Posted by barb on Feb 13, 2006 in
Crafty Me A few weeks ago, Laurie asked if Sandy and I would scrapbook with her. She had gone to the craft store to pick up stuff to start a scrapbook for her son (who’s now almost 2). While there, she was overwhelmed by the amount of stuff, and wasn’t even sure where to start.
We haven’t gotten together yet (next Saturday), but since then, I’ve been looking at my scrapbooking supplies and trying to categorize what I have as “necessary”, “fun to have”, and “a waste of money”. I thought I’d outline some of my results here – maybe someone out there is having similar trouble, and this list might help you get started. I should make the warning that the following is just one person’s opinion – if anyone out there wants to add anything to my lists, or argue with how I’ve categorized them, feel free to chime in down in the comments.
Necessary Scrapbooking Supplies
- Scrapbook
- You can argue that you can do scrapbooking without the scrapbook, but eventually you’ll want something to put your creations in. The main decision here will be the size of the scrapbook and how its bound. I always use the 12″ × 12″ books, though if I were to make a gift book for someone, I might consider a smaller book. Currently I’m using the “strap-bound” books, but I’d rather use the “post-bound” ones. Why? The refill pages for the strap-bound books require that I trim about half an inch off of the standard 12″ × 12″ papers for them to fit in the top-loading page protectors. The post-bound pages that I’ve done did not require any trimming.
- Extra Pages
- The scrapbooks only come with a few pages, so you’ll need some extra pages – the number will depend on how many pages you want in the book (up to a certain limit, of course). I generally buy the top-loading page protectors, which allows me to make pages on separate 12″ × 12″ pages, and then insert them in the order I want. The pages can also be pulled out of the protectors and re-arranged, if I discover more pictures or want to move the page to a different album.
- Papers
- These come in a myriad of designs. I’ve got lots of paper, and find that I never quite have what I need. One big lesson that I’ve learned is that in addition to the cutesy papers, buy a collection of plain colors – either a pack of random colors, or buy coordinating colors for each of the cutesy pages that you buy. These are what you’ll make frames, tags and borders out of. Another lesson is that instead of just picking one design, buy a few from the same collection – these often go well together and will also be great for frames and borders.
- Adhesives
- It’s important to have acid-free, photo-safe adhesives. I have quite a variety, and when I wonder if I need them all, I realize that I actually use them all for different parts of the pages I do. Adhesives I have:
- photo tape: for tacking down pictures
- glue stick: for tacking down papers and adornments
- glue pen: for gluing ribbons or small strips of paper
- glue with a wide tip: for gluing larger pieces (this one kind of overlaps with the glue stick, but I still like having both)
- Scissors
- I have a couple pairs of regular scissors – one large pair and one small pair. These are both used only for scrapbooking, so that the edges stay sharp and are good for doing detailed work with paper.
- Pencils/Markers
- Again, photo-safe and acid-free are the keys here. These are used for marking photos to cut, but also to “journal” on the pages
- Paper Trimmer
- I’m not sure if this should go under “necessary” or just “nice to have”, but I use it everytime I scrapbook, and I can’t imagine trying to scrapbook without it, so I’ve put it in the “necessary” list. Technically, you can get by without one, but I highly recommend it. This is perfect for cropping pictures and trimming down the 12″ × 12″ sheets to fit in the strap-bound page protectors.
Read more…
Tags: scrapping
Posted by barb on Feb 13, 2006 in
Memes, Etc.
You Are Dr. Bunsen Honeydew
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You take the title “mad scientist” to the extreme -with very scary things coming out of your lab.
And you’ve invented some pretty cool things, from a banana sharpener to a robot politician.
But while you’re busy turning gold into cottage cheese, you need to watch out for poor little Beaker!
“Oh, that’s very naughty, Beaker! Now you eat these paper clips this minute.”
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Tags: dumb fun
Posted by barb on Feb 8, 2006 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts I took a quick trip to Minnesota last weekend, where my Dad gave me a cold, so I’ve been in my jammies for the last two days. The room has finally stopped spinning enough for me to write up a quick post.
