Entering Back into Society

I'm alive! Oh wow I forgot how much our annual meeting sucks the life out of me. I worked some serious overtime to. Everything went great and all is well. It's over and I expect the next few weeks to calm down. :D

Good news for you but bad news for the previous winner she didn't contact me. Let's find hope the next winner contacts me or is someone I know. Spinning the great wheel....

The winner is... #15 Jenn.. Woo Hoo!

Jenn said...

Nice! Love the burned edging. And I would LOVE to win something from Lawn Fawn! =)

I'm excited for you Jenn, and thankfully I have your phone number. As a matter of fact I'm gonna call you right now... ring ... ring.. Jenn you didn't answer your phone. I did leave a you crazy message. Hey... I know your coming out in a few months but the Discovery Center's cube has the biggest Darth Vader on it I've ever seen. I'll try and snap a picture of it for you. Perhaps that will entice your Dad to come down.

In other news the MRA results came back normal.. there was something on the ..insert technical term here... left side vessel was fuzzy it could the picture or the equipment however they can't rule it out blah blah blah. My Dr. is planning on calling a neurologist today. We'll see. I'm thinking it was a fluke thing that's over now.

I have been able to craft and it felt great. I went to take some photos however a light bulb went out. lol just my luck. I'll pick up some light bulbs on the way home.

Hope your having a great Monday!

Katie

Checked Out

Hello!

As you can tell I haven't been around in the blog world. My work has the best of me. Once a year we have an annual meeting and dinner and it's always the week before Thanksgiving. I've been busying working on that. I haven't worked over time.... yet. However when I am home I'm so spent that I haven't been to excited to craft. Things will calm down and I'll get back into the swing of things.

I did manage to take Gina's class last night and the best news is I got Sarah to join me. To top it off she actually had fun and wants to do it again. :D

In other news....

The Doctor ordered two tests, the MRA, which I told you about, and an ultrasound on my neck to check my arteries. (I don't recall if I told you about that.) The Ultrasound came back normal. :D Were still waiting for the results to the MRA. Hopefully that will be good news.

It's been a good news day so far. I was "forced" to go to Disneyland this morning. (Our dinner will be there this weekend and I had to get some info for the Board). The parking folks were handing out free give away's (air fresheners). Then on my way into the office I stopped to get breakfast.. this little voice kept saying go to Carl's Jr. I pull up to find they are giving away free breakfast bisquets. Very cool.

Lastly...

The winner from my give away, Nichol Tran, has yet to contact me. As I said before If she doesn't by Friday I'll pick someone else. Only a couple of days left!

All in all a good day so far. Hopefully yours is going well.

Katie

Quick Post

Wow in 3 days I went from 25 followers to 40.... thank you so much. You guys are awesome. Who knew a give away would be so productive. (For more info concerning my first giveaway see this post.)

I wanted to clarify in case anyone was wondering. As you may have noticed Decay, my awesome hubby, was the first to comment. He nor our roommate, Karen, will be entered into the drawing. Sorry Karen but your welcome to play with all my stamps any time. (If either of you are that disappointed I'll get you a set for Christmas) All other family and friends will be in the drawing just not the ones that live with me.

I knew I would get some new followers I didn't expect so many so fast. That's awesome. My second milestone I had in my mind was 50 followers. If I reach 50 before Friday I will pick 2 winners. :D

In other happy news.... for my new friends my post last month talked about this weird health issue I've had. I'm happy to say the blood tests came and everything is normal with the exception of my good cholesterol. To raise that I need to get back to exercising... That I already knew.

Now to find the motivation.

What to do?

Holy smokes, I have 25 followers! This is really exciting. I will have to do something special. Any good ideas? I wouldn't mind doing a give away.. but what to give away? I know a few of you are not crafting folks. Help me come up with a good idea so we can make this happen. :D

I have a quick post for you today as I have a Dr. appointment. (see the previous post). I promise to keep you posted. I did have that weird eye thing today as I had to get up early. I think it's just my body saying what are you doing out of bed before the sun comes up? :D

I made this card for the Moxie fab trigger photo however I didn't enter it.. it happens. I got busy and oops. Oh well.

Hero Art did an amazing thing and tweeted it. Thanks Hero arts!

Here's most of what I used:

InLinkz.com

The ribbon is 2 different red from the local craft store. I was inspired by a head band a new young friend was wearing. It's easy to make.

