Convention is in a MONTH!

I'm in shock. Just realized that today. I have a lot to do before then. LOTS.

For one thing, I need to start finalizing the Understand Blue happy hour I will be having in Salt Lake for my beloved blog readers. If you are going to convention and have not signed up yet, please visit my sidebar and join the Google Group I started so that we can all meet each other.

I'm very excited about eating sushi at Takashi twice a day for a week. I hope I don't get mercury poisoning, because I need to get my Takashi fix to last me for a year!

Last night I finished up the handmade card sets for people who bought the Sassy Maddie stamp or Claudine or Suzi's adorable stamps. I'm mailing them today!

I love it when I can sit down and make card sets. I think that's among my favorite stamping activities. Wish I had more time for it.

These sets featured each of the three stamps.

Suzi's and Claudine's crumple my heart up into a ball.
Theirs are especially fun to play with because I can color them, which brings about inner peace.

If you haven't gotten yours yet, they are still for sale here.

I hope you have a fabby Tuesday. Gotta love the short weeks!

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STILL laughing...

Over one of your word verification comments!! You ladies are hilarious!!

This Make Me Laugh Monday is brought to you by my Blogger Webinar, which will take place this Thursday at 6 PM Central time. Want to learn to set up your blog and get going sharing your greatness with the world? Already have a blog and want to learn fun HTML and graphic tips to spice it up? Register in my sidebar - and remember, there's a combo deal for you with $5 off header design if you register for the blogger webinar and have me design your header for you!

Also, if you or someone you know wants to get started with Twitter, then click here to view my tutorial. This will take you from "Huh - why would I want to Twitter?" all the way to Twitter expert in 15 minutes!

Back tonight with a card. Happy MMLM!!!

Can't wait to see what you do today!

Jean wins last week's with her two videos.... The sand worm part about killed me!!


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A Few Thoughts on Good and Evil

Not too deep for a Sunday, right?

I was at Costco yesterday. I love Costco. It was early, so it was only 9000 degrees, instead of 15000, and people were happy to have a weekend to enjoy.

I was walking across the parking lot towards the entrance and I hear some idiot honking like they're in Brooklyn. I look up, and I see what happened. A man had stopped in a minivan across from the entrance to the store. He was picking up his wife and three little kids and helping them into the car. Said idiot was behind them laying on the horn like the world was going to end. Why didn't they go around? The parking lot was completely empty. I stood there for a sec. The man, obviously stressed by the horn, still very carefully buckled the wee ones into their seats and gently closed the door. The look on his face was so sad. The car finally whips around and parks literally ten feet from the scene. The guy looks worriedly in that direction, afraid, I'm sure, that some crazed guy was going to get out and kill them all.

I watched.

It was a little 20 something twit with a ponytail. This made me even madder than if it had been a Jeffrey Dahmer type. WTH was wrong with her? Judging from her appearance and her car, her net worth exceeded that of the whole family in the minivan, which made me even sadder. The world served her, apparently, little beast. That won't last, I imagine.

I walk up to the store, and two little old ladies all gussied up in silk shirts and gold earrings were fighting two carts that were stuck together by the kid seatbelt. I unhooked it. One lady says "Aren't you sweet?" all Texany. It was cute. I smiled at her and did not reveal my fantasy of beating that little ding dong to death with my cell phone lest she get skrd of me.

Maybe I'm sweet. Or maybe I'm just not mean, or lacking in powers of observation and couth, as my momma would say.

My friends over at the Daily Drucker always manage to read my mind and had two amazing posts this weekend. This one asks - did I? Could I? Would I do the same thing under different circumstances? I hope not. I hope I'd go around. It's worth thinking about, anyway.

The second one, from Saturday, is just an amazing read. I won't give it away. Enjoy. I hope it gives you happy memories.

So for art today, I thought I should give a nod to special people you might remember after you read all that. Or friends who make you ponder deep thoughts AND make you laugh. That's the best kind of friend.
Now today I had tons of work to do, and only got about 1/8th of it done. I fought with technology hard. Grr. So to restore my creative spirit, I went completely simple for the card.

