A year of -isms…Happy Anniversary!

“Hmmm…so by reading that, it SHOULD lead me to the conclusion that a shopping ban would be the prohibition of shopping. I see how the concept can relate to each other, just not how it pertains to me.”

…Oh, YAY! Today is here! *LOL* I can’t believe how excited I am, it almost feels like a birthday! I wonder if I can convince The Mister to get me a present to celebrate! HAHAHAHA…

When I first started blogging, I pretty much just ran and jumped in head first into everything with me fake-it-’til-you-make-it kind of attitude. I didn’t know where to start, so I figured I’d just start from the right then and there and just kept on going! I figure now might be a good time to take a step back and maybe start with an introduction. *LOL*

I think I had originally intended for this blog to be mostly an anonymous rambling of a crazy crafter/shopper. I wanted to be all witty and funny and clever and mysterious and people reading would be all intrigued and be enticed to keep coming back again and again. Yeah, well that didn’t happen and with something as personal as crafting, you can’t really be apart from it all, can you? So, I’d like to introduce myself…my name is Catherine (I so want to put the “I’m a scrapaholic” part, but I’m pretty sure I already said that before, and let’s face it, that was soooo last year!) I often come on here talking about the ways I can trick The Mister into buying things for me, so I thought I ought to introduce him as well. The Mister aka my best friend aka my husband aka the love of my life aka Bart.

Awwww…

…or more realistically…

BWAHAHAHA…okay, we don’t look like that all the time…but we sure did on Halloween!

I have no idea how this blogaversary post began to revolve around The Mister – er…Bart, I mean…*LOL* my fingers are just so used to typing The Mister whenever I’m on here! Anywho, like I said, I don’t know how this began to be about Bart, but now that I’m on this path, I can see that I’m liking where it’s going.

To be completely honest, I am a very big spoiled brat when it comes to Bart. I have been spoiled and have gotten used to it and there’s no turning back now. Bart has been the most supportive of me in pretty much everything I do. Not to say that no one else has been, but he’s pretty much been my number one fan from the start. I especially notice this AND appreciate this when I hear other ladies talk about how close their husbands are to threatening to take away all their goodies and stuff and all those other husbands who just don’t get it. Granted, Bart doesn’t reeeally get it (especially when I have another MS edge punch in my hand or when I want to take just one more stop at a different Michael’s to see if they have anything different from the OTHER Michael’s we were just at), but his whole attitude is that if I think it’s worth my time, then he thinks I’ll be absolutely awesome at it! He’s the one pushing me to go for things, submit things, branch out into things, etc. It’s just so humbling and slightly embarrassing to just have someone around who thinks that paper was invented solely for me to create with it.

So I would really like to take this time to shout out a big THANK YOU to Bart for his endless support, encouragement, patience and feigned ignorance at my shopping. For trying to understand how much I enjoy this little hobby of mine and for giving me the space (both figuratively and very literally – I stole the guestroom that also doubles as his closet because I took up all the room from our master bedroom, too) that I need. I’d like to THANK him for not looking at me like I was crazy when I was sitting around in my pyjamas laughing my head off in a room all by myself while reading a post…for taking it in stride when all of a sudden I was telling him all about my friend Marti…for not stumbling in that stride when I told him I was up and going off to California with this friend Marti he’d never heard of or met before…for not giving me dirty looks when I shake him awake late at night to show him the newest thing that I just made…for always having something nice to say about every single thing that I made…etc., etc! Raising my proverbial glass to toast my very fabulous husband whom I am feeling VERY lucky to have!

……..so really, I guess all that support and encouragement is to blame for my endless need to shop for my scraproom…I can see now that I don’t REALLY have a problem! HAHAHAHA…

I can also see now that this post may pretty much be a long one…I swear I’m not trying to punish you or make you work extra hard for the giveaway by making you read all of this! I really wasn’t intending on going that way, but I love that that’s where my finger and my tired, wandering mind took me!

