Why Stories Matter

You are correct if you have already identified that I have a bit of a story bias. I was an English Major/Russian Minor. I didn't have a TV for most of my childhood - thanks to my brother, who stuck a fork in the one we did have during Frosty the Snowman, and caused a Tv-lessness that lasted from Nixon to Reagan. I read a lot until we got to Reagan. Then the world started again, with a bang, I might add - I woke up to MTV and "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

Anyway, stories are an important part of all of us because they connect us. Backwards, forwards, to people we don't know, or don't know yet. :)

For all of us that use images every day, I bet each one of us imagines a story during most of our creations. I do. Especially if there are bunnies involved.

I picked up a stamp from Kodomo Monday night - I met the Kodomo people at CHA - and then did something I NEVER do. I read the package. It said this.

"According to legend, there were four most beautiful and significant women in ancient China known as "The Four Great Beauties." Each lived in a different dynasty hundreds of years apart. Each had her own uniquely human qualities. Xi Shi was the first and reportedly suffered from constant chest pains. But the face she made wincing in pain made her more distinctively lovely than ever. She was said to be so entrancingly beautiful that fish would forget to swim and would sink away from the surface when she walked by."

Whoa.

It completely changed my connection with the image in the stamp set. All the sudden it became a little haunting, a little more sad than it was when I first looked. It reminded me of a song.

Why don't all stamp companies give us a story from the designer? I love the connection.

So here's what I did with it.

I stamped the main image in Versamark and clear embossed it on Pacific Point Blue. Then I painted the image with Golden (brand) Interference Blue paint. I love this stuff. I wiped off the embossed parts with a wet Kleenex while the paint was still wet. It makes her glow. I cut her out.

When I was at Half Price books buying the comics, I bought some sheet music and waited for the right moment. I used that at the bottom of the card.

I stamped the branch and bird from the same set on Bashful Blue in black, and accented them with my white gel pen. I used Pacific Point Blue for the card base.

Please, Shelli - let us keep Pacific Point Blue. Please. Please.

Oh wait - did you want a story? Remember how I told you to be nice to waiters? Here's a great story about why you should...

Britain's Got Talent 2009 - Greg PRITCHARD
Uploaded by glide64 - Explore more music videos.

If you don't see the player - click here for the video.


Do you have a story for me? Do tell....


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MMLM!!!!!

OMG I almost forgot Make Me Laugh Monday!!! Well, no, I didn't. I was being sneaky. But first, a little story.

WTH??? SOMEONE REJECTED MADDIE CAT?? I DON'T THINK SO!!!

Actually - it was my fault, but that's what I'm being sneaky about.

I'm about to launch the world's cutest T-shirt but have been foiled by my own stupidity and rookie mistakes and am being delayed. But stay tuned - because I'm contemplating making these for convention and giving them away to some of you who want to get together there, and for various other occasions because I like to give things away!!

Speaking of giving things away, Heatherbstamps - please email me your mailing address - you cracked me up with "fauxhawk" and "spine flu" last week, and so you are my Make Me Laugh Monday winner for May 4th. You and Leslie won the same prize, which I think is super cool, and I need to mail them this week.

So - who wants to make me laugh tonight??? (in a Clint Eastwood voice...) "Go ahead, make me laugh..."

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar and OMG WHAT IS IN MY DRINK??

Thank goodness it wasn't a caterpillar in my drink!!

Although if it was fuzzy and cute and became my friend, maybe that would be okay! No one loves a fuzzy caterpillar as much as I do.

Anyway, where do I start?

Yesterday was a joint celebration of my sister's birthday, my Dad's birthday and Mother's Day. It also happens to be the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which was the theme of the party.

My mom got the special edition of the book, which is the most beautiful and complicated pop-up book I've ever seen. Here's one of the pop-ups.

Then she made an elaborate caterpillar birthday cake, made of teeny cakes, decorated like a 'pillar.

Adorable. Here is my sister getting ready to dig into his little noggin. I put some fun drawing effects on it because I am in a really boring section of Celebrity Apprentice and no one has updated Facebook or Twitter in like 15 minutes.