I saw several things I borrowed for this card on the Pine is Here blog. She does such wonderful things with kraft and copics and white, so I just borrowed the look. I love the greens she uses especially. So with a single green Copic, I colored the flower from the new Wings of Friendship set, and then accented with my white gel pen. Simple. But the length of time it took me to color each flower restored my creative spirit and now I can face a waning weekend with peace.
Hope you can too.

Don't forget - tomorrow is Make me Laugh Monday!! :)



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It's Hotter Than a Pregnant Mouse in a Wool Sock Down Here

It IS.

Good Lord - 105+ for like 6 days in a row down here. It's so hot people can't think. I'm one of the people.

I can't think. If you've seen Shaun of the Dead, you know what it's like here.

Send help.

In the meantime, the show must go on! After all, it's....

And before my card and my good news, I must share a Caturday goodie with you.

Just For Pets, which is a wonderful pet store here in Austin specializing in natural, American and raw food for pets, had turned me on to Bonito Flakes for the kitties. Strange that they are eating something that comes on very expensive sushi, but I love those little beasts, so, whatever. Maddie loves them. Splotch can't figure out how to eat them because they're so wispy, but he wants to.

One thing you learn about kittens that were taken from their moms too early is that there are things they never learn cuz their mom couldn't teach them. Eating and drinking are learned behaviors apparently, and these two can't quite manage like normal kitties.

Anyway, I went into the shop to drop off a gift to thank the owners for sending out a recall notice on some cat food and I found Grandma Lucy's Freeze Dried Mahi Mahi. MMM - the kitties LOVE it!! I highly recommend it! It's American, all natural, dried fish.

Next - speaking of good things - Bernie Berlin, of A Place to Bark - is in the running for a TV show about her amazing animal rescue. She's been in California this week trying to seal the deal, and protesting puppy mills. This woman has a heart as big as Texas. If you want to FEEL the impact of all the little souls she's saved, then please watch this video. I dare you not to cry, and/or fall in love with this sweet girl. And then,

if you haven't already, please buy one of our stamps to help her with her kitty shelter. 100% of the proceeds go to her efforts.

Here's my latest creation with my own stamp design - the sassy Maddie stamp, which is one of the ones that benefits A Place to Bark. I thought of this design on my walk, during a pause. There's a Darden Smith song that brought it to mind. But that's a story for another day... The Maddie's are the new Soft Suede ink from SU - and the pink is the new Melon Mambo. I just got my catalogs for my customers - yay!! The circle was cut with my Stampin' Up! Sizzix clear die. The dots are a rubon, as is the greeting. I used the brown ones that com in some of the SU! sets. The ribbon is the new Melon Mambo polka dot ribbon and the paper is Razzleberry Lemonade DSP from the new catty. The card base is Soft Suede.

And finally, I got a nice surprise yesterday when I stopped at the mailbox - I was published in the most recent Just Cards magazine!!

I'm on Page 54, and I'm really excited that it was one of the cards that I did on my TV show. It's Stampin' Up! supplies with a Martha Stewart punch.

Really fun card.
I hope you guys are having a great Caturday!

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Misplaced Joy

TGIF!! Really. Last weekend at the 48 Hour Film Festival was really fun, but as I learned when I received my (I'm not gonna tell you how many years) College Reunion postcard today - I'm too old to have that much fun and not be really tired all week. So I'm looking forward to catching up on neglected work, walking, and sleeping this weekend.

It's been a strange few weeks in the news, and I just have to say this before I go on.

There are a lot of people who have some misplaced joy in this world. They feel joy when other people suffer. Why? It sounds horrible, right? All of us would say "I don't do that!" But do we?

Instead of the real examples, I'll give you small ones. Slowing down to look at a car wreck. Slowing down to look at Reality TV.

You know what my advice is?

Don't look.

Sometimes people make money when you look.

Do you know what a credit default swap is? You've probably heard it on the news and no one has explained it. In simple terms, it means that you make a bet that someone is going to default on a mortgage. When they do - you make money. So people make money when families lose their homes.

