VSN Challenge #1 (and what VSN is)

First off... VSN is Virtual Stamp Night. And what is that? Basically its an event that is held once a month or so on http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ (SCS) where you can join hundreds of other papercrafters like myself and the organizers set up challenges that go up once an hour. You have 45 minutes to complete the challenge and the last 15 minutes are for clenaing up, snacking, washroom breaks, taking pictures and uploading your finished product onto SCS website.

I was very optimistic in yesterday's post when I thought I would be able to blog inbetween challenges... but wow... almost every challenge had me using every one of my 45 minutes... and then madly cleaning up and running for bathroom breaks (mine and Gizmo's)... Now you don't have to do the 5 o'clock challenge at 5... you could start at 6 or 7 - but you have to only use 45 minutes to do the challenge... and it can be very challenging!

Challenge number 1...

direct quote from SCS "When you go to a play there are always beautiful photos of the cast members posted for everyone to see. So, what do you do with the photos once the play is over? You frame them, of course. My challenge is to create a frame for the picture of the star in your life. You can use chipboard, cardboard box (like a cereal box), or a store bought frame to create your own personalized frame."

I've been in a school play where we had a star board with pictures of all of the people in the play... I did take my picture home but I never did anything with it.

I chose for this challenge to make a frame for one of my favorite pictures of my goofy husband!! I ran into a huge snag at first when my printer wasn't responding to my laptop... but my hubby was home and fixed that in a jiffy (love computer geeks)... and then I ran into a weird snag when I was trying to put snail adhesive (its double sided glue in kindo of a white out runner form) onto my fancy large Chipboard (from Stampin'Up!) frame... the adhesive was lifting the first layer off... I switched brands of adhesive and the same thing happened... maybe I had a bad batch of chipboard...

Luckily I had gone to Michael's the night before and picked up some $1.50 wooden craft frames so I grabbed one and quickly used my snail adhesive to attach my patterned paper...

Because I love glitter so much I had to use glitter on chipboard letters to spell out JOKER... a word that describes my husband to a T!! I added some fancy fibers and cut out the printed photo to fit the frame and just squeeked in to the finish line with only about 30 seconds to spare...

And here is the finished project... My JOKER frame...

To Market, To Market ...

I went to the Strathcona Farmers Market today (and not to buy a fat pig) - I've been wanting to make my incredible pumpkin soup since last week but couldn't find small pumpkins anywhere!! I knew my market would have them - they've never let me down!

I picked out some wonderful mini cucumbers, two beautiful sugar pumpkins, 2 spaghetti squashes and a bundle of leeks... I've never cooked leeks before but I hear they make a great soup as well... I shall have to find a recipe online!

Another reason I love the market so much is that its a five senses kind of place - lots of things to see, hear, touch, smell and taste!! I love to people watch and there are always lots of opportunities to do that there too!! There are always buskers (musicians, artists etc) there to entertain you... I always bring change to put in their baskets!

We didn't stay too long at the market - I have to be back before 3 so that I can participate in a mini virtual stamp night (VSN)... but I'll have more posts about that as it happens

Stampin' Up! Regionals (Edmonton)

October 18th 2008 in Edmonton Canada...


I've been a SU! demonstrator for quite a while now (I don't do the parties... unless someone wants me to... I'm mostly in it for the discount and pre-ordering) but I haven't gone to a regional seminar before. My luck was complete when the Regional for Alberta just so happened to be in MY city!!


I didn't know what to expect, but I had my mom (fellow Demo) coming with me so I knew it would be fun!!


Mom and I spent Friday making swaps - Swaps are card fronts that you trade with other demo's to get new ideas and techniques... I made 10 and mom made 20... we swapped with eachother first LOL...


Regional was so crowded but so awesome... there was presentations, new techniques, some boring business talk, stuff to make and lots of samples to take pictures of... I managed to take over 200 pictures and am still in the process of going through them!!


I even found mom's doppleganger there... not identical but looking enough like my mom that I almost accidentally hugged the stranger...LOL that would have been funny!


Mom and I also got a picture with the founder of Stampin' UP...


All in All I would definitely go again and I did learn a lot!!

so sorry

Sometimes I get so busy with 'life' that I forget to blog and it only takes a couple prods from family and friends (you know who you are) to get me back on track. After all... how are you supposed to know what's happening in my Life As It Happens if I don't blog?

