Water Update

Update:
We located the problem pipe, which was the backflow preventer.... the darn thing failed ... the little flappy valve thing completely broke off and was floating around int he pipe causing blockages. Following removing everything from teh family room (which included everythign from the rest of the basement) and the carpet and carpet pad and a 14" x 3' slab of concrete, a colonoscopy and cleanse on my poor house IT HAS BEEN REPAIRED!!! UGH!

Now we wait for the insurance adjuster to call and make the appt to come out and assess the damage and what it will take to get my now unfinished basment back to it's former 100% finished glory.

My bro and his family have gone back to IA and we are slowly start
ing to clean the upstairs of the house (which looks like a tornado hit it with all the displaced items of furniture, and misc stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere) from all the dust and junk from the disaster.

I keep trying to think positive, but it's really quite overwhelming. I have to be grateful that we don't have our own little children to be displaced and disrupted in this mess, and that really, it could have been loads worse....

Less Soggy Smiles!
Erin

PS... on another positive side... Brent hooked my regular computer up in my former sewing room and so now I have access to all my files and fun computer stuff. I did find some fun pics to share of some projects that I did a while back but have not shared yet... YAY! Somethign fun to look at!

Where There's Water...

"Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."

There's a HUGE problem....

Did I forget to carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain somewhere?

UPDATE 6:00 pm:

NOPE.... after a short look around my office and studio, we discovered that my sewer drains had backed up into the basement. My office/studio floors are now ripped out and on my back lawn, the restoration guys are downstairs shredding stinky sheetrock, my studio is in a MILLION pieces in my family room and my insurance rate is about to go up. Oh, and the laundry room walls are partly removed as well as all of the walls in my under the stairs Christmas closet. UGH.

It looks like it's going to be a few weeks before I can get back to paper crafting. The office/studio is completely empty and my computer is packed away in the family room with everything else. It's really frustrating....

but,

On the Bright Side

- I have excellent insurance (USAA)
- The restoration guys have sprayed some smelly antimicrobial stuff on all the floors to kill the germies.
- There was no damage to the carpets in the family room and guest room (where my bro and his wife and baby are currently housed).
- We caught it in time to prevent worse damage.
- My studio makeover is coming sooner than later... lol... dh gave me a "studio makeover" gift certificate (from the Workshop o'Brent). I've been waiting for B to finish his workshop project, but looks like that's going on hold for a bit.
- We're getting a new floor in the office/studio & some new walls.
- The custom built desk was not harmed.
- I still have B's laptop (or my retarded one) to escape into cyber space with.
- It could have been a lot worse.

Off to finish some InkStaks that have to go out today and work on dejunking stuff that was removed from the mess.

E.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My bro and his wife are here visiting us this week and Nate discovered water droplets on the floor this morning and thought it was just from dripping from his wife's wet hair after a shower....

Nope, we have major water leakage and flooding from the basement drains...

I will be offline for several days (but can check emails on B's computer). I just popped on to shut down the computer and start emptying my office... which means no scrapbooking or papercrafting for several days....

Off to take photos and call the insurance company...

Soggy Wet Smiles...

Erin

It May Look Like Your Gramma, But They "Ain't" Her Stamps

Ok friends, here's my cheeky take on the "Sketch" Challenge {010}... I used some really fun stamps from Missy B Designs, "Doodles" and "Halloween Women". I fell in love with the whimsical and spunky attitude of these sets.... "While they may look like your gramma, they definitely aren't her stamps...", I say.


I used a Zig two way glue pen to apply a puddle of blue glue to the leotard of our sweet gramma and painted it into place with a paintbrush and then dumped on the glitter. (You have to work fairly quickly because the glue dries fast. I practiced on a couple of stamped images first.) The skin is colored with watercolor pencils. I used a very light touch of Autumn Terracotta. Perfect Pearls highlighted her ears and earrings and Stickles blinged out the headband. I shredded a white Sassy Strand to create the fluff for the bunny tail. Gramma got her "pleather" foxy mama boots courtesy of SU!'s black embossing powder, a Versamark marker and a nifty little heat gun.

