Countdown

Random facts for today:
1) It's raining. Again. But the plant in front of my front door looks like it hasn't been watered in weeks. Go figure.

2) My town actually made national news over the last couple of days. Unfortunately not good news. Apparently two young men were plotting to plant a bomb this Saturday at our annual Fall street fair. Lovely! Not because they had any specific political grievances or hostility against foreigners, but because they were "frustrated". Out town only has about 13,000 people, on Streetfair days, population almost doubles. It would have been awful had they succeeded.

3) Totally shallow, especially in light of 2), I love my Tivo.

4) My little brother is moving to Rome. As in Italy. As in how super cool is that? On Wednesday.

5) Only 13 more days till our trip to NY. So excited.

Other "stuff":
Just one more day til our Workshop weekend in Hamburg. Everything is prepared and ready and packed (okay, almost). But I am sick. Feels like a major cold coming on. Nasty cough, migraine, the works. So I decided to stay home from school today, drink lots of hot tea, and pop lots of pills. Hopefully that will tide me over til Monday, because I will be damned if I miss this weekend.

I did snap a picture of my samples before packing them up. Here's a sneaky....



And tonight I am going to see my buddies Nat, Christiane, and Andrea. And later on tonight, this fabulously talented chicky is coming into town. And another highlight? Another fabulously talented chicky is arriving tomorrow. They are actually coming to attend our workshops! Okay, that just makes me totally nervous now, but still, I am just tickled pink. So.... I CAN'T be sick!

Anyway, off to rest some more. Drink more tea....how am I supposed to rest with all these fluids going in?

Have a good one.

Paper Love

You know, I am really not terribly competitive. I do my thing, and I am happy with it. But every so often I do submit a LO for a contest. And wouldn't you know it? I actually won something again. This time it was the Rouge de Garance Contest over at Scrapmuse. I totally forgot about it.... imagine my surprise when I saw that I won 3rd place.

So, this is what got me 3rd place:



Another one I submitted is this one:



Off to get my stuff ready for the Workshop weekend in Hamburg.

Have a good one.

One last glorious day at the beach

After a so-so spring, and a crappy summer, and realizing we hadn't gone to the beach once, we had one last wonderful day this fall. And the kids and I decided that after riding lesson on Sunday it was just too beautiful an afternoon to not go to the beach. And lovely it was. We just had an hour, but it was good to "get away" for even that bit of time.

Of course I took a lot of pictures, and of course I am the dorky mother who takes several outfits for the kids. Well... good thing I did, because they got soaked in no time.








Have a good one.

More LOs for One-in-48

The pictures stink, I couldn't get the scanner to work properly, but I still wanted to post them. I hate doing 2-pagers. I have such a hard time with them. Hope Hillary posts some one-page sketches again.




It's countdown to our workshop weekend in Hamburg. I am getting a tad bit antsy. My card-WS is the second one on Saturday. Hopefully everyone will be fresh and full of energy.

Other than that, there are still a few things over at my other blog. I still need to clean out some more, but I made a good bit of room already.

Anyway, off for some last minute preparations for the WS. Have a good one.

Start' em early Pt 2 and cleaning out my scraproom

Trouble #2 was feeling left out yesterday when Trouble #1 had a friend over and she needed some Mama-time. So we made cupcakes. She did most of the work, and was especially proud when she got the buttercreme rosettas just right. Yeah!

Oh, and a Trouble #2 funny: she was looking through my Desserts to die for Book by Marcel Desaulniers and The Chocolate Bible by Christian Teubner... yeah, a child after my own heart, and marked all the recipes she'd like to try. Or would like me to prepare. Ehhhhmmmmm, well, she pretty much went through an entire little sticky notes pad to mark pretty much everything. Okay, diet good bye.

Anyway, back to the cupcakes, here are some pictures. Proud Mama Moment. My baby did good.


















