Hola!

There have been many goings on in the Hale/Moreno household of late, but please rest assured Dear Reader(s), that I have continued on my daily creativity path, even if I haven't been reporting.  Given that I've been so seriously stretching the definition for what qualifies as creative, how can I help BUT to succeed?

Two pieces of business, if I may:

First and foremost - PLEASE rush over to this link and vote my friend Tif at dottie angel as the Favourite Handmade Crafter (the 'u' in the word means it's British) at PoppyTalk.  As most of you are aware, Tif is my dear brilliant friend who got me to start blogging, and my world has been all sunshine and daisies ever since.  And though my blog is not the brilliant piece of work that Tif's is (did you KNOW she was in the last issue of Artful Blogging magazine?!), I admire her every step of the way.  Tif stopped by yesterday and visited me at the day job, and NOT ONCE did she try and shamelessly garner any votes from me.  Tif is humble to say the least.  Now VOTE!  I'll wait here until you come back.....

(Click here to vote) and select dottie angel

Thing two:  PLEASE visit our new blog and tell us what you think!  http://thepeopleofcraigslist.blogspot.com/

Your Rice Krispies would want you to visit that new blog!

Keepin' On with the Keepin' On

The thought occured to me just now while I was using the restroom (who doesn't do 90% of their thinking there??), that we are the kind of family you would see on "It's Me or the Dog", and laugh at because they're so ridiculous about the things they let their dogs get away with.  Now, for those of you without children or pets, who do not spend hours of your lives watching Animal Planet:  "It's Me or the Dog" is a show whereby a dominatrix pet trainer by the name of Patricia Stillwell goes into the homes of crazy people and trains their dogs to quit humping visitors. 

Not that humping is our problem.... for the most part.

Argus is still a puppy with puppy energy, but he's now passed the 'delicate garden flower' weight class and LEAPED into the 'stocky bully' weight group.  This is mainly a problem for his favorite playmate Jazz, who weighs fifteen pounds when she's soaking wet, with a ten pound weight vest on.  So their playing in the house mostly consists of Jazz skittering through the house with Argus lumbering after her at full gallop, destroying everything in his path until Jazz hides under something... anything.

Even the Christmas tree.

I'm sure you're horrified by the thought that we still have our Christmas tree up, what with it being midway through January and all.  But please let me make my case.  First of all, our tree is fake, so it's not going to turn brown and drop needles all over the place.  Secondly, it's decorated in a Seahawks theme (same as last year), and so we decided to keep it up until the Superbowl.  And YES  I KNOW that the Seahawks were no where close to being in the Superbowl this year (or anytime soon for that fact), but when you're a diehard fan as Scootchie is, you take no notice of these mere formalities. 

So the tree was knocked down last night, and we lost even more of the expensive glass seahawks ornaments that I have worked so hard to amass at half price after Christmas sales.  Would you BELIEVE that I had to stop Argus from trying to chew on the broken ornament glass?

Creativity:

Tuesday, January 12th - I don't remember Tuesday.  At all.  I'm 35 now... be gentle. 
.... Oh wait!  That's when I declared in those last moments before bed that we should start a new blog called The People of Craigslist, and post some of the ridiculous ads we see.  Then Scootch put on his snorkel mask and we fell asleep.

Wednesday, January 13th - Not having enough commitments, I started a new blog - called... you guessed it!  The People of Craigslist!  I can justify this one because its been monetized, which means that any day now I can quit my job and dedicate myself full time to my vast internet empire. 

Also on Wednesday, I turned an ordinary cute little purse I found on clearance for $6 into an expensive combination of purses for Brittany to carry her diabetes supplies in style and comfort.  For those who don't know, Brittany is my step-daughter, and she was diagnosed with insulin-dependant type 1 diabetes this past year.  Wednesday was her birthday, and so I wanted to make her something nice.  So I made her these cute labels, with the help of one of my favorite blogs, Just Something I Made.  I don't have Photoshop, so I have to fiddle with things a bit and they look a little messy, but I think you get the gist.  This was the label I made for Brittany's bag:

I use a program called SnagIt, because it's free (version 8, which is gr8), and because I use it for a ton of stuff.  You can capture and save anything on the web with SnagIt, even pesky protected pictures and stuff that pretend they can't be captured.  Since I do everything only for my own personal use, I'm not really doing anything overly evil. 

