You Want a GOOD Laugh? Elf Yourself

The Priss Patrol - Click on this link you are going to die laughing.

Warning - Weak stomaches need not look further - sore foot alert!!

Ok this post is seriously in bad taste. I admit that. However I do have family and friends long distance who read my blog and I told them I needed to show them a picture of my foot of which I am not sure if I broke it or not. Normally I would not post something like this as it is WAY TMI. So look away now if you are queasy it ain't pretty folks. As a side note it is becoming well established in my circle of just how clumsy I truly am. Ok so this picture to follow is just more evidence for the case I am building against myself regarding clumsiness. The night before yes just last night I almost drowned in the pool literally without taking a single stroke. How does someone DO THAT you ask? HOW? Do not know. I lost my balance in the pool in a medium aka water where you are supposed to be bouyant???? Nope not so much. But that folks is another story for the blog of which I will not go into tonight. Trust me it was ridiculous. Drown in a pool and you haven't left the dock whatever. Without further ado....drum roll....sad eyes....pity party assembled, check....OH a little sidenote trivia....how pray tell did I manage this feat (pun intended)? The irony of it all.....I dropped a bowflex attachment in a freak sort of way on my foot while trying to hide it in my closet when I was having unexpected company...YES FOLKS YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT DEATH BY BOWFLEX.....IRONIC I SAY...OH one more side note of much more importance than the bruising....note the color coordinated toe nails in fall colors AND the pretty little sunflower I designed on my toe. ISNT IT CUTE I EMBELLISHED MY TOE HAHAHAHAHAHA. To all a good night =D

I'm a PACK RAT

There I said it. As Dr. Phil says... you can't change what you don't acknowledge??? NOOOOOOOO....Pack rats build complex nests of paper, ribbon, ink, stamps and scraps er oh I meant .....twigs, called "middens", often incorporating staples er oh I meant....cactus. Nests often create small oh I meant are built in small caves, but frequently also in the attics and walls of houses (exactly).

One question? Does that surprise ANY of the other paper crafters out there? OMG one thing always leads to another when it comes to cleaning and organizing and for some reason around this time of year simple due to the holiday change out of Tday to Christmas my DH and I always end up cleaning out the garage. What's up with that? I just needed to whine and we all know how missprissme LOVES to whine. Thanks. There was another reason for this post of which has escaped me now but I will come back and edit when I recall exactly what it was that I was thinking about. Now back to the dust....

Wanna see some TDay pics

We spent the day at a friend's house. They just moved into this house recently. I thought I would share a picture of the table, center piece, a place setting and the place card that I made for each place setting. The photos are fuzzy, I can't seem to take a clear picture to save my life. I think my camera may be on it's last leg... time for a new one. I never used to have any trouble getting the lighting and zoom correct. Something must be off??

You can't see it very well but I used my new Martha Stewart deer punch for an embellishment on the card. It is so cute. Hey I took creative license and used a deer vs a turkey. Thanksgiving day is the opening of deer hunting season in some places so it's not that big of a stretch. Plus I just wanted to use that punch somewhere...

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

for each new morning with its light,
for rest and shelter of the night,
for health and food, for love and friends,
for everything thy goodness sends.

for flowers that bloom about our feet;
for tender grass, so fresh, so sweet;
for song of bird, and hum of bee;
for all things fair we hear or see,
father in heaven, we thank thee!

~ralph waldo emerson

Braggin Rights!!

Ok so ya wanna see a REALLY cool blog? Check this out This is the blog called J-pointe it's the backstage look at the Joffery Ballet in Chicago. The third picture down in the post is my nephew!! He is an apprentice at the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. Here is another picture of his fine self:

If you scroll down there is a link to slide show under "see more pictures here". My sister has 4 kids, Michael (piano meistro IRL), Matthew (shown), Lizzie (yes my name sake, I told you I was the favorite aunt) and Connor. They are a very performance heavy family and all of those crazy lessons are paying off for my sister and her kids. Isn't it wonderful? I mean how many people can say yeah I have a son that dances professionally for the Joffrey (oh and believe me my sister won't let you forget it.... but hey I guess if anyone has braggin' rights it would be mom YES)? Yeah it's cool. ~enjoy have a great holiday.