Let me see, let me see…what do people normally put in blogaversary posts? I haven’t really been to too many, let alone hosted one! I’ve heard that some bloggers have had a lot of success with their blogs and I can definitely see that a lot of hard work and effort went into that! Although I did disappear off the face of the earth for a few months here and there, I have to say that I am very proud of what I’ve gotten accomplished so far – especially since I’m usually the type to never see anything through at all! Here’s a couple random stats courtesy of Google Analytics:

• As of yesterday when I last checked, there has been a total of 7366 visitors to my blog since March 4, 2008 (Thank You!)
• I have a total of 30 individuals who are subscribed to my blog – one of them being my very own Mom (Thank You!)
• The average time that an individual spends on my blog is 2 minutes and 5 seconds (Thank You!) I know time is precious to everyone!
• 77% of my blog traffic is from referring sites, so THANK YOU to everyone who’s added me as a link in their own blog. Please drop me a line to let me know if you have done this so that I can return the favour and add you to my blog list as well!

Can I just say how much I *LOVE* Google Analytics. Yes, my next confession in the new year of my blog is that I stalk all the people who come and visit me using statistics! *LOL* I am also a stat-addict…I just get all high and giddy when the line graph goes up to show my number of visitors…don’t pretend that you don’t feel the same way…

Over the years I have also learned a number of things…

• No matter how many series Studio G puts out, I’m going to need them all
• Nestabilities are TOTALLY worth it in the end, so you should just stop procrastinating and get them ASAP or else you’ll have to wait just that much longer when you finally decide to get them…
• Your crafting soul sister could totally be living in Virginia and she will always understand that your house isn’t really messy, it’s just that you’re busy and a lot of the times, she’s really thinking the same thoughts you’re thinking (Marti aka my alcohol ink yoda, my PIC, SuperMommy, sister from another mister, etc., etc., thanks so much for an AWESOME and hilarious year! You have been the best DT a girl could ever ask for and I am really excited to see what this year has in store for us!)

…and so much more I can’t even get into it now or you’ll hate me and wish I never have another blogaversary again!

And with that…and the fact that Bart is already snoring and the room just spun in front of my eyes, I will sign off…

I have had such an amazing time here on this blog and in the whole crafting community and wherever else I may lurk. As much fun as it is to learn and to create, it can only be so much fun because of all the people that I meet and learn from. I am so thankful that you take the time out of your day to drop by and see what I’m up to and to share kind words with me. I am also very thankful that you all understand and get what it is to have this wonderful hobby and that you share all your ideas and creations with the rest of the world – including me! I hope that you continue to do so and I hope you continue to drop in and check up on me once in a while as well! In this next year to come, I can only hope for bigger and better things to come, more wonderful friends to meet and share with…and more things to be released from CHA so I can shooooop! *LOL*

With that, I’ll leave you with one more -ism from the past year.

“Seeing how I don’t like anyone enough to have them stay overnight, I moved our spare bed in the guestroom to make more room for me and my stuff. So if we ever have anyone sleep over, I’m sure they’ll find the floor very comfortable. I would say I was joking, but for those who know me, they probably already know that I’m not.”

CONTEST DETAILS: To be eligible for the blogaversary giveaway, please enter your comments on THIS post any time before 11:59 PM EST on March 1, 2009. To avoid any confusion or misunderstandings, please include your first and last name or your first name and a screen name so that I may differentiate from same-named individuals. I will choose a winner via a random integer generator on March 2, 2009 and will announce the winner on a post that same day. Please limit your entry to one per person. Thank you so much!

CURRENT MOOD: HAPPY CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: BART SNORING

A year of -isms IV

“I couldn’t find any underwear, so I wore bathing suit bottoms instead. This might be an all-time low.”

…so that counter is totally throwing me off. It’s still saying my blogaversary is in two days, except that my blogaversary is TOMORROW! *happy dance* Maybe it’s factoring in a leap year that I don’t know about. Anywho, forget that counter, I definitely know when March 1st is and I’m so happy that you’re here! I hope you stop by tomorrow for a little bit of anniversary posting fun!

First off, don’t forget about my giveaway to celebrate! Here’s my giveaway roundup if you’ve missed my previous posts:

Coordinating K&Co. paper pack and 3D stickers

Alcohol inked glitter

Angel Hello Kitty organizer pouch and two COPIC markers
R05 and G05

K&Co. sticker packs and rub-on glitter set

…aaaaand…waaait for it…waaaait for it…

A $10 GIFT CERTIFICATE TO PEZ-A-DOODLE DESIGNS
Courtesy of Marti

To be eligible for those goodies up there, you’ll want to comment on >>THIS<< post.

