If You Don't Like It, You Can Shove It. But You Don't Like it, You Love it.

So, if you've known me personally for a few years, you know that I LOVE Weezer. I have every one of their CD's and even some hard to find ones. If I can count on my fingers correctly, I believe the Red Album is their sixth major cd release. I bought the CD when it first came out, but really didn't get to listening to it until I took a trip to a Scrapbook store in Anthem, sans kiddies. I was able to roll the windows down and blast my speakers with Rivers Cuomo coming in loud and clear. I must say, my favorite song at the moment is, "I'm the Greatest the Man that Ever Lived." It's where the title of the blog came from. The song has so many fun elements to it; it's classic Weezer, but something they've not quite done before. The beginning is piano keys playing "Simple Gifts," an old Shaker song, and then they go into sounding like Kotton Mouth and thirty seconds later they sound like Queen. I love it. "Pork and Beans" was the first major release off the album and an instant YouTube sensation, mainly due to the fact that famous YouTube personalities and celebrities were featured in the music video. I love the song, and it's pretty fun to play on guitar, too. "The Troublemaker," first track on the record, is very reminiscent of the more poppy tunes of the Green album as well as "Dreamin'" but it has a bit more of the harder bass and distortion we heard in the Blue Album and Pinkerton. I love both tracks. Brian Bell who is usually only a guitarist and back-up vocals takes the lead vocal helm for three tracks. Not so sure about those ones... Right in form, there are only ten main tracks on this album and the final song, "The Angel and the One," is a traditional weezer ballad, that reminds me of the Blue Album's, "Only in Dreams."

All in all, I love the album. I'll have it as my playlist here until next Friday, so feel free to listen to some of the tunes I talked about. Have a great day!

For a little creativity today, I recently acquired an ATG (aka, Monster of a Tape Runner), and it seems to be on trend that everyone alters theirs. Usually I'm one to let it go, but this thing was so fugly when I bought it, I couldn't help but alter it. The photo I took of the other side stinks, and I'm too lazy to retake it. Plus I'm thinkin' it needs something more...

Have a Great Day!!!

Obsessed Would be an Understatement...

So a few weeks ago, I was sorting through the mail and came across a coupon for a new organic market in our neighborhood. I thought it was a rather good-looking coupon and promptly walked to my scrapbook desk to ink it. About halfway there, I stopped and realized I was about to ink the edges of a coupon. And then I came to the conclusion I had officially lost it, when it comes to the arena of scrapping. I mean, I have a strange obsession for, "The Wizard of Oz," as well, but never THIS bad. AND I have to line each one of my french fries with a perfect line of ketchup... and toast is always cut on the horizontal and sandwiches always on the vertical.... oh, and don't think about touching my toothpaste. I wouldn't share my tube if it was the last one on earth. Yeah... so I am a little weird... and I guess I will just have to accept the urge to ink coupons is part of that craziness.

Anywho, This is the store's coupon where I went to go get all of ingredients for my Hummus recipe from the other days post. I scrapped about my day of hummus and pita making and put the recipes and coupon behind the photo. Enjoy! I had a lot of fun with this layout. I'm usually all manufacturer-matchy-matchy when it comes to using products on page, but I just decided to use whatever struck my fancy at the time. The giant postage stamp shape that frames it is by Technique Tuesday; it's part of their FunDamental tiles line. Totally lovin' them. I distressed it using three shades of glimmer mist and inked and doodled the edges.

Hope you have a great day!!!

Yummy Yummy Yummy I've Got Hummus in my Tummy

So maybe you're wondering why I haven't posted in a couple days when I said I would post every day for the first week... well, I have a confession; I've been eating jalapeno hummus. And I decided to attempt to make my own today and pita bread from scratch. There's also another little funny story about my hummus, but I'll share that with you tomorrow.

