Sing the Blues

I promised you new music, and I'm finally ready to make good on the threat. lol

The band has been revamped, and we put a couple of rough clips up on the MySpace page. Now they're really rough, just quickie recordings made in the basement, so don't judge us too harshly. We wanted everyone to get a glimpse of the direction we're moving in though, and as time goes on we'll add more clips, and improve the recordings that are up there.

We have some great songs that we're working on that aren't even ready for a rough recording yet that I can't wait for you to hear. One is a fractured fairy tale, and another is a Heart-type hard rock song with an opera intro. I know it sounds strange, but it works! lol

Oh... the new band name? ChupaRosa
Pretty cool huh?

It's a flower that blooms in the American Southwest, it's called a "Sucking Rose" because it has a petal that looks kind of like a tongue. I really like the slightly twisted variants of roses, hence my nickname StormRose. I totally relate, because just like me everything looks fine and good on the surface, even beautiful sometimes, but underneath there's something not quite right. Describes me to a T.

To celebrate the Band's passage from the Blues into something else (we're not quite sure what it is yet) I have the start of a new Digi kit for you!

It's been awhile, I know...

In my defense, I've been working on a kit that was just stumping me. I didn't make a single element or paper for it that I liked. So I'd work on it awhile, and when nothing clicked I'd just walk away. Well, yesterday I decided that instead of walking away I was going to start a new project. A kit built off of a paper I made awhile ago...

That one sparked, and within an hour I had 10 papers made.

I have to remember to move along when I hit a creative roadblock. I have a really hard time setting a project aside when it just isn't working.

So here it is... I hope it was worth the wait!

This zipped file contains 15 papers:
5 Solid Textured Papers
5 Grunge papers
5 Patterned Papers

Download them here:Sing the Blues Papers

The element pack will be posted Tomorrow, so keep an eye out!
Enjoy!

Musings from Insanity...

I don't really have any new and exciting news to impart. I'm just looking to kill time so I thought I'd post.

We finally have a solid date on Tiana's lengthening surgery. She'll go to Shriners on August 9th to have the surgery done, and she should be home on the 10th. This is a short one, a piece of cake considering what she's already been through. She should grow another inch or two afterwards also, so I'll probably wait to buy school clothes!

Last week I had some time to myself, so I got to play a bit. I purchased a polymer stamp maker with a bit of the tax money last winter, and I worked on getting my technique down. I had to make a couple of calls to the company before I managed to work out some of the kinks, but I think I finally got it.

My big issue with making stamps was sticky polymer (sounds like a band name). See how it works is that you pour this goopy polymer into a mold, it's kind of the consistency and feel of honey or light corn syrup, and then you shine a UV light on it. Wherever the light hits, the polymer cures and hardens, where it doesn't hit, it washes away. I couldn't get it all washed off though, and so even when the stamps were finished, they were sticky in the areas that were recessed. I'm not talking a little tacky either, they were nasty, disgusting, can't get it off sticky. You didn't want to touch those stamps to any part of your body that had hair on it, let me tell ya!

So I called the company and whined, asked what I was doing wrong, and it turns out it wasn't me (do try to hide your astonishment). They gave me a couple of tricks that weren't included in the instructions for curing the sticky polymer, and now I'm good to go. They're still a bit tacky, but they no longer remove bits of skin and hair wherever they touch. A big improvement in my opinion.

I made some cute stamps last week, and have some ideas for some others I want to try. Once I get all of the sticky polymer off my desk, I'll make some cards with my new stamps to share with you.


So what else is new...

We had some changes in the band last weekend. Jim our drummer wasn't happy with the new direction we've been taking, and how things are going in general, and we decided it was probably time to part company. We'll miss him, he's a good man, but this way we can still be friends in the long run.

Sean and I are going to start cranking out some new music. It's time for us to move away from playing the Blues, and we've been working on some awesome new stuff. I'm really excited about what we'll be doing in the future. The music that I'm writing has a lot more feeling for me, and I'm finding that I can really feel it pouring out of me as we play it. So I think it's going to be great.

So we'll be writing, and possibly doing some recording while we start the search for a new drummer. If you're interested, you can always check out the bands web page or myspace page for updates.

Well, that's all the exciting stuff in my life right now... Pretty boring over all, I know.

Hugs,
Anne

Busy, busy, busy...

Am I like the worst blogger ever? No, probably not... My posts might be sporadic, but I still keep coming back to it.

You should be able to see from my post time, that I'm writing this at some insane hour when I should be sleeping. That's because this is about the only time I can sneak in a few minutes without feeling completely guilty. Lately I'm either working or doing something with the kids. There hasn't even been a lot of time for John.

The good news is that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So what have I been up to besides work? Absolutely nothing...

