A watched blog never boils.
Yeah, I know, I'm mixing metaphors and twisting things with that statement, but it's true. Just visiting your blog does not make words appear. It doesn't even make inspiration strike :) I know this, because I've tried really hard for the last couple of days, to no avail.
I made a couple of valiant efforts. Most of them turned out to posess the same level of success that the bird who tried to fly through my picture window this morning experienced. With about the same level of grammatical correctness as the previous sentence. Which I am not sufficiently motivated to analyze, let alone correct. (Sorry Mrs. Myhre, you haunt me still, but I've grown more stubborn as the years progress...)
So I guess the real question is, can one be inspired by a lack of inspiration? If one is in a suitably silly mood, does it matter if there's a reason for the silly, or does the presence of silliness in and of itself preempt the need for motivation? And how long CAN one ramble on about absolutely nothing at all?
For at least a couple of paragraphs, evidently ;) Any more than that would require an extra cup of coffee, and I'm not sure my nervous system is up to the task.
In other news, a happy birthday to my younger daughter, Molly Joy, who has now aged to the point to make her mother extremely nervous about cumulative numbers altogether, particularly in reference to the ones that appear in my age column. I'm starting to experience a teensy bit of the angst that inspired my mother to just stick with 39 for several years (insert shout out here to Denial and Rivers in Egypt and all that sort of thing). I guess it's apt punishment for my lack of sympathy for her feelings when I was the child. You just don't know what's in store for you :)
We went to se UP last night with aforementioned birthday child. Sweet, funny, inspiring, and most importantly... 3D! I will confess that I would have actually paid real money for a picture of the audience staring raptly at the screen in their big black Drew Carey 3D glasses. Not a lot of real money, admittedly, but I'm faintly intrigued by the idea of the diversity of the group, yet the visible talisman of the shared experience...
Yeah, ok, I guess I'd better go get that extra cup of coffee...
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Mad As a Hatter
I have a new kit in my Plain Digital Wrapper Store called "Mad As a Hatter." Not gonna lie, I had an awful lot of fun with this one. Crazy colors, and fake fur, and fun textures - how can you go wrong! I mean, FAKE FUR, people! LOL. I'm so easily amused...
I had a little fun scrapping with it, too - I have a backlog of zoo pix that somehow have never found a home.
And here's a bonus that you can download for a limited time!
(sorry, download no longer available)
And as a special incentive, the first 5 people to post a layout in the Plain Digital Wrapper Gallery using the bonus kit will receive the full kit for free. Just leave a comment for me with some contact info (or email me at julieitis at gmail dot com). Have fun!
I had a little fun scrapping with it, too - I have a backlog of zoo pix that somehow have never found a home.
And here's a bonus that you can download for a limited time!
(sorry, download no longer available)
And as a special incentive, the first 5 people to post a layout in the Plain Digital Wrapper Gallery using the bonus kit will receive the full kit for free. Just leave a comment for me with some contact info (or email me at julieitis at gmail dot com). Have fun!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
More Rain.
Yeah, more rain, and my solar batteries were already run down. However, silver linings and all that, so I tried to stay positive and focus on good things. So it was with a great deal of amusement that I watched a young mom and her two small children walk from the parking lot to the hobby store - both tots carrying open umbrellas with glee.
I remember that gleeful feeling myself. The need for an umbrella was a rarity in my northern Montana childhood - not that rain was so rare, necessarily, but liquid precipitation that wasn't driven by gale force umbrella-inverting winds was kind of elusive. So my eight year old self getting to walk outside with my blue-grey paisley umbrella that matched my blue-grey raincoat was quite a thrill. And to be honest, it's a thrill that I still feel every time I'm under a canopy of silk with the patter of raindrops beating a gentle cadence over my head. ::sigh:: Oh the romance!
All of these thoughts flitted through my mind as I drove past; the little boy especially made me smile with his bright yellow SpongeBob parasol, perched at an inefficient but adorable angle allowing him to focus more on it than his trajectory. I was amused all the way to the edge of the parking lot, when it suddenly occurred to me that if I were to unfurl my own umbrella, it would probably entertain a lot more people than some middle aged woman in a green Honda Element.
