Catch-Up, Week 1

Where do I begin?

Jason is camped out on the couch with three+ hours of motorcycle races ahead of him, so I have some guilt-free time to come downstairs and update the ol' blog. But as I sit here I wonder how I should go about encapsulating the last two weeks? To be honest, I had to scroll through the photos I've taken just to remember some of it! I guess I'll just start chronologically and see what I come up with! [If you follow me on Twitter/Facebook some of this will not be new news, but some of it will.]

Monday morning, June 15th, Jason left for work, not to return until that Thursday. John, being ever considerate, found someplace else to stay while Jason was gone. So I had four whole days to myself, woo hoo! :) All I had to do was hang out at home on Monday and Tuesday while some guys came to do some work in our attic to make our home more energy-efficient. I planned to spend the time in the basement, getting my studio in order and hopefully crafting.

And then the guys came, and asked me to show them the basement. Huh? Why? Apparently we were having some work done in our basement, too, as well as some other non-attic stuff I didn't know about. HOLD THE PHONE. I called Jason's cell, but he was in a cell-free zone... but I did have an "in case of emergency" number. So my first task (which I should have done before Jason left) was to determine what constituted an emergency... like, workmen are trying to hack up the drywall in my studio kind of an emergency, or I just got in a car accident and I'm in the back of an ambulance kind of emergency? Turns out it was the latter. So no talking to Jason.

I was pretty stinkin' sure that Jason did not know about the hacking-out-the-drywall-in-my-studio plans, because if he had he probably would have mentioned it. So then I called the guy we'd arranged all this with to ask what the heck was up. Is this what we'd agreed on? Is this included in what we'd put the partial payment down on? And he assured me that it was. So without being able to talk to Jason, and being told that this was part of what we'd paid for, I let them start in the basement. [Did you hear the da-da-duhn music in the background just then?]

First they had to clear a path around the wall of the basement. I was in the midst of arranging things, so I had piles of things scattered here, there, and everywhere. All of my recently-sorted piles got re-piled and moved around and it will probably take me a month to get things sorted out again. I'm so not exaggerating; it's a bigger mess than it's ever been (it's true, Katie!). Then they kind-of-sort-of covered everything in plastic sheeting. And then they cut 40 six-inch holes in my ceiling.

Here's a small portion of what the ceiling looked like Monday night. Sorry for the crappy picture, but you get the idea. [In case you're wondering the point of this hole-making, the energy audit guy had brought in an infrared camera and it showed heat escaping through the joists here at the basement ceiling/ground level. So they cut the holes and sprayed spray foam up there to insulate it. I understood that was suggested after our energy audit, I just didn't know "we'd" agreed to do it.] I was kind of disappointed that there were exactly 40 holes, because 40 just sounds like a number I made up to mean "a lot," doesn't it? But I actually counted them and there were 40.

Long story slightly shorter: Jason didn't know about it either. It was a huge miscommunication and I am in charge of the planning of expensive things from now on. It was a total stressor and it's caused me lots and lots of extra work, plus it ended up being a lot more expensive than we'd thought. We are looking on the bright side that our house is now so incredibly energy-efficient and I was reminded that I need to be in charge of the details of our financial decisions. Also, I have freshly-painted ceilings in my entire basement and first floor because the paint they got to paint over the holes they patched up didn't match and left a big ugly line, so they had to paint the whole ceiling instead. Whoops for them, hooray for me!

Wednesday started out a LOT better, especially considering it was Jason's birthday and I didn't get to spend it with him (remember last year's birthday post to him? It all still applies, and then some :)). First, I got an awesome invitation that I couldn't believe and I started to figure out how to make it happen. [More on that later.] Then I headed into Alexandria to go to a party on a boat! The Avon Walk staff throws a party every year for the super-star fundraisers and the super-active people who go to a lot of events before the walk (how I get invited). Last year it was a wine-tasting (and I won a one-hour massage)! This year it was on a boat. It was great talking to everyone, plus I won not one but two shirts! I spent most of my time chatting away instead of looking at the sights, but it was great to see this sculpture, called The Awakening:


It used to be in a different location and my aunt Susan took me to see it a couple times. Then they moved it, much to her chagrin, so it was a happy surprise to see it on our tour. :) It's hard to tell from this angle, but it's a huge sculpture that looks like the man is "awakening" and climbing out of the ground. Really cool.

