Feline Friday: And now, a word from Tinsel

2Peas Blogging Challenge

The 2Peas Blogging Challenge from a few days ago was this: What was the best job you've ever had?

The best "real" job I've ever had was actually my dream job. I worked for Credit Agricole, a French bank, in downtown Chicago. My job was in Human Resources. I did the things you normally do in that department -- staffing, employee relations, benefits, compensation -- but much of what I did was in French. It really was the perfect job for me, as my undergraduate degree is in French and International Business. How often do you find a job like that?

In addition to working in the area of my degree, I loved working downtown. Every morning I hopped the "L" in Oak Park and made the 20-minute trip to the loop. The building where I worked was right across the street from the Palmer House. Occasionally, I'd meet a friend there for lunch at Trader Vic's. I'd shop at Marshall Field's. I'd take in an exhibit at the Art Institute. A couple of evenings each week, I took classes at DePaul, right down the street, to earn my MBA in Human Resources.

After DH finished school, we made the decision to leave Chicago and return to Iowa. While unquestionably it was the right thing to do for his career and for our family, it was extremely difficult for me to leave my once-in-a-lifetime job. I never really got over it, and while I eventually found another very challenging position in Human Resources and Training, it somehow didn't hold the same allure.

Every once in awhile, I dust off my very rusty French and think about those days back in Chicago. So very many things have changed since that time. I know that I can never go back to that life, and a part of me will always be sad about that.

AC OCD

I was reminded of this story yesterday when my friend Darci asked me a question about American Crafts paper. "Let me go look," I replied. It seems I have quite a collection of it these days. Read on...

On the subject of scrapbook stores, I am just a tad bit obsessed with having coordinated papers displayed next to each other. As an instructor, a customer, and someone inclined toward OCD-like behavior, I have to say that it somewhat distresses me when coordinated papers are shelved far from each other. Whenever I travel and am lucky enough to visit other stores, I specifically check out how paper lines are displayed. And although I don't actually work in the store where I teach, I will confess to having occasionally moved misplaced parts of lines back together. That is not my job, but I simply cannot help myself. (I'm sure this is not a surprise to my friends around here!)

A few weeks ago, I was at Hobby Lobby in the paper aisle looking over some older American Crafts paper which I absolutely didn't need. Ahhh...the Bookshelf line. I just love the idea of patterns which represent authors. And the Play line: With the notable exception of Ki, could paper possibly be any cooler than this? Ideas for all sorts of projects floated through my head.

I was completely in the AC Zone when suddenly I realized that I had paper in both hands and under my right arm. My shopping basket and purse were on the floor. Without even realizing it, I had been re-arranging the AC papers in proper order, moving stacks of other patterned paper in order to put entire lines back together. At that point, it occurred to me..."Wait! I don't work here!"

Feeling rather embarrassed, I had no choice but to buy all the paper in my clutches. As penance for my AC OCD, it was the least I could do.

Inspiration Binders

I wonder who invented the binder? That person was very wise, indeed. A binder enables you to store all kinds of related, or even unrelated, information together, yet keep it organized with tabs. And now that binders come in all kinds of cool designs, you can not only be organized, but look good, too.

This year, I've been on a quest for ORDER in my life. So yesterday, when I really should have been doing one of about 30 other things on my to-do list, I decided that I would purge my vast collection of old scrapbooking magazines and put ideas worth keeping in my binder. Well, one look at my old, plain green "Inspiration Binder" left me completely uninspired, so of course, I had to completely revamp it. I decided to use these two cool binders I bought last fall at back-to-school time (did I mention that I love to buy school supplies, even though I'm WAY out of school?).

I began by pulling out Creating Keepsakes magazines from 2002. Now let me ask you: Have you looked recently at some of those magazines from "way back then"? I mean, really looked? It is amazing how much has changed in the scrapbooking world. First, our collective hair was bigger back then. There must have been only ten colors of cardstock available. There was no ribbon...only fuzzy fibers...and not a Prima flower in sight! But there were all kinds of paper dolls doing all sorts of jobs. Although I never did it, poor scrapbookers actually had to cut out alphabets with Exacto knives! And what the heck was up with all of that mica and cork?

Suffice it to say, I didn't find many things to keep from those days, save for an occasional article or layout idea. Now that I've been scrapbooking for so many years, I have a clear idea of what I like and don't like, which made the purging process go rather quickly. In a couple hours time, I freed up two magazine files on my shelf, giving me much needed room for some newer idea books and albums. I still need to go through 2004 and 2005 magazines but plan to keep 2006 and 2007 for now.

