Today Is ...

Today Is ...
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

... the first day of the rest of your life ...

Yes - big fat whore posting of my current destash boxlot of paper sCRAPs listed on eBay. {bid.bid.gobidNOW} See, I've been collecting up all the random-mess-ness from my desks and stash spots and adding them to this Priority Mail Box in order to send them away to another home, and clear my space so I can create again! It's mostly good stuff, I just need it outta mah face at this point so I can move on! 'Cause all I do now is stare at the piles and have no motivation to figure out what I was trying to do with any of it. So I got the urge to purge, and it's coming right along :)

I thought that was an appropriate chipboard quote to include, and once the box is completely packed to the brim it'll sit right on the top so when the lucky recip opens'er up they'll get a nice message to boot :)

Blogiveaway Winner #1

Yeah yeah, I was late drawing and did it this morning.

Congrats to LIZ B. on winning the totebag and keychain, and to runner-up winner Jennifer P. who'll get the other pink totebag.
Thanks so much for playing, everyone!

~ gem ~

BoxTops for Education!

BoxTops for Education!
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

beepbeep! drive-by posting before I head up to school to help with Pride Day ... But while I had shool on my mind - here's a shameless request:

Anyone who would be willing to collect these little BoxTop coupons and send them to me, I would greatly appreciate it! and will even send you a small piece (at least 4"x4", probably collage) of original artwork in return :) I have 2 collection deadlines - the first is OCTOBER 30, so I'd need those here by Oct 28, but you can collect & bundle all you can save until mid February and I can turn those in for the spring collection. Save'em up and when ya have a nice batch contact me (here or through Flick'r) and I'll get you an address to mail them to.

Even better would be if you want to sign up to support our school via the website - you don't have to be local or have a child in this school! So it's a perfect way to help especially if your own children are grown or you don't have any who are doing the BoxTops for Education thing. Just go to www.btfe.com and sign up & support Liberty Middle School (Orlando) - there are some great online shopping partners including Oriental Trading Co and Barnes & Noble, where we get a portion of sales our supporters submit by going through the BoxTops Marketplace.

THANKS!
XOXO gem

ps ~ can ya tell I am a newly appointed coordinator and still in that early-on gung ho idea phase? :D

Paper Alpha Project

Finally! A new post, and a "new" project :)
Follow along if ya wanna make something similar (not that ya couldn't figure this out on yer own, I mean really. How easy could a project BE?)

Paper Covered Wooden Alpha Wallhanging

STEP 1

Choose your letters and papers. I'd wanted the word CREATE to hang above my artspace, and my kids got me the letters for like my birthday or Mother's Day (LAST year.) and so I already had them here. Mine are white-painted wood and about 7" tall. If you've been to the craft shop or discount store you KNOW they have a dozen styles to choose from, so just get whatever size or type you like! Then I collected up some semi-complimentary scrapbookpapers, but you could use bits from your scrapbox, vintage book pages, wrapping paper - whatever!

STEP 2

Apply adhesive to the FRONT of your letters. I used gel medium, but you could use whatever type of glue ya want - even a gluestick. Yep. Gluestick.

STEP 3

Lay your letter facedown on the paper - I'd precut mine to about the size of the letters, and lined up at least one edge, just to make the cutting easier and to not waste too much of the paper. You can also hold it up to the light and see if you like the "arrangement" of pattern on the letter and if not scoot it around - if ya use repositionable glue - that, or figure your approximate placement before applying glue. I didn't care so I just went with the "however it lies" approach :D

STEP 4

Press down real good! You want your paper to be really well adhered to the letter, so make sure you press out any bubbles & wrinkles, and really get the edges good too.

STEP 5

I had a sort of assembly line process, so once I did the previous steps for each letter, I stacked'em up to let them dry. I actually let them dry/cure overnight, but not for any benefit - I just ran outta time to work on them any further the 1st day :D But yeah, they should be completely set & dry before ya cut.

