Thursday, July 29, 2010

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Last was a good night.  
My feet are slightly more sensitive than usual, but mostly back to normal, so we decided to get out of the house and head out to the ball park. 

I am not what anyone would call a huge sports fan.  
And while  I can park myself in front of the TV and totally get into a good football game, frankly, watching baseball on TV is about as enjoyable as watching paint dry.

But there's just something about being there in person, with thousands of other people screaming & clapping & carrying on, that makes it so much fun.  Maybe it's the crowd.  People watching can be pretty entertaining and you certainly get a good variety at a ball game.  I don't know.  Whatever it is, I certainly enjoy myself every time we go. 

Despite the fact that the lines were long (I will NEVER go on $1 Hot Dog Night ever again!) and there were crickets everywhere, we still had a great time.  We always do!

So, in the spirit of the game, I've decided to share last year's layout  of our trip to the ballpark.  
Ok, so maybe this is from our '08 game.  
I haven't printed the pictures from last year's trip yet. 
I'm having them printed today!  I'm only 18 months or so behind.....


Friday, July 23, 2010

Biker Girl

So today, I'm stuck crafting.  I know, torture isn't it? 
But when I say "stuck" I actually mean, well, stuck.  
You see, I have burned the crap out of the bottom of my feet.  While, in and of themselves, they are not horrible painful-Thanks be to Advil, what they are is blistered.  

I have blisters the size of North Dakota on the bottoms of both feet.  
 
Lovely aren't they?

There are additional blisters on the heels of both feet, but it is surprisingly difficult to take a decent picture of the heel of your own foot.  Maybe I need to start doing more yoga.  

So anyway... what all of this means is that I will not be leaving the house for the next day or so.  It's bad enough to have Steve laughing at my limping hobble as I attempt to get to the bathroom & back, I'm certainly not going to subject myself to the laughter of strangers or the stares of small children who will likely think that I'm the shorter, female version of Quasimoto. 

So I get to spend the next couple of days engaged in guilt-free crafting time, only occasionally interrupted by Steve as he brings me water & Doritos and valiantly attempts to contain his laughter.

Here's what I've accomplished so far. 

Supplies: Cardstock & PP: DCWV, Bike Sticker: Jolees, Letters: TLC, Chipboard Flower: Colorbok


And a card for Steve's cousin, who recently had a brand new baby boy.
Cardbase: Unknown, PP & Cardstock: DCWV, Cricut Cartridge: New Arrival, Ribbon: Wrights, Star Button: Dritz

So far, so good.  Maybe I'll "forget" how I did this and burn my feet more often, but only if you promise not to laugh as I hobble to the bathroom.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

I live in a fairly quiet neighborhood, on an out of the way street.  My neighbors all go to work, walk their dogs, play with their kids and do all of the normal stuff.   There isn't any crime (that I'm aware of), loud parties or excessive traffic.  But for some reason, despite how very close together our houses all are, Steve & I just don't know our neighbors very well.  Oh, there's a few that we make small talk with, and few more that we recognize and wave to as we walk by them during an evening stroll, but that's about the extent of our relationship.  I'm not really sure why this is.  

I suspect that I might be the resident Bad Guy.  
You see, for 2 1/2 years before Steve moved in, I ran an in-home daycare.  
I had as many as 8 children in and out of my front door from 7am to 6pm, Monday through Friday.  
And if that wasn't enough 2 of my daycare children (twin sisters to be exact) were Screamers. 

I saw you just shudder as you read the words.  I know you know what I'm talking about.

They screamed from the car to the door.  They screamed through snack, they screamed every second we were outside to play, they screamed at lunch time, they screamed during diaper changes, and they screamed from the door to the car.  And when the houses are only 16ft apart, the screaming carries.... 

No wonder my neighbors aren't speaking to me.
   
Despite the fact that the daycare has been closed for almost a year now, I don't really think that my neighbors have forgiven me yet.  

Can't really say as I blame them.

Anyway, the point is (YES! I do have a point!) that I just don't know most of my neighbors names, so to facilitate conversation between Steve & I, we have given the majority of our neighbors nicknames.  
(IE: "Did you see that Sisters got another dog?  I hope this one doesn't bark all the time like the other 2 do!"  or "Did you see the new fence that Construction Guy put up?")   
Most of them are goofy and wouldn't mean anything to anyone but us, but they make me laugh so I decided to make a layout of it.

Supplies:  Cardstock & PP: DCWV, Car Buttons: Favorite Findings, Heart Sticker: Sandylion Essentials, Brads: JoAnn Craft Essentials, Cricut Cartridges: Sesame Street Font, Lyrical Letters

First, let me say that, sadly, yes.  Our houses really are that close together.  
And yes, I did blur the nicknames of most of our neighbors  to protect their identities.  (I'm still tryin' to kiss up & make good with them remember.)

I also wanted to point out that those cute little house shapes-- 

take a minute, scroll back up & look at them.  I'll wait...

..........

............

.............


They're cute aren't they?  
They're on Lyrical Letters

I know!

I wouldn't have thought so either!  It's certainly NOT the first cartridge I would have look at in search of a house shape.  Not even in the top 10.
But I stumbled across the house while using Lyrical Letters for another project and thought it would be perfect for this layout.  Just goes to show how much there really is on a given cartridge.  I bought this one months ago for fonts and fonts only, really.  Today I discovered that there's a bunch of cute little shapes on it that would be great all on their own.  

(NOTE: The house- and most of the other cute images- is meant to be part of a larger phrase.  If you plan to use them on their own, without the phrase, make sure you chose the Real Dial Size feature to get accurate sizing)

 I really need to spend more time exploring some of my cartridges.  You just never know what you're going to find! 

So, do you want to be my neighbor??