How You Know Your Cats Have Been Hanging Out With Charlie Sheen...

You find your cat in a Shiner Bock box, 9 beers missing, his little tongue poking out and a glazed look on his face.

You find his sister upside down in the dryer.
They are no longer allowed to hang out with psychotic drunk celebrities while I'm at work. I can't believe I didn't have that rule before now.

Well I've been busy creating cards for the VSN challenges this weekend and I've had so much fun and made 10 cards so far! I've had my live craft web cam running for each challenge I've made, and if you are so bored that you want to watch me stamp, with occasional cameos by the party cats, tune in later today and I'll be on air.

This was my card for the first challenge, which was a sketch challenge representing the chambers of the human heart, which I thought was a very cool way to kick it all off!

I combined it with Free For All Friday challenge to make a tropical or Asian themed card and I came up with this..
I loved using the nice warm and bright Poppy Parade with Sahara Sand for a good pop of contrast. The stamp is Easter Blossoms and the greeting is from Sentimental Journey.

I just stamped the image three times. Once on the background, once on a piece of Sahara Sand, and another one on a scrap of Poppy Parade. I then carefully cut out a few teeny flowers and stuck them on with mini Glue Dots. Then I added chrome bling from Recollections in the center of the flowers and made little teeny dots with my white gel pen on the background and in some of the flowers. I think I was thinking about pollen because I've sneezed for three months straight.

The background paper is from a Patterns Pack stack.

I took an 8" tall stack of hoarded 12x12 to Kinko's this week and had them cut it into 6x6. It's now sorted by color, binder clipped together and is not only taking up a ton less room but is a lot easier to reach for, cut and use when I'm ready. *pats self on back*

Between that and the envelopes I've been making out of some of it with my Martha Stewart Scoreboard/Envelope Maker I'm feeling sort of organize-y. Tons to go, but it's a start.

What have you been up to this weekend? Tying one on with Charlie Sheen and hanging out in the dryer?

What it all Means...

I have no idea what it all means. But what I do know is I had some BIZARRE dreams this weekend!

I have this theory about my dreams. I had my appendix out when I was 10. Because it was in the olden days and because the initial anaesthesia wasn't working (I'm one of those people that it doesn't work on) they gassed me with ether and something else. Ether has a gross sweet taste/smell that is sort of like vodka, which is why I have never liked vodka. But I digress.

Since that surgery, I have always had extremely vivid dreams - pretty much every night. I think the ether or the other stuff modified the dream part of my brain. This weekend's dreams were spectacular.

Exhibit A - Dream #1. I was in a large mall type thing that was like the Gaylord in Nashville - a massive place with restaurants and bars and stores and hotel rooms. I was walking on some metal stairs and I dropped my phone. It fell into a place that was closed off with gates. I asked someone who worked there for help, and when I showed him where it was he told me we couldn't go get it because that was one of the places they let the prisoners into. Yeah. I know. He told me that they brought prisoners into this mall and let them frolic around in certain areas and that it was super dangerous to go into those areas because apparently it was just a prisoner free for all, and you'd pretty much get your head chopped off. I should have asked about what sort of company would insure a place like that! Anyway, I really wanted my phone, so he said he would talk to maintenance. In the meantime I asked where the restrooms were. He showed me to this place that suddenly looked like a very fancy Victorian house - with deep pink carpets and pretty white furniture. As I came into the dressing room area before the bathroom, I noticed a pair of adorable bunny slippers - THAT WERE HOPPING ALL OVER THE FLOOR LIKE REAL BUNNIES! It was so cute I couldn't believe it and I reached for my phone to film it, and then had a sad, because of course I didn't have my phone. The little bunny slippers hopped under some furniture and I left. The maintenance guy got my phone, and then Splotchy (in real life) hissed at a cat in the back yard and woke me up.

