Wednesday, May 21, 2008

I'm on a roll!

I've been feeling like I haven't been doing much creating lately. A while ago I tried to set a goal of one item a night, be it a card, LO, or even just start a LO. I did well for about a week and a half, and then I pretty much stopped. Not really burned out or anything, just unmotivated.



Well I like creating and would like to get back into a groove. And tonight- wow! My one item became 4. I did 2 layouts and 2 cards. My 2007 album is now finished! (Still need to do my 2007 Christmas album plus another mini album from 2007, though.) And one of the cards I made is for a June birthday, not sure about the other one.

I also love the fact that I used a mix of newer and older products. "Rockin' New Year's Eve"- the only new thing on there is the star embellishment on the bottom. Everything else was at least a year old.

For the "Counting Party" LO, pretty much everything is new. In fact, a couple of the embellishments I got this past weekend at the Dollar Scrapbooking booth, where I worked at CKC Manchester. This booth really is a fabulous way to get some great items for a fantastic price. After all, do flowers, brads, and paint really go out of style?

And on the cards, pretty much the only new product was the patterned paper, which was scraps from the Counting Party LO. The "Happy Birthday"and "Cheers!" labels are many years old. Nice to be able to use up the stash. If only I actually had some willpower and could resist buying new things.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Chris Breecher, "published" photographer!

Normally I try to avoid posting work related things here. Call me paranoid that someone will google my company's name and find my blog. But I can link this without saying names....

So a few weeks ago I was roped into taking some pictures of our CEO. Freak thing where I was in the right place at the right time. Our receptionist had sent out an email asking if anyone had a digital camera with them that she could borrow. I went out to see her (we're friends) to find out why she needed a camera. While I was there, she was talking to our PR guy (who would have been taking the pictures) and she mentioned that I had a good eye for photos. Great, Chris, can you take the pictures? Um, ok. What time do you need me? In about half an hour. Ok. I'm going to run home, get my camera, and I'll be back in time. I figured using my camera, which was better than the point-and-shoot, would be better. Plus I was more familiar with how to use it.

And that brings us to today. Just got an email sent to us from our international office... article of our CEO is up on BBC.com. I go to check it out, and there's my photo. So here's a link. My photo is the first one. Unfortunately no photo credit, but I'll take what I can get.

Monday, May 05, 2008

Monday ramblings from Chris

So I've meant to post before now, but it just hasn't happened. Sorry. I'll sum up...

Today I mowed the lawn. Maybe not a big deal, but it's Chris' job but he was slacking and the length of the grass was annoying me. So I called him up (he was still at work, I was at home) and I asked him how to work the mower. Wow, pulling that string to start it is hard work! Almost gave up. Also didn't help that he told me the wrong lever to hold while pulling the string, so there was some useless attempts until I decided to hold down both levers to see if that helped.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I now have worms living in my kitchen. Here's a link to their home. So why do I have them? I'm vermicomposting. I've had my worms for just about two months now, and they're doing very well! Lots of "tea" so far to use to fertilize my garden, and hopefully I'll have some good rich compost later this summer. So why vermicomposting rather than normal composting? We don't have a good location outside for a compost pile, and even if we did, it's not something that would be easily used in the winter. So once I got over the ick factor of having worms (and other bugs) in my kitchen, I've embraced this new crunchy aspect of my life.

I started some seeds inside a month or so ago. Not good success. Not sure what happened, but none of them sprouted. Planted some new seeds, and now my lettuce has started to sprout, but that's it. Guess I'll have to get lots of seedlings like I normally do. Also I've added a few plants to a shady spot in the back. Hopefully they'll take. But after some gardening this weekend, my arms are rather achy right now. And they only got worse from trying to start the lawnmower today.

Last weekend I was in New Orleans for work. Fabulous time. Drank way more than usual. Probably drank more in that week than I do in 3 months combined! Also ate some fabulous meals. Getting back into the cooking routine took some work.

And the final bit of news- this year's Pinewood Derby will be held on Saturday, July 5th. Everyone is welcome to come by, or if you can't make it to MA, as always, mail-in entries are welcome.