Friday, October 24, 2008

This is Halloween, this is Halloween

Ok, so not really. But soon. I put up my halloweenie-stuff yesterday. I don't know what it is about Halloween that makes me so happy? Black, purple and orange is indeed a great color combo. Dressing up is fun. The kids are cute in their costumes (this is the one time of year I find kids cute, which is weird, considering they're high on sugar and are dressed up as monsters and witches and whatnot. Anyways, I digress). Carving pumpkins is rad. Ok, not the carving part, but when you're done carving and put a candle in it and turn off the lights and go "oooh". And this year, we're having a party, for reals, because Halloween is on a Friday. It will be rad. I think I have my costume figured out. Except for the part that I need to learn how to work the sewing machine by next Friday. That could be a major fork in the road. But let's not think about that. I also love all the candy (of course), and how perfectly Tim Burton's movies go with this holiday. So does the Buffy episodes "Hush" and the one with the tiny demon. Yes. It's all good stuff.


In my previous entry, Christine wondered how I used the McGill tab punch. Truth be told, I had it for ages before I actually used it :P I'm weird that way. Anyways, here are a couple of examples:
And Mari wondered where I got the cool woodgrain vinyl. I found it on Ebay, before the US dollar became ridiculously high :P It works splendidly with the Silhouette too, if anyone should wonder.


And Anette requested some Paris photos. So here they are:

Beautiful tomb at Pere LaChaise:


Shopping at the Disney store. I wanted everything!
St. Chapelle with its gorgeous stain glass windows: The merry go round at Montmartre is lovely:

The skulls and bones in the catacombs are not so lovely, but disturbingly fascinating:
Super cool street art:


I might pop in to blog more tomorrow. Need to share the awesomeness of "Burn after reading", among other things. Have a great Friday night!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Do you know what they call a quarterpounder with cheese in Paris? Royale with cheese.

Yeah... where to begin?

We spent 4 days in Paris eating crêpes, watching pigeons (we always come home with lots of great pics of architecture and sights... and lots of pigeons... I don't know. I think they're cute in their weird little way), shopping at the Disney store, seeing the Eiffel Tower, the catacombs (hello, skulls and bones!), Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, the Dalí museum (which was awesome, truly awesome) and so many more sights, taking a cheesy sightseeing cruise complete with Edith Piaf songs and a very Simpsons voice-y audioguide, being pushed around by psychotic tourists at Louvre, and generally having a great time. I haven't started editing the pictures yet, let alone thinking of scrapping them... let's just say they won't be scrapped in 2008 :P Too much to do...

Last week was spent working (the library is action packed... I know that sounds completely nerdy, but it's constantly buzzing and the kids seem really into working on their assignments, it's great), hanging out with friends (4 player Mario kart is the shit, yo!), working out (ok, so this weekend was a disaster sugar wise, but I will keep it up!), hanging out with the ever so fab Anette, seeing The Sound of Music (which was surprisingly good, and I don't even like the movie... ), having girlfriends over for chickflick, cake and Trivial Pursuit, and making Halloween cards.

Life is just crazy busy, but good. Constantly juggling things to make everything fit in.
I've watched a couple of movies worth mentioning:
Run Fatboy, run was a cool, and cute British flick about this very mediocre guy who can never seem to do anything right, until the day he decides to join a marathon to win back the heart of his old girlfriend and mother of his son. Funny, sweet and a little bit sad, but in a good way.
Waitress was our chickflick last night, and I must say I really enjoyed it until the last 10 minutes. It's about a poor waitress who is chained to a crappy life because of her jackass husband. I love both Keri Russell (she didn't act her best here though) and Nathan Fillion (Firefly = <3). The movie is worth watching for the awesome photography of the baking and the pies alone. They look so yummy!


I've decided to do like Ania and share some favorite products:

American Crafts paper: I love the bold patterns and how they push me into doing something different.



Woodgrain vinyl: Sooo very awesome!


Punches: I own several die cutting systems, but it's just so simple to reach for the punches. My current favorites are: Fiskars treading water punch, Stampin Up spiral punch and McGill's tab punch. I love them!American Crafts puffy thickers: Seriously, how yummy are these? I think I might have to eat them. Do you think they contain sugar? Or butter? If not, I'm in!



Also, I bought a giant Pez in Paris (Pez in Paris... try saying that fast 5 times):

Check out Andreas' awesome art! Great stuff indeed.
Fredrik and I are having plans about chimp stencils. This means in theory that he draws and I observes from a distance and comes with pointers on how to work the die cutting machine. But yeah, still excited, haha.


At the end of all my rambling there are usually a couple of layouts... but alas, I have nothing new to show. So sorry if I tricked you to reading all the way down here only to find no eye candy.
I have to head to bed.