens."

So, after a lengthy discussion with the friendly paint mixer fellow regarding which finish to use, and how much was needed to paint a room of this size with 8 ft ceilings, the color above Grape Leaves was chosen. "A gallon of Grass Cloth in Satin Finish please", said CW.

"Six to eight minutes, ma'am" said friendly paint mixer fellow.

"Thanks! Hey, honey, let's go look at crown moulding." And Lef T responded by saying, "If I am laying a floor this weekend, I might need a new saw."

So, CW and Lef T went and looked at compound mitre saws. Can we say CHA-CHING?

And then CW and Lef T went and looked at crown moulding. CW said, "I need 44 linear feet," hoping to impress Lef T that she knew what a linear foot was. But what happened was that he looked at the price of the cheapest stuff closest to what she wanted and quickly did the math in his head. $1.78 per lf x 44lf = way too much money. Fine. If CW can't have her crown moulding, Lef T has to use his circular saw to cut flooring. It's called compromise.. LOL

Anyway, fast forward to this afternoon (because CW was being pampered by an awesome friend, who treated her to not only a pedicure, but also lunch!). Well, CW pulled off the base boards after a lengthy discussion about it with Lef T. And then it was time for kids to get home from school, and, being Friday, it was time for the weekly exchange of children.

After all of that, CW started having a freakout about a missing CD-ROM for a piece of equipment she was wanting to install on her PC. And during this freakout, throw crap off the desk a piece at a time, she found it. The original paint chip. And guess what. The color was GRAPE VINE, not GRAPE LEAVES. And unfortunately, if you have ever purchased paint from the Home Depot, you will know that the sticker they place on the top of the can after it's mixed isn't just a place for the color of the mixed paint. It is also for a special word: NON-RETURNABLE.

Until tonight, CW didn't know that word was on the lid of the paint can. But it is. So, CW thought and thought. She thought of where she could use the errant color instead. And Lef T said he would eat the cost of another gallon of paint if it would make her happy. But instead, CW decided to go ahead and use the paint. Even though it's the wrong color.

So, it's done. I painted it all in about an hour and 15 minutes. And I have photographic evidence. And it's beautiful. And it won't be too dark for the north facing small window room.

Just make sure if you are going to paint, and you want to be really specific about the color, don't purchase paint on the way home from a dinner date. Or if you are going to, or even if you think you might, keep the paint swatch in your purse.

Trust me when I tell you that you won't be sorry if you have it with you. It will save you from forgetting that paint that has a similar name doesn't mean it's the color you meant to buy. I'm helping you learn by CW's mistakes.

It's 9 p.m.

Local time. I am tired... but I have purchased paint, ripped up carpet, and pulled up tack strips, removed a door, and scraped glue off a concrete floor. I am dirty and sweaty...

And here it is.... my empty room.

And one of my slave child laborers in action... :)

During...

So, here are the pics of the "DURING" phase. This was when my friends left to go meet kids after school, about 2 hours after we started. Looks a lot better, huh?

Before...

PLEASE, I know this is really embarrassing, but I am going to show you what my room looked like before my dear friends came over to help me gut it!

This is looking in from the doorway. Is it any wonder that I can't create in here?

So, my friends came over and helped me throw some stuff in boxes and get it out of there. I am planning on getting the rest out this evening and ripping up carpet.

Painting hopefully tomorrow at some point.

But I will upload the rest of these pics, so you can see how heinous it really was.

So, as you walk in the door, this picture to the left is what you see. And the picture to the right is what you see if you are sitting in that chair and turn around to face the door.

and this shot is the wall directly across from the window. And this is the mess that greeted me when I opened the door. And we started at about 12:30 p.m. So here is the before. :)

Bella swap

So, I finished my Bella card swap, with the Cuppacakeabella, stamped by my friend Jenn G. Thanks! And this is how they turned out. :)

I used Stickles on her shoes (Christmas red), the hem and neckline of her dress (lime), the "foil" wrapper of the cupcake (silver), and the frosting on the cake(diamond). The paper is from BoBunny designs, and there is some ribbon in a magenta color, and a dusty rose color. You can't tell, but the cardstock is a textured rosy beige color, and I LOVE it.

