Older than dirt...

It's official-I am disgustingly old. I got my first bifocals today. They aren't really SUPER bifocal-ly and the optometrist said I was on the brink of not needing them. But I figured it was time to stop having to take off my glasses and put stuff right up to my eyes to read tiny type like ingredient lists (which I read a lot of) so I got them. I picked them up today-I got this frame:

Which is a Vera Bradley with the Java Blue design on the sides. I didn't set out to get Vera Bradley, but they just so happened to be the ones that I liked and felt most comfortable in. As a bonus, they match my Java Blue Villager bag which I carry in the winter. Oh and they were 20% off. Can't pass up a sale. They put an ultra light (high index?) lens in because I'm practically blind and a 'progressive' bifocal which might as well be a trifocal. Not too easy to get used to but hey, it's the first day.

So anyway they did adjust them some but they need tightened because they keep sliding down my nose. It is really really annoying so I did the ultimate dork thing. I found Jake's elastic band that he uses on his glasses when he plays football and put it on my glasses. They are a bit plastered to my face now but they aren't sliding down. I won't wear the strap in public but until I go back and have these adjusted again (tomorrow) it is staying. At least it matches-it's about the same turquoise color as the design on the sides of my glasses.

Working on my room

I haven't made anything lately because I've been doing some work in my craft room. We (Steve and I) extended the table back to the wall, I painted it, and I got a couple of new organizing things. Here is the before pic. Note that my desk was VERY messy when I took this picture. This is how it looks most of the time because I tend to wait until it's so bad I can't do anything before I start putting stuff away. I'm working on this because I like it better not messy. Now my desk will always look somewhat messy because I have a lot of stuff and I like it to be around me. Which means it's all over my desk. But this was pretty darn bad and I can't believe I'm even showing it. I took this picture a few months ago and didn't save it in a big size so it's hard to see the detail but trust me, it's bad. By the way that paper is over my lamp because the bulb sticks out and blinds me so I had to make a makeshift shade for it. I'm shopping for a new lamp.

This is after SOME of what I'm doing. I still need to install new pegboards on the back and I'll replace that magnet board with a smaller one that I can hang. The one I have is just resting on my table and when I go to take something off of it, it falls over. Anyway so far I think it's better. It couldn't get any worse. Like I mentioned I added about 6" to the back of it (it was about that far from the wall and everything always fell down the back. But I couldn't get it closer because...well it's complicated. I just couldn't.) I painted it all white and the pegboard will be white as well. I'll be painting that ledge and maybe decorating it with something-probably Hello Kitty. I bought some Hello Kitty fabric to make a chair cushion too. I love Hello Kitty.

So anyway I will update as I go. I'm planning to paint my other furniture (chair, rest of the desk (it's an L shape), sewing desk) white also and then use pink and green decorations. Then maybe I can actually get something done.

Surprise in my mailbox!!

I got a nice surprise in my mailbox today:

It seems that the Scor-Pal fairy decided to bless me with a brand spankin' new SCOR-PAL! Plus she included a Scor-mat and a spare scoring tool! I am so excited to try this out. I am in the middle of some serious scrap room reorganizing but I'm going to make something soon anyway. I'll just have to make it in the living room or something. I actually have the Scor-it tool but there have been a ton of threads at Splitcoast Stampers about the Scor-pal and everyone raves about it. So lately when someone has asked about it, I always reply that I didn't have it and never tried it but had never read a single negative review of it. Well I don't know if that was why I was given this or not but I will obviously continue to tell people about the Scor-Pal!

Now this is a pay-it-forward RAK which means that I'll be doing a giveaway as well! Since I'm a Stampin' Up demonstrator I am going to wait until the new catalog comes out in mid-August and then I'll pick something out of it to give away on my blog. Stay tuned!

New used minivan

We traded our van a few days ago. We only had it for a year-right after we got it (it was used-a 2004 Freestar) the brake drums/disks/whatever needed to be replaced. About 3 weeks later we left on our vacation, driving across the country. The first day, the transmission light came on. Luckily we were close to Des Moines, and had easy access to a couple of Ford dealers and plenty of shopping and things to do. We took it in to the dealer the next day and were told that the transmission needed to be replaced or rebuilt. To save money we opted for rebuilt but it still cost about three thousand bucks and put us back a day and a half on our trip. Kind of put a crappy start on our vacation. It was fine the rest of the time.

