Cookie-Cutter Cuteness

Recently, my dearest K2 invited me over to "whack-a-stack". Slightly frightened but oddly curious I accepted. I arrived at her house at 6:30 and was not done "whacking my stack" until 10:30. But I wasn't alone! Wonderful company, easy instructions and cooki-cutter cards were just what I needed for a nice evening out. Generally speaking, I'm the kind of crafter who just slaps stuff together and hopes for the best, complains when it doesn't work, takes it all apart and tries again (see second picture). It was nice to have limited options and work within a framework, rather than creating my own. I think I need to use sketches more for this reason alone. I wasn't going to post them because they were not completely, originally mine but then I thought: "I should post just to post". I find I am at a point in my life where I am just doing things to prove I'm still breathing...

Two interesting things I noticed (or re-noticed) during this class:

1) I like to jam everything into one corner. This makes card makers uncomfortable. They like to fill the whole card and kept telling me the card needed "something on the other side". Fooey! Just mash it all together I say!

2) I like to play off of a theme. Our teacher REALLY liked the embossed butterfly die and we used it on so many cards that I just started putting them on every card for the heck of it. I even used one for the flame of my candle. Nonsensical? Always!

Stay calm. Carry on.

One of Jill's favorite sayings: stay calm and carry on.

This is my new mantra. There are some (for lack of a better word) uncomfortable things going on in my life but I also have lots to be grateful for. Thus, I shall stick to the positice until I snap and write a ranting, biting, scratching, spitting blog post that will make you all shudder. Nah. Stay calm. Carry on.

You know sometimes I feel like I have to give up teaching. I want to do so much for my students. I always have this constant feeling that I have not done all that I could, that kids have slipped through the cracks, that I've missed goldern opportunities. Plainly, that I am not the teacher that I dream of being. Today, however, one of the department heads at our school stopped me in the hall today to tell me that "all of the kids are talking about me". Apparently some of them do think I half decent. Not to toot my own proverbial horn - but I needed that.

In other news... here is a picture from the break of my husband and I being our dorky selves. Decked out in our Oiler's gear before going to the game (thanks Dad!), we look like we are trying to converse with the camera. Trickery, as we are really just trying to get our small Oiler's Christmas tree in the background with us. Check out my cool vintage sweater from Mom. Do you think that the Oil is using my mantra as well? Sigh.

My best Zach Stortini impression. (I was unwilling to knock out some teeth for this photo.)

Save the date!

I've had the pleasure of working with a good friend Leslie (and soon-to-be-husband Rich) on her wedding invitations, save the dates, etc. She is so organized and thorough; she knows exactly what she wants. Delightful! And because she lives in Toronto, this is a great help to me. So far we have come up with this most adorable save the date. Leslie will be printing these as actual postcards using a service offered by Staples.We may need to tweek some things but I liked them so much I just had to share. I cannot claim that I designed these ('cause I found a similar image online) but I did make them happen and we did make them "our own". The invitations are did create but they are still in the works. I love graphic design on the computer. I wish I could do this on the side but where would I find the time? Only for great friends for now ;)

Jumbo Tron

So we finally used some of our wedding money to buy a couple things for our house. Our not quite finished basement always seems to attract the less social people at a party and/or the people who are dying to sing and dance along with our Wii. (Yes, these indeed can be the same sort of people. I've seen it with my own eyes.) In addition to this the basement had also collected a bunch of funiture destroyed by the cats, hand-me-downs, etc. Now I totally agree that basements should, by definition, include some of these token items. However, they we uncomfortable and not as functional as I would have like. (Plus - no secret - I also really like pretty things.) Enter very ginormous LG. It was a "good price" (ha!) and will actually be wonderful to game on. The 240 Hz are crazy! We watched a movie last night and it's actually noticable. Actually. We also picked up a value village buffet find from the TM trade show booth. I painted it black and it looks almost brand new and is perfect for the space. Thanks KC and Chantel! We also got a great deal on this tiny sofa. It is the only sofa that would fit down our stairs. I'm so excited to entertain now this season. To some of you this may not seem like anything fantastic. But to others, you know what it looked like before :)

Christmas Cheer and Christmas Fear

Hello Friends! I simply must apologize for my previous post. You see, I said that if you didn't get an invite to our Halloween party it was because we didn't like you or something similar and equally neglectful of other peoples feelings. This rash comment did have reasoning behind it - just not very good reasoning... I was unable to send my rather adorable (if I do say so myself) in the mail and thus ended up handed out some in person, calling people, fb-ing people and just generally hoping everyone knew they were invited. This was not true in all circumstances however and I felt like a big ol' rotten apple shortly after all hallow's eve. I'm so so sorry to anyone who did not come because they thought they were not invited. Everyone's invited! It's my favorite holiday. We jammed approximately 40 people into our small home and the party was a blast. Mine and Jill's costumes were hilarious (all thanks to her). That is, to those who knew who we were. Because I have students that read the blog I will not post my whole outfit. For any of you who still watch music videos, you may be able to decifer who I am.

On to Christmas! I made cards again! What's up with that? Got me. They are simple and that's why I like them I guess. (GAWD I love Sassafrass!) I'm still no Nadine :)

All of my shopping is done and wrapped (Lisa - I know this would horrify you and I will most likely blog about this later). We are getting a new couch to put in the basement so our guests are more comfortable when they are forced to watch me play "Just Dance" on the Wii ;) My new Dyson vacuum is a Godsend. So what, you ask, is the "Christmas Fear" about? My newest contract. Currently I have 6 classes to teach in 4 different subjects, 2 of which I have not taught before. Now this could be much, much worse but the thought of being responsible for 200 plus students, calling home, homework checks, keeping myself sane... I cannot sleep. I know I can do it, I just also know what it will cost. Such is the life I have chosen for myself. Enough complaining - I'm happy to be blogging again and will hopefully be back soon!

Halloween Invites

Well I don't have as much time to catch up as I would like. (I actually have zero minutes, but I'm desperate to blog again.) I am slowly drowning in both my personal and professional life but here is neither the time nor the place to vent my woes. Instead I leave you with my version of Martha's invites for our third annual Halloween costume party. If you have not received yours yet, it's because they will not send these little packages as letters and I have been hand delivering them... or you are just not invited :P I'll hopefully be back soon again! I miss this!

Martha's uber cute but far to fancy (and I'm far too thrifty) design. My much grosser, but, I think, equally enjoyable version.

It's beginning to look a lot like....

HALLOWEEEN!!! My favorite time of year!

You can tell that school has started and that I currently have no life if you've checked in lately and heard the crickets call through your speakers and the tumble weed roll across your screen. I have some projects currently on the go and desperately want to dive back into the craft world. For now here's a few crummy pictures of some of the decor I've put up so far... more to come!

My halloween tree.

How cool is this witch's boot? Heart.