Short Stops

As the torrential rain pours and I'm running my laptop on its battery because of the close lightning strikes, I know I probably won't water the plants tomorrow. Even though I did it earlier today. Go, modern rain dance. Of sorts. Not has powerful as getting the fancy drive-thru car wash, but pretty close for someone who doesn't own a vehicle.

If this is the last storm of our summer monsoon season, it is really going out with a bang. North of us, there are tornado warnings because funnel clouds have been sighted. The dog is being a terrified nuisance because she won't think she's safe until she has successfully managed to climb under our skin, literally. I don't know what else to do with her but either all of us sit on her or I bash myself unconscious to effectively ignore the shenanigans. Sorry, there is not much more we can do about the noise.

Well, before the sky tore open, this is what was happening in the garden after the other gusty storms:

 Gryffindor is definitely suffering right now, but there's too much lightning for me to go out and try to do anything about it.

  Slytherin is as invasive as ever, but it's new lower branch is still trucking along. We're keeping a close eye on the flowers that have finished blooming.

 Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. The former is trying out budding again while the latter is getting just as

"furry" as Gryffindor.

 This cannot be a lettuce! It's appeared in the past two days and is over an inch tall! Possibly a Palo Verde? Keeping a close eye on it, just in case.

 You can barely see them, but those are Dill sprouting!

 This is either Tarragon or Thyme, it's hard to tell because it's almost between the two labels. >_< I'm guessing Tarragon.

This is the little Spider Plant that has finally recovered from being planted in a pot. New growths!

In the meantime, I can show you what I've worked on for the past... two nights. I was scouring the internet for storage ideas for all of the Simply Adorned charm inserts that I've been making and it has been tough. I finally found a solution that I enjoyed thanks to Laura Denison of Following the Paper Trail: Her Gift Card Wallet design!

She doesn't want us to embed her videos so you have to click on the link to watch the quick YouTube tutorial. She is so creative and lovely. I spread the inserts out for the sake of the picture, but I put four per row and think that I need to make at least one more. :P

 I used Stampin' Up! cards stock, Cricut's Lyrical Letters, and the images were inspired by Cricut's Simply Charmed. Cute concept, right?

 These are themes from different classroom lesson plans. I think I'm going to have much more of these in the future.

 This one holds the generic everyday inserts.

 I will probably add more monochromatic and personal themed inserts in the near future.

 This sweet one features any holiday or seasonal inserts.

 There's not many now, but you know I have a bunch planned. I've only made it a third of the way through my preliminary idea list!

How sweet is that? It saves me from throwing them in a box and flipping through them like a deck of cards. I comfortably fit four per row, meaning that I can keep 24 inserts per booklet (or 12 coordinating pairs). The pockets are 1 inch deep and the entire thing is 5 by 5 inches when closed. 

After my first time making one, I realized I wanted to make sure I had enough give for a small spine and somehow the second one came out all crooked (it had a spine though!). That was one sign that I took to mean I needed to just go to bed already, lol. 

They peek out in the picture, but keep in mind that these tiny pieces are only 1.25 inches tall! They fit all snug and I can recognize what they are just by seeing a little bit of the top and slide them out with my thumb. Can you tell that I like blue? And my Silver Sharpie. XD I adore that thing.

Off to make some semblance of a meat sauce! See you soon. <3

217. Brains

I concluded at the end of yesterday that I didn't have much of a brain yesterday. Most of a lot of things are still pretty hazy. It's lovely waking up with a sore back every morning too. Especially when you went to bed sans sore back, lol.

Fairly uneventful day today, but the weather was pretty interesting. It keeps cooling off each day and of course the nights are becoming cooler and cooler. It's beautiful weather at night. The clouds are building up and we actually got some rain today! The desert plants are poofing up, which I'm sure will make us miserable later on in the week :( , but they are also releasing their special fragrances that add to that wonderful fresh rain smell. We have a bunch of windows open and kitty is so very intrigued by all of this.

I was watching more recorded broadcasts from Following the Paper Trail while adding more recipes to my book. We're currently watching "How It's Made" on the Science Channel. This is such a random and inquisitive show. The items that are featured in the show don't have anything to do with each other, but it is fascinating the depth of detail that goes into so many everyday items that we are unaware of! What especially blows my mind are the machines that are made to be used in these processes. It's very brain-boggling.

That's it from me today, see you tomorrow! <3

200. Slogan

Well, this is my 200th day posting. I sounds like a really cool number, but it feels fairly anticlimactic. /shrug. Idk why.

