Getting Inspired and Board With Cinderella and The Monkees

Hi everyone!

Serious for a moment: have I told you lately that I love you? Thank you SO SO SO SO much for all of your votes for Zachary's teacher. The winner will be announced tomorrow and last time I saw the votes, Ms. Moree was holding strong at 4th place so here's hoping she shot up to the top when we weren't looking! lol I believe the top 5 or maybe even the top 10 get a little something so all is not lost! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for taking time to vote. It means so much to me and my friend was thrilled and so blessed that strangers would vote for her son's teacher. Thank you!

Now, I have been wanting to have an inspiration board for a while now. I've seen such amazing ones on blogs and various sites and my crafty type room is sadly in need of some inspirational decor. (Bare walls drive me nuts! lol Must cover every inch....must cover every inch...) If you have no idea what I'm talking about, an inspiration board is basically bits and baubles of things you like, dig, love and/or are generally inspired by and this is not restricted to just creative types! Ever tear a picture of your dream house out of a magazine and stick it on the fridge? Well, you've started an inspiration board (or fridge as it were, lol).

So I've been thinking lately about what and how I wanted to do this thing and chose a pretty spot of blank wall in our craft room/office area. I knew I wanted a frame-like something or other around everything and thought about taking wood pieces and attaching them in some sort of haphazard frame but then changed my mind when I envisioned the millions of holes in the wall I would have to someday putty over. Bah. That's when I remembered the few old canvases that were either half finished or just gross looking and grabbed one of those to use. Except instead of using the front, I'm going to turn it around and build my inspiration board on the backside:

I've already Gesso'd the heck outta this thing and am now ready to make it my own little piece of inspiring inspirational inspiration. (Say that 3 times fast) But what to add to it? Well, I've already got some vintage thingamabobs, sweet kawaii whatnots, fun junk mail pieces and about 3 zillion sequins but I'm also hawkeyeing the "interwebs" for fun things to add as well. One thing I found yesterday was from the Disney Parks blog of all places, lol. Yesterday they posted this fun little photo series of Cinderella that was taken with a $10 toy camera:
How fun! So that's definitely going to be included somewhere. But what else to add??? Hmm...I just love thinking about and planning new projects, don't you?

Speaking of inspiration: I have spoken (read: gushed) about Emma from Emma's Music before and how much I adore her dreamy music. If you haven't visited her yet now you have an even bigger reason to do so as she is having a giveaway! And this is an awesome giveaway because the winner gets their favorite music performed Emma-style and they will get a copy for their very own! I've already got my entries in (and am requesting all Monkees music, naturally lol) so click HERE to enter!

I'll be back tomorrow with another Friday Night Fab Five (it is Thursday today, right?) but before I go, I wanna know:

Do you have an inspiration board? Or are you planning on making one? What are you adding to it?

I Know You Are But What Am I?

Hey everyone!

Before we get started I wanted to explain the edit I made to my post last night. My best friend of about 22 years has a son who suffered a brain injury when he was just a few months old, his name is Zachary. The result of that injury is a severe mental disability. Luckily, Zachary has started attending an awesome school for special needs kids and his teacher, Shannon Moree is a wonderful person. She has entered a contest to win a flip video camera for the class which she hopes to use as a tool to show parents how their kids are doing during the school day and other school projects.

The winner is chosen by votes and the highest number of votes wins the camera. We would SO appreciate if you would take a sec to vote for her (she is currently in 4th place as of this posting)! You don't have to sign up for anything or "log in", you only need your name and e-mail address. They do not mail you anything but votes are counted by valid e-mail addresses only. And guess what, if you have more than one e-mail address, you can use them all! Woo hoo! LOL Doesn't matter where you are and every vote counts.

Please CLICK HERE and then click on the name "Shannon Moree" in the right hand side bar to vote for her. I would so appreciate it and I know Zach and the entire class would get so much use out of the camera! Here's a pic of my friend and Zach:

Thanks guys!

