158. Ooh... What?

I had a couple of ideas for things to write about in today's blog entry when the SO and I were tagging along for grocery shopping earlier, I even thought about how I should jot it down in my notepad, and then I didn't. And now, I can't remember any of it. Bah! Bah bah bah. Lol.

We tagged along to get groceries, shop for furniture, fixtures, more furniture, and miscellaneous. We totally should have stayed home. XD Like ten year olds, we were bored and rolling our eyes and whispering jokes and poking at everything. What a pair, aye?

It was so hot and humid today, we could have sworn that we were going to get a really good storm, but alas. It rained some and there was lightning all around, but not that really good torrential monsoon storm that we have been dying for all season. If I could figure out how, I think I would punch the crickets that are chirping outside the window right now in their tiny little faces. It's driving me bonkers to the point of having a dull headache, but we have to keep the windows opened to have the cool air come in tonight.

I thankfully have been in quite the creative mood lately and I can't wait to start dabbling in a little of everything again. I'm at some of my happiest when I can create like mad in many ways. I think what I'm going to tackle are scrapbooking, card-making, and polymer cay-figurine sculpting. I don't know if what I do can be considered sculpting, but I'm not sure what else to call it. Lol. I still have yet to test my newly acquired used toaster oven to see how well/ unwell it bakes the clay. Clay that isn't truly clay at all. :D

I love how I haven't touched my clay in over a year and all I had to do was to play with and knead it in my hands in order to condition it. Some were still soft enough that I could just go right at it straight out of the baggies I've kept them in. I may have jumped the gun with my test sculptures, but that's okay. I was thinking about posting pictures of them, but some are critters that don't have eyes because I don't have the seed beads that I like to use on me at the time of their creation. I shall post before and after pictures once they are baked and finished. We'll see how badly I'll burn them. Hopefully not too much because they're really cute now but can smell pretty noxious if that happens, lol. :P I also figured out that working with the polymer clay eats away at the clear nail polish I've had on my fingernails. O_o Whoa. Lol.

I did manage some time to finished backing up my blog just in case anything happens to it. I'm not sure why I haven't done it along the way because doing it all at once was kinda painful, ha ha.

Oh! Light bulb! XD

Another amazing cover by AHMIR of Bruno Mars's "Just the Way You Are". So... sweet. Lol. I was listening to that almost nonstop as I was backing up my blog. Bless the SO's heart having to listening to that on repeat. I'm not sure why I remembered that I wanted to share that song but I'm glad that I did!

Hm. I think I would really like to get into the habit/ learn how to "mass"-produce cards well. A bunch of people I know have said that I should sell some of my cards in my Etsy shop and a few people have... propositioned me to make sets for them. I'm very flattered that they like my style and work enough to want more than just the one or two that I shove at them. I feel like I'm on the cusp of taking them to the next level. Not that said level is mind-blowing, but just a more polished look and style. Yes, I want it to still look handmade, but not just something I threw together (Even if I did! Ha ha!).

I need to really sit down and realistically figure out what supplies are going to be the most versatile and worth the investment this early on. Lol, I'm so picky. Despite still considering myself quite the noob with scrapbooking and card-making, I'm still diving head first into learning about tons of tools, trends, and techniques. Eh, but I do that with every and any subject I get my grubby little hands into. Rofl. Sigh, I'm still very much chewing at the bit while some would argue that I've been around the racetrack a couple times already. Or at least memorized the stadium's blueprints. Bahaha, I must be delirious tired and didn't realize it.

Late this morning, while the SO and I were waiting for the rest of the group to be ready to go on errands, we were asked if we needed/ wanted anything. The answer at the same time was "Caffeine." XD We each haven't had any in about a week and have suffered the consequences of trying to live life without. It is a sad existence indeed, lol.

... I totally lost whatever semblance of a train of thought I had because the SO mentioned something and I suddenly felt the urge to make tiny hamsters out of clay. Crap. XD I really need to write my ideas down or I'm just so useless.