I don't remember if I stamped with vintage photo or walnut stain. If I had to guess I'd say walnut stain but who knows.

I'm off to the doctor.

Katie

Update: They need to run tests. Yes my blood pressure is a little high however it's in the normal range. I'll having a few blood tests run. They are in the process of scheduling an MRA... that's an MRI but for the blood. The Doc thinks there may be something wrong with my circulation. Well see.

Happy Halloween!

I'm sorry I've been away. It's funny how life can get crazy at times. I have/had some health issues which kinda caught me by surprise. I've been debating with myself the last few days to mention it. Originally I hadn't planned on talking about it but as I type it's coming out. Since I'm an all or nothing kind of person I'm gonna spill the beans.

Last month I woke up to being blind in one eye. Oh wow did that freak me out. I have an amazing job and they are understanding when I come in late or have to go to the doctor that kind of thing. Except that morning we had a board meeting I couldn't miss. After a few mins my vision came back.. I went to work and forgot about it.

This past Thursday the same thing happened. Only this time with the prompting from my retired RN mother I called the doctor. It was time for a yearly eye exam anyways. Course mother wanted me to see an opthamologist however the optometrist said come in and she could refer me if necessary.

Good news my eyes are perfectly healthy, no problems there what so ever. There is no damage and nor will there be any damage. :D Happy Days. Then she said.. its something else probably high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes... go see your reg doc.

I've had all those tests just a few months ago and they all came back with low levels. Having a nurse for a mom I pulled out the Blood pressure machine.. yes we own one... and started taking my bp several times a day all weekend. Sure enough it's been low :D

Not to sure whats going on, we'll see. I have full faith Heavenly Father is looking out for me. Plus I have amazing friends and family if I did need anything. I will be seeing my regular doc later this week. I'll keep ya posted.

Anywho because it's Halloween so I'll share another story with you. I went to a Tupperware party.. yes they still have those. Afterwards some of us ladies stayed around and worked on scrapbooks. As neither Sarah or I had never done a scrap book before we figured the two of us would work on her's. It was slow going at first. We knocked out a few pages and it was fun. Ton's of fun actully I really enjoyed doing it. So much so that I asked her if she would let me do her Halloween pages. Here is the right page:

Here's a close up:

Oh my did I have fun doing this. I have no clue what I would scrapbook but It was fun!

Here is some of what I used:

InLinkz.com

Do have a safe Halloween!

We have Ghosts

I've slowed down on the card making.. well that's not 100% correct. Actually I've decided to enter a card into a publication. I haven't finished it yet, it's not due until the 1st. So I've been going slow and playing with different ideas. From everything I've read one must submit their very best work which is why I'm taking my time. The sad thing is once it's done and entered I can't upload a pic until it's been decided. You'll just have to come over to see it. :D Once it's either been accepted or rejected I can and will post a picture of it. Until then all I can say is it will have butterfly's.

I'm also hoping to get an entry into a Copic Contest.... the winner will be put on next years catalog. I know it's pie in the sky however I have to start somewhere. So no cards for you today. But I do have something really cool that I did make a few years back. As I stated previously I adore decorating. I don't get to do for all the seasons, I do have a life. But I make time for Halloween and of course Christmas. Like always I can't just tell you what I've done I have to tell you the story behind it.

Picture it Costa Mesa September 2007 it had been pouring rain all morning. The clouds broke around 2 to give us a stunning blue sky with some patchy white cotton ball like clouds with storm clouds in the distance. The trees were bright green just after their bath. Inside the hall was lit up with 200ft of various sized paper lanterns. Becky, my newly acquired cousin, took a 50ft isle runner cut it in half and painted huge Chinese words which lined the back wall. Fresh Orchids where on every table. Frank Sintra filled the air. The atmosphere was upbeat and happy or at least we were. You can imagine the occasion. :D

We were left with hundreds of paper lanterns. We side towards the Asian design, its the one design style Dk and I can agree on. To our surprise a few years back we found orange jack-o-lantern paper lanterns and at 1.69 each we had to get some. We have a cute 8 x12 ft porch right by the front gate of our complex. Since we already owned the lights for paper lanterns it was a perfect fit. The problem was we only had 3 pumpkin lanterns and 5 lights needed to be filled. What to fill it....plain white lanterns would be boring next to the pumpkins so I took some white tissue paper and glued it to the lantern. I cut up the bottom end in strips. In word I filled in some ovals with black ink printed them, cut them out and glued them on. Ta da.. ghost paper lanterns.