Now for my newest project:

On one of my trips to Sleepy Poet, I found this scrapbook. It was empty and had pages torn out of it which made it the perfect blank journal for me to cover in glitter and generally glue stuff all over it. lol


I've had it on a shelf for a while because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it but then one day the spine caught my eye:


Wow, My Book? Hmmmm...okay then, new art journal all about me! lol So I started with the cover page which is always my favorite page to work on of any scrapbook/journal/diary type book I have.


I adored Pee-Wee Herman when I was a kid, plus I'm currently going through a "Who am I? What am I? Huh?" phase so the title "I know you are but what am I?" seemed perfect. :D I used some more of my trusty sewing patterns for the background along with a little white paint. Some of the embellishments are from Gauche Alchemy's Pink Parts mixed media kit and the puzzle pieces are real pieces I just covered in origami paper.


I'm currently trying to think of other things to include in "My Book". Do you have a book or journal about yourself? Any ideas or suggestions about what I could add?

Starting the Year Off With a Blog...I Mean Bang!

Happy Sunday everyone!

Our trip to Mom's was tons of fun and we were sad to leave. My mom surprised me BIG TIME with this beautiful head band that she made for me:




Isn't that awesome?! I love it!

I've been thinking a lot about my goals for 2010 lately. I'm not one that's big on goals as a rule. lol But for some reason I've really been seriously setting up some goals for myself this year. I won't bore y'all with them all but there are a couple that involve the blog and I would love some feedback:

1. An idea came to me today that I'm really hoping will become something cool. Most of us crafty people have huge stashes of stuff we'll never even remember we have, much less use. (Maybe I'm the only one? lol) So today I got the idea of an artistic co-op. It would be a core (read: small) group of people that can pass along supplies that other people in the group might need for various projects they're working on (for instance: I'm in serious need of clock faces and gears, could be real or shaped paper/chipboard-it's driving me nuts that I can't find this! lol). You would pay postage obviously to send something to someone but other than that it would be free and it could be a way to share with one another and meet an artistic need without having to run to the store. :D We could start a Yahoo (type) group. What do you think?

2. I definitely want to do some more giveaways on the blog. Since money is an issue it would be mainly things that I make. Is that tacky? lol

3. I am currently involved in a circle journal swap with Gauche Alchemy but I really want to host my own circle journal swap this year. I would love to have people involved that have never done one before. This is a great way to share your work with other artists and to see their work up close. I would keep the group relatively small and would run a VERY tight ship in terms of things running smoothly and easily. lol Anyone out there interested in participating? I would also be interested in doing an ATC swap as well and would love to find some sort of swap where I could include those fabulous international artists I know!

4. And last be certainly not least, THE BACHELOR STARTS TOMORROW NIGHT! YIPPEE!!!!! lol So starting at some point this week (hopefully Tuesday) I'm going to post recaps of each episode in my own snarky type way. So heads up if you're not into the show you can skip that post. lol ;)

I think that's it! At least for now...lol. Please feel free to give me some feedback on these ideas in your comments or e-mail me at justaddglitter @ gmail.com. Now, I'm off to try and catch up on some blog reading, its been forever! lol

To end with, here's a video of Toot taking a stroll at mom's house. She's just barely holding on so it won't be long now before she's off and running! By the way, she's a little cranky at the end because I made her walk back and forth a couple of time trying to get some good video. lol

Have a great day everyone!

Zombuki and The Search For The Figurative Grail

Over at my vintage blog, Circle 7-2099 I posed the question of "What is your Vintage Grail?" By "grail" I mean that one special obsession. That material object that you've been drooling over but can't just run out and get anywhere. These are things that are typically pricier and/or harder to track down. So you save and you save and you save until that glorious day when you can proudly say, "I'LL TAKE IT!!!!" For instance, Julie posted on her blog about finally realizing her dream of owning her Grail: a Bern Christmas art piece.