I noticed while we were having dinner that the little crystal ball on top of the decanter flipped everyone upside down. I needed a picture of that for sure. That's my upside down sister and mother, recounting the story about how my sister broke her elbow on a swingset in South Dakota and my dad drove at 400 miles an hour through downtown asking for directions and not listening to the answer and how my mom almost killed a nurse in the hospital. It's a great story.

Speaking of my mom - she finds the most amazing things. She found a jar of hibiscus flowers, that were preserved in this yummy syrup from Australia, that you are supposed to put in the bottom of your champagne glass. Don't be skrd about what ur about to see, even though I stifled a scream.
I promise it was yummy, and quite beautiful in this view.If ur skrd, look at this candle with GLITTER!!!Or, you can look at my card, which isn't scary at all.

It's with the stamp from the under $10 collection on page 208 of the catalog - Flowers in Silhouette. Can you ever get enough of silhouette stamps? I stamped it in So Saffron, then Pumpkin Pie, then Regal Rose. I stamped the greeting from Sense of Time in Black and tied a saffron ribbon around it - BAM. Easy card.

I hope you had a wonderful Sunday and will have a great start to your week.

LOVEYAMEANITBYE.


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Warthog Babies Say Happy Mother's Day!!!

Just remember this Mother's Day that everybody is somebody's baby. Even warthogs. Cute, fuzzy, sweet little warthogs. So be nice. Because that little warthog's momma loves him. Even if you don't!
These cute hogs are from the Zooborns site, which I highly recommend adding to your reader so you can see baby animals daily, which is the secret to life, the universe and everything.

Happy Mother's Day to all you human moms, moms of cats & dogs and warthog moms!

I made a very simple card today for Mother's Day and liked it so much I did a second version in blue.

I used the Scene in a Garden set from Stampin' Up!, stamped in blackon kraft, and then just colored it with a white pencil. It's a two minute card. The rubon is from the Chit Chat set from the big catalog.

For the blue card, I stamped the greeting from Fifth Avenue Floral in black.

If you haven't had a chance yet - head over and see my instructional video on how to set up Google Alerts - it's free until the screencast contest ends. If you like it, please set up a login and cast a vote for me in the contest. (Click the link to go straight to my video)

For those of you who have never spoken with me, enjoy making fun of my accent, which is surprising and amusing some of my northern readers, who for some reason think I sound like a southerner! ;)

Have a great lazy Sunday!


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Another Product You MUST have!!

Srsly.

I am only telling you this:

1) Because it's true!
2) Because it makes me feel soooo much better about my trip to Jerry's Artarama last weekend!!

There are these fabulous rubons for different applications, and the ones I found were for comics. OMG how fun!!!!They are these sheets of patterns with a waxy adhesive on one side. They are different from stamping rubons because you take the backing off and then burnish the whole pattern sheet on - you don't lift off a top sheet after you've burnished it. But the sheet is very thin and it just blends in and is SO FREAKING FUN!! I feel like I need to try everything they have.

Do you know how much money a 1-900-Hoarding number would make for stampers???

Operator: "Hello - 1-900 Hoard - how may I help you?
Whispering stamper: "I NEED 46 SETS OF COMIC RUBONS RIGHT NOW OR I'LL DIE"
Operator: "Ma'am - calm down. Take your Amex, and put it in the freezer. Right now ma'am."

Anyway. I love them.I took the Super Parents images and stamped them on white and colored them with Copics. I needed them to be bright since this texture was going on top of them.Then I used my filmstrip die for the Big Shot with Basic Black cardstock. I rubbed the comic pattern onto the super parents and adhered them to the filmstrip and stuck that down on the card.
I punched two 3/4" circles out of the comic pattern and rubbed them right onto the card base.

Then I had fun shooting pics with no flash and my new Lowel Light setup!

I need to play with it a little more, but MAN - lots less editing of the photos needed with this thing!!

Hope you have an awesome....



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Just one Wake-Up till Caturday! A Furry Friday Videostravaganza!!

First of all, I must kick off your Friday in a MOST RIGHTEOUS WAY!!!

Check out this video!!! (Click the link if you don't see the video player)The ending is hysterical!!


