Question Everything

Whimsy Couture

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:49:00 +0000

I ran across some great sewing patterns on Etsy today and discovered the owner is doing a giveaway on her blog. She has lots of cute little girl patterns, including a peasant dress pattern with long sleeves and some customizing options - just what I need for Chloe this fall. Check it out here!

I won!

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:56:00 +0000

Okay, first of all, I know I haven't blogged in forever and I'm not going to make any promises about keeping at it because we all know how well that has turned out in the past LOL! But, I wanted to post today because I'm really excited to have won a treasure in Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day! Chloe's room has one blank wall that has been waiting for me to find just the right thing and now I've won it! I'm the lucky winner of THIS fab mixed media painting. It's going to be great! I have a signed Diana Maderas print in there for her and I wanted to try to use as many original pieces as possible rather than the canned "baby" stuff that's out in the store. Fun!

Outside of that big news, things are going along as usual around our house. Chloe's walking now, so we're chasing her around. If I haven't already mentioned it here, I've taken up sewing again and am making cute little clothes for Chloe. So between that, knitting and scrapbooking, I'm keeping pretty busy on the crafty front. For the time being we both have jobs too, which is something we're very grateful for as we both work for the state and the state is really, really broke. That may change, but for now, we're working and happy about it :) I guess that's all for now, hopefully I'll get to posting again sooner than the last time!

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:29:00 +0000

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!

Okay, so I haven't been here in forever LOL! Maybe I'll try and do better, who knows. But, I wanted to share this great blog (and of course enter her fab contest), so I'm posting a link for you :) I love her clothes and with a rapidly growing little baby girl who already loves to style, I think I'll be visiting her new store plenty LOL!

I hate cars!

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:30:00 +0000

So, today I just need to vent about how much I hate dealing with cars! My car broke down on the way to work last week and it turns out it's going to cost $1100 to fix it! Ugh. Here we're trying to save up for a house and a baby and everything else and instead I have to spend a bunch of money on the car. I hate it. I really wish I lived somewhere with decent public transportation so I didn't have to own a car, it's really just not something I enjoy at all.

Beyond that, this weekend was nice. It was Bob's birthday Sunday, so his folks came up to celebrate for both of our birthdays (since mine's coming soon too - on the 7th). We went out to La Parilla Suize on Saturday (an excellent Mexican place in Tucson if you're ever in the area!) and Macaroni grill on Sunday - both very yummy! Other than that we took it pretty easy, ate too many sweets and cheered on the Wildcats! I'm so happy that things are coming together with the team - this could work out to be a really good year!

Well, on that note, back to work, I really want to finish this case in the next day or two - I'm getting close now so the end is in sight!

Changes

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:54:00 +0000

I have to tell you, I'm not always the best with change. On top of the baby coming, we're also thinking about trying to buy a house. What a scary process. All of this is going to change our situation substantially and it makes me very nervous. Can we afford it? Can we handle it? Ugh. Exciting, but scary. Guess we'll see what happens, I know we'll make the right decisions in the end, but getting through the changes is just never a fun process!

On a happier note, at work I finally have my case figured out, so now it's time to write! I'll be happy to move this one along - zoning cases make my head hurt!

It hit me yesterday . . .

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:23:00 +0000

just how close we are to having this baby! We were watching American Idol and the wife of one of the contestants went into labor and they had the baby - she was at 37 weeks! Well folks, I'm almost at 35 weeks - that means we could have this kid here in a little over two weeks! Wowza! Exciting, but scary too LOL! We're getting closer to having things in line here though - I have the things we have washed, put away and mostly set up. And, we're having a couple more showers in the first of February - one with Bob's family and then my work one, which we're having on my birthday on the 7th - they thought it would be cool to combine the two :) It should be a lot of fun!

Making Headway

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:58:00 +0000

So, I'm officially making headway in getting ready for the baby to arrive! We had our first shower this weekend and got lots of wonderful goodies for her - tons of cute outfits, a bath tub, diapers, wipes, even a handknit hat (which of course I love :) ). People are really sweet! If I get the photos cleaned up soon, I'll post a few of them.

