Administrative Time Out

For my regular blog readers: In preparation for my move I'm trying to find a good home for some under utilized items.  This is the best way I know to get decent sized pictures for people on craigslist to see what they're buying in better detail.

I'll get back to my usual fascinating self in a week or so. ;)
And if you're interested in anything you see pictured here on the blog in the next couple of days, by all means, let me know!

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Tamrac Adventure 10
Read the full, official description here on Tamrac's website.

This was purchased for a camping trip, then not used - it wasn't the right configuration for the trip.  More non-gear room was needed for what we were doing.

The bag has never been used.  Tags have been removed.  It's been kept in a smoke-free, pet-free home.  The bag has been discontinued, and listings on ebay are asking for $260.  I'd like to find a happy photo enthusiast to give it a good home.  We're asking $100.

Lots of room up top for non-photo gear.

The bottom is equally huge.  Easily fits a 70-200 f/2.8 lens attached to the camera.  Or rearrange the fully-customizable inserts and put your 70-200 f/2.8 just about anywhere you want!  Multiple lenses? An external flash? Or Two? Second body? No problem.  PLENTY of room in here!

Side view.  Nothing to write home about here, but had I been thinking, I would be showing you the other side view, and I could tell you that this bag has a laptop compartment that fits a 17 inch laptop.  17 inch.  Let that sink in for a minute.

I'm bringin' sext back.  Those other bags don't know how to act.
Oops.  Just the view of the back side of the bag.
The straps are well padded.  Lots of places to hook on a cell phone or gps unit.

You can't read the measuring tape, but you can see the red spots that mark each foot.  It's (according the Tamrac) 14 wide x 25 high x 10 deep.

Quick recap:
$100
HUGE
Never been used.
Tamrac - great quality bags
Smoke-free, Pet-free home.

Bummers:
Cash only.
No shipping (sorry, it's too big)
Mayfield/Willoughby/Mentor area.

Interested?  Email me at cnd3167 at yahoo dot com.

She's Such a B

I'm moving!
Okay, not today - who blogs when they're actually moving?  But I do have stuff in boxes.  I WE get our keys next Saturday and I have a 17 foot UHaul reserved in my name the following Tuesday.  On Wednesday I'll probably be dead, but...thems the breaks, right?

Yesterday was the day I had planned to start packing.  And I had also planned to squeeze in one more layout.  I figured I'd pack for a couple of hours in the morning, and then set aside two hours to play with paper.  Ted had a baseball game scheduled last night, but it rained pretty hard the night before and throughout the morning.  I got a little cocky, thinking that surely the game would be cancelled, which would mean I could pack more and push scrapping to the evening.

HA.
hahahahaha.

No.  Ted's game wasn't cancelled.  But by the time that became apparent I had already extended my packing time into my scrapping time.  Also, last night was the last night for me to make a meal and have "all" of us eat something homemade together. (all = me, Ted and Molly...which is such a tiny 'all' these days!)  The bottom line is, I got to play with paper for about a half hour before we had to head out to the park.  The game was good - the sun was out at the beginning, and it got a little chilly when the sun went down, but at no point was it unpleasant.  The boys won 6-0. (Yay!)

We got home after 10:30, and even though that's long after I prefer to scrapbook, I was going to finish the page I'd started.  I couldn't bear to pack everything up with this picture and this story untold.  I wasn't excited about where this was going at first, my tired brain just wasn't clicking the way I would like it to.  But in the end, I'm very pleased. :)

*GASP*  I cussed on a scrapbook layout! BAD SCRAPBOOKER!

Oops.  I'm not sorry.  This is our life and our story, and this story includes a bad word.

Ted is the most laid back, easy going, helpful kid on the planet.  He rarely complains, and is always willing to lend a hand.  I'd even go so far as to say he's chivalrous.  This past week I worked to spruce up a drafting table.

It went from this:

To this:

This transformation took about 3 hours of scrubbing, power sanding, detail and finish sanding and buffing on several layers of wax.  The point of this is: my arms were like jelly for the following two days, and when I said something in front of my kids, Ted's response was "Mom.  I would have done that for you."  And indeed he could have - he just won the Applied Tech award at school, meaning, of all the kids, the shop teacher thought he was 'the man.'  We had a little talk about how I like getting that sense of "I did it!" pride, too, and that the sore guns were totally worth it.  But Ted would do just about anything to spare me pain.  If he treats his future wife half as well as he treats me, she will be a lucky, lucky woman.

"She's such a bitch!" is our inside joke.  Whenever I ask him to do anything his usual response is "Okay."  Not "Okay." in a "what-ev-er" tone.  He may not be excited to gather the garbage and take it the curb, but his response is positive -  like he's just happy to be of help.  I love that about him.

So when I ask him to do something and he says "Ok" so willingly, I playfully say "I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking: "She's such a bitch!"**  To this Ted earnestly responds "Mom.  I'm NOT thinking that.  I don't EVER think that!"  We tend to go on like this for a bit.  Ted knows that I'm teasing him, that I know that he doesn't think that.  It's just fun.  And it makes him smile at me in an exasperated way.   We've been doing this schtick for a couple of months now, and the other day I said I was going do a scrapbook page with that title. And blog about it.  He smiled, but protested, saying that everyone would think he was mean.  For the record: he's totally not mean at all.

**Yes, I shouldn't set such a terrible example for my kids, but I'm not saying anything their peers don't say, and we've had extensive conversations about what's acceptable and appropriate.  And honestly, they're not big bad word sayers.  I've scrolled through their texts, and their friends cuss like sailors, but I rarely see anything, and even then, it's damn or crap, so I feel like we're doing okay there.

And that's it.  I doubt that I'll scrapbook again until July.  Just thinking about that break makes me sad.  I've had so much fun playing these last couple of weeks.  BUT, I'm SO excited about scrapbooking in my new place, where I get to be in with the rest of my people.  And on my new desk (Have I mentioned how pretty she is??) And standing up, too!  Yeeeee!  It's going to be so great.

Wish us luck!

Meh.

I'm having one of those days where the weather is getting to me a little.  It was a struggle to get out of bed this morning - the only reason I managed it was because I had to take Maggie's car to get e-checked so I can take care of getting my stickers for it for the next year.

