silly as it sounds...

stinkin widgets

so, i tried to add this new widget for pandora to my blog sidebar, but everytime i did it, my explorer windows would automatically error>>>close.  pooey.  :P  anywho, right now i'm listening to my Mazzy Star: Fade Into You Station.  yum.

well, i finished my day four challenge...technically it is 1am on day 5, but technically i DID finish before midnight.  :P  here is my page for day four:

and i added a new teeshirt to Cafe Press....tee hee hee....plan to wear it at Pick of the Patch when i teach my Freestyle class...is that nerdy??  it's okay.  you can tell me the truth.  heh heh.  but watch out.  sometimes i like cheesy nerdy stuff.  :P  especially like right now late at night.....er.....early in the morning when i'm buzzing on sleepiness and pandora.....

where was i?

oh, yes....the new shirt!  LOL!

Tell you what.  If you go to that retreat, and are actually WEARING that shirt with me...I'll give you a RAK!  well, in that case i suppose it would NOT be a RAK, as RAK's by their own definition are random....so i guess this is more like a prize.  or a bribe to ensure that i'm not all alone in my cheesy nerdiness....bwaaahahahahaaaa....

yes.

this is the weirdness you get when it's 1:30 am and i'm groovin' to....who is this? just a sec....oh, okay. its nancy sinatra.  interesting.  huh.

ANYWAY.........

more pukies today from the kiddos; hoped we were done with that flu stuff, but apparrently not quite yet.  and now the little one is looking sick as in cold-sick.  poor guy.  didn't want to do anything more today than veg on the couch with Chicken Little, Toy Story, and Madagascar.  :(

it's so funny...

i go thru my day, and a million times something will hit me and i'll say to myself,

"this will make a great blogging subject!  i have to remember to write about that."

and then it is gone.

and i forget.

see?

even in this information age; this want-it-get-it-have-it-NOW society we live in, it still is not convenient or fast enough.  sheesh. when is typepad going to come out with a brain~wave feature where you can update your blog telepathically?  i mean, REALLY, people...sheesh.  makin us stop what we're doing and actually have to T-Y-P-E stuff.  whatev.

OH!

that reminds me.  (my little sissy always says "whatev.")  i found a picture of her and my little brother tonite in a file and it made me laugh so much.  but mostly it made me miss them.  a lot.  they're such crazy cheesy nerds.  even more than me.  and that's sayin somethin.

wow, bri.  you kinda look posessed.  eek.

oh.  and i photoshopped out the baby spit-up on your jeans.  heh heh heh.

its okay.

i still miss you oodles.  mwah.  come visit.  :)  LOL. 

okay.....enough talking to myself i suppose.  off to bed.  forgive my rambling.

:)

'nite.

21 days

much thanks to rhonna for her dedication to persistent inspiration and positive thought.

i thought *i* was an optimist until i met this woman!

participating in the art journal challenge...

posting days two and three.

day two above.  i forget  how much i love to play with my paints and pens.

day three:  'i can't see the rain, for the blue shiny skies'

all abuzz...

Freestyle is available and shipping already at ideabooks4u.com! I am SO eager to get my hands on my very own copy!!!

And.

I went and got myself a CafePress Store...

http://www.cafepress.com/tiabennett

it's called "humblePie"...tee hee hee,

and still in its infancy stage, but so much fun!  :)

spent all day yesterday with puking children...looking forward to a brand new puke free day.

doodling digi

playing with digi doodles tonite....SO FUN!!

and the whole idea of having an "undo" rocks.  love it!!  :)

mistake proof doodles.  hee hee

on a side note,

i hereby officially declare that i am doing rhonna's next 21 day art journal challenge.

my habit to create is rather personal in nature, but so incredibly important. for me. for my life. for being the woman i need to be.  SO EXCITED to start this on monday!

thanks rhonna.  :)

new!

a sneak peek at goodies for Designer Digitals i'm putting up tomorrow!

derby dud

oh, well, bud.

can't win 'em all.  :)

but we sure had fun making it!!

croptastic

i'm so sad.

but so happy.

sad:

i hardly got ANY pictures with my own camera.  if your name is {someone who has a pic of you and me on your camera from the TOM crop} i will love you forever if you will email me a copy! **coughcoughkahmeitracyelsieshannoncarolkategencoughcough**

happy:

this was seriously the FUNNEST weekend EVER!!!

for a great play-by-play, you have to check out Kate's blog.  she rocked it.  i have to say DITTO.  lame, i know, but really.  that girl was QUICK man!  i've been buried in work all week and have been a bad, bad blogger!

i got to take elsie's class and have to say i had the BEST TIME!!!  she is so inspiring.  seriously.  SO COOL!!!!  :)  and i think i scared the crap out of her when i ran up and hugged her till she almost popped, but she's still alive, so its all good.  ;D

Treasury of Memories is the BEST scrap store i have EVER been to.  i remember back when ali taught there last year, and i read on her blog where she said about the store, "they just get it."  and i wasn't sure what it was.  but now i've been. and now i get it.  i still can't explain it, but so glad they are relatively close to me.  (only about 3 hours).  Please, PLEASE support their 20-HOUR BENEFIT CROP coming up for Mighty Max and the Uncompensated Care Fund at Children's Hospital.  A wonderful cause, inspired by a wonderful boy!

it was AMAZING to have all the Fontwerks designers together for the FIRST TIME EVER!!!  i kept wanting to pinch myself.  seriously.  so amazing.  so inspiring. so FUN!!

