Gorey ATC Swap

I swap with Swap-bot!

New swap I'm in.... it's going to be a huge, and I do mean HUGE, series. It's the Gorey Alphabet ATCs. See this link- Gorey Alphabet . It's super-cool and I'm looking forward to something a little outside the box. I'm thinking of quite a few ideas :).

Schleich Giganotosaurus give-away!

First off- NOT on my blog or by me! OK, that said- these things are so cool! I really love Schleich models. They are so detailed and nice. This dinosaur is very cool. It even comes with a little human to show the scale between the dino and the human. So, the wonderful person over at "Feisty, Frugal and Fabulous" is hosting a give-away of one of these cool models. That link takes you straight to the give-away page. To enter, just follow the directions. As you can see, this blog post is one of my additional entries :). I would love to win this for my little boy! He loves dinosaurs. What boy (or girl, in my case!) doesn't like dinosaurs?! Anyway- good luck to you, if you decide to enter!

♪ concert ♫

So, I attended another concert performed by the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra. They performed Polovtsian Dances, Violin Concerto, and Scheherazade. It was really wonderful. It was also the last concert of a very sweet lady I had the pleasure of meeting in my orchestra. We kinda hit it off. She's such a nice lady. She's moving to England. Anyway, I am honored I got to see her last concert here. AND- she gave me her tenor saxophone and I'll be getting an old flute of hers real soon. The tenor sax I plan on fixing up over time- no rush! I am *deliriously* excited. I have wanted a tenor sax forever! This is an old sax, too. I plan on shining it up, fixing it up, and playing the hell outta it! The flute doesn't work- or of I wanted to repair it, would probably be costly. So- I plan on turning it into a lamp :). My first lamp project! She didn't have it with her, but she'll give it to our friend Aaron who in turn will pass it on to me. Back to the concert- I adore Russia. I feel that in a past life, I had to have lived in Russia. Russian music is so expressive... it can be dark, scary, brutal... .or light and airy. I know that all music can be that way.... but Russian music just sort of emphasizes it. I had a great time and hope to see them perform once again!

Delicious desserts to share!

Ok bloggies- somehow today, i managed to stumble upon, but NOT using StumbleUpon, two absolutely mouth-watering dessert posts on this lady's blog. My mouth will not stop watering at the thought of these desserts!!!

The first I found is the "White Chocolate and Peppermint Covered Popcorn". It's popcorn, white chocolate, and candy canes!! How *simple* and how delicious-sounding. The original post can be found here:

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/01/07/white-chocolate-and-peppermint-covered-popcorn/.

I will post my own pictures of my process when I make it, along with any tips/advice/problems. The second one I found was also in this same lady's blog, as a link. She offers it as an alternative to the one above.... alhough, alternative? I want BOTH!

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/12/peppermint-bark-popcorn.html

I am thinking I will make both. My orchestra is ACTUALLY having a little Christmas party this year :). I'm sure it won't be extravagant, but we were told we can make and bring something.... so that I will! I also have ideas on a little Christmas gift for everyone ..... I'm SO nervous about that. I've never given a gift to 99% of the orchestra and I'm worried about their reaction :/.

Anyway- that's for another post. I hope you enjoy those recipes and look for future posts about my own experiences with them!

Friendship books

I swap with Swap-bot!


Ok, followers of The Blog... I am now into Friendship Books (or FBs, not to be confused with facebook, also FB or fb....). I joined a swap on the ever-awesome Swap-Bot for friendship books. This swap is newbie friendly, which was a relief. MOST all of the FB swaps I've came across have been for already established books. I've never made one before, so I never wanted to join any of those. I've been reading up on them and it seems like a small, quick, fun craft. I know I'll make mine decorated... but I don't require anyone decorate their pages... I understand that those are called "decos". Anyway- if anyone is interested in penpalling and fb's, please send me a message: histechnoangel at yahoo dot com. If I can remember to, I'll post some pics of the books I make. I've already received two. One was very easy to understand, beautifully done. The other is very confusing. It looks like the book is supposed to be sent back to me, instead of the person who made it. It already has my info in it! So.... I dunno what I'm supposed to do with it, since my name & address has already been put in by the person who made it. At any rate, this is still a fun new craft.