OK, OK, I know it doesn't look that good, but trust me, it's so tasty. Here's how I did it

Hummus Ingredients:

1- 15 oz. can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained (reserve the water in the can, though!)
1/4 c. Tahini Paste (found in the mediteranean aisle at the market)
4 cloves of garlic
3 fresh jalapenos, de-seeded
1/2 tsp. Cumin
1/2 tsp. Curry
3 TB of lemon juice
Salt & Pepper to taste
2/3 c. olive oil
Red pepper flakes and olive oil for garnish

I used a food processor, but you could use a blender or bullet. First I throw my garlic cloves and jalapenos in the processor to mince them. Then I add everything else and blend for a LONG time. The longer you blend, you will get a creamier consistancy, as opposed to a grainy, lumpy one. * patience is a virtue, young grasshopper* Add in the reserved juice from your bean can alternating with olive oil as needed to get a smoother consistancy as well. Voila! I like mine better chilled which allows the flavors to really sit and "get acquainted" with one another. I drizzled olive oil and sprinkled crushed red peppers on myine before serving/devouring.

Pita Bread Ingredients:

3 cups flour
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1-2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 c. water
1/4 c. milk

I'll boil my water, let it cool and then add my yeast and salt and whisk it with a fork. I then put the rest of my ingredients in the food processor with the dough blade, and add the yeast/water/salt mixture. Mix until dough comes off of the sides of the bowl and is smooth and elastic. Separate dough into 16 balls on a floured surface. Cover and let rise for 15-1 hour, or until doubled in size. When ready, heat skillet to medium heat and roll each ball well in flour. Roll flat into circular shape; don't worry if it seems really flat. Place in skillet and when bubbles start to rise on one side, flip and do the other side. You can fry these in oil, giving them a indian fry bread texture, but I didn't even use pam. You can also freeze your dough balls and use them later. Next time I make these I want to try using whole wheat flower. I think that mixing in some fresh cilantro as well with your jalapenos would give it a spicy/cool flavor; unfortunately, my hubbie doesn't like the green leafy stuff, so I didn't use it!

Thanks for stopping by! For a little "creative fury" here are some cards I recently made. They're part of a set of five "thank you" cards I did using different languages. Have a great day!!!

Holy Hambly!

Another Design Team I recently applied for (which also received hundreds of applications!) is for Hambly Screenprints. I find myself often not using patterned paper on a lot of layouts and projects and my style is often called avante-garde. I feel like I can identify with their cutting edge style and almost "Haute-Couture" products. I made this wall hanging out of a gift I received a few years ago. It's just a simple wall sconce that was plain and you could probably find at your local Ross or TJ Maxx. I used the Hambly transparencies to back the petal shapes, and painted them green. The black middles are also transparency but I just left them plain. I then used their border rub-ons to enhance the votive holders.

Here is a Layout I made using one of their wall screen printed transparencies. I used Glimmer Mist alcohal sprays to give the Layout a graffiti look and then I doodled the title as well to add to it. I used lots of hambly rubons behind and on the front of the transparency to attempt to add some depth. It's not one of my best pieces of work, but I liked how it made me step outside of my box a little bit more than usual.

I hope you enjoyed another small entry today. Starting tomorrow I will probably be posting longer blogs, just due to it's a little less hectic around here during the weekdays. Thanks again for visiting! I hope you have a great day!

Hey, Hey, We're the Monkeys!

Meet the Family!

Ok, well that's just a wall of pictures in our living room...





This is Emma. She's is my oldest and will be four in September. She is my little bundle of OCD joy! She also LOVES going to school and her favorite part about the day is riding the bus. (She will tell you it's number 96, too!)






Here is my sweet little Halle. She turned two in January and is a little drama queen. She always has a head full of crazy hair!





Here's my husband Matthew and I on a Carribean cruise we took about a year ago. This was on the island of St. Maarten near the French portion of the island. I know this isn't the best picture, but the site was so pretty and the only other one I have looks like I'm pulling a wedgie! An interesting fun fact about the family is that we have a "team number" and that's 22. Matt and I were married on the 22 of August, Emma was born on the 22 of September and Halle was born on the 22 of January. And no, we didn't plan it at all. Alright, short post today! It's a lazy Saturday here. I'm off to do some scrapping! Hope you have a great day and see ya tomorrow!