Supplies Used:

Missy B Designs Stamps
Spellbinders' Nestabilities Scalloped Rectangle Die
Fiskars 1/8" hole punch
Some Office Supply Store regular hole punch
CTMH - watercolor pencils, blender pen, Sweet Leaf CS, Sassy Strands (shredded some for the bunny tail poof)
SU! black embossing powder (hot mama leather boots)
Ranger - Versamark ink, Stickles, Perfect Pearls
Stazon Black Ink (nice for watercoloring.. no bleeding)
Tree House Memories Main Street collection Papers "Oh Fudge" circles and "Flavor of the Weeks" stripes
DoodleBug Designs - Glitter (Mmmm can't get enough of that stuff!)
Papertrey Ink 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon (another terrible habit to get into)

Sketch Challenge {010}

Here's a different take on a "sketch" challenge..... I was playing around today with some different papers that I've picked up here and there and of course, PaperTrey Ink RIBBON... I love this pink grosgrain ribbon! Anyway... I have since added to this background and I think it turned out way cute. :)



So go ahead, use this "sketch" to create a piece of art. Would love to see what you create, so leave a link using tinyurl in the comments on this post. I will post my finished creation tomorrow :) I think you will find it has a little attitude :)

Thoughts for Thursday - Unlikely Friends

“Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words.”

—George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819-1880), novelist

“The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?”

—Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), writer, naturalist, philosopher

I have a soft spot for our four legged friends.... This video really touched my heart. I thought of all the wonderful people who I have had the good fortune to become friends with, whether or not we "walked the same road"..... This video is amazing and just goes to show that even the most unlikely matches can make wonderful friendships.

Inky Smiles!
Erin

Two Takes on Tuesday #2

I think Alisha and I have decided to call our little friendly challenge thingie "Two Takes on Tuesday" or something like that. LOL! I will have to get with her on it and make sure we're on the same page...

The challenge this week was:

1.) Take a photo or find a picture of your Composition Inspiration.
2.) Take a photo of find a picture of your Color Inspiration.
3.) Take a photo of your finished card.


My Composition Inspiration was the area rug in my living room and my Color Inspiration was my living room curtains that I made ages ago. I love the pattern and the color combo. I would never think to put those colors together with the rest of my room, but they work out fabulously and I didn't have to purchase anything.. lol.. ok, not like the story of my curtains really has anything to do with this challenge.... back to the task at hand.



I used my ratty old sewing machine (which I have decided WILL BE REPLACED asap) to stitch down the sanded and roughed up squares of the tattered old blanket/quilt that serves as the background to the card and layered up some pieces of cs that I cut out with my newest toys... SPELLBINDERS DIES (oh my gosh I am IN LOVE with them and bought 4 sets of the "classics"). Voila! Little boy party invitation.

Supplies:
CTMH Lazy Days of Summer Kit
CTMH Lazy Days Stamp Set (retired)
CTMH Inks
CTMH Square vellum tags
CTMH Twill Ribbon
CTMH CardStock
Retarded sewing machine
American Crafts dimensional tabs
Ranger Stickles
Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies - Classic Ovals

Anyway... join us in the challenge if you'd like (and leave a link using tinyurl in the comments on this post!) We'll post a new one next week - it's my turn to choose one and I am still thinking on it....

RAK Winner

We have a winner!! (And wowza!! I actually posted ON TIME... lol!) I used the random number generator from www.random.org to choose a number and entry # 13 is:

Carrie Egg said...

Hi Erin! I love your blog. Thanks for the invite to your blog on the Fiskateer site :)

Cameron's project is so amazing, what an awesome kiddo!