Y'know, what with it being a giant LADYBUG, and all...
I remember that gleeful feeling myself. The need for an umbrella was a rarity in my northern Montana childhood - not that rain was so rare, necessarily, but liquid precipitation that wasn't driven by gale force umbrella-inverting winds was kind of elusive. So my eight year old self getting to walk outside with my blue-grey paisley umbrella that matched my blue-grey raincoat was quite a thrill. And to be honest, it's a thrill that I still feel every time I'm under a canopy of silk with the patter of raindrops beating a gentle cadence over my head. ::sigh:: Oh the romance!
All of these thoughts flitted through my mind as I drove past; the little boy especially made me smile with his bright yellow SpongeBob parasol, perched at an inefficient but adorable angle allowing him to focus more on it than his trajectory. I was amused all the way to the edge of the parking lot, when it suddenly occurred to me that if I were to unfurl my own umbrella, it would probably entertain a lot more people than some middle aged woman in a green Honda Element.
Y'know, what with it being a giant LADYBUG, and all...
Saturday, May 23, 2009
A Tale of Woe
Ma Nature and I are having a bit of a rumble. She's pulling one way, and I'm pulling the other, and my comforter is the helpless and unwilling rope between us.
Every spring as temperatures go up, and the hours of sunlight also increase, my bank of western-facing windows get all giddy with delight and have a bit of a tendency to think it's warmer than it really is. As in, it gets hot in my house, all out of proportion to what is really going on outside. And being it really isn't THAT hot out, common sense and careful living (and Mom's voice in the back of the head that orders me to shut the refrigerator door, am I trying to cool the whole world?) dictate that cool outside air must be brought in to displace said hot air (please, do not comment. I can hear what you're thinking, but please, just resist the temptation, I implore you), and that under NO circumstances would a reasonable and prudent and well-raised individual even THINK of ::gasp:: TURNING ON THE AIR CONDITIONING.
There are a few inherent difficulties, however, in accomplishing the seemingly simple task of trading cold for hot. The first is my location. I don't live by the ocean with gentle trade winds wafting freshness from the water, or on a mountain top with crisp breezes. I live in central Colorado, just past the foothills and onto the prairie where there are two speeds for the outdoor fan - off, and violent. So simply opening the windows to allow the hot air to leave and the cold air to enter can either mean blowing every picture and magnet off of my refrigerator in a flurry of gusty dusty air and flapping draperies, or... nothing at all. There are a few tweaks I try now and then - strategically opening doors and coaxing a hint of a cross-draft (and remembering NEVER to open the window by the fireplace whose communication with the house security system is nebulous at best, resulting in a panicked search for the source of the damning red light before retiring for the night when all orifices are obviously shut up tightly) and turning on the ceiling fans to at least give the illusion that air is being moved, though this option seems to have little effect on the silent and neutral arbiter of success - the thermostat. I've even gone so far as to turn on the furnace fan (sans heat, of course) to "redistribute" the air in the house, because let's face it, it's always borderline frigid in the basement so, maybe we should all share and share alike? The truth is, though, that while this sounds as though it would be a logical answer, it really doesn't accomplish anything other than sounding as though the air conditioning is on, simultaneously making one feel guilty and disappointed all at the same time.
But I digress.
We did have some unseasonably early warm temps late in April, and due to the aforementioned oft-unsuccessful battle to cool the house down in the evening preparatory to going to bed, sleeping with my lovely and scrumptiously fluffy comforter was less fun than it should be, due to the simple fact that I am at a rather uncomfortably warm phase of my life to begin with and therefore do not need the additional zealotry of my bedclothes to keep my temperature on the high end of the scale. So I did what anyone would do under the circumstances, I switched to my summer coverlet and put the comforter in the laundry to await a visit to the cleaners. Which was kind of sad, because I'm a fall kinda gal and heading into summer is always a bit mournful to me with its warm extremes. Nonetheless, I was doing my best to embrace the change gracefully (which included about ten minutes spent trying to remember which way the coverlet actually fit on the bed - king sized linens can be confusing because they are almost as wide as they are long or long as they are wide and I can never quite remember the first time which way stuff goes. I've even tried "faking" the bedding out and deliberately putting it on the way I think it really shouldn't be, but apparently I am less clever than high thread count linen and should just resign myself to doing the job twice.) and with a minimum of whining (and if you know me at all you really should appreciate the effort this was for me).
