I'm Cleaning my Toilet

Ok, so I lied. I'm not. I'm doing everything BUT cleaning. We're having friends over tonight and I keep thinking about how I should be getting ready and yet.... I'm not. (Good to know that I consistently procrastinate - after all, if one is going to do something, one should do it wholeheartedly, no? Trust me, I am throwing myself into this with no reservations. Ha.)

I won a prize yesterday at Hummie's. It amuses me somewhat that the lovely template I received was the result of a random number generator. As the self-anointed queen of random, that seems so very appropriate to me. And, because I was already starting the pre-procrastination, I spent a nice chunk of time scrapping with it. Thanks, Hummie & Lisa!



And now, I really am going to go clean the toilet ;)

A new alpha for Urban Geometry, and thanks...

Just a quick thanks to those of you who have left me comments on 4shared. I get quite a kick out of some of your comments - some of you are so very creative! Kudos to Ann_Ominous (how incredibly CLEVER is that?) as well as to those who never fail to lift my spirits with their comments. I have started the creative juices flowing to find a way to reward you for you unfailing courtesy and creativity - stay tuned!

Here is the latest addition to Urban Geometry:


Download alpha HERE

Another layout using Colorado Spring. Seemed appropriate, seeing how it's a layout of... Colorado Spring! LOL. Amazing how so much work fit into one layout. Of course there are no pix of the backaches, sweat, sunburns...

Use that which you have been given.

I still find it a little odd to scrap with my own designs. Odd, yet satisfying. Here's a layout (using Urban Geometry) of Molly and her extremely likeable boyfriend, Trevor. I get kind of a kick out of watching her face light up when she's around him. It's kind of funny after all those years of no boy being good enough for our little princess.


And this is a layout using Colorado Spring (and Hummie's template #43):

Tag, Tag, you're it.

I s'pose it was inevitable. You have a blog, you have friends with blogs, and you get tagged (thanks, Dani, I think...). In some sort of gradeschool-ish way I feel like I should be hot and out of breath (hey, I SAID GRADESCHOOL sort of way!). So, here ya go, 7 random things 'bout me:

1. My eyes are hazel. I always wanted big blue eyes, or maybe even big melty brown eyes, but no. I got "garbage color" eyes - but someone before me who also had garbage colored eyes convinced everyone else with garbage color eyes that if we all got together and conspired, we could call them "hazel" and that would be so vague that no one would really know that it was code for "garbage color..." Yes. I'm bitter. Which leads me to...

2. I'm gullible. It's very easy to trick me, fool me, traumatize me... for life, LOL. What does this have to do with random item #!? Well, in high school I was madly in love with Peter Bell, and one day we were hanging out in the choir room and he looked me in the eyes and said, "your eyes are like..." in this really Melt The 16 year old Girl's Heart tone of voice... and then finished it with "Cesspools." Really. Your eyes are like cesspools. What was I thinking? Boys are gross. I'm still gullible, though.

3. I hate green pepper. Pretty to look at, icky to taste. I keep trying to like it (after all, I have learned to appreciate avocado and asparagus in the last couple of years) but so far no go. Ychhhh.

4. I have weird big toes. I can fold my little toes back and the two big toes look like thumbs. Heeeyyyyyyyyy. I'm Fonzie, but with feet. Younger daughter has been "blessed" with similar appendages. Every time we disgust her and she claims to be adopted, we bring up the toes. No denying the toes, baby girl.

5. I wear my watch to bed. When Timex came out with their indiglo watches, I was a happy girl. Because I'm half blind without my glasses, I could never tell what time it was in the middle of the night. Now I can. I wear my watch 23.5 hours a day - only take it off to shower. A week ago I hung it on the towel hook next to the shower because I was tired and in a hurry, and I only remembered to take it off as I was climbing in to the shower, and then I forgot to put it on because, hello, it wasn't where it was supposed to be (do NOT mess with the blonde's routine, or you will confound her, it turns out). Woke up the next morning and there was a blank spot where the time was supposed to be and it threw me for such a loop that I didn't recover til noon (which was when I finally found my watch, lol!)

