Happy Thanksgiving...

I'm on vegetable duty this Thanksgiving...peeling and chopping carrots was the perfect time for reflection of all the things I am thankful for...

• Having so many blessings that between the time I chopped and sat down to blog I can't remember them all
• My family...near, far and extended.
  
• My friends...local, distant/virtual and a few imaginary ones too
  
• I have not one, but two jobs that allow me to have intellectual and creative freedom and make a difference in the lives of others. And for the boss of the one that pays the bills who wonders why I'm still at work on Friday at 3:30
• My spiritual gifts of sarcasm, creativity and the innate ability to cut through BS
• Nephews and a niece that remind me how precious every step of childhood is
• A dog that sits faithfully and quietly be my side when the tears come and greets each day with a contagious energy that gets me going
• My health, such as it is and that it's not worse
• Celebrating this day with the extended family
• For the people who have opened shared this day with my when I didn't have family to celebrate with and for those who continue the tradition of inviting those who have no where else to go

Hey Aspen Grove...

where's your holiday spirit? I know the economy is bad, but must I be greeted by such an obnoxious buzzing sound on entering and exiting? Not only am I treated like a criminal entering the store with a sound, but no hi...can I help you find something? greeting from the associate within five feet of the door, not even when I got down on my knees to see if they had Sienna's size in tights(and not really even the perfect tights) that was displayed no more than 6 inches from the floor.

yes, by all means let the customer crawl on the floor, I'm sure I must have missed that lesson in retail 101.

And lest you, my poor reader, make excuses that it was some teenager working their first job, let me assure you that she was at least as old as me. You, unhappy Gap lady, have something to learn from fellow retailers especially the sweet 'barely more than a teenager' working at Gymboree who went to the back not once but twice to try and locate something for me, greeted other customers, handled a request from another store and even asked said store about my tights even though I told her she didn't need to worry. Now that's a retail star!

all this work and still no tights for Sienna's Christmas outfit...Keep your eyes out for a pair or tights with Scottie dogs preferably red or gray.

Happiness!

A raging headache had me moving slow this am; the silver lining: all of the high school students who crowd my starbucks each morning were safely tucked away in there first period classes by the time I drove on by and I thought to myself when you're already late you might as well be really late, right?

So in I go and order my usual winter drink...caramel macciatio if you must know. Yes to the whip and to extra caramel this am(remember, I have a headache which equals free ticket to anything...)

I patiently wait with the pre-coffee zombies and then I hear the magic words...tall eggnog latte. What? Eggnog lattes are back? this is too good to be true. I look to the board to make sure my brain is not playing tricks and sure enough there it is as plain as day...

So I march myself right back to the counter and order one, cashier barrista looked at me a little funny as if to say your other drink is almost made, you can't change now...I assured her I would find a good home for the macciato, just hand over the eggnog latte and no one will get hurt.

As I savor my special treat my headache is drifting away, it's going to be a good day after all. And since I've decided I'll probably drink both myself, it's going to be a wired one too...hopefully wired will turn into productive.

A Moment of Panic

I don't know about you, but nothing sends me into a panic faster than the thought I have lost my wallet.

I was having a productive day at work until I reached into my purse to grab some money (let it be known that I can't say no to the offer of a Frosty from Wendy's) and no wallet.

Yikes!

Out I rush to the car...maybe it fell out of my purse...it's not in the car!

Can you feel the panic starting to rise?

Then I remembered I rushed in the house after coming home from Shelley and Troy's yesterday(nature calls) so fast that I left my purse in the car...could it be that in those few short hours someone would have taken my wallet? Totally possible...the last time it happened to me was several years ago at the dog park and in less than an hour.

My mind starts to go into auto-pilot...call the bank, call the credit cards. Just one last check of the purse.

Phew...there it is hiding.

I guess it's time to go back to the smaller purse.

Happy Monday!

Friday Funny

How many dogs does it take to change a light bulb?

1. Golden Retriever: The sun is shining, the day is young, we've got our whole lives ahead of us, and you're inside worrying about a stupid burned out bulb?

2. Border Collie: Just one. And then I'll replace any wiring that's not up to code.

3. Dachshund: You know I can't reach that stupid lamp! But I can 'help' with the mail

4. Rottweiler: Make me.

5. Boxer: Who cares? I can still play with my squeaky toys in the dark.

6. Lab: Oh, me, me!!!!! Pleeeeeeeeeze let me change the light bulb! Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh? Huh? Can I? Pleeeeeeeeeze, please, please, please!

