The Baseball Revelation

Baseball is superior to other sports in so many ways. It's really the only sport I LOVE watching, both on television and of course live. I tolerate a few other sports, and as you know, I completely shun the National Felons League these days. If I had the time and a park nearby, I think I'd watch a game every day.

Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. ~George F. Will

Baseball is a team game but, at the same time, it's a very lonely game: unlike in soccer or basketball, where players roam around, in baseball everyone has their little plot of the field to tend. When the action comes to you, the spotlight is on you but no one can help you. ~Chad Harbach

Baseball is like church. Many attend - few understand. ~Leo Ernest Durocher

There are so many things to love. The parks, the rooftops, the strategy. The obscure rules that pop out  and make or break a game when you least expect it. The 7th inning stretch. The fact that you need to bring a glove. The games that go on forever. The PEANUTS. The hot dogs. The beer. That time I took a foul ball to the knuckle in Denver and got to meet a bunch of players. The sheer AMERICAN-ness of it all. The movies and the books. The legends. The singing. The fact that it takes place over the best parts of the year. The Cal Ripken Jr.s and Nolan Ryans of the world. The fact that there are 108 stitches on a baseball. The secret hand signals.

Yesterday, I realized, accidentally, one of the things I love the MOST about it. I was standing in the kitchen and there was a game on that I could hear and not see. I was listening to the relaxing, conversational tone of the two people covering the game, and it struck me.

All other sports have commentators who are CONSTANTLY yelling. Even away from the games - in their discussion of the games on sports shows they are just bellowing in this anxiety-producing fast-paced hysteria that I realized annoys the heck out of me. 

Baseball has such a long stride that that hysteria isn't built into the commentary because they'd all be exhausted by the end of a long inning or twenty. So they just talk. And they have SILENCE sometimes, because that's okay in baseball. And when it gets exciting, they get excited. 

It's just so much more peaceful. More suited to the radio than any other sport. And I guess I'm more of a radio person anyway. It's just so much more relaxing.

Speaking of relaxing, that's exactly what I'm doing this weekend. I did a video yesterday that you'll see Monday and then I plowed in for a three hour nap, which I'm assuming I really needed since it was unplanned.

However, I have discovered that the felines have some sort of nap sensing technology. The SECOND you start to nod off, you are INSTANTLY occupied by the nap sensing beasties. There's no such thing as a solitary nap and they don't care which of your limbs become numb while they are occupying you. Splotch for some reason LOVES to sleep on my neck. I think he might be trying to kill me.

After I woke up and extracted the occupiers I thought I'd get cracking on my card for today. It was a quickie with the new Made With Love set. I don't normally buy baby sets but I could NOT resist these little animals in the set. I did a little stamp surgery to cut the baby greeting away from the kitty.

Then I used my MISTI to make sure my red, white and blue kitties were all in a row. (PS - just read there's a 4th of July sale on the MISTI if you still don't have one - read about it here.)

So after all that, I give to you - the most patriotic kitties in the WORRRRLLLDDDD.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

I just colored the kitties with Touch Twin markers, added little silver glimmer paper stars and used the Neutrals Pattern pack paper behind it. It hurt me to glue down the side with that cute handwriting, but the dots looked better with my kittens.

What are YOU up to this weekend? Got any fun Independence Day traditions? Parades? Cookouts?

Whatever it is, I hope it's fun, relaxing and safe. This is one of my favorite holidays.

After you get done celebrating, when your boss isn't looking, come back on Monday for a fun surprise and a big giveaway. :)

LoveyameanitGodblessAmericabye.

The Collective Art Subconscious

Today my sister and I went to one of my favorite events in Austin - Renegade Craft Fair - SXSW edition. This is without a doubt the BEST assortment of artisans in a show anywhere on the planet. If you live in Austin, I beg of you - go to this show this weekend.

And THIS one was the best one yet. It was HUGE and I saw (and bought) some amazing things this time, some of which I will be showing you soon - SQUEE!

But each time we go to this show, we notice something very consistently - the presence of little cultural and artistic themes that are very pervasive, no matter where in the world the artisans are from.

One year, it was very smart-arsey  T-shirts and posters - really hilarious, snarky sentiments.

One year, it was microscopic things - fishtanks with scenes of teeny tiny people in them next to their teeny tiny swimming pools.