Something amazing that someone has done for me... wow, that is easy! My friends helped us out tremendously when my husband's truck was stolen the day before Thanksgiving (2007). We had just been Christmas shopping and lost everything. Our insurance only covered a little, plus we had huge deductibles. Our friends came to our rescue and made sure our holidays were still joyful.

May 19, 2008 7:28 AM

Please email me your address and I will pop this in the mail to you this week :) Thank you everyone for your comments :)

Inky Smiles!
Erin

Thoughts for Thursday (a bit delayed)

I am way late again with a Thought For Thursday... It's been a crazy day! I went to work this morning (lots going on this week, flowers, etc.) and was not supposed to be there all day.... Then T's MIL called me because her daughter, T's DH's sister, is about to have a baby any time now, and MIL is sick as a dog... and so I have become a mom of 4 kids under the age of 13 for the weekend, a day early. LOL! They were coming over tomorrow night anyway, but today just got a bit crazy... I did enjoy a somebody James"concert"/with the three youngest at the elementary school tonight. K & C each performed and it was fun to watch. I got all "verklempt" like they were my own little monkeys... kind of fun to have psuedo kids. :)

Anyway, today's TFT is about passing on kindness. This quote came to me via email a week or so ago and I've been dying to share it along with the story of an awesome little boy.

“Have you had a kindness shown? Pass it on; 'Twas not given for thee alone, Pass it on; Let it travel down the years, Let it wipe another's tears, 'Til in Heaven the deed appears - Pass it on. ”

—Henry Burton (1840-1930), clergyman, writer

When I went to my Certified Fiskateer Training, my friend, Jenn B, was telling me about the coolest project that her little 6 year old was working on. He is an amazing little 6 year old.... an Eagle Scout in training... He is giving back to Primary Children's Hospital (in Salt Lake City). PCH holds a special place in my heart as it is the place where my little niece, Kiera, passed away at 3 mos old. The staff was AMAZING. They really take care of their little ones and the families of little ones. PCH is a place of sadness, miracles, and many kind helping hands.

Cameron has drawn a set of four darling cards that he sold to raise money ($180.00 - WOWZA!) to buy art supplies for children who are at PCH. You can read the story of Cameron's project for yourself here, and here. I am truly amazed at the fortitude and insight of this little guy. He's going to be an amazing adult! His drawings are awesome and who knows, perhaps he will draw some more to earn more money and keep "passing it on". Here's the newest info on his project... a little video before they went to deliver the art kits!


This week, think about some ways you can "pass it on" or be of service to someone in need. Do something for someone and share the love.

Leave a comment on this post and share with us something that someone has done for you that has made a difference in your life. On Monday I will draw a random winner who will receive a CTMH 9x9 embossed Butterfly Album with 10 printed pages and page protectors. It's gorgeous! You can view one here on Ebay (no, it's not my listing... I just needed a good pic and it's too late to take one tonight.)

A Friendly Challenge....

So I have this friend, Alisha (who has been COOKING UP A STORM on her blog lately), and was the brains behind the Fantabulous Girlfriends Swap ages ago, and I was telling her that my Creative Muse has been AWOL..... well it appears that my Creative Muse has been visiting Alisha up in Oregon for the past who knows how long & has been conspiring with Alisha's Creative Muse (see her blog)... lol! I was complaining to Alisha about this little phenomenon.... and she challenged me to a "swap". She said, "a good challenge will help you find your Creative Muse.... and think outside your box (ok Alisha... just send her home now... play date is over...)" THEN she made ME come up with the challenge... LOL!

Here's what the challenge was:

There were three guidelines to this challenge:

1. Create a card using Papertrey Ink stamps.


2. Use BUSY ribbon.


3. No Bows allowed: meaning do something different with the ribbon than just tying a bow. ( I had to throw the no bow thing in there because it seems that's what everyone is doing lately... a cute little bow/knot bow tied off to the side of the card...)
   

