Monday, June 28, 2010

S'mores on the Dashboard!

Well, it's that time of the year! It's time to make s'mores on the dashboard of the car! It's currently 105° outside - perfect baking temperature! All you need to do is arrange the ingredients the way you would normally prepare s'mores. Then, wrap the s'more very carefully in aluminum foil. Make sure that you do this very well as you don't want a mess on your car's dash! Seal those edges! Park the car so that the sun shines through the windshield. Place the packet on the dash under your windshield, close the windows, and then go away for about 15 minutes. Return and check for doneness! I guess that is one advantage to living in the desert, right? Do you think the heat has gotten to my mind? LOL

After a long and arduous task, my scrap room is now back in working order. DH and I spent days putting things back. How did I ever get all of that stuff in there? I think it multiplied once it was set free in the more spacious confines of our home's other rooms! I know there are things I cannot find, but, you know what? I don't care. I was so tired of replacing and reorganizing that I actually thought it would be easier to just throw it all out and start over again! At least it's very clean and everything is in its place (for the time being).

Feline Frenzy News: Precious, our Maine Coon, never growled. She was always so loving and caring. Now that we got her a companion, Cedar, she is always growling at Cedar and whacking her. I feel so badly because Cedar doesn't see very well. She runs into walls, doesn't see food, and just has a hard time tracking. Can a cat be far sighted? She would never survive in the wild. She would never be able to catch food. Cedar, at last check, weighted 2.8 lbs. Precious, at last check, weighed 14 lbs. Cedar will take a flying leap at Precious and knock Precious right over! It is hilarious. What is NOT hilarious is waking up to growling in the middle of the night or early in the morning. Cedar is pretty scrappy. I give her credit. She is NOT intimidated by the larger cat. As large as Precious is, Cedar is very thin and long. Her legs are sooooo long! Her body looks like an eel's when she is flat. She's not quite three months old, but is amazing long. About a month ago, we would be afraid to wake up in the morning because we didn't want to see her tail! It was growing by leaps and bounds. Her body was so small and her tail was so long! We felt if we watched carefully, we'd be able to actually see it grow! Even Cedar didn't know what to do with it. Now that her body is getting larger, she is becoming more proportioned (except her really long, thin legs).

I did a LO over the weekend. The challenge was to use orange, yellow, teal, lime green. I immediately knew what paper to use! There is a glittery finish to the word "carefree," the sun, the flowers to the left of the photo, the trim at the lower right. When I took the photo using the flash, I got flashback. I had to take the photo without the flash and lost all visuals of the sparkle. Here it is:

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Our Carefree Summer Days

Thank you for stopping by! It is just wonderful to have visitors that are the sweetest on Earth!

Blessings,
Chris


Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Mid June Already?

Hello everyone! Happy Tuesday to each of you! I cannot believe how quickly time is flying by! Can you believe it is mid-June already? I am so happy that you took the time to stop by!

The weather is hot, but not over 100°, thank goodness. We had some rain and thunder toward the end of last week and over the weekend. I think I actually heard the plants and trees in my yard emit sounds of ecstasy! Poor things were fried!

DH is sick. He sounds awful. I think it's a cross between a cold and allergies. I made a big pot of chicken tortilla soup for dinner at his request. I'm so glad that he wanted soup. I love making soup and am pretty good at it! He's quietly watching the Lakers play in the basketball playoffs. There is a kitten asleep in the crook of his arm. It's soooooooooooo cute!

I did do a LO of our sweet little kitten. Of course, she's not that sweet in the middle of the night and early in the morning when she is flying across our bed! I never knew a cat could just levitate about 2 feet off the bed, do a 180° turn while in the air, land, and zoom at the speed of light to a destination unknown! My DH, after she pulled this in the middle of the night while in a frenzy, nicknamed her "Crackhead!" She was so wired. She pulled the same stunt this morning before the sun came up! Ugh!

As I wrote before, we adopted her from a local shelter. She has an eye problem called nystagmus. Her little eyeballs constantly bob up and down. I don't think she sees very well because she slams into furniture, walls, doors, us. It is so wonderful that she came to live with us as we will care for her better than any where else she may have gone. The older cat, Precious, loves her some days and not so much on other days. That all depends on the annoyance factor. Precious has a habit of flicking her tail. She's done it since we got her two years ago. Well, Little One thinks that catching the tail is a really fun game! She attacks it and bites it! Precious doesn't think it's very funny! Cedar constantly annoys Precious. There are even times when Precious is so frazzled that she gets mad at DH and myself. I know what she is thinking, "Why did you bring this animal home?" LOL Speaking of tails, Cedar's tail just keeps growing. Right now, it is longer in length than the length of her entire body from head to hip. We would wake up in the morning and think that that tail had grown two inches over night! Poor little thing doesn't quite know what to do with it! She keeps trying to catch it.

I did do a LO of Cedar. I used Basic Grey PPs for this one. I think they all came from the Origins line. I did it for a challenge to use distressing. I used several types of distressing on this LO. Here it is:

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On this LO, I've torn paper, sanded, painted, inked, applied green Perfect Pearls to the birdcage, machine stitched, and scraped (see two corners on the photo). I wanted to make the LO match the green in her eyes. She has such interesting coloration. If you look to the right of her nose, it is white. The further away from her nose, the white changes to a pinkish color. It's like that on her bib as well. She's going to be a great feline friend.