When I explain it like that, I think everyone can agree that it is sick and there's tragedy underneath the money. The same is true with much of reality TV and lots of news stories.

Every time people look, they subsidize tragedy. So I say don't look. I don't. I watch kitten and bunny videos on YouTube and re-runs of the Office.

Look in the direction of uplifting, funny, cute. The people who provide uplifting, funny and cute to the world should be the wealthiest and happiest among us. Well, those people, teachers and

firefighters.

Here endeth the lesson.

And begins the art. :)

I thought since I was being so serious I should give you some nice bright colors. This is the new Crushed Curry cardstock and ink. Pretty, yes?

I used an old Golf Magazine for the background. It has slick pages, so it's less desirable than Food & Wine which is my fave magazine to recycle. But if you're careful, it doesn't smear.

However, it needs a little definition once you get it on the page. While this color is more saturated than So Saffron, it's not as dark as it needs to be to stand out on print.

So I took my handy dandy Micron pen and outlined it. I went double thick on the underside of the leaves to give a little shadow.

Then I added highlights with my white gel pen.

The magazine panel is punched with the Sizzix top note die, and then I added a rub on for the greeting.

For the circles, I used the Circle Circus stamp set and my 1.25" punch, along with the flowers from the same Razzle Dazzle set (a Shelli Signature set) also accented with my white gel pen. I stamped the little circles from Circle Circus in Crushed Curry on top of these.

After I tied the ribbon around the card, I tacked the loops down with mini glue dots - this really helps make your bow look perfect.

Now - it's time for me to go find a bunny video to watch before I go to sleep. :)

If you want a little real joy, right now, then watch this.

LOVEYAMEANIT, BYE.

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If You've Never...

Had a 10 minute conversation with the guy who works the drive through at your Starbucks, you need a different Starbucks. But I bet you have. I did today.

They all know me - all four stores I visit. They know my name, they know my drink, they know I'm an artist...

Why is it that when I do so many things repetitively - the same Chick Fil A, the same Taco Bueno, the same grocery store - that it is only Starbucks where they know my name, my voice & car at the drive through (if they see my car I don't even have to order at the menu board - they just say "Drive on up!")?

Why can no one else deliver that connection with their product?

I guess the answer is, they can, but they don't. They have other measurements they strive for. Total order cycle time, maybe. Food cost goals, maybe.

I remember our goals when I worked at McDonald's. Cleanliness. Consistency. Politeness and Respect. But not a relationship. Not anything that transcended the transaction, so much.

Transcendence is nice. I'll just call this Transcendent Thursday.

This card is for my home girl Angela, who needed a birthday card for a boy.

I thought that even though it has a little ribbon on it that it might be okay for a boy. What do you think?

I used the new Bermuda Bay ink and cardstock, the new DSP, and that gorgeous Autumn Days set I got to preorder. I outlined the bird in black and highlighted him with a brown gel pen. The greeting is also a preorder - Teeny Tiny Wishes, stamped in Soft Suede - one of the new in colors.

Click here for Stampin' Up! Stuff! :)

Loveyameanitbye.

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People amaze me

Click here if you don't see a video player above.


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Make me SLEEP Monday!

That's right! It's 9:40, but it's MMLM!!

So since it's so late, I'll give you through Tuesday to make me laugh!!

This weekend was crazy. We competed in the 48 hour film festival, which goes on all over the country. You show up Friday night and draw a genre from a hat. We got horror which was perfect. You then have to script, film and edit a movie that's between 4 minutes and 7 minutes long and turn it in at the 48 hour mark. It was exhausting, but turned out really cool. Forget about my brother driving up 5 minutes before it was do and flinging a flash drive out of the car at my niece.. Or us breaking my sister's house by getting a huge piece of furniture stuck in a hallway so we had to walk outside to go to the other side of the house. Forget all that - it was cool.

They are showing our movie tomorrow night and Thursday night in a theater. Winners are chosen from each city and some of the winners get to go to the Cannes Film festival!!

I can post it after we've done a few things in the rules.

In the meantime, I do have a video you can watch. It's my instructional video on how to use Twitter, related applications - everything you need to know to tweet!