When one is a procrastinator (and I am) one learns early in life to pick up on little details that actually reinforce one's natural inclination to defer the timing on almost everything. So it will come as no surprise that the one time I am Julie on the Spot against my natural inclination, all of nature conspires to demonstrate that I have completely done the wrong thing. The first night with the lightweight coverlet Ma Nature lets loose with a relatively frosty blast, and the night is decidedly chilly sans fluffy cozy comforter, even with the midnight addition of coverlet number two (in a suitably contrasting color to coverlet number one, and yet not as warm as it is heavy on my overly sensitive toes). After briefly reviewing the situation in my mind, I decide to just admit defeat (a galling thing indeed so hard upon the heels of my non-procrastinatory self-congratulation) and put the comforter back on the bed.
Ma Nature is mollified. Life is good. For a week.
Again, the west windows do their work. It's hot in my house. I grimly glare at the thermostat. I hold firm. I do not sleep well. Rinse and repeat, for about 3 days.
Finally break down and remove comforter, restore coverlet. For those who wonder, it does indeed take two tries to get it on properly, despite having only removed it a scant ten days previously. A wiser woman would probably not admit that in a public forum, but whatever, I'm choosing to be amused by my incapability at this point (you have to admit, the whole story is approaching "ridiculous" anyway). A pleasant night is had by all, sleep achieved.
And then, of course, cloudy cool days ensue. As I have determined at this point that there's no point in having the heat on at all, the house is cool. The coverlet is insufficient once again, but unfortunately my patience level is equally inadequate. I unfurl the secondary coverlet (of complimentary color) and simply make the bed with both. The fluffy cozy comforter is strewn willy nilly on the guestroom floor in a state of embarrassed disarray until such point that I can overcome my chagrin and package it up for the cleaners. My winter nightie comes out of its drawer, I even wear socks to bed one night in my stubbornness (I should reassure my readers that by this time my husband is off on a series of business trips, and therefore I am only harming myself with my ...er, determination.)
And that's the current state of the standoff. One night will be a little too cool, the next will be a llittle too warm, and it's probably the way things will remain until my procrastinating self decides to just give in and TURN ON THE AIRCONDITIONING.
Be sure to watch your newspapers - you'll be able to tell the exact moment that I do break down and summon the Freon Fairies to my aid. Check on the weather page. Under Denver. You know, where the headline declares:
Freak Summer Blizzard Sweeps Parker Colorado!
Every spring as temperatures go up, and the hours of sunlight also increase, my bank of western-facing windows get all giddy with delight and have a bit of a tendency to think it's warmer than it really is. As in, it gets hot in my house, all out of proportion to what is really going on outside. And being it really isn't THAT hot out, common sense and careful living (and Mom's voice in the back of the head that orders me to shut the refrigerator door, am I trying to cool the whole world?) dictate that cool outside air must be brought in to displace said hot air (please, do not comment. I can hear what you're thinking, but please, just resist the temptation, I implore you), and that under NO circumstances would a reasonable and prudent and well-raised individual even THINK of ::gasp:: TURNING ON THE AIR CONDITIONING.
There are a few inherent difficulties, however, in accomplishing the seemingly simple task of trading cold for hot. The first is my location. I don't live by the ocean with gentle trade winds wafting freshness from the water, or on a mountain top with crisp breezes. I live in central Colorado, just past the foothills and onto the prairie where there are two speeds for the outdoor fan - off, and violent. So simply opening the windows to allow the hot air to leave and the cold air to enter can either mean blowing every picture and magnet off of my refrigerator in a flurry of gusty dusty air and flapping draperies, or... nothing at all. There are a few tweaks I try now and then - strategically opening doors and coaxing a hint of a cross-draft (and remembering NEVER to open the window by the fireplace whose communication with the house security system is nebulous at best, resulting in a panicked search for the source of the damning red light before retiring for the night when all orifices are obviously shut up tightly) and turning on the ceiling fans to at least give the illusion that air is being moved, though this option seems to have little effect on the silent and neutral arbiter of success - the thermostat. I've even gone so far as to turn on the furnace fan (sans heat, of course) to "redistribute" the air in the house, because let's face it, it's always borderline frigid in the basement so, maybe we should all share and share alike? The truth is, though, that while this sounds as though it would be a logical answer, it really doesn't accomplish anything other than sounding as though the air conditioning is on, simultaneously making one feel guilty and disappointed all at the same time.