I had Dk take some close up photos. He has a degree in photography plus his arms are much longer than mine :D These are brand new pumpkin lanterns. After being in the California sun our old lanterns were quite faded. Last year we went to buy some new ones however we were out of luck.. they didn't have any. However they had some this year. :D I had Dk buy 6 so we'll have them for years to come.

The Ghost:

I adore how a light breeze will bring this guy to life. I used super 77 for glue. For those of you who know a few things about craft glue this glue runs circles around glossy accents. It makes a huge huge sticky mess and can only be used outside but it works. This ghost lantern is 3 years old it's been outside 24/7 for 12 weeks or so and folded up in the garage the rest of it's lifetime. It's been through Santa Ana winds, rain, fog and summer like heat. That paper is not coming off.

This looks awesome at night and with some haunted mansion music playing it makes for a great Halloween evening.

Only 3 weeks to go. :D

Katie

The Rabbit

As promised I said I would tell you about the luggage cards. Dk's parents left to visit his sister in DC on Tuesday. I was asked to make cards to hide in their luggage just as Dk's parents had done for them when they were kids going on a trip.

Before I go on you need to understand the family joke. One Sunday before Dk and I were married, I believe we were engaged. I and Dk's Dad were in the garage, it's evening the garage faces west so the sun did a wonderful job of lighting up my skirt in ways that one would see to much. So at dinner Poppi made a point to tell me about the show I had put on. I'm a kidder and one for jokes, I can take it. (I was raised by an RN trust me I can talk about anything.) Well he went on and on with what felt like forever... honestly it was prolly only a min or two...

As I've stated in the past I have a pretty serious background with working with children. Kids are good about wanting to talk about things they shouldn't talk about so I learned to be a master at changing the subject. That is except when Dk is around he's one smart cookie and won't let me get away with it... I digress.. back to our story.

Anywho here is Poppi going on and on and on.. I had my fill so I quickly pointed out the back window yelling "Look at the rabbit!!" He stops, turns his head at the speed of light, eyes as wide as they could get... "where?!" lol oh man was that funny. We all had a good laugh. For his birthday I found a nice terracotta rabbit on clearance I had to get it for him. Then, sometime later, when they went on vacation they told us the rabbit is watching us. They come home to find their rabbit had been blind folded.

lol it even went a step further when on our honeymoon Dk found a stuffed rabbit wearing a blind fold with little eye holes cut out in his luggage. This past Christmas I was given not 1 but 2 rabbit statues for our porch. (that's a story for another day)

OK on to the cards... I made 3 mini cards:

lol can you guess what is inside the blue one? You got it:

It's the little things. Thankfully the rabbit was the last card they found. I just had to make him glow :D

Happy Days

Funny how everything happens all at the same time. Thankfully it's all good stuff. Well mostly.. stupid car.

The first highlight: Today is my 4th wedding anniversary. :D It's been an awesome 4 years. We have the best relationship, plus he's really cool and stuff. I could go on but I'll spare you.. we are happy and that's what matters.

We'll be having a romantic dinner at home with a yummy box of pizza. You see like most couples on their wedding day we didn't get much to eat. So on the way to the hotel we stopped and got pizza. Our first stop was at the gas station in order to clean off the car (some genius thought it would be funny to put shaving cream on my paint). It's been a fun tradition getting pizza every anniversary. It'll be fun to share that with the kids to.... whenever they get down here. I did marry into a family of procrastinators.. figures my kids would do the same. :D

This best sums up the day:

My dress is/was a custom dress. John did a fantastic job. We had an Asian themed wedding lol long story really. It came out really awesome. Funny how when you let the Lord decide things it's so much better. :D

To top that off I found out this morning I won the Hero Arts contest! Here's the winning card:

Oh wow so very happy about that. It's confirmation I'm doing the right thing. Plus $50 in Hero Arts stuff, I can't say no to that!

It's barely noon and I'm already pretty high. I have an appointment with one of the area leaders with my church later today, that should be interesting.

I hope all is well with you.

Katie

Special Friends

I love decorating for Halloween.. no idea why I just adore it. Well I love decorating in general but I usually only decorate between Halloween and Christmas.