CLICK HERE TO SEE IT.

Tomorrow, we're going to the screening and getting interviewed for a documentary. THEN I can get back to stamping.

For now, I need sleep.

LOVEYAMEANITBYE.


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48 HOUR STRESS

WE ARE NOT DONE WITH OUR MOVIE THAT WE ARE ENTERING INTO THE 48 HOUR FILM CONTEST. IT'S DUE IN 2.5 HOURS. MINUS 7 MINUTES. IT TAKES 30 MINUTES TO GET THERE. I'M NERVOUS, SO I'M POSTING A PICTURE OF CAST & CREW JUST TO KEEP ME FROM GNAWING OFF MY OWN ARM.

PRAY FOR US.

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WILLIAM SHATNER STOLE MY HEART

He did!!

First of all, let me tell you that my brother, who is 7 years older than me, adored original Star Trek. Not so much that he didn't stick a fork in our television during Frosty the Snowman (insert eye twitch and psychotherapy here) when I was a toddler, rendering me television-less from Nixon to Reagan, which you already know, but a lot.

William Shatner was just part of my life. Like the Beatles, and Wolfman Jack, who I thought was two inches tall and lived in my radio. But that's a story for another day, me and my radio.

But I didn't LOVE William Shatner until, I believe, the 90s. One day, I saw an interview with him, during which he described how he felt about women. A wickedly funny man, he is, but also very tender hearted, very loving, prone to tear up under the right circumstances. At that moment, he stole my heart. Changed forever was my opinion that in real life he was a Captain Kirk type, which aside from the fuzzy tribbles episode, was not all that loveable. Captain Kirk was a Night at the Roxbury - William Shatner is a sweet, funny, charming and romantic person.

So I heard the other day that he was on Twitter. So I followed him. At which point the DH declared emphatically that no way was WS (whom he loves) on Twitter.

So tonight, waiting for instructions about the 48 hour film rendezvous point, I see a tweet from my beloved WS. I think - wth? I'll tweet him.

And smack me and call me Edna if four minutes later I don't get a response from him!!!

I love you William Shatner. And I don't care who knows it.

Surely this is a good omen for the movie we're making this weekend.

LOVEYAMEANITBYE.

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What Color Means

Sometimes, when there's something really important to say - and I mean really important - you don't say it with a speech or a thesis or an equation. The most important things in the world are communicated with the very simplest things.

Examples? A hug. A kiss. A wink. A smile.

And...

Color.

Want a song to make the point? Try this

Each of these communicate a powerful idea with just color. It's why Black Widows are black and red, and Tigers are orange and black.

Color is understood by every living creature instantly, and always means something. Sometimes it's the difference between life and death.

This week, we had green, the color of the protest in the Iranian election. Doesn't matter why, doesn't matter what it means - it is green. And as you remember it, for whatever it becomes later, you will without thinking, remember the color of the images.

Suddenly, one day, someone came up with a one-click green overlay for users' icons on Twitters to show solidarity with the idea of democracy. My timeline filled up with sort of ghostly green versions of my Tweople. It was interesting. There was very little talk, and a sea of twittery green.

All of our technology, all of our news, and blogs, and RSS feeds, and streaming video, and it all is clearly, perfectly, wordlessly communicated with just... green.

As an artist, I couldn't resist it. So today I don't think I'll give you a whole card. I think I'll just give you some color. The primary colors, to be exact.

I know everyone has been talking about their new SU goodies, and I also know times are hard for many many crafty people across the red, white & blue. So I would say that you don't need something new to make something new. I went for the Watercolor Wonder Crayons. I bought these when they first came out and they're still among my faves. So easy to use. Just little scribbles of color

and blend with an aquapainter. I used watercolor paper.

And a few final things.

I'm way behind on my Maddie stamp notecard sets, so please forgive me. They're coming! :)

Second, I am doing the 48 hour film competition this weekend, so wish me luck. I won't get much sleep!

Third, I got my Sockington shirt the other day and it's sooooo cute! He said to send pics of them in and I did and I was the first one and won his secret Sockington contest.. Here is his four footed bloggings about it.