Exhibit B - Dream #2. The next night, I dreamed I was on a trip to Spain. The group I was with had a dinner planned at some restaurant that was supposed to be great. We went in and were told to sit at a bar to see the menu. Well the "menu" was actually teeny bottles - sort of like airplane liquor bottles, but smaller - with a sample of each menu item inside it. We had to try to taste each of these little bottles to decide what we wanted. You can imagine what trying to get paella out of a teeny tiny bottle was like. I was so mad and hungry I woke up.

See? Bizarre.

After all that, it was time for simplicity! I created this...
The flowers are two-step stamps from Fast & Fabulous - a hostess set. I stamped the solid parts with Cool Caribbean and the outlines and the greeting with Early Espresso. I like the off-register printing look - that sort of 40's graphic design that is in vogue right now and I think these images are perfect for it.

The greeting is from Bring on the Cake.

Hey guess what is coming up this weekend?? Virtual Stamp Night! A whole weekend of fun challenges and even more fun chatter. Wanna play? I'd love to get stampy with all of you - it's like an online stampy pajama party! Check out the deets here.

Feel free to leave a comment with your craziest dream ever!

Sand Flat Shadows...

For those of you who don't know where the name of my blog comes from, you should read a beautiful little story called Sand Flat Shadows.

Or, you could just look at this beautiful picture (courtesy of this site) and understand...

Or this one...
Aaah that makes my brain happy.

My card today is super simple.. I CASE'd a really beautiful card which you can see here.

It was a fun card to do with my monthly class peeps! Just stamp the image full strength once and then stamp twice more without reinking to get the paler flowers. Very fun.

Stamps: Baby Blossoms, Clearly For You Paper: Crumb Cake, Sweet Stitches, Very Vanilla
Ink: Rose Red, River Rock, Basic Black
Accessories: Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Vanilla Rosettes, Pearls

What are you guys up to this weekend? Something crafty? I'm making a movie for the 48 hour film festival with my bro & sis. We have 48 hours after we get our genre assignment to write, film, and edit the movie and turn it in. It's always an adventure! Here's the last movie my brother did for this festival, with my dad in the leading role :)



If you don't see a video player, click here to watch the movie...

A Little Bit of Magic

This post is rated F for Fairies. I know some of you (Emily) are scared of them, so I want to warn you of fairy content so that you can look away... :)

Remember the first time you saw the Wizard of Oz and it went from black and white to color? Was that not magic?? Don't you wish you could do that in real life?

That's what this image reminded me of. I loved fairy stories when I was little and I love the idea of sparkly little Tinkerbells painting our wildflowers.

I used Roxie's sketch challenge for the layout, and colored the image with C3 and C5 Copics, and a YR16. Then I added glitter and used some old Halloween DSP to coordinate with my grey & orange. The set and the paper are retired.
These magical moments are everywhere you know. The other day, after my monthly stampy meeting with Yvonne and Chris, I decided to take one of the QUEEN of organization's ideas (Yvonne's) and take my giant stacks and stacks of retired 12x12 DSP I've been hoarding and cut it into 6x6, which is the more sensible and useful size for cardmakers.

I took it a step further, and made it into ingenious pads, which you can see in this video, which I made very late at night when I was working on the Fan Club gallery and had to whisper.



If you don't see a video player above, click here for this exciting, and very quiet, video.

One whole drawer of DSP yielded two of these 6x6 pads, and since each drawer will fit at least 8, I should cut my storage space into about a fourth of what it takes up now. How about THAT for a dollar?? Magic, yes?

There's NOT an App For That...

On my walk on Saturday, I encountered several interesting things.

The Loudest Woman in the World (capitalized because it's quite obviously her official title) was in my Starbucks BELLOWING some very cheery conversations with the baristas. Our Starbucks is very loud. It's all tile, the busiest and largest store in town, and has a very tall ceiling and loud music. Despite what is at times deafening ambient coffeeshop sounds, this lady triumphed with her unusual vocal chords and grit. When I came in she was screaming at one of our boy baristas, asking him what store he was moving to. He was visibly uncomfortable, knowing that adjacent counties had now been alerted to his whereabouts. It seemed to go on forever, although she was very chipper. I think my mouth was actually open in amazement. Finally, it ended, with an earsplitting TOODLE-OO!! I think she was just as happy as she was loud.

