Weekend Wind Down

Hard to believe it's back to work tom. am. I took a sneak peek at my inbox and I only have 59 emails waiting to be dealt with, not to bad for 3 days. As tempting as it was to start on them, I forced myself to turn off the computer and take a bath instead.

Poor Tanner is tuckered out from our jaunt to the dog park with Kinley and Lindy today. As soon as the sun popped out, we headed for the lake...just in case it decided to revert to the snow we woke up to. There were several of Tanner's favorite --- Great Danes --- at the park today. He was in heaven, I don't know where the obsession with them comes from, but I swear he would follow them home if I let him. Today was a bonus, he met one that was up for a quick game of chase, around and around they went and suddenly Tanner does a total face plant and slide. If he were a human child he would have a 'road' burn down his face and neck...lucky for him he has lots of fur.

I managed to squeeze out on more layout for my time off. This one is for the challenge at Journaler's Junction. The challenge this week: do your journaling upside down. At first I thought no way would I be able to make it work, but something triggered in my brain this afternoon and thought it would be perfect for a page about my bungee jumping experience many moons ago...no real pics, so I downloaded one from the internet. I wish I was as graceful as the person in the pic.

Journaling: It started as a joke at the beginning of my jr year @ CU. Before long the joke turned to reality and booked jumps for several of us and we headed for and open field 30 min. NE of Boulder (it's probably a subdivision now). I think four of us took the plunge with just the bungee cord between us and the ground 200 ft below. 15 years later I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was a life defining moment, when just for a minute you can feel the full RUSH of LIFE.

Are You in the Right Place?

Yes you are...I just spent some time making my blog more me(not that pink isn't me, but I thought it was time for some 'white' space). I couldn't sleep last night and so I started surfing random blogs. I was totally inspired by some and realized my design really sucked.

This isn't perfect, but given my limited experience with web design code, this is about my limit. Big kudos and full credit for header design are to Heidi Grace...I just scanned the paper and added the title and some butterflies.(yep the only brush I have AND know how to use in PS) I'm sure this is stretching the definition of 'personal use' in copyright land. I gave her credit again at the bottom of the blog. Here's crossing my fingers I don't get sued.

Navigationally Challenged?

I don't usually put myself in that category, I can usually figure out how to get from point A to point B fairly easily. Thanks to a good sense of direction and life long quest to make sense of patterns. The other night a major intersection was blocked by a bad accident and as the other route home is under construction and road closed, I decided to cut through the neighborhood. After many loops and twists I was able to get where I was going, but it took longer than if I would of waited my turn at the intersection. Patient, I am not.

Since then I've thinking why are there no conventions for 'street' types. Except for circle or loop, who knows what ave, st, dr, blvd, place really mean. I know Washington DC was designed to be purposely confusing to enemies. But do the suburbs of Denver and really any other area of the country need to be? I've been 'discussing' this with Tanner and we've decided that if I were Queen (even for just one day) I would declare...

1. 'Boulevards' run at least 10 miles north to south and connect to major highways.
2. 'Roads' run at least 10 miles east to west and connect to major highways.
3. 'Avenues' run at least 5 miles north to south and always connect to 'Roads'
4. 'Streets' run at least 5 miles east to west and always connect to 'Boulevards'
5. 'Drives' run at least 1 mile north to south and connect to 'Streets'
6. 'Lanes' run at least 1 mile east to west and connect to 'Avenues'
7. 'Places' are culdesacks
8. 'Loops' and 'Circles' stay the same

Just my two cents for city planners...who would probably tell me there already is a convention, but each county is different...blah, blah, blah.

Oops I almost forgot...no name changing midway between points.

Happy Saturday!

Why?

oh why must vacation days just fly by? Hard to believe it's already mid day on Friday and sadly I haven't accomplished much.

I had a great day with Sienna on Wednesday, the morning was a comedy of errors...she was overtired and then hungry and just before I sat down to feed her, Tanner hopped the fence. Of course I fed her first before going on a hunt for him, and by the time she was done with her bottle he was making his way home, but then...she wailed, just like her auntie, this girl takes her food seriously and was not happy about the milk being all gone, and Tanner heard the cry and took off running the other direction. So I packed her up in the stroller and together we went on a search for Tanner. In the end they were both happy campers; she fell asleep in the stroller, he came home with some kind of bone and I was exhausted.

Took some good pics of Sienna in the afternoon and have promised myself I will spend some quality time in photoshop trying to make them even better. I don't know why I loathe photoshop so much, I'm usually happy with results, but it takes so much time making things just right and then when I print it doesn't look as nice (I know monitor calibration, yada, yada, yada) I'm also working on an ancient version of Elements (2.0) and a laptop which make it more challenging. Maybe someday I'll upgrade my Mac and get the big girl version of PS, for now I'll make do.