One year, it was sort of a wistful, kindergarten sweetness. 

One year, it was incredibly detailed drawings of all sorts - this was one of my faves. 

One year it was sort of dark, animal themed artwork - strange taxidermy and prints and notebooks with anthropomorphic animals being dastardly and saying wicked things.

It's really bizarre how consistent these themes are across these artists from all over the world. We concluded that it must be out there in the universe like air, being breathed in by all of these same people and turned into art.

This year, the themes were as follows:

• Primitive tools/survival gear

• Things made out of watch parts

• Wood - we saw EVERYTHING made out of wood - Iphone cases, prescription glasses frames (I almost bought some of these) - you name it.

• Drinking.

• Axes. Seriously - we saw sooooo many handmade axes and hatchets. It. Was. Awesome. My sister loved this one. I felt like it was an essential zombie apocalypse tool.

It was an insanely fun show. 

Also a gorgeous day, which will end with much patio sitting and grilling. Such is our difficult lot here in the center of the Great Republic.

But I HAD to play in today's Ways to Use It challenge - it's all about rainbows. I had to go back to my beloved Sweetie Pie stamp set and the matching Sweetie Pie Frames. This was so simple and cute. I stamped the circle-y image in Coastal Cabana (stamped off once) and then stamped and colored the image with Touch Twin Markers.

Stamps: Sweetie Pie, Sweetie Pie Frames
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Coastal Cabana
Paper: Whisper White, Crafter's Companion Marker Paper
Accessories: ShinHan TouchTwin Markers: WG5, PB73, P81, YR24, R136, YR132, Y37, P83, R139, B67, R131, R15, GY48

Renegade Craft - I love you! :)

Loveyameanitgooutsidebye.

Casting a Wide Net. Also - a Cute Fox.

Okay - I've been wanting to ask this question for a long, long time.

Thanks to this supremely boring article, I learned that if you have 100 friends on Facebook, your first level "friends of friends" network is actually 27,500. That's a lot of people.

That means, I have a potential "friends of friends" network of about 350,000 people. And that doesn't include Splitcoast, Twitter, real life, etc.

That's a great number for a statistical sample. And as you know, I'm a scientist. Pfft. Anyway...

We occasionally get pizza delivered. God bless America, by the way, land of the free, home of the brave, place where people bring delightful Italian snacks to your door for not very much money when you're too busy to cook, yet starving.

As a loyal customer of two pizza places in particular, I have received many opportunities to participate in surveys for these businesses, which supposedly occasionally result in a $1,000 cash prize for a lucky survey taker.

I used to work in a service business, and customer surveys are very important, so I always take them for brands that I care about and connect with, with or without the lure of a potential cash reward.

However, a curious person like myself wonders to herself, usually at 3 AM when a cat wakes her up, if anyone in her network of 350,000 people has actually been the recipient of such a prize.

Since the sample population size is valid, I'm asking you to ask - has anyone you know won one?

If not, my suspicions that this is the Big Foot of foodservice may indeed be fact, not conjecture.

Let me know if you know someone, or even know someone who knows someone who has won a survey prize.

In the meantime, please enjoy this RIDICULOUSLY ADORABLE FOX from the Life in the Forest set that will come out in the Occasions Mini Catalog - SQUEE!! He DOES make me happy.

Stamps: Life in the Forest, Happy Watercolor (let me know if you need a catalog!)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper: Crafter's Companion Marker Cardstock

Accessories: Touch Twin Markers: Y141, YR21, R2, B63 (twin)

Loveyameanitpleaseaskeveryoneyouknowandreportbackthxbye

The Zombie Metabolism

Yes, more zombie talk.

Now I'm wondering about their metabolism.

They walk around, non-stop, looking for that rare, delicious, non-zombie to feast on. They never sleep, they just walk. Hence, Walking Dead.

So since they can do this on basically 300 calories per year, I'm wondering what would happen if they really got to start to eat all the time. Would they just get hugely fat since they clearly have the metabolism of super sloths? If so, it might be something to think about for the zombie apocalpyse.

Maybe we could stockpile politicians and reality TV stars for them to eat, let them get so fat they can't chase us, and then we can defeat them.

Bonus - post-zombie apocalypse, we are free of politicians and reality TV stars! Should I throw in large phone company executives while we're in the planning stages? Let me know if I've left off any important zombie food sources. OH - infomercial stars. See? This is going to be fun!