Mammo Update

This should probably more likely be the tip of the century....did you know if breast cancer is caught early it is 100% curable. Yep that's right 100%. Wow. I really hate to keep harping on my happy place blog about this crap but I might as well finish with my updates and then I promise I won't mention it AGAIN. I seriously know it is bordering on TMI. I think I am OK. I mean they came in the room and said I was finished. The last two times the doctor came in and asked me for more tests. This time the technician left the room to show the doctor my films and came back and said I could go. So I don't know if that meant the doctor has read the films and it's ok you can go or that ok you can go for now and we'll call you once the doctor has read the films? Of course I am so frazzled when I am in there, I don't think fast on my feet, all reason escapes me and I just leave with that deer in the headlights look on my face. SO I decided NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS and I am going to assume that I'M GOOD FOR ANOTHER YEAR unless I hear otherwise. Thanks everyone for being there for me and your kind comments of support. They really really help. Now I really have something to be thankful for tomorrow and I am going to toast to good health for sure!!!!

TIP OF THE CENTURY

Ok maybe it won't be the TIP of the CENTURY however, I think it borders on rock star status. First a little chatter about tools. I got to thinking the other day what is my favorite tool? I have so many, and I have favorites for different reasons. How about you? I like the reverse pressure tweezers because they are my third hand when I need one. I love the square shaped glue sticks. I mean it's the little things that make schtuff so fun, right? Of course, there is the stamp-a-ma-jig. Ok so what if the local card club I go to renamed it the Liz-a-ma-jig. Yes true story. That ought to be an indication of how much I LOVE the Liz-a-ma-jig oh I mean stamp-a-ma-jig. Now this is the perfect segway into my TIP OF THE CENTURY. I always like to keep the plastic sheets that comes with the stamp-a-ma-jig clean. Sometimes I forget and use the permanent stazon-type inks on the plastic sheets. Normally, most ink will come clean off of the plastic with windex or soap and water. However, it doesn't touch the permanent stazon-type inks. Did you know that HAIRSPRAY cuts through the stazon type inks and with a follow-up of windex or soap and water to remove the sticky residue your stamp-a-ma-ji sheets will be clean as new? Hairspray also cleans off sharpie marker type ink so if you ever have little accidents on walls or what have you with a sharpie try hairspray. I learned this tip back when I taught grade school. Little known fact about me...didn't know I used to teach school.... did ya? Actually I was a full-time substitute teacher for six years for grades K-6 while my children were in grade school. I covered for all of the full time teachers vacation and sick days. I hope you find my tip handy. Now off to buy the ingredients for the T-DAY fixins'

I get a little mad scientistesque....Wanna peak into my messy art studio?

I thought this would be fun.... look at my mess after an afternoon of playing in my art studio. ROFL. I have the week off and just look at how many posts I get in when I have time. But look at this mess. WHOA. I obviously need a bigger space. It's not that big of a surface area to work. hehe. But I do love what I have. Side note: I have my follow up mammogram tomorrow. Why did I schedule it the day before T-day? Am I crazy? I figured it doesn't matter, just get it over with. It shouldn't be too bad it's at 10:30, I hope I don't have a panic attack again in the car on the way over. Well ok so it wasn't a full on panic attack, but it felt like it. Maybe I am a bit of a drama queen at times. Who knew? That's the lightshade in the upper left corner of the picture. It looks like part of the picture got cropped funny.

Random

Tony over at "Moved to the Mountains" blogspot would like to know more about her blogging friends. She has a survey to paste into your blog. I forgot to mention I have the week off so that's why I have time to play some of these blog games for a change...

Here's mine:

1. Who am I? Liz - mom to 2 grown daughters, geek, aunt, sister, friend, daughter, married, petlover, papercraft artist (that's debatable but that's my story and I am sticking to it)
   
2. Who knows me best? My mom and my kids. I'm an open book...everyone knows me. I a WYSIWYG kind of gal
   
3. How old am I? 40 something?
   
4. How old do I feel? 809
5. The most important thing in my life is... my faith, then my family, and then my dog. Well maybe dog first then my... no this this is in no particular order. Did you know that "dog" spelled backwards is "god". I just get the biggest kick out of this. It's one of my favorite lines. That line and this one... did you know that "no" is a complete sentence? Ok I digress...
   
