pay no attention...

...to the crazy woman, wavin' her arms about!

i have been wanting to add a photo to my profile, and apparently, to do that, blogger needs me to post it first, and then link to it. the photo was already hosted online, in a photo album...but that wasn't good enough for blogger. oh no. a simple link would not suffice.

here you go, blogger. and thus, i am outed as a total egomaniac! ...satisfied...??

i often use this photo, in these sorts of situations:

it is me, a couple of years before t'internet was invented. ok, a couple of years before PC's were invented. ok, the electric typewriter in the picture? that was state-of-the-art...at the time this pic was taken...that was like a 50" flat-screen plasma tv! ...so it was a while ago...

i almost used this photo:

not because i think it's better...nope...purely for the opportunity to use the caption, "portrait of the artist as a young manatee"!

geddit??! MAN-atee?!!!!! hahahahaha!

ok, nevermind.

i will go with the first one. me, this summer, 45 minutes after my plane landed in san diego. ...it don't get much better than that, baby...

this weekend i......

......went to lunch with a friend; finished up my ball gown; balanced the checkbook; ran errards (grrrrrrrr); cleaned the house (well, mostly); made phone calls; answered (some of my) over-due email; thought of--& made preliminary steps towards--a present to make for niece lindsay's birthday; updated the caardvarks' chipboard gallery (marvelling at the creativity of the international card-makin' community!); IM-ed with pals; worked on wednesday's article for typicalifragilistic; watched torchwood and doctor who; discovered two hilarious new blogs (called vicious chicken and monkee maker; how could you NOT click on something called vicious chicken or monkee maker??!); realized i MISSED international talk like a pirate day (dammit!); went nuts (and i do mean kerrrr-aaaaaaaay-zee!) at the (sad, sad) scrappin' trends closing sale; finished my library book; started another book & didn't like it; started a third book i think i might maybe like; bought, wrapped & bestowed an adorable pair of "ugly dolls"; lost my voice (the cold from hell mutates yet again!); did even more writing, emailing & IM-ing; and finally got to meet this little guy:

aunt lauren & matthew william

big sister madeline

a little lovin'

babies mean presents??! niiiiiiiiice!

look matthew, we've EACH got an ugly doll!

i dunno daddy...i think i like that winnie-the-pooh guy better!

can you guess what my favorite part of the weekend was??!

an invitation

what: the bloglandia ball

when: september 26, 2007

where: the blogosphere

why: because...ummm...well, just because...

by: the light of the silvery moon

be: inspired by this...and this...

how: cool is that??!

as far as i can tell, we make an invitation, now, if we want to (i think this part is optional; heck i think it's *ALL* pretty loosey-goosey!); we make a "ball gown" to be posted on the 26th; we link to the comments on be...dream...play on the day and go around visiting all the other blogs to see what people have made! afterwards, if we want to make a little book to commemorate the event, we can do that, too.

i am fascinated by just the *idea* of it!

...and you know me...i'll try anything once...

chipboard off the old block

it's that time again, darlings...by which i mean...CAARDVARKS' challenge time, of course! this challenge was devised by our "lift it" micro-challenge winner, lesley langdon who is now also a CAARDVARKS' design team member! lesley challenged us to create cards using one of her favorite elements (and mine!): chipboard!

my card was one of those ones that just popped into my head fully formed, down to exactly which chipboard alphas i was going to use for which words! dontcha just LOVE IT when that happens?! (ok, well, i had actually intended to use basic grey monograms for *all* the letters of "cake"...but it was very cramped...so i swapped out a, k & e for the smaller chip chatters.) the awesome dcwv 8" "rock star" stack was a total impulse buy at michael's--i had NO IDEA what i'd use it for--but with each sheet covered in metallic swirls & skulls & guitars, i had to have it! as it turns out, i've already used it 3 or 4 times, including this silly "rock & roll" birthday card for a pal o'mine who just happens to be a dj, thank you very much!

