Mojo by the Dozen.

Soooo...the new ScrapMojo challenge went up today...have you checked it out yet? If not, definitely do so! And soon! The amazingly incredibly cool and talented Elsie Flannigan is the guest DT, for real! And Danielle @ QTea Kits put together this awesome Elsie-inspired prize package just for the Mojo challenge! Deadline is July 15th.

And oh yeah...the challenge, well, all you have to do is use a lyric from the Ditty Bops and doodle. More details on the Mojo blog. Here's my LO for this challenge, which was a very important one for me...I had first heard about this challenge shortly after Heath Ledger passed away. It truly affected me. I cried off and on for over a week. I felt so saddened and shocked. I felt like someone that I knew had passed away. I fell in love with Heath the actor when I first saw him in "10 Things I Hate About You"...fell in love with him all over again in "The Patriot" and "A Knight's Tale" and "The Brother's Grimm", you name it. A few short weeks before he died, I saw the preview for "The Dark Knight". I hadn't seen "Batman Begins" at the time, but was so taken by the little bit of his performance as the Joker I saw in the trailer, that I went out and rented "Batman Begins", so I'd be ready. Around the house here, we kept talking about how good it looked and Tim and I kept quoting the line "Why so serious?". That got me remembering how much I love "10 Things I Hate About You" and how even though I had it on VHS, I need to update to a DVD. I started singing "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" frequently and even added a video of him singing it from the movie to my MySpace page. It was all Heath up in here all over again. And then January 22nd came. And Tim got a text message from our friend, Tasha, saying that he had died. I didn't believe it. It wasn't true. It couldn't be true. She had to be mistaken. I raced online, to TMZ actually, where I would surely read nothing of the sort, but no. It was all over the place..."Heath Ledger, dead at 28". It was on the news, on MSN....it surrounded me. And I felt at that moment, that it wasn't right, the world had changed and that it wasn't meant to be this way. It was a mistake. And I still feel that way to this day when I think about it. I know it's true, but I don't believe it. I never met him and surely didn't know him personally, but his passing still affected me.

That's why I knew when this challenge came up and I read the lyrics "If the sky can open its eyes/And cry from up above/Let's shed some tears of joy/And fall in love", I just had to incorporate a sort of tribute to Heath. For him, for me, for all those affected by his passing. The day after he died, I went and picked up the last copy of "10 Things I Hate About You" on DVD. I haven't opened it yet. Made sure to buy all his other movies on DVD as well. Haven't watched any of them. I haven't been able to. Maybe it feels like if I watch all those, it will feel final...or it will just be too hard. I don't know. I took July 18th off, so I could make sure I see "The Dark Knight" that day. I don't know how that will be. Ironically, I have been able to watch "A Knight's Tale" whenever they play it on TNT. And while it makes me sad when if I really think about it, it brings me such joy watching that, especially the dancing scene to David Bowie's "Golden Years". One of these days I'll watch the rest again. And I'm sure they'll bring me joy too.

In other news, Dana updated the Dozens probably want to get one before it's gone! I created 5 layouts, plus some super cute Parisian wall objects, which I'll discuss a bit more in a bit, and I still could have created more! I would have already if I hadn't been so busy lately. Plus, I'm in the middle of re-organizing and evaluating my stash to see what I want to keep and what I can live without because I'm really running out of DT gallery with all of the loveliness that was created with Doll Baby, the June/July kit. Check it out! I think there's still some kits left, so you'll room, so hence, I've got stuff all over my table, which doesn't provide for easy scrapping. But, I'm sure I will once I get everything cleaned up with time to spare.Now, these Parisian Wall Objects (that's what I'm calling them) were SO fun to make! I punched a hole in the vintage slide, originally intending to make a keychain out of it, but then when I thought about it, I realized that my keys get thrown around so much, that I better turn it into something else that won't get destroyed. So, I attached some ribbon from the kit and I had a nifty little wall hanging. I cut up a picture of Paris from the back of my last year's mini calendar (my room is partially Paris-themed and I'm so inspired by Paris and France) and took it from there. The little wings are not from the kit and came from MemrieMare on Etsy. I liked the outcome so much! I remembered I had this little frame I got at the flea market in a bundle of stuff for $1.00 and figured the transparency sheets that were in the kit would totally work as an alternative for glass. I decided to make another wall object to match the slide. Luckily, I had my friend, Katie, over who specializes in jewelry because I could not figure out for the life of me how I was going to poke holes in that metal to attach anything to hang it. She had me hold the frame in place while she took my paper piercer and my mini Making Memories hammer and hammered the paper piercer right into it. Worked perfectly!I really want to make more of these little things...I think a whole cluster of them would look really cool together! I'll be on the lookout for different things like this to alter.

Here are some other random recent layouts...This one made the SIStv catwalk! Yippee!!!Has anyone checked out the latest issue of Vogue Living (Australia)??? Oh my God, I saw it at Border's today and hello, the beauty and inspo that's inside and outside! The cover alone takes my breath away! It was $10.95, so extremely pricey, but I HAD to pick it up (along with the latest ReadyMade). Check out the cover*...*I found the pic of this at Decor8, as I was too lazy and it was too dark to take a picture. And I guess it came out in May, but oh well, new to me!

I also stopped at AC Moore today, with only like 5 things on my list, that included basics like embroidery thread, but walked out $125.00 later with much more than embroidery thread. They actually carry some pretty cool products now. I was surprised to see how much they updated their scrapbooking sections. They had some of the new Making Memories, new AC thickers, even some Hambly overlays!!!! I couldn't resist!

That's all for today. I think I've got some exciting news to be shared on Tuesday, but it's one of those I'll believe it when I see it. Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th!!!
-Lindsay