I feel kinda bad as I've completely neglected my crochet work. I've BARELY done anything. But, when we had our own place it felt like I had more freedom to do such things. I don't feel so free right now. Weird.... I can't explain why. BUT I need to get off my butt and get to getting. I have items that need to be made for gifts. I'm excited about that. My orchestra is actually having a christmas party this year. I decided, after much debate, that I will make everyone a gift. I settled on an ornament :). It will be music-themed of course. I will get something separate for the conductor and for my principal (first chair/section leader) clarinet. They are both instrumental (bwahahah) in helping me better my abilities. I want to do something special for them..... just haven't figured out what :/. If anyone reads this and has a suggestion, feel free to throw it at me.

OK I think that's everything at the moment. If I think of anything, I'll post more later! Have a great day :).

Election Day!!

Don't forget to Vote!!!

I just came back from voting, myself. I don't normally post political stuff, but I'm happy to post this. If it's not who you like, it's ok- no comments necessary. Just breathe and remember we're all able to vote for who we want! This is America!! :D Be thankful we have such freedoms as the ability to vote. Anyway- I just hope all Americans got out there and voted today.

The Shining ATC post *update with pic*

I swap with Swap-bot!

OK so I'm going to use this post for any pictures of the ATC. I will be working on it tomorrow... haven't done much on it, gotta get going!!! Come back soon for updates!

So here it is :). We were told to keep the ATC simple... make it look like something that could be used as a promo poster. So, this is what I came up with. We weren't supposed to have a lot of words, but honestly- I didn't want to just print out a picture of Jack Torrance and try to go from there. So, I typed up "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" over and over... which if you know anything about the movie, is what Jack Torrance has been typing the whole time he was "working". I printed out the name of the movie. And then I took red acrylic paint and with a toothpick that I kinda flattened the point of, I painted (painstakingly) the words REDRUM. The girl who got it really likes it, which is the goal right? :D. Overall- I am very, very pleased with this ATC. Hope you like!

Halloween and current swaps

So- Happy (belated) Halloween, bloggies! I had a great weekend... we took our son trick or treating 3 times! The first was the mall event on Friday... I think in the future we might just skip it... we'll see. It's gotten to the point where you just kinda walk past more stores than get candy from. And- the Coach store gave out JUST a sticker. A gold one that says "coach". To KIDS for trick or treating! That was disappointing. Anyway, on Saturday we took the little man to the "Boo at the Zoo" event. It was great! We had a really nice time. Sunday, we visited friends/family and also took our son trick or treating around a neighborhood for the first time. He did VERY well! I was so proud of him. Oh, I should add that the little man was our little Hero. He went as Captain America! It was really neat- everywhere we went, on all three days, he was the ONLY Captain America! :D

OK so I have some crafts I've been working on. I finished my first ever "chunky page". These things are FUN! I thoroughly enjoyed trying to figure out how I was going to design it and all that. The theme for this first page is "Nightmares"... I chose spiders. Here's a pic of the front.


The silver beads on the right side are attached by craft wire... the beads spell out arachnophobia :). I love the spider flower. Those big spiders near the top are rubber spiders. There's a chipboard spider in the middle... some stickers... the spiderwebs are stickers as well... oh, on the bottom is some spider ribbon trim... lemme put a pic of that....


I don't know if you can see the trim on the bottom very well... but it alternates between a small squishy felt ball and a small little spider with orange eyes :). I got it at JoAnn's Fabric. It was a last-minute impulse buy, and I'm glad I did! I secured it on using some really decent fabric glue.









For the back, I kept it simple. I glued a red spidery scrapbook paper onto the back. I decided to add a glitter spider I picked up from Michael's. I like the addition of the glitter spider :). It gives it a little touch of "cute" to a "nightmare" page. I added my info and stuck a spiderweb sticker on the right side of the info.... just to add something to it.















So there is my first chunky page :). The thing I am currently working on is an ATC for Stephen King's "The Shining". I have an idea... but dunno if it will be lame. Think a mirror and "REDRUM" ....lol. We'll see! Hopefully I will remember to post pics. I realize I don't post pics of my crafts on my blog. For shame on myself!!!! I promise to attempt to include more pics of craftiness!
That's gonna be it for now... I need to get to work on the ATC!