Badger :-(

My sister's dog, Badger, had surgery this week and everyone in the house has been sleeping on the floor with her so she doesn't hurt herself, so I thought I should have a dog themed card for her! I don't have a dog, and yet, I bought this set. Stamping psychology should actually be a choice for your college major, don't you think? We are all nuts! =)

More later on this fabulous 3 day stamping weekend!!

SSSSSSS - SPIDEY!

No worries - it's not a snake! It's the attack of the Secret Stamping Sisterhood, which had its happy hour launch this evening... and it was spectacular! Maybe it should be the Spectacular Secret Stamping Sisterhood SSSS, or the Spectacularly Sassy Secret Stamping Sisters! Whatever you wanna call it, it's FUN. And look at all my goodies!!

What? That's not a goodie!!! YES, THAT IS A SPIDER! Okay, here's the truth. My house is actually leased back to me by the spiders. We in no way own this house - the eight leggers do. It's quite frightening. Especially for a person with impaired vision, such as myself. Let me tell you people something - when you are nearsighted, blurry, furry bugs appear AT CLOSE TO TEN TIMES THEIR NORMAL SIZE!! I AM YELLING BECAUSE I AM VERY SERIOUS. Your girl here often wakes up in the wee hours, quietly tiptoes down the hall and is confronted by a ginormous furry spider. I then am trapped in this weird bug/girl standoff that leaves me all sweaty and cold. Sometimes I just slink off in denial and hope it will go away. Sometimes I fight down the panic long enough to kill it, at which point I'm rewarded with - that's right, a spider the size of a golf ball all grodied to the bottom of a beloved shoe. ugh. Well this specimen right here is in the middle of a six foot wide web right outside my door that he/she/demon has been constructing since my birthday. That's because I've discovered they can learn... A frightening thought. But I know this because for weeks, I've been walking into this things web at 5:30 AM, dancing around like a crazy person, driving to Starbucks and making my barista paw through my hair looking for this disgusting creature. So it LEARNED! Doesn't that scare you?? It moved over a few feet and is now a permanent resident. If you click on the photo, you can see a teeny fly caught in the lower right. If anyone can identify this hideous beast, please do tell.. I need to know if it's poisonous. But a good segue to my card I brought for the girls tonight. A blog CASE from Sarah Peale's amazing blog, but I added booglie eyes - MAN ARE THESE FAKE SPIDERS SO CUTE!!Why can't the real ones be like this?

Okay, back to stamping. So everyone brought pressies!! WOW. Here are some samples! To the right, a cute bag and matching hand sanitizer - how awesome is this??? Pam CASE'd it from Angie Tieman. Then, this beautiful card based on one of Beate's sketch challenges from Chriss. WOW. The details are amazing!! Then, to the right, a Pam creation - note the closure with the teeny element - beautiful. We all agreed that the boho color combos are just freaking SASSY! And yes, my girl gave up a rhinestone brad!! Yeehaw! Then, Chriss, made me an incredible BLLLLUUUUEEE birthday card. This is bayou blue and my photo does NOT do it justice. It is stunning. You can't see the texture here at all - the sanded background stamp (AARGH) on top really adds that texture that makes all of Chriss' cards so special.

Now the last one, to the right is Pams. Again with the Sanded background - really ladies? Like I can't smell the collusion here!?!?! HMPH. I WILL BUY IT!!! Click to see the delicate piercing in the corners this is beautiful and the fall colors might put it into my upcoming fall stamp class on the 8th.

I'm sooo... looking forward to the long weekend! I hope to stamp and post a lot, especially a secret project I'm working on.. Stay tuned.

So until next time, goodnight! Don't let the spiders bite!! =)

More Goodies!

Here's my fabby upline Pam again - sweet lady. She sent me some Stampin' Up! goodies, and I gotta tell you something. From the very first time I met this chick, she made stamping so DANG FUN! What is cool about every little gesture - gifts for convention, a birthday gift, you name it (because she does a lot for all of us) - she always makes the packaging beautiful, the idea fun, the colors great. I swear she could wrap up a cow chip and make all of squeal about how cute it was. That's my Pamelita.