In the world of Pullip, Blythe and BJDs (ball jointed dolls), a "grail" refers to your ultimate "wanted" doll, possibly rare and usually more expensive. For me, my Ultimate Most Wanted Not Necessary To Life But Must Save and Buy One Day Grail is a Zombuki.

A little explanation from Zombuki.com:

"Zombuki, a combination of the words “zombie” and “kabuki,” was a term dreamed up with the help of a friend some time ago. Zombukis are meant to be a hybrid of many styles and cultures (the zombie itself being both alive and dead), able to embody many looks, to be chimeras of the doll world."

The artist, Brigitte, uses her creative magic to turn every day Pullip and Blythe dolls into fabulous original creations. She overhauls the entire doll from hair to eyes to outfit, hand paints them and creates an entire persona for the "Zombuki". Each one is a beautiful work of art and you can see all of them on her site, Zombuki.com.

I was lucky enough to win some Zombuki postcards from her Etsy shop during the Advent giveaway on her blog, Unwed Human Female and boy, you should have seen my Happy Dancin' when I found out I had won! lol It was then that my quest to own my very own Zombuki was born. I decided to use one of the postcards (and probably more in the future) for a canvas project because I found them so inspiring and I'm such a visual person (most creative people are I think) that I decided I would be more diligent in my quest if I had a little something on the wall to remind me what I was saving for, lol.

To begin my project, I used one of these canvases I got for a $1 on clearance at Hobby Lobby a while back. It actually wasn't a blank canvas but a shot of jewelry artwork in the Home department.



Now, if you're the artist of this piece, I apologize for covering it up but poor people need canvas too! LOL So I Gesso'd the crud out of it and then covered it in layers of a sewing pattern which I then added some purple and pink acrylic paint to match the postcard of Kimi, one of Brigitte's Zombukis. I love Kimi, she looks like candy and reminds me of Japanese street fashion (though Brigitte's inspiration was American raves). Remember when America's Next Top Model did that street photo shoot in Japan? There you go! lol Here's my end result:



I used pieces from the Pink Parts, Green and Purple People Eaters mixed media kits from Gauche Alchemy. (Side note: if you have not tried GA's color kits, you so should! They are so affordable and my absolute "go to" when I'm making something! :D) Anyhoo, I loved this little card with the definition of the word "unique" which Zombukis definitely are and thought it was perfect for my project.



I may not be able to get a Zombuki right away or any time soon for that matter but keep an eye on this blog as I will one day write a post entitled "MINE ALL MINE MUWAHAHAHAHAHA!" lol :D

Visit Brigitte's blog, Unwed Human Female

Check out her Etsy shop, Zombukis Love You

Discover the world of the Zombuki at Zombuki.com

Do you have a Grail you're wishing and saving for?

Friday Night Fab Five: Ghosts of Artistic Past

I'm not kidding when I say that I love to create things and will try every art form in the book. Shortly after I graduated high school, I decided that I just HAD to be a painter even though I can't draw and have no painting skills whatsoever (other than a wall or two or course). This was during my 90's flannel & Doc Martens conforming non-conformist phase....I miss Grunge. *sigh* Anyhoo, thus began my foray into the world of painting on canvas.

I only bring this up now because while I was getting out the Christmas decorations from our scary (to my husband) basement, I discovered some of these old canvases and boy are they a hoot. So I thought I'd share them here in the interest of sharing some of my projects that I do not consider to be all that great. lol I had a lot of fun painting these and while I have discovered that painting is not my forte, the fun of creating is trying a little of everything to find what you're really good at, at least for me anyway. lol I still love love love working on canvas, I just now find myself gluing things to it rather than painting a masterpiece, I'll leave that to the experts! lol

Enjoy! (Or run away in horror, it's all good! :P)

(Oh also, there's more than five so this is more like a Friday Night Fab Seven :D)

