Video: My Son

So my son is obsessed with the synchronized light shows on youtube. His favorite is in Frisco, Texas and to the tune of Wizards in Winter by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. C has taken to humming the song and performing what he calls "Christmas Lights" almost every time we drive. I used our video camera to record him doing it.

Then B saw his silly eye winking/blinking business and put that to the actual music. So while it looks like Cole was blinking to the song, the song was imported audio. The last two clips are from a different recording and also added in. I think it's pretty stinking cute, but I'm likely the most biased person out there.

About Me: Day 16

Day 16- Another picture of yourself

I can't find just a picture of me that's any amount of recent. So I'll post one that's semi-recent with my baby. We took this a couple days before Christmas so it's less than two weeks old.

No, that is not a photoshop filter (I wish!). My camera's flash card took a dump and isn't working with any computer or camera as of the day before Christmas (nice, right?). Anyhow, most of the pictures I could recover off of it look like this. So we're looking for a new card in the meantime. Woooo hoo. :)

Party Planning: Jungle Party Decor

So, these are starting to come later than late! But I finally retrieved a few pictures from my hard-drive.

I'll throw up a second post with the foody type details. But these are signs and some decorative aspects.

This was the sign we put outside the entrance door. There was hoof prints (cut from zebra fabric) leading up to the door from the parking lot. I even went through the trouble of spacing them the way they'd look in real life from a zebra walking. I didn't snap a picture of them before they were muddy and trampled. :(

Upon first walking in, you see two bundles of 6 of these. In yellow and green.

Weighted down by these!

And you have to walk under that. Unfortunately, I took most of my pictures post-party. The kids had taken my "Welcome to the Jungle" balloons home. The door pictured is the entrance/exit door. The balloons were by the door-side of the arch, but on opposite sides.

The food table is to the left in this picture. The favor basket and bags table is to the right.

My zebra fabric favor basket! This is the same fabric for the paw prints. There's a gift bag mess next to it because it was after the party. We put the bagged jungle chocolates in this basket and let adults and kids alike take them as they left.

The chocolates. These were divine! And tagged with my cute thank-you tags.

I used these large leaves under the serving dishes on the food table, as well as under the centerpiece bowls for the actual dining tables. Food table photos will be in a separate post.

This is my centerpiece set up. I got these leaves (by the dozen) from Oriental Trading. I believe you can find them in the Luau section of party decor. They were awesome. We used our monkey mix! Bought these bowls from Wal-Mart. Ribbon from Wal-Mart. Card-stock from Michael's.

Extra bushels of balloons randomly around the room. This was taken pre-party. My mom (backside) was prepping fruit for me while my Dad hung the jungle wall panels. I was doing balloons, table assembly and much more while B took Cole downtown to fetch the cake.

Finally, the view guests saw as they left! We had this printed at a Post-It store. It was 18" long, if I recall correctly. Love it.

Ribbon Head-band: Christmas

 I derived inspiration for this from Pink Tea's blog tutorial. But I believe that I made it my own. I used tacky glue to hold the wings in place. Then I decided to sew it to keep it extra sturdy since the head-band was going to become a small child's hair piece. I used two ribbons. Yellow and Pink.

I love it. I have three other ones to work on but the time that went into one just about burnt me out. My mid-20's cousin saw it and just about melted. She's since asked me to make her one with black, black, black, and maybe a little red. I have something in mind but we shall see.

Christmas Card

I wanted to make a Christmas card for my love, B. I wanted to do something insanely crafty so off I went. It had to have Christmas colors (Green and Red!) but also something love-y, thus the pink, which turned out excitingly well.

I downloaded a picture of a scrolly heart. I printed it and threw it over my red card-stock. I couldn't find my xacto blade, so I ended up having to use a utility knife!! I used the utility knife to score the paper and then grabbed teeny embroidery scissors to cut the pieces out. It was a total labor of love for the amount of time it took.

