Where Has All The Context Gone?

I love observing online behavior.

Partly because it's my full time job, but also just because I suffer from TACS - Terminal Acute Curiosity Syndrome.

One thing I realized recently is what the source of TAPOS - Terminal Acute Perpetual Offendedness Syndrome - is.

It's the current inability of people to apply context to online content.

It could very well be that the lack of inflection in online chatter is responsible - perhaps context is only perceptible in person.

I'll give you an example.

Let's say it's cedar season. Which it is - we are all dying in Central Texas and it's just the beginning. We need prayers and Benadryl.

Let's say I post a horrifying picture of the cedar pollen killing us all, and I say something like "The cedar is so bad that this year I'm going to have a head transplant."

INEVITABLY, some little Eeyore will pop on and say "My uncle had a head transplant, and I am the head of the head transplant GoFundMe now and I don't appreciate it when people who aren't really having head transplants talk about having head transplants."

Well lean in, Eeyore, so that you can look deep into my eyes and feel my scary whisper wash over you when I say: LIGHTEN UP!

CONTEXT is the difference between making a joke about needing a head transplant during cedar season, and the difference between ACTUALLY talking about head transplants. No one would ever make a joke about a REAL head transplant patient. Only imaginary ones, like me. (PS - please go to a lab and see if you're a match because I could really use your help and your head between now and February. This will have to sort of be like a chain letter, because then you also have to find a head donor match and so on. Someone loses, but we probably won't know them.)

Sometimes, believe it or not, head transplants can be used in a humorous, hyperbolic way to make a point - in this case, the point that we are all dying of a horrid plague and feel as though we may never laugh again because you can't laugh and sneeze at the same time, and no one laughs in Texas between December and February anyway.

Sometimes, when you post a photo of your cat's handiwork after knocking over a container of 3,000 microbeads, you really don't want a lecture on how microbeads are destroying the habitat of the Mung Bean Golden Micro-Bear in Tiraloo, either. We just want to show you our bead mess.

We'd all get along much better if we re-introduced context into our online activities, and re-developed our senses of humor, and freed ourselves from the tyranny of believing in micro-agressions related to glass beads and head transplants.

Really.

I was straightening up some things after holiday decorating, and I came across some of the cards we made at one of my retreats last year and before popping them in the mail to friends, I thought I'd share them with you.

I did a detailed class on the Elegant Writer pen during one session. It's really one of my favorite, unpredictable watercolor mediums. I have a video using this pen here.

But for these two projects for the class, all I did was go over the stamp lines (waterproof ink) with the pen and then add water. I found that the spruce color that separated out looked just like Lost Lagoon, (retired) so I paired it with that for the card base. Love the plum shades that come out too, so I mounted the second card on Perfect Plum.

links to supplies used

InLinkz.com

The sort of dreamy look you can get was perfect for the elegant images and the sentiment. In another CONTEXT this might be happy, upbeat images and less moody and serious.

That's the beauty of art. I can change the mood instantly with a color or a style. If only Facebook would comply :).

Hope you're having a great lead-up to Christmas. I had my customer appreciation Christmas party last night and I promised to share the recipes, which were very well received. In order of enthusiasm - here they are.

Bacon Cheeseball Bites

•     12 oz. cream cheese, softened
•     1 c. shredded extra sharp cheddar - I microplaned a brick of it - makes a huge difference. I don't think they'd be as good with grated cheese from the store.
•     1 tsp. garlic powder
•     1 tsp. smoked Spanish paprika
•     kosher salt
•     Freshly ground black pepper
•     8 slices bacon, cooked and finely chopped (whatever - use however much you want)
•     1/3 c. finely chopped fresh chives (homegrown here)
•     1/3 c. finely chopped pecans (I smashed them with my smasher thing)

1. Mix together cream cheese, cheddar, garlic powder, paprika and season with salt and pepper. I did this by hand with gloves. Easiest. Form into 18 small balls (1/2" diameter maybe?) and refrigerate until firm, 1 hour.

