I Wanna Believe!

So, I saw it this afternoon...The X-Files movie. It was fine, but it wasn't spectacular. I really wish they had stuck with the mythology, the aliens, the plausable deniability. I wanted to see the baby, William! And David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are getting old!!! Yikes!! On one hand it was nice, that they've allowed themselves to age gracefully, but I guess I still want to see them as they were, dark, brooding, and gorgeous Fox Mulder and the smart man's uber babe, Dana Scully. The acting left something to be desired, I felt like I was watching a George Lucas movie. I'd give the movie 2.5 stars. (You were right, Madame Cupcake!)

So far this summer I've seen Voyage to the Center of the Earth, The Dark Knight, and The X-Files. I've rented from Netflix: Into the Wild (which I loved, but was left so sad at the end), The Martian Child, and The Orphanage (Guillermo del Toro of El Labrinto del Fauno fame, creepy and dark at the same time). Looking forward to The Mummy 3, Wall-E, Mamma Mia.

I do love me a good flick!

I'll leave you with my 5 things for today...

1) happy mail (scrap stuff) from Elise Blaha, Frantic Stamper, and RVKC!
2) lunch with Bun-Bun
3) healthy eating
4) quickie pedicures
5) supporting close to my heart causes

oh, I forgot the best one!!!
6) $4.19/gal. for gasoline (altho' later in the afternoon it was $4.14!)

It almost sounded like a DARE!!! (Dedicated to Sharmaine!)

Hey Sharmaine!!! Post #4!!! And I must say, great minds think a like! I took this photo in Karen's Mom's garden last Friday. The diffraction of the light made me think of you, just like the sunrises from my front door. Synchronistic that we took a similar picture and my picture made me think of you?

Diffraction is a cool word. So is flocculation. I know it sounds bad, but flocculation is actually a scientific term! Of course, if you were really feeling sassy, you could say "FLOC YOU!" but then you'd be talking about clumping together or precipitation and I think that would take the fun out of saying the word! Talk about synchronicity, I first learned about flocculation when I went to NASA with my co-workers and then it appeared again in a document I'm reviewing for bottled water (and a really cool work opportunity!)

OK, enough science. On to paranormal science...

I'm gonna see the X-File movie on Thursday, especially as I perceive myself as being a bit of an X-Phile. I had the opportunity to show off my X-File (Phile?) knowledge when my cousin called yesterday and asked which X-Files episode was about the Peacock family. I pulled the title out of thin air...Home! whoo!!! I was so impressed with myself!!! I could not name the season, however, but IMDB provided that info in a jiffy.

ok, enough self-promotion!!! ow, ow! I got a cramp patting myself on the back!!! LOL!!!

5 good things for today...

1) No line at Starbucks this morning.
2) Watching a bird swoop from a ledge and catch a snak mid-air!
3) Wind whistling thru the leaves in the trees outside the office.
4) (As of this afternoon) No injuries from the So. Cal earthquake! 5.6 magnitude?!
5) 30 minute run on the treadmill, 30 minutes on the elliptical. (But why oh why am I running on the treadmill when the weather outside is sooooo beautiful?!)

Half way thru the week tomorrow! Yippee!!! : .)

warped sense of humor?!

Call Ripley's!!! This is Karen's wonky toe! (Hi Karen! : .) She broke a long time ago, didn't know it and it healed, but the bone is in 2 pieces. Now her pinky toe does this weird bendy thingy.
She can bend it at a right angle! Seriously!

Onward...

Engaged in some experimental cooking this evening. Wanted Shepherd's Pie, but instead of using instant mashed potatoes, I bot instant mashed yams. Next time I'll read the ingredients...Shepherd's Pie isn't so tasty with sugar and cinnamon flavored mashed yam topping. ergph!!! ick! Definitely an unusual taste sensation! 3 more servings, want some?!

My ears and nose are plugged. Not a good sign. Something must be blooming. I can barely hear out of my L ear. Must take more supplements, allergy meds, what?!?!?!?!

Finally...

5 good things about today!

1) Litehouse "Lite" Bleu Cheez Vinaigrette dressing. I think its being discontinued tho' : .(
{Yesssss, I am constantly thinking about fuds!}
2) Received Juno ATCs! Rockin' art!
3) RAK from Susan & Gina! Gnome playing cards and glitter butterfly stickers!
4) IM from Ben!
5) Edward, swoon!

I Like This Picture!

That's it. Nothin' much goin' on. Lazy Sunday.