7. German Shepherd: I'll change it as soon as I've led these people from the dark, check to make sure I haven't missed any, and make just one more perimeter patrol to see that no one has tried to take advantage of the situation.

8. Jack Russell Terrier: I'll just pop it in while I'm bouncing off the walls and furniture.

9. Old English Sheep Dog: Light bulb? I'm sorry, but I don't see a light bulb!

10. Cocker Spaniel: Why change it? I can still pee on the carpet in the dark.

11. Chihuahua : Yo quiero Taco Bulb. Or 'We don't need no stinking light bulb.'

12. Greyhound: It isn't moving. Who cares?

13. Australian Shepherd: First, I'll put all the light bulbs in a little circle...

14. Poodle: I'll just blow in the Border Collie's ear and he'll do it. By the time he finishes rewiring the house, my nails will be dry.

Bella Ball

I took 'tis the season to be jolly bella' home this week and had more fun than I thought inking her and coloring with prismacolors and copics. I was also super excited that the snowflake embossing folder came in, it's so perfect for holiday cards. I might actually finish making Christmas cards before Valentine's Day for the first time in years. :)


For this one I let AC do the snowflake work, too bad that you can't see all of the glitter and shimmer that's on this card. These ladies will make their way to the store and hopefully work a little retail magic like Glideabella cards did.Lattebella and Prezzibella were starting to feeling left out with all the love their winter friends have received in the past couple of weeks, so I had to ink them and do a little something with them. You can't see in the photo, but the background on this one is an embossed paisley pattern and it looks so much better in person.
Prezzibella needed to get ready for Christmas too, she got a little help from the CHF pindot backgrounder.

PSA...Make a Difference in 30 seconds

Allstate Insurance Company ("Allstate") will make a $15,000 donation to one local charity organization-The winning organization will be determined by online voting. Simply vote by going to www.allstate.com/yourchoicecharity. You can vote once each day between now and December 10, 2008.

There are 3 charities to choose from: Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver, Junior Acheivement, and Facing History and Ourselves. All totally worthy so I won't preach to you on which one, you can email me if you want my humble opinion.

Make sure to go down to the bottom of the screen and choose Denver and then your charity.

Cheater Post...

Just playing catch up with a couple of layouts that I posted on the SD blog the past couple of weeks. I think they're both cute and worthy of the double play. This first layout is about my recreation of Halloween for the sake of a scrapbook page {don't try and pretend you've never done something like this...}and because no week would be complete without some fussy cutting...a little fun with the owl and other Harvest Moon papers from Pink Paislee.

[Dial2Do from Christyn Holmes] See girls it really does work at

***eta...the cropping crew wanted to see the new tool in action...

See girls it really does work at last. You'll see it on the blog in 5 minutes.

I sent this email using my voice. Listen to it here: http://dial2do.com/l/c4aeda76-bc0b-49d8-8295-5ffa2ff73ad4

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Sent on behalf of Christyn Holmes with http://dial2do.com - Send Text Messages, Emails and more - just phone and talk.

Life Simplified!?! Part one

So, I found about this new great tool at our faculty meeting today called dial2do where I can actually call my blog. Yup call my blog. And I can talk just like I was making a normal phone call and it will transcribe and it will show up here on my happy little blogger space. How cool is that. Imagine. No typing. No texting. I could just dream of an iPhone and use it solely for music and games. Well and to call my blog.

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Sent on behalf of Christyn Holmes with http://dial2do.com - Send Text Messages, Emails and more - just phone and talk.

Life Simplified!?! Part two...

So it does have some drawbacks. Apparently I can only record for so many seconds but still. Now if only it could figure out how to upload my pictures and layouts. It would be a perfect bloggy world. But e-mail is not the only thing it can do. I can text. Yes for our text challenged friends this might be the answer. You can call but it will turn it into a text. Or you can remind yourself things and it will go straight to your Gmail.

ok so I cheated just a bit and rearranged these posts in blogger for readability's sake.

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Sent on behalf of Christyn Holmes with http://dial2do.com - Send Text Messages, Emails and more - just phone and talk.

Life Simplified!?! Part three

One more critical thing. It's free. Yes free. Well you have to call a long distance number but on a cellphone who cares long distance doesn't exist anymore. It's all about the minutes and I have some minutes to burn. Welcome to dial2do. Do I sound like an ad yet?

I sent this email using my voice. Listen to it here: http://dial2do.com/l/16caf7b3-434b-40e9-b0a4-dec085ce72ff

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Sent on behalf of Christyn Holmes with http://dial2do.com - Send Text Messages, Emails and more - just phone and talk.

