I to the N to the ING (list)

"no thanks, i think i'll wait for the CHOCOLATE biscuit boat!"*

i thought it might be nice to share a few things i am enjoying right now!

readING:
game over by cynthia harrod-eagles. this is the 6th or 7th (i think) of the clever bill slider police prodceurals, but unlike some series that get a bit stale after a while, i still love the characters and am completely drawn in by the tight plotting and humor; plus i am 50 pages from the end and have NO IDEA whodunnit--gotta love that, right?!

listenING:
the colour of blood by declan hughes, a hard-boiled irish detective story centered on homemade porn, a kidnapping, (maybe) a present-day murder, (definitely) and a crime from the past which may or may not be more complicated than it seems. some mornings, i kind of almost wish my drive to work was a bit longer! (almost!)

watchING:
young@heart, one of the quirkiest, most charming documentaries i've seen in quite some time, this tale of a rockin' senior chorus is totally absorbing and the music is utterly unique!

bummING:
that the closer and burn notice are in the final week of their season. (though of course it's such a new & wonderful phenomenon to even HAVE fresh summer telly that i feel a bit bad whining about it!)

lovING:
ali edwards' life artist. i liked her first two books, and no disrespect to the talented artists who contributed to them, but this one is ALL ali: her words, her art, her philosophy, her voice. there are great ideas (& great advice!) on every page; i had to give up my usual procedure of marking my favorite pages with postie notes...i was causing a paper shortage!

finishING:
some projects for a special design team gallery for CAARDVARKS' next challenge, which starts saturday, september 20th! (can't wait to show you what i've made!)

practicING:
my best "shiver me timbers" and "yo ho ho" and "avast, landlubbers!" in order to better enjoy international talk like a pirate day on friday! (i have missed it two years in a row.) (never again.) (arrrrrgh!)

thankING:
my lucky stars that i pretty much wake up at the same time in the morning NO MATTER WHAT...because apparently...i forgot to turn on my alarm clock last night!!! (remind me of this when i whine about being up at 7am onna saturday, ok?!!) ♥

*in case you are wondering what this photo has to do with the rest of the post the answer is an emphatic, "NOT A THING!" it's just that when i had finished typing, all those words looked a bit lonely without a pic...but i couldn't find anything that i loved AND that matched inna hurry (this last bit being the vital point) and i had just run an "i can has cheezburger" photo yesterday...so i went with the biscuit boat. plus, let's face it, you don't get all that many opportunities to USE a biscuit boat picture in the ordinary course of papercrafts bloggin'...anyway...if you were lookin' for SENSIBLE you'd hardly keep showing up *HERE* now, would you??! :)

yeah...

...esspeshully MONDAI morning!!!
(bleck)

yesterday...

...all our troubles DID seem quite far away, actually! we spent a delightful day with lovely husband jeff's parents, celebrating his mom's birthday.

LHJ & mama pose with an unidentified woman who is glad that her roots are being done on wednesday, and wonders if those tooth-whitening-strip-thingies really work?

we tried out mom's new digital camera*, we had a wonderful lunch at iron hill brewery, we drove out to a local dairy farm for ice cream**, we had a tour of the majestic parental gardens, we watched a teeny, tiny, exceedingly handsome ruby-throated hummingbird fly about snacking on flower nectar and insects!!!

this is not OUR hummingbird, since we foolishly did not think to grab EITHER of the two excellent digicams sitting within arm's reach during said hijinks; this is a stuntbird, borrowed from birds-n-blooms' website for illustrative purposes

we caught up on all the family news, and we came home with a lifetime supply of freshly-picked acorn squashes the size of fireplace logs! in fact the only thing non-delightful about the entire day was the drive*** which got me to wondering, yet again:

it's ~2008~ already

where the heck is my

FLYIN' CAR???!?!

to that end, i am starting a petition that those lovely swiss boys stop messing about with their blackholes and get to work on something practical! by which, of course i mean a star-trek-style transportational device allowing us to *beam* back and forth to the in-laws' in safety and comfort without traversing I-95 in such an ungainly**** manner. c'mon lads! there's a lovely trophy in it for you!!!

*LHJ's dad is hilarious when it comes to technology: he occasionally asks us for advice/help in learning a new program or system or, in this case, how to upload pics from a digital camera. we oblige, and 10 minutes into the procedure it becomes apparent that not only does he understand the entire procedure perfectly well, he is actually *FAR* more expert than jeff & i put together! when taxed with such a suspicion he will say, with a smile, "well, i just wanted to make sure i was on the right track!" :)

**afterwards, we got to meet the cows--now THAT is fresh ice cream!!!

***two hours + each way; which is a bit long for those of us with back issues.

****and in my case downright WHINEY! (sorry, honey!)

missus trashy...

...is now OFFICIALLY my very best friend!!!

(if you wanna know why, read the comments of the post below.)

(yeah. she's GOOOOOOOOOOOD, isn't she?!)

o'course i'll be sendin' a lad 'round to the trash can with yer trophy, missus t...

...but in the meantime, be sure to take a couple 'o muffins out of petty cash!!!

