And So It Begins

Today I have a bunch of random stuff running through my brain, so I thought I'd post a few things that are going on around The Crooked Stamper Homestead.

It all began this morning when I tried to open the Kitchen blinds so I could give kitty a view of the great outdoors while I was at work. (If I do not open them, she will head-butt them until they give in, and frankly, up until now, I've preferred to be in charge. Call me crazy.) So the blinds failed me. They had died, completely. You get what you pay for, and I paid $10 for these babies about 15 years ago, so it is time. Welcome to Crooked Stamper Home Repair! Check out what I did:

Here we have the blinds finally open. See that top arrow? It points to the culprit: a completely worn-out thread that is now all balled up on itself, thus no longer allowing the fiber to pass through the hole in the slats, so it bunches up and refuses to move. Bah!

Those arrows at the bottom mark my handiwork...the only thing keeping the blinds from bonking the cat on the head.

And here we have a (fuzzy) close-up of my I-am-late-for-work solution: nylon rope. Yeppers, and it sure works fine. Proud of myself (but an embarrassment to the rest of my family, I am sure), I left confidently for work.

The Day Job was eventful...one of those days when you are so busy you forget you forgot lunch, so you run down the the cafeteria to see what they have left, and you end up with a 'safe' turkey sandwich. The excitement of my life continues to build.

On the way home from work it started to rain. Great. Rain in the DC commuting world means "slow down, act stupid, and add 30 minutes to everyone else's commute". Not me, of course, but everyone else was acting that way; I was just yelling at them. Criminey - you'd think it was a blizzard or something. The roads were not even wet. It was barely raining! You can go more than 25 mph on the expressway, people!!!!! Ahem... Since it took me so long to get home, by the time I actually got here, the rain had turned to sleet, and it was mushy walking from my car to my front door. Oh, joy. Winter in DC has arrived, and the loonies are already out there. Anyone want to take bets on if schools are closed tomorrow? Or at least delayed 2 hours? I say YES! Sigh ...

Next up: I put away the rest of the ribbon and punches and stamp sets from the workshops, and admired this:

Now here is something not often seen in these parts: the top of my Dining Room table! Look now, because I am about to begin Book 2 of my Road Trip scrapbook that I started last year. It is time. And the table top shall be buried here very shortly!

A quick workshop update: my customers continue to amaze me. I know, I sound like a broken record, but seriously, I set out projects, and the next thing I know, there are people mixing things up all over the place... Swapping out one punch for another... arranging the parts-is-parts differently than my serving suggestion (always encouraged!) ... flipping over double-sided paper to get a different look ... using red ribbon that I put out at the last second "just in case" they did not want all the ones I just knew they'd want to use instead ... you know - mixing it up! It was great!!!!

Kitty assumed her position as soon as the first few coats arrived with their people. She is quite the multi-tasker: guarding the coats and warming the coats while simultaneously napping. Hard to believe, but here's your proof!

Oh, look - round 2. Guard duty can be so utterly exhausting.

The other thing that amazed me was how a project I thought was totally lame was the hit of the day. No, I am not kidding! I expected yawns, rolling eyes, and a bit of whining, but nope! It was embraced by all!

This is a plastic ornament from the craft store. I cut up lots of 12x12 pieces of DS papers, bundling each set together with a piece of ribbon. Each customer selected a bunch of papers, then rolled each piece around a wooden skewer and popped it into their globe. When they were all done, they could tie a piece of ribbon around the top and add a piece of silver elastic cord for hanging it. Too easy (and it used up a whole raft of last year's Holiday papers!) The cool thing about this project is you can make ornaments any color you want - like pink & purple! How cool would that be!?!

Now I am tired and my brain is empty enough to go to bed. After I put the clothes in the dryer. Does it seem to you I am constantly doing laundry?! Yeah, me, too. Thanks for reading this far, and I hope to have some scrappin' to show off later this week.

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.