Sigh, I give up. We'll try this again tomorrow. Lol <3

157. Melted

I'm not sure what to write about today because I was simply just a hot mess. Lol. It's so humid that the swamp cooler thing doesn't work as well and everything just feels and smells gross. Unless it rains, humidity just makes the desert smell musky. And not a good musky and musk full of dust. :( Rain here smells pretty, mostly in part to the Greasewood, I'm told.

The SO took me for a little ride on FFIL's Harley and that was fun. Then there was the A/C being kinda broken at the new house. D: Part of the coils were frozen outside, giant puddle was forming, and we're left with 83 degrees inside at it's coolest. Hooray trying to circulate air throughout the house by strategically opening windows.

I did manage to organize a little more today. I think my book section is more or less done which makes me almost happy, lol. I've been a tad cranky the past few days and now I'm just wiped from that experience. Let's hope I can cheer up and relax a little this weekend.

TGIF! <3

156. Many Thanks/ Not So Much

Technologically speaking, today was not a good day by any means.

I have no idea how it happens, but it seems I have a Midas touch. Except of turning everything I touch into gold, I somehow magically break every piece of technology I come in contact with. Which really sucks because I love technology and feel that I treat it pretty darn well. Apparently, it disagrees with my methods of pushing a few limits and cowers from my touch. *Shakes fist* Darn you, you new confounded gizmos and whozits!

I had the ipod-radio player-clock thing that the SO is letting me use suddenly stop responding to the remote and then in general. After walking away to blow off some steam by taking a relaxing shower, I wake back into my room and switch on the light, only to have the bulb short/  burn out. Really? I only have one floor lamp to provide light in here and it's a fairly new bulb too. My internet and laptop have been super fickle lately. I want to blame it on the almost stormy weather we're having, but I think my laptop is just on it's way out and developing the 'Itis. I have tried so many things short of reformatting my computer. Which, in my world, is not an option. All the scans, defrags, and backups I can think of to run. I was able to play my game for a little while, but eventually had to give up before I threw the whole thing out the window.

Oh, and while I was trying to sort things out after yet another scan, my mouse batteries died on me. There's a love-hate relationship with cheap batteries. It's great to have a million of them on hand, but you really need to have a million because they're going to run out fairly quickly, lol. To top it all off, while I'm trying to text or call the SO to rant about all of this and to grab some sympathy, my phone lost service or decided to drop the call despite having 3 out of 4 bars several times within one hour. Really, tech gods? Really?! Haven't I sacrificed enough hours full of blood, sweat, and tears for your cause? What more do you want from me? You probably already have ownership of all my future children, whether I/ you like it or not. Why have you forsaken me?!

... /sob.

Was there a good note today? Hm, still no caffeine. Oh! I was able to work hard in my game and, after two days, was able to create in-game companion pets to give to the SO. One of my characters is an engineer by trade and they were a little Bombling and Lil' Smoky robot pets. I was proud of myself since she's still a baby toon in my eyes. That and when I'm playing with an average of 1 frame per second, I'm pretty proud of myself for hanging in there and not ripping out my hair by the roots. It is no fun trying to play a slide show.

The FMIL and I did a pitstop at JoAnn's and each picked up a cute border punch! Got to love 30% off paper crafting tools. I got one for my holidays cards and she picked up one that could double as a bubbly border or one of lace. So cute! I have to pick myself up one at a later date. I also found a Cuttlebug A2 size embossing folder because I figure that I should at least have one to go with my machine. You'll see me use it in a project in the near future.

Here is a picture I snagged on the way home of what the stormy skies and sun setting created:

Keep in mind that we're driving and that big stick in the middle is actually the antennae of the car in front of us. That is a good amount of zoom! XD But look at that! There is so much green on the mountain- it's unbelievable. The desert landscape has really appreciated the recent rain and is begging for more as it blooms.

This was a little later as the sun was really setting. My camera never ceases to amaze me. This is through a screen in my window. After a test shot or two, it realized I didn't want it to focus on tiny mesh squares and focus beyond it! Even on one of the lowest quality settings. I just love the vivid light being cast on the mountain in contrast to the ominous sky.

