Rainy Saturday Ramblings

There's lots of stuff going on, so I think I'll post some ramblings. This is, in fact, a sneaky way for me to post a whole bunch of non-related blathering and get away with it.

First, Tropical Storm Hanna has arrived. It is raining big-time here, with local flooding already happening - road closures, etc., and it keeps on coming. The brunt of the storm is not supposed to hit until later today. Oh, boy.

I went to pick up my CSA share, and lo and behold, all three farmers were there and three of the crafters, too! We are a hardy bunch! Well, except for me, who totally wimped out. Farmer Mike said it had not even started raining yet when he left. Oh, well. I wished them luck and left, with just a little bit of guilt. We Jewish Mothers do guilt really well ...

I also made a pass at the local Transfer Station to recycle all my broken-down SU boxes in a probably-futile attempt to reclaim even a little space in here. Yes, we have curb-side recycling, but they want us to cut down boxes and wrap them in twine, and who has the time for that?! So I collect them and recycle them myself when I can.

I also dropped off my one and only dress at the dry cleaners so I have it ready to take with me next weekend.

I organized something! I bought a bunch of 5x7 photo pages in my last clearbags.com shopping spree. I found an old binder to put them in, then I put all my Nestabilities in the pockets. Nicely arranged and so very neat. Much better than tossing them into a box during the Clean Sweep! This way I have a chance to find them again! I put away the Cuttlebug, and I can see enough of the table to start cutting my card stock for kits for tomorrow. Later.

I got distracted and used the stamp sets I had out to maybe make some Sympathy cards. I was sorting through the scrap piles and found parts of some PTI patterned papers (purples), so I grabbed some virgin PTI purple card stock and made these:



Not too bad for an hour's work. So, is purple an appropriate color for Sympathy? For some reason I think it is ... I could look it up, I suppose, but that sounds like work.

Now for my discovery of the week. Hmm ... maybe I should have a new category for "discoveries". Mind you, these are discoveries for me. Most people probably already know about these things. But hey, if I find something new, I like to share. During my blog surfing - one of those activities where I find cool stuff but forget how I got there - I ran into Brenda's blog. What I saw reminded me of my stamping style, so I linked to her in my "Blogs I read when I have the time" list. While perusing her posts, I saw this one and I was WOWed by the stitched papers. They are done by Stefani Tadio of Pine Tree Designs, and they are fabulous. I recommend you take a few moments to check out her site and her etsy store. Beautiful work!

On a sad note, we lost the fabulously talented Don Lafontaine this week. Here is a good interview with him talking, a lot:

and I would be remiss if I did not include this one:

Okay, that's enough stuff for now. I think I'll go make up my kits for tomorrow while it is still light out, just in case the Big Wind comes through later and knocks out power. A girl's gotta be prepared!

Barking Dog Card

Here's my card for my fellow vendor who wanted something to give to the "new neighbor who does not walk her dog, but lets the dog out at 5 am and lets it bark and wake up the neighbors". There are two versions posted here, but it's really just one card.


Now that I look at this, it appears the dog is sitting in the tree. That is NOT the look I was going for. He is supposed to be sitting next to the tree. This may need some work...

I stamped the A Muse window on white, then I actually cut out all the panes with my exacto knife. I cut out a piece of acetate and stuck it on the back of the window, then I stamped the dog and the tree on another piece of white, stuck it to the back of the whole thing and trimmed it to the window shape.

I wanted it to look like wall paper with a chair rail, but I just used the strip of DS paper I cut off the 6x6 piece to make it 5 1/2. I am lazy like that. I drew the Home Sweet Home sign (can't you tell?) and spent way too long trying to get the darn Linen Thread through the tiny holes I made with my paper piercer. But I like how it came out!

When I got home just now I made a speech bubble for the dog as an after-thought and just stuck it on. Not sure about it, though. What do you think?

