Friday

What a LONG week it has been, don't you think?  I believe it's hit triple digits every day this week, I so love August in the Carolinas.  (Not!)   My saving grace is that I go to work before it gets too hot, and my commute home is short.  I am not a summer person!!

I feel so bad lately, I've had so much fun reading other people's blogs, but haven't posted much on my own... I feel guilty for not reciprocating.  So hopefully I'll be able to leave something interesting for you to read besides my pet woes.

Speaking of that... no sign of Dexter.  I went to the animal shelter, and he's not there.  They put all strays up on their website, so I am watching daily.  We now have him up on a couple of lost pet sites with a picture, so I feel I've done the best I can.  Charles and I both are very pessimistic about getting him back.  We just wish we knew what happened.

What's been up with me?  We celebrated Duncan's 11th birthday last week.  He got a new playstation game (Spyro:  The Beginning), a transformer, another year of Zoo Books, an art set, a trip to see the play "The Lion King", some Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and a pocket knife.  I had been asked before why he didn't have a pocket knife, and I always answered honestly "because he hasn't asked for one."  Well, he finally asked.  We haven't opened it yet, but I'll start working with him on proper use and care of a knife so he can get his whittling chip card and carry it to scout events.  He also got cash, and had a fun trip to Toys R Us this past weekend to spend it on toy dragons.  Connor is quite jealous.

Last weekend I got to go to the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbook Convention in Charlotte, NC.  Two glorious days of scrapbook classes and a vendor faire.   I took seven classes this year, the most I've taken since I started going.  Two were by Quick Quotes, "A Thing or Two about Boys" and "My Big Fat Chunky Book".  I got four 12x12 pages out of the first one, and a table-top book thingy from the second.  I need to finish the chunky book.  Michelle who teaches the QQ classes was a delight, as always.  I took "In Love with Basic Gray", which was a card class.  I somehow didn't realize they would be all "love" themed, but they were cute cards, and had a lot of dimension using chipboard.  Not my favorite class, but ok.  Deluxe Designs sponsored a "Treasured Secrets" composition book class.  Did you know Deluxe Designs is closing???  Cute kit, and I actually finished my book in class (barely).   Charles commented that he wouldn't mind if I covered a few for him.  Wow... now that's a complement coming from a guy.   They always give you extras in their kit, so I feel like I got a good value on that one.    "He's an Extreme Boy" used the new junkitz extreme line to make an accordion album.  It must be a hot line of paper, as I now see it in a kit at Scrap Addict, and I've seen layouts in my latest copy of Simple Scrapbooks.  I'm not a trendy scrapper, usually I'm not into the "hot" items, but for once I'm on the bleeding edge.  Not my favorite paper line, but a cute project, and almost  finished.  This class recommended a lot of inking and distressing, which I'm not really into.  I've now started using more ink, but I am still not into sanding my papers etc to look old.

I took a class called "Boys Go Zoom" by a new company, Cara Miller Designs (www.caramiller.com).  She does board book kits, period.  Cute cute cute.  It used a paper line I had never seen before, Dream Street Papers.  She was really personable, and gave some good instruction.  She has a kit club (like everyone else these days), and I am pondering trying it out.  These would make cute gifts.  Last class was the stinker, "Greetings and Salutations" sponsored by Xyron.  WHAT A RIPOFF!!!   The rep walked in three minutes late and casually informed us that the instructor they had hired didn't show up.  The class was using their personal cutting system (PCS) machine, so we had to drag all of those out, and wait for them to set up the power cords for it.  Alot of the machines didn't work right, or didn't have the right cartridges.  Our kit (this was a 2 hr, $27 class) consisted of 10 pieces of cardstock to fold over to make card bases, ten squares of cardstock to put in the machine to do your cutting, and five short pieces of ribbon.  The class advertised making 10 cards.  They told us they weren't going to "teach" us 10 cards but rather let us "play" with the machines.  I also went back and read the description, and someone was supposed to win a PCS during the class.  Ha!  I walked out after an hour.  Someone who stayed later told us they took the machine out of her hands at the 90 minute mark because they had to be "cleaned up on time".  I think everyone wrote a blistering evaluation to CK about that class.  I have to give props to SEI though.  It was their paper used in the class, and I got a nice email last night apologizing for my experience and asking for my address so they could send me a free tote.  Lesson learned, NO xyron classes for me ever again.

The vendor faire was as always, overload of the senses.  I was excited to see Technique Tuesday there -- it's always fun to be able to TOUCH stuff before you buy.  I bought two sets of acrylic stamps from DJ Inkers -- they had a CUTE alpha that I got as a show special.  Quick Quotes always gives you a free quote per class, so I got those two (plus some others).  I found some ribbons, and some toppers, and some die cuts from the deluxe designs booth.  They had their color blocking templates (pages & cards) on major clearance, so I got several card templates.  My biggest impulse buy was a Croppin Companion binder -- basically something to organize your stuff for crops.  I found it at half price at a both, and out came my wallet!!  I was nowhere near as big a spender as some of the folks I met.  

Can you believe it's almost time for school to start?  My kids start two weeks from Monday.   Duncan will be in 5th grade, Connor in 1st.   That means it's time for soccer & scouts to start as well.  Busy busy busy....