Is It Possible

to be in love with a vacuum? Because I am. Here's the story... Grandpa + Grandma Miles were earning a vacuum. Yes, earning. That means they needed to have 10 friends see a presentation and then after 10 friends saw the presentation they had to find one person to buy one. Only one. Not one of the ten. Easy enough right? Well, we have no money. We were happy to be one of the ten [well, not exactly happy, I mean... who really wants to sit through a vacuum presentation. Really]. Funny thing though. I'm usually really, really irritated with the whole presentation system. This time though I wanted to vacuum my entire house. And clean all of my carpets. Sweep my floors. Dust my baseboards. Leave the vacuum running for days to clean all the air. The lady said, "here, try out this attachment." And I said, "okay, I'll be back in half an hour." Next attachment, same thing. It's magic. I want it. I really, really want it.

The Toothfairy

is notoriously flakey at our house. You can read about it here. And here. So this week, when I realized I am quickly running out of month, I decided it's time to do a page about it. Plus, I've had these photos in my holding file and they're some of the first I see. That always makes a difference. I fall into the category of, "out of sight out of mind," thinker. Anyway. This is *A*. He lost his two front teeth on consecutive days. The toothfairy missed them both. After a bit of fumbling she made a nice recovery. All is well. All dollars accounted for. The first was found after a quick "check" in the jumble of covers/under the bed. The second? Well, wouldn't you know that sneaky toothfairy had tucked it under a piece of yarn that is tied around the bar on his bed. I just happened to see it when I was looking for something in his room... three days later.

This template is a modified version of the very first one I ever made. I can't believe I'm up to 39 now. Crazy.

For this layout I used the Kitschy Digitals Vintage Frames again. Love them! I also used Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend Elements, and Queen of Quirk/Paislee Press You Are Here Paper all from JS. The paint is Spencer Nugent Garage Grunge Brushes 4 from DHD.

I Just Might Be

a repressed greeting card designer. All the paintings in my head are leaning more towards being greeting cards than actual fine art. I guess that's okay by me. I get a kick out of them and it makes them fun to paint. This one is called, "I Give a Flying Shoe."

I decided to quit while I was ahead. The more I fussed with it the more I kept messing it up. After I repainted a face three times I called it good. Can you tell those are wings or am I going to have to fuss a bit more?

Girl Friday

Today the girl insisted on popcorn for lunch. Really? We don't even have any of the healthy popcorn. So I compromised. She could have popcorn + cheese + banana. When I got it all laid out I realized that she must be white today [well, with the exception of the nasty fake butter stuff]. She also had a glass of milk. I think I'll give her a few mini-marshmallows when she's done.

I've been hyperfocused painting the past little bit and the blog seems to be suffering some withdrawls. I'm hoping to make up for that with a new template in the box. It's for the page I did last week. The one with the goofy glasses [aka: smartie face]. The zipped file contains the template complete with a sample page layer and a list of products used in the sample layer - you'll just want to disappear those [I'm not sure what the correct term there is]. The file was too big so I had delete the preview, but you can see it here. Also, I've added a terms of use page that has a quote from Mondo Beyondo that I really liked. It's a PSD file also so you can disappear the terms and print the quote [that's it down there at the bottom of the post]. Hope you like it. I'm wondering how these work out. I'm planning on sharing a template at JS in a few months and would like some feedback on ease of use/kinks/likes/dislikes, etc. so if you download this please let me know and if you use it I'd love to see your page and get your thoughts on the files. Thanks!

ps. That speech block was totally inspired by Queen of Quirk. I loved using hers on the page I made and decided to make one for the template [though admittedly, mine is a bit wonky. If you prefer not wonky pick up hers. It's very straight and pretty :)]. It totally made the difference in the template [in my opinion]. It may be too close and against the rules. If someone knows please let me know and I'll take it off.

Valentines Day

should be renamed Dia de los Dulces. Or Candy Day. I cannot believe how much candy the kids ate today. I had actually made them cute valentines, but decided to have a separate day to show the love since they came home with loads from school. *B* surprised me with a day off of work and he made us all breakfast. That was nice. He also gave me the traditional box of chocolates and the whole family went out for heart shaped pizza to celebrate his birthday. Getting older :). Anyway, back to Dia de los Dulces. Today, after a box of chocolates, I realized that it's time. Little man *E* is coming up on seven months. I am getting fatter everyday. Being the all or nothing girl that I am it's got to be drastic. Time to bust out the Body for Life book again [though I may need to throw in some South Beach phase one-type work in the begining to get past this sugar addiction]. So there you go. Sorry that you're going to have to listen to me talking about this again. I will spare you the before and after photos this time. I'll even spare you the measurement updates. That's all I can promise. Thanks for listening.

