enJOY it

I have a table at PoppyTalk Handmade! Come visit!

Woke up at 2:45 am. It felt like morning. But it looked like the middle of the night.

Could

not

fall

back

to

sleep.

Drifted off into some horrible haze around 5am. Had a crazy dream about banks of light not turning on at work and the backroom being reorganized so I could not find the fusebox to fix it. In my dream, I was crying while simultaneously teaching a group of non-English speaking children how to play Memory.

There must be a moral in there somewhere.

Today is my last day of work before vacation. And, more importantly, the day that Paul takes step one of his boards and becomes 50% a doctor. (Or as he just reminded me, the test that will determine if we get to go back to California for his residency.)

Big Day. Better Wake Up.

Anthropolgie has done it again. Their newest catalog has book pages tacked up as wall paper. I think it looks fabulous. Impractical, obviously, but I love it.

Here are some other interesting bits that I have been saving in my bloglines:

• Carrie's apartment info via Orange Beautiful.
• Creating a Business Plan article from Design for Mankind.
• This drink recipe from Orangette.
• Photo color week from Andrea of Hula Seventy.
• Ampersand article from the Urban Outfitters blog.

I love the internet.

When I went to Europe, I brought a bag of "craft tools" to make an album while on the trip. It was the perfect place to keep all of the random ticket stubs, museum handouts, etc. The STUFF that you HAVE to collect while vacationing OR ELSE.

For Hawaii, I am bringing another tool bag filled with the following:

The pages of my book will be made out of STUFF that I find. And no gluestick this time. Just a stapler. And extra staples. Sometimes I get a little carried away with stapling things. And you never know when a shark may attack the beach and you'll need a shooting stapler.

scissors, date stamp, Paper Source circle stamp, StazOn black ink, Kolo photo dividers (turned into a mini book with a hole punch and bookrings), American Crafts slick writer, hole punch, Paper Source labels, office supply store hang tags, staples, stapler.

When I scrapbook, I make 8.5×11 size layouts. Most patterned paper comes in size 12×12. Therefore, I end up with a lot of 3.5×12 inch strips.
For this little book, I used the strips left over from my Cupcake Scrapshop June kit. I just folded them in half and stuck them inside of each other.

Some good old fashioned white string and a sturdy needle were used to secure them all in place.
See how the pages "nest" inside of one another? String rocks my life.

 And even cooler than string is the fact that polaroids are 3.5 inches across. They fit like a glove into that random scrap of 12×12. WOOT.








All the supplies for this little book were from the June Cupcake Scrapshop kit except for the string, staples, pen and letterpress print.

Paper is my favorite.

So.

I loved it.

I did.

I laughed a lot. Sometimes it was nervous laughter. As in, what is happening? Why are they doing this? Why is this scene so awkward? But mostly, I laughed because it was funny. And because it was the characters that I know and love in a really long episode that I have not seen sixteen times already.

Overall – good. Fabulous even.

What are your thoughts? Seen it yet?

I got an email this morning that said "Our duck is better than your
geese." And inside was the above photo. Turns out, all the Blaha's are
bird whisperers. And we might as well open a bird zoo with waterfowl
from around the country.

Thank you for the quick response on the new letterpressed adventures. I
am enjoying coming up with third person statements. For those of you
that wanted a "balance in my handbag print" they are still for sale on
white and papaya paper. Turns out I am an absolutely horrible
planner and brought too few pieces of chipboard to the printing press.

So the thunderstorms never came around.

But it turns out that one can only enter the pool area when there is a lifeguard on duty. Even if they are 23 years old. Even if they are moderately decent at swimming. Even if they are not planning on touching the water.

So I decided to venture to Letterpress Land for some Hawaiian inspired colored printing.

Lots of new items up in the shop.

Aloha!

Once upon a time, I had grand plans to lay in the sun today (with SPF 30 – obviously) and stir up some sort of pigmentation in my skin. I am currently blending in to our very pale couch. And if it was not for my Fushsiamania nail polish, I might not be able to see my hands on my white MacBook. And nowhere on my list of things to do in Hawaii does it say "Blind the Locals."

But alas, weather.com predicts thunderstorms today.

And "charred by lightening" is NOT the look I am going for.

So new plans are needed. But what?