Whoa

My favourite time of the year...sneak peek time...so far I have only seen a few things...of course the new Luxe stuff and the Maya Road stuff...but for sure, the one thing that caught my eye yesterday....from Fontwerks:


Counting down the days to the releases at next week's CHA...

Cheering up....a bit

This might make me feel better. A little.

Sigh...I still remember the days of buying Teen Beat and watching Much Music to see the boys from Beantown...

Stupid fine print

I'm kind of ticked today and it may make me think twice about shopping at Kohl's again. Back in November, during their big "After Thanksgiving Day" sale, I purchased a Kitchenaid mixer. Well, actually, I purchased two of them (well, actually, someone else actually got them for me, I just gave them the money)...but anyways...if you bought one, at $159.99 you received a rebate for $30. Or rather, the advertisement was $129.99 after $30 mail in rebate. No mention in the ad about one per household, one per customer, one per anyone. Not like I went in there and bought 50 of them...I just bought two.

So when you purchased said mixer, you received a rebate slip and on that slip it said "one per household". Which is ridiculous. Because what if I wanted one and I bought one as a gift? Why shouldn't I get a rebate? Why should it be limited to the number of people at one address? What if you had three bakers who lived in the same house and wanted to claim it? You bought the item, shouldn't you get the rebate?

To make a long story short, they denied my rebate. So I'm out $30. And now I'm just waiting on my aunt's rebates because she bought the digital picture frames that were on for $10 off by mail in rebate. She bought three or four of them as gifts. Which again, is legitimate, so why shouldn't she be able to do that?

My argument is this...if you want us to shop in your store, and you're going to advertise a price to get us to shop in your store, then you should honour that rebate, not put conditions on it as here. It's ridiculous. Otherwise I'm just going to go to another store and buy it there.

I'm still waiting on the response to my strongly worded email to them regarding this. I'm sure it's going to be one of those "rules are rules" kind of emails but it felt a little better to send it. I'm still pretty ticked.

News you won't see on CNN

Sadly, I do not have Anderson Cooper's rugged sexiness, shocking splash of premature grey hair or incredibly delicious biceps...what I do have though, is news you won't see on CNN.

I am left alone with the dog. I have self diagnosed him. He is suffering from Separation Anxiety. This from the symptom list: loss of control of bodily functions (vomitting--thank goodness for small favours that it's not diarahea), excessive licking (which bugs me), pacing (equally disturbing), and other weird behaviours like barking at my uncle's car in the driveway because he thinks I have him hidden in the garage. Last night I got creative and left him in the hallway with my room and the spare room doors open and a gate across the stairwell. He still got sick. And a trip to the pet store meant a new toy that is supposed to help with the anxiety....he got it open in record time (it's supposed to occupy him for a while) and managed to chew off the little strings on the end. Lovely.

Tomorrow I get Expressvu. CANNOT wait. I ordered the PVR (aka-fake TiVo) for $10 a month. Now once the writers go back to work...ahem...the studios get their heads out of their asses...I can pause, rewind, fast forward etc. live tv. This makes me happy. At least until I remember that there's no shows on. Or that I'm alone with an anxious canine.

I have a new coworker. I like her. She's pretty awesome. I like having someone sitting with me at the back of the office now. It was getting lonely. Oh and I like her in a totally platonic I'm not gay even though I said that stuff about Anderson Cooper way.

I seem to have mastered the Wilton Rose for my cake class. Something that was quite difficult. Now all I have to do is make the four hundred cups of icing for class. Well, not four hundred. Just eight cups of icing. For two weeks worth of classes.

And the cake too. Almost forgot about the cake.

My photography class is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Totally full of theory and really hard core basics. Not like "point and shoot" it's more like "measure the light by taking these five readings up against this expensive piece of camera equipment, then once you've done that, set all the readings in your camera to these totally obscure settings that you will need the manual to figure out...." and that's where I'm lost. I think I got lost somewhere around 32 point matrix. Nope, I got lost at "how is everyone doing tonight".

Yup and that would be the boring news. Which of course CNN doesn't have time for.

Sigh...

Rockstar

Learning how to ice cakes. I'm a big rockstar people...behold:



Ok so not a SUPER rockstar, I need to work on my smooth finish on the top. But hey! It's my first cake!

And I didn't eat any of it either!

That should score some points....