So I use SnagIt to capture the frame I wanted from Cathe Holden's free frames (the blog link above).  Her blog is so wonderful because, not only does she always have great ideas, but she SHARES them, which makes her my hero. 

Because I'm doing all of this crafting in a rather roundabout way, here's what I do:

1. Choose the frame and cut it out using the SnagIt webcapture. 

2. Use the eraser tool in SnagIt to erase all of the exising text, and then paste my blank frame to a blank Word document (because I haven't figured out how to work on more than one thing at a time in SnagIt). 

3. Find the font you want to use for your frame.  I think I've explained before that I don't like the choices I have available to me in Word, and I have a computer I can't download anything to... so I go to Zazzle and "create" a product, then use SnagIt to capture my font straight from the design box.

4.  Paste your words into your frame.

 5.  For this particular frame, I used WordArt to create the curved letters that don't quite fit into the boxes properly.  If I was one of those people lucky enough to have Photoshop, I'm sure this would look MUCH nicer.  In case you want to know... Photoshop is on my AMAZON WISH LIST. 

Oh yeah... if you want to be hip and cool and understand the reference to the strawberry milkshake, watch Llamas with Hats2 on Youtube.  It makes me laugh hysterically...

Catching Up (snippets of creativity)

I almost forgot about my renewed efforts to keep up my blog!

Rest assured dear reader(s), that I am here now, and our time apart has only served to make the heart fonder.  And so, in order to prove to you how SERIOUS I am about my Pledge for Daily Creativity, I will recap:

Friday, January 8th - Creativity involved hiding Scootchie's chair under the table at the restaurant whilst he was up at the buffet.  After standing to eat on his birthday was deemed "not as much fun as it looked,"  Scootch refused to sit by me.  Later in the evening he admitted that I actually AM as funny as I think I am.

Saturday, January 9th - Creativity was all about finding a way to protect our blind dog Blue from Argus's well-meaning-yet-vicious attacks.  We decided that a suit of chainmail would not be a feasible solution, and instead made plans to make Blue an Impenetrable Coat of Protection - so we went to the store and bought a pattern to make Blue a coat out of fleece, with a duck cloth exterior for protection.  You see, while chainmail may be too heavy for a 30 pound blind dog to lug around, fleece and duck cloth won't.  And what dog doesn't want his own Carhartt's?

Sunday, January 10th - Creativity meant finding ways to hide the mistakes that arise when I follow a pattern.  Not for Blue's Impenetrable Coat of Protection (which hasn't been started yet), but for my dear friend Sara's baby bedding, which I was hurriedly trying to finish before she had the baby.  Too Late.  Baby born last night.

Monday, January 11th - A creative conversation with Scootch about Luna's Safety Patrol commitments.  I should probably spare you the details (which I already reenacted for my co-worker, who replied that we need our own show)... Let me just say that Scootch let me know that he took Luna's Safety Patrol commitment VERY seriously, being a fellow public safety officer (err... Corrections Sergeant at the prison, for those who were not aware).  I used my creative thinking skills to remark that I was once in the patrol field myself, and that times were very different then.  "My beat was the fast lane of Midway Boulevard.  People didn't heed 'School Zone' speed limit warnings in those days.  I put my life on the lane every day in the name of the fluorescent orange."  I think we both laughed until we peed ourselves, which happens a lot more often now that Scootch has turned 41.

MMX

I know it has gone terribly out of fashion to make a New Year's Resolution ('It never works to make a resolution', 'Why make a promise on that day?', 'Who do you think you are, using such big words??'), so I bring forth my Seven-Days-into-the-New-Year Resolution. 

It's nothing spectacular.

  E v e r y d a y. 

Now, there are some days where the most creativity I will exercise, may be in determining what I did that day that could be considered creative.  That's what we call a loophole. 

Cut me some slack.  Don't I have enough going on in my life?!