During this time I set to work on finishing my thank you cards for my recent trip back to Florida. I had put them together before my trip and for some weird reason thought that I would get to them while I was still there. Yeah, no dice. Ten thank you cards and one upcoming birthday card are written, sealed, and ready to go out! I'm pretty darn proud of myself. These are the first thank you cards that I have ever written ever! Or, in netspeak: EVAR!!! :D I'm pretty fluent. I hope they ship well. I love having a little variation to a set of cards. It satisfies my need to not make the same exact thing over and over again. I get too bored of my projects when that happens. I think I'm going to spoil the surprise this one time and post pictures!

Love my velvety sage green/ grayish-mint blanket? Well, it's the best you're gonna get for a while, lol. I used patterned paper from Die Cuts With a View (DCWV)'s Flower Shower: Spring Stack. The flowers were cut with my Cricut using the... Create a Critter cartridge. Ugh, my brain hurts trying to remember and find all of this. It was almost two months ago that I made these one night! I was messing around and borrowed a corner punch from the FMIL so I have no idea what it is, sorry, lol. And the cardstock and brads are, I believe, Recollections- a pretty generic brand found at Michael's.

I wanted to give my lovelies in Florida a little taste of the Southwest with the teal and brown, but remind then that's it's not a barren desert by adding the punch of color with the flower that pops up every now and again!

I like it and I'm still learning, so sue me. :P

I was just putting in an order for SU supplies that will finish my list for the upcoming winter holiday cards I wanted to make for everyone and did my first rough calculations. It's upwards of 50 cards. Yes. Fifty. I'm freaking out too. Probably more than you are. LOL. What. On Earth. Did I get myself into?! You know what? It'll be okay because I shall start early, keep it fairly simple (simple in my eyes which is slightly more than what's actually simple), and use tons of great products. And everyone shall love it. Or suffer the consequences, Rofl. But really, you better love it if you manage to get one because I think I'm going to start crying myself to sleep tonight dreaming about the process. Just to get a head start.

Bed, hold me. The rest of you, see you tomorrow! <3

155. Reset/ Replay Button

Now, where is that darn reset button? You know. It's big, shiny, and red?

That must have been a premonition that I had yesterday because today was pretty wasted because I felt useless today. Really bad back ache and not great/ much sleep equaled me getting super frustrated and sending a text to the SO in the late afternoon saying something along the lines of "UGH! That's it, I give up on today. Nap time." It's a shame how often I forget/ disregard the fact that I'm not really good at taking naps.

So, for two hours, the best I got to was dozing off for maybe 25 min. So full of fail. I got up slightly crankier than before and set to work on WoW like a fiend while praying that my internet connection would be consist. If it hadn't behaved today, I was probably going to set something (that shouldn't be) on fire.

On a somewhat different tangent, whenever I'm doing... well, pretty much anything, I like to have music on in the background. This becomes a problem when I end up spending just as much time flipping through my music collection to find a song that fits the mood I'm in when I'm supposed to be focusing on something else. My remedy for this is a bit odd. Odd. Me? Never... :P I find a song that I'm really into at the moment. There are usually about five songs with one being by far my favorite.

Right now, the list is:

5. "If We Ever Meet Again" Timbaland feat. Katy Perry
4. "More" by Usher
3. "Club Can't Handle Me" by FloRida feat. David Guetta
2. "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" by Usher feat. Pitbull
and 1. "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz

I'll occasionally throw another few songs in there. I've listened to each of those songs at least a dozen times each today. I think the weird part is that I can listen to the same song over and over. Especially my top song. I've been listening to it nearly nonstop for the past four hours- only pausing it to talk to someone or listen to a video or something. Idk, it gives me background noise and I don't have to get caught up flipping through songs because it's one I already really like. I guess I'm in a really big "summer party" mood. Lol.

I think it's one of the only things that helped me keep my sanity today. Here's hoping that I feel better tomorrow. <3

154. Delayed

I have no idea what the cosmos are trying to tell me right now, but I'm getting really annoyed with it all. I started today feeling more or less complacent, but technology has been such a brat. My cell phone has been randomly losing signal and dropping calls despite the fact that I have been holed up in the same section of my room for the majority of the day. So, I tried using a voice calling program online to talk to the SO and his internet would crap out literally 5-6 times an hour. We both became pretty frustrated with that and were too annoyed to even send texts, lol. Just up and walked away from it all and reconvened half an hour later to try again.

