More Miniatures

These are some of the babies that my mom made for the miniature Dollhouse that we rescued from her burning house 9 yrs ago...
Notice the blanket and babywear?.....all knitted with toothpicks!
(and PS, no these babies aren't part of the adoption process!)

Mini Bow Maker

Idn't this the cutest stankin thing?
Another tidbit from the Miniature house mom made and that is going to a new home.
I sent this off to the new owner for a taste of the world she is about to enter...
You see things in a whole new dimension in the Miniature world.
Take the gift wrapping for example. You simply cannot have gifts under the Christmas tree without bows. And how does one make mini bows that are scale to a true miniature house?
With a mini bow maker, of course!
If I find out she's got some cool new technique crossing over the mini bow maker for our card making and scrapbooking world, I'll have to shoot myself for letting this one go.

It Happened...I Failed at Something...

I just can't get a grip on the whole Facebook thing.
I absolutely hated MySpace because of all the pimping...er primping, music, revolving graphics (that made this progressive lens wearer get a headache!) backdrops or layouts whatever the heck they call it. Heck, I only signed up for MySpace to keep track of you-know-who while she was in you-know-where.

So I figured that Facebook would allow me to connect with my many different circle of friends.
Well..I gotta say that I really don't like seeing all unrelated posts from others who happen to be friends with some of my friends. I end up doing the Jim Carey version of Jerry Lewis' Nutty Professor, (eye balls rollin', cheeks sucked in, fingers spazzing) like, do I really care about that enough to read this? and then click on their picture and find I need to be their friend, and on and on and on.....!

Good Lord-a-Mighty! When does it stop?!!

So I guess I failed in the respect that I didn't approach it the correct way, or it didn't meet or exceed my expectations and I failed to know that in advance?

Whatever...!
I'll still pop in once in a while...it's a good thing I reference my blog on my home page there...
those that care can always find me here!

And darn it! I missed Dr. Seuss's birthday celebration again this year!
I'm a Ham I am. And of course it's gotta be green.

Miniatures and Memories

Random things can at times have a meaning...
for example, a long time fellow consultant Bren commented on Facebook that she had found herself drawn into the world of miniatures.
I had just signed up to for a sidewalk sale at a miniature store in town to let go of the miniature house that my mom had built 22 years ago that we rescued from her house fire 8 years ago!
(Haley and I wore rubber boots and gloves to salvage all the things dumped when the firemen pulled it out of the house)

I wondered...well, couldn't hurt to ask her if she might be interested in some of our things...haha! interested was she? enough to drive almost 500 miles TODAY!
Yea...that's the thing about collectibles...you find yourself doing just about anything for that fix..er find. (like we use to sleep in our cars overnite to be the first at a Beanie Baby release!)
I went to snap off some pictures and much to my dismay, even though the house has been covered, dust and dust bunnies had found their way in (unlike our own houses, right?)

Anyhoot...after going through room by room, I figured some canned air, and Murphy's soap were in order. (Even if we didn't sell off everything it would still need to be presentable to whomever ended up with our treasures)

I opened the trunk in the "todder's" room and WOW! I found a REAL miniature scrapbook my mom had made...with REAL pictures that she had reduced from a my grandfather's family scrapbook! Not only that, but the mini guest book from her "open house"!




Gong through all these miniatures made a gloomy rainy day nostalgic...
Thanks Bren!
(in more ways than one...)

BaseBall Card Albums

I realized that these were post-blog days, so I thought I would share...
Using our Game On papers and of course the cricut cartridge, and of course the team members pictures.

Red Carpet Watchers

I like to watch Oscar's night and all the Red Carpet pagentry.

The who's who in true traditional Hollywood glamour (like Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly) or the what-could-she-possibly-thinking tradition buckers.

Last night was the same for my company annual dinner-dance. It's the one (ok, maybe 2 times) a year that I still say to myself, "self, ya gotta loose that middle fluff area".
This year I found a great bargain at DressBarn...a midriff hugging, perfectly concealing blouse that was actually cute! I didn't even have to wear my Spanx!
(and no...my hair is NOT that red...it was an overhead light at the entrance to the ballroom)
just in case you were wondering what-the-heck-what-she-thinking about the hair color!

Red Carpet Memories

Now if you think I'M a fan...Here's my friend Helen...I was one of her 8 bridesmaids and she was my matron of honor (along with her twins in uterio)
No one is allowed to call her house during the nominee announcements...
No ONE!
Don't even think about calling her tonite. She's a big, REALLY BIG movie buff.
So much in fact, that every Halloween, her costume represents movie themes from the past.
It was fitting for her 50th birthday that her family pulled off the surprise worthy of "may I have the envelope please" when they rented the remodeled Crest Theater downtown.
Her name was finally in lights.