I made my way to the counter to get my post walk Strawberry Smoothie, and immediately induced S.A.D.S. - or Starbucks App Derangement Syndrome - in my fellow customers by paying with my sassy Iphone App, which I love. Especially when I walk, it's nice not to have to carry anything extra. People in line always ooh and ahh and freak out and touch my phone when I use it. I feel like the modern equivalent of a Salem Witch - with irresistible and mysterious powers.

But oh did I discover the dark side of this technological wonder. I open the door to leave and what do I see? The world's most adorable teeny scout with cookies. She asked if I wanted to buy some, and it was gut wrenching to have to say "No, I don't have any money..." She looked crushed. :( I felt like calling Steve Jobs right then and there and demanding a Girl Scout Cookie App! I'm sure she was glaring at my smoothie and thinking "Well what did you buy THAT with?? Some glass beads??" Sigh.

Before we leave the Starbucks topic, I have to say - their new food is wonderful. Starbucks food has always been bad. Dry, frozen, tasteless pastries and stale bagels for years. But their new slogan - Great Coffee Deserves Great Food - on their packaging is not just marketing. The new stuff is really, really good. If you haven't tried the Bacon Artisan breakfast sandwich - do it. It's awesome. And their packages of glazed almonds are amazing! So nice transformation, Starbucks! You won over a hardened critic!

I laughed at some tweets this morning by single people about Valentine's Day - they've renamed it S.A.D. - Single Awareness Day. People are so creative. I say if you're single, enjoy it - you just saved yourself a few hundred bucks and some lip gloss! :)

Since I love all of you, this is my valentine for you! I made this at a fun Craft-Up with some Twitter peeps last week. I love crafty work nights with fun people. We all need to do that more. This one is really simple and quick so it was perfect for a work night. I stamped the girl on watercolor paper and then used an Aquapainter with Tempting Turquoise and Summer Sun refills to color her. The card base is Real Red, the DSP is Love Letter (an accident, I promise) and then I added a strip of Glimmer Paper and some glitter on her little heart. 5 minute card.

I'm feeling sort of organiz-y lately. I re-did my ink storage and reclaimed a TON of space on my desk and then I put up my Chalkboard Decor Elements on the side of my bookcase. I got this sucker free from Sale-A-Bration and it's the PERFECT size for the side of my Ikea bookcase. Now I just need some chalk. :)

Don't forget - tonight the Fan Club Gallery opens for February and we have two new Dirty Girls to wow you! That's what I'll be doing at midnight. You should hang out with me!

Hope you have a fabby night. I'll leave you with what my friend Lori Craig posted today. God Bless John Wayne!

All the gold in the United States Treasury and all harp music in heaven can't equal what happens between a man and a woman growin' together. I can't explain it any better than that. ~ John Wayne, McLintock!

It's Good to be the Queen...

I saw the King's Speech.

If you have not seen this movie yet, RUN, don't walk, to your nearest theater and see it.

Those of you who are oohing and aahing over Colin Firth right now, please squelch - no one else can hear what I'm saying!! Try to focus!! Everytime I try to start talking about this movie, someone FAINTS over this man. I need you to hang on. Try thinking about bacon or something.

Anyway, I loved the movie nine ways to Sunday. Since I have an ancestral, hair-stands-up-on-the-back-of-my-neck-quick-reach-for-your-musket-and-get-your-revolution-on reaction to royalty, I adored the Australian irreverence for the crown most especially at the beginning of the story. I loved the humanity of the royal family, and I loved seeing a tiny pretend queen Elizabeth.

I thought one of the saddest moments in the movie was when the newly-kinged man's daughters curtsied and called him your Royal Highness - the look on his face (stop drooling) alone was Academy Award worthy.

I'm not sure I've ever seen human frailty done better, really, or seen a more vivid picture of the prison that the royal family lives in. It's different from just the fame prison because you can't escape your DNA. You're just stuck there learning to curtsy at age 2 and hoping some other brother or sister gets picked.