But I digress.
We did have some unseasonably early warm temps late in April, and due to the aforementioned oft-unsuccessful battle to cool the house down in the evening preparatory to going to bed, sleeping with my lovely and scrumptiously fluffy comforter was less fun than it should be, due to the simple fact that I am at a rather uncomfortably warm phase of my life to begin with and therefore do not need the additional zealotry of my bedclothes to keep my temperature on the high end of the scale. So I did what anyone would do under the circumstances, I switched to my summer coverlet and put the comforter in the laundry to await a visit to the cleaners. Which was kind of sad, because I'm a fall kinda gal and heading into summer is always a bit mournful to me with its warm extremes. Nonetheless, I was doing my best to embrace the change gracefully (which included about ten minutes spent trying to remember which way the coverlet actually fit on the bed - king sized linens can be confusing because they are almost as wide as they are long or long as they are wide and I can never quite remember the first time which way stuff goes. I've even tried "faking" the bedding out and deliberately putting it on the way I think it really shouldn't be, but apparently I am less clever than high thread count linen and should just resign myself to doing the job twice.) and with a minimum of whining (and if you know me at all you really should appreciate the effort this was for me).
When one is a procrastinator (and I am) one learns early in life to pick up on little details that actually reinforce one's natural inclination to defer the timing on almost everything. So it will come as no surprise that the one time I am Julie on the Spot against my natural inclination, all of nature conspires to demonstrate that I have completely done the wrong thing. The first night with the lightweight coverlet Ma Nature lets loose with a relatively frosty blast, and the night is decidedly chilly sans fluffy cozy comforter, even with the midnight addition of coverlet number two (in a suitably contrasting color to coverlet number one, and yet not as warm as it is heavy on my overly sensitive toes). After briefly reviewing the situation in my mind, I decide to just admit defeat (a galling thing indeed so hard upon the heels of my non-procrastinatory self-congratulation) and put the comforter back on the bed.
Ma Nature is mollified. Life is good. For a week.
Again, the west windows do their work. It's hot in my house. I grimly glare at the thermostat. I hold firm. I do not sleep well. Rinse and repeat, for about 3 days.
Finally break down and remove comforter, restore coverlet. For those who wonder, it does indeed take two tries to get it on properly, despite having only removed it a scant ten days previously. A wiser woman would probably not admit that in a public forum, but whatever, I'm choosing to be amused by my incapability at this point (you have to admit, the whole story is approaching "ridiculous" anyway). A pleasant night is had by all, sleep achieved.
And then, of course, cloudy cool days ensue. As I have determined at this point that there's no point in having the heat on at all, the house is cool. The coverlet is insufficient once again, but unfortunately my patience level is equally inadequate. I unfurl the secondary coverlet (of complimentary color) and simply make the bed with both. The fluffy cozy comforter is strewn willy nilly on the guestroom floor in a state of embarrassed disarray until such point that I can overcome my chagrin and package it up for the cleaners. My winter nightie comes out of its drawer, I even wear socks to bed one night in my stubbornness (I should reassure my readers that by this time my husband is off on a series of business trips, and therefore I am only harming myself with my ...er, determination.)
And that's the current state of the standoff. One night will be a little too cool, the next will be a llittle too warm, and it's probably the way things will remain until my procrastinating self decides to just give in and TURN ON THE AIRCONDITIONING.