Now that all the birthday celebrations have ended, I might actually have to STAMP something to post here! Oh horrors! =) I hope to be able to do that tonight or tomorrow. I really need to get back on the challenge train.

Just one day and a wake up till the secret stamping happy hour ladies!!! What's it gonna be? Lavendar Mojitos? Strawberry Kiwi Martinis? BOTH? I can't wait!

Nice People EVERYWHERE!!

Okay - so I finally checked my mail! Look at all my goodies!! Four hand stamped cards Saturday! Check it out - my friend Vee somehow cut this star in the front, and sandwiched some beautiful patterned mulberry paper between that and the card base. LOOK - A BLUE RHINESTONE! She hand dyed a vellum tag for the sentiment. Beautiful. She's so sweet. She is the one who started the Pei Wei lunch tradition after my monthly class, which I look forward to every time. She is also very disciplined about sending out cards to people she knows every month - why don't we all do that?? Then Chriss, my talented downline and owner of Cards by Chriss, sent me TWO blue card, both with her signature precise, beautiful multilayered images that are painstakingly cut out. Look at the two layers of scallops!! She is amazing. She knows me a little too well because the inside says "I know that this isn't all blue, I just had to add the Old Olive!!" And finally - speaking of painstaking cutting, my photo DOES NOT do this amazing card from Jenn Justice!!! Aside from the hand cut triptych trifold, look at the small flowers in the center of the four big flowers - THESE ARE PERFECTLY CUT OUT AND LAYERED! I absolutely love the color combo here - two warms with two cools - totally going to rip this off. You ladies amaze me!!! Thank you so much for brightening my birthday & for being my buddies!!!!

On to two gifts from my mom, who SHOWERED me with jewelry today!! I got earrings, pearls, and this - (listen for the sharp intake of breath here) RING!!! OMG! My birthstone is peridot, which are the stones around the outside. And in the center, pale green jade.. WOW. Thanks Mom! And the second gift, since i know you girls are going to comment on it - my fingernails! My sister and I got this killer nail gene from our momma - yes, those are mine. And they are tough as... well, nails. =)

Hope you ladies have a great Monday.. CU soon.

A CASE for CASEing

A few plugs here. First, for Green Grass Stamps. Owned by a sweet lady who took pity on me when I left my cute monster stamps, unopened, in my hotel in Corpus Christi. Sweet lady replaced them for me extremely quickly and was so sweet about it. And really - let's have a chat about their stamps. I almost NEVER use non Stampin' Up! products, but I could not resist this set after I saw the cute notecard set Michelle Giroud (Twisted Chick Creations) made with these Lil' Monsters - I copied hers totally and injected no creativity of my own, so she gets my second plug. She has a great blog. I have a lot of thank you notes to write and I thought this cute set might make people smile. See what you think.

Blue

Wow is it cool to have stamping buddies!! Two of them - Jane & Chriss came by last night for my party and look what they brought me! Jane made me this "Buy the Sanded Background Stamp RIGHT NOW - DO IT" card. I call it that because that's what I hear in my head every time I look at it. She used Sage Shadow with the boho DSP, and we talked about that beautiful color - why don't we use it more.. Inside the card were two lotto tickets, one scratch off and one quick pick for the mega millions - that had 40 as one of the numbers!! Sweet girl.

Chriss brought me this stunning 3D Fabulous Flowers card - look at how she overstamped 3 different background stamps beneath the flower. The photo doesn't do the texture she achived justice. Then she gave me a little blue package filled with all blue goodies!!!!! WOW. I am so happy stamping brought these ladies into my life. Talent AND beauty AND brains! Thanks, friends!!

Now I'm off to a quick video production class so I can get my license and use the multi million dollar video and sound equipment that the city has.. Fun! I'm not really sure why I'm doing it, but it could be the senility and unpredictability that accompanies my advanced age.

Then I am going to come home and STAMP - so stay bloggy & get your comments ready! =)

40 or bust!