2. In a shallow bowl or on a plate, stir together cooked bacon, chives, and pecans.

3. Roll balls in bacon-chive-pecan mixture and insert a pretzel stick in each ball.

 Churro Chex Crack

4 1/2 cups Rice Chex™ cereal

4 1/2 cups Corn Chex™ cereal

1 C packed brown sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter

1/4 up light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Place cereal in a large, heat safe bowl. Line a large baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick baking spray. In a small bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, heat brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup until the mixture comes to a boil. Let boil for one minute, stirring constantly, then remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Pour over cereal and stir until cereal is coated. Spread cereal on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle evenly with cinnamon/sugar mixture. Bake for about 5 minutes, then flip with a spatula and bake for 3 more minutes, until cereal turns golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely, then break up and store in an airtight container.

Those were the two most amazing things. Then I did phyllo cups with a piece of brie and Melanie Hope's homemade apricot pepper jam (the apricots are from her own tree). Those disappeared, along with mushroom sausage phyllo cups and mushrooms stuffed with that same mixture. You just saute chopped mushrooms and onions in butter with some thyme - just cook until all the moisture is cooked off. While hot, mix that with a brick of cream cheese and one package of Jimmy Dean Natural (has no MSG) sausage that you've already cooked. Stuff this into mushrooms or pastry and it's delicious. That's a recipe I got from Melanie. Then we had spinach dip with torn up Hawaiian Bread and broccoli salad - I crowdsourced this recipe - and mashed up a few people's to get this one. I like it because it's less sweet than some other recipes. I could eat this all day.

Broccoli Salad

Broccoli - I got two huge stalks from an organic farm in California, so I don't really have a quantity - maybe four cups or so, chopped into small pieces.
2 C. Mayo - I used half Hellman's, half Duke's
1/3 C. sugar - I think you could even do 1/4
4 TBS white balsamic vinegar
1 C. dried cranberries
1 C. sultanas
1 C. cooked, chopped bacon

Mix the mayo, sugar and vinegar thoroughly and store overnight in the fridge - very important. The next day, toss the rest (except the bacon) in the dressing. It seems like too much dressing, but it's not. Add bacon when serving so it stays crispy. Add nuts if desired.

A good time was had by all and they did what I told them to do and ate all the food! :)

So go out there and make it a fun and funny week - no Eeyoring allowed, you hear me?

Loveyameanitbye.

You're One in a Dozen

I had a great customer experience a few weeks ago with Lodge.

I had an enameled cast iron pot that I use for ALL THE THINGS. I make stew in it three times a month, I cook beans in it, I make bacon jam in it, I cook the fruit for my free range fruitcakes in it.

It's blue, and it's my constant companion in the kitchen. I am unnaturally attached to this wonderful piece of cookware.

So a month or so ago, I noticed that I had used this thing so much that I was wearing through the enamel! I've had it since 1992, so that's understandable, but I nearly cried real tears for my little friend and what seemed to be our imminent goodbye.

I was so sad that I told my "texties" about it one morning, and one of them - my friend Mel - told me to do something I never would have thought to do - see if they had a lifetime warranty. I was all ready just to buy a new one, and then bury the old one in the backyard after a lengthy, somber funeral. But it was worth a try, right?

So I took pictures of it and sent them in to the company.

Lo and behold - the next day I got an email back, generously offering to replace my beloved. I was ASTONISHED.

To me, it was a big investment - because $75 for a kitchen tool is a lot of money - and by that, I mean - that would buy a lot of craft supplies - and I don't spend that kind of cash on a whim. So for a company to honor a warranty on what I consider to be a pricey item - it's a pretty big deal.

For example, let's compare and contrast this experience with the one I had with Grohe - who treated me like an absolute criminal when their faucet completely failed me.

I can tell you I will never in my life purchase another thing from Grohe, and I will forever be a fan of Lodge. It's not hard to treat people right and still be profitable and responsible. But it's so rare that it's worth writing about.

