Boobablanca

Confession.

I'm terrible at swaps.

There's no point in hiding from the truth.

I'm never going to be a person who has 200 neatly packaged swaps ready a day, a week or a month before convention or Leadership.

I'm probably not even going to have one ready.

I thought I'd share the truth with you about this year's convention swap. Much of it has been leaked to the press already, so I'll just fill in the details.

I never intended to do general swaps. I honestly just don't have time. Work fills most of my waking hours, and when I have stamping time, I spend it on class prep or my favorite challenges. One of my favorite challenges is happening right now, as a matter of fact - Dare to Get Dirty on Splitcoast. But I digress.

I do, however, like small pre-planned swaps, and I signed up for two of them this year. Lyssa's CQ swap (20 people) and Rebecca's jewelry swap (7 people). For me these are not just manageable* but they are fun and stress free.

* = whatever. nothing is manageable.

So with the best of intentions, I designed and assembled the pieces for Lyssa's swap. Because I was procrastinating packing, laundry and a million other pre-trip details, I cut enough for 51 swaps. I sure was impressed with myself. "Self," I said to myself "you are going to do these on the plane and be very smirky upon your arrival in Utah."

Well my first flight - to Denver - was way too short for swap prep. Flight two, which I had to run for, was another story. I set out my swap pieces on a table that a Borrower would find small and got to work. Part of this swap involved watercoloring with white craft ink, and Coastal Cabana. I only dropped everything once, which I thought was stellar. Working studiously away, the time passed quickly. I think I only got 8 flowers done before it was time to put it all away. I packed it all up, we landed and I headed for the restroom before meeting my friend and downline, Christine, who was arriving shortly after me, for the first time.

Thank God I went to the bathroom. What greeted me in the mirror was me, in my black T-shirt, with one COMPLETELY WHITE BOOB. It was COVERED in craft ink! I must have been leaning over it coloring and totally wiped up all the ink on my tray. Nice. Classy. Good start to the trip! I cleaned it off and met Christine, who didn't hear the story until later.

Now mind you - the swap wasn't until Saturday and this was Monday. Every night I'd have a chance to assemble these swaps. The first night, I even had tons of help - Sue cutting out flowers, Mel coloring. You'd think we'd have finished ONE CARD, but no. Tuesday we are headed back to Kanab from the Grand Canyon, and I'm coloring in the back seat, and Christine is assembling and putting them in envelopes. Are they done? Absolutely not. I don't even have the 20 I need for my swap.

Well forget about Wednesday - that was our first day back in Salt Lake. No biggie, I still had Thursday - I mean, convention didn't even start until Thursday night.

Did I do them Thursday? Heck no.

So Friday night, at about 11:30 PM, poor Sue is sitting in my room cutting out more flowers (with HER scissors) and I'm putting them together. Do I get to 51? Heck no. We squeak out 20 and I show up at my swap on Saturday with no more, no less than I need.

It takes a village to make a swap.

And yes, I now have a box of 31 unassembled swap pieces, and a T-shirt with a white boob print on it.

Do you see why I don't swap?

It's for the best, really.

However, my swap, which I designed for the first Dare to Get Dirty challenge I'm hosting today, I'm really proud of. I used what I call "frosted watercolor" which I learned from Karen Barber. I'm having a class on this (with a free bonus class on stamping with your boob) at the end of August if you're interested.

The background is the new Dictionary background stamp. The print is so small and precise it really just looks like patterned paper.

The flower is Regarding Dahlias.

Stamps: Regarding Dahlias

Ink: Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, Baked Brown Sugar

Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White

Accessories: Rhinestones, Victorian Lace, Linen Thread, Sponge Daubers, Corner Rounder, White Embossing Powder

My challenge today is just one of six challenges today - we have a total of 42 this week for our Fan Club Members. It's SUCH a fun week and the challenges are a blast. Come play along with us! They are all sponsored by our Member Companies, so you could win prizes from My Favorite Things, The Cat's Pajamas, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, Stamp 'n Storage, Stamping Bella, Simon Says Stamp, Verve, Paper Smooches, Scor-Pal and Taylored Expressions!

Six more challenges go live every morning until Friday. Play one, some or all!

But whatever you do, don't do your swaps on the plane.

And if you're one of those 200 neatly packaged swap people - my hat is off to you.

Love, Boobablanca.

Loveyameanitbye.

Convention 2013 LIVE Coverage

Never Trust an Echidna!

I'm reading a fascinating book right now. Actually two books, but I don't want you to get distracted.