I tried to play my game for a bit to unwind and had several lag spikes during the few crucial moments I was involved in and then completely disconnected jut before we finished a dungeon. I was so close to reaching my next level too. I scanned my computer, couldn't find anything wrong, and gave up playing for tonight. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that I put a lot of energy into being angry. I'm actually as tired as I normally am three hours from now. /frown.

To top this off, I started going through my craft... I want to say stash but right now it's more of a wasteland. That was my main project for today. I have a Cricut-Cuttlebug and a Polymer Clay section set up. Then, it went downhill from there. This was partly because I had no caffeine and wanted to play with my newer toys. :( But I forbade myself from doing so unless I made significant progress today.

Does that look like significant progress to you? I didn't think so either. So no fun for me today. The good news is that some of that is trash (mostly old bags and scraps) and it's actually 75% organized into piles like my adhesives, ribbon, and tissue paper. Did I mention that the top two pictures are of my bed? Yeah. If there's a delay in getting my cards and stuff out, now you know why. Every night, I pack up what I haven't been able to put away and when I wake up, I dump it all out again to sift through. Good times indeed.

I think I want to skip life tomorrow and just sleep, mostly for the sake of sleeping. See you then. <3

153. Like Swiss Cheese

While thinking about the next step in remodeling my room, I realized there were a few things I didn't mentioned yesterday. My story was full of holes, like the bacteria culture farts in Swiss cheese. XD

Most of you will realize how big a deal this was for me, but I ate a baby carrot, some mushroom, and a shrimp last night! What I got out of that was SO's middle brother trying mushroom too, FMIL eating a mild jalapeño, and the SO taking a bite of chocolate cheesecake. Lol, bribery and daring each other are traditions in every family I suppose.

I also forgot to mention that yesterday marked my one year anniversary of moving to the desert!  Hooray me for lasting this long, lol. I have yet to be really pricked by any cacti, I haven't suffered heat stroke or passed out from dehydration, and I haven't rued the day I left all the humid, mosquito-filled, former swamp. :D

We had a little get together dinner again tonight with some rib meat. FMIL and I brought fruit salad and it was simply delish. I even got a few cards done while we were just hanging out and doing our own thing.

I was pretty mentally bored with trying to super-organize my clothes so I decided to switch gears to my crafts. Mostly because they were blocking the books I had originally planned to do after my clothes. XD I think this is my brain's way of controlling my obsessive moments, lol. I like how I try to force myself to stick to a project. I covered my bed with what I wanted to sort through, stuck unrelated items in the suitcases, and then used latter items to pretty much block my way out of my room so I couldn't go wandering around the house for other things to clean. Good job me. :P It's almost worked. I decided where I was going to set up my Cricut, Cuttlebug, and clay conditioner (pasta machine :D). At least I bunkered down with two bags of chocolates. Lol, actually I just didn't want to share them this time. So, in my room they are stashed and guarded like a hawk-rottweiler mix. Take that, nature!

This is going to be so great when it's all done. I can't wait. I would just someone else to do the physical work for me while I poured all my energy into the mental planning and supervising, rofl. Sigh, I need to get back to that if I don't want to sleep on top of it tonight. Joy of ages. Inside, I'm starting to sob a little- I'm just saying. I just have to remind myself that it will be great and worth it and it'll make my life easier to enjoy. *Deep breath and sighing*

See you tomorrow if I can dig my way out! :P <3

152. Buffets

Okay, today's post is not as wonderfully gluttonous as it sounds but it's pretty close for me, imo.

I, um, actually don't remember much of this morning. I got up really early with everyone else for no apparent reason and we were all deliriously tired. The first thing I can somewhat clearly recall was about an hour before attending an SU meeting. We were trying to pass the time and then almost lost track of it, lol. Headed on over to our demonstrator's for our first card swap(!), snacks, and oogling all sorts of goodies from this year's SU convention!

