A Perfect Day?

What's a perfect day for a stamper/scrapbooker? Ahhhh, it's one in which you get to spend the whole day playing and creating AND you have the inspiration to do it.

Gail and I are working on our submissions for teaching at convention this year and we stamped all day long. Then after she left..... I worked on it some more..... If it weren't for the necessity of sleep, I believe I would have continued on straight through the night. Ideas were just swirling around in my head. Not only do I have several that I want/need to make to submit, but I have a growing list of things I can make for family and friends. They are just soooo cute. I'm planning to take photos and post them later today.

Winter as we know it appears to have come back to town. We had a little rain Friday and Saturday and the temperatures have dropped back down so we have a little crispness in the air at night and the early mornings. Right now it's 40 degrees outside and 59 degrees inside....brrrr....

Mania

Ok, so I'm not manic depressive.... but yet I have these times in my life when I want to do it all, and somehow I think I actually can. Only, I can't. It's only upon further reflection that I find the things I'm not doing. Most of the times they are all those things we don't really want to do anyway. You know cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking... blech!

So let's take a little tour through my crowded mind, shall we...

1) There is the Hello Kitty obsession. I want to knit it all. I only say knit because I haven't received my crochet patterns yet. I sent off some nylon yarn in trade for some adorable patterns from Daphne Mah and as soon as those arrive I'm sure I'll be crocheting up a storm.

2) Next up is my website. It's basically a template provided by the company. I can change some of the pictures, upload my own artwork and put my workshops and parties on the calendar. I'm sure the darling IT guys had one thing in mind, but me, well I just have to have it MY way...

So I'm quickly discovering what I can and can't do.

No space to record monthly specials??? Ha! I just recorded them as events on my calendar.

No links to the stamp of the month artwork??? Well I just put links in my descriptions of the artwork.

Errors??? Well I am the error finding queen. I test the limits, I find the issues, I email the support team. Man I bet they're sick of hearing from me. I think they should pay me, don't you??

3) Personal Stamping and Scrapbooking... oh my! I have sooo many cool ideas floating around my head. I want to work on my submissions to teach for convention. I want to make some cards. I want to scrapbook my grand canyon pictures... I want to play with the Makin Clay (my latest stampin obsession)

And so what am I missing??
Oh, well I haven't been to the gym in a week (the tooth throbbing thing has a lot to do with that..increased heart rate...increased pain..hmmmmm)
Housework? - Isn't that what hubby is for?
Spiritual journey? - Nope, haven't been giving that due attention either....

Balance... I must achieve balance... hmmmmm..... hmmmmmm.......

Oh Man, It's late...

Ok, I'm feeling kind of obsessed. I've been working on the Hello Kitty Knitalong. I started the handbag and whipped out the beginning stockinette rows when all of the sudden I had to figure out how to add the motif. I was a little stressed out at first. How in the world do you deal with all the color changes?

Thank goodness for the internet. I searched and I read and I found out intarsia was the word I was looking for. So I started hooking up all these crazy pieces of yarn. They were hanging down the back, getting tangled, driving me crazy, and still I knitted on. All of the sudden I started noticing some cute Hello Kitty feet appearing, and then the beginning of a heart and I just couldn't stop myself. I wanted to keep knitting..... I'm up to the beginning of her hands and I simply must stop. I can hardly keep my eyes open and it's time to take some pain medication for my tooth (mostly because my tooth is irritating me right now.)

And so I'm off to bed. I've tucked little kitty into my knitting basket until I can steal more time to work on her....

Here is my week three homework for my class. The bottom sample is 1x1 ribbing and seed stitch. The top is 2x2 ribbing and seed stitch. 

My NEW website is up...

I have been having so much fun. Close to My Heart has given us the opportunity to create personal websites. After spending hours and hours and hours designing my old website, this is sooooo fun.

As with anything new there are a few little bugs to work out, but it looks very professional. I'll be putting new artwork up every month and adding all my workshop dates etc. to the Training and Events Calendar.

Hopefully I'll figure out how to add a permanent link to the sidebar here on my blog, but until then ....

www.stamptildawn.myctmh.com

In July they're adding the ability to order directly from my website.

And the last picture for the day.... is featuring the Vintage Travel Paper Packet and January's stamp of the month Love Tags. (All images are using Close To My Heart materials and are copyrighted...still working on that copyright thing!) 

Here are four cards I made this weekend using the new Elegant Bouquet Paperpack from Close To My Heart. I included the copyright, but it's kind of tiny. The stamp used is from set C1048 Rose Splendor. Stay tuned, because my website with more details will be up in two days!! 

Week 2 homework continued. This is the stockinette sample. I did my best to uncurl it.... 

Woo Hoo, I did it!

I downloaded Hello so I can start posting pictures to my blog and it was quite easy!!! So I'm about to bombard you with several photos. I took pictures of all my homework for my knitting class as well as some pictures of the cards I made this weekend.

My tooth is still giving me trouble. I took the tylenol codeine last night and at first it kind of pepped me up. Ask hubby. I was quite the chatterbox. I wanted to discuss EVERYTHING. I'm not sure if it was because the meds pepped me up or if it was because I could actually speak without being in excruciating pain. The pain was still there, but it was much diminished. This morning I woke up and jumped out of bed. For about 10 seconds I thought I was pain free, when all of the sudden the tooth woke up as well. It was a nice 10 seconds..... I woke Joshua up and then begged hubby to take him to seminary so I could crawl back in bed and die. I feel like such a whiner. I'm generally good about pain, but I think that 5 days of solid pain has just about tapped my internal strength. At least there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Knitting: I'm experimenting with some of the yarns in my stash to see if I have anything I can use for the Hello Kitty Handbag I'm doing in the Hello Kitty Knitalong. I'm not famliar with some of the terms used in the pattern. I've never heard of DK weight yarn and I don't have size 4 needles... I'm such a newbie.

