Thanks... And there's MORE!

My deepest thanks to all of you who went over to Smugmug and shared the love with Nature Girl. She positively GLOWS every time she reads a new comment.

I was surprised to find this morning, she's added even MORE of her stunning photos. You can see them here.

Now, I have to be honest and tell you that if it were me, and I didn't know Nature Girl, there's NO WAY I would believe a 16 yr. old took those pictures. But I swear to you, they're ALL hers. She has remarkable patience and an incredibly steady hand. My favorites are her macro shots but they're ALL pretty amazing... And I'm not just saying that because I'm her mom.

We're Bachelors Baby!

For some time I've listened to my Mother-in-law, Sister-in-law and my husband sit around and talk about how great it would be to visit New England. When my husband was young his family spent 13 summers on the Cape and seldom is the time when we're all together that someone doesn't bring up some aspect of those summer vacations with their cousins. In fact, when my husband and I were dating, we'd sometimes walk from my house, across the street, to the elementary school. We'd sit in the warm sand beneath the playground swings and he would tell me about those wonderful summers on Horse Neck Beach in Massachusetts. My husband would woo me with tales of swimming, fishing, running his little boat into hidden coves and blueberry picking.

After we were married he did take me on that trip to Massachusetts for a family reunion. Unfortunately, our trip coincided with one of the hottest, muggiest, most inhospitable summers in New England's history. Our accommodations consisted of a run down, moldy beach house where the only method of bathing consisted of an outdoor shower with three flimsy walls and a nasty shower curtain, all situated on a cement pad, which allowed every manner of bug, access to the water around your feet.

As fo our bedroom, it was situated in a screened porch so that when it rained, our beds could've passed for the steerage level of the Titanic. Accomodations aside, nothing compared to the horror of blueberry picking. The very same past-time which my husband spoke of with such longing was, for me, one of the most miserable 2 hours of my life. I remember standing in a grove, on what was the hottest, muggiest, most soul crushing day in New England's history. As I clutched my pail tightly between clenched fingers, I stifled screams as gigantic beetles dive bombed all around me. The sound of their approach was equal to WWII Kamikaze pilots. So as not to appear the major whimp I truly was, I kept my screams to myself and repeated the following mantra in my head: "Just pick your bucket of berries and get the HELL out!"... "Just pick your bucket of berries and get the HELL out!" And no, I haven't been blueberry picking or anywhere near the Cape since.

So back to my husband and In-laws. A month or so ago I planted the seed and told my husband that he and my daughter should take a trip together somewhere. I thought it would be a wonderful bonding opportunity. After a lot of thought on his part (before he makes ANY decision he has to spin it around in his brain for a while.... a Loooonnnnggg while.) and a bit of discussion on mine, we thought it would be a wonderful idea for his mom and sister to be a part of the trip. And since there's been years of romanticizing about New England, it seems the perfect destination for them all.

So this week, thanks to a LOT of nudging on my part, my husband, daughter, Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law are off on a New England Vacation. It took a LOT of prodding on my part because... DAMN, this group would've NEVER made it as far as the Delaware border without my persistent "Go Already!" So that, along with my mad skillz at internet searches and hotel booking gave them the incentive.

They're of course, wondering why I might seem so desparate to send them off on vacation without me? I'll tell you why, because for a glorious week my son and I get to 'Bach It' (as in bachelors.) There are no demands to meet and since it's just the two of us? No food planning other than, "Which fast-food franchise should we patronize today?" So, in the spirit of 'Bachelorhood' I leave you with these:

A Little Visit Down Main St.

Woo Hoo!

Um, excuse me... I was just celebrating. I wrapped my first gifts today and made a cool $26... Yeah, I know... but c'mon, it's a start... To celebrate I'm takin' the family out to Arby's tomorrow night, MMmmmm, Hmmmm, that's what I'm talkin' about! All in all I think things are going according to plan. I really didn't expect to have any customers the first week. I mean, people first have to find out I'm there AND they have to have gifts for me to wrap. If folks are anything like me, they won't start shopping until the weekend of the 5th or better yet, the 13th and probably continue shopping through the following weekend. And hey, I figure any of the supplies I don't use at the shop, I'm sure to use on my own stuff. So it's a WIN-WIN!

Anyway, I managed to get a few rather crappy pics of the shop and tried to capture the quaintness that is Main St.

Meet Duke, he's the greeter at the frame shop and has his own painted window dog house for keeping watch over the action on the street.

This is a shot looking up Main St. toward the court house and all the lawyer & bail bonds offices. 'Cause you never know when you're going to need a good lawyer or bail bondsman for that matter.