This past weekend my mom and I spent Saturday morning at the Main Street mall in Riverside. Had a great time to. At one of our stops I picked up a cool little trinket:

I just had to have this little guy.. so great for Halloween. They had orange ones to.. I may just have to go back. So here's my delima to amputate or to not amputate. The ocd side of me says I should fix him..but the hippy side of me says leave him be... it is Halloween.

What do you think? To trim or not to trim?

The Help

I’m a little different. I’ve always been a little different and always will. So it comes to no surprise to me that I was not in love with “The Help”. I know it’s all the rage and I wish I was in love with it the way every one else was but I would be lying to myself if I said as much... and that is not an option. I kept asking myself what makes a good movie?

The movie was beautifully shot, the cinema photography was fantastic, the acting was phenomenal, plus it was emotionally stirring. By all those accounts it's a great movie. But if someone asked did me if I enjoyed it? No, I didn’t... So why didn’t I?

It was hard to watch. I am so very thankful that I’ve never experienced true racism. I was raised in a world where it’s not only frowned upon but outright illegal. Aside from racism the movie did a fantastic job displaying all the other issues of the time period… the lack of communication and the requirement to be like your peers just to name a few.

I am aware of the issues that went on at the time and that’s not something I want to “relive”. Life is full of enough drama and bad things. I don’t want to watch them on the big screen. When I go to a movie I want to be entertained with a positive experience.

Personally I want the positive end of the movie to out way the negatives and I have to say for me the ends didn't justify the means in this movie. How could they though? That wasn't the time period and it wasn't until years later that any real change had taken place.

I could ramble all night and I'll spare you from that. There were some good things that happened in the movie and I'm glad it was made because... "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" however this girl is well aware and doesn't need to be reminded.

Katie

I'm Home!

It's funny how traveling sucks the time away. I miss the family so very much but I am very happy to be home. I missed the routine of things. what did I miss most? My bathroom. I can go any time and aside from Dk I don't have to share, nor do I have to worry about how long I'm gonna be.

It was funny Dk walked in the bedroom saying.. I missed you over flowing trash can.. I missed you pile of cloths on the floor. :) Needless to say we were glad to be home. Although I was not glad to see the over flowing trash can. We were gone less than a week yet if felt like we were gone much longer. Partly because we didn't have a regular meal schedule and last night was the first night I actually had 8 hours of sleep in a row.

Now that I'm home what I miss the most is family and friends. So much fun laughing and hanging out. It's a shame family is so far away. I'm sorry guys I just can't live there.. there is that snow stuff you have to deal with plus my family is here.

It was a beautiful wedding. I didn't get pictures sorry to say I was too busy working the food table. Dk was asked to do the food and I was his sue chef... I have to give a huge shout out to the MVP of the wedding, Maddy. Oh wow did that girl work. We couldn't have done it without her. We told her we would be happy to do her wedding just as long as she discusses the foods with us in advance before she gets her heart set on something.

You see The bride choose kabobs, caprice salad on a skewer and something else which Dk explained wasn't realistic so we ended up doing a roasted red pepper humus. All the food was amazing and thankfully we had lots of help with the bizillion skewers. (Yes that's 2 food items on skewers for 300+ people.) We were happy to do it and would love to cook for her again, however if someone wants skewers for that many in the future we will politely decline.

Of course Dk got rave reviews and people were coming back for 3rds. The only thing we had left over was a ton of bread and hummus. We took the bread toasted it, ground it up and added some seasonings and made bread crumbs for the bride and groom. We brought some home for ourselves to. There was the perfect amount of everything else. And the best part was the Mother of the Bride had a group of women in charge of clean up so once our last bit of food was out we were done and able to enjoy the rest of the festivities.

Dk missed cooking so much, ironically the first thing he made when he got home was kabobs, they went perfect with that hummus. It's good to be back and hopefully in the next few days I can get back to crafting.

I try to get a souvenir when I'm out and about, a memento of the trip if you would. What did Dk and I get this trip? Why a meat injector of course. lol That was our big memento. We also picked up 3 packs of Dublin Dr. Pepper, 2 lbs of Bacon and 2 bags of Vidalia onions.

We are huge Dr. Pepper fans. In Texas, the heart land of Dr. Pepper, it is made with pure cane sugar. The stuff we get here is made with corn syrup. There is a difference. It is rare we can find Dublin Dr. Pepper here and in Utah it was there in spades. So we grabbed some.

When your husband's passion is food and shopping markets that's what you see in other areas. So when getting the beef for the wedding we found that their bacon is super thick Danish style. Again that can't be found here so we picked up some and froze it. I'm excited to try that out.