I wrote "I Love You" inside the heart on the face. The "sparkle" that is on the pink isn't from the paper. I used a spray-on adhesive to attach the red portion and it made the paper shimmer. At first I wasn't a fan but it gave it a special touch I ended up really liking. Then the inside!

I printed out a picture of us from our Spring Pictures with Trizza Grantham Photography. We were in green, white, pink, and denim. The colors were perfect! I free-handed a large heart for the other side of the card that I could write a message in. Here's what I wrote:

We fight. We laugh. We live. We drive each other crazy, but we're also each other's sanity. We make each other better people. Sometimes you make me want to tear my hair out, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I wouldn't change you for a thing. I Love You. Merry Christmas, Baby!

In hindsight, I wish I had the foresight to type this all out in a pretty script font and just cut around it. Next year I shall capitalize on that!

The back of the card. Hand drawn heart with "Made with Love for APL <3 BB" His nickname is APL (apple is how we pronounce it but it stands for a long name I gave him when we first started dating in high school). BB is my nickname from him.

I had fun with it. :)

About Me: Day 15

Day 15- Put your iPod Zune on shuffle: First 10 songs that play

For this, you have to realize just how much music I have. I listen to mostly alternative rock music. If there's pop on my player, it's going to be 90's era. Same with rap. I have scarcely any country at all.

I have it organized by decade (20-50's, 70's - 80's, 90's, 2000's) and then by some heavy type categories (Christian, Glee, Christmas, Danny Kaye Show, Weird Al, Opera, Everything). The things I wouldn't want in their decade folder, because I either have too much or because it's something I get in the mood for specifically. My "Everything" folder has everything (with the exception of Danny Kaye Shows and Christmas).

I went to my 'Everything' folder and shuffled it to get the results so it has a mix of all sorts.

1. Beth - Glee Cast
2. You and Me - Lifehouse
3. I Knew I Loved You - Savage Garden (Hah! 90's Playlist)
4. Sitting, Waiting, Wishing - Jack Johnson
5. Ain't That a Kick in the Head - Dean Martin
6. The Man You Love - Il Divo
7. Sway - Michael Buble
8. Black or White - Micheal Jackson
9. Kathy's Song - Simon and Garfunkel
10. Hate Me - Blue October

Merry Christmas!

We're finally cooling down from the holiday festivities. We went to the in-laws gathering for Christmas Eve and have yet to unload all of the awesome presents bestowed on us from it. We started the day off at my parents house today and traveled over to my grandma's house for the family gathering.

Lots of laughter, lots of fun, lots of catching up. Lots of videos of the mischievous times to be had at Grandma's house. I also made some time to visit with my best friend and drop off some presents for them.

I have lots of pictures to be posting on the blog of the things we've accomplished and gifted. And even videos of the merriment.

I hope everyone is having a fun Christmas!

I got gift cards to Michael's (after-Christmas specials, anyone?!) and my first quilling set. I'm very excited to test out quilling and hopefully can make some awesome gifts for everyone out of them this year. :)

Crafting Community?

I've never ever been a part of an outside crafting community of any sort. I'm really interested in sharing the things I make with those who have a similar interest in the creative juices. I'm also incredibly interested in people sharing their creative ideas, as many times I draw direct inspiration from them.

How would I have ever started down any crafting path without first taking inspiration from someone else?

My mother, who flawed though she may be, shares a fabulous sense of creative crafting genius with me -- introduced me to a new community. I call it a community because I'm not quite sure what to call it. It's very like facebook, only for crafters (stitchers to be more precise), and it's far more public. Granted, you can ramp up the privacy settings, but everyone can see everyone and chatter as they please unless you seriously change your settings.

It's quite a new experience. I'm not sure if I like it or if anything at all will grow from it, but it's neat to look around when I get a spare minute from the holiday rush. It's the first place short of this blog and thenest.com's craft board that I've ever posted pictures of the extent of my work. It's also the only place I've ever posted my blog link.