No card or project for me today! I am currently blogging live from my parent’s place surrounded by kids running around, crying babies, loud-talking relatives and a dog going crazy with all the chaotic-ness all around him!

Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday evening and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

CURRENT MOOD: CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

A year of -isms III

“Just now, I asked The Mister if there was any holidays or special occasions coming up where people have to buy me stuff. He said our anniversary and I “Psssssh-ed” it because that’s in September. He said the only thing coming up is Mother’s Day and is it kind of bad that I half-wished I was pregnant so I could demand him to buy me a cart? I would choose New Arrivals of course…”

Hel-looo! Only one more week until my blogaversary! I’m very excited about it…too excited probably by the looks of how the giveaway is growing. I’ve been gathering here and there – some more K&Co. stuff which I am loving and also a couple hand-made kind of things from yours truly! Like this:

GLITTER!

I’m all googly-eyed! Okay, so I didn’t actually MAKE the glitter – I have no idea how that magic happens, but I did make them into all these prettiful colours! I took my jar of plain ol’ white glitter and dyed them a bunch of colours and put them in jars just like that! So in with my giveaways, this set of sugary glitter just for my blogaversary winner!

I hope everyone had a good weekend – we got a lot more snow *makes face* and I’m all bitter now at the cruelness of Mother Nature and how she teases us with nice, warm, spring-like weather only to snatch it back give us more snow instead! BAH! But I did have a little bit of playtime in my scraproom and I got to play with more Flower Soft and to colour my very first Lockhart stamp!

Another plain and simple card so as not to take away from the main focal point of my image! Even though I’ve been all COPIC-crazed right now, I coloured in my image with my watercolor pencils and trimmed the stamped image out (*waves* Thanks fairy craftmother!). I used my oh-so-pretty Flower Soft for the hydrangea’s and a generous sprinkling of fine glitter – yes, I am ALL ABOUT the glitter lately! I used my little bottle of Glossy Accents and randomly dabbed at the berries before sprinkling with the glitter!

Next I used my BRAND SPANKIN’ NEW Oval Nestabilities (*waves* Thanks, Terri!) and used that as my focal image mat. For the rest of the card I just used my Scor-Pal to add detail and some yummily lumpy SugarPops!

Thanks for stopping by! I’ll still be adding a little bit more to my blogaversary giveaway so don’t forget to stop by on March 1st to play!

MATERIALS
All hyperlinked products and materials are from Pez-a-Doodle Designs

Stamp: Karen Lockhart
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Bo Bunny and plain white cardstock
Tools: Glossy Accents, Watercolor Pencils, Aquapen, Scor-Pal, Oval Nestabilities
Embellishments: Flower Soft, SugarPops, Ribbon

“Sorry the pictures are so far away and blurry, I couldn’t bring myself to care enough to get closer. BWAHAHAHAHAHA…” (Paris Hilton at CHA)

CURRENT MOOD: CALM CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: WEIRD RATTLING IN THE OFFICE

A year of -isms II…

“The stupid sign fooled me and I thought it was 2 for $1 and by the time I was checking out and the girl said it wasn’t, I had already formed a bond with the paper.”

Well, to be honest, I already had this entry all written out and I’m pretty sure it posted at the time I told it to post, but something wonky happened and I ended up losing the whole entry! Eek!

Anywho, last night The Mister and I went out for bubble tea (mmm…bubble tea…) and the girl who runs the place has decided to branch out a little and carry small gift items and other knick-knacks – which is really fun, but really bad for me because I love small gift items and knick-knacks – even if I don’t know what I would do with them! I was looking through everything – The Mister hates it when I do this because I will start from the beginning or top or from one side and sloooooowly go through and make sure I look at EVERY single thing before I move on to the next section. Just don’t want to miss anything, you know! A lot of the things were Sanrio things (HELLO KITTY!) which everyone who’s anyone knows that I used to REALLY like! I have a Hello Kitty alarm clock, a Hello Kitty phone, Hello Kitty T-Shirts, Hello Kitty pens, paper…blah blah blah…but I digress…so there were bags and paper and pens and a bunch of other really cool things and then…there it was…

*SQUEALS* It’s an Angel Hello Kitty organizer…thingy…

I love Angel Hello Kitty…I had her really cute paper and matching pen which I never used because it was just too pretty to write on! Well, I just had to have this set because I already knew what I was going to use it for!