Packaging Completed

Last night I ignored the wise advise of my massaaaaage therapist, and instead of taking a hot bath, I made 24 toppers for my bags o'buckeyes. I had to, I just had to.

And the night before I finally decided on how to finish these jars of Mustard. I put a wimpy, but nicely tied bow of Mustard ribbon on the top of the jars, then I made tags so had something to wrap around the lid (I used elastic gold cord) to make it look less plain.

These babies are all now in the fridge, under all the bags o'buckeyes, waiting for delivery Saturday night.

And for one final touch, to class them up even more, I have these:

I'm thinking I'll staple one to the back of each tag. Now who would not want a free donut, hmm? Hey, I have class...it might be lower class, but it's still class. ;-)

For those who have asked, here is the recipe for the Mustard:

Homemade Grainy Mustard

3/4 C Yellow Mustard seeds
1/4 C Brown Mustard seeds
3 T Honey
1/3 C Sherry or Malt Vinegar
1/4 C Irish Whiskey
1 T Fine Sea Salt

Combine the yellow and brown mustard seeds in a bowl, cover with water, and leave to soak for 6 to 8 hours or as long as over night.

Drain the seeds well and pour them into a food processor. Process until the mixture begins to look creamy and emulsified. Add the honey, vinegar, whiskey and salt, and process again to mix.

Pour the mustard into a bowl, cover, and let stand over night at room temperature. The next day, check the consistency and flavor. If it is too thick and the taste is perfect, add a little more water. Adjust the other ingredients according to your taste. It will be hot!

Spoon the mustard into sterilized jars, cover, and store in the refrigerator, where it will keep almost indefinitely. Homemade mustard benefits from at least a week's rest before using to allow the flavors to blend.

I had more brown mustard seeds than yellow, so mine is even hotter. Look in ethnic (Asian/Indian) grocery stores for bags of the mustard seeds. I also asked if I could leave out the whiskey, and I was told the consistency of the finished product would not be right, so I obeyed the order to leave it in. But feel free to try leaving it out, and if you succeed, please report back on what you did!

A Survey

I am in the throes of catching up - I am boiling bottles for my mustard; I am making toppers for the bags o'buckeyes; I have an idea to enhance the lids of the mustard jars; I am drying laundry so I can go to work tomorrow; I am burping and bloated because we had a food fest at work today where we all brought in munchies and grazed all day long. So what, you ask!? So I am posting something I stole right off of Lauren's blog today, so there! I am not a tagger, so no worries there; I just thought it was a fun thing to do, and since I have no real material to post myself, it was perfect timing on Lauren's part to give me something to steal. (Thanks, man!)

Prepare for TMI. Let us begin:

