another button bracelet

Still having fun playing in the button jars. I made this last night while dinner was in the oven. I wear alot of denim and green, so this works for me. I think a fancy black and ivory bracelet is up next, but then there is a Christmas theme rolling around in my mind. I'd love to hear your button stories.

I'm a bit busy with re-decorating and painting the kiddo's room. We are moving from a fishing/campy type theme to a more skater/tropical thing. It all started with needing a bigger bed for this tall lanky kid that is pushing 6'. Of course we found some Quicksilver bedding that costs an arm and a leg. It doesn't match the green walls, so that means we are painting blue with tan accents now. Then we have to clean the carpets while the room is empty and then... You know how it goes, once you start a project it keeps getting bigger.

the girls

Here is a glimpse of what happens every day here on our walk. Pure joy. These two clowns bring alot of joy to our lives. I hope they bring a smile to your day.

I'm keeping busy with crafty stuff that I can't post. I've submitted some things to a magazine and to a contest. I'm working on teaching some classes, so I'm putting samples together. I've been wanting to do these things for so long, it's nice to finally have time and focus to get them rolling.

Next week we are taking a white water raft trip and some national park stuff. It will be great to get away. I hope you are having a great first week of summer.

silly stamp mania

You know it's true, housework does make you ugly. That being said, my craft space is still clean. I actually cleaned up after each project. I must be getting uglier by the minute...LOL! I even cleaned out Kyle's craft supplies and my card stash. I sent of 45 cards to Cards for Heroes and put together some sets of cards for gifts.

The guys got home from fishing last night and added a ton to our freezer. I love that. Poor Kyle's feet are blistered from sunburn. I feel so bad for him. We are going rafting next week on the Kern River. I've got to get him well before then. He can't even wear shoes right now. We are doing motrin, aloe vera, and hydrocortisone cream per the Mayo clinic online recommendations. I also have him resting with his feet elevated because they are so swollen.

stamp-mania

As you can see I have been busy celebrating WSW. These are just a few of the gazillions of things I stamped this week. I think I'm all stamped out. I'm off to hang out and read the new Evanovich book, Fearless Fourteen. It's pure silliness and perfect for a girly night. The guys get back from their end of the school year camping trip tomorrow. Word is that they caught tons of trout and a bit of a sunburn. I'm making banana pudding to welcome them back. I miss those guys.

ps...I forgot to post this earlier. I had my first negative product review up at Craft Critique yesterday.

life rolls on

Do you ever feel like you don't have much to say? Lately I've felt quiet and introspective. I have lots of thoughts, but not much to share with the world. I think it's because I'm on the cusp of change. Not huge sweeping stuff, just life is rolling along stuff.

Kyle will be a teenager in two days. After home-schooling for two years and then home-study for one subject this year, he will be flying on his own next year. He's doing great in school, even made the honor roll. I'm very proud of him. No health scares on the horizon and mom is getting stronger every day. So, here I am on the cusp of....more freedom, less stress, more choices. It's a good place to be.

I'm still reading up on the frightening state of our food supply. My most recent read is Skinny Bitch. It's not as funny as it sounds and is downright hard to read in some parts. I'm giving up all soda and artificial sweeteners this week. I'm taking this in baby steps. The farmers market started last week, so I am enjoying local fresh produce.

I just about have the messy state of the craft room under control. Just one small pile of stuff left to go through. It's a tough business keeping the space clean. As soon as I get it cleaned up, I want to make something and then I make a mess again. I'm working on cleaning after creating, but I think the mess helps my creative process.

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!

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.

easter eggs, grungeboard, mom, and a new baby girl

What the heck do these things have to do with each other? Not a single thing except they are all things happening in my life right now. I'll start with mom who is raring to get out in the world now that she is finally feeling better. We went out to breakfast yesterday and did a little treasure hunting at our two favorite thrift shops. I've been waiting months to take her out to play. I'm so thankful that she is feeling well enough to go out for a couple of hours. We parked close and moved slow, but we did it. Then when I got home I got a call from my cousin telling me we have a beautiful new baby girl in the family. She does not yet have a name because her parents are getting to know her first before they name her. I think that is so wonderful. Her big brother wanted to know who was bringing the cake to the birthing day party. How adorable is he? So his meemaw went to the bakery and got a cake. Awwww.

This is the easter egg part of the story. I was inspired by my talented friend Jennifer's card that she sent me. I used her idea of silver embossing and painting on my egg basket for this card that I'm swapping with my card group this morning.
Supplies: Northwoods rubber stamp image, silver detail embossing powder, twinkling H2O's, K&Co pink patterned paper, Cloud9 green patterned paper, SU green & white CS, ticket punch, corner rounder, and pink ribbon.

And finally, the grungeboard. I did a review of this product today on craft critique if you'd like to take a peek.