I'm fairly certain that I would have been kicked out quicker than old David was - because I'm nearly positive that curtsying thing would have been a deal breaker in my toddlerhood. I have no idea what they're feeding those kids over there, but it's definitely short on SASS.

And although the movie is such a beautiful ode to courage and friendship, I left with three words on my mind... God Bless America.

I prefer my royalty with a little more....

SASS

There's a creature that knows it's good to be the queen!

I was so excited that this movie, today's Free for All Friday challenge, and my new Antidepresstamps Royalty stamp set all converged today, to send all of you off into the weekend feeling Queenly.

I stamped the crown from this set in Poppy Parade on a circle I cut with my 3" circle die. Then I stamped it again in Versamark, clear embossed it, and then sponged Summer Sun ink all over it.

Then I added some Recollections silver bling that Beate got me hooked on.

The card base is Poppy Parade, and all the patterned paper is from the In Color Paper Patterns Pack. Bringing in the blingy floofy fun are pom pom trim and a trinket crown. The greeting is also from the Royalty set.

I'm hoping for a quiet, crafty weekend, with of course deferential service to Queen Maddie Bat. My sweet friend Jimmye Sue of Texana Designs is having a trunk show tomorrow at Scrapology - you should come! She's doing make & takes and showing off her latest designs from 12-5.

What are you doing? Whatever you're doing, I hope it's fun!

Loveyameanitbye

Cocoon Country

I really don't understand the obsession with cocoons.

This time of year is very stressful for me, because I'm constantly being told about Pajamagrams on TV. If you were not aware of these before today, I apologize. If it's not them, it's the Vermont Teddy bears. Both make me want to run screaming from the TV.

I really can't wait to get back to commercials for the automatic battery operated stirring things for people who really can't be bothered with stirring their soup, or perhaps the ads for Slap Chop. At this point I'd even take a Shake Weight ad to get away from the Pajamagrams.

But here's what I don't get. Why are we in a cocoon decade? Why must Americans be completely encased in fleece at all times? Is it global warming? Does everyone have a rash? Is it the bedbug epidemic?

Let's take a look at what's happening.

There's the Slanket:
The Hoodie Footie (and yes, it's marketed as lingerie - the super fun part is that the FEET ZIP OFF - not even kidding):

And of course the ubiquitous Snuggie. Or, if you have a really ferocious bedbug infestation or belong to a cult, there's the Snuggie for two:
What if you have to run from a bear? Are their lawsuits involving people suddenly having to get up, (perhaps to admire the free hat box included with every Pajamagram) becoming hopelessly entangled in their 3 acres of fleece and falling and cracking their skulls on the coffee table? I'd just like to know those statistics.

In honor of our falling body temperatures and flight from dignity, I made a quilt card.

Our tutorial today is the quilted card technique, which is made for anti-cocoon, sewing impaired folks such as yours truly.

It's really kind of mesmerizing, actually, because the little patterns have to be perfect - there's not really any way to get them wrong. I enjoyed the heck out of it. After you piece it together, you can run it through an embossing folder for the "quilting".

I used this quilt pattern, some First Edition DSP, Sweet Stitches DSP and the Sew Suite stamp set. So fun, easy and no hat box, footies or cocoon required :)

Come play along and make a quilt card - I'd love to see a link! Unless of course, you're trapped under three acres of fleece.

In which case - God bless and have a warm and bedbug free day!

A Post Marketing America

Well yesterday was the Superbowl. I was very happy to see a team I've loved since childhood play another team I've loved since childhood and even more happy that my favorite won.

I will confess that I stopped watching regular season games a few years ago because of the behavior of the NFL and the players. The sport has really lost its appeal for me because of the elevation of monsters like Michael Vick. It also puzzles me that OJ Simpson retains his Hall of Fame status and yet Pete Rose is barred. I like baseball better anyway, so it's okay, but I think it needs to be said sometimes. But what do I know? I'm just a girl. :)

However, the Superbowl does still have something for me as a devotee of all things marketing and advertising. I'm addicted to great advertising. I'd have a hard time choosing between a Sugar Mama's cupcake and beautiful Absolut Vodka print ad. Or between this commercial and a two week vacation in Hawaii. That's how much I love great commercial messages.

