It's ONLY PAPER Q2 Challenge Team Chat

Good idea to do some crafty admin when you're feeling less inspired grammadee I often cut card bases and die cut sentiments, that kind of thing.

Shakti even in a place as small as Iceland you can miss out on the northern lights, as many tourists discover to their annoyance. They're very random. I looked outside at 1:30 today and saw nothing.

I checked a New Zealand online newspaper to see how the aurora australis were doing too (family is in NZ) and enjoyed lots of beautiful photos. One photographer even did a wedding portrait for a couple with pink and red lighting up the sky (in a city that has rarely ever seen them). There were lots of cool low tide beach photos with the lights reflecting in the wet sand/shallow water.

I try not to do cardmaking on Sundays, just so I have a little change of pace, so I'm doing laundry in the perfect weather and reading a young reader's mystery novel. We were so hot the past couple of days we've decided it's summer now and put in all our window fans and shades. Summer doesn't really start here until July 5th so we'll see if we regret that!

I should watch some more watercoloring lessons this afternoon. Hope those who are celebrating had a happy mother's day

Good Monday morning, team!

Waiting is hard, Shakti. Hang in there. Try NOT to give the negative thoughts real estate in your brain. My dd used to call those negative niggles the Itty Bitty Sh*tty Committee. When we get anxious about something now we say "Adjourn the committee!"

Dh is heading to town for a couple of appointments. I am not sure if I will put together a couple of birthday cards I need, or maybe a scrapbook LO. But I KNOW I will play with paper.

What's everyone up to this week?

I need to get back to work selling those rotten Hummels and other assorted nonsense. I never quite got to them last week and now I feel like I'm "behind" even though I'm the only one keeping track. I'm going to do a workout, then some work, then I should change into my gardener cosplay and get my tomatoes planted. There are only two plants. It's not like I'm doing farm work.

But each project requires multiple steps before I do the thing and that always hangs me up. And I've learned the hard way that doing it half-assed can make life harder in the long run. Planting the tomatoes takes 10 minutes, but it's setting up supports and irrigation and moving the dahlias, etc etc that turns it into a big deal. I have to constantly remind myself to do the first thing first, then just do the next thing, and so on and so on.

I'm enjoying my new die cut sentiments though! More die cutting this afternoon

Oh Ryann, I hope this is a spring cold and that you feel better soon. Yeah, and keep that IBSC adjourned!

Employment prospects look good, Shakti.

joblackford, after your post, I went looking for some scrapbooking pp I remembered that had Hummelesque characters on it. Was thinking maybe Graphic 45? P13? But I didn't find it. Good luck with your sales.

I have my own gardening adventure planned for today. The spring has been weird with a dry start, then some super cool temps, then some rain, so all we have in the ground are the potatoes. After the cold and rain I was waiting for the ground to heat up before putting my onion sets in. (Or maybe that was just an excuse.) Anyway I did a seed inventory and placed an order last week. It should be in this week. And today I am swinging by the greenhouse to pick up bedding plants on my way to dgs's baseball game. My plan is to get only about 1/2 to 3/4 of what I usually do. And I have a list to prevent dgs from distracting me too much. Will let you know if I actually met my scale-back goal. Limiting choices is not a skill of mine...

Can we talk hockey today, Shakti?

I finally took myself out on an outing today, ahead of a change in the weather. Going out might be overrated but I got some treats and enjoyed the sunshine and views.

My friend in central Illinois is sending me cicada plague updates. Are any of you in that zone? She gave up on going for a walk because they were falling out of the trees onto the sidewalk and grossing her out.

I did some die cutting today and finally finished the cards I was working on, or at least finished enough for now. The Altenew sentiments are beautiful but I really wish they would come out of the dies more easily. They’re not even particularly intricate. I don’t know what the problem is. I would mass produce them quite happily if I didn’t have to try and poke them out without tearing the narrow bits.

Good morning, team. Sending positive vibes for your interview, Shakti. Hope that soon things will start falling into place for you. As I have often told my "kids", you don't have to worry about working conditions there until they actually offer you the position. And maybe the different department--and the YOU that has evolved over the years--will be a better fit than the last time.

Still no gardening happening here. Had to make a quick trip on Tuesday evening when I got a call that my late brother's widow was at end-of-life stage in the hospital. I got there in time to see her and say goodbye, but she was already beyond response to me when I arrived. I did get to see three of her kids. Waiting now to hear about funeral arrangements.

I might manage a LO today. Have a three-day-in-the-making title assembled on my counter. Not that it was three WHOLE days in the making: maybe one hour total time for points, but it involved wet media that needed drying and a concept that was slow in evolving, but I have high hopes for how it will work with the LO in my head...

Thank you! I haven't heard this trick before, will definitely give it a try! I was wondering if I needed a metal shim or a different die cutting machine. Tyvek is a whole lot less investment. I'm sure I have some already.





Linking to the bundle because they're the same font and style but I only got set 2. I decided I would get more use out of the newer one, especially that really big "Have a good day" even though I could probably benefit from the hello and hugs and friend too. 

altenew.com/products/timeless-sentiments-die-complete-bundle

Good morning, Team! What are your weekend plans? It’s a long weekend here in Canada, not that retired people GET long weekends LOL. Hoping at some point to put some seeds and onion sets in the ground, but it rained last night, so not sure when it will be dry enough.

Dgs is here (sleepover last night), and one thing on our agenda is to make some birthday cards. But he has developed an affinity for typing in MS Word, so now he is using my desktop computer, and I am on my iPad in the kitchen. Not sure how that happened—that room is my sanctuary and NO ONE is allowed in there but me…

I need to order my new stove today after ours cratered earlier in the week. Internet guy is scheduled to come today. That’s the only other excitement I know about so far…