Crafty Catch-Up

Hello internet peoples. I'm back for lordy knows how long this time. Every time I start to write something for this blog, I get overwhelmed by how long it's been and I quit. So this time I'm just gonna finish it, gosh-darn-tooty. No editing, no second-guessing. Here goes...

This is a crafty catch-up post. Here's what you might have missed. Some of these pics have been on the Facebook thingy, but not everyone stalks me over there, so I'm putting them here too. And since it looks like the last crafty post was October of last year, this might get a little long.

If you can't see the pictures well enough, you can click on them and they will expand. I don't suggest you do that with any pictures of my face. I look much better from a safe distance.

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My buddy, co-worker, and kick-arse yogini Teresa (Hi Boss!) requested a few cards over the year.

The shoe is a shrinky-dink wine glass charm. You can buy ink-jet shrinky-dink paper and use the embossing gun to shrink it in seconds. It's so cool to work with.

I loved this birthday card for the nature-loving male in your life. Now that I think about it, I think it went to a hunter. I shoulda put a target on that deer. Next card might be from the perspective of a scope with the cross-hairs on Senor Venison Steaks. Too rude? Maybe. But sometimes you just wanna make an evil-voodoo greeting card.

This was a large card that she requested for a friend that was going through a tough-time. It ended up being kind of bulky in the end, but it was worth it. The butterfly and roses were punch-outs that I filled in one piece at a time. Quite lovely.

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Last April, my brother-from-another-mother Jeff decided to throw a surprise birthday party for his wife Bonny at Belhurst. Ok. Let me correct that. In June of 2015, Jeff told me he wanted to throw Bonny a surprise birthday party for her next birthday.

Cue 4 months of :
Jeff: I'm so nervous about this party!
Me: It's a little early to be worrying about this.

Then another 4 months of:
Jeff: I'm so nervous about this party!
Me: You're good.

Then 1 month of:
Jeff: I'm so nerv--
Me: Oh, my God! It's fine!

Then a final month of:
Jeff: I'm so nerv--
Me: Oh, just give me the name of the party planner at Belhurst. I'll talk to her.
Jeff (with that adorable little boy grin he has): Thank you.

Actually, he wasn't that bad. Not all the time, any way.

Jeff did a great job, Bonny was surprise, and we all had a wonderful time. I made place cards for the dinner that had people's names on the front, a little pic of their food choice, and their meals written on the back, which I've been told the staff at Belhurst was thrilled with. Here's a few examples.

Since it was Bonny's 50th, Jeff planned a special gift for her. Tickets to see a Cubs game. This is something she mentioned several times over the years and Jeff decided to take her. He asked for a special card and I came through with this...

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Let's lump all the hats and costume pieces in one section here.

For Halloween, Drew, the Gilfus sisters, and I went to Americana Winery for a costume party. It was one of the most fun times I've ever had. Every guest had on a costume. Given the proximity of Americana to Ithaca, there were a lot of creative costume and several dance squads, which makes for fantastic people-watching. We danced for four hours. We did!! It was a great time!

The theme was Bedtime Stories. Drew and I went as the Queen of Hearts and Madhatter. Below is my mini-hat, wand, and about the only good photo we got of the event, which is unfortunate, because I made my costume which was a long white bib with hearts on it that I tacked over my red shirt and black palazzo pants. I could move, dance, and (most importantly) use the bathroom without problems. And, of course, I made Drew's top hat too.

Mardi Gras around Cayuga Lake. I made a funky necklace and supermini-hat. It's a teeny-tiny top hat! I wish I'd gotten a picture of the one I made for Stacey. I really need to make a better effort to take more pictures. 

Just for fun. A gothic steampunk hat complete with aviator glasses, a crow, feathers, and a black/red silk tail.

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Let's show off some banners.

Christie, who works in my department and who is also a card maker, had a baby boy this year. Christie and Tim are both Fleming firefighters so I put fire badges in the middle of the red tulle that you can't actually see. The hot air balloons (which looked so much bigger and cooler when I made them at home) have little dalmatians wearing fireman caps in the baskets. (Dammit. Why didn't I take pictures of the balloons? They were neat!)

Hi Christie!!  By the way, that awesome cake was from Wegmans.

The MCL Department at work (and no, I don't know what MCL stands for any more) commissioned a generic baby shower banner because every other person over there is preggers. Haha!

For Stacey's birthday, I made a LIVE-LAUGH-LOVE banner and I hung it up in her living room without her permission. I'm a reverse crafty pirate. I will come into your home and add stuff to it then intimidate you into appreciating it. LOL! Actually, I think she does really like it. I told her she doesn't need to keep it up. And now that I've written this, I feel kinda jerky. Oh well. I'll get over it. Ha!

The flowers on the ends of the above banners are paper. I created a cut file for my Silhouette Portrait to cut out the petals and leaves. I put them together using hot glue. It's actually really simple. Those are half-size flowers. The full-size is below:

Normally, I would never photograph myself, but I wanted to convey the true size of those huge flowers.