The recipe is actually from a German cookbook and pretty decent, so I might just have to eat my words as I had just proclaimed the other day that I should just chuck all my German "Muffin/Cupcake-cookbooks" as every single recipe I had tried was worthless. See.... I keep trying them, because the measurements are much easier, but I keep coming back to my tried and true American cupcake recipes. They are just sooooo much better. In any event, this chocolate recipe is half-way decent, but really, to keep the cookbook just that one recipe? Not really. But the buttercream is the standard Martha Stewart Recipe and it is divine as always.

In other news, I am cleaning out my scraproom. If I am going to be in the US..... I just HAVE to do some scrapbook shopping. Yeah, to be in an actual LSS again! Double Yeah. But, I have to make space and get rid of some stuff. So, check out my other other blog Liz-Art (or click on the link over there on the left).

Anyway, off to clean out some more, get some stuff done, do some more baking... I am feeling really energetic right now. Mmmmmhhhhh, maybe the 2 double cappuccinos this morning did it.

Have a good one.

More LOs

I love the 1-in-48 Sketch challenge class at NYCScraps. I am not feeling terribly inspired right now. Too much stress, too much stuff to get done, some other "stuff" that's keeping my brain busy... just no inspiration. So the sketches come in terribly handy. Or, what's even better, since we get one sketch every 48 hours (get it???) I am on a schedule to get things done. Granted, the LOs are a bit simpler than usual, but I like them. Because I put those memories on paper. The pictures are not floating around my house anymore. They have a home (okay... almost, I am out of album space, so they are languishing piled up in page protectors on my shelf, but still...).

Anyway, here is another LO for Sketch 1 as well as yesterday's bonus sketch.




Have a good one.

It's been a long, long day

Trouble #2 woke me up around 2:30 am when she crawled into my bed. She went right back to sleep. I didn't. I've been up since then, and just now had a chance to sit down and relax a bit (it's 5:45pm). Except now I better be careful and not fall asleep.

Anyway, I am happy to report that the couple that received the wedding cake on Saturday absolutely loved it. And all but a smallish piece of the bottom tier was eaten. Yeah. Maybe I'll get some referrals out of it. That'd be sweet.

I also finished a couple more LOs for NYCScraps 1-in-48 Sketch Challenge. We are on sketch 4 already and so far I have finished a total of 9 LOs. Yeah for me. Here is the latest batch.



That's it for now, I better get up or I will fall asleep.

Have a good one.

Happy Sunday

Trouble #1 and #2 are at a birthday party today. A BOY's birthday party, no less. They weren't quite sure they wanted to go since they were worried about all the other boys, but once they got there, they were perfectly fine. So.... happy Sunday to myself: I have the house to myself, it's quiet, I can get some cleaning done, I have a pot of oriental chicken soup on the stove and the smell of the spices is out of this world.

I did get two more LOs done for the 1-in-48 Sketch Challenge Class over at NYC Scraps.




Have a good one.

Wedding cake

Another one is done. This time Devil's Food cake, Raspberry filling and Vanilla buttercream. The florist was a bit leary when I told her I needed sunflowers, but I love how it turned out. Hope the couple does, too.

Enjoy

First day of school

Well, one thing I lost in my whole computer desaster is my photo-editing program. So, I will have to post the picture as is for now.

Trouble #2 on her first day of school.

She hasn't been too excited about school lately, but this morning she told me that the first day of school was the best day of her life.

Have a good one.

I'm back! in my best Arnold impersonation

It took completely flattening my laptop to get whatever "ailment" was causing problems to stop causing problems. I HATE THAT! Of course I am the idiot that doesn't back up her stuff. Well... regularly backs up her stuff. Remember that episode of SATC where Carrie's laptop crashes and she takes it in to have thing recovered and all they can get is garbled garbage? Well... it wasn't quite so bad, but still. And I am still trying to get all my iTunes uploaded again. I managed to save them to disc, but now I am having trouble uploading them. Ughhh. I don't need this stress.