After Much Fussing

here is my 2nd painting for Get Your Paint On. It's actually the one I started last week and abandoned. I'm still wondering if I should have left it on the shelf and worked the idea on it's own canvas, but whatever. This painting is the result of two ideas. The first being a line from this song. "Find a lock to open up a key." The second being a quote from Rumi, "You suppose that you are the lock on the door but you are the key that opens it." Obviously, I'm hyperfocused on my word: OPEN. It's all good. And can I just pat myself on the back because I totally nailed that key. I'm so proud of it. The rest, not so much [though I do kind of like the background], but the key... whoohoo!

I'm tossing around the idea of adding words to it. What say you?

I used to have a craft room

that looked like this: Girlie brought me a disk that she wanted to watch and I knew it just had photos on it so I tried to talk her out of it, but she's not really one to be swayed. So we "watched" it. This particular photo was taken in 2007 and it was titled, "Who made this big mess?" That was back when I used to tag and title my photos after I took them. And then true to form I would promptly lose them in a pile of disks that I always know are there but have no idea what's really on them. Anyway, just wanted to say that I used to have a craft room. These days I'm not even sure if I'm going to have a bedroom for much longer. Hmm. I'm thinking it was right after this that I sold all of my paper scrapbooking stuff. I miss having a craftroom. Even if it was a big mess. Seriously.

Mandi Makes

scrapbook pages and templates. And it takes her far too long. It's ridiculous. But whatever. Here's the latest using Kitschy Digitals Vintage Photo Frames: I also used: Queen of Quirk: In Bloom Paper + Elements Packs [available monday!] from JS. Queen of Quirk + Paislee Press: You Are Here Kit from JS. Spencer Nugent: Garage Grunge Brushes 4 from DHD.

Get Your Paint On

is awesome! I am painting! I am so excited about that fact. This is my third attempt at my first painting. I started one. It was an inspired one. The idea for it popped into my head at 3 a.m. I had to grab a pencil and jot it all down before going back to bed. The next morning I was practically giddy to paint. I even worked some collage in there. The bacground was beautiful. Exactly what I was looking for. The terrible thing is that I really have no idea how to paint. Not really. Not with acrylics. WhenI started the more detailed part of the painting I ruined it. When I tried to fix it I ruined it even more. Ready to cry, I e-mailed the teachers [Mati + Lisa] and got some encouragement back. Some much needed encouragement. And a gentle reminder that this assignment was all about shapes and color. I needed to go more basic. That first attempt? On the shelf. I may go back to it and see if it's salvageable. The second? I really, really hated the colors. The third attempt? Here you go: As I was working on the second the idea that the center block on a log cabin quilt is symbolic of the heart of the home was working it's way around my mind along with the thought to keep it simple. I thought it would be fun to start out timidly with barely there color and work outwardly until the colors were bold and full. Completely saturated. Coming out of my shell. That's another Mondo Beyondo dream.

Mandi Makes

Inspirational lunch sacks. Made with Kitschy Digitals Monotone Fresh Feathers Kit. As I was pulling this project together I thought of what I could tell you about it. My immediate thought was, "don't try this at home!" But that sounds so discouraging. Truth told, this project was frustrating and discouraging, but not to be undone, I forged ahead and have figured it out. Printing on three bags with success? I call it smashing hit. You may now proceed with confidence. Just make sure you follow these three simple rules for printing:

1. Print a trial run on a plain sheet of letter paper [with marks indicating the way the paper will feed into the printer] including crop marks.
2. This part might be confusing as explained. Ask if you need to... You'll want to change the direction of the fold on the bottom of the bag so that it's on the side with the seam. You don't want to print on the seam side so you're making your printing surface one solid, flat sheet, so to speak.
3. Use your trial run as a stabilizer for your bag by taping the bag directly to the paper. You'll want to tape the entire length of the bag end that will feed first as well as up the sides a bit. Then add pieces to the thickest parts so they will lay as close to the paper as possible.

Good Luck. "May the force be with you." Or if you prefer, "May the odds be ever in your favor."

[insert mischievous smile here]