6. I always carry...my tote
7. Something I always do is...I always do a lot of things but I am a creature of habit. Every morning I get up walk straight to the coffeemaker and make my coffee. It doesn't vary unless I'm really organized and it gets done the night before on a rare day.
   
8. I'm at my happiest when...I'm creating, talking on the phone
   
9. On a Monday morning, you'll find me...on the way to work - bleh do we have to talk about that?
   
10. My favorite mode of transportation is...vw yellow beetle
    
11. My eyes are...hazel/green
12. My favorite material possession is...craft supplies, of course
    
13. To relax, I like to...create...
14. The town I live in is...beautiful, sunny southern california
    
15. What's my worst habit? laziness (I wish I could get myself to exercise daily but I think I am just lazy and it's become a habit)
    
16. My guilty pleasure is...laziness (I mean physically lazy, I am not a lazy person in any other way, I work my arse off - I just wish it would translate into working off the real arse)!
17. When I look at someone, the first thing I see is...soul...don't let it creep you out...I have a fine tuned sixth sense....I've always been this way. I was walking down Venice beach with one of my daughters and one of those palm readers grabbed us and told us they would give us a freeby. So we said we were game. He started to read my palm and he says to me...you are very psychic....I looked at him and said I KNOW. ROFL. I mean if you were psychic, wouldn't you KNOW it. hahahahhaha
    
18. I think ....................... is beautiful. The sound of a cricket, I know weird but I just think that little cricket sound is sooooooooo cute
    
19. One thing that I can live without is...this fat that has decided to glom itself onto my body and won't go away (due to laziness) and I hate it! Theme forming?
    
20. One thing people don't know about me is...I'm wise?, well maybe they do know this about me but I only pull it out when needed ;) insert evil chuckle with head thrown back.
21. My life is...full!!

Hey you can play too. Just paste this into your blog and complete the sentences.

Pumpkin

This is the cat that my daughter in LA adopted from the streets. He was just running around all alone. Anyway, he reminded her of a pumpkin so she named him punke for short. He really is the nicest cat in the whole world. He did not have an attitudinal problem in this picture he was actually just falling asleep and I caught him with his eyes just closing. He was up on top of her refrigerator inside one of her vision boxes that she made. Sort of a collage mixed media art looking project. He actually had to take the lid off the end to get into it. I guess he feels he's going to be a part of any of her future dreams so he got into it. I took this picture of him up there. Cats crack me up but I am allergic to them so I can look but not touch. He's cool because his eyes match his coat exactly. He is all gold. EDITED TO ADD: IS THAT IRONIC OR WHAT THE THOUGHT FOR THE DAY ABOVE USED A PUNKE CAT FOR IT'S PICTURE!!

Mojo's Back

Prissy Alert!! Just a quick upload for now. We're having company over today, my nephews, so I gtg run to the store. I want to do pull apart pork sandwich's, cole slaw and corn on the cob for dinner and I need to get the roast early enough in the day so I can use my crockpot. Plus, I have errands to run. My LSS called and the white sharpie marker I had on order is in. Isn't that fun. I love getting a call from the LSS sure beats it being a call from oh say the radiologist?? Ok I'll get over it, I'm not going to worry, nope, I'm not. SOOOO I also want to look for some iridescent looking white paper. Of course I do! This card is on silver iridescent scrapbook paper 12x12. It's so pretty. Then I went to look for some white in the same texture and nope don't have it. Go figure. Once again with allllll the supplies I hoard you would think I had some white iridescent in the house. Cracks me up. This card turned out so nice and once again is much prettier IRL. I used a mixture of stamps. Mr. Owlie is from Technique Tuesday (I finally was able to use that Dog and Pony Show set that I got at the scrap convention this summer). I bought it for the rooster and the sentiments. I thought the sentiments were unique. The swirly branch is from CRAFTY SECRETS the Cherubs set one of my all time favorite company's but alas don't get to stamp as often as I would like to or there would be a ton more made with CS sets. See the swirly I used for the branch? I just love turning swirly's into branches. I think it's my signature design *tip. I do it so much since I invented it. =D. Then the background snow is of course Stampin Up woohoo. Everything else is SU too, the ink, diamond dust, markers I used mellow moss for the green. Oh and A Muse creative candy red dots. I gtget more of those I am running out. I have soooo many card designs for the Christmas Holidays coming up I'll never get them all done. Anyway, this is really much prettier IRL I am not much of a photographer so oh well. ~enjoy and HAPPY SATURDAY. I think it needs a ribbon. EDITED TO ADD: In my haste to take a picture because I liked how this card turned out so much I forgot to stamp the sentiment on it. hahahaha. I am going to stamp it in the lower right hand corner. Stay tuned.....

