I am a pig

Truly in many senses of the word. I am a completely messy person at my very core. I married a man who is a bit of a neat freak. It doesn't have to be clean, but he doesn't like clutter. If I don't keep things picked up, he does. The exception is my craft room. It's truly my room except the family computer lives here. He has to come in here to use the computer, so occasionally I really look at the mess and feel bad for the guy. These photos were taken after about 30 minutes of clearing the left side of my stamping table. I spent over 2 hours on my mess yesterday and it's still not finished.

My family of origin completely gave up on me. Just shut the door they would say. I always had a pile of dirty laundry, books, and heaven knows what in my room as a kid. My mom tells the story of a half-eaten sandwich way past it's prime that she found in my sock drawer. I believe her. The funny thing is that I'm paying for all of my messiness. My almost teen son has inherited my messy nature. I occasionally sneak into his hovel when he is at school to remove science experiments and dirty dishes. Oh, what a mess. There were ants in his closet recently...ewww!

I am a pig in another sense. I can't pass up a fantastic yard sale or thrift shop bargain. I want it all! Today officially kicks off yard sale season here on the mountain. There will be a few pre-sales today. Tomorrow Mom will come up for the day for our annual yard sale mania. We start with chocolate donuts and the yard sale map and see what happens. The church in my neighborhood is having a sale starting at 8am tomorrow. That's where we will start.

I'll try to finish cleaning up all this mess today, so I have room for more stuff tomorrow! I surely don't need anything, but you can see I'm piggish, so I'm sure to find something. Here is the rest of my messy room:

mom's day

Happy Mother's Day my artful friends. This one is for my wonderful mom.

supplies used: art declassified stamp, timber brown staz-on ink, worn lipstick distress ink, basic grey paper, SU glossy white and kraft cardstock, HA pearl, prima flower, fiskars threading water punch, vintage pin and lace.

ellen rocks

Yesterday was our big day to go see the ellen show. I am a huge fan of her show because it's always just so fun and so positive. I am so happy to tell you that her show is even more wonderful in person. She has an amazing spirit with an almost child-like sense of fun. Every single person on her staff was amazing to us. We did have to wait a long time because they taped two shows back to back yesterday. The show they taped before ours was the mother's day show that will be on today. Those ladies went home with lots of stuff, but they were all pregnant, so we are ok with that. I'd rather go home with less and not be pregnant, LOL! The show we watched will be on Monday.

Mom and I sat right at the top of the second aisle that ellen dances up. She danced really close to mom, so I think you'll definitely see her. Mom wore a white top with black and red embroidered flowers on the front and black pants. I was wearing a black, white, and melon print top with black pants. Also, we danced together during a commercial break like we used to dance in the kitchen when I was a kid. Ellen giggled at our slow dancing to her crazy hip hop music. It was wonderful.

Now on to the guests....Dr. House, the dude with dreadlocks that got kicked off American Idol, and a really skinny blonde from the MTV show The Hills. Even though I don't watch any of those shows we loved the guests. Dr. House was hilarious and the singer was amazing. The young girl who is all over magazine covers was a stick...we couldn't get over how thin she was. Even ellen hasn't watched the hills, so that made me feel a bit better about being out of the loop on popular tv stuff. The teen girls that we sat with in line and who were in front of us knew each one of the people on the show. While we were waiting they texted all their friends. They even had the magazines with the hills girl's pic on the front to show us. It was great.

Ellen dances and sings every word of every song the whole time even during the commercial breaks. She took time at the end of the show to talk to the audience and thank us for taking time to be there and for supporting her with our applause. She was genuinely interested in every guest and talked to them during the breaks. There were no re-takes or re-shooting. What happened is exactly what you will see on Monday. It's a real show, nothing is fake about it. I was really surprised by that. I've seen other shows taped and there is always re-taping if something went wrong. Ellen just goes with it. It's not live, but it could be. She gave us all La Coste classic polo shirts. We filled out a form for color and size and they will be sent to us.

Before the show we ate at the Bob's Big Boy that Jay Leno goes to with his classic cars for cruise night. It's an old classic drive in, car hop and sit down restaurant that's listed on California's Historic Places. We didn't see any celebs, but the cheeseburgers were wonderful. We cruised around all over near the studios trying to figure out where to go and where to park. All of the studios were there, warner bros, nbc, abc, disney...so fun.

