Thursday, August 31, 2006

jesus h. christ.


nothing like a little last-minute decision-making. bolstered by this ranger u shenanigan, i decided to go for their design team too. but it's due tomorrow, the application. actually, given the hour, now that's today. so, um, eek. and i have a big class to teach tonight. 19 students, team-teaching with laura, this week we're focusing on alcohol inks and finishing our little recipe books. wahoo! oh, and i have to finish typing my writtenpart of the application, too. the part where i have to be coherent and not just artsy. oh, and also it's my little brother david's first year as a fire fighter working the firemen's fair and greenlawn's is the biggest and oldest in new york, so you better believe my ass is gonna be there tomorrow night after class! so here's a sneak peek of part of my entry... i don't think you're supposed to show the whole thing til after we know which is in like 900 years....
wish me luck, kids.....

Thursday, August 24, 2006

wednesday is my monday

so today it was back to work after three glorious days off. i love my job and all, but today we're going to re-live my weekend:

day one was sunday- spent it out on the island, celebrating my grandma teddy's 80th birthday with the fam. it was the first time grandma had had all her grandchildren in one spot in over ten years (of course we took tons of pictures!). i'm the oldest, & i still think of my cousins as my "little cousins" (probably cause it's been a really long time since i've seen any of them) but they're in their teens and early twenties now. mind-blowing. it was really cool to catch up with everyone & get to know the people they're growing into. capped off sunday with a little furniture donation from the folks- my mom brought over a hutch of my grandma's (other grandma- this one is my mom's mother. keep up, folks! i have 3 grandmas. each one has at least two names. there will be a quiz later.) that i've been coveting for like ever. so i did a little scrap-organizing. mostly, i piled. but i love my new hutch!

day two: monday. my weekend. aah. my friend kristi and i went gallivanting into the city to hit the ink pad (cutest little stamp store ever!) and go out to play with my friend jared. we ended up on a major search for this mythical ribbon store in midtown, and just when i was ready to give up and throw a grilled-cheese-demanding temper tantrum, jared goes, "check that end of the block and then meet me in front of h&m [four stores away, on the same block we were standing on] in like five minutes," and five minutes later, he calls me from like 9 blocks away. he found the damn store. j&m trimming. or m&j trimming. i forget. that's why i have a business card stashed somewhere. the name is not important. the rows and rows and rooms of trimmings and ribbons and buttons and beads and patches and sequins and charms and tchotchkes- they are what's important. oh, it was a fun place. you're definitely paying mid-town rent on your ribbon, but it's some sassy stuff, lemme tell you. got some delicious velvet rick-rack, along with a new scrapster supply i'm so psyched about i won't even mention it til i use it. monday was the laughingest day i'd spent in a while, and it felt real good to giggle, even if half the time it was cause we were getting lost for the seventeenth time (a field trip to the bronx was an added bonus, as far as i'm concerned. everyone should stop there on their way to harlem.)... 'twas also the first day of fun in recent memory on which i have not carried my camera for every minute. it was kinda nice. i can't act like i totally let go, though. miss k had my scrapster-back. she brought hers and we just kept making the boys take photos of us. by the end of the day jared was shouting "click click bloody click" at someone else for a change.

day three and the final day of my almost-mini-vacation was tuesday: a lovely day on which i slept quite late, and then spent much of the early afternoon lazing about under my favorite tree at the park around the corner from my house, reading a magical old book. the evening was a kind of milestone of sorts. (i think i might be getting old.) i went to my first (i can't believe i'm making this public. it's just too funny not to!) tupperware party. hee hee. a tupperware party, can you imagine? cranky little doesn't cook anymore, lives in her art studio and eats only take-out me, at a tupperware party! my friend colleen and i sat in the back and drank wine and made a rather excellent peanut gallery, really. the best part is i kept winning things, all night. the worst part is one of the things i won (and i'm still not sure how that happened) is the fun of my very own tupperware party. i don't even have a house and i need a tupperware party? you've got to be kidding me. i won a cool thingie to carry my markers around though.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

it doesn't feel like monday.

it feels like wednesday, or thursday, or something much further along than monday. and holy bananas. vacation is fun, but in our family it's also exhausting. there were 23 of us up there on lake winnnipesaukee (new hampshire). doing all manner of cheesy together-ness things. there will be photos soon one day when i'm un-tired enough to do all the wires necessary to get them on the computer. if i could get blogger to let me press enter, i'd do so here. consider yourself notified- this is a new paragraph: in other news, i made it into ranger u! i almost punked out on the application but someone threatened to punch me in the head if i didn't apply and besides, the whole damn application was finished i just couldn't get the computer to send it. but finally with the patient and kind help of my lovely aunt donna, i finally sent it off. 9 emails, my application took. can you imagine? anyway, i'm so freaking excited. i get to go to jerz to learn all about inks & embossing powders with robin beam and tim holtz, in september. (provided i can afford the damn hotel, of course. i hate money. but we're not dwelling in the practical today. today we're still in unbridled joy) i am amazed and honored and so freaking psyched to have the opportunity to learn from these incredible teachers. i'm trying to take this as a validation of this particular path, especially on the crappier days. in honor of ranger and the u, here's a rangerrific layout (made my own background paper using resist technique, rhonna stamps, and distress inks with cut & dry and water. the stamp says "prepare to be amazed" and the handwriting says "the world is not ready".):

Friday, August 04, 2006

ranger u is kicking my

ass. there, i said it. and i'm not even there yet! notice i said "yet". i'm doing positive thinking. finishing my application. having a bloody coronary because i left the disc with the first half of my app and my revised, whittled-down class list at the store. i figured that was God telling me to stop worrying about the paperwork and play. so i did. i photographed some projects to send off- my man book, a few layouts and anything particularyl ranger-y. i made this fun new layout using paper i made with ranger color wash and one of my favorite stamps. you know, product junkie i may be, but i still love it so much when i all i need to make a great layout is papers, inks and a good stamp or two. oh- and i realize i just scrapped that photo the other day but hey, it was part of a series, and it works. besides the folks at ranger don't know abou the other layout, and i decided that one wasn't ranger-y enough to send. ugh, this is worse than applying for regular college ever was! and to think i'm supposed to be ready to go away on vacation tomorrow. who do i think i'm kidding?! (she types at 3:27am while she could very well be packing).
ps- the stamp reads: do the thing you love more than anything in life! you might become a bit unpredictable (sometimes cranky),but you will be happier than you ever imagined possible. cross your fingers for me, kids.