And then, since it's furry Friday - watch this AMAZING video about white deer!! (click here if you don't see the video player) WOW. Harry Potter, anyone?




And finally - I have entered the Screencast contest at Mindbites!! I created a class on how to use Google Alerts to let you know when your blog has been linked, when someone mentions Stampin' Up!, or Bruce Willis or when Your Momma is talkin' SMACK!!!

Head over, and if you like it, vote for me in the people's choice awards!!! (Click Here if you don't see the player)

Is Your Momma Talking Smack? | How-to videos at MindBites

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True Blue

That's you! Thank you so much to everyone who has purchased our stamps that are benefiting homeless kitties!!!

As of last Friday, we had sold $250 worth - so it's going very well and we are extremely grateful to all of you.
Don't forget - if you make a card with one of these stamps, upload it to Splitcoast with the keyword "Maddie" - I will be giving out prizes!!!

So, in gratitude, I made this card for you with the Maddie stamp. I used the Taste of Textiles textured black cardstock and punched holes with my 1 3/8" punch. Then I put it onto a white card and lightly traced with my embossing stylus each opening so I would know where to stamp my kitties, which are in Tempting Turquoise, Ballet Blue, Pacific Point Blue and Cool Caribbean.

The dots are with a blue souffle pen and a white gel pen and the greeting is from Goody Goody Gumdrops (Stampin' Up!)Thanks to my true blue peeps!!

Hope you have a fabulous Thursday!

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Twitter, Chickens, Ducks - DON'T WORRY - NO AVIAN FLU

Why did the Twitter chicken cross the road? I dunno. I don't think the Twitter birdie is a chicken, but if he is, I'm not sure he gets out on the road. He's pretty busy on the interwebz.

First - happy Wednesday, and THANK YOU for all your awesome Red Letter Day research! I have the best blog readers in the WORLD!!

Second - some of you have signed up for my Google Reader Webinar. How does next Thursday sound? Email me privately if the 14th will work. And if you haven't done so yet, sign up by clicking the link at the end of this post!

THIRD - My Momster necklace is only available for 5 more days - doesn't your mom need one? Click the image at the top of my sidebar for order information. Each purchase sends $16 to Unicef!

Now, on to Twitterchickens. And baby ducks.

First, my buddy Alex found her cats playing with THIS in her yard today!!! She gave him an applesauce container of water - that's how teeny he is!!

I found this out on Twitter. :) Yay!

Next, I went to Chick Fil A for lunch. The one I go to has an amazing manager. He has developed this system that bypasses the ordering at the menu talkbox. He has employees standing outside with laminated menus well before the talk box. They have headsets and they call in your order, give you your total, and you go straight to the window. It's one of the busiest Chick Fil A's I've ever been to, and yet the whole process is so fast that I am struggling to get my money ready by the time I get to the window. I hardly touch the brakes. And yet it's still the pleasant, polite Chick Fil A experience I love. Not like Wendy's, where they are flinging your food at you in Spanish before you even get to the window, and as you pick a french fry out of your eye to try to pay they are screaming at you THANKYOUTHANKYOU which means get out of my drive through so I can hit the timer button I get graded on. Forget ketchup or the fact that they flung the wrong thing - GET OUT.

At this Chick Fil A the franchise owner is frequently outside studying the process. I'm fascinated by him.

He is a person who took something very normal, and something that people have taken for granted as a process that can't be improved.. and he improved it. Just with brains, and experimentation, and tweaking.

He's my hero.

It's the little things.

My hat is off to you, chicken franchise owner. You have elevated your work to something I remember reading about...

"Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth. Thus work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons. "

Man and humanity.

Speaking of... I used Claudine's stamp again today. I paired it with the Stampin' Up! Canvas Cuts. Do you have these and don't know how to use them?

Bust em out! Trust me, I had no idea this was going to work before I did it!! I stamped the image in black on the canvas, and then used reinkers and my blender pen to apply color. The blender pen did surprisingly well at moving the color around. It went on really intense, but was easy to modify.

I tried to use all the colors in the background paper.