I love challenges (sorta... like Alisha said, it's a love/hate thing going on)... they make me think outside of my box and stretch my brain a little, and sometimes my Creative Muse returns from her vacations. Alisha informed me that we will be doing this once a week. (YIKES, help!) It's her turn to come up with the challenge and then we will create a card and post it on Monday night/Tuesday morning... I might have to talk to her about the days cuz my Mon night got suddenly wonky last night.

If you'd like to join us in this challenge, feel free to post a link (use tiny URL to make it post friendly) to your card in the comments section of this post. We'd love to see what you come up with :)

Here's the card. I took the photo at a wonky angle and made the background black & white in Photoshop Elements so the card would pop off.

{Click on photo to view larger}

Supplies Used:
Papertrey Ink "It's a Celebration" stamp set & Berry Sorbet CS, Berry Sorbet Pallet Ink
CTMH Sweet Leaf CS, White CS, Honey Ink, Silver Brad
Ranger's Stickles - Fruit Punch
Offray Rick Rack
Ribbons by American Crafts

PS.. my paper lines are off a bit.. I need to peel the card front off and trim the PTI Berry Sorbet paper a bit... will do that a little later today after work. (Extra day today... It's flower order time!)

T is for Trish & the Star of the Show is K

I have a few things to post this week. I've been remaking some of my fav (recent) projects with different papers and designs. (I hope you don't get sick of them, but sometimes when you find a fun thing to make your creative muse is AWOL you make it over and over... especially when they are good for gifts!) I will share them this week... Here's the first: a remake of my little chipboard calendar with the BIA machine. The possibilities are endless with these little calendars... This one goes from May 2008 - May 2009.

I was privileged to be able to hang out for a couple of days over the past couple of weeks with my friend, Trish's daughter, K. We were making a fun little project for T for M's Day. T and her dh, T, are going to Canada tomorrow for a work thing for dh T without the munchkins.... K and I thought it would be fun to put something in T's suitcase... I am pretty sure K put it in the suitcase or gave it to her mom early yesterday... meaning: It's been given, T is in Canada (or an airport along the way) and I can post safely now! YAY!

{Click on photos for larger view}

K & I had a BLAST hanging out together to create this calendar. I dreamed up the design, K picked out the papers and did the actual assembling of the calendar. We did our own little photo shoot the first evening in the freezing cold... poor K was such a good sport!

Here's some photos of K's creative adventure. For an 11 yr old, she's pretty good with the Fiskars Fingertip Craft Knife and mastered the ATG pretty quickly.


Supplies:
CTMH Papers, Brads
CTMH'ers - whats the name of the paper kit??? Simple Pleasures
Fiskars Threading Waters Punch & F.Craft Knife
BIA machine, Owires, 4x6" Chipboard Covers
We R Memory Keepers Ribbons
Maya Road Chipboard letter "t"

"The Host" by Stephenie Meyer (no spoilers)

We take a break from regular blog festivities to bring you this special announcement.....

Where did this week go?? I missed Thoughts for Thursday! Oh, I know! Tuesday was the Borders Adventure (and I started reading "The Host") and Wed was work, work, work and I spent the evening holed up in bed finishing reading "The Host"... then Thursday I was out of town to see a doctor that a friend recommended and busy, busy in the evening with my church calling. I am sorry I missed TFT this week.... will try to do better this week! BTW... "The Host" was VERY difficult to really get into... the first 150 pages or so were slow and boring... then the book got good tolerable for some chapters... but the ending seemed to happen way too fast as compared to the pace of the rest of the book. It was almost like Stephenie Meyer realized she was 600 or so pages into the book and the publisher was banging on the door to get it done, so she quickly wrapped it up in the last 30 or so pages... I was really not all that impressed with the concept presented in the story, either. It reminded me a lot of the same concept of the bad guys in the Sci Fi series, "Stargate SG-1". I was a little dissappointed..... I am still going to the books signing on Friday and will most likely Ebay or give away the book to a die hard SM fan....