I now have two Inspiration Binders: one for articles and another for layout and sketch ideas. I set up tabs in the "articles" binder for information on journaling, design, techniques, etc. The "sketch and layout" binder has tabs for layout ideas (one-photo, two-photo, etc.), card designs, mini-albums, and paper crafting projects. I simply cut out the ideas I liked, taped them onto graph paper, and stuck them into the binder under the appropriate tab.

Next stop: Ten years of Bon Appetit magazines. Dinnertime could be looking up.

Hooray for General Mills

This is a story of good customer service, something not often seen these days.

Oatmeal Crisp Hearty Raisin is my favorite cereal. I could eat it morning, noon, and night (and sometimes do). I eat it with a tiny bit of milk and with no milk at all. It is one of my very favorite things to eat and certainly my all-time favorite cereal.

The reason I love this cereal so much is because of the raisins. In all the time I've been eating this cereal, I've been pleased with both the size and number of raisins in the box. Sure, I could add my own raisins, but this cereal has so many that there is no need for such action.

Recently, however, my faith in Oatmeal Crisp Hearty Raisin was shaken. I opened a box and poured it into my Tupperware cereal container. Immediately I could see that something was amiss: There were hardly any raisins to be found! I stirred around in the container with a big wooden spoon and counted a measly five raisins. So distraught was I that I contacted General Mills via their website. Here is the text of my note to the corporate cereal people:

Hi! I recently bought a box of Oatmeal Crisp Hearty Raisin. I love this cereal because of the abundance of raisins, but I was disappointed that there were almost no raisins in this particular box. I poured the container into a large plastic tub and counted about 5 raisins in the entire container. I hope that this was an error in processing and not a cut-back in the number of raisins in this cereal. Please advise.

And within a day, the corporate cereal people actually responded to me, appearing to take my concerns seriously:

Thank you for contacting General Mills regarding Oatmeal Crisp hearty raisin cereal. We understand your concern and are sorry you had this experience.

Our packaging equipment is designed to ensure that all ingredients are combined in correct proportions. It is possible that a mechanical failure was responsible for the condition you described. Please be assured that our Quality Department has been notified of your report. We will be mailing an adjustment to you for your purchase which you should receive within 7 to 10 days.

We regret any inconvenience this may have caused and hope you will continue to choose our products.

Sincerely, General Mills

Now, I don't know about you, but I am so accustomed to poor customer service that I was surprised when the cereal people actually responded to my raisin complaint. I was even more surprised when they followed through: Sure enough, yesterday in the mail I received two coupons from General Mills, one for a free box of Oatmeal Crisp Hearty Raisin.

I recently went out on a limb and bought another box of Oatmeal Crisp Hearty Raisin. I was pleased to see that the raisin count was back up to normal, perhaps even a little bit higher than in previous boxes. And my! Those raisins were particularly plump. I like to think that the raisin person climbed up the ladder to the giant cereal vat and dumped in an extra scoop of the very best raisins just for me.

So hooray for the good cereal people at General Mills. Here's to timely, responsive customer service.

AND lots of raisins.

Laundry room...check!

If you've been reading my blog for the past few months, you may remember that we started a re-decorating project back in May. Perhaps you've thought to yourself on occasion, "Gee, I wonder how that re-decorating project is going."

Not well, I would reply. In fact, this little project is moving at the pace of the three-year-old, sticky, black molasses in the back of my kitchen cupboard. The bathroom is partially stripped of wallpaper and looks like a war zone or crack house (take your pick). The kitchen is in a similar state but is partially painted olive green. The dining room, also destined to be re-painted (with luck) before I die, has become a staging area for the other projects. And now, since we are in a major transition from the old mauve and blue color scheme, absolutely nothing matches.

But today is a good day. Following the nearly-ceremonial hanging of the trivet from Target, I think I can now safely report that the laundry room is DONE. Well, almost done...the plant needs to be re-potted in a black container and the box of DH's clutter needs to be removed, but who's keeping track of that?

Well, I am...but still. I'm calling it done. Just because I can.

In other equally exciting news, Sharon's Informal Underwear Survey is now live. If you've forgotten the original post about this, refresh yourself here. All visitors to my blog are asked to respond to the survey at the right of the page (once only please, to preserve statistical integrity of the polling process). Now, if you feel like your underwear habits are not reflected in the possible responses, please post and tell us a bit (but not too much, please) about your underwear habits so that the pollster may add a response for you. The poll is scheduled to run until September 30, at which time we'll do some sophisticated data analysis and reveal what it all means. Or not. Meanwhile, please respond.

