Indiana Covered Bridges album

New York City Album Slideshow

Sunday, June 28, 2009

A little rant does not hurt once in a while...


(This is a copy and paste of a Note I wrote on Facebook, so if you have read the one on FB, you might want to stop now, unless you want to reread the same thing but without some typos this time!!!)
I do not expect everybody to agree with me... I have read comments and posts here and there online, and it got me thinking... So here it goes...
Michael Jackson is dead... And as with every single celebrity's death, we are being brainwashed again. I do not need the media to remind me of who MJ was and what he has done in life and bla bla bla... I grew up listening to him, following his career here and there and then moving to the U.S. and being shocked about how involved we all seem to be with ALL celebrities...
A few things I have to say about Michael Jackson. He WAS a great entertainer, at least to me for the first part of his career. Second, in this country, we go by "innocent until proven guilty." And he was found not guilty of the charges against him. So like everybody else should have done, I moved on, just like I would have moved on with every unresolved case of child abuse.
I do love this country will all my heart. Which is why I do solemnly respect the "innocent until proven guilty." If I can accept it for everybody else's verdict, then I accept it for MJ too... I still have my doubts to this day, but does it mean I am obsessed with it and forgetting the entertainment icon he was? NO! I didn't care too much, or even not at all, for the person he had become... Musically he was not entertaining me as he used to, but then again I have never been what you'd call a Michael Jackson fan. I do not even own one of his albums. I have songs here and there on compilations, made my own compilation a few months ago, and that's that. Weird, though, how I happened to be listening to "Beat it" the day before his death...
Everybody who knows me well enough knows how private and sensitive I am. They also know that I am for keeping things at peace... I do solemnly believe that MJ's family is grieving the loss of their son, brother, nephew, father... For their sake, we should all just keep our mouths shut. This is a tough time for them, and we should all be able to respect that. The media SHOULD shut up too and stop repeating the same news over and over again. I have watched only a couple of short reports and that's that. I don't need career snapshots to be repeated to me 50 times in one day. I felt the same way when Heath Ledger passed away. And I LOVED Heath Ledger. But I refused to have the media spoil the admiration I had for Heath. I do not admire Michael Jackson, far from it. I do admire his musical achievement up to a point in his career where I didn't really care for it that much any more, and I do believe that there will never be another artist like him. But let's point out that people like MJ, like Heath ledger, like Farrah who left us the same day, are celebrities, and we do not know them personally. Yes, we have the right to judge them, this is a free country, so let's go ahead and judge if we want. But in my heart, I can't really judge anyone, especially not someone I do not know. I am simply entitled to an opinion, and that's that.
Here's a copy and paste of a comment I made on someone's post online: "I firmly believe there have been 2 MJs... what people are idolizing right now is MJ the celebrity/entertainer, not the "other MJ/celebrity gone wrong," whom I had grown to really not like as much... Don't get me wrong, I am not defending him in any way, nor have I ever been what you can label a fan of his, but I have, am and will listen to some of his songs once in a while... Sadly, I admit he had issues. Right now, the media is showing us once again how well they can just pound our heads with so called "news." That's not "news," that's just brainwashing. Gotta take some and leave some. I love this country with all my heart, but it takes growing up in another country to realize the garbage we are forced to swallow every day. This being said, we are all entitled to our opinions, and after reading yours, now you have mine."
This is more a rant against the media than one against the people who did not like Michael Jackson. Because after all, they have the right to not like him. God knows I do not like every famous people out there! But then again I take some and leave some of what I hear! I am disgusted by the whole media over again, so I am shutting down all so called "News" channels and even entertainment channels for a while... Funny how I tend to do this every time someone famous dies...
I think I lost the thread of my original point as I was typing away... oops... But you get the idea. Now that Michael Jackson is dead, let's let him Rest In Peace...


"You have to show them that you're really not scared
You're playin' with your life, this ain't no truth or dare
They'll kick you, then they beat you,
Then they'll tell you it's fair
So beat it, but you wanna be bad" (Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”)

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Close To My Heart Party

Here are the cards and layout we made yesterday during our CTMH party...





Fisherman's page marker

Here is a cute "marker" (I am not sure what to call it, really). I use it to mark pages in the magazines I read... We made it during the April CTMH party... I am just now posting it, oops, my bad!



Saturday, June 20, 2009

Challenge card June 20 - The "red one"

I loved all the pieces that were handed out to us, but somehow I had a hard time getting them together... But I like the final product.
Here what we all started with:



My final product:

FYI... The stamps I used are:
*from TAC: 1)Distressed Typewriterbet (T-2837, very soon to be discontinued)
2)"Dear Friend" is from the set Beautiful Friendship (T-3101, May 2009 Specials)
*The flowers/flourish come from one of the first sets of clear stamps I ever bought. I forget the Company name. I think Michaels still has them...



June 20th Exchange

When I became a U.S. Citizen last year (wow, time flies...), I created a LO, which is where this card comes from... I totally cased my own original idea, but I must confess that this design is one of my favorite creations... I will check to make sure the Citizenship layout is posted on this blog, and if not, I will make sure it shows somewhere...
Anyway, we are right around the corner of celebrating our country's birthday... Here is a card wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July!!!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

New Day Foundation Tablets







Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Memorial Day Week End Card Class

People tend to focus mainly on cookouts during Memorial Day week end. We focused on a card class AND a cook out afterwards. The food was great, we discovered huge Marshmallows (pictures of that to be posted soon, I promise)... But before that, we worked on those 7 lovely cards...





































TAC Party of May 16

Here are the cards we made during the Angel Company Party of May 16th.




Tuesday, June 2, 2009

A New Era

We had been looking for a few weeks now... and here we are... Today Paul and I bought a Ford Escape to replace our beloved Dodge Grand Caravan. (And when I say "beloved," I do mean it... It simply was time to get rid of it but I am going to miss it...)

Now off to a new era with our just as beloved Escape!