I flew out on Thursday, and got to have dinner with Sweetie and her sweetie, Jeff (too many Jeffs!). Poor Jeff was in for a grilling, but he came through with flying colors. (My first question was what makes him good enough for my best friend, and his response was that he probably isn’t good enough – good answer! Not that he’s a not a good man, but no one is good enough for my Sweetie.) After dinner, Sweetie and I had some “girl time”, but I’m not at liberty to divulge anything that we talked about (like Las Vegas, what happens during girl time stays in girl time!).
The above pictures are my mom’s cats. Alexis (on the left) was actually originally my cat, but Mom got attached, and wouldn’t let me take her with me (actually, I couldn’t take her with me when I first moved out, but later, when I could, Mom wouldn’t let me). Allie has been a part of my life for 17 years, and I probably won’t see her again. But it was really good to see her on this trip – she’s gotten really thin, and has kidney disease, but perked up while I was there. I’m not sure if that’s because I was there, or because of the fluid treatments that my Mom has been giving her (probably the latter), but I’m glad I got to say good bye.
Callie, on the other hand, is a bit of a terror. Mom and Dad have a lot of antiques and collectables at their house, and many of them have had to be put away, because Callie likes to knock things off places she wants to sleep. She’s also a clutz. But she’s cute and fuzzy, so she does her job.
Read more…
Tags: trip report
Posted by barb on Jan 31, 2006 in
Random Thoughts Adjust the tongue on my sneakers before getting into the car. And for Goddess’ sake, failing that, adjust it before getting onto the Beltway; otherwise, I’ll have an unhealthy fixation on how much my foot hurts all 35 miles to work.
Tags: mental note
Posted by barb on Jan 30, 2006 in
Crafty Me,
Pictures I haven’t been blogging much – if you can believe it, I’ve had better things to do (!) I’ve had many blogging ideas, but instead, have been spending my evenings on scrapbooking our wedding reception (it’s only been a year and four months, maybe I should wait longer 🙂
Here are a few pics of what I’ve been up to:
Tags: scrapping
Posted by barb on Jan 29, 2006 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts One of my Christmas presents from my parents was this cool bundt pan in the shape of a carousel. Tonight was my first attempt at making a cake with the pan. I used a Death by chocolate bundt cake recipe from Recipe Source.
The cake turned out really well; however, I wanted to try and bring the carousel out more. My first thought was to sprinkle it with powdered sugar. As you can see in the picture, that was a big failure. The carousel animals were visible in the cake, but completely disappeared after I sprinkled the powdered sugar.
Next time? I’m not sure. I’d prefer not to have to frost the animals all individually, but it may come down to that. Any ideas out there?
Tags: baking
Posted by barb on Jan 27, 2006 in
Memes, Etc. JD tagged me for the “four things” meme.
Four Jobs I’ve Had
- Game hawker at the Minnesota Reniassance Festival
- Sales Associate (at various stores: Kay-Bee Toys, Hallmark, Claire’s, Lane Bryant)
- Tutor (of lots of subjects: physics, math, writing)
- Teaching Assistant
Four Movies I Can Watch Over And Over
- Ever After
- Indiana Jones (all of them)
- Star Wars
- Down With Love
Four Places I’ve Lived
- Bloomington, MN
- Socorro, NM
- Beltsville, MD
- Vienna, VA
Four TV Shows I Love
- Gilmore Girls
- Battlestar Galactica
- Judge Judy (I’m so embarassed — this is my guilty pleasure
- Mythbusters
Four Places I’ve Vacationed
- Myrtle Beach, SC
- New York, NY
- Altanta, GA
- Key West, Florida
Four Of My Favorite Dishes
- Mexican Haystacks (aka Frito Pie)
- Pizza
- General Tso’s Tofu
- Jumbo Veggie Burrito (from Anita’s)
Four Sites I Visit Daily
Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now
- In bed
- New Mexico
- On our cruise (that’s coming up soon!!!