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:00 am the first time. I got out of bed at 6:30. I was awake by 9:00.
2. Diamonds or pearls? Eh, I am not a jewels gal, but I'd guess diamonds.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Um ... er .... something with my kids years ago ... um, maybe Ali?
4.What is your favorite TV show? Since I do not watch network TV, I'll have to say Alton Brown's Good Eats on the Food Network. But in the Way Back Machine it would be The Carol Burnett Show. OMG, I still roll on the floor laughing when I see her specials!
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Either eggs with bacon or a bagel mit cream cheese.
6. What food do you dislike? Beets. And any fish that is slimy, or raw. And Sushi (it's the seaweed stuff I cannot handle.) Oh, only one?
7. What is your favorite CD at the moment? I pretty much do not listen to CDs ...
8. Favorite sandwich? That turkey thing with chipotle mayo from Panera.
9. What characteristic do you despise? Loud.
10. Favorite item of clothing? Comfy jeans.
11. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? I'd go back to Scotland!
12. Favorite brand of clothing? Don't really have one...pretty much anything that fits me. I guess Land's End, cuz they are my jeans du jour.
13. Where would you retire to? I would like to retire somewhere I could afford!
14. What was your most recent memorable birthday? I do not do birthday's any more, so I'll go with my last remembered ones which were when I hit 39 (my pals decorated my condo when I was not looking and they brought over food and we played with silly string!) and again when I hit 40 (TOTAL surprise party.) My most memorable one ever was when I turned 8 and my Dad took me out for lunch and a movie - The Absent-Minded Professor, with Fred McMurray.
15. Favorite sport to watch? The Olympics.
16. Furthest place you are "tagging" this? Not.
17. Person you expect to send it back first? No one, since that would mean I tagged someone.
18. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning.
19. What is your shoe size? 7, but very wide. Not to worry if I see a shoe sale, as nothing will fit me!
20. Pets? Cat. I need to be greeted when I come home!
21. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? I think I might actually have turned a profit this year with this money-pit of a hobby. Maybe $2, but still, I'm just sayin'.
22. What did you want to be when you were little? A Teacher.
23. How are you today? Full - ate too much at our grazing fest at work. *burp*
24. What is your favorite candy? I'll say Jelly Belly jelly beans, since I have personally addicted my entire department.
25. What is your favorite flower? If anyone would give them to me, I'd not be too picky! But for myself, I restrict my own purchases to Dahlias from The Dahlia Guy at my summer farmers market.
26. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Dec 25 - day off of work!
27.What are you listening to right now? Me, typing, and the cat, meowing.
28. What was the last thing you ate? Something really good, and therefore evil, from the grazing station at work. *burp burp*
29. Do you wish on stars? No
30. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? A really pretty medium green.
31. How is the weather right now? grey...drippy...blech...
32. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? Nobody. Or more correctly, since I did not actually speak to Nobody, I should say I have not spoken on the phone today. [Don't you hate it when I do that?]
33. Favorite soft drink? I do not drink soda - it has bubbles, and bubbles do not like me.
34. Favorite restaurant? Um, that would mean I'd need to go OUT, wouldn't it? Hmmm ... well, if I were to go out around here, I'd go to Roy's Place. It is a total adventure. Their menu has about 150 sandwiches on it, all numbered, and they are weird combos, but gooooood! They also sell their menus so you can study them on your own time. They say on page 1 "if you are in a hurry, you will not be happy here". They have a limit of 92 beers. They refer to Chicken Breast as Chicken Bosom. Definitely a fun place to sit back and relax.
35. Real hair color? Brown, with natural grey highlights. I have NEVER colored my hair! Well, unless you count Sun-In when I was in High School, but those were highlights, too, really.
36. What was your favorite toy as a child? I do not think I had a favorite ....
37. Hugs or kisses? Yes, please!
38. Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla. Good vanilla.
39. Coffee or tea? Coffee, but not after 12:00 noon!
40. Do you want your friends to email you back? If I email them first, yes!
41. When was the last time you cried? A Kodak commercial, I think. ;-)
42. What is under your bed? Plastic storage bins with stuff in them. I told you this place was small! I've got to use every inch I can!
43. What did you do last night? Made Mustard and designed the packaging for same.
44. What are you afraid of? I am mildly claustrophobic. You should have seen me in the MRI tube.... But afraid? Hmmm ... not sure.
45. Salty or sweet? Depends. Ever have chocolate-covered pretzels?
46. How many keys on your key ring? Probably 15.
47. Favorite day of the week? Sunday. It is a lazy day for me. Well, except for Workshop Sunday's, but those are fun in a different way.
48. If you can choose your talent, what would it be? Play the piano.
49. Do you make friends easily? Yep! I'll talk to anyone!
50. How many people will you tag this to? None. I am bad that way.
51. How many will respond? None, since I am not tagging anyone!

Feel free to steal this from me and tell us about yourself! I need to go fold laundry and fill jars with mustard. Ta!!!

My Favorite Chrsitmas Song

I fell in love with this song when I first saw it waaaaay back when it was on tv. Yes I saw it when it aired...in 1977. Told you I was old. ;-) Enjoy!

