Usagkateer!

I took the above photo to thank lead Fiskateer Wendy Jo for the most excellent Fiskars Valentrio corner punch she sent me. That's Usagi. Unlike Revco, she is not very fond of the camera, being dressed up, or any of those diva-like things. She likes to fade into the background and watch the action, rather than be the center of attention. She's cursed with being completely cute, however, so sometimes I just have to take a few.
Because I have put her in a "sit", and from her perspective, I'm putting a bunch of weird new things around her, then looking at her expectantly. She decides I must want her to do something, though she isn't sure what. We clicker train together, and "throwing" behaviors (basically it's a game of "hot and cold" you play with your dog) to guess what wins a treat is how we start the game. So, here she is slapping the bumper sticker with her paw to see if that works.

Quickly she switches touching it with her nose, another "answer" that often earns a treat. Oh, but then her attention is caught by something else. *Sniff. Sniff.* "What is this thing anyway?"

*Nibble Nibble* Maybe just a tiny taste. Is that glue? Yum!

"So, um...you weren't actually *using* this for anything right? I mean, say, if I was to take it, you wouldn't, oh, chase me now, would you?"

"Chase me? Now? Would you?" Check out that tentative look in her eyes. She *wants* to take it and run, but she's not sure if she'll get away with it or not.

" Clearly you don't want to play and you don't have any treats, so I'll just take this thing away and chew on it. If you'll just, um, let go of it, please." *Tug tug*

"Yay! Mine mine mine mine mine!"

See how quickly taking pics with her degenerates into "hey, let's play!" Even when they seem to pose so nicely in the picture you see, they're nuts in the photos you don't. :) You can't take the dog out of the dog (and why would you want to?)

So, thanks from both of us, Wendy Jo!

P.S. Winners of the tote bags mentioned in the previous email are Mardi and Leesa! Thanks to everyone who left a message! There will be more giveaways to come.

CKC 2009: An Exploration into the Scraposphere (and a prize!)

Attention reader! You may already be a winner (provided you have a time machine). If you don't, it's okay. You still have the power to change the future! Keep reading or just scroll to the end for instructions. (Sure, I understand. You don't have time to read blogs all day. My self esteem won't be completely crushed by the fact that you find me too repugnant to spend five minutes reading what I spent hours putting together. No, really, don't feel bad.) The winner will be announced September 15.

A couple of years ago I went to CKC with Jen K's Table Scraps group (before it was called that) with absolutely no idea what I was getting into. I'd signed up for a couple of classes, and I knew you could shop there, but I had no idea how much goofy fun one craftnerd could have there. Since then,I've been in love with the Creating Keepsakes Convention though I still think "Creating Keepsakes" is a really unfortunate name. It sounds like a place where we all get together and sew eyelet lace onto doilies or lovingly hand-bronze babyshoes--no offense to those who do sew eyelet onto doilies and the like. It's just really not something I can imagine myself doing.

After that first completely exhausting day, I decided that a hotel room was a must from then on. With my spine, I don't have a choice. Last year was hard. I was in really bad shape the first night there and nearly missed the crop, but this year I was pretty proud of myself for having scheduled my events with several hours rest time between each. It made all the difference. Sure, I had to leave the crops early, but I still got to go and honestly, I've kind of come to accept that I generally won't be able to make it through a whole crop anyway. On one hand, it's a little sad to have to lower my expectations, but on the other hand, it's a lot less depressing than constantly being disappointed.

Speaking of crops, part of the reason the CKC crops rule is all the people you get to see who you normally don't. I love running into my friends from various message boards and whatnot, not to mention enjoying the company of people I happen to meet serendipitously at the convention, like the girls pictured above. We had so much fun Friday (despite the really awkward make-a-card game I think we all found disturbing) that we decided to do it all over again Saturday.

Here's Barbie at one of the SEI classes we took (I loooove their classes though it takes me an eternity to actually finish their ginormous projects.) I swear you cannot take a bad photo of that woman. I was really pleased with all of the classes I chose (the other two were a Technique Tuesday card class and a Rusty Pickle mini album one. I highly recommend any class you can take by either company.) which was likely facilitated by the early registration code I received from CKC this year so I was actually able to get all of my first choice classes. Always a plus.

The photo of Barbie, above, was taken just minutes prior to her annual injury. Last year she fell down the escalator, shredding her scheduled-for-surgery knee. This year she sliced her hand open changing the beyond-razor-sharp blade of her Fiskars rotary cutter, nearly causing a pass-out worthy bloodbath and panicking not only the SEI assistant and the CKC workers, but also security and anyone else within view. I would have followed her out as well, but I was afraid we'd exceed the women's room maximum capacity. Oh Barbie. I don't know if the Convention Center's insurance company is going to let you return if you keep this up.