So this is my first painting ever. Once I discovered that I couldn't draw or paint worth a lick, I decided to paint the only thing I was really into: music. So I would light candles and incense, drink wine, smoke cigarettes and play the same song over and over while I "painted the song" so to speak. This was "Nobody's Home" by Pink Floyd (the Symphonic Floyd version). Wasn't I the sweetest little ole tortured soul you ever did see? lol

This one is "Down In It" by Nine Inch Nails

"Talk Show Host" by Radiohead

This was isn't a song. At least I don't think so, there's nothing written on the back. :)

At one point I decided that I was going to do something recognizable if it killed me so I started doing profiles/silhouettes. This one is a man and a woman, see em? lol My mom swiped this one when she was down for Thanksgiving last week.

Now comes what my mom calls my "Aliens". lol I just wanted to do something more than splatter painting so here it is. lol Check out her giant rack. Her back must really hurt after a long day, know what I mean?


I couldn't draw hands (or much of anything as you can see) so I just traced my hands on the canvas. lol I did a few of these gals actually, I might post more here at some point.

Thanks for hanging with me for this blast from the past. Sorry it's not that Fab or Five. lol I'd love to hear about things you used to create when you were younger that you don't do anymore! Am I the only one with artsy skeletons in the closest? lol

Have a great weekend everyone!

Circle Journal: Listening and Dancing

This month's circle journal from Gauche Alchemy was Heather's who chose a "Listening and Dancing" theme. At first I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go in but luckily inspiration hit me like a truck and I whipped it together like that*! *(picture me snapping)

Anyhoo, here is my entry in Heather's journal:



I used a vintage image and colored parts of her outfit in Platinum and Copper Stickles. I added some pieces from Gauche Alchemy's (It's All) Gravy, Baby! mixed media color kit and a couple of crochet flowers I received from Y at Do More With Less. Some feathers here, some buttons there, a little lacy ribbon, a piece of dress pattern, a key brad, some haphazard acrylic painting, sequins and pom poms and last but not least, words from a magnetic poetry set.



Here's hoping Heather likes it as much as I do (why come all the good things I make are to be sent off to other people?! lol ;P)!

Happy Monday everyone! :D

Yesterday, All My Projects Seemed So Far Away...

So much happened yesterday that I had to wait a whole day before telling you about any of it! lol

First of all, yesterday was Sesame Street's 40th anniversary. Holy cow, this show has been going strong for 40 years!

I loved watching Grover teach about near and far:



And I L-O-V-E-D the skits where Grover was a waiter:



Toot turned 13 months old yesterday and she is now officially over the one year mark, yikes! Speaking of which, when do you stop counting months and just say "one year old"? This extra months + 12 months thing is confusing...lol.

Yesterday I watched "The Edge of Love" with Keira Knightly and is was...eh. But it took place during WWII which leads me to say....

Thank you to all veterans every where for your invaluable service and sacrifice! I appreciate you keeping me free! :D

Also yesterday I finished my Christmas tree skirt! This pattern was actually pretty easy and luckily I was able to crochet on auto-pilot for a good while which is always appreciated (you can't really do that in amigurumi! lol). It was raining here yesterday so the pics aren't great but here it is, with and without the flash (I'm sure you will all notice the sneaky arm in the bottom right corner. Mommy's little shadow! lol):





Now on to the next project! Happy Veteran's Day everyone!

Circle Journaling, Now With 100% More Cannibalism!

This time around on the Gauche Alchemy Circle Journal...uh...circle, I got a chance to work in a very special journal that belongs to my good friend Callista. I knew this would be a fun CJ to work in because 1. I like Callista and 2. Callista likes cupcakes. Not surprisingly, the theme of her journal is "Cupcakes"...how fun!

Except that...I was viciously attacked by that nasty beast: Artist Block. Boo! Hiss! Come on Artist Block, really? Give me a break! Grrrrr...

So I thought and I schemed and I planned and I racked my brain trying to make my entry in Callista's CJ the best...but what would make it the best? What could I do with sweet sugary fairy cakes that hadn't already been done? What could I do? WHAT?!