On Thursday I cleaned the house, ran errands, worked on those aforementioned invite plans some more, and got straightened out at the chiropractor. I also finally got a photo of the geese who've been hanging around our neighborhood!


The babies are so big now that you almost can't tell them from the adults. Also, this is not my yard/house/car. Thank goodness. I hate goose poop. HATE. But they are cute waddling around in someone else's yard.

Jason came home on Thursday night and it was a mad dash to get him unpacked and then re-packed, because he was leaving again the next morning to drive to Georgia! His birthday present was a trip with his friends to a riding school on a track down there; his friend has a trailer so they loaded their bikes up and drove down together.

On Friday I drove up to Angela's Happy Stamper to take a class with Fred Mullett. I took the Elegant Mess class and it was quite fun. We spent too much time going over basic tasks (I don't need a 20-minute tutorial on how to turn a small piece of paper into a sticker using double-sided adhesive), but it was fun even if I didn't really learn anything of substance. For all my artsy friends (ie most of my blog readers), here are a few photos:


This is really thin Japanese paper that soaks up the Ranger Color Wash Dyes really well. I went to look at the package I bought so I could include the name of the paper on here, but all the writing on the package is in Japanese. :) He said it's used mainly to practice Japanese calligraphy if that helps. :) [Okay, I totally could not leave this hanging and did a Google search. It's called Washi, which, in Japanese, means "Japanese paper." Well, duh.]


We just sprayed different dyes in different areas using all sorts of masks and stencils. It was totally fun to just spray away with abandon and get all messy. I even had my neighbor take a photo of my hands so I could show Aimee 'cause she has the best messy-hands photo ever. My hands actually got A LOT messier than this, but by that point I didn't want to touch my camera. :)


After that dried we went back and added some Twinkling H2O's shimmery watercolors. We just splattered them on, or painted them onto rubber stamps and stamped with it (like the purple leaf below).


When it was all over we cut out small sections and pasted them onto pre-made cards. I want to do more of this fun messiness, but I will make other things than these cards, which I think are pretty (but kind of pretentious). I'm especially looking forward to making some of these sheets and then cutting out different shapes using my Silhouette!

When I got home I had a bit of awesome news waiting for me in my Inbox... my travel plans were coming together! When I wrote the Favorite {Photo} Friday post that night I was so happy I was jumping up and down, but I didn't want to jinx myself by talking about it until the plane tickets were booked. But they are now, so I can spill my excitement! :) Sweet Jilliene has been asking about it and now, dear lady, your wait is over! :)

Drumroll, please.... I'm going to CHA!!! Lori scored a floor pass and invited me to come down and spend the week with her since she lives in Orlando. So I e-mailed a few people "in the industry" and managed to score *myself* a floor pass, woo hoo! For those who don't know, the CHA--Craft and Hobby Association--trade shows are where all the top manufacturers debut all the new scrapbooking/crafting products they'll be releasing in the following months. ALL the Craft Goddesses (and Gods) are there. ALL the best manufacturers are there, showing the coolest new stuff before it's seen anywhere else. It's not open to the public. For as long as I've been crafting, I've wanted to go to CHA. And now I am!

As if that weren't cool enough, Lori was already signed up to take Donna's new class the weekend before CHA, and I got a spot in that class, too!

THEN, Lori mentioned that (OMG, I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy) TIM HOLTZ would be teaching a class about two hours away, but she thought it was already full. So I called up the store and talked to the nicest lady and guess what? Someone had *just called* to cancel two spots in the class. There was a wait list, I knew from the store blog, but apparently she didn't want to deal with calling people on the wait list so it was serendipitous that I called right at that moment. I know, I know, she should have called the people on the wait list first--but I didn't tell her what to do, and I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth! So we're signed up for that one, too! Stella took the class last month and loved it, so I'm super excited!

THEN, I e-mailed the lovely Claudine to tell her that I'd see her at CHA and was so excited... and she suggested that I get in her class at CHA. So I made another phone call (or did I send an e-mail? Anway...) and someone helped me out again and BAM! Lori and I are both taking that one, too! (Lori was already taking it but now I am, too.)

THEN, I booked my plane tickets using points from our credit card, which I consider to be like a mild form of MAGIC. You're telling me that I can use virtual "points" to buy actual, real-life, *things*? I swear, I never believe it until I actually land in the city for which I bought the ticket.