(chipboard alphas: mambi (glitter), basic grey, chip chatter, heidi swapp; dcwv patterned paper; plus: acryllic paint, glitter nail polish, jewelcraft gems, colorbox ink)

NEWS FLASH!!!

i have a new nephew!!!

he was born at 12:51 this morning, weighed eight pounds exactly, and measured 21 & 1/4 inches tall...or...well, long, i s'pose. my sister (said baby's mum) is well; the baby--still nameless at the moment--is well; he's got a bit of tufty hair and quite a prominent dimple in his chin...and that's all i know so far. owing to the cold from hell (which came out of nowhere, overnight) i cannot go and visit them tonight. (waaaaaaaahhhhh!) i'm trying to get someone to email me a photo of the little guy, who shares his birthday with both his grandmother and his uncle bill.

in the meantime, here is a photo of said baby's big sister, madeline, from sunday:

she was--and is--very, very excited about being a big sister! also pictured is her constant companion, "bitty baby"; who, madeline reminded me quite solemnly, would also become a big sister this week. she has been to visit the baby and her mommy this morning and gotten to hold him and admire his fingers, his toes, and his belly. apparently there is not an unkissed spot on the little dude's head!

she is ok with the fact that he is a little brother--even though she very clearly made known her preference for a little sister over the past months! (do adults not listen??) however stumped the grown-ups may be on the subject of names, maddie has no such puzzlement. she told me confidently on sunday that the baby was going to be a girl and named ariel! when prompted by her mother on the (surely unlikely) eventuality of a boy, she was willing to settle for (& i absolutley promise you i am not making this up!) sebastian, prince eric, or flounder!!! i suppose we should just be grateful that her favorite movie is not the power rangers, or muppets from space!!!

welcome, baby!

my baby speaks scrap! :)

in addition to his many other wonderful skills & abilities, lovely husband jeff is my "scrapping buddy"! this is not a position he sought, or indeed particularly enjoys; but since i don't really have any papercrafting friends in real life, and he is sooooo darn nice...basically, he's the kind of guy that, if he likes you, he will take an interest in your interests...even if they don't interest him. ...if you know what i mean...

most of the time, this status merely consists of me asking him things like, "is this too much?" or "does it look balanced?" or "what's the first thing you see when you look at this card?" (i tend to work in the living room of an evening while he is watching tv); you know, sort of "fresh-pair-of-eyes" type inquiries. but sometimes i am so enthusiastic about a LO i've seen online or a new product in a magazine, that i will insist he see it too; which explains how he has started to know who heidi & elsie are...and what their products and styles look like...almost through osmosis. it has happened so subtly that i don't think either of us was completely aware of it. a few months ago he cracked me up by asking quite naturally if a card i made--with which he was particularly impressed--was based on an original idea of my own...or "a lift"!

last week, when my back was super-bad (...sadly not in a "mc-lovin" sorta way...) he set up the ironing board for me so i could work a bit off & on, standing up. at one point, when i was trying to fit a too many oversized letters into too small a space--and getting rather frustrated--for the first time he actually came up next to me and asked if he could "try something" and began to move things around on the page! as it turns out, his idea didn't work, either, but he had managed to think of something which hadn't occurred to me!

but the very best evidence of this phenomenon happened last night: i am making a collage for the bloglandia ball (more on that later) and i've pretty much gotten my main elements together. but it's missing...something...i try a few things, but nothing really satisfies me, and i express my dissatisfaction. "it's not quite right," i lament, "but i don't know how to fix it!" jeff casts a critical eye over the masterpiece-to-be, looking at it this way and that, before making the following pronouncement--which i *swear* i am quoting vertbatim:

"it needs some flash and dazzle!"

flash and dazzle, baby? i'm alllllllll over that! because, hey! they don't call me "gingerburst raisinette" for nuthin'! :)

i'm ready to embark on a secret life!

I saw this on Sande Krieger's blog, and it totally cracked me up! If it makes you laugh, too, try it out and send me a link so I can see your "Gangsta Name"! :)

1.YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) buffy sentra (...hmmmmm...)
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) graham slam tollhouse (that totally works!)
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) L-Ber (oof, not so much...except maybe in spanish? "el berrrrrr" --now THAT's pretty good!)
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) black giraffe (oh yeah!)
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) judith abington (ooooh...that'd be a 1980's night-time soap...like dynasty!)
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) berla (...but that's just lame...)
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) the pink pellegrino (HA!)
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) charles edward (they can't all be gems)
9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy) gingerburst raisinette (i'm movin' to vegas!)
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) mae charles (yeah, i blend)
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) (ok, i cannot for the life of me remember my fifth grade teacher's name, so i'm going with second grade!) devine des moines :)
12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) midsummer tiger lily (bond girl history...here i come!)
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) mango caprisie (i could easily gueststar on powerpuff girls)
14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) bagel birch (...ordinarily, i'd be oatmeal birch...)
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) the collaging sunshine tour (i'd *totally* buy a ticker to that tour!)