My 1st Card Set...

I finally finished the set of cards I've been making for my Mother's Bridge Club. It's taken much longer then it should have, but considering everything...I'm still pleased.

Here is my card from yesterday. I got to use my new Cuttlebug embossing machine. (I misbehaved on Amazon.com last week and acquired a few new card making supplies. Yeah! But I'll probably regret it when my next credit card bill comes.)


Then today I finished this one. This is my effort to create a masculine birthday card. (Harder to make than you might think. You've got to stay away from flowers and pastels.)

And here's the complete set.

Twenty cards ready for delivery Mom!

On the Mantle

I love how Caity has her fireplace mantle set up. She's got a bunch of her black and white photos grouped together and I just think it looks so cool.

Here's a couple of the groupings.


I swear I took a photo of the whole mantle...but hence, I cannot find it. Probably why she is the family photographer and I am not.

(UPDATE: I finally found the picture of the whole mantle. I knew I took one.)


This is just something I like and I wanted to share.

May the Poop Be With You.

Following is an actual conversation that took place at Krissy's house last night:

Ryan: Daddy, I peed.

Jason: Ew. Yeah ya did. Why didn’t you tell us?

Ryan: I don’t know.

Kristen: Come over to the laundry room and we will take off the pee clothes.

Kristen: OH NO (poop falls on floor). Ryan, why didn’t you tell muma there was poop?

Ryan: I didn’t really feel like it. (seriously that is what he said)

Ryan: (looking down) My poop looks like jabba the hutt.

Jason: Yeah, it actually does.

Kristen: Come lay down so I can wipe your butt.

Ryan: (while laying down) Why Frodo eating jabba the hutt?? (Note: Frodo is the dog.)

I kid you not!

Thanks for sharing Krissy. Priceless!

Two Beauties Stopped by this Week-End!

I think my youngest grandson is Swedish. His new best word is "Yaaaa". Do you want a cracker? "Yaaaa". Do you want a bath? "Yaaaa". It's so cute, but so Swedish.

I had the boys overnight on Friday and got to give Baby Aus another little hair trim.

Isn't he beautiful and you can see his eyes again. I couldn't get him to smile, but at least I got him to sit still for a second.

Here's the other little surprise that popped up this week-end. It's my first Beefsteak tomato.

Isn't it a beauty. It's about to be sliced and served with grilled hamburgers and corn on the cob cooked in beer. I feel so lucky tonight. (Oh, we are also having French Fries...Caity wants French Fries.)

Julie and Julia Movie Review

Julie and Julia
Grade A+++

It's after 11pm and I know I should go to bed, but we just got back from seeing Julie and Julia. This is such a wonderful movie, you must see it. Both Meryl Streep and Julia Child are true treasures. I sat in the theatre at the end of movie with tears streaming down my face. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's because I am an over emotional crazy person. Or maybe it was just tears of joy. Just sheer joy and happiness. That's what cooking is to me.

New goal: To make Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon. It looks absolutely fabulous!

UPDATE: Mom...Krissy...Cait - I could so see this movie again if any of you are interseted!!

Card of the Week (CPS #129)

Found myself with a little alone time this evening and decided to work on some cards. I've been working on a set of cards for each of my Mother's Bridge Club partners. She frequently shows them my cards and she keeps asking for a set of Birthday, Anniversary, Thank You and Get Well cards for them. I'm almost done. I've got the Birthday and Anniversary done. Tonight I finished the Thank You cards. Only the Get Well to go.

I used the CPS card design for this week as my inspiration. Thanks to all the designers at CPS for giving my such great ideas. I love making cards, but I'm not the most artistic person, so I some times need an idea to get me started.

Great Summer Read!

While up on vacation, I read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. This is an amazing, can't put it down kind of book. In fact, I pushed to get through it because I felt I was being so incredibly rude to my family and fellow vacationers. It's also the reason I ended up with a sunburn (please don't tell my dermo). The 2nd day on the beach...I didn't swim, I didn't play with my grandsons, I didn't walk on the beach...I just sat in one spot reading. Bingo, sunburn.

This is a crime/murder mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. So, if you are headed for the beach (WARNING: put on extra sunscreen) or if you just need to fall into a good book, please get this one.

Good news - This is the first in a series of three novels written by Larrsen. The 2nd, "The Girl who Played with Fire" was recently released here in the U.S. There is also a 3rd novel that should be available in the near future.