Of course, as Linda calls them - S&M (hee hee) - could care less and wonder when they're getting their own website with 600,000 followers.

For various reasons, we believe one of their parents was a Siamese. Head shape, vocalization, their body type. What's funny is that Maddie has a normal Siamese howly talk. Splotchy however, has a crazy squeak that is a cross between the mermaid noises Darryl Hannah made in Splash, and a coyote. I'll have to record it.

Until then, Splotchy and his sleepy shadow would like to say TGIF.

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Caller of the Day

I was the caller of the day into the two funniest men in America's show yesterday :)

Click here, and then play on the little media player upper right..

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Psychedelic Mushrooms, LSD and the Iranian Election

See? This is what happens when I can't think of a title. I will probably get some weird traffic now, which is fun. My friend Jennifer over at These Are Days & I love to peek at the keywords that drive people to our site. This oughta be good. Heyyyy mushroom eaters - sorry - it's a paper arts blog. But I bet some of my stuff looks EXTRA cool when you're all hopped up on mullahs and LSD.

Freaky, baby.

But really what I have today is another contest & magazine entry and also, most importantly, a card for my beloved former boss. Hey Bob - no peeking! :) Leave the site immediately!

Whew - he's gone. Now I can show you.

I used the new Circle Circus set, which I'll probably use unceasingly for months. It has sooo many uses!!

And it was simple - some of the new in colors, the matching circle punches, and my silver holiday thread.

Badabing.

Happy Birthday Bob. I miss you. :)

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Again with the Monday?

I swear they are not spaced at 7 day intervals.

MAYBE IT'S JUST ME!

But I think not. The mood dramatically changes on Twitter each Monday. Everyone is all happy and lovey all weekend and then BAM - it's a Twitscape full of headaches and exhaustion, despair.

How long will we go without a ban?

But guess what? Here on Understand Blue, Monday will always make you smile!! It's...

YAY!!

And I finally have winners from the last two. I'm terrible at picking because everyone makes me smile, so there are multitudes of winners..

First, from June 8th, Carolyn wins with her bull joke and Sue wins with the Loris, which I've forwarded more times than anything else in the history of email. I seriously watch that every day!!!

Then from June 1st - Three winners!! Loved these stories - the Crisco joke from Candy Diaz, the bottomless jumper from Oma and Chris' story about the kitten stealer!!

Email me your addresses for goodies, ladies!!

XXOO,

Me.

Oh yeah - and Make me Laugh in a comment today for more prizes!!

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It's a Sundae...

With a cherry on top!

I had a lot of work to do, but I got a couple surprises along the way that made it all really super fun. Fire up your ADD - there are a lot of topics in this post!!

First - the most exciting news.. One of my FAVORITE blogs - ModernCat - featured me today!

Well, actually, they featured Sassy Maddie!!This is such an honor for me, because Kate, who runs this site, is not just a sweet, warm hearted ailurophile, but she finds the most AMAZING designs. It's my favorite eye candy every day in my tromp through Google Reader. Please check out her site. Thanks Kate - you are a doll.

Next, to cheer myself up on a so-not-lazy Sunday, I wore this fabby bracelet from one of my beloved Twitter pals - Bunny (@holyxuxa) who makes the most GORGEOUS jewelry.

Here's my horribly freckly arm with her lovely glowy bracelet on it. You can find her site here.Then, I found out that Splotchy knows how to work the window locks. Can stealing my car be far behind??

Aww - but look how cute he is.

Then, finally, a card or two before tonight's work starts.

This gorgeous bird set is a hostess set from the upcoming catalog - it's called Wings of friendship. I thought of it today because summer can be a bummer when your friends sprout wings and take off on vacation.

But come back, they do :).

I stamped the bird in Ballet blue on some old sheet music.

I shaded around it with a pencil and outlined it with my Micron.

The sheet music makes it technically a Reanimation.

Would you like to see another? Click here.

Enjoy the dwindling weekend hours... Why do they go so fast?

LOVEYAMEANITBYE.

