Queen of the Zombies

Ok, so I've been good about posting lots of artwork lately, so now it's time for another crazy story in my life.

I have no idea what started this, but this is the discussion I had with my son yesterday.

J: What is your zombie plan?

Me: My what?

J: Your zombie plan. When the zombie's take over the world, what are you going to do?

Me: Have you heard that they are coming?

J: No, you're just supposed to have a plan.

Me: What's your zombie plan?

J: I'm going to an island in the pacific..... (there was more to the plan, but I'm not sure if it's "secret.")

Me: Well I don't need to go anywhere. I am going to be Queen of the Zombie's. I'll make them do my will.

J: You can't do that. It doesn't work that way. That's against the rules.

Me: You didn't say there were any rules. You asked for my plan and that's what I'm going to do. I will be QUEEN of THE ZOMBIES. I'll put them to work. Wait, wait.. I'll teach them the Thriller dance and have them entertain me.

J: No, they don't have a brain. You can't control them.

Me: Yes, I can. Since they don't have a brain, I can use my brain and influence their actions.

J: No, you are cheating. Fun Sucker!

It went downhill from there. The more indignant he got about me "breaking the rules" the funnier I thought it was.

I just think he's sad because he didn't come up with the idea first. He said I didn't know anything about zombies to which I replied...

"I've done lots of research. I've read a bunch of vampire books and they have zombies in them all the time."

I don't know why he's so upset. If I'm the queen of the zombies, that makes him the prince. Hey, he can teach them a dance to Purple Rain.

Snowflake Ornaments

I had a really hard time getting decent pictures of these so hopefully you can get the idea. I used the CTMH stamp set D1171 New Fallen Snow. Ink colors are moonstruck and crystal blue.

Here are the images stamped and cut out.

After you get them cut out then you can just layer them one on top of the other. To create more dimension, I put pop-dots between each layer. You can use pop-dots or mounting tape. I also added prisma glitter, but you can't see it in the photo.

I have several of these little ornaments in the works. I hope to post a picture of them on a tree soon.

Enjoy!

Nugget Boxes

When I first got the Bags, Tags and Boxes cartridge, I was a little disappointed because all of the boxes were so small. I played with it a little, but it just wasn't what I had in mind....until I went through my little advent calendar obsession. Now I'm just sure there are a million little projects I can do with that cartridge. It's way better than cutting paper and working with a template!

Only one little problem.... I think the cricut people made a big boo boo!! I have the baby bug so they might've fixed this with later versions, but my bug cuts in 1/2" increments. That means that when you cut a 3" matchbox and a 3" cover, then don't fit. Grrr.... Cut one of them the next size and it's too big.

Not to be outwitted by a machine, I was determined to find a way to make this work.

Matchbox Nugget Boxes

Cut 3" matchbox2 out of cardstock

Cut 3" matchbox2 with the window out of texture paper for the top.

Cut transparency 1 7/8 by 2 7/8 for window

Here's the important trick:

Score fold and glue bottom first

Then score and fold your top and place it on the bottom before you glue it.

Then glue it while it's on the bottom.

This allows you to adjust it a little bit. No one can tell by looking at the box.

Labels for nuggets are made by stamping on address labels. I used the CTMH O Christmas Tree stamp set.

Advent Calendar

I created this one day when I was supposed to be prepping for my workshop. I have seen a bunch of cute advent calendars on several blogs and I kept thinking I'd like to make one, but I hadn't quite come up with my own unique idea yet...until I started playing with my cricut....

Paper:

Close To My Heart Everlasting

Cricut Cartridges:

George

Bags, Tags and Boxes

Christmas Cheer

The boxes are the crayon boxes on the BT&B cartridge set at 3 inches. And here is my paper saving tip. Cut your paper to 3.5 x 12. Cut two crayon boxes. The machine won't let you cut a third box. It says you don't have enough room. So flip your carrier around, feed it the other way and cut one box. Now you can get three boxes on one piece.

The cricut also cuts little "tag openings" on the side of the boxes so that's where I tied the ribbons onto the boxes.

I used the George cartridge to cut all the numbers and the letters for Countdown to.

I used the Christmas Cheer cartridge to cut Christmas.

After I was done I put Liquid Glass on all the lettering and numbers.

Santa's Workshop

My annual "Santa's Workshop" was on Saturday and it was so much fun. It's one of my favorite stamping events of the year. This year we moved it to my rec room to save all the costs of renting a room. We had three consultants (Amy, Gail and Me) and I think we had about 9 different projects. I had ideas for several more and it killed me not to do them all, but realistically it's hard to do so many projects in one day.... so I'm going to run tutorials and pictures all week long on the blog with directions for a few of my projects and I'm going to post some instructions for a couple of projects we didn't do.

First off, here's the recipe for the Pasta Salad I served. It's super easy and it's a great way to get started on all those Turkey leftovers.

Bow-Tie Pasta
Diced Turkey
Dried Cranberries
Vidalia Onion Dressing

That's it. Simple, simple, simple. I love it because it looks festive with the cranberries. I used the Ken's Lite Vidalia Onion Dressing and I cooked my noodles a little bit too long. They weren't mushy, but they stuck together a bit more than they usually do.