Here's a close-up of the half-size flowers. 

The bottom flower and card I made for my Stampin' Up rep Jessica Brigden. She's been with Stampin' Up for 10 years and we went to her Stampiversary Party. Jess is the most awesome-est SU rep and a total sweetheart. Check her out on Facebook -- JESS B-CREATIVE "CARD"IOLOGY

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Here's a couple cards that I made specially. 

This was the birthday card I made for my telescope-fanatic hubby. He framed it. Aaaaaaah. *sniffle*

This was the card I made my mother-in-law for her birthday last week. Love that Blushing Bride glimmer paper from Stampin' Up!!

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Here's a huge collection of the cards I've made over the past year. (My mom really likes to see these.)

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If you made it this far, then you deserve a reward. 

I made this for one of my co-workers when she was having a particularly bad day and getting really anxious for the workday to end so she could go camping.

Some days I feel the same way about gin.

~Steph

Ashley & Ryan's Baby Shower

At work this week, we held a baby shower for Ashley & Ryan. The parents-to-be are both co-workers of mine and also happen to be fans of the blog!

By coincidence, I've been on a baby shower craft kick lately. Like so many of my crafting obsessions, it was spurred on by a picture I saw on Pinterest.

I decided I HAD to decorate Ashley & Ryan's baby shower. HAD TO! I contacted our "Unofficial Office Shower Coordinator" Natasha and asked, "Can I decorate?" She said, "Please do!!!"

I knew what I wanted to do, and much to my surprise, it ended up being even better than I imagined. That doesn't really happen often. Usually, I end up apologizing. "It looked so much better in my mind." My world in my brain is gorgeous and always perfectly decorated.

Ashley & Ryan are having a girl, so naturally, everything was done in white and shades of pink.

I ended up ordering the tissue paper pom-poms from Amazon because I couldn't find them in town. I know how to make my own now, but honestly, I'd sooner buy them.

After hot gluing the clouds on a piece of dollar store foam board, I punched holes in the board and tied 13 strings from it. I glued my Silhouette-cut rain drops to the strings randomly. It didn't take as long as you'd expect. I tied metal beads to the ends of the strings to give them some weight. Honestly, not sure if it was necessary, but I did it anyway.

Mini banner!!!! My new favorite thing! I stuck the poles into two vases that I used at Diana's wedding reception and filled to the top with patio stone. It held the sticks nicely. I was thrilled that the Noga's took the banner with them after the shower. 

I was also determined to make a diaper cake! There's a story behind that...

Once upon a time, a childless couple went to BJ's to buy diapers. This was no ordinary childless couple. These were "special" people who chose to be childless. [Insert dramatic music here.] They were determined to be childless to the point that they get physically sick when even thinking about children. Seriously, people, they don't really care for anyone under the age of thirty*.

* Exceptions: Chapmans, Malteses, my masseuse's ADORABLE daughter, 2 out of 3 nephews, Max circa 2013, Abby-Dabby-Doo, and Pam's favorite son.

But the wife was determined to make a baby-shower-themed diaper-based decoration! So Mr. and Mrs. Baby-NOT headed to BJ's for diapers.

Husband:  This is the diaper aisle.

Wife:  The boxes are numbered. 1, 2, 3, 4... Is that the age of the baby?

Husband:  I don't know.

Wife:  There's weight on these. 10 to 12 pounds. Is that the diaper capacity? Do babies really shit that much??

Husband:  I think that's the weight of the baby.

Wife:  Oh. There's more stuff over here. 

Husband:  Those are baby wipes.

Wife:  You gotta wipe them too? Gross. Little bastards can't do anything for themselves.

Husband:  Just pick something.

At this point the husband is leaving the aisle. Left alone, the wife can be quite unpredictable.

Wife:  HOW MUCH DO YOU WEIGH?!?! I DON'T THINK THEY HAVE ANYTHING IN YOUR SIZE!!!

The husband, who is totally used to this by now, continues walking... shaking his head.

So, the clueless wife picks up size 2 and proceeds to look for the beer and snack aisle. Because when you don't have offspring counting on you to wipe their ass, you can pretty much be as irresponsible as you want!

Two hours later...

WHY THE HELL AREN'T THE DIAPERS WHITE?! THE PACKAGE DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT BLUE AND YELLOW AND GREEN DOTS!!! THEY'RE *BLEEP*ING WITH MY DECOR DESIGN!!!!!

Some white and pink glitter ribbons later...

I'M SO DONE WITH THESE *BLEEP*ING DIAPERS!!!

The end.

(...of the story, any way.)

Tuesday night, Drew and I snuck into work to setup for the shower.
This is how it looked setup in the conference room, except brighter. My phone's camera sucks.

My favorite post-setup comments:

Maryann - I stood up close to the raindrops and blew at them to watch them move!

(She mimicked the action to show me. How cute!)

Natasha - If Heidi's having a girl, I want that cloud!!!

(All yours, sweetheart!)

Me to Bonny - I wonder if those diapers would fit my cat.

