Red Lace Flowers

So today has been just a little hectic around here. Kate had her first final this morning and instead of running back home and then back to pick her up (since driving home would have been 30 minutes and her estimated time for the final was 30 minutes) it seemed rather silly. I dropped her off thought I would go to the LSS at that end of town, went by where I thought it was, and it wasn’t there. My mouth flew open and I’m saying out loud – I can’t believe she has already closed down! At that point, I decided to visit the Meijers at that end of town – as I was walking in the door, a lightbulb went off, that LSS is a little farther down the road – duh! Hopped in the car and drove the LSS, which was closed anyway, I was 45 minutes too early. Now frustrated that I was, I headed back to IUS to wait for Kate. Sat in the car reading for about 20 minutes when she called and said she was headed out. We went from IUS to her place of employment to get some time off approved by her manager and on a whim, I turned the car to Hobby Lobby.

Hmmmmmm Hobby Lobby!!! Maybe a mistake. I’ve been wanting to try the chalk ink as well as the Prismacolor markers. I’m cruising down the stamp aisle, look up and there on the shelf were two of the new Penny Black brush stroke stamps. They were mine – regardless of the lady standing next to me wanting them also. As I’m still cruising the aisle along with 3 other ladies and their carts, I’m looking for the chalk ink. I can find the bigger pads, and I pick out 3 or 4 colors that I might work with and handed them to Kate. A few more steps down, and my eyes bug and I squeal, “there, that’s what I’m looking for.” I throw the pads to Kate who is now buried behind a couple of carts and tell her to put them back. I found little cats eye Color Box Fluid Chalk Inkpads in packages with 3 colors each. I picked up one of each color package – four in all, and headed over to the artists supply section. Now Kate is being really rather patient with her old mom at this point. I’m studying the markers, pick up a few and once again, find a basic color set – so you know I just had to buy it. I figure that I have enough new toys to try them, play with them and decide if I like them before I make a major purchase and buy the whole set of either makers or the inkpads. WOO HOO!

The shopping spree is not over. After we came home, Mallory was getting ready for her tennis match and lost a contact. I called Lenscrafters to see if I could come by and pick up some contacts and they had them in stock. After Mallory leaves for tennis, Kate and I head back into town. We get the contacts and as we are leaving, Kate decides it might be fun to see if we could find a Wii. We have been looking since Christmas for this thing! We hop into Circuit City – sold out. We turn into Target, the lights green and Kate’s going “Mom that’s a good sign.” As we meander through Target, we find ourselves back by the electronics and one of Kate’s friend from high school is rounding the corner yelling at Kate that she bought a Wii today. Kate’s mouth falls open, her eyes bug and she yells “that’s why we’re here, do you have any left.” As luck would have it, there was one in the case. Kate jumps up and down and calls dibs while some other lady is hovering. We grab the Wii along with the necessary games, extra remotes and head to check out. As I am scanning the debit card, the phone rings and someone is asking about the Wii. The cashier tells them she just sold the last one. Lucky day for us today shopping!!!!! Needless to say, after playing Wii all afternoon with Kate, this old lady is worn out. My legs hurt, my arms hurt and I was gasping for breath after the last boxing match. What a great workout!!!!

In the middle of all this, I was able to get a card done for todays Try a New Technique Challenge. The object today is to use a tab on your card – much like a pocket tab on a pair of jeans. Now I’ve taken just about 25 pictures of this card today, and none of them look remotely close to the actual colors in the card – I am so bummed. I used one of my new Penny Black stamps, colored it with markers, spritzed with water and then stamped the image 3 consecutive times on watercolor paper. The edges of the flower panel were then sponged in Certainly Celery. I had some extra scraps of K-ology Hannah DP laying around and used that as the background for the card. I stitched both panels to another piece of Certainly Celery cardstock. The sentiment is mounted away from the image with dimensionals and then the flower panel is double mounted on dimensions to give the entire panel some height.

Stamps: Lace Flower by Penny Black, Small Sayings

Ink: Real Red, Certainly Celery

Paper: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, K-ology Hannah

Accessories: Ribbon, Markers, Spray Bottle, Dimensionals, Sewing Machine, Wedge Sponge