Archive for the ‘Ramblings’ Category

My crazy Indianapolis cousin Elaine sent this to me. I think it's hilarious. I can always count on 'lainie for some good laughs.

I'm still here, still crawlin' along. Even though I love what I do, my work has kept me on the road a lot more than I'd like lately. I'm working on some things to share with you later this week, so . . .

Go on with without me, I'll catch up soon.

In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin

It’s hard to argue with Benjamin Franklin, well, especially since he’s not really here to plead his case. But, this weekend there’s an exception to Benjamin’s wise old proverb.

The state of Texas is having a sales tax holiday from August 21 to 23. Because school supply items are included in this sales tax holiday, the below Stampin’ Up! products will be tax free. To beat the tax, you must place your order with Stampin’ Up! during the tax holiday period.

• Uni-ball Signo gel pen, 105021, $3.95
• Basic Black Stampin’ Write journaler, 105394, $3.25
• Stampin’ Write markers, various, $3.25
• Watercolor Pencils, 101879, $19.95
• Watercolor Wonder Crayons Bold Brights, 106695, $19.95
• Watercolor Wonder Crayons Earth Elements, 106696, $19.95
• Watercolor Wonder Crayons Rich Regals, 106698, $19.95
• Watercolor Wonder Crayons Soft Subtles, 106697, $19.95
• Watercolor Wonder Crayons Neutrals, 106746, $9.95
• Stampin’ Pastels, 105542, $24.95
• Craft & Rubber scissors, 103179, $19.95
• Paper snips, 103579, $9.95
• Craft & Paper scissors, 108360, $29.95
• Pencil sharpener, 100745, $4.95
• Blender pens, 102845, $9.95
• 2-Way Glue Pen, 100425, $3.50
• SNAIL adhesive, 104332, $6.95
• SNAIL refill, 104331, $4.50
• Mini Glue Dots, 103683, $4.95
• Pop-Up Glue Dots, 104183, $3.95
• Stampin’ Dimensionals, 104430, $3.95
• Anywhere Glue Stick, 104045, $3.95
• Dotto, 103305, $12.95
• Dotto refill, 100902, $6.50
• Sticky Strip, 104294, $6.95
• Tombow Adhesive, 110755, $3.95

As always, you can shop in your jammies, 24/7 here.

The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.
–Dale Carnegie

Whether or not this day would ever come was never at question. We always expected that Caitlin would graduate. But, what makes me so very proud of her every day is the way she accomplished her goal – with daring tenacity.

Caitlin faced every obstacle with integrity and made amazing adventures along the way toward her degree. She usually worked at least two jobs, changed schools and majors along the way, and still graduated on time. During this ridiculous economy, she found an internship and permanent position within her field. Watch out Dallas – Caitlin’s ready to take you on next.

We had a wonderful little celebration for Caitlin with a few of our closest family friends. So, this morning I scrambled to make a video presentation for the party celebrating my lovely girl’s adventures.

Congratulations, Caitlin! We are so very proud of you.

I have to be the very luckiest paper crafter on the planet. I didn’t get to go the national Stampin’ Up! convention last week. As you know, I was gallivanting around Wyoming with very spotty Internet. Believe me, had there been Internet, I’d have been glued to Twitter, Facebook, the message boards . . . anywhere for Convention chatter. It was torture not knowing what exciting things were coming out of Utah. I know, that doesn’t sound very lucky, but wait . . .

My dear Catty Cruise friends took good care of me, and made sure I was there in spirit.

That’s Connie Collins, Becky Roberts, Brooke Stockman, and Angie Tieman. And, if you look really closely, that’s ME “hanging” out with Becky (check out her badge holder). Are those the best friends in the world or what!?

Oh, and I’m so very proud of the Catty Cruise girls. They sweeped the awards at the convention. More than anything, I would have loved to have been there to cheer them on – complete with cowbells, poppers and streamers. Well, maybe it’s a good thing I wasn’t there to embarrass them. But, hey, there’s always the Leadership Convention in January. I can’t wait to turn these virtual hugs into real squeezes in Phoenix.

Congratulations and much love to my Catty Cruise friends – you rock!

I have to be the most fickle blog designer in the webosphere. I’ve changed my web design I think nearly daily.  Just stick with me, I think there’s final design out there, I really do, that will make me feel warm and fuzzy.

Meanwhile, I’ve loved watching blogging and scrapbooking take the big screen. I got to see Julie and Julia this week – what a glorious movie.  I love Julie Powell’s brave commitment to blog through Julia Child’s 500+ recipe cookbook and her love for BUTTER. I mean, really, could there be a better concept for a movie than to combine food and blogging. Loved it!

And, last week we watched New in Town on video. Scrapbooking plays a delightful supporting role in the movie (oh yeah, and it’s not a bad movie, either). Any misunderstood scrapbookers who have ever been made fun of will feel vindicated!

I’m no Ansel Adams, but wouldn’t it be fun to be? I have a love/hate relationship with my camera. I love taking pictures but I hate that I’m not a better photographer. The scenery in Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks is just too beautiful not to at least try to do the landscape justice. So, you get to be the victims of my humble photographic efforts.

Leaving Cody, Wyoming, heading to Yellowstone . . .

The upper falls in Yellowstone . . .

Looking over Lake Yellowstone as we head to the Grand Tetons . . .