BTW, thanks State of Ohio, for always giving me a batch of unpleasant errands to run for my birthday.  Blech.  I can't remember how it was done in MD, PA or IN but OH: you suck.

Anyway, once were back it was still a struggle to fight the urge to crawl back into bed.  I'm not generally a napper, and while I hit the snooze once or twice like everyone else, I'm not generally one to lollygag around in bed.  So it's weird.  I'm not sick, I feel fine, I'm just BLAH.

I spent my afternoon making this:

Yeah. Like I said: Meh.

Washington D.C. ....and a wee tutorial

Ted went to Washington D.C. with his 8th grade class last week.  He came home with about 150 images of the places they'd visited and about 5 people shots, including 3 selfies with him wearing someone else's aviator sunglasses and looking pretty badass (for an 8th grader).  The camera that I gave him is waterproof and shockproof, because frankly I just don't trust 14 year olds to really take care of electronics. So it's not the greatest camera (waterproof, shockproof cameras will never be "the greatest camera") but it did okay.

But what really amuses me is that Ted is a Gratuitous Tilter. Roughly half of his pictures were taken at a 30º to 45º tilt.  I have a feeling that he got that from me, but I'd like to think that I used it more sparingly.  ;)    Because the tilted pictures amused me so, I made a collage to share on Facebook and posted it with (what I thought was) a funny caption about alerting the authorities that D.C. was about to slide into the Potomac and wash out to sea.  Once I made the collage it seemed pretty logical to go ahead and print it.  And if I was going to go ahead and print it, I might as well print in a scrapbook friendly size.  When I showed the print to him I prefaced it with "You can't have this one, I'm going to scrapbook it." he got all excited.  No lie he said "My pictures are worthy enough to be scrapbooked?!"  On the one hand, that made me feel really good!  On the other, I felt an enormous pressure to follow through and actually do something with the pictures.  And it's not a matter of worthy or unworthy...it's that I think that scrapbooking someone else's memory is REALLY HARD.  I wasn't there.  I don't know what your take away of the event was.  I don't know what to say.

But the kid wanted the pictures scrapbooked and, by gum it!, I was going to make that happen for him.  I'm not going to drag you through the (un)creative process, or tell you about the printer problems that took me about an hour to conquer.  I'll say that my goal was to treat the pictures with dignity and respect.  They are pictures that are tilted, and that makes me titter a little, but Ted loves history and was very impressed by the things he saw. WIth that in mind, I give you Washington D.C., a layout by Caroline with pictures by Ted:

Now you see why I'm not going to blather on about the creative process. :P

The font that I used for Washington is LainieDaySH.  I think it matches the mood of the photos well, but in all honesty, it's too thin to easily cut from the Silhouette, so I had to modify it.  I had decent success, so I thought I'd just throw up a couple of screenshots to walk through how I changed it to make it what you see here.

So this is the title, as typed into the Sil software.  At this point I zoom in and double check that the letters flow nicely into one another.  This font is pretty good, but I did notice the the n into the g wasn't connected to my liking.

To remedy this, I selected the word and clicked the "ungroup" button in the lower left hand corner (circled in blue).  This changes the word "Washington" from one big file into a series of 'shapes' that can be treated differently.  You could size or rotate each letter individually if you wanted, but today I just need to move them a little.  Since I'm okay with the way the 'gton' flow into each other, I select all four letters and USE THE ARROW KEYS to scootch those letters closer to the 'n'.  Why the caps?  Because if you try to use your mouse or fingerpad invariably you'll cause those letters to move up or down.  Using the arrow keys will prevent them from shifting in unintended directions.

Once everything is lining up the way I want it, I select all the letters, and hit the weld button in the upper right hand corner (circled in blue).  From here I click the  'weld' option from the submenu on the right side (circled in pink).

Next, I'm taking a critical look at the font itself.  From my experience with the Silhouette, I know that cut is just too thin - the loop on the g might cut cleanly, but I'll never be able to get it off the mat without the cardstock tearing apart.

If only this font were a little fatter.
I could feed it a cheese danish.
Maybe if I put it on the sofa with a Real Housewives marathon on?
I know those options have both worked for me.

However, it might be slightly quicker to use the offset feature?  Let's try it.  ;)

To start the process, you click the offset button (upper right, circled in blue) to bring up the submenu.  From there you click the offeset button (right, circled in pink).  The default is .25 inches.  That is too many cheese danishes worth!  Yuck.  We're going for cuttable and instead we turned into the doodlings of a love struck teenager.  From here you can go into the "Offset Distance" box and just type in ".01" or whatever.

Let's try .01:

  Okay!  That's a lot closer to what I'm going for.  But, at this point I have two sets of cutlines, and that's not what I want, either.  Time to go in and carefully remove the inside (original) word.  You'll have to take care of the W and the dot on the i separately.  Here's what we get:

Okay!  Now we've got a cuttable font!  But...wait...that g is causing me some concerns:

I put the blue dot next to where the issue lies.  The way that tail sort of jigs over is going to weaken that area - it's too close to where the g's descender meets the loop.

I'll be completely honest here.  I did not notice this before I cut it.  As it happened, I cut two versions of this.  I cut one exactly as I've shown here, and another where I changed the offset to .02 (ever so slightly fatter than this one at .01)  It wasn't until I peeled them off the mat that I realized there was a problem with the .01 version.  As it happened, I liked the .02 version better.  I'm not going to walk you through doing it, since it's pretty much exactly the same process, but here's the .01 and the .02 together:

Yes, the smaller version has more details, and that's a good thing for sure.  But if those details are so tight that they don't cut well the whole thing falls apart pretty quickly.  I cut them side by side because there wasn't a good enough reason not to.  I'm glad I did, because looking at these on the screen leaves one impression, but the finished product gives an entirely different impression.