The very best part is that mom and I did something new together yesterday. We believe you should try everything once in life as long as it's not illegal or immoral. If you like it you should do it again. Lately, reality has gotten in the way of our quest to try everything life has to offer. I guess we have been trying new things these last 6 months, but mostly not things we wanted to try like buying a shower chair, dealing with hair loss, learning more than we ever wanted to know about valley fever, c-diff, and kidney failure. It feels so good to try something new, dance, laugh, and act like kids. Good stuff!

brayer fun

Still busy here inking things up with my brayer. I have a review up today at Craft Critique on the subject. When I wrote the article, I assumed everybody has one of these handy tools. Well, we all know what happens when we assume. I thought I'd go into a bit more detail on using one of these nifty tools here.

First of all, don't be afraid of this tool. It's fun to use and cleans up easily with a quick rinse in the sink. I put down some old paper under my project to protect my work surface. One of my favorite ways of recycling is to use an old phone book. Tear off the front page and put your paper to be colored on top of it. Brayer to your heart's content, then tear off the top page and recycle it. You now have a fresh page to work on your next color. Also, while you have your brayer and ink rolling, make a bunch of backgrounds. I usually ink up tons of stuff at once and then have a stack of backgrounds ready to go for later. I tend to make alot of A2 sized cards or arches based on the same size which is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". Ink up whatever size you work with most or use whole sheets that you can cut down later.

Ok, just how the heck do you actually make a brayer work? Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some tutorial links that might help.
~Brayered Sky.
~Bouncing Brayer.
~Video tutorial of Brayered Cuttlebug Ink Embossing.
~Crayon Resist.
~Brayer resource thread with links to samples, ideas, and techniques.

I'm certain that there are more video tutorials out there showing a brayer in use, but I just can't seem to find more right now. If you know of any, please share the link and I'll add it to the list. For now, here's another card I made using my trusty brayer and the plastic wrap technique.



I hope you are getting some crafty fun time this week.

food

I like food. Not in a I'll eat anything way, but in an I like good food way. I'm not a vegetarian, vegan, or non-red meat eater. I've heard arguments for all of these things, and I find myself being in the "all things in moderation" camp. Recently I picked up a book at the library that has me really thinking about food in ways I never imagined. Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver is a very worthy read. I'm about 2/3 of the way through and find it in my hands daily.

It's a story about a family that chooses to grow and eat food from local sources for a year. It's a personal story including recipes that make my mouth water. It also tells the story of agriculture and how it has turned into agri-business in a massive way. Some of it is pretty scary stuff. It also talks about the high cost of transporting food, and not just in dollars, but in food value. I never really gave any thought to where my food comes from before.

I live in California where nearly everything is raised, made, or grown. Then why in the heck does the milk I buy every week come from Illinois. There are dairies within 50 miles of here. I read labels today at the grocery store in search of California products. It makes sense to me that I should keep my dollars in my state and that my food will be fresher if it's local. The added bonus of saving the earth is there, too. We can't afford to waste fuel transporting food from other countries and states when it's all available here. Can you believe that the closest made cheese came from Oregon? This is crazy. I did find California milk, but paid almost twice the amount that Illinois milk cost. I bought California tomatoes and passed up the ones from Mexico. California Strawberries and passed up South American bananas. San Francisco bread and passed up New Jersey bread. I can't wait until the seasonal farmers market starts again, so I will have more options.

I really think that our food supply is linked to our health problems. It seems everyone I know is touched by cancer. This was not the case in my great granparents' generation. They ate the food they grew and canned. Eggs and milk came from their chickens and cows. We don't all have the opportunity to grow our own food, but there are farmer's markets everywhere. Take a moment to visit yours and talk to the growers and support them. The only way our food supply will get better is if we demand it with the way we spend our dollars.

a bit of ink

Here's a peek of what's been happening here creatively. These are all backgrounds that I made with ink, water, and saran wrap. I'm loving the new book I mentioned below. Not showing the whole thing because I'm using these for an article and for some class samples. I'm so excited that I may soon be teaching classes. When I have more info, I promise I'll dish. I just want to show you that I really am making something here.

I went out treasure hunting today with Mom. We had a grand time. I think she's going to be ready to go see ellen by May 8th. We are so excited. Do you watch ellen? We love her and I guess we had better practice our dance moves. Mom is a great dancer, so she doesn't have to worry at all. She used to win dance contests. I'm another story. My goal is to dance like noboby is watching. I don't know yet what date the show will air, but it's being filmed on the evening of the 8th, so I'm thinking on the 9th. We hope it's the Mother's Day show.