More Packaging

I have decided: My life is an unending string of distractions. That really does explain a lot. Like why, if I have two cakes to bake, and toppers to make, and bags to fill with buckeyes, and another batch of buckeyes to make, and workshop projects to finish planning, and workshop kits to cut and bag, and ... and ... and..., then why in tarnation am I making mustard? Yes, I made mustard tonight.

This recent adventure began when a co-worker brought in some homemade mustard and some pretzels last week, thinking no one would eat it. Little did she know we actually lost a few pounds each with all the back and forth we did to the table holding the yummy concoction. And back, and back, and we got it out of the fridge the next day and commenced to eat even more of it, until all the pretzels were gone. Then I took it home.

Then we begged for, and received, The Recipe. This stuff was so stinkin' good that I had to try and make it. This week. My co-worker had actually planned to make the mustard, so she had ordered all her supplies online. Me? No, no, no, no. I am scrambling, big time, to find all this stuff. Do you know it is after canning season, so all those cute jars are no longer in stock, except maybe at WalMart, which is far from my home? And did you know that mustard seeds, both yellow and brown, in large quantities, are difficult to find? The little Aisan/Indian markets carry the brown seeds, but they were out of the yellow ones. I did find some at the megamart, but not enough, so I adapted the recipe and used more brown seeds than yellow - exacly the opposite of what the recipe called for. I mentioned this to my co-worker, and she said, "Oh, that stuff will be HOT!" And boy, oh boy, was she right! I think this stuff will peel paint. But it was terribly easy to make, once I had all the ingredients, that is.

So now that I have the mustardy goodness aging on the counter, I needed to work on my favorite thing to do: packaging. Not. This is the prototype I came up with tonight:

The Front. I printed the words on my computer, then cut out and embossed the label with one of my Nesties. The paper is a pretty piece from the SU Haiku package of DS papers. I just wrapped it around and taped it to the jar, then ran a piece of Mustard (how punny) ribbon through the label tag and taped it to the back at the paper's seam.

The Back. Not too exciting, but I thought people should know the ingredients, and I also needed to hide that seam. I thought about layering the circle, but decided it was an ingredients label and did not need to stand out.

The Top. Could this be any more boring unadorned plain simple? I wanted to tie a ribbon around the lid, but with that Mustard ribbon already there, no matter what I tried, it was too much. I wanted to layer some circles on the lid, but after staring at it for a while, I decided this coordinating piece of paper from the same Haiku pack was the best choice. I mean, after all, the Mustard will be the star of this show. I just wanted it to look like I'd tried, and I think I have achieved that.

Tomorrow, I need to sterilize all the jars I bought tonight so I can bottle the stuff, then make all the labels and decorate them. I am only going to make 6 or 7 for my Pot Luck dinner Saturday night. We no longer exchange gifts, but we are all crafty, so we make things. Like buckeyes, and mustard. Oh, and I am bringing dessert, so some time I'll need to make that, too. Just another distraction.

The Topper

Bag Toppers are not my forte...not even close. Every year I struggle with packaging, so this time I thought I'd go for "simple". And it really does not get any simpler than this!

I opened (!) my package of Pacific Point DS papers and pulled out this sheet. I cut the shape with the Top Note die and my Cuttlebug (Shhhhh! Don't tell Shelli!) I was going to trim the edge and layer it on another die-cut of Pacific Point card stock, but I figured the double-sided paper was thick enough to stand on its own. Think of all that trimming I just saved myself!

I wanted to use all current product ... or at least try to, so I used Silver Elastic Cord as ribbon (gotta have ribbon!), and one of the Cute & Curly stamps stamped in Pacific Point on Whisper White, and punched out with the Curly Label punch. Too easy!

I thought the small oval would fit in the center; not quite, but it's close enough for me! I stamped the sentiment from Warm Words with Riding Hood Red on Whisper White, punched it out and stuck it on. Done!

