Ready for Halloween

It is still very hot here in Tucson, my  tempers are flaring, and I'm really ready for the change fo weather. For us, it means not running around in a loin cloth all day, we can actually move to tank top and flips. Aside from that, geez, I wonder what it's like to wear a sweater...
I digress. Today in the mail I received Oriental Trading the new beading/scrapbooking catalog. This makes me so ready for Halloween. Check out these beads:


bat and skull lampwork beads

And these fab scrapbooking items that I use in my ATC's:

There's tons nore, and I can't wait to get my order in. Happy crafting to me!

Halloween

A quick post-Dollar Tree started stocking Halloween items!!!
OMG I cannot contain the excitement. Thought I would let everyone know!
Yeah Yeah

Time Management

I haven't posted anything that I've done in a long while. And going through my camera I found some ATC's that I made and swapped and I thought I would post. I'm a little leery about this, kind of bragging isn't it? Well, just putting it out there, either way.


Supernatural ATC-Castiel Swap

 This is an ATC I did for a Supernatural series swap. I need to work on my photos, but this is a Castiel character ATC, an angel, who in his true form is larger than the Chrysler building.
I added those elements, made a "tattoo" with wings and the word Angel in script and added the caption, moveable by grommet.


Frida Kahlo ATC

This one is a Frida Kahlo ATC that I swapped. I didn't know much about her before I joined the swap but learned quite a bit, even that I missed a art exhibit here in town of her work. I would have enjoyed seeing this now that I know more about her. Very colorful and vivid artwork she did. It was a great learning experience. 

Halloween with pumpkin ATC

This last one I will show is a Halloween (my fav) ATC. The orange in the background is fishing lure chenille that I got at the sporting goods store on sale for .88. Fun to work with and doesn't get 'furry'. Unlike this distraction:

Here stands Brrr. Her real name not important, since the only sound she makes is Brrr. But she is everywhere I am and constantly on the lookout for the other one following me:

Yes, Roxy the boxer on a pink rug (came with the house, Help! I need a makeover!)
So important points. Always photograph your work. One it helps show a progression in style, maturity, and you can look back on it and be glad that you can erase the images from the digi!
Second, don't be ashamed of your work. Someone once told me that no matter what, that was where I was at that particular time in my life. It wasn't wasted-it just brought me to the next point.. Thank you John for that advice.
So lovelies, I am signing off for now and wishing you creative thoughts.

Swap Bot

Well, here's my rant for the day.
I love Swap Bot and I'm very happy I joined. I have an outlet for my creative side and I get to share with others and also get to see their work. I will not criticize anyone's work and I am grateful for everything I receive in the mail, all the extras and stuff. I rate as soon as I receive something because that, to me, is part of the swap. Unfortunately, there are some people that, either do not think this is important to the other person, or they are selfish and choose not to rate, or what? I cannot think of a valid excuse for not rating someone's work. So for those people who do not rate, I have chosen not to swap with them any longer. And I hope someday they realizr the importance of the entire swap. And the people on the other end who want to know, we just want to know.
OK that's over. THE GIANTS WON!!!! And Zito pitched a fabulous game with huge support from Melky, Pagan, huge defensive plays by Crawford, and the entire team. Great job, guys!
Love you lots!

Los Gigantes

I am watching my SF Giants right now. It is Orange shirt Friday which I love. I should be doing some stufff for work tomorrow but I just don't want to. So, yes, I'll do it in the am. whatever. I am so done with work this week.
My Giants are winning 4-0 and Bum was on his way to pitching a complete game until Bochy just yanked him. The Giants are awesomeness and make me smile.
If you're a fan and do not already know about the Brandon & Brandon blog, check it out here. I love these guys, Geez, am I getting redundant. You know, I should just write a Giants blog and steal photos from the internet to post. I cannot say enough about them. Some people photo blog, I love to write about them, Anyway, here's the link to B&B:Brandon & Brandon You see, Bochy pulled Madbum and Casilla gives up a home run and now there is only a one run lead. WTF?
In other baseball news, J Santana pitched the first ever in Mets history no-hitter. HUGE! Love this kind of baseball. I see it in the Giants future...
2 more outs to go then I can pack it in. Timmy is hooded up again.  Who is he hiding from? Well, it could be freezing it SF, you know how the weather gets in summer. I think I should weat a name tag that says, Hi, I'm a Giants fan. Hey Bochy this torture has gone on long enough, He just gave up a double with one out. Dude, pull him and save this game for Bum!
Tumblr is a great sourcce for Ginats pics. Broken bat single. He sucks! 2 on 1 out. 9th inning. Let's go guys.
OK Javi is in. 2nd out. Runners on 2 & 3. We can do this! The crowd is up. Strike one. Javi throws, flies out to Pagan. Los Gigantos win and victory bump/shirts out by the trio.
4-3 Giants over Cubs. Bum wins.
Yeah. See you tomorrow,