The last time we got Vidalia onions was when the bff went to Georgia and brought them home to us. If they can be transported to Utah I see no reason why they can't be transported here, we had to get 2 bags. We should start a letter writing campaign. Tonight Dk is making French onion soup. :D

On the drive home at one of our stops we did pick up a refrigerator magnet so there is that.It was a great trip and with some small changes I'd be happy to go again. Although we are pushing the family to do a reunion at Disneyland in 2 years. Then I'd have the best of both worlds family and my bathroom.

Best Wishes to the Happy Couple!

If you read the last post you know I'm not at home and in Utah for a wedding. Of course I had to make a card for the happy couple. The bride is amazing.. she's beautiful, smart, talented and shes grounded.. I know hard to imagine but its true. My other reasoning is she follows my blog so I'm kinda obligated lol :D

I read/saw a video something like that a while back where the presenter stated she would make wedding cards based off the invitation. Fantastic idea! Except, no offense Katrina, the invitation came void of color. The last invitation we got (the wedding Dk went to in Alabama) same thing one color with text. At least Katrina had a colored envelope. Having no idea what the wedding colors were I went with my wedding colors white, black and red.

Here is the Happy Couple's card:

The sentiment is from Close to my heart. (actually I bought it knowing I'd have some weddings in the future.) Words don't describe how much I love that font.

For gifts we usually give gift cards... having been married semi recently (almost 4 years ago) the gift cards that came in for us were awesome as was the cash. Oh my do we have loving caring and giving friends. I'm sure Katrina, as she is loved by many, will get tons of that stuff so we decided to give a very special gift. What did we give you ask? Why a proper chef's knife and cutting board of course. Complete with care and feeding instructions.

Last month I went to girls camp... my main reason for going was a lunch where the girls made their own meal. Oh wow was that some serious work however I found out that a number of the girls had never opened a can before or had even used measuring spoons so I'm glad we did it. In prepping for this event. I had to obtain supplies and I asked around for a chef's knife. I was shocked to find out that most adults had no idea what I was talking about. As I'm sure all of you know what I'm talking about this following photo is not necessary but I'm gonna add it anyways.

That is a chef's knife.. they come in various sizes and prices. This particular knife is a work horse and it's less than $30. I won't go into all the details of the care and feeding. I'll be happy to answer any questions of course.

It was a pleasure being apart of your wedding Katrina.. you were a stunning bride.

When the Chef's Away...

I've returned! Camp was great.. long, hard, and dirty but great. My sinuses went berserk up the mountain and have sucked the life out of me though. :( Plus I left my creative desk a mess and I've done a great job of avoiding that area of the house.

It's great to be back with my hubby. He went to a wedding out of state and returned the day after I left so we were apart way to long. I of coursed missed him however I had a great time hitting all the restaurants he won't go to. Spent way too much money doing it, however it was a fun tasty vacation. Where did I go you ask?

First up Disneyland. I swore I wouldn't eat out side of the Blue Bayou however the Hungry Bear Restaurant had been remolded so I gave it a whirl. I'm surprised to say it was pretty good for overpriced theme park food. The sweet potato fries were perfect, the sandwich was a little dry but eh it's theme park food. I may actually spend my money there again.

Thursday night was Mexi Casa Let me just say you can tell the level of food by its patrons.. I mean.. if you go to a Chinese food restaurant and lots of Chinese people are there, you know your in the right place. The patrons that frequent Mexi Casa.. are older Non-Mexicans. It's very very VERY American-ized food. It's yummy and the best part is the most expensive thing on the menu is $6.00.

Friday night was Pasta Connection ahhh I just love their spinach ravioli... just delicious. Plus they sell South American stuff like Yerba Mate. My goal was to save some for lunch the next day but it keep calling my name so I finished it off that night.

Originally I said I wanted pancakes however I found out from some great food friends of ours the best place for breakfast is the Pancake House. Which is only open in the mornings. I ended up getting Black Angus. The waitress wasn't in the best of moods, she was decent but when I asked if the Ocean Mist artichokes were sprayed with ocean mist.. she didn't find it very funny. Dk would have laughed. She then explained it was the salt they used blah blah blah.... I called Dk and asked him.... come to find out Ocean Mist is a brand. The steak was prepared perfectly, however Dk's pan seared stakes are far better. It was way to much money for the amount of food. It was good but not that good. I won't be spending my money there. I hope your proud of yourself Dk.