Well, we are supposed to be slammed by Hurricane Hanna tomorrow (no relation, but thank you for asking), and I refuse to go to the store to buy the crackers I need, because I'll have to stand in line with all the crazy people buying bread, milk and toilet paper. I will never, ever understand that logic, but people do it every time there is a forecast of bad weather. My Saturday market will probably not happen. My CSA farmer just called me to say he'd be at the market early to deliver the CSAs, then he's leaving. Farmer Mike lives east of here, and they have issued a several-day severe weather warning for his county, so he will probably not make the drive, either. I only go if the farmers are there to draw the crowds, so I may get my Saturday to myself this weekend. Woo-hoo!

I'll see if I can crank out some cards tonight before the Clean Sweep that must happen tomorrow. I will have a full house for both my Sunday workshops, so I need to be prepared, man! I'll let you know how that goes, as in: will she be done by midnight? Ha! Miracles do occur every day. ;-)

SYFY Tip #2, and a Finished Wedding Card

When you mess up as often as I do, you grab all the tips you can glean from other sources and save them for that moment that you are SURE will come, at which time you dig through the dusty brain cells and bring it to the front and out your finger tips. Is that even possible?

Let's leave those jumbled thoughts behind us and move on to SYFY (Save Yourself From Yourself) Tip #2. Good news! I found my clear stamps for the 'Wedding Wishes' sentiment! Yay! Now these are very small word stamps, and you know if it could be stamped crooked, I'd do it. I saw this tip on someone's blog, so I remembered it and now I am sharing it with you.

You know that ever-present grid paper in some of our lives? How about we use it, hmmm? Check out how I lined up the two words on my almost-not-big-enough acrylic block:

Those words lined up reeeal nice-like when I used the grid on the paper as my guide. This is a cool thing about clear stamps - you have the opportunity to see a potential 'OMG, I've ruined my whole project because I stamped the sentiment crooked!' moment and save yourself. Or if you are me, I'd probably stamp it crooked anyway, but you would get a chance to save yourself.

Next, I did a test stamp of the sentiment onto my work surface paper, because I wanted to see what it looked like under the vellum. I placed a scrap of the vellum over my test image, and I thought it softened the ink enough to be okay.

Last step: stamp it onto the Very Vanilla base. Naturally I stamped it a little crooked. Hey, it's what I do best!

Here is the finished card:


That's all for tonight. I think I'll go work on the "new neighbor who does not walk her dog, but lets the dog out at 5 am and lets it bark and wake up the neighbors" card that I actually have an idea for (for which I actually have an idea.)

Alotta Veggies, and Part of a Wedding Card

One thing I will say for this CSA gig: I get to figure out creative ways to use all these dang veggies I get every week! Tonight, I had A Plan. I was going to make two dishes that both needed me to drag out the Food Processor. If I am going to retrieve and assemble all the parts-is-parts for that thing, I am going to use it more than once!

I was desperate. I was in what can be referred to as a Fatal Embrace. Or maybe a Perfect Storm. My place is small, and I have a lot of stuff. In the kitchen, I had emptied out the CSA cooler and had everything in the sink. I'd also made some more Rice Krispie treats in an attempt to use up the extra cereal and marshmallows, and had those 9x13 pans stacked on top of my stove. I also had the pan I'd used to make the treats, also on the stove, for lack of a better place to put it. And I had the counter stacked with LAST week's veggies.

I could not wash the pots and pans until I'd emptied the sink. But I needed to cut up the veggies in the sink in order to cook them. But the pots and other veggies took up all available counter and stove-top space. Ack!

The Plan: Chop up as many veggies as I could and get them in the oven to roast. To accomplish this, I balanced the 9x13 pans on the edge of the sink, and I put my teeny tiny chopping board I use in my teeny tiny kitchen onto the stove top and started chopping. I just laugh at all those Food Network people who expound on the virtues of a large cutting board. Well what if that darn thing WILL NOT FIT ON MY COUNTER!? Huh? What about THAT! Ahem. The plan for these veggies was from something I saw on Alton Brown's show the other day. He roasted a bunch of veggies, let them cool, then threw them into a food processor with a brick of cream cheese. Can you say - Veggie Cream Cheese?