6. I went to college to "major in English, minor in Art, and "dabble" in Music. I ended up despising early English lit (i.e. Ben Johnson and Canterbury Tales and Flora K. Willet, my English professor), taking precisely one art class (Calligraphy, at that, although I DID room with an Art major until I moved out because she was so messy), and a degree in Music Education. Which just proves that children should not be in charge of their own education because here I sit getting all of my thrills and challenges out of writing a blog and designing scrapbook stuff. Yeah, that's right, ENGLISH AND ART. ::sigh:: Oh Well. Better late than never, eh? And I guess that's testament in itself to how we eventually find what fulfills us.

7. I was valedictorian of my high school class. True, it was only a class of 101, but hey. Good to be number one! I remember my Chemistry teacher warning me that I would NEVER BE HAPPY unless I went into some science or math field. Well, Mr. Pellett, please see item number 6 above. Which maybe proves that children SHOULD be in charge of their education. And having completely contradicted myself within the space of two random thoughts, it is fortunately time to stop.

Sarah and Jennilea, it's your turn - tag, you're it!

Sooner or Later. Yup, that would be "Later..."

Yeah, I know. There has been no blogging for a week. Plus. Not quite sure why, but I've been in a funk the last few days, and couldn't summon the slightest creative thought. I don't like it when my world is grey inside my head - there have to be at least a FEW glimmers of amusement to keep me on an even keel...

Anyway, this morning I decided enough was enough, and got busy and finished my kit for the Design Challenge at Hummie'sWorld. It's been hanging over my head for three weeks while I tried to get a handle on what the colors made me feel, but I think I finally snapped the funk and it's finished! Very different (you might go so far as to say "odd,") but I have something of a rebellious streak, and I like odd. So here it is - "Urban Geometry"



Download:
Solid Papers
Gradient Papers
Elements

Greetings From Texas...

Let's face it, I do really well with irresponsibility. When given the choice of riding along to Texas with David on a business trip, or staying home and cooking, pretending to be tidy (at least the day before He Comes Home), feeding the dog, washing, ironing... Hmmmm. I chose to ride along in the nice new truck (listening to a fresh slate of iTunes which I ostensibly purchased for David for his birthday but as with Irish Spring, I like them too!) have my meals prepared for me, my room cleaned, my bed made, and spend every waking moment watching TeeVee and playing on the computer. With maybe a little recreational reading thrown in for good measure. It's a rough life, I'm tellin' ya.

And with all that waste-able time, I would have been remiss not to scrap, well, a scrap of it:

Where I discuss disgusting housekeeping failures in order to alleviate their horror

I will preface this post with the following statement:

I am not going to win housekeeping awards.

Yes, I've been a stay at home Mom and hausfrau (although I really prefer Rosanne Barr's descriptor "Domestic Goddess" better) most of my married life. I'm reasonably certain that one could draw all sorts of conclusions about the time and opportunity I have had to devote to my "craft," and the level of expertise I could have conceivably attained in that duration (after all, our 26th wedding anniversary is coming up this week), but alas! (exclamation added on behalf of Lover of All Things Tidy husband) I am testament to my grade-school band director's maxim, "Perfect practice makes perfect." And to be wretchedly honest, I've devoted a great deal more household time to perfecting my ability to disguise a mess rather than actually removing the mess.

Certain domestic "issues," however, demand immediate attention and remediation. For instance, knocking over a glass of red wine (yes, I have done this, not once, not twice, but actually THREE times, because I am just dedicated that way) requires swift action and plentiful clean-carpet-in-a-spray-can supplies (aka, "Spot Shot" and lots of it), particularly due to the unfortunate predilection for suburban home builders to carpet their cookie-cutter homes with Illusion of Space-inducing light beige carpeting. For all intents and purposes, it might as well be white, and it is a constant source of discomfort to the Mess Disguiser.

