Monthly Archives: July 2008

My Cricut Expression Birthday

Posted on by
Reply

My birthday was on Friday. We were out of town for a family wedding. So compensation was in order to amend how that was for me. My big present was:

A Cricut Expression machine.

If you click the above link you can see that, right now, the msrp is $499.99. We bought it from Costco online … for $349.99 (+ tax) and the price includes S&H. Well that was a few days before my birthday that we ordered it. We arrived home on Sunday night, and my package was on the doorstep.

I didn’t open it until the next night, being tired from the trip and lots of things to re-organize, and being so tired …

I played around with it a bit, and then yesterday I watched the DVD disc that comes in the package, then went and tried a few new things. I made a rectangular “bag” for my daughter, to put some of her small hair accessories in. I put flowers on the two wider sides as well. All this from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge that comes with the original package. I then made a {belated} birthday card for my sister using the same cartridge. I didn’t finish it until today, putting some of it together last night, and the rest today. One of the fun things I did, was to make heart confetti to put in the envelope with the card.

I was more creative with this stuff than I’ve been in months and months (with no cutting tool except my scissors and craft knife … blah.) I didn’t want a Cricut when they first came out, but since the Cricut Expression has come out I’ve thought about IT here and there and finally came to realize that this is the tool I wanted the most, not a manual cutting system, and I liked how it seemed to work (from afar) and just decided it was right for me. I was very happy to be able to get it for my birthday, for a decent price.

So then I started writing this post, and I went to the manufacturer’s site and then to Costco.com to look at the product on each site. That is when I about blew my stack when I looked at the Costco page and saw that, “what ….? $269 …? What is THIS!?”

the Cricut Expression page on Costco’s site.

So then I went to our bank online and looked at the transactions to verify the Costco.com charges, and sure enough, we paid a lot more than that. So my hubby called our Costco store and they assured him they’d be able to adjust the price for us, corporate Costco, so he then called the right number and sure enough, they will refund the ajusted amount withing 48 hours. How nice, and how right for them to do so, with just a week or so between our purchase and the price change, or less than that, I don’t know for sure.

I finished my sister’s card today, then decided to cut out a few things for potential scrapbook pages, then got inspired to make another card, one for a friend, for no particular reason except for that (being a long-distance friend.) I have all the basic parts, just need to finish the inside ideas, then put it all together. With this card I went and made shadows for my title. Wow does it look great, and it wasn’t hard to put them together with my glue stick. (Yes, using the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, again.)

I didn’t take a picture of anything yet, I haven’t sent my sister’s card yet, but I have it sealed up, so I can’t take a picture of it anymore. I will try and take a picture of my next card, maybe the “bag” I made. I’m sure I’ll make a new bag next. A rounded one out of 12×12 paper/cardstock. :)

The best thing about this is I have ideas for cards and now I can implement them easily, and make a coordinating envelope out of really nicely patterned paper so easily (when before I’d just use a stock plain envelope, or no envelope at all for cards to immediate family members.)

I’ve always liked scrapbooking, and using scrapbooking supplies to make cards and other stuff, but I haven’t always made stuff very often, and I haven’t really scrapped much at all, in reality. I have scads of photos in boxes, and even more now that are digital (way more photos taken since going digital!) Now the Cricut Expression will have me making projects galore, and hopefully that will include getting several scrapbooks completed before the years end.

A photo from Flickr that is not mine

Posted on by
Reply

I was looking on Flickr.com yesterday and found a very nice picture that I immediately fell in love with, and that was part of a Set for that person’s Flickr account that has many pictures from the Oze National Park, which is in Japan.

I have never really sought out other’s pictures on Flickr very often, and for some reason which I can’t remember I found the seed picture that got me to the Set that I would love to have as a huge-format collage on my wall, the square thumbnails on the default Set’s page are so “everything” to me. Intense in color, but soothing, so calming, so …. “Zen” to me.

The picture that was the seed is entitled “sleeping cotton grasses”

sleeping cotton grasses

and I have saved it as a Favorite on my Flickr account.

I looked later and found another Flickr account with an “Oze” set that was nice too, not as many pictures, the pictures very lovely, but still, the first Set I found beckons me in some unspeakable way that the second persons pictures do not.

No doubt to me it’s the focus of each picture, what the camera eye is beholding, how it centers in on and means to show a particular aspect of the view in front of it.

I love Monet paintings, and I viewed all those of the Set I first encountered with a Monet eye and long to see them depicted in a Monet style painting, as my Minds Eye created for each fantastic photo. Alas, I am no painter.

Fireworks

Posted on by
Reply

On July 4th we had our own little fireworks show. I love “fireworks” and really love shooting them off, not just watching them. Big shows I do love, but not the crowds, and so it goes that if we can do our own, I do prefer that highly over going somewhere to see them on a holiday.

Over the years we haven’t really done them until 2006. July 4, 2006 and July 4, 2007 we had a packages which we got at Costco, just some Fountains. Nice, enough for my DH to start with. I am the one with a passion for the stuff, and he likes it OK, but wasn’t too “into it” then. He couldn’t care less for himself if he goes to see fireworks or not. I love baseball and so does he, and so if we can combine the two (fireworks after a baseball game) I would choose that over “just a baseball game” every time. He does think about that sometimes, for me, not for him.

We really did enjoy the fountains on 7/4/2007 but wanted MORE. For New Years Costco had the same sort of fountain packages and we got an even bigger set of fountains. It was really, really nice.

I have always wanted to get our things in another state though, since our state doesn’t allow the sale of anything much at all. So the children and I were able to convince DH to finally stop at one of the stores in another state on the way home after a trip before this past July 4th.

We got a bunch of stuff, and could hardly wait for nightfall on July 4, 2008 to arrive. DH set all of it off, I helped get things ready (since we have a baby around again, I didn’t participate as much as I’d like to, but I did enjoy myself immensley, as did DH.)

This was experimental for us, the first time working with shells, mortars, etc. We had even better fountains than before, some really stupid fountain types that we’ll not make the mistake to get again, and nearly every “tube” and “mortar” we had was really great, some way better than others, and all of them useful in conjunction with something else. We mostly shot things off singly, some we did two-stage, but it was as I said in the beginning of this paragraph, experimental.

Here you can see the aftermath: the next morning, July 5, 2008

This next New Year’s Eve (’09) we’ll go and get more, better things, and plan a multi-stage sort of show, then be ready for a fantastic July 4th 2009.

Some neighbors up the street shot off some nice ones, and we had a few neighbors down the street that came out and watched ours and theirs, and at least one of them was interested in doing more themselves next time because of it. :)

It’s my desire to have firecrackers year round, just for fun any old time. For birthdays I always want fireworks too, but my birthday is in July, just two weeks after the 4th. Not a problem in my mind, but it is to others pocketbooks.

I did tell my DH I’d just prefer a Cake for my birthday, from South Carolina. I don’t know what sort entirely, just one of those that has a fuse and shoots up a self-contained show. :)

This year we won’t be home for my birthday, our niece is getting married on that day, –which is kind of conflicting for me. I’m a “Celebrate your birthday on your actual birthday” sort of person. I don’t like overlapping things, and deal with that every so often in November, when our daughters birthday fall on Thanksgiving.

I don’t besmirch our niece her day, not at all. It’s just that I had planned to have DH get me stuff for my birthday for sure this year, for longer than a year, and I’m a “Celebrate your birthday on your actual birthday” sort of person, yes, I am repeating myself. Combining these things is impossible, and so …