- Someplace with lots of sunshine, warmth and not too much humidity
Four People I am Tagging
- Mushi
- Sweetie
- Crash
- Andrew
(Though I don’t seriously expect Crash or Andrew to do this — they aren’t “meme”-type people…
People not tagged, also please feel free to post your’s in the comments or give me a trackback ping so I know to check out your answers.
Tags: dumb fun
Posted by barb on Jan 23, 2006 in
Cute Pets,
Pictures 
Artemis does not have a diaphragmatic hernia. In fact, she may not have any problems at all, other than a curved-in chest cavity (so smaller lung capacity) and perhaps some scar tissue. If she were diseased, then there ought to have been some change in the last 6 months, but her chest cavity looks exactly the same as it did in her previous x-rays. Plus, she’s gained a little weight since then (she certainly didn’t need to gain waight, but the vet pointed out that often weight loss is a symptom of disease).
So, it looks like we have a healthy kitty who just has some trouble breathing because her lungs are smaller than they should be. Yay! (for the healthy kitty, not the smaller lungs) We’ll keep an eye on her, as we always do, but there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong. < sigh of relief >
Tags: pets
Posted by barb on Jan 23, 2006 in
Memes, Etc. Found this through Cheeky Prof.
I can tell you that #5 is definately not true, #6 might be true, and #9 gives me good reason to never visit Paraguay.
- Peanuts and Barb are beans!
- Barbology is the study of Barb.
- Barb can usually be found in nests built in the webs of large spiders!
- The Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter is made entirely of Barb.
- Barb can’t sweat.
- It’s bad luck to whistle near Barb.
- The pharoahs of ancient Egypt wore garments made with thin threads of beaten Barb.
- Abraham Lincoln, who invented Barb, was the only US president ever granted a patent!
- Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are Barb.
- Barb can be very poisonous if injected intravenously!
Tags: dumb fun
Posted by barb on Jan 23, 2006 in
Cute Pets,
Pictures 
Artemis is at the vet again today for more tests in her ongoing saga. About a year ago, we noticed that she was breathing hard pretty much all of the time. Last June, the vet took some x-rays and saw what looked like a mass in her chest cavity. After some steroids, he concluded that he was confused – it could be cancer, and if so, she wouldn’t be around very long, it could be her anatomy (she has a divit in her chest, so there could be stuff going on that they don’t know about). The advice we got was to either take her to the expensive clinic for lots of tests (lots of stress on her), probably for a diagnosis of cancer or to wait for the cardiologist who periodically visits our clinic to have a look at her x-rays.
We decided to wait. Of course, we didn’t know that it was going to be 6 months before the cardiologist visited. He came to our clinic two weeks ago, and looked at her x-rays. He didn’t see cancer (plus, if was as bad as the original vet had thought, she should have been in bad shape by now). Instead, he thinks it might be a diaphragmatic hernia – the stuff that the original vet said looked like a mass might be intestine coming into her chest cavity. He left us feeling very good about her chances of living a long life, if we find that it is a diaphragmatic hernia and get it repaired (major surgery, but he reassured us that the mortality rate is generally very good).
When our normal vet returned to the office (she was away at a conference last week), she had an associate call us to arrange a barium swallow for Artemis – this should show them if, indeed, she has intestine in her chest cavity. However, the vet that Andrew talked to also cautioned that if the liver is coming through to the chest cavity that there could be other complications to correcting the problem.
So, now she’s at the vet today for her barium swallow. I’m telecommuting, as usual for Mondays, and the house feels so empty. The boys are here, but they haven’t moved from where there were when I woke up this morning – Artemis usually follows me around a bit, and demands attention while I’m at the computer. I miss her. Send her some good mojo today.
< Side Note > We had to take away the kids’ food for the night, since Artemis wasn’t supposed to eat after midnight for her test today. Ares was so hungry this morning, he was seeking out toy mice in the house to eat off their tails. What a silly guy.
Tags: pets, suckitude