Lastly was Sizzler. You have to understand Sizzler was a staple growing up. My grandparents adored it. They even had their 50th wedding anniversary there. When my grandfather died we had his memorial there. We would even find the local Sizzlers while on vacation. It's a big deal for us. I grabbed my bff Sarah and we went. I went with a... just go for the idea of it.. not for the food mentality and I was shocked with everything. Just loved it. For 11 dollars we got essentially 3 meals! They have a value meal that comes with all you can eat salad so we packed up our plates and only ate from the salad bar. Awesome leftovers. I will most definitely be going there again.

I am happy to report I signed up for the summer card camp :) lots of random drawings. I need to kick this sinus issue quick there's lots to do. Hopefully the creativity will kick in soon.

It's good to be home and eating Dk's cooking again.

I'll be back!

It's been busy. As I previously stated I have some pretty serious camping experience with the YMCA.. I adore camp and what it does for a child is truly priceless.

A couple of years ago I said as much with the young women leaders of our church and they sucked me in to help. Which is great! Two things I love together.. church and camp what could be better?

A little back story. When I moved to Orange County I was diagnosed with Asthma.. weird.. although come to find out the more densely populated an area is the more prone to asthma people are. I love Orange County but that's another story for another day. The one thing that happens this time of year is June gloom.. its super gloomy til the afternoon. I love it as it keeps the temp down and makes the evenings perfect. My sinus on the other hand don't like the June gloom and object with a post nasal drip.

Come to find out asthma and mucus don't get along and this time last year I was pretty sick. So sick that the Dr said there was no way I could go to girls camp. :( very disappointing.

This year came around as did my post nasal drip and before anything could happen I went to the doctor.. she prescribed number of various items. (I was like an old lady at the pharmacy, something for everything) $100 later (thank goodness I have insurance) I got started on a complex routine of pills and sprays. It worked! I'm not sick this year I will be going to camp!

We leave this morning. It mean's I'll be missing out on a number of things.. the return of my husband being the biggest. (He went to Alabama for a wedding, he's been gone for almost a week now) It will be great though.

See ya next week!

Katie

I'm back

*blows on the hypothetical mic* is this still on?..

I haven't forgotten about the world of crafting or blogs. I've just been busy. Actually I have worked in my craft area however it wasn't for crafting, more of getting organized.

Friday was spent with my wonderful Mum who is doing an amazing job of supporting my new habit. Got lots of paper, new stamps and punches. :D Thanks Mom you're the best!

Saturday morning I had to choose between a card class or making cards at home. I choose the class. I'm so glad I did to. Not only did I learn stuff but I'm making lots of new (trouble making) friends. It's always fun to make new friends just as it's fun to poke the bear. :D Plus I got my hands on the new Tim Holtz distress cardstock! His inks are amazing, I just love them. (His designs on the other hand.. blah...I'm fully aware I'm the only one on the planet that feels this way and I'm ok with that.) My one drawback with the distress inks is finding paper to match can be a pain... not anymore. That makes me very happy.

Saturday afternoon I ended up organizing my floss. You see the dentist was disappointed, my teeth were in such good condition.. lol jk.. well sorta.. he did tell me to eat more chocolate and come back with a cavity next time. I haven't had one yet why would I start now?

Many... many .. many.. moons ago I tried my hand at cross stitch that didn't turn out so good. I can do it fine. It's the finishing part I can't do. My mind and body won't sit still that long. I have a beautiful collection of floss but it was dumped in a zip lock and tossed around all these years. Joann's had a great sale this weekend in which helped me manage my rainbow:

It took hours winding those bobbins but it was worth it. The container was only $2.50! I spent $4 dollars on plastic bobbins (it came with paper ones) and a couple of dollars rounding out my collection, I only had 3 purple. Those p colors get me every time. It's been something I've wanted to do for a long ..long.. long time. It's all pretty, let's see if I can keep it that way.

Monday was spent with family eating yummy food. I also put all my new paper away. Having read and watched how others have organized their paper this is the system I have come up with.

The cart isn't made anymore... had I known they were gonna stop making them I would have bought a second one. Disagreeable. I read/watched someplace awhile back, a women recommended taking your paper pads apart and separating the pages by color. 'You're more likely to use what you have' she said. I think she's right. As much as it kills me to take the pads apart, it opens the door for different papers to go together. If I need a red paper I go to that drawer and find all of my reds not just some of them, all of them. From there I can see what would go well with my project regardless of what pad it came from. The down side to this is if someone asked me where did you get that paper? I wouldn't be able to give specifics. Course there's always cute paper coming out so I'm ok with that.