This took maybe 8 minutes, start to finish. I used Stampin' Up! Linen thread for the border and a rub on from the Chit Chat set in the big catalog.

Finally - wanna know what artist I was thinking of for last night's post?

Henri Matisse.

On that note - I have some news I can't tell you yet. But I'd appreciate it if you kept the Post Impressionists in mind for a bit. :)

I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!

LOVEYAMEANITBYE.

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It's a Red Letter Day!

What does that even mean? All I ever think of is the Scarlet Letter, which, unless I had a case of the dumbz in high school, was not a good thing!

Someone probably knows why that phrase means good day, but it ain't me! Maybe we can get Lisa Page to make up a lie about it!!

Anyway, it's one of my fabby downline's birthdays today - Neelam Kulkarni. You can find her blog here. Wish her a happy day!

She is a wonderful lady - great stamper, amazing mom, always dressed very glamorously for our stamping events - just an all around awesome chick I'm so happy to have in my life!

Happy Birthday Neelam!!!

Today I worked with Claudine Hellmuth's stamp that is part of our fundraising group of stamps for a Place to Bark. You can see all three stamps here.

Claudine's is gorgeous, and when she sent me the design, I instantly thought of sort of a modern art still life. I've been itching to get my pawz on it and give it a try.

The entire thing is done with Copics - I just drew in the walls and the floor and shaded them.

The table is from Stampin' Up! - Scene in a Garden.

I love the complementary colors on the kitty. Don't be afraid of the weird color combos - sometimes shocking is cool! Anybody wanna guess what artist I had in mind when I did this card?
Maybe the closeup will help. Leave your guess in your comment!


Now, if you have made a card with my fundraiser stamp (the little black kitty), upload it to Splitcoast Stampers, with keyword "Maddie". I will come up with a date, and then I will give prizes for some of your Maddie cards! Sound good? No need for me to create a gallery when SCS does it up right!!

I hope you're having a great Tuesday - create something fun today!

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Puzzled?

Why shouldn't you be? It's Monday. But that also means - it's Make me Laugh Monday!!!Make me laugh in your comment and you win a prize!

Here are some Monday things to be puzzled about: (I've included links - watch at your own risk)

• That weird Restasis ad where the lady is talking to her female doctor, and they're both smirking and surpressing weird smiles like what they're saying is code for wife swapping or a drug deal. That commercial gives me the willies.
• How sad that guy who talks to his dog on the Beneful commercial is. Can someone hook him up with E-Harmony or something? That guy is pathetic.
• Why UPS chose to feature a guy with a Kate Jackson haircut in their ad, and to play up the SINGLE MOST AGGRAVATING feature of white boards - the SQUEAKING SOUND - to the point where you are forced to smash your TV.

So many puzzles, so little time.

Maddie showed up on a puzzle today. Look how her curly tail pops up!

I thought a crossword puzzle might make a nice black & white background.
RU puzzled about anything today? Do share.

Tomorrow I'll share my card with Claudine Hellmuth's stamp!!

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A Few Thoughts On Being Nice, and Smuggling Baby Seals

When you walk for a few hours, and see and hear things, you get lots of good ponder time. So today, I'll give you a couple walk ponders and my first Maddie card. (Very hard not to post them all at once!)

Anyway, today's ponder was on niceness. If you guys have never read a Dave Barry book - you need to. He is hilarious. He wrote something once that I have never forgotten because of the blazing truth of it - I was reminded of this the other day.

"A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.
(This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)"

I can't tell you how often this has been proven true to me. People who serve you should always be treated with kindness and respect. Someone who can't do that is missing something important. Especially if you are single, pay careful attention to this trait and toss out any candidates who are not kind and friendly to servers. Your waiter or waitress is somebody's baby, after all...

Nice people are also always kind to and protective of their friends. Situations don't dictate their treatment of people they care about, their feelings do. If something else starts to trump that, like work or money or competition - beware.

I passed a woman with a dog in mid niceness-ponder, and the dog looked very much like a beloved childhood pet - a German shepherd named Scout. Both Scout and Lucky (the sweetest cocker spaniel in the world) protected us from the copperhead snakes that would sometimes come into the wet part of our backyard. Lucky, ferociously with barking and pointing. Scout, gently, with herding, or if we were having a dumb day, by pushing us down.

