Goodbye Irene!

Praise God that Irene is gone!  Phew!  We didn't suffer any damage to the house, and we didn't have any flooding either.  We lost power from 5pm last night to 10am this morning, so 17 hours without electricity was the worst of it.  I'll write more some other time.  I'm just happy to be online again and catching up on blogs!  And yes, during the power outage, I did craft by flashlight!  I'll post those soon!

Hurricane Irene

It's kind of surreal to know that there's a hurricane warning in effect and that there's a mandatory evacuation in NYC for zone A and part of zone B.  Thankfully, I'm in a no evacuation zone so even if it gets bad, we stay at our house.  We're far enough from the water.  That doesn't mean I'm not terrified of the wind damage.  I keep thinking that the windows are going to shatter or something (I don't know if I'm overreacting).  I'm in the process of cleaning my room now so that just in case something like that happens, glass won't be mixed in with my stuff, and it'll be easier to clean.  If everything's a-okay thereafter, I'll have a clean room before the new school year starts (always my goal each year, but it doesn't always happen!).

Today does seem like a crafting day though.  I mean, at this point, we're all just waiting around.  My church is already closed tomorrow, although we wouldn't have gone anyway due to the fact that we have to cross 2 bridges to get there (and one of those bridges is scary even when it's just windy on a regular day).  I'm not sure if I should pack away my Cricut.  I can easily just stick it back in the box and put it on the other side of my bed so at least it's not exposed.  Maybe if I can craft later, it'll be a lot of stamping or cutting cardstock for mini cards.

I do have to say that it is strange to see "normal" things going on when I look at social networking stuff.  Most of my friends on Facebook are in NYC or on the east coast, and some have evacuated or are getting prepared for evacuation just in case Bloomberg calls for it.  However, it's "interesting" to see other crafting posts or things on Twitter about Disney World.  I guess it kind of keeps me a little sane too.

My older brother is home for the duration as he lives in an area that's easily flooded.  His apartment should be okay because he's a few floors up, but his car would've suffered damage.  It's just odd knowing all the things that are being done in preparation.  The MTA is being shut down, which is crazy because even in snow storms, the MTA is usually still running even if it's limited service.  I mean, snow doesn't affect most subways.  The bridge tolls have been eliminated to aid in early evacuation.

And while all this is going on, I'm sitting here on my bed, typing up this blog post, and thinking of the worst of it that is still hours and hours away.  Praying for everyone's safety!

Animal Mini Cards Set!

What a busy few weeks it has been!  My church had its annual coffeehouse on August 13th, so I was busy heading out to the city for rehearsals.  Even though it's been a while since the performance and the encore, I wasn't able to do much crafting because I was doing a lot of sleeping!  Here's a picture of one of the scenes from the musical that my cousin wrote.

I'm the one to the right of the girl speaking.  I'm wearing the dress with leggings and the scarf.  Basically, the musical was about "Peacekeepers" that have super powers to keep a city safe, but things were going downhill as talent stones (what we were wearing around our necks) were being stolen.  In this scene, we had just defeated a bunch of the "bad guys" and were questioning them.  My character was "Chief," so I was the leader of the group.  It was so much fun being able to serve with all of these people at my church even though I was pretty much one of the oldest!  Most of the those that were involved are in high school or just graduated high school.  I loved being able to get to know them.

By the way, our shirts were awesome.  They were designed by my fiance!  He's the one kneeling on the left side of this picture.  He's not actually wearing the shirt now because he was taking care of the sound board throughout the musical, and he didn't sing with us during the finale ("When You Believe" from Prince of Egypt).

Anyway, because of coffeehouse, I hadn't crafted in a while, but I was able to get back to it this week!  Yay! And I got back into it with full force because I made multiples.  And by multiples, I mean MULTIPLES!

I made this mini card set using Sandylion stamps along with Pink by Design's set "Scripted Year."  I kept the sentiments fairly simple so that they could be used for any occasion.  Each card is 3x3'' so it's a nice square size.  The white cardstock is cut at 2.75''.  Since some of the animals were smaller, I used a border punch to add something extra.  

The puppy one is, I think, my mom's favorite even though she doesn't like dogs, haha.  It is really cute though!  Initially, I had this puppy all white, and I only colored in the spots.  However, I tried one out with a lighter brown, and I liked it more as a whole especially as compared to the other cards.

For this sheep, I actually have 2 of them that are different shades of pink because I was testing colors.  I forgot to stamp the sheep in Memento and instead used StazOn.  I had to be very careful not to get everything to bleed.

This mouse one might be my favorite but that could be because I really like the purple as the cardstock color.  I was going to add a piece of cheese in its hand, but I don't know that it would've gone with the sentiment, haha.  

This monkey reminded me why I'm so glad I bought a bunch of different shades of brown when I purchased a few Copics.  I remember the days when all I had was the brown in the Crayola marker set!  It helps to have different shades!

The last one that I did was this little bird.  Thankfully, at this point, I used Memento to stamp, so I had no problems coloring this little guy!

I made 15 of each card and will be selling them as a set of 5.  That means I have 15 sets to sell!  I posted 10 in the store (I don't think all will sell, but I did already sell 2 sets!), and I think I'll be saving the other 5 for my church's bake sale in November.  All proceeds go to the mission fund, and by then, I think I'll have a lot more mini card sets to sell!  I'm so glad to be back into crafting mode!  If only I had a clean room to work in ... maybe I should tidy up today considering the rain that's on its way!  I was going to go to Michaels to pick up Copics with the 45% off coupon as well as some more Recollections paper, but I'd rather not go out in the rain.  Rainy days just seem perfect for staying inside and crafting!

Jo Boogie's Blog Candy

Jo over at her blog is offering up this fun birthday blog candy!  Take a look at her site!  I'm a new follower, but I'm excited to be because her cards are so bright and fun.  Look at her sidebar too to see all the design teams she's been on, all the awards she's won, and all the times she was published!  Just wow ... I wonder if I"ll ever get to that point in my crafting career! 

Her birthday blog candy closes on August 31st, so don't miss out!

Crafting Pause

Hi everyone!  As you may have noticed, I haven't really been crafting and posting lately.  The reason for that is my church is having its annual coffeehouse tomorrow and the encore performance is on Sunday!  Since I'm one of the actors in the musical, I've been practicing my lines and going out to the city for rehearsal.  Yesterday I didn't get back home until 11:50, and that was because my dad was kind enough to pick me up from the bus stop so that I didn't have to walk all the way home.

I'm about to head out for rehearsal in 10 minutes, but I just wanted to pop on by to say hello to everyone!  Please keep those involved in the coffeehouse in your prayers as well as our guest speaker and all those who are attending!  Pray that God opens all of our hearts!  One big thing is the health of those involved.  I don't write about it here, but I'm not in the best of health.  I deal with a lot of gastrointestinal issues and take many pills a day, so I'm hoping it'll be settled for these next couple of days.  Others who have solos are also feeling a little under the weather too with scratchy throats and congestion.

After all is said and done, and I can back to crafting next week, I might be able to post some pictures and a video or two!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!