Happiness!
I love a long weekend! I like the work that I do, and if I won that monster lottery (of course you have to buy a ticket to win, don't you?) I'd still probably work part time, but I love free time! The greatest feeling was Friday, knowing I had the whole long weekend stretched in front of me and there were so many things I could do.
Unlike most weekends, I've actually gotten a few things checked off that list already. I need to finish up the June Project for the Beaded Knitting Club and I'm pretty much all done. I've got a website put up to provide kits, if people want them. I wrote out the pattern by long hand, but I need to type it up and then that's completely done.
I wanted to see my brother and nephew this weekend. In part just because I like to spend time with them, but in part because I bought my brother some beef jerkey at Forster's Meats and wanted to give it to him. He called me on Friday afternoon and said he was having a bad day and wanted to get together for some steak and "adult beverages", so I got that taken care of right away. We went over to Billabong because they have Guinness on tap and it's pretty close to his house. The waiter was so annoying though - you know the type. The guy who tries to make a lot of jokes and be charming and your buddy. After dinner I went over to Hancock Fabrics, since I was in the neighborhood, because they carry the Lion Brand Kool Wool and Cotton-ease, which are being discontinued. They were both 30% off, but in the end I didn't buy anything. Aren't you proud of me :-)
I got a digital photo frame for my dad for Christmas and I wanted to FINALLY get more pictures scanned and downloaded into it. When I was in Sioux Falls for Christmas, my sister's mom gave me a couple of boxes of her pictures, so I went through them and scanned a bunch in. I was thinking about posting a few of those old pictures here. One of them was a picture of Finbar when he was a little puppy, sitting on my lap. I was all nostalgic of those days and then last night he jumped up and sat on my lap - all 50 pounds of him. That boy is so intuitive! I've got 40 pictures in there now, which is probably enough if I want to send it off. I think I'll go through my newer pictures, though, and see if there's any more that I want to add of us as we look now. I did do a bunch from last Christmas, when my sister was home on leave from Iraq.
I also needed to make some cards, so that's what I worked on last night. I did a "wedding" card for a reception I'm going to next weekend:
It was my first time using chalks, and I really like them. I bought a couple of different kinds to experiment with. The yellow is VersaMagic chalk ink pad. It comes in awesome colors and makes a nice, definite impression on the paper, but still looks like chalk. If you wanted to stamp an image to look chalky, this would be perfect. I was just using a q-tip and coloring like regular chalk and that was a little more difficult. Sometimes I thought the lines were too distinct and bold, not soft enough. The blue is Colorbox Chalk Inkpad. This was very similar to the Versamagic Inkpad, but was much smaller, so it was only $1.99 vs. $5.99 for the VersaMagic pad. This was easier to use a q-tip with, but still made a pretty distinct line. I used it to make a stamp on the back and it worked perfectly. So either one would be great for stamping a "chalk" image. They're both much cleaner than regular chalk, too. The ink stays put and there's no dust. The rest of the hearts were just Decorating Chalk. These gave the most pure, chalky effect, but were pretty messy. When you apply them with a q-tip, there's all sort of left over chalk dust you need to blow away. Plus the image is easy to smudge, so there's a big chalk smudge in the middle of the card, that I don't really like. However, they definitely worked the best with the image. I also used a technique I just heard about. I don't like to sew on cards (although if I get one of those tiny little sewing machines, maybe I'll start), so I took a pattern tracing wheel and ran it through some ink, then ran it across the paper. It gives you the nice, even, serrated edge without having to drag out a sewing machine. Love it!
I also made a birthday card for a friend:
I also managed to get some billing done so that I can actually pay for some of these adventures!
I really enjoyed all the flower photos that were on everyone's blogs last week. It's been gray and rainy here most of the month, so there's not a lot of pretties to look at. I don't have many perennials, but I usually have my annuals in by Memorial Day. I don't think I'll be planting this weekend because it's too chilly at night and it's too messy when you get a little rain every day. However, I do have some of these:
They're sitting right next to my monitor, so I enjoy the aroma every time I sit down at the computer. That and lilacs (I got my annual boquet of lilacs from Bill and Red last week) make spring the sweetest smelling season of all!
