Sites of the week

Nothing says relaxation like some ink and rubbah!! I finally got back in my stamp room this morning after putting Ellie down for her {much needed} morning nap. I decided to do the sketch challenge for today. I really miss doing the daily challenges!!! Before I had Ellie, I was able to do almost every one of them. While I miss my daily stamping “routine,” I wouldn’t trade my stay at home time with Ellie for the world! The whole time I was making this card, I kept saying, “It needs something.” I would add a little detail here and a little detail there, unti this is what I came up with. Those “little details” that I speak of are the Weave background (Cornish Heritage Farms) on the Marigold Morning panel, along with the sponging of the edges of that panel; the sponging on the flower to make it look like it was rock ‘n rolled, the faux eyelets (created with my paper piercer and white signo pen); and the paper piercing under the sentiment. So without further ado, I give you this…

Dimensions: Standard 4.25″ x 5.5″
Stamps: Be Happy, Small Sayings, Seeing Spots; Weave background by CHF
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Brocade Blue, Marigold Morning, Whisper White
Other: Ribbon, Button, Linen Thread, Paper Piercing Tools, White Signo Pen, Sponge, Dimensionals

I also wanted to share some desert florals with you. These are just a few of the pics I took while in AZ. Click on the thumbnail to see larger pic.

Just call me Judge Jen…LOL!! I am laughing at the sound of that, but I was graciously asked to be a judge for the Cards For The Troops contest. Debbi and Kyla have teamed up to create a contest for a wonderful cause!!

Here are all the details: {this has been taken from Kyla Maestas’ blog}.

1- Participants can send as many single entries as they like for the contest. Each entry should include a recipe (please do not include this on the card, as troops will be using these cards to send to friends and family). Your recipe should include information about all the supplies used to create your card as well as your contact information, contact information will be used for the sole purpose of contacting the winners.

2- Send cards with the following themes: Father’s Day, Happy Birthday, Thinking of You, Hello, Friend, Missing You, Sympathy, and Kids. Please refrain from placing greetings or sentiments in the inside of the cards, we want to leave plenty of room for the troops to send their personal messages to friends, family and loved ones. If the card is a darker color, please include a lighter card front in the center of the card for correspondence.

3- Cards should be full cards (no fronts) and should include a coordinating envelope. Envelopes must not be clear.

4- Vendor Restrictions- there are no vendor restrictions for this contest, anything goes.

5- Cards will be judged by a private panel of judges based upon quality and creativity… your best work is greatly appreciated.

6- All card submissions must be received no later than May 15th. Winners will be announced within 7 days and posted to the site. All card submissions will be packaged and mailed to Debbi Dresser to be included in her next shipment of cards to the troops. If you would like more information or more ways to get involved you can visit Debbie’s blog by clicking here.

7- Contest submissions and donations should be sent to Kyla Maestas 3714 Madison Dr. Rock Springs WY 82901.

The Goods:

3 winners will be selected. Winners will receive the following prizes 1st place- $20.00 SU gift certificate (redeemable through Kyla Maestas), 2nd place- $10.00 gift certificate from Eclectic Paperie and 3rd- $5.00 SU gift certificate (redeemable through Kyla Maestas). Kendra Giles has agreed to be on the judges panel and will be donating a $20.00 SU gift certificate as well (redeemable through her). Your cards will also be featured on my blog during the week following the contest close. If you would like a link to your blog or website included with this post, please include this information with your submission

I’m back…sorta. I’m back home, but have yet to make it to my stamping room. Hopefully that will happen in the next day or two. I brought back lots of goodies (not stamping related) from AZ, including a whopping head cold! When I heard Ellie through the monitor this morning, I rolled over and asked Tony, “Can I pleeeeease stay in bed for another hour.” That turned out to be almost 2 {very much needed} hours. Right now I don’t have any pics to share, but promise to get those up this week. Thanks for everyone that “tolerated” Tony as my replacement. Can you believe he even got a RAK this week?!? How sweet is that?!?
While I was away, I was checking in on email from time to time and I got tagged…a few times. Thanks girlies! I cannot tell you how hard it is to list my five favorite blogs, because the truth is I have way more than 5 that are right in line with each other. So, I am going to 5 that I enjoy reading on a regular basis. {{I hate doing this bc I feel like I am leaving so many people out!!}}

1. Anna Wight is not only an extremely talented stamper/paper crafter, but also immensely talented in the art of photography. I love viewing her photos of life on her farm.