So our week will be thus: I arrive in Orlando on Friday (July 24), and we'll immediately drive from the airport over to the beach town where Tim's class will be. We'll stay the day and night there, then go to Tim's class on Saturday, spend the night again, and then drive back to Orlando to go to Donna's class on Sunday. On Monday we'll go to Claudine's class at CHA. CHA will be on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then I fly back on Friday. (And then Saturday I fly out again to go visit my sister's family and go to my 15-year high school reunion, but that's another story for another time.) I'm SOOOOO excited!

The next week will have to wait 'til tomorrow, this is already sooooo long and I need to go spend some time with my Love! :)

Catch Up Seven Up

Like a lot of my friends I have been semi-absent from blogland lately. It seems that for many of us artist-types, Fall is the season of change; we're working on change in ourselves, our lives, our art, striving to become the women and artists we want to be know we are capable of becoming. Rock on, us! I've felt kind of lame for not being able to do it all lately and for not even being able to put into words what I've been feeling. But yesterday someone in my artist circle opened up about having similar feelings, and there's been a flood of e-mails from other members that indicates we're all going through this. Which is sort of pretty empowering, having a(n online) community of women in various stages of this struggle to talk to and lean on and get support from. Thanks to my tribe for being there and, well, being my tribe. ;) You gals ROCK.

And now, some Catch-Up Seven-Up:

1. That documentary I couldn't wait to see? AHHHHHH. MAZE. ING. I cannot say enough about it. I cried. The lady in front of me, who I later found out is the filmmaker of this, cried through almost the whole movie. It was amazing and powerful; I think that all women artists everyone should see this documentary. Jason said that it made him understand me and want to support me and my art even more. That's awesome. I'm hoping to get a screening at next year's Inspired; I know everyone would love it.

In fact, I loved it so much that when one of the producers came out after the screening to do a Q&A, I was the first to raise my hand. I asked if there was a transcript or DVD available because there were so many quotes from the artists that I wanted to paint on my wall to remind myself of every day (there were lots of murmurs of agreement in the audience). Long story short, there's not. Bummer. They are hoping to have home-based screenings, however, in a sort of book-club format where the film can be discussed afterwards. Sweet!

After the Q&A I approached her with my contact card and told her that I used to transcribe a lot for a previous job (as an executive assistant at the Bellagio) and if they were ever interested I would be happy to transcribe the film for them because I think it would be a useful tool in post-screening discussions. Within five minutes she got the DVD back from the projectionist and handed it to me. I'm thrilled to have this opportunity to help in this small way! So I'll be working on that and I'm hoping Google helps me out in my search for proper formatting for a documentary transcript. :)


Here's Kerthy and I in front of the film festival sign, bundled up to go out in the rain. :) Next year I plan to buy a VIP pass for the festival and go to all the films (or a bunch, anyway). It was really under-attended and that bums me out. [I might do a separate post about Who Does She Think She Is? but we'll just have to see.] Thanks so much, Kerthy, it was great talking to you and I'll be in touch with the transcript! :)

2. Remember when I felt like Snow White? Well I'm putting on my apron and whistling while I sweep again, because last week I saw a fox in our backyard, which is awesome enough in and of itself, even though Foxy Brown only stuck around long enough for Jason to run upstairs and see her/him and not long enough for us to snap a photo. But then yesterday Ms. Doe joined us again, and she brought babies!


There were two fawns, a male and a female, and they all hung out and munched on the salad buffet that is our backyard. It was awesome. I'm so happy I was able to see this. I'm also a little leery about that garden I was thinking about planting next year, but that's another worry for another time. :P

3. The class I took with Donna on Friday was my favorite of hers so far. Bloom is beautiful and I was lucky enough to be a "guinea pig" for the first time Donna taught it! As usual I didn't finish in class but I'm a lot more finished than I usually am. :) Aren't these colors delish?


4. I've been making a lot of jewelry and finished up these little guys for Halloween. Aren't they cute?


5. More of these will be up on my etsy site tomorrow unless something goes wrong, which is entirely possible hardly ever happens around here. I'll tweet when they're up.


6. I'm still photographing my day on the 25th of every month, even if I haven't scrapped and/or posted them in forever way too long. (Click here to see what I'm talking about.) Here's my favorite photo from October 25th.


