A Years worth of Con Wrap Up

I finally have some time and brain cells to make a post con blog. 2011 Con was very different for me, simply because I went from being an Eternal Member to being a Track Director.

A very good friend of mine asked me this question: "Why did you take your favorite vacation and turn it into a job?" I have been asked this question a lot, in a lot of different ways.

The answer to that question is complicated and easy at the same time. I have never had enough faith in myself to accomplish anything big. Others in my life have faith in me and believe in me. But I never do. When this directorship was offered to me, it scared me. I mean it *scared* me. Failure flashed before my eyes and I had not even accepted the position. And for some reason I decided on the spot, that I was going to accept the challenge and I was going to give it 100% effort. If I failed, I failed but I was going to try.

So with a not so hidden lack of confidence I attended my first directors meeting. I knew a sum total of two people personally in that room of directors. I forgot what being the newbie/freshman/rookie felt like. I was the "kiddy girl". People said, "oh you are taking on the kiddy track! LOL" Nice. Perfect. Standing on the edge of the ultimate insiders club looking in.

Refusing to be forted, I dug into my new job. With some help and lots of luck, I put together a staff. With several re-directs and edits between January and July we hashed out a Track schedule. Sometimes I felt like I was driving blind, sometimes I felt just fine. Sometime I did the right thing, sometimes I did the complete opposite.

The week before convention I was an uptight bundle of nerves on the edge. The ultimate unknown. I had 6 days of uncharted waters staring me in the face. 7 people relying on me to be the boss and 45,000 people looking at my schedule. My newly Loyal KT parents helped ease the transition along with a great staff. Thursday was a total FUBAR. Friday was different. I was nervous, yes but I wasn't afraid to fail. I had made the best plan possible and we were fixing to execute that plan. That is all I could do and I knew it. Friday, Saturday and Sunday went by in a busy, crazy blur. I was blown away by full panels and excited kids. Thankful parents. Fantastic Panelists. No one exploded into flames. No one got arrested. No children were abandoned. It wasn't perfect but it was better than I expected.

Monday felt like a day in slow motion. The last panels, track wrap up, packing out the room. Dead Dog. By this time unknowns be damned, I was eating my free meal and I was going to like it. I sat at a table full of people I didn't know and I didn't care.

Dave: You were my partner in crime the whole way. Never saying no, never accepting failure. Always being supportive with out being enabling. Three Words: Gummy Bear Lamps. Love you.

Suz: You were my sounding board. You kept me straight, didn't put up with my crap and knew when to take my phone away. You took care of more than I could have ever hoped for. Thanks and much love.

Cookie and Barrie: Thank you for supporting me even though you didn't understand why. Breakfast was never so wonderful as it was with you.

Bev and Jason: Your hospitality every two months is greatly appreciated. I still owe you some kind of casserole.

David G: Thanks for holding my hand, putting up with my worrying and letting me work things out for myself.

Now, it starts all over again, I hope.

Star Wars Themed Crafts

During Dragon Con, I will be a panelist on "It's a Craft" on the Star Wars at Dragon Con Fan Track. I was asked to post pictures here for future referral which I am more than happy to do.

Instruction Sheets:

Scrabble Tiles

Altered Journals

Zombie Apocalypse - how are you going to eat?

In my continuing blog series on the impending Zombie Apocalypse, I found an item I thought could be useful. One thing you have to count on when it comes to Zombies is you have to be able to travel fast. That also assumes you must be able to travel light. I have found something that fits that bill.

The Light My Fire Spork. You can find them on the web here.

Davo found mine at an outlet mall for me. I take my lunch most days so it is currently very useful. I have one big one and two smaller ones.

The Zombie Apocalypse

After watching a show called the 100 best tech gadgets ever, Dave and I have starting making a list of things to have to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. It started out as a running joke for a couple of days but now it has blossomed into a full blown obsession.

Our first list consisted of: A Zippo Lighter, a MagLight Flashlight, a Leatherman Tool, one of those army knives and a hand crank radio,

Then we added fuel for the Zippo Lighter and one of those shake flash lights people sold during the Y2K scare.

Then I decided we would need to be able to eat so I figured you had to have cast iron pans to cook with. The premise being that there would be no electricity so you would have to cook over an open flame/camp fire and cast iron is the best way (just ask any cowboy you might meet.) In that spirit I spent the weekend cooking in my cast iron dutch ovens (I have two) and plotting how to convert my recipes into cooking over low/slow heat.