I have also accepted that she will probably live in our current house for at least the early stages of her little life (since we have just started looking to buy a house and have not even gone to see the mortgage people yet, ugh.). As a result, I'm making room for her and all her stuff in the house. Yeah, babies have a lot of stuff LOL! I've got bags of clothes and stuff to get rid of and a ton of books to go to Bookmans. I'm going to keep her clothes and most of her gear in our guest bedroom/study/craft room - in baskets on a giant bookshelf I cleared off. Her bedding and blankets and bath stuff now have a home in our linen/bathroom closet - that took a lot of cleaning out. I actually had Alka Seltzer in there that expired in 2003! Seriously. 2003. Yikes. Her crib will go in our room and the top of our dresser is now going to be her changing table. To make that work I've moved a chair out of our room and cleared some of the knick-knacks off the dresser. I still have a little way to go on that, but we won't be getting the crib until at least next weekend - maybe later. Some friends are giving us theirs as they're finished with it. Hopefully everything will fit! I also cleaned out a few kitchen cabinets to make room for her bottles. During that adventure I discovered that I had some canned goods with experations dates in 2001 and a can of coffee that my Dad bought on his first visit here (which would have been in like 2000!) - that tells you about how much coffee I drink LOL!

We're really excited about house hunting too, we still need to go see the bank about how much we can afford and what kind of rate we can get, but there's a lot on the market now here and prices are really coming down. I feel bad for the folks who have a house to sell these days, but I'm awfully glad the whole housing market drop thing is happening when I want to buy! Home prices here have been crazy high for the past few years, so it's nice to see things at a bit more reasonable level for buyers.

In work news, I'm starting a new case today - it's a zoning dispute. Ugh.

Once again . . .

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:51:00 +0000

a post to say sorry I haven't posted in forever and that I'm going to try to be better LOL! How many times have I said that now? Oh well. I figured that with a new little one on the way (yeah, for those of you who don't know yet - I'm pregnant!)I'll need a place to share photos of her and stories about her etc. So, the old blog is back in action! And, of course, I'm sure I'll still have some scrapbooking news, knitting/crocheting projects to share and the occasional rant to get off my chest, so all the more reason to revisit blogging.

So, since it's the New Year, how about a few of the things I want to do this year? I'm not one for "resolutions" per se, but I do like to evaluate what I'm doing in life and add new things or get rid of old things around this time, so here's the short list of what I've come up with so far - mostly art related at this point, but of course LEARNING TO BE A MOM will top the list!

1. I want to do more hands-on artwork this year. I've gotten some great colored pencils, watercolor crayons, paint and so forth and I really want to start doing some art journal pages and playing around with them - nothing fancy, just something for me!

2. I want to do the Simply Me challenge at Scrapartist. I did it with Jess the first time around, but I fizzled out somewhere a few months in (okay maybe even earlier than that LOL!). So, this time I'm going to use a template I have from Jessica Sprague and keep it really simple. No major artistic decisions necessary, just pick a photo or two, add some journaling and away you go. I might even do the whole thing in one kit so I don't have to pick papers for every page. We'll see if I have a kit that strikes me the right way to live with for the duration.

3. I want to do more Quirk challenges. I love Digital Art Quirks and I've really gotten away from it since being pregnant. Time to dive back in - it really gets my creative juices flowing.

4. I want to make a lot of knitted/crocheted stuff. I will use up the stuff in my stash - unlike digiscrapping supplies, yarn takes up a lot of room, so I need to dig in!

5. I want to do some sewing projects. I got a new sewing machine on Black Friday and I want to keep it in use.

6. On a note related to all of these projects, I want to get rid of some stuff! I have a lot of stuff and with the baby coming, we need to make room, so I need to make some decisions about what stays and goes. My collection of scrapbooking magazines is the first thing on the chopping block. I went through it this weekend and have a giant stack of them to take to Bookmans this weekend. Next I'm moving on to clothes and books, we'll see how that goes.