7. If you haven't signed up for this yet, what the heck are you waiting for? It's free and I think it will be awesome.


Go here and sign up! :)

Whew! Thanks for hanging in if you're still here. :) Abuzz behind-the-scenes of blogland lately is what a bummer it is to see your site hits go up but not get any comments... it leaves a blogger to wonder what people are thinking! :P So remember to post comments on your favorite blogs, even if it's just to say hi! :) Hint, hint. :) See you soon!

A Peek

Oh, I had sooooo much fun yesterday with Deitra and Donna! I didn't finish any of my three mini-books, but I did do all of the other things I mentioned on Thursday... yes, even the belly-dancing! I laughed so hard that people turned and stared... and I kept right on laughing. If you knew how I used to hold my laughter in and try to laugh as quietly as possible you would know what a victory this is! Awesome, Dude. Pure awesome.

I want to keep working on my books this week, so until I finish any of them here are a few peeks into what we did yesterday!

My favorite class of the day was paint. watercolor. doodle., our first class. We got to use those Neocolor II's I've been talking about. They are water-soluble crayons, and they are awesome.


Oh my goodness how I love a new set of colorful pens/pencils/crayons arranged so prettily by color! I played with these crayons for a second when I first got them delivered, and I must say that on regular plain old cardstock they left a lot to be desired. I used them as I'd use watercolor pencils, only they didn't work as well. Wow, imagine that, crayons didn't work as pencils as well as pencils do. Duh! That's like trying to use a screwdriver on a nail or hammer in a screw; good tools wrongly used. So in class we learned how to use them as crayons, and they are freaking awesome crayons.

This page is a chipboard arrow primed in manila paint, then colored with three colors of crayons (orange, white, and yellow) and then "painted" with water to dissolve and blend the colors.


I think I'm addicted. This is the first book I'm going to work on finishing. [Oh, by the way, underneath the page is an old catalog--I put it on my work surface and painted away and when the page got messy I just flipped to the next page and voilà! a clean work surface and no unwanted color transference.]

Then we had an hour break for shopping lunch before the next class, 100 eyelets or die trying. :) This class was smaller so we had more chance to chat with Donna. I asked her a question about Cathy's upcoming BPS class since I know those two are friends. So Donna just called her up on the speakerphone! It was pretty funny; Cathy loves Deitra's accent and just couldn't get enough of her at Inspired... so Donna had Deitra start talking and Cathy immediately said, "IS THAT DEITRA?!?!"

By the way, the discussions we had in this class made me want to look into the different "types" of people. Everyone talks about "Type A's" but you never hear anything about the other types... when I mentioned this in class the MCP (Most Competitive Person) in the room said, "That's because they're the only ones who matter!" Oh my goodness! Well, alrighty then. Why don't you tell us how you really feel? :) I am "Type A" in a lot of ways (perfectionistic and over-achieving) but I'm completely not competitive (although I am into fairness, which is often mistaken by certain family members as competitiveness... but that is a whole different blog post!). And I'm definitely not hostile about it! So I'm going to research the whole Type thing (if you have a good resource for me let me know!).

Back to the photos! These pages are pre-eyelets, obviously. :)


After this class we had a three-hour break before the last class. I had wondered what in the world we'd do with three hours, but they flew by in an instant and we ended up rushing to get dinner so we could get back in time! We could have filled eight hours, let alone just three!

The last class was the journey of me. Of all three books this is probably my least favorite, but it was the one that gave me the most ideas for different ways to make books (and one super-cool idea for taking photographs).


It is sort of a journal-book, so I can't imagine that it will ever really be "finished," but I'll show you when I've completed a bit more of it than I have already.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend! I'm off to color! :)

Thursday Already???

Man, this week has flown and not in a good way! I feel like I have been moving normally but the fast-forward button has been pressed on Time. I felt really crappy the past couple of days so I haven't been able to do nearly as many of the things on my big ol' To Do list as I'd have liked, so today I feel like I need to work in fast-forward to catch back up! And so far this morning it's working. Sweeeet.

[As if to prove a point, Time got just right away from me again today. I wrote this post this morning and didn't have time to proof and post until tonight!]

When I'm feeling less-than-amazing, I like to make lists of things that are making me happy and/or excited. So here's some things that made the list while I was concentrating on not throwing up lately:

Thank goodness Kate and Dave (and their girls and dogs and house!) made it through Hurricane Ike okay. They are out of power but other than that they're well. And I just can't tell you how happy I am about that.