STEP 6

Cut away the excess paper. Now, the way you do this is kinda up to you & however you find it to be easier. I used a craft-knife and laid the letter flat & facedown on a cutting mat, and trimmed around the edges. I found it to be a little hinky 'cause the wood was pretty soft and my blade kept digging into it. So on some I tried using scissors on the edges, and the blade to cut out the middles (like on the A and R) - I say it's your choice because no matter how you trim the paper away, you are still going to have to do the next step:

STEP 7
(for which there is no picture cause I was so busy and focused on it I forgot to take one.) But you need to sand all the edges now - both to remove any leftover hangy-bits of paper, and to sorta age the edges a bit (if that's a look you wanna go for). I used a foam sanding block - I think it was actually a nail file thing for fake nails, but it works great cause it's flexible and can mold to the shape of the letters plus it's got a few different "grits" of sanding material. So anyway I just used that to rasp off whatever paper was uneven or leftover along all the edges of the letters. I also took this time to reglue any loose paper along the corners and edges. There weren't many 'casue I'm a pretty good gluer :-p

STEP 8

Now you can skip this step if you want, like if you used really pretty coated or fancy papers or something - but I went ahead and sealed mine with some acrylic sealer - I used matte finish here but you could go gloss or spray it with glitter or whatever the heck!

VOILA and FINI!
You are now ready to hang your fab new motivational phrase (or kids name or house numbers or whatever you made!) on your wall - go for the funky haphazard "drive a nail and hang the letter" approach or do the anal retentive thing and use a laser level and snap a chalkline (hello! - waves to all you Type A's out there - hehe) All I really ask it that you #1) don't wait a year to complete this super simple project like I did, and B) ENJOY IT!

*plus I dig that if you mess up or just wanna do a different look later- you can just yank'em down and recover with something else! Like you don't have about 169 pounds of random scrapbook or saved papers lying around to pull from. You know you doooo. And they're just sitting there. Mocking you.

SO MAKE THIS CRAFT. TODAY.
or at least this weekend ;-)

xox, gem


*** UPDATED APRIL 2014 ***
Just to show you - I've since re-papered those letters (a couple years ago actually) and moved them into a different spot:

Plan to do a studio room tour in the near future! so you can see this whole space :)

* Blog Giveaway! *

* Blog Giveaway! *
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Hubs brought me home a few new grocery totebags the other day, and I thought since I:

A) haven't blogged ANYthing in EONS and
2) it's October, and breast cancer awareness month,

I'd do a lil bloggity giveaway for ya's!
Just comment here once and I'll put ya in a drawing to receive this great pink reusable fabric tote, and a super pretty pink heart keychain. Link this giveaway on your own blog (or Twitter or Flick'r or Facebook or wherever ya post!) and be entered twice!

Random drawing on Saturday, OCT 10th!

A reuseable tote (good for the environment!)
Pretty in pink to show support for Breast Cancer Awareness
FREE = my own personal stimulus package ...
Awe, just lookit me, being all damn kinds a helpful :D



Hearts, gem

Is That A Kitten In Your Pocket, Or ....

:D

I know! Don't laugh at me! Y'all know the whole deal where there's these strays in the n'hood I've been trying to catch. And my favorite little grey one stays here all day and spends most of the morning inside now. But it's a bit of a battle between him & Weezer and Tonka (who REALLY seems to have an issue, which is weird.) Anyway!

Last evening my oldest comes in and says to me "hey come see this", and he's riding his bike and tells me to come to the end of the driveway, so I assume he's gonna show me a biketrick. Only when I get to the end he's laughing and I look down the sidewalk to see my youngest walking home, holding SOMEthing. and I start to laugh too 'cause I realize it's a freakin' KITTEN! and a totally different one than any of the others we've seen. I know. I KNOWWWW! Even poor Mr Gem is at the point where he just looks at us (me, mostly) and shakes his head and walks away :D

So we're all sitting out in the garage/driveway, watching "my" grey kitty and playing with this munchkin (who seemes to have a wee bit of a cold or eye infection - hence the squinteye, here), and up walks the MOM and her OTHER baby - HAHA! It's like wacky cat central or something. Only mama was mean (or - maybe just mad that we snatched away her baby) cause she kept hissing and chasing away my grey kitty which was pissing me off. Eventually they left and he was still sitting on the window ledge in the morning, so -shrug!-

So anyhow. This lil doodle is living in younger son's bedroom (quite comfortably, I might add) until we figure out what to do with'im. Hehe.

xoxo gem

Goodwill Friday ~ May 2009

ACK! I missed posting in April. Boooo. I was hoping to at least manage one post a month, sheesh. Anyway.

