Art Day Accomplishments

Got some great embellishments done yesterday at an Art Day hosted by a close friend, Beverly (check out her blog at http://www.gottheartart.blogspot.com/).

I love paint chips as they fill so many of my crafting needs: 1) they come in every color of the rainbow; 2) they are sturdy, so they work well with punches and die-cutting machines (note to self--try using in an embossing folder); 3) they also come in great textures and shapes (some also have windows already cut in them); 4) they are readily available; and 5) they are economical (read free).

Some chips I ran thru her Big Shot using the scalloped Spellbinders shapes ( http://www.spellbinders.us/) so that I could do the spirelli technique. I usually use various Kreinik blending filaments as my thread--see this cool article http://www.kreinik.com/articles/news.php?newsid=78

Other chips were die cut with Spellbinders dies (they hold the embossed details very well). Finally, Dutch Boy paint chips have these great square windows so fibers can be threaded thru or stamped images placed behind.

Came home tired but with lots of elements to work with for cards, bookmarks, ATCs or even holiday ornaments. What more could a girl want?

Icky Feelings Behind Ike

Well, www.weather.com is predicting all sorts of severe weather even into northeast Texas due to Hurricane Ike.

 

A well-meaning friend sent the standard hurricane preparation e-mail around at work today, and I lost it.  Tears and all, I even called my boss to see if I could have part of Friday night off (before any of the weather is even scheduled to be here). 

 

Gratefully, she has some common sense and a soothing manner.  She knows I live on the second floor in a well-built apartment complex and that my building has both a building to the south of me and one to the north, so that my balcony and front door are somewhat concealed from bad weather.  Her practical suggestions included listening to music or watching movies rather than the radio or TV, and working my regular schedule to stay busy.

 

She's right of course--I allowed the "what if's" to take over for a moment or two...thanks to the Creator for good friends who are supportive but who also don't allow me to lose self-confidence.

 

To all those in the path of Ike...my thoughts and prayers are with you...stay safe...leave if you need to; possessions are not the important thing, people (and pets) are...

 

Blessings to all...

 

Ode to Organization

Okay--I used to pride myself on 1) my phenomenal memory, especially for numbers; 2) my ability to remember where I stored something for easy retrieval; and 3) my PC storage system for information access.

Nobody ever told me that getting older just might mean that I should re-think the amount of information I expect my brain to store just in case it should be needed...

Has anyone else ever saved beaucoups of bookmarks to their PC and then can't remember why they were saved or been totally unable to find a specific cool idea and you just KNOW you saved the link???

My past several hours have been spent re-organizing the blog links I have saved because they were interesting. Since I can't "label" them with notes in IE7, I am making a paper list of many that I know I will want to access older posts from on a regular basis--especially those showing specific papercrafting techniques. This list will then go into my small notebook that stays handy at all times, along with my wish lists for tools, stamps, art supplies and other miscellaneous crafting info.

The project started because my dear crafting friend Beverly had sent a link to an inexpensive coil binding machine as an alternative to a Bind-It-All, and now neither of us can locate that post. (Of course, she has been busy setting up her new blog http://gottheartart.blogspot.com/ and has even tried to tell me over the phone how to post pictures).

So if you know of an inexpensive coil binding machine for personal use, please send the link...and if you know better ways to organize computer info, please help!!!! Meanwhile, I'll be back soon with additional posts on organization for those of us who suffer from CRS as we mature (CRS=Can't Remember Stuff/S***).

Testing...Can I Read Instructions?

One reason posts have been few and far between is my inability to post directly into my blog from anything other than my home PC.  I read this wonderful "help" article on Blogger.com and think I am now set up to be able to post from any PC anywhere via e-mail.

I laughingly call instructions "destructions" because so many times they are hard to interpret, but I may have understood these and am trying it out.

If this posts correctly, look out world, here I come on a regular basis!

Let's see if the "destructions" work....

 

 

If at First, You Don't Succeed...

We all know the ending to that phrase, but sometimes trying again needs to occur after rethinking the whole proposition.

I have (temporarily) decided that a Memory Works website is too much to handle as I cannot check for orders on a daily basis. I have not given up my Consultant status, but for the moment, I am not swimming upstream to turn this into a sideline business. Age has taught me that when the time is right for an experience, all the pieces fall gently and gracefully into place.

I may set this up at a later date (and will certainly post if I do), but for now, my concentration is on learning to share thru my blog and continuing to work on TGAN and my various personal crafting projects.

Gustav on My Mind

I've been a bad blogger this summer; did not really mean to take all summer off, but it happened. Many times, I would think of things to post and then could not access the appropriate computer, so I am now learning to post by other methods and you will see more frequent posts (and pictures when I learn how).

The end of August brought many feelings about Katrina that are now doing somersaults due to Gustav. My gratitude is overwhelming for all those who helped me back on my feet 3 years ago and my prayers go out to all those experiencing Gustav. Those of you who returned to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast were much braver than I.

I could post political thoughts today (I have many LOL!) and certainly have crafting and book posts to make, but they must all wait a bit longer, as the weather in Louisiana and Mississippi is uppermost in my mind. Blessings to all those affected...