Happy Halloween (and some awesome photos of a zombie lurch)

There was a serious zombie outbreak in Durham this past weekend. The victims ranged from the politically minded:

to business folk:

some poor people in a limo were attacked:

"Scrappers are acid free." Does that mean we taste better to zombies?

Even the kids got in on the action!



This whole family fell victim to the zombie plague (don't you just love their creepy-looking eyes?!?)

I hope everyone is having a wonderfully spooky day.

Sketch contest

I found this sketch blog while browsing through some of the fabulous scrapbooking blogs that I follow. The blog is called My Creative Sketches and they're having a contest over the next 3 months where you create a layout using their sketch for a chance to win prizes. Here's this month's sketch:

And here's what I did with it:

In keeping with my never-ending efforts to scrapbook my trip to Egypt, this layout is going in that album. I used a ton of G45 and Prima product. The photo is of a door in a spice stall at the bazaar in Aswan. Alton and I both agreed that walking through the market was one of the highlights of the trip. So many exotic and interesting things to see! I'll share more about it once I finish all my layouts from that part of the trip, hopefully sometime later this week.

Til then, hope everyone has a creative week, and if you're in NC, take some time to visit the State Fair... Alton and I had a blast there over the weekend!

Kom Ombo and a birthday celebration

Okay, I want to share some more layouts from my Egyptian vacation that I finished in August, but hadn't gotten around to posting.


After leaving Edfu, we continued our journey south on the Nile, and, late in the afternoon, we docked at a temple called Kom Ombo. This temple is dedicated to the crocodile god, Sobek, and I thought the carvings here were pretty cool. As we left the temple, we took a few minutes to pause and watch the sun set over the Nile. Kind of an awesome thing to see.

The layout pictured above is one of two double paged layouts that I finished in my QuickQuotes class at CKC Charlotte in August. I thought the colors on the paper were perfect to match the dreamy feel of the Nile River, with the mist rising low over the horizon. And believe me, this layout had tons of room for sticking extra photos on it. Here's a few that I tucked into a pocket we created on the layout:

That evening, as our boat headed for Aswan, everyone on the tour prepared for that night's "Galabea Party." We all bought galabeas... some had more elaborate garments than others, and a few of us bought scarves or headdresses to finish our ensembles. In full regalia, we paraded down to the dining room:

Ahem, you may have noticed that there was one person who chose not to dress in costume. What can I say? My man is certainly not a follower. At any rate, we all got a good laugh out of admiring one another's outfits. During dinner, Mohammed stopped by our table and asked a question. I forget exactly what the question was, but I knew what it meant. See, when we first boarded the boat, we had to provide a copy of our passport. And our passport contains things like... our date of birth. And the boat crew uses that information against you in the most nefarious of manners:

Yep, my birthday just conveniently happened to take place on the night of the galabea party! As dinner was wrapping up, the dining room and kitchen staff would come out beating on pots and pans and singing in Arabic. The maitre d' walked around the room, showing the birthday cake with a lit candle to each table, until he finally came to a stop in front of me. Then he drug me to the front of the room where everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and who knows what else, and one of the staff danced me around a little bit. I have to admit that, while it was a little embarassing, it was certainly the most memorable birthday celebration I think that I will ever have. Please excuse the craptastic photo. It was very dark in the dining room, we were moving around a lot, and poor Alton was trying to cope with my camera.

After dinner, we headed up to the lounge area and hung around for a while, dancing and just having a good time. All in all, a pretty awesome birthday! And on that note, I think I'll call this post complete. Still lots more finished layouts to share, and more silly stories from my journey down the Nile. Til next time, stay safe, stay creative!

Things I learned about my cats this weekend

I learned a few things about a couple of my cats this weekend:

1. Do not try to make Spike look girlie by putting a pretty pink ribbon around her neck. She will cut you. Seriously.

2. When you are on the phone with your father, and Spike pounces your upper thigh in an act of retaliation (see 1 above), do not ignore her because...

3. Spike is not above attacking from behind and sinking claws into both of your butt cheeks. Seriously. Ow.

4. It does not improve Spike's mood when you try to put the pink princess cone on her head. It does, however, impede her eyesight, making it harder for her to leap on your unsuspecting legs.

5. Princess DOES like having a pretty pink ribbon tied about her neck, and will purr with pleasure about it.

6. When you try to remove said pretty pink ribbon from Princess's neck (because, after all, it is kind of a choking hazard), she will cut you. Seriously.

7. People who like to mess with their cats should invest in neosporin and bandaids.

Moving forward

Well, it's been a while. I'd like to start by thanking those of you who expressed your condolences over the past month or so, whether it was here on my blog, on Facebook, by email, or by phone. Your thoughts and prayers meant a lot to me. My grandmother's passing was a completely unexpected shock. But I know she is in a better place, and I know that she would have chosen to pass at her home without a drawn out illness or stay in the hospital if she'd had a say in the matter, so I am happy for her, even as I miss her so terribly.