7. I want to continue to improve my photography skills. I still have a lot of learning and practice to do with my Rebel, but I'm loving it so far! I also got a Tracy Joy bag for Christmas from DH, so now it's really easy to take it around with me! Love it :)

8. I want to keep up on my new housework plan. I fell of the wagon a bit over Christmas, but I managed to keep the place pretty clean doing a little bit each day for a couple of weeks before that. It's nice to have a clean house.

Okay, that's a pretty good list - if I can just do a little of each one I'll be pretty happy with the state of things!

CafePress Card Shop!

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Tue, 15 May 2007 21:26:00 +0000

If you haven't noticed it in my scrapbooking, I love to take photos of flowers! And, with a husband who's a plant expert, I always have a lot to choose from! So, I've decided to open a little CafePress Shop, Floral Cards, featuring limited edition cards using my floral photography. I will be changing the design every few weeks, so if you love a certain flower be sure to snatch it up! The first set will feature the amazing poppies we have in our yard right now. They are available in greeting cards, postcards, and a small poster. I hope you enjoy! You can find my shop HERE

National Scrapbook Day

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Tue, 08 May 2007 17:48:00 +0000

I went a little nuts with NSD this year - last year I was gone so I couldn't hit many of the sales, but this year I almost completely cleared out my wishlist! Lots of great sales and now I have a file full of beautiful stuff to catalog and put to work :) Christina Renee, Shabby Miss Jenn, Trish Jones, Corina Nielson, Tracy Ann Robinson, Tracy Rennemo, Berna Datema, NDISB - I hit them all LOL! My favorite purchase by far though had to be the fabulous kit from Songbird Avenue! Not only was it designed by three of my favorite designers - Meredith Fenwick, Jan Crowley and Shabby Princess - but it's for a great cause - The March of Dimes! Honestly, is there anything better than a great kit that you don't even feel guilty about buying? I love charity kits and this one is particularly amazing - I can't wait to see what these ladies come up with next! If you haven't already, run over and pick this baby up - it's even more amazing up close than in the preview! You can find it HERE

I'm Back!

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 21:41:00 +0000

I know it's been forever and I don't know if anyone's still out there LOL, but I finally took the time to sit down and figure out the new Blogger! And, now that I have my own graphics back in place, I'm feeling a whole new sense of blog love - at least for today anyway :) Of course now that I've figure out how to customize this bad boy, I'm anxious to create a new header and spruce things up a bit for spring, we'll see how that goes.

I've been pretty busy in the almost two months since I last posted. My parents came out for a visit, so we had a lot of fun with them! We made a trip out to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum - something I always love to do - and got our carpet cleaned too (something I didn't love as much LOL!). All in all it was a good visit. And, my little brother Mike is coming out to visit in about a week and a half with his wife and their little girl Hannah - I'm totally excited to see them!

I also found a new salsa that I'm in love with - Nanna's Sassy Salsa in Medium - which I understand you can buy at the Tucson airport (I bought mine at the 4th avenue street fair last weekend) and in Phoenix somewhere at their store. I also really love Sting-n-Linger salsa, but I can't seem to get that here in Tucson anymore. I think we're just gonna order a case and have it shipped to us - we really eat a lot of salsa LOL!