So I decided to blog about the Zombie Apocalypse Survival Kit. Stay Tuned.

Shoppe Hop

Thank you for stopping by. At the Scrapbook Shoppe, the design team decided to try a Shoppe Hop. We were given the same set of papers and asked to make a layout. The paper are: Reminisce I Can Count, Reminisce Wild Boy Stripe and Reminisce Let's Ride.

My design also included these items from the Shoppe: Color Box Cat Eyes in Chalkboard and Creamy Brown, Black Stickles, 12x12 card stock in red, yellow and brown. From my stash at home I used: Close to My Heart Alphabet Stamps, Black Ink, Waxed Twine and Buttons.

Your next stop on the hop is Sandy's Blog. Don't forget to stop the the Scrapbook Shoppe to see Judy's designs and to pick up the supplies.

More Disney

This is what I worked on today. Both turned out very different than I had planned.

New! Disney Pages

I have had the Disney mojo going for some time now. I sat down and designed some pages for my best friend. She will have her pick of these pages next year to make her own Disney Scrapbook.

Bottle Cap Key Chains

I am playing around with some crafts trying to make give-aways for the Kaleidoscope Track. What do you think?

3 Sister's Photo Organization Plan

When most of us decide to start scrap booking, our first hurdle is usually a huge stack of photos. No matter the subject or the number of photos, it is typically a large pile. Organization of these photos is the key. I will site an example from my past .

After my grandmother passed away, my Aunt Shirley took possession of 93 years of photographs that spanned at least 5 generations. My Aunt wanted to divide the pictures between herself, my mother and my Aunt Lucy. She gave it the good ole college try and ended up with 3 big overwhelming piles of pictures instead of one. My Mom called me to help out. I purchased some CM Photo Sorting Boxes and instructed everyone to bring a shoe box and a package of index cards. I also brought along 3 of David's shoe boxes. He wears a size 15 so, his shoe boxes are pretty big.

I decide the pictures would be sorted by the following categories: Wife/Husband, Child #1, Child #2, Child #3. Then any grand kids, great grand kids would be sorted under their Parent "child". There was also another shoe box for things like group shots, family friends or professional shots. We used the shoe boxes to sort the photos and the index cards as tab dividers with subjects written on the cards. The pictures were divided into in the shoe boxes. Once all the dups or "throw away" pictures were sorted out, the shoe boxes were then sorted in to the Large CM Photo Storage boxes for long term/dark storage. At the end of the weekend each "sister" had organized box of pictures to take home.

Using my story as an example, take your pile of pictures and sort them. Make large over all themes and then sort down into more detail. This works just as well digitally on your computer. If you chose to sort electronically, make large general subject folders, sort pictures into general folders. Then inside each general folder sort pictures into smaller more detailed groups. It has to make sense to you, that is what matters. Not everyone feels the need to sort chronologically. Sort by vacation, theme, subject, holiday.

During your first big sort of pictures, do not worry about page layouts. If you find yourself in a creative mode and ideas are coming to you, write them down on a legal pad.



A CM Small Photo Storage Box and a Shoe Box Example






An Example of the photos with the index card in between.





Creative Memories Photo Storage Link

Recent Projects

I have not posted projects in a while. So I wanted to post a recap of some projects that I have been working on.


4ever friendz A class I attended at the Scrapbook Shoppe. Teacher: Cheryl Stoddard







Summer Fun Class. I will be teaching this in May at The Scrapbook Shoppe.






An Easter Card Class that I attended. It was taught by my friend Claire Delamater at the Scrapbook Shoppe.

Sunburn...yes...pain...NO!

I spent Wednesday taking pictures at the Best Ranger Sponsor Challenge. My company helped sponsor the "real" Best Ranger Challenge that is going on this weekend.

Even though I put on SPF 30 at 5 am by 2 pm I needed to reapply and didn't bring the SPF 30 with me. So I was crispy.

Because I work for a company that owns health food stores, I knew they had something that would help and here it is. Aloe Life Skin Gel

This product ROCKS. After 3 applications the redness and pain are gone. I will probably still peel, but right now that is okay.

Find this product in your area.

A bit of a new focus

For those that might regularly follow this blog, I plan on making an addition to the topics that I post here. Historically this blog has been for my scrapbooking pages, class projects and recipes. I will be adding to this information on my new volunteer project: Dragon Con's Kaleidoscope Track.

