Inspired by another tag

I was going through a few piles of stuff over the weekend and found another tag that I recently pulled from the trash. If memory serves me, this tag came from a shirt that DD bought at Target. I love the layers of color and the white design at the side.

As a result of my scavenging, I now have quite a collection of tags, postcards, ads, and brochures collected on my table for when I need a bit of inspiration.

I actually think this tag would make a great layout, but I started with a card just to see how it would translate. To make the card, I used a bit of Making Memories acrylic paint on the card base. After it dried, I added a few Basic Grey rub-ons (only a few: I'm hoarding the rest!) to the left portion of the card. I cut the letters using QuicKutz fonts (Khaki and Olivia). They're not the same look as the original tag, but I wanted to use what I had on hand and didn't want to mess with figuring out font colors on the computer.

So thanks for the inspiration, Mossimo Tag Designer...wherever you are!

Got cat? Got computer?

(click on comic to enlarge)

If so, then you'll relate to this. :-)

A few good things

Thought I'd start the week with a quick list of a few things I pretty much love:

Thomas English Muffins. I'll eat other English muffins if I'm forced to, but Thomas brand is the best, IMHO. The package refers to the "nooks and crannies" of these particular muffins. If you're someone who appreciates English muffins, you know what I'm talking about...lots of holes for the butter to soak into.

Blueberry preserves. Did you know that on the continuum of fruit spreads, preserves have the most chunks of fruit? The continuum goes like this: jelly, jam, preserves. No jelly or jam for this chickie. Only preserves, and preferably blueberry.

The Font Thing. If you're looking for a simple way to organize (and better utilize) your fonts, The Font Thing is for you. It allows you to view sample text, see entire character sets, categorize your fonts, and more. Best of all, it's free.

Divine Design. I swear, Candice Olson is the most talented interior designer in the entire universe. I could never afford her services (and you have to live in Toronto to be on the show), but I'm completely inspired by how she transforms ordinary or dysfunctional rooms into amazing spaces.

Kokuyo Dot 'n' Roller. This is by far my all-time favorite adhesive. Available in permanent and repositionable, the adhesive dispenser doesn't jam and clog like the Herma brand, and the tape doesn't break as sometimes happens with Duck adhesive. Plus it's super easy to insert refill cartridges (unlike Herma). I recommend it in just about every class I teach.

Feline Friday: Tinsel makes a plan

Inspired by a tag (again)

I'm a firm believer that inspiration can be found anywhere:

in fine art...

in literature...

in nature...

or on an underwear tag.

In fact, this is the second card I've made based on a clothing tag I've found in a wastebasket around here. It's a good thing I'm the one emptying the wastebaskets, otherwise this inspiration would go the way of empty pizza boxes.

When I first looked at this tag, the colors caught my eye. I remembered an article in the February issue of Creating Keepsakes about orange and gray being a "fresh" color combination to watch for this winter and spring. In addition to the color, I thought the simple design would be easy to replicate.

To make the card, I created three text boxes in Word, filled them with color, and changed the text color to white. I inserted two dingbats (60's Chic) and expanded the small-caps text (Gill Sans MT) to 1.5.

I printed the text boxes on smooth white cardstock (I actually printed a second set on glossy photo paper just for kicks), cut them out, and adhered them to a white base.

Thanks to the designer of this underwear tag, I now have a simple, modern card design that could work for just about any occasion.

Random Musings on a Tuesday

Since I have several things I really need to be doing today, I thought it would be good to work in a bit of PROCRASTINATION and post a few random musings. Here we go:

* This week, I discovered wikiHow, a collection of "how-to" articles covering just about everything a person might want to know. Here's a great article on How Not to Be Annoying. Forward the link as needed. :-)

* Tinsel has been experiencing some "bathroom missteps". I'm pretty sure it's a behavioral thing related to her rivalry with Lily, but I'm taking her to the vet on Thursday just to be sure.

"Please bring a stool and urine sample," the receptionist asked nicely.

Umm....

"Confine Tinsel to a room with an empty litter box. Collect the feces in a plastic bag. Keep trying to get the FRESHEST specimen for us. Once you get a fresh one, put the bag IN YOUR FRIDGE until Tinsel's appointment."

Yeah, right.

* Something I am getting in trouble for lately: Not being able to make less than a full pot of coffee. Call me math-impaired, but I can't ever remember how many scoops of coffee to use for a partial pot. Methinks this calls for an attractive Excel chart.

* It's so freaking cold here that I've been wearing two pairs of socks all winter. When I peel them off, they stay together, one sock inside another. Kinda cute.

* Over the weekend, we discovered that the ends of Lily's eyebrow whiskers are all twisted like corkscrews. Some of her cheek whiskers are like that, too. They appear to be growing in like that. What does this mean? Is this cause for concern? Maybe she could work for the American Greetings card line, Twisted Whiskers.

* As much as you might like to, do not attempt to use a three-hole punch on a transparency.

* I love grid paper. Give me grid paper over lined paper any day. I recently discovered grid index cards at Staples. People, it just doesn't get much better than this.

* This morning, I heard the "jingle-jingle-jingle" of the bag of bells. Lily is ringing the bell for food pretty regularly now. Maybe I should post an article about teaching your cat to ring a bell for food on wikiHow.