And, last but not least, I'm totally obsessed with knitting and crocheting now! I just taught myself crochet last weekend in order to make some booties for a baby shower and now I'm starting in on an afghan! So, now I have a cabled scarf and a fun fur baby blanket going on the knitting needles and the afghan and a stuffed bunny going on the crochet hook! I tell ya, I'm kinda crazy about these things. But, I figure I'll just work at them little by little while I'm watching TV and someday I'll finish them! The bunny is actually pretty close - he just needs his arms and legs yet - I'm hoping to finish it for Hannah when she gets here :) Plus, I've also been feeling the urge to scrap more this week - I couldn't do much with our guests here so all my mojo has been piling up and I'm itching to create! I did a couple of layouts with Nancie Rowe Janitz's Sassafrass Tea kit this week - I just love that thing! Highly recommended :)

Still a bad boring blogger, but hey, it's my birthday :)

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:22:00 +0000

So, my blog is still hopelessly boring after the unfortunate conversion to the "new" blogger and that has left me none too excited to post - hence it's been forever LOL! So, just a quick post today to say thanks for the sweet birthday greetings and goodies I've received from various folks online and in real life :) I still can't quite believe I'm 33 today, but it's actually a little weirder that my little brothers just turned 29 and 26! Their birthdays are really close to mine -Dave's was yesterday and Mike's was on the 30th - weird huh? Mike was actually due on the 5th so we tease him a lot that he messed up the cool three-birthdays-in-a-row thing by coming early LOL!

In other news, I've taken up knitting! And, so far, I've finished three hats, a scarf, a bag and a felted bowl. I'm now on to creating a little poncho for my niece when they come to visit this spring - it's gonna be really cute :) I've really enjoyed the knitting so far - I mostly work on it at lunch at work - we all sit in the cafeteria and knit - I gotta tell you, we get some strange looks LOL! But, it's nice to have something hands-on to do once in a while! The bag is pictured at left - it's exactly like one that Donna Downey made - I fell in love and had to make it! I tell ya, that woman has gotten me addicted to more fun projects LOL!

On the scrapping front, this last month was my two year anniversary as a digital scrapper! It's hard to believe it's been that long and that I've stuck with it LOL! Hobbies usually pass pretty quickly with me, but this one has definitely stuck! I'm still lovin' it as much as in the beginning, so that's pretty cool! A lot of that is due to the fabulous teams I've been a part of, it's been wonderful making such good friends online! And, on that note, if you haven't been in to Scrapartist or Digichick lately, you must go! There is such great stuff in both shops right now I hardly know where to start! So, on that note, I'll sign off - I have to get some treats for work today - we do it like 3rd grade where you bring treats on your birthday :) I think I'm gonna pick up some bagels - yummy!

How long has it been?

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 17:49:00 +0000

since I last blogged? Way too long. Somehow the last month has completely gotten away from me. I've had a lot of stuff going on and I've been pretty stressed out, so ye olde blog just fell to the wayside. But, I wanted to stop in today to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Whatever you're celebrating this season, I hope the holidays will be a blessing to you and your family.

That brings me to my official rant-of-the-day portion of this post - the so-called "War on Christmas." I'm a Christian and Christmas is important to me as a religious holiday. But, I recognize that it's not that for a lot of other people and that it's become a broader social event in our country. I therefore don't understand why it's such a big deal if people say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays or whatever. As usual, I find Jim Wallis' thoughts on this topic insightful (frankly I just find the guy brilliant all around!):

"Does Jesus' message really depend on our being reminded to have a “Merry Christmas” just before we plunge into shopping malls and engage in orgies of holiday consumerism that run so directly contrary to his message? Are Wal-Mart and Target to be seen as critical places of theological and spiritual reflection?"

Amen. If there is a war on Christmas, to my mind that's where it is - the overwhelming materialism in our society, especially at Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I buy gifts and decorate the house and so forth too, but there has to be a limit and I feel like those limits are moving further and further out. So, I'm doing so charitable giving this year too and I hope you all will too - we're so blessed in this country and I think it's important to share with those who are not so fortunate. Okay, end of Christmas rant. On to happier things . . .

I started my birthday cards for next year last night. They're all designed and I have January's printed out. Last year I started printing out, addressing and signing all of my cards at the beginning of the year, but this year I'm gonna have to wait a little bit to print them all out as I'm running low on ink and funds to buy more - we bought a new truck, so extra spending money is limited right now. I really do recommend this approach though if you're someone who send birthday cards - it was so much easier throughout the year when the cards were all ready to go in the mail when I needed them!

