The Lego people stories...

As promised...to start, here are my boys...or the Lego representations they've created of themselves:

 
Things to note. Asher has no hair because (he tells me) he traded his hair to Noah for two purple cones. (You may recall from this post that purple cones are the most powerful.) Micah informs me that he likes to dress up, hence the bow tie. And Noah's wearing his second best outfit (his business outfit, he says) because he can't find his favorite outfit right now (it's brown I'm told). 

On to the rest of the people. First, here are Micah's folks:

 
I forgot to include that the two that are sitting are Micah's sons. The "Grade" is the level of worker, as apparently they all work together in Micah's car company (but not so closely that they deserve names??). He has these Grade A and Grade C assistants who help him out. I'm told the Grade B folk are in production.

 (Since I took this picture yesterday, Micah's been scavenging the yellow/Lego room for more people. I'm actually curious how many mini figures we have altogether. I'm guessing it would be considerably easier (and doable) to count those than to just count all the pieces. The boys assure me there are MANY more in the Lego room but refuse to find them all for me because "that would take too long.")  

Here are Asher's people:

 
You can see where Micah got his "Grade" idea, right? I find it hilarious that Asher only has one head of hair for all his people. (He generously opted to give it to his son, lol!) Not quite sure how Noah managed to get the monopoly on hair...maybe he had the most purple cones to trade? In any case, these people all work in Asher's car company, though I think they may actually be planning to expand to design and production of planes soon. (Btw, Asher finally started giving his people names just before I started writing this.)

And now Noah's people:  

Yes, Noah somehow managed to acquire the only two female mini figures (pretty sure they came with one of his Agents sets or something) and most of the hair in the house. With the exception of his wife and sons, the rest of the people in the picture work for his car company (you see the trend here, right?). I love that Noah also has a personal chef...and that Megan is his personal assistant (which is different than the other boys' Assistants and Grades, as there's only one of her and she works directly with Noah...note the headset she's wearing, too, lol). 

Now. Did anyone else notice that my boys seem to believe that they're all going to have only sons? This isn't only because we have no girl mini figures either. ;) I've at least convinced them that they may have to give way on their name choices (they're pretty attached) because their wives might want to have something to say about that, lol. In response, Micah's got a list of back-up names. 

So. That's the story behind the Lego people in our dining room. We had to rearrange the "city" to take these photos...will try to capture that soon. It's complete with runways and hot dog stands. There are even a few dogs running around, but not near any of Noah's places because he's allergic. (Really, I asked where his dog was and that's what he told me, lol!) Oh, and tonight, Asher's people found a couple of meteorites and now Micah's people are jealous. 

Bet you didn't know any of that, eh? ;) 

More tales from Lego central...

So. The boys have been playing with Legos on the new dining room table. They have a whole little "world" set up that I don't completely understand. What I do understand is that they've been really using the mini-figures more lately and coming up with relationships and stories and all...basically (and they'll deny this if you say it, lol), they're playing "house" with Legos. 

Because they crack me up, and because I just like to document things, I decided to take some pictures today. I jokingly told the boys to round up their "folks" to take some group pictures. When I got there, this is what I found:

 
Noah, funny boy that he is, had arranged "his" people, complete with photographer already taking the group picture. ;)

Need to get ready for indoor soccer now, but will be back to share the stories behind the people soon!

A sad goodbye...

So, it's official now. Prism Papers has announced that it's closing its doors. This statement was issued by Mark, manager of Prism, last week:

Prism Papers has spent the past 5 years building up the Prismatics brand, with its rich and vibrant colors, along with the unique watercolor texture, to be a unique and much needed addition to the crafting industry. After much work and dedication in providing top service – we, regretfully, will be exiting the craft industry as of Feb 26, 2010. 

Yes, you read that correctly. Prism's Prismatics line has been sold to Bazzill and they will no longer be a part of the scrapbook/stamp scene. Poo.

I've been privileged to work with Prism for about three years now...since Tami convinced me to apply for their design team. (Thanks, Tami!!) Since my scrapbooking is so heavily cardstock (often only cardstock) this was a perfect fit for me. (I've tried other design teams but always found them to be "work" while Prism was just such a natural thing.) Beyond the fabulous product, Prism was like a family. The customer service and design team communication were superb and will be tremendously missed. Jamie rocks big time. The design team was always treated like royalty and had opportunities to work with many partner companies through Prism. In short, it was awesome. 

So, sad though I am, I figured I'd take a cue from Tami's beautiful write up and share some of my own favorite Prism layouts: (this is a random sample...so very many of my layouts during the last three years are Prism only)

This was one of the first times I'd ever used Prism papers...for an article in the 2007 Top Ten issue of Creating Keepsakes.

 
This one was one of my design team application layouts.

This one was for an instructional dvd for Creating Keepsakes (love that folded "grass"!).

 
This was also for that dvd...I think this may have been the start of my love of foam squares. ;)

This is one of my all time favorites...made for the Prism CHA booth. (In particular, this one features Prism's mirri and metallic papers...no word yet on what will happen with those. Bazzill's only picked up the Prismatics line.)