So I was very much looking forward to this year's "Brand Bowl" as its affectionately called among those of us who are marketing junkies.

I'm sure you can imagine my horror, then, when instead of hilarious and inspiring and memorable (in a positive way) commercials yesterday, I saw a man licking Dorito dust off a coworker's fingers and PANTS, a baby being thrown against a window (Home Away), an incredibly offensive joke about Tibet's struggles with China (Groupon), a Pepsi commercial you had to send kids out of the room for (and there were a lot of kids in the room) and an old man coughing diesel smoke (BMW). There were really horrified reactions in our group, which was by no means a collection of overly sensitive and humorless people. The ads were just... GROSS.

After the shock and urge to wash my hands wore off, I realized what we saw is the result of mass layoffs of marketing teams over the last few years since the recession really bit us. Marketing departments were the first to go. Second was the outsourced marketing. Apparently some of these companies were left with coming up with their own advertising ideas, in consultation with perhaps 12 year old boys who had had a case of Mountain Dew and agreed to give their expert opinions for free.

If you are on Twitter and watched the wave of reactions to these ads - I watched them in real time and it was quite the tsunami of pans - you saw that these companies probably got the message that they should go on a hiring spree, stat. Some of them may not recover from that debacle. We will see. Sincerity wins, so perhaps a sincere response to a mistake will do more for them than a decent ad would have.

However, I say, all the more reason to make your next car either a Volkswagen or a Chrysler, based on these two absolutely wonderful ads.




Well done. Hit all the right notes.

So to combat the low budget weirdness, I bring you the closest I could get to Green Bay colors without just being weird. :) I picked Peach Parfait instead of gold and Wild Wasabi for the green. The sweet little girl is from Greeting Card Kids and the embossing folder is Finial Press. It's VERY simple and quick - really fun card. If you like it, I'll be teaching a class with this as one of our cards in a few weeks - so if you want to come - email me! In the meantime, I'll be bleaching my brain to rid it of some of yesterday's visuals! :D

Loveyameanitbye.

SNOMG

SNOMG!

REALLY!!! It snowed night before last and I woke up to a good two inches of gorgeous, powdery, ski-worthy snow.

Although this fact is clearly a sign of the apocalypse, I enjoyed it immensely! When I got up, I busted out my white trash Texas ice scraper - a hotel key from my trip to Nashville, and I scraped a head sized hole on my windshield. There is no point in scraping anything larger than that for several reasons:

• I don't have any gloves
• I'm not going very far
• It will be 70 degrees in a few hours

I then enjoyed for a few moments in my driveway that special and beautiful silence that only snow can bring. I love that particular silence more than any silence.

Then I set out on my journey to Starbucks, blazing a trail in the snow and ice on my untraveled street. I almost hoped to run into Matlock or someone else who could solve a mystery with just tracks in our unusual snow.

Fortified by what I'm certain was only three, not four, shots of espresso I returned to begin my snow day. This necessitated some Immaculate Baking Company Cranberry Orange Scones, just to make life worth living while snowbound.

Since I telecommute, I did not get a day off. But I did manage to make my customary, once every 50 years tiny snowman.

And I decided to make a card commemorating that thing which is especially important during these dark, cold, quiet days - CAFFEINE!!How fun is that little teabag? I just folded that out of vellum paper and just stapled some twine from my pantry to it. The stamps are from Morning Cup, and the paper is Crumb Cake and First Edition (with the Scalloped Border Punch and Early Espresso ribbon) And I colored the teapot with markers to look like that enamelware you use when you're camping. And by "you're" - I do mean you. I don't sleep outside. I'm not sure if everyone is aware of this, but that is where they keep the scorpions and stuff. In the "outside". No thank you.

Hope you have a fun Saturday afternoon!

Bunnehlolograms

Need the exact opposite of winter about right now?

I have the cure. Bunneh geometry.

