Take Note

I feel like I haven't slept since the Clinton administration.

Note to self:

If you insist on consuming 32 ounces of Coke or 2 cups of coffee right before bed then you shouldn't be surprised when you wake up every 20 minutes to stare at the clock and listen to the loop in your head of  Beyonce singing "If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it."  You also need to keep in mind that this kind of behavior usually leads to the mid-morning nose smash into the arm of the couch. Losing sight of the fact that you're WAY too far past your sell-by date to do this kind of crap anymore will leave you helplessly face-down in a puddle of drool with the Single Ladies lyrics now distorted into such gems as "if it's stinky then you shouldn't have put your butt on it", "it's a toilet but you really shouldn't pee on it" and "that's my T.V. so you're never watching Glee on it". Really groundbreaking stuff there. Your Mother would be so proud.

 No Coke for you!



OWH Challenge Cards

These aren't the first cards I've made that started out as a challenge on another blog. However, these are the first to actually get posted instead of thrown into the pile. Let me point out that I am posting these a day late in case you were starting to believe I had been replaced by a pod person.

The first 2 were started in response to the Operation Write Home Midweek Challenge. I couldn't pick a favorite so I just posted both.

 The last one is up simply for the fact that it was the best example of how cute my 2 new the precious border punches are.

Don't worry too much. I'll be obsessed with something new by next week.

Stars and Stripes

I bought this wood way back in March and then, me being me, didn't get it made for it's intended holiday. For once, my lack of follow through worked out rather nicely. I would never have made this if I hadn't had the wood taunting me from the corner of the bedroom. I have been loving the subway word art stuff that has been making the rounds on Pinterest but didn't want to just print something. It was a big pain getting everything lined up and I fretted over the paint technique for more days than I care to admit but I think this time it might have been worth it. 

My only wish is that the front of this had been wood instead of mdf so that I could have really had a grainier look to the letters. Next time I suppose.

Side shot to see the flourish I put on the sides.

A close up of the flourish because it is, after all, the best part. I do love me a good flourish!

Thursday's Thoughts

Random...

I should be embarrassed at how ridiculously happy it makes me to have this sitting here.

Not, surprisingly enough, because it's full of Pepsi and limes but because you just can't go wrong with a glass this freakin' sweet. Nothing but a red straw of course. I actually had a green straw but when I realized what I'd done, I went back and switched for a red. Hello!?! Darth Vader doesn't do green.

This actually came in a set of 4 that I bought awhile back. I prefer this one above all but WILL drink out of Han Solo and if I have to; Princess Leia. I refuse to drink out of the Luke Skywalker glass though. That whiny old poop.

I love Thursday. It's the day when I start to feel like I might have a fighting chance to actually make it to the end of another week. Something that usually seems beyond impossible when my alarm goes off at 5 a.m. on Monday morning. It also means that my alarm won't go off before 7 a.m. until Monday rolls around again. To a night owl that can't ever seem to get enough rest, this is no small thing. Depending on how out of it I am, it can take awhile before I realize this. When it dawns on me that I have three whole days with no early wake-up call, it feels like I've been handed a gift. If the week has been a bad one, maybe being given a reprieve from the Warden might be a more apt description.

As I puttered around the house today, The Outlaw Josey Wales has been on in the background. Definitely in the Clint Eastwood top 5. Trust me. If you haven't heard, "Well are you gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?" recently, you're living your life wrong. One caveat; steel yourself against the moment when you start hoping Clint rides in and shoots Sondra Locke instead of saving her from Comancheros. No matter how teeth gratingly bad she gets you just have to remind yourself that when somebody is sleeping with the director of a movie, being fired for lack of talent isn't usually an option.

