What Will I Do in the UK?

Posted on | February 22, 2010 | 9 Comments

I’m sitting here taking a grading break. Last week was a disaster for me in terms of computers, teaching, and health. I’ve been playing catch up and I am almost there. Being stuck at home and having all your computers break down (or for one it just turns on when it wants to and then randomly freezes up) while teaching online was just not ideal. Right now I’m on this dinosaur computer. It does what I need to do but it’s painful. One of the IT guys did pick up my work laptop today so that should be (I hope) fixed soon but I still haven’t had time to go to Kansas City to get my iMac looked at and (hopefully) fixed. The iMac is completely dead!

In a few weeks the movers are coming (EXCITING!!!!!) and lately I’ve been thinking a lot more of what I will do while in the UK. I know that I want things to be different and although scary I am quite ready to go to the other side… the stay-at-home-mom side. BUT, Savitri refuses to be a 100% SAHM. I want to do stuff and still want a title other than SAHM but I’m not sure what (I think SAHMs are great but I’ve worked since college and it’ll just be really weird without a job title). I guess things will fall into place once we all get there but I kind of like to have some sort of plan… something to get myself started at least towards a title. I know it’s not going to be in higher education and/or technology unless I get lucky and I get a telecommuting job (just nothing much in the area and so far no openings). I’d like to do something around my hobbies but I’m not very confident in my abilities right now and I will need a lot of practice before I produce something great or start charging people. I’m not as big of a perfectionist as my colleague but I do like the end results to look satisfying. I want to be proud of it. I know I’ll have time to think about this after I get there but as much as I always tell my husband and M to be patient I can get pretty impatient when it comes to getting started on things for myself.

So I dunno. Do you have any suggestion? M’s suggestion is to sell cards at the farmer’s market. Ha ha… cute but I rather sleep in {::SMILE}.

I did make a card. I think it was last weekend. I used more of the Skwerm paper from Dysfunctional Design at TDC and Wplus9’s stamp set Love Birds (it’s still on sale, folks!!). Oh, the cloud’s from Sassafrass Lass.

Well, that’s it. I’ve got more grading and more pondering to do…

Check Out My M

Posted on | February 10, 2010 | 12 Comments

Before I get started, do you know that Joann’s has a 40% off crafty sale? Also if you use one of the coupons from here you can get free shipping. I am getting me a Tonic Guillotine I tried it at Archivers and it was awesome! Cuts smooth and straight, even itty bitty strips. I know cause I wanted to make sure it does that before I make my purchase. Joann’s has this for $29.99 and a few extras to qualify for the free shipping. This is going to replace my Making Memories and an office brand guillotine. They just don’t work well. The MM I can’t see where I’m cutting and you can’t flush it to the top or it’ll cut crooked and the guillotine I have doesn’t cut straight.

I’ve been on hiatus the last few days. Just been super busy and tired. I’ve been working out every night and that cuts into my crafty time. On top of that I’ve been using my extra time to go through our stuff and trying to figure out what to take, get rid of and store. I can’t decide if I should take my sewing machine or not. I read that motor type of electronics doesn’t do well on transformers. But at the same time sewing machines are so expensive in the UK.

Tonight I did make a card. I used Funky Foliage by Wplus9 for this card. Something simple and I think kind of fun cause of the butterfly path. A few days ago I made a scrapbook page and the tag below is the leftover from that project. I just used a bit of the tip and plus by cutting the tag, the tag fits better.

The Miss M ordeal… check this out:

Six and teethless. We had to go to the dentist Monday to get her two bottom baby teeth pulled. One started wiggling a week ago but the adult tooth was already coming out Friday. Since M has seen this dentist since she was one and he’s never hurt her she trusted him completely and went through the whole teeth pulling alone. Me… they kicked me out cause I was about to pass out. They knew M wasn’t going to freak out on them and they said they rather not have to drive me home. So I waited in the waiting room until she was done. I was proud of her!

Last night the tooth fairy came and left her $2. I should take a picture of this note she wrote her. I’ll post tomorrow. It’s cute!!

Ok, time to boogie. It’s past 2 a.m. and I need some shut eyes. I’m not too tired though cause I slept early yesterday. I am weird!

Funky Flowers

Posted on | February 6, 2010 | 16 Comments

Happy weekend!!