Another one for the Prism CHA booth. :)

 
And another. ;)

 
This one (above) was for Creating Keepsakes (June or July 2009 issue I think). 

These last four are all layouts that were created for the Prism blog:

Whew. So. Thanks a million, Prism!! I'll miss you!

Because it deserves to be recorded...

1. Noah had a dream last night. He explained to me that in his dream Micah was 8 years old already, we were in outer space for some reason (he knew this because he and Asher were each in their own spaceships), and I'd just had a new baby boy...whom we named Ziggediah. (Yes. Really. No idea where that came from.) Later in the dream (Noah says it fast forwarded and then we landed back on Earth), Nathan and all four boys (Ziggediah was now 4 years old, says Noah...not sure how he knew that but he was quite certain) were playing football...Noah and Ziggediah were playing against the other three...Asher fumbled and Noah scooped it up to score a touchdown. The end. 

This is odd for two reasons. One, I would never name a boy Ziggediah, LOL. Two, Noah rarely remembers his dreams at all and hasn't shared one with me in years. In fact, he often denies that he dreams at all (compared to the other two who have told me quite a few doozies).

2. Even though we're only a month "officially" into winter, I miss summer. So there. Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining about Colorado and very much appreciate that the temps are reasonable and we have no additional snow or wind or whatever. I love the sunshine. I just long for temperatures where I can wear my Keen sandals without my toes freezing. Is that wrong? ;)

3. Micah explained to me tonight that (and I quote) "cold makes you warm if you're hot." If you stop and really think about it, I suppose he's right...hot + cold = warm. Took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about though. :)

4. My boys have crossed over to the dark side and are now utterly enamored with Star Wars. So far, we've watched episodes 1, 4, 5 and 6 with them this month. (Yes, it's true. They'd not watched any of them prior to this...at least not when they were old enough to remember.) They've already decided that for Halloween this year Micah will be Yoda, Asher will be Obi Wan Kenobi (sp?) and Noah will be Darth Vader. They make very convincing light saber sound effects (but must make due with flashlights as light sabers as I refuse to let them get the more sword like ones).

Oh, and not to worry...the Star Wars love hasn't affected their Lego obsession in the least. Actually, it was the Legos that started it since they wanted a few of those Star Wars Lego sets at Christmas and then started wondering about the stories behind them. Now they're just trying to figure out how to get their hot little hands on even more sets...

* * * * * * * * * * *

Okay. That was all for now. :) Boxes continue to be sorted and rearranged here. Basement rec room is partially painted (just need to finish the trim, but there's an awful lot of it). I finally found the surface of my desk today and am hoping to do some creating soon. Making progress...

Seven on Sunday...

Feeling like I'm trapped in one of those puzzles with the sliding pieces where just one piece is missing and you have to shuffle all the others around constantly to try to get the picture right...(yup, still moving boxes to and fro about the house, lol)...meanwhile:

1. Posted a new Good Grief Blog challenge yesterday. Check it out!

2. Watched this pretty cool show about how the introduction of coffee (and caffeine) into society may have contributed to the Industrial Revolution and the information age, given that prior to that everyone pretty much drank alcohol all the time. Definitely food for thought. ;) (It was a Modern Marvels episode, if anyone's interested...Noah loves those!)

3. Heartbroken over the story of this friend's little girl. Please keep her in your prayers.

4. Someone asked about how to remove the background to create those silhouettes in Photoshop. I'm not a technical guru (and tend to just do what works for me, knowing there's probably a better way), but basically use whatever "select" tool works for you (the magic wand and lasso are usually my tools of choice) to select all of either the background or the person. If you selected the person, use "select -- inverse" so that all of the background is selected instead. Then, just delete it. Clear as mud?

5. You may have noticed that pole in the basement pictures...the one haphazardly wrapped with duct tape and blue yoga mats from the dollar spot at Target, LOL! We're looking at finding some pipe insulation foam to actually go there and make that safer (have only been able to find the right diameter online and it's a bit spendy)...have also considered finding some carpet pad and remnant to wrap there. Any other ideas I'm missing? Anyone happen to have some playground padding laying around unused? Trust me, we've had enough kids (and adults) run into it that it really needs to be covered. ;)

6. If you're local, I'm teaching a mini-album class called Lists of Me at the Treasure Box next Saturday, January 23 at 1:00 pm. If you're interested, call and sign up pronto so I can plan supply counts, okay? 

7. I'm having decorating issues. Amid all this basement stuff, I'm still trying to finish up the family room (primarily finding stuff to put on the mantle and bookcases and one remaining wall). I'm finding, though, that home decor for me is greatly like my scrapbooking. I have no problems with the bigger aspects of design...picking colors, maybe one cool element and the like. But. Embellishing is apparently just not me. Having now realized that, I'm trying to embrace and accept that my own personal style might mean that I need to approach this "decorating" thing differently. :) Do you find that your home reflects your scrapbooking style (if you scrapbook, of course, lol)? Just curious.

Okay, off to move boxes from my office to the storage room...now that I spent the other day clearing the storage room...so that we can finish the computer swap going on in my office. Meanwhile, Nathan will be painting the rec room today and I'm hoping to start sorting the boxes in the front room. We'll see... ;)