Norway

Yes, the thing that is most frequently in my train of thought today is Norway. Well, that and my broken desk, but that is another story. My contemplation of Norway is not quite as strange as it may seem. We work with a Norwegian company at work. Hardly a work day goes by that I am not talking with someone from Norway. Well, there was the one day they were all out on a boat and I couldn't get in touch with any of them... Does anyone know if sailing is a traditional way to celebrate in Norway? Has anyone been there before? I'm sure it is quite beautiful. If only I could think of a reason for a business trip out there.

Getting back on track, now that we've established that it is not unusual for me to be thinking about Norway, why a blog post about it? Yesterday I was reading an article on http://www.bbc.co.uk about the EU. The most shocking thing about it was that Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein are not members of the EU. I had no idea! I assumed because Norway used the euro that they were part of the European Union. I guess there is some sort of economic agreement, but not a full political arrangement. You learn something every day!

By the way, another interesting thing I learned about in the article is that one of the major reasons that Iceland is not part of the EU is because of fishing laws. What an interesting sticking point in the negotiations. Want more information on the EU and non-member countries? Here's an interesting article on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_the_European_Union

TICKETS!!

I can't believe I forgot until right now. My Red Sox/Yankees tickets arrived today :D

Go SOX!

Monogram

I made this monogram for a challenge on a scrapbook site. It so much fun to just play. I cut the monogram out of chipboard and painted it white. Then I used the Lil Davis glitter glaze everyone has been talking about. I love how it came out, except that I wish there was more color. You can't tell from the scan, but my glitter is blue. The directions said to layer it over their colored paint. I'll have to give that a shot and see how it comes out. Next I added some American Crafts flowers (someone will be getting more in a swap soon ;) ) sewn with a clear Foofala button in the middle. I don't know what brand the ribbon is, but it came from the immensely talented Rebecca Sower. I bought something from her Etsy shop, and even the wrapping (this ribbon and some pretty paper) was amazing. Last are my initials made from some Lil Davis rub-ons. This is going to be the cover for my CK All About Me album. I followed the directions a couple of months ago...Ok, fine, sometime in 2006. When I get a chance I want to go through and customize it. I figure a cute cover is the first step.

March Madness

This is the one time of year that I really love basketball. Not that I don't like basketball usually, it's just that I like football, and of course baseball, better. However, I love the whole NCAA March Madness thing. It's really the only thing that we talk about at work. There have been all sorts of articles about how much productivity has decreased nationwide because of it. As an anecdotal evidence, traffic at one of our websites went down 90% right when the first game started. We're just all obsessed.

I WAS in first place in our office pool tonight until Duke had to go and lose. Now, I know they weren't seeded very high, but I expected them to win one game. I thought that if someone just told them "Hey, I know it's a rebuilding year, but you're DUKE and you have COACH K" they would go "oh yea, right" and win at least one game.

And Marquette, I'm disappointed in you too.

Go Georgetown!!!

Product Review 1

I thought that it would be fun to do a weekly (roughly) product review. It will allow me to use some of my stash and do something creative, and maybe someone out there will even find it useful. So without further ado, here is my first review:

American Crafts Felt Flowers and Punctuation

The first project that I created was this card. I thought of it as a birthday card, but I suppose it could be for any type of celebration. I used a Fiskars' texture plate to make the pp (Provo Craft) a little more interesting. I have not hand sewn anything for awhile, but the card seemed boring without it. The stamp is by K & Co.

I also did a 12 x 12 layout. It was so beautiful outside today that I had to go take a walk and capture some late winter pictures. I cannot take credit for the design- it is by Amanda Probst. Chatterbox pp, Bazzill cs, Marvy Uchida pen. I also used American Craft thickers letters because they matched. They're one of my new favorite lettering tools.

There are things that I really love about the felt flowers and punctuation. They add great texture, come in cute colors, and spice up any page. You get a lot of different pieces in the container, so it is well worth the money. However, I haven't found a good way to adhere them besides brads and staples. Liquid adhesive shows through, and glue dots and my roller adhesive only stick to them sometimes. The major thing that I don't like about the American Crafts felt sis that each container doesn't contain all the shapes in all sizes and colors. I was looking for the largest flower in one color, but found that it was only available in two other colors. The advantage of the packaging is the variety, yet it seems like there was never the piece I was looking for. My suggestion to the manufacturer: make even numbers of each shape and size and each color. Then I would buy the whole line!