Ok, with so many things I need to do today (website update, sewing, calling for yard estimates, cleaning...) I'm going to promise myself that I'll only spend 2 collective hours on the computer today. Timer is counting down so I'll make this quick...

So, last week I got my free iPod (http://www.freeipods.com) and couldn't really find any covers that appealed to the crafty in me so what's a girl to do? I made one. Took a couple failed attempts to really get the pattern down but with a little more tweaking, I think this one will work:



I got all these fabulous fabrics yesterday and pretty soon, it'll be a iPod cover factory in Gerbera-town!

This month's promo swap sorta sneaked up on me so I had to think of some cute, quick and reasonably priced promo material for Gerbera. Here's what I ended up doing...they're coloring pages:



I just need to put my promos in all the packages and then they're ready to go! With 33 packages going out...the post office is going to looove me!

Topic: Gluttony




I love gluttonous cupcakes and evil cherries!

Whew, am I pooped! After I got back from Kickboxing last night, Jim and I had to pull up the nasty old carpet in our game room because we're getting new carpet put in today!!! I don't know why we haven't done this sooner because the old carpet was soooooo bad. In it's heyday, it was a plush burnt orange shag carpet but over the years, it had pretty much flattened to nothing. It was absolutely hideous. Plus, after the situation with our poor, sick little Richard Parker...nothing was going to bring that carpet back from it's yuckiness. I'll post before/after pics when they're done!

The worst part about pulling up the carpet was that because the carpet was so old the padding underneath had disintegrated to a fine dust. When we tried sweeping it, all that did was release it into the air and cause huge coughing fits. We went through 3 vacuum bags and still had to get on our hands and knees to sweep it up with a hand broom and picker-upper. Ugh, that nasty yellow dust was everywhere!

On a bit of a happier note: that free ipod site really does work! I got mine yesterday!

I wanna put a movie on my blog! (Thanks, LJC)



Hah, Becky, you are a riot!

Theme: Seasons



I wasn't going to do this week's theme with things being so busy and all but as you can already tell, I couldn't help myself. So I decided to draw a chubby little Mother Nature. I originally had a beach ball next to her, representing Summer, but it ended up looking more like an eyeball. What would Mother Nature need with a torn out eyeball? Figured the color of her clothes could represent the warmth of summer. Once again blown away at the amazing illustrations!

I finished that crown of paper flowers a couple days ago. Once I got the hang of the flowers, it really didn't take all that long to complete it. Eventually, I was able to experiment a bit with the shapes and sizes...that's when the fun really started! I ended up using a stapler as well as wire to form the flowers. It seemed to hold up much better for me.



Hope she likes it!

Decided to go to classes yesterday. Not too bad: stupid math, Accounting, Fashion Fundamentals and International Marketing. My Int'l Mark. instructor is dreamy! I have got to be better about packing a lunch, though. I go from 8:55 to 2:30 without a break so if I don't eat during one of my mad rushes across the campus, I won't be able to chow down until about 3:00. Any yummy vegetarian sandwich ideas?

Jim's boss is Vegan so I made some Spiced Ginger Cupcakes with Lemony Frosting for his birthday. The ginger was super strong but was nicely balanced with the yummy lemon frosting. I highly suggest this recipe...heck, I strongly recommend all the recipes over at http://www.theppk.com/!

In high school, my friend use to make us little crowns to wear around school all day. Have you worn a crown in a while? You should, they really are fun! Anyway...her birthday is coming up and I was thinking of making her a crown similar to one seen on Craftster. We'll see how well it comes out!

Have you checked out all the fun February Sampler stuff? It's always such a treat when The Sampler arrives!

PS: can I just mention how addicted to Salpica Cilantro Green Olive Salsa I am?! It's got a couple of my favorite foods: cilantro and green olives. I'm in heaven!

It's funny how completely wrong gender stereotypes can be. You always hear of stories where the woman in a relationship is constantly picking up after the man. Not so in my house, definitely not so! I use to think that being messy comes along with the creativity gene but then I met Jim, quite possibly the cleanest and most creative man I've ever met. Damn, there goes my messy theory! I had one nickname growing up...Messy. It really has been a lifelong ailment.

One guess on how I'm going to try and better myself this year...that's right, picking up after myself. This really is at the heart of the problem. My bedroom and craft room aren't so much dirty as misplaced. I just need to get in the habit of putting things away, ugh.

