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  • This morning I put together some major yumminess. Fun packets of goodies for my helpers from the wanted post. Check them out:

    I’m still looking for that fan so you know, there could be goodies coming your way too. One of the things I put in there were some pages from this awesome ledger:

    It was three dollars at a sale last month. It is so wonderful, the writing, the size of the pages everything. I’ve used it on almost a dozen scrapbooking projects already (I know, I know, I need to scan them in). I had gotten a ledger from eBay a few years ago (gosh that’s a blast from the past, sometimes I forget how long I’ve been blogging!). But that one is sort of a journal, I want to paint in it, it’s very big, this one is a bit smaller, and since it was only three dollars I don’t feel absolutely horrible about tearing it apart.  Any way nothing makes me want to play with my supplies like organizing them, so I decided to make something up for Bj and my upcoming trip. We are headed to Alaska. By car. By this car in fact. That’s right, a 17 year old car with 200k + mileage. So I’m assuming there will be adventures and craziness, and a travel journal is a must. I thought it might be fun to go through my process a bit.

    This is how my little studio gets so insanely messy. I take stock of the things I have and want to use. While finding one thing I’ll come across something else that could work. Some of the things I have in this pile: my box of ephemera, mad libs, sticker binder pages, old sheet music, used paint pallets, knock knock stuff (of course), files, mat board, watercolor cold press paper, paper samples, ruled note book pages, prong fasteners, paint chips, post cards, paisley print cut from an old gift box, and lots of envelopes.

    Um lets stop for a minuet and think about how sweetly cool those tab things are. From a local shop here. Okay so now I’ve pulled more of a pile together. I also took some of the envelopes and cut the bottoms off and then sewed them back together so that they would fit better.
    Ready_to_drill
    Then I put the pages in order and clipped them together. I want to thank Donna Downey for introducing me to the wonder that is the fiskars drill. Damn I love this thing. It’s perfect for a project like this where it would be way to hard to line everything up and punch it. It’s also really messy. I have creative dust everywhere. I decided to use book binding rings like I did for my senior printmaking project:
    Senior_project
    Ah I loved that project. Anyway here is an open shot:

    I have these awesome Canada from Aa to Zz cards from Hemlock Printers that Sciarrino brought back from a graphic design conference for me. Since we’ll be driving through Canada I figured I could finally use them. I have such a hard time using things like this that I can’t get again.
    Closed
    I still have things to put in it. I used mat board for the covers, and I’m going to bring a piece of chip board with me wedged between the pages so I can use it to back a page when I want to write. I’ll keep you updated as I get it filled up a bit more.

    8 comments on Life is a Highway
  • I’m not going to lie. Sometimes it feels like Bj and I are only pretending to be grown ups and that someone is going to find us out soon. This weekend was definitely like that. We found out only a week ago that Bj and I would be going on a little trip for his work. Sort of a reward/get together thing. You should have seen Bj when he found out, all squealy and jumping around, a lot like I get. Okay maybe not that bad, but very excited none the less. And spouses were invited on this trip, and since I’m a spouse (!) I went.

    We flew out Friday and arrived early afternoon. We met up with a co-worker of his at the airport and his wife and set out to the Red Rock Resort, about 25 minuets away from the strip. I acted very grown up on the trip, only pulling out a box of Nerds once! But once we got to the hotel our true colors were able to shine. The boys loaded all the bags out of the taxi and no one was reaching for the one with the tan tag. I’ll look at it and say, "that’s not mine." Then my eyes get big and I look over at Bj and I’m like, "THAT’S NOT MINE!’ Oh shit! I had totally taken someone else’s bag. Well Bj grabbed it off the carasol and I didn’t even look twice at it, just started rolling it behind me. Of course now we’re way off the strip and we have this guy’s bag. So while Bj checks us in I call the number on the tag (a bar!) and tell them I have Peter’s bag. To which I hear, "Hey this girl has Pete’s bag!" Sweet, so I’ve got Pete’s bag. But Pete is at the Monte Carlo, and when I get his number from Dee’s Drinks I find out mine is safely locked up at the airport. 25 minuets away. So we go over to the consierge, and they’re all, "oh no, we can’t help you." Argh. Since a taxi ride there and back would be spendy we figure we’ll have to cut out of the welcome dinner early and scoot over there (since I was informed that I had all his medicines, though I didn’t look to check).

    Bj and I stow his bag and Pete’s in the (totally and amazing accented with green) room and go downstairs to look around. The place is all inclusive, they don’t want you leaving to go back to the strip. So there is a big casino, spa, bowling alley (72 lanes), movie theater, pools, clubs, restaurants, you get the idea. We complete a lap, barely going outside in the 110 degree heat (I’m melting, I’m melting) and then head back up to the room to change for the dinner. Once we get up there we find a little treat has been left for us:
    Goodies

    GET OUT! Sciarrino do you see those bananas? We downed those strawberries so fast. And to prove our geekiness I took the fruit home that we didn’t finish, but we didn’t even touch the champagne! Hehehe. So then down to dinner where I got to meet a lot of the awesome people Bj works with.  The organizer of this whole thing had heard about the bag fiasco, and in like two seconds had figured out what we were to do. She arranged for a car to take us to the airport and then the Monte Carlo. So we ate, and then decided with a few others that since we were headed to the strip we might as well take in a show. The latest thing that no one had seen was a Cirque du Soleil show, Zumanity. We don’t really know much about the show, but hey Cirque du Soleil, cool! So we head out to the strip early to do the bag exchange. Get down to the front of the hotel and they have a red rock limo waiting. For us. Because WE grabbed the wrong bag. Hehehehe. Awesome.