When I left home to join my family, I knew I might want some stitching to occupy my hands and mind, but I couldn't stomach the thought of stitching something cheery. Fortunately I had just barely begun The Primitive Needle's "Black'd Skie" earlier in the year. Since it is basically a mourning sampler, it was a perfect match to my mood. Two blocks down, four more to go. I'm using a piece of hand dyed linen from Stitches and Spice, called, appropriately, "gravestone". Over about 3 week's stitching, here's what I accomplished:

About 2 weeks ago, I felt like I was ready to return to the model that I've been stitching for Mom. And I've been stitching like mad ever since, trying to finish it in time for the on-line show next week! I put the last stitches in on Friday evening, and delivered the finished piece to my dad a few hours ago. I have a photo of it, but it is super-low resolution. Hopefully, you can still get a good idea of what it looks like. I think it is quite pretty, and that black linen just makes it pop!

After finishing on Friday, I pulled out all the Halloween projects I have in my stash, and went a little crazy. I finished stitching two little smalls, both of which I will probably turn into little pin pillows. Both are stitched on 36 count Legacy linen from Picture This Plus using overdyed cotton threads. The first one is "Waiting for the Harvest" from Blackbird Designs:

The second one is a freebie design from Primitive Bettys. This photo gives you a better idea of the yummy mottled-ness of the fabric I used.

I don't know when I'm going to actually finish them. Maybe I'll get a chance to do some shopping for fabric to back them with next weekend. But maybe not. We'll see.

So what shall I work on next? I'm thinking that I am going finish another pin pillow for which I do have the finishing materials. After that, maybe a Halloween ornament, maybe back to the mourning sampler. I'm not sure yet.

As far as scrapping goes, I've done a grand total of one layout since the beginning of September. I still have several layouts from my Egypt vacation that I haven't shared yet. I'll do that soon. And, although I didn't quite get motivated enough to scrap today, I think it's coming soon. Maybe even later this week. Until then, I hope everyone is enjoying the change in the weather. Stay safe, and give your loved ones an extra hug or a surprise phone call.

I Miss You MawMaw

Suddenly, the world is an emptier place. She has left us for her place in heaven today.

Irene passes me by and my scrap mojo goes mad

Hullo, strangers! I know, I know, it's been a while. And there are so many things that I could talk about from this past month or so. Instead, I think for now, I'll bypass the road trip to Massachusetts, skip right over the B-52's concert, avoid talking about what I'm stitching (it's a model for Mom so I can't show a picture just now anyway) and go straight to this past weekend. Well, straight there after I mention that I'm super excited about Mom's new design. It's an Adam and Eve on a gorgeous milk chocolate colored linen. It's yummy. You're gonna love it. Moving on...

This weekend in a word? Scrapbooking. In a whole bunch of words? I spent the weekend at CKC-Charlotte, and have returned with a super hyper desire to create pages and pages of layouts. I took Friday off, and headed out early, early in the morning to check into my hotel and do some shopping at the vendor fair before my first class. Actually, I had been anxiously watching the track for Irene all week, hoping that it wouldn't track too close to my home and necessitate a complicated evacuation of the cats prior to my leaving for Charlotte. Happily (or relatively so), we weren't predicted to be in the flood zone, so I cleaned everything off the porch, said a little prayer and headed west.

I don't want to bore you with too many class-related details. So, um, my first class was with Studio Calico. I like their spray mists, and the wood veneers. And I thought the layout they taught was perfect to showcase Spike and Tigger when they were itty bitty:

The layout looks better in person, but it is a little jacked up due to some minor complications with the spray mist (including my color choice, ha ha).

Anyhoozles, I spent a big chunk of the day hanging out with my Aunt Teresa, who showed up with the ugliest black eye I have ever seen in my life. Seriously. It was BAD. But she was handling it like a trooper, and said it was itching more than anything else (and that no, poor Uncle Chris, who was enduring endless teasing, did not hit her, she fell in the parking lot of Jo-Ans and was attacked by her glasses). We shopped, ate dinner at Five Guys, and shopped some more. Angela finally met up with me late that evening, ready to jump into a nice long day of classes on Saturday.

I made some great layouts in the QuickQuotes class that you will see when I get back to my Egypt album. I worked on a mixed media mini album that may or may not ever get finished. I have no clue what I would put in the album right now.

I learned how to make some fabulous handmade flowers from Technique Tuesday. Here's a couple of them:


And finally, I justified taking an extra class because I needed to make sure I had to drive through as few rain bands as possible on my way home. Here are the three layouts from that class:



The picture in that first layout was taken a couple of years ago on a mountain top, at sunset, looking out over Death Valley. Sigh. I really need to work on scrapbooking that trip, too.

I am happy to say that I made it home with only 2 rain bands under my belt, and neither one contained any heavy rains or high winds. There were a few small limbs down across town, but happily, my home and cats were none the worse. I didn't even think my power had gone out, although I realized that it actually had when I went to turn my alarm on Sunday evening. So all is well in my world, and my thoughts are with those who were not so fortunate.

Since coming back from the convention, I've made A TON of progress on my Egypt album... another 10 pages have been finished! But I'll save those for another post. This one's getting long already.

But I can't leave you without sharing some pictures of the cats. Scout had his stitches removed, and I am happy to report that the surgery was successful. He has a little bit of a sag to his lower lip on the right side, and at least one of his teeth is coming in crooked, but he can live a full, happy life (if he'd stop doing things like trying to climb inside the folding bed inside the couch, that is) and he doesn't look too funny, does he?

You know, except when he's being weird and sleeping in odd positions:

I hope I've found a home for him with a friend whose home is currently cat-free. Fingers crossed that this works out, cuz I'm gonna have a hard time giving this little accident-prone sweetie to a total stranger!