Sunday June 7^th, 2009 

Although my ears were still ringing from last nights performance at the PNC center, I knew today was going to be one I would never forget. It started around noon. The only day Long Island had blue skies and sunshine during the month of June. Not complaining about the beautiful weather just wasn’t a priority on my things I must not forget list…. Like my Halo1 and Halo2 Lp’s that I was getting signed by the band, the photographs, and the confirmation pages printed. Sun block was not even a thought. Hence the sun poisoning!

Got to the venue at noon with a crowd already in line. I had my concerns about Abe (hubby) making it through the day considering he is only a few weeks out of back surgery and it was going to be a very long day most of which was in the heat standing in lines. We were always last in line due to Abe’s condition. The check in went smoothly except they did not have my pre-sale tickets. No biggie others were missing theirs as well and we were assured they would get us new ones printed. Off to another line.

The $300 donors went in first and it seemed like we were just waiting forever and boiling in the heat. We moved into the area and waiting in line there…. Slowly got inside and the $300 donors already had their seats in the orchestra for sound check. We were still waiting for the meet & greet! Turns out the band got to the venue late due to traffic and we were running behind. A group of us received pink sharpie x’s on our palm and were told meet and greet would be after sound check…. Ugghhhh….

Off to the orchestra where my nephew Anthony saved us seats in the front. What an amazing feeling to see the sound check and experience a pre show in the day light. I must have taken 100 pictures all one better than the other. 4 songs and it was just beyond words- Abe stayed in the back a nit and video taped the whole thing. You could not wipe the smile from my face. Yet as I sat there, I could not help but think to myself… I still haven’t met the band and now I am hot, sweaty and beyond sunburned! There goes the picture- The one and only thing I wanted from this day ONE GOOD PICTURE… shot to hell cas’ I look like crap now. Oh well, I’m not gonna let that ruin my day.  It is during sound check I tell my nephew, I don’t think Abe is gonna make the rest of the evening. He was really struggling! Deep down inside, I bet my nephew was hoping Abe wouldn’t survive the remainder of the day so that he could come on stage with me for the show. It was a very laid back environment and NIN sounded amazing. Justin was taking pictures of the crowd and it was just a really neat experience.

Now its time to either watch SSC sound check or head over to the tent for dinner. Due to Abe’s speed and our fear of missing out on the meet and greet- we opted to skip the SSSC sound check and head over to the tent for dinner which consisted of …pizza. We were starving- so it could have been shit on a stick and we would have swallowed it down. As we ate, you could see people setting up a table and chairs outside the tent for the bands meet and greet. We again seemed to be almost the last in line. The nervous stomach on top of greasy pizza and being overheated to boot- I was certain to puke. At this point only minutes before meeting Trent did I figure out what the hell I was gonna say to him, and I didn’t think I would have the nerve so I was just gonna wing it.

 As we approached the table, Rob was first. I was very cool and calm meeting the band- he was quiet looked at the picture signed it we shook hands off to the next guy. Beware of the quiet ones….found out about him later that evening.

Justin was next,  pretty much the same- looked at the photo signed it shook my hand- he stared at the photo a little longer after signing it and I said, “what? You don’t like the picture?” turns out he was just fanning it so the sharpie wouldn’t smear. Me and my NY attitude and accent probably scared the guy. Abe was behind me and I got caught up with Abe and Justin’s discussion.  Justin was genuinely concerned about Abe and asked “what happened here?” and suggested getting him a seat! He seemed very nice but I was trying to be in 2 places at once. Listening to Abe and Justin and then realizing Oh Shit – Trent is next! My nerves kicked in and I believe I hyperventilated a little. My heart stopped and hands began to shake and I felt like an ass!

I took a deep, loud breath (totally uncontrollable) put my hand out to show him I was shaking like a leaf and said’ I’m so nervous.” (Not what I was originally planning to say) snap out of it I kept trying to say to myself. I shook his hand handed him the Pretty Hate machine record to sign and spurted out. “Hey Trent, I burned for you today.”  (again showing him my red arm.) He smiled and shook his head agreeing. And I continued, “Do you think you could sing Burn for me tonight.” He laughed and said “I can do that.”  I then took the signed album and said, “You made a dream come true today!” and he thanked me for donating and Abe was next….