Microcalcifications? Whatever

Y'all know how I love to whine so here goes...

From breastcancer.org

DEFINITION:

Calcifications
Calcifications are tiny flecks of calcium — like grains of salt — in the soft tissue of the breast that can sometimes indicate the presence of an early breast cancer. Calcifications usually can't be felt, but they appear on a mammogram. Depending on how they're clustered and their shape, size, and number, your doctor may want to do further tests. Big calcifications — "macrocalcifications" — are usually not associated with cancer. Groups of small calcifications huddled together, called "clusters of microcalcifications," are associated with extra breast cell activity. Most of the time this is non-cancerous extra cell growth, but sometimes clusters of microcalcifications can occur in areas of early cancer.

and so off we go for another magnification mammo this time. They want to take a closer look see. OF COURSE THEY DO.

Favorite New Prissy Pal - Kim Hughes - Paper Hugs

This isn't usually my thingy but I decided to showcase some of my favorite blog peoples today. Hey maybe I'll call it Blog Friend Fridays. I just LOVE Kim Hughes over at "Paper Hugs". Now she doesn't need me to showcase her at all she is definitely blazing her own trail, but her blog is just so cute and nice... from the header, the samples she shares with us and the clincher those TIPS they are amazing. Not only that she is a super compassionate and caring person. She offered me such kind words of support when I was freaking over my mammograms last month. It really helped me in the weird cyberhug (paperhug =D) sort of way. Here is the link now go on over there and give her a hug. As most of you know she has designed some stamp sets too. Here is one of the sets on my wish list. How cute is that owlie? Disclaimer: I am not in any way being compensated for this plug by anyone. I'm just saying...

Later on today I will pull over some of my favorite things about her blog but for now I gotta run.... HAPPY FRIDAY PEOPLE....

Sunflower - Anna's Challenge

Whew 2 weeks it took me to finally finish my sample for Anna's sunflower plate challenge. I scrapped 3 different versions (or more) and this is what I finally came up with. I Also wanted to sew on this card and forgot to and before ya' know it I was all done and it was too late for sewing. Oh I was going to add a sentiment too. I'm a slow poke. I really like it... it's just that it took me a while to decide on what I liked. Plus I got sidetrack alot. That's been happening a lot lately. For my interpretation I tried to use the color scheme of the sunflower plate (if you click on the plate it links to the challenge)

and also I highlighted my sunflower with layered silk flowers attached with a center flower eyelet. I also cut out the little sunflower from the original stamped image and layered it on top of all. I wanted to point out that the ribbon I used is brown gingham checked not black and it's really pretty. It might be my newest favorite ribbon. I still might add the sentiment to a tag and attached it later. If I do I will take another picture to show you the real final version. Geesh that means I'm still not really done with this card. I tried my hand at watercoloring using SU re-inkers and waterbrush. Seriously it needs a sentiment. Now that I am looking at it online. Oh well its nearly 2 a.m. so I won't be adding that tonight. I have to get some sleep.

Why?

Ok this is just gonna be a short blab. Why do I have to have entire sets of things? I just got the "complete"

and the "bonus pak"

of these.

Why? you ask. Good question!!. Now if I could just learn how to watercolor. Seriously, I just got a wee promo and pay increase and I have had these on my wish list for 2 years. So I decided to treat myself. Yay. But now that they arrived I was thinking Why DO I have to have entire sets of things?

Ultra sound update

In case anyone cares my breast ultrasound (US) signified further testing required ....bleh...stay tuned...Ok that was the short version. As you all know I did my due diligence and got my mammogram for October seems how it was awareness month. So ONE THING ALWAYS LEADS TO ANOTHER WITH THOSE WITCH (pattern? witch doctor witch fire) DOCTORS. I needed a breast diagnostic US to follow up the mammo findings. They never used the word suspicious in my mammo report which apparently was a good thing. Well they aren't going to read my US report until they get my prior mammo pics which haven't arrived yet. A comparison is in order of the two mammo's plus the US. Then they will be able to give me next steps.