And just to hedge bets in my favor, I will give you an example of how I chose to be creative today, right here, for the purposes of this post.  Please note:  some examples of creativity may include enormously circuitous routes to acheive a desired result.  That's just how I roll, and I consider it one of my best attributes.

Step 1.  Decide that the words "I vow to be creative" should be written creatively.

Step 2.  Determine that due to existing limitations (what I like to refer to as 'the limitations of our data system'), creative fonts cannot be found in Word or downloaded to current computer.

Step 3.  Remember that the people at Zazzle.com let you create neat-o things with amazing fonts, with the idea that you will order your neat-o thing, and they will make it up for you. 

Step 4.  Create a mock up of a neat-o thing, and then use Snag-It to copy it (zazzle has a thing against letting you cut and paste your mock up elsewhere.  I think they're on to me.). 

Step 5.  Put it on the blog and call it 'being creative for the day'!

Still keepin' on

Instead of waiting to post again until I get the previously promised dancing video off the camera, I'm going to shoot out another quick one and say.... whoa. 

I don't know why I said that, it just had to be done. 

And again:  whoa.
                                                      *****

Now for your reading enjoyment; snippets of conversation from our house this past weekend:

Luna, exasperated:  "Solstice, it's called a CANDLE, not 'fire in a cup'!

                                                       *****

Scott:  "Well, I think I solved the mystery of the missing sugar.  The box was laying on its side in the carport, empty."

          Tasha:  "Empty?  How can that be?  It was FULL.  FULL I TELL YOU!"

Scott:  "Well it's empty now.  Either the kids are sneaking handfuls of sugar, or you've been taking Ambien on the side."

Tasha:  "Have the dogs been acting particularly chipper?"

                                                         *****

Tasha:  "Do you think you'll still love me, even when I'm old and wrinkled and make funny faces without meaning to?"

          Scott:  "I'm pretty sure I'll love you even more then."

The Post Christmas Hoobity Doos

Christmas mostly went off without a hitch this year, and aside from a bruise on my eye (think 'black eye', only purple and not quite as Rocky-esque) from a Wii related accident, everyone survived the festivities.  I will have some footage to post shortly of the family embarrassing themselves in our living room.  I bet you can't wait!

Cute Little Puppy

As it has been awhile since last we spoke, I thought I might briefly update you on the growth progress of my delicate little garden flower of a puppy, Argus.

This is two months ago, at 8 months old. I promise I will tell you more stories about Argus in the future, as Tales of Argus have kept my co-workers in stitches for months now.

Howdy.

My name is Tasha, and this is my new blog. Sure, I know what you're thinking... this looks eerily like an old blog. But you see, what I wanted for Christmas was a nice shiny NEW blog - but since I am now a wife, a mother, a step-mother, and a woman with too many pets, I must take the hand-me-downs I've been offered. And so here I am, trying to make use of this old blog, which by coincidence belonged to the Old Tasha. You may have remembered her, she was single and miserable and made bad choices. Those were the OLD days, and these are the NEW days... even if it is a recycled blog.

This Tasha may not be so polite or politically correct - because the truth is that's who she is... I mean, I am. I am a goofy, dippy, snort-when-I-laugh type of girl who is now married to the love of my life. So this new blog might get sappy sometimes, and it won't be just about one thing or another... it will just be whatever it turns out to be.

Isn't that great?!

I now present to you...

The new joint venture between Scott (or 'Scootchie') and I. We thought the dogs of the world should be able to have some art to wear too, so the Art Dog collar was born.

Our experience with the potty-in-the-yard-and-not-in-the-house training led us to create these little doggie doorbells

which Argus will happily ring whenever he feels he needs a bit of fresh air.

Another Hint... (and a bonus picture for your amusement)

Turning Treinte y Cinco!

It's that time again, dear reader(s); the time when I am to click the ol' age belt up another notch and answer that I am now 35, if the question is ever (impudently) asked. It has not gone past my notice that this age means now checking a different box in any surveys I am given... for no longer am I "28-34", beginning Saturday I will be "35-42". Of course I will tell anyone who will listen that I am always honored to grow a year older and will never ever lie about my age (who wants to look like a very haggard 29 anyway?), but I do admit that I like the thought when I check that 28-34 box, that my income level is at least halfway as good as the other people checking the same box. Now I fear that I will always have the slightest niggling thought in the back of my head that perhaps my income is a bit low for the demographic I've been placed in, as I imagine by now everyone has become the established doctors and lawyers that they all dreamed they would be. Of course, it may also be said that I waste far too much time worrying about the "little things".