This is the view down Main St... Like the way I managed to get that big traffic sign in the pic? It's all about setting up the shot. I used to work the next block down at Art Space on Main.

But this is where I'm 'working' until the end of the month. I have to put air quotes above the word 'Work' because seriously, I'm having SO MUCH FUN!

So if you see the sandwhich board (compliments of my handy husband) I'm open for business and ready to wrap!

"I came in the door, I said it before

I never let the mic magnetize me no more

But it's biting me, fighting me, inviting me to rhyme;

I can't hold it back, I'm looking for the line."

Uh *cough*, sorry 'bout that... That's WRAP as in Gift Wrap... I promise I won't be puttin' down any rhymes at the shop... Just the fact I've added rapping to this post is going to be plenty embarrassing for my kids.

In honor of my NEXT 500 blog posts...

I can hardly believe it but THIS is my 501st post!!! (my thanks to my boy for noticing... I'm not much on catching on to the intricacies of all this here bloggin' stuff!)

Anyway, in honor of all the amazing and informative text I've shared with you over the past 500 posts... Everything from 'When the men buy the pants' to my sons possible need to 'Go Commando'.... I'm proud to announce myself as the recipient of not just one but TWO awards.

Behold my awesomeness...

This award bestowed upon me by that nature lovin', marathon runnin', attitude dishin' Stacie. She's my gal to the nearby south, who I'd like to confirm, I'd absolutely love to meet face-to-face and do a lunch/craft store thing (or even better a photo safari in D.C.) before she's up, up and away with her husband to their next tour of duty. Thanks so much Stace and here's a little extra scribble for you ~~~~

But wait, here's my second 'Fabulous' award:


This one from that Belle from the south She loves decorating AND she's a sometimes scrapbooker which means she plays with paper, so I just gotta love her! Thanks Belle and in the interest of following through with the rules of a Fabulous Blogger, here is a list of 5 of my addictions:

1. Oatmeal with Cinnamon & Splenda brown sugar. I eat it every day except Sunday's, that's when my husband makes pancakes. Should I be referring to oatmeal as an addiction? Yes, because nothing else leaves me satisfied as a breakfast meal and sometimes dinner too!
   
2. Ribbon... I LOVE ribbon, be it wired, grossgrain, satin or florist... It's my ultimate wish to own every style, every pattern and every color... Ribbon just makes me happy and it makes me a complete and total dork, I know.
   
3. Since the title of this blog IS 'The Paper Treehouse' I guess it's a given that I LOVE paper... I have stacks and stacks of it in my studio... Addiction? well, I can't mainline it, but it's pretty much a staple in my creative life.
4. Okay, I'm embarressed to admit this but *hanging head to avoid the dis-satisfied glares, fingers pointing at me, and all the tsk-tsking*... I'm addicted to solitaire. My son has tried to get me to play other games, minesweep, spider, scrabble, you name it. Anything to get me to stop that annoying mouse clicking. I always play draw one, vegas style. I've won thousands and lost millions. Why do I indulge in this monumentous time waster? It's what I do when I'm avoiding something I don't really want to do ie. housework, homework, you name it.
5. Photography blogs... If I spent as much time taking pictures as I did looking at pictures people take? Well, for one I'd be begging for a better camera and two, the probability is I'd just be taking a truck load of crappy pictures... I really should however, work harder at trying to understand exactly how a camera works. Maybe that's when I'll achieve photography blog worthy photos.

So yeah, I'm sure you were expecting something a little more Addiction worthy, but it doesn't take 500 blog posts to come to the conclusion, I'm NO Courtney Love and I'm certainly NO Amy Winehouse. I'm just your plain ol' run of the mill, oatmeal chuggin' goody-goody. Hope I didn't disappoint anyone.

BIG NEWS!!!

I'M IN BUSINESS BABY!

I'll be open beginning Monday, Dec. 1st
11-2pm Mon.-Fri.

Need a gift beautifully wrapped?
113 East Main St.
Elkton, MD.

From the 'You've Got to be Kidding' File:

I said I'd NEVER do it AGAIN...

Do you recall this post:
Lessons Learned


And this one:
And then I just stuck my head in a hole and prayed to die...

Hard to believe but, I said Yes to decorating another office space... Why in the world anyone would want to ask for MY help EVER again is beyond me.

Am I nervous?... Yes! Am I excited?... Though I'm still not sure why, Yes! I guess because this just might be a chance to redeem myself, take what I learned the first time and not make such a mess of it this time out. Also, I don't have to order a desk and have it delivered... There's already one at the office! One hurdle down, who knows how many more to go!