Haphazzard

This morning I took my aunt to the airport in Detroit. I decided yesterday that if I was going to go to the airport in Detroit, might as well hit a few other places as well. No point in wasting the $8 toll and the great story through customs (where were you? at the airport). So I hit a few places.

One of the points of this trip was to check out a few of the other scrapbook stores in the area that I have yet to check out. I know, I know...BORING but this way, I can go back over if I'm looking for anything in particular. I had this idea that I would buy a little something in each store to sort of make it worth going in. Didn't quite happen that way.

Scrapbook Mania in Canton was pretty awesome. I ended up spending $20 (woo woo) on four packs of big flowers in red and black (something I'm finding I use a lot of lately) and a couple of sheets of paper (because I NEED more paper right?). I went back down Ford Road to Ikea because there were a few other things I needed and I wanted to check out this table. Well, not THAT exact combination, but something similar to that. I wanted the Vika table legs that adjusted up and down so that if I was feeling like standing, it would be higher and if I felt like sitting...well, you get the drill.

Yesterday when I came home from work I got to work downstairs cleaning up some stuff. I still sort of live out of boxes, which is actually kind of good because most of it I don't need, but I start to accumulate stuff (christmas ornaments I find, books I buy) and I end up digging through my boxes of tupperware (yes, you read that right, BOXES plural of tupperware) and just make a mess. So stuff tends to creep out of the little corner of the basement all my stuff is in. I bought two new energy efficient light bulbs that are actually equivalent to 100W and they worked FABULOUSLY. Which led to a new desire to get this new table. I work off half a desk in another part of the basement and I want to spread out.

But I digress. So I went to Ikea, looked at the tables and just decided I would wait. I liked the display they had in the store where they put the little bookcase bases on casters. But I wanted to let it simmer a bit before I did anything about it. I managed to pick up what I really wanted there, some paper magazine holders to put some of my rubs and other stickers in by type. This way, I'm not forgetting I have them. With my new found desire to craft, I want to be able to do stuff.

From there I went to Scrapbook Studio. Big disappointment. Then I tried to check out another store--Memory Lane but it looked like it was in a subdivision (read: someone's basement) so I skipped that. I also had to go and find this special wool from this pattern book I have so I can make this absolutely adorable little baby sweater vest so that was the next stop. Also went and checked out another little store and headed home. Took me a bit longer than I though, but I blame the Mobil station in Southgate that refused to authorize my gas pump. Don't really know what was up with that. Once I got home though, I decided to take a nap.

Benny, decided that maybe taking a nap wasn't such a good idea after all. He is my little pet for the week while my aunt and uncle are both away. He does not like me anymore than I like him. Well, I guess he likes me, he just doesn't prefer me. So every noise he hears, he has to get all crazy about. Then he proceeded to stand over me breathing on me. And whine because he wanted out...to fall asleep on the family room chair.

Stupid dog.

Productive

A friend of mine announced she was pregnant on Monday. Like, really pregnant. She's five months along. She was waiting because she was on the line for a promotion and wanted to wait until the powers that be made a decision. So I decided I wanted to make her a cute little album. Not for the baby, but for her. That would be the front right up there.

One of my resolutions this year was to start considering sending my stuff out for publishing. I was all gung ho about it about three years ago and got rejected repeatedly. I kind of just gave up and left it behind. My new found confidence is thanks to my good friends at Luxe and their incredible support of my projects. (That's my stuff featured on today's blog...) It's not like I'm going to be all "MUST BE PUBLISHED" it's just a case of, if I see something, I'm going to consider putting something together for it. Like today, I got an email from Maya Road with an open call for projects using their products. I'm going to submit that and another little album I'm working on.

Also aiding in the productivity was my accomplishment this evening of getting through my to-do list. I started taking a cake decorating class at Michaels and had to make about 8 cups of icing for it. Got through it quickly this evening and also managed to clean up in the basement (been meaning to pack up a few more of my things I've accumulated). Also did some cleaning and now I'm ready to do nothing but what I want all weekend.

Productivity is a good feeling.

Hate the playah, not the game

I swear, there is some kind of weird fate thing working against me. I have proof too. First, the other day I got a package in the mail. I had no idea where it came from (DVD legacy out of New Jersey). Well, turns out, inside was a cute little book called In the Know: The classic guide to being cool. Thinking this was someone's cute little gift I asked the logical people. No dice, they have no idea what it's about. So I have to say, this must be fate that this book landed in my hands. And if so, I am a lot cooler than you think Fate!

