May Reading Round-Up

I only got through one more book this month than I did last month but at least it's not one less!  

"Pledged" by Alexandra Robbins
I went to a small liberal arts school and although we had sororities and fraternities they did not play a huge role on campus.  However, I must confess that as a GDI I was curious to get a peek inside Greek life which is why I bought this book.  While the author apparently got a lot of grief for writing it I thought it gave a pretty balanced view of the pros and cons of Greek life and it satisfied my independent curiosity!

"The Alienist" by Caleb Carr
This was a best seller in the mid-90s and I bought it in 1999 at the Lincoln Square Barnes & Noble in NYC (yes, I can probably tell you where and when I bought most of my books.  I am a freak like that.)  And yes, it's taken me 12 years to get around to reading it!  That also means it's travelled from NYC to Chicago to Bermuda.  Not bad for a little paperback!  Anyway it's a historical, detective novel.  Set in NYC in 1896 it follows a team investigating a series of gruesome murders of child prostitutes and coming to grips with new ideas (the existence of serial killers and psychopaths) and methods (fingerprinting).  Lots of historical detail (although it occasionally feels a bit excessive) and interesting psychological ideas as well as a good old fashioned murder mystery.
   

"Last Night at Chateau Marmont" by Lauren Weisberger
I needed some fluff.  I enjoyed Weisberger's first book ("The Devil Wears Prada").  Her second book not so much and I skipped her third all together.  However, this one ended up in my hands and I needed something light after "The Alienist".  Not as good as "Devil" but better than the other one.  A story about finding fame and hanging on to your relationship in the process.  

"One Day" by David Nicholls - Recommended
Definitely liked this a lot better than his first novel, "Starter for Ten".  It's a fantastic, quirky, When Harry Met Sally-esque love story.  The end of chapter eighteen actually made me exclaim out loud in shock and brought Luis running into the room thinking I needed rescuing from some giant insect.  :)

A Splash of Green

I have been going completely nuts trying to take a decent picture of today's card for The Play Date Cafe.  I have a really hard time getting a picture of black card stock so that it actually looks black and not brown or grey.  Even my new light box that I made this weekend (thanks to Therese's instructions) isn't cutting it (although I think it's partly because my light bulbs are too warm.  I'm having trouble finding cool, white bulbs.)  Anyway before I got too frustrated and tossed my camera off the dock I settled for this picture.  I used a Unity stamp and embossed the image on black card stock.

**Tip Of The Day**  

Turn off the ceiling fan before you start playing with embossing powder!

Supplies:  CS: Bazzill Basics; Stamps: Unity, DeNami; Inks: VersaMark & VersaMagic; Punch: Martha Stewart; Embossing Powder: Ranger; Pen: Sakura Gelly Roll Metallic

So after I cleaned up the embossing powder I coloured in parts of the image with a green Sakura metallic pen.  Gives it a nice little sheen but, of course, you can't see it that well in the pic.  I stamped the sentiment in white and went over it with the Sakura pen as none of my green inks were impressing me on the black paper.  Then I punched the bottom, stitched the top (Note to self:  Must get sewing machine!!) and voila - a colour splash card completed!  :)


Hope those of you with a holiday today are enjoying it and those at work... well, hang in there - the day will be over soon enough!  ;)

Congrats - You Did It!

Another lovely but very dry weekend.  Luis finally broke down and mowed the lawn although there wasn't much to cut except weeds.  What's left of the lawn is yellow or brown and very crunchy when you walk on it!  I had friends visiting from the US a few years ago and they commented on how the yard was just crabgrass - they had battled all the crabgrass out of their yard and had nice, lush, fancy grass.  I would love to do the same but since we aren't able to water the lawn it seems a bit of a waste.  So crab grass it is for now!  :)  The ants are also going completely mental at them moment.  They too are desperate for water and keep heading into the house in long trails to find it.  Yesterday I finally went out and sprayed around the entire exterior of the house and they seem to have backed off - for now.  They'll be back before long - they're stubborn little creatures.  Hmmm... I was just thinking that with my stories of spiders and ants I'm not painting a great picture for visitors!  And I haven't even shown you the giant centipedes and flying cockroaches yet!  LOL!  

OK, enough with the bugs.  Onto my entry for CAS-ual Fridays.  The theme this week is graduation.  

Supplies:  CS: Bazzill Basics & PTI; Stamps: Lawn Fawn & PTI; Inks: VersaFine & VersaMark; Gems: Doodlebug; Die: PTI

This was another one of those rare occasions where I had the idea pretty much set before I started.  It's got 2 of my favourite things on it - stars and polka dots - so it makes me happy.  :)  Hope you've all had a happy weekend!

Let's Kiss and Make Up

Just a quick post today.  Looooong day yesterday and I have a million things to do this morning before I head back to work this afternoon.  This card isn't for a particular challenge but I've had this "sushi grass" sitting on my desk for ages.  I collected it from a girl's night out a month or so ago and thought I could recycle it - or up-cycle it.  (What's the difference between those 2 phrases anyway?)  I thought it looked like sea grass so I paired it with these bright-eyed WPlus9 fish.

Supplies:  CS: The Stampin' Place; Stamps: WPlus9, HA, Inks: VersaMark, Memento; Rub-ons: Doodlebug

Gotta jet.  Have a lovely day!

CAS-ual Fridays Take 2

***3rd post of the day!!  Yes, I am an eager beaver!!***

After a few attempts I managed to complete this card which was my original idea for the CAS-ual Fridays bling challenge.  I already put in another entry but this card looked so sad sitting all on it's own that I had to give it it's moment to shine.  :)

Supplies:  CS: Bazzill Basics; Stamps:  PTI; Inks: SU; Bling:  Doodlebug

Rainbows and Denim

***2nd post of the day!  Scroll down for CAS-ual Fridays and Lawnscaping***

So clearly I'm playing catch up after two weeks away as I have another card today for 2 more challenges - the JUGS rainbow challenge and the Create denim challenge.

And what better way to combine them than to have a rainbow of stars shooting across a denim sky!    

I cut the denim patch from a skirt that, as cute as it is, will never fit over my hips again.  So instead of pitching it I thought I'd let it have a second life on this card.  The stars are from my trusty fun foam collection which I haven't dipped into in a while but I always have fun with it when I do.  Off to play some ball with the hounds!  Later, gators!

Dotty For You

Another glorious day here but, alas, due to lots of gorgeous days and no rain we've just had 4 loads of water delivered.  Ouch on the wallet!  We're in major water conservation mode at the moment and looks like we will continue to be for quite some time.  Seems funny to say that while seeing other places getting flooded.  Be nice if the weather could be evened out a bit...

Today I'm playing along with the CAS-ual Fridays and Lawnscaping challenges - one using bling and one using polka dots.  Fun!

Supplies: CS:  The Stampin Place; PP: Kaisercraft; Stamps: Lawn Fawn; Ink: VersaFine: Bling: Doodlebug

I used Bannerific and Harold's ABCs and some Kaisercraft dotty paper for this one.  I thought the bling were like a few extra polka dots.  :)  My original attempt at an entry for CAS-ual Fridays went all wrong so I'm entering this instead as it's CAS and blingy.  I may give the first card another try but I don't know if I'll get to it before the deadline.