I went out this morning hoping to find a small occasional-type table or bookshelf sorta thing to put in a small hallway of ours. Didn't find THAT, but I found THESE! :D

Pink textured plastic coated paper box (a For The Cure pink ribbon item) -
it's made for hanging file folders. I NEEDED this, really!

Small linen covered trinket box - the little blue pulltab? The whole inside is lined in that color. This may end up a lucky parcel container.

DICE CUBE! the coolest! It's actually a game box - it contains all the pieces for like chess and dominoes and cards etc etc - that stuf'll be repurposed for altered art projects and etsy ... I'm keeping the box (I actually have a small collection of dice, so it's perfect)

Scrabble and Uno RummyUp games - for altered art pieces and etsy ...

Uglyass shadowbox and small gallery style frame - will be repurposed for my own art crap. (It's seriously hard to find decent shadowboxes here!)

Glass fishbowl. I dunno. I'll put stuff in it. Probly not fish.

Cute white beadboard boxy container thingy (will hold rulers or scissors or other ARTifacts) Currently holding a 3pc wooden utensil set - brand new and nicely made.

Wooden beadboard scalloped edge peg shelf. AWWWYEAH, kid! Two things about this - first it will be repainted white (they painted it blue and IGGG, they did a terrible job) - I have a THING for white beadboard these days apparently - also ... there is a sticker on the back that says it's from HomeGoods ... Now, the past week I keep seeing these ads on TV for HomeGoods, which I guess is like a discount decorating store or something ... but I don't know where there is one (I've looked it up since, there's 4 within 20 miles of me.) Anyway I thought it was funny that's where this shelf came from -shrug-
OH! and it has a plate ledge! Which are handy for propping skinny canvases, actually.

-=whew=-

Oh wait! I also got a decent size 3-drawer plastic bin system and a pair of cute jean shorts - both brand new and both Target surplus merchandise. WHEEEEEE!

My Sunday Sucked

This is just soooooo ridiculous.

We're walking Tonka 'round the neighborhood yesterday noon ...
On our way back home and starting past my neighbor's driveway - WHAM! outta nowhere Tonk takes off towards neighbor Steve who's out working on his front walk ... I am hanging on for dear life and KNOW what's rapidly coming - which would be me on the ground (mmmm, concrete - so comfortable!) and my head into Steve's car bumper (yeah that was pretty bad) - and this lovely image was the result. Which actually here doesn't even look all the bad but consider it also extends partway down my calf, as well as where my hip smacked the ground, the heel and wrist of my hand is all cut and scraped, the back of my shoulder bruised, plus a knot on my head and cut on my ear.

Now a couple things: Number one, I have no idea WHAT made him go after the neighbor like that - he does bark at him through the fence, but really in the "who are you, what are you doing, what's going on?" kinda dog way - and I was pretty much face down so I don't even know if he was happy or teeth bared or what. Stuart thought it was just freak timing of us passing by right as Steve stood up from some pruning and caught Tonka's eye as a threat? So uhhhh, yeah - thanks so much for "protecting me" by dragging my ass up a concrete driveway and into the back of a parked car! Wheeee! Danger averted! Good dog!

And secondly - I normally do not have so little control over him! Yes I am about 115 to his 130-140 and it does sometimes take all my body weight to reign him in when he wants to pull (and I've figured out ways to maneouver the leash to have a better hold, etc) but this was completely unexpected and I had no time to react other than to try and keep up. At which I clearly failed ;-) And thankfully Stuart was with me so he was able to get ahold of Tonka right away, and he didn't do anything ...