I used bags with those fold-over thingies to hold itself closed, so the topper is not really holding anything - it is just decorative. Soooo, I stapled the folded shape to the bag with a blue staple (I told you I had stuff!)

That's it! I'll bag these up on Saturday, as I need some for my Pot Luck dinner Saturday night, and also for my customers on Sunday and Monday. Between now and then I'll be making another batch of buckeyes, and baking two cakes. No days off from work, so it will be a bit nuts in the evenings around here, but I'll pop back in when I can to report on the sleep quotient, or lack thereof!

Sunday - The Day After

Let me begin this evening by saying, once again, I LOVE MY CUSTOMERS! I posted earlier today about the poor candle that would not be a project this year because I did not like it. One of my customers stopped by this evening to pick up her order, and she thought if I just did all stars on the candle (read: lose the tree), it would be fine. So I might! I'll work on that this week and see if I can make it happen.

I actually got some of the stuff done today as planned. Does it count if you check things off your To Do list, but you also add more stuff to the bottom? I thought so ....

Yesterday was my last craft show of the year, so I took everything to my storage unit and unloaded it this morning. The door to my storage unit barely closed, I kid you not! This is one of those "added to the list" tasks for myself this Winter - give away some of that 'stuff' I have in there!

Once the car was emptied out, I went home and loaded it up again with all the flattened-for-recycling SU boxes and the rest of my massive collection of recycling stuff, including five empty kitty-litter containers. I had been using them as weights for my tent (which I no longer own), and finally, I will be rid of them! So off I went to the recycling center, only to find it was closed. CLOSED! Grrrrr .... I turned around and came back home. Bah! I'll try again next weekend. For now, my car is one big recycling bin. I hope the neighbors don't report me or anything ...

Working backwards, here, Saturday's show went pretty well. If the whole day had gone like the first 2 hours, I could have retired! Well, maybe not, but it would have been really, really nice. Here's the booth set-up du jour, which was pretty much like my last show.

I left the photo un-cropped so you can get the feel for the size of the gym we were in. Oh, and look - card racks with no cards ... I took care of that after I took the photo. The right grid wall holds all of my gift packs.

Here's the other side of the booth with all my City Cards and my pathetic Christmas tree. (You can see some of the GORgeous wooden items for sale next to me.) For the first time, I sold something I thought would not sell - those ribbon bookmarks! My first customer bought eight of them for her book club! Woo-hoo! I also sold some of the City Cards I made last week for the specific towns of this particular show.

I was also surprised by what did not sell. I sold more single Holiday cards than I thought I would, but I sold only one box of cards. No gift card boxes sold at all. Bummer. But all is not lost - they will be added to my online store here shortly.

[Sudden change of subject ... just work with me here ... we're now back to today ...] Then it was time to make the buckeyes. I only did one batch today, which was just about right, given everything else I had planned to accomplish. Here's an out-of-focus shot (sorry) of the assembly line process:

From left to right, we have: extra bags of milk chocolate chips; a BIG bowl of peanut butter + sugar + butter mix; a plate full of already-rolled-up balls of the stuff; a double-boiler with melted chocolate chips + some paraffin; and finally, a cookie sheet with wax paper and the beginnings of chocolate-covered balls of goodness.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, this is as wide as my kitchen is. You can see the side of the fridge to the right (it is black on the side), and you can also see where I stopped painting a few years back. The green paint is the newer color. To the left of those bags of chocolate chips is about 1 1/2 feet before you hit the left wall. See - teeny, tiny.

Remember when I said you'd need some empty table space to allow the dipped buckeyes to cool? Well here it is: a workshop table that straddles all the pantry overflow stacked up on my Kitchen floor. [Please pay no attention to those silly ant traps. They have done their duty and will be thrown away momentarily...]

No, those squash(es) to the right are not part of the process. They had to be moved off the counter to make room for the cookie sheet. And as I type this, the pumpkin is in the oven - cooked and cooling. It is destined to be pumpkin cake later this week.