Came home in the afternoon and sat down to tackle my scrapping challenges, and realized I needed more photos so a quick run to Target for prints(not liking my home prints right now) was in order. Did I mention I was planning on it being quick...yeah right...Spring break, hello, not only was every family with school age children at Target at 2 on a Thursday, but also happens to be the time when the Senior home must make it's weekly run. So much for a quick dash in for prints and silly me a few other staples. I was quick, but the lines, oh the lines were like a weekend aft. grr.

I did manage to make it home and struggled to finish the layouts --- struggle is the key word. Surprisingly the Wonder Years layout turned out to be the easier of the two, once I cropped a strangely placed butterfly out of the paper it was relatively smooth sailing. Good call A!

Piggy Toile...ack...I started out trying to scraplift a LO using similar paper in Memory Makers article a couple of months ago and just kept layering and stitching until it was half way decent, not one of my favorites, but a good sample for the store. Can I just say that zigzag stitching on rounded corners, not very easy. Anyone have recommendations for that?

Today is cleaning day, not thinking I'm going to make it to the DMV --- just realized I need an emissions test and what I thought was a DMV right around the corner is just a driver's license place -- why are they seperate? So instead, I'm focusing on cleaning out the car and starting on the rest of the house. Wish me luck!

10 on Tuesday

a little take off from last week's topic, I know some of you are desperate to bitch about the last place you lived.

10 Things I don't miss about Alaska

1. The cold
2. The dark
3. Driving on snow and ice for 7 months
4. Work(yeah, I know it was on the 'miss list' too...I don't miss being on call 24/7)
5. No good concerts
6. Mosquitoes...lots and lots of mosquitoes
7. So far from siblings and their cute kiddos
8. Flying 4+ hours to really get ANYWHERE
9. 100+ gas bills ( I know many of you have higher ones in CO, but for a single girl it was tough)
10. Did I mention it was dark and cold for long periods of time?

In other good news...I've taken the next three days off and plan to spend it relaxing with Sienna, quality time at the DMV finally getting CO plates, and hopefully tackling the pig toile paper.
Plus I learned today that our Exec director is implementing a summer schedule for our office. Office closes every Friday @ 1, closed every Monday in July and the whole week of July 4th off without any loss to our PTO bank. Hooray for summer!

Challenges!?!

of the design kind...

I can't lie, one of the best benefits of working for a scrapbook store is getting to play with so many great products like this great 'seaside' textured paper from Prism...
Most of the time the new goodies are easy to play with and the ideas flow quickly.

Most of the time...

The there are a few things that boggle my creative mind, but it's good to give that part of my brain a break. This week I've been challenged with a couple of products that are way out of my comfort zone.

Challenge 1...Daisy D's Wonder Years Build a Page Kit...Bright colors, digi elements, so not me
Challenge 2...Bo Bunny's spring pink toile, but not just any toile, look closely this is toile with pigs

yes, pigs. I don't know what I'm going to with either, but I think the toile's going to be a bit easier. Maybe?

Stay tuned to see finished projects...

The Egg's Point of View

I've read several posts about dying easter eggs and the fun and or chaos that ensues, can't wait until Sienna is old enough...but have you ever thought about it from the egg's point of view?
Clearly someone has, and it's funny enough to break my one video a week rule.

Misheard lyrics

A few of us were discussing our favorite misheard lyrics a while back, so when I found this video I knew I would have to share. While it is from a foreign 'idol' competition the contestant claims to be singing in English.



Thank goodness Mariah didn't become an English teacher when she was going through her mental breakdown.

Tanner's Life

It's a tough one that's for sure...I thought I would make a layout on where he spends 80% of his day. He tries to fake it by waking me up early in the morning and requesting a walk as soon as I get home in the evening, but the rest of the day and night is spent on the bed. Luckily he's willing to share at the end of the day.

I've had this inque boutique set of stamps in my stash for what seems like forever, but probably only a couple of months. They have the cutest bone with flourishes (you can't see to well on the scan) and a quote that fits Tanner to a tee 'never obedient, always charming'. Funny the adoption agency didn't really mention the obedient part when I got him. I just came across his papers and he really hasn't changed that much, except for slightly more mellow. Still shy, overprotective and loves to chase small animals 'for fun'. I'm not convinced it's really for fun, but luckily the rabbits around here are super fast so the theory can't really be tested.

Remember 'the world's most expensive layout post? (I think my brother in law is still in shock) Just for the record I used the same quickutz font as a stamp for the title on this layout. Hooray for versatility! Since I've used it on 3 or 4 pages now the title of 'most expensive layout' gets spread out a little, I think it's down to about $60 a page, a bargain if there ever was one.

