Tuesday-12:30pm

First of all, I want to apologize to everybody on my older yahoo email address book. Apparently I have gotten some kind of a virus and everyone is being sent emails from me about viagra and God knows what else! So sorry. Going to have Dagan look at the McLap tonight--but I also use my desk computer? Anyways, I'm sure he'll be able to get rid of it. *sigh* It really wasn't me concerning myself with your private parts and sex life--honest! So sorry!

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Anyways, lots of pictures today, too--and proof I actually do leave the house once in a while--hehe! Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny fall day. Karma was catching the morning rays. [Today we have fog as thick as pea soup. Must be the 91% humidity.]

I went to the post office in the afternoon to pick up the package I missed on Saturday. The leaves are turning and beginning to fall

Here's the post office.

The tree lined streets...heading for home.

This is the back side of West Acres Mall, the biggest shopping in the area. (I was blindly clicking pictures one-handed as I drove.)

The big movie theater next to the mall. What a beautiful day!

This one was for Iggy--hehe! A brave, knobby-headed cone in the middle of the road.

This is the front of my building that you see from the road. You can see my building, the office, and then the other building in our complex.

I was standing in my garage door and could see that the roofers were over at the other building with their crane.

Walking home--here's a shot of the opposite end of my building. You can see where they have removed sections of the siding here and there.

This is the roof on my end of the building. That is my apartment on the upper left--my balcony/porch and the living room windows. I wonder when the roofers will finally be finished? Hopefully no more leaking after they are done, right?

Miss Karma was right by my side as I opened the package and pulled everything out of the box.

Thinking she is smaller than she is (also a failing of mine)...

...she dove right into the box...

...thinking she could squeeze herself in--ROFL!

I smoothed out the packing paper a bit and Karma dove under the layers...

...and played for a while.

I saved the packing paper, also, for making handmade paper later. Recycle. Recycle. :)

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And what was in the package?

We are now stocked up on ScorTape--tada! And got a ScorBug, too. You're supposed to be able to run the ScorBug along the groove on a scoring board and create perforations or embossing dots. Haven't tried it yet.

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Tonight I am going to make a quick trip over to Dagan and Leah's. Leah needs to work on making jewelry for her friend, Amber, tonight since she is going to see her this weekend. So we won't get to the etsy shop tonight, but I need to have Dagan go virus hunting on the McLap! ;)

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Have a sweet night, everybody! :):)

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"From adversity we can learn the value of patience."

Dalai Lama

Monday-11:45am

Received this hand-beaded bracelet in the mail on Saturday from Spruce/John who lives in Nain, Canada. What a surprise!! Nice long letter, too. :)

He is such a talented guy! Paints (Chinese Brush Painting), builds, and does beadwork. I'll say "Thanks, John!"--even tho he has gone offline and won't read it here, anymore. We write letters, now. :)

I finished up the Dr. Martin's gold ink--tada! Both the gold inks I had were really old, so it is about time to look around for something new. ;)

Karma had fun yesterday playing with her "bug in a jar" toy.

A fly and a Japanese beetle kept her busy for hours and hours. She mostly watches them, but occasionally pushes the jar gently around on the floor.

I feel so badly for those of you who are living with drought. We are so wet up here...

...that there is standing water...

...all across the field...

...everywhere you look...

...and we have almost pond-like puddles in the parking lot. (They brought more shingles?)

It was sunny yesterday. We could use days and days of sun to dry it out. Southern Minnesota has had flooding. Been a chilly damp fall so far. Glad to see the sun again today. Wonder where the roofers are?

I cut up the sheet into bookmarks. The flash really shone off the gold!

Here's without the flash. They really do shimmer when the light hits them, tho.

Been working on cutting the Christmas card parts and finally finished--tada!! Saved all the black and white paper scraps, of course, to make handmade paper with later on. ;)

So--all the parts are cut and ready for the next step...rubber stamping.

I ended up working on crafts while I watched Mad Men and never did pick up the World Without End book--hehe! Well, I have to get something accomplished while I feel good, right? ;)

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I have a package to pick up at the post office today, doing laundry, and writing letters. Beautiful day! Warmed up to around 70 degrees yesterday and looks like we are having more of the same today. Perfect weather! Was too early to be in the 50's. This is more like it. :)

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Time to go switch loads of clothes. Hope we all have a stupendous week! :):)

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OH--I had to chuckle when I read this quote... ;)

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"Oh, love isn't there to make us happy. I believe it exists to show us how much we can endure."

Hermann Hesse

Saturday-4pm

Karma was literally sun "bathing"--hehe!

Toes.

Face.

(Don't tell her I posted these pictures--hehe!)

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My--been a while since I've blogged! I finished trimming up all the green fronts for the Christmas cards.

Snapped a picture of the moon. Haven't ever tried that. Don't have a great zoom feature on my little camera, but it was a pretty night (even if I can't remember which night I took this--hehe!)