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The Venn Diagram and Other Things I Never Thought I'd blog About...

As you may have noticed, I'm a wee bit of a right brainer. Basically - finger paints ring my bell.

So I don't typically talk about magnetic induction and Venn diagrams EXCEPT when they mean something to my art or life. As a matter of fact, magnetic induction charges your cell phone, and some Venn diagrams can explain.. well - what we should all be doing. So today - Venn rules.

Think about this for a sec. Look closely at "Learn to say No" and "Learn to Monetize". Feel free to discuss in the comments.

Today was fun. Called my beloved talk radio twice. Had a fun brainstormy meeting at work.

However, I also realized that I completely failed you, which is weighing heavy on my heart!!! You need free stamps, right? 

I was part of a challenge that was published in this month's Technique Junkie newsletter by Pat Huntoon. You may be a subscriber. Pat is one of the very first people I connected with when I started stamping, and her technique service is amazing. This month, she featured our own insanely talented Irene - the artist behind the Doodle Factory stamps I love so much. Irene invented an impressionist technique that wowed us all, and it wowed Pat too, so it's the technique of the month! Starving Artistamps is celebrating this wow with a huge stamp giveaway!! All the new DF releases!!!

BUT - There are only three more days left for you to enter this contest (my fault)!!! And right now there are only a few entries, so your chances are good. Time's a wastin! Click here for deets.

For my card in this challenge, I did a spoof of Edvard Munch's The Scream. 

My apologies, but mine is cuter ;)

How perfect was Yapples for this???

I hope you're having a fabby Friday. 

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Today, Take a Walk

You have an assignment today.

I'm going to give you some music to listen to while you read what your homework is. If you don't see a music player, click over to the blog. You'll need it.

Today - Take a walk. Through your art. 

I subscribe to hundreds of blogs. Sometimes I have more than a thousand unread posts because I don't have time every day to look through them. But I love em all.

And as I spend more time with each one, I could guess the artist at 20 paces for most of the consistent bloggers. Whether you think you do or not, you have a style. You gravitate towards certain things and you repeat and refine them. And that's a good thing. 

I had a great conversation with a coworker this week about how differently people see you than you see yourself. If you get just the right friend, they may describe you to yourself. You may be surprised. If so, that's very cool. You just met someone new :).

So is the case with your art. Look at it like someone else would for a day or two. This is hard. Harder than it sounds. Get someone to help you. Make them describe your style. Then refine it. This is who you are when you create. Don't change it - intensify it. It's your true talent. 

I think if I took a walk through all my art I'd find little monsters popping out more often than not. Lots of animals. Few people. Quirkiness. Irreverence. Humor. I think I'm a little offbeat.  I like to make fairly clean, defined designs. I like vivid colors. 

But here's the good part. 

That's not what I like to look at. I love ooh-ing and aahing over the shabby chic girls. The vintage and collage artists. The mixed media people. All the things I can't make look good. I love them. I wish I had those skills. But I come home to what I do, and try to make it better.

Now I would never give you an assignment without a prize. 

So here's the deal. You study your art. You leave me a comment on this post by Sunday at 5PM central telling me your objective description of your style.

I will give one of you the Martha Stewart Encyclopedia of Crafts. :) I won one for the blog header contest, and I had already bought one, so one is for you. Be honest. Be descriptive. Be timely. :)

In my crazy imagined world that I turned to art, I would see people walking down the street with owls for balloons.So I made my world. :)

I used the new Animal Stories set, with Summer Sun, Dusty Durango, Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point Blue and Black to create this card for this month's Stampin' Success contest. The greeting is with the new Modern Label punch. Fun, yeah? I'd love to see someone sassing their hiney down the street with floaty owls on strings. I just would.

Hope you have a great Thursday. I can't wait to see what you tell me.

(PS - this version of this song is not the best one. The best one is available on Itunes. It's by Katie Reider. I'm sad to learn that Katie died last year on July 14th. She had the voice of an angel, and this song is a lifetime favorite. RIP Katie. XO, me.)

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YAY!!!!!

I won the Grand Prize in the MindBites Screencast for Cash contest!!