I hope that helps you look at your fonts differently.  I've often ruled out gorgeous fonts because I've assumed they were too thin.  Using the offset feature has allowed me to retain the look and mood of the fonts I love, while making them just chubby enough to cut effectively.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Him and Me...and FridgeBinz

Yay! Last night was another scrap opportunity!  We were supposed have a baseball game to attend, but just as we got there it started POURING.  So, oops, it got canceled.  :)  Yes. That's a smiley face.  I love watching Ted's games.  I go whenever I can.  But I don't mind the occasional two hour pocket of time that suddenly opens up when they get canceled.  So we came home and I scrapped:

This is another picture from our walk in the park last week.  It's probably not the most flattering of me, but I do really like this photo.  I think it catches our personalities - Kerig is very serious and focused most of the time.  I vacillate between very serious and focused (usually with regard to schoolwork) and annoyingly juvenile.  This works out well about 92% of the time, because sometimes Kerig needs to lighten the fudge up.  And sometimes I need to behave myself.  He keeps me from getting in trouble.  I keep him from imploding. Win/win.

If you're a regular visitor, you might remember that I went on and on about FridgeBinz from Bed, Bath and Beyond.  I spent a couple of days cutting my paper scraps down to 7.5x7.5in and 3.5x4in to store in the two sizes of the bins that I bought.  This is the final set up:

So, I have two of the bigger sizes, one is for my slight minipad addiction.  And two of the smaller size - the second one is for color mists and ink pads.  I can easily see getting several more of these for glitter vials and embellishment packs.  Maybe one more for adhesive... and washi...and dies and embossing folders. :) Love them.

I really dislike hyperbole and most forms of exaggeration.  So I'm not saying this for effect:

These dumb FridgeBinz have changed the way I scrapbook.

I don't think that I'm different than most scrapbookers.  I have paper.  A LOT of paper:

(This is spot for whole, uncut sheets of patterned paper.  And some letter stickers, which I am not addicted to and therefore only have a moderate amount.)

And that's where all that uncut patterned paper is in relation to where I sit to scrap.  And what you don't see is an Iris cart that sort of blocks the way and a chair that also blocks but also serves as a place to rest as you go through stacks and stacks of paper.  (It also serves as a nice place for visitors -i.e. kids- to sit when I'm scrapping or working on homework)  So it's not as easy to get to as I might want, or within arm's reach.  (And that's just the patterned paper.  There's a foot and a half of 12x12 cardstock that's stored behind where I sit, and 8.5x11 in an Iris cart behind me.  A LOT of paper.)

Enter the FridgeBinz:

Okay, these are really crappy shots, showing that I really need to vacuum.  Don't judge. I know you have scrap bits on your floor, too. :P

Anyway, I also have this wooden stool that generally gets tucked in under the side of the table.  It's where my kids sit when they need help with their homework.  And...it also gets used for overflow when I scrap.   But since I got all my scraps organized I just pull the bins and put them on the stool.  This is immensely liberating!  Because I have literally dozens upon dozens of scraps of paper to chose from for punching, small dies and even running through my Cameo.  Right there. AT MY FINGERTIPS. And since they're already scraps, I feel absolutely no hesitation about cutting into them.  If I'm not sure if it would look better punched out of this or that, I don't have to try to guess.  I just do it from both and decide that way.  And if I try it out of those two and I'm not in love with either one, I simply flip through my scraps and see if something else might work.  

Clean up is easier, too.

I did bust into one of the whole sheets of patterned paper, but  it was easy to deal with the scraps.  I cut the biggest piece down to 7.5inches wide and put it in with the big scraps.  All the little pieces were cut down to 4inchesxWhatever (3.5 at the biggest) and put into the smaller bin.  Once everything was cut down, the two bins were put away.

Before I switched to these FridgeBinz I was just throwing all my scraps into archival 13x15 boxes.  I didn't cut the scraps down, and the boxes were always threatening to overflow.  Cardstock and paper got bent and creased.  Rifling through it was frustrating, because there was no easy way without being very ginger and going more slowly than I'd want to.  Now, if I need a big scrap, I go to the big bin; if I need a small scrap, well: duh.  But I can pick up a tidy 4 inch stack of papers and flip through them like you might flick through a deck of cards. When I've got what I want, I just bang them on the desk to get them flat-edged and tuck them back into the bin.

I feel less wasteful, more organized, liberated and even inspired, since the color and pattern combos that come out might not have happened otherwise.  

Ok. I'm done with my free advertisement for these things. For now. But I'm getting ready to move this month and when I have a new space to set up there's a distinct possibility that one or two more of these make their way into my setup.  Because they're rectangular they use space much more efficiently than the buckets that I currently have.  Plus, since they're see through, I can see that organizing some other items might make more sense in them.  

(Not really) Today

This week I had a customer go on and on about how stupid he thought it was for people to take pictures of themselves in front of places they're visiting.  It was sort of comical, listening to him on his tirade and thinking how just the weekend before I'd taken a picture of Kerig and I in front of the IHOP sign after we had a yummy French Toast dinner.  I'm quite certain he was waiting for the girl at the camera store to agree with him, that people muck-up otherwise pristine vistas.  And in some regards, sure, I get it.  But if you think I'm going to go for a ride on your crazy train? Forget it.

Because apparently having purchased this cutie-McCuteCute Nikon S01 it's going to be all Caroline, all the time.  

After our dinner we went for a walk through the park.  It was perfect weather for a walk - a little bit on the chilly side, but nothing a hoodie couldn't handle.  The sun was out when we weren't in the dense woods of the park.  We had fun playing with our cameras, shooting everything from wildflowers to trashcans.  We even played on the swings, attempting to take selfies with a really blurry background -- I figured that it would be like panning, but sadly, my camera works only in fully automatic, so I couldn't get it to do it. :( I'd like to say we walked for an hour and a half, but the truth of the matter is we meandered for an hour and a half.  And what we lacked in calorie burning, we made up for in just having fun.  (So much so that there are probably at least two more layouts that will come from this batch of pictures.  That's rare for me, but happy=scrappy, right?)

On Monday night I sat down at my scrap table and cut the "Today" strip and circle.  But once it came out of the machine I had no inspiration for what to do with it.  Plus, having sat in the drizzle at Ted's baseball game I was oddly beat.  I left those pieces on my desk, with no real hope of figuring out how to use them. But when I had a couple of minutes yesterday everything seemed to fall into place fairly easily.  I even lucked out with the photo arrangement.  Normally two verticals and one horizontal would cause me great stress, but when I was trimming the wallet-sized photos down and setting them to the side, they ended up piled much like the are in the layout. How often does that happen??