Here's the layout left side of the outside marque and her limo arriving.
We all lined the red carpet and when she hopped out of the limo...ohmygod it was hysterical!
(notice the row of red cardstock representing the red carpet across the bottom?)
Here's the 2nd layout with the supporting cast (her husband, twins and son)
and the party itself.
This shows the flip out album of all the other "little people" who attended. I'm on the cover of course!


You'll see the close up here of some of the posters that were scattered about the food tables...the finger foods actually matched the movie theme!
Except dinner of course...that was Italian all the way, babeeee.
Tables were set up around the theater seating area itself with subdued lighting.
It was a memorable evening.
It was like really being there at an Oscar after party.
Then we got to "roast" her.
And I liked it...I really really liked it.

Guest Artist

A long time friend Ms. Betsy Gully shared this DARLING altered rolodex on another board I stalk visit.
Idn't it just the cutest thing?!

Stampin' Memories Scrapbook Getaway

It was a SHORT Getaway for me since I wasn't granted the day off today...grrr...
however, that didn't stop me from spending exactly 6.5 hours and 42 minutes creating a template and making this layout from Convention in August 08.
I saw these cute decals on all the windows with one word inspirations...took many photos of them just knowing I'd use them on my layout (whenever that got done)
I couldn't find any complimentary papers that matched, so I went with white space.
Tell me what ya think?

This is the cover so to speak. Eventually, things will be added to expand for the entire trip.

In spite of not having the day off (and having to load all my stuff to my car in the pouring down rain whilst everyone else slept warmly, and cozily in their beds), our Getway was full of fun times, Cricut cuttin, scrip-scrappin', awesome home-made breakfasts, and of course the ever-traditional shopping trip to Michael's for some new had-to-have goodies!

And of course, everyone just L@@@VED their low fat, no fat, high in fiber cupcakes!


This is the other project I finished...a giftie for P & M in Florida.
You may remember that this is my girlfriend from high school that I visited the week before Convention.
Ironically, they were here...yeah...in California just the week BEfore I was out there.
I love little acrylic albums!
This is the cover

This is the next set of pages of them doing a ATV ride.

Now the next set of pages are pretty cool.
You see the back side of a tunnel they went through, then the train ride on the right.
but you're actually looking through a clear page. (aren't those dang acrylic albums clever?)

So now the clear page is on the left and you are seeing the real train picture and you see them peeking over the top on the next page. (cute, eh?)
I love the graffiti look, so I lopsided the word Lake with white rub-ons.
The photo on the left is the backside of the train picture and I used rub-0ns again to spell out
Tahoe (name of lake that is...Lake Tahoe)
Stay with me now as we see how fun these acrylic suckers and rub-0ns can be!
the right page here is the last and longest page. Amazing pic of the lake again...but turn the page and what do you see...?

Another shot of Lake Tahoe and the rub-0ns peeking through spelling Tahoe.
Lake Tahoe is really beautiful.
I really love these little acrylic suckers...did I mention that?

I'll mail this off tomorrow to her along with a check she had sent trying to pay me for the DogTopia album. I couldn't accept it.
Really...I mean I really couldn't accept it....and neither would my bank when they saw the payee name as Gertie Howard. Who the hell is that they asked?
Well, that's another story for another insomnia driven night.

Yes, I'm baking...AGAIN!

A little change to the cast of characters this time...
instead of dample crimpled paper for the whipped cream toppings, I used white grosgrain ribbon just like on the first layer at the base of the top.

My only problem is what type of gift cards to slip in the clip...Michael's, Joann's or iTunes!

and YES! Mine Taste Really, REALLY Bad, too!

I felt like it was my first time cooking (AGAIN!)
First I made the fabulous WINGS from PW's website...I enjoyed every.single.one!
They were just as spicy as the new edition of her romance with Marlboro Man!!!

Then (well, really off and on again all day) I tried making dessert...out of paper, of course!
This, of course was my first attempt.
AND I learnED it all from the Fabulousy Artsy Tresa Black.
(It's a good thing I really really like her...cause her videos make it really easy to follow even though my projects will NEVER look like hers othwise I'd have to hate her!)




Mom's Red Hat Society is having a Tea and she wondered if I could make something for each guest. (good thing the numbers for attendance are really low!)