Why didn't they use things like this to teach us math? Do you REALLY think you would have forgotten a bunnehlologram on your final exam? I think not. I think the room would have been filled with smiling people with bunnies in their heads is what I think.


So now that you're all fuzzy and happy I have a little consumer tip for you.

I have been being tortured to death by a company called Red Plum.

DAILY I get snail mail spam from these people - a giant coupon publication the size of the Sunday New York Times, with loose postcards and assorted trash stuffed inside it so that it all falls all over the sidewalk when I pry it free from my mailbox to throw it in the garbage. It makes me insane. I've done return to sender (that doesn't work) and thrown away more than I can count. I wish Google controlled the mail. They do a much better job filtering junk than our friends in the white trucks.

So I finally found the secret rabbit hole you disappear down to remove yourself from their mailing list, and thought I'd share it with you. Click HERE to remove yourself from the scourge of paper and take back your mailbox. :)

Aaah. That warms my heart.

Which comes in handy today, because the Ways To Use It Challenge is to use a heart on your card. I wanted sort of a vintagey look today so I did a few things.

First, I inked up my Heart Pressed Letterpress Plate with Versamark and ran it through the Big Shot on a Crumb Cake card.

Then, I inked the Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder in Crumb Cake and embossed a 2.5" circle of Very Vanilla, which is so fun - the ink and embossing make paper look like embossed tin. I just run my folders under water after I do this. I probably wouldn't do this technique with permanent ink unless you are as fast as a ninja cleaning. I tied Vanilla Seam Binding around the card front and attached the embossed medallion and a heart I punched out of Glimmer Paper. I tied a Trinket Key around the seam binding with Hemp Twine.

Then I did sort of a faux Nestabilities tag - I punched a sponging template out of a scrap with my small oval punch, sponged Crumb Cake onto Very Vanilla inside that oval, and then punched that out with a scalloped oval punch. I added pearls on the tag and on the medallion.

The greeting is from Artistic Etchings.
One of my fave cards to make are cards with just one pop of color on kraft. I don't know why that's so fun, but it is. I guess the human eye loves contrast.

If you're a scrapbooker and you're snowed in this weekend - get in your PJs and come hang out with us at Virtual Scrapbooking Night - fun challenges all weekend, totally free, and no fancy clothes required!

Not so Rolling Blackouts

Well today we learned that Texas has no idea how to manage energy.

Yeah, it's cold. Really cold. We have twenties and wind gusts up to 60 mph and it will get worse tonight.

But it's three days of cold. For which, apparently, we don't have enough juice. Actually we don't have enough for today. Good to know. They started rolling blackouts this morning, which weren't rolling, because some neighborhoods had three one hour blackouts in a row and some neighborhoods had none.

I could see if we had months of 18 degrees that we might have a grid problem. But really? One day? Even Maddie could manage things a bit better than that, I'm fairly certain - one solution has already been proposed by a LOLcat.So there you go.

It's just a blog in the dark. :) Heh heh.

One thing that does not require power or heat is stamping, so I decided I'd give today's Faux Pressed Flower Tutorial a shot.

I got out some new toys for this venture, and this is what I did. First, I attached some Sweet Stitches Fabric to a Big Shot Multipurpose Adhesive Sheet. This is like a Xyron for your Big Shot. Very fun. Then I die cut some flowers with my Fun Flowers die by running this fabric on the sheet through the Big Shot.

Next, I peeled the backing off the adhesive sheets on the flowers and stuck them down on some white cardstock. Then I took that piece and embossed it with the square lattice folder. See how it smooshes the fabric into the paper? So pretty!
The rest is so easy! I put a piece of Sticky Strip down, scooched up some Pear Pizazz Seam binding on it, and on the other side, added a Sweet Stitches button, and added the "for you" from Clearly For you on a 1 3/8" circle of Whisper White.In the center of the flowers, I added glimmer brads, and the card base is Tempting Turquoise.

The center of the button sports some orange ribbon I got from an MFT VIP Kit,in honor of a momentous moment in my crafting life.