So I'm very sorry that I haven't posted anything since my Thanksgiving post and I will work on lots of stuff this weekend for you.

For now... here is some random weird facts and stuff...

The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it. (I guess that's where the protein comes from?? LOL)

Orangutans warn people to stay out of their territory by belching. (I know some people who do the same)

Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. (so do the asses that drive cars)

Armadillos, opossums, and sloth's spend about 80% of their lives sleeping. (so does my dog, my cats and on Saturday's my husband!!)

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people who this is true for as well)

It is estimated that at any one time, 0.7% of the world's population are drunk. (hmmm if it isn't me... is it you??)

The word "democracy" is banned in online chat rooms in China. (wow... their government sure is scared of that aren't they?)

The average bra size today is 36C. Ten years ago it was 34B. (must be all the hormones in cows... Moooooooove over wonderbra!!)

The name for Oz in "The Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz." (cool!!)

An earthquake on Dec. 16, 1811 caused parts of the Mississippi River to flow backwards! (isn't it normal to be backwards there??? Just Kidding!!)

ThankFULL

FRIDAY October 10th, 2008:
So we got the spare room (mostly) finished for my parents to stay in this past weekend - I'll post some pictures soon. We didn't assemble the end tables but everything else worked out really well - I'm kind of envious of the bed especially (its one of those princessy type beds).

We mass cleaned our house - I LOVE SCRUBBING BUBBLES!!!!! (It made cleaning the bathroom fun as it hissed and crackled and disolved all of the dirt!!!) and made a small grocery run and finished about 10 minutes before my parents and Uncle arrived!!! HA! Procrastination wins again!!!

SATURDAY October 11th, 2008:
Made breakfast for the crew (except dad, who was still sleeping) and we headed off to the Farmer's Market to shop for Thanksgiving Dinner supplies! Man was it crowded!! We lost Uncle Paul for awhile - he explored on his own as mom, Chris and I shopped. Picked up a lot of really nice veggies and some cool dried grasses and pods (to make the house more Harvesty...) and I picked a very sweet small pumpkin (for soup). Mom of course had to have some Kettle Corn, so Chris went and stood in line for us (so sweet).

If you live in or around Edmonton - you should go to the Strathcona Farmers Market, its open on Saturday and Sunday all year!! There are really cool buskers (musicians, artists etc.) and always something cool to see, hear, smell and eat!!

Went on a massive grocery shop with mom, picked out a nice turkey (named him bob). I don't know why I think we can fit a whole trunkload of groceries in my fridge and cupboards - but it happens all the time!!! Had to clean out the fridge to get everything in - except there wasn't room for the Turkey!! oops! luckily it was still half frozen so we put it in the sink and decided we'd have to get some ice.

Its now almost dinner time and everyone is ravenous!! Mom really wants a buffet - so I suggest the Sawmill, but I got confused with the address and we ended up at the Moose Factory instead!! (or the other way around... I'm confusing myself again!!) Anyway - we ended up at the one that doesn't do the buffet during the week... Bummer! But we all had an awesome dinner and we watched a couple at another table who was getting their appetizer, main course and dessert made tableside!! It was really cool when the newbie cook was flambe'ing their dinner - he almost caught the ceiling on fire - I'm not exaggerating either!

Got home and played Mexican Train (its a dominos game) until past midnight... I totally lost (but we didn't actually finish the game so I guess if everyone else did really badly I might (slim chance) have won the game)

SUNDAY October 12th, 2008:
Sundays with my parents are always a quiet day - after they get back from church we had brunch and then my dad went for a nap - mom followed not long afterwards. Uncle Paul likes to walk around the neighbourhood etc. so Chris and I watched some TV.

BBQ'd dinner - everyone really liked my steak marinade!! We had some weird corn - it was white and red and when it cooked it kind of looked dead - dad called it cadavar corn!! LOL. It turned the water black... but it tasted good and the cores were kind of purple...