The difference between world peace and not world peace is probably quite similar to the difference between Lodge and Grohe, IMHO.

So Sundays are the days I have a live session with my team members. We've decided that a live project is fun, and so last time, I posted a supply list so they could craft along if they wanted to. But this past weekend was super busy, and so when it was time for the call, I had to just sit down and improvise - with a stamp set they all chose - which is the Hey, Chick set that will be available for Sale-a-bration on January 4th.

I had NOTHING prepared and so I sort of crowd-sourced the card - I just let them give me feedback as I went, and it was SO much fun. Most definitely a better card as a result of the team effort.

I used one of our new 3D embossing folders - it's a hexagon pattern. And while we were live, I tried brayering both sides with Basic Gray ink - and it turns out on the recessed side - IT LOOKS JUST LIKE CHICKEN WIRE! Brayering the other side - not so hot :).

Yay for happy accidents!

So that became my background.

Then I used our new watercolor pencils to color the chicken and the cute egg carton image from the Perfect Mix stamp set (also available January 4th (or now if you purchase the starter bundle) to express the sort of sarcastically hilarious "You're one in a dozen" sentiment. It's like you're one in a million except you're more common. So funny.

Even if he is common, he's cute as a bug in a rug, I THINK.

This weekend is my customer appreciation holiday party and so I'm looking forward to having tons of fun with my crafty peeps. I will start cooking today. Then we are sort of gently sliding into the holidays - I always take the last week of the year off, so I'm looking forward to some crafty time - which I haven't had much of the last few weeks.

I hope you are feeling festive!

Loveyameanitbye.

You Just Didn't Want It Enough

I've sat on this post for a while, because while the Olympics were happening, people were hot and bothered about a lot of things, and didn't have the distance from an event that gives you a better perspective.

This Olympics was fascinating. From the controversy about Rio being a disaster, to the mind-boggling swimming performances, the (insert nameless poor decision maker here) - it was a newsworthy event from start to finish.

To me it seemed like there were more CHARACTER moments than in many Olympics past. Usain Bolt shushing a reporter when the US National Anthem came on, for example.

But as exciting as the swimming was, the moment that really captured my heart at this Olympics was this one.

A lot of people criticized Shaunae Miller - the winner here - for this dive, which is completely legal in track and field. Uninformed people (and clearly people who are not baseball OR track fans) jumped to an unwise conclusion, in defense of who they considered the anointed winner.

But what really happened here is that that Shaunae Miller wanted to win more than Allyson Felix did.

And because of that - she won.

Up until the second that she made that decision to be "the first athlete whose torso (as distinguished from the head, neck, arms, legs, hands or feet) reaches the vertical plane of the closest edge of the finish line" - it was a horse race.

But the sheer force of her will decided it.

She wanted it more.

And quite often, the person who wants it more, wins, which is why you should really, really think about what you want. All the time. All day every day. And you should also never, ever, ever think ill of a person who wants something more than you do and gets it. You have the same opportunity. Be creative. Pull out that baseball move when everyone else is worried about form. You'd be surprised how effective it is. And someone might get an epic picture of you doing it. I love this picture. I find it very inspiring.

One of my proudest moments at my retreat this fall was getting a beloved friend of mine - Diana Gibbs - to break form and get her hands dirty. She does NOT like to get her hands dirty. She won the cleanest workspace award for the entire weekend.

Seriously - look at it.

She didn't want to get inky, and it was very out of character for her, but she bravely tried the technique, and ended up loving her card. I love it when people get out of their comfort zones and make art. It always ends well.

That's what we try to do with the MIX-Ability challenge at Splitcoast. We try to show people that mixed media can be whatever you want it to be - messy, clean, quick and simple or long and complicated. I used to be so intimidated by mixed media until I figured out that all it means is you use multiple mediums, and heck - I do that all the time.

Today, I'm hosting the challenge and I decided to do a twist on a cling wrap technique that we did at my retreat. Cling wrap (like Press 'n Seal) is WAY more fun in the studio than in the kitchen, believe me. So I made two cards with this technique - and it LITERALLY took a minute and a half. So I hope you try it.