Yeah, I'm down with all that's Tech

I added to my blog roll (check out, Christy & Amy) AND included a link you'll find if you scroll down the page...
And here's the REAL COOL part... I did it sans 'Techno Man' aka, my son.
Just call me 'Madame HTML'

Anyway, about that link... Sorry, self promotion takes precedence to 'Feeding the World'... I'm working on humility... No really, I am!

Free Rice! Click on it and if you're competitive in any way (like me), I dare you to try and stop. I was up until after midnight last night telling myself, "Just one more word... Just one more definition... Just another 1,000 grains of rice for the hungry!"

You see, it works like this:

In the middle of the FreeRice Home page you will see something like:

small means:

little
old
big
yellow

To play the game, click on one of the four definitions (“little,” “old,” “big,” or “yellow”) that you think is correct. If you get it right, FreeRice donates 20 grains of rice to help end hunger. In the example above, you would want to click on “little,” which means “small.” You will then get a chance to do another word the same way. You can play as long as you like and give as much rice as you like.

What's in it for you?:

Learning new vocabulary has tremendous benefits. It can help you:

• Formulate your ideas better
• Write better papers, emails and business letters
• Speak more precisely and persuasively
• Comprehend more of what you read
• Read faster because you comprehend better
• Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school
• Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT
• Perform better at job interviews and conferences
• Sell yourself, your services, and your products better
• Be more effective and successful at your job

After you have done FreeRice for a couple of days, you may notice an odd phenomenon. Words that you have never consciously used before will begin to pop into your head while you are speaking or writing. You will feel yourself using and knowing more words.

So why are you sitting here reading this?... Go, click on the link, build your brain-power and more importantly, Feed the Hungry!

Theatre

Thursday evening I had the distinct pleasure of attending the opera with a group from The New School. The Grand Opera House often extends invitations to the school for dress rehearsal night of a new production. The last opera I tagged along for was 'The Pirates of Penzance'. I'm not a huge opera fan but I LOVE theatre productions so I'll take a live show any way I can get it, especially if it's free!

Now, when I say I had the 'distinct pleasure' of attending the opera on Thursday, I say it merely because of the company in which I shared. As far as this particular opera... Well, let's just say that 'Little Women' was (I believe) NEVER intended to be set entirely to song, especially the operatic kind. I'm reluctant to critique the production too harshly as I'm not much of an expert on opera but frankly, it hurt my head... And since I was in the company of friends who have studied music who had pretty much the same impression... Well, 'nuff said.

On Friday I had the even GREATER pleasure of attending a play put on by the students and staff of The New School. Now of course I'm going to be quite biased here and gush about how excellent this entire production was... However, I'd never be able to write about it as eloquently as my friend Amy... Who, I should add, is also a parent at The New School. However biased we may be, I urge you to go to her site and read the review of 'What the North Wind Saw'... The pictures I took can be found here.

Back to the Beginning...

I started this blog 'thing' as a means of displaying my 'mad skillz' as a paper artist... Since that time I've done little but yammer on about housework, family and the bizarre situations day to day existence has handed me. Fear not, my loyal 3.5 Paper Treehouse visitors (.5? hey, you know who you are, stop on my blog for half a second, only to find a cute picture of a dog and the cut off heads of my children and think to yourself, "Not gonna waste my time on this shit!") ... I'll not disappoint you by holding back on details of my everyday drudgeries. How could I, dear readers, ever leave you bereft of the soliloquies (yes, I had to look up the spelling), in which I take the time to engage myself... I might also choose to believe, you'll think me an amazing blogger, if I start inserting some Readers Digest quality, 'Enrich Your Word Power', buzzwords into my blog... The likes of which result in a visit to dictionary.com. Is it workin' for ya? huh?

SO, let's go back to the beginning and allow me to take a break from all the witty repartee and regale you with a bit of not only my artsy awesomeness but also my utter lack of humility... Behold the beauty that is the birth announcement project I recently completed:

Yes, I handmade 80 announcements

A longtime customer and friend of mine had her baby... FINALLY! And gave me the opportunity to strip her poor child naked on a cold afternoon, so I could practice my photography skills. Take a look at sweet little Charley... Here's a close-up of the shot that graced each birth announcement:

I'm really quite pleased with the result and since I'm all up in myself over the fact I got MORE than one good picture, I simply have to share my favorite pic of the session:


Like I said, I just couldn't be happier with the results! I had SO much fun with this project, that I'm longing to do it again... and soon! Problem is, I'm in that stage of life when most of my friends are long past the baby making stage and it's still too early for the grandparent thing, at least without a shotgun involved.