A real friend will push you down when there's a snake. Maddie makes a cute stamp, yes? She's also a friend that protected me from a wasp, so her fame is well deserved!

Have you made a Maddie card? Upload your card to Splitcoast with keyword "Maddie" and I'll give out prizes!!

These are 2x2 squares of white cardstock, upon which I stamped Maddie Bat in Black, and then colored the squares with Copics. The greeting is a white Stampin' Up! Rubon from the Chit Chat set.

Speaking of Stampin' Up!

THE STARTER KIT IS ON SALE FOR $75!!!

I'm not making this up! If you've ever wanted to join and hesitated over the cost - here's your chance to join the UBlue group!!! Everyone who signs up during this promotion will receive the Central Park stamp set as your UBlue welcome gift!

Finally, Please add this to the list of things we need before the Volvo that stops itself...

Could we PUH-LEASE develop a jog bra that does not make it appear as though I am smuggling a baby seal in my shirt??

THANKS WORLD!!!

Have a great Sunday!

LOVEYAMEANITBYE.

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APORKALYPSE NOW!!!

YOU CANNOT GET SWINE FLU FROM READING MY BLOG!

SWINEFLUSWINEFLUSWINEFLUSWINEFLUSWINEFLUSWINEFLUSWINEFLUSWINEFLUSWINEFLUSWINEFLUSWINEFLUSWINEFLUSWINEFLUSWINEFLU

I'll call it whatever I want lady - you can stick your H1N1 in your hat and smoke it.

Seriously. Relax America!! If people saw a news report 10 times a day on how many people get food poisoning hourly in this country they'd never leave their houses again. Some piggy sniffles aren't the great aporkalypse foretold in the Bible - I think we're going to be okay.

You know who's NOT going to be okay? All the poor mothers in Texas whose children are out of school for no good reason until May 11th! There is not enough tequila in the world for this emergency! I'm praying for you ladies.

Here are some great swine flu websites I've seen and a great swiney video from my friend Lisa of Inspired by Purple.

Click here to find out if you have swine flu.
Click here to learn about bacon lung.
Click here to purchase bacon shirts, aprons and underpants.

Check this out - yes please! I would like a case of microscopic pigs!!!





I got my charity stamps yesterday!! If you're new here, I have designed a stamp as a fundraiser for A Place to Bark (and Purr) for the construction of a cat shelter to house and care for homeless kitties. My fellow designers Claudine Hellmuth and Suzi Blu designed the other two stamps. Click here to see them. 100% of the proceeds go to the charity, so we'd love it if you bought all three!

I haven't had time to play with all three of them, but I knew exactly what I wanted to do with Suzi Blu's stamp - I HAD to give this girl a little blue kitty!

The first card I made will be one of the little sets I'm sending to the first 20 blog readers who have bought these stamps. If you have purchased these stamps, just send me your email confirmation to receive your set of cards from me!

Back later with more cute cards with them! Oh - and hop on over to Project Reanimate for a crazy cool card!!

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How Much is that Goggie in the Sidecar??

I love Austin!!! This is what I saw at lunch today after I scored some SERIOUS crafting goodness at Half Price Books (wait till you see what I do!)

Sorry for the bad cellie pic!


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I Heard a Creature in the Woods ... & a Tutorial

I did.

I've been walking a different route after work the last few weeks. Just changing it up, tricking the paparazzi - you know.

Anyway, I walk past a little wooded area on the beginning of the walk, and every day, in the same place, a little creature shoots off into the woods from right next to the sidewalk to deep under the trees, crashing around like a teacup horse.

I WANT TO SEE YOU, LITTLE CREATURE! WHAT ARE YOU??

I suspect that he is a large lizard, like the guard lizard that guards our driveway. Every day, for two years now, maybe more - a giant lizard sits in our driveway until I get home from my walk on the weekends. When I come up, he Nascars his big butt under a bush. He's like the Mr. T of lizards. He is very protective.