Gentle reader, if you would like a nifty canvas mini tote (think purse-sized) emblazoned with those bright orange scissors we're all so familiar with, hand-stenciled by yours truly, leave a comment on this post (if you're lucky, there may even be some neat Fiskars goodies inside.) Due to the nature of this prize (by that, I mean orange), those who include their Fiskateer number will get two entries (A Nelson-style, "ha ha" to everyone else.) Keep in mind...anyone can be a Fiskateer if you wish really hard and go to www.Fiskateers.com and tell 'em I sent you. No, I don't get anything for recruiting you other than an extra bowl of low-protein mush from The Leader and the satisfaction of bringing another crafter into the cult--ahem--uh...group I mean. :)

P.S. If you look closely, you can a similar tote in one of the photos, above. :)

Club Scrap Summer Camp: Whoo hoo(s)

Rounding out my first year (more or less) as a Club Scrapper, I'm participating in their Summer Camp competition as a member of team "Whoo Hoo" (it's Cabin 2. It rhymes. It wasn't my idea. I wanted us to be Karen's Kninjas, but nobody asked me. Karen is the cabin leader, incidentally.) So far my team rocks. We've won (most project points) two out of three rounds so far. That means we get a discount on our purchases at the GHM (Gotta Have More) store (ooh, evil temptation! I cannot resist! Darn you and your ubercool stamps of late!) *and* a free book kit. Not bad for making layouts and whatnot that I love making anyway, right?

Each week there's a different bonus challenge. Week 1, stencils:

Please forgive the klunky photos. If anyone has tips on taking better pics of 2 page layouts, please let me know. Anyway, the swirly panels were all made using the stencil that came with the Henna kit. I decided to use a dye based Cat's Eye inkpad, running it over the stencil like a dauber. The images came out very nice (I made cards using some of the image and cut apart one for the above layout.) but cleaning the stencil was pretty gross and the images were sticky for several days--not a problem I usually encounter with dye based stamped images, but this was some pretty thick, painty stuff that was pressed repeatedly into the stencil.

My point? Next time, I think chalky ink may be a better idea. Live and learn.

This one doesn't have any stenciled images, but I liked it so i thought I'd post it here. If you know me, you probably know that cemeteries are one of my favorite places and that I have stacks and stacks of pictures taken in them. Here's a layout featuring a little graveyard we ran across in Sonoma. That's the new EK Success flat storing skull and crossbones punch I used. I like the way it's a bit more gaunt than some of the "cuter" skulls that have come out lately. Not that I dislike the cute ones. I have plenty of those, too. But it's nice to have something more serious looking.

Week 2: July challenge

We had to use papers etc. from any "July" kit. I used this year since that's what I had, and ended up making a layout for my calendar. Sleepy dogs!

Week 3: Stamps (I dropped the ball here. Didn't get as much done and we didn't win by just a few layouts. I feel personally responsible.)

Awww! Look at those cute little rats! The green twiggy things and the triangle corner dealies are all made with CS stamps. Oh and it's hard to tell but I assure you the rats are not biting the fingers in the photos. They are *licking* them like puppies! Could they be any sweeter? These pics were taken at one of our adoption days at Ed McKay.

And what was distracting me from doing layouts? (well, other than real life which was taking all kinds of crazy turns including having a really bad pain week and deciding it was time to shut down 3R.) Making this crazy book project! I love the bookbinding kits that Club Scrap sends, but the instructions for this one were comical. Check out that stitching:

I added the glittery bone buttons, the Glimmer Mists in gold and copper, plus the dog stamp to make it look less faux native american (just so not my thing). If you look carefully, you can see the dog one should beware of standing guard in the background.

So, that brings us to this week: fibers. Watch this space for more and wish us luck to win week 4. I need more book kits-I have to give my list of swears a workout or they'll get stale.

Bark Book

Our dog album class promises a lot of fun and maximum cuteness, so I wanted to post pics of the pages we'll be making, here. There are 10 pages, one per page protector in the 8.5 Stampin' Up chipboard album, leaving the back sides to be left alone or made into another 10 opportunities to show off your fuzzy friend. I plan to do the latter, so you should see some pics of those pages here as I make them. Go Revco! (Yep, that's him in the pics...)




















Oh, and don't worry that the covers are still blank chipboard. I am waiting to cover them till the class convenes so I can demonstrate the covering process on my own album so everyone gets to see the technique in action. Eventually it will be covered in Designer Series Paper and other goodies.

Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.

So if you've been reading the last few entries here, you know about my phobia of germs and children, and of my first experience having little tykes in my house overnight. So, of course I kind of attributed my obsessive lysoling (fauxsoling? I used the cruelty-free alternative, of course) of everything the nephews touched (doorknobs, the Playstation, controllers, cabinet doors, etc. etc.) to my ocd.