I'm not sure if I want this blog to be public, but I figure if there's one thing I'm sure of it, it's my extreme desire to share and inspire other people like me -- crafters, even would-be crafters. A crafting community seems the perfect place to share my blog, if I ever choose to share it anywhere.

All of that said, here's to more sharing from blog hits I get that are just happenstance, the community site: http://stitchtalk.com/

About Me: Day 14

Day 14- A picture of you and your family

I can't just do one. Ever.But I can stick with my recent photo theme and go "vintage".
Cole was 2 weeks old in this photo. He's wearing a reindeer outfit. The toddler is my nephew, Caiden.

These were taken by KB Photography in Salt Lake City, Utah. Before we moved home to California. This was in August 2008. Cole wasn't even a year old yet.

Revisited Review: PC Laptops

So, I’m quite pleased to have a follow-up to my negative review of PC Laptops. I had gotten to a point where I was not only lacking any amount of confidence in them, but had also sworn them off, posted public reviews of my recent encounter and told buying friends not to deal with them.

First Note: I never posted my negative review to PC Laptops itself or to their employees. I posted to general review websites.

I received a phone call on Thursday last week from Nick Blumberg, the on-site manager of the location my laptop was serviced at. He left me a message basically telling me who he was, mentioning having heard of a bad experience and wanting to square that away with me. He was incredibly business-like in his message.

Unfortunately, I was swamped with being the only care provider to my son and I don’t like to have a loud kid in the background when I try to deal with folks. I personally think it rude, so calling him back was out of the question. He called me on Friday as well, once again when I was busy with my son.

He then e-mailed me a general e-mail, to which I apologized, explained my son situation and told him I’d try to get him a return call ASAP.

Here’s where Nick did great: Nick told me that Saturday and Sunday were his off days and he’d have events he was obligated to BUT that he could squeeze in a talk to me, off business hours, if that’s the only time I had available. He included his personal cell phone number, offered texting as a further option of contact, and his work hours for Monday. He even empathized with a small child, as he has one too.

Fabulous!

I think it is a rare treat to find someone who’s not only good in customer relations but is willing to go a whole extra mile to ensure the most convenience for their customer as well as their comfort.

Monday rolls around and I finally sit down to give Nick a call, my child thoroughly distracted with his Dad. What were my problems with PC Laptops? Lack of communication, data lost, and the general mess of obtaining and sending disclosure forms.

The first thing Nick did after politely greeting me was address the disclosure problem. He’s said that the company is making the forms accessible online to avoid out-of-state messes in the future. Relief.

He listened quite politely about the lack of communication and the wrong information given to me. His response to that: He’ll talk with his employees to ensure that isn’t a problem in the future and he would like me to get in touch with him (by his e-mail, work phone, or personal cell number!) to let him know when I’ll be getting serviced in the future so that he can make sure I’m taken care of and have the feedback I need, as well as deserve.

The kicker I didn’t expect: Nick asked me about the data I lost. I mentioned that I lost all of my programs – including ones that I had purchased (Side Note: He asked further about the purchased programs with the intention of replacing them), as well as my browser including the bookmarks I’d gathered over the past few years and my saved passwords.

He told me that he couldn’t help me with restoring my passwords but that he could hopefully help me restore my bookmarks, as they are generally saved as a link file on your computer.

Nick wasn’t familiar with this aspect of technical work on a computer with my browser (Firefox) but he was unafraid of asking for the basic details from his techs that were and we sat on the phone for over 35 minutes sorting out the bookmark situation with the end result that made me extra happy.  I didn’t get my passwords back, which I hadn’t expected. But Nick was able to add my old bookmarks and merge them with my new ones.

He took it one step further by personally backing up my old and new bookmarks in a location that I know and can save before future send-ins.

As if Nick hadn’t already done enough for me, he actually listed out everything we’d talked about to that point and asked if there was anything more he could do to make me happy with their company again. I was flabbergasted.

The only thing I could want from that point on is the ability to personally ensure someone I trust was watching my computer and making sure I wasn’t getting jerked around – he already offered that to me.