The first card was with a bigger panel used for a background.

 The second card was to show you how pretty the same technique can be on a card with tons of white space if that's your comfort zone - it is mine, for sure.

links to all supplies used

InLinkz.com

The mediums I used were powdered watercolor. I used Paper Artsy Infusions - these are similar to Bister - they contain walnut shells in addition to just pigment, and that adds little spots of warmth into the powders. As if Tim Holtz and Brusho got married. :)

Here's a quick video of it.

This will work with any water soluble medium - ink, watercolor - whatever. Even acrylic paint - just water it down or use a fluid acrylic.

But whatever you do - experiment, get your hands dirty.

Break form.

It's how you win.

Loveyameanitbye.

Cheers!

Do you know people who have birthday months?

Meaning, they celebrate their birthday every day for the entire month of their birthday?

I do, and it cracks me up.

For these people, you really need to bring your A-game for your card.

I skipped last month's Hero Kit because my life was crazy, but THIS MONTH, let's talk about A-game, shall we?

The second I saw this puppy I knew what needed to happen. I needed to put every stamp in it on the lid of my MISTI and make a pop-up box card! I stamped them all at once and colored them with the Copics listed below, and then die cut them all at once - saves a ton of time  to stamp everything together and then die cut it together. Just be sure the images are far enough apart on your MISTI to leave room for the dies. Then I made a modified version of the pop-up box - because I wanted to use the STUNNING shimmery blue paper in the kit - measurements below. That just goes to show you you can make these little guys any size you want. My photo does NOT do the shimmery cardstock justice. It's a beautiful, shimmery navy blue.

So if you want to wow one of those birthday month people, I highly recommend you do this.

How could you NOT feel appreciated pulling this out of an envelope and having all the goodies wiggling in the air? You cannot. I am certain of that.

links to supplies used

InLinkz.com

I had SO much fun making this card! I actually spent an hour filming the entire thing, and then I got a message saying my phone storage was nearly full so it didn't save the video and I almost cried. But thankfully - there's a full tutorial on this cute card at Splitcoast. I modified the measurements to fit the BEAUTIFUL shimmery navy cardstock in the kit, which is 5.5 x 8.5 - thanks to some help from Dina, who can math :). So on these pretty shimmery sheets, the vertical score lines are at 2, 4, 6, 8 - and the horizontal score line is at 2" - the rest of the instructions are as they are in the tutorial, here.

Every time I make one of these, I wonder why I don't make them more. It's one of the few 3D projects I'm just crazy about.

I'm hopping along with some amazing people today - so be sure and visit them to see what they've done with it - I've seen some peeks on Instagram - wow!

This month's kit has $65 worth of goodies in it:

• A 4"x6" clear stamp set
• A set of 8 coordinating Frame Cuts dies that match the stamp set
• Two Fancy word dies - "cheers" and "party"
• A set of Paper Layering dies for adding a sunburst or sparkler effect
• Gold glitter embossing powder
• Custom washi tape designed for the kit
• A gold Uni-ball Gel Pen
• 4 half sheets of gold foil cardstock
• 2 half sheets of each metallic cardstock: purple, pink, dark blue and antique gold

There are also some fun add ons - stencils and other goodies - you can see the full kit here.

Now get crackin' on the hop and maybe YOU will win the kit they're giving away. Or, if you're like me and suffer from FOMO, you can just buy it.

The Hero Arts Blog

Yana Smakula

Mariana Grigsby

May Park

Amy Tsuruta

Clare Prezzia

Laura Bassen

Wanda Guess

You are here >>>> Lydia Fiedler <<<<<You are here

Ilina Crouse

Julie Ebersole at Ellen Hutson's CLASSroom

Shari Carroll at Simon Says Stamp

Libby Hickson

I hope you had an awesome weekend - I am still in shock that it's December and as usual, I'm completely unprepared, but also still have plenty of time to procrastinate :).

Loveyameanitbye.