A while back I posted a snippet about a stupid Silk soy milk commercial that makes me crazy. [The actress says she was "weary" of trying soy milk. If you speak English at a seventh-grade level then you should know that weary means tired. What she means is that she was either leery or wary of trying soy milk.] Apparently I am not the only person who noticed and was annoyed by this because I've now received two comments on that post from people who found it in a Google search they did after seeing the commercial. This pleases me greatly and I'm not exactly sure why. :)

I've been working on some new stuff (jewelry and papercrafts) for my etsy site, and hopefully will have photos to show you tomorrow and links to them in the store (fingers crossed). I've also been working on some extra goodies to include in Stella's and Katie's kits to thank them for their orders and I've just gotten carried away! I made some extras so if you place an order mention you saw it on here and your kit will have a nice extra goodie bag included with it!


I'm super excited about Saturday--I'm driving two hours south to Richmond to meet Deitra, who is driving an hour and a half north so that we can both take three classes from Donna! It will be a looooong day, but 12 of those hours will be spent with Deitra talking and painting and laughing and watercoloring and laughing and cutting and pasting and laughing and eating and possibly belly dancing, because that's just how it rolls when you're with Deitra. Sweet!! And I got our Neocolor IIs in from Dick Blick since I had a brainstorm and asked if she would split expedited shipping with me after they came back into stock--duh and yeah!

Kimberley wrote a super nice note about me on her blog! She said, "This blog is a fun delight for me to read, and Cameron shares her talent and herself through and through." How nice! What's super funny is that she's never posted a comment before so I didn't even know she was reading! Which just goes to show that you never know who's reading (and what they're thinking of it!) in this crazy blog world! I'm going to make sure to leave a few more happy comments on a few more people's blogs just to let them know I'm there and digging it. :) And you should, too!

Today I'm going in for physical therapy and running a whole ton of errands on the way there and back; bank, post office, Michael's, Costco, used book store. [Now it's the end of the day and how stoked am I that I can say I did all of those things? Plus a few more.] See you tomorrow for Favorite {Photo} Friday!

Favorite {Photo} Friday! #12

Yes, I know that you just saw this one but I couldn't resist posting it again!


I simply adore this photo. I am in complete and total love with this photo. I've already had it printed 8x12" to make a scrapbook page and I'm going to get it blown up to be a focal piece of artwork in our guest room--I just need to decide if I want to just get it printed and frame it or if I want to get it printed onto a canvas. I'm thinking I'll get it on gallery-wrap canvas the next time Winkflash has a sale. I love it because of the colors, the intersecting lines, and the way it just makes me want to lay in a hammock. I love it because a few months ago I had no idea how to achieve this shallow depth of field and so it is visual proof that I am learning, growing, improving.

I also love this photo because when I posted it onto the gallery for my Photography 101 class over at BPS (along with the photo of Jason and the beer on the beach) the instructor Barbara said I had great artistic vision and the photos were creative and inspiring. Yippee!

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Yesterday I thought I killed our computer and nearly had a heart attack. To make a long story as short as possible, a horrible web page locked up the computer and I had to do a hard reset (yikes!). When I turned the computer back on I got the black screen with a blinking cursor--double yikes! It turns out that I had one of those double-sided CD/DVDs in the disk drive because I was trying to rip the audio side, but the computer wouldn't recognize it (which it says on the case might happen). So when I turned the computer back on I guess it freaked out about the unreadable disk. So we took that out and everything was fine, praise Jesus! [And let me tell you, I was exceptionally tight with Jesus for the hour that I thought my computer was dead!] Needless to say, backing everything up again has moved higher on the ol' priority list! And big points to Jason for not freaking out when I told him and for figuring out what the problem was. :)

Now, a hotel-finding tip for you: when you absolutely, positively cannot find a hotel or B&B online for a football weekend in a town of 38,000 people with a football stadium which holds 100,000 people, the best way to find a hotel or B&B is to look up those which don't have online reservations and start calling. It turns out that most people are too lazy to do this, apparently, because I got a room at the first place I called. :) Whew! {Wiping forehead.} So glad to have that done!

