What a great weekend!

I did a little creative work this weekend, bought a great filing cabinet for my office, went to a family reunion, went to a surprise party and heard missionaries from Nepal at church today.

The creative work: I was in a wonderful swap that was due today. It was a paperdoll swap and the theme was "Wicked." I have been thinking about this for a while and had thought about using my face on the doll, but nixed that idea. I ended up using Lizzie Borden, the forty whacks lady. I found a photo of her from the waist up and created the lower half in Photoshop for the paper doll. I then made an extra outfit that was a long white gown, kind of like a butcher's coat and added a hatchet and photoshopped in her hands from the original photo. I used the Stampin' Up! air art tool and my SU Ruby Red pen to splatter blood all over the coat, then dripped the Ruby Red reinker on the chest area and down the hatchet blade. I finished it off with Diamond Glaze on the red drips for a truly gorey effect. I made a black folder to hold Lizzie and her murder outfit that had clear embossed SU swirls on the bottom, a gold spider and the phrase "Something wicked this way comes," both from Oxford Impressions' new Wicked plate. I topped it off with a Halloween ATC of two yowling cats and a gold elastic thread to hold it all together. I'll try to post a pic tomorrow.

Our family reunion is always totally awesome. This group, which is the family of my maternal grandmother, has been getting together yearly since the early forties. We have games and tons of food, all prepared by some of the greatest Southern cooks I know. And not only do these women cook, they are all gorgeous. My husband once said, "I've never seen so many beautiful women in one family." I do have to admit that my cousin Ed, who is over 65 and still called "Junior" by the family, made some killer chocolate brownies. They were thick and rich and almost like fudge. I could feel my arteries hardening just looking at them. So I had two. We had a great time.

The reunion was in Somerville, Tennessee and when we left, we headed up the road to Jackson, Tennessee for a surprise birthday party. That's the birthday girl in the center, Andrea Nash, between Larry and me. She was totally surprised. She will be 40 Tuesday and doesn't look a day over 30. She is also a great singer and sings with the Sorghum Hill Bluegrass band. My DH is the bass player and sings harmony as well.

The missionaries who were at our church today have been living in Nepal for nine years. The one thing they said that really made me think was that the people in Nepal have a very low literacy rate, but they have cable tv. Therefore, they think all Americans are Christian and we are all like the characters portrayed in the movies. That's why they don't like Americans. When the missionaries told some Muslim friends that they were coming back home for the birth of a grandchild, the Muslims were concerned for their safety. They think we have gun battles in the streets. Well, we do in Memphis, but not everywhere in America.

Have a great week!