Society of Stampaholics

Be the Change You Want to See

Like every sane and rational person, I'm horrified by yesterday's events at the Boston Marathon. My heart goes out to the victims and their loved ones. 

At the risk of making everybody think I'm a degenerate, I can't help but also feel badly for the person or people responsible for this tragedy. I mean, how incredibly messed up and hurting must a person be to do something like this? What happened to drive them to inflict so much suffering on others?

I'm not saying they shouldn't be punished - they absolutely should be prosecuted to the furllestt extent of the law. And I'm NOT making excuses for them. What they did is heinous.

It's just that whenever these things happen, I can't help wondering how many tragedies could have been avoided if somebody had recognized and/or helped the bomber/shooter get the professional help they clearly needed.

Given the primitive nature of the bombs, I have a terrible feeling this particular tragedy was the work of someone young and probably very abused and emotionally isolated. Even if they weren't young, history shows us these sorts of crimes are usually committed by people who were abused enough to make them emotionally disconnect from the world - which is what allows (perhaps even drives) them to take such action.

I don't know what the answer is, but it grieves me that hurt begets hurt.

And none of us seems to know how to recognize or heal the originating pain before it unleashes itself on society in general, creating exponential pain.  

After these kinds of events, you always see and hear people attempting to help - they send money, donate blood, etc. And this is ALL GOOD. But sometimes I wonder if this isn't putting a bandaid on a slashed artery. Look around you - do you see somebody who's in pain? Do you see a parent who's overwhelmed and taking it out on her kid? Do you have some time to donate to the Big Sisters and Big Brothers? Or any organization that helps people get back on their feet? Can you go to your nearest hospital and volunteer to hold babies who were born addicted to crack?

We never know the full reach of our actions. We can only hope that every good deed will multiply. If only 5% of us made one more caring gesture once a week, how much good would be done? And can that good not exponentially multiply?

Just do it. 

Do something decent today.    

Be the change you want to see.

What Happens When You're Out of Town

Okay, I'm used to a certain amount of mayhem taking place in my absence... every dish in the cupboard scattered throughout the house, dirty clothes draped over every surface, empty chip bags and other trash abandoned in the heat of a Wii battle....

Yes, I've come home to quite a large mess before, but this was the first time I came home to find the front porch split in half.

Yes. You read that correctly: the front porch was split in half. And since the front porch runs the width of the house, this is no mean feat!

This event took place on Thursday (the day I left town - I ALWAYS miss all the excitement, dang it)! According to the police - who were waiting in our yard when Spouse and Gigi showed up - there had been a very unusual hit-and-run accident, with our house being the third party in said incident.  

A van with an older man and two passengers was heading west on our street. We assume he was doing the speed limit, but this is somewhat unrealistic as the east-west street lacks stopsigns, and 90% of the vehicles are manned by would-be Nascar drivers. But it would hardly have mattered whether the van was abiding the law as the other car was not.

The other car was driving south at about 50 MPH and zipped right through the stop sign, thereby hitting the van and sending it through our yard and right into the eastern half of the front porch.

The speeding car careened into the neighbor's yard across the street, where its driver emerged with a grapefruit-sized lump on his head. He checked to make sure the van's passengers were all okay, and then fled the scene on foot. ("Like a bat out of hell," according to one of the witnesses.) The police think he may have been stealing the car - which would explain his excessive speed and later abandonment of the vehicle.

So now an insurance adjuster must visit to determine the cost of replacing a 9" x 40" concrete porch, the posts, and the front door (which will no longer close properly), and to discern whether any permanent damage was done to the foundation blocks on that corner of the house.

Luckily, none of us are porch-sitters, and it looks like no passengers were seriously injured, so we'll just store this under Bizarre Porch Episodes. It will be joining thattime a deranged woman sat down on the top step of our porch on Madison, removed her right shoe, and proceeded to have a long and involved discussion with her foot... after which she calmly stole a very large hanging basket of flowers.

I didn't think we'd ever top that one.

It seems I was wrong, though!

Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day!

Deborah

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Four Days of Fun

I'm back from my crafting retreat, and, as usual, it was over way too fast! I believe there were 36 (?) of us this time, so imagine a high volume of chatter pierced with frequent squeals and shrieks of hysterical laughter. We scared the local restaurants by our sheer numbers, but Archivers wept with joy every time a batch of us showed up. (You can imagine how much we all spent as we enabled one another!)