Sorry I've been so quiet.. If you listen closely you can hear my 30's walking off and leaving me!! I turn 40 tomorrow. All old broad jokes welcome! Anyway, frantic preparations for a last minute party (you know, cleaning my stamp room mostly) have kept me from posting, so I thought I'd dash off a quick note. I have learned some really fun stuff in Photoshop this week! Do any of you ladies use photoshop?? It's so hard to learn, but each new trick you get under your belt is amazing.

Anyway, since I haven't had time to stamp, here's an old card I did for an anniversary. I'd welcome your anniversary card ideas - my mom & dad's 50th is upcoming, as is my brother & sister in law's 25th. SO I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE GETTING OLD! =) Check out the spinner cards on Jenn's blog - WOW.

Shhhhh......

It's true. We're having a secret stamping happy hour. Is it a secret if you put it on a blog? Probably not. But it's as secret as it can get in 2K7 right? Jane? Are you in? Don't use some lame excuse like school. I won't stand for it. Next Wednesday. You know how to get in touch with us..

Now, back to the mail. Were we not talking about the mail? Because I was thinking about the mail, and I always assume that everyone is up to speed on what is rattling around in my head. Well we stampers, we live for mail, right? WELL WHAT ABOUT WHEN YOU GET STAMPED CARDS FROM YOUR STAMPING IDOLS IN THE MAIL???? LIKE ON SATURDAY WHEN I GOT THESE FROM PAM!!!??? Seriously, I sent this woman the world's most boring birthday card, and look what she sends me for my birthday! I'm not worthy!

She's the best. She has no idea where the secret stamping happy hour is. She's being picked up at an undisclosed location and just DELIVERED to the location. heh heh... that will teach her to say "sure thing, sugar!" Well, she doesn't really talk like that. But it would be funny if she did. Especially in that Michigan accent. I'm giving myself the giggles.

Gotta go..

Hurricane Countdown...

The weather is changing in advance of the hurricane, and everyone is talking millibars and bottled water. Aah, summer.

The camp was fun today. Neelam's sister came, and she put her own spin on the projects and they were FABULOUS! It's hard for me to on the spot create - and she did a few extremely creative things on the spur of the moment, for example, this variation on the first project. She punched through both layers of the love note, then adhered her patterned paper to the back of the note so it showed through both layers and attached her tag to the bottom. ADORABLE!! Better than the original, I think.

There were two projects I didn't post last night because I was too tired. The first is actually my own creation! I'm so excited. It was inspired by Kristina Werner, stamping genius.

It's on a River Rock base, and the accents are apple cider designer paper, Purely Pomegranate ink & CS, and my pet cropadile. He makes a little purring sound when I do dots and divots together - so super cute! I'm going to send this one to Stampin' Up! because I think it really uses the maximum number of punches possible on a single card.

The last project was a close copy of a project Jaron Winder showed at convention. It's a small trifold using the new textured 12x12 cardstock, that is meant to hold a photo in the center section. His photo was sepia toned which was really beautiful with the chocolate chip and soft sky cardstock. His sample is on the Art from the Heart CD from convention, and may at some point be on the Stampin' Up! Demonstrator website. If I find it there, I will let you know.

Happy Stamping everyone - I'm off to dinner... If you want to get in on the punch box sale this month - email me

Thanks Pam!!

P-Diggety, my fabby upline, sent me some great ideas today to help me out. Her birthday week (I think they should take a week) is coming to a close, so email her here and tell her HB!

Anyway, on the punch box theme - how the heck cute is this??? The little froggy is made from a punched flower!! DANG DANG DANG he's cute!!

And I have to take Defensive Driving for a ticket, not for my wreck.. The wreck was totally the other lady's fault. Yikes - her insurance has to fork out $3000 for my truck!!! I can't imagine what hers cost, because it was a mess.