Bad news - Stieg Larrson died unexpectedly in November of 2004. He had originally planned for this to be a series of 10 books. He left behind the unfinished manuscript for a 4th story and the synopses for the 5th and 6th stories. So maybe someone can pick up where he left off.

More Reunion Musings

My 35th High School Reunion was a couple weeks ago. As the weeks since have passed, I've found myself thinking about it often. It was so wonderful seeing the slightly older, but still very familiar faces. Many of them were in school with me for 12 years. Hard to not have these faces etched into my memory forever.

There is a story, that I've been wanting to share for a long time. It involves a couple guys from junior high and I think I need to tell it. I hope my words do it justice.

I had a wonderful, slow childhood. Summers lasted forever and I lived in a world where I didn't have to grow up too soon. I was able to stay a child for a pretty long time. It helped that one of my best friends was my younger brother Jeff.

One Saturday afternoon during 7th grade, I was across the street playing with the neighbor kids and Jeff. We were playing war. What made this particularly fun was the neighbor's had some very cool old rifles. Heck, they might have been real...with all the firing mechanisms removed. I don't really know, but they had a real feeling about them. I was standing by the tree in the middle of their yard, just getting a good bead on my brother, when out of the corner of my eye I see Danny and Bob riding by on their bikes.

Danny and Bob are like the two coolest guys in my class. They are never over in my area of town. What are they doing here? I freeze in sheer panic and drop my rifle to the ground. I do the very casual head nod and say "hi". They ride by.

Please, dear God. Let them not see me with that rifle. My life will be so over if they did.

Monday morning comes and I head to school with my heart in my throat. What happens if I walk in and everyone is laughing and calling me "Annie Oakley" or worse...."rifle girl" (we weren't the most original group).

As I go into homeroom, I see Danny. He doesn't even look at me. So far, so good. At lunch I see Bob. He doesn't look at me either. The whole day goes by and nothing happens. The relief is overwhelming. I don't think I am going to be the laughing stock of the entire school.

It was at that very moment, that I decided Danny and Bob really were the two coolest guys in our class.

Years go swirling by and here I am 30 years later standing at my reunion talking with Dan (he's a 53 year old guy...I can't call him Danny anymore). For some unknown reason (maybe the wine), this story pops into my head. And before I know it, I"m telling it to Dan. Fortunately, he seems to enjoy the tale and doesn't remember a thing about that day.

Odd, how a moment that seems so potentially devastating and overwhelming at the time...ends up being just a very funny memory.

Vacation #2

We just got back from spending the week in South Haven, Michigan. It's located on Lake Michigan, around the middle of the state. This was our first vacation in South Haven and here's how it came about. Krissy's sister-in-law got married on Saturday on the beach in South Haven. So we all turned her wedding into our vacation. Seemed a good reason to try a new locale.

Caity got to work searching for rental property in South Haven. She found an adorable 2-bedroom condo across from the marina. It was beautiful with some great views of the Black River.

I have no pictures at the moment...because as usual I screwed up. I brought out my camera, turned it on and it immediately shut off. I forgot to charge it and did not bring the power cable. So, it is confirmed...I am a horrible photographer. Fortunately, Cait is much better at it and she also has a much better camera. Hopefully, pictures coming soon.

Card of the Week (CPS #127)

Just spent the afternoon making and photographing a couple of cards I made. We have a couple weddings coming up some I used that as my motivation. Here is the CPS sketch of the week.







And here is my submission. Even though you can't see it very well, it says "Happy Wedding" and it looks quite nice. I was really pleased with the rhinestone on the heart.

I then made another card that employed some of the new flourish stamps and clear embossing powder. I really like monochromatic looks, so hopefully you can see enough in this picture to get the idea. This doesn't fit the CPS sketch, but I just wanted to post it anyway.



Happy Friday Everyone!

Virginia, I'm not...

I have this absolutely wonderful mother. Her name is Virginia. She is a cleaning machine. She's been one my whole life and at 83, she still is. She passed on her cleaning gene to my daughter Caity. The gene completely skipped me.

You might be wondering, what made me think of this...