A Day at the Beach with My BFF

Karen came to visit!!! (yep, the friend who's pictures I have not and who was not amenable to letting me take more, altho' I did take a lot of self-portraits! : .)
We spent Friday at the beach.
We also went to Starbucks, read books, watched movies, ate cake (it was her b-day recently after all!), went to a little local Etsy artists craft faire, talked, talked, talked, & talked!
Cherished moments!!!

Laser Music Video?!

Radiohead did this laser music video for their song, House of Cards.

That means no cameras!!! So very cool!!!

All you musically inclined geeky types, you can also download their data as noted here to play around with and create your own video to post on a utube group!

Thanks for the scoop, Bill!!!



Oh, and saw The Dark Knight. It was veeerrrryyy dark. I got so sad at the end too, can't really explain why. Maybe because of Heath. Anyway, disturbing too. This movie so should have been rated R.

Five things for today...
1) Warmer weather (more like summer!)
2) Understanding co-workers
3) Phone call from Dub-ya!
4) Eloise
5) Pancakes

For My Linda

It ain't Kate. Its Lance. He's the biker all the way to the left.
Just because he's mostly unidentifiable with his helmet and sunglasses
doesn't mean it isn't him!!!
Hee!!!
(P.S. Stop buying me stuff! You're wrecking my karma!!! LOL!!!)

I've been slacking on my 5 Good Things about the day, so here's the list for today...
1) Not much traffic on the way to work this morning.
2) Cycle class!
3) New headphones.
4) White strips.
5) Comments from Linda!

Its pronounced "Eye-Gore"

Dr. Friedrich von Frankenstein: You know, I'm a very prominent surgeon. I can do something about your hump.

Igor: What hump?

Walking around like Eye-Gore today. Kayaking was fun, but the muscle spasms are not! My shoulders are in my ears. No, that doesn't help the pain at all. I'll be finished with that bottle of Tylenol by bedtime tonite.

Kayaking this Saturday. So very awesome! So peaceful, so rhythmic, so soothing. We saw:

Harbor Seals
Pelicans
Sea Gulls
Cormorants
Sea Lions
Sea Otters
DOLPHINS!!!
Oceaniac Swifts
Flies
Giant Kelp
Turban Snails
Crabs
Sea Stars

Look both ways!!!

Gearing up!

Me and Dubin getting in the groove!


Cody, the tour guide. We bribed him with donuts. Breakfast of champions!


You can see a sea otter there at the bow of the closest kayak. Really.

Kayakers in the mist! Me and Bill. Perfectly coordinated, LOL!!!

Sea Lions, lots of 'em!

Dubin, what a dork!

Rafting, just like the Sea Otters.
{Russell, Phyllis, Bill, Me, Dubin, and Veronica}

Happy Birthday to my Bestest Girls!

My bestest friends Karen and Mad share the same birthday! How synchronistic is that?! So here's to you my
superwarmcaringcompassionatewonderfulbrilliant
Grilfiends!!!
Love you!!!

{I've known Karen since BK (before kids) 21 years now and this old picture is the only one I have of her! We so need to change that!!!}

Lucky Duck!

I am soooooo SPOILED!!!

MandyKay made me a holder for my butterfly series ATCs. Isn't it gorgeous?!
Its all handmade, even the little pockets! That's a button, on a button, on a button, on a button, all held together with a heart brad. Cool!!!

She also sent me this running skellie pendant! It makes me giggle!

Love both!!! Thanks MK!!! : .)

Good Morning Sunshine

I forgot to extend 2 projects for work. the brain reminded me AFTER THE FACT with a bolt upright bodily reaction at 4:23 AM. still reeling from the shock of it all. I'm gonna be tired today.

the good news is I achieved consensus on the projects without knowing. I just checked. so all of the above was for nothing.

shower now. lotion, perfume, dress, brush, blow dry and off to GET A CHAI with 100 mg of caffeine. I may need a cup of earl grey green tea after that, then a cup of good earth's spiced tea, then a cup of jasmine tea. then maybe a ROCKSTAR too from vendoland, if there's pomegranate. oooh, the roach coach sells rockstar. yay for rockstar, yay for the roach coach.

can you just feel the enthusiasm?

I think I'll go to Maple Leaf and get donuts for my work peeps too. chocolate old fashioned. yeah.

habe a gud day, Amigos!!!

I'm Seeing Yellow!