i will admit that at one point i was lauging so hard i actually FELL ON THE FLOOR.  um.......HIGHLY embarrassed.  it was "ROFL" "IRL".  (<-----geek speak for "Rolling On Floor Lauging In Real Life).  it was attributed to my lack of sleep, for sure.  definitely.  yeah.  that's it.  ;D 

lack of sleep would also account for the "pirate eye patch" i made out of scrap supplies and modeled for Gen (paperjax) as i accepted her scrap "dare".  now...before you think i am the ONLY crazy one....let me share my fave pic of Kate (one of the ONLY pics i snapped with my camera, *sob*!  you can see half of Kah-Mei's face and Elsiecake's elbow.  *pout*.)

but this one is a close second:

yes.

that would be kate's armpit.

but it was a really cute shirt, though!  ;D

see?

i told you i didn't get any pics!

oh!

but i do have a cute one

of me and Gen...

what the heck, Gen?   i seriously don't remember what we were doing,

but it sure is funny. :)

and the "mini album challenge" i issued....we each got a small Kolo album to create and randomly swap amongst us...

this was a lot of fun, and the perfect little thing to do during a crop...

small,

easy,

no-pressure,

and you get to give it away

to a great friend!!

:D

Now.

Shannon.

I hereby forgive you for NOT TELLING ME OR EVEN HINTING A SMIDGE that you were a HALL OF FAMER, you stinker, you!!!!!!!!!!!  CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!  but just for the record,

i knew.

i just did.

but get this.  i read shannon's account on the CK website of "the call", and see that her son was chanting "we're winners! we're winners!!!" and realize that only a day or so later, i picked her up at her house.  and met her son.

SO KUDOS TO HIM for not even saying anything!! i'm laughing now as i remember how i was hangin out with him, chattin over his cars and trucks, all the while you're probably thinking, "Don't Say It!!!!"  what a sweet little boy...he is adorable shan!

Now, I have to thank Tamara profusely for offering up her bunkbed to let me crash for the night!  I was SO tired...driving home would have been a disaster, I'm sure.  So sharing a bunk with elsiecakes was SO MUCH appreciated!  and what sweet girls you have!!  and such an adorable home!!  :)

so do i tell you about how i got to road trip with els down to seattle to drop her at her best bud's house?  and how we spent the whole time plotting our world domination?  aaaahahahhahaaa...yeah, right.  i probably spent the whole time blabbering on and on about how i luuuuuuuuurve her!  :D  but i think we were both so tired it was nice to just *chill*!  :)  love ya els!!!

i love this thing.

this scrapbooking thing.

what a blessing.

what great friends.

what a wonderful, meaningful creative outlet.

what a blessing!!!!

the most incredible thing in the universe

oh, Target.  blessed Target.  i love my Target.  have you SEEN these new goodies from RealSimple at Target? 

you know when something just *clicks* with you; you know it will work and you will love it?

yup.

these ROCK.

a daily planner that is spiral bound and DOUBLE SIDED.  mom stuff on one side.  work stuff on the other.  i'm in LOVE.  you HAVE to try these...it folds in half and bands together...SO COOL.

and also a card holder on a post (like a scrapbook album type post) that fans out.  i can see ALL my cards right away.  pull em out like lightning.  not LOSE my medical card.  again, bands together.

i have an addiction to notebooks and such that band together with elastic.  i don't know why.  but if you see any...share a link!!  seriously.  LOVE that.

two is upon us.

add his developmental frustration to some ear infections and what do you get?

NO. SLEEP.

for either of us.  i think my record this week is, like, 4 hours in a row.

bleuch.

bane of my existence

static shock.  electricity in the air.  getting out of my van and suffering a 100-volt shock when i shut the door.  okay.  so maybe not 100.  i don't know voltage.  it is just big.  huge.  it HURTS.  like when i was little and folded up a metal Juicy Fruit gum wrapper into a small strip and inserted it into a light socket just to see what it would do.  like THAT hurt.  lately, i've taken to shutting the door with my foot.  i'm almost ready to install that rubber thing that drags on the road behind your car like the police officers have.  almost.

oh, the drama.

um,

how do i "pack" for cropping?

here it is, almost midnight.  i wake in 5 hours.  and i'm wading through a room full of scrap CRAP trying to figure out HOW i am going to make a measly couple of pages WITHOUT it all.

??????

mind you, i could probably thoroughly enjoy scrapping a page with nothing but McDonalds condiments and accoutrements, and a pixelated pic from a cell phone.

so WHY ALL THE CRAP?????

it is a sickness, i tell you.  a sickness.

but i digress.  i really wanted to hop on tonite to document my life pre-Elsie.

cause tomorrow?  when i meet her?

yeah.  it will all just be after-Elsie.  this is now the year  '0 A.E'.  Oooo....is that freaky that those initials are also Ali Edwards'?  (cue twilight music....doo doo, dooo dooo.....) 

tired....so tired....i don't think i have any juice left to explore my pre-Elsie self.  *sigh*  how am i gonna get all this junk into a little area at a table???  maybe i can have a Satellite Scrapping Station out at my mini-van where i can park near the doors and yell in to them every so often......hey.  my seats are removable.  not such a bad idea.

LOL. i KNOW what will happen.  i will predict it with perfect clarity.  all my junk will stay in the car and i'll just buy more stuff in the store.  just watch.

i'm such a nerd.

but by sunday, i'll be a nerd with pictures.  heh heh heh

my husband is snoring.

LOUDLY.

must. go. plug. nose. and. roll. over.

NOW.

tia.

out.