Kool Kitty Musings

So long summer...

It's been a funny old weekend. Friday night went out for a family meal for my birthday (now that my brother is back from Phoenix) which included the best part of a bottle of Merlot (and I NEVER drink wine!!) followed up by a fair few shots of the homemade lemon vodka. Yikes the stuff nearer the bottom of the bottle is a lot stronger than the previous offerings!

Saturday was more or less a day of leisure (as I took my sweet time getting up out of bed!) and I totally intended to get some cards made - I did! But well I got distracted with other things and caught up watching my dvd rentals from Lovefilm - gee, you never know what they're going to send you next! It's a complete travesty compared to good old amazon dvd rental... But there is now no other service that seems better... {sigh}

And today, well, I wasn't intending on washing my car... but I kind of did.

Then it rained.

And it's been raining ever since, and so faced with this farewell to summer, I finally got the stash out and tried to catch up on a few card sketches, not to mention use up some bits and pieces from kits! I've had to cancel my sub to Scarlet Lime - no space for new kit stash and my LO productivity is really too low to justify it right now not to mention I need to lay off the credit card! :o\

Oh and I did remember to take a photo in daylight of the stamped rsvp card I made last week, looks a bit better:

But onto today's cards. First up CPS sketch #78 (going back in time here.... doo-do-dooo-do... insert Twilight Zone music...)

• Lots of bits and pieces from a Scarlet Lime kit
• Carolee's alpha stickers
• Bling crystals and American Crafts brads

Next up, another October Afternoon card - I know, I just love this particular line with its apples and cute woodland creatures! ;o) And of course I had to play with my new scallop punch again!

Leaping rabbits eh?

And finally, the current CPS sketch challenge is to pick a past sketch make a card and something else to go with it using the same sketch, I picked # 62:

• Basic Grey patterned paper
• Heidi Swapp chipboard
• SEI brads
• May Arts ribbon
• Papertrey Ink greeting
• Prima flowers and bling

And here's the matching gift tag:

I bought some teeny 2 x 3 inch gift tag envelopes in Paper Source in Chicago so I thought I'd get using them - OK, one!

Right, off to enjoy the rest of my Sunday evening - or in reality, pack my gym bag, wash-up, take a bath...

150 cards down...

Still have 206 to make this year!

Slowly but surely I'm not giving up just yet... and here's the latest, the challenge at Scrapper's daily dose was to make a friendship card:

• October Afternoon papers and rub-ons
• Making Memories flower and buttons

I made stuff!

Although the pics leave a bit to be desired:

This card is a lot cuter in real life - the light blue on white makes it hard to photograph, but I played with my new chatterbox birdie stamps plus my fave Sassafras font, embossed in the cuttlebug and stickled to my heart's content, with a dash of bling for good measure! I may try and take a better pic of this one in daylight if I get chance.

Playing with my new Fiskars punch, still not quite got the hang of doing full scalloped squares and I love my new MM gathered ribbon! ;o)

Last but not least, decided to try and start up on the CPS sketches again, so this is the latest one, #79:

SEI and GSD papers, plus SEI and Chatterbox die-cuts, Hambly rub-on and Papertrey Ink greeting, and 3D foam galore.

Back to work tomorrow so I am off to tidy up and get to bed!

I promise...

Tomorrow, I will make STUFF.

Today I had every intention of unpacking my small stash of new purchases and getting down and making stuff, but I had to tidy my desk, find homes for some of my birthday presents from yesterday and well do 6 month's worth of accounts in Microsoft Money before my brain could finally rest - no putting off that little task again!

The weather has been funny all day, every time I made a move to go into the garden to start reading a new book in that lovely sunshine, it went cold and cloudy... so here we are early Sunday evening and I've managed to do almost zero interesting things today.

I started going through a few photos from my holiday, and my god hot weather and endless supplies of delicious food so do not agree with my body - I look ghastly in so very many pics and I don't even feature in too many photos, as I am usually behind the camera, but there are some ok ones, enough for the album...

Just a shame there are sooo many tourists always milling about! :oP

But, tomorrow will be a different tale, although dinner is about to arrive courtesy of the local delish Chinese takeaway and after that I shall be watching a few DVDs as the telly is not offering up too much this evening - so probably no stuff tonight!

And after my time spent in MS Money, it's a good job I've gone on kit break for a while. The latest Scarlet Lime kit (Aug) didn't arrive in time for this weekend, but Sept. will be my last. If there are any must have kits after that one, I'll just have to hope there will be one free for a one off purchase.

Right, dinner's here, must scoot!

Back to real life

So finally I am back on the diet bandwagon, made slightly easier than previous attempts at getting back on the bandwagon by trying the lamb mousakka recipe from the latest Slimming World mag - fab, filling, and almost syn free!

I have so far lost 3 of the many lbs I gained, been to the gym today and OMG it was like trying to swim through treacle... eek. Let's hope it gets easier soon and I no longer feel like a total wimp. At least my Wii Fit age hasn't come in at geriatric which I was fearing! No just a respectable 29 yesterday and 33 today.

Other than that I have been enjoying season 3 of The Closer courtesy of my DVD purchase, and tried my new Bath and Bodyworks summer glow cherry blossom body lotion. At last a fake tanning lotion that doesn't smell!! It's lovely and I will definitely have to invest more in B&BW's line of tinted moisturisers on the next trip Stateside.

Just been chatting to my brother who is currently in Phoenix, Arizona where it's 105 degrees - yikes, I think he is just sitting next to the nearest air con vent right now.

Oh and I have been given an orchid for my birthday, if anyone has any tips on how not to kill this gorgeous plant, please let me know. It's currently living on my desk in good health - I just want to keep it that way!

While I was unpacking...

I took a few photos - just so I could remember what the heck I bought! Not much in the way of stash here... but there's time for that another day and I didn't go overboard there! Nope!

I don't even want to think about how much I spent in Sephora but at least my Bath and Bodyworks haul has been restocked slightly! ;o)

Just blew in from the Windy City

Well kind of, technically I blew in home yesterday afternoon from the Windy City, which is indeed mighty pretty!

However, I still have to unpack tonight, I was too caught up in the latest Harriet Evans book I started on the flight home to stop reading it - great read!

No jet lag in sight yet, but it may come on when I finally have to unpack all the stuff in my suitcases. hehe

Right, time for tea first - my Polish auntie in Chicago is the incarnation of Tula's mother in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I have put something close to a stone of weight on! My God. A general 1-hour-post-meal talk goes something along the lines of this:

Maria Portokalos: Ian, are you hungry?
Ian Miller: Uh no, I already ate.
Maria Portokalos: Okay, I make you something.

A lot of delicious "somethings" were made! :o) And often followed up with my uncle's home-made lemon vodka - for which we now have a recipe, somewhere... The record was 7 shots in one night, ye gads, but no hang-over so there ya go...

So long, farewell...

Back in 2 weeks!

In the meantime just doing the last-minute rounds before heading to chicago in the early hours tomorrow. ;o)

I saw it!

But I sooo need to see it again! And then, maybe I'll pack! ;o)