A New Prissy Pal In Blogoland

Light a torch people one of my favorite people of all time just got into blogoland!

Just wanted to send a shout out to the newest "Prissy Pal" to join us all in blogoland. Her NEW blog name is Out On a Limb, because that is where all the fruit are. Isn't that cute? We all know how fruity crafters can be! I used to work with her and now call her a friend. We've been stamping together for a while now too. She became a Stampin-Up distributor with me (they call me the cult leader) and we have soooo much fun going to workshops, shopping and entering contests. I can't believe I found someone as gaga as me over all things PRISSY. She's a super creative gal so be on the lookout for some fun "cute" stuff to come. She's extremely smart with a Master degree in Biology by day =D and all things Prissy by night. hehe. She's gaga over anything PURPLE. Go on over and tell her hi & tell her misspriss sent ya! Hi Michelle. Welcome. Check out my blogroll on the right I've added you to my list.

Creative block?

I have attempted a card using the Thoroughly Thankful set forever now. I have attempted to design anything using this set. I stamped the largest image and colored it in 3x's to no avail. Now I thought I would use it to join in on the fun with this challenge over at Anna's blog. Well I never. I don't have anything to show you just yet but I am working on it. I hope to have something I like one of these years. I just h2h this set. I actually got it off of ebay because it was no longer available in the catalog through SU. Now they have since brought it back. Back to the point of my post. Do you ever have that happen where you just seem to lose your mojo? Watercoloring is not as easy as it looks either. Don't have to to take pics tonight but I will be posting my rejects soon.

A Moment of silence please!!

I stamped. I created. Yowser. Please forgive the angle on this photo. I took the photo a half dozen times and could NOT get the light/focus ANYTHING right. This was the clearest shot... it is what it is. I used some of my newest stamp images from yes, (insert another head bow) none other that Elzybell. Having 2 little girls myself (ok so what if they are 27 and 25 y.o. NOW) I have always loved "little girl" images. This image is called "A Winter Song". These are the new stamps manufactured in North America by A*Muse. Can you say I LOVE them? I also used my nestability dies and embossing plates from Spellbinders. The base is an altered Mary Englebreit 3x3 notecard (10 pack w/envelopes) that I found in the $1 bin at Michaels. I just matted over the original image (cute as it was I just wanted to use the card stock). The minute I saw this image I pictured her in a little plaid coat. I stamped the image on some DP that had the plaid print that I wanted and then cut it out and glued it over the primary image. I wish I had some of that white stuff that puffs up like snow. I don't even know what that is. I bought some souffle pens and thought they were supposed to do this but they don't. I used Copic glitter pens for the snow and the bird. I think it could use some more glitter.

Lameness

I know I have been really lame lately with my blog. Nothing but fires and Dr.'s appointments to report. bleh. WELL as long as we are on the subject... they are threatening that the Santa ana winds will be back this weekend. Ack.

Update on the Dr. appointments...my mammogram required another look see with an ultra sound. That appointment will be on Nov 7th. PLUS, I had my well-woman-check-up today. Another stellar day in the life of misspriss. BUT I have to say it really wasn't that bad (I only had one panic attack =D on the way over in the car) and I was REALLY proud of myself.

A. because my mammo report (the official one... not just the diagnostic look) was in and the general MD read it and told me it looked really good and that the ultra sound is a very common post-mammo test ordered. She said if the report was "bad" she would have seen a lot more use of the word "suspicious" and there was not a single "suspicious" in the report. So THAT WAS GOOD NEWS!

B. because I am caught up on my check-ups for my age range;

C. they hooked me up with the flu shot and tetanus (did you know they bundle shots now and I had the tetanus/whooping cough vaccine combo)?

D. my Dr. was very proud of me because I REQUESTED a bone density and colonoscopy. She said normally she has to drag people in to get them. I said I wanted one because I want to be ALL CAUGHT UP and get them over with until next time.

Whew. Now that I have bordered on tmi and bored you all with a day in my life.... but hey if I help one person to not be afraid and to get their tests updated too, I will be happy.

...you will feel so much better once you do! (big talker I am now, you should have heard me this a.m. before my appointment)

~be well