Be sure to watch your newspapers - you'll be able to tell the exact moment that I do break down and summon the Freon Fairies to my aid. Check on the weather page. Under Denver. You know, where the headline declares:
Freak Summer Blizzard Sweeps Parker Colorado!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Gardens and Spring and Stuff :)
It has been an odd couple of weeks - we were out of town for a bit, and came home to well over a foot of snow in our driveway (this is a guesstimate on my part, as I was very careful not to put myself in a position where I needed to experience the depth on a one to one up-close basis. DH, on the other hand, felt the need to shovel enough to get the cars out and subsequently visited his chiropractor on Monday morning. To which I say, it's cheaper to be lazy :)) This was sort of bizarre for mid-April, but certainly not unprecedented. Two days later the temps were in the high 60's and lower 70's and the mountains of shoveled white stuff have become a mere memory, unless you factor in the suddenly-vibrant green grass left behind and the still-glorious peaks of the mountains (I am a BIG fan of snow... I just like it on the mountain tops, LOL)
A blizzard (of sorts) does leave one longing for soft, pretty garden-y things, though. I had so much fun playing with flowers and greenery even if it was virtual:
And I'm so pleased with the beautiful layouts I've been seeing - as you can see, it's a very versatile kit!:
(Layout by Dracowin)
(Layout by Alexis Designs)
(Layout by MamaB)
(Layout by Coldfire)
(Layout by Chris (cla)
My munchkins when they were little ;)
And one that isn't so little anymore, LOL!
Garden Girl is on sale at Plain Digital Wrapper through the weekend (20% off). And for a limited time, you can download the matching alpha HERE. Happy scrapping!
A blizzard (of sorts) does leave one longing for soft, pretty garden-y things, though. I had so much fun playing with flowers and greenery even if it was virtual:
And I'm so pleased with the beautiful layouts I've been seeing - as you can see, it's a very versatile kit!:
(Layout by Dracowin)
(Layout by Alexis Designs)
(Layout by MamaB)
(Layout by Coldfire)
(Layout by Chris (cla)
My munchkins when they were little ;)
And one that isn't so little anymore, LOL!
Garden Girl is on sale at Plain Digital Wrapper through the weekend (20% off). And for a limited time, you can download the matching alpha HERE. Happy scrapping!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Beautiful Colorado
Some of my favorite pictures to scrap are landscape and nature photos. Having grown up in Montana, I'm no stranger to natural beauty, but I have to say that Colorado is even better, due to the extreme range of colors and textures and the variety of landscapes. These photos were taken at Roxborough State Park, just a few miles away from us. Amazing rock formations and colors, and the added drama of the mercurial spring clouds make artistic and vivid layouts, and an opportunity for wonderful memories of a family day out .
I used my Canyon Page Kit to scrap these, as well as a lovely template from Annette Wood for the top layout, and one from Lindsay Jane Designs for the second page.
I used my Canyon Page Kit to scrap these, as well as a lovely template from Annette Wood for the top layout, and one from Lindsay Jane Designs for the second page.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Rock That Robin!
We had a blizzard a couple of weeks ago (ok, we had one a week ago, too - welcome SPRING, LOL) and there was the cutest flock of robins hanging out in the crabapple tree that's about 15 feet from our back door (and as I have NO IDEA about actual distances, you may freely interpret the above statement as meaning somewhere between the back door and the back fence). I, having a smashing new birthday camera, and no desire to go outside in said blizzard, contented myself with taking about half a million pictures from inside. And some of them were really cute, so I wanted to scrap. Which meant creating a kit worthy for the cute little fluffed up guys in the tree. So what should have been the work of an hour or two stretched out to a week and a half. But a fun one!
So here's my fat little friend in all of his glory, and the kit he inspired, and some lovely layouts from my creative team.
And CT lovelies:
(Layout by Pookie)
(Layout by ISASCRAPSFOREVER)
(Layout by Dracowin)
(Layout by JamiesCreations)
(Layout by Annette)
And a last one from me :)
Finally, here's a little taste for your stash:
Sorry, download has expired
So here's my fat little friend in all of his glory, and the kit he inspired, and some lovely layouts from my creative team.
And CT lovelies:
(Layout by Pookie)
(Layout by ISASCRAPSFOREVER)
(Layout by Dracowin)
(Layout by JamiesCreations)
(Layout by Annette)
And a last one from me :)Finally, here's a little taste for your stash:
Sorry, download has expired
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