I apologize in advance for having no pictures. I decided to focus more on just BEING rather than photographing everything. And this was a good choice for me being in a room with so much talent. If a bomb had gone off, half the stars in the cardmaking world would have been history!

Here's the breakdown of who was there:

Our hostesses were Jennifer McGuire and Jana Millen. Jana is the organizer of the event and plans everything from coordinating our hotel roomies to airport shuttles to amenities to everything else you can imagine might come up when hosting such an event.

I sat across from Britta Swiderski and between Kelly Booth and Chari Moss (who makes incredible buttons, btw)! Kelly was my roommate again (as was Linda Baker aka: rcwidow on Flickr), and we had a lot of fun - especially on Saturday night when Kelly and I managed to get drunk with laughter. Seriously, I mean it - neither of us had anything to drink, but we were about as slap-happy as two schoolgirls at a frat party. I was sitting there, sweat running down my brow as I raced to meet a blog hop deadline - and there's Kelly, giggling and talking about absolutely nothing but sending us both into laughing fits til I thought my sides would split. The woman could have said, "Please pass the salt," and we'd have both been on the floor.

Friends it was great to see again included Candi Wilkerson and her daughter Christy. (Christy is an amazing baker, but this time she made caramel corn that was absolutely sinful is was so good! I brought home two bags - one each for Spouse and Gigi.)

It's a miracle those two bags made it into the house.

I had more mini-reunions with Ginger Rolfs (who is hysterically funny), Heather Ruwe, Lisa Spangler, Heidi Crowl and her business partner/BFF, Terra Cameron, Joy Ott (always the most productive of us), Kate Farricker, Kathy Racoosin, Kelly Alvarez, Kristina Werner (who did everyone's nails again!), Latrice Murphy, Sarah Moerman and her mom, Margaret Kapteyn, Sandi Neumann, Sharon Klima, Stephanie Klauck (whose laugh is worth a million dollars), and Tina Schrof (who should get a special award for always being at the ready when anyone needed anything - and who also needs a leash for her phone because that naughty machine is always sneaking away from her).   

People I knew from online and finally got to meet in person were Mary Dawn Quirindongo and Laura Bassen. (Mary Dawn is as crazy in real life as she is online, and Laura's got skin I would kill for!!!)

New friends included Danielle Walls, Julie Campbell, Leslie Hanna, Teri Anderson (who has a delightfully "sneaky" laugh that is impossible to resist), Windy Robinson, and Lisa Adametz.   

Although there was much shared laughter, I think the funniest moment for me was when I voiced surprise at a certain salty mama's crying at the earlier departure of some of our number, and she replied, "All the bitches be leavin'!"

That comment pretty much brought down the house.

I love these women, and I so enjoy my time with them. I wish we were all in the same place, but then I guess it wouldn't be as special.

Thank you, ladies, for bringing me so much joy!       

And thank you, readers, for all the joy you bring!

Have a blessed day!

Deborah

If you enjoyed this post, please hit the G+ button below (listed next to the Twitter button right above the comments). I need to establish my author rank ASAP for professional reasons. Thank you so much!

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Fat Lips & Global Shrinkage

Well, I'm off to a creative weekend retreat with some of my favorite card-makin' sistahs in Cincinnati. I've been packing for three flippin' days, and I'm still not ready! I had to take a small break, though, because I wanted to share a few things.

Gigi, being the unselfish little darling she is, pressed me to eat a piece of her Easter candy she received on Friday in school. It was a 3" piece of red licorice of an unknown variety. Being fond of licorice, I went ahead and accepted her gift, albeit briefly concerned about my lack of experience with this particular brand. 

No, I am not a licorice snob. What I am is highly sensitive to certain kinds of red dyes that have a habit of showing up in off brands and then wreaking havoc with my lips. My mother used to feed us hotdogs at least once a week, and there is not one - NOT ONE! - picture of me as a kid without a fever blister somewhere on my poor mouth (this was back in the seventies when the red dyes were really lethal). 

I figured I was safe because it was such a small piece of candy.

Ha.

I woke up the next morning with my entire upper lip feeling itchy and swollen. I know what this means, and I began liberally applying the Abreva to ward off the inevitable. But by sundown my upper lip was twice its usual size, and now it looks like it got caught in a meat grinder. 

So if you should happen to see a picture of me from this weekend's event, looking like I got into a tussel over who was next in line for the Vagabond, rest assured this was not the case.

Besides, we only come to blows over the Keurig machine Tina brings. 

On to brighter news! The comments feature is back to being open. I had to turn it off for a few days because I was suddenly beleagured with spam. I'm used to getting an occasional comment, but this was like the Bombing of Britain.