* Last week, my mouse started acting up. The cursor wouldn't reach the top of the screen and it absolutely drove me nuts. I even took it apart and cleaned the roller-ball, but it still malfunctioned. So over the weekend, I got a new laser mouse. Oh, my gosh! It's so great! And in addition to the regular left and right buttons, it has buttons on the sides for back and forward Web navigation. Super cool!

* Caught part of a great program on public TV this week about raptors. They actually strapped tiny cameras to the backs of various falcons -- "Raptor Cam", so to speak. Absolutely amazing footage, especially when the birds swooped down on prey.

* Of course, the notion of "Raptor Cam" got me thinking about developing a "Lily Cam". I'm just not sure she'd go for a camera strapped to her back. Hmmm... some type of head gear might work, though ...

* Dear local Public Radio People: Please do not mess with your programming without consulting me first.

* I'm in a deep blue funk because as of yesterday, I'm completely out of frozen Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars. Can't get 'em again until November. *sigh*

* Why is it so ridiculously expensive to have furniture reupholstered? Completely cost-prohibitive. It's cheaper to buy new furniture than work with what you have. I find this totally irritating and completely contrary to my efforts to "reuse and re-purpose". Grrrr...

* If your cat eats breakfast at 5:30 a.m., she'll be ready for lunch by 10:00 a.m. Let this happen and I assure you: Your entire day will go to pot.

Oscar Reject: Snacktime with Lily

Not every documentary film is Oscar-worthy. Here's one that didn't quite make it to last night's awards: Snacktime with Lily.

In this video, I'm feeding her pieces of Eukanuba Indoor Cat Formula (which must be quite tasty). If we'd had the sound on, you would not have heard any crunching -- she swallows it whole. But man, those little teeth are sharp!

Pardon the mess in the background: We really should have considered proper staging prior to filming. Perhaps with audio and a tidier kitchen, we'll be back in the race for next year's awards. :-)

Saturday morning TV

Lily and Tinsel enjoy watching "Video Catnip" from time to time. Lily will watch the DVD of birds and squirrels for hours on end, usually sitting on the wooden stool placed in front of the TV for optimum viewing.

One Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago, I didn't see her on the stool and thought she'd wandered off.

Nope -- she'd simply moved to the recliner. :-)

Feline Friday

Hans Christian Andersen was wrong.
This princess ATE the pea.

Gas, to go

Awhile back, Daughter and I were driving down the street in our fair city. On the opposite side of the street, going the other way, was a red van. As it passed, Daughter noticed something dragging along behind it. She turned around to look and saw that there was a red gas nozzle still stuck in the side of the van, complete with a 10-foot hose.

We happened to be passing a convenience store with red pump nozzles right at that time, so we wheeled in.

Sure enough, the nozzle and hose were completely missing from one of the pumps. I thought I'd have a little fun, so I hopped out of my SUV and went into the store. It was a Sunday afternoon and the two kids working there were sitting on the floor eating pizza.

"Hey, you guys won't believe this, but we just saw a van driving down the street with one of your gas nozzles still hooked to it."

"No way, dude!"

"Way. We stopped here to see if it came from your pump and sure enough, it did. Come outside and I'll show you."

So they put down their pizza and we went outside, where I pointed out the missing nozzle. They fell over laughing. When they recovered, they got on the phone to the manager.

I couldn't help but wonder what the woman in the van did when she got home and discovered her error. Did she swallow her pride and return the nozzle? Or did she throw it in the garbage and hope her family didn't find out?

Daughter and I went on our merry way, knowing full well that it's only a matter of time before I do the same thing. And believe me, when that day comes, I'll never live it down.

Complete havoc, in miniature

I was working at the computer Monday when I heard a strange noise behind me. Sure enough, Lily was in the dollhouse.

In spite of my efforts to make the dollhouse hard for her to enter now that she's a big kitty, Miss Lily was making herself comfortable on the second floor. I found her in the master bedroom, waking Mr. and Mrs. Dollhouse Couple up from a sound, six-month sleep, tipping over the kitchen table (obviously in the wrong room), and creating all sorts of havoc. Occasionally, she turned around and stuck her leg out the bedroom window, a la King Kong, and tried to smack me on the head.

Of course, Lily's mischief created the perfect photo opportunity. But I had to take the interior photos blindly by holding the camera in front of the room, since I'm too big to fit behind the dollhouse. I took several and looked at them afterwards, sort of like a hidden surveillance camera.

And the evidence is enough to convict, methinks. Breaking and entering? No...entering and breaking. :-)

Tagged!

I have been tagged by one of my blogging friends, Toni! Here goes...

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C: At the end of the post, the player then tag 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 years ago: We were living in the same house and DD was 5 years old. I was working for Norwest (which later merged with Wells Fargo) in the HR/Training area. There were NO CATS living in our house at that time!

Things on my to-do list today: Two new projects for the store, prep for my upcoming class this weekend, laundry, update our calendars on Outlook

What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: Donate to charity, travel or move abroad

3 of my bad habits: Not being able to say no, being overly sensitive, not picking up after myself

3 places I have lived: Oak Park, Illinois; Paris, France; Pella, Iowa

5 jobs that I have had: surgeon’s office assistant, compensation specialist, human resources rep, learning & development consultant, scrapbooking instructor

5 things people don't know about me: I have freckles, I’m allergic to a lot of metals so I usually only wear my wedding ring and one or two other rings, my toenails are always polished, I love to be near water but hate to be in it, and if I have several things on my plate, I eat all of one thing before moving on to the next. :-)

I'm tagging Cheri, Fonda, and Karensue. Have fun!