Well, a few days ago we get the call that their mom is in the hospital with meningitis she caught from the little kids (though to be fair, it could have been one of their friends, too). My fears? Justified. Yep.

Thankfully, Kelye went to the hospital at the first signs that it could be meningitis and she is doing very well, has been released from the hospital and will be fine. Still, poor girl! She's still needing help at home. (My mom in law came to the rescue. She's a love!) Looks like I need to put together a little get well package. The boys are fine. Apparently viral meningitis doesn't really do much to children. They just get kind of cranky and have upset stomachs and other minor symptoms that are easily attributed to just kind of being a kid. Adults, however, suffer pretty wretchedly.

On the upside of this topic, which I'll shut up about in a sec, I got a huge stack of cute photos for scrapping. Daniel, I swear, looks just like a smaller version of Dewey from Malcom in the Middle. Awwwww...

Stay tuned...we'll be returning to your regularly scheduled craft programming next.

Catching Up and a Winner!

June, june, june. How I loathe dump season at the rescue. Just one unwanted animal after another, one excuse after another. We got one yesterday that read more like a kidnapper's threat than a rescue request. To paraphrase, they announced that they were holding a guinea pig in an outdoor cage in the intense heat where she was being attacked by mosquitos. She's too much work and they need to get rid of her right away. It was a mistake to get her (Really? You think?) and she needs to be gone, now.


See what I mean?


Sadly it turns out that they contacted us from several states away so there's little we can do other than refer her to rescues in her area. It kills me to see guinea pigs or rabbits in outdoor cages or hutches. They're prey animals, so being kept in a cage outdoors, with the scent of predators everywhere, with no where to run (in the wild they would have shrubbery, burrows (in the case of rabbits), the ability to run and run and run, but in a cage they're sitting ducks, if you'll pardon the mixed metaphor. Not to mention the weather extremes, parasites, ugh!
(I heart robots! And stitching on cards using shimmering thread!)

Let's go on to something happier. Last night was my flower arranging class. This week's theme was "garden style" arrangements, which are intended to look wild, or create a mini woodland scene. So fun! I love dioramas and the like so this was right up my alley. We have to use faux flowers for the class (not something I usually like, but they grow on you (no pun intended)) so I found this sprig of lantern flowers that were kind of spooky looking and went from there. I was really proud--I had no corrections from the teacher this time and not because she wasn't doling them out, either! I added some scrubby looking stuff, some vine (that looked a little too much like, ahem, bully sticks in the package, but worked great once they were cut and arranged), and a tombstone I put together using a photo I took in a Sonoma cemetery and some layers of heavy-duty cardstock. I'm rather pleased with the result.

(Giraffe matchbook mini journal. Cute, huh? I loooove the new "in colors" at Stampin' Up.)

I was also busy this week getting ready for my Stampin' Up catalog preview class. It ended up being a lot of fun (it usually does. I really like my stamping peeps) and I like how the projects turned out.

(Yep, that's them.)

(This one is hard to see, but the elephants have a neat batik look that worked well with the somewhat indianish color scheme and, of course, the fact that it's an elephant! The look is acheived by first inking up a stamp with a large, flat, solid design, using Stampin' Up classic ink. Next, ink your intricate design stamp with a Craft ink of your choice. (I used Expressions silver ink. Just in case you're itching to try these techniques, visit my webstite and click "Shop now" at the top, *or* email me.

http://veronica.stampinup.net

(Closeup on the ATC. The birdpuddle is made of super thick embossing powder.)

On to what you've been waiting for...the winner of the poetry prize...

Brandy!

Please email me with your address so I can get your prizes in the mail! (It's at the top of the page). Hooray for you!

For those who didn't win, don't worry! I have more goodies and more contests in mind. Stay tuned!

Kids.

So at dinner, the littlest kid is playing with his cars quietly, lining them up as if they are in a parking lot. His mother lets us know that this is how you know he is deficating.

Flash to this morning. I'm trying my best to not act like a total crank, sitting in a morning fog, no coffee to galvanize me against the chaos of bouncing, donut-filled chaos. And I hear a distinctive grunting, look over, and yep, he's lining up the cars as the morning is filled with a foul odor.

Reason number something-in-the-thousands why I will never be a mom:

I will never, ever get used to eating dinner while one of my guests takes a crap in the seat across from me.

Everything in my lovely vegan home has been touched with greasy chicken hands.

Or hands that spend the majority of their time holding their wangs through their pants (why?) or scratching their backsides with an enthusiasm rarely seen.

I'm trying to get the kid thing. I really am. It's hard to be a germaphobe and share your home with children, even really sweet ones. And they are. I melt when they speak in a tiny, high pitched tone to my nervous little dog, petting her nose so gently I could cry. I laugh when they go into long, semi-intelligable speeches about orange juice. Still, it's hard. I stand at the ready with bleach and scrubbies when the weekend's over.