Everyone was very complimentary about the decorations, especially Ashley & Ryan. I don't normally make things for the recognition, but it's still always nice when people like my work. This was a case in which I really wanted to make some decorations and there just happened to be a party that needed some. I decided to do this with six days notice. Very short time-frame for me. When people request crafted items, I get anxiety if I don't have at least a month's notice. That's just me though. And even if I bitch and spazz through the entire process, when I get done, I'm always happy with the results. And usually, so is the recipient, which makes it all worthwhile in the end.

Of course, if anyone from work wants something for a shower in the future, keep in mind that you're getting whatever I'm in the mood to do. It might be steampunk, or pirates, or Halloween!!!

~Steph

February 2015

For being the shortest month of the year, February lasts a really long time. Especially in Auburn, NY, which as of today, has had 119 inches of snow. I say "had" but the *bleep*ing stuff is still on the ground. It hasn't left. The sun yesterday helped to melt some of the *bleep*ing stuff. The heat wave of 22 degrees was nice. (Insert sarcastic grin here.)

For the benefit of those who aren't here to experience the wonders and joy of Central New York in the winter, I present ... WTF!!! A Photographic Display of *Bleep*ing Stuff.

Our sidewalk.

Our neighborhood.

Our drive to work.

The parking lot at our job.

And just for fun, the same parking lot on a sunny day. 

If anyone comments on how pretty it is, I will hunt you down 

and make you eat all this pretty crap.

Ok. Now that my obligatory rant about winter is out of the way, how about some nice stuff that happened this month.

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I went to a Tea Party hosted by Syracuse health store Natur-Tyme! It was a lot of fun. I took pictures, but they sucked. So instead, here's a picture of the mini hat I made and wore to the event. They had raffles for people that wore hats. I wasn't a winner, but the hat was well received. 

We had tea sandwiches, which were amazing. The theme this year was India, and the curry chicken with cranberries and grapes was outstanding! I will have to try to make that. They also served delicious desserts and tea, of course. The tea came from Organic India. I'm completely addicted to it now. Loved it!

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Drew finished putting the top on Craft Island!

I love it!!! It's the perfect height for me and everything is organized. (Although I still find myself walking about the room in circles looking for items in their previous homes. It makes me laugh.)

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I had a Stampin' Up party this month. My girlfriend and Mommy-Away-From-Mommy Laurie let me host the party at her house. She has the perfect setup for the party. My house can fit maybe five people in it. Tops. She's a lifesaver!!

The cards I made for the swap.

The cards we made at the workshop. I love the Etch-A-Sketch card!!!

So easy to make too!!

Here is a card I made last month for Pam's birthday and forgot to share. It's a shadowbox card. The template is by designer Lori Whitlock. You can download it from Silhouette's website HERE.

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Tastefully Simple's Spring-Summer 2015 catalog came out! Lots of neat new products. I can't wait to try the Red Bell Pepper Hummus mix they've got. Drew ordered me a box because he knew I'd be wanting that! Love me some Red Pepper Hummus!! 

Drew's putting together his tasting packets for new parties.

I let him rent out space at Craft Island to work on. I gave him a discount.

And now I'd like to take this time to shamelessly plug my hubby's website.

https://www.tastefullysimple.com/web/dscharoun

People that know me are well aware that I am Drew's biggest fan, as well as his harshest critic. I use a lot of the Tastefully Simple products because I do truly like them. Are there some that suck? A couple, yes. But taste buds aren't universal. What I might hate, you might like. For example, I think the Bayou Bourbon Glaze and Vidalia Onion Dressing are totally freakin' rockin', but the Gluten-Free Pizza is nasty. Your own experience may vary.

And because I promised some of the girls at the Stampin' Up party, here's the recipes I made...

Crock Pot Bayou Bourbon Meatballs

1 large package frozen meatballs

1 bottle Tastefully Simple Bayou Bourbon Glaze

- Put meatballs in a crock pot on low. Cook for 3 hours, stirring every hour. Pour one bottle of glaze over meatballs. Cook another 1-2 hours. Devour!

Simple Broccoli Salad

4 heads broccoli florets, chopped into bite-sized pieces

1/4 cup Tastefully Simple Bacon Bacon

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 bottle Tastefully Simple Vidalia Onion Dressing

- Mix, toss, serve. This keeps very well in the fridge for a few days.

I also served the Asiago Alfredo Warm Dip and Raspberry Chocolate Cheeseball, which were knee-quakingly good. Those are Fall-Winter Items that will only be available until March 7, 2015, so if you girls want them, snag them up now!!

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Let's see, what else happened this month... nothing! Well, nothing of interest to you, probably. We went on a wine tour with a bunch of people from work. That was a lot of fun! Again, no pics. We were mostly well-behaved.

I'm sorry to say that second book isn't any closer to being done. I think about it a lot. Does that count? If you think you're tired of waiting for it, just imagine how my characters feel?

Oh, my God, woman! Please just finish that book!

I haven't had sex in almost three years!!!

Sorry Alex.

~Steph