Friday, October 31, 2008

Double Nickles...

It is 12:01 on October 31. It's safe to admit it now...yesterday was my birthday. I'm birthday phobic and have been since I turned twenty eight (you can do the math). Anyway, as I was awake after midnight last night, I wished myself Happy Birthday and then stared at the ceiling for another hour or so as I couldn't go to sleep - my first birthday present of the day. My next present came as I got to have my daily struggle to get Alexa up and out for school. An argument a day keeps I don't know what away...

Screw this! My next present I gave myself - a chai tea latte with a piece of reduced fat blueberry coffee cake from Starbucks, ahh...peace and deliciousness! Off to work - not a hardship for me. Waiting for me was a lovely, sinful, decadent chocolate mousse truffle. An orgasm for the taste buds!! and a beautiful handmade card from Marty - THANK YOU!!!

I got home and found an Edible Arrangement of fruit, more deliciousness! This lovely present came from my bestest friend Barbara, who coined the 'double nickel' phrase on the card that came with the fruit. This has been a very gastronomic birthday so far. The trend continues...


Last week I got a box tower from Harry and David compliments of my daughter, Alexa. She was annoyed that they sent it so early but I have some serious nuts, truffles and moose munch in my future.

My last tasty treat for the day - a small package of mini-carrots came with the pizza and wings we had for dinner from my 'sweet baboo' otherwise known as Norman, my husband. Norm tossed them to me and said, "Here, Happy Birthday!" Norm admitted last night that he didn't have anything planned for my birthday. Instead I get to take him to Cleveland this weekend to see the Browns vs. Ravens. Now don't get me wrong, it's a fun trip, one I enjoy every year - until Norm and Alexa start complaining that I'm keeping them up with my 'breathing' (aka - snoring...) I love sleeping in the bathtub or on the floor!

Ah, well...at least today (Friday) it will get a little better, Sharon, my boss, is buying me lunch - a whole sandwich! My fave, turkey and swiss with a little lettuce, tomato and onion on a sesame bagel. Now that's a bithday present!



Happy birthday to me!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Halloween Past...

A project I have on display at the store was begun by Alexa. She had come to work with me one day and wanted something to work on. Sharon gave her this cute Maya Road Owl chipboard mini-album. Alexa finished the cover and was not happy with it (she is such a perfectionist). I decided to take it home and do something with it so as not to waste the album. I came up with the idea of gathering all of Alexa's previous Halloween costume photos and making an album out of them


This is the cover. I took four different colors of Prima flowers and cut the petals off and layered them on the owl to look like feathers. The eyes are googly eyes and the nose is heart shaped rhinestone. Alexa's gold paint job shows through and I added some stickles to give it a little sparkle. I'm going to try and add the rest of the pages as a slideshow.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Here's what I've been doing lately...



I know I say I work in the BEST STAMP AND SCRAPBOOK STORE IN WESTERN NY (heck, the only stamp and scrapbook store in western NY it seems), well anyway, there is very rarely any ocular proof of this statement so I thought I'd post a mini-album I put together last weekend for Norman's cousin's daughter's bridal shower. I used a Basic Grey black chipboard shapes album and the new Basic Grey Line, .


First I have to apologize for the blurriness of the photos. Not sure what was going on there but I hope you can still get an idea what the pages looked like.

Each page was a different shape. I left a space for a picture to be put in a mat and some journaling.



Two pages were 1/2 hearts. This is the backside of one half. Here is the heart opened.



Cutting out the scallops on this page was fun - not!

As you can see, I used coordinated rub-ons and chipboard shapes along with flowers, coordinated brads and gemstones. A little ribbon finishes the tag pages.
This was the final page. It had three windows cut out of it. I just folded the paper around the frames fitted in a strip of the mat paper and then covered the backside with another sheet.
I'll take a picture, hopefully a better one, of a frame I made using Karen Lockhart stamp designs for the holidays. I brought it to work for display. I also have a little Owl mini book I made showcasing all of Alexa's Halloween costumes - very cute.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Meet the Mets, meet the Mets...