Entering the Tetons and Oxbow Bend . . .

Onward to Jenny Lake . . .

Love, from Wyoming,

Wow, what an amazing week we’ve had in Wyoming. Okay, backup. About a week ago my Tom said he had to get outta Dodge (Austin) and now. His stress was so high he needed to detox, and, honestly, I wasn’t far from him.  So, we took advantage of an invitation to visit Wyoming and leave the Texas heat for some mountain air.

Tom’s cousins, our hosts, Jan and Eddie Sapp, own Arrowhead Alpaca Farms, one of the largest alpaca farms in the country. So, when we arrived on their farm on Saturday, we got to be introduced to all their 70+ alpacas by name, and I got to help skirt their fleece. Skirting fleece, I learned, simply means picking out the debris (grass, burrs, etc.) left in the fleece after it’s sheered. I know, sounds like work. But I love seeing the alpaca fiber in its original state. It’s fun to follow the whole process from sheering, skirting, spinning and weaving.  And, alpaca fleece is really special to handle. It’s much finer than sheep’s wool, right up there with cashmere – so luxurious.

Talk about luxury. Sunday morning, I got a special pedicure from this little angel.

She’s Tom’s cousin’s almost 4-year old granddaughter (try to keep up). Yep, deep purple polish all over my toe-sies.

Now, I’ve already had more fun than a month of Sundays at home, but later that morning we got to witness the birth of a new baby alpaca. Mama, “Prima,” was amazing to watch – she just walked around the corral as if nothing were happening. Of course, the baby (cria) came out all full of muck, and laid on the ground looking pretty helpless. Honestly, I was thinking, goodness gracious, somebody help this little thing.

But apparently (Jan patiently explained to me), a cria cleans itself by just rolling in the dirt.

Sure enough. It’s hard to believe these pictures are just about 30 minutes apart.

Being an ex-post-partum nurse don’t you know I was in heaven watching this miracle transpire. I took a lot more pictures of the actual birth, but they’re a little too National Geographic to share. Anyway, I’ve learned so much about these amazing alapacas and their oh-so-soft fleece. I’ll never take my socks for granted again!

Oh my, I’m so excited about this new home for Catered Crop. If you’ve come here from our previous home at Typepad, Yea, you survived the move. After packing our 300+ posts and moving them along with all the other behind-the-scenes stuff, you, my precious readers, are by far the most precious of my things to move.

So, for those of you interested, I thought I’d share what all was involved in making this move.

First, there were a lot of decisions to be made. I was using Typepad as my blogging software, but I wanted more control. I decided to move to Wordpress.org because it’s one of the most commonly used blogging software. We don’t see that as much with Stampin’ Up! demonstrators, but it’s more true outside our community. Because Wordpress is so popular, there are many more resources.

When you go with Wordpress.org, you have to do many of the things other blogging services do that you usually don’t even have to know about: finding a host web server, loading your files up to a server with a file transfer protocol (FTP) system, performing backups, providing security and spam protection, registering and mapping a domaine . . . It was daunting, but, honestly, I really enjoyed learning all that stuff. Okay, I can barely remember who I am most of the time, but I do love learning new technology.

Thank God for the Wordpress for Dummies book, and a really big thanks to Amy Celona. She spent no less than an hour on the phone giving me her sage advice and encouragement. Although I couldn’t use her services this go-round (I was already committed to a web host), I strongly recommend her.

After I (sort-of) figured out all that technical stuff, I got to begin the fun, creative stuff. I found a digital scrapbooking kit I love, Little Sous Chef, by Courtney Wilson of Skittles and Scraps. I had fun building the little click-here buttons and banner and found a great program to create my own WordPress theme (Artisteer). Veronica McCullum gave me some timely advice to tweak the design, and I’m working with her to make even more improvements.

So, Yea, I’m glad you’re all here. We have a lot of fun things coming up, like the Catty Cruise next weekend and, with hopefully most of the work behind me in creating and moving this site, I can get back to my first love . . . Stamping! New projects are on the way!

You know what’s even more fun than being published? Seeing your daughter in print!

Check it out! Caitlin turned this old Ikea coffee table:

 Into this:

 And her new table got published on this site: Design Sponge, which, by the way, looks like a freaky cool site. Caitlin has absolutely no inhibitions when it comes to creative endeavors – she’s my inspiration!

If A is a success in life,
then A equals x plus y plus z.
Work is x; y is play;
and z is keeping your mouth shut.
- Albert Einstein

What a genius that Mr. Einstein was!

I’ve been working a little too much, playing a little too little, but, at least where the Catered Crop blog is concerned, I’ve definitely been quiet. I don’t think that’s what Mr. Einstein had in mind, though.

I’ve been busy gallivanting around Central Texas inspecting nursing homes. May and June were just brutal. But, I brought my trusty lap top with me and I’ve been working on my new blog site. It still needs a little behind-the-scenes work, but I’m finally ready to share it with you. Please go check it out and let me know what you think. It’s at http://cateredcrop.com.

I’ll still be posting to this site and the new site for a while, but if you subscribe through a reader or e-mail, please be sure to subscribe to the new site.

Ooo, and I’ve been remodeling my craft room during the few days I’ve been home, so I’m anxious to show that to you. Hang with me . . . it’s coming.