Time to dig into the stash

and scrap pile. I did a little bit of organizing my scraproom over the week, along the way I found this great Pink Paislee overlay, I forgot I had bought. I decided to really stretch myself and actually stamp a background using my handy CHF ledger scrapblock.I had it mounted on plain red cardstock then on the way to the scanner I saw the packaging from Sonoma and realized the colors were perfect. Sorry the scan is so wonky, the transparency and buttons just did it in.

Can you handle another Bella card...here's the latest. I organized my scraps and came across some sugared paper and chipboard from Basic Grey, it was the perfect for this bella I colored with H2O pencils.
oops looks like a pearl has gone M.I.A.

'Count your blessings'

I have to admit I'm a little bummed, I designed this album as a class that no one signed up for. What's not to love about chocolate chipboard, Basic Grey Paper and CHF backgrounders, with a few primas thrown in for fun?

I just don't get it...

Urban Dictionary...and I was like.

Have you ever visited Urban Dictionary?

I'm always curious when I see a random person has been referred by Google. I like to click and see what they were searching for...the latest round: 'And I was liek' to which google second guessed and decided the person fat fingered 'And I was like...' My little blog is about 5th on the list and Urban Dictionary on top. I couldn't resist, I had to see how 'and I was like' was defined.

I think it's pretty dead on, how about you?

Obnoxious(ok maybe not this part) people use this phrase after they have recited an anecdote about their petty tribulations. This is to compensate for their complete absence of wit or original insight into anything. Teenage girl drops her lipstick. Girl: Omigod becki, this morning i was like, putting my lipstick on, and then i dropped it and there was lipstick like alllllll over the floor and i was like AHH!!!! Boy: uhhh... how exactly can you be "like ahh"? Girl: I apologise for my poor use of English. I tend to use "like" as an all-purpose word. Yes, I was slightly disgrunted at the time, but I wasn't physically comparable to a sound, nor did I actually raise my hands in the air and shout "AHH!" Boy: I think makeup and clothes stores contain brain-destroying chemicals. Girl: Help me.

Today...

I played a little 'legal' hooky from work and spent the day with this beautiful girl. We did a little rewind on Halloween when? I found the bumblebee costume in clearance at Target for $3.50 (who could resist that?) I always love when Lisa puts photos in digi frames so I thought I would give it a try for a couple of my favorite shots.

Crafty Goodness...

One thing is for sure, if the Broncos continue their 'non-winning' ways I'll have lots of extra time to work on my paper crafts.

This weekend was very productive, after demo-ing four different cards(yep four cards) for the frenzy I set to work on some personal projects today.

First up, my sketch for the store blog, I didn't waste any time putting the pics of Sienna in her pumpkin hat on a layout. This one takes me back to my color blocking days. At least I'm not afraid of patterned paper any more. (and really who would be afraid of these happy trees?)


Then it was time to play with my new bellas, I brought Glideabella(how could I resist a skater girl) and Snowbunnybella home with me on Saturday along with some new Copic colors that finally made their way back to the store.

I needed a little inspiration to get going so I started with a lift of a card I found at SCS. You can see the original here. This one had me digging into my scrap stash and finding some BG from Xmas last year and some Wild Asparagus polka dots from long ago. I used the 'Curls' goosebumpz from Quickutz on the top panel. You can't really tell from the scan, her collar, cuffs and skates have glitter on them.

Then I was off and running on my own. I love this aqua snowflake paper from SEI's Glitzmas line so I was determined to color the bella with complimentary colors. I love the way Copics blend and shade. For this one I used flock for a furry collar and cuffs.
But wait there's one more...I finally got my hands on some Versadazzle ink (my fav new product from CHA this summer, YAY!) so I stamped the CHF geometric flower on the red with the champagne versadazzle, it ends up with a subtle gold glitter. Then I stamped 'Snow Bunny' on kraft and on the red AC Damask paper(love this paper!) Then, just like I used to do with my Barbies the Bella got dressed in her smashing coat. Again flock for the hood and cuffs. A little Cosmo Cricket journal spot and the card is done. Hope your week is off to a great start...

Less than 72 hours before it's all over...

Just in case you are one of the 20% still undecided in the upcoming election, here's one more 'hot' political question asked to the politicos, the pundits and the 'everyday' American.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

The politicos....
SARAH PALIN: Before it got to the other side, I shot the chicken, cleaned and dressed it, and had chicken burgers for lunch.

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change!

JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

The Pundits...

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

The everyday American...

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken 2008, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken 2008. This new platform is much more stable and will never crash or need to be rebooted.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

***Hope this made you smile, believe it or not I found this one blog surfing for Bella and Copic ideas.***