Unlike most weekends, I've actually gotten a few things checked off that list already. I need to finish up the June Project for the Beaded Knitting Club and I'm pretty much all done. I've got a website put up to provide kits, if people want them. I wrote out the pattern by long hand, but I need to type it up and then that's completely done.
I wanted to see my brother and nephew this weekend. In part just because I like to spend time with them, but in part because I bought my brother some beef jerkey at Forster's Meats and wanted to give it to him. He called me on Friday afternoon and said he was having a bad day and wanted to get together for some steak and "adult beverages", so I got that taken care of right away. We went over to Billabong because they have Guinness on tap and it's pretty close to his house. The waiter was so annoying though - you know the type. The guy who tries to make a lot of jokes and be charming and your buddy. After dinner I went over to Hancock Fabrics, since I was in the neighborhood, because they carry the Lion Brand Kool Wool and Cotton-ease, which are being discontinued. They were both 30% off, but in the end I didn't buy anything. Aren't you proud of me :-)
I got a digital photo frame for my dad for Christmas and I wanted to FINALLY get more pictures scanned and downloaded into it. When I was in Sioux Falls for Christmas, my sister's mom gave me a couple of boxes of her pictures, so I went through them and scanned a bunch in. I was thinking about posting a few of those old pictures here. One of them was a picture of Finbar when he was a little puppy, sitting on my lap. I was all nostalgic of those days and then last night he jumped up and sat on my lap - all 50 pounds of him. That boy is so intuitive! I've got 40 pictures in there now, which is probably enough if I want to send it off. I think I'll go through my newer pictures, though, and see if there's any more that I want to add of us as we look now. I did do a bunch from last Christmas, when my sister was home on leave from Iraq.
I also needed to make some cards, so that's what I worked on last night. I did a "wedding" card for a reception I'm going to next weekend:
It was my first time using chalks, and I really like them. I bought a couple of different kinds to experiment with. The yellow is VersaMagic chalk ink pad. It comes in awesome colors and makes a nice, definite impression on the paper, but still looks like chalk. If you wanted to stamp an image to look chalky, this would be perfect. I was just using a q-tip and coloring like regular chalk and that was a little more difficult. Sometimes I thought the lines were too distinct and bold, not soft enough. The blue is Colorbox Chalk Inkpad. This was very similar to the Versamagic Inkpad, but was much smaller, so it was only $1.99 vs. $5.99 for the VersaMagic pad. This was easier to use a q-tip with, but still made a pretty distinct line. I used it to make a stamp on the back and it worked perfectly. So either one would be great for stamping a "chalk" image. They're both much cleaner than regular chalk, too. The ink stays put and there's no dust. The rest of the hearts were just Decorating Chalk. These gave the most pure, chalky effect, but were pretty messy. When you apply them with a q-tip, there's all sort of left over chalk dust you need to blow away. Plus the image is easy to smudge, so there's a big chalk smudge in the middle of the card, that I don't really like. However, they definitely worked the best with the image. I also used a technique I just heard about. I don't like to sew on cards (although if I get one of those tiny little sewing machines, maybe I'll start), so I took a pattern tracing wheel and ran it through some ink, then ran it across the paper. It gives you the nice, even, serrated edge without having to drag out a sewing machine. Love it!
I also made a birthday card for a friend:
I also managed to get some billing done so that I can actually pay for some of these adventures!
I really enjoyed all the flower photos that were on everyone's blogs last week. It's been gray and rainy here most of the month, so there's not a lot of pretties to look at. I don't have many perennials, but I usually have my annuals in by Memorial Day. I don't think I'll be planting this weekend because it's too chilly at night and it's too messy when you get a little rain every day. However, I do have some of these:
They're sitting right next to my monitor, so I enjoy the aroma every time I sit down at the computer. That and lilacs (I got my annual boquet of lilacs from Bill and Red last week) make spring the sweetest smelling season of all!
rdladd@arnan.com