What is the Kaleidoscope Track? Glad you asked. This track in new to Dragon Con and here is our offical 150 word description:

Do you enjoy Disney, Nick, and Cartoon Network? Dragon*Con's newest track Kaleidoscope is just for you. We will feature traditional D*C programming, host some activities and work with other tracks in shared interests. We will talk about shows like Wizards of Waverly Place, Tower Prep, House of Anubis, Phineaus and Ferb as well as the all-time favorite, Spongebob Squarepants. We will target 9-13 year olds but will include parents and kids at heart! Parental involvement is required in all activities for any person under the age of 18.


I have been secretly working on this since January 2011 and it has taken up a ton of my time and brain power. I am the Track Director which means I am incharge of the Track's activies, staff, media guests, problems, sucesses and anything else you can think of. I have found it challanging and rewarding! I am enjoying the creativity and working out side of my comfort zone.

All I can really share right now is that we have an offical Twitter Page (@DconKT) and we are working on a web page and a facebook page, as I type.

The closer we get to Dragon Con Time, the more details you will see. I can't wait to share my thoughts and feelings with you here.

Enjoy!

How to make your own ketchup

Commercial ketchup brands are loaded with preservatives and sugar. Making your own ketchup just once will win you over. I chose to use organic ingredients when I can find them. What you will need:

* Food Processor
* One 28 ounce can whole peeled tomatoes or 2 pounds fresh
* 1 tbsp. tomato paste
* 2 tbsp. dry minced onion
* 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
* 1/4 c light brown sugar (I use agave nectar)
* 1/2 c cider vinegar (raw apple cider vinegar)
* 1/2 tsp. salt (sea salt)
* 1/4 tsp. dry mustard
* 1/8 tsp ground ginger
* 1/8 tsp. cayenne red pepper
* 1/8 tsp. ground all spice
* 1 pinch ground cloves
* 1 pinch ground cinnamon
* Airtight container

what you need to do:

Place tomatoes and liquid from can into food processor and puree until they are smooth. If using fresh tomatoes, add about 1/2 cup of water adding more as needed to keep the mixture slightly "wet". Place the tomatoes in a medium size pot and add the remaining ingredients. Cook over medium heat. Stir often and scrape the bottom of the pot as it simmers to prevent scorching. Simmer for 1 1/2 hours or so until the mixture thicken. Remove from heat. Working in batches, puree the ketchup in the food processor until it is smooth. Place finished ketchup in an airtight container or a squeeze bottle to store and use. Ketchup stored in the refrigerator will stay fresh for two to three weeks! Use as you would store-bought ketchup

Somersaults

Chloe Webber has started doing somersaults. We are not sure why. However....it is stinking cute.

Click here for Chloe Cuteness

Toomer 's Corner - The Rant

I have never been a college football fan. Being a former Band-ee, I attended enough college football games for a life time. My closest friends who despise sports patiently put up with my chatter about the sports I do like: Hockey, La Mans, Petit La Mans, Formula One, Indy Car, Baseball, NFL, Soccer and the X Games.

However, if I ever needed a reason to dislike college football, I official have found it. The no account redneck, immature, douche bag that killed the trees on Toomer’s Corner is my reason. I know lots of Auburn fans and lots of Alabama fans. Most of them are members of my family. So I know that not all AU and AL fans are douche bags. The old axiom that one bad apple will spoil the whole bunch is true. And it sucks.

We need all the tree’s we can get on this planet. Global warming, ozone, smog and haze are all cleaned by trees. Oxygen made by trees. Paint their rock or steal their flag. What nimrod kills old growth trees? Oh 62 year old Al from Dadeville.

To top off that feat of superior brain power other fans have come up with really cleaver immature things to say about Auburn and their trees. Really? Are we adults? Maybe. Mature? Fare from it. Soon some else will be trying to take out Uga from atop of the UGA clock tower. Give me a freaking break!

People, love your school. Alumni Support your Schools. Bleed Blue and Orange or Red and Black or Red and Grey. But do it like you have a brain. Wear stupid hats. Paint your face, dance in the isle, yell at the band. Roll a tree. Oh wait….you can’t.

Thanks Al in Dadeville. May you rot in jail for killing two trees.

Make A Wish Two Page

My next Quick and Easy class at the shoppe.  It is not on the calendar, yet.  The paper is Kay and Company and I used broken china, spiced marmalade and starry night stickles.  Making the candles will be part of the class.  I will post a second tutorial for making the candles.

Store Display

Allyson and I were challanged by our new marketing director to throw a sample display together for Valentines Day in one of our stores. Historically we have not made "drug store type" displays for short term promotion but I have a feeling that is going to change. It took 3 hours, which included going to the store, setting the display, writing on the A-Frame sign and helping customers in between.