Good thing M. from school was able to help me out. I knew there was a reason they stuck one guy into a classroom full of women (mothers) returning to work..... hey, he can fix computers! Otherwise it would have been a $100 trip to the computer doctor. This way it is going to cost me a batch of cupcakes. I found a recipe for Caipirinha cupcakes (he loves Caipis) but it sounded pretty nasty. I think I will stick with something more basic... like double chocolate or something like that.

In other news:

I started the 1-in-48 Sketch class over at NYC Scraps. Lots of fun. Lots of scrapping to be done. The sketches are cool and I am getting LOs done. A bit simpler than the usual, but that's okay, too.




The next two pictures are awful, since I was only able to take digi pix and not scan, but hey, you get the gist.


I am also working on another wedding cake. My lovely friend Nat and her husband ordered it as a wedding gift. So far (here in Germany) I had only made yellow cake with either apricot or raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream. This one is going to be Devil's Food Cake, with raspberry filling and buttercream. I tried a new recipe and had all ladies (and lone gentleman) in my class taste test. They loved it. The cake is soooooo chocolatey, it should be illegal. I just hope the happy couple enjoys it, too, but I am sure Nat will give me feedback. This one is only going to be a two-tier number, but with sunflowers and yellow roses. Should look very pretty. Pictures sometime this weekend.

The kids are heading out to the airshow tomorrow with the neighbors. I was supposed to go too, but with the cake set up and all... the neighbors offered to take the kids off my hands. They even asked wether it'd be okay if they stayed out a little longer, since they know I am concerned about bedtime routine. But hey.... it means I might actually have an hour or so to myself! Can't complain about that. Or, I might have to find a one-hour photo lab. I know, I know, I still live in the dark ages of analog film, but heck, I prefer it. Just not when it comes to developing those films and I don't go by my favorite one-hour lab in the city anymore. And as I was looking through the pictures I took during the first week of school, with all of Trouble #2's activities and such it occurred to me that I had missed one film. Well, I found it, but now I REALLY want thos pictures.

Mmmmhhhh, not much else, I suppose. I wasted so much time this week with this stupid laptop. Hopefully that's over now.



Have a good one.

Computer problems

Just a small sign of life. My laptop is acting funny and not working right. So for now I cannot really post anything new.

Will let you know when I've got it working again.

Have a good one.

Start'em early

I think I am back to scrapping. The house is reasonably cleaned up, we are getting into a routine with school and all, the weather has turned nice all of the sudden so the kids can play outside again.... and I get to scrap. It is funny how inspiration comes so much easier when the weather is not so gloomy.

Anyway, for the end of summer challenge over at PaperPosies, another LO using papers from an older kit: November 2005!

I had extra cake layers and buttercream from the last wedding cake I did and India couldn't wait to try her hand at decorating it. She has been wanting to try the pastry bags/tips for the longest time. And, surprisingly, she didn't do half bad for a first cake.

Here the LO to commemorate the occasion:


Have a good one.

I want to be a rockstar

I put together a quick LO last night. I haven't been scrapping at all... just too busy with end of summer stuff, school stuff, company stuff, workshop stuff, but I just had to scrap this latest "gem" of Trouble #2.

She's been "rockin'" in front of my computer, watching the Nickelback YouTube video "Rockstar" over and over.



Yesterday she confided that she had a problem. She was wondering if she could quit riding, because she really wanted to concentrate on becoming a rockstar, and you really can't be a rockstar if you are trying to become a famous jockey as well as a dentist.

She was rather relieved when I told her that she wouldn't have to worry about becoming a dentist until she was going off to college and her big sister told her that she could still become a rockstar even if she were old.

So she'll stick with being a jockey first. Mmmmhhh, I really don't know which is the better career choice.



Have a good one.

Addendum to my post 8/28 (Michaela, für Dich)

The spiral punch is used to punch the holes for spiral binding, such as shown here:



That way it is possible to create spiral bound albums completely from scratch or add pages to purchased albums. Not a necessity, but definitely a fun tool to have.

I have seen pages and cards where the punch was used to create decorative elements, but I haven't played around with that myself yet, so I cannot really say much about that.

Hope this helps.

Have a good one.