I've been gone.

We took off and went to England.
We didn't lose any of the kids in the Underground. (On the Underground?)
We saw Big Ben, and Stonehenge and ate Fish and Chips.
We did it all.
I took about 1,500 photos.
For reals.
I gained 6 pounds.
So I am bloated and jet-lagged, and not really wanting to edit a butt-ton of photos just yet.
Internets, I owe you some posts.
I just want to make sure I am good company when I type them up.

My Eyelashes

One of the perks of getting old (remember I am hitting the big four-oh this year) is losing what matters.
Like your short-term memory.
Your waist.
Your hair.
And your eyelashes.

I never had any issues with my hair being thin, or having sparse eyelashes until I started going through "the change."
I was sad.
And realized, like a lot of things in life, that I should have appreciated those things when I had them.
Thinner hair is easier to blow-dry?
(Testing out the glass-half-full approach.)
I wanted to share with you all, a tiny miracle that I discovered.

It is a knock-off of the more expensive Olay Eye Serum.
You know me, and my cheapness.
I chose the Equate Eye Serum.
I started using this about eight months ago, when I watched this stupid episode of Dr. Oz, that showed one of the signs of aging as losing elasticity in your under-eye bags.
He had us get a hand mirror and pinch the skin of the bags and see if it stays pinched.
Friends- don't do it.
It will make you sad.
I very rarely (never) scrutinize my face with a hand mirror.
I did that day.
It was horrifying.
The pinching...
It was equally depressing to acknowledge the wrinkles under my eyes.
I usually avoid full mirror contact, but Dr. Oz made me look.
Well, the next time I was out, I spent a good hour in the magical creams aisle.
After reading a million packages, I came home with two moisturizers and this eye serum.

I have never been one to mess with product.
I wash my make-up off faithfully (almost) every night.
But moisturizing was new to me.
So at night, I would rub in the eye serum, and then the night cream moisturizer after I washed.
And the next morning, after I showered, another (lighter, daytime) moisturizer and again, rub in the eye serum.

My skin is happy.
That was good.
But that eye serum worked a miracle.
My eyelashes are super long and healthy!
(Suck on THAT menopause!)
I have done nothing else different but rub that eye serum in.
I have gone through one bottle, you only need a teeny drop.
I want to show you, but don't make fun, okay?
Here is my eye without make-up.
(Keep in mind, I had my eyeliner tattooed on, so I look like I am wearing stuff.)

Also ignore the un-plucked eyebrows--I clearly do.
Then here are my lashes with a couple coats of mascara.

I don't know how things are in your neck o' the woods, but a lot of people in my area have paid good money for eyelash extensions.
They are crazy.
I think it makes your eyelashes look like a clump of spider legs that all fringe out in different directions.
My friend who couldn't take the extensions anymore (she said it was hard to SEE sometimes) took them off, and lost her real eyelashes.
No bueno.
I normally don't pimp out product, but when it works, and I can save folks some money, it is worth mentioning.
That is all.

I Work in my Pajamas

You guys know that I craft for a "living," right?
One of the perks of this, is that every day is Casual Friday.

Don't be fooled by the photo.
I had to mock it up for an assignment.
Reality would have me sitting in the giant pile of crap--I had to scoot that aside for this photo. My hair would be in a pony-tail, shower optional.
But you get the idea, right?
The beauty of making my own schedule and stuff?
Having product shipped right to my door?
The only better job would be a mattress tester.
"Could you just nap on this every day for a week, and tell us what you think."
Dream. Job.
Which ironically would also require me to be in my pajamas.
For work.

Anywho.
I was recently contacted by Scrapbook Steals.
They wanted me to take a couple of scrapbook kits off of their hands, and make some stuff for them using the kits.
Yes, please.
Then, I got two fantabulously gorgeous kits from My Mind's Eye.
Both kits were from a collection called "Follow Your Heart."
I am not accustomed to working with kits.
Well, let me tell you what, the projects practically made themselves. Everything matched. Everything coordinated. Everything was easy. It sort-of felt like cheating.
I am sold on kits.
You can see the projects I made over on their blog, and if you act quickly (because I understand the stuff over there sells out fast) you can snag yourself a kit or two.
Scrapbook Steals is one of those "we have 100 kits, and when they are gone, they are gone" sites.
Here is the link:
SCRAPBOOK STEALS
But come back, cause I want to show you some other stuff.
I wanted to show you how easy it was to make a layout that looks like it took a long time, but really didn't.
Like when you make cookies using a mix.
Here was what the paper looked like right from the kit:

That shape is a big trend in scrapbooking right now.
I call it "chicken wire."
That shape has a name, but I am not 100 percent sure what it is.
I would say hexagon, but there is also a pentagram or pentagon or something. Remember I am a failure at math, and that would include geometry.
I did not master the shape-sorter as a child either.
It seemed like a lot of work, with little-to-no end satisfaction.
Like Golf.
I was more of a Cheerios-eater.

So, chicken wire it is!
I was inspired by the chicken wire. I chose to cut it up, and make mini-frames from it.
So I randomly selected areas to cut away.

Then I mounted the cut paper, with pop-dots onto a sheet of neutral patterned paper from the kit.
In some of the empty spaces I added photos.
The adhesive went down first.

Then the photo. I used wallet sized photos, and cut them down with my Exacto Knife if they stuck out of the side of the paper.

After the photos were added, I filled in spaces with a quote, added a title, and then embellished the whole thing using stuff from the kit.

These scraps were left-over when I cut them from the paper. I punched hearts out of them, and added the hearts to the layout. I am very frugal. It is my pioneer heritage.
In fact, I used only two pieces of paper from the kit for this whole layout.
The background, and the chicken-wire.
You can click on the layout to see it better.
It is a simple layout, but it looks like it took a long time.
In actual time, it took me about five songs on Pandora.

Here is a close-up to show the dimension of the chicken-wire raised up off of the background page.

Here is another layout that I whipped up in very little time too.
The background paper already had most of the elements printed on it. I just added to it with stuff from the kit.

Seriously easy.
You can pop over to Scrapbook Steals and see the other things I made with the kit.
Thanks, Scrapbook Steals, for having me!

In other news, I made some cards for another assignment.
One of them was this one:

Cute, yes?
Here is the back of this card:

Let me take you in closer:

Yes, that is machine stitching.
I sewed the damn thing shut when I was stitching the border.
I am not always awesome.