But someday, I will sneak up on this new creature and hopefully find a little friend. A lizard, a chipmunk, a teeny fairy like Tinkerbell. I'm sure it will be fun, like this little duck.
Isn't he adorable?????????????? This card was in my head all day, fighting with the bulls and the bears and the stock trades for attention. I refined him on my walk and here he is. His name is QUACK!!!!! :)

To get this background, you need Gesso, a reinker, a foam brush and about four seconds.

This is kraft cardstock. First I painted it all with two layers of white gesso. Then I poured a little gesso in a bowl and added just a drop of Pacific Point Blue reinker and mixed it. It was so pretty in the bowl I almost didn't want to use it.But I did. And I'd love to tell you I learned that in my classes at the Louvre or something, but I didn't. I wanted blue, so I tried it.

I painted it on the top half and waited and waited.

Then I stamped the tree from Branch Out and the little duck from Animal Crackers in black.

I used my white gel pen for the buds and the trunk, and I colored the duck and the grasses with my Pitt Pastel Pencils - any old pencil will do.

It's such a quiet, kind of lonely little scene I didn't want to add a greeting.

If I had a stamp that said it though... I would have stamped

QUACK!!!!!!!

Now, in honor of the Make Me Laugh Monday Winner - Leslie - Here is a little video for you! This is one confused kitteh!! (If you are in a reader or email, click over to watch the kitteh-o)



Hope you're having a fabby Wednesday - LOST and Idol tonight - whatever will I do??

Oh - and if you're looking for me on facebook - I'm in stealth mode - so email me directly and I'll add you as my buddy! :)



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Because Libby Hickson Won't Marry Me.. And Other Thoughts

I don't know why she doesn't want to marry me. I mean - I'm neat, I'm fun, I'm a fellow artist, I live right down the street...

Oh - do you need background?

Stay tuned after the card for all the tabloid style gory details!

Stamping is a big tent, right? There are all different sorts of artists among us. The mavericks, the copiers, the stamp-a-ma-jiggers and the anti-stamp-a-ma-jiggers. You visit blogs to get ideas, or to copy, or just for eye candy. Maybe you do all three. I do all three at different times, based on energy, caffeine, or what's on my desk.

Today, I was actually feeling pretty unoriginal. Maybe it was the rejection from Libby. Anyway, I took the Sense of Time card, from my last post and borrowed the color scheme, which I really liked, the round shapes and I turned it into something totally different. If there's one wish I have for my blog, it's that you guys can take little bits that appeal to you and make them your own. And sometimes, making them your own means copying, which is completely great. Sometimes it means adapting it to suit the stamps you have, or your paper or whatever. As long as you are inspired, I'm happy. You'll never hear me yelling about someone copying something I've done - I would love that. Otherwise I wouldn't be on the intergoogle with my art. So I want you to look at the previous card and look at this, and make a creative leap of your own. These two cards are nothing alike - or are they?
This one has all the warm oranges and blues, but it's more cartoony, featuring the chick from Oh Baby!, who I colored with Copics. I paper pieced her sassy blue dress. I accented her hair with white gel pen. All the DSP is from Basic Grey Marrakech. I will be so sad when I run out of this.
I lined the envelope with it too, at which point I really decided I didn't want to part with this card. It's very warm and bright in real life.

But when I was done, I still had... rejection.

Okay, Libby Hickson, of Libby's Little Addiction - former fellow SU! demo, extremely talented woman, neighbor - is CONSTANTLY torturing me on Facebook with descriptions of these lavish gourmet dinners she's making. The other nights, the fates aligned and she was having some ridiculously yummy Libbychow with like grilled salmon and asparagus and what was I having??? At that exact moment - 7 Triscuits!

That was a step up from the Dorito dinner of the other night - and I love both Doritos and Triscuits - but it wasn't Libbychow!! So I asked her if she'd marry me. She gently reminded me we can't do that in Texas and that our DH's might object, but come on Libby - can you just cook for me? I'll let you use all my stamps!!

Anyway, after the rejection from Libby, and following payday, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Well, not my own, because although I am a passionate and devoted cook - I don't have time right now, but instead, into the hands of the Casserole Queens. If you don't live in Austin, you probably need to take a walk right now, because you're going to be really mad you don't.