First taste of Creative Fury

So, I recently applied for the Chatterbox Design Team. I looooove Chatterbox products and it was one of the first companies I became addicted to when I started to scrap. Right now I'm in the waiting stages to see if I make it to the next round of "auditions." We should hear any day now! And even though I doubt I'll make it (they had 437 applications for petes sakes!) I still have my fingers and toes crossed 24/7 and I keep hitting F5 on my keyboard to refresh their blog! At any rate, here is one of the projects I created for my application:

Isn't it pretty? I was quite tickled with myself. I used one of Chatterboxes new Artsy.licious lines out called Kohl and Alabaster. TOTALLY LOVE IT! It's gorgeous flocked and foiled/tinseled paper. Totally drool-worthy. I let my Quickutz Silhouette do most of the work cutting all the flowers. Then I inked, painted and blinged them up. I used styrofoam glue and Zots to stick the flowers to styrofoam balls I had painted black. I also noticed it is MUCH easier to start at the top of the ball and work your way around and down. I also used an old Chatterbox Stencil to trace onto paper, scan into photoshop then cut onto contact paper using the Silhouette. So easy! I'm thinking about making some more of these. Maybe I will take some pictures, and do my very first tutorial! WooHoo! Sounds like fun! Let me know if you like my topiary and would be interested in something like that. Have a Happy Fourth of July and BE SAFE!!!!

Welcome to the Craziness...

OK OK... so like it says in my profile, I've decided to start a blog because my poor friends were being subject to novel-sized emails about the crazy (or what I deem to be) antics of my life. And I really want to get serious with my scrapbooking and having a blog seems a good way to start! So, a little bit about me: I was born and raised and currently live in Arizona. I wear flip flops 365 days out of the year. I am married and have been a stay at home mom for two and a half years. Before that I had the glamorous job of medical billing. Before that I went to college and was an English major. Before that I went to Arcadia High School and enjoyed doing theater and reading books. Homework.... ehhhh.... not so much.

So, you're probably wondering why my blog is called, "Unleash the Fury," eh? Well, I have always had some sort or multiple creative outlets in my life. When I was younger I read books day and night; so much to the point my mom was afraid I had no friends or people skills so she enrolled in me in a theater workshop one summer which I begrudgingly attended. See, my last experience with theater was when I played one of the lullaby league munchkins in the, "Wizard of Oz," in 4th grade and I had to wear a tutu in front of the whole school. Not fun... I have very chubby thighs. But as it turned out, I LOVED this theater workshop. We had multiple classes on improv, pantomime (I can do a mean box), singing and working on our main production, "The Secret Garden." I remember wanting the main role of Mary SO BAD! I never thought in a million years I would get it, but I did! That's when the bug bit me. Opening night and all the flowers... oh the flowers... the applause and all the adrenalin combined with life-long friendships. It's amazing. I continued doing theater until college when my degree changed second semester. During those years, I also taught myself how to play piano and guitar, which I still enjoy doing. I also took some voice lessons with an AMAZING coach, Wendy Mullen. Yahtta Yahtta Yahtta....

Fast Forward because this is getting LONG already! (See, I told you what my friends had to go through.) I got married had kids and I started to scrapbook to make some gifts for my parents and inlaws. I was never really into the whole visual art thing or part of expressing myself visually. I have never been able to draw, paint, sketch, whatever... the most artistic thing I could draw were doodles on my notes to friends or entries into yearbooks. So the idea of putting things together that were already pretty and making something visually stimulating with them made sense to me. I started with a very small box of stuff, moved to a hall closet and now take up one car of our two car garage. To come to full circle, I love to unleash my creative fury on a scrapbook page or altered item. I have so much to say about life and I feel like scrapbooking is just one of the great artistic mediums I can do that through. By combining colors, patterns, textures, photos and journaling we cannot only pass on memories to later generations, record our triumphs and defeats, generate comfort within ourselves, but we can still inspire others to go on the same journey. That is my hope in this blog; to inspire everyone around me to tell the story of their life, because it is important, and to unleash their own creative fury.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope to do daily updates for the next week or so, to really put an imprint of my personality here. I will start to post some of my most recent and proudest scrap accomplishments and projects. Have a great day and Happy Fourth of July! Be safe!