I've been researching phrases to use on my 4th of July subway art thingy. Which is, by the way, looking to be freakin' awesome. (If you didn't say awesome in a high sing-songy voice, read that last sentence again and do it right this time. I'll wait.) Turns out I am more of an ignorant hayseed than previously thought. My whole life I thought that God Bless America started with that exact line. There is a whole verse before you launch into "God bless America, land that I love" etc... One of the reasons some people give for wanting to change the national anthem to that same song is because of the war-themed lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner. Huh. I always thought that the reason I am at my most blood thirsty after hearing The Star Spangled Banner was because of the way anybody singing it nowadays morphs into an American Idol contestant as soon as the music starts. Turns out it was the lyrics this whole time.  Also, did you know that abolitionists wrote 6 slavery themed verses to My Country, 'Tis of Thee? And, that the 5th verse to the same song was written to celebrate George Washington's Centennial? I didn't. Now I'm going to lay awake wondering about all of the other important tidbits of knowledge to which I am ignorant. And because I can't stop singing all these damned songs in my head.

I'm bracing for a long weekend people.

Le Sigh.

Oy, this book already.

 One of my BFF's little brother got married last month. Since I made a book for all of his siblings, (Jenna doesn't count because she got married when I was just starting to really scrapbook and how sad would that book have been?) I had to make one for him. Also, if you've known someone since they were passing the sacrament in a green suit and bowl haircut, you can't just pick up some dish towels at Wal-Mart ya know? So, I found out what their colors were, ignored them and bought this paper. This is kind of pink and silvery gray right?

Anyway, I brought it home, got the covers done and...nothing. Nothing! It just sat there; like a spider, staring at me every night as I spread it out and couldn't make it match the picture I had in my head. Ugh. Do you ever have something completely figured out in your head and when it doesn't come together the way it's supposed to, you sort of freeze up? Kind of like your brain's self esteem takes too hard of a hit and it's too busy sitting around in sweats and eating ice cream to work properly. The week before the wedding, I just gave up, switched to an already assembled chipboard book and slapped another book together. It only took me a day and a half.  Now, don't get me wrong. I think it turned out fine but it wasn't what I started out to make.

Le sigh.

When I got home from the wedding, I realized that I had enough paper to keep going on this one and truthfully, probably throw together another one. (When I'm looking at Graphic 45 paper, I seem to have some type of mini-stroke or something that leaves me without enough control over my brain to stop myself from buying too much. I need help. Maybe even medication.) To make a long story slightly less long than it could have been; I kept going and here is the long winded, overly dramatized result. Why didn't you tell me to shut up a year ago?  Yes, I know it's missing all of the froufrou that would make it a true G45 piece but I just can't manage to do it. Like I said last time, please don't go look on their gallery and compare. It will just make you feel sorry for me. Again. 

Okay. I know there are WAY too many pictures. But, the light was wrong for the first ones even though they're the best pictures so I added some others that my sister took that show the colors better and then I had to throw in some of the artsy fartsy ones that Turner took because I paid good candy (chocolate, no less) for those and I'll be damned if I'm gonna waste 'em.

A few stats:
The whole book is 12x8. Each set of flaps graduates from 6 inches wide down to 4.
Obviously, the back side of each flap was left empty for pictures.
I made it so that it can act as a display or just as a (mostly) flat album.
I'm still on the fence about whether I should put a clasp or something
 as a closure or just leave it as is.



 

Warning! Picture Dump!

Happy May!

 After these highlights, we will both agree to

never mention April again. Stupid April.



Turner won Viking of the Quarter.
The best part about that? They give you a
Viking helmet to take home and keep for your very own.
 It really fit Turner's head well as you can see.

Here she is wrestling with her helmet before she had to put it back in it's
cage for the night.



More pictorial proof that Thomas is a direct descendant of the originator
 of Mad Professor hair, Grandpa Gary.

With a little effort and a lot of water, it CAN be tamed!

Too bad the same can't be said for Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum here.





Suzie talked me into finally opening the 3 pound gummy bear I got from
 Mr. and Mrs. Courtney Pants for my birthday. Gnawing through it turned
 out to be more of a chore than we thought.



This is what you get when you send the girls to their
room to take care of the pigsty...

Turner running around with a bouncy ball in her dress, yelling
 about her big butt with Suzie rolling on the floor in hysterics.

AND the best for last.
This is Sam's "Baby Peach" face that he wears
 about 92% of the time because he is; after all,
 the most picked on 11 year old in the world.
Just ask him.