The band played last night at Fat Boy Roadhouse in Milwaukee. It was fun, but my feet and legs are so tired from standing in my 3.5" heels for 4 hours that I can barely walk today. We made it to bed at about 4:30 am. John took the precaution of turning off the pThones so that we wouldn't be woken up before we were ready, but one of them escaped his attention, and of course it rang at 9:30. It woke the girls up, so of course we had to drag our butts out of bed for the day. I ended up taking an unscheduled nap on the couch this afternoon... I often wonder if I'm getting too old for my rock-n-roll dreams.

A Picture from last night for you... I'm getting a little hippy, I need to work on that.

So the usual fan club couldn't make it to the gig, but the rest of our friends put in a good showing. Kat and Tim came all the way from Madison, and brought a couple of friends with them. Lisa and Jeff put in an appearance, and Chad (aka Snake Boy ala John) came with his imaginary wife, who is really a lovely girl.

All in all, not a bad night, we played to a crowd which is always better than playing to an empty room, and we made it though another gig without getting any beer bottles thrown at us. What more could we possibly ask for?

So... Let's see... Other news...

Tiana gets her brace off in a week, I can't tell you how excited she is about that. She's literally counting the days. She started piano lessons last week at School. The music teacher is offering them for free after school for six weeks. We're going to see how she likes it, and if she wants to continue we'll consider getting her private lessons. Music is a big deal in our lives, as I'm sure you can guess, so we encourage the kids to pursue it when they have the chance.

Alexi and CJ have been in Florida with their dad this week. Alexi turned 15, but was away for her birthday. I called her to wish her a happy one, and we'll celebrate when she gets back. I miss them, I always do when they're gone, and I worry. I'll probably call tomorrow to make sure they made it back safely though, then I'll be able to sleep again.

We're working on some summer vacation plans. John and CJ were invited to a Cord rally in Auburn in June, which is when we usually take our vacation. So maybe we'll do that. I can amuse the girls while the boys get their testosterone running with the vintage cars. Honestly, I think it's great that John and CJ are having such a good time with the Cord connection. It's a healthy obsession, so I'll encourage it if it makes them happy.

I think that's it for now... I think I'm going to go get reacquainted with my bed. it's been awhile, so I hope it remembers me.

Hugs,
Anne

Just one of those mornings...

I woke up this morning to John's sonorous voice hollering "Oh sh**!" I opened my eyes to see the clock and find that we should have left the house fifteen minutes earlier…

Don’t you just love it when your morning starts out like that?

All in all, it could have been worse. We were only about 20 minutes late and still early enough that we had some time to relax before we had to start playing. It all went well, my voice didn’t get as torn up as I thought it would, and people seemed to appreciate the noise we were making. I was a little worried about what we were going to do with the girls while we were playing, but they ended up earning their keep by helping pass out water bottles to the participants.

We also got a really nice sign that says “ABS Blues Band” out of the deal. I’m sure I’ll find a good use for it.

Ok, so… It’s time for a snakey-poo update.

No, she still doesn’t have a name. I have a couple of ideas, but I want to run them by the two oldest kids to get their thoughts first. They come back home tomorrow, so maybe she’ll have a name by tomorrow night. Notice I say maybe… I have no faith in our ability to agree on anything. I attempted to feed her last night, but she refused it. I’m thinking (hoping) that she’s still stressed out from the move. We’re leaving her alone for awhile, and then we’ll try again. If some solitude doesn’t do the trick, I’ll have to give the breeder a call and see what he recommends. I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that though, he’s going to think I’m an idiot pretty soon if I keep having all of these problems. I’m not, I swear I’m not! I’ve raised four kids and haven’t had a single one escape their cage.*

*Disclaimer - I’m just kidding, no need to call DCFS.

I didn’t get any stamping done yesterday like I’d planned. I did get to go to the JoAnn Superstore though. I’m much better at accumulating papercrafting supplies than I am at using them anyway. I got a new Sizzix die. *Yay* I bought the slide mount die I’ve been wanting for awhile. I think it will be cool to cut them from chipboard and alter them. I also ordered the Ransom Doodle Bar set from the Sizzix web page last week (at 70% off on clearance *WooHoo*). They’re coming out with some really cute new dies now, and I, of course, want them all!

I also found the cutest Frankenstein dollar stamp there. I didn’t know JoAnn’s had dollar stamps, but I don’t get to the superstore that often. When I went to make some Halloween projects a couple of weeks ago, I found that I was seriously lacking in Halloween stamps, so now I’m doing my best to fill that hole. I’ve since gotten 3 Halloween sets from The Angel Company, along with a bunch of dollar stamps from Michael’s and now JoAnn’s.

*One of my projects made without a Halloween stamp.
It uses the Creepy Crawlies set from TAC.

I should be good for awhile now… Maybe… Though there is another TAC set that I’ve had my eye on…

John’s outside patching the front walk. We have to fill the big hole before it freezes or they won’t deliver our mail anymore (we nothing, make that He). I don’t hear him swearing yet, so it must be going ok, though he has had to make at least one trip to the hardware store for extra cement, and I see another in his future.

I should go take a picture before he gets mad so I can scrapbook the event.
Have a great day!
Anne