Other things that inspired me:  

This episode of the Paperclipping Roundtable, where the panelists are discussing layering techniques.  There was nothing in particular that caused an epiphany, but it was inspirational nonetheless.  

A Flair for Buttons on Etsy  Um. So Sunday was just a weird day and it apparently required some minor retail therapy.  Enter this etsy site.  That great thing about retail therapy at an etsy site is you get to feel really good about your purchase.  You're supporting a "local" artisan.  In this case "local" is in Iowa, but that's a lot closer than China, which is where most of our mass produced, commercially available items are coming from.  Factor in that they're flipping adorable and it's a total win.  I totally love them and the next time I need to spend $10 to feel better about life I'm totally going to back to her site! :)

Okay, that's about all I have for today.  I'm actually hoping to kick out a page or two this weekend, weather and inspiration permitting.  So hopefully I'll see you soon!

The Pintester Movement...get 'er done

I am not what I would call "an early riser." I would, however, call my weekend roommate a very late sleeper.  And in a one bedroom apartment, the person who wakes up at 7:30 or 8 doesn't have many options for entertainment if she wants to continue having a free place to stay on the weekends.  So many a-Sunday morning is spent laying on the couch surfing the web on my phone or Kindle.  Usually there's Facebook (surprisingly slow at that hour), Huffingtonpost (a little more lively), PostSecret and eventually Pinterest.  I usually save Pinterest for last, since I can literally kill many hours at a time there.  One Sunday morning in April I clicked a pin that took me to blog post about knitting a chunky/funky scarf using your arms instead of needles.  I had seen the arm-knit scarf a number of times, but because it was a Sunday and time needed to be killed, I decided to go read the directions.  I know my limitations, and I knew without reading the directions that it was beyond my skill set...but I had time that I needed to kill.  I was expecting to see ridiculously complicated directions couched with minimizing adjectives like "So easy!", "Fast!", "Simple!"...maybe even "A monkey could do it!"  Only it wasn't the actual directions, it was a post on how a woman had tried - and failed miserably - to complete the funky/chunky arm-knit scarf.  And it was so flipping hysterical that I lay on the sofa, muffling my laughter and literally wiping away tears that were streaming into my ears.  I laughed so hard that I bookmarked her site. Followed her on Pinterest. Linked the post to Facebook.  In retrospect, it may not be laugh-until-you-cry funny, but god, it sure hit me that morning.

She calls herself the Pintester.  She isn't afraid of her potty mouth.  She's fun, will try stupid stuff - sure, I pinned the "how to cut a wine bottle with string and fire" but I'm not stupid enough to try it.  She was.  Er, she was daring enough. But if I accidentally light my ex-husband's house on fire, chances are I'd have a lot more explaining to do than your average person.  So anyway, she's doing this thing. It's called the Pintester Movement - you should go check it out.  But if you're super lazy, the idea is this: Get off your lazy ass and actually DO something that you pinned.  Take a picture.  Write about it.  Share the goodness.  Or, potentially, the badness.  Turns out badness probably has a lot more comedic potential...

I signed up for it and then went digging through my pins.  I do DO my pins.  Well, some of them.  But I don't usually blog about them, unless they're scrapbook related.  And I only really have two kinds of pins: scrapbooking and things that will land up on my hips. And ass.  And chin.  Sweet mother of Abraham Lincoln, my chin is going to end with its own zip code.   And of the food pins, a vast majority are 'blonde' - some sort of cheese/noodle, cheese/egg, cheese/potato combination.  I really don't like to cook and I can only be bothered if I'm really going to love it. Turns out those three combinations are the only meal-type foods that I've deemed worthy of spending time in the kitchen for.  I have some sweets pinned, but meh. Cheese is where it's at.  So yeah.  I'm searching through my pins, looking for something that's worth all that effort...and then picked the one that required the least amount of effort.

I chose a bacon and guacamole grilled cheese sandwich from the closetcooking.com blog.

Now might be a good time to confess that I've never purchased an avocado.  It's on my to-do list.  But it scares me.  I have an awful track record for buying produce.  I love plums, but I don't buy them.  No matter how soft and tender and juicy they feel in the store, at home they morph into bitter, purple leather balls.  Same deal with peaches - only they're not purple.  In fact, that goes for just about every fruit with the exception of apples, tangerines and bananas.  And I've screwed a couple of those up, too.  So yes. I'm scared of buying avocados.  I don't know what a bad avocado tastes like, and I'd like to keep it that way.

So.  How does one make a bacon and guacamole grilled cheese sandwich without buying an avocado?  Well, as it happens, one passes THREE Chipotles on the ride home from work.  And why would one risk buying an avocado, go to all the work of making guacamole when fantastic guacamole can be had for a mere $1.80.  Yes. I cheated. Don't care.

Why? Why does a rule follower such as myself feel that it's okay to scootch past the spirit of the 'game'?  Because sometimes the ends justify the means.

Meet my end:

And no shit.  This was TASTY.  I'm not even a bacon fan, but there's something about that salty, smoky flavor that really makes the cool, refreshing guacamole sing.  Oh. SO GOOD.

Molly is my only kid who is daring enough to eat guacamole.  So when it was time for a taste test she was the only one who didn't snort at me in that teenager "yeah. right." kinda way.

Go Molly!  I'm really proud of her for being brave enough to try it.  I don't think she L♥♥♥VED it, but she said it was pretty good.

So here it is, the Pin and the Tested:

They win for the prettier picture, but I'm still calling it a damn tasty success!

Nom nom nom.

Dude...

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that I approach every layout about any of my boys with a little bit of apprehension.  The whole scrapbooking industry seems to be skewed towards flowers and hearts and shiny baubles.  None of which really applies when you're doing a layout about your studly 14 year old and his night baseball game.

That said, I'm always extra pleased when I do a layout that doesn't lean on the girly side.  I don't know if it screams "manly" or not, but it's definitely an acceptable "dude layout."