Today I'm sending off a fun swap and getting a few more things into the mail. Scheduling a handful of various doctor appoinments. Drinking a ton of tea (if you have never tried Good Earth Original tea you must, really!). Choosing which home project Jason and I want to tackle this long weekend. On the lookout for the set of 40 of these, which I need for a Donna Downey class next month but are out of stock at DickBlick which of course has the best price by far, dangit. Still rockin' South Beach Phase 1; I {heart} Spicy Hot V-8. Working on some online classes. Enough to fill the day for sure. :)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

p.s. Thanks for all the nice comments and e-mails about my A Joyful Heart book! :)

Class Catch-up and A Big Duh

As I've mentioned, I'm taking a couple of classes at BPS. I'm loving them! I'm taking Photography 101 with Barbara Carroll and also Have More Fun with Stacy Julian. They also just released a FREE class, 10 Summer Photos To Take Right Now, that's instantly downloadable. Sah-weet! Check it out, it's fun. Since I was sick and then our internet was down, I have a lot to catch up on!


And I thought I'd share one of my "Oh, duh!" moments. I've always been a cheapskate when it comes to printing; I don't really know why this is. I'll download something and just look at it on the computer and then it will stay there forever on my hard drive instead of as a hard copy (which is not necessarily a bad thing--I'm all for saving trees!). But with the photography class I found my eyes glazing over after each page... it's a lot of new info to wrap my little brain around; aperture and shutter speed and ISO, oh my!

So I decided to print out the lesson and then refer back to it over the course of a couple of days. HOLY MOLY! I liked having those hard copies in my hands so much, and I looked at them so frequently, that I decided to print out the handouts for Have More Fun, too. HOLY COW! Wow, I'm actually doing the assignments because I can take the handout with me to my workspace instead of running back and forth to the computer and getting distracted 18 times along the way! Imagine that!

So, yeah--DUH. {Insert slap on forehead here.} Today I printed out 52 pages of handouts and e-mails. That is more than I printed in the entire year of 2007, I would bet. And I can't wait to go through them all!

Notice in the above photo how the title on the "Photography 101" page is more in focus but the edges of the pages in front and the title in the upper right are less in focus? That's because I set my aperture to as high as it'll go on this lens (which means the smallest number) so that I had a shallow depth of field. Holy crap I'm learning something! I was beginning to wonder if aperture would ever sink into my brain!

Lots to do today. See you domani for Favorite {Photo} Friday! And let me know if you're playing along with Stella and Kerry and me!

Outside of My Box

On Sunday I went and took a class with Carol Wingert! It was so fun!

When I first arrived at Scrapbooks Plus for the class, I put my bags down at a table and then went back into the main store to see what was new. When I came back to my seat I learned that by happenstance I was sitting next to another Inspired attendee! It was so fun to chat with her about the event--and how we're both going next year! Hi, Dolores! I didn't take any photos during the class because I was so focused on finishing, but Pam took a few and they're posted on Carol's blog here... you can even see me there, working away.

I "finished" the book in class, but it's meant to be a travel journal, so it won't be really finished until I travel somewhere and use it! [Plus, it's Carol's design and class and I didn't feel comfortable posting it in detail here.] So I decided that this type of book would be a great way to scrap my Avon Walk. It was such a big event for me and I really wanted to do something special to commemorate it; plus, there is a lot that I wanted to include and the pockets in this were just perfect!

So I grabbed up my bookmaking supplies and some pink cardstock, pink patterned paper, every pink embellishment from my stash that I could find, some pink ink and paints, some stamps, and a pink pen or four and got to work:

Everyone makes this much of a mess when they create, right? Now you can see why Jason gave me a studio downstairs so that this mess isn't always on the kitchen table! :)

Anyway, here's what came out of that mess (click on any of the photos to see them full-size):

This project is very outside of what has been (notice the past tense!) my very small, pretty, very neatly organized Box. Inspired and some of my friends have inspired me to try new and different things. Messy, lumpy, bumpy things. Which is kind of fun, especially when you "mess up" and can just blow it off as adding to the overall look. Like when I painted the Seven Gypsies photo turn and then promptly opened the book, smacking the cover onto the wet paint (see it there by the 39.3?). Anyway, this book is totally not anything I would have made before but I LOVE it!

Let's take a closer look, shall we? The main part of the book is constructed by gluing envelopes together in such a way as to make these honeycomb pockets:

Isn't that cool? There are five envelopes/pockets and a ribbon on each side to tie it all together.

In the first pocket is a card with my Avon Walk story from my Avon page.