Wait a minute! I know! I can't believe I didn't see this before...duh! Everyone knows that cupcakes are known cannibals. It's in their nature...their delicious delicious nature...







Naughty naughty little cupcake!

These pages were fairly simple. I made the "bitemark" with my trusty office hole punch. I glued dictionary pages to the chipboard and I noticed the words "bitchy bite" on the right hand side and that got me thinking about the devious nature of cupcakes. Sure, they taste good but then they move to your stomach and thighs and refuse to leave! Stupid delicious sons of...ANYWAY, I added some acrylic paint and sequins and pieced together the cupcakes from patterned paper and cardstock scraps. Some Stickles and my label maker and woo hoo! Cupcake Cannibals! (Not to be confused with Cupcake Cannabis...TOTALLY different thing!)

hee hee

I'm Pretty Sure This Is The Best Day Ever...

First of all, a HUGE thank you to all of you that partied with me over the weekend at Vanessa's Halloween bash. There were so many awesome blogs participating, I enjoyed visiting each and every one! I was a little worried when I wrote my post as I wasn't sure everyone would "get" my brand of humor but most seemed to enjoy it so THANK YOU! In the end I left around 180 comments and visited over 200 blogs (not all had party posts) so I count it as a success! lol

Next, I'm not sure you if you knew this but 10 days after Toot was born, I was born! All right, 10 days and a few years after. Yes, you guessed it - today I turned 33! Go me! :P

My hubby started the party early last week by getting me a crochet magazine I'd been drooling over and 2 new crochet books. This past Sunday my mom took us to the local Renaissance Faire which we go to every year to celebrate my birthday (pictures to come later, I was lazy :P) and tonight my dad is taking us out to dinner (pizza, oh baby!) AND Toot slept until 7:30 this morning! Woo hoo! lol

I don't have much going on on the ole blog here for my birthday but I do want to share a project that I recently did that displays what my entire life philosophy is based on: a quote. I finished another journal for the LPS circle journal and the theme of this one was "Favorite Quote". This is a fun one for me because I quite like my favorite quote, which is from the movie "Harold and Maude". Here are my pages (P.S.-These pics are craptacular, I had to take them at night - boo, hiss!):



And a close up of each side:





So the quote is: "Everyone has the right to make an ass out of themselves, you can't let the world judge you too much." I love love love this quote! If you've never seen the movie "Harold and Maude" I really recommend you check it out. (Cat Stevens did the entire soundtrack for the movie and the music is amazing!) It's all about being who you are, which is a unique individual and to embrace life. Here is a scene where Maude is talking about being unique.



It reminds me of this song that "Happy Monster Band" sings on Playhouse Disney (yes, I went there) it goes,

"I'm someone no one else can be,
I'm different than you, him or he,
I'm happy too as you can see,
Cause I'm the best at being me."

This may seem like a silly kid's song but I wish there was more of this philosophy being taught to our kids than being like celebrities or copying each other. Here's the entire song:



Anyhoo, didn't mean to wax poetic there! Thanks for sharing this day with me and have a cupcake before you go!


Want to make these cupcakes? Go HERE for the recipe! (and then send me one! ;)

Have a great day everyone!

Am I The Only One That's Slammin'?

So I am admittedly more nostalgic than most of my friends. I love talking about "The Good Ole Days" (which in my case is the late 70's to early 90's :P): toys and cartoons, clothes and hair, movies and music, etc and so forth. My friends typically humor me until their eyes glaze over and they turn the car radio up louder until I stop talking but it's cool. I've come to realize that I may be the only one to remember half the things I talk about which leads me to wonder, "Am I the only one?" (Wow, a questioning wonderment...how very Carrie Bradshaw of me)

Anyhoo, case in point: slam books. These little beauties were something we did in junior high. We took a notebook and wrote one question on each page (What's you favorite band/color/movie, etc and the best one: Who do you have a crush on? hee hee). You sign your name on the first page and the number by your name is the line you write your answer on for the rest of the pages. We passed it around during classes and then when you got it back you had all of these entries from different people.