Edited to add: Unfortunately, this polling business is even more scientific than I'd thought. Blogger will not allow new response choices to be added after voting has started. If your underwear habits are not reflected in the possible responses, please choose the "next best" response, or sit this one out. Perhaps there will be a follow-up survey.

Feline Friday: Eureka! Eukanuba!

Well, it's happened again: Another brand new bag of Eukanuba Indoor Cat Formula has been outfitted with an Automatic Morsel Dispenser.

This time, I happened to witness it.



First, the suspect checked to be sure the coast was clear.






Next, gnawing began around the lower portions of the bag.














Realizing some initial success, the suspect pulled vigorously on the bag until...









food flowed freely onto the floor, an unlimited supply of tasty Indoor Formula Morsels.

That is, until Mama got out the packing tape, now conveniently stored near the cat food.

Edited to add: The bag is now stored in the garage; the daily food is stored in a plastic container (Lily is busy gnawing on that, too). And yep, I could have stopped her from chewing the bag this time, but as usual, I wanted to document her naughtiness! :-)

Finished just in the "Nick" of time

Today I finished up the remaining ornaments for my upcoming Cosmo Cricket Ornament classes. These chipboard and die-cut ornaments can be layered and embellished in many different ways. Most of the ornaments I finished today will be samples.

Time will not permit us to decorate the entire set of 40-some pieces, but we will make 6-10 complete ornaments in class. The great thing is that they can be used as tree ornaments, package decorations, page embellishments, or card elements.

The myriad ornament pieces had been sitting in my scrapping area too long. When I found Lily trying to eat buttons last night, I knew that today they needed to be finished.

It would not be good form for me to say, "I'm sorry, class. The cat ate your project."

Edited to add: Thank you for the nice comments about the ornaments! Fortunately, none were eaten by Miss Lily. :-) I should mention that I usually make extra kits for classes I teach. I always provide detailed instructions with photos and we often mail them to customers out of state. If you are interested in purchasing a kit for a class, feel free to contact the store where I teach by e-mail or phone and they can take care of your request. Thanks so much!

And your point?

This is not me...

...but I do feel a bit like this today.

This is actually Big Red, the winning pig in the Big Boar Contest at the Iowa State Fair. Big Red weighs in at 1,203 pounds, which is actually NOT a record but certainly seems big enough to me.

See the picture? This is pretty much Big Red's daily agenda. He wakes up in the evening to eat five gallons of whatever big boars eat, then he goes right back to sleep.

I'm with Big Red. Eleven days of state fair fun (and state fair food) will do that to you.

Feline Friday: Always Lily

I was getting dressed Thursday morning when I noticed Lily trotting out of the bathroom with something white dangling from her teeth. With Lily, these kinds of scenarios always warrant investigation, not only for safety reasons but also for possible photo ops.

True to form, Lily did not disappoint. I tracked her to the landing of the stairs, where she had carefully tucked an Always Pantiliner under a towel for safekeeping.

Never a dull moment with Lily on board.

2Peas Blog Challenge: Stash-Busters

Today's blogging challenge on Two Peas is this: How do you get rid items in your stash that you no longer need or use?

This topic is fresh in my mind, since I've been spending time recently organizing (as you can see in the photo...ha!). Here are some ways I periodically reduce my stash:

1) Make cards. Then make more cards. In my early days of scrapbooking, I purchased a lot of patterned paper that is perfectly good but likely won't ever work on a layout. I set it aside for card-making. I also periodically weed out my embellishments and put some in my card-making stash. Last year I made a BUNCH of Christmas cards just from scraps.

2) Sell it at a garage sale. I recently sold quite a bit of scrapbooking stuff at my garage sale. This is the third time I've sold scrapbooking items at a sale. Even my bags of scraps sold.

3) Sell it at a benefit garage sale. My friend, Darci, recently organized a garage sale at our LSS to benefit JDRF. I sold several items at that sale. It's great to be able to reduce your stash and support a great cause at the same time.

4) Donate it. After my sale and the JDRF garage sale, I still had a few things left over. I took them to our local Easter Seals office to donate to their upcoming garage sale. Again, it's nice to contribute to a very worthy cause.

5) Give it to a pre-school teacher or Girl Scout leader. Check first, of course, to see if your items would be needed. I've donated tons of leftover stickers, paper and cardstock scraps this way.

There are many more ways to reduce your stash, but these are the ones I've tried most recently. I would never think of throwing anything away. I always challenge myself to use it or find a new home for it.