Something About Lucy

You've met Samantha.

You've met Jennyanydots.

You've met Buzz. 

It is time to meet another of my 4-legged roomates . . . Lucy.  There is something about Lucy! 


Lucy was named after Lucille Ball . . . my daughter was (and still is) a huge fan back in 2003 when Lucy came to stay.  She was just 3 weeks old after being rescued from an underground pipe.  She was rescued with two siblings before her feral mama relocated the rest of the litter.  She was one sick little kitten, loaded with parasites, had a horrible respiratory infection and an even worse eye infection.  Had she not been rescued, she likely would have not lasted much longer. 

Little Baby Lucy . . . just 4 weeks old.

Since coming here to live with us in 2003, let's just say it has been interesting.  She pulled the usual kitten shenanigans on our dogs . . . diving from high places, swatting butts from under furniture and doing karate moves on her hind end to their faces. 

Lucy (a little over a year old) trying to get new puppy Lola to play!

She peskily picked a fight with our older cat, Jennyanydots, just one too many times and had a tiny sliver of her lower eyelid sliced by an angry older kitty claw.  A visit to the vet determined it could not be repaired (without a micro-surgeon) and that her tear duct had been damaged.  The result is a cat who always seems to have an eye infection . . . but does not.  The amount of times visitors have said, "Oh, you should have that checked out by a vet." as we re-tell the story and watch them cringe when they hear of her lower eyelid mishap. 

Lucy grew up to be a friendly little girl who could hold her own with our dogs. 

 

But in the last few years things have changed a bit.  Poor little Lucy stopped cleaning herself and we noticed she had a growth on her tongue.  So she had some surgery to remove it, and things have not been the same since.  It took a long time for her to trust us, and she took to hanging out in the basement a great deal.  She also chooses to "selectively" clean herself.  She cleans her top half, but her bottom half has gone to hell!  We often refer to her as "dirty kitty."  She has nice white front paws, and really dingy gray back ones.  She smells like basement!  But we put up with "dirty kitty", and I often sing the "Smelly Cat" song to her (from "Friends").  She seems to enjoy that . . . but she does not enjoy the occasional bath forced upon her.

Check out my crazy blinky eye, my dingy not-so-white belly, and my fabulous posture when sitting. 

And there is not much we can do to improve her tongue issue!  She is literally missing a part of it after the surgery . . . proven by the day I attempted to snap a photo and caught this lovely shot. 

I think she was trying to send me a message. 

She's a dirty little thing, but she's our dirty little thing! 

Unity Autumn Harvest Challenge

Little time to talk . . . just wanted to post a card I made for the Unity Challenge.  It's a little busier than I would normally like . . . but I used a lot of stamps on this one from the September Unity Kit of the Month.  I used the leaves to make a background of leaves.  I also used the three stamps that made up the "postage" and then the "grateful" ribbon banner.  That is a lot of stamps on one little 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 canvas.  I just couldn't stop.

I also tried out a new gadget I got as a bit of a prize from a recent crop I attended . . . it is a ribbon sewer (I think that was the term).  It is what enabled that half moon border of ribbon that is sewn into the card at the bottom.  Quite interesting . . . still need to play around with this one.

And today I must get busy . . . working on a big project for an upcoming class . . . no time to spare!

Cheerio!

Pushing the Limit

I've always been super frustrated with the scrapbooking tools that I buy and then have little success with using.  It is not that the product does not work . . . it is more that I have to wrap my brain around it until something clicks with using it.  The Cricut has been one of those items.  An expensive little venture, so if you're not using it, then you've got a problem.  I am a hands-on person . . . love metal dies and cranking through Big Shots or Revolutions.  The idea of leaving my scrap table to figure out some computer gadget was an issue for me . . . and frustrating when sizes didn't match.  Loading and unloading different colors.  OY!

So seeing some videos and blog posts on the Gypsy had me intrigued.  The concept of designing anywhere, and then plugging in seemed to have some merit for me.  So I purchased the Gypsy a month or so ago, to go along with my Cricut.  I wondered if I was just digging a deeper hole for something that I clearly did not use enough.  I think I have used my Cricut more this last month than I have in the two years I've had it!  Seriously!

I designed a layout for my local scrapbook store . . . their October Kit of the Month . . . a little layout that I called Boo . . . produced the original and then 15 kits.  

Then I "welded" some letters for an upcoming class that I am teaching at the store - a 2012 Calendar. 

Still feeling like I needed to dive deeper into the pool, I decided to give the My Creative Time Throwback Thursday Challenge a try.  The challenge was to use an older cartridge with a card feature on it, and to use a Halloween theme.  I used Wild Card, and with my gypsy, I put a cut-out with a web.  I actually had to measure on the little grid (on the gypsy) to change the sizing on my card to the standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2".  Then I had to make sure the pieces fit right.  