This picture was Wednesday night over at Dagan and Leah's. I know it's a gaggle of geese, but what do you call a bunch of turkeys?

This has to be that batch of young'uns that we saw earlier in the summer following mama around--now turned into a gang of teenagers--hehe!

When I was over at D&L's we made a craft suppy order before we started on the etsy pictures. Have some goodies coming!! I'll show you when they arrive. :)

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We worked on getting pictures set up for me to work on the descriptions. Got up a lot of the snowflake Christmas cards and one of Leah's beaded necklace's with a hand-wrapped stone pendant. We'll do more next week. Felt so good to finally get some new product posted. :)

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Note: Yes! I did get them all up on the shop Friday--tada!!

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I also have been in the process of using up the last of my gold jar of paint. Have enough for one more sheet, I think. I made up a red and gold one...

...was trying a more 3-D effect with the gold, as you can see.

And that beautiful blue ink I love with the gold. Looks like a sky to me.

Cut them down into bookmarks, but haven't stamped the backs yet.

Since then--I have the craft area set up to work on cutting out the circles and ovals for the Christmas cards.

Maybe halfway done with the pre-cut stacks of black and white papers.

Saving the scraps, of course--for recycling into handmade paper.

Let's see--Thursday it rained lightly off and on. I thought maybe I was in the clear, but by evening the water was dripping off the ceiling light bulb in the hallway. :(

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About 12:30am the fire alarm went off! For a moment I wondered if it was from my apartment--water coming down in a new place and shorting out the ceiling smoke alarms--but it was the building alarm. I peeked out the door and some guy was running around way at the other end yelling--"get out! get out now!" So--I threw on my big "monk's" robe (I think of it as that because it is heather gray with a hood and goes to the floor) and some shoes--grabbed my purse with cell phone & camera, and Miss Karma in her stroller and down the steps we went. To save time, I hoisted the stroller on my right hip with my good arm and carefully made it down the three flights. (Still sore, but she's worth it.)

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Karma is so used to the horrific alarm routine by now that she didn't cry much on the way down the stairs or as I wheeled her to the garage in the cold wind and rain. Too windy for the hood to work--my hair was drenched and the bottom of the robe was wet from walking thru puddles in the parking lot (I'm short so the robe hits the floor). We settled into our spots in the garage. I was thinking how I should have brought a book--but the automatic light went off after a few minutes and we were in the dark. The manual light bulb was/is burned out. Dang!

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I didn't smell or see any smoke, so I assume it was another false alarm--but I really have no idea this time, because I decided to wait in the garage until the truck left this time. Then I would know the elevator was working again. (It's a lot harder to get Karma up the stairs than down--hehe!)

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Karma and I spent the time in the dark garage. She was sooo good and quiet in her stroller. (Maybe she fell asleep?) Me--wet hair and ankles--just huddled into my robe in the red chair and grateful that the material had been much thicker than I had expected when I ordered it online--ROFL! I decided that it was a good time to get in some long overdue meditation.

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Next thing I knew I heard the truck leaving and we headed back to the building. Still cold and windy and wet out. Everyone was long gone--back in their respective homes. 1:30am! We'd been in the dark, cold garage for an hour! I worried Karma might start to yowling--but she was very good. Only a couple of meager meows in the elevator and down the hallway. She cased the place out when we got back home, like she'd been gone for a week--hehe! And acted like she thought I had just gotten up and it was treat time (hence my suspicion that she had slept in her stroller--ROFL!) She'd been such a good girl that I broke the rules and did give her a tablespoon of canned cat food anyways. ;)

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Dagan had come over on Friday to install the second tuner, but he found out he needed some additional equipment. So today--Dagan and Leah came over and he installed the second tuner. Was tricky getting it to work and there is now another router involved, I believe--but it is working--tada! I am in house-bound TV heaven!! Thanks sooooo much, Dagan and Leah!!! :):)

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Leah cut some card pieces while she was here. And she wrote up for me the three ads for freecycling the three bags of VCR tapes--but freecycle wasn't letting her post. (What is it with sites being glitchy lately?) She'll post them later for me. Maybe I'll get rid of those, too? At least the bag of movies, I would think.

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So--that's all I can think of since Tuesday. It's been dry today. Oh--funny thing! Okay--I usually rate every DVD I rent from Netflix so I know if I have seen it or not. Last week I happened to go looking for Mad Men--saw season three not rated, so I thought I hadn't seen it. When it arrived...I just had forgotten to rate it--hehe! So, by accident, I am watching season three again. I have to admit I am enjoying it just as much the second time around--got sucked right back into the Draper's 60's world and wanted to finish watching the whole season. :)

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Oh--and I did watch the last two episodes on Netflix Instant Movies of The Pillars of The Earth. It had said there was one more episode, but there were two. All I can say is that I guess they wrapped up their own invented storylines.