Rough week - WOW

My 30's are going out with a bang. I won't bum you out, but the last two weeks have been unreal. Topping it off, a trip to Corpus for a funeral, where the water was contaminated with E. Coli, and someone rear ended me while I was stopped at a light. She was going about 30 and never hit her brakes. So, I am very sore and this is why there's been Understand Blue radio silence. But I'm back because I'm doing guess what tonight? Procrastistamping. I have my camp Saturday, which I'm excited, but unprepared for. So I'm getting started this evening without turning my head or making any sudden moves, and here is my first project. This is based on a cute card from one of the demonstrations at convention. I am combining it with the punch box and textured notes for the promotion - tell me what you think. I have three projects to go.. Wish I didn't have to work tomorrow.

What should my other two projects be? One fun thing I thought of is giving each of them 1 hour of my online defensive driving to do. Sharing is caring, right? They would learn something, be giving me a birthday present - it's totally a win win.

Hey - little tip here - the placement of the flower punch and the size of your present - extremely important relationship between these two!! I had to go with a 1X4 strip for the present, scored at 1" intervals. The first one was super cute with a 1.25" present, but when the card folded closed it showed through the punched out flowers. Live and learn. Also, my photo is not doing the color scheme justice - that soft sky designer series paper looks so cute with the wild wasabi textured note. Let me know what you think?

In hopes of breaking my unlucky streak I entered a contest for a flat screen TV - check it out here - there is only one day left to enter!! Hurry!! Thanks Best Buy!

My own straw poll

Must we really start talking about the election now? Grr... I'm switching to FoodTV right this very instant. I have my own straw poll to conduct about a very important issue affecting all of us, that being the right choice in chocolate milk. What's your absolute fave? Borden? Promised Land? Tell me!

Deer!

These little guys ran out in front of my CARdstock this morning and BAM!!

=) - Hill country life is so dangerous.

It's important to laugh at yourself!!!

Okay, one more tonight. I've been admiring samples on SCS with "stickles" and thinking I should go get some. This is why I'm a dangerous individual. Tonight (because I'm incapable of going a day without glitter) I'm making the two Pick a Petal (©Stampin' Up!) cards and putting my glitter glue on them - that's what I call it... glitter glue - when I look down at the bottle and BEHOLD!! I'm a complete ding dong!!! HA!

Here's #2. I can barely keep my eyes open. L8R.

I got my wish

I got my wish! It's been hot and sunny for the whole week since I've been back. I hope it's here to stay. I honestly hope it doesn't rain until November! And then I hope it's only a drop...

I don't know what is up with me and the watercoloring! Tonight I did all blue, prior to browsing the internet a tad to see what you other ladies are up to!

If you are reading this.. you are

A friend.

I told my friendChriss that really every day I wake up with a song in my head. Not the one on my alarm clock, but something from my Ipod. I don't remember if this happened to me before I had an Ipod, but it has certainly happened every day since. Well today, instead of a song, I woke up with a card in my head. And here it is. Hope you like it.

L.

Dare to be Fabulous

I followed the tutorial today to come up with this birthday card for a friend... It's not nearly as pretty as the sample on SCS, but I do think that were I feeling a little more creative today that this image would be good for this technique. Imagine it in red and green for Christmas maybe. Hey - if you have a second tonight, pray for us. (by us, I mean 1000 of us) One of our employees was killed today. Every prayer matters for his family and for all of us who loved him and enjoyed his company at work. Thanks. I know you will.

The Great Pumpkin

Let me tell you a little something. Monday isn't all that hot to begin with, but after a week off, yikes. The good news is it went by in a flash. But here's a little tip for you. When you buy 80 pounds of chocolate for the little bowl on your desk, then get to work and wonder where are the bills are you were supposed to mail (yes, I even looked in my trashcan), and while you're wondering, you eat your last Dove dark out of your bowl... you may just want to put your hands together!!! Yes, on my backseat, on a 90+ Monday afternoon - I found the bills and sadly, the chocolate. Or what used to be chocolate. See, I put the bills in the bag with the chocolate because I KNEW I wouldn't forget to bring THAT up to my office. Here's to Tuesdays!


When I got home, look what was in my mailbox... Is that a box from the Denver Rockies? I believe it is!!! What could it be???



Why I do believe my dear friend who called me on Friday, Mr. Howell, has send me a little pressie!!