So when I got the "Hot for Teacher" kit from Gauche Alchemy, it screamed "Slam Book" to me. Instead of using a spiral notebook however, I decided to make a mini paper bag album. I also added some tags and these were fun to make. I decided to create the tags (and the album) as a tween might do it, drawing on people's yearbook pictures and things like that. :P Making this little book reminded me of years past and how simple crafting can be when you're young, full of stickers, glitter and Sharpies. :D















It's not the fanciest thing I've ever made but I like it. It also made me wonder, what else is there that escapes the memory of everyone but me???

The Great Space Coaster?



Pinwheel?



Hypercolor?

(P.S.-This may be TMI, but did any other gal out there have issues with Hypercolor...uh..."hypercoloring" along the chestular region of their shirt?)



*sigh* Must just be me...

Circle Journaling: Artsy Vintage

Happy first day of October!

The first circle journal I received from the Gauche Alchemy group had a fun theme of "Artsy Vintage". I decided to make a crackle/messy paint effect with red acrylic paint and Elmer's glue. I used pieces of various mixed media color kits from Gauche Alchemy and went back to my tried and true pin-ups. :)





Sorry this post is short but Toot is currently trying to lick my laptop and I'm having flashbacks to that "fried pussycat" from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Gotta run!

Inspiration Is Everywhere!

I'm always been inspired by the blogs I visit and the people behind them (that would be you) and wanted to share a couple of of the ones that have (inadvertently) added to my mile long "To Do" list. (This is a good thing by the way) So be on the look out for future posts on these topics:

1. Jessica at Chronically Vintage has a weekly snapshot post where she shares vintage images found on Flickr. This has inspired me to scan in and share a few of the hundreds of family pictures my in-laws gave me during our recent trip to New York.

2. Carmen at Whoopidoo...ings recently posted about going back to her scrappy beginnings. This post really inspired me to refocus my scrapbooking on the pictures, not the paper and embellishments.

3. Lemondrop Marie at Lemondrop Vintage wrote a lovely post on coats recently. This got me thinking about 3 particularly fabulous vintage coats I have in my possession so I'm going to get them out and try a little photo shoot. :D

4. Molly at A Bit O' Shine posted about her recent creative (and cheap) closet makeover. This got me looking at my clutter in a whole new way and I hope to get more creative in my space very soon!

So what has inspired you lately? Do you have enough links to share with the rest of the class? Share them in your comment, I love finding inspiration!

And now for a little fun. For all of the "Mad Men" fans out there, here's one for you courtesy of Saturday Night Live:

"Don Draper's Guide To Picking Up Women"



Have a great day everyone!

Worth Her Weight In Salt

This post has something for everyone so step right up! If you're crafty, you'll love my newest project and if you're into babies, you'll love Toot's newest video. See, win win! (Unless you hate crafts and babies in which case...uh...this post will be really boring...)

The first is my new favorite crafty idea which unfortunately I did not think of: altering empty salt containers.

*gasp* What did she say?!

I think she said altering salt containers...

But that's madness!

Yeah well, she's nuts. We knew that going in...

Hey you guys, I'm writing a post here! Oh, sorry... ANYWAY, I found this fabulous little idea over at Altered Art Junkies. (click HERE to see the original post!) Here's what I started with:



I then took the paper off the container, cut the top off and then cut a window out of one side and then through the power of Mod Podge and seed beads...

TA DA!



I covered it in patterned paper, one side says, "Once upon a time" and the other has a couple of frogs wearing a crown which I covered in Stickles. I put pink tulle inside the container and added a picture of yours truly. I don't remember how old I am in this picture but when I was younger I used to wear my dress slip, tights and dress up shows and pretend I was a ballerina. :D

I strung some beads on wire and then Mod Podge to covered the bottom and top with dress pattern pieces and accented them with Stickles. I'm not actually sure its quite finished yet so I may add on to it but until then, yay! lol



And now, may I present....