I really like the font for this - I think it's appropriately dude-ish.  It's called Black Out.

The other thing worth mentioning is the weird strip that says "KMA" backwards.  I work in a camera shop and we do movie transfers.  At some point in time one of regulars brought in some very old film stuff that had been her husband's.  That's 8mm movie film that's never been used.  I love the pinhole font.  There's a whole roll of film, but that little bit is the only part that has the cool holes in it.  

I am loving all the free time I have lately.  My house is very clean and I have no homework.  Hello, scrap table! Yay!  

Whoops, I did it again.

I really wasn't going to do it.  I was going to be a very good girl.  But when the price dropped to $99 I couldn't resist it any more.  So I bought the Nikon S01.  Am I in love? No.  Is it fun? YES.  I figure that there are tons of times that the manfriend and I do things together and I rarely have pictures of the two of us together.  Yes, I could (and have) use my cell phone for such shots, but I hate it AND I'm bad at it.  My phone requires that you hit a specific spot on the screen and I can never quite get it and when I do I manage move the whole camera such that we're not in frame. Boo.  This little puppy can be held completely in the palm of my hand, has a better flash, bigger sensor and better lens.  It takes absolutely crappy pictures inside with low light, but for outside, it'll be nice.  I've never had an issue with my S4's size, so obviously the S01 will be even easier.  ;)

AND, I used it this past Sunday when we went to sign the lease on our apartment.  So incredibly relieved that this monkey is off my back.  I spent countless hours on craigslist looking for places that fit my price range but were also in a neighborhood that I'd feel comfortable living.  I also needed something big enough for 4 or 5 people - Ted and Molly will live with their dad but will hopefully get to spend lots of time with us. Add Maggie in the summertime and we couldn't get anything too cozy.  So finally finding a place that hit the criteria was a true blessing.

So happy, in fact, that there's a layout about it already:

And just because I think it's fun to see where people get their inspiration from, I thought I'd show a couple of things that caught my eye lately that ended up being direct references.

This one is the white on white title and journaling strips.  Granted, my white on white title ended up being a white on yellow on white because there just wasn't enough separation there - the title was totally lost on the cardstock.  It just occured to me that maybe her white on white title was cut from cardstock?  Sure enough, I checked her supply list and she used vellum.  Hmmm.  I'm putting that in my bag of tricks for next time!  I like it!  (Although, I'll be frank: I've had absolutely no luck cutting vellum...so maybe I'll try it one more time, but don't be surprised if it never makes it to the blog. :P)

Another layout that was a source of inspiration was this one:

I was basically using this for the layout.  Although it's funny how the only thing that really remains is the heavy top and the position of the photos.   I suppose the title placement, as well, but that could get credited to either inspiration layout.

And then there's Wilna.  Wilna Furstenberg is sort of a rock star. Where I am uptight and anal and linear, Wilna says (metaphorically) "Take off your shoes! Feel your toes in the grass!  Smell the flowers!" She's like an "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" commercial - everything oozes love and wheat fields and sun flare.  None of which is who-I-am.  But that doesn't mean I don't want to have a little of her carefree, artsy-fartsiness.  Only, this is what it looks like when I try it:

Those cute little ink drops are not nearly as cute (or carefree or artsy-fartsy) as I was hoping for.  It's like pumpkin cried on my layout.  And they may not be tears. :P Ah well.  I just need more practice at being carefree.  Right?  You can be carefree if you just practice REALLY hard at it. :P :P :P

Thanks for stopping by!

Reunited, and it feels so gooood ♫♪♫♫♪

There's a wretched little earworm to start your day. You're welcome.
Just kidding. That's awful. I'm sorry.

But seriously, I *finally* got to scrap yesterday and it was wonderful.  I have lots of weird free time, in that I've always done LOTS of homework at work between customers.  I am the queen of "using my time wisely", and now I don't have anything to do (between customers at work).  I suppose I could dust.  Or reorganize.  But instead, I brought in that scrapbook scrap project.  And I've been watching videos from 2Peasinabucket.  (My coworkers love that, I promise) The combined effect has left me ITCHING to scrap.  And finally all the stars aligned just right yesterday:

The picture is pretty crappy for sure.  But going to the Melt is sort of a rite of passage around here.  The kind of thing that deserves a scrapbook page.  And it is a fun, busy experience with stuff to look at everywhere.  Normally, I find that sort of decor in a restaurant schmaltzy and, at this point, tired.  But somehow when the Melt does it, it gets a pass - lots of Cleveland based artists have their work on the walls, plus old plexiglass from 80s era video games, and signs from old businesses is somehow more fun than the snowshoes tacked on the wall of every Max and Erma's, TGIFridays, etc.

But let's move away from the mini restaurant review that I am highly unqualified to give, and bring it back to the world of scrapbooking.  I said I've been watching videos.  I've also been spending my fair share of time on Pintrest.  This is very much inspired by:

and...

And there's a could of "Adventures of Glitter Girl" videos that probably inspired me as well, but nothing especially specific.  Other than Shimelle saying (paraphrased):"I don't look for embellishments that are theme specific, because there aren't really embellishments made for this.  So I basically match the mood and color of the layout."  That was very liberating for me, since I very frequently get hung up on needing embellishments to be - if not not literally connected to the theme, at least making some sort sense.  Guess what?  That's probably not going to exist for a layout about eating at a grilled cheese place.  But I think ultimately it's fun and colorful - and the same can be said for our trip to the Melt: it was fun and colorful.  And f#ing delicious.

I should also mention that recent Paperclipping Roundtable episodes on organization, hoarding, and patterned paper all contributed to this.  This layout was created entirely from scraps, which were so much easier to flip through after my reorganization efforts, and several guests saying, basically: "paper is easier to admire on a page than in your stash." -- just makes you want to dive in and use the stuff that you have instead of saying it's too precious to use.  (so guilty of that sometimes)

And if I were a guest on Paperclipping Roundtable, I would totally pick FridgeBinz as my pick of the week!

I totally lied.