So, I skipped out on classes yesterday and started putting our craft room in order. The shelves that replaced our closet are the worst but I am determined to get rid of some of the craft junk I have. Unfortunately, another one of my shortcomings happens to be that I'm easily distracted. So, while I'm de-cluttering my craft shelves I always come upon different things that I had totally forgotten about and since I'm not one to pass on a crafty moment or inspiration...there I am sitting in the middle of a mess making a Beaded Ring...



And here I am wasting more time by blogging but can blogging ever truly be time wasted? I think not!

I don't know how Jim deals with me?!

Topic: Balance

Now that's some balance!

I am taken aback by the amount of creativity over there. The contributor list is growing so large that I don't have enough time to go through each one but here are a few that I loved:

Jessica Kenenske
Leontine
wynlen
charlie
Ed Beals

I'm going to have so much fun looking through all the sites!

Thank you so much for all the sweet condolence notes. We got a "We're Sorry" card from our vet's office today and it got me all weepy again. They really are some of the sweetest people.

On a side but possibly related note, don't feel like going back to school yet so I'm completely ditching my first day of classes...don't need an entire hour and 15 min. to pick up a syllabus. Hope none of my professors are avid blog readers!

Sad news...we had to put our sweet little Richard Parker to sleep yesterday. His back legs had pretty much just given out and it was really hard for him to get around. He was such a sweet little kitty. I was sitting in the vet's waiting room with little tears rolling down my cheeks. Silly, huh? Kitty keeps on walking around looking for Mr. Parker. So sad.

Ugh, classes resume on Thursday so I've been trying to squeeze in as much crafting, movie watching, hanging out with Jimbo and cleaning as possible...ok, maybe not the cleaning! It's nice because if I watch a movie with Jimbo while knitting, I knock out three all at once! We watched Garden State (ridiculous that we hadn't seen it yet), Monty Python and The Holy Grail (always a classic), a ton of Star Trek: The Original Series (almost entirely though Season Two...onto Season Three!), Inugami (funky Japanese movie) and a couple original Outer Limit shows (not bad but I'm still a Twilight Zone gal!). Whew...that was a lot of movie watching!

Been working with my shiny-happy Print Gocco Machine lately. Waiting for the screen cleaner to show up, though, so I only have one master right now...I like to call it "Broccoli Buddies":



I had to redraw the original with the Carbon Pen that comes with the press, that's why the lines aren't a smooth as I would have liked them. I've been wanting to put this and other similar images ("As Close As Artichoke," "Friends of Fruit" and so on) on reusable shopping bags (similar in size and shape as the "Comida" bag Gerbera used to sell).

By the way, if anyone wants one of these four original prints, let me know and I'll throw it in the mail for ya! They were my trial runs and you'd be doing me a favor by taking one. I'm trying to clean this house not add more clutter but they're too cute for me just to throw away.

Jeez, if only classes weren't starting...I could get so much done!

After picking up Clean and Simple Scrapbooking I've decided to dip my toes into the incredibly huge scrapbooking pool. Cathy Zielske's layouts and designs are stunningly beautiful in their simplicity. She's all about creating scrapbooks that aren't about shoving tons of pictures on a page, instead it's usually one (maybe two or three) and then a small paragraph about that person or event. If you're a graphic designer (whether you're trained or not) and you need a bit of inspiration, I definitely recommend this book!

I don't know why I didn't scrapbook before, since I'm forever taking photographs! I'm ridiculously slow at this, however. I've had the book for the last one and a half months and I've completed a whopping two pages. I keep telling myself it's the journey not the destination. At this rate, I'll be on this freakin' journey until I'm 100!

While they are no where near as good as some of the pages out there, thought I'd show you the two I've completed:

One of Jimbo and I
One of My Sisters and I

I really lay on the corn when I scrapbook, huh? :0)

The only downside to the holiday season is that when it's all said and done, I end up missing my sisters terribly. Don't worry, I count myself lucky to have such amazing, strong, beautiful women in my life but would it hurt them to live just a little bit closer?! Remember Gelica and Yana: Booming International City!

I'm off to clean the house...ugh

Fabulous Ways to Bring in the New Year:
- Loosetooth's Calendar - she hasn't released it yet but when she does, I'll be one of the first in line!
- My Paper Crane's Fortune Cookies - with plushies as cute as these, who cares what your fortune is!
- Cactus Pony's My Diary (via Plain Mabel) - so cute, it'll make you want to keep a diary
- Naughty Secretary Club's Sweetheart Necklace - declare your New Year's Love!
- Becca Light's Cinnabun Scented Candle - a nice scent to always have around (plus the scent always sends happy thoughts of getting engaged)