Yes… that’s right…. The Office season premiere was last night… It’s good to be back.
Monthly Archives: September 2007
happy mail! happy mail! happy mail!
Don’t you love Happy Mail? Today was a BIG Happy Mail day. I got my Papertrey Ink order… I ordered the Tea Tins, Clear Lid Tins, Opaque Coffee bags and the White notecards/envies that I’ve heard great things about. I hope to spend a few days prepping for Christmas goodies! Not sure when that’ll be…
Next up: Being a fan of Cathy Zielske’s Simple Scrapbooking style, and recently discovering her awesome blog, I decided that having her books on my Amazon wish list for the last 2 years was ridiculous. I ordered them. And Renee Pearson’s Digital Designs also, since that seems to be where I’m headed scrapbooking-wise.
Okay, you see these beloved books, but what the heck’s up with the Dirndl???
Glad you asked. Both Keith and I are feeling pretty sappy about where were were a year ago. In fact, my husband’s birthday is the 30th and that was one of the funnest days ever- at Oktoberfest. And recently, my beer loving husband won a fitness challenge at work for which he won $300. Yay Keith! So he bought himself a Keg-er-ator- a mini refrigerator with a tap on top that holds a keg of beer. Jim, the fitness coordinator at Keith’s work was not too pleased that all his hard work to win the challenge was going to be wasted with beer (yet, not upset enough to turn down a ice cold draft beer after a bike ride!).
All this leads to: Our 1st Annual Oktoberfest party. We decided if we can’t get ourselves to a beer tent in Germany, we’d make one here at our place. :D So, i found this very cute dirndl on ebay… won it! It came today- to top off my Happy Mail. I’m going to pounce on a pair of Lederhosen/Bundhosen for Keith tomorrow morning. Rhonda, our roomate is also helping to plan this shindig. We’ll string Christmas light all around the backyard, set up several picnic tables, blast Oktoberfest music and serve grilled chicken, homemade brezen (pretzels) & kartoffel salat (potato salad). Seriously- come on by if you’re in the neighborhood Oct 6!
wednesday blog challenge….
Hello, my stampin monkeys! (whip sound ala Craig Ferguson, he usually says “naughty monkeys” tho). Once again, it’s Wednesday and that means one thing- time for my weekly challenge. This week? I’m travel-sick for Germany, Quebec City, New York, Akumal – places I’ve been and loved, as well as eagerly awaiting a trip to Portland in December.
So… THE THEME IS TRAVEL! Create a card, scrapbook page or travel journal- whatever works for you and post a link in my comments. That way we can all stalk each other’s blogs and get some ideas.
My travel theme project is not actually cardstock and ink… it’s digital! I’m learning how to scrapbook via Adobe Photoshop Elements, and am totally loving the free or cheap download kits from places such as TwoPeasinaBucket. Here is my travel page:
The kit used for this was Twist of Lime, By Gina Cabrera.
The dark flower was from another kit- Jubilant, also by Gina Cabrera.
As this is my first (well, 2nd) digital scrapbook page, I am still getting the hang of it. The size is 11×8.5 – i love this size “landscaped” vs “portrait” for layouts. I wish there were more scrapbooks this size. I know the cursive is Edwardian Script, however, I can’t get back on the Salzburg, Austria to tell you what font that one is! I “flattened” too soon, and my rick rack ribbon is over the flower also- when I wanted to move it behind the flower. All photos “opaque-ness” was reduced to soften the look.
So that’s it for me- now it’s your turn!
happy new year?
Demo Challenge DC018 Background Stamps
This is the card I came up with for today’s Demo Challenge. It was the first time i broke out the Baroque Background!! Love the easy elegance of this background stamp.
The card base is the new Basic Gray color, the background was stamped with Basic Gray ink. Then I used a scrap of Basic Gray textured cardstock with Whisper White cs for the sentiment. The “Happy New Year” is from Holidays & Wishes set- all of those sentiments use an updated, modern font and are less “cartoony” than the previous styles.
The card is finished off by attaching a Pretties kit Rhinestone Brad, mounting the sentiment on Stampin’ Dimensionals and tying Gray Taffeta and Silver cord around the base.
I think I’ll make a set of these now and be ready for the New Year! ;)
one year ago today…
We arrived at this house in Poing, Germany- Bavaria. 40 minutes east of Munich. This is the house of our friend’s wife – Yvonne, pictured in her dirndl at a party her parents threw so the extended family could meet Mike & His American Friends (us!).
We were going to stay with her family for most of our 2 week stay. We had arrived at 10pm the night before after a full day of travel- 4 friends and Keith & I, to celebrate Keith’s 40th birthday at Oktoberfest. Our friend, Mike had met a pretty german girl a few years back while at Oktoberfest… and after a long distance love affair, he married her! So, with Yvonne at our side, the 6 of us spent 2 weeks in Munich.
Here is Keith, celebrating his 40th birthday with a mas in hand (these suckers are heavy!).
The hat was a birthday gag gift and we ended up writing, in english and german, that he was a birthday boy. He got lots of hugs from the pretty girls in their dirndls that day! I think the hat lasted an hour before it just got too hot!
This is what ONE of the 10+ bier tents looks like inside….
This is me with my good bud, Terry. I think this was after 5 mas’ of bier… he gets goofy when he’s a little tipsy. I was sober. I don’t like beer!!! However, there is a drink called a Radler which is half a mas of beer, and sparkling lemonade added- which was delish. The funny thing is, we spent from 11am til 8pm inside this crowded tent, drank the entire time and while the americans were drunk and silly, a few of our german friends (you see 2 of them behind Terry’s shoulder) were HAMMERED. Seems it should be the other way…. this is their thing, they should be pros by now!
The one thing about Oktoberfest that amazed me: There are thousands of people in one tent- all drinking – all standing on the bench seats jumping up and down, singing songs as each tent has a live band in the center. Everyone knows all the words to all the songs, german and english. They are HAPPY. I only saw one fight and it was broken up faster than it started. There are at least 10 other tents exactly the same. There are even more tables outside for those souls not early enough to get in a tent. It just amazed me that this large amount of people could be so content to just be there.
Another thing that amazed me? The women’s restroom. An engineering feat of remarkable efficiency. You can only go one way through the restroom, like a one way road. You go in one door to a hallway of stalls (unlike american stalls, the women’s restroom stalls actually fit together so no peek-a-boo gaps!). You take the first open stall, do your biz then continue down the hallway to the sink area. The mirrors are after the sink area and then the exit door! There is no waiting and the back up is at the mirrors, that you can choose to fight through or walk on past. Truly amazing.
This is one of the birthday cards Keith received from our hosts. Both Yvonne and her sister in law are STAMPERS! She embossed a gold music stamp on vellum and that’s behind the main image. There is also a harlequin clown stamped on Shrink-plastic on the top. Beautiful!!
Thanks for your patience while i get all sentimental about where i was a year ago. This was the best vacation we had ever been on, and it was because of the extreme kindness of Yvonne’s family – including us in their home and making sure we got the full Bavarian hospitality. Sadly, Yvonne and Mike broke up this year and she’s back home. I hope we will still be stampin’ friends and that next year, when we go back for my 40th, we will see each other again!