I said that to a clerk last week when she asked for my phone number and I accidentally gave her my work number.  She laughed, which is good, because I don't normally declare myself a liar.  In my calc class in the fall there was a really adorable 17 year old girl who would occasionally ask a "dumb" question (no, it wasn't actually dumb, but if you're a little disoriented its easy to ask a question and then have that duh! moment) - anyway, she'd ask the "dumb" question, have the "duh" moment and then immediately say "Ha ha! Just kidding!"  I need to learn to say that.

So anyway, last we were here, I said "Check back next week, and I'll have something!"  Without actually looking, I'm not certain, but I may have said "for sure!"  Oops.  I don't have anything.

It was a WEEK.  I'm SO glad it's over, but it was much more hectic and demanding than I thought.  I had visions of walking away from my school work for a couple of hours on Sunday or Tuesday, but that didn't/couldn't happen.

The good news is: I actually have the WHOLE summer off! SOOOO happy about that.  And even in the fall, I'm only taking one class, and it's NOT an independent/directed study, so it's not going to be nearly as challenging.  So the rest of 2013 should be...

Uh. I'm not going to finish that sentence.  That just seems like a recipe for disaster!

At any rate, I am trying to get back in the swing of things.  But it's Friday, so I'm at work then over at the manfriend's until Monday evening.  However, I have a project that I've been thinking about lately.

Have you seen these?

This is part of the Fridge Binz line at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  The first time I saw these I immediately thought "screw the fridge, I want those for my scrap space."  So I kept my eyes peeled for a BBB coupon, and now I have two of these bins, which measure 7.75x13ish.  Up until now, my method for dealing with scraps from my 12x12 patterned paper and cardstock has been to throw them into a 13x15 archival box.  I do go to my scraps first A LOT, but it's sure a pain in the neck to find what I want.

So...enter the Fridge Binz.  I'm cutting my scraps down to 7.5x7.5 or 7.5xWhatever to fit in these.

Here's what my progress looks like today:

I thought I'd need two of these to fit all my scraps, but I can see now that I'll be fine with just using one for my patterned paper scraps -  heck, I may be able to squeeze in my cardstock scraps in there, too.  I'm holding on to the second one that I bought - that'll be perfect for all the 6x6 pads that I've accumulated through the years.  I think I'm going to scrounge for one more coupon and go back for the one that's 4 inches wide - that'll be perfect for the smallest of scraps.  I should just pitch them, but some of these scraps are like gold to me.  The "Mellow" line from Basic Grey? I still use that on my Octoberish pages.  Scenic Route? You can't make me throw that out!  I will hoard those scraps til the bitter end.

Plus, I feel assured that this is a good investment.  If for some reason I hate this method of storing my scraps, I think these will probably work in the fridge just fine. ;)

Dear Scrapbook Supplies...

I miss you.
♥Caroline

Obviously I didn't post a layout for the 15th of this month.  That's okay.  I love my ability to set priorities, and sometimes prioritizing some crafty time is important to my sanity, sometimes it is not.  

I've been observing in the classroom for the last three weeks (you know, in all that "free time" I have) and today and tomorrow I am teaching four classes.  It's all very exciting, and worth back burnering my Ugly Sketch Project for a couple of weeks.  But I just sat down at my desk - which is also my scrappy place - to prepare for tomorrow and wow! I *really* want to play.  I'm not going to. It'll have to wait until later...probably next week, in fact.  But I can't wait!

Life is good.  It feels so good to set a goal and then work to make it happen.

Stop by next week. Come hell or high water, I'll have something to post. YAY!

Stressed. Out.

Dear, sweet Baby Jesus, I could use a break. I'm tirrrrred.  Like, tired to the core. And here's the thing: I slept 8 hours last night.  And the night before. Which is a sure sign that I'm stressed out, cuz day'm! When I get stressed out there's nothing that I want more than a nap.

Well.  Cheese and beer are up there, too, but seriously - a nap would be the bomb.

That's me.  Yesterday.  Right before going in for my first day of teacher observations for my Methods in Teaching Field Studies class.  I'm really excited about this.  Excited in an "Wow! This is great! I'm getting so close to my goal!" annnnd...also....excited in an "Wow! This is positively terrifying!"

And as excited as I am, I'm also pretty panicked about it.  It's a lot of work, with worksheets and reflections, lesson plans and work samples and actually TEACHING 4 classes.

Now. I am not afraid of teaching.  I've taught at an expo with more people in each class than the biggest class I'm observing.  And I teach plenty at work now.  But there's a huge difference between teaching classes where your students are eager to be there and teaching classes where your students are obligated to be there by law.

But that's not all.  If that were the only thing on my plate, I'd be stressed.  Because that's what I do.  I worry.  But I channel that worry into preparation and then I kick major ass.  Sadly, there's only so much preparation I can I do for the rest of my life right now.  I came home from work on Monday night to find a "for sale" sign in the front yard.  I knew it was happening, and soon, but still it felt like being hit in the gut by a sturdy 12 year old boy.  It wasn't enough to put me down, but it still put a catch in my breath.

Today I found that I owe my insurance company $500 for a pair of glasses that I bought in the fall that aren't covered. Yay!

Jim texted me later to let me know that there will be showings tomorrow.  Yes. Because I wanted to come home from work and clean a house that I don't give a shit about.

I did Maggie's taxes today.  I don't know what Ruby Tuesday was thinking, but somehow they didn't take out enough and "she" owed $259.  Right. Because she has $259 to pay that.  And can get it to me before the 15th.  Guess who paid that?

And there's more. Lots more.  But not mine to share but it still affects me.  I just want it to be May, have both my classes done with and some kind of resolve about where I'm going to live come mid-June.  We're going to see a house on Sunday.  Should be interesting...

Next time I'll be happier. Or drunk. I'll let you know. ;)

Yesterday.