I will say this: Nick is a unique employee. He is a rarity. Nick is the kind of employee that goes above and beyond the standard to ensure the absolute trust and comfort of his customers. He didn’t have to contact me and he certainly didn’t have to go to such lengths to make one person feel better. But, he did. He was outstanding, courteous, polite, easy to talk to, and I truly believe he was deeply apologetic for my bad experience.

I can quite happily say that I’ll be getting in touch with his superiors, be that a business owner or corporation, to highly praise his work. He single-handedly rebuilt my confidence within their store, when he truly didn’t have to.

About Me: Day 13

Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently

Short of doing a letter to actual family members that are upsetting me unknowingly and risking the chance of it being seen in the future, I'll stick to something basic. I seriously have nothing when I try to think of something to write about as there's honestly nothing that's hurt me recently that wouldn't be taboo to write about in one way or another.

So, B and I were playing around today while watching a movie. I brought my face in as he brought his cup-filled hand up and slap -- right in the face, specifically next to my eye. Here we go:

Dear Brandon,

      I really did not appreciate your unintentional assault to my left cheekbone. It seriously hurt me so bad and so surprisingly that I had to sit out for a few minutes, not talking, breathing very slow, and wiping off really obnoxious but uncontrollable tear seepage.

You did a really great job of not pushing me to brush it off immediately. In the past, it's been bad when I'm in pain and others persist in immediately expecting me to talk or allow comfort. I do the very best with a few minutes to let it pass before resuming normal activities.

I'm so glad I have you and that you've learned that about me. And that you respect that about me. But my eye has a swollen little lump next to it now and I really don't like that. At all. It throbbed a bit. Even while I snuggled your chest ten minutes later, I could feel the pressure and the throbbing.

Don't do it again. Or I shall cry and really milk it. I kid. Or do I? I love you.

Yours in Pain,
   Valerie

Party Planning: Invitations

These are a complete labor of love and have been drafted, revised, worked on, revised some more, worked some more, revised yet again, and finally -- completed. I took feedback from three different people at various stages of the project.

I had an idea in my head of the look I wanted. I gave that idea to my best friend, Amanda, while shopping for materials and she drew me to something I hadn't even considered. Jungle Animal buttons! What? We were at Michael's and went down the button aisle where we found the cutest buttons: giraffe, monkey, lion, zebra, and panda bear buttons. She told me I could hang them like a charm on the invite. I took it from there.

I bought a stamp online and a lot of giraffe print scrap-booking paper, with a cute giraffe silhouette border. I had a bunch of raffia twine still on hand from a previous clearance rack shopping expedition. And I went to work.

Originally I intended the giraffe silhouettes to be a belly band over the invite, but it became clear upon adding the raffia strung button charms that that just wouldn't do! So I cut the belly bands in half and pasted them to the front of the invite, below my cocoa colored ink stamped message.

I used a line or two from common jungle invite jingles and designed the rest of the invitation wording with the creative juices I have for poetry (HAH!). I spent hours working jungle animal silhouettes in paint for my border on the inside. (Note: I really could use some photoshop classes.) I used the print part of the giraffe page to use as a border to my interior.

My mom suggested I get those photo corners at a scrap-booking store so that Cole's interior picture could become a keepsake for his relatives. We only invited his endearing aunt's, uncle's and grandparents to his small bash. Brandon became my charm wielding, raffia-tying man and saved my life again. Have I mentioned I love this guy? He saves me whenever there's something to be tied! I'm a crafter and he ties a bow better than me.

With the aid of a printer, a cricut mini paper/ruler/graphing instrument (do those have a name?), some good old fashioned glue, double sided photo tabs and a professional tier, I had invitations. We had some perfect invitations.