So, the veggies went into the oven. Done. The second wave was to chop up the veggies remaining on the counter to make another version of the tomatillo salsa - the no-cooking version. This is where things went a little wrong. After chopping, I had enough room on the counter to set up the food processor, and I started to throw everything in: tomatillos, sweet peppers, green peppers, jalapeno peppers (2), zucchini, cucumbers, etc. I filled it about 1/4 full and fired it up. I proceeded to add the rest of the veggies in stages until the processor was just about full. I threw in some cilantro and the juice of one lime and finished blending. It smelled yummy, but it was a little runny. Okay, a lot runny. More like a soup. When I removed the processor bowl from the base, there was liquid running everywhere. Soup. I had a brainstorm to throw in a brick of cream cheese as a thickener and to and make THAT into a spread, too. My mistake was not draining the 'soup' first. Okay, so I drained it in a strainer afterwards, and it is actually very good. I put that stuff in the fridge and moved on to the roasted veggies that had cooled.

This was too easy - dump the roasted veggies into the bowl of the processor, add a brick of cream cheese (softened), and fire it up. In a few seconds you have a roasted veggie spread that is very, very good.

I can now find my sink, but I have a ton of dishes to wash, including the food processor. A woman's work is never done.

To celebrate the veggie project completion, I started to make my Nephew's wedding card. I had this idea to use my Verve butterflies and also use my Pretties as embellishments. I asked my Brother what the kids' colors are, and he said Teal, or maybe Cream. As of this moment. The wedding is the 13th, so I sure hope they figure it out quick! They are getting a cream & teal card, and so far I have this:

I have a Wedding Wishes stamp somewhere, but is has gone missing. When I drag out my retired sets this weekend I'll look through them, but I am pretty sure it was a clear stamp, and it is in The Other Room somewhere. Goodness, just shoot me now.

Okay, time for bed. I have my massaaaage after work tomorrow. Yay! I hope to find more time to stamp something, too. Thanks for stopping by!

Using Some Scraps

Alright, I'll admit it: I want to be like June when I grow up. What? She's younger than me!?!? Rats! Okay, I aspire to be like June. Better? Let us begin.

This past month I have challenged myself to focus on the scrap piles in an attempt to (1) use the stuff so I do not have to (2) figure out what to do with it during the upcoming Clean Sweep as I prepare for this coming weekend's workshops. Last night I grabbed this piece of striped scrap, and I made two cards out of it. I did sacrifice a virgin piece of Barely Banana card stock for the base, but everything else was from the scrap pile. Are you proud of me? I know *I* am. ;-)

I have had this card in my head since I bought the sentiment in my last Viva Las Vegas Stamps shopping spree. I kept this retired SU set because, well, just because. So I was thrilled when I saw this sentiment, because it meant I could actually use the set again. I think that makes twice. I am hopeless.

The second card is the same as that first one, except I used a smaller piece of Choc Chip card stock under the sentiment, and I used a brown base oval under the sentiment for a different look.

I think they'll make cool birthday cards.

Tonight I worked on another half-baked idea I have to make a different kind of Thank You notes. Those townhouses are a bear to color! A week or so ago I had made some 3 1/2" x 5" note cards out of Whisper White card stock. I cut the card stock the long way so the cards fold on the short side, just to be different. I like to mix things up sometimes.

I have recently discovered a hidden die in my set of Olivia Alphabet dies for the Cuttlebug. It is the word thanks, all in one die. So I took a scrap of my Berry Bliss DS paper and die-cut 5 of those babies. Then I resurrected my Xyron and ran those die-cuts through. Yes, I am lazy. Then I stuck them on, and the cards looked nekked.