I'm really looking forward to seeing my family next week too - I wish Bob could have come too, but maybe next year it will work out for both of us to go. I haven't seen any of my family since last Christmas as none of them were able to come out and visit us this year, so I'm really anxious to see them in person. I have two little nieces who I've never even met yet, so I'm dying to see them! There will be lots of photos taken, that's for sure!

So, I will see all of you after the new year - my parents have the world's most terrible dial-up internet connection, so I'll be offline for a while (I hope I survive it LOL!). I'm excited for a new year of working and scrapbooking and lots of fun projects to come! Oh, that reminds me, I'm trying to renew the Quirkle Journal swap over at Digital Art Quirks, so be sure to look for it in the forums. We're doing 4x6 artwork and there's some really great themes - I think it's going to be a fun swap - lots of talented ladies on board - I'd love to have lots of people join us! And, if you haven't been to Scrapartist of Digichick lately (how could that possibly be LOL) - be sure to check out all the fabulous stuff in their stores right now - I'm seriously overwhelmed by all the beautiful designs, I hardly know where to start!

P.S. Sorry for the world's most boring blog! I switched over to the new blogger and it screwed my whole layout up - I can't seem to figure out how to get my own header in, etc. Ugh. Maybe it's time for Typepad.

A Good Day

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 17:36:00 +0000

So far today is shaping up to be a good day! All in all, I'm pretty happy with how the elections turned out - hopefully we'll start to see some changes over the coming months. Honestly, I'm a huge fan of gridlock - the less power any one party has, the happier I am. That way no one group can go mad with power or get too far too fast. I'm all about slow, well-thought out progress! I hope we'll see some of that now.

The Scrapartist Apprentice kits also went up today in the Shoppe, so I'm madly downloading as we speak! I can't believe all the gorgeous kits the finalists created - and they're only $2! You can't beat that :)

Plus, there's some excitement in the works over at the Digichick too - mostly internal stuff, but I think those things make a big difference too. In a change for me over there, if you didn't see last week, I'm co-hosting the color challenge with Jacque which has been lots of fun already! Jacque's hosting this week and the color is red (my favorite!). Be sure to stop by and join in!

In work news, we're getting caught up . Our case list has been growing, but I think we're getting it under control! I've tried to employ a new deadline system for myself to keep me on task a bit more. I printed out some project tracker forms and set deadlines for each step of my workflow (even creating the wordperfect document LOL) so that I start to feel a little internal pressure if I let things sit too long. There's nothing like setting goals to keep yourself on track!

Finally, in totally random news, Coke Zero actually tastes like Coke! My grocery store was out of my beloved Diet Dr. Pepper, so I had to settle for something else and decided to try the Coke Zero. Much to my amazement it really does taste like Coke - well worth a try :)

Last Night

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:17:00 +0000

Guess what I got to do last night? Perhaps you've guessed from the photo at left (miserably grainy as it is LOL - boy do I need an SLR with a good lens!). That's right, I got to see an ex-president speak live and in person :) Whatever else you might say about Clinton, he's a fantastic speaker - I really enjoyed his speech. It's interesting to me how much the Democrats as a whole are reaching out to the center. I expected this to be a pretty party-oriented event, but I guess there must have been a lot of other independents attending besides me because that was definitely the target audience. It's nice to hear politicans talking about the "sacred middle ground" - that's certainly not the usual message these days, but there was a lot of talk about it at this event. Anyway, it's not everyday we get presidents in Tucson, so it was definitely a memorable event!

In more exciting news, my new printer/scanner arrived today! I ordered an Epson RX700 and I'm dying to start playing with it! It will scan negatives and slides and it's just a lot better scan quality than my current base-model HP. Plus, I can finally print 4x6's or cards or whatever at home - the sad old Epson printer I have right now will only print on 8.5x11 paper, so I have to trim everything, which is a huge pain in the butt. So, I have finally entered the modern printing world - very exciting!