He did!! Look - it's round and has a little blue ball player on it - WATCH OUT - HE'S SWINGING FOR THE CLUB LEVEL!! Sorry - flashback.






Yee haw! He did - he sent me a ball. Really, those people at the Rockies were so nice. Especially the EMT's. Thanks Denver Rockies! That was the most pleasant injury experience I've ever had... and really, considering the convention curse, that's saying a lot. But really, thanks.



Check this out - click here. Isn't that beautiful? Now I had to bring my own twisted self to this challenge, and here's how it went down. For some reason, I know a lot of people who really hate blueberries. I can't fathom it. First of all, they're blue. But they just taste good. In stuff, on stuff, by themselves. Give em another shot, that's all I'm saying. Also, I have a terrible weakness in the sample thing they do at Central Market. If someone is there offering me something to eat or drink, I feel terrible if I don't a) try it b) tell them how good it is and c) buy it. Sometimes more than one of it. I feel like I'm really damaging someone's self esteem if I don't. Also, I know two people who started their businesses this way - Paula Bryant of Two Hot Mamas Salsa Company, who is a stamp customer of mine - and Beanie, my sister in law's sister who started Beanie's Salsa. The sampling days not only are a huge boost to sales, but get them hooked into being put on the grocery stores shelves. There - now I've shared my sample guilt with all of you and you must, you WILL sample and buy everything you are offered at CM from now on. I feel better. I digress. So tonight, while making myself some blueberry tea (tell me that can doesn't just stop your heart!) which I bought after sampling this weekend, I thought to myself, "Self - since blue makes everything better, what about a spooky blue pumpkin patch?" Those little islands on the can just gave me a pumpkin vibe.. So I thought I'd throw down sort of a Dr. Seuss-y snide patch thing meets the Great Pumpkin, with a little sparkle for the frost you know would be all crunchy on top of the blue pumpkins if blue pumpkins were, indeed, blue. And yes, I confess, a delightful procrastination technique these blue pumpkins were. That's why I didn't make them into a finished card. That would have been complete procrastinative abandon. ;) Happy Monday. Check your backseat.

Stamps ARE Nifty

Had fun with these tonight. As usual for me they are completely unrelated to anything I SHOULD be doing right now. I did pay the bills, but did NOT enter cards in contests, work on SCS challenges, brilliantly create stunning projects for this month's camp, make thank you, birthday and Anniversary cards - but hey - I did eat a bunch of grapes! Those are good for me, right? Hmm...

Anyone who feels like starting a petition to have this stamp set put back in the catalog, feel free to contact me. ;)

Beate's WSC

I created this for Beate's weekend sketch challenge - really fun sketch. Let me know what you think! Thanks for looking! =)

Why do I like this set?

It's so not me, and yet it is. I really like it and can't figure out why. The paper that goes with it is beautiful too. Hmm.. If you figure it out, tell me!

SST #2

Here's a cute sample with punches. This is something Jill Kocherhans demonstrated. She did a "Thayers" video again that was hysterical. The videos this year were some of the best - they did one of those insurance commercial spoofs where someone is sitting next to the person doing a dramatic reenactment of everything they're saying. Awesome.

Small, Simple Things

My bud Jenn asked for more of these, so here is one. Maybe you've done it. Since scallops are all the rage, they showed us many ways to achieve a scalloped look regardless of your original shape. Here I've cut an oval with my Coluzzle. Then I punched out circles, applied adhesive to the back of the oval, and attached the punched circles from behind, creating a colorful scalloped border. Nice to be back home with my stamps! =)

I'm going to post this in the Dirty Dare gallery under the blue & green animals challenge on SCS.

I LUV SOUTHWEST!!!!