I also serve parmesan cheese on the side.

Stay tuned for my Advent Calendar and Cricut tips!

Postcrossing - First Postcards

I received my first postcrossing postcards! I joined postcrossing a few weeks ago. I sent off my first five postcards and now I'm starting to receive postcards from around the world. Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to scrapbook them :-)

If I had more time on my hands, I would love to create a site like postcrossing for hand made cards. Soooo... if anyone is reading that might have the skills... I'm thinking it sounds like a hit!

Here are the first two postcards I received:

And here's a postcard that Josh sent to me from London

Biggest Loser Update

Down 1.2 pounds this week. Woo Hoo. The scale is going in the right direction again. Now if I can just avoid the pecan tarts while I'm baking them this week, life will be good.

We had a great discussion about Thanksgiving at ww last night. It made me think about what I plan to eat. We thought about all the different items available and then wrote down the ones we really wanted to eat. Then we calculated the points for our chosen meal. I found it interesting to contemplate my meal when it wasn't an issue for me. I was much more objective. I really thought about all the different items and which ones I wanted and which ones I could let go of. Right away I realized that I am fine with skipping the gravy. I actually envisioned my meal and thought about the taste and I know that I can let go of the gravy and still enjoy the meal. I also think it will be much easier to control my portion size now that I have an idea of how many points each item has. 2 points for 1 deviled egg (one/half egg) will definately keep me from mindlessly returning for seconds or thirds....

And pecan tarts? Well one piece of pecan pie is 12 points!! My tarts are tastey, but I'm not thinking they are 12 points tastey!!!! That will definately curb my sampling while baking.

Foot Update
I'm going to the podiatrist Monday. Sadly a friend of mine, who is a podiatrist, basically told me that walking AND the elliptical aren't helping. Anyone want to whine with me?

I've officially given up the elliptical and walking....for now.... I'm not ready to give up on exercising so, I went to Yoga last night. I'm fairly sure I used every muscle in my body. I can feel lots of new ones today!

Catching Up

I wasn't quite as focused the last couple of weeks. Since Josh was gone and I didn't have to take him to seminary each morning, I tried switching up my routine and resting my foot. It didn't work out so well for me. I gained 2.8 pounds, found out that I really have to workout in the mornings and my foot still hurts.

Good news is that I used the time to get rested, went to the doctor about my foot, picked a new primary care (my doctor moved um like 4 or 5 years ago...ooops), got all my bloodwork done, was pleasantly surprised by my results and am ready to get back in gear.

I love my new doctor and he really didn't do that much. I think he could tell I was a bit hesitant about coming in. He gave me options, but let me make the decisions. Of course I knew he was a good pick as soon as he started asking me if I was "into" computers. He told me I could get my test results online and email him with any questions/concerns. That's definately my kind of doctor! Some of my tests came back just a few hours after I had blood drawn. It was actually kind of cool to see them so fast and then look up what the results meant.

Then today I logged on to America On the Move to start a new walking challenge....

See, I started a challenge a little over 6 weeks ago and I absolutely loved it. I faithfully logged my steps and even finished the virtual trail I chose a few days early, but then... no bells or whistles went off. No trombones played. There was no "congratulations you are amazing." It just switched me to a new trail and said keep walking. It was a bit anti-climactic.

Well, today I logged back in to start a new one because even though it was a little disappointing when I finished, it did keep me on track for six weeks. It accomplished what I wanted it to accomplish.

Well guess what?!? It turns out that after your six weeks have finished, you log your last steps, it asks you a few questions and THEN the bells and whistles go off. LOL It created a pdf certificate that showed how many steps I took, etc.

So here are my 6 week results from America On the Move (www.americaonthemove.org)

Starting Pace - 5240
Current Pace - 9731
Total Steps - 226,459
Total Miles - 113

113 Miles!!! Woo Hoo!!

I started a new challenge today and it ends on December 26th. How appropriate! I think it will really help me to stay focused through the holidays. Anyone want to join the fun? It really is pretty cool. Go to www.americaonthemove.org and sign up. It's free.

You pick the "virtual" trail of your choice and you can change your trail whenever you want. Each day after you log your steps (or minutes of activity..you can choose from a list of activities and it will convert it to steps) it will advance you along your virtual trail. Last time I finished up the UK trail. This time I'm doing the Iditarod trail.

Email me if you decide to join the fun. You can enter the email addresses and create "buddies" to encourage each other along.

Baptism Book

I got to attend a wonderful baptism for a family on Sunday. It was such a wonderful experience. Their little boy is the same age Joshua was when Rick joined the church so it brought back tons of memories.

Since the mom is a scrapbooker (actually she owns a scrapbook store), and she was feeling neglected because I haven't given her any stamped gifts..... I had to make sure I came up with something for the baptism.

It wasn't hard to twist my arm to make another board book. I love these little books!!! I have a couple more that I need to take pictures of. Of course I had to snap a quick picture of this one before I sent it off to it's new owner....