Finally, Bob just called me and he has successfully burned his first CD! At 41 he missed the learn-to-work-a-computer-in-school era. I had some pictures from a former co-workers wedding that he wanted to give her today and so he had to do it on his own. Apparently it went off without a hitch! Yeah for small victories over technology :)

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 05:47:00 +0000

Just a quick picture of my current workspace - mainly I'm testing out BloggerBot, but I thought I'd post something at least marginally interesting LOL

Shopping!

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 21:15:00 +0000

I decided it was time for a little scrapbook shopping today! I got myself some goodies from Scrapbookgraphics, Two Peas and The Digi Shoppe to play with. I also got some inkjet transparencies from the office supply store this morning - I've been wanting some of those and finally found a decent price ($20 for 50 of them!) And, yesterday I went to the LSS and got some fun paper stuff - some binding coils for making little books and these great new folder things from 7Gypsies! I think I'm gonna use one of them for my book for Shimelle's class. I'm hoping to do some of it this weekend - Bob has to work for a while tomorrow so I'll have a little free creation time available :) I'm going to try and make it a mix of digi and paper scrapping - very eclectic so I don't have to worry too much about matching things up, etc. I'm excited to get started on it! I think the class itself is actually done now, but the beauty of her classes is that you can do them whenever! Perfect for me because I often just don't have time to get to it right when I get the prompts.

Now that our houseguest is gone, I also have free access to my home computer back so I've been scrapping up a storm! I did a couple layouts last night and a couple the night before - I'd post them here, but I forgot to email myself copies at work. If you want to check them out, they're at Scrapartist and The Digichick.

On a political note, I spent a long time last night trying to figure out what to vote on the 20 (that's right 20!) propositions on the Arizona ballot this year. I think I'm actually going to have to do some legal research on some of them to figure out which way to vote - that just seems odd to me. What do people do who don't know how to do the research? There's brochures and stuff, but they're often not all that clear either. I tell ya, being a citizen is hard work sometimes LOL Anyway, I got a mail-in ballot again this year so at least I have the time to stew it over and get it sent in.

Finally, on a not political, but very important note, be sure to stop by Scrapartist this Sunday for our Pink event - it's all to benefit breast cancer research! Definitely a great cause and I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun too!

Happy Friday!

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 22:30:00 +0000

I'm so glad it's finally Friday! I've been swamped at work today, but at least it's the end of the week! I'm definitely ready for the weekend! So, first of all, I want to say congratulations to all the talented ladies who made it to the next round in the Scrapartist Apprentice contest. I'm bummed that I wasn't among them, but maybe it worked out for the best since the next round requires some hand-drawing and I am really, really bad at that LOL! Anyway, I'll keep on learning and hopefully the right designing opportunity will come along for me when the time is right :) Thanks to all of you who have used my goodies and supported me along the way - it is much appreciated!

On a happier note, I did some shopping today and bought myself a bunch of stuff at the Scrapgirls sale! I just love their stuff :) And, I think I might scoop up a few things at Designer Digitals too, I just can't get into the store right now - I think it's my work screening it out, not sure. Oh, and I also got a paper pack from Jessica Bolton at Scrapbookgraphics - another store and designer I love :) Plus, there's lots of great new stuff in Carrie's shop at Fishscraps that I'm dying to play with and some great things at Scrapartist and Digichick too - so much fun stuff out there and hopefully now I'll have a little more time to scrap!

Finally, on a political note, if you haven't seen or heard about David Kuo's new book, "Tempting Faith," I highly recommend doing so. As a Christian myself, I have always felt that my faith informed my politics and that it was important for people of faith (along with everyone else) to get involved in our political system. But, I also feel very strongly that the separation of church and state is critical. Truly, the secular government may be one of the greatest human inventions ever. It just gets ugly when people play on religion to advance their political agenda and vice-versa. Kuo's book is the perfect evidence of how true that has been in the current White House. I saw Kuo on Stephen Colbert last night and he put it perfectly to my mind (this isn't an exact quote mind you, but it's close), "People need to understand that Jesus and George Bush are not the same person." Amen my brother. Anyway, that's my little rant for today. The more important, broader message - whatever your view, get out and vote in November - our country is at a critical point in history and we should all have a say in where it goes from here!