Today's Mix-Ability challenge on Splitcoast is to shade with black. Dina's video is absolutely mesmerizing. So much so that I basically just did what she did for my challenge card.

First, I stamped the washi tape image from Tape It in Crushed Curry. Then, Off the Grid in Smoky Slate - my new favorite color. Then I stamped the floral from Backyard Basics on the grid and colored it all in with CG4 Touch Twin marker so that if you look at the card from the side, you don't see white paper underneath, you see a shadow. I just really like the dimension that extra step gives. If you want to see a much more artistic development of this technique, check out this AWESOME tutorial on creating 3D images.

Then I stamped the floral again on a scrap and cut it out with the (SQUEE) matching framelit and colored it with Touch Twin Markers. (B67, B182, CG4, CG1) I added the required black shading with a black Prismacolor pencil as Dina demonstrated, and then added dots with my white gel pen. One of my favorite artists in the world right now is over at Lollyrot Scrapbooking. I love how dark and saturated her images are and how she always adds flecks of white to them. Gives it a dreamy effect I think. This was the blog post where I fell in love with her work. So amazing. Since I like so much white on my cards I'll never be able to do what she does, but I sure have fun looking at it.

Finally, I sponged some Crushed Curry ink through some drywall tape and popped up my flower on dimensionals. I love the drywall tape because it has a light adhesive so it stays in place while you sponge. I love how it's sort of the reverse of the Off the Grid stamp, too. And a roll of it will last you long past the zombie apocalypse, believe me.

Hope you have a great weekend coming up - free of politicians and zombies and phone company executives.

Loveyameanitbye.

It's BOUQUET - B-U-C-K-E-T

One of my favorite Britcoms is Keeping Up Appearances.

It features a fussy lady - Hyacinth Bucket - who is all about her reputation.

She is a dictator in a floral dress and she is HYSTERICAL. Her family is the British version of white trash, and they are always embarrassing her at the most crucial moments. Her husband is so beaten down by the dictatorship, but gets in a good jab every now and then.

It's right up there with Fawlty Towers and The Vicar of Dibley.

At least once an episode, she "corrects" the pronunciation of her last name - Bucket - to what she insists is pronounced "Bouquet", much to the amusement of everyone.

So now, every time I see a Hyacinth, I hear "BOUQUET residence, lady of the house speaking!!" in her high pitched voice.

Cracks me up.

We didn't have hyacinths in our yard where I grew up (or cranky British ladies) but we did have hydrangeas. My mom would stick a rusty nail down in the soil near them to make them super blue. They are such insanely beautiful flowers. I don't see too many of them in Austin - it might be too hot and dry. I do miss them.

Luckily - I have stamps :)

Stamps: Best of Flowers, Lighthearted

Ink: Early Espresso, Memento Pear Tart

Accessories: Touch Twin Markers: G48, GY48, PB73, PB75, PB76

I used the no line coloring method (sort of) for this card with the Best of Flowers set and some Memento Pear Tart Ink, and Touch Twin Markers. The green ink mostly disappears after you color it and leaves you with softer edges.

I thought I'd hop along with some of my friends today too - wanna see their cards?

Touch Twin and More Blog - http://touchtwin.blogspot.com/

Anna Wight - http://sweetmissdaisy.typepad.com/

Dina Kowal - http://mamadinis.blogspot.com/

Elaine Hughes - http://quixoticcards.com/

Jeanne Streiff - http://inkypaws.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

Lydia Fiedler - http://understandblue.blogspot.com/ << You are here :)

Suzanne Dean - http://www.scrapbitz.blogspot.com/

Vicki Garrett - http://summerthymestudio.blogspot.com/

After you're done hopping around, you should seriously download Keeping Up Appearances. I guarantee you'll see a friend or relative in those characters :)

Loveyameanitbye.

Why You Should Keep Scraps For Ten Years

If you keep your scraps long enough, the perfect scrapportunity will present itself!

I'll work backwards into my scrap story.

I saw a post on Facebook about some paper that you can use with any medium at all and nothing will show through on the back - NOTHING - not even alcohol markers! I was intrigued.

The paper is called RENDR by Crescent Arts. I HAD to try it myself of course so I ordered some from Amazon.