Second, and this one is pretty funny, I have an account on Lavalife. I tried the internet dating thing years ago, met nothing but freaks, and gave up. I still have a profile there, with a photo that is so old (pre-braces so my smile is even different) I can't even stand it. I'm sure I could take it down but part of me doesn't want to. Anyways...the past two weeks I have gotten a flurry of emails about how I have messages from people. I had originally changed my profile description to deter anyone over the age of 35 (this was before I was 30), anyone in another country, and anyone who doesn't speak English. This has not deterred anyone. In fact, I think it may be encouraging them. I have received no less than 5 messages from men over the age of 50 in the last week alone. The best one though, is this one, from yesterday. A 64 year old who has been "forced" to retire because of health problems, who lives in Florida because the cold doesn't agree with his achy body and who is looking for this:

I will only "match" with with a consenting women who enthusiastically would support child resulting from Our Physical Love. In effect until it is proven biologically imposible. Maybe I should tell him I don't want children?

He will be in communication until [he] know you not not want me to be. Well in that case...

Also, the IBM company turned against [him] when he was 32. Ya I saw that movie, Mel Gibson was pretty good.

He has to play the cards he has been delt. Get out of the game bud.

And he has "wild" property in New York & Wyoming States and needs a strong woman to SAVE HIM. Hee, wild property.

Again, all I have to say is ha ha funny funny FATE!

The more things change

The more they stay the same...sigh...London is now out. The flight was way more than I expected and the dates they had open in the cheap window were just not feasible for us from a work standpoint. Another time!

When one door closes

Friday I got the bad news that I wasn't needed at CHA in Anaheim. I was a little sad but completely understood why. But today I got the best news from another friend of mine.

Late this afternoon I get an email:

Friend: What dates did you have off for CHA?
Me: Why?
Friend: Would you be interested in going to London England with me?
Me: Seriously?
Friend: I get a companion fare that would add up to about $200 total CDN out of Toronto.
Me: Seriously?
Friend: Ya, seriously, my husband can't go, I want to go, want to go with me?
Me: Uh, ya!

I love it when things work out that way!

Too funny

What is funny about this is that I actually had about ten pounds of scrapbook supplies in a carry on bag I brought with me. And it's also the first time I have flown with a very heavy suitcase that they actually put a sticker on it. And between you and me, it wasn't as heavy as some of my past packed cases.

I'm home and doing a mountain of laundry from before the holidays to now. I am also untangling myself from being all scrunched in a seat because my seatmate felt the need to take up all the armrest space as well as elbow me several times in the side while he was working. He apologized once to me about hogging all the room and then proceeded to spread out even further AND put his glass of water precariously close to my lap.

Getting on a schedule again will be nice but going back to work kind of sucks.

Welcome 2008!

That would be Jen and I last night at Duce part way through one helluva good meal. Duce is this neat little bar/restaurant that Jen loves where we decided to spend our new year having a fanstatic meal with some great company. Said company would be Greg and Matty, the two fabulous bartenders who were helpfully plying us with liquor the night before when we went there for dinner and to scope out plans for the next evening.

The dinner? Absolutely fabulous. I think I might have gotten drunk on good food because by the time they served the Aji Chocolate cake at the end of the meal I was ready to throw in the towel I was so over the edge. Seriously good food, good bottle of champagne and excellent company (although I was a little sad Greg couldn't spend more time with us....of course....just like me to crush on a bartender in another country!)

It's been a fun week here in Texas. I've tried to spend it helping but may have spent more of it getting in the way. Jen lives in a cute little house in Fort Worth and of course my favourite room is the studio. Bright open well lit room devoted entirely to creativity. Love this. We put a few things together that will probably end up on the Luxe blog but that I love and am quite proud of myself for creating.

Tomorrow it's home again. A couple of errands on the way from the airport and then it's home to clean up my room (I distinctly recall the chaos I left there when I rushed out on Wednesday last week) and then prep to go back to work. As much as I am looking forward to getting back on a schedule, I'm kind of sad to say goodbye to my holidays. But that's alright, 2008 is going to be an awesome year!

To all my friends, Happy New Year!