MONDAY October 13th, 2008: THANKSGIVING DAY!!!
Got up super early and started roasting the pumpkin for the soup... then mom and I dressed the turkey - and no it didn't include a bow tie and dinner jacket... lol Who ever puts together the cooking directions for cooking a turkey should be shot!! 20 minutes a pound... yeah um no... maybe 10 or 15... and because of this we really had to rush at the very end - especially since I asked Chris and dad to make a trip out to the grocery store and when they finally got back they were madly trying to put together my new dining sets from IKEA - and the turkey was already done - so was everything else... we just needed a place to sit and eat it all!!

All ends well though! we had out creamy pumpkin soup (in ceramic pumpins with lids) lovely salad and then the AWESOME turkey, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and yellow and purple carrots... Top it off with yummy cranberry sauce and drool inducing gravy and we all stuffed our faces... and then crammed in some mini pumpkin pies and tiny strawberry rhubarb tartlets with fresh made whipped cream on top of all of that!!!

I was really sleepy - probably more from the lack of sleep and constant work in the kitchen than from whatever is in Turkey!! I said by to my dad and uncle (my mom stays for another whole week!!!) and flopped down on the couch, cuddled my puppy and tried not to fall asleep!!

All in All - an awesome Thanksgiving weekend!!

Reno's and paint and Kitties... Oh My!!!

We've been working on finishing our spare room in the basement this past weekend and this week so that my parents will have a lovely place to sleep this weekend (my uncle will be in the computer room on our spare futon). The room had some water damage from before we moved in - and our landlady keeps saying she'll fix it etc... and that was ok when we were just using it as a storage room - but now its empty and I want to use it as a guest room! The carpet was disgusting, but luckily for us it was not glued down!!!!! We rolled it up and discovered rust and yellow stains and a little bit of mold. We cleaned the floor - and all of the mold is gone... but the ugly stains remain.

We got it in our heads that it would be easier to repaint the floor than to re-carpet the room, so off to Home Depot we run and we talk to the paint people, who tell us we need to prime the floor with a special primer and then 8-24 hours later we need to paint. We buy all of the supplies - including an awesome pole to go onto the roller so we don't have to paint on our knees!

I was really tired (and I admit - very very cranky) when we finally got home. My wonderful hubby (he really is so awesome) offers to prime the floor while I sort through my Stampin' Up! order - I think I almost cried when he offered this & he really is so good to me, even when I'm short with him...

Anyhoo... so he paints the room (he didn't paint himself in the corner either!! LOL) and comes up to tell me its done and that when I have a minute or two (I was in the middle of putting a stamp set together) that I should go down and take a look!!

I finished with the stamp set and went downstairs... I opened the door to the room a little bit (didn't want any kitties in there while the floor was wet) and the floor looks amazing! I of course tell my hubby this - and he beams back at me and proceeds to open the door all the way, so I can get the full effect of the new white floor... we were gazing around at the room and didn't notice that Tigger was in the basement - he ran into the room and almost all the way to the back wall - as soon as we noticed we started to yell for him to get out of the room, which he did really REALLY quickly... slipping and sliding but thankfully not falling down... Then because he's a cat and not a dog he didn't stop when we told him to... he ran across the basement and up the stairs and through the kitchen and hallway and hid under our bed.

Now to make this funnier for all those who don't know what my house is like - we have CARPET in our kitchen, hallway and bedroom - the rest of the house is laminate or hardwood or painted concrete.

We quickly closed the door to the spare room - Tiggers paw prints and skid marks will have to be covered by the paint tonight - and ran upstairs (Chris beat me in the foot race!!). I was laughing pretty hard because it was like we were in a Family Circus cartoon following the foot prints... except in this case it was paw prints!!

Poor Tigger - Chris got him out from under the bed and into the bathroom and we had to give his paws a very long bath!!! He kept looking at us and howling!! The paint mostly came off - it dried soooo quickly. but we got most of it.

Chris joked that at least it wasn't an Epic Fail for Tigger... when I asked what an Epic Fail would have been, he said that it would have been if he had slipped and fell on his side and then slipped and fell on the other side... I think we would have had to shave him...

Capshun... I haz it!

So, I was on LOLcats today and I've seen all of the new posts - I hadn't had my LOL fill yet so I took a look at LOLdogs...

I found a really funny picture, but the caption wasn't as funny as I wanted... so I did what any good internet personage does... I re-captioned it... Take a look if you dare!