Feeling Floridian

I'm sure that this blog is suffering from abandonment issues by now. I can only say that I'll try to do better, but I know better than to make any promises beyond that.

We recently returned from a trip to Florida . . . I know . . . hurricane season isn't the best time of year to be visiting that part of the United States, but you do get cheaper lodgings at Disney World. We didn't spend our entire trip at Disney World, dividing our time between the St. Francis Inn in St. Augustine and my father-in-law's house in the middle of nowhere thirty minutes outside of Gainesville. While we were in St. Augustine my sister-in-law and I couldn't resist checking out the local stamping store, Claire's Collectibles. Holy Moly! I've never seen so many stamps crammed into such a small space. SIL and I had a great time combing through the store's inventory and one of the stamps I came home with is this palm tree border stamp made by Custer's Last Stamp. On the plane ride home, I decided I needed to make a card using these palm trees and our ladybug, Edna. After all, Edna is one road tripping ladybug and she probably loves spending time drinking margaritas in Key West. You can see the "recipe" for this card in my gallery on SplitCoastStampers.

So here's another hot topic at my house right now . . . Christmas. Now that Target has prematurely moved out the school supplies to make room for Halloween costumes, many American children are fantasizing about how they're going to dress up. Not my girls though . . . No, Oblivianna and Miss Moo have decided that it's time to get ready for Christmas. I told them that I wouldn't be pulling out the Christmas decorations for at least another three months, but my lack of participation hasn't cooled their enthusiasm in the least. There is a quote in one of the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary that says something along the lines that "Ramona believed that if she just had some paper, scissors, and tape, she could create anything in the world." This quote describes Oblivianna perfectly and she is putting her scissor and taping skills to work making Christmas decorations for the play room. She's made garlands, trees, signs, red scarves for her stuffed animals . . . the list goes on . . . all while playing the Wee Sing for Christmas album on repeat for hours at a time. I'm trying to grin and bear it for just a few more days until school starts on Tuesday while praying that the teachers in our district don't strike as they are threatening to do. The teachers need to work, not only for the sake of our children's education, but for the sake of parents' sanity.

We have a rather "boring" Labor Day weekend planned. DH will be finishing up the installation of baseboards and crown moulding upstairs and I will be doing laundry, and hopefully making cards. I've spent this week cleaning out my office and I feel as though I can move on to something else. Even though I may not have an exciting weekend planned, I hope that some of you out there do.

Happy Stamping

-Molly

Seeing Spots

Okay, so I promised Oblivianna and Miss Moo that we could redecorate their rooms this summer and they finally hounded me into actually doing it. Miss Moo wanted a 101 Dalmatian themed room, or a "spotty-dog room," as she calls it. This is about the only paper-crafting I've done the entire summer due to travels, home improvement projects, and my #1MIL's death. (This really hasn't been the best summer.) Anyway, I found good use for the myriad of circle punches I own. (I think I've got everything from 1/8" up to 2" in 1/8" increments.) Luckily, Miss Moo already had white furniture, so we punched out tons of black circles in various sizes and glued them to the furniture. I made the blanket on her bed out of a white duvet that I had, some stencils, and some fabric paint. Miss Moo's room used to be purple, so the butter yellow on the walls is a refreshing, and brightening change. The great thing about this "spotty-dog" room is that I accomplished the dalmatian theme without actually using any dalmatians at all! For someone like me who doesn't like her house and children to be Disney's own personal billboard, this was an ideal way to decorate the room. Also, the spots are completely removable so that when Miss Moo tires of spotty dogs (probably somewhere around the age eight), we can pull the spots off, clean up the glue and have nice white furniture again.

In spite of all my personal issues getting in the way of my hobby and business, I have made one card, a Queens Rock card that I'll post later when I can find a flat surface on which to set up my light box and camera.

Positive Review!

Zip on over to the nearest newstand and pick up a copy of the July/August issue of RubberStampMadness. We're featured in the In the Spotlight section of page 41. I hope to have new cards to post soon. Thanks for checking in.

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Broken Bones

And they're not mine this time!
In honor of my friend Bonnie who broke her wrist while trying out her new bicycle with toe clips for the first time, our new special features Helen-on-Wheels and her companion sentiment, Hell On Wheels, for 30% off.

My Time Eating Device

So, I thought I'd share a picture of this contraption I have to sit and wear 30 minutes, 3 times a day. I believe that the technical name of the device is a Pronation/Supination Sustained Stretch Device. My physical therapist just calls it, "The Device." The reason I'm sharing this picture is because The Device is eating a large chunk of what would otherwise be card making and Eccentric Images working time. The Device is helping me to regain mobility in my left arm, so I really can't complain about it too much because it is helping me out. (I was actually able to hold my eye open with my left hand so that I could put in my contacts this week for the first time since my elbow got ruined--sad when you measure progress by whether or not you can touch your face.)

I did experiment around a few weeks ago with a Mother's Day card. Here is what I came up with. The sentiment is computer generated. You can find all of the other technical details about this card in my SCS Gallery. I really wanted to write more on this blog entry, but DD#2 Miss Moo is tearing apart my already messy office as I sit here typing.

So I'm a bit slow . . .

at posting the card that I said I'd post last week. Here it is now though. I stamped Vivian on the back of a printable transparency with Staz-On and then colored her in with my souffle markers. After she dried, I trimmed her and flipped her over and what you see in the picture is what you get. I used my clear My Sentiments Exactly Multi-Retro alphabet to make the word on the tag and stamped it with Colorbox Frost White pigment ink. I hand drew the web with a Signo gel pen. I'm pretty pleased with how this card turned out. Yes, it is out of season, but I'm thinking ahead.

MIA

Yes, I've been missing for the last month or so. I injured my arm last month--dislocated my elbow and shattered the head of my raidius. A week after the injury, I had to have surgery to piece the radial head back together. Lucky me. Now I have two metal plates and a bunch of pins in my elbow. Going through security at the airport will be a blast now. For about the last month, I've been in a cast and sling. However, last week, I got my cast removed and now I'm doing physical therapy so that I can gain back the mobility in my arm.
Anyhow, card making has been impossible. Typing one-handed was slow and ineffecient. I'm back now. I haven't made a card yet. It will probably take some more PT before I can manage that. However, I do have one card to post that I made prior to all of this arm drama. I'll post it later today (I have a PT appointment soon). I just wanted to make a quick note that in "honor" of my elbow injury, we're giving 15% off all sentiment stamps at our webstore. Be sure to check it out.