We have two lovely ladies here called The Casserole Queens. These adorable and talented chicklets cook up yummy food and - *GASP* - bring it to your house!! Their signature dish is their gourmet chicken pot pie, which was so noteworthy it got a Throwdown visit from Bobby Flay!! I'm not even kidding. Well tonight, we threw some down.

O
M
G

Yes, it was even better than it looked!!!!!!! Roasted chicken, a cream sauce (with actual cream and milk - 2 to 1, I believe) that was peppery and full of tarragon, carrots, onions, peas, red bell peppers and ....... puff pastry!!

This has absolutely completely ruined me for other CPP now. That gross gelatin clear filling you get from everyone else - never again. These women - I'm sorry Libby - might have to marry me!!

If you look at their website, not only will you see them, dressed in the freaking insanely cute 50's garb they deliver in, in all their adorableness, but you will see that the small Chicken Pot Pie, which I got is $4.50 per person - very reasonable! However, if you really like this CPP, which you will - IT AIN'T SERVING 5 PEOPLE!! Well, maybe if Libby brought over a salad and dessert! :)

If any of you are in Austin - you have got to hook yourself up with some of this grub - absolutely amazing, and their order and delivery system is scientific and clockworky.

Will you marry me, Casserole Queens? I'm available ;)

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Hope for the Hobo Cats of Tomorrow

You may know, if you're here, that my kitties are hobos. Well, they were hobos. Satan threw them out on a busy street in Austin at 4 weeks old. They were so little they didn't have any bacteria in their bellies, and not very much fur. I make myself sick worrying about their littermates sometimes, because my little beasts are so lovable and fun and deserving of humans who are - well, their slaves. Let's be realistic. Look how hard they have it now...
Shouldn't every little hobo kitty have a happy ending like this?

Well if Bernie Berlin gets her way, they will. Bernie is the creator of A Place To Bark, which I told you I was designing a stamp for. The stamp will be sold and all the proceeds will go towards funding a cat shelter at A Place to Bark. After we raise our goal of $5,000, anything additional will go to other needs at the charity.

My stamp is based on little Maddie Bat, with a little sass, her strange curly tail, some chubbiness, and a lot of heart. She's the black kitty stamp in the middle.

I don't belong in this group of designers though. Claudine Hellmuth, who just lost the most adorable little dog in the world, her beloved Toby, is a phenomenally successful artist, who designed the little sitting kitty. SuziBlu, who many of you are huge fans of already, and was the inspiration for a blog header someone commissioned from me, designed the sweet girl holding the little kitty.

I got lucky being in this group. I'm just a blogger.

Please consider buying one or more of these stamps to help Bernie help homeless animals. I should get my copies of the stamps this week and will be designing cards that will go to the first 20 people who email me with copies of their orders for any stamps in the group. To order, click the image in my sidebar, the sentence or the stamp pictures above! Thank you so much!!

It's people like Bernie that give us hope for the Hobo Kittens of tomorrow, so this card is for you Bernie - thanks for what you do!!

My hope for tomorrow is made from the Sense of Time stamp set.

I swear Shelli is my favorite designer at Stampin' Up! I LOVE this set, and it's one of her signature collection sets. The card base is Soft Sky (STOP YELLING I LOVED THIS COLOR AND WILL NEVER GIVE IT UP NEVER!) and so is the ribbon. The kraft layer is from Taste of Textiles, sponged with Soft Sky. I stamped the gears in Really Rust and black and Versamark (clear embossed those) and the greeting is clear embossed. I rubbed white ink on top of the greeting and accented all the images with my white gel pen.

The clock face is my fave. I stamped it in black on Soft sky and then rubbed it with Tempting Turquoise and Really Rust. I added some highlights with my white gel pen. Then I poured crackle finish on it and waited INTERMINABLY for it to dry. I'm so impatient. After that I sponged Really Rust into the cracks.

Now if that gorgeous clock and my crazy kitties don't give you hope for tomorrow, what does??

Don't forget - it's Make me Laugh Monday - Make Me Laugh and you'll win something really cool!!

LOVEYAMEANITBYE.

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

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