Well, I was just reaching into the spice cabinet to get the fennel, when my arm brushed up against the stove hood and my arm actually slide. I looked up and it was disgusting. It was covered with that yucky, greasy build up. It is now clean, but it got me thinking about the things I need to clean around here. So here's my top 10 list of things that need to be cleaned before the summer is over. (Maybe if I put it into writing...it will actually happen.)

1. The ceiling fan in the living room (I won't even tell you how disgusting it is.)
2. The ceiling fan in my bedroom
   
3. The window screens
4. The top of the fridge (Done...I did this the other day. I thought it would be good to make my list a little easier by including something I already did.)
5. The top of the TV armoire
6. The cool air vents
7. Vacuum underneath my bed
8. Dust the moldings, especially behind the furniture
9. Wipe down the kitchen cabinets
10. Turn the oven on to clean

Now...don't get me wrong, the house is usually pretty clean, it's just not that deep down clean that Virginia would love.

A Fish Tale, Part Two

I finally have visual proof confirming my fishing expedition from a few weeks ago.

Here I am freezing to death.

Here I am actually "fishing".

Here is my fish. Please note I am not the one removing the hook.

And here we all are displaying our hard earned booty.

Don't we all look happy to be back on land and I'm hardly even green! Thank goodness the fish were so delicious that I no longer clearly remember that exact queasy, nauseous feeling anymore. It's kind of like childbirth. I don't remember that either.

Thanks Mary for sending all the pics.

500 Days of Summer Movie Review

(500) Days of Summer

Grade: A

This is a sweet little love and loss story that I highly recommend. It is cleverly arranged to chronicle the meeting, dating, loving and break-up of Tom and Summer (although not necessarily in that order).

Tom, played wonderfully by, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is an awkward, intense young man searching for his true love. Summer is played by the quirky Zooey Deschanel, who manages to beguile and confuse the viewer as much as she does Tom.

Gordon-Levitt has done a fine job transitioning from child actor to young actor. (I recognized him from Angels in the Outfield as we went through a stage when Stinky watched that movie over and over.) He's cute and unassuming yet, manages to express a lot with his face.

Important note: Don't miss the opening credits for a very funny set up to the movie.

Tripping Down Memory Lane

Tonight is my High School Reunion. It's been 35 years, which seems impossible. How in the world could that much time have passed? It seems like only a short time ago I was an awkward teen-ager stumbling around in ridiculous platform shoes and bell bottoms. (That could have been last Tuesday too!)

This is a picture of the school...doesn't it look more like a prison then a high school?

I went to a small Catholic School in Dearborn, Michigan. It closed one year after we graduated, which I always felt was a great loss. Not only for all the kids that weren't able to graduate from there, but also for us.

You see, we have no annual Homecoming Game to go to anymore and nothing feels like football more than a crisp fall Sunday afternoon. (Yes, we always played our football games on Sundays. Seems rather contradictory as it's the Sabbath and all, but when you don't have your own football field and you have to borrow the Public School field....you take what they give you and they always gave us Sundays.) Still to this day, I love high school football games. Although, those lame things they call floats, have nothing on what we accomplished.

I've been a big instigator in this whole reunion. Which makes me not only excited to see my old friends, but also a bit nervous as I hope the caterer does a good job and there's enough decorations. You know it's been a long time since I've hung crepe paper. (Just kidding...no crepe paper, although now that I think of it that would be pretty funny). Just stressing some of the details even though I know, no one will care. I guess that's just the organizer in me.

There have been some great aspects of planning this reunion already. First, I started a blog in support of our class and the reunion. I had been wanting to start blogging earlier this year and used the reunion as an opportunity to test drive one. (I used Word Press for my Reunion Blog.) If you want to go stop by and check it out feel free. Here's the link. Creating this first blog, gave me the courage to start up Our Mush Push, which has been one of my favorite things this year.

Second, it's been fun to be a part of people reconnecting. For example...Mike and Ray lost touch a few years after graduation and now they are emailing and planning on a reunion of their own. That just feels good.

In addition, some of the email exchanges have been great. My current favorite was one written by Dan to Ray and Roland, where he never referred to them by name but by numbers. They all still go by their football numbers. Hysterical or what. The male mind is fascinating. I don't understand it... but it's still fascinating.

Hopefully, the next post will be about the great success of the event and not my complete failure as an event planner.

Also just realized the title of this post might imply something a little more 70's than I meant. It literally refers to my hope of not trip over my own feet.