I saw Lance Armstrong today. He rode not 5 feet away from me coming into the finish of his
65 mile ride. And me without my camera!!! (I also had a Kate Hudson sighting. She ran the 5K race and was nice enough to have her picture taken with a few enthusiastic spectators!) More volunteer work for the Lance Armstrong Foundation's Livestrong Challenge this morning.

I like to give back to my running community and I volunteer at races occasionally. I was really excited to be part of this event. I didn't think about the purpose of the LAF. I was more interested in supporting the runners of the 5K, the x-sis-in-law. I didn't realize how emotional I would be surrounded by cancer survivors, especially the children and participants in honor and in memory of, hearing their stories.

Yep, it was a really hard morning.

Still very weepy. The past 2 weeks, I have been missing my Mom something awful. Today made me miss her more.

I also finally finished watching Into the Wild.

oh.

wow.

RIPPLES...small ones. Big ones.

heavy sigh.

Days like this really make me think of what it means to live this life. What purpose does it have. Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing? What's the frickin' point!
There are those who's struggle is so much harder than mine, but...

I am sure mine is important too.

I want light and wishes and hopes. Dreams. Connection. Love. Fairy cupcakes. For this life to have meaning.

yeah.

big DUDE!

5 Things...

uh...

1. Vintage 3D letters that used to be used for titling home movies and slides...Duuude!
2. Fairy Circles
3. Visiting perfect bebé Owen
4. Visiting Thomas and Lucas
5. Strawberry Shortcake

Immunity?!

o.k. I so didn't ever watch Survivor, but I get the concept of immunity. My bloggy pal Sharmaine from Australia (Tasmania) is in a design team contest over at Project Scrap Away.

Sharmaine rocks scrap layouts like you wouldn't believe!!! She's often the inspiration for my own work, and loves paint even more than me!!!

Please toodle over to her blog as well as PSA's site and give her some love so she moves forward in the challenge (P.S. vote for her too...on the right side of the blog, under "Who Will Win PSA...click on her square...S Kruijver.)

Merci mes amis!!! Happy Friday!!!

The photo is of tissue and paint decorated coasters. And yes, I did get the inspiration from one of Sharmaine's challenge submittals!

Edited:

5 GOOD things...(yeah, I've been slacking!)

1. Volunteer work, stuffing goodie bags for the Lance Armstrong Foundation events in San Jose this weekend. So inspiring to be surrounded by cancer survivors. The oh so hot Dr. Steve is doing the 100 mile ride : .) The x-sis-in-law is doing the 5K.
2. Soluble fiber.
3. One of these. Jamaica ROCKS the clean elegant art!
4. Rainier cherries. Crunchy!
5. This post by Rumor!!! She's an amazing kid! Fairy cupcakes..imagine! Wow!!!

Follow Your Bliss!

that's Joseph Campbell

o.k.
its been quite a day.
Monday is always hard.
I got up late b/c I was so tired,
then my x-sis-in-law called to let me know
that my x-grandfather-in-law died this morning.

very heavy sigh.

I went over to hang out with her after work.
had pizza and wine.
she seems alright.

I only got my envelope album photographed tonite,
its hot and I am exhausted.
Warning: photo heavy...get yourself a lil drinky-poo and read on : .)

So, I was paying bills and was trashing the envelopes and that flash of insight occurred. I gathered up the envys, stacked, and stitched them together in a little album. I added some of my favorite quotes and favorite bits I've been collecting for awhile. I wasn't going to include photos, but since I was going to make the album about the things that are close to my heart, I had to have some more documentation.

Title page...The album is held closed with a hair bungee and a plastic pistol.

You can't see the clear flowers, but they're there, button and brad centers and all. Painted bubble wrap. "Ask.Believe.Receive" thats in the Bible ya know...The pix on the other page is of my painty hands, the quote is "all art is an attempt to map the territory of the heart."

This next page has a mulberry covered heart, angel wings, pixs of my spinal x-rays, (o.k. my blood, I poked myself with a pair of scissors while working on this, so I had to make it more dramatic!) and the quote "you've got to trust your instincts, and let go of regret," which trails to the opposing page later on. Ticket to a past Sharks game. On it is a picture of Scott Hannan, my favorite (X) Sharks player. In a Sharks 'zine during that season, there was a photograph of a 14ish yo girl standing on the glass during warm-up to a game, with a sign that said "Merry Me Scottie." My friend Mike said, "Linda, I didn't think you were at the game last night!" HAHA!