And then . . . new breakthrough . . . I realized I could cut it all at once by putting the different colors of paper in the right areas of the grid on my mat.  I loaded black, white, and pattern paper on my mat in all the right places according to the grid.

I hit the cut button . . . and done in one push of the button.  CRAZY! 

So here is my challenge card . . . Bazzill Cardstock, Pattern Paper from Basic Grey, Black Ink, stamping from the My Creative Time All Around Halloween set, and some leftover embellishments from my stash (bat, ghost clip and stars). 

I inked the web over the tombstone to get the web effect on the edge.  Cool!  And the little spider on the scallop circle up top . . . he carried through to my inside corner as well . . .

 Always nice to learn some new things with the tools you have - a worthwhile challenge indeed!

Carol Burnett Theme Song

Anyone doing something they truly enjoy realizes that the time you spend doing it, no matter how long, goes by far too quickly.  Weekends . . . days off from work . . . vacations . . . time spent with loved ones . . . weddings (all that planning, and the celebration is over so quickly).

My weekend was a perfect example.  I was attending a mardi gras themed scrapbooking crop in Litchfield Beach, South Carolina.  All of the planning and preparation to get the car packed, a 15 hour drive, and the weekend begins.  I was so looking forward to a weekend with my friends, Julie and Linda, and in a blink of an eye it is over.

There were some raffles, a "scrappy bear game", a mardi gras mask decorating contest, a secret pal activity that ran throughout the weekend (where you secretly left gifts and supplies for your secret pal).  Prior to the event, I was contacted by my friend Linda's secret pal via e-mail.  I dutifully answered the e-mail answering all of the questions so her pal could do some shopping.  There were about 30 croppers at this event . . . 29 women and John.  John had introduced himself to all of us via a message prior to the crop.  When I arrived at the crop, my husband helped me bring my things into the cropping space, and John came over to say hello to us.  When he heard we were from Connecticut, he became very excited and mentioned he had been e-mailing me.  I realized that this was Linda's secret pal.  John suddenly looked over my shoulder to where my husband was standing and said, "It's strictly scrapbooking."  We all got a chuckle out of it.  Throughout the weekend, Linda had absolutely no idea that John was her secret pal.  It was an awesome reveal on the last day. 

My first gift from my pal was an awesome stuffed snoopy (holding a mug of root beer) and a six pack of root beer.  I was in heaven!

I had vowed now to do the mardi gras mask contest, because I felt so far behind in my scrapbooking.  But my Twinkling H2O's were calling me.  We were provided with a plain white mask from Oriental Trade which we could decorate anyway we wanted.  I went with traditional mardi gras colors and painted sections.  I then took some seam binding and ribbon in "the wrong colors" and colored them with those same H2O colors and stapled them around the rim . . . added some dew drops and jewels and I was done.  My creation took the prize!

We had a Close To My Heart rep who set up a corner of the room with all kinds of great items.  The crop was not run by her, but she was absolutely AMAZING.  She made the weekend so special providing designer paper, cards and envelopes for us to make cards for the military.  She also surprised us all with some little gifts throughout the weekend, including a fabulous two-page layout.  I even took two classes with her, one was an amazing card class using buttons.  So cute.  

We took a ride to a local scrapbook store, and I absolutely fell in love with the "Save the Hooters" stamp they had in the store.  I passed it by at least three times, talking myself out of the purchase.  I checked out.  I was done shopping and then suddenly I was making a last minute purchase to get the stamp.  They also had some great paper called Fight Like a Girl by Glimpses.  I used one of them to create the shoe design below.  Way too cute.  I also bought some confetti in black, pink and white to make the shaker in the card.

 But the real prize for me was time spent with friends and meeting some new friends.  We had some laughs over the weekend.  There were some phrases that will be repeated!  But the fact that it is over so quickly is reminds me of the theme song from the Carol Burnett show . . .

      I'm so glad we had this time together,
      Just to have a laugh or sing a song,
      Seems we get just get started and before you know it,
      Comes the time we have to say, "So long!"

Goodnight everybody!

Happy Fall - Unity Stamp Monthly Challenge

Unity's Monthly Challenge (as opposed to the Sketch challenge) was to create anything using leaves.  I went to my Harvest of Memories stamp set and used the four leaf stamps and the "happy fall" stamp to make the design below.  Hardest part was keeping those darn stems attached to the leaves as I was cutting them out.  Stamping on different pattern papers and cardstock was going to make the design really pop, so I used two fall pattern papers, a Bo Bunny dot paper, and then solid green and brown cardstock for the leaves, and I stamped in brown ink.  The sentiment was stamped onto the cream cardstock.  I then framed my sentiment with the leaves, popping some to give a little more contrast to the design. 

As much of a hassle as those stems were . . . I'm so happy I left them on! 

Happy Stamping!