~♥~

operation 36: COLLECTIONS

ok, so last week's paper adventure prompt from elise was, and i quote,

"What do you collect?"

which gave me a few choices. i have quite a few art supplies, as well you know, and loads of books...but i don't really consider those collections...more like necessities. (hey--some of us are needier than others, ok?!) :) i *do* collect some other types of vintage-paper-based goodness, such as travel booklets, and funeral home fans... (here is an explanation of that one, in a blogpost from last summer!) ...but by far my biggest, longest-lasting and most passionate collection is postcards. i have A LOT of postcards. i don't know how many, and since i'm slightly afraid to count, why don't you g'head and choose a random number...one that seems like waaaaay too many postcards for one person to own....and then double it...which i suspect will get you distressingly close!

but instead of discussing *quantity*, for this page i decided to go back to the beginning of my collection, and document the very first card i bought for myself, aged about eight, on a family vacation. it was love at first sight...and still is!

(reduced scan of my very first postcard, printed on kodak premium photo paper; cardstock: paper co; patterned paper & cardstock arrow: basic grey; rub ons: ki & american crafts; rubber stamps: k&co; ink: colorbox)

text reads, "the very first item in my postcard collection, bought with 10 cents of allowance money, in the poconos, circa 1972; start of a lifelong obsession with paper & ink...graphics & text...this is...CARD ZERO!"

ps: you may notice our little friend the paper pieced deer making a second appearance in as many posts--i actually had this entire PA page planned (but not assembled) and the journaling written down when i found the pattern and made the card below...but then i thought, "well hey! there's a coincidence!" and decided to bring him back for a triumphant encore!!!

"i LOVE this card!" she said, modestly

it all started when i saw these nature scene paper piecings in scrapbooks etc, magazine (the link takes you to an online version of the article, complete with patterns! ta v much, SBE!!!) i was particularly enchanted by the sweet fawn. i've been seeing some really adorable deer-themed products on layouts recently... (like these cute stamps!) ...and wondering whether i would really *USE* such things should they ever happen to be in stock whilst i was shopping...and then suddenly there was a print-n-cut baby deer pattern right in my hand, practically AUDITIONING to be on my mom's birthday card! what could a girl do except put on her best william powell-broadway-empresario voice and say, "hey kid--i'm gonna make you a star!"

(patterned paper basic grey, prima; tree & deer piecing patterns scrapbooks etc; flowers: prima; diecut felt: queen&co; gems: mambi; pearls: kaiser kraft; fancy pants chipboard frame used as a template; mcgill butterfly punch; other: foam tape, diamond glaze, colorbox inks)

some might feel i've gone a little bit overboard on pattern-mixing here, even for me! ...BUT...as i said above, this is a birthday card for my mother, who is an avid seamstress and quilter. she and i have often discussed the fact that although we work in completely different media... (i cannot sew and have no desire to learn; she can't believe anyone would settle for dull old *paper* when fabric is so much more tactile!) ...we often approach things in similar way. so i'm pretty confident that if my mom was choosing FABRIC to quilt a little deer, a tree, and some butterflies in a woodland scene, she would choose a soft and subtle tan print, a more dramatic brown trunk, a leafy-theme for foliage, and some mid-sized pink-n-green goodness, rather than plain/unpatterned tan, brown, green and pink. because i think we both genuinely *prefer* the patterned version...and also...there's a fairly good chance that neither of us OWN enough solid colors to do a whole scene! there you have it folks--genetics in action!

oh yeah, and in the interests of full disclosure, i feel i should admit that the greeting inside the card DOES in fact read, "happy birthday, mother dear!" (aw, c'mon...it HAD to be done!!!)

the doodle formula

one of my favorite scrapbloggers, adrienne looman, published a book earlier this year and i have been looking for it off and on since spring! i've searched online, i've tried scrapbooking/crafty type stores, i've been to borders a few times...all to no avail. and then, the other day, i was standing in line at michaels* and there it was, starin' at me from right across the aisle, the doodle formula!!!

i was expecting it to be mostly photos of adrienne's lusciously color-saturated, whimsically doodle-embellished layouts, with a few tips and techniques scattered throughout; but there is actually quite a bit of text in the course of these 31 pages, including lots of step-by-step intructions backed up with concrete examples, and of course loads of fab hand-drawn illustrations! however, i suspect this is one of those books that you need to hold in your hands and look through before buying, because i think it's a book you'll either used constantly or not at all, and that just totally depends on whether it speaks to you or not.

i definitely got TONS of inspiration from it (as i absolutely ALWAYS do from adrienne's work!) and even picked up some great practical pointers. oh yeah, and already i made this page in my art journal using ideas from the book, combined with my own love of vintagey bits, scraps, loads of rub-ons!

(ek success circle punches in several sizes; 7 gypsies dotted circle stamp; prima paper bird; page from a vintage book; patterned paper scraps: basic grey, paper co, making memories, scenic route, plus bits from catalogs, maps & photos, rub-ons: scenic route, making memories, creative imaginations; zigwriter pen, colorbox ink)

*because one always stands in line at michaels'...for AT LEAST five minutes...even if there is no one else in the entire store! and it's not just my local michaels', either, it's every branch i have ever been to. *WHY* is that?! does anybody know??!? if you happen to be a michaels' representative, and you are reading this, please take note: those three aproned dynamos who are always busy sorting the foam shapes with such vigor in aisle 17 would be better employed AT THE CASH REGISTER, ok?!! thank you! ahem. sorry, i had a bit of a rant there. i hope i didn't embarrass you, michaels' representative. other than that you are doing a very nice job, honestly!