I colored an image up with my Touch Twin markers, and sure enough - NOTHING on the back - amazing! It's the same for inks, watercolor, paint - you name it. It's kind of freaky!

So it's PERFECT for a sketchbook/art journal because you can have art on every page that won't show through to the next page. This might actually get me to work on one. I hated the idea of adding extra paper to an art journal or creating the art outside of it and sticking it in.

Then, I saw this unbelievably beautiful tag by Lollyrot. I loved how she had those little splatters of white all around the image, so I set out to create that.

After I'd colored my image and covered it in "confetti" with my white gel pen, I looked for some paper to put the image on. While ruffling through my Pretty in Pink bin I found a piece of cardstock I had bleached with a pencil eraser TEN YEARS AGO!

Paper hoarding vindication! It's PERFECTION!

It's also a birthday wish and card for my friend Leslie, of Crooked Stamper fame! Happy birthday, fellow paper hoarder!! I hope your day is filled with crafts and treats and Bobra! :)

Stamps: Best of Birthdays Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa Paper: RENDR, Pretty in Pink  

Accessories: ShinHan Touch Twin markers: BG178, G58, Y164, RP9, YR33

So stifle those urges to purge your space. When the student is ready, the paper will appear!

Loveyameanitbye.

Happy Cool Color Caturday

Happy Caturday!

I haven't celebrated Caturday with you in a while, and Maddie was protesting, so I had better comply before she does something completely wicked. Which wouldn't even really make today any different from any other day of the week, truly. But it's good to be careful.

The little kitteh is a Prima image from the Yuki line and I colored him with Touch Twin Markers - just two greens - GY48 and F124 with the palette blending method - my fave blending technique. Then I made him a little kitteh shadow with CG 0.5. There's a heart in the stamp image, but I decided to punch one out of DSP with my itty bitty heart punch to put where the heart image is in the stamp because I wanted those cute polka dots.

I used a Sixxix Texture Fade to get the blank spot in my embossing folder and some of that awesome Summer Smooches DSP.

I know - most cats aren't green. But mine is. And I love him. :)

I'm presenting you with this adorable lime green kitteh for Dina's VSN challenge to use cool colors, and also for the Marker Pop blog hop today - if you comment on all the posts in the hop you can win oodles of markers, so be sure and visit my fellow hoppers today for fame, fortune and prizes! :) And possibly more kittens.

Loveyameanitbye

If You're Unorganized Enough, You Can Do Anything

Seriously.

I was trying to go through my 91 draft blog posts to see if there was anything fun to post and I found a card from LAST YEAR.

I'm so organized like that. It's okay to be jealous.

I like it though, so we're going to pretend I was saving it for a special occasion. Like Tuesday, August 21st.

Yeah, that.

This card was actually a sample I did for last year's Hope You Can Cling To event, which is near and dear to my heart. This year will be our third year, and I can't wait - I really hope you can join us. It's  a great cause, and the most fun you can have without getting arrested!

Stamps: From the Heart (retired)

Paper: Whisper White, Silver Glimmer

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: ShinHan Touch Markers: RP196, RP17, SU Oval dies, SU dotted ribbon

This weekend I also did a little project with some of my leftover paper from my fun CitraSolv experiment.

You can see the results on this post on Project Reanimate.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to This Post

Some days are just more "Lucy" than others.

August has been a crazy month and getting crazier.

I had two challenges I wanted to do for today - the Touch Twin challenge and the Splitcoast Sketch challenge.

So why not combine them, right? Smart, efficient. I got all smirky about that.

The sketch is adorable,

and the Touch Twin challenge was a shadowing technique.

So I came up with this CUTE idea with Animal Talk where I was going to have my dog's shadow go through the greeting and make a super bright and happy card, since it was the first time I'd ever inked this little dude.

I got done and I really liked it!

Stamps: Animal Talk

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Paper: Whisper White, Polka Dot Parade, Birds of a Feather

Accessories: ShinHan Touch Twin Markers: BR103, YR133, BR92, BG179, B65, dimensionals, Square Punch

So I go to upload it and I see....

The Touch Twin challenge is actually FOOD and shadowing.

Oops.

This card wouldn't really send the right message there, eh?

I did laugh for quite a while, and then I made another card, which you can see here. :)

Come play along with us in both - but if you do, it's a great idea to read the instructions FIRST.