Scootchie and I have been working feverishly on our newest joint venture (the upcoming business that I mentioned in the last post), and I am proud to say that I am ALMOST ready to unveil it to you, dear reader(s). I just need to put a little more shine on some things, a bit of spit here and polish there, and then you will see what we've been working on. For now I will give you the smallest taste....

Our new business...




is called....













--- wait for it.....















Blue Chews Shoes. And I know that for most of you that will make no sense at all. :o)

Remember Me (?)

I was signing in to post to my blog; knowing both that it had been too long and that I couldn't begin YET ANOTHER post with apologies for not posting sooner, when right underneath the space where I put in my name and password I saw it. The little radial box that says next to it - Remember Me (?). And for a moment I was confused. For a brief moment, my feeble, overworked, over-emotional mind thought... my blog has forgotten me already?! My heart skipped a few beats and my stomach felt a little icky sick momentarily (these things all happen much faster than you'd think), and I realized that no, my blog has not forgotten me. PEOPLE may forget, but the internet NEVER forgets. Like remember the time when your husband was bored at work and came home and said "I was so bored today that I read all of your blog from the very beginning" and you blanched a bit, because you KNEW some things are better left unread. That's when you wondered if having a blog was such a good thing, because the interwebs holds on to stuff FOREVER.

But then YOU got bored and decided to try and play catch up, so that at least if the internets doesn't forget, it can at least remember the good stuff.

Ho hum... so whats been-a-goin' on since JUNE?

• This week it was so hot I almost died. I've mentioned before that I'm not built for the heat, and for some reason I feel the slightest bit betrayed that my beloved Pacific Northwest saw temperatures this week that hit 106 in this very town I'm sitting in. Ego-centric? Oh YES, I definitely am.
• My little tiny adorable four and a half month old puppy was weighed by the pros, and they proclaimed him to be 55 pounds. When we got this puppy he wasn't eating and was underweight, so news like that makes us all do the happy dance. Until he knocks us over, that is...
• My kids are very tan, and I don't know which of it is dirt and which is from the sun.
• Scootchie and I have started a business, one which justifies my purchase of a real-life industrial sewing machine, and big important-looking cones of thread. The purchases of the thread, and the sewing machine, and future needles I'm sure, all had to be made in a giant warehouse filled with bolts of material for making sails and boat upholstery, and no air conditioning to speak of. My new friend the sewing machine man and I bonded over talk of expensive sewing machines and fools not oiling the rotating hook thingie on the bobbin, all the while pretending not to notice the sweat dripping from each other's noses.
• We're still waiting to see if our offer has been accepted on a house. The term "short-sale" has nothing whatsoever to do with how long the process will take. The bank doesn't care how much you wanted to move into a house in time to put in a garden, and couldn't be bothered to learn that you wanted to marry your husband again in your very own front yard, this time with guests present.
• I learned this week that even the funniest blog writer in the known universe sometimes doubts herself and writes the droll stuff the rest of us write. But if you can give her a kick in the knickers, she snaps right back into shape and becomes herself again. Thank goodness.
• I learned that ten year old girls can sometimes be underestimated for how they will react to things, and 7 year old boys can sometimes be overestimated for how they will react to things. The death of a cat that was very, very sick can be felt very differently by different people, and no matter how much of a grown manly man you are, holding a cat when she is being put to sleep can make you cry.
• Sometimes a new pet comes into your life when you weren't really planning on it, and that can turn out to be a pretty good thing. So now we've welcomed into our life Thuma, the beautiful brown kitty cat.
• Sometimes you beg and beg, but Scootchie doesn't want you to get the OTHER pet you want because he says you have enough animals already, and no matter HOW MUCH you beg, you're NOT getting a 14 week old St Bernard puppy, EVEN IF the price is reduced.
• No matter what, Scootchie is still the best ever.