I may not have been the best of company lately or the happiest of campers, but I'm getting stuff done. Steadily, I'm getting stuff done. Now, if I can just do it faster and sooner... :P Baby steps, right? I have temporarily adapted a motto of sorts: Just do.

Turn off the worrying or mental whining and just go. Even if it's all on autopilot. Tearing myself up has just resulted in being overwhelmed and tearing myself up further, so just cut it out for now. I'll allow it again in a little while and see if I actually can come up with a plan to solve it.

I'm still waiting for my passport to come in so I can sort my identity fiasco out. :( I was hoping it would be in already. It kinda makes me a sad panda but I'm just gonna keep going and take care of that when I can.

We cooked two meals today! A taco-billing bake thing for lunch and some sushi and salmon for dinner. It totally slipped my mind to take pictures until each were already divided and being delved into. Whoops. I loved the taco one and tried the swordfish sashimi and salmon. Not bad, but still not quite my cup of tea yet. That's a work in progress too but at least I'm giving it a try.

Bah, I want to do more than just survive or get by- I want to fight, live, and thrive. Well, thriving comes after, lol. I'll get there. We'll get there.

Lol to giving mini pep talks to myself in the midst of pondering.

At least I have a pint of Oreo cookies and cream ice cream. Mmm... it feeds my soul. Ow. And freezes my brain. {{>_<}}Hmph. Lol. I did have my discounted DCWV (Die Cuts With a View) paper come in the mail today. Single-sided, 12 x 12 patterned paper pack of over 100 sheets that was originally $19.99 and I'm grabbing myself one for about 5 bucks before it disappears. It's a summer release that's on it's way out. I also have the coordinating matstack. So pretty. Tropical yet soft colors that I feel are great all year around. I'm still determined to actually use up things that I take a liking to. You know, instead of hoarding it for a rainy day because I won't even use it then. XD I am in love with the sunburst mini album from Laura Denison of Following the Paper Trail.

Oh! That reminds me. I finally caught one of her live UStream broadcasts last night. I still cannot believe that I missed last weeks because I lost track of time while trying to pass the time until the show started by watching older recordings of her show. Really now? Really? Such a fail. Lol. But I avidly watched and even participated in the chat while the household knew to leave me alone. Rofl, that's like the first time I think they've really done that. There were a few instances when they forgot and began to wander into the room to tell or show me something, but saw my headset on and remembered. I guess the SO warned them because I hadn't really mentioned it to anyone else, lol. How thoughtful, looking out for his family so I wouldn't kill them with my stares. J/K (just kidding). Lol, that's an oldie but goody abbreviation. Why is that word sooo long? Lol.

Anywho, I honestly thought last night's show was going to be a bit boring because she wasn't going to teach about one of her fabulous mini albums. It was a Bountiful Autumn Wreath project. Paper flowers on a store bought grape vine wreath. Let me tell you, absolutely stunning. Can I just say how much I adore this woman and her work?! All of the leaves and flowers were made from paper- a large sunflower for the centerpiece even included the seeds pokies in the middle. I don't have many punches, so I have to go through my Cricut cartridges and figure out what flowers would work best to try out her simple tips on my own. She even gave a preview or two of her latest released pattern, the Birdhouse mini. Go check it out on her Etsy shop! My newly fed soul cries a little because I totally wish I had the funds to spare to purchase one of the amazing kits that she puts together. My favorite of the two is the one that features the bright and fun colors of the Jubilee paper line. Ugh! So pretty. XD The papers from the Conservatory line/ kit are stunning as well. I'd feel bad chopping up those papers.

Okay, I need to stop freaking out before I have a conniption. :P See you tomorrow. <3

178. Opening The Gates

There was not much to today for me. I think I was recovering from trying to exist via caffeine, so although I woke up at a sane hour, I proceeded to take a bunch of cat naps.

Hm. We watched a bunch of survival shows on the Discovery Channel today. :D The SO and I determined that we would most likely die very soon under similar circumstances for lack of skills and knowledge, but that I would probably die first with being surrounded by vegetation. This is, of course, not considering the fact that we may die from lack of internet. :P

I finally got to start on my next learning craft project! It's another project inspired/ taught by Laura Denison at Following the Paper Trail. It is a gatefold paper bag mini album. The link of the project's name will lead you to her YouTube channel showcasing a Christmas album made in that fashion. Two days ago, I decided I was going to try to make one and began prepping the bags and connecting pieces. Yesterday, I decided that the album was going to be about the kitty and printed out a few of the nicer pictures of him. He is such a handsome boy! Lol, we joked about how we could talk about him like he was our kid- maybe make some wallet size prints to carry with us and shove into people's faces at awkward times? XD

But before I get more into that, I wanted to share a few pictures of today's sunset! Because we know how much I love the sunsets out here. Well, just about anywhere!