A panel of independent judges picked my video out of a ton of great entries, and I'm so giddy!!

I won a software bundle from TechSmith that includes Camtasia - which is the editing software that lets you record your screen and edit audio and video, and SnagIt which is a screen capture tool.

I believe you can still watch the video for free on MindBites if you want to learn how to set up Google Alerts.

Makes for a happy week, it does!

I have two adorable birthday cards to post but haven't had time the last few days. I'll try again today! :)


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What If You Loved Like Steve Jobs?

No matter what you're reading this on, you have to admit - Steve Jobs has changed the world.

Probably the business leader I admire most, this man has defined innovation in my lifetime.

But as much as I love the creativity, and my Ipod and those crazy beautiful thin laptops and the white glow of the Apple Store, you know what I REALLY love?

I love how much he LOVES those things.

How do I know he loves them?

Because every touch is beautiful. The box. The advertising. The icons. The stores. The abandonment of every traditional marketing strategy for lavish adoration of the product in every possible medium. I love this love. It's at the heart of his greatness and it is love that makes Apple great.

So I have a card, and two videos for you to illustrate this love.

First - the card. The colors are new (Crushed Curry and Bermuda Bay), the owl is new (Animal Stories) and the ribbon is new. The greeting, is from Love Owlways - retired, but exactly what I wanted to say today.It is possible to love something into perfection. And that's just what he has done.

So two videos. The first one is to show you what the same great product would be without the love - it's hilarious. So here you go - if you don't see a video here, click over to the blog.

The second is a look inside the heart of this great man.

I love him - he's perfect. :)

Don't forget - it's Make Me Laugh Monday!! Leave a comment on this post that makes me laugh the hardest and win a prize!!



I have to say, you guys made it really hard on me last Monday. I'm going to have to ponder some more and let you know the winner of last week's tomorrow. It's hard to pick between the kitten snatcher, the bottomless trampoliner, mooning a train, barking at your butt, Eskimo jokes, kidnappings and walking toilets. I'M JUST SAYIN.

XO,

me

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Unexpected Delights

Like an unexpected thank you gift from your new favorite company - Cambria Cove - of some forget-to-breathe-beautiful cards.... inside two even more beautiful boxes, and accompanied by a HAND WRITTEN note.

Completely bowled over that a place that values human to human contact as highly as they do has found a prime spot in our busy electronic world. I love you, Cambria Cove! XO.

Or what about the delight in finding a package in my mailbox that contained some lovingly handmade soap from my friend Linda, owner of Shambala Soap?

When I walked to the mailbox I thought - DANG - those mountain laurels smell heavenly this year.

But it was no mountain laurel. It was this gorgeous and yummy smelling handmade soap. She sent me three kinds, in stunning wraps. I didn't want to take them out - but she said she would yell at me if I used them as decorations instead of as soap! I used the Goat Milk one today and it's amazing - beautiful texture and it smells incredible!! They are all natural, and cruelty free - no dye either. The herbs are from her own organic garden. Check out her website here, or follow her on Twitter - @shambalasoap - because in addition to her gorgeous soap art, you will find a warm, sweet and funny lady.

Speaking of funny, how about a laugh this lazy Sunday? A Melon Mambo colored elephanty laugh?

How could a teeny tiny elephant doing a little can-can not make you laugh?? And - that's right - new color! The card base and ribbon are Melon Mambo. The tissue paper flower is made with the tissue from my first Cambria Cove box and has a pink rhinestone brad in the center. The "laugh" is a rub-on from the Bright Delight set. The elephant is the new Animal Stories critter, and I highlighted him and the text with my white gel pen. (all supplies Stampin' Up!) Simple & quick, and again - just using some of the 8,000 things already on my desk! :) Necessity is the mother of invention! WAY easier than organizing the studio, yes? :)

Are you digging the polka dot ribbon yet?

I hope you're having a great Sunday - I'm procrastinating a bunch of work I have to do. I feel like being lazy. *sigh*

CU tomorrow :)

LOVEYAMEANITBYE

Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :)

Want to see my other blog?