Supplies: (All obtainable at a craft store: Ben Franklin Crafts, Michael's, JoAnn's, ect)

Raffia Twine
Scrapbook Paper (with border + print)
Brown/Cream Cardstock
Photo Corners (optional)
Animal Buttons or Charms
Photo Print (optional)
Scissors or Graph Scrapbooking Cutter
Printer or Pens
Stamp + Ink Pad (optional)
Gluestick or Double Sided Photo Tabs

Note: I'm not calling myself a creative genius or anything, but I will get a little upset if you use my little invite poetry without at least crediting me for it orally to those asking or in your blog, if applicable. Thanks. :)

About Me: Day 12

Day 12- How you found out about Blogger and why you made one

I used to be a big-time regular on the forums over at thenest.com. Blogging has become quite popular and a lot of the ladies posting over there would link their blogs into their forum signatures, resulting in blog clickability every time they posted anything.

Blogger was probably the most common "free" blog I saw used. When I was a regular on myspace, I used to be obsessed with blogging -- about anything and everything. I miss those days. Writing used to be a major outlet of mine. This blog was created with the intention of giving me a private place to throw my thoughts, post things I thought pretty, post things I selfishly crave (but never get), and just vent or rave if I want to.

I'm sure people stumble across this and I'm even more sure sometimes people scroll about and see whatever it is they're looking for. But I blog for me. At least, presently.

I have noticed that I tend to lean more towards and organized blog for crafting. I'm interested in seeing if my blog will remain that way. If it does, there's a good likelihood that I'll allow it to morph that way and begin to actually link my blog around. I draw a lot of inspiration from craft bloggers, it'd be a honor to return that.

Party: Clever Gift Tag

So, this idea came to me out of nowhere. I was looking at traditional round hole punches while at the Michael's. I had even added one to my cart to do the favor tag's hole punching so I could attach them with ribbon. As I was getting ready to check out, I ran into the $1 bins and saw all of these cute shaped hole punches. Wondered what I could do with them and Bam! Idea.

I made these.

Warning: These little hole punches are a nightmare to press through two layers of card-stock. B ended up getting out his tool to force the punch down and essentially destroyed the cute hole punch button. But for the amount of tags we generated and the cost ($2), we didn't mind. Next time, I'll be sure to consider the thickness of paper for the baby punches.

My end product:

I also used these tags on my chocolate favor bags for the adults. But those are saved on the external hard-drive and will have to be added at a later time.

Party Planning: Wood Signs

We found these little wood signs that were pre-stenciled with "Rainforest Cafe" and a leaf on them at the Dollar Tree Store. I picked them up planning to have them say clever things like "Don't Feed the Animals" or "Elephant Crossing" but when it came time to actually paint them up (read: two days before the party), we opted to paint them with more reasonable things.

My mom had the idea for "Out-Hut". I wanted something like Out-House, but thought it wasn't good for a Jungle. Brandon used a pencil to free-hand the letters and the shack. I painted it up. If you click the picture, you can see more detail. Doing the shack was very delicate and nerve-wracking. This directed the way to the bathroom.

My awesome B once again did my pencil free-handing. The little lizard was already on this pre-stenciled. B painted the lizard in and I painted in the "Go Wild!" This was hung over the gaming station of the party where we had an alligator ring toss game and a monkey bean bag toss game.

We decided to use the Tropical Cafe over the food section of the party.

Supplies: Wood Signs (Dollar Tree), Acrylic Paints (Michael's), Paintbrushes (Michael's)

Product Review: Mpix.com

I needed good prints of professional pictures I had. I had three purposes for said prints: 1) One to be used in Cole's party invites, 2) Prints for the Grandparent's for Christmas, 3) Prints to frame for my personal home.

I saw tons of recommendations for www.mpix.com on thenest.com forums I frequent every now and again. I decided to give them a shot. The prints were cheap, when compared to quick printers like walmart, walgreens, or rite aid. The prints were also customizable. You could edit them or choose multiple ways to print. Sizing was easy and you could even print albums or canvasses. The latter part is options I have yet to try.

We got away with a ton of prints for under $50, and I mean a ton. I did two sessions of printing. The package arrived in about 2 business days (so quick!) and they were packaged very safely. No show of finger touching or anything. The color is vibrant and beautiful.

