Just a quick pop-in and skim before popping back out to try and get my life back in order post-reunion.
I love my people so much, and am humbled by their ability to literally go with the flow. Record breaking rains and mud literally over our ankles did nothing to dampen the spirit of the Great Peace March 20 year reunion.
The ooze was gross, but no one complained and, in fact, one participant healed my worried heart by saying, "Thanks Beej, for producing the most 'authentic' recreation of the March experience.'
He's really right about the authenticity and how we dealt today the same as we dealt 20 years ago. It really was miraculous. Still wish it hadn't rained quite SO much. I was pretty terrified a few times.
And today, the first back in the real world, offered another miracle. I was able to save the life of a pitbull mama, sweet as the day is long. And with very little effort, find her the perfect home with a groomer/trainer, no less. I named her Moya...and I'll get to visit her now and again. I'm fairly sure she was dumped by a local fighting ring (at least they didn't kill her). She is much less than a year, so having just had a litter of puppies can't have been great for her. Still, she is going to have a great life.
Now, to go home and contend with the pile of mud soaked reunion detritis and the pungent after effects of the catfood someone fed Moya yesterday. My carpet may never be the same.
Happy belated Birthday JZ. Much calm-boob ~ma to you.
Waves and best wishes to everyone else too.
With all the other holidays included - how about Juneteenth?
It's true. There's like one African-American scrapbooking resource, and one company occasionally does stuff with an African heritage theme. There's a little bit more Asian stuff, but it's a) mostly Chinese and b) mostly designed for I-went-to-China-on-vacation layouts. I haven't seen any Hispanic stuff. Not to mention gay/lesbian stuff, or any religion other than Christian.
Hmmm...do I need another project?
Vortex, did you get a buffistas cookbook? The cover had a red background that was one of the papers I "made" (I scanned another scrapbook paper and shifted the color and saturation and blend mode). Vintage textures, dark reds and such, graveyard photos, things like that. The Halloween papers tend to be pretty cheesy, but sometimes I can cut out bats or such to use.
Vintage textures, dark reds and such, graveyard photos, things like that.
Could you do full-bleed photos of graveyards or grave art (or old houses, or angles on old houses) and shade them down so they're fairly light? (Just to make it easier on your printer?)
::she says out of her ass, since she has no idea if this is possible, although it *sounds* like a good idea::
Jilli, I really like that black dress for you. The one thing to keep in mind about wrap clothing (tops and skirts) is that they sometimes un-wrap. I once worked with a woman who was, um, generously endowed who had a taste for low-cut wrap tops. And, yup, if she slumped they tended to make a break for freedom. Easily enough solved with buttons, snaps, black velcro dots, or even a safety pin if you're in a hurry.
And Raq, have you thought of stationery? I know PaperDirect has some non-cheesy holiday papers.
And I loved your report on your little chaos god! best wishes for keeping the house intact until he's over this phase.
Oh yeah, and that's the kind of thing I do. But I want some 12x12 pages, and I want some cool gothy ribbon, and embellishments, and bits and bobs that say gothy things and...
stopping my first world whine now.
Raq, have you looked at Old Fashion Halloween? [link]
It's run by a friend of mine, and she *always* stocks cool ribbons, cards, papers, and general papercraft things.
Vortex, did you get a buffistas cookbook? The cover had a red background that was one of the papers I "made"
ah, I see. Let me talk to my people.
t /paper whore
FUCK. Mal just woke up crying, and when I came back downstairs from soothing him, I missed the last step. OW.
Jilli, thanks for the link - that site looks yum!
Let me talk to my people.
Hee.
You people all rock.
makes out with everybody
considers trying to read 400+ posts in the 20 minutes that my £2 will buy me on the 'puter at the airport. Shrugs. Skips. Reads Raq's song. Cackles so loudly that many heads turn to stare.
Happy Hecday!
Oh, Raq, that was
fabulous.
I'm happy to report that Operation: Cat in the Bag was a resounding success this time. Or at least...the first of 2 cleaners who came to clean my flat on the 27th was in the house in the morning, so naturally Daniel was hiding in a secure place while she was here. And then I waited for, what, an hour, an hour and a half after she'd left before sauntering oh-so-nonchalently into Flatmate's room to make friendly noises to the cat-shaped lump in the bed, and pet it. The cat shaped lump glared at me through the sheets. I peeled back the sheets a little, and did my best to be nonchalent and nonthreatening. Daniel rolled his eyes, said 'Yeah,
right,
lady. Like I'm going to trust YOU any time soon' in Cat, and jumped under the bed.
Rinse and repeat.
Dangling Interesting Dangly things to pounce on got us nowhere.
Eventually I opened the window. Daniel bounded up and sat on the windowledge (calculated risk, this) and I made friendly 'yes, isn't it nice outside? lots of interesting things! That is not the cat box you're looking for' type noises. Daniel was about to hurl himself out into the world, when I grabbed him firmly by the scruff of the neck and pinned him to the bed. He made 'Curse you, Faithless Human' type noises. I tried to be soothing and yet implacable. He hissed. I carried him by the scuff of the neck (!) and grabbed his fairly limp back legs, and sort of folded him/stuffed him into the propped-against-a-wall box. Gravity was my friend, and Daniel was my bitch.
And oh, the wrathful sounds of distress he made!
We carted him off to SPARE (the Society for the Protection of Animal Rights in Egypt) - my last day in Egypt involved driving
past the pyramids
to put my cat in a cattery.
SPARE is fantastic. Really professional and caring and altogether a jolly good thing. Daniel was hysterical. They put him into a wee cage of his own, he did his best ever Infuriated Voldemort Armed With Freddy Kreuger Gloveknives impression, and they were unfazed. Then they said 'do you want to see where he'll be?' and we went through to the most fantastic huge big set of interlocking rooms full of gorgeous, friendly, sociable cats and kittens. It was like a Disney cartoon waiting to be made. We spent a good fifteen minutes petting various different kitties.
It is entirely possible that when I collect Daniel in 50 days' time, I shall collect another cat too. They seemed to think that 2 cats could share the catbox, if they were friendly cats, so if he
does
make a good friend, I'll maybe adopt him or her too. That would give him a little living security blanket, and it would be helping out the people at the shelter, who have lots of gorgeous kitties. (OMG, Sultan the 7-month old white-and-grey kitty was the most adorable pick-me-up slut EVAH! And there was a wee Siamese kitten [how funny would it be to take a Siamese stray from Egypt to Siam?] and a gorgeous big Bengal cat called Pavarotti who had apparently raised most of the kittens himself, and just LOTS of adorable kittihood. Bless. So I think Daniel's going to have a fabulous time, actually. He's going to spend the first 72 hours in his own good-sized cage IN the cat room, getting used to all the other cats (who have lovely cat beds lying around, and exciting climbing things, and just generally all kinds of goodness, and access to a secure outdoor area - it's like a wee cat holiday home). Then they'll let him out and he can go and try to socialise with the others.
I hope he'll settle down quickly and have a nice time.
Meanwhile, I'm in London. I've been travelling since 3am and I didn't sleep last night, obviously enough. After we dropped off Daniel we came back past the pyramids and went for a last feluca ride at sunset, and then home (where I did some more frantic last (continued...)