Praise Challenge!

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 17:08:00 +0000

Just a couple of quick things today - first of all, the Round 3 entries for the Apprentice challenge are in now and the previews are in the gallery - be sure to check them out if you haven't already! You can see mine HERE They were so much work, but I love how they came out! I had never done some of these things, so it was definitely a challenge, but I really learned a lot in the process. Now I'm just waiting on pins and needles to see if I make it to the next round!

Okay, now for the praise challenge! It's simple, you go to the Scrapartist gallery, you leave comments on at least five layouts, you leave me a note in the challenge thread letting me know you did it, I pick a winner tonight and send them a $5 gift certificate for Scrapartist! How easy is that? You can get all the details and enter HERE

Some "Basic" Layouts

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:45:00 +0000

I just love this kit! It's Scrapbook Graphics latest collaborative kit and it's just full of great stuff! Cool elements, fab neutral papers, I feel like this is a kit I'll be going back to again and again. Anyway, these are my first two layouts using it!

By way of a weekend update - this weekend was great! We went out to Safford on Sunday to visit our friends Deb and Wes and their kids (the cute red-headed ones I scrap all the time) along with Bob's friend Derek who's visiting Tucson from Salt Lake right now. We went up to Mt. Graham and had a great time cooking out, taking pictures and trying to hit rocks with sticks in a little bit of stick ball (okay, mostly the guys did that LOL).

Then, I had yesterday off because of Columbus Day, but Bob had to work so I had a whole day to myself! I slept in, did a little scrapping, and, of course, went shopping! I also found out that I made it to Round 3 in the Scrapartist Apprentice challenge so I was flying high the whole day! I'm so excited and honored to have gotten this far! I can't wait for the site to come back up so we can see everybody's stuff for the next round - I'm so amazed at all the talent we have in this thing!

This morning, however, was a different story! It was insane! First of all, we planted our winter rye grass last week so it has to be watered several times a day. I always water it for about 5 minutes right before I leave for work. So, this morning I get ready for work, lock the doors, put my stuff in the car and go out to the backyard to water the grass. My new pants don't have pockets, so I set my keys on our table on the patio. I water the grass, I close the gate to the backyard (we have a cement block wall all the way around our yard) and lock the padlock. I get in the car and realize I don't have my keys. They are now locked in the backyard! And, I can't get in the house to get the gate key or to go out the back door to the yard! I ended up having to jump over the gate! Can you imagine? LOL! It was nuts! But, I made it over, got my keys and jumped back over (because I still didn't have a key for the gate) and went to work. Then of course on the way to work, a woman completely runs the red light as I'm waiting to make a left turn and screeches to a halt about two feet from my front bumper! Talk about a close call! I was shaking! By the time I finally got to work, I was quite a mess! But, things have improved since then and I'm rolling along on the case I'm working on, so in the end, all is well - God was definitely watching out for me today! Oh yeah, I also bought a really cute skirt at lunch, so that improved my mood quite a bit LOL! By the way, if you live in Tucson or visit here there's a great little store downtown called Desert Bloom (it's where I got the skirt) that has great funky clothes, jewelry, bags, etc. Definitely a place to stop if you're in town!