On the back of this same card I'm going to put the photo from when I first signed up for the walk, but it's on the big back-up hard drive and I don't know how to get it off and printed, so it'll have to wait until Jason comes home. :)

In the second pocket is a mini-book that includes my entire training blog:

It was loooooong, so I formatted it in Word and printed it onto plain legal paper (which I then cut down into 6 x 12 sheets) and folded and pasted it into an 18-panel (yes, 18!) accordian book, then covered the end panels with cardstock covers for stability. This is the front cover and the back cover says, "Fear is a stupid reason to not do something good."

Of course I never would have included this in a "normal" scrapbook, but I really like re-reading it and remembering the preparation for the walk instead of just focusing on the walk itself; another reason I love this book!

In the third pocket is another mini-book about Event Eve, when we signed in and a few of us sold items to raise money for our walks:

I've had those Making Memories pink letter rub-ons for a zillion years and this is the first time I've ever used them. I'm surprised they still worked! :) The inside pages:

And the back cover:

Tell me, where is more appropriate for a Hiking for Headlights team dinner than Hooters?

The fourth pocket holds another single panel. Front:

...and back:

Inside the glassine envelope is a tag that "decodes" little Emma's message that she wrote on the participant columns, "Good job girls and some boys, too." So cute!

The fifth pocket holds my blog of Overwhelming Moments, another mini-book (pamphlet stitched):

It's stitched together on the side of the book, which is the bottom of the book in this photo. I used one of Sooz's punched tabs as a pull tab and added it to the bottom of the book (mainly because it was the only place where I could put it without it covering up some text). Thanks, Sooz! :) Your butterflies came in handy, too! :)

Re-reading this gets me choked up all over again!

But wait, we're not done there! The coolest thing is that this is a double book! Check it out:

The base of the book is a "Z" made by accordian-folded and -glued chipboard. The envelopes form one half of the book, but there's still "a-whole-nother" half! (Now would be a good time for a bathroom break if you need it, ha ha!)

Here's the back cover. Notice that the envelopes are now on the left spine:

Inside this half of the book I've stitched two folded sheets (making four sheets or eight pages front and back) directly to the chipboard in a pamphlet stitch.

Here's the inside back cover and the first page of the "pamphlet."

Those Terps for Ta-tas shirts were hilarious... especially the girl on the left because you can just barely see it under her other shirt... very funny. :) And on the other page is me and Andrea. This part of the book is pretty much chronological, so this is us starting out (with Starbucks!).

Pages 2 & 3:

I hand-wrote a lot in this book, because I spent so much time on the computer formatting that enormous 18-panel mini-book and the Overwhelming Moments mini-book that I didn't want to do all my journaling on the computer, too. I'm not super-crazy about my handwriting, but I think it's fine like this. I also didn't plan or plot out what I was going to write (like I usually do), I just went ahead and did it (gasp!). :)

Pages 4 & 5:

Our husbands came to one of the cheering stations to cheer us on. Jason's so cute! Mile 23 was a biggie for me because it's further than I ever walked before (in training I "only" got up to 22 miles).

Pages 6 & 7:

If I ever do this again I'm following Andrea's lead and wearing my sunglasses in every shot. :) This is the end of the first day, in which we walked an entire marathon (and then some), and the beginning of the second day. I love the vellum quote I found in an old DCWV Quote Stack, which I cut in half: "Take pride in how far you've come, have faith in how far you can go." How perfect for this occassion! I had really bad blisters so I was nervous about walking on Sunday; I definitely had to have faith that I would be able to make it!

Here is the end of the pamphlet and the "inside inside" cover:

The photo on the left still chokes me up, too! It was great making it to Mile 10 on Sunday because I knew that even though my feet and blisters were killing me I would make it from there on sheer determination alone!

I still had some photos I wanted to include at this point, so instead of just gluing stuff to the inside inside cover I made yet another accordian fold book and glued that down, giving me four extra panels! I wrote on the tab to "pull first lift second." So here it's pulled down:

And here it's lifted/flipped up:

Ooooh, that was a yummy beer. :)

Here is yet another sign that I'm outside my old box. Look at this "alligatoring"!