It's no surprise, therefore, that when our canine companion was stricken with the need to RUN for the backyard to dispose of some troubling grass he had consumed (no doubt in an admirable, yet ill-advised attempt to ingest a more balanced diet) but unfortunately failed to plan quite enough in advance in order to actually achieve his backyard goal, and instead distributed said unsuccessful nutrient in a long and supremely unattractive yellow stain across the center of my living room carpet, I deemed that immediate attention was indeed the appropriate response. And respond I did, with a thorough application of Spot Shot, assiduous blotting, reapplications, further blotting with clean water, blah blah blah.

Finally, having removed all traces of yellow and leaving the carpet to dry (unmolested, as poor Gus has been bluntly encouraged to remain in an outdoor environment by the firmly closed sliding glass door until such time that stomach contents have achieved greater stability), I stood back to congratulate myself on a domestic crisis well-handled (I'm not above patting myself on the back on those rare occasions where I do accomplish something). The trouble with self-congratulation, however, is that it often takes place before complete demonstration of success can be established, and morphs into self-humiliation with the speed of light. Because my pride in a Job Well Done failed to take into account previous domestic instances of inadequate attention to non-emergency driven housekeeping, and instead of having a yellow streak on a beige carpet...

I have a pronounced narrow light beige streak on my living room carpet. Yes. You have deciphered that correctly. I have a tiny clean spot on my carpet. How humiliating.

A note of sincere thanks...

...to my newest blog reader. Your input means more than you could know.

It has also been brought to my attention that my profile is something of a cop-out. Personally I think I'm okay with that, but because I don't like to disappoint everyone all of the time, I s'pose I could work on it. Seeing as how the whole "enigma" thing didn't work out so well...

I woke to rain this morning. We don't have bona fide rainy days very often, so it was nice to burrow under the covers and listen to the rattle of the rain on the window. And now it's starting to clear up, and everything looks fresh and the colors are deep and clean and it's just...scrumptious, LOL.

A nice rainy morning seemed to be the perfect time to finish up the Colorado Spring kit with an alpha:You can download it HERE. Don't forget to pick up the other parts of the kit in earlier posts ;)

Weekend Activities

'Twas a busy weekend at the Southern household. Friday and Saturday were dedicated to the philosophy that if you are going to live in a house, you have to take care of it (as opposed to moving out and letting the next family deal with the maintenance, LOL, not unlike picking up your tent and moving to a new tidy spot). And as neither of us is up for the dreaded task of moving, putting in new landscaping bark seemed like the better choice (promising only a couple days of physical labor as opposed to several weeks of packing, lifting, hauling, unpacking, lifting, hauling, repainting, refinishing, etc. which is nearly always an integral part of moving to a new domicile.)


On Sunday, we drove up to Fort Collins to attend Molly's "Last Concert Ever." Capital and quote emphasis coded to mean if she had to suffer through it then she really thought that all her family and loved ones should also suffer through it with her, because doggone it it was the LAST ONE EVER. It wasn't bad, really. As the last performance of the year (different from LAST CONCERT EVER) it was a presentation of various movie theme music. Apparently there was a provision (unknown to the friends and family who were obliged to attend on LCE status) for free admittance if one wore a costume. Not that any F&F would have actually undergone the humiliation of wearing a Darth Vader costume in order to avoid paying; really the greatest benefit seemed to be in getting to watch the youngsters whose folks were aware of the provision and who had tricked their progeny into sitting in a slightly uncomfortable seat for an hour and a half by the lure of wearing that Halloween costume one more time (and with the pleasant memories that Halloween conjures up in a small sugar-loving mind, you know the poor kids were doomed at the outset). As a result, we enjoyed sitting behind a young Darth Vader intent on swashbuckling with his light saber, only to be firmly sheathed by Dad; a young Indiana Jones whose leather laced hat proved to be more acceptable entertainment than a light saber and therefore spent a great deal of the last portion of the concert spinning it in various rhythms on his head; and lastly, the dainty pink unicorn with sparkly wings who became positively overcome by ennui in the latter stages of "listening" and leaning up against the back of her seat with her head, gave those of us behind her a virtual Punch and Judy performance with the stuffed unicorn head peeking and nodding over her seatback for all to enjoy (yet another concert where I find something ridiculous in my surroundings and must stifle giggles in order to maintain some sort of dignity as an adult. So embarrassing.) And I snuck a few photos, although I forgot that I don't know how to take pictures in an auditorium and they always turn out dark and useless no matter what dials I desperately turn trying to find the answer but generally worsening the results until all that remains are... well, all that remain. In an effort to remind myself to research this before the next event, I will... oh wait. THAT WAS THE LAST CONCERT EVER.