But my poor neighbor! Like I said, I couldn't see what Tonka's demeanor was, but if you saw that big beast thundering toward you I'm sure you'd be more than a little concerned, even if he was smiling! He kept asking "are you okay are you sure you're okay?" and came by later to check on me again, and I felt soooo bad. Like, Hi? I'm the idiot who couldn't keep her dog from charging at you, yet you're telling me I shoulda just let go of the leash and how you shouldn't have even been outside and then it wouldn't've happened? Dude!

So now I am very stiff and sore and the scrapes all sting and of course after the whole freak Natasha Richardson ski accident I was all paranoid I wasn't going to wake up this morning (and I said many prayers of thanks everytime I did wake in the night - you better believe it!)

BUT! the bruises are gonna be something to behold, I tell ya!
*ooOoh the colorrrsss*

So yeah - Happy Monday!
~ gem ~


Oh and I fully admit to being a bit of a drama queen, I mean it's not like I need freakin' skin grafts or anything! But still. *makes pitiful pouty face*

Another Day, Another Dog Tale ...

But yeah, it's about the same dog ;-)
And turns out he's a 10 month old purebred Bichon ...

Anyway. To continue yesterday's story ... we left off with me serendipitously running into DJ's owner on a walk during the morning, and I was awaiting her to come by and pick him up that afternoon ... And just to fill in even more of his backstory (which I'd learned from the "birthmom" on Monday and it was confirmed by Miss Shelby yesterday)

See, Original Owner had to sell him because she had other pets (including DJs brother, and if I remember correctly his mama too) and Deej and the brother didn't get along ... He was picked up by a nice girl named Miss Shelby, who was buying him on behalf of her boss, as a companion for his elderly mother. Miss Shelby is her caretaker. This was Saturday, and (this is the part I don't really know much about) he somehow got out/loose in the middle of the night, then I found him around 9AM Sunday morning. Our neighborhoods are not that far apart, but he had to come past a really busy street to get here, so =whew!= is all we can say about that!

And Miss Shelby DID post lost puppy notices immediately, I just never saw them (hint: Craigslist = great place for lost pet notices! It really hadn't occured to me to look there)

So unfortunately, even though I'd FINALLY! found the proper owner, Miss Shelby let me know that her boss (the elderly lady's son) was wanting to REsell the poor little guy, because it turns out the lady was scared of him (I guess he barked at her and was a little too jumpy) and they weren't going to be able to keep him. Even Miss Shelby said she wished she could take him but with 3 dogs of her own, well ... I said I'd be happy to keep him until they were able to either find a new owner or decide what to do, but as much as I liked him, there was no way I could buy him (and any of you who've read Tonka's story know I already have a Very Expensive Pet and just could not justify paying for another dog I wasn't even in the market for to begin with!) It really wasn;t even alot of money - the guy was only looking to get back half of what he'd originally paid, but the bottom line is Mr Gem's patience was already at it's limit with me this week (bless his big'ol let-me-have-my-way-without-complaint HEART!) so to lay out money for the dog woulda been a Not Very Smart Thing for me to do ...

blahblahblah ... So he spent another night and then Miss Shelby called early this afternoon to say she had some folks that wanted to come look at him, and could she arrange to come get him - I'd given him a mini bath just this morning so at least he was pretty clean and dry ... I packed up his food and some toys that had become his faves while he was here, and when she came & got him I just said to please call me and let me know how it goes, and that he was welcome back if he didn't go to a new home right away (which, come on, I knew he would! Look'it'immmm! Awe! hehe)

AND! ding!ding!ding! We have a winner!
She actually stopped by just a few minutes ago - before I could even knock the story out, geez! - to let me know an older couple took him home and they said he'd be the only pet and a very spoiled little dog and they understood what a rough week he's had and that he'd probably be sad for a little while but that was okay ... So yeah, I'm a little bummed he's gone but also very YaY! that he's going to a nice home, and I'll be honest - that pup was wearing me O.U.T! so I'll be glad to get back to my regularly scheduled life now ... right after a NAP.

