Let's Play: Name That Paper!

Check out what I've been working on in my few spare minutes of a lunch break... One of my weird "talents" is being able to identify any piece of paper, solid or patterned, by collection, manufacturer and even the year it came out. I know that's a totally useless talent, but it was one I acquired without a real intent to. So....if you can tell me what manufacturer and collection this paper comes from then you're in for some yummy blog candy!!! The first person to with the correct answer wins the grand prize, but there's more! Leave a comment with your favorite paper collection, and I'll pick a few more winners at random. Let the games begin!

Adventures in Dating

I went on yet another date! I guess that's no surprise to those of you who actually read my posts. I know a lot of people just look at the pictures. I've been known to do that too. Some of the things people write about are boring or just way to freaky for me to read. My friend Debbie and I always joke about the "two tampons blog lady". We still say "EWWW!" whenever we recall that story. "EWWW!" Anyhow, I met this guy at a local place downtown that's kinda quaint and cute. Our waitress seemed in a real hurry to get us outta there, so we decided to go for ice cream at another place instead of having our desert where we weren't feeling so welcome. This is where the interesting part happened... We were driving along a two lane road that really should be much bigger considering the traffic. Anyhow, as we were chatting my entire SUV was showered in debris as a huge crash and gust blew us to the side. Firefighter Laura switched on, and I whipped the car around. I told him to jump into the driver's seat, and I took off running down the road. It was a three car pile up. Apparently car number one wanted to make a sudden turn into his drive way while the teenager in her mom's minivan was driving a little too close slammed into him, and thus causing car number three to hit the van. As I'm trained to do, I first made contact with each person to make sure I knew what sort of incident I had on my hands. Car number three was the first one I came to. She was okay, so I told her to sit still, turn off her engine, and call 911. Next was the minivan with the teenager. She was shaken quite a bit. Her airbags had deployed, and she was sitting way too close. I took a quick look at her eyes and wrists and told her to just breathe and turn off the engine. The first car in the line up was an old pick up and just a few feet from smashing into a pole. It was an older man. He looked like he had hit the steering wheel with his face. His son had come running up from their house followed by his hysterical wife, so I asked the son to take her back inside and gather his medications and insurance to take with them to the hospital. (You've got to find something distracting for hysterical people to get them under control.) It wasn't long before EMS arrived, but the cars were starting to leak all sorts of things, and the van was filling with smoke. I had no choice but to get the girl out of there with or without a c-collar and backboard. The guy in the truck was pinned in quite a bit though, so I had to pry his passenger door open to get in and talk to him after finding his glasses that had flown off his face under the passenger seat. Sometimes people just need those little things to be comforted when they've experienced something like that. They certainly don't need more stress. Anyhow, that's how my date went! Do you have any funky dating stories???

Wish Big!

I'm really frustrated that it's been cloudy the past couple of days, so my pictures are just icky. I've already given this card to "BB", so perhaps I'll have to borrow it on a sunnier day for a little photo shoot. I no longer have my fun little water mark anymore either since the computer crash. I'm hoping my dad can find it somewhere since he's the one who gave it to me. Any-who, here's the card... Here's what I did: Using a white A2 card base I trimmed two pieces of patterned paper (Scenic Route and Stampin' Up!) to 4"x5.25" (smaller than the card front to make a mat). I then took a ruler and traced identical lines out from the center of each. I cut them apart and pieced them together to get the sunburst background. (I was going for a comic book super cupcake vibe.) I then took a marker in Basic Black (Stampin' Up!) and traced all of the edges. Next, I drew a cupcake onto chipboard and trimmed it out with a craft blade. I adhered patterned paper (Stampin' Up!, Chatterbox, & Scenic Route) to each of the pieces and used files to smooth the edges. I used a few funky brads (Queen & Co) for the sprinkles and used my marker again to doodle a bit here and there. I pop-dotted the entire cupcake and double-popped the pink frosting. For the inside I trimmed matching patterned paper from the front to 4"x5.25" (the same as before) and then cut at .25" from each edge with my paper trimmer to create the frame. I used one of my Quickutz fonts for the word "wish" and a Cricut font for the word "BIG!". (I can't remember which fonts exactly, but let me know if you're experiencing a need-to-know situation.) And finally I added more doodles with my marker. And...that's it!

Crash!

Just when I thought I was getting back on the horse about posting my computer crashed! It's okay now (knock on wood), but I still have ton of things to download again. I lost ALL of my pictures and files of every sort that I had as well. It's really frustrating. Anyhow, I found my digital camera too, so at least I can take a new picture for my yummy post tomorrow.

Sunday Funnies

I feel like my family and friends learn more about my life through my blog than from first hand these days. Do you ever get that way?

You Made My Day!

I just wanted to thank LAURA ROTH for giving me the "You Make My Day Award!" She's a great inspiration and talent, so drop by and check out her blog. And as the rules state, here are my 10 nominations for the "You Make My Day Award!"

1. Debbie at StudioBeeCreations
2. Estivalia at Paper Leisure
3. Lorien at Stamps N More
4. Stephanie Earls
5. Melissa at Simply Pink
6. Sandy at It's a Colourful World
7. Leslie at Running With Scissors
8. Alexandra at California Stampin
9. Jayne at Cardznmore
10. Melanie at Stamp-A-Doodle-Doo

Award rules: Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on.

Crazy Life

(I like to think of songs to go with my posts, so I added one to my playlist down on the side menu to the right. It's called Almost Lover by A Fine Frenzy. Turn on the volume and set the mood...) Man! Things have been crazy lately. Some days I wish I had more of a boring life. I've been home a couple times in the past month or so. Family is still dramatic. It always is. My love life is nuts as usual as well. As of the moment: I'm single. You'd think I was juggling half a dozen guys at once with all the emotions that are flying around though. My last boyfriend broke up with me right when another ex comes back into my life. Irony always finds a foot in the door, doesn't it? Anyhow, I feel like I'm in a love triangle now or something of a midnight talk show interest. I'm single, so I should be free of all blame and guilt and strings from either end, but instead I'm surrounded with everything but content. This last guy totally makes me feel guilty about everything I've ever done from the start. I'm not sure if it's a manipulative thing, or if I really am a total screw-up. You know, it's hard to see something beautiful looking at your own reflection, but he made me see it. He had me wrapped up in a dream. I was a star brighter than the moon itself. It wasn't long after though that every vessel and pore in my body exposed some sort of flaw. I was over-weight, someone who didn't care about my appearance, a domestic failure, not classy enough, a bad driver, and not to mention completely boring with a fake affection for babies. I'm sure glad he pointed out that I'm such a cruddy girlfriend. Wouldn't you want someone to tell you how sucky you are? I don't want to live in a bubble! (Babies do smell a bit musky now that I step back and look at the big picture.) I have to be a hero and a homemaker, a lover and a fighter, a woman and a warrior, and all the while wearing control top panty hose! I mean, he's the one who started getting back into the dating scene while we were still in a "committed relationship". Isn't that cheating??? Didn't he just get out of a relationship because his ex cheated on him??? There's good ol' irony knocking at the door again...