This Flu Thing & Other Stuff

My family has been sick with this flu thing for a couple of weeks now. We've had enough, already! My creative juices have been dry as a bone. All I've felt like doing is laying around. The last few days, I've been able to watch some TV and read, but before that, I just felt like a blob. We're on antibiotics, and I'm just now starting to feel them working. Yay!

It was weird. Last Sunday I felt good. I woke up, took a shower and did all sorts of housework and even cooked for the family. After that the crafting bug hit me, but then the next few days I felt like crap again. Today there's light, though, I felt good today and I'm praying it'll continue from here on out.

 

I made these two sympathy cards for a friend, one commissioned by her. It's for the family of someone she was in contact with on a daily basis via the telephone through her workplace, he died very suddenly. I left it blank so she could write something personal.

The other card was for her. She has lost several of her dogs recently, most recent was Bear. Each of her dogs are her babies, and she takes each loss very hard. I've made three of these since I've known her. When you adopt older dogs it is something you come to expect, but it always comes too soon.

Speaking of adopting, we welcomed this adorable little girl into our home today. She's going to be Deni's, but you know how those things go. So far she's getting along with Clover and Winnie, they played a lot and all are tuckered out. This weekend is a test drive to see if she likes us. I'll update on how this goes at a later date.

Love

I love crafting for my family, and I decided to go big and frilly and gaudy this year on their valentine cards. Since I didn’t have to mail them I added lots of embellishments like the big felt hearts, the paper flowers tied with baker’s twine and the pillow-y paper doilies I colored and sprayed with a shimmery spray. I even dived into my supply of Washi tape, holla!

 I made a little pouch inside for a place to tuck the bookmarks I crafted, made from leather samples I picked up at a thrift shop.

 

I embossed each one with silver embossing powder, a successful experiment! (Yay cause I have a bag of those samples!) They came with a ready-made hole on one side, so I slipped in some ribbon.

Hubby got the glasses, Dawn the typewriter and Valerie the elephant. The elephant is my favorite; the leather gives the embossing the perfect hide affect.

I love discovering new techniques like this and can’t wait to make more.

Chocolate and Craft Fodder...Heaven!

Deni gave me the coolest box of chocolates, ever, and a beautiful card. My daughters gave me Memento Ink and a ink resist pad. The combination of chocolate and crafting supplies is the way to my heart. Thank you, Deni, Dawn and Valerie! I love you more!

I Was Brave

I made a few more Marci girls and Shrink Dinks as well. I was brave and posted these Marci on La-La Land Crafts' Facebook and held my breath. I needn't have worried, I received such wonderfully encouraging responses, the first one from the Irina Blount, the one who created these adorable stamps!

That site is loaded with Copic marker artists, which I'm not, I only have one Copic marker and it's a clear blending one. I thought I'd get silently laughed off the site, but most said they were very impressed with the paper-piecing I do and even inspired a few to give it a go. It made my day.

New Dies!
Dawn and I spotted these dies, specifically the inkwell and quill, a while ago and she's been scoping out auctions for a good price. The lowest she found usually ended around $17, until now!

She sent me an auction for one up for $9.99 and I won it for that. AN-DUH! The same seller had the scroll as well and I won that as well. Go, us!

Easiest Pulled Pork Ever!

Oh, man, this is the best recipe I’ve ever tried for pulled pork! Basically, take a pork loin, toss into crock pot, pour a Coke over it, let cook for a few hours. Add barbeque sauce.

I couldn’t believe how easy and delicious this turned out. There was not an ounce of fat and it was melt-in-your-mouth tender. I served it on toasted Santa Cruz sourdough. We already want to eat it again!

Be sure to see the entire recipe at GroupRecipes. Thank you for tracking this one down, Dawn!

UPDATE 02-10-2013: For those of you who don't like pork, I made this with beef, stew meat, to be exact, and it was yummy as well. But we decided we prefer the pork; it's not as dry and seemed more savory.

We Found Nemo!

This is the best of the gazillion photos I took on her latest excursion to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Not the greatest, but the cutest!

These little jellies look like buttons!

And then there were Puffins!

Three Years Ago Today

This will always be a difficult day.

One Year Ago Today

Two Years Ago Today

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please, seek help, 1-800-SUICIDE, that's 1-800-784-2433. Killing yourself may end your pain, but it only creates more for those left behind.

Shrinky Dinks & More

I miniaturized one of my La-La Land Crafts Marci stamps! Not puffing my chest, but I think she's adorable! It was time-consuming, but so are the regular-sized ones. The important thing is I had fun making them.

Alcohol-based permanent markers are key to success with non-porous surfaces. I don't own any of the cost-prohibitive Copic Markers (that's a lie, I have one, a blender), I pulled out my Sharpies and a little brown Staz-On ink w/paint brush for her hair. They worked great, I just need to borrow a few more colors from my daughter next time.

I placed rhinestones on her shoes and pony tails, and tied a little bow at her waist with two strands of pink thread. I added a coat of Glossy Accents to her hair to give her some depth. I'm thinking of making a pin out of her and maybe putting a hole at the top the head for necklace if I make another one.

My sister commissioned me to make a thank you card for a friend with brown hair. This is what I came up with.

I made the little bench from a piece of balsa wood, no die, from scratch! I tickled with how it turned out.

I even made a matching envelope! My sister loved it. She texted me today and said she had it out by her computer so she could admire it before giving it away. I love her so much.