Abe handed him the halo 1 record to sign which Trent looked at for a moment and leaned over to Ilan saying ‘Young man, this is when it all began- how old were you?” Ilan replied, “Not even one.” Hahahha

At some point I handed Ilan a picture of him to sign for me but after meeting Trent it was a blur.  They all seemed very normal, down to earth and nice. It was very quick and I wanted it to last as long as possible …

We went into yet another line where we would take our photos with the band. It’s now around 6:30pm and I am a nice shade of purple with blisters developing from my sun burn! What a lovely picture. I didn’t even care! I was on cloud nine. What a rush it was to meet them. Being on the water as the evening approached the wind picked up and it was getting cold. When it was our turn I was on Trent’s right side and Abe was on his left. Trent had his arm on my back, we took the photo and Trent looked at me and said “you’re warm.” To which I couldn’t even form a reply and I just leaned in and hugged him for what seemed like a really long time- I swear my knees went weak! Sure, I’m warm at this point you could have boiled an egg on me.

You could not wipe the smile off my face. We were told go back to our seats and meet at gate “F” at 7:20. We watched some of SSSC and then waited at the gate where we were to meet and be escorted to the stage. Little did we know the best was yet to come.

Again being the last to get through the gate, security checked our passes and waved us through all commenting on Abe and his condition (you could see he was physically struggling and in pain). Eric who I believe was a tour manager? Told us to follow him it was quicker and easier for Abe – instead of going under the orchestra tunnel to get to the stage we went right up the front steps and beat the crowd. He escorted us near the drum kit and kept saying I have to get you a chair. He questioned a few techs where we could sit that we wouldn’t be in the way and before you knew it we were literally on the stage next to the drum and guitars on the side. Everyone else was escorted to the black netted seats above with limited visibility. I kept calling my nephew to squeal that we were sitting on the stage! This guy Eric was so nice, caring and accommodating I could not believe what he did for us.

Sitting on the stage was very exciting. We watched the last minute stage preparation and kept saying to each other, “I cannot believe we are sitting here!” then….the smoke machine kicked in. I cannot put into words how much smoke we inhaled that evening! We really didn’t realize what we were in for until the show started. Robin practically tripped over us all night- I swear we were in his way, and he was not having a very good night with is instruments. He scares me – and now I will reference the “beware of the quiet ones.” We saw and heard him in action (caught it all on video.) The becoming was the climax of his tantrum. In the beginning of the song, he literally flung one guitar over our shoulders from behind us and everyone knows the “smashing” ending which we have amazing video of…I felt bad for him and admired him all at the same time. During “head like a hole” Trent walked back behind the lighting to embrace Mariqueen who is stunning. It was very cool to see all these things that most did not.We all know this was probably one of the best NIN shows ever- great set list (YES, THEY PLAYED BURN! Merely a coincidence I’m sure) I never thought anything would top the AC House of Blues show in November and now…. How can I ever go to another concert?

All I can say, is this was a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget. And, I got my picture to prove it ….

To view all of my pictures - here is the link to the photo bucket…

“The Becoming” awesome video we took from the stage

Well.. we moved into our new home on 12/13/08 and I have finally unpacked my stamp room and feel at home. I couldn’t wait to find the time to play with this one! I bought a few of these “Stamps Happen” fairies. This is willow flower fairy. I colored her with the SU watercolor crayons and used watercolor paper.

I usually prefer prisma color pencils for my coloring jobs but after sketching in my book with the pencils and the crayons… I felt this was the best result. the notebook photo is prismacolor on the left (the actual card with water color crayons in the middle, and the watercolor crayon sketch on the right. I like to sketch out my designs first with all of the colors I will be using so I can duplicate it at a later date if I wanted..

You can see my other fairy in my earlier post here this one is the”Candy Tuft Flower Fairy-done with prismacolor pencils.  Thanks for lookin and let me know what you think- I would hate to spend all these hours creating and no one looking and enjoying

This is my 6th year making hand made Christmas cards and the pressure is on to out do myself each year. With the upcoming closing on the new house and all of the packing going on.. I needed to get my butt in gear and at least start. Here is a sneak peak.. I love this stamp - I got it in Las Vegas in July and knew it would be this years card. I will post the finished product soon…. I only made 30 of em and that is all I will be making….

 It’s now 12/2 and the cards were mailed yesterday. Here is the completed project. The inside says, ” I triple dog dare you.” Merry Christmas…. Now I am assuming everyone on the planet earth has seen “A Christmas Story” and will understand that phrase yet I know some just won’t get it… what a shame.

The background is embossed with the snowflake CB plate and although you cannot see it very well n the picture, there is lots of snow madwe with liquid applique and glittery stickles. I colored the image with copic markers. It was a very simple card this year due to my pending home purchase….

Not much time for stamping these days but I did manage to squeeze some time in today to play with my “Butterfly Queen” set from my favorite stamp company BombShell Stamps.  I wanted to play with my copic markers for bold bright colors but I think I just dont have enough of them or I havn’t quite got the hang of it yet.. its very hard to get the blending and shading that I am aiming for… I suppose in time it will get better.