Ta-da!!! Woohoo! My COPIC markers now have a home! Thank goodness I didn’t get anymore from Oozak.com (sale still going on until MARCH 1st!) or else I wouldn’t have been able to fit them all in here! But as of right now with 85 markers, everyone is all nice and snug in their new home! Can you just SEE me walking into my COPIC Certification class with my little Angel Hello Kitty COPIC marker bag? *squeals* I know, I am just too excited, aren’t I? Taking it down a notch…

Speaking of the bag though, I did come up with a solution for my little giveaway problem that I had confessed about the other day. I am now going to employ the one-for-me, one-for-you technique! So up there you see mine…and another one will go to the blogaversary blog candy winner!!! w00t!

DISCLAIMER: Winner of the Angel Hello Kitty organizer bag will win the bag and pouch, minus any CONTENTS pictured above. Meaning, the prize will not include the COPIC markers pictured.

*giggles* Sorry, just had to put it out there before I went further and got more excitable and carried away! HAHAHA, but to be fair, since I DID show the bag with markers, I will be including two COPIC markers in the giveaway as well: R05 and G05.

I think that’s it for me today! I’ll be escaping off to Michael’s this afternoon on my lunch hour to have a peek to see if they have any of the new DCWV stacks in yet (I won’t be holding my breath though, my M’s still thinks that the Cricut only has a George cartridge available with it, with the way they stock…) and maybe I’ll find more fun things to include in my blogaversary giveaway! Make sure to come back and visit on the 1st to enter! With all my crazy shenanigans and TMI confessions and when you still came to visit even when I dropped off the face of the earth, I would definitely say that you DESERVE it!

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. For those of you who can’t wait to win stuff, buying things ON SALE is just as good, isn’t it? Dont’ forget that Marti’s got all her products and items on SALE at Pez-a-Doodle Designs from 15% – 25% OFF to make room for the fun new things coming – and can I just totally drop a little hinty-hint, Marti DEFINITELY has some fun, new things in store for you. You do NOT want to miss it – I’m having an episode just trying not to blurt it all out! *LOL*

The battle is won and I have conquered and vanquished the beast I call Design Studio. This isn’t the end I know…the battle may be over but the war is just beginning. I’m gonna figure the crap out of DS if it’s the last thing I do. *insert maniacal laughter here* But first, I’m going to bed.

CURRENT MOOD: HAPPY IT’S FRIIIIDAY! CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: POKER FACE IS STUCK IN MY HEAD

A year of -isms…

“The boss chooses to meander out of his office and down the hall in time to hear my desperate whale cries of freedom.”

…I went out yesterday to see what things I could offer for my blogaversary blog candy…here’s a little peek at some of the things for the winner…I haven’t really decided how it’s all going to work, probably all the comments on my March 1 post…so don’t forget to come back and visit me on the 1st!

I loves me some K&Co. and I hope you do too!

So there’s a K&Co. design paper pack with two packs of coordinating 3D stickers.

I have something on my mind right now and I’m wondering if I’m the only one this happens to…I certainly hope not, though!

CONFESSION #13
Whenever I’m hosting a giveaway or blog candy or anything of the sort, I always get carried away by the excitement and fun of showing pictures and describing things that’s up for grabs that I end up wanting to keep what I’m giving away and forgetting all about the giveaway.

*giggles* Not to worry though! The winners of the Ultimate Tim Holtz giveaway that I hosted will be receiving their prizes directly from Marti and I won’t have the chance to think about keeping it…*LOL* Although I still half wish that I could win it! I am such an alcohol ink addict!

Anyway! There’s a little bit of my blog candy for my upcoming anniversary! I will be posting some more pictures once I get them all together, so hoping you come back and visit for a little bit of fun!

“I can’t wait to be an auntie!
P.S. I hope I get something in the mail today!”

CURRENT MOOD: I HAVE NO IDEA CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: OFFICE SOUNDS