The past couple of days have been very weird. The manfriend worked over the weekend, so I stayed in Mentor.  (weird) The kids were at their dads, which isn't unusual for the weekend, but now that we don't have a dog, the house was super empty feeling and super quiet. (weird)  The kids are on spring break, so they stayed an extra couple of days with dad (weird), so on Monday Kerig and I were able to go out for dinner.  (weird for a Monday) More empty house when I got home (weird) and Tuesdays I have the house to myself until the kids get home from school, so most of the day wasn't much more quiet than usual (although, not letting the dog out twenty times a day is something I'm still getting used to).  I had to meet my study partner at Panera's to take an Abstract Algebra class (not 'weird' but definitely not normal), then I had to run errands.  Normal Tuesdays are laundry and Sam's Club, but they didn't happen.  It was odd not timing my errands to be home in time for the bus.  It was weird not making dinner for the kids, it was weird not taking Ted to his speed and agility workout.  It's not that I didn't have plenty of things to keep me busy, they just weren't the usual things that keep me busy.  I don't know if I've mentioned it here, but I'm a super routine oriented person, so I'm very thrown off at the moment.

I've mentioned that our current living arrangements are coming to an end.  In June the kids will move to Geneva to their Dad's girlfriends house.  I have until the end of June to find a place that's big enough for me, Kerig and the kids, feels safe enough for the kids, meets our weird quirks and fits our budget.  This is proving to be no easy task, and has come to be a major source of stress and anxiety for me.  Not only is the finding a new place stressful, but worrying about my kids, not being at all pleased at the new arrangements (this was not the plan that I agreed to back in the day, and I 100% do not think that what's being done is in their best interest) and then...there's the whole knowing how badly I'm going to miss them.  These past couple days alone have felt like foreshadowing of the future.  I'm not especially a people person, and I'm totally comfortable in my own company.  But that doesn't mean that I don't want my children around. I do.  It's going to take a lot to get used to...

But it's not all bad. I'm so excited to be able to move forward with Kerig.  Through all of this he has been so patient, understanding and supportive. I'm looking forward to a something smaller, cleaner and decorated more to my liking.    Now, if something would just land in my lap, that would the awesomest.

Anyway, last night I took a nice walk through the neighborhood and I was listening to The Paperclipping Roundtable, the show I was listening to was about scrapbooking everyday stuff.  This isn't foreign to me, I already believe in it.  My kids are 22,19, 14 and 12.  Our routines have morphed over the years. And I didn't scrapbook lunch or routines or daily life.  I wish I had a page or two that covered the really mundane aspects of life - you think that you'll always remember what a typical day was like, but after so many years and so many changes, the details fade away.

So even though yesterday was a totally weird day, it was a totally weird everyday day. It was no one's birthday, I didn't buy a new car, it wasn't the first day or school or the last, it was just a little more quiet with no laundry and fewer groceries.  So listening to this podcast, being encouraged to remember to capture the every day, I decided to scrap my day, with the three totally arbitrary and non-people-y shots that I had taken during the day.  They're not especially compelling photos - two were just quickie shots to communicate with Maggie (I had to mail her the battery charger that she had left at home and so I took a shot of the 15 people in line ahead of me at the post office) and then while I was out on my walk I kept seeing pinecones - this is also something I wanted to show Maggie, as we had gone "pinecone hunting" in October a couple of years ago and found nothing but old, rotting pinecones - turns out they drop in the spring...doh.

So here's what I ended up with:

If that looks familiar, I totally borrowed a number of elements from the "Molly" layout I just posted.  I used the same font for the title (SNF Lollihop), the same concept for the patterned paper at the top, and (as always) the same font for the journalling.  Note: I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I always use AvantGarde Bk BT - I've just found that keeping the font consistent is just another step towards simplifying the scrapbooking process, and to me, simplifying stuff like this makes scrapbooking less frustrating and therefore far more enjoyable.

I like that I used the Panera logo straight from my soda cup:

That four hours was a pretty huge chunk of my day, after all.  Plus I felt like it was a stroke of genius to run that through my CuttleBug to make a nice neat circle.  And I feel confident that the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher staples will hold it in place.

Oh! Speaking of holding stuff in place!  I happened on stuff a long time ago that I bought and then never used.  I finally broke it open a couple of weeks ago and I think I'm in love!

I got it at a local artist's supply store here, but you can get it at DickBlick.com, which is both fun to say and reputable and fairly priced.  I bought the smaller, less expensive bottle bottle, but if I knew then what I know now I'd happily have sprung for the jar.  And here's the deal: I'm not talking about quantity, because frankly I just don't craft enough to need any specialty adhesive in quantity.  What I am talking about though, is this stuff is super thick and you only need the tiniest bit.  I've been using it under all the Studio Calico wood veneers.  It holds like crazy.  I was trying to squeeze it out of the bottle directly onto the veneers, but I've since realized that it makes more sense to squeeze it directly only my fingertip, or put some on a scrap of paper, where I can then dip my finger in to grab a little and then "finger paint" it onto the piece that needs it.  I think the jar would just be so perfect - take off the lid and just dab your finger in.  I may spring for it just because - I'm worth it, after all.

USP #7: Molly

Do you realize that we are one quarter the way through 2013 already??  Our weather has been monotonous at best, and rather January-like for the last three months, so it's hard to believe.  Maybe if spring weather would arrive in north east Ohio it would finally sink in that it's April already. All this means that I'm one quarter the way through the Ugly Sketch 1-15 Project.  I'm having so much fun with it.

And here's the April 1st entry:

I really like this one.  First, I absolutely love this picture of Molly.  So much so that I've been really paralyzed about scrapping it.  Does that happen to anyone else?  Those pictures that are just so ***** (insert: beautiful, special, one-of-kind, emotionally charged, etc) that everytime you go to scrap them you ***** (hit a creative wall/choke/make a really underwhelming layout) - and 9 times out of 10 I just give up and walk away. It's for that reason that I'm extra pleased with this.  Second, ...who needs a second with a first like that??

I've done a pretty good job at keeping my scrapbook shopping in check, but there have been a couple of things that been too big a temptation.  These little birds and this shamrock die from Ellen Hutson are a good example of said temptation. I know it seems silly that I buy these dies, when I can do the exact same thing on the Cameo, but (LOOKOUT: MASSIVE JUSTIFICATION AHEAD) I find that dies are a lovely way to use up scraps.  Yeah. That's the ticket! Scrap useage!