On a happy note…I managed to get tickets to see NIN again (3rd show-in 3 months :)  This was a special club appearance at the House of Blues in Atlantic City, NJ and it was a rare chance to see the band in an intimate setting stripped down without all of the special effects.  I braved the pit again and was against the rail this time - I made it 40 minutes before having to be pulled out! Gets rough in there but is so worth the bruises and pain I am feeling today 3 days later…. Not easy to take pictures in a pit but here are a few good ones… Trent is looking very -very hot these days! It was the best show I think I will ever see (and I have seen a lot) 

If you look to the bottom right of this next shot you can see someone getting pulled out of the pit.. I thought this was a pretty great shot!

Gotta love a great show with loud music, up close and personal. It was an awesome night and a much needed stress reliever.

I am in love with all of my Bombshell stamps. I think they are so versatile and love the tattoo, rock look! I made this not so ordinary Birthday card for my nephew who will be 22 on 9/11. He comes to all of our concerts with us and knows his Aunt rocks too- (Great to be the “cool” Aunt) Nothing like being in the mosh pit at NIN, 4 rows from the rail, fighting for your life….how old am I? Colored this with my new copics and I swear this took maybe 10 minutes tops to make- I love it!

On a side note, here is one of the few pics from the NIN show- I was too busy trying not to get killed to take pics. But Trent is looking very hot these days and sounds amazing. Probably one of the best shows I have ever seen, visually, energy wise, sound etc.. I love NIN!

…Hot Hot Hot…

This is a card I made for my new nephew who was born last week in Germany. I must admit, I thought for sure it was going to be a girl, but to everyone’s suprise it wasn’t so Zoe turned into Pierce instead. I have to mail off some things tomorrow (nothing like the last minute) and made this onesie card to include in the package. I think its cute. (Left is flat, right is standing up)

hahah Okay that can be misconstrued…I just received 1 of my 3 “Stamps Happen” Fairies in the mail today (the other 2 are on backorder :(  I found these are cheapest at 1,2,3 Stitchand I had no idea how big the image was or how intricate the design would be…This one is called “The Candy-tuft Flower Fairy”

As always I doodle in my composition notebook to determine what the best colors are going to be and which medium I should use, jotting down all colors should I need to reference it at a later date. I tried my Copics which I just do not have enough colors for blending. I did a quick doodle with my watercolor crayons and given the right paper and amount of time, I think that will be my next project because it was very vibrant and I think this image was made to be watercolored. However, I ended up using my-favorite- prismacolor pencils…below is my notebook photo with the stamp which is wood mounted and well worth the cost!

 The final project took about 2hours give or take. I had NIN on and lost track of time (so much fun!)  I am pleased with the result but think I could have done a better job. I was getting to the point where I just wanted to be done and feel i skimped on the detail a bit… A lot of work but very pretty,

If you like it, leave a comment and let me know people are actually looking at my blog TFL!

I have been wanting to get Copic Ciao Markers for quite some time since they seem to be the latest craze amongst stampers.  I just could not justify spending $3-5 per marker! I thought I would get a starter set or two to see if I liked them from Hannah Stamps. These were the best colors/sets offered for the best prices around so I ordered and they arrived very quickly!

 I have to admit I was both excited to jump in and intimidated. I clearly need to practice with these as I am not nearly as comfortable coloring as I am with my prismacolor pencils.I only have 24 colors so I did my best with the coloring and blending and must admit- they are very very nice! I could see how one can become addicted to these! Very vibrant colors and they take to the paper like no marker I have ever used before.  Naturally, I have 12 more on their way…yet I still think they cost way too much!

The above images/doodles are the very first time using Copic markers so go easy on me. The images are from my favorite: Rubber Romance divas and the awesome Bombshell Stamps. (love that lil devil!)  TFL!

Since I already gave awaw my “man’s Ruin” card listed in an earlier blog post. I decided to make 3 more so I have them on hand for when I need em. I am giving the “Happy Birthday” one to my brother tomorrow and will have 2 to spare. These are much more time consuming to mass produce. I would say it took a little more than 1 hour for each card- colored with prismacolor pencils. I love this Sailor Jerry tattoo design which can be found at my new favorite stamp Store Bombshell stamps. Check them out and look at my earlier posts below too!

This is Trisha- Spa Diva one of the new Rubber Romance Diva stamps. I have accumulated quite a large amount of these divas and I just need to make the time to play.

One thing I am happy to say I have started is a composition notebook of doodles, stamp sketches, notes for colors used, images and resources I have clipped for inspiration and reference. I think everyone should keep some sought of “art diary” and here is a page out of mine from today. These are all of my new RR Divas and some prisma colors I have noted ….

I love these Diva girls. Thanks for looking.