Oops

I've been so busy the last 20 days that I barely remember to look at other blogs, let alone post new things on my own. Thank goodness for Google Reader, or I wouldn't even be able to meander through anything at all!

So I've done no stamping in September, except for creating the following card for my friend Christine. Her husband deployed to Iraq two weeks ago, so we made this card for him to send from her so he'd have something nice/thoughtful/creative to display in his barracks. I'm not even sure if she mailed it yet...but we made it a week ago. :-)

So Christine basically chose what she wanted to do (with a little prodding from me, the "expert"...hee hee). She knew she wanted the card to be blue, so I chose Blue Bayou and Soft Sky, two of the current In Color colors from Stampin' Up. She wanted the sentiment to be something about love, and it turned out that this saying worked perfectly for her. She and her hubby have this "thing" they do where they will ask each other, "Do you love me more today than yesterday? Will you love me more tomorrow than today?" So it was as if this stamp was made specifically for her! She then used all of the other sentiments featured in this stamp set on the inside and wrote her own message for Tylor. I love how it turned out, and I sure hope Tylor enjoys it as well. Christine even made me sign the back saying that I made the card...even though I wanted her to take full credit with Tylor. What he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?

Stampin' Supplies:
Stamps: Love Matters
Cardstock: Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Very Vanilla
Ink: Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Night of Navy (sentiments on the inside...I really should have taken a pic of these as well, cuz they turned out too cute!!)
Accessories: Blue Bayou stitched ribbon, eyelets, ticket corner punch, Cuttlebug and hearts embossing folder

On a non-stamping note, I've been extremely busy with work, Master's classes and various other events. My friends and I are going through a pro-Party Lite mentality right now, so it seems like every week or two one of us is having a party. Add to that little get-togethers, moving house, having babies (you know how us military wives are...we just pop 'em out all the time!!)...September has been exhausting!! It looks like October will be even busier, as I'm now in the full swing of teaching at school, and have added Literacy and Math to my Gifted & Talented classes, plus I'm running a Conservation Club with another colleague two times a week after school.

It's hard to believe it's autumn and Thanksgiving and the Holiday season are right around the corner! Fortunately I'm already getting into the spirit because it has cooled down dramatically in England, with temperatures not rising out of the 50's much for the past week. We've even had to turn on our heat...and in my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio it's been 90 degrees all week! I absolutely love the weather here, if you can believe that. The air has that crisp feeling, the leaves are turning, and I just can't wait to bundle up and drink hot chocolate in the evenings. Christmas will be here before we know it, and then Jason and I should have less than a year before we will hopefully move back to the States. We desperately miss home and hope to move back to Colorado, where we were stationed last. Here's to hoping the military sends us where we want to go. Wishful thinking!!

My first coaster box!

Yep, it's taken me awhile to jump on the coaster craze. I've had a bunch sitting here that I got from my neighbor, just never done anything with them. Now I'm hooked, and am waiting for a large bulk order I went in on at Emily's blog.

So here's what I did:

I wanted to make my own patterned paper using the new PaperTrey set Beautiful Blooms, and I basically decided to use everything new I had received recently. You have to love that mentality! My table looked like a garden (albeit a fake craft garden, but you get the drift!) had just thrown up everywhere. After seeing all of this, you can kind of understand why. :-)

Soo....I used the Beautiful Blooms set and any kind of Stampin' Up ink that I had, including craft ink (note to self: don't attempt embossing with versamark over not-quite-dry craft ink on white paper) and I threw in some Versamagic inks and Pallete Inks as well, just for kicks. The ribbon is May Arts ribbon from a share with Jody (I think I have an addiction problem with craft shares coming from individuals who reside in the state of Texas).

To add to my insanity, I also purchased the Flower cuttlebug dies, which are randomly adhered to the coaster box, as well as the Maya Road flowers (both velvet and clear), which I made into individual bags complete with primas and brads holding the bags together. Then I about broke my doggone crimper because it took so long to crimp this paper....am I crazy or what???

I will say that I attempted to add a little sheer shine to this project after all the stamping was done by taking my PaperTrey Borders & Corners Circles set in various sizes and embossing with Iridescent Ice EP and Versamark. While it shows up slightly in real life, it doesn't show up at all in this picture. Oh well, I attempted it!!

Stampin' Supplies:

Stamps: Beautiful Blooms and Borders & Corners Circles by PaperTrey, Much Appreciated by Stampin' Up

Paper: Whisper White and Rose Red by Stampin' Up

Ink: any ink by Stampin' Up, Versamagic and Pallete. Seriously, just whatever. I couldn't list them again if I tried to match 'em up!!