A Little Something

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 18:32:00 +0000

Okay, I meant to give this away a while back when we had the Christine Adolph challenge at Scrapartist, but somehow I never got it put together LOL. So, today in an attempt to put off doing actual work, I finished up - it's the Iris brush that I used on my Inspiration layout based on Christine's gorgeous work. I'm not sure why Blogger is making the background black, but you'll get a transparent .png version and an .abr version made in PS7 in the zip. Hope you enjoy it :)

Download Link

Making Headway

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 17:35:00 +0000

I'm feeling somewhat accomplished today LOL! I'm making some headway on my list of things to do this week! Of course, really it's a list of things that I want to do, but need to find the time for. For example, this morning (at 5:30 am no less) I finished up my new day planner curtesy of Dianne Rigdon's brilliant templates. I'll post some photos another day, but it turned out great! I got a wonderful binder from EcoChic - their stuff is made by the urban poor in India from old plastic bags - how cool is that? Then I used some Iron Orchids Design papers to customize the templates, punched some holes and added some embellishments from my stash. Really easy and I think it turned out beautifully :)

I also signed up for a Shimelle class! I'm really excited about it - I've heard such good things. I always seem to miss her sign ups, but this time I made it - it's open until October 15. Hopefully it will be some nice inspiration - I've been feeling a little stuck in a rut and short on ideas lately.

So, now that I'm all organized, I'm blocking out some time for myself over the next few days to scrap my heart out :) I have a bunch of layouts due for various CT assignments and a harddrive full of some great new stuff, so now I just need the time to sit down and let the spirit flow! I have to go to a rub-elbows kind of lawyer event tonight, but it usually ends pretty early, so hopefully I can even get a start tonight. And, speaking of lawyering, I guess it's time for me to get to work :) If you haven't already, be sure to check out the Apprentice Round 2 entries - some gorgeous stuff in there - I'm really nervous about making it to the next round, everyone's really good!

Round 2!

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 23:48:00 +0000

After much obsessing, I finally posted my Round 2 entry in the Apprentice contest! We were challenged to create two papers, one solid and one patterned, with lots of texture. Our instructions also included some gorgeous art inspiration with lots of "painterly" texture. So, I played off of that on my solid paper - it has a lot of great painted texture and went with a nice rich brown from the inspiration for my patterned paper. You wouldn't believe how many texture photos I took this week! I found what I wanted for this week and collected lots of great textures for future work - I just love to play with textures and blending! You can check out the papers HERE.

What a Fun Process!

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 21:27:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've been invovled in a scrapping contest and although I didn't realize it, I've really missed it. I made it to round 2 in the Scrapartist Apprentice contest this week and that's always a great feeling :) Plus, I've really enjoyed the process in this contest - I've really let myself take the time to revel in a bit of stewing on my designs! So, for the last few days, I've been filtering ideas and letting things simmer in my head a bit (it sounds like I'm cooking something here doesn't it LOL!). For this round, they've asked us to create a solid paper and a patterned paper with an emphasis on texture - they even gave us some gorgeous inspiration to start from :) I've settled on what I want to do for my solid paper now, just have to decide on a pattern for the patterned paper. The entries already up are gorgeous by the way - there is gonna be some tough competition in this round! Be sure to check them out :)

On another scrapping-related point, I saw on Anna Aspnes blog that she has a new pre-made album coming to Designer Digitals Sunday and it looks really cool! Lots of layering, brushwork, etc. - all that fabulous Anna style! I'm not usually one for templates and ready-made albums, but this is gonna be an exception :)

Oh, one more thing, we finally joined Netflix (which is great by the way!) and I got RV this week. I tried to watch it, I really did, but I only made it about 45 minutes before I couldn't take anymore. I love Robin Williams, so it made me sad, but it just really wasn't good. Batman Begins is in the mail to us right now - hopefully it will be better :) I like a good comicbook/superhero movie, so I'm hopeful! Which also reminds me, Heroes was great on Monday night! Another show to add to my list of things I can't miss - right now that list has only three other occupants (The Office, Project Runway and How I Met Your Mother), so it's time for some new blood :)

A Little Plug

lisa_vander_vliet@hotmail.com (Lisa) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:50:00 +0000

For my wonderful friend Ursula Schneider! I got my Scrapgirls newsletter today and saw it's official - Ursula is a Scrapgirls designer! Her first kit(pictured at left) is red (one of my favorite colors) and just wonderful! You can check it out HERE.