I kept going and added a strip of a different paper from the same cut-into pack (no virgin 12x12s were sacrificed), and I used a pink ribbon from my stash and this came out:

What do you think? Passable? Maybe I will make only one pack of these and stamp something on the next set. Tomorrow.

Making Progress

I'm just stampin' my little heart out today! This first card is a two-fer project. It uses today's Mojo Monday sketch layout, and it is also SU-Only, so I can use it for my workshops this weekend.

Recipe (All SU): Stamps - Say It With Scallops; Paper - Whisper White, Pacific Point, Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Maine Blueberry DS paper; Ink - Pacific Point; Other - Square Scallop punch, Scallop Border punch, Bone Folder, White gg ribbon.

The sketch had larger squares in the center, but I wanted to use the new Say It With Scallops SU set with the new SU Scallop punch, so I had to down-size the squares. I also went out on a limb by using the new SU Pacific Point blue ... I am not sure it really goes with the rest of the colors. We'll see what The Ladies think about it. Also, it may be difficult to see in this photo, but I scored lines in the scalloped awning to give it a little something extra.

This next card is a CASE from this one on SCS.

Recipe (All SU): Stamps - Upsy Daisy, Pocket Silhouettes; Paper - Baja Breeze, Whisper White; Ink - Baja Breeze; Other - Baja Breeze gg ribbon, Sm and Lg Oval punches, Stamp-A-Ma-Jig.

I used Baja Breeze instead of Pacific Point, and I used smaller ovals and a different sentiment. I also did a second stamping of the daisy image offset a little bit to the left from the first one to get a shadow. I kinda like it. :-)

For this one, I wanted to use this new SU paper. The colors just pop out at you, don'tcha think? Because of that, and because I only have two sheets of it, I used a small piece as one of my layers.

Recipe (All SU): Stamps - Pocket Silhouettes; Paper - Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Old Olive, Maine Blueberry DS paper; Ink - Night of Navy; Other - Brads, Old Olive gg ribbon.

I opted for no sentiment, partly because there is no room for one (in my opinion) without throwing off the balance of the card, and also because I could not think of one to use. It may come to me by Sunday. Or not. The Ladies can always opt to add a sentiment if they'd like. My cards are simply "serving suggestions", and the people who attend my classes are free to change things if they'd like. I'm pretty easy that way.

Right now I feel a nap coming on...this stampin' is quite a tiring activity! And I actually got up earlier today than I do when I get up for work. Crazy, I know!!! I may need to go vertical for an hour or so .... yawn. Thanks for stopping by!

A Beautiful Market Day

Today could not have been more glorious! The sky was blue, the sun was out, the humidity was low, a breeze was blowing, and the people were shopping! I had a great sales day, and the BBQ truck was there so I could get my fix. He even remembered me and knew I wanted no bun. ;-)

My Sunday market always has music, and part of the time it is a live person or band. Today's group was Crash, The Band, and they are a group of local kids. At first I thought it was some Karaoke thing, but when I wandered up to check it out, this is what I found:

We're talking kids - little kids! Elementary and Middle School are 'little' to me. And they were rocking on those instruments! That guitar on the left was as tall as the girl (in the blue shirt) playing it. And someone told me the kid on the drums (you can barely see his head over the cymbals) has only been playing for a year. They were playing songs from the 60s and 70s, and they were GOOD! Hey - I thought it was karaoke, meaning pre-recorded music. I threw some money into their collection till.

(Yes, their parents were there. No, I did not get a release to post this photo on my blog. Yes, if you are the parent(s) of one of these kids, I will cease and desist. That is, if I cannot get your permission after the fact. May I beg? Would begging work? How about money? Free cards? How about giving me a link to post and I'll help you get a gig? BTW, your kids are MARvelous!)

I sold a bunch of three-fers - three cards for a discounted price, which has turned out to be one of the smartest offerings I've ever had. There is something about a "Three For" price that makes people want that third card. I try to talk them out of it; I even tell them they would only save 50 cents on the third card, but they still insist, so my sales were goooood. I highly recommend this marketing technique to anyone selling cards. Or anything, really.

