Cumulonimbus (Cb) is a towering vertical cloud (family D2) that is very tall, dense, and involved in thunderstorms and other inclement weather. Cumulonimbus originates from Latin: Cumulus “heap” and nimbus “cloud”. It is a result of atmospheric instability. These clouds can form alone, in clusters, or along a cold front in a squall line. They can create lightning and other dangerous severe weather. Cumulonimbus clouds form from cumulus clouds (namely from cumulus congestus) and can further develop into a supercell, a severe thunderstorm with special features.

I have gone from a Los Angeleno that could not fathom rain in the midst of the summer swelter, to someone that is regularly in the eye of the summertime storm. On Saturday we had guests over for dinner for the first time at our new country abode.  My husband wanted to wait until we had furniture but it’s been slow going in the furniture department so I convinced him that it would be fun to have a picnic in our huge (bug-filled) backyard. We told our guests to bring their own blankets (and bug repellent), which they thankfully did.  The day was  gorgeous, not too humid and as it rolled into early evening we even had a slight cool breeze. We played frisbee and grilled chicken for what my husband has deemed ‘our best meal’, which is actually just chicken burritos. Then we heard the thunder, but it was still bright and beautiful outside we were hopeful that it would pass. The first droplets of rain fell, but they were delicate and sparse, it could still pass we thought, but then the sky darkened and the cumulonimbus clouds became dense, hiding the sun and having all our guests scurry inside. Just when I was ready to start wagging my fists at Mother Nature and shouting ‘why, oh, why?’ I had my answer, Mother Nature obviously knew I was lacking good new photos for this here blog and she was right.  We laid picnic blankets in our empty livingroom and had my husband’s ‘best meal’, accompanied by some of the most amazing chips, guacamole and salsa (yes, I fell off the chips and gauc wagon for the evening). It even made our two year old guest Charlie remark with an enthusiastic, “Yum, yum!’ after his first bite.  I had no problem picnic’ing on the floor and it seemed like our guests didn’t mind much either and to top off a near perfect evening the electricity only went out once!

Do you ever do something and then realize after the fact that you did it all wrong?  I did just that the other day when I was putting together an Ikea nightstand and used the wrong screws, it was so obvious yet I did it any way. I sat there with half-made drawers and no more screws and then had the pleasant job of taking them all apart and starting from scratch-grrr!  The same thing happened with this stamp design.  The sample image was wrong which I obliviously (and happily) sent off to the factory to be made. You would think once it arrived that I would have noticed the mistake, but no, I actually stamped it + photographed it not noticing that anything was awry.  I brought the photos into Lightroom to edit and was pleased as pie with them. It wasn’t until I brought the photos into Photoshop (for detail work) did I realize the text on the bottom of the stamp was upside down.  Yes, I am a genius.  You can see my mistake here.  What makes this story more mind boggling was that this is not a new design; I have had the postmark stamps since my first Etsy shop many moons ago and have made hundreds of these stamps prior, here I am with this veteran design and I was able to confidently re-create it upside down?! Thankfully, I finally caught my mistake and promptly re-made it.  This newly revised (and quite perfect now) stamp was made for Kate & Simon the winners of SS08, the postmark style stamp.   I love the simplicity + cleanliness of it and am very happy to gift this to the winners.  Congrats Kate (and Simon)! For those that would like to get their own postmark stamp you can order yours this week for 50% off by using the code SS08 at checkout.

P.S. If you would like to be a winner too, there’s more designs to be made so visit this post and throw your name into the running!

When I was looking for white ink for stamping I realized right away that it was going to be an exhaustive search; not all white ink is equal. It is such a huge ink of debate that it was mind boggling of where I would start. I narrowed it down to half a dozen and for this post narrowed it down even further to three.  I found that the other three were not even worth mentioning, so much so that if you asked I can’t even remember them, that insignificant as far as white stamping ink is concerned. The first ink I tried StazOn Opaque Cotton White came highly recommended as the most opaque, it is also the most labor intensive as you have to squeeze a small bottle onto a pad.  I found it to be okay, but I was looking for an even more opaque look so I tried the second most recommended white ink–Memories dye ink in White.

The Memories ink was a little more opaque, but still not as opaque as I wanted.  At this point though it was head and shoulders above the other options and I was starting to get hopeful that I could get a nice white, opaque impression.  I had one last ink to try, but that will be saved for another post my dears so look out for Part II and my most favorite white stamping ink!

*Note both these inks could easily become more opaque via embossing, but that’s a whole other technique that I promise to broach one day and discuss both the pro and  cons.

Well, welcome back & a happy Monday to you!  This weekend went by way too fast. I was as busy as one can be living in the middle of nowhere.  I was chatting with my friend Whit the other day on the phone when she asked ‘what are you doing about friends?’ and all I could think of was a big ‘uhm’ nothing.  Note to self–Get some friends, but first on my impossibly long list of things to-do is another big giveaway.  I do have one more design to photograph from the last giveaway and yes, there is one design above that was featured in the last round, but I lost the file (gone into the ether) so I need to start from scratch.  So here’s the quickie run down–these are new designs that I need to turn into live stamp samples before I put in the shop. You will leave your name, the dates, the stamp you like and your favorite word (why not?).  If I choose you I will need to photograph your stamp, but after that it is all yours and of course this is international so I hope everyone will play along.  I will keep the contest open for one week (ending 7.23.12). Once I have all the stamps made + photographed I will be showing off your prize on the blog, that’s it!  Feel free to Pin this, email, Tweet, etc. I am not asking you to but it sure would be nice, sharing is caring, right? Good luck!

P.S. Tomorrow I am going to reveal my new complexion perfection formula!