Okay, first you need to know something about me. I hate to fly. It scares me. I'm convinced I'm going to die every SINGLE time I get on a plane. But today - today was a blast. First, I didn't sleep at all - had one of those nights where I woke up in a panic every ten seconds thinking my alarm wasn't going to go off. Then into a cab at 5AM, picked up Jenn and Jane and Rita and Barb and off to the Denver airport. Now, why they call it the Denver airport is kind of a mystery to anyone who has ever actually been to Denver, because the airport is not actually located in Denver. It's in California somewhere. Maybe Oregon. You drive for freaking HOURS to get to this place and spend $8 billion in cab fare.. Oh, wait - maybe I've solved the mystery. Denver is run by a band of pirate, vampire CAB DRIVERS!!!! So nice to have little revelations. Wanna see my finger today? EEK. Okay, so after an insanely long line at security with 9000 people and two TSA workers (one of whom stole my ONE OUNCE OF FACE WASH - GRRRRR!! DOES EVERYONE FEEL SAFE NOW?) we get to the gate, the A line and onto the plane where we make it into what I call Southwest First Class - the emergency exit row. I got the super stretch seat with nothing in front of me. Yep - those are my toes, and that's my catalog on my lap. Yay! Anyway, the flight crew is so ridiculously fun right from the get go that we're totally best friends with Steve our flight attendant before we even get off the ground. Man is this guy nice!! I briefly fall asleep and wake up to Steve bringing Jane and a very sweet young lady next to her bloody mary's! What the heck? I was out like 15 minutes and it turns into a party! So we spend the rest of the flight chatting and upon landing are treated to a custom Southwest version of "Crazy", crooned by our extremely talented stewardess Christine. We absolutely didn't want to get off the flight with these people, so we got Steve's email address and we will keep in touch. However, on debarking, we found out that that same plane and crew were leaving for Austin in 20 minutes, and the connecting flight we were supposed to have wasn't leaving for 2 hours. So we got right the hell back on!! Steve and Paul and Christine were stoked of course, and we also made friends with a couple across the aisle who GOT MARRIED IN THE AUSTIN AIRPORT! Great stories, great people. Assuming that our luggage had not made it onto our earlier flight, we invited everyone to have lunch at the Salt Lick. Totally a blast. Paul, Steve, The Mure's, Jennifer, two American Airlines pilots, Jane & I had a fun hour or so over BBQ. Southwest is always fun to fly, but truly, especially today. We are of course going to tell Southwest our story - this was a very special crew. High praise from a reluctant flyer, I promise.

Back to stamping. This is a project Jaron demo'd. If tiffany blue and chocolate chip ever go out of style, I will quit. I swear I will. Love the combo. Did I tell you one of the coolest things I learned? Instead of trying to thread hemp or linen thread through your buttons, take the white trash sewing machine we all have (the white gel pen) and DRAW a little stitch between the holes!! Make an X if you're feeling all froggy!! Amazing how cool the simplest tips can be!! All of convention is like that - four days of small, simple amazing things. I am all stoked to open the convention order that arrived when I was gone and go nuts planning my August camp and two other camps I want to hold. CAN'T WAIT!! Maybe I will have time to stamp some samples from my notes tomorrow and I will share them with you... Take it easy!

Brighton Your Day!

So dinner was great. I ate too much... So it's a good thing we had a long walk after. The girls walked me back through the mean streets of Denver and popped up for a visit with me & the fishy. I'm sure this is our last night together, old Paint and I.. He's been with me two days, so he's kind of a snatched fish walking in the eyes of the hotel staff. The inhumanity of it all!!

After dinner we went to Brighton because some boots on the ground leaked that they were doing a Stampin' Up! only gift certificate drawing. And not only was it the truth, but their entire glass case at the cash register was temporarily transformed into a card showcase! Ladies who had entered the drawing had left some swaps, and it was spectacular! Check it out.

We think that that was just a super fabby gesture! Now, while the girls were here and I was pointing out the Jolly Roger, we noticed all Alfred Hitchcock style that there was a girl on her hands and knees studiously cleaning her floor in an apartment across the street. Going over the same spot over and over again, all the furniture moved out of the way. Are you thinking what we're thinking? TOTALLY A MURDER!! We can't wait till we get interviewed on Greta VanSusteren!! Man are these conventions fun!!

Alrighty, your girl is sleepy. Gotta go. Long day tomorrow.. I'll send updates! Chriss - YES on the wine bar! I'll give you a shout!

NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH! LOOK AWAY!

You want to look, don't you? I don't blame you - I would totally look too. I just wanted to warn you that I'm going to have a picture of my finger in this update. Since many of you have been sweetly asking about my injured paw, I thought I'd show you what color it's turning. All is well, it hurts, but it looks like I have gangrene. Maybe SU! will come up with a new "in color" - poor paw purple or something. I will suggest that on my survey.

So today was great. Jaron sang a number from the Broadway Jekyll and Hyde and I just had chills the whole time. It was unreal. I really wonder why it is that so many of their corporate employees are so musical.. It's unusual to have that many professional quality singers in one company. Is there a correlation between stamping and singing? Oh wait, I am proof that there is not! =)

First, Shelli's demonstration had some amazing things. Look at this gathered "ribbon" - this is PAPER!! She made some great ornaments also that I'm totally stealing for office gifts this year.

Then - check this out - this entire dress is made out of Designer Series Paper!!!

The presenter here was Jodi Gloeckner, who

is one of the best. She showed us amazing things with the DP's. When I get home and make some I will post photos for you. She is so talented and a very funny gal.

Now - this is a shot of the "Baroness" coffee company vendor inside the convention center. Now, you ask, that is an interesting name - what is the origin of that? Oh my, I am so glad you asked. Let me tell you. YOU BECOME A FREAKING BARONESS WHEN YOU CHARGE PEOPLE $4.75 FOR A WILD CHERRY PEPSI!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost laughed out loud at the wildly good sense of humor the chap checking me out had UNTIL I REALIZED HE WAS NOT KIDDING AND I INDEED HAD TO FORK OVER A FIVER FOR A PEPSI!!! HE GLARED AT ME UNTIL I DROPPED MY LAST QUARTER IN THE WHOLE WORLD INTO THE TIP JAR. YOU WANT A TIP? I'LL GIVE YOU A TIP BUDDY - KISS MY.....

Okay, I'm back. Big news items today. SU has entered a joint marketing agreement with 3M! SU images and contact information will appear starting this fall on packaging for Scotch adhesive products! Whoopee!! Also, the covers of the August and November issues of Cards Magazine will feature Stampin' Up! and there will be Stampin' Up! web banners on selected major websites also in the fall. The new Demo website sounds promising, with a little blog section and get this - demonstrators can ELECTRONICALLY sign up on the website! So no more FedEx or rushing to get paperwork in time for a recruiting incentive.

Enough business - ready for my ugly paw? Yikes, it's hideous. But it's pretty much a normal size now and is just really sore but I can bend it. So thanks for asking everyone. I think it will be fine

Now, several of you have asked about the Jolly Roger. I have not yet solved the mystery of why the Denver Chamber of Commerce feels that it's appropriate to fly the black flag with the skull and crossbones on it on the front of their building 24 hours a day, but there are a lot of things I don't really understand about Denver. For example, yesterday, on my walk to the convention center, a nice homeless man gave me a very impassioned warning to watch out for Dracula because "he's coming back". Where was he? Did he go somewhere? And did he used to be in Denver? And really, do I need to worry about him at 8 AM? It's all so confusing. It's hard to get a good pic of the flag because it's windy, but here it is from my hotel window. Anyone know what is going on in this town? Are there pirates and vampires rampaging around the streets at night?? That was definitely not in the convention orientation info I received and I would have liked to know fun facts like that before I traveled.

On my way to lunch (in the opposite direction from sheet meat central) I passed this cute sidewalk "cave painting" that was made out of manhole covers. So original!!

Today we had another class where we got to actually make things. It was a little rushed, but we did watercolor projects, and one of them convinced me that I might actually use some of the things in the pretties kit that I wasn't thrilled about at first like the hat pins and the beads. It really made this project beautiful I think. What do you think? Actually, I just realized - there was no watercoloring on this card!! What the heck? Ha!!!

I'm getting ready to meet the Janiac at an Italian restaurant for dinner for our last free night, so maybe more later if I'm not too pooped.. Stop by - say hey!