The gentleman from the city stopped by to pick up his two packs of City cards, so I am almost out of them again...just one pack left. Several other people asked for other cites (towns) that I do not have, to the point where I started asking which city am I missing now? And they'd tell me! One woman said she would definitely buy some if I made them for her, so I'll include hers in my next wave of these cards. I am okay making on-demand cards like this if I think of it as my one store offering, but person-to-person, and without the shipping hassle.

When I got home, I finished up these cards I'd started the other evening:

(Man, I even take crooked photos!) I had some of this paper left out in my scrap pile, so I used it. All gone. Well, except for the pieces of the same paper I had to buy yesterday at Angela's. Shhh, done tell anyone.

Then I decided to use some of the new stuff I had to buy, and here is my first attempt:

The dog, sentiment, patterned paper, wide oval punch, and markers used to color the dog are all new. The Wide Oval punch is from Stampin' Up!, and as you can see it layers very nicely with the SU Large Oval punch. Of course it does.

The paper is from my new Basic Grey pack of Offbeat 6x6 papers. The dog and sentiment are by Rosie's Roadshow. I used my new Copic Ciao markers to color the dog - E31, E33 and E35 for the dog and W7 for the shadow around the dog. The sentiment is stamped in Choc Chip. And I used my Nesties for the ovals for, and under, the dog.

Phew - that's alotta stuff for just one card! I made four of these and put them in my "for next week" box.

My goal for tomorrow is to make up three more projects for next weekend's workshops and also to inventory all my retired sets that I plan to sell. My customers get first dibs on buying them before I post them online (here and at SCS), and given that my customers will be over next weekend for the workshops, tomorrow is my day to do it all. Evenings after work cannot be trusted, or I will be doing my "up till midnight" on Saturday to get ready, and I so don't want to go there again. Wish me luck! I'll need it, as we all know that I am very easily distracted...

Not Your Typical Market Day

Today's market was pretty interesting. Not all good interesting, but interesting all the same. We started out with early arrival (before 7:30 am) due to the scheduled 5K race and associated street closures. The first thing I saw were orange cones closing the street I usually take, so I had to do the round-about to even get there. grumble ...

One of the rules about our market is: Farmers are first-class citizens, and the crafters are second. The farmers have assigned spaces and they get as much room as they want. We lowly crafters have to divide up what's left, or set up tents on the lawn. We are all okay with this, and it works really well.

Today when I arrived there was a band setting up next to our little pavilion. This was bad. Not the band being there, but the fact that they had taken up the whole sidewalk, including the space assigned to one of the farmers. This was the bad thing. As soon as I unloaded my car and started to set up, I went over to one of the band members and informed him they would need to move over to make room for the farmer. The guy got pi$$y with me! First come, first served. He should have been here early if he wanted a spot. Uh, noooo, I think you are mistaken... After much pi$$ing and moaning, I finally got them to move over about 10 feet. Then I was saved when one of the event organizers told them they really did need to move. I returned to my set-up and two of the farmers said the band members had not believed them, either. Hmph.

Now mind you, it is still before 8 am. Next thing we know, the band starts playing, and they were LOUD. I MEAN LOUD, as in YOU CANNOT HEAR YOURSELF THINK loud. At 8 am. And there is a retirement home right across the street. Farmer Mike, who was set up the furthest from the band, had trouble conversing with customers. One of the crafters is very pregnant, and she was standing on the far side of the market, actually out in the street, with her hands over her ears. She said the noise was disturbing the baby. We all had headaches after about 10 minutes, and they played for TWO HOURS. Farmer Mike finally called our market organizer and left her a voice message, which we are pretty sure she could not hear. So the first two hours were a living nightmare.

When the farmer arrived to try and claim his spot, we just sat there and waited for the fireworks - he is not shy. Fortunately for the band, they quit playing at 10. This was REALLY fortunate for us. So the day started off really badly.