I've saved up this new for when I could show you a sewing themed card with my new toys.

It's totally okay if you get all verklempt and start crying and making a speech when I tell you this too. So here goes....

Fiskars has been the Coca-Cola of crafting my whole life. Those orange scissors in my mom's sewing room - yes, the ones we weren't supposed to touch, but we snuck them out and pulled nails with them anyway or cut sheet metal and snuck them back in - were the sole icon of crafts in all of my decades of crafting - as recognizable as the Apple apple or the Nike swoosh. There just weren't any other scissors.

Even if there were, they wouldn't have been as cool. Everyone knew THESE scissors on sight. They took a tool that was necessary and unremarkable and made it a sassy, ubiquitous brand.

They are the pinnacle of all things snippy and sewy and I'm pretty sure Home Depot stole their colors. #justsayin.

So when I opened a box I got in the mail, an orange light shone out, unicorns pranced and mermaids sang as I beheld....


MY FISKATEERS SCISSORS! NEVER TO BE TOUCHED BY A SOUL OTHER THAN MYSELF! UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH!

Ahh, engraved with my Fiskateer #7030, no less. I feel like Ralphie when he opened the Red Ryder BB gun.

The best there ever was, Fiskars. The. Best. There. Ever. Was.

The rest of you can now commence calling me by my proper Fiskateer title! :)

Loveyameanitbye

Too Good Not To Share

I haven't updated the Blue List in a while, so I thought it was time to share some AMAZING things I love with you. Because you're cool and I like you. :)

Have you ever found a fantastic recipe, gone to store, bought all the stuff to make it - the spices, the special things you don't normally buy, the veggies you'll use just this once, etc. - and realized that your two servings of Chicken A La Super Glittery Floof just cost you $100??

This happens to me all the time. I go shop for one meal and as I'm checking out I'm all....This costs WWWHHHAAATTTTT?????????
Yeah.

Like that. Nobody says it like Splotch.

The other day I made some $60 soup. Seriously. It's ridiculous. It wasn't even good.

So thankfully, I live in the entrepreneur capitol of the WORLD and also the foodie capitol of the world. We actually are blessed enough with wonderful, innovative food that we lead the nation in the number of meals eaten out per week per person in the US. Trust me - it's not an indication of laziness or debauchery - it's an indication of an off the hook foodie community.

So last week, I tried an Austin institution for the first time - the Soup Peddler. This man's story is amazing. Truly the American dream - delivering homemade soup on his bike to our funky 'burbs until he turned into ... well, a corporation. God bless him. And God bless America.

Except God would not bless him if his food was not TRULY THE MOST AMAZING THING YOU'VE EVER TASTED!

Holy COW. I had the Turkey Portobello Pot Pie and the Potato Leek soup. The Potato Leek soup could be used as a love potion in a Disney movie. The pot pie casts a spell that cannot be broken.

Here's the best part. It was delivered FREE, to my door and it was SUCH a bargain!! Their soup - unlike my $60 pathetic attempt - is about $9 for 32 oz. of bliss. Why did I think I could do that at home? Because I'm crazy and I watch too much Food Network.

I have been reborn, and I understand now. But it's time for a confession.

Here's the part where I failed. On my very first order, I forgot to leave a cooler out for them. I am a failure as a soupie :(. They forgave me, and they left me a temporary one I could return. I felt horrible, as it was the only thing I had to do correctly to receive my amazing food delivered to my doorstep for free. I haz a sad.

So I made them a card.

I realize it doesn't make up for the soup faux pas, but it's what I have. And the Soup Peddler is now a permanent resident on the Blue List.

For my inspiration I used today's color challenge, which I love, since grey is the new black!

The card base is Basic Grey, with River Rock, Whisper White and Newsprint DSP spotlighting the bike from Pedaling Past (retired). On the base image I used a white gel pen.

If you are a fellow Austinite, I hope you try the Soup Peddler. If you're not, look around you and see if someone cool can bring you some good food and save you some money. If there isn't anyone - then maybe you should start your own business. :)