Ten on Tuesday

Once upon a time on the Pea message board there was a great post every Tuesday that had folks list 10 things about a random topic. I loved it and have decided to restart the tradition at least for myself and perhaps for fellow blog racers who are in need of a topic to post about.

When people find out I'm from Alaska, the next question is inevitably 'Do You Miss It?' So for the record, here are 10 things I miss in/about Alaska

1. My parents
2. My friends
3. My work, especially some of the special kids
4. Traveling around the state and seeing the wonder God has created
5. Being able to walk to the ocean from my house
6. Title Wave used bookstore
7. Summer weekends at the lake
8. Bear Tooth steak pizza
9. Cafe Del Mundo hot chocolate (a wonderful spicy cocoa from Mexico, if any CO girls know where to find something like it please let me know)
10. Reindeer(aka Caribou) sausage

What about you, what are things you miss about the last place you lived?

I admit it, I'm responsible...

for the snow that hit the Denver area this am.

Where did this come from...I know, I know March is the 2nd snowiest (is that even a word) month (blah, blah, blah). While my science part of my brain accepts it, the rest of me not so much.

I broke out a pair of capri pants on Saturday, happy to say they're a little big, and started to get my legs in spring condition (ie shaved closely and introduced them once again to Jergen's natural glow lotion). Yesterday am it looked like another great sunny day was on the way. I was in a cleaning/laundry mode so tucked my sweaters towards the back of the closet and hung my winter coat in the closet instead of on the post by the door. Then took off to Chatfield for a walk/talk session with Shell. By the time we got there we needed fleece coats and the wind rolled in, by the time we left it was raining...by 6:30 icy rain and at some point snow...grr.
At least I didn't put away the car scrapper.

Happy Monday!

Happy Pi Day

Yes I am this much of a nerd...here's the info for those of you that are not so mathmatically inclined. Thanks to Wiki for the quick low down.

Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day are two holidays held to celebrate the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in American date format), due to π being equal to roughly 3.14. Sometimes it is celebrated on March 14 at 1:59 p.m. (commonly known as Pi Minute). If π is truncated to seven decimal places, it becomes 3.1415926, making March 14 at 1:59:26 p.m., Pi Second (or sometimes March 14, 1592 at 6:53:58 a.m.). Pi Approximation Day may be observed on any of several dates, most often July 22 (22/7 (European date format) is a popular approximation of π). March 14 also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday.
The first Pi Day celebration was held at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, and then consuming fruit pies; the museum has since added pizza pies to its Pi Day menu.[1] The founder of Pi Day, the "Prince of Pi", is Larry Shaw,[2] now retired from the Exploratorium, but still helping out with the celebrations. They have also recently added the first Pi Day celebrations in Second Life.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology often mails out its acceptance letters to be delivered to prospective students on Pi Day

Wacky Wednesday

Have I ever mentioned that I love musicals...on stage or a movie, they just make me happy. So when I came across this little gem of a video, I knew I would have to share the love. It's about 3 minutes of musical love...hope you like it.

A few weekend pics

Hooray the weather was great so we packed up Sienna and headed south to spend the day celebrating Connor. There's nothing quite like a first birthday party...lots of kiddos, lots of adults waiting to watch one kiddo make a mess of cake. This one was no different...Connor was a super star.

He was a good sport and posed with Sienna for a quick cousin shot. It's amazing that she seems like she's so big now, but looks so small next to him.

In other news...I got my hair chopped again and suprise I have some pictures this time around. Hard to believe how fast it grows, 5 inches came off, feels like 5 pounds. If only I could loose that much weight in other areas.

Saturday?

Where did the week go? Seems like it was just yesterday when I was preparing for the week ahead. I'm excited because I have a rare --- no work at either job weekend. I don't know what to do with myself. I'm going to head up the hills to visit baby girl and her family and if the weather cooperates we'll all head down to Pueblo to celebrate Connor's 1st birthday. Of course that's a big IF for a Sunday in March in Colorado, as proven by last Sunday's blizzard.

Here's another layout from last week or maybe two weeks, I can't remember. The pictures of Sienna are some from her first 'fashion shoot' in a dress about a month ago.

Here's your PSA for the month: Don't forget to 'Spring Forward' tonight.

I'm not usually a fan of daylight savings, but am looking forward to having some light at the end of the day. As I was searching to make sure I had my dates right (seems so early) I came across this headline "Daylight-saving not good for cows". My alter ego 'random girl' couldn't resist, I had to click on the link. The deal with the cows is not really in the spring, but the fall when they have to hold their milk for an hour longer. Not exactly the humorous angle I was hoping for, having been around many breastfeeding mommies, I can imagine this might be painful for the poor cows.

