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Welcome to my blog. Thanks for coming! One day I hope my little piece of internet real estate will be home to lots of family photos, pictures of my scrapbook and card art, with some random thoughts and memories posted on a somewhat regular basis. Mostly my world is very predictable, but occasionally some excitement will find me, so visit often. Who knows what useful (or useless) information you may find here.

cathyb

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Gremlins Underfoot

Once again, the gremlins are busy at The 409. Absconding with random items. They take much pleasure in causing me distress when I can’t find what I’m looking for. No item is exempt from their frivolous games. One day it’s my car keys. That’s their favorite. The next day it’s the thingy I used to poof up my hair. It might be the can opener, or my mascara. For the past several days I have searched in vain for my stud-finder. (No, not some magic tool to find me a good-lookin’ man, but the little electronic thing that locates the 2 x 4s behind my walls.) I had it a few months ago while working on a project, and now it is gone. Once it was the USB cable to connect my small printer to my laptop. Every day is a new adventure for the gremlins. Today is no exception.

Each holiday season, I try to make little treats and cards for a special group of ladies at my church. It’s an elderly, but lively bunch, and they are such a joy to me, and an inspiration to so many, both in the church and the community. I have known a few of them ever since I can remember, and have been blessed to know the others for the past several years. It all started a few years ago when I decided that every girl needs to be remembered on Valentine’s Day. That year I got a list of all the widowed or never-married “girls” in my church, and sent them all a card. It was just a tiny little project, but I had no idea the impact it would make. Each one was so thrilled to have been remembered, that I sort of unofficially adopted the idea as an ongoing project for the ladies in Mr. Tommy’s Sunday School class. These ladies are the oldest… um, let’s don’t say that, let’s say WISEST ladies in my church, and they just get a kick out of being remembered by someone as young as myself. [cough.. sputter…]

Last Friday night was Girls’ (Scrapbook) Night Out. I was so proud of myself for carrying the smallest load of supplies that I have ever carried. Just two bags. [Well, four, if you count the two huge bags of scrapbook magazines that I carried to share. Hopefully Ken got the message to put those not adopted into the yard-sale pile. Otherwise they are still on a cart in the fellowship hall… oops…] Anyway, my project de jour on Friday was to make Halloween cards for The Girls. Took me eight hours to make eight stinkin’ cards. Well, to be honest, the entire eight hours wasn’t solely dedicated to the making of cards. There was the Set Up Factor, i.e. organizing my tools of the trade, my paper, embellishments, adhesives, etc., into a workable area. (And then packing them away again when the evening was done.) This in itself is a rather time-consuming project. (Yes, my scrapbooking friends are right… I am totally anal…) There was the Socializing Element… the talking with friends, looking at their tools/paper/embellishments/adhesives, etc., examining their projects de jour. And then of course there is the Eating Factor. The Eating Factor is an ongoing part of the evening, with multiple breaks throughout, spent enjoying a snack, a bowl of Marie’s chili, a leftover Subway sandwich for dinner, and a nice cup o’ Joe. The most daunting part of the project, though, is the Design Factor. I had in my mind exactly how I wanted to design the cards, I had all the paper, cutting tools, etc. needed to create the card. Well, wouldn’t you know it… the picture I had in my mind was nothing like the finished product. So it was back to the drawing board. Much time was spent with my elbows propped on the table, face resting in my palms, looking over my stash with glazed eyes. Finally I decided on a design, and spent a large amount of time at Debbie’s Cricut, cutting out haunted houses, ghosts and bats. I Cuttlebugged and embossed backgrounds of pumpkins on vines. All that was left was to assemble the cards and add a few sparkles (girl’s gotta have some bling) and the cards were complete. I packed up my small stash of stuff, cleaned up my mess and was home by midnight. All in all, it was quite a successful evening, and I was relatively happy with my creation, even if it didn’t end up like I had originally designed it in my head.

This morning, I searched through my desk drawer, rifling through all the receipts, writing instruments, one-armed glasses that I just can’t bring myself to throw away, various and sundry office supplies and gum wrappers, and finally located my postal stamps. Time to get those babies in the mail. I’m ready. Just need to put a few finishing touches on the cards during my lunch break, stuff them in the envelopes, and have them out in my mailbox in time for the postman to pick up this afternoon.

Now where did I put those cards? I’m sure I put them in the plastic bin that has all my fall embellishments. Nope.. not in there. Not stuck in between the stack of paper I used either. Not in the tote bag used to transport all my stuff. Whitney climbed in the attic to double check the tote bag for me. They are nowhere to be found. My cards are gone. They have totally disappeared. The gremlins must have liked them and wanted to send them out to their gremlin friends. You know, the ones that live in YOUR house. So be on the lookout for a hand-made Halloween card signed by The Gremlins at The 409.

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