Back tomorrow with some ARTWORK!!! WOO HOO!

Desperately Seeking a Nap

I did it!!! Kristin called me at 4:15 A.M. with my "personal wake up call" and I leapt out of bed, brushed my teeth, fixed my hair and threw on some makeup and headed out the door and met Kristin and Renae at my driveway. (I showered and fixed my hair last night so that I could just jump up and run a straight iron thru the front and mess up the back with some hairspray and be on my way.. much easier... now why can't I do that for work and church? HAHA!)


We got to Borders in Provo at 5:00 A.M. and plunked our camp chairs down and bundled up in our blankets. It was soooo cold! There were girls and guys who camped out OVERNIGHT on the sidewalk... soem had just airmattresses and blankets/sleeping bags and others had full blown tents set up... The diehards up at the front of the line had a movie projector and were watching 27 Dresses on the side of the Borders building when we go there... I had to laugh, it was quite the sight! (This is Renae & Kristin on the right.)

(Here's me & Renae to the left.) When we first got there, we were about persons # 67-69, but by the time the doors opened, about 20 more ppl had met up with friends in front of us and cut in line. (It seems rude to me that people would do that... wait in line with the rest of us, sheesh.)

Anyway, each of us got our books and our tickets and went on our merry way. We stopped and had a hot breakfast at the Village Inn on our way home. I had so much fun hanging with my girlfriends & can't wait to do something like that again.... We're already planning our "Girls Afternoon" to go to lunch and do some shopping before the Meet & Greet & book signing on the 16th of this month...

Here's some pics of our little adventure! I 've got to scrap them!

1.) Watching the movie on the Borders building...
2.) The line wraps down down the side of the building...
3.) And it wrapped around the other side of the building....



Oh, and PS....... HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMARYLLIS!!!!!

Twilight... The Movie... & Crazy Fans

Well friends, tomorrow morning I am going to try to haul my tired bum outta bed at 4:20 A.M. so that I can be at Borders with my friend, Kristin, who is probably the biggest Twilight Series fans that I know, and my friend, Renae, to pick up Stephanie Meyer's new book, The Host, and tickets to a author greeting & book signing at Thanksgiving Point. I'm not obsessed with the series, but I did enjoy the read and am re-reading them to pick up things I missed (and so I can discuss it with my friends who are super fans), but mostly going for moral support for Kristin & to spend some time with a girlfriend on a little adventure. It's been a long time since I did something crazy like this! Gonna bring my camp chair, my camera, and some yummy munchies and maybe a thermos of hot cocoa or great big Diet Mt Dew to keep me awake....

For those of you who are fans here is the official movie trailer (from Twilight Lexicon) below. (Warning, it's the HD version and might take some time to load depending on your isp.)

The trailer not really what I expected & definitely hope the movie will be better than the trailer.

Twilight in HD


Not quite sure what I think about all of the cast and I hope the movie doesn't sour my "reality" of the Twilight characters... Robert Pattinson is really not my version of Edward... he's too short and somethign else I can't quite put my finger on ... The actor playing James is also not how I pictured James.... I think I was picturing someone more creepy and not so good looking... more scraggly like a fur tracker/hunter of old... Pretty much everyone else is "acceptable" as far as my version of them goes.. loL! (Well, sorta... I pictured Victoria as more of a Cate Blanchett with fiery red hair....)

And on a Paper Crafting note.....

I finished my sis in law's planner today (copied the one that Alisha gave me in March & snapped some pics) and created a cook book for my mother in law for her bday (it's my fav so far, also snapped pics to share) and picked up some fun stuff at the CTMH warehouse sale at the UV Women's Expo on Sat... I might have to have to give something away in the next few days!! Stay Tuned!

Just in time for National Scrapbook Day & Mother's Day...
Stamper Storage is HAVING A SALE!