My scrap room is still a total disaster. They haven't come to do any replacement yet. I was going to put down hardwood. Then, because I'm always dragging 35 gallon Rubbermaid storage containers out of one closet (I store my alphas and ribbons in them), I was afraid I would scratch the wood. The containers are just too heavy to lift, so I just drag them over to my scrap table. I nixed that idea and went back to carpeting I've made my choice and it's been ordered. I don't know if we're going to repaint the room. I honestly don't know what color! The interior of our entire home is painted a very nice tan (like a rich hot chocolate beverage color). I don't want to have a rainbow house with each room a different color. So, I need to be careful what I paint in that room. It should be a color that compliments the rest of the home. Any ideas? So, as of today, my stuff is in every room of the house except the two bathrooms! How the heck did I get all of my scrappy stuff in that room?

I would like to provide a word of warning concerning an internet scrap site. The name of the internet store is Stop and Scrap located in upstate New York. Here's why. I placed an order on April 20. Four weeks later, my order arrived! I tried to cancel the order after three weeks, and the owner told me it had already been pulled and was in the process of being mailed. She stated she couldn't stop the process and that it was in the mail. The postmark was after I tried to cancel. She only got her tushie into gear when I unsuccessfully tried to cancel the order! When the box finally arrived, we didn't even open it. We immediately put it into the mail and returned it. The owner received the returned box right away according to the tracking number. As of today, almost four weeks after she received the return, my credit card account has not been credited. I called Stop and Scrap and left a message to return my call. As of this evening, I have not had a return phone call. I don't know about you, but I would be very wary of ordering from this site! I know I won't be doing it anymore. I hate when people put me in this position. I do NOT like conflict. I do NOT like people taking my money and not providing the goods or service. I do NOT like people who are dishonest! Be forewarned!

Well, that's enough yammering for today. I'm glad you stopped by! I'll be posting in a few days.

Blessings,
Chris


Sunday, June 6, 2010

Visiting Teaching Idea for June, 2010

If you would like the info for June, please visit my new Visiting Teaching blog HERE. All future Visiting Teaching entries will be placed on that blog rather than this scrapping one. Please bookmark Visiting Teaching Sistas so that you can go directly there in the future!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope I don't lose you!

Blessings,
Chris

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

My Scrappy World is Upside Down!

I'd like to begin by apologizing for not having my Visiting Teaching lesson idea ready and posted. Read on to find out why, LOL. Also, please use my new Visiting Teaching blog, Visiting Teaching Sistas as the site to view each month. I just don't wish to mix my scrappy stuff with my VT things.

Now for the entertainment portion of this post.

I did absolutely nothing in my scrap room for just about all of the month of May. I don't know what was going on, but I just didn't feel like scrapping. Usually, I am in there every day for just a bit. On Sunday, I decided to go in and get my tushie in gear to get my Visiting Teaching idea all ready. I walked in and the carpeting squished under my bare feet! My first thought was that our feline friend had decided that her box wasn't her preferred depository. I quickly realized that what was squishing between my toes was more like that of what a baby elephant might have eliminated rather than a cat!

Suddenly, terror set in. Where was the water coming from, and how much damage was there? I turned on the light (I hadn't even done that yet) and saw that, indeed, we had a water problem. DAH! I called DH into the room. We began moving everything out in order to find the source of the water leakage.

Now, I do believe that blessings come in all forms. I was truly blessed. I keep my paper and cardstock in 36 drawers, on shelves and in drawers of my hutch, and the brand new goodies are stored upright on the floor in a box right next to my chair by the scrap table. I have always had the habit of keeping the papers in their cellophane wrappers or in zip lock plastic bags. I lost only about 50 8 1/2 x 11 pieces of discontinued Lasting Impressions paper that I use for making cards. The bottom portion of every sheet is water stained. The top half, however, is still fine. I just kept those in a brown envelope. I'll just cut those in half and use what is left. Not a single thing was lost! Can you believe that? The 36 drawers are in one of my closets. The water there was the worst. Nothing - absolutely nothing - was ruined.

Opposite the end of my closet, on the other side of the wall, is the culprit that has turned my scrappy world upside down. What, you may ask? It was the hot water heater! It died. It lived a good life but finally succumbed to age, spewing all of it's life fluids through the wall(s) and on the carpet.

We didn't think that our insurance company would have anyone working since it was a three day weekend. So, we didn't call AAA. We should have. Someone is always there for emergencies such as this. DH, just on a hunch, called them yesterday evening. They have already been here, ripped up the carpeting and pad in the affected half of the room, sealed the floor, assessed the wall damage, and will be here tomorrow to get the hot water going again and continue with the repairs. I'll get new carpeting and the walls will be repaired. Talk about fast! I love AAA!!! They may cost more, but I have to say that they have always been there right away to take care of any problems we've had in the past. For us, it has been such a relief. The first thing that AAA offered was hotel lodging during the repairs. We declined as there was no need. We only lacked hot water and could make that by heating water on the stove.

So, that is why I'm late with my posting. I have scrappy stuff all over the house. There isn't a room that hasn't been affected in some way. OK, the bathrooms have been spared! My poor husband just looked and everything and said to me, "There is just so much stuff!" That made me feel good (NOT)! Guilty, yes. The workmen will take out the table, the desk, the shelf units, and computer stuff. DH is currently emptying the shelves of all the baskets.

I can't help him because I shouldn't be in that room until everything is done. I had been having asthma and didn't know why. Now, we know. It was the mildew from the wet carpeting. The short time I was in there on Sunday, I was wheezing terribly. I could smell mildew. So the door is shut, the room is airing out, and a huge fan is helping to eliminate any moisture.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! It could have been so much worse. In the grand scheme of things, my inconvenience is absolutely nothing compared to what is happening in Lousiana and areas of the midwest who have recently had severe flooding.

I am blessed. I am grateful. I am ever so thankful.

XO,
Chris