Our lovely demonstrator went and traded a ton of cards! It was really great to see all the different styles, color schemes, layouts, and ways to use the same types of products. I went a little nerdy and tried to test myself to remember which stamps belonged to which sets, what the names of the colors were, and the techniques used to create the cards. Yes, I had one of those moments. Lol. I did... mediocre.

This was my card swap. Pretty darn simple, like I mentioned the other day, but I still liked it. Given the fact that I only have one color cardstock, ribbon, and ink spot from SU, I think I did pretty well. And just to get a little nerdy again, here's my "recipe":

Bermuda Bay Cardstock (4 1/4 x 5 1/2") (retired)

Raspberry Lemonade Designer Series Paper (retired & borrowed)

Bermuda Bay Polka-dot Grossgrain Ribbon (retired)

Retro Remix Stamp Around Wheel and Handle

Not Quite Navy Stampin' Ink Spot

1 1/4" Square Punch

1 3/8" Square Punch

Stampin' Up Dimensionals

 SNAIL Adhesive

& a non-SU off-white cardstock

:D Sounds intense, aye? 

That's a snapshot of the first itty-bitty corner of the table chock full of card swaps and 3-D projects. Super fun! We had quite the blast and I had the carrot on a stick waved in front of my nose again. :P I'm being strongly enticed and encouraged to become a demonstrator myself. I really love the idea, I really do. I just need to get my life on track first. And then I can treat myself to work that's actually nothing but fun in between drudging through work that really isn't, lol. One day... *shakes fist* XD Until then, I can always torture myself, absorb all the info I can, and perfect my craft. ... *snorts* Perfect. Riiight. Mmk, I may be a tad delirious again. 

Afterwards, FMIL and I oogled over our goodies, the prospect of me getting into the business (more torture!), and contemplated our future hauls. With that, we took a trip to Michaels. *head-desk* I know. Me = bad influence. The good new is that I got stuff for this year's winter holiday cards. Well, only for that. I hope to send a lot more out this year but am doing my best to plan ahead to streamline the process. The part that takes me the longest (since SU took out the work of coordinating papers- one of the things they do best!) is to decide upon a layout that I like enough to do a million times. I know the paper, stamps, ink, and embellishment I'm going to use. Just have to figure out which way I want to mash them all together. XP Maybe I'll start on them during the next month so I'll be done in time to mall them out before the last week of December. What a thought! 

Right after our little trip, we headed on over to the new house for some promised grub! Said grub was not ready. Specific grub hadn't even been decided upon at that point, rofl. It turned out to be a great night of "Hors d'œuvres"!

This is while it was near it's final preparation stages. Let me see if I can remember everything to make you drool. Grilled mushrooms, avocados, green onions, mild jalapeños, some... herb XD, shrimp and cocktail sauce, tortilla chips and salsa, elk sausage, buffalo sausage, three different kinds of cheeses, baby carrots, strawberries, green grapes, Triskets crackers, green olives, bread and this special bread spread that had all sorts of veggies and seasonings. There may have been one or two more things. Oh, did I mentioned that we finished it all off with gourmet chocolate lovers cheesecake? Yep, we went there. It was crazy, it was finger food, and I had a blast! 

FFIL had just returned from a rigorous four day ritual called the Sun Dance. He had not eaten or had anything to drink in four full days while performing a spiritual dance. The dancers are also pierced in the chest and attached to a pole. We didn't get to go this year, but I think we'll be there for his final dance next summer! I would love to give more support. He did eat after but tonight's dinner was a result of a hungry man's rampage in the grocery store. Lol. He deserves it! 

Today was pretty satisfying with the feast laid out for my eyes and happy tummy! I can't wait to show you what I'm hoping to make soon! I just am psyched up about creating and am determined to allot a little bit of time each week to fulfill that urge- as long as I get my grown-up stuff done! Lol, I sound like I have homework and want to play outside. Mmm... outside is still gorgeous and cool. I love it! 

Lol, see you tomorrow. <3