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I set down the sequel book--World Without End--must be going on two weeks ago now. I'm only a little over halfway. Today might be a good quiet day to pick it back up. ;)

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Hope you're having a good weekend! :)

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"Believe that problems do have answers. Believe that they can be overcome. Believe that they can be handled. And finally, believe that you can solve them."

Norman Vincent Peale

Tuesday-9:45am

Quiet last few days.

No roofers.

It was dark and looked like rain all day yesterday, so they didn't show up. Same this morning. The sun is attempting to peek between the clouds at the moment, tho. 55 degrees and predicting rain for the next couple of days--so I guess I'll see if they fixed the roof over Karma and my heads, eh? ;)

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What have I been up to? I finished all the stamping of the backs of the bookmarks.

Then I worked on embossing the green fronts of the Christmas cards.

The embossing folder has these funky snowflakes.

Finished all 120 of them--tada! Then I have to trim them down. I wait until they are embossed to get the best cut for the front. I suppose you could cut them exactly to size first--but this way I know I can cut off the blank strips on the edges, I guess.

Then I started on some part samples. I wanted to have them done to bring tonight over to Dagan and Leah's. Have samples of just cut and then the cut & embossed versions. Got this far on the weekend.

Oh--just wanted to show you how Leah and I can destroy the B plates we use with the Cuttlebug. They come in a set of two. I had purchased an extra set of two when I bought the Cuttlebug--thinking it may have been a foolish thing to do and I'd never need them. HA! Here's one side of this set...

...and here's the other. These just went into the trash.

We have ruined three out of the four so far. Just starting to cut on the fourth one. When they get this bad they can't cut as cleanly because you are cutting against a rough surface. You can't say we don't use the heck out of our Cuttlebug--ROFL! Anyways, Leah and I are going to see about ordering some new B-plates and a few other cool items tonight--probably from Amazon this time.

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The other part of the Christmas card I have been experimenting with is the holly for the inside of the card. I wanted to have red 3-D berries. The previous attempt with the red Stickles--well, they were okay, but they flattened down completely when they dried. So now I tried coloring the two berries with red pens and markers and then adding a clear glaze on top.

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The top two I used Crystal Lacquer and the bottom two are Glossy Accents. The Glossy Accents is cloudy at first...

...but dries clear. For those of you crafters who are interested, there's a big difference between them if you are using a glob like this.

First of all, the Crystal Lacquer had bubbles in them--but that might have been from shaking it to get it started coming out of the bottle. I didn't mind that so much--but they did dry unevenly and had sinking problems, as you can see.

I also learned that it is tricky trying to make separate berries this close together. Almost have to set the globs off to the opposite sides of the berries--but they do look okay that way, I think. The Glossy Accents berries kept their shape and were nice and clear.

The ones where the berries ran together--well, you can see what happened with the Crystal Lacquer! Sunk right across the center and looks terrible!

But the Glossy Accents don't look that bad even if the two berry blobs touch and run together. So--there you have it. Glossy Accents is the clear winner. And I wouldn't use the Crystal Lacquer for anything but thin layers, I guess.

Meanwhile...I tried different markers and Sharpie pens for coloring the berries. Made no apparent difference. So I think I will stick with the red Sharpie.

I finished up the samples last night for the outside and inside of the card--so now we can switch around the mock ups to see which we prefer.

We also have to decide on which green to use for coloring the holly leaves. All done, tho--tada! Final decisions tonight and then I can continue on with the assembly-line. ;)

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This is the type of prep work we do before we can start on assembly-lining the Christmas and Birthday cards every year. Fun for us--probably boring to the non-crafters--hehe!

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Aha! Just heard equipment backing up--they were moving some shingles over to the other building. ?? I thought they were done shingling over there. Who knows how these roofers do things. Logic, apparently, has nothing to do with it. The crew doesn't seem to be here--just a couple of guys. Maybe because it still looks like rain? As we say in the Midwest--whatever. ;)

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Oh--I finally called and made my dentist appointment for re-doing the filling. I guess I didn't need to wait until I felt better--hehe! Usually I can get in within a week or two, but this time...October 21st. So, I have a longer reprieve from the dentist's chair than expected. Nothing hurts--so you will hear no complaints from me--ROFL! ;)

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Caroline comes this afternoon and I head over to Dagan and Leah's tonight. Let's hope Etsy is working well this time and we get lots of picture sets up tonight so that I can work on the descriptions the rest of the week and finally get some new products up! That's the plan, anyways--hehe! :) :)

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I hope those of you who so badly need rain and cooler temps will finally get some and I hope my roof doesn't leak when we get some more here pretty soon. I am loving the cooler weather--even if it's damp instead of crispy. ;) Have a good week!!

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"Live in the present. Do things that need to be done. Do all the good you can each day. The future will unfold."

Peace Pilgrim