But there were some really funny moments, too. While two of us were hanging out at Farmer Mike's to be far away from the noise, there was a guy checking out the watermelons, so we struck up a conversation with him. We tend to do that a lot...we are a friendly bunch. So anyway, he was trying to pick the best melon, and we had some suggestions for him. He stopped, laughed, looked at us and said, "You are talkin' to a black man from Alabama. I think I know how to pick a melon. And a 'mater. Not much else, but I can sure pick a melon." OMG, we laughed so hard, and he was laughing the loudest! I finally stopped laughing enough to tell him I was glad he'd said that. Then he just lost it - laughed so hard he had to put down the melon. Farmer Mike just looked at us and shook his head. It was pretty funny! The guy did buy two watermelons, by the way.

Time for some market photos... Farmer Mike has brought some of these flowers for several weeks now:

This is called Cockscomb, and it is beautiful. He sold it all by the end of the day, too. You can keep it like this by putting it in water, or you can let it dry and use it for dried flowers. You can also keep the seeds to grow your own next year. I know all this because I had to have him explain it to me several weeks ago. Once he'd finished, I told him that was nice, but if I were to plant the seeds next year, did they need sun to grow. He just shook his head and walked away. Farmer Mike shakes his head at me a lot.

I always check out the veggies du jour, and today gave us these:

These are what could be called stunted carrots. They have been growing since February. They have had their greens cut off for, um, greens, and when that happens, they expend all their energy re-growing the greens, so the actual root veggie is out of luck. They finally picked these, and the Rock Lady bought some for her guinea pig, or was it a gerbil?

These are eggplants:

I had the Rock Lady hold a few so you could see the actual size. They taste the same as full-sized eggplant, but aren't they cute? I am pretty sure Farmer Mike was shaking his head at me here, too.

The rest of the market was okay. I had a few sales, so it was not a Zero Day, thank goodness. And the Fruity Pebbles Rice Krispie Treats were a hit. ;-)

After the market, I headed down to Virginia to Angela's Happy Stamper to pick up my ordered goods. I fully expected to see more stuff I had to have, and without fail, I succumbed to the lure of the merchandise. One of the things I picked up were some more A Muse note cards (yes, I needed more, okay?!) to make some "neutral" baby cards. Someone liked the ones I made in blue and pink, but I had no yellow or green for those times when they did not know the gender of the yet-unborn little one. Funny, but I had some baby stamps in my order, too. Whazzup with that? I need to refocus or something. So when I got home, I broke open the pack of green & white card stock and made this:

That should work!

One other funny thing that happened was I sold one of my new 'feminine' milestone birthday cards. That all by itself was not funny, but the actual sales process was. A gentleman picked out one of the cards, slipped it to me upside-down and said "shhhhhh!". I slipped it into a bag lickety-split, he handed me some cash, said we were even, and went back to meet up with his wife. Wasn't that the cutest thing?!?!?! A similar thing happened last weekend at my Sunday market, where the guy picked out the card and had me sneak it into a bag all when his wife was not looking. I love this stuff!!!!

And my last funny thing today was when the Rock Lady asked if I had a card she could give to a new neighbor who did not walk her dog, but let the dog out a 5 am and let it bark and wake up the neighbors. So did I have a card for that? Um, let me work on it, okay?

So I guess the funny stuff almost made up for our earlier misery. Oh, and our market organizer did stop by and apologize for the noise. Seems she had no idea there would be a band, and certainly not a LOUD one, and CERTAINLY not at 8:00 am. My ears are still ringing.

I need to go get some shut-eye so I can be vertical for tomorrow's market. It is supposed to be a nice day, so afterwards I will probably have the strength to stamp something, maybe even something blog-worthy so I can share it with you. ;-)

The CASE of a CASE of a CASE

Or I could call this post "One Good Turn Deserves Another". For any reader who may not know what CASE means, it is an acronym for "Copy And Share Everything", or in some situations "Copy And Steal Everything". When you really, really, really like a card you see, you can use it for inspiration, or copy it exactly. I prefer to not copy copy a card, cuz where's the fun in that!? So in my case (har, har, no pun intended there) , I stole the idea and the technique and the design, but I used a different paper, layered it differently, and used a different stamp. So technically it is inspired, not CASEd, but I guess that depends on who you ask.

