November 2007 Card Swap and More Christmas Presents

I finised the cards for the November swap last night. Here is the sketch we were told to use as a guide.

I am a Stampin' Up! hobbyist demo. No, I don't "deal" stamps. I have to laugh when people ask me how long I have been a "dealer". It sounds like I am pushing drugs. I received this set of stamps in the mail yesterday, free of charge, as a holiday gift. I am looking forward to stamping with them and coloring the images with some bright colors.

Kids Say the Funniest Things!

Lydia says the funniest things sometimes. Six is so much fun. When it's really dark outside she says it is "pinch black outside". Also, I have stacks of CD's on my desk right now because I am importing them into my iTunes library. She asked me if I am going to "melt them" (instead of burn them).

Quilting Homework Done - Check

We finished Lydia's math homework and then worked on my quilting homework which is due tomorrow. Both were fun. I finished three log cabin squares. They are crooked as heck but will trim down to 6.5 inches and that is what I care about at this point. At least they aren't too small and I don't have to rip them all apart. Yay! Lydia and I are off to the craft room now to work on the cards for the card swap that are also due tomorrow!

Santa Came Early

Ken really wanted to get me an iPhone this year for Christmas (he has been talking about it for months) so we checked into the service in our area and learned that our area has really poor coverage. No shocker there. We couldn't even sign up for an AT&T plan with our home address. :-( We decided to hold off for now until the coverage gets better. Instead, Ken bought me an iPod touch for Christmas which has the same features minus the phone part. Ken named him Superfly Shnooka and I love him. My iPod nano (aka Lil Wedge, also named by Ken) has served me well but Ken is now it's new owner. He will probably assume ownership of Superfly Shnooka in a year or two as well, as soon as I can get good coverage with the iPhone.

By the way, I let Ken name electronic devices, not our children. I can't share some of the names he wanted to name our first born for the sake of offending men in Greece so let me just say his names are over the top for a child in central WI.

We are going to Cross Country Sports in Houghton, MI, the weekend of December 1 to pick up Ken's Kona Dawg Deluxe! He has been eying that thing up for months. He has yet to test ride it but I have a feeling we'll be bringing it home. I'd also like to test ride a Trek Fuel EX 5.5 WSD while we are there. I'm thinking of taking up biking so we can do that sport together. Ken went running with me yesterday and he enjoyed it. If I take up biking, maybe he will take up running. That is the hope anyway. :-)

Tomorrow is a big day for me. I have quilt class which means my homework needs to be done (it's not). The cards for my card swap are due as well (also not done)!!!! I will be busy tonight!!

Book No. 4

These books are so much fun to make. I have one more from the kit left to do and then I will design one of my own.

My favorite Holiday Peppermint coffee that only comes out at Christmas time is in the grocery stores now (Candy Cane is my favorite). I'm having a cup right now and it makes me feel Christmasy. Speaking of Christmas, we are going to do some Christmas shopping today. This is an early start for us but I would prefer we start even earlier. As Dave Ramsey says, Christmas is the same time every year! Meaning it's pretty easy to plan for it throughout the year but I always think I have time to get to it later and then I am rushing or worried I won't find the right gifts. My family asked for a wish list this year so I have started one at Etsy (my Etsy Wish List). If you have been asked for a wish list, you might consider the same.

Book No. 3

This one took me only about an hour. It's much smaller. Like 3.5x5 inches or something like that. So much fun to make!

Book No. 2

The book binding skills have improved with book number two. I made one of the four books in the Club Scrap kit I bought at the scrapbooking retreat this past weekend. I stayed up past my bed time yesterday to finish it. It only took me about 2 hours to make. I want to write on the deeply textured pages with a juicy black ink pen. The paper looks like it would almost be squooshy to write on. But then again, it's too pretty to write on. I haven't decided if it'll be a gift yet. Most likely it will be. I usually don't keep things I make.

Back from the Scrapbooking Retreat

I went on a scrapbooking retreat this past weekend with my friends Dawn and Sarah. This year at the retreat they had a special guest, Tricia Morris from Club Scrap. She is a fantastic teacher, I cannot even tell you! She supplied us with so many cool products and taught us how to bind books! The picture above is a hand bound book I made! I bought a kit to make 4 more...
Club Scrap has a monthly club and the kit each month comes in a Pizza Box (a.k.a. PB). What a neat idea.

We also made a technique book. This is a picture of a duo print that we made:Tricia is very inspiring and I would recommend any retreat she is teaching at. It was much more than a scrapbooking weekend which was very exciting for me because while I do want to do some scrapbooking, I am am even more interested in doing altered art projects and things like book binding.

I got a chance to visit a little with Tricia and learned that she and her husband are runners so we were able to chat about 1/2 and full marathons. She is such a neat lady. I am very inspired by her.

On top of all that, I scrapped 2 7x7 albums and got to spend time with two great girls. It was a great weekend.