Accessories: Cuttlebug flowers die, large silver brads, Maya Road velvet and clear flowers, May Arts shimmery ribbon, Prima Sprites and Prima something-or-other (check the PaperTrey website for what they sell...I'm beginning to lose my mind with this post and I seriously can't remember the name of this flower!!), coasters, Crop-A-Dile, Crimper, Crystal Effects (to glue the bottom coaster to the top four...that stuff is like super glue!!), Iridescent Ice EP, Versamark, Heating Tool...my sanity...my time...my table...etc etc.

Where has the time gone?

SERIOUSLY!!!!!


Do you want to know what I think of a 6-week summer holiday? IT SUCKS! Where did it go? What happened to my wonderful sleepy mornings and days in my jammies? How did 6 weeks go that quickly? And you wanna know what I did over my 6-week holiday? Nothing. I have no good stories to show for it, no vacations, no wonderful day trips anywhere.


Here's what I did on my summer vacation:

• Get my sleep schedule so completely screwed up that I was sleeping from 6AM to 2 PM almost every day, give or take a rude awakening of a dog kiss or lawnmower. How dare people mow their lawn at noon! Don't they know there are weirdo's like me who are still sleeping?
• Accomplish virtually nothing around the house. Oh, I did the odd cleaning jobs, but no deep clean/organization/etc. I kept thinking, "I will do that tomorrow."
• Watch almost every DVD in my collection. Twice. This does include full sets of The O.C., Friends, Sex and the City, and various other single DVD collections.
• Make about 100 cards that are too big to fit in my envelopes...thus making them obselete. I only did 2 scrapbook pages the entire summer. I've been working on two more for the last week. Sad.
• Get in an accident. Drive a zippy rental car and not want to give it back...until I almost got in a horrible accident on the way to return the rental car that would have injured me severely. I returned the rental car with glee!
• Experiment an arachnaphobic nightmare with giant spiders (see posts below with wonderful pictures included!!)
• And be generally irritating toward the dog, cat, and my ever-loving husband.
• So, for the finale of my sixth week of vacation, I decided to let my hair down and hang out at a friend's house where we played wonderful card games (why are card games named such horrible things? Bullshit, Asshole, Spoons, etc.?). Guess what? I got completely drunk!! And, for the first time in my entire life, I had a hangover yesterday. Seeing as how I'm 30, I think that is pretty impressive that yesterday was my first hangover. That is seriously not bad at all!!

So Wednesday morning looms bright and early. Too early, in fact. My day starts at 6AM, I'm out the door by 7, and I get to school at 8. Yep, I have an hour commute. 42 miles, to be precise. From 8-8:45 I run a "Breakfast Club", which is for at-risk children who suffer from behavioral/emotional/social challenges. Let me explain how fun that is. I'm sure everyone has read the wonderful blog Because I Said So at http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com (sorry, for some reason my computer won't allow me to open any popups right now, I need to fiddle with my blocker and see what is going on. The computer also isn't allowing the CD-RW or DVD-RW to work, the video card is completely screwed up, the speakers are screwed up because part of the motherboard is broken....my husband may have thought in 2004 that we'd "save" money by building our own computer, but I guarantee you this thing is a piece of CRAP and I just want to order a Dell with a warranty and be done with it already!!!) So back to my original comment about that blog....imagine her 6 children and add 20 children ranging in age from 5 to 12. Add adult drama to that (hello!! It's like 9th grade lunch again..."Did you hear what she said about me? She's such a cow! I so don't like her....he favors her over me...they took away this from my job..." UGHHHH!!!) and I'm ready for a nap at 8:45. I start my G&T (Gifted & Talented ) groups at 9...but my boss hasn't even told me what I'm teaching yet. Might be Science, might be Math...who knows?!?!



I seriously cannot wait to move back to the States. I do enjoy working with the kids, who keep each day intriguing and unique. But these adults are doing my head in!!!! I hope that the rest of the school staff had a nice and relaxing 6-week holiday and come back with a better outlook on things. Because if I hear one more time...."Oh, I heard the American girl is starting drama..." even though I'M NOT, I'm going to scream!!!!


Okay, I'm off my soapbox.


Before I head to bed to enjoy my last 8 hours of education-free thought, I'd like to post a message to my mother, who will undoubtedly be really angry at this post:


No, Mom, I do not hate my job.
Yes, Mom, I'm going into the new year with a bright outlook.
Yes, Mom, I'll be sure to be nice to everyone and give them a good impression of Americans.
No, Mom, I do not believe I've paid this much towards degrees in Education when I don't want to be a teacher.
Yes, Mom, I'll give Jason a hug. :-)



I will attempt to post something craft related this week. I made my first coaster box last week, which was fun. I highly suggest purchasing a Crop-A-Dile if you are even going to attempt this...I can't imagine trying to just slam into the chipboard with a hammer!! hee hee


Have a great week, everyone!