a real news update-

Tom got home last night around 11:30 pm... late, but he made it fine. I know airline travel is statistically safe, but I always feel better knowing he's landed safely.

Today was a lazy sort of day, overall- there was a meeting with the mayor this morning at the University of Arizona Agricultural Center (which is right next to our subdivision). The mayor put it together to address some of our concerns about issues with our developer, the flooding of the roads, etc. After that, we headed back home.

The meeting was actually very interesting- we found out just how fast Maricopa is growing... they did a special census in April 2004, which put the population at about 5,000. Another special census in December 2005 said it was about 15,000. They figure now it's up to about 25,000. (!!!!) The developer got the Tortosa development approved by the county, before the city incorporated in 2003, which is how they slid through without addressing the roads... apparently, the main road out to our subdivision was DIRT until just 6 - 8 months ago.

The main road from town to Phoenix gets more than 50,000 cars on it per day- more than the interstate in this area!! There were no fences along the road till 6 months - 1 year ago... apparently the wild horses crossed the road quite often! (I think that would be sort of cool to see, but probably not if you happened to hit one!

There are 50 trains per day through town, and they figure that within 5 years, it will be 100 per day. They are planning a "grade change" at the tracks (overpass or underpass), but it has to be worked out with the State Dept of Transportation, the railroad, the county, and the town... you can imagine how quickly things get done with this sort of bureaucracy involved! (not very... !)

So, there are lots of things in the works for improvements in the infrastructure, it's just hard to keep up when it's growing SO very fast. It was actually very nice of the mayor to come out and speak to us... I'd like to know more about some of the plans- maybe I'll have to attend a couple city council meetings.

After, Tom watched the men's semi-finals of the US Open (the finals tomorrow will be Federer vs. Roddick), and I headed out to the stamp store in Chandler again. Didn't get to spend enough time there last weekend! I bought a CUTE reindeer stamp (wait till you see it!), a set of unmounted stamps (flowers and grasses- very nice, I'll post some pics soon), and a couple new ink pads. We watched the women's finals (Maria Sharapova won, BOO- my personal opinion), and I messed around with my new stamps while Tom played his guitar.

So now, it's very late, and I should probably go to bed, but we don't have to get up early tomorrow!

more crafty snippets-

More snippets of an artsy/crafty project that I finished last night. Again, I don't want to show the whole thing yet... I'll show it all later!

chalk ink and a new SW stamp I bought at Stamp Works in Chandler.

watercolored paper and heat embossing

chalk ink and another new stamp- a Hero Arts swirl stamp that I love!

This I can't explain, but you'd understand if you saw the entire picture. Which I won't post. Yet.

another card...

I made this card last week; I found it on the scanner bed last night, when I went to scan something else!

It was made using a challenge template from the Stamping board on 2peas- the card template was basically the heart on a card, and you could do anything with it from there. I went for simple, but I think it turned out pretty nice. I don't use vellum very often, and I don't know why, because I like the look of it a lot. It toned down the blue cardstock here, and added another floral element. The flower is one of tons I bought one day at Michael's in the floral department, then cut apart. I hardly ever use them either, but I should! The sentiment is a $1 stamp from Michael's, the ink is Azure Blue Stazon. The heart is cut from the paper I watercolored, which can be seen here: http://crimsoncat05.blogspot.com/2006/08/some-craftiness.html I also made a piece of pink/peach watercolor paper- I have some ideas for it, but haven't been working on them yet.

a small (crafty) update

A small update, because these are small snippets of some things I've been working on. I'm working on a particular project, and I don't want to jinx it by showing the entire thing, or saying what it is. Silly, maybe, but there it is! I'll eventually post the entire pictures, but it won't be for a little while. Till then, this is it:

Tom headed to the East Coast today; he landed in Islip, NY (?), and drove to New Jersey, where he will do a computer upgrade tomorrow, then will drive to Philadelphia. I think. He's supposed to be back late Friday, but we'll see. There's a crisis brewing at the recent work site in Texas...

We spent last weekend watching tennis, mostly, but also fit in a couple other things. Saturday morning, we got up early (well, early for us, anyway!) and drove to East Mesa to check out a swap meet. It's outdoors, but the site is permanent- they have huge awnings/tents set up, so the vendors can leave their merchandise there year-round. There weren't a huge amount of vendors (it's still a little too hot for that, I think), but we found what we were looking for. We bought an iron sun with a Kokopelli and saguaro cactus on (it's about 2 ft in diameter) that Tom hung on the house above the garage. We saw lots of stuff we'd love to have- floor lamps made from saguaro skeletons (expensive!!!), southwestern switchplate covers laser-cut from iron, huge sets of pine furniture- no vintage things like most flea markets, but you can find pretty much anything else you'd want there. We'll definitely be going back for more home decor items!

After we left there, we stopped at our favorite Chinese restaurant, Pong Pong, for lunch... it used to be close enough to our apartment for take-out, but alas, no longer... They make the best Kung Pao Beef , according to Tom, and they even make it as spicy as he likes it! This place has actually been his favorite for as long as he's lived here (he even introduced me to it the first time we came out here on vacation, before ever moving back here)... so, when we get the chance, we stop in.

After lunch, we stopped in at a stamp store I wanted to find in Chandler (Stamp Works is the name). I will definitely be going back, now that I know where it is! The owner, Nic, is very nice- I ordered stamps for my Christmas cards, and a new flourish/swirl stamp from Hero Arts, so I will have to go back when they come in! LOL! They had some interesting-looking card samples from classes, too... must check into that!

We did see Andre Agassi's last match on Sunday- it was hard to watch, but in a way it was also a relief to see him finally lose- he struggled through those terribly long matches, and you could just tell how difficult it was for him. Watching him sit with his head in his hands after he lost wasn't easy, either! Now, I'm rooting for Roger Federer, I think- there are a couple other up-and-comers (Rafael Nadal from Spain, for one) to keep an eye on in the future, too. Tom is pulling for Andy Roddick, I think. Makes for some interesting conversation!

We ran Sedona off her feet on Monday- there's a small park near the entrance to our subdivision- we took her up there, and played ball till her tongue was hanging waaay out of her mouth, but she wouldn't quit! The whole way back to the house Tom would throw the ball down the street as far as he could, she'd barrel after it at top speed, and bring it back for him to throw again. She finally gave up on the ball, and on the way back down the street, she walked up to the door of every one-story house we passed. I felt so bad having to tell her "No, that's not our house!" because she was SOOO tired! That night, she crashed in our bathroom, and I think she was still in the exact same spot the next morning when I got up! (she was hobbling a bit like Andre, herself!)