The Ultimate Diet

Tomorrow I am starting a fabulous new diet. It is top secret, used only under a doctor's care and I am unable to tell you what it is. However, if it works, and you're supposed to follow it for 6 weeks at a time, then I will share bits and pieces. In the meantime, I'm looking at stuff like this:



And this

:
And so much more fresh fresh food. This is stuff I've thought about. You know how your body craves this stuff, but you ignore it? So now I'm listening, gently listening to what my mind is telling me my body wants. I'm NOT going to beat myself up for things I have done in the past, even yesterday. Because I am learning to love myself, and these choices I made were just that-choices. How I dealt with them is why I am in need of a revamp. It is a welcome change, not something I am stressing over because I've been bad. Geez, I hate that. There's no bad, don't beat yourself up for it. You did it. Now get on with the next step. And love yourself. You first. Try it. You'll ask yourself, why not?
Pick your inspiration.
or this  or this
It's your motivation, your muse if your an artist, your soul-fulness if your spiritual. It is your anything.
And it is where your heart and mind meet and say, AHH, now I know.
But go gently. Don't scare yourself. This is you, your life. And you are worth taking the time for.

Next: Why bathing suits never fit.

Where the heck did March go?

Okay we're in April. Lots of stuff going on. But I am procrastinating as usual. My new motto, never do today what I can totally put off to tomorrow. Besides, I work better under pressure. Yeah and the chest pains don't interfere with my lifestyle at all.
So, happy because it's not totally hot here yet and seems to be cooling to the 60's by the weekend. Refreshing. Happy because cat has finally stopped meowing because I got her fixed. Sleep, joyous sleep. Ah yes, I named an all-mouse orchestra. Crazy I know but I love this site and I just had to. Catch her here. The Bloggess. Quite possibly the funniest woman I have read in a while. Enjoy.
And, I have so many craft thingys coming up, another reason to procrastinate. I'm creating in my head-it's a dangerous place in there. Sometimes in comes out in craft form and then I send it to unsuspecting people in a swap, which I totally love right now. The fun swaps, where you get stuff in the mail. Geez, I love mail. Anyway, ATC's abound, working on paper dolls right now, great link for that. Monster paper dolls.
She has some fun shit on this page and I'm buying all of it. Next thing you know I'll be playing with colorforms again. Which I think these popular crafters use but have renamed them 'vinyl cutouts'. Yeah, it's a colorform.
Ok I bought a camera my husband forced me to buy a camera. He started saying Blah blah blah my eyes rolled in back of my head and I think I almost, almost fainted from the tech lingo, but as it turns out, all I have to do is point and shoot. I did tell him to leave me alone and let me figure out the software to download on this wonderful laptop. Bad choice. But now I can't go back to him because I'll get the  'You should have let me do this when we brought it home, la blah, la blah blah" lecture. Okay okay I get it. So I'll read the instructions, how hard could it be? So maybe photos of stupid boxer dog acting like a cat will be on the next post.
I don't know why I wait so long between posts. I love this. Oh yeah, the horrid layout. Even I can't stand it. Something else tech driven I need to read up on. I feel like Willy Wonka giving Violet the gum, 'It always goes wrong with the blueberries. Always."
Cheer up Charlie, things are looking up already. I mean, how many times can you say you've named an orchestra of taxidermy mice?