Living Room Floor Paper Pack

This lovely pack (& the Noteblocks set) came in the mail today and I love love love it. Great quality paper, cute designs (font-love!), and worth the price. Can't wait to play. Even the store's name (Living Room Floor) is adorable.

Baby's Got Big Brown Eyes

Taken 7/25 and 7/27/08 in Queens, NY. More to come...

Holy Water Weekend

Just arrived home from a wild weekend that included a great Mets game, a wedding, lots of family time, and the baptism of this little sweetheart, my niece. More pics to come.

Room Glow

Taken 7/22/08.

Pussycats, circa 2001.

Got to play with the taffy pink Thickers (letters) today. This flowery page has been sitting on my table waiting for something pink & sparkly for a month now.
Photo: myself, Anne, & Katie, when we were roommates back in the Bronx. And we were totally hot pussycats, that Halloween. Believe you me.

For the Love of Cosmos

Playtime = Cosmos + Crafts

Texture & Sparkles

Project Catwalk Wk 1 Submission: Playing with texture on this last layout was great, including both the texture of the rubber cupboard liner (above), the 'crystal' brads, & the textured paper (below). Sadly, I just realized this evening that I won't be able to submit a layout entry for the second week of Project Catwalk (at SIStv). We're heading out of town the day of the episode. How did I miss that?!?

Anyway, thought I'd post a few camera photos of the layout, since the scanner did something funny to the coloring. "crystal brads & shimmery paper" (below)And...today a beautiful sparkly package from SIStv arrived in the mail. These are the RollerRink Thickers (in taffy) that I've been coo-ing over. The others are from the ShoeBox line of Thickers. I'm on a sparkle kick. I wasn't the only one happy with the ScrapInStyleTV package.

Been Up to Lately

• Trying to get Chris hooked on the 5th season of Project Runway.
• Watching Batman: The Dark Knight in the Imax theater & really enjoying the non-hero-esque-ness of this superhero movie. ...just might have to see it again tomorrow.
• Devouring wedding invitations on Flickr & on Etsy (as research for Anne & Ashley's wedding).
• Getting re-freaked out by the Letter People that were quite present in my childhood.
• Going to the Indie-Arts Festival in downtown Providence this afternoon.

Sooo Fierce, Project Catwalk

Project Runway, I must confess, is a more recent obsession of mine. I justify this behavior because most of my friends would probably say that I'm a little too serious/intense for my own good & bringing in non-so-serious things into my life has provided much balance. And yes, I'll say it here and say it now. I loved Christian (the winner of last season). I don't care that he was annoying. I loved the drama. Fierce, baby.

Scrap in Style (SIStv) is having a contest called Project Catwalk, which ties scrapbook challenges to the the weekly episodes of Project Runway. The layouts must be submitted within 72 hours after the episode. This week's challenge required that two items (from a crazy list of household objects) be innovatively incorporated into an 8.5x11 layout (including a garbage bag, a bouncy ball, a paper towel...you get the idea). For my submission (see below) I chose a coffee filter (which I painted) & a piece of rubber cupboard liner (out of which I cut letters).
Points are earned cumulatively during the whole season of Project Runway. Here's the breakdown of how the weekly points are awarded:
Submitting a project/layout (5 pts),
Turning in layout within the first 24 hrs. after challenge is given (20 pts),
Turning in layout 25-48 hrs. after challenge is given (10 pts),
Using the "Bonus Product" (from the monthly kit) in your layout (50 pts),
Being selected as one of the four weekly winners (75 points).

The only real drawback from this contest is that you are awarded extra points if you use a particular object from the SIStv monthly scrapbooking kit (which, of course, = $). But other than that...how cute is this contest?

Channeling the Joker

Chris, seeming to channel the late Heath Ledger's Joker.

Joe's Wedding, Peachtree City/Atlanta, GA.
Taken, 7/6/08.

(More pictures from the wedding to come...)

All-Star Game 2008

All-Star Game 7-Layer Dip

7/16/08.

This year, for the All-Star game, my 7-layer bean dip was kicked up a notch. It shouldn't be called a 7-layer dip since I actually use 10 ingredients (if pre-made salsa is an ingredient). Guacamole (in my mind) should always be made from scratch. (Ingredients: re-fried beans, salsa, shredded cheese, olives, jalapenos, avocados, a white onion, garlic, cilantro, & sour cream). The writing & bases are made from piped sour cream.

I soooo love baseball.

Do Not Delete

When I had limited space on my old laptop, I deleted every digital picture that was blurry. When dooce argued that those pictures were worth saving (I can't find where), I took note and deleted less, but never saw the point, since I'd never print those blurry shots. After taking a class with Karen Russell last month (an incredible class), she reminded us that some of those shots, though technically imperfect, are valuable because they're emotionally perfect or capture the subject's personality.

I have *many* photos of Chris with this exact expression on his face -- its his response to when someone says "cheese," though you'll never hear me say anything. Note that its not a forced/posed smile, but its also not an expression I ever see at any other time. So, to me, its just "not Chris."



At a wedding this week I took picture (below) of Chris in the hotel room. Technically, he's blurry, in terrible lighting, on an ugly couch, and in an uninteresting setting that says nothing about what is going on. And yet, I love this picture. Blur and all, it captures him perfectly.

Vintage Stamp Cards

We're heading to HotLanta this weekend for a wedding, but thought I'd post these cards before the trip. I rarely make cards, but the vintage stamps were inspiring me last night. I made these cards from vintage stamps (yard sale finds) & used paper & a flower stamp from Stampin' Up.