I saw this post on June's blog a while ago, and I have always wanted to CASE it and make it my own. I showed it to one of my customers last night, and she LOVED it and pleaded with me to make it one of the projects for September, especially since we all need to blow the dust off our crimpers. Begging and pleading generally work for me, and I am also one short week away from having to have all my workshop projects planned, so here's what I just threw together:

Recipe (All products from Stampin' Up!):Stamps - Think Happy Thoughts; Paper - Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Kraft, Bella Rose DS paper; Ink - Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red; Other - brads, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, Lg Oval punch, Round Tab punch, Dimensionals, Crimper.

Isn't it Fabboo? Is that a word? This card was soooo easy and quick. Naturally, since I did not have to think it up! Just make sure to put your piece of folded-in-half oval punched card stock into your crimper on an angle, like the bottom one I did. The top one is a good example of what not to do. I could say I did that on purpose, and take credit for staging a How Not To Be Like Me segment, but alas, I did not see that it was crimped poorly until after the screw-up. Okay, it is not a screw-up, but I do think the more angled leaf looks better.

Moving on before I dig that hole any deeper, in case you were wondering how those Rice Krispie Treats turned out, here they are:

The recipe calls for 6 Cups of cereal, and since the Fruity Pebbles were really fruity, I used 4 Cups of Rice Krispies to 2 Cups of the Fruity Pebbles for color. And also, as it turned out, for flavor. They are really fruity, so I am glad I mixed them up with the plain ones.

I have both my Saturday and Sunday markets again this weekend. I need to be at the Saturday market very early, though...there is an annual 5K race in the neighborhood, and they close the streets for it, which means we need to either set up before 7:30 or after 9:30, and we cannot park on the main street, either. I usually opt for early arrival, so I think I'll bring a good book.

After the Saturday market I plan to head down to VA to Angela's Happy Stamper to pick up (ie: buy) the goods she has been saving behind the counter for me. I have some (of all things) more baby stamps, some of the new Basic Grey 6x6 paper packs, a Copic marker, and some cutting blades and mats for my Carl cutter. And I am sure I will stumble upon a few things I did not know I needed. It always happens. Hopefully I will have the energy to play with my new stuff and show it off a little bit tomorrow. Ta!

SYFY Tip #1

Seeing as I screw up on a regular basis, probably more than most people do, I find I have to save myself from myself, a lot. Therefore, I have decided to begin a new category of posts on my blog to share my Save Yourself From Yourself (SYFY) tips and tricks as I think of them. Most of these will be obvious, and probably nothing new, but I needed something to post and this was handy. Work with me here, okay? ;-)

First up, as I waited for the exterminator to arrive this morning (he's still not here), I decided to make more of these cards for my market inventory:

This has turned out to be a best seller, and I find myself making more every week! A great way to use up scraps, fer sure. Note the ribbon I tied...it looks like a normal ribbon to you, right? Usually I just wrap the ribbon around the layer and tie it - done. But not today! Today I fell into the pit of 'cut it too short'. Not wanting to have to deal with the too-short piece (as in: where the heck will I keep this thing after the Clean Sweep), I simply improvised and did this:

After all, no one will see the back anyway, right? It ties just the same on the front, too ... imagine that. And if you do this on purpose, you'll save about 3" of ribbon per card. For me, that's not a big deal because I have SO MUCH STUFF, but for you frugal people, it might just be an important tip.

Okay, now I really have to make an appearance at the Day Job. I left a message for the exterminator telling him I have to leave...it is raining, but if he was not coming, you'd think he'd call. Bah!

Thanks for stopping by!