"The Toot That Was Suppose To Be Napping" In Color!

If I Can Make It Here, I Can Make It Anywhere

Hello hello everyone!

Well, we made it to our destination and I am currently in lovely, exotic, fabulous Bronx, New York. Yes, yes that may not sound all that fabulous BUT we are within one single bus ride of Manhattan which IS ultra fabulous and I've been having a grand time observing what makes a Manhattanite-Socialite woman (at least in appearance). I've broken it down into 4 easy steps for you to recreate at home if you too would like to look like a "true" (read: rich) NY woman:

1. Big huge sunglasses

2. Short flow-y dress, either long sleeve or strapless.

3. Hair to be either in a ponytail at back of neck or long, straight and parted in the middle.

4. Mega flat sandals (yes, unfortuntately the "gladiator" look is upon us) OR super high heels in tropical colors.

And there you have it! Easy peasy, yes?

I will have loads of pictures to share when I get home next week, including many of Toot shopping at the finest boutiques 5th Avenue has to offer and a picture I took of two doors with "Lucy" on one and "Desi" on the other which turned out to be dressing rooms of some someones shooting a movie....hmmmm....

In other, craftier news: I was the July Guest Designer for QTea Kits!

"What?? You can't be serious Maggi! They have the cutest embellishment kits ever!"

"Oh but I am serious my shocked friend, someone was actually smart enough to add me to their design team for a month, it's madness!"

You can go here and here to see what I did for them and to tell them how awesome I am (just kidding! No, I'm serious...nah, just kidding! Maybe...) or you can just scroll down to see my creations with their July kit. This is an Australian based kit club that specializes in vintage-y embellishments you can use in any sort of craft and they are loads of fun:

Holy crap, I made a card!

An 8x8 layout:

And these next three are from my 3x4 altered book:

Not too bad for my first sort of Design Team work ever I think.

Anyhoo, I am checking my e-mail and have been so loving hearing from you all! I haven't been able to get to any of your blogs, BOO, but will try my best to catch up when I get home!

I hope everyone's having a great week!

Emmy Award Winning Knitting

Some BIG news!

You will never believe it, but I am going on VACATION!

"But Maggi, that's madness I tell you, MADNESS!"

Oh but it's true! Yours truly, who has not been on a vacation since her honeymoon (?!?!) is leaving today to go on vaca! Hoop-Dee-Doo! In your face, Maggi's House! Woo hoo! I will be gone for 10 days, 10 glorious not at home days!

What??? No, don't cry! I'm not leaving forever my darling readers, please control yourselves! Yes, through the power of auto-post I will be with you the whole time! Plus, I may just post some pics from whatever exotic locale I happen to be in at the time.

One last thing before the real post begins: there is a special Craftoholics interview this coming Monday that you won't want to miss! Muwahahahahahaha...

So be sure to miss me tons and NO posting anything cool on your blogs while I'm away! (Although if there's a computer anywhere near me I'll try to make an appearance or two!)

Now, on with the post!

Chris meets many people in his line of work, most of which are complaining or just plain rude (he works in retail) but every once in a while, God smiles upon him and brings some really cool people into the store.

Enter D1 & D2, a fabulous transplant couple from the West Coast. Chris hit it off right away with them and being the generous guy that he is, decided to share his new friends with me and we now enjoy having dinners together and what not. They are a lot of fun and the best part (at least for me) is that D2 is a HUGE crafty person and she is a knitting guru. *gasp* Did someone say knitting! Oh baby!

I have ALWAYS wanted to learn how to knit and now I had someone right in my clutches...uh, I mean someone I knew that could teach me! Luckily D2 was in a teaching type of mood and one night after dinner (D1 is a master at making homemade ice cream by the way) we sat down and she taught me. I didn't do too bad considering she taught me to "knit-knit-knit-knit" and instead I did "knit-purl-knot-knit-huh-knit-what-the-..." But she was very patient with me and she is just fabulous!



