don't bug me i'm crafting

so, i'll be the first to admit that i get a little focused when i'm designing. i noodle the ideas around in my head for days, working through what i want to do while i'm - driving the girl around, doing laundry, scooping up after our saint bernard. my eyes glaze over during other people's conversation as i solve a technique problem, or come up with a great new concept.

i spend a lot of time just thinking, so when i've finally noodled enough and sit down at the craft table my mantra is "don't bug me" often accompanied by dirty looks and heavy sighs. because you know, as soon as i sit down at my craft table, everyone needs me.

now, i love my family. i have a husband, a daughter, a saint bernard, two cats, a rabbit, assorted fish and a lizard in my house. i have loving parents, friends, and lots of aunties and uncles and cousins. but why do they all need me as soon as my butt hits the chair?

this weekend i was in creative overdrive - mostly self-created of course. i had lots i wanted to get done, and the family was going to be gone for most of the day for "daddy/daughter time".  here's how it went:

9:00am - family gone out, time to work
9:01am - dog needs out
9:05am - dog needs back in
9:25am - fat cat tries to jump onto craft table, grabs glue gun cord as he falls off the table edge, i can't stop laughing, cat tries to pretend he just really needed the glue gun
9:30am - i need coffee for this, run to starbucks
10:00am - dog needs out
10:05am - dog needs back in followed by extensive petting and love
10:15am - dog shakes head and showers me, the craft table and the project with drool
10:16am - clean up drool, shoo dog onto giant dog cushie
10:20am - phone rings, i ignore it and listen to the vmail from my mom wondering why she never gets to talk to me, she always gets the answering machine. no comment.
10:22am - working, finally
10:45am - dog needs a cookie
10:47am - grey cat is playing with something...alive
10:48am - after screaming like a big girl i get the lizard away from grey cat and release it back to the wild where it plays dead - probably in shock from my screams
10:49am - working, finally, again
11:00am - family home, "mom what's for lunch?" me: "i thought you guys would eat out", child: "but we wanted to eat with you..."
11:01am - put head down on table and cry

happy crafting everyone! if you stopped by for the "so knotty" tutorial, click here

i have a creative hangover...

so i spent this weekend totally immersed in the world of tim holtz - and it was fab-u-lous. but now my head hurts. really there's only so much extra space in there anyway, and i spent all weekend filling that space with things like bees-waxing, tissue-taping, and how to creatively express myself all over the place.

the local store - scrapbook island - has been waiting for 5 years for tim to come. (i was stunned to learn that tim's store waiting list is SEVEN YEARS LONG - hopefully stores stay in business long enough for him to get to them). and it's like having a twilight premier - hundreds of screaming women waiting to see one guy with spiky hair and a cool "look".

this was my first experience with this kind of crowd and i learned some important things:

1. scrapbookies are crazy. they drive for hours to stand in line for hours to spend hours in the presence of a guy who shows everyone how to get dirty and feel good about it.

2. scrapbookies are just darn mean. if they think you are getting something they are not like a better seat, better place in line, the last pink ink pad, whatever. just watch your back around them 'cause they're a rough crowd.

look kids - my "new word of the week":

scrapbookie (n) - someone who is obsessed with scrapbooking and proud of it. think "treckie" with inky fingers and a penchant for anything to do with immortalizing their memories. willing to travel long distances and pay huge amounts of money to play with paper, scissors and glue.

some things i learned about myself this weekend:

1. i must resist the urge to grin like an idiot while lurking near tim - tim's a nice guy and all but this just creeps him out

2. i must resist the urge to elbow best friend out of the way to get an autograph, or the better seat, or the better embellishment - just distract her instead with a quick "ooh look over there, tim's doing something" then go for it while she's trying to figure out how to copy tim.

3. i must resist the urge to buy every tim product and hide it so the hubby won't find it right away - the hubby may not notice the stuff, but might just notice the negative balance in the bank account and want to know why i'm spending money on another man.

it's the day after my scrapbookie creatively enlivening weekend and i'm hungover. my head hurts, i can't remember what i did all weekend, and i'm out of cash. it's awesome