    We switched around the bags and after dealing with the bell hop at the Monte Carlo I was glad we weren’t staying there. So we hopped over to New York, New York and met up with everyone there. We started to get an idea of what we were in for when the group checked out the gift shop because I had to finish my ice cream:
    Bj_and_boa

    So we get to our seats and we’re all chatting when a sort of pre-show comes on and suddenly we are very glad not to be in the front rows. There’s are two, um, very voluptuous women, walking around, squeezing themselves between rows, and pressing their cleavage to guys’ faces.  There were some interesting people walking around: a stacked midget man in a dress, some really ripped guys, that kind of thing. Then the show starts, and it’s a sexed up version of regular Cirque du Soleil, and had some pretty amazing acts. Like these two women who are in this maybe four foot high bowl full of water, and they dive into it, spring out of it and balance all crazy on the side. I’m not going to do any kind of good job about describing it, but it was interesting, and funny. Man the people that they pulled from the audience, hilarious. But then best might have been comments from our group. One of them was a male cheerleader back in the day and his comment was priceless to the guy next to him as a topless woman was flipped around and caught almost impossibly by the guy on stage, "Ya, you wish you were a male cheerleader now, don’t you." LOL Bj and I could. not. stop. laughing. Then after the show, "You know when you watch Rocky you just want to fight?" LOLOLOLOL

    Ah fun times. We went back in the limo after a short spurt of gambling. Not for me thank you very much. The next day Bj had to get up for breakfast and a meeting, but I decided to sleep in and just wait until our private cabana and pool opened up. That’s right, private. We sat out there for a few hours eating, swimming, and not burning (which is amazing I think). After that we were going to go to a movie or something before the dinner thing, but we got back to the room and Bj fell asleep and I thought that sounded like a good idea. That night we had another dinner, with a magician brought in from another hotel, can’t remember his name, but he was funny. And I got to dress up in my dress rehearsal dinner dress so that was cool.

    They gave us some chips to gamble, but I sat down at a black jack table and immediately lost $50 which I couldn’t stand, so I choose to just watch. Very interesting, but not for me. Oh and you know what I really don’t get? Slots. I mean you are going to loose. The odds are not in your favor, and to just sit there and push a button? Mental. So we ended up bowling, which was fun. I managed to be the most schizophrenic bowler ever and get three strikes in a game, but still manage a 58 as my over all score.  I’d go like, 0, 0, strike, 3, 5, strike. I totally suck at bowling, but I like it. My arms just get tired and I loose control of the really heavy (9 lb.) ball. Meanwhile Bj’s in the other lane tossing a 14 pounder like an egg and getting a 160.

    Yesterday we hit the spa before we had to leave. We got scrub-and-rubs. They scrub this sugar stuff all over, then you shower, and they give you a massage. Ah so nice. We rushed back to the room, stuffed our stuff in the suitcases and headed to the airport. And we got to play grown up one more time when we upgraded to first class. Bj flies a lot for work so he has all these perks and miles and stuff. I’d never flown first class. Do you know they have their own bathroom and glass tumblers instead of plastic cups? It’s true! So that was our little adventure in being grown up, at the end of this week we have a real adventure coming up. I’d like to say that while I’m no big fan of Vegas overall (water, electricity, waste, etc.) I was so glad to spend some quality time with my man and meet a lot of great people.  I’m off to put together some fun stuff for the helpers in the last couple posts. Will update later!

    5 comments on Pretending to be grown-ups Vegas Style
  • Okay still no fan (I was secretly hoping someone would say, hey we have one in our attic!), but Tracey gave me some great leads, as did Elizabeth. But I do think I found my tins! Michele posted about Lee Valley, which looks awesome, and has great customer service. They emailed me back right away, and unfortunately their tins will not hold a magnet, but they do have great prices, you can check them out here.  The ones I’m going with are these (in the three ounce size), thank LeAnne for emailing me that info! I heard back from the company and their’s do attach to magnets, yeah!!!!  And Jenny, I can’t figure out how to email you back, but I have a question about this Target new version of my fan, specifically, is it loud? I need it loud. So all of you girls: Tracey, Elizabeth, Michele, LeAnee and Jenny email me at amberlee23 (at) hotmail (dot) com with your addresses so I can send you some packets of fun!
    Boxes
    I think I’m going to be digging into these newly organized boxes of goodness. But seriously whoever can hook me up with my fan’s twin is getting something good, really good. I’m going to start planning that now in the hopes that someday it will happen!

    Edited to add: These are the boxes, Stockholm Office Storage Boxes on sale right now at the Container Store.

    10 comments on Update!

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