I knew that song by heart and sang it during at the beginning and end of every game as a kid. I know I talked about the Yankees - but they were and are my 'adult' team. As a kid, I was a Met fan, a fan of the hapless, clutzy, find a new way to lose each game -- Mets. They built Shea Stadium to coincide with the World's Fair of 1963 at Flushing Meadows.
As a 10 year old this was a really cool time! We went to games often and once, while the fair was still running, we had dinner at the restaurant at the fair and then walked over to the stadium to watch the game. I even think we once ate at the Diamond Club, a restaurant in the stadium that overlooked the field. That was way cool!


It was so much easier to drive into Queens from farther out on Long Island where I grew up than to trek to the South Bronx which, at the time, didn't have the best of reputations. Plus, the Mets were fun to watch even when they lost, which was often. The Yankees on the other hand were painful to watch lose.

That all changed with the 1969 season. I was in high school and the Mets were actually in contention for the pennant! I smuggled into school a small transistor radio (boy, am I dating myself!) and listened to the game between classes sometimes leaving the radio on because the Mets were up and I had to hear how the inning ended. Some of my teachers were even sympathetic to the cause, but most made me turn the radio off. Several of us had the radio on after school during Bisonette practice, much to the annoyance of our coach - frankly, we didn't care! Those days the playoff games were held in the afternoon and it was before the wild card was brought into play. But the kicker came when my Dad managed to get two tickets to the 1969 World Series. My mom was going to take the train in and take my 'little brother' Brion. I was shocked, I was horrified. I was devoted to the Mets, I deserved to go! What did my brother know - nada, nothing. Just because he was a boy he deserved to go! I lobbied, I pleaded, I begged, I whined, PULLLEEEZZZEE let me go!! I can take the train! (I had with my girlfriends). It was easy! Just get on in Massapequa Park (my hometown) change at Jamaica for the Flushing line and get off right outside the stadium!! PULLLEEEZZZEEEEE!!

Well it worked! My parents let me take Brion and we went on the train together to the World Series! I gotta tell you, the game is one big blur. I think Seaver pitched and I know they won that game but the rest I have no clue. It was the ride home that stands out in my mind. We got back on the train to go to Jamaica but instead of changing trains to take the Babylon line, we stayed on the train and ended up in Hempstead or Hicksville, not where we should have been. I screwed up big time. Not good after convincing my parents I could get to and back from the stadium with my eyes closed! I managed to get directions to the bus station and got us on a bus that was going to Massapequa. We got off in Massapequa (not Massapequa Park) because I was afraid the bus wouldn't stop at our town and I knew I could bluff my way through an excuse as to why I got off there instead of my home station.

Years later, when Norm and I were living on Long Island while he was pursuing his doctorate, we would go to Met games with friends. It was a relatively cheap evening. We'd bring dinner, tailgate and we'd go to nights they had fireworks. We'd bring cards or Yahtzee with us because it took us forever to get out of the parking lot. We'd sit there for an hour or so after the game and wait for the jam to subside.

Flash forward to 1986. I was working at Quest in New Jersey and we had two cool salesmen, Dan and Tom. Dan had one of the company TV's set up in his office and we'd watch the games in the afternoon, finding excuses to walk back and forth from his office. Then we'd camp out after work ended because these games were nail biters. I can't tell you how many times the Mets were down to their last out, or their last strike! Still, they came back. I didn't want to leave work and drive the 30 minutes back to PA for fear of what I would miss! We did that for two or three days.
Today. I don't follow the Mets anymore but I managed to catch the last game ceremony on one of the NY sports networks because they too have built a new ball park right next to the old one. No more 'Shea' now it's going to be Citi Field or something. They were introducing the 'Old Timers' but these guys weren't old to me. These men would walk out onto the field and I sat there saying to myself "I know you...OMG! Bud Harrelson!, Ed Kranepool, Ron Swoboda, Jesse Orosoco, Gary Carter, Cleon Jones, Tommy Agee, Jerry Grote, Jerry Koosman, Lee Mazzilli and 'Tom Terrific' - Tom Seaver. There were other names, some there, some not - Nolan Ryan, Gil Hodges, Casey Stengel, Yogi Berra, Willie Mays and Tug McGraw...
The Mets were my youth. I grew as they did. They were fun to watch, even when they lost. They provided me with my love for baseball today and have given me wonderful memories. Shea was no palace. It definitely didn't have the mystique that Yankee Stadium has. But it was the home of my baseball roots and I will miss it.