Society of Stampaholics

What is that child doing?!

As stated in the last post, I haven't been here in six years. Here's another post that was started and scheduled to be published on August 3, 2008.  I'm posting it now so the subject of the post can drop in and read it. I never finished it, sadly, but this is definitely GiGi all over again. LOL! 

Here's what was in my draft:

Okay, so I'm sitting here at my computer, and my six-year-old is in the kitchen. She's entertaining herself, as is her habit since she has no sibling comrades. She possesses an over-active imagination and has a flair for drama (probably got this from her mother).

Now, I can't swear to this, but I think I've just been listening to a musical version of Macbeth. I have heard, in the space of ten minutes, no less than:

• Three arias (mainly about taking a sh-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-w-e-e-r);
• More than three reprimands (to at least one imaginary friend);
• At least three gag attacks (make that five now);
• A speech about the importance of going to bed; and
• What sounds like a rather violent murder by poison (complete with fiendish laughter).

I should probably be recording this so I can blackmail Gigi when she's in high school. 

She's singing, "La-la-la-la-la-la-la," in a drone-like fashion.

But wait!

The wordless aria is over - it has been replaced with these stunning lyrics:

"You takin' a bath, sweetie? Okaaaaaaaaay!"

[pause]

"Are you clean yeeeeeeee-eeee-eeett? I'm cleeeeeeean. I'm clean! I'm clean! I'm clean! Cleeeee-heee-heeee-EEEEEEAAAAAAN!"

"Will you get your face rinsed? Gotta take a little shooooooow-000000w-ooooow-er.... a little shooooooow-000000w-ooooow--OH, GROSS!!!"

[gagging sounds, coughing. . . .]

So, I repeat: What is that child doing?

#END OF ORIGINAL DRAFT#

Here's a picture of the little maniac at her junior prom (Covid robbed her of the senior prom) 2 years ago. (Clearly, she got that bathing thing down.)

 

Mabel is Sick & Gigi has Graduated

Hey, everyone!

I know y'all are wondering where the CCC sign-up post is, and I wish I could get it to you, but Mabel has taken a turn for the worst and I'm reduced to using an iPad to write this post.

Mabel is my MacBook Pro, and she has been having issues for quite awhile. The trackpad going south was the last straw, so I had to take her to the Apple Store, where she was diagnosed as needing a brain transplant. She should be returned to me by Saturday or Monday.

I'm currently at the orthodontist waiting for Gigi's braces to be installed. I'm hoping to get access to another computer this evening so I can finish the sign-up post and publish it.

Gigi's last picture pre-braces.

If you're wondering why I'm not just making the post using my iPad, it's because it's not allowing me to write in the regular format but forcing me into the HTML version. For those of you unfamiliar with coding, this means that when I paste my template into a new post, I am seeing all of the code and formatting that surrounds the written content and pictures. It's a visual nightmare. It also means that I get to see a lot of code as I write this. For instance, each time I use an apostrophe, I don't see an apostrophe; instead, I see a string of 5 characters: & 3 # 39 ; (with no spaces - if I put in the spaces, you'd just see an apostrophe when you read this).

I also have to add the HTML code to get a new paragraph or you're all going to be looking at a post with absolutely no white space. So trust me when I say that everyone wants me to wait until I can write the sign-up post on a regular computer.

I know I should have just scheduled the sign-up to post on the 7th, but I wasn't prepared in advance this time and then Mabel took to her bed.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Anyway, onto other things. I thought I'd share some pictures of Gigi since it's been awhile and the little spud just graduated from the eighth grade.

WARNING! For those of you that have been reading this blog since it's inception, you might want to sit down and grab your smelling salts because the baby isn't a baby anymore....

With her friends Lydia and Tori (aka: Theda Bara).

With her first boyfriend, Will

With her best friend Taylor at the class graduation party.

With Will at lunch.

I view Gigi's graduation as the end of Parenting Phase I, and I am deeply blessed (and relieved) that we've gotten her safely through this step in the journey. (Thank you, Heveanly Father!) High School will be Phase II and College Phase III. I've been told that Phase II flies by even faster than Phase I. Which sort of freaks me out.

A LOT.

I have to go find my own smelling salts now. And a box of tissues....

Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day!

Deborah

A Gigi Moment: At the Scrapbook Store

So me and the apple-of-my-eye are at the Neu Scrapbooking Store so I can pick up some paper for an upcoming tag class I'm teaching. While there, Gigi spied the new Graphic 45 Christmas paper.

"Oh, look! Isn't that sweet?" she cooed.

I don't know if I'd call it "sweet," but I like it so I agree.

But my child is clearly enamored as she goes on to so sing its praises.

"See? It's based on A Christmas Carol! Look at those cute carolers... and there's Little Bob with his crutch...."

Little Bob?

I can't make this stuff up.

Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day! 

Related articles

July, 2015, Card Chain Challenge Reveal!

Hampton Art Card: Hello, Sunshine

A Gigi Moment: At the Post Office

Hampton Art Card - Today Let's Celebrate

MPE: My Box Challenge #2 Embossing Folders

A Gigi Moment: At the Post Office

Okay, so we all know Gigi is 13 now, right? (And if this comes as a shock to anyone, I'm right there with you!)

So I'm going to the post office because I have three packages and about eight cards to mail, and I have my little sweetpea with me. I had to fill out a form for one of the packages as it was going overseas, so I gave Gigi the postage stamps and the cards and said, "Here - put these stamps on."