A few months after we got the Ford I noticed an annoying whining sound pretty much all the time. It got louder when the accelerator was pushed (which is just about the whole time you're driving, ya know?) and I had to have the radio on all the time to block out the sound, although I could still hear it even above that. I have pretty sensitive hearing though.

So then a few months ago the cruise control suddenly quit working right. We would have to push the button about 10 times for it to come on and eventually it took about a hundred pushes (yes, I counted). Then all of a sudden it started working again. Weird.

Then last week or maybe the week before, I heard a high pitched beeping. Not a regular beep though but it was definitely there. Steve could hear it if we were all very quiet. It was there. Then he said he was worried about the transmission again. I don't know why and I think he didn't know either but we both knew the warranty on that repair job was long over. So he started to really talk about trading it.

I found a few online that we could go check out. We drove forever to one dealer where we wanted to look at a 2004 Toyota Sienna. It had a lot of miles but I convinced my Ford-loving husband that it would still be a better car and more reliable than Ford. At least I hoped so. We got there and saw that van (which was gold-not my top pick of colors but you can't be too choosy with a used car) but the dealer had also just gotten in a 2003 Honda Odyssey that had about 15K less miles than the Toyota and about 30K less than our Freestar. It didn't have quite as many options as the Toyota did (both same price) but Steve decided for the same money, it would be wise to go with less mileage, even though it was a year older. I think he liked the color better too but he probably wouldn't admit that.

So he made an offer, and they said no, the price was firm. So he made a slightly higher one and they still said no. We said ok, see ya and left. We had some lunch and then, being persistent as always, Steve called them to see if they had decided to go any lower. Keep in mind this was about 20 minutes later. They talked for a while and made him an offer. The offer was less than the #2 offer he made. I think they thought he had already included tax in his offer which he had not. So it ended up being a decent deal. He kept saying it was more than he wanted to give but he says that every time. So we drove the two hours home in our new used Honda Odyssey:

Keeping in mind that this is a HUGE step for him. He has always 100% owned Ford vehicles. Always.

Happy Birthday Daisy!

Today, the 18th (it's past midnight), was Daisy's first birthday. We bought her a tire with a rope on it. Jenny stuffed two dog biscuits inside and wrapped it up. After a little help Daisy managed to unwrap it and took off running with it. She wasn't letting anyone play with her toy-it was too new. In a couple days she'll be sharing. Here's a picture of her with her new toy. Probably won't be a favorite because it doesn't squeak but she seems to like it.



Oh and for a comparison here is a picture of her just last August at 10 weeks old.

Sketch Challenge

I decided to do Beate's sketch challenge. I really should do this every week-I'd get a lot of cards done. Anyway I am not sure I'm happy with this and I know I'm not happy with my photography skills but here it is. I might try to take a better pic later. I didn't do it as a thumbnail because it's not a very big file size, plus it's late.


Stamps: Stampin Up
colored with Copic markers
ink: brilliance
jewels: prima
paper: all from Stampin Up except the white, which is from Paper Trey Ink.
die cutter: Nestabilities (long rectangles)
punch: SU ticket corner punch
sewing

It's official-I'm spoiled

I think I've decided I'm pretty darn spoiled. Well I have been all my life I guess so why should it be any different now? In the past few months I have gotten a new dryer (not a fun thing but it's a lot more fun than hanging towels over a wooden rack and then trying to actually USE the crunchy things once they dry), a new cooktop (again, not fun but more fun than cooking on a stove that shuts itself off every 2 minutes), a new laptop (technically this is so that all three kids can do lessons at once but when they aren't working on lessons, it is mine, all mine), a new nintendo ds (mother's day gift), Wii fit, and the most exciting of all-DSL!! It isn't the fastest DSL there is but when you've dealt with dialup for more than eight long years, any DSL is great. When we crunched the numbers we found it would only cost us an extra $2.50 per month. Plus we needed it to be able to easily network the computers (another thing for lessons). I can't believe we didn't switch a long time ago.

Yep, I'm spoiled.