They look like the type of company a professional photographer would use to order your prints in. I cannot rave highly enough about them.

And, for the invitation? Here's what they looked like on his card:

Big hit. And I used photo corners so the photo could be used by the recipients (aunts, uncles, grandparents).

About Me: Day 11

Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends

I decided to go old with this one. Picture Spam to ensue. You've been warned.

My sister and best friend, Katie and me. We were 13 and 14 respectively in this. I can't believe it now, but at the time of the photo, we actually thought these clothes looked great and that we were hot stuff. I just laugh now.

These next two pictures are from 2009, so not too old since we're just about to hit 2011. These are from a visit with her on leave before her first deployment to Spain.


A strip of 4 photos from a photobooth. We're totally glamorous. Gosh, these make me miss her. :(



And, the other lady in my life, Amanda. Just to show how far we go back, I found this from Kindergarten (!!).

And, one from 2006. Wow. It blows my mind how much we've changed since then.

Party Planning: Favor Bags

I finally dragged the missing one from the party box mess. I figured it was pretty overdue. Plus I was being productive already for the day and decided to add that to the list of things to finally get done.

I took some velvety touch scrapbook paper from Michael's, plain brown gift bags in 2 packs from the dollar store, and card-stock to my Mom's cricut.

I did the girl's names in orange card-stock. The boys got green names and the alternate color in animals for both sexes. I really wish I'd thought to snap pictures of a girl's bag before the party. Bah! Learning experience, anyone?

I used simple crafter's glue stick to adhere everything to the bag, one layer at a time. It was a sticky fingered mess but the end result was cute and totally worth it.

Lastly, I cannot tie a ribbon bow to save my life. But Brandon sure can! He tied all of my bows for me. We took a $1 butterfly and frog punch from Michael's and punched the appropriate critter shapes for our ribbon threading.

I just printed the little Thank You tag out on creamy card-stock to match the scrapbook print and bordered it with the brown card-stock to finish it off.

I'm pleased as punch with the favor bags. They're so cute and so simple to make.

Cole's Stocking: Completed

 I've done it! I've finished a craft before my deadline. I know that this happens from time to time but I'm so pleased that I pulled it off. Had I been in the middle of school, it so wouldn't have happened. I've officially decided to make myself a stocking that matches the boys' stockings a bit more. They both have lots of blue and white and I'm just pink. Hrm.

But without further adieu, I give you the stocking! We picked polar bears, arctic foxes, and puffins for 2 reasons: 1) They're on his favorite Diego movie and he can name them all by shape without any prompting, 2) They're all in the actual winter zone and relatively easy to put together.

This was when I had everything pretty well pinned. I really loved the way that this looked before the beading and the facial additions. Those fox legs were so tiny they were a big challenge to stuff and sew.

The detail work on the puffin was the hardest thing I've done to date with felt. There was so many tiny pieces to work with and sew.

The polar bear details. Due to the width of the bears, it kind of looks like Mama Bear is checking out Baby Bear's bottom. Oops?

My cute little fox. This guy was so challenging on the legs and stuffing the tail! There are also teeny little ears that don't show well in the photo but are easy to see in person. I love this little guy.

Fun Fact: Arctic Foxes often follow female polar bears with young because they'll scavenge the carcasses that the bears abandon after their meal. Clever little buggers.

Now that we've got all the cuteness out of the way, I wanted to cover the internal stitching so I didn't worry about sharp edges over the years snagging the threads and yanking on them. So we grabbed some Elmer's Spray Adhesive and gave an extra strip a go to cover it, as pictured here (but on B's stocking).

Then I just flipped it "inside out" by matching the face of the stocking to the back, pinning it in place and hand-sewing it completely finished. Just pulled it right side out and voila!

My finished product! Cole is ecstatic about it. Unfortunately, he's annoyed that I won't let him just have it. I bet he'll forgive me when he realizes the purpose of the stocking on Christmas morning. :)