Elvis is in the building

I rarely get so excited about the newest stamps that I buy them on the release day. There is a first time for everything. I ordered my new Elvis stamp from CHF on Friday and it was delivered today. I love this image of the young sexy Elvis who held so much promise.

I had to get this stamp for my mom. You know she's had such a rough time lately that I just knew when I saw these stamps they would bring a smile to her face. She was in love with Elvis with all the other young girls of her generation. She loved to dance to his songs and won lots of dance contests. So, I made her this card today that I will take to her in the morning when we have our weekly day together while Dad golfs. Who knows maybe we will dance in the kitchen like we did when I was little. That was so much fun!

My mom rocks. She has been winning a war against a little spore that tried to take over and ruin everything. It isn't winning, she is. I'm so proud of her for not giving up even when it didn't feel like there was much hope. She is my hero, and I can't wait to give her this fun card.

supplies used: cornish heritage farms Elvis Stamp and backgrounder dots, studio g sentiment, black versafine ink, top boss ink, sparkly no name embossing powder, pale pink marker, pink, white, and black cardstock. I used the bind it all to cut the square holes in the black paper.

happy monday

What a fun busy weekend we had around here. I probably haven't told you this, but I usually have 3-4 day weekends. My sweet hubby works 12 hour shifts, so has a nice amount of time off. This was a long weekend for us. We got our taxes done and had a lunch date. We bought some new chairs....hurry up brown suited santa (UPS man). I learned how to make soap from my wonderful neighbor. We had our first BBQ of the year after hubby finished shoveling the remnants of snow from the deck. He made these amazing burgers with blue cheese on top and then a mixture of carmelized onions, apples, and pears. Yummy! I saw all my neighbors on our walks this weekend. I'm such a hermit in the winter that I don't know what is happening outside. It was nice to get caught up with everyone. I'm so sad that 2 of my favorite neighbors are moving over the next couple of months. I'm trying to look at it as an opportunity to get more great neighbors. I went to a demo training for fiskars and played with all sorts of new tools. I'm officially a Fiskar's Demonstrator now, I have a certificate and name badge to prove it. It was a wonderful weekend filled with laughter, fun, and good food. It doesn't get any better than that.


This is a card I made for a technique swap using the spirelli technique. That's the part where the glittery thread is wrapped around the scallop punch. I loved wrapping the thread in different ways to see what would happen. It reminds me of playing with a spirograph toy.
supplies used: SU, CTMH, and Stampendous stamps; Kaliedacolor fresh greens inkpad, Versafine imperial purple inkpad, green rickrack, purple grosgrain ribbon, purple glittery thread, giga oval scallop punch, prima flower, lime green stickles, white cardstock.

History

The gothic arch challenge this week is history. It always amazes me that so many arch challenges fit right into my life at the moment. My grandmother and aunt are here visiting and my aunt brought a whole CD of old family photos she scanned when she was at grandma's. Well, there is this one photo of my great grandfather that I absolutely love. He was about 14 years old sitting in front of an old quilt playing a banjo. The photo was badly damaged, so my dear hubby spent about an hour photo shopping it to repair the damage. It's a gem now. I printed it onto fabric for my arch.

This is John William Bowen who lived August 18, 1899 to September 20, 1982 in Kingston, Arkansas. He was a farmer, woodworker, musician, loving husband and father of six. I am very lucky that I had an opportunity to spend time with him and know him when I was a child and young teen. I spent time visiting with great grandpa on the porch swing that he built. I enjoyed playing in the yard, swimming in the creek, gathering eggs, and picking vegetables that he and grandma grew. I did not enjoy using the outhouse, but that was part of going to their house, too. I always saw him wearing overalls, never any other type of clothing as far as I can remember. I was the same age that grandpa is here when I last saw him. He made an indelible impression on me and I still miss him.

For this arch I used a variety of things: denim, photo printed on muslin, vintage button, grungeboard swirl with crackle paint and distress ink in faded jeans, vintage lace, vintage sheet music, K&Co letters, the base is a bark like paper that I picked up at the thrift shop, and a date stamp down in the corner.

If you'd like to see what I am doing with all these wonderful arches, I posted about it on Craft Critique today. I am using a product called CardKeepers that is just perfect for the arches.

Mom is getting better

I've been waiting to post this just to be sure, but it surely is true. Over the last 2 weeks, my mom is slowly getting some strength back. The doctor confirmed today that her body is healing after 3 long months of illness. She still has a way to go, but it's wonderful to see her on the mend. She even went out to breakfast with my dad after her appointment this morning to celebrate. It was her first outing in such a long time. Thank you to all my friends who have supported us on this long road. Your kind words, deeds, and prayers have carried me through this most difficult time. Hugs to you.