Not too bad for a first timer, eh? I'm hoping to be a decent enough knitter at some point. Practice practice practice!

So it happened one night that we went to have dinner at D1 & D2's house when I went into their office to check out something on their computer. We were all in there talking and laughing when something over their computer desk caught my eye...

Something...shiny...

Something...bright...

It couldn't be...

But it is!



Three Emmy awards?! What in the blue blazes?! So I calmly and rationally asked D1 and D2 what the what...

Turns out that D2 is something of a big wheel and won three techinical Emmys because she is so awesome. Wow! Wait, does that mean that I was taught to knit by an Emmy award winner?! Wow!

P.S.-They were nice enough to let me hold one and didn't even laugh when I gave an acceptance speech. And yes, they are heavy...

P.P.S.-Yes, my acceptance speech was awesome...they didn't even start up the "Shut up and get the heck off the stage!" music. How nice...

Blogging A.D.D.

Oh lawd y'all, I've got so much to share today I had to make a blog list on my iPhone in the middle of Target this afternoon. (You can laugh but I bet Christy and Ally know what I'm talking about! :P) Anyhoo, y'all ready?! Here we go!

First of all, my husband thinks he's soooooo funny...



And isn't he so dashing in his new haircut? Actually, I don't know what's worse...him feeling up a paper doll or me taking a picture of his smarty pants-edness.

Next, the fabulous Lola tagged me with this:



So this is what I'm suppose to do:

1. Collect the book that you have most handy
2. Turn to page 161
3. Find the 5th complete sentence
4. Cite the sentence on your blog
5. Pass it on to 5 other victims (Oops! bloggers)

And here is my sentence:

"She lugged the books everywhere, as well as a copy of the greatest Victorian writer's letters which Alexander Woollcott had sent her as a wedding present."

From the book "Vivien: The Life of Vivien Leigh", which I have yet to start yet (still reading a book on Jimmy Stewart) but it was the closest book handy so there it is! And I will tag...hmmmmmm.....

1. Christy
2. Karyn
3. Danielle
4. Vicki
5. Melissa

Now for some exciting news for you creative types: there's a new challenge blog a comin'! It's called Dare To Be Different and they are currently accepting submissions for their design team! They are looking for 5 scrapbookers and 5 altered book/art journal artists so head on over and check it out! They are accepting submissions until August 13th, good luck!

Speaking of altered books, guess what I've got to show you!

So over at JAD's, they are doing a "Book of Me" challenge and I decided to join in. Luckily I had a chipboard album that my fabulous friend Callista sent me so I decided to use that. The first challenge was to make the cover page...easy enough!



The picture is one of me on my honeymoon. Not the best picture but bah, whatever! It works! lol

As for my second project, my ever-muse at DustJacket Attic has been using Mondays to post pictures of (or inspired by) particular fairy tales. Every Monday is a different story or tale and I find it so inspiring! (If you don't believe me, check out her posts on Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel. Go on, I'll wait...)

See, told you so! :P

Well seeing this Monday's post on Little Red Riding Hood gave me the idea to start a fairy tale inspired altered book. Aren't I the clever one? Anyone? *crickets*

So I made my cover page and am planning to make a double page layout for each story I put in the book. It won't be a retelling of the story or anything but a sort of artistic impression from the story itself. Anyway, enough blah blah blah, here's the cover page:



So I think that's all I had for today...let me see....*checking iPhone list*...Yup, covered it all! Of course I'll think of 100 more things once I hit publish but whadda gonna do, eh?

How about I leave you with this funny scene from the fantastic "Bringing up Baby" starring the fabulous Katharine Hepburn and the dreamy Cary Grant. If you don't want to watch the whole clip, at least skip to minute "4:39" and check out the fabulous shoes Ms. Hepburn is wearing!