I'm still here

I haven't been posting much lately because I haven't been creating much. I thought I had a toothache a few weeks ago so went to the dentist who referred me to the endodontist who then referred me to my medical doctor. Of course all this referring takes alot of time while I'm still here with headaches and just generally not feeling myself. It turns out that I have a sinus infection which is really no big deal once you know it. I have some medicine and it's starting to work. Finally.

Guess who showed up yesterday...my muse. She is a finicky one. She doesn't come around when I'm sick, tired, stressed, or when the weather isn't just right. She also needs some chocolate, so I fed her raisinettes. She loves them because the raisins are good for you so she can justify the chocolate. I bought her a book last week that I found used at the library. It is a treasure of a book by Suze Weinberg called The Art of Rubber Stamping. If you love making backgrounds or are a technique addict, this one is worth the money. I love looking at techniques online, but have difficulty remembering them when I'm trying to re-create the look. I really love to snuggle up in my favorite chair and soak up a great book. This one delivers.

Ok, now I have one more thing to share with you that absolutely made my week. I got a phone call last night from NBC Studios...that's what my caller id showed. Hmmmm, maybe it's about those tickets we requested to see a show being taped. You see I have this favorite show that never fails to make me laugh. It is a show I watch with my son when we can. There is never anything negative on this show even though it comes on when all those ugly talk shows are on in the afternoon. I love to watch uplifting things. I think real life has enough negativity in it, so I don't invite that into my home. Mom and I are attending this one on May 8th. Sounds like a great way to start Mother's Day weekend. Can you guess who we are going to see?

today is my blog-aversary

Happy one year of blogging to me! I never imagined how much fun could be had blogging and had no idea anyone would want to read about my life and my creative endeavors. Thanks to everyone who has visited, left a comment, and inspired me by your beautiful blogs and artwork.

As promised I did the blog candy drawing today, actually Kyle picked a number from 1-16, which is how many non-spam comments were left. He picked #9. Ally please send me an email with your mailing addy and I'll get the goodies in the mail tomorrow. My email addy is in my profile. Thanks to everyone who linked up Ethel's auction blog. The bidding is still open if you'd like to join in. The current highest bid for all 5 Longaberger baskets is $175, and all monies go to the Susan G. Komen race for the cure.

Thanks everyone for joining me on this crazy blog journey. I can't wait to see what the next year holds.

beauty

We are on spring break here this week. Of course we decided to spend some of our time at the happiest place on earth. Disney must employ the world's best gardeners. I always attempt to take some botanical photos there. This beauty was waiting for me near Tarzan's Tree House.

The guys are off on a manly desert camping trip, so I've been busy making cards and playing. I'm taking mom to a quilt show at the museum this afternoon. I hope you get a spring break, too.

Stop by Craft Critique if you get a chance today. I reviewed my fave mag...Cloth Paper Scissors.

tolerance

I have been busy these last couple of weeks doing a bit of spring cleaning. I'm clearing out the clutter in the house and the mind. Do you ever feel that life is trying very hard to teach you something? In different ways this year a theme keeps coming up and hitting me in the head... tolerance. I looked it up this morning and this is the definition that really defines this word best for me:

"Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human. Tolerance is harmony in difference." This definition comes from tolerance.org

Are we teaching this to our children? I've been told most of my life that children are just mean to each other somtimes. A sort of it's an innate thing with all children. Actually, I've found just the opposite to be true. Our children embrace difference unless we teach them otherwise. When we teach our children that our way of thinking or believing is the only way, we are teaching them intolerance.

As I was growing up, I had a huge variety of friends. My parents never ever excluded anyone based on their beliefs, family values, color of their skin, or country of origin. All of my friends and their friends were welcome in our home. I distinctly recall one of my very best friends telling me about her family's experiences with anti-semiticism. It was absolutely unbelievable to me and I thought my beautiful friend was not telling me the truth. I have since learned that hate takes many forms, sometimes ugly and readily apparent and sometimes hidden and disguised.

My child believes in many things. One of the things he believes is evolution, that does not mean he doesn't believe in God. We don't believe in organized religion, that doesn't make him a bad person. He is one of the most conscientious, fair-minded, kind, and moral kids you'd ever meet. He is being discriminated against because he has been dubbed a "non-believer" by parents of children he goes to school with. The children are only repeating the intolerance they are learning at home. Please teach your children about tolerance. The result of ignorance and intolerance is painful and devastating.