Oh and also, just so you know ~ Miss Shelby was incredibly apologetic and extremely grateful to me and felt really really bad that I was so burdened by the responsibility for this pup all week (and she was more than miffed at her bossman for the whole convoluted mess which was basically dumped in her lap) - but like I kept telling her - It's all good! I just wanted to do the right thing (like I'd hope someone would do for my dog) and hey! I got to spend a few days playing with a supersweet, cute new puppy! She did drop off an Outback giftcard to thank me, and while that SO wasn't necessary, I thought that was a really cool and nice thing to do ...

So - Final Kisses and TUMMY RUBBIES for DJ
(or, whoever you are now!)
Buh Bye, booboo! And for Pete's sake, stay put! :D

XOX gem

Doggone It!

Okay, so the story goes: I saw this little white blur run by my driveway Sunday morning, trailing a leash ... Watched & waited to see if it's people came running after it, no one did. I went and checked it out - found this dude sitting at the end of a neighbor's driveway ... I'm always worried about lose dogs getting hit on our street, so after finally cornering the muddy lil sucker in the cul-de-sac I brought him home (asking a couple neighbors on the way "Is This Yours?" or "D'ya Know Who's It IS?") ... Bring him inside to the many eyerolls of my husband and children ... he has no ID except for a rabies tag - call the 800-number and the nice recorded man tells me to try calling back during business hours ('Cause you know. Most dogs prefer to lose themselves Monday thru Friday between the hours of 9AM and 5PM)

So I take some pics, make some signs, hang them at the entrances to our neighborhood, figuring he must be a dog from the 'hood ... 8PM rolls around and no calls, so we crate him for the night ...

Monday Morning!
Call my vet to make Tonka's bath appointment and "oh by the way I found a new dog ya think you can scan him for a microchip or run his rabies tag, hmm?" - yes to the chipscan, but no to the tag since it's not through them ... but try calling the LOCAL numbers for that vet clinic and they should have the info (ding! duh!) ... 4 calls later (all of whom said "You know it might be easier for you to call our corporate number" and I'm all yeahhhh maybe if they were OPEN before 10 am our time...) Anyway. 4th call = score! Tech tells me his name is DJ and he's a Bichon and here's the name number and address of his owner - HOORAY! (and also, hmmm - 'cause I'm thinking that's kinda alotta info to give out, but I'm not a weirdo stalker or anything so it's okay. I just figured I'd hafta leave MY info and THEY'D call the owner, but what do I know ...) First thing I do after hanging up is say: "DJ! >perk< is that your name? Are you DJ? Hi DJ!" .... *Oh and a little interesting sidenote here - a few years ago we adopted a puppy from one of the groups that run out of the Petsmart on weekends - sadly and unbeknownst to us at the time - he had parvo, and he didn't even make it a week. I was devastated. His name? DJ. So was I meant to be the one to find this particular lost dog? Maybe. Though I tend to overanalyze kooky kosmic things like that ....

ANYWAY! I'm all YaY DJ, we found your Mommy, let's call her! Which we do and I leave a message 'cause no ones home ... We wait hopefully all day for the callback (in the meantime I've taken down the found dog signs, right?) and finalllllllly at like 6PM I get a ring "Hi this is Mz You Found My Dog calling you back, do you still have him?" and I say "Yup, he's laying on my lap right now!" and she laughingly says:
"You want'im?" and I reply with some laughter of my own "Ohhhhh Noooo, you don't WANT him!?"

So. A very nice and informative conversation later I've learned that this lady sold Mr DJ to someone in our neighborhood THAT Saturday, but she doesn't remember their name or info, etc and she's all worried "should I come get him?" etc - I guess she had to sell him 'cause she has some other pets, including DJ's own brother, who he doesn't get along with ... So I say well, he seems to be doing okay here and I'm fine with keeping him and I'll put the signs back up and work on trying to track these folks down ... just keep my number and if they call YOU, pass my info on and we'll go from there ... That was ? ... right, Monday night ...

We are now at Wednesday morning, and 2 new signs, 200 printed flyers (which were hung on as many neighbor's doors as we could manage yesterday, the rest hopefully today) an L&F ad in the classifieds and NO CALLS later ... he sleeps at my feet as I write this update :) Poor lil dooder.