So I'm just going to stick with the one for now.

It's a book about reading body language, and it's written by a former FBI agent. It is FASCINATING.

Click here for more info

At one point in the book he talks about deception, and says that your neocortex is the area of your brain that is what is responsible for deception. Well, not just deception, but if you're lying, that's where it's coming from. About 1/3 of our brain is neocortex.

Now here's where it gets interesting. Right after I read that section, my sister called me and asked me about an animal that looked like a porcupine, but laid soft shelled eggs and had a beak. I said, "an echidna?" and she said "YES - that's what it is." So I went to get her the Wikipedia link so she could read more about them and I see that the echidna's brain is HALF neocortex! OMG they must be SOOOOO devious!!

Do NOT trust one. Do NOT buy real estate from them. Do NOT take one to Vegas. NEVER let an echidna marry your daughter.

Now we are exactly ONE WEEK AWAY from my departure for convention! SQUEE!

You know what that means - my LIVE coverage will begin on Monday. This year, you'll be following me to Kanab, where a group of us are going to tour the Stampin' Up! manufacturing facility for the first time ever, visit the Grand Canyon, and spend two nights in Shelli's childhood home! Nope - I'm not kidding! It's going to be a hoot! Then follow us back to Salt Lake where we will have my 10th annual Understand Blue Happy Hour kickoff event on Wednesday, and the beginning of convention itself on Thursday. Tune in right here on Monday and watch it all live! You will be able to ask questions in the comment section.

If you are attending and would like to sign up for the happy hour, please do so here. I will have a small gift for the first 30 or so people to arrive :).

Stamps: S.W.A.K. (retired), Priority Mail 

Ink: Real Red, Sahara Sand, Early Espresso

Accessories: Rhinestone, Label Punch, Airmail Twine

Hopefully we will encounter an echidna at the Grand Canyon and I can show you a video of me trying to trick him with Iocane Powder :).

LoveyameanitdontforgettotuneinonMondaybye.

I've Got Leprechauns In My Tomatoes

Okay - you know the song about the ant moving the rubber tree plant right? (you're welcome for the earworm)

Well last week, when the Other came home for lunch, we saw that our giant tub and trellis for our two 7' tall tomato plants had fallen over on our porch this morning.

It's HEAVY - took two of us to stand it back up. Now mind you, we had a crazy wind storm more than a month ago with 60 mph gusts and nothing like this happened.

I, of course, assumed leprechauns.

I don't know what German people assume, so I'll have to ask.

Anyway, I go to get my allergy shot, come back, and it's back flat on the ground.

Now I'm cursing in a very unladylike way at the leprechauns, because I have to stand it back up by myself. I totally understand why my ancestors were so annoyed by the pesky little buggers.

I wrangle it up, and notice that it's sitting on a funky bump on our patio, which might be the problem, so I scoot it a bit to see if I can find a flatter place.

That's when I see it.

The GINORMOUS FREAKING FIRE ANT COLONY UNDER THE TUB.

OMG.

When I moved it I realized how serious it was - they FREAKED OUT and were grabbing their gross fire ant eggs. Sorry fire ants, but your babies are disgusting. I'm sure you think they're great, but no one else does.

They ARE as strong as everyone says.

I had to really do a pretty lame temporary fix, involving my pretty baker's twine, two logs and a shovel, until the Other arrived home. But it worked and the gross ant babies are gone.

Speaking of gone, today is the last day for my beloved Google Reader. :(

If you subscribe to my blog via Reader, you'll have to switch to Feedly (what I'm using) or Bloglovin (which I would never use because the name is so stupid, but I've heard good things about) ASAP.



Now for two pieces of exciting news!

First, my Paper Share from the new catalog is now open! This share costs $20 (that includes shipping) and it gets you a 66 sheet 6x6 pad - 1 sheet each of all the new designs in the catalog!

You can sign up here right now - space is limited!

If you do sign up, I will send you the cutting instructions for my One Sheet Wonder (cards below). This pattern makes 12 cards and a little tote bag to put them in.

The second piece of exciting news is that convention is right around the corner! And as usual, I will have live coverage running right here on my blog so that you won't miss a thing. Join me starting July 15th for a tour of the manufacturing facility at Stampin' Up!, a trip to the Grand Canyon, Shelli's childhood home (that's where we're staying) and then of course the main event! It's going to be a blast and I can already tell I will not be sleeping much. I'll need to channel that ant strength!

Loveyameanitbye