Here is what we came up with. This was approved and was sent out company wide for the other stores to use as a guide.

2011 SuperBowl Menu

I am having just a couple of friends over for a Super Bowl gathering. Since it is the day before a work day, I doubt I would call it a party.


Here is my Menu:

Dave's Steak Taco's w/ the Fixings
Steeler's Touchdown Taco Dip w/ Corn Chips
Claire and Liz's Buffalo Chicken Dip
Tex Mex Spanish Rice
Greenbay BBQ Lil' Smokies
The Ref's Veggie Tray
Kevin's Assorted Kettle Chips
Make Your Own Super Bowl Sundae's

Sweet Tea
Lemonade

Deadly Cat Pee

We have a new kitty. Her name is Chloe. Well to go along with all the fun of a young cat, we have all the NOT SO fun of older cats being upset about the new addition.

One of our cats, Cougar, who is the male and Beta Cat is very upset. Upset to the point that he is afraid to go to the litter box. Well we tried to help him but, we were not sure what to do. While we were trying to figure that out, Cougar decided to let us know just how mad he was about Chloe. He peed on my clothes and on Dave's side of the bed. Then in Sam's (the other cats) favorite bed.

After talking to a friend from Paws Humane we moved a litter box into the Living Room in a corner. We did not want to do that but it was either that or have Cougar pee every where.

I took to the internet to find a way to clean cat pee. If you don't know, cat pee is very hard to get out of anything. The smell is strong. Well I found a site that suggested I used apple cider vinegar.

I am glad to say it worked. I washed all the bedding and clothes in the washer adding in 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar to each load. I did a 3 to 1 mix in a squirt bottle and cleaned all the spots (including several spots I see Cougar sniffing a lot). So far no repeat peeing.

My friend at Paws Humane also suggested that we keep all the cats out of our bedroom until we are sure the situation is resolved. That has gone well. Sam is the cat that is most used to sleeping with us and she will come in the room and stay most of the night. I was kinda bummed about having to keep the door closed but it has been wonderful for my sleep patterns.

So..Here is hoping this cat newness gets resolved soon. Perhaps Cougar might man up. He has got a good 10 pounds on Chloe.

Altered Project - Scrabble Tile

My latest offering and my first altered project. The inspiration came from my friend Bev who saw these and challenged me to find a way to make them into a class. I am always up for a good challenge. Scrabble tiles are small. Not quite 2 cm square to be exact.

In my class you will be making two scrabble tile necklaces and 4 scrabble tile embellishments. You will also get your very own bottle of Glossy Accents to take home. Everything will be provided. Tiles, paper, punches, and mod podge. If you want to bring some pictures or a certain kind of paper you can.

The class is on the calendar for Feb. 4, 2011. The cost is $17 and there are 10 spots. Call the Shoppe at 706*321*0202 to reserve your spot.

Candy Hearts

My second offering in the Quick and Easy Series at The Scrapbook Shoppe is called Candy Hearts. It is my attempt at a Valentine Two Page set that isn't gooshy or too girly or too cutish. White, Brown and Turquoise Card Stock and a Reminisce Paper. Both sizes of the Creative Memories Heart Shape Makers. I also used matching blue stickles, pop up dots and a Sizzix Font called Slim Jim. This is on the Calendar at the Shoppe for February 19th at the 10:30 am slot.

What to do for dinner?

I have been having the worst time deciding what to cook for the dinner meal at my house. I have a book shelf full of cook books and an USB drive full of recipes you might think I could find something to cook. Last night I decided, I would find a recipe for what I had left over in my fridge. Chicken and Left Over Rice. I found a recipe on Campbell's Kitchen and used that from my start.

Italiano Chicken and Rice

Two skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
minced garlic to taste
1 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes
Italian seasoning to taste
Minced Onion
My homemade Adobo or House seasoning
Parmesan Cheese
Ricotta Cheese (also left over in my fridge)
Canola oil

Season your chicken strips with your Adobo and minced garlic. Heat some oil in a large skillet. Cook Chicken Strips until well browned. Add in your can of crushed tomatoes, more garlic, minced onion and Italian seasoning. Let that simmer about 5 to 10 minutes just to insure the chicken is cooked through. Add in the rice and let simmer again for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in Parmesan cheese. If you like, stir in 1 teaspoon of ricotta cheese, once you have your serving on your plate.

Tasty.