2. Julie Ebersole is not only a dandy leader for the Dirty Dozen Design Team, but I love her honest reviews of products and her laid back, non-controversial, straight forward take on everything stamping. Her family stories often make me smile as well!

3. Susan Liles lets us take a peek at her amazing stamping talent! I love her style…and not to mention, she is an awesome person in real life, too!!!!

4. Lindsey Botkin is so cute about her love for Willie Nelson! I also love her style and her talent is so incredible!

I really only have one more spot left? Not fair, Not fair!!! eeeeeeeeeeek!!! I don’t like limits {that’s way I have a stamp room, not a stamp space}. This is so hard!! There are different reasons I go to different blogs. Some for their stamping talent, some for their insights on life in general, plus their thoughts on stamping.

5. Kirsten DuBosque is so so so talented. I love her combinations of products and her overall design talent.

Now I feel like I left about 100 people off this list. **sniff**…more like **sniffle, pass a tissue** right now…lol!!

In the spirit of the fact that studying has officially turned my mind to mush, I crawled into the email vault and pulled out this classic. The dogs and I are running out for Mickey D’s, in the hopes that the food that put me through college will get me through tomorrow’s exam.

Enjoy.

Td

I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8 year-old again.

I want to go to McDonald’s and think that it’s a four star restaurant.
I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make a sidewalk with rocks.
I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them.
I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer’s day.
I want to return to a time when life was simple; when all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn’t bother you, because you didn’t know what you didn’t know and you didn’t care. All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.
I want to think the world is fair. That everyone is honest and good.
I want to believe that anything is possible.
I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.
I want to live simple again.
I don’t want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones.
I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.
So… here’s my checkbook and my car-keys, my credit card bills and my 401K statements.
I am officially resigning from adulthood.

You guys know how I like to rant. Well recently I was reminded of a rant I had probably 3 or 4 years ago…

It started as a group of us were tailgating before a Sooner football game. Someone brought up a topic that was mentioned on the Animal earlier in the week (The Sports Animal, the name of the sports talk radio station in Norman.) All of us immediately knew what he was talking about. I don’t remember who said it, but we were all thinking “When did we start listening exclusively to talk radio?”

I know I was the one who said “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I cant listen to anything else… the music on the radio is HORRIBLE.” This sparked a conversation that I have rehashed before, and will mention again here:

I am, officially, old.

And it all started with that simple comment. Because taking that comment, you could use a different phrase which has the same meaning, and we’ve all heard it before. “Kids today don’t know what music is. All I hear is noise! When I was growing up; now THAT was good music.”

And that’s exactly how I felt. I still feel that way. Maybe I’m just listening to the wrong stations.

I think the truth probably lies somewhere in between. I firmly believe music that I would enjoy is still being made. I just got the new Chili Peppers double album and its pretty good. But the problem lies in the “Top 40” music. (Do they even call it Top 40 anymore?) I can’t think of many songs that aren’t rehashed, stolen beats, remakes, or just flat horrible. I don’t have the time or desire to describe what has happened to hip hop; the music that I actually would consider my preferred. But to me there’s a big difference in the story-telling of the Wu and singing about jewelry or spelling words over and over.

Which brings me to what reminded me of this topic. Seeing this video (below) and thinking that Alanis Morissette agrees with me. This cover of “My Humps” destroys Fergie and everything she stands for. I stand and applaud, and I don’t even like Alanis. Now she needs to tackle about a dozen other bands who could be even worse…

Enjoy.

Td

ETA: To agree with a comment, this song below IS difficult to listen to, especially when you’re forced to listen to the words.