Well I'm off to post the rest of my pictures.

Week Two Homework

Here's my week 2 homework for my knitting class. Both samples are knit continental style (new for me.) The top sample is garter stitch using all knits and the bottom is using all purls. Obviously my purl stitch is a bit looser than my knit.

Tooth Troubles

My wisdom tooth that was never supposed to come in, but decided to anyway, has now decided to cause extreme pain. I've been sort of pre-occupied with it the last few days, but I finally got into a dentist today and I'm armed with antibiotics and tylenol with codeine. The emergency dentist I saw today, as opposed to the normal dentist who is out of town, said the darling tooth MUST be removed. Gee, it makes me wonder about my regular dentist, who may very well become, my previous dentist, who said.... don't worry about it. Hmmmm... I saw the xray myself. You just have to wonder sometimes. I've had a ton of work done on my teeth. I wore braces for years. I have beautiful teeth... why oh why would a dentist tell you to leave a wisdom tooth in that there is obviously not enough room for??? I was not too happy when I saw how much it has shifted my teeth!!

Knitting: I finished all my homework this weekend and I'm almost done knitting the first part of some kind of holder. (I wasn't there last week, but I guess it's supposed to hold the stitch counter, cable thing etc. All I was told was to cast on 35 stitches with worsted weight yarn on size 8 needles and...knit, knit, knit until I have a square and bind off.)

I'm planning to take pictures of all my homework tonight. Maybe I can figure out how to post them tomorrow. I also want to figure out how to add things to the sidebar's on the web page...

Stamping: I made about 7 new cards, that I need to take pictures of as well.

Well hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. The dentist said once the antibiotics kick in my pain should start to diminish.

So glad it's Friday

It's been a long week. I had a hard time catching up after coming home from the Close To My Heart Leadership Conference. I'm all inspired to stamp, scrapbook, crochet, knit...but alas, I had to work all week. Now the fun begins!

I have a scrapbook class tonight and one tomorrow morning. (It's actually my usual 2nd Friday of the month group, but I had to reschedule because of the conference. Some can make it today and some can make it tomorrow.)

I finally made myself a little cell phone cozy (crochet). I started it with some leftover yarn yesterday and finished it up at lunch today. I'm hoping that it will make it easier to find my cell phone in my big giant bag.

This weekend I plan to....
stamp up some items using our vintage papers and sets and do my knitting "homework." I'm taking a knitting class at the adult school and I never finished last weeks homework because I was out of town. This week I had to miss this weeks class so I have double homework. I need to make an all purl swatch, a swatch with ribbing and stockinette and two different seed stitch swatchs. None of them will take very long, I just need to get busy and get it done.

Hopefully I'll post some photos this weekend.

Wow, That was easy

I just emailed Oslofia to try and get into the Hello Kitty Knit-Along and she requested a link to my blog... well alrighty then, it's time to set up a blog. LOL.

My name is Dawn and I live in Southern California. As you can tell by the title of my blog. I'm a "stamper." I work at a CPA firm by day and teach stamp and scrapbook classes at night. Somewhere in between I find time to crochet, knit, read and volunteer at my church. I've been married to my sweetheart for 16 years and we have a 14 year old boy.

I'm excited to start this new adventure...now I'm off to figure out where to host pictures so I can post them to my blog.

Reading List

Here's my attempt at trying to list all the books I've read. My goal is to keep current with the books I'm reading now and fill in the names of books I've already read as I remember them. Maybe some day it will be an accurate list.

* - Means I consider this book to a be a "must read"

Fiction

1. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
2. Da Vinci Code, The* by Dan Brown
3. Evanovich* - Books 1-10 (One for the Money, Two for the Dough)
   I figured it was easier to just list this series by the author name instead of the books since there are so many. I love this series because it is a laugh out loud, fun read!!
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone* by J.K. Rowling
5. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* by J.K. Rowling
6. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban* by J.K. Rowling
7. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire* by J.K. Rowling
8. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix* by J.K. Rowling
9. Kite Runner., The*by Khaled Hosseini I loved this book. It was a great look into another culture.
10. Notebook, The *by Nicholas Sparks
    wonderful love story!!
11. Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
    I loved this entire series of books. They are the type that you can't put down. Some of the scenes were a bit too steamy for me, but they are easily skimmed over.
12. Riptide by Catherine Coulter
13. Secret Life of Bees by Sue Kidd
14. Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
    Definately not my kind of book. I found it extremely boring!
15. Wedding, The by Nicholas Sparks
    I loved this book because of the way it celebrated love and all the little things we notice about those we love. It made me reflect upon and appreciate so many things about my husband, but I found the story itself to be too predictable.
16. 
    

Non-Fiction

1. It's About the Bike by Lance Armstrong

Business/Self Help

1. Ultimate Weight Solution by Dr. Phil
2. Making the Connection
3. Who Moved My Cheese* by Spencer Johnson and Keith Blanchard
4. Fish* by Stephen Lundin