Yesterday was spent working on girls camp. I was drafted to help the young women of my Church. It's a lot of fun, however it's a lot of work, as we are leaving in 20 days!

I'm looking forward to crafting tonight. So much crafting so little time.

Adventures in Marketing

As I stated in yesterday's post Dk has crazy marketing adventures. I thought I would share some of the joys with you. If you don't know already Dk is an amazing chef. He's always had a passion for food, which was then set a fire with school.

A little back story

Just before we started dating he was laid off from his job in the photo industry. He had been trained on the old school photo stuff... things like film and development. His job went bust thanks to things like digital and photo printers and he was forced to find a new career. We than started dating. (Not by my choice mind you, but you do what the Lord tells you to do and the Lord made it very clear I was to date him. Funny how the Lord knows best, perhaps one day I'll learn to listen better and not drag my feet so much.)

We discussed his options and decided he would go to Ai for Industrial Design. Industrial design focuses on the form of things. Best example, look at your mouse, an industrial designer designed the sleekness.. buttons to line up perfectly with your fingers, form to your hand that kind of thing. It was a good fit for Dk, plus it pays decent as he was heading towards starting a family that mattered.

Now Ai has many majors, so it's not uncommon to have a Photoshop class next to the machine shop lab or even a sewing lab. Here we are 2 years-ish into Dk's classes, newly married and they schedule his classes to be right next to the kitchen classes. The kitchens are huge with big open windows, lots of counter space.. a chef's dream. He would stand there watching on his break recognizing the foods commenting to me over the phone how the student was going to burn something and sure enough they did. After lots of prayer it was made clear he was to switch majors.

I on the other hand, until we were married and living together, couldn't tell you where the market was or even what you could buy there. Ok ok I knew you could buy food but I wouldn't, in my wildest dreams, venture far from the frozen food section. Once Dk sent me to the market to get groceries, just after we were married, and I was lost. I ended up mindlessly roaming the isles giving up and leaving empty handed. That happened to me more than a few times, but not anymore. :D

Jokingly I say I went to culinary school to. You see Dk does we have termed "info dump". What that means is the second he see's me he fills me in on everything he's learned. Decay- I enjoy the info dump just let me go to the bathroom first. I'll say it again he is a wealth of knowledge. I being pretty smart have learned from his rants and am proud to say can hold my own in the kitchen and at the market...I digress.

Sometime later Dk had found a local Korean market and the marketing love was born. I know we are blessed to live in a unique part of so cal. Within a 20 min drive we have Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican, Japanese and Indian markets. I bet Dk will chime in and remind me of one I forgot. We also have the, as we call them, white people markets. They all have their niche and specialties.

This past weekend I went with Dk to 2 markets, Dalat a local Vietnamese market and Altayebat a local Middle Eastern market. The best part of these markets are the little nuances like the music they play. Just yesterday Dalat had a remake of Katy Perry's hot and cold song sung by chipmunks and yes they were singing in Vietnamese. No I'm not kidding lol.

Altayebat's cashiers are the nicest checkers ever. Plus the manager is a huge, huge Star Wars fan and plays eastern remakes of the songs from the sound track. Shopping to the Imperial March is a whole new experience.

But the best thing about these markets are the prices. O-wow. For $14.63 at Altayebat we got 4 avocados, a 3.7 lb cauliflower, a .5 lb of cucumbers, .5 lb of a zucchini, fresh mint, .5 lb of lemons, mushrooms, a 10lb bag of potatoes, squash, pita bread and a huge 1lb bag of spinach. At Dalat we picked up softball sized artichokes 3 for a dollar, to prove it here is a pic.

All the signage is in English so we find what we need rocking out to crazy tunes. I'll be honest asking where stuff is can be a bust sometimes. Ironically all the men behind the counters speak Spanish. The turnover rate at the meat counter is so high that the meat is super fresh plus at Altayebat's its blessed in the name of Allah so that's good.

Another day I'll fill you in on the other markets and some of the games we play while at them, but now I have some cards to make. :D

Apples

Growing up I was convinced I was the milk man’s kid. I was nothing like my mother and from time to time I would approach her calmly and explain it is ok you can tell me the truth. If I had turned out to be the milk man’s it would have made perfect sense. Since I wasn’t the milk man’s then this apple must have rolled down to the next tree, it was the only way to explain how different we are.

