Quilted Happy Birthday

As I perused my challenge options this morning, I selected the current challenge from Freshly Made Sketches as a starting point:

Oh, look, it's crooked, and I didn't do it.

Naturally, I saw the left vertical panel as an opportunity to break out some more washi tape. :) Here's my card, then I'll explain:

I also took the opportunity to actually use my Lil' Inker Quilted Stitched Pattern die/plate. It doesn't cut, so it's not really a die, I don't think. It just impresses the quilted pattern into the card stock. I see me using this again, and soon.

Since there were arrows in the washi tape, my brain remembered the new Seize The Birthday challenge is to use hearts and/or arrows:

so that gave me my sentiment (birthday) and embellishment (heart) for the corner of the panel. It needed something. To make the heart, I applied some washi tape to a piece of card stock, then die-cut it.

I had to add the grey panel to cut all that white, and I really like how this card turned out.

I'm also going to enter this in the current Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge:

In other news, does anyone else get the old song Shades of Grey by The Monkees stuck in their head when they play with grey card stock? No? Just me? Hmmm.

You're welcome. And yes, I still have that album.

Thanks for stopping by!

ETA: My card won Honorable Mention (selected as a favorite by one of the DT) at Freshly Made Sketches! Wheee! 

Stuff I used: MME Mint & Grey washi tape stack, and the following:

InLinkz.com

RIP Mary Travers

I have been a fan of Peter, Paul & Mary since they came to be in the early 1960's and I have had the joy of seeing them perform live a bizillion times. They sang together, on and off, for almost 50 years and created fabulous music that is known by heart to millions of children, both large and small.

The world lost Mary Travers yesterday, and we will be a sadder people because of it. Their music was infectious. Thankfully, it lives on through recordings so future generations may also feel the love.

RIP Mary.

It's Kismet

Yes, kismet, as in fate - destined to be. This blog initially came about as a joke, but now I think it was kismet. One of my fellow stampers and a sometimes-customer joked one day how everything I do comes out crooked. I jokingly replied, "Yeah, I'll start a blog called The Crooked Stamper!" to which she replied, "I'd read it." And so it was.

Yesterday I was talking with #2 about my avatar, or lack thereof, and she thought I should look up The Crooked Man, as in the nursery rhyme, to see what I could find. So I did, and here's what I found. I read the article with much interest, and one of the similarities cannot be ignored:

"The crooked man is reputed to be the Scottish General Sir Alexander Leslie."

Leslie? LESLIE? As in my name?!?!?!

The article explains the lines of the rhyme and their meaning based on English/Scottish history. Go ahead - read it! It is fascinating, especially to me, a reader of historical fiction, and a lover of Scotland. Coincidence? I think not. Let's review:

There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse.
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

Oh, be still my heart. And if you do read the article, check out the illustration. Yep, that's me alright. Old, bent over - you know: crooked.

There was also a song by the Serendipity Singers (from the 1964 Philips 45: 40175), a recording of which I have included here for your entertainment and (for those of you of the older persuasion) nostalgia:




For you young-uns, that thing turning? That's a turn-table, and that thing spinning around on the turn-table is a 45. That's how we used to get our copies of recordings we liked - the single. A record. I have some of them (quite a few, actually), and I also have a turn-table. I just wanted you to know.

Okay, that's enough useless information for one day. Oh, yes, one more thing: That song is now stuck in my head. Yours, too? Good - my work here is done. Thanks for stopping by!

Music Trivia

Some people think I am crazy, but I like Barry Manilow. And I have liked him for a very, very long time. I think since he was a pup. And anyone who says they do not like him has never seen him perform. He does a Vegas-style act - very high-energy, and very classy. I saw him in Detroit many, many moons ago. At one point in his show, he had his guys select a woman from the audience to come up and sing one of his songs with him, and after she went back to her seat and he had done another song, he called her back up and handed her a video (back then it was a VHS) of her time on stage with him, just so her friends would believe her. It was very cool.

One thing I have learned over the years is that a lot of singers write jingles to pay the bills. Folk singers do this a lot - they write songs for ads, or for other people, and they make their money behind the scenes, and that pays for what they want to do, which is sing folk music, which would never pay the bills. It's kindof like stamping - the Day Job pays for it.

So Barry Manilow has a song he calls his VSM - Very Strange Medley, which is a medley of a bunch of his commercial songs. In my never-ending effort to educate those of you who have probably never even heard of the man, have a listen. This is not a video - just the song. The picture is the album cover of one of his Live albums, and yes I have it, and yes, it is round, and vinyl.

My Kind of Music

I like lots of types of music, and I have a fairly eclectic collection, which includes Elton John, Pavarotti, Neil Diamond, Simon & Garfunkel, Horowitz playing the Beethoven Sonatas, Andrea Bocelli, John Denver, Harry Chapin ... like I said, eclectic. My collection pretty much stops with music created in the late 70's (told you I was old); except for Folk Music, that is. I have a ton of music by artists most people outside the Folk Music circle have never even heard of. DC is a fine haven for folkies, so I am happy here.

One of the local Oldies stations broadcasts a show on Saturday mornings called Acoustic Storm that I usually catch a little of on my way to my market. The Acoustic Storm is a three-hour syndicated program that features acoustic music, including some "unplugged" versions of rock songs by the artists. Of course, I love it.

I was listening last Saturday and heard a song that made me sit up and pay attention. They went right into another song (Beatles), then I had to get out of the car to unload my tables and stuff, so I missed the name of the artist of the previous song. I have waited all week for them to post last week's play list, and I finally found the song and the artist. It is "Carolina in the Pines" by Michael Martin Murphy. I trolled YouTube and found a live performance of the song. If I were to go out for an evening of music, this would be what I'd totally enjoy.

I am not sure what it is about this one that makes me tap my feet. Maybe it's the banjo, or the guy totally over-the-top on the piano, or just everything.

I'll be back later with a card I am working on. Hope you enjoyed the music.