The article goes on with a little but of history about DLS came to be, I always knew it was money, but thought it was related to the agricultural industry. Not so much...here's a quick excerpt

The biannual spring/fall time adjustment has been in effect for most of the past 90 years, ever since World War I prompted Congress to find a dramatic way to save Americans money and stimulate the economy. Washington's logic: With more daylight hours, households would spend less on bills for lighting and electricity; also, factories would be more efficient because workers would be refreshed with the extra daylight hours they had for unwinding.

After President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which extended daylight-saving time by a month, the Department of Energy touted the benefits of energy savings, but Michael Downing, who detailed the history of daylight-saving time in a 2005 book, says the U.S. government has misled Americans on the economic benefits of the time switch. The biggest beneficiaries of the spring clock change aren't consumers but retailers. People shop more when there's more light at night.

"There's a reason that the first and most persistent lobby for daylight-saving was the Chamber of Commerce on behalf of retailers and merchants," says Downing, a lecturer at Tufts University outside Boston. "People really bought more goods after work when they were given light. And that effect persists. As recently as 1986, when we went from six months of daylight saving to seven, that extra month, according to industry estimates, was worth $200 million-$400 million to the golf industry alone, and $150 million to the barbecue industry."

Here's hoping it will bring a boost to Scrapbook Destination sales too! Have a great weekend!

Reality Recap (if you haven't seen the finale of Project Runway --- stop reading)

Since last night was a photography class, I didn't get to see the finale in real time. Hooray for TIVO! This is my favorite of the several reality shows I watch. I was bummed that Christian won, I was really rooted for Rami. His was my favorite collection, rarely do I see things on the runway that I would wear (assuming I have major surgery and figure out a way to survive without ever eating or find a way to take over Victoria Beckham's body). Plus how can you not root for a guy whose last name is Kashou (really like Cashew, the best nut ever).

I can't say I'm too surprised...now in it's fourth season, Rungay is a fairly predictable show, find the most outrageous and egotistical designer with some edgy or this season's word fierce designs, who gets the most air time and you'll figure out who the winner will be by week four. I now folks will say what about Chloe --- she doesn't fit that category. You're right and I bet the ratings were lower and Bravo had less feedback after that season so they decided not to go that route again. Please PR prove me wrong.

The good news is that Bravo has a new dance show to take Rungays place --- dance shows are my other fav. Looks like they've found the best possible female dancer --- yep that's right Elizabeth Berkley is a judge. Say what? I guess starring in one really bad stripper movie qualifies one as a judge. Maybe I missed the part where it's really a pole dancer reality show.

And just when you thought there was no more room for an original reality show --- along comes Oprah. I watched the season premier of The Big Give (on Sunday night for souls without TIVO) and loved, loved, loved it. Imagine if the Amazing Race folks held a charity event at each stop and you get The Big Give. Each week contestants are challenged to make a difference in a stranger's life. Be prepared to cry.

Here's another layout from the weekend, many of you have already seen in the land of the Peas

just a random stream of thoughts.

Now off to catch up on 3 days of Idol --- Danny Noriega + Tainted Love = Puke!

A few goodies...

It's that time of year when new scrapbook goodies seem to flow into the store at such a rate that I can barely keep up. It's great inspiration and I've completed several layouts over the past few days. So here's the first one...

My poor scanner had a hard time matching up the edges of the paper. I love watching Nolan and Shane blast through the water on the innertubes --- such a great summer tradition. Hopefully, I'll get the rest of the layouts scanned and merged so I can post more throughout the week.

In other news...

I've been blog tagged. If you have a blog it's only a matter of time before you'll get tagged. So the rules are... you post 7 things about yourself and then tag 7 new folks. So here goes...

1. In college my friends gave me the nickname of 'random girl'. Regular readers of this blog will know that nothing has really changed...my mind tends to wander and is filled with completely random thoughts...like why penguins and polar bears should not star in the same commercial.

2. I love the sound of the wind and if it's a warm wind I love to stand outside. I love the power of the wind.

3. I read romance novels--- ok not the super cheesy Harlequin types with damsels in distress on the cover, but not literature by any means

4. I watch SouthPark on a regular basis. I sometimes channel Cartman or sing the theme song when the teachers at work start driving me nuts.

5. Pink and white jelly belly jelly beans are the way to my heart.

6. I used to dance around in my living room everyday after school and broke my ankle 2x doing so(beware if a Pointer Sisters' song comes on, I can't help myself, I get 'so excited')

7. I have long term memory problems and can't remember many things from my childhood through college years. Doctors have said it's a result of post traumatic stress and some minor concussions sustained from falling off horses...helmets weren't a big thing in those days.

And on that note...the recess bell has rung. No more time for tag.