Now don’t get me wrong my mother is an amazing woman. She worked in Labor in Delivery for the local county hospital for years. She served her Country and single handedly raised 2 children. She’s always there to help or support me in whatever random thing I’ve picked up and I’ve picked up some random things.

In the more recent years I have learned not all moms are created equal and I got one of the best from the barrel. I have come to realize I’m more like her and less like the milk man. She even blurts crazy stuff at the dinner table, at least now I know where I learned that from.

It’s interesting how this apple really didn’t far as far from the tree as I thought. I’m sorry it’s taken so long for me to truly appreciate her. I am proud to be her apple. I don’t have children of my own yet (they just won’t put their heavenly Lego’s down) but I will strive to be as good as the example I’ve had.

Let’s just hope this tree isn’t planted on a hill.

Particles vs. Practical's

You will learn pretty quick English isn't my strong suit and I would be totally lost if it were not for spell checks and a wonderful little thing called the dictionary. What I lack in other areas makes me stronger is some. Thanks to my decades of YMCA camping I have a strength in storytelling. Hopefully that will make up for all the typo's and grammar issues you find in this and all future posts.

Yes I am aware I have named my blog quark and crazy as it sounds it was intentional. You see one of my other strengths is to watch and match exactly what I see. When I was little I was told not once but twice in 2 different sports I would go extremely far if I choose to. Merely because I would watch a more advanced student and could mimic it exactly. (I am eternally grateful my mother didn't encourage the sports lifestyle.) The same goes with sounds. I can mimic sounds exactly as heard. In my many travels people would be shocked at how good I could speak a foreign language. Having only a remote clue as to what was being said I could respond as if I grew up in that part of the world. It's a wonderful strength to have when in foreign country, here in my own not so much.

If someone says adventually instead of eventually that's what I pick up and I am forever cursed with saying the word incorrectly. As you can imagine that can get me into trouble. So when Dk and I were dating and I did something kinda kooky.. which I am known to do. Who knows what it was, I do all sorts of random stuff... Anywho I chocked it up to it being a quark. I was then corrected and told by my all knowing boyfriend its quirk.

OH er ah oops ha ha

Now I learned it as quark and teaching a middle aged dog to relearn a trick isn't the easiest of things. So between Dk and I we still use the word quark. I had a board member correct me once, since then I try to be extra careful in public. I also try to check words as I use them just to make sure I'm saying exactly what I think I'm saying.

The best example of this is Dk and I enjoyed a show last summer called The Choir. I being the inquisitive person I am, decided to look the choir director up on the internet. I start typing Gariff that is what the youth called him ergo that's this name. Instantly I hear laughter.. what did I miss? It's Gareth not Gariff.

Oh lol those particles will get ya every time!

Katie

Quarks : any of several elementary particles that are postulated to come in pairs (as in the up and down varieties) of similar mass with one member having a charge of +²⁄₃ and the other a charge of −¹⁄₃ and are held to make up hadrons

The Start of Something New

Me blogging? What has the world come to?

I wasn't been a big fan of blogs, they seemed to be a fuel for the look at me's. Which if you know me I am not one of those. Of course the family blogs are important they show us into worlds we wouldn't normally be a part of. Recently I discovered the world of "crafty" blogs. Blog's set up to teach and show how one created something cool like a card, flower or remote controlled satellite watching our every move. Ok ok I was exaggerating with that last one. The point is I have seen a real purpose for some of these blog things and have decided to take the plunge.

As I'm still a "kid" who has yet to figure out what she's gonna be when she grows up I have yet to see the direction of this blog. My hobbies and interests have a tendency to change. My current interest is card making, sparked by a wonderful gift from the Mother-in-law. You see I received a Cricut for Christmas.

Great! That's awesome! Is how I felt when I got it, however those feelings quickly turned into.. er what is it exactly? And most importantly what do I do with it? Not wanting to disappoint I turned to YouTube. (If you ever need to learn about how to do something check YouTube, although let me just say not all video's are created equal.) YouTube is great however I needed more instruction, a live body I could question. After finding some local stamp/scrapbooking shops I signed up for classes. That was a few months ago now. Since then I've had a number of people in the card world ask me to start a blog and so here we are.

A new adventure...