And THEN, I uploaded about 20+ cards to my online store. Woo-hoo! Um, at this rate, I'll be done uploading them by next April, when I'll need to prepare for my May farmers markets. Baby steps ... baby steps.

Now I need to go finish some laundry so I can go to work tomorrow. I'll be back later this week with an update on that candle, plus now that the buckeyes are finished, I'll need to design a bag topper so I can give them to the lucky workshop attendees next weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamping On Candles (Not This Year!)

Busy day today at Chez Crooked Stamper, but I'll post later on that. I thought I'd actually show you something stamping-related, first. Crazy, I know!

This time of year, stamping on candles is quite popular. I tried it for the first time last year, and it is really too easy! You can check out the tutorial here on Splitcoast.

This was my first attempt - not too bad. I was encouraged enough to graduate to a larger candle and a stamp set that needed to be colored in.

Here I used the now-retired City Of David set. You can see where I messed up at the top and bottom of the candle where I failed to trim off enough of the tissue paper. I do not re-do these things...instead I show them to my customers as what NOT to do when they make theirs. ;-)

This is the back of the City Of David candle.














Here was option 2 for my customers last year - the Peaceful Wishes set (now also retired...sigh.) The next photo is the back of the Peaceful Wishes candle.

Okay - that was last year. I only did these for my workshops; I have yet to make candles to sell. I dunno know why...maybe it's that whole "if they do not sell, I'll need to store them for a year" thing that keeps me from doing it. Ya think?! :-)

I've told my customers I might include a candle project again, so I've been trying to make one that I felt would be workshop-worthy. It failed to happen. I wanted to use the Christmas Classics set I just HAD to have, but had yet to ink. I also wanted to try heat-embossing some of the images to see how they transferred to the candle. I inked the tree with Artichoke, and wiped off the star at the top. I then colored the star with my Versamarker and stamped it onto the tissue paper, then embossed the star with gold EP. As you can see - it transfers just fine! You can probably also see where I over-heated the candle and melted the bottom edge - not good.

Then I thought I'd get clever and stamp a bunch of gold-embossed stars on the rest of the candle, and you can see I cut some in half and attempted to line them up with the top and bottom edges. I am so not thrilled with this result, that we will NOT be making candles next weekend.

And now I have about 20 candles on my kitchen floor that will need to be stored. Oh, bother. Maybe I'll come up with something else later this week, but probably not.

Well, back to the excitement that is my life here. I'll be back later to share. Hint: Buckeyes in the works ... ;-)

Almost There!

I thought I'd start off tonight with a shot of a typical evening at the Crooked Stamper domicile. That's me (okay, my leg) in my jammies, laptop in its place, and kitty snuggled right next to me. It just does not get much better than this. As I type right now, we are in the exact same positions. :-) [Please pay no attention to those pieces of paper on the right. They are a few remaining receipts that need to be entered in the spreadsheet. Just look away ...]

So I've been not stamping much this week ... guess I really did burn out last weekend! But I have futzed a bit here and there, hoping to get that last project for next weekend's workshops.

Remember this one? I wanted to add some bling to liven it up ...

And here it is. I think it is just enough oomph to make it not so boring. So far, this one is still in the running.

Then tonight I ran across this card on Splitcoast, and I had to give it a try. I changed it up so I could use some of my much-loved but never-used SU stash, namely the Filigree brads and my as-yet-unopened Ski Slope papers. (Didja notice? No ribbon! )

Recipe (All Stampin' Up!): Stamps - Cheers to You; Paper - Kiwi Kiss, Choc Chip, Whisper White, Ski Slope DS paper; Ink - Stazon; Other - Filigree brad, Square Scallop punch, Old Olive and Real Red markers, Crystal Effects.

I think it is a little top-heavy with all those layers plus that yummy brad. I dunno, it still needs work, but not tonight! I am turning in early, because I must get up early to go set up my booth. I'll let you know how that goes later this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!