That's only half true.  The whole truth is: wafer thin dies are a great way to use scraps and I'm ever so slightly addicted to buying them because I think they're so flipping adorable I can't stop myself, they hop into my shopping cart and enter my mastercard number practically all by themselves.  Tricky bastards, they are.

Oh! And remember this? I mentioned that I had just used SNF Lollihop, and that's the font that I cut "Molly" from.  I really dig it.  And I'm really certain I got it for free somewhere along the way...I think I'm just too cheap to shell out for a font...even $4.  However, I'm now going to use the heck out of it because now I know it has a $4 street value. ☺

That about wraps up my blathering for the April 1st entry.  Which means now it's time to reveal (LOL, that word is a little drama-laden for this application) the sketch that I'll be working on for April 15th:

There she is. She looks a little square here.  However, I'm still gonna be an 8.5x11 scrapper.  I just need to work on drawing rectangles. :P  The little window-y thingy is for four Instagram shots. For once, I actually do have pictures in mind.  And can I just say? Dear Instagram, I ♥ you.  You make scrapbooking so much more fun for me.

Lost in the Shuffle

I scrolled down through the blog a couple of days ago and saw a sneak peek of two layouts that never got posted.  They were originally created for Cord Scrapbook Studio, but I don't think they ever got posted.

I had been given the Enchanted line from Authentique.  It's meant to be a Halloween line, but I thought that it had a sort of rock'n'roll edge.  So I decided to use it on this layout about Maggie and I going to see Mike Doughty at the Beachland Ballroom.  The layout is loosely based on Page Maps sketch:

I said loosely. And I meant it.
Here's the other layout that I made that never got used:

This is using the Pink Paisley "Portfolio" line.  And it's based on the Page Map sketch:

That's a little less "loose."

I loved the day that Kerig and I took a ride on the choo choo.  Truth be told, the train ride was a little bit of a let down, but walking around taking pictures - and even taking pictures ON the train was fun.  The volunteer conductor kept giving me looks, but when we talked he was more trying to figure out my gear.  Fair enough.

Alrighty then.  Not much to add there.  I'm actually staying in Mentor this weekend.  I have a metric shit ton of homework to do, but I hope to sneak in an hour or two of fun time.  I still have my USP to photograph, and thay'll be up on Monday for sure.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you and yours have a Happy Easter or a lovely Passover.

Total Copy Cat

Wow.  There's a throwback.  When was the last time you thought of the phrase "copy cat."  It's been a while for me, but there it is.

At any rate...  One of the things that catches my eye on Pinterest (aside from colorful alcoholic drinks and incredibly rich food)(and I don't even really drink alcohol...) is font compilations. And every time I see one that I like, my decision to repin is based on its Silhouetteworthiness.  Stop looking at me like that.  Like I'm the first blogger to make up a word. Puh-lease.

So I decided to make my own. :)  And these are 100% Silhouetteworthy.

1. gentle redhead
2. mouth breather
3. SNF Lollihop (Oops.  This one is actually $4.  That's pretty close to free, right??)
4. Chickabiddies
5. LaurenScript
6. Bebas Neue
7. Flowerchild
8. Heartbreaker
9. Intrepid
10. CluffHmkBold

So, a couple of notes. Most of these are super easy for the Silhouette, they're generally thick enough to work with easily.  Intrepid is the thinnest, and I use that  for negative space, like in a tag.  Chickabiddies is just a dingbat font, but they're such cute faces.  I don't know why, but the girl I used in the poster is my mathgrrrl alter-ego. I just used the SNF Lollihop today.  I love it.  It welded together really well after a little scootching around.  Did you know that you can ungroup a word and move around each individual letter? You can, and that's VERY useful to know!

And: Impact.  I use Impact. A. Lot. And I don't care that it's obvious.  I didn't put it on the list because it's obvious, but it's not just obvious...it's classic.

Last note: The link for Bebas Neue?  Has the word 'penultimate' - which is one of my most favorite words.  Don't look at me like that.  Like I'm the first blogger to admit to having favorite words. AND, it has "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" which is the most awesometastic quote that my mother used on me two weeks before sending me off to an all girls college school, imploring me not to be a lesbian.  (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Thanks, Mom.

So that's that! Thanks for stopping by!  I'll have an USP up on the 1st...it's already done and everything...I just need to photograph it.  Hope to see you then.

Hi. My fingers are inky.

Hi. It's nice to see you.  :)

So a couple of weeks ago I was creeping around Pinterest and came across a "I figured out how to cut my own handwriting on my Cameo" pin.  Now, I've done that the hard way - write something with a sharpie, scan it in, go into photoshop and bump up the contrast, blah blah blah.  So I thought I had figured it alllllll out. And then a couple of days later I actually READ the pinner's post (doh!) and they were using their iPad.  Huh. Well.  I don't have one of those and I ain't gettin' one of those! Harumph. I got a little pissy, I'll admit.  

But then I was all like "So?  That doesn't mean there isn't a way for me to do it, too!" I mean, that lady figured out what worked for her, I just needed to figure out what works for me.  So I poked around the Google Play store and found Sketchpad Pro for Tablets, which works on my Kindle Fire.  I'm not going to say that the program is free (it's not: $4.99) or super intuitive, but it's manageable on both fronts.  I've been practicing getting the hang of writing and doodling with my stylus and yesterday I doodled the über creative hi talk bubble you see above.  I know. Don't hate. The genius, it just comes to me.  

Oh shut up.  I know it's basic, and verging on overdone. And I could have saved $4.00 and purchased something similar from the Silhouette store.  But that's not the point. I'm making this stuff my bi....uh, I'm really mastering the technology.  That's the ticket!  

And I do have a real sense of accomplishment, because it's not quite as easy as I thought it was.  There's a little cleaning up to be done, so manipulation of edit points.  And it is rough.  But I like that. 

So yeah. Anyway.  Big deal.  I doodled something and cut it out.  Now what?  Well, I have that kid who probably wouldn't mind some mail, right?  So I made a card:

It's...uh...messy. And there's no real purpose to any of the stuff on there.  And I don't care. :)  And since it'll have a $20 bill in there, neither will she.  

Thanks for stopping by!  See you soon!