The next page has a piece of art I created based on an activity from a design class I took at a local community college. I used acrylic paints and various objects to "stamp" the paper. The quote here says "Living in process is being open to insight & encounter. Creativity is being intensively absorbed in the process & giving it form." Gosh, I love that!!! I love process!!!

The next, self-explanatory : .) That's a Disneyland price tag.


"Hold on tight to your dreams." I love dragonflies & I was made in Japan. Couldn't be a mini album about me without evidence of my running.


My favorite punched butterflies, vintage/antique trim and a plastic grasshopper. Didya know that I LOVE bugs?! "Follow Your Bliss!!!" Doncha just love how the colors of the embellishments coordinate with the envelope?!

Intention. Mine is to be a couple.

I love The Wizard of Oz. I can relate to the Wicked Witch of the West! (Elphaba, you know her if you saw Wicked). The quote is from a Lee jeans commercial, "Whatever you do, don't flinch!" Tea bag tags from the next page.

Starbucks! Ode to Starbucks!!! Oh yes, my alter ego... And there go those butterflies again!!!


Butterflies punched from recycled painted scrap paper. Fish skeleton stamped on acetate, more recycled scrap paper.


Ooooh, Mike Ness and a camera from a Nikon ad. Pix MadRetz took of me at Queen's Bath in Princeville on Kauai. What a lovely afternoon!


Fin!!! The End!!!


5 things good things...a bit hard today

1. Sleeping in
2. Wendy was working at Starbucks...Always a bright spot in the day!
3. Light traffic.
4. Pesto pizza.
5. A place to put my thots.

Good Day Sunshine

Some recent art:

Album for "The Art is Found." I may never complete a challenge, but I like how the cover turned out! Tattoo fabric as seen on SiljeVanilje's blog, (the pencil roll) stitched with felt for a quilted look. The flower was made with the same fabric, button/brad/bling, felt, and netting.


I've also posted pixs of the "Grow" album I made out of a kit I purchased at Picture Me perfect. I changed the title to say "Sweet Life." Maya road tree album, various papers, embellies...All about me!








CD embellies we made at stamp club last...painted CD pieces, buttons, glitter glue, bling, and stamps.


Did you miss me??? I popped out for a quick 5 mile run...Do any of you know why people would just sit in their cars parked by the side of the road? Its a conundrum.

Nikki Peterson's Journey album class was very cool! I didn't get a chance to take pixs MandyKay, I'll try to do it tomorrow : .) I stayed at the store and cropped, got most of Ragged's album done.

Today, I also got a bee in my bonnet (hee!) and made an album out of envelopes from my personal mail. Recycle yeah!!! Landfill, no!!! I added my favorite bits from my stash, favorite quotes, and some photos. I'll try to photograph that later too. It turned out rather neat!!!

I got tagged to play this lil online game by MandyKay , but since I've done this already, I'm gonna change some of the questions...Tagees, feel free to answer which ever questions you prefer!

Game guidelines:

Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 4 people and posts their names with links to their blog, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answers.

Question #1
What was I doing 10 months ago? (Original Q: What was I doing 10 years ago?)

Hoping to get the all clear to run from the HOT Dr. Steve. That was a negative, Ghostrider.

Question #2
5 things on my to do list for today:

Journal and chai @ Starbucks, art, art, art, run
: .) Is there anything else?

Question #3
Snaks I enjoy:

Clementines...ok, most fruit, Jamba Juice, cupcakes, toast or tortillas with butter.

Question #4
Things I would do if I were a millionare:

Buy a house, travel to Ireland/Wales, Greece, Japan, donate to a literacy type cause.

Question #5
Places I have traveled to by plane in the past 5 years: (Original Q: Places I have lived.)

Chicago, IL; Research Triangle Park, NC; Portland, OR; Mexico City, Mexico; Kempner, TX; Kauai, HI; Paris, and various cities in the South of France.

Ok so my 4 tagees are...

Willow Grace [Mad]
Madame Cupcake [Lisa]
So Dear to My Heart [Linda]
Write On [Ragged]

Of course, if you'd like to play along...Rock on!!!

Ok, and enough with the fireworks people. The 4th is O.V.E.R. Did you know that Big Sur is STILL burning?! Sheesh!!! (Off my pedestal now!)

Habe a gud week, Friends!!! : .)

Edited: I forgot my 5 things for today...

1. protein/fruit shakes
2. the realization of how far I've come in my running since last year!
3. memories of my mom
4. new bras, jeans, and blouses (I went shopping, even tho' I only like to shop for scrapbook supplies)
5. I decided "not" to get a donut this morning, LOL!!!