Tim Holtz May 2013 tag

I recently joined Swap-Bot, a site for all kinds of cool email, postcard, and package trades.I joined it mostly for the craft aspect of it, but I've also been doing a lot of postcard swaps. I really just like getting mail, so it's nice to find cool stuff in my mailbox almost every day.

A lot of the crafts are stuff I don't normally do, but I have really been trying to get into a routine of making stuff. That makes it easier to make something the next day, and the next.

I have a lot of Tim Holtz products because they are really cool and unique. I'm not into scrapbooking and that kind of genre of crafts because it's usually way too twee. But the trend in crafting is a hodge-podgy, grungy assortment of found objects and rusty old things. That I can get behind.

One of the swaps I just participated in was the Tim Holtz May Tag. I don't normally make tags - I don't even know what you're supposed to do with them. Display them? Put them on a gift? But I was curious to try some of the techniques. I don't have all the exact products that he suggests, so I just dug through my stash and used what looked good. I had a little trouble with the rub-ons I used for some reason, plus they warped a little when I used my heat gun. But I like how it turned out, and I hope my swap partner will too!

I love my fierce unicorn stamp. I used some embossing powder on the music note.

My favorite thing to use lately are these old slides I found at the thrift store. I actually bought a slide scanner to scan them all, so I feel less guilty for tearing apart all these cool vintage family photos from the 50s-70s. I found the silhouette stamp set at Jo-Ann's last weekend for a dollar.

01/23

01/23:

This was my mom's "first" birthday. My sister couldn't get off work on the weekend, so we went down to Tony's in Redondo during the week.

Firechief Mai-Tai

Making friends.

Chomp.

He's like "it's finally MY day to shine!"

 

Macro Firechief. I swear I didn't Photoshop in the heart.

01/19

From 01/19:
So bored today. We were on the hunt for some succulents (particularly some Hen and Chicks, which are nowhere to be seen around here). Ended up looking at a couple nurseries before we came home defeated. But then Maria called to hang out for dinner so the day ended up lovely. Chris and Paul held hands over the table. As they do. I did not take any pictures at dinner because I'm a loser and I forgot.

Mt. Fuji Garden w/Android fisheye

01/18

Stamps and watercolors. I can't stamp or paint.

01/17

The lighting in this house is a lot different from our old apartment. There aren't a lot of sockets for lamps and the lights that are built in have a yellow tint. It's really hard for me to work on stitching. I've actually been wanting an Ottlite lamp or something similar for awhile. I have a little one but it's a fold-up one that would be better for a desk. Normally they are waaay too much but I found a floor lamp (similar to this) at Tuesday Morning for $40.00. It's kind of ugly but it's really really nice. My strained eyes have thanked me.

01/16

A police standoff outside our house! I already said it on Instant Gram, but they actually said "Come out with your hands up!" which was way exciting.

For as many police were there they seemed pretty unconcerned about everyone watching and walking by.

Kitten bro hug

01/15

Gingham

01/14

Lego Lord of the Rings today. And housework. Boring! Only posting for the sake of the project :/

01/13

One of the best restaurants in prolly the universe is Clearman's North Woods. It's an old steakhouse that has snow on the roof all year round. The snow is totally real and a Christmas miracle. It's dark and feels like a log cabin and has paintings of naked ladies on the wall and you can throw peanut shells on the floor. My family has gone there for as long as I can remember for big birthdays and stuff. And we went there for the posse Christmas this past December. You don't need to eat anything on the menu but their cheesebread and salad. Just put ALL THE BREAD AND SALAD in your gullet.

Chris and I went on the 13th to celebrate our family friend John's 65th birthday. 

Lemondrop at the bar with the Android fisheye.

My mom and John

My Photojojo Android macro lens closeup of one of my grandmother's purses. It took it with me to dinner. It's very classy.

01/12

My new friend Snapdragon. Don't worry, he lives at Lowes, not at my house.

Kitten Toes!

Ramona De Pomona

Kitten Toes

Jan 5th

I ran a little more of my DnD campaign I'm working on. There's usually only two players since anyone else I know who plays has a dumb schedule. So it was Chris and Scott again. I remedied some of my frustrations about it moving so slowly by creating extra characters for them to each play. I think it went a little better this time. Except I think I'm going to ban smart phones at the gaming table. Distractions and stuff. I try to pay attention when Chris or Lou are running a game. Don't always succeed, but I try.

Chris. 01/05/2013

Reasons Why

 When we moved into our house, we had to go through a ton of his parent's stuff. They were both collectors so there were a ton of figurines, collector's plates, rocks and minerals, and glass and crystal containers. On top of that his mother was very good at documenting their lives through so there are at least 30 photo albums along with countless framed photos, random cocktail napkins and matchbooks, and greeting cards. The stuff was awesome, but at the same time overwhelming to sort through. A lot of cards didn't have a year or even who they were to. And there was a ton of regular schoolwork from Chris and his three brothers. Like I mean worksheets and busy work stuff, not just school projects and papers. So a lot of stuff ended up getting thrown away because Chris isn't sentimental about those kinds of things. And a lot. We also sold a lot of stuff at a yard sale and on ebay.

But it made me really really sad  because they collected this stuff for a reason and we didn't really know why. I didn't know if a vase was a family heirloom or something that she just picked up at Macy's because she liked it.

Chris and I are collectors too, and we both have weird stuff that we've kept because there's a story behind it. I don't know if we will end up having kids, but I some day someone will need to go through our stuff, and I want them to know why I kept something. 

This year I am going to make an effort to catalogue some of these things. Some things won't have a story because I pick stuff up all the time just because I like it. But I hope a lot of things do have a story even if I've forgotten it.

For January 1st, the first thing I photographed was this crewel flower that my grandmother made. I think I can remember them hanging up, but I'm not sure if I'm creating a memory from photos. I have a few different variations, but I really like this one. I wish I would have discovered needlework earlier. She tried to teach me cross stitch when I was maybe 12 years old, but I didn't get into it. I got to show her a couple little things I did before she died, and I think she liked that I was doing that. She sewed my entire life for as long as she could. So I guess I always do this stuff and hope she'd think it was cool.

 "My Dice!" - Borat

Tagged under "timely references".

Baldy

This little area in Baldy feels like Middle Earth sorta. That is all.