Today I want to share the last of Wplus9’s debut stamps: Funky Flowers. I used Melissa Phillips’ photo inspiration for this week. Very fun set! I used a tiny bit of this set on yesterday’s post, stem and leaf, and everything on the card below:

I only used a few pieces of this set. Tons of potential I tell you and you can see more samples at Dawn’s and Maile’s blog.

I am so excited for Dawn and her Wplus9 venture. It was such an honor to have her ask me to join her team months ago. I told her I’d be happy too as long as the stamps fit my style – I told her I can’t color and if her stamps weren’t solids I’d have a hard time working with them – and she’d be ok if I disappear for a few weeks while we move to the UK. When a few weeks ago Dawn showed me the samples of her design I got all giddy cause her stamps are just my style. I had to say yes! THANK YOU, Dawn!!!

After getting the stamps all I have for Wplus9 are just praises. Even if I’m not in Dawn’s team I’d still tell you how great they are because that’s the way it is. Quality of the stamps are as great as Papertrey and Waltzingmouse. Crispy clear! If you like Dawn’s style you wouldn’t be disappointed with these stamps. If Dawn ever kick me out of the team I’d still buy her stamps. They’re that good {::SMILE}.

Gotta go. It’s still M’s day. I got to play baby doll with her. Plus the Jovie’s too cute to leave to play on her own (seriously, doctor’s order… she said I hold Jovie too much, she needs to learn to play on her own so that she’s not too mommy dependent). Right now every time I look at her she’d give me the biggest toothless smile. Love my two girls!!

My Softbox

Posted on | February 1, 2010 | 4 Comments

I really didn’t want to make a card last night but I wanted to try out the softbox (photography lighting gadget) that I got for Christmas on a card.

The kit is nice. But putting the softbox together was total pain in my {flabby} ass. On the four sides of the softbox are these rods. They’re straight as can be but if you try hard enough they will bend so that they can fit into the sides of this thing called a speed ring. Well, after much work I got all of the rods into the holes of the ring. Putting the first rod in was easy. The second got a bit tough but manageable. The third made me sweat a bit and the fourth… I had to go for an ice cream break. I almost used the box without the 4th rod in. I didn’t care. I was determined to try it but I finally got it in. How? I broke the manual’s rules. Even though it said to put it together before you hook it up to the light I put the box on the light stand anyways with the last rod loose. Then with all my might I bent the rod and stuck it in the hole. The good news, everything is now put together. The bad news, my softbox is tilted to the right by 45 degrees. Oh well, I ain’t taking that thing apart (takes MORE hand muscles) and put it back together again. How ’bout asking the hub? Well he was out when I did it and despite the crookedness it does work.

So far I love the softbox. I need to set it up now… got to read and experiment. That’ll be fun. I placed the softbox on the left, you can probably tell from the shadow on the right. I like. I can now leave my ISO (film) speed to 200. Why? The higher the ISO the more grain/noise your photo will have. It’s fine if your pics are just small for the web for example but if you want to blow it up, it’s not that pretty unless you want to use the noise for visual effects — which some do and does well. So now I have a little studio kit. I do need a few more things tho, like solid background (white and black for now), flash, and a brolly/umbrella.

Card created using stamps by Stampin’ Up!

SU + PTI

Posted on | January 31, 2010 | 7 Comments

I can’t think of a good title for today’s post. I can’t think of a good story either. We all just had a lazy day today. Both girls are sick and so we all just laid around even though I did get some downstairs cleaning done and a bit of laundry. Nothing exciting really.

Here’s a bit of a blurb for my card… you can read it in the most boring and monotonous way… it’s how I feel right now… I made this card last night. I got some new Stampin’ Up! stamps in the mail and I had to ink ‘em up. I’ve been wanting the Medallion stamp for a while but I never did put in an order until last week. I also wanted to try the new SU cling-on stamps. I like them except that I wish they’d use a CD case instead of a DVD case for storage. It’s nice and all but really, they’re way too big for the stamps I got and they won’t fit into my CD storage unit. The Papertrey stamps I’ve had for awhile but I haven’t really used them until now. I think I got intimidated. I always see all sorts of gorgeous cards using this set and I didn’t want to ruin it. If you’re curious this card is 5.5×5. When I make a card I never think about envelope. Actually I don’t send out as much as I make – a lot of my cards are here with me – and so I never worry about it. It’s a hobby, not a need to send anything out, and so 75% of the time I make them without having anybody in mind to give. I should probably start selling them or something.