I Think I See The Problem Now ....

Hi there...I'm baaaack. It has been an interesting few days in The Crooked Stamper household, and much has been learned. First, I figured out that while I think I am calm, cool, and collected while driving to and from work (my outbursts are down to one or two a day, now), I find that I fidget a lot more around commute time, which only means that I channel my frustrations to my finger-tips instead of out of my mouth in the form of expletives. This is probably good for my vocal chords, and also for me, in that I am not so certain these idiots that surround me are not armed. And by "armed", I mean with something more than the 2000+ lb vehicle they are maneuvering badly. But I digress.

I have also made the fatal mistake of re-introducing my cat to canned food, and now she loves me even more. I think, based on the ingredients list, that the canned stuff is better for her. I did ponder the idea of actually cooking her food like my Brother does for his furry ones, but then I got over that idea, so I think the canned stuff is the next best thing. Especially when the first ingredient is not Rice or Corn Meal, like it is on her dry food. But since she is a free-feeder, this whole canned food thing is a real pain in the arse. I have to put it out early enough so she eats most of it (1) before bed time and (2) before I leave for work. I still leave her dry food out to sustain her the rest of the time. I think she is so full and content that she now sleeps 95% of her day instead of just plain old 90%. What a life.

The other thing I've figured out is I should not go grocery shopping. You see, when I buy food, I feel compelled to cook some of it, and then I have to eat it. Eating means I need to sit still, so I turn on the boob tube, then I get caught up in some really exciting Food Network show, like this one:

AB is my hero. I will say he has gone a bit commercial on me, but he has great stuff on his show, and wonderful guests, like Deb, the Nutritional Anthropologist and Shirley, who blows me away with science.

But really, I was just playing with my new camera's settings to see if I could take a photo of the tv.

So when I am eating and watching tv, I am not stamping. Then I notice the time, and it is too late to get started on something new before I must head off to bed, and another craft-free evening passes me by. So I have laid down the law: No More Dinner!!! Well, for me, anyway. The cat, of course, pointed out the empty spot where her food should have been, and she was duly fed, but not ME. I got into my jammies and grabbed a piece of paper off the Scrap Heap and set to work! And you know what? That mojo just started to flooooow. I even picked up a few other things along the way, and I have future projects all queued up in my brain for tomorrow.

I had selected a piece of 12x12 paper with the word 'celebrate' written all over it in different colors and fonts. What to do, what to do ... I cut it into 6 pieces, then retrieved some Creamy Caramel for the bases. I opted to make it a Stash card, so I got some of my Bulk Buy chipboard stars, my Cosmo Glitter, my Heat&Stick Powder, some Jumbo eyelets and my Crop-o-dile, and a few yards of ribbon off the ginormous spool in The Other Room (I am down to 3998 yards, now), and I made this:

Not bad. Not bad. No, that is not red glitter stuck all over the paper. I thought it was, too, but it is part of the pattern.

I made two using this blue glitter, and one each of the other colors.





And here they are, all lined up like little soldiers.
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Taking a closer look, you can see that I did a really poor job with the Heat&Stick powder. I have never been a real fan of the stuff...I prefer good old glue or tape most of the time. But properly applied, I can see that it would dry a lot faster than glue, which was my goal this evening.

One of the interesting things about this photo is how the color of that star on the left is not even close to its Real Life color. In real life, it is a deeper purple, more like Perfect Plum or maybe even Eggplant, where here it looks kinda pale. I think that's because of the camera (or the photographer), since sitting here and looking over at the cards, that purple is pretty dark.

Well, time to go give these babies an inventory number and move on to my next project. I'll show you that one tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by (and for reading this far!) :-)