So, I Bought These Socks....

You know how the road to hell is paved with good intentions and all that?

Well, I bought these socks. 

Let me back up. I'm angry at all my socks. 

I walk about 100 miles per week. 

And for about 90 of those miles, my terrible ankle socks are slipping off my ankle and down underneath my heel in a big knot that makes me stabby. No matter what brand I've bought over the last few years, after a few washings, they all turn into the amazing disappearing sock. It's maddening.

The ones that don't slide go too high up on my ankle so that my weird tan lines are even weirder. What happened to good elastic/lycra/whatever that kept your sock on your foot? Probably the same thing that happened to cotton shoelaces that stayed tied and leaded gasoline. 

I ordered some new socks on Amazon last week - Nike socks - and I received them and they looked great. They were all bound together with that little plastic stick thingy, so I just broke that sucker and threw them all in the washer without looking at them. 

Then I tossed them in the dryer.

Then I realized my horrific mistake.

When I opened the dryer, I happily picked out Nike sock #1 with a pink swoosh. Then I reached for Nike sock #2.

OMG.

It had a blue swoosh.

I HAD PURCHASED SIX PAIRS OF SOCKS DESIGNED TO GO THEIR MISMATCHED SOCK WAYS BY DESIGN.

WHYYYYYY? Why not just make them all the same color so that if I had two socks on I was good to go? Why must you complicate my already complicated laundry/sock mismatched life with this wrinkle? Why do you hate me, sock people?

Socks should be two by two, no matter what.

Like on the ark. 

Designer: Lydia Fiedler

Stamps: Two by Two, Itty Bitty Banners

Paper: Whisper White, Fan Fair DSP

Ink: Memento

Touch Markers: bg3 bg5 y36 br101 B182 bg178 R4 f124 b63 yr23 y34

Accessories: Bitty Banners Framelits, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Two Way Glue, Poppy Parade Ribbon

I made this card for both a VSN challenge and for the Touch Twin Color Challenge - I focused on the aqua, of course. 

I love this sweet new stamp and the banners and matching framelit. I had SO much fun coloring this and adding a teeny bit of glitter. 

So nice to play with things that match. That have a natural pair. Unlike my new socks. 

Oh. PS - I really like the socks. But if you see someone with a pink swoosh and a blue swoosh, please just politely look away. 

Loveyameanitbye.

The Ice Cream Kill Zone

It's summer.

What that means for us here in Austin is that each of us gets on Google Maps and finds out what stores are just inside the "ice cream kill zone." This kill zone is the difference between getting home with partially melted ice cream and getting home with a carton of overly sweetened milk. Getting home with frozen ice cream is not an option, silly rabbits.

It matters not what stores just shy of the kill zone boundary charge for things, sell or smell like. You're going to go to those stores or you are going to have fully cooked briskets, vegetables and more on your back seat in about 5 minutes.

Your driving patterns have to change to accommodate this shift. Were you a person who was otherwise inclined to take liberties with the speed limit - NO MORE! You cannot afford to get pulled over - that sort of delay creates its own kill zone.

Nope - you go lawfully and quickly to the nearest store, you get your items and the clock starts ticking. It's fight or flight time.

While I was sweating my badonk off on my summery walk last week I encountered the CUTEST dog!! His owner told me that he was a cross between a Maltese and a poodle. His hair was this beautiful mahogany color and he was SO teeny and floppy and sweet. I wanted to borrow him! And yes, by that I mean steal.

Then when I got my new Storybook friends stamp set I thought the little puppy looked JUST like my little buddy!

And yes, I squealed.

Then I colored him up for today's TTC19 challenge to feature anything with hair. My kind of challenge! And since these dogs actually have hair, not fur, I'm 100% technically accurate! :)

Stamps: Storybook Friends, Loving Thoughts

Paper: Whisper White

Ink: Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: Touch Twin Markers: BR102, Y36, BR101, 0, Washcloth, punch, pencil erasers, 1 3/4" Circle Punch

Don't you LOVE him??

To create his fur texture, I colored him and then put Colorless blender on a washcloth and dabbed the colored image to make it look like the real thing:

ACK! How cute is he????

To make the spots in the background, I just used a pencil eraser and Daffodil Delight and Pool Party Ink.

Happiness IS a warm puppy. :)

Loveyameanitbye.