I'm getting concerned because he seems to be getting Very Attached to me (and vice versa, to be honest!), and while I'd happily keep him, he is a bit like having a toddler in the house and it's wearing me out! Plus Mr Wonderful Husband has been extremely patient, I just don't know how much longer that's gonna hold ... Now, I do have 3 people in mind who I think would want him, and if that didn't work I know my vet would be able to find him a GREAT home. Lastly, I'm sure his original owner would come get him if it came to that ...

SO! The saga continues, be sure to tune in to see what happens next on "The Days of Our Dogs" ... haha!
and - Happy Wednesday :)

~ gem ~


ps ~ I know what's bothering me most is that he is SUCH a sweet little dog, and in the 3 days I've had him? I've not seen even one sign or ad or anything for a lost dog matching his descrip ... I don't get it ...

Tonka Update

I haven't given any new news on Tonka in awhile and figured I'd squeak in my February blog posting at the same time ... So!

He's doing great! We started him on immunotherapy for his (outdoor) allergens at the beginning of the year - a specially prepared mix just for him, which I administer(ed) in gradually increased dosage injections every other day during the "loading period" - YES! I actually was able to do the injections myself! I didn't think I'd be able to (and Mr Gem cannot, as he is EXTREMELY needlephobic) but Tonka's such an easygoing guy he made it quite easy for me. So we are currently on the every-10-days timeframe from the second, more concentrated dosage vial. And so far so good - once we got the dosage up and then went to the more concentrated formula, he did have a slight recurrance of hotspots and itching, but we've kept that pretty well under control with Benedryl, and we did some pulse antibiotic therapy just to be sure he didn't come up with any infections. I am also trying to be meticulous about wiping him down, especially his paws! with babywipes when he comes back inside after walks or playing in the yard. He is also pretty limited as far as being allowed outside. Which is HARD, especially for such a big dog, and one who was used to being outside, all. the. time. But it's for his own good, so I try to limit him to about 10 minutes of "laying in the sunshine" time then I call him in :)

Sorta cool thing happened, too - Mr Gem actually met the former owners a couple weekends ago - really randomly! He was walking Tonka around the outside of our neighborhood and this couple pulled up in their car ... Said they were on their way to church and saw the dog: "where did you get him" "what's his name" etc ... and when he told them Tonka - they were like "Omigosh, it IS him - he used to be our dog!" - See, the vet couldn't say what had happened to Tonka after they'd turned him over to them (which made sense, 'cause if he'd been put down or something you wouldn't wanna have to find that out, you know?) but when they saw him out walking they had to stop and find out if it was him ... They were very happy to learn he'd been adopted and said that he looked wonderful and they were so glad he was in a great home and being taken care of so well. They had originally adopted him from a shelter when he was 2 years old, and he just ended up outside all day because they both worked. And with all his health issues they just weren't able to care for / afford him anymore ... SO! It was nice to give them some closure/relief, as well as for us to know that Tonka wasn't either upset OR overjoyed to see them again - (that was the first thing I asked about!) - Daddy said he just wagged and sniffed like he would have with anyone else, so it was nice for us that he seems to know he's really "home" now ... But isn't that funny, meeting them outta the blue like that?

And so the other thing we have to do is make homemade dog treats ... Tonka cannot have any commercially made cookies, snacks, chews, etc - so I researched some homemade dog treats online and found one I thought would work - doublechecked the ingredients with our vet and with a few minor adjustments to the recipe, I've come up with my own version that works perfectly for Tonka!

TONKA'S COOKIES

3 C oat flour
1/2 C oatmeal (old fashioned OR quick cook)
1 TBSP oat bran
2 TSP baking powder
1 1/2 C milk
1 1/2 TBSP blackstrap molasses

- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
- Mix dry ingredients in large bowl
- Mix wet ingredients until smooth
- Add wet to dry and mix together to form dough - if it is too wet just add a little more oat flour (I knead small batches on the table and just add flour as needed)
- Roll the dough out to 1/4" thick and cut with 3" dog bone cookie cutter ... You can also make larger or smaller bones or alternative shapes, just adjust the rolled thickness accordingly.
- Bake the bones 45-60 minutes for the larger ones, less for the smaller - until they are lightly browned.
- Turn OFF the oven, and let them finish drying - overnight, or until crisp and firm - they should not move when you press on them.