At first the actual sunset didn't seem all that interesting, especially being hidden by the uncharacteristically overcast skies. But off to the... north(?), there were spots of color that seemed like mini sunsets! It was really bizarre and cool to imagine that we had multiple smaller suns that set at the same time. /content sigh. I just love it all.

Mmk, speaking of loves, here are a couple of pictures I snapped of what I've been able to piece together so far. It's honestly not much. T_T...

There is no cover yet, but I scrounged cardboard pieces from old moving boxes as my base!

There is endless space tucked into this project! Each paper bag page has a cardstock connector. I'm point to where I'm definitely putting a handmade journaling tag for each page to gush about our little man.

Here is the tag that was inside that connector, complete with pull tab.

I'm going to add more pictures and/or journaling on the back of each tag.

 Here's the main section of this page with more journaling space for what was/is the bottom of the paper bag!

Here is me showing that I'm going to stick more pictures (I'm just not quite sure how) and things inside the paper bags because they still open! See what I mean by oodles of room?

Of course Blogger has to go and auto-rotate one picture in today's batch. >_< Well just showing you that on the back of the main section, will be the next page's connector and I haven't even gotten the back of my first two bags done. I have no idea what I'm going to put there, there is so much room! 

Isn't that amazing? There's a summer-y quilt motif going on because I was so excited to start working on it, that I grabbed my little photo mat paper pad and decided to chop out little pieces instead of using whole sheets of my 12x12. Nice compromise, huh? I love how my two pages look so far. If you see in the video, a gatefold album swings one side open then the next. So, once I get the covers made and attached, you'll open up the bigger left cover, then the smaller right and see a connector on each side. Open both of those and you see the first page on the left, lift that to fully see the page on the right, pull that away and see two connectors again. You hopefully get the idea because I constantly forget it and get all bent out of shape trying to keep my album pieces in order. the back cover is one big continuous piece. 

Not only is this a whole new idea for me, but especially the quilt work-paper saving idea, having pockets, and doing tags! I've never done them and I think I wrote a few days ago... that or I was discussing it with/ to the SO (bless his heart, he is not really into arts and crafts at all but respects that it's incredibly important to me), about how I didn't think I liked the idea. Not that it didn't look great and had many possibilities, but I feel (actually, I still do- lol!) that they would get mixed up or lost way too easily. I really hope not, because I'm quickly falling in love with the album and I have so much more to do! 

I decided to try to not go too crazy and stuck with a total of six bags, three on each side. The only type of lunch sacks that we had on hand were actually giant-sized. Not my name for it, that's what was on the label! They are huge! No wonder these boys are so big! Rofl. So the connectors aren't quite the ideal size but that's fine with me for now. A little downside to all of this is that I did not preserve the bags to make them acid-free so they will not last a million years. This will be my first album that's not going to be in page protectors or covered in any way. I am going to not let this thing out of my sight once it's finished! Lol, but not like it being in my hands is going to keep it out of danger. XD

Teehee, before I forget: the cardstock for the connectors is Night of Navy from Stampin' Up, the journaling cardstock is Recollection's Ivory, and the patterned paper is this adorable(!!!) matstack called Summer Dream by Die Cuts With a View (DCVW). I'm just using the super tacky red tape by Provocraft and Tombo's monoadhesive. I'm sorry, but I think that this project is turning out insanely cute and it doesn't even have embellishments! It blows my mind, but that's how I did all of my stuff not too long ago, so idk why I'm so stunned, lol. I love it and if you guys have any questions or want me to walk you through making your own, I have no problems with that at all! 

I can't wait to do all of the journaling too. I have so much I want to put that I may have to type it out and add it! Or something. It's mostly going to have little blurbs about the kinds of things our kitty likes or likes to do. I don't think I could/ should fit little stories in, but that's fine because it gives us something to say/ talk about when people are perusing the album. :D

Well, I'm going to stop myself from gushing any more today. See you tomorrow! <3

175. Packed Full

I totally started falling asleep way too early on my bed with my scalding hot laptop on my lap, let it go to to hibernate mode, and almost just rolled over to snooze for the night without updating my blog! Horror of horrors. Don't you begin to doubt that I won't crawl back in after this though. :)

It's going to take me a while to recount today's events in order to remember waht I wanted to write about, so I'll just ramble about the most recent. The SO and I made plans to grab sushi tomorrow. Here are a couple of odd things (in no particular order) about the typically ordinary occurrence between two people dating:

- We live in the middle of a desert. We naturally do not have good seafood anywhere near us.
- Our town has a generally low population of Asians. I don't know about you, but I've learned not to completely trust Asian food that did not directly involved Asians.
Yeah, I'm glaring at you Panda Expresses. I've done well to boycott you and add to the numbers that do the same.
- Local restaurant guides deem the "$$" to indicate a price range of $11-$15 dollars. Idk what good gourmet food you can get at those prices.
- They are typically all-you-can-eat buffets of raw fish. Doesn't that kinda scream at you, "We don't want you to die of acute food poisoning. We want you to explode into a million pieces of copious amounts of food poisoning!"
- I don't like the taste and texture of fish (or vegetables for that matter), so I tend not to eat much of either if I can help it.

Given all of those tidbits of information, yes,  it was the SO's idea because that's what he's been craving. He always is the gentleman and asks me first what I want before adding his own input. The moment he said that I honestly lol'ed. "Really? Really? We're in the wrong bodies. You crave such Asian foods like sushi so often and I'm sitting here dreaming about pizza, one of the most American and unhealthiest foods you could imagine." XD Yes, we did debate about how pizza is an Italian cuisine but I pointed out how they eat theirs all dignified with forks and knives and it uses a lot more fresh ingredients and not all the heavy sauces and grease that we pour into it. Lol. But, I'm being good about trying things and he hardly ever craves much. So, sushi it is tomorrow (Yes, I agreed to try some.) and within the next few days after, I get my pizza. :D I love compromising. I voted to have pizza after because if it went poorly I could at least die happy with a big ole greasy meal. :P I realize I'm dramatic and spoiled.

I tried to make my important phone calls. That means I played phone tag and it's still an ongoing game. The kids' second day back wasn't all that bad. There were a bit more meltdowns but overall well. They are too friggin' cute. They said a ton of really cute things and you realize their almost snarky comments are the result of you making assumptions and not being specific enough. Unfortunately, I can't recall any quote from the class. However! We heard a couple of kids walking down the hallway being asked, "Are you going on the blue?" There are different colored tiles in a random pattern, but one distinct row of blue tiles that the kids walk on to stay organized. One replied, "No, we're going on the bus!" There was not a beat missed and it was hilarious.

I did a little more work on their website to try to streamline it and make it more manageable but still easy to view. Gah, I'm so useless when my system has run out of caffeine. >_< Um... oh! Phone was found, safe and sound. Teehee, that rhymed. Hm. Oh yes! What I really wanted to update about, lol.

If you tend to carry a lot of rubbish (okay, fine- coupons, various cards, and potentially important receipts) in your wallet/ purse, I'm sure that it's annoyed the beejeezus out of you trying to find a particular item. I saw the FMIL starting to run into the situation yesterday and decided to get on making her a mini book/ album to store things in. I've been mulling over coupon book ideas for a few... months now and decided to throw out almost all of those ideas and start again. I hit up my YouTube and browsed through many a crafter's channels that I've recently subscribe to and found one that I felt would be quick and easy but still help out. I also then had an excuse to not only craft, but to try something new with the materials that I already owned.

I don't want to post her video without her written permission so here's a link to the Mini Album Multi-pocket Envelope Page Tutorial by Laura Denison of Following the Paper Trail. Really great stuff. I've noticed that many of the videos are paper bag or envelope mini's. This particular one starts off with long business envelopes as its base. Too cool, right? Here are some pics (bear with me, Blogger turned them sideways):

First page of three pages of the booklet!

Some flowers and gardening tools because she loves plants!

Each page has four pockets!

I tried using this purple because it reminded me of SU's Rich Razzleberry that she currently adores. Her ultimate favorite color is blue.

How cute is that?! She loved it but we have yet to see what that baby can hold. Lol. I love how you don't have to flip back to the beginning once you've gotten to the end, it can keep going! The tabs (which are actually at the top) are 2-sided pockets that I think will do just well with holding a some chosen business/ membership cards. I can't wait to see it being used to it's full potential. Honestly, it did not involve a lot of paper. I was, however, as liberal as I have ever been with my mono-adhesive. I'm still mulling over an ATG gun. /sigh. 

That was pretty early this morning so that may explain why I had to rewind my day in order to get to it. I guess I could have just looked in my camera too... lol. Oh, well. :P We also finally got a monsoon storm on our side of town today! It wasn't a super intense one, but some of the washes were running and there were some wicked winds, lightning, and thunder for a while. There were even puddles! Quite exciting. I'm ready for all of the rain to dump so I can be in awe and then rejoice because the oppressive humidity will finally be gone again. :D

Ha ha, see you tomorrow. <3