I used the Close To My Heart Cocoa Cafe papers, cocoa ribbon and the front has a dimensional element on it. I almost forgot... the font is CTMH Lemonade Stand from the new font cd.

I'm Spoiled and Ungrateful

Ooops, I feel so bad. Hubby got me the coolest anniversary present that I couldn't wait to share and I totally forgot!

Since I received it two weeks early, I was planning to post about it on THE big day, but then the fires came and I got sidetracked, so let's just take a step back in time.....

October 29th was our 19th anniversary! Wow!!

I didn't think we were really going to do much. We don't usually buy big gifts or anything. I was just excited to have him home. Apparently hubby came up with an idea that he was sooo excited about, he couldn't resist.

Nike Plus - I had vaguely heard about them, but never even considered that I could get one.

See this is the kind of Ipod I have (last years awesome Christmas present that I love, love, love)And you need an Ipod nano... Never fear, Josh, the ebay king is here. They bought me a nano and the Nike Plus. And the ebay store they used added all sorts of cool accessories to the deal.
I can charge my nano at home.
I can charge my nano in the car.
I can even charge it at work.
I think I'm in love!

I haven't been walking quite as much lately because of 1) the fires 2) my feet and 3) crazy hectic schedule. I'm planning to go to the gym and do the elliptical while Josh is in Europe, so I might have to wait until Nov. 13th to really start playing with my whole set-up, but in the meantime.... I can have fun adding stuff to my nano!

Thank you hubby! The best gifts are the ones that you didn't even know you needed!!

Oh and Happy Anniversary!

Biggest Loser Update?

Umm...no... sorry I missed my weigh-in. I had to teach a boyscout recharter meeting last night and I had to skip my meeting. I'm pretty sure I haven't lost or gained so there's not much to report anyway....except that suddenly my pants are falling off of me again. I bought new pants a few weeks ago and today they are feeling really loose. In fact my silly pedometer has fallen off, not once, but twice. Both times the battery popped out so it completely reset. Thankfully I had checked it recently and knew approximately how many steps it had on it.

I only have 7 more days of my 6 week walking challenge and I am REALLY close to finishing my virtual trail. (www.americaonthemove.org - fun!) I think I'll have to pick a longer trail next time. I'm pretty sure I would've finished this trail early if it wasn't for the fires and the foot issues.

My little world traveler is in Rome today. I haven't heard from him so I'll just tell you what the itinerary says "Touch down in bella Roma, the Eternal City."

And.... dare I say it??? I'm feeling the papercrafting bug coming back!! It's amazing. Once life settles down, suddenly I can start thinking about crafting again. I can hardly wait to get started!

Photos from last week

I found a couple of photos I took last week when I pulled the airport photo for the last post so I thought I'd go ahead and share them now.

Here's a picture from last Monday. They set up the police command center at the college. The entire parking lot was full of police vehicles. When I got off the freeway to go to work there were three police in front of me and about seven or 8 behind me. I felt like I had snuck into their motorcade.

Unfortunately I had the green light so I had to just click this as I drove by.

This is a picture of all of the smoke in the air on Friday (October 26th). The winds had died down so the smoke just kind of hung there.

It still smells like smoke occasionally. It kind of depends on which way the wind is blowing. Yesterday it smelled just like it does when you get up in the morning when you're camping and you can smell the burnt embers in the firepit from the night before. Today, I didn't notice it as much.

And they are off.....

I woke up bright and early. Ok, so it wasn't bright. In fact it wasn't light at all! It was pitch dark at 3:45 am, but I digress.

We woke up bright and early and headed to....the AIRPORT. Yep, my dear son is on his way to Europe. I am so excited for him. He is probably in Chicago right now, switching planes and going through customs. At least I assume he has to go through customs, but maybe not. I am not the world travler. This is definately a case of doing something for your child that you did not have the opportunity to do for yourself.

For the next twelve days he will be touring Italy, France and England. I told him that I thought it was very accommodating of them to start their trip on the first of the month. Now I can follow along on the itinerary and I don't have to think too hard. Day 1 - November 1st. Day 2 - November 2nd.

So Day 1's itinerary is.... Overnight flight to Italy. Speed across the sky tonight on your flight to Mediterranean Europe.

So far I am doing pretty good. I am not the weepy mom. I think life is an adventure and I want him to enjoy it and live it. That means moms have to let go.

His girlfriend's mom and my step-sister (my niece went too.) were a little weepy. The gf's mom said something about just being worried that it could be the last time she sees her daughter. Me, I just think about things differently. I don't get worked up about it. The reality is that everytime you go somewhere, it could be the last time. All the more reason to make sure your family always knows how much you love them. If something horrible were to happen. I would be comforted to know that he was having the time of his life.

Of course, it's all kind of funny if you think about it. They are all weepy and I would be willing to bet that if something was going to happen. It would happen to MY kid. There's a reason why we purchased all the travel insurance and everyone always makes sure they have a first aid kit when he's around.

Updated to say: I just got a very happy phone call from Chicago. It sounds like they are already having a blast!