*The original recipe called for BARLEY flour, and the addition of 1 1/4 C of peanut butter. Our vet said we should leave out the PB, and I found oat flour to be better than the barley, so I changed that. I also cut the milk down to half a cup, and replaced the rest with water. I've also made it with all water with no real difference. I've made them in bone shapes, heart shapes and even with a round biscuit cutter, I just adjust the thickness and cooking/drying times if needed.

OH! And if ya wanted to, you could eat them yourself, obviously. I mean, they aren't GREAT, but they're not terrible either :D

That's it, I gotta run - the laundry's calling! and I've been screening all day so I think it's on to me now ;-p

~ gem ~

Happy New Year and ...

Here's a little bitta fun factoid stuff about me.
YES. I'm cheating by using a Flick'r post as a "new blog update", but - deal with it. I'm busy.

Not reallllly, but I'm hungry and making noodles for lunch, so ...
Repeat of info on Flick'r:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Tagged by Shanda Panda for the 16 Facts meme ...
Here's my picture (taken Jan 14, just for this post) & response:

1) I am 37 and am still afraid of the "Thing Under the Bed" - I cannot have any part of my feet go under the edge of the bed and will still occasionally leap into bed from across the room when I get the feeling "it's" there.

2) My most hated housework duty is cleaning the scrambled egg pan. ewww.

3) I have man-hands, ala Sarah Jessica Parker or Kyra Sedgwick.

4) Shortly after the birth of my 2nd son and when Mr Gem was living & working on the other side of the state while I stayed behind with the boys & sold our house, I drank an entire bottle of wine one night by myself. I then promptly sacrificed it all to the Porcelain God. I have not had even a sip of wine since and cannot stand the smell of it to this day. That was in 1997.

5) I was never the girl who dreamed of her wedding day or even having a family. I always imagined myself living the Bohemian life in Paris, drawing and painting by the edge of the Seine ... *and yet, I am happy with the life I got ...

6) I have colored my hair for fun since I was 12 and discovered Sun-In - I am really not sure what my true haircolor is anymore though I suspect it's called "Squirrel Brown" :D

7) As a kid, I actually had a dalmation dog named Spot - so cliche it's original!

8) My middle name is Lynn. pffft.

9) My hub & kids' initials are SAP, NAP and JAP. HAH! I dunno, it makes ME laugh ...
I guess that's not really a fact about ME, huh?

10) A few years ago we got a puppy and he died within a week. I slept with his collar under my pillow for 2.

11) I have never had a broken bone. =knockwood!=

12) I still have windshield glass embedded in my forehead from a car wreck I had when I was 18. Sometimes it comes to the surface and looks like a Bindi.

13) << I've worn contact lenses since I was that old. I learned I needed glasses in the 3rd grade when they did eye tests at school, and I ran out of the office/clinic crying.

14) I LOVE brussels sprouts!

15) I have to drink my milk with ice so it's really cold. Also if I use a colored plastic cup it usually has to be blue, 'cause that makes the milk seem whiter/milkier - I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT use a yellow cup for milk! NO! that's peemilk! (I dunno. My brain just makes weird associations)

16) My closet is color co-ordinated, right down to matching hangers. Don't believe me?
Check it out ...

17) I do not wear lipstick. The picture above is me with lipliner pencil lightly applied over lipbalm, and then swabbed off. That's as far as I go.

18) HAHA I just remembered it's only 16 facts! durrrr -eyeroll- *geeee, do I like to talk about myself, I dunnnooo ...

That's it, then! Hope you enjoyed :D Thanks Shanda for the tag, and since I travel in very small circles, I will probably tag alot of you that have either already done it or already been tagged by "one of us" --- so don't feel bad if ya don't wanna or can't do it! it's all good :)

♥, gem
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