Whew! That was long! Thanks for sticking around this long if you're still here. :) I had a lot of fun making this book and I know I'll enjoy it for years and years, and it's encouraged me to make more lumpy, bumpy, messy, fun projects (and use up even more of my stash)! :)

Sunday Funday

I'm about to head off to go meet Carol Wingert and together we (and a bunch of other women--and hey, possibly a guy, you never know!) are going to make something approximating this:


I'm excited because Carol is also going to be an instructor at Inspired next year! And I will be there. So it will be fun to get to know her a little now. :) Because I'm such a smarty I decided to buy the two books that Tena and Carol wrote together so I could have Carol sign them. Yes, indeedy, I am such a smarty that I forgot I already bought one of the books when I was at Inspired so that I could have Tena sign it. Doh! At least I found the Tena-signed one before I ended up with one Tena-signed and one Carol-signed and then I just wouldn't know what to do. :P Oh, and both books are both fabulous and can be found here and here. :)

After the class I get to be artsy or I get to sit around and watch whatever I want to on television because 1) I cleaned the house yesterday, 2) Jason is gone, and 3) I have not succumbed and am still rockin' the South Beach (although getting Jason packed last night almost sent me to the fridge for a beer about 18 times) so I deserve it. :)

Have a super Sunday!

Just Gimme the Good Stuff, Baby

Is that a song? It is a song, in my head at least. But is it a song in, you know, real life?

I'm still super sick. But I'm focusing on the good stuff, baby!

Ordered this. Can't wait to check it out! I made a super-cool star book in a class once (2004?) and was really good at it (artsy and precise? I'm there, baby!). And I had big plans in my head to make eighteen more, even ordering extra-large cardstock for big pages. And then I promptly never made another one. But now I'm doing the Handmade Book of the Month Club with Tena over at BPS and it's rekindled my interest. I love the BPS classes but since I am such a rule-follower (which is so annoying to me lately) I always end up ordering everything on the supply list rather than deviating and using my own stash. Which gets expensive, especially when it seems I can never find all the supplies at one online store and have a good excuse to shop all around and order a bunch of stuff I want but don't need at three different stores and if I just order a little more I get free shipping so I might as well, right? to place several orders. :) So with this book I can use all my own stuff to make any ol' book I want and it will be SUPER. Yay!

Also signed up for this class (Remember the Journey). I'm excited because the instructor, Carol Wingert, is also going to be an instructor at Inspired next year! And I will be there. So it will be fun to get to know an instructor now so we'll be old friends by next year. :) (Did I mention that Tena and Carol are friends and have written books together? It's a small world after all!)

Finished some awesome projects that are surprises because they are presents. Smarty Jason reminded me to take photos before I ship them off. Whoa, that was a close one (dang cold medicine)! Thanks, Love. :) Have I mentioned how awesome my husband is? I don't want to show off my surprises yet but I’m liking the whole paragraph, photo, paragraph, photo thing we have going on, so here is a favorite photo of my darling husband. :)

I had about two good hours of energy on Saturday and needed something from Michael's for the aforementioned projects, so I scooted out of the house and across town. Next door is Ross and I always pop in to see what I can find in the housewares section. I've gotten some good deals there... but you all know about Ross, yes? A Bialetti pan, Bohemia crystal, and a cast-iron grill pan and press all for 50%+ off retail; these are some of my favorite finds. And now I have a new addition to the short list:

Can't wait to do something like this to them (hopefully this afternoon). Of course I couldn't resist buying every one they had because I am obsessive-compulsive like to help my friends. So I am offering some up to the WASSIMA girls (you know who you are). And to Shannon (thanks for the link!). And to Katie (just 'cause I think you're awesome). Let me know if you want some and e-mail me your snail-mail address and I'll pop some of the wood beads in the mail to you. 'Cause that's how we roll. :)

This little dude (and a few others) stopped by my deck (photo taken through my sliding glass door). Love these guys!

Other good things rolling around here (for which I have no photos): seeing the mamma feed the baby robin in our tree out front; making friends with an amazing woman that I only spent about an hour with in person and now adore; getting my inbox back to below 20 messages; finding out that our sump pump works (four inches of rain in the last 24 hours and still going!); still being grateful for having a dishwasher; the neighbor cats I'm kitty-sitting that have the cutest treat routine--I tell Buddy to sit (and he does) and then he has to stay sitting while I give treats to Abigail and say, "Ladies first!" and then give him treats. Get serious!

I'm trying out a new routine this week and it's now housework time (which is followed by artsy time) so let's roll on through, shall we?