Next up, my cards for a quote swap. And before pics of my scrap room, since I am going to work my hiney off on it this week. :)

keeping up with demands

So, my son, Mason is 3 1/2. And he has a drinking problem. Milk, to be specific. We just can't get him off the sauce. And it interferes with his normal daily activities. So, tonight, when he had a poopy diaper (yes, I know he's 3 1/2 but we think he has autism, and it won't be long before he's ready, so, no advice on this, please) and was asking for milky, he was told by my dh that he needed to have a diaper change first.

Well, this did not sit well with him at ALL, but after much protesting, he asked my oldest dd to change his diaper. And she did.

And when he was done, he stood up and said with a certain air of authority, "Daddy, you need to gimme some milk. Time's UP!"

I wasn't in the room, but I heard it and I could imagine him with his little hands on his hips telling his daddy it was time for some milk.

Oh, the demands of parenthood....

Some cards

I am on a group called Card Cafe. The swaps are small, you make two cards, and you mail them as if you were mailing to a friend, and it works awesome! Because it's a challenge, but it's not overwhelming...

And it gets me using my stuff, which I NEED. So.. I have made some cards recently for the swaps, and I am uploading them here.

First... for the Cutting the Cake swap:

I used Bazzill Bling for the tiers, Stickles for the base "frosting" and around the tops of the tiers, a heart button for the cake "topper" and ribbon. The paper background is Chatterbox. Congratulations is stamped in Platinum by Cat's eye chalk ink. The stamp is CTMH, from a graduation set that I don't know the name of.. :)

Next is the color challenge. This STRESSED me out, because the two cards I am making are going to people whose work I LOVE. Courtney, and the list mom, Judi. The rub was, you don't know what the color was going to be until the partners for the swap were assigned. So I freaked when I found out it was purple and yellow. I was scared to death... But I think it turned out ok. I mean, it is purple and yellow...

So, the card base is cream colored cardstock, and the yellow is out of a pack of pastels that I purchase at Rite Aid YEARS ago. The stamp is D.O.T.S ( I know, they aren't even called that anymore...) QUIZ: What company is DOTS now? :D Flower I think is by prima, but I am not sure, it was given to me. The paper under the torn part is just a handmade paper. And the image is stamped in Eggplant Envy (SU!) on purple bazzill. The yellow had white lines going through it, which I had to stickle, because I am addicted to stickles now. It's not my favorite, but I didn't think it was too bad... that was a hard one for me..

Next is the Spring showers swap. Anything related to spring showers. So, I used my new SU! set called "A Little Birdie Told Me"

I am going to add a puddle down by the birdie feet, and some stickle raindrops to the umbrella. But I am too lazy to scan it again after I do it... Anyway... here it is..

The paper was from a stack, I have no idea where it came from or who made it. It was 6x6 sheets. And I stamped the images on that paper, a coordinating stripe, and then a green that I thought matched. I then stamped the images again on blue bazzill. I cut out the body of the birds, and the umbrella off the patterned papers, and adhered them to the stamped images on the bazzill. Then I printed my spring quote on yellow bazzill and added a bit of blue ribbon. I LOVE this set. I am really excited about it! So, anyway, I liked how it turned out pretty well.

The last one is a Rhyme and Rhythm swap. The idea was for us to use a nursery rhyme or poem as the main focus and then use that to design our card.

Here is how it turned out...

I used an image from the Rusty Pickle Old Fashioned Valentines paper, backed it on a rust colored cardstock, printed the nursery rhyme on kraft cardstock, cut it out like a tag and stapled a turquoise colored ribbon to it. Then I used a piece of the DCWV Luxury Stack, dry embossed it with a SU! brass template called Priceless, and then used brown textured CS on the bottom. I love it! It's my favorite one, because it's not typical. The nursery rhyme I used was:

There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was horrid.

DH said that it should say when she was bad she was better. I was like, WHO taught you that??? Apparently it was his grandfather. I said, that's along the same lines as the rhyme you wanted me to use earlier that started, "there once was a man from Nantucket...."

Noddy, noddy boy.