So here's to Muff, and her LCE. Love you sweetheart ;)

Happy Scrapbooking Day!

Although in a way it sounds more like "Happy Shopping for Scrapbooking Day." However, I missed Black Friday in the digi world, so I'm more than happy to toddle off and do some shopping! (Going to have to break down and do some real life grocery shopping, too).

Here's the final installment of Colorado Spring (although I am working on an alpha). Enjoy, and Happy Scrapping!


Download HERE

'Cause I'm a girl...

...and girls compare their purses. It's just the way it is. LOL, ok, and it's because Hummie dared us to in her latest blog post.

So, here it is:

And the contents:

Pretty straightforward. And I disguised this waste of time (in comparison to David, who had a load of landscaping bark delivered this morning, and has been laboring in moving it to the back of the house in the flower beds whilst I take pictures of my purse and loll around on the internet - tsk tsk, shameful!) by taking that large pile of dead receipts and "filing" them. It was also interesting to find the pens, because they are NOT THERE when I want one. Pinky swear.

Contrast. It is.

While not heavily (nor officially) schooled in the principles of design, I do know through my self-study that Contrast is one of the four biggies (along with repetition, proximity, and alignment - see I really did read to the end of the book, LOL!) Why? Because Contrast provides us with that visual tension that creates interest, gives the senses a focal point and generally, Makes Life Interesting.

For those of you who are ready to click "Next Blog" because this is sounding like a boring lecture and you already get enough of those at work/school/home, read on, because this is Julie. It is. and you probably know that there might be something ridiculous and slightly embarrassing on the horizon (and no, that does NOT mean I am going to discuss my American Idol obsession, thankyouverymuchandbtwvotefordavidcookandjasoncastro...).

Anyway, back to Contrast.

Yesterday...

I was feeling all sappy and gooey and reminiscent with wistful, gently melancholy memories of special romantic moments from the past; beautiful early morning vistas with soft prairie breezes (this, for those of you who dwell on a prairie, is the first ridiculous item, as prairie breezes tend to blow one into the next county more often than not), and emotional connections of the purest sort to every gift of nature and blessing of spring...

Today...

I woke up to a blessing of spring blizzard (albeit a beautiful one with big white fat snowflakes and the picturesque fluffed up (shivering) robin perched on the deck railing). My beloved and sadly missed husband is thinking up wayyyyy too many projects that he (erroneously) believes I might be interested in participating (they are all singularly unromantic and involve physical exertion of a sort which I can only refer to as "work") leaving almost no time for mental excursions into romance and handsome princes, let alone time to work on digital scrapbooking. The gifts of nature for this particular day were the highly indignant spider in my bathroom (who apparently was equally as appalled by the snowfall as I was, and being devoid of the ability to fluff like aforementioned robin, sought refuge inside, and being devoid of luck, chose my bathroom for such refuge, and as such found a permanent end to his suffering) and my dog's unfortunate disposal of a piece of grass he apparently found to eat yesterday on the rug by the door.

Oh Well. I remind myself that this is making my life interesting, and providing my senses with a focal point... :)

Here's part two of Colorado Spring. Sorry, there are no snowflakes included, LOL.



Download HERE