Quieter, of course, but still unsettling.

And check out this comment Judy Jung left:

Beautiful cards, Deborah! It's such a privilege to send and receive hand made cards from around the world. I have a "small world" story.

My husband and I went to a different branch of the library than we usually do. I left the building before my husband who was putting some books on reserve. I was in the car when my husband came out and said "the librarian asked if I was married to Judy Jung. I said I was and she said she follows your blog."

Well, I had to meet the rare living human who follows my blog! And there she was - Loly, who lives in Huntsville, works at the library and knows about and follows my blog!! And she mentioned that she follows the blog of Deborah Nolan!! An amazing day!!

Thank you for being the means to "hook up" with fellow stampers and bloggers!!

It is, indeed, a small world.

Okay, now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about! This is why I love doing what I do. I mean, really now - how cool is it to discover somebody in your town is the same somebody you know online? I LOVE IT!

Thanks, Judy, for sharing that very cool story!

And now I must finish my laundry and collapse.

I hope I can sleep. 

I'm very excited, you know!

Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day!

Deborah

If you enjoyed this post, please hit the G+ button below (listed next to the Twitter button right above the comments). I need to establish my author rank ASAP for professional reasons. Thank you so much!

 

Some Different News!

And the different news is that I can't tell you what I was going to tell you until they tell it first! 

Which won't be happening today.

But just to make it interesting, I'll be more than happy to play bookie if anyone cares to make a little wager. I'll pay out 10:1 if you can guess it.

I'll even give you a hint: I was invited to tea, but Carson wouldn't let me in and treated me like I was Edith!

So I finally left to go find Rahab and the rest of the harlots.

(We'll just go to tea at Mrs. Crawley's house - she'll overlook our wanton ways, by jove!) 

There's that grin again.

How about this, instead? I would like to ask y'all a few questions pertaining to some features I once had on ye ol' blog here and see if anybody would be interested in seeing their return.

1. The Wednesday Wonder
2. Blog Morsels (card kits for the randomly chosen person who nominates the card maker who inspires her the most - who gets an identical kit) 
3. Oh, and I have a totally new idea that I've been wanting to do ever since I was a Win-A-Day-on-the-Hero-Arts-Blog winner. But I'll need some victims - er - I mean, volunteers for that one.

Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think.

Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day!

Deborah

If you enjoyed this post, please hit the G+ button below (listed next to the Twitter button right above the comments). I need to establish my author rank ASAP for professional reasons. Thank you so much!

Let's Focus on the Positive

I'm thinking this morning of the folks who voted for Romney and how disappointed they are. (This group includes all of my family, most of Spouse's family, and a good number of our friends.) I know what they're feeling because I felt exactly the same way when Bush was re-elected, and I truly hate that any of us ever has to feel devastated by the outcome of an election.

I think Spouse put things in perspective a few weeks ago when he noted that no matter which candidate won, neither was so unfit that they'd drive America off a cliff. This country has been through some rough times, but even during our very worst economic periods, we have always been better off than just about any nation on earth - and I suspect we always will be.

If Obama was your candidate, be sensitive and don't gloat - you wouldn't appreciate it if the tables were turned. Likewise, if Romney was your candidate, be sensitive and don't begrudge Democrats their feelings.

Most importantly, though, whether you voted or not, let's all come together and look for the common ground that unites us, because, when you come right down to it, we all want the same things: a job, a roof over our heads, the ability to take care of our families, and the freedom to worship and speak our minds without fear of reprisal.

Over half the world's population will never have any of what we already possess, so let's focus on our blessings, continue to support one another to the best of our abilities, and strive to deserve the legacy which so many of our citizens have died to protect.

Thnaks for stopping and have a blessed day,

Deborah

Pass it on, if you agree!

The Cracked Pot

I received an email with a cool story a number of years ago and I always meant to share it here but I misplaced it on my computer. I don't know who authored it, and it's probably been around the globe a hundred times, but it was new to me, and I like its message. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Cracked Pot

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hanging on either end of a pole she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. 

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After bitterly perceiving itself to be a failure, it spoke to the woman one day as she was filling the pots with water at the stream.

“I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.” 

The old woman smiled. “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?"

She continued, "That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.” 

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

And it works even better if you can find something inside of you that will bring out the best in them.

I like the author's comment at the end, but I took this story as a personal reminder to examine my own flaws - the ones that embitter me - and try to see if there's a way to use them positively.

So, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!