A few minutes later, I've completed the form, and we're continuing my transactions, and all I need to do is give the postmistress the stamped envelopes. To my horror, Gigi had put the stamps all over the place on the envelopes! Not ONE of them was in the upper right corner!!!

I was speechless. Stunned. Then I recovered.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" I gasped as the postmistress totally fell out. I mean she lost it."The stamps go in the upper right corner!"

"I didn't know they were supposed to go there," said Gigi.

"But you bring in our mail every single day. Are you seriously telling me that you didn't know where the stamps go?"

"Well," says my child, "I thought you wanted me to be creative because they were cards."

By this time the entire line is snickering.

Oy!

Here's a picture I took of her last weekend. She's started to pay a lot of attention to her appearance and is wearing cosmetics. Curling her hair every night has become a ritual....

How stinkin' cute is that?

Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day! 

A Gigi Moment: The Broken Leg

I wrote yesterday's post on Sunday while basking under the warm sun.

Little did I know that in just a few short hours, I'd be in the St. Francis emergency room fading under the cold florescent lights.

Gigi had earlier felt the need to dance while warming up some stew for dinner, and... well, apparently she slipped and fell, dropping all of her weight onto her in-turned left ankle. Which is exactly what happened to me 17 years ago (same ankle, anyway, different circumstances).

I had broken my leg, and I was hoping my suspicions that Gigi had done the same were unfounded. I was really hoping I'd just racked up a $200 ER co-pay for nothing.

Alas, this was not the case. Not only had Gigi broken her leg, she had broken into the growth plate. Although I had never been formally introduced to the subject, my mommy superpowers kicked in immediately: growth plate... growing... damage... stunted... one leg... she has two... lopsided... NEE-ner-NEEN-ner-NEE-ner! 

Oh, I was at DEFCON 1 before the doctor even started explaining the situation.

In a nutshell, growth plates are the growing tissue located at the ends of long bones; if they're damaged, growing stops and the consequences can be quite unpleasant. A damaged growth plate in the leg, for instance, can result in one leg being shorter then the other - which can cause a slew of other issues.

Like I said, DEFCON 1 in a nano-second.

St. Francis immediately called Riley's Children's Hospital and we were soon on our way to its ER.

They sedated Gigi and set the fracture while taking x-rays during the procedure to gauge their accuracy. This step was followed by a CT scan which showed the bones were properly aligned. However, later today she'll be following up with an orthopedic surgeon. More x-rays will be taken to make sure nothing has shifted and that surgery is unnecessary. 

We'd like to spare our sweet baby surgery and other complications.

And I'd like to get back to DEFCON 5 as soon as possible.

So if you're a person of faith, we'd appreciate your prayers.

Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day!

Deborah

A Gigi Moment: The Research Paper

My daughter, who has attained the ripe old age of 13, recently wrote a research paper on FDR, which I didn't see until she brought it home (as she wanted to write it without hindrance from her pushy mother). She received an "A" on it - which makes us all proud - but I wish I could have seen her teacher's expression when she read the first sentence:

Did you know Franklin Delano Roosevelt had five children and thirteen grandchildren? This was but one of his many accomplishments!

I spewed my orange juice all over the table.

Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day!

Deborah

 

PicMonkey, You Rock!

Oh. My. WORD.

I have discovered a site, thanks to my lovely friend and cardmaker extraordinaire, Nancy Krueger, that will be the joy of a lot of people if they don't already know about it yet.

If you don't own any photo editing software, or if you own some and it makes you pull out your hair... MAN, do you need to know about PicMonkey! 

PicMonkey is an online photo editing site that is easy and free. (And when I say easy, I mean as easy as that girl whose number was always on the bathroom wall in high school.)

You can join up as a member, but you don't have to. Of course, you can buy a subscription to get access to more tricks and options, but most people who just want to do some basic editing (like resizing a photo to a specific pixel width, for example), will find everything they need without having to spend a brass farthing. 

One thing that might throw someone is their clever allusion to James Bond actors in the Save feature, where the aptly named buttons reflect the quality and size of your saved photo:

SEAN: Gorgeous, but large file size

PIERCE: Great quality, good file size

ROGER: Not great quality, tiny file size

*GRIN*

I couldn't agree more.

I took a few screen shots to give y'all an idea of how wonderful this site is.  

Here's my uploaded photo (click on OPEN - above left of photo), and you see your computer screen window all ready to let you search your computer for the photo you want. 

As you can see, my photo is a little dark (taken after sunset).

Here's what my photo looked like after I gave it a basic edit that took, like, a whole minute:

See the little icons on the left of the menu options? When you click on one, it gives you a whole new set of options. I labeled them for you below:

And here are a very few examples of what you can do:

If you look at the icons on the left above, I've switched to the Effects menu. You can darken (or lighten) your edges and also pick your color, intensity, and size! I chose pink to go with the flower.

How about an old-fashioned Matthew Brady look?

The little orange crown in the menu above means that this particular feature is available to subscribers only, but it's great that you can see what it does on your own picture - helps you decide if you want to take it to another level.

Here we have a cool B&W twist: you can select inside (or outside) the circle (which you size) to have the picture show color and B&W.

Infra-Red - zowie!

And here's a photo that I did all sorts of things to after the basic edit - including using the texture feature so it looks like it's printed on canvas.

You have an unlimited number of features at PicMonkey that are all free and easy to use. When you're done, you can save it, download it, Tweet or FB it, Pin it, and email it straight from PicMonkey.

Now hoe cool is that?

I hope you give PicMonkey a try!

Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day!

Deborah