One of my "Friends" - I wish!

I found three great instructional videos on Tim Holtz's blog. Here's a sample for the Design Ruler



Tim is a great instructor and I hope to one day take a class or two from him. Sharon is trying to get him to come to the store for a class or two. It would be AWESOME! Robin Beam, who is the Educational Director at Ranger Industries came to the store last year and promised to put in a good word for us!

I get by with a little help from my friends...

My morning ritual always includes a stop on the computer to read blogs. That's how I got into to this mess in the first place. I usually stop at mine to see if anyone has left any comments and to read what I wrote for the zillionth time (I'm not vain, nooooo!!) Then I start clicking down the list, Ali Edwards, Stacy Julian, Tim Holtz, several nationally known names and professional designers. There is always something new to learn on Tim's site. Inspiration in buckets on Ali's site. I check Stacy's because I've met her a few times and I love listening to her talk, so why not read what she writes!

Then I check the people who I know and get a lot of inspiration from like Kelly Edgerton one of my parenting, design, life gurus, Debby Shuh, my original class instructor here in Buffalo and all around design, travel and shopping inspiration, Tracy Whitney, who got me started blogging in the first place and does some of the most beautiful work I've ever seen, Judi VanValkinburgh, one of the most creative and imaginative designers I'm just coming to know, and two of my Sweatshoppe buds, newbies to the blogging world Jessica and Lynn.

Now, that's not everybody, but it gives you an idea how long I spend at the computer! What got me started on this thread is that everyone gives me ideas and points me in new directions. Take Melissa for example, I had seen her name on various layouts in scrapbook magazines and noticed she lived in my area but I had never met her. She does FABULOUS work! Clean, simple, uncluttered, WOMDERFUL photography, Melissa's work is great. I recently got to meet her when she joined the design team at my job and LSS. Today when I read her site she sent me someplace I really needed to be - Starbucks Nutritional Information. Oh, my goodness! What have I been drinking! Luckily for me I think Melissa's done my homework for me and I'm trying this Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte. Everything I drink, even the skinny versions are way over the top!

I am Debby's 'wanna be' for her shopping and travel skills (not to mention design abilities)! Debby is a fearless traveler, enjoying traveling by herself and she always finds the most interesting stores. I just want her to pack me in her luggage!

I get the most fun links, tips and good advice from everyone I read, which is why I read blogs and blog myself. It's like sitting down for coffee with a dozen different friends every morning and sharing ideas and parts of ourselves.

Are you ready for some football?

I refuse to apologize for it anymore. I'm a New England Patriots fan. I'm sitting here on the family room couch wearing my Tom Brady jersey waiting for the second half of the first playoff game to begin against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

I started learning about football in high school. We had a pretty good football team and it was fun going to games on Saturday afternoon with my girlfriends and then later going to games as a Bisonette, a member of our school's dance/kick-line TOUCHDOWN NEW ENGLAND!! (Sorry for the interruption but I needed to update you on the score). Anyway, I also became a Jets fan thanks to my BFF, Barbara who LOVED Joe Namath. Yeah, I know I'm dating myself but what the heck.

Fast forward to college. I went to school in New Hampshire. One weekend during our freshman year Norman's RA got tickets to a New England/Jet game in Foxboro. We traveled down to Boston in a school van with about 10 other people, in the pouring rain. Not just rain, but a consistent, heavy, unrelenting rain. Our seats were in the corner of the end zone on folding chairs and we stayed for the entire game. I got to see Namath in the twilight of his career - on the sideline for the whole game and I believe New England won. At the time I was not happy with that outcome, but the experience was remembered more for the weather than anything else. We were soaked to the skin and then some.

The rain was so heavy it backed up in the aisles and you had to trudge through a foot of standing water. Foxboro Stadium back in the early 70's was a cement pit. Parking was in sandy, muddy fields and the stadium itself showed what happens when you take the lowest possible bid and don't really care. We got to go the stadium several more times and it was as bad on a dry day as it was on that rainy day. I hope to one day see Gillette Field and experience a decent stadium for my Pats.

I remained a Jets fan throughout college but I was warming to the Pats. I was stopped from changing my allegiance by Jim Plunkett, the quarterback for New England. I couldn't stand him but I was beginning to like the team. I'd go over to Carle Hall (Norm's dorm) on Monday night to watch football and on Sunday afternoons. You see, I had learned in high school that if you could talk sports, it helped meeting and talking to boys!

So here I am 30+ years later a Patriot fan and proud of it! I suffered through the years they were a joke in the NFL, the years they made it to the Superbowl and were embarrassed by humiliating losing scores and I've been proud during the Superbowl years where they have won led by Tom Brady. I hope this year will be ring number 4 and I'll be doing my happy dance. All these years through it all I've remained a Patriots fan.

P.S.- about my BFF who got me hooked on football in the first place, that Joe Namath Jet fan. She's now a New England fan too having lived in New Hampshire for almost 20 years. NEW ENGLAND TOUCHDOWN!!

New Year, new changes!

Thought I left with Father Time didn't you? No, I just went to Mars for lunch...

After a long hiatus from blogging, I'm back! We had a very nice Christmas on Long Island at my brother and sister-in-law's house and saw some of our extended family and visited several of our old haunts. We even saw Santa on Christmas Eve as he drove past on a Wantagh Fire Department truck with Mrs. Claus. I've been told it's a scheduled rest stop for the reindeer and the fire department gladly lends Santa one of their trucks for a portion of the evening.

Anyway the day after Christmas we (Norman, Alexa, Brion, Maggie and myself) went into Manhattan for a the day. We had really nice weather but a lot of crowds! We made the pilgrimage to the American Girl store on Fifth Avenue and Brion and Maggie were overwhelmed! We had to wait in a line about half a block long just to get in and once in it was pandemonium! I've since promised never to subject them to it again.





We also went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. My camera battery died after about four pictures and I'm having a devil of a time trying to rotate my other pictures so it's just me and the 'Rock' - one of my guilty pleasures, love his smile ;-)

Then we went to Mars for lunch. We took a rocket to get there and we walked home. Believe it or not the walk home was much quicker!

I came home with a head cold and I'm still hacking away several weeks later. I still have the Christmas decorations to take down...probably this weekend and I'm getting into the swing of things at work again.

The next big event coming down the pike is Alexa's 11th birthday. The 'theme' has been decided, a tropical beach theme - thus a pool party at a local hotel. Alexa's present is going to be a surprise so I can't talk about it here (curious eyes may spy).

I'm taking a little trip in February that I'll talk about later and until then I want to welcome my friends Jessica and Lynn to the world of blogging (they both have more entries this year than me!)