Only 182 Days Till Christmas!

That's right. And as you all know it comes faster and faster each year! I told you I would be teaching some classes that you can use as Christmas presents, here is #2.

It is a 2010 planner book. The vintage flower images are by Cavellini. There is some subtle stamping throughout the book as well as lots of inking. Each month is divided with 2 Flower images and has a box calendar and notes page. This would be a great gift. Heck, it would be great to keep for yourself as well! If you want to see some of the inside pages just click on the photo below.

Besides finishing up this planner I have been working on Monkey's doll cradle. I got it all finished and purchased the fabric for the bedding. I will get some pictures up as soon as I finish it all. It is really cute!

I have also been nursing a very old, sick dog. Poor Sugar just seems to get worse every day. Monday I woke up to messes all over the house and she was just so sick. Thankfully our neighbor is a vet and was willing to pop over to check on her. He gave her some anti-diareal meds and some antibiotics. She is feeling better now but still I know I wont have her for long.

Bryanna was in the hospital last Thursday - they thought she had blood clots in her lungs. Thankfully again it turned out to just be a really bad case of pluerisey. I can't tell you how worried I was. It just doesn't matter how old they get - they are always your babies!!!!

Today Monkey and I went to Story Time at the library again. We go every Wednesday morning now. She just loves it and I just love taking her. I am truly a LUCKY WOMAN!!!!

What the heck is FACEBOOK????

I got an email today from someone inviting me to view their pictures on Facebook. I clicked on the link and ended up with my very own Facebook acct. Next thing I know I see names and photos of all kinds of people I know. There were little boxes next to them asking me if I wanted to be their friend? So I clicked on them. Then I stareted worrying, were these "friends" already on FB? Or did FB pull up my email address book somehow and now I have accidentally had "will you be my friend" emails sent out to people from my own address book? If so I appologize.

I did find that my cousin Jan from Sweden has a FB account. I couldn't read what he was saying because it was all in Swedish and I did not keep up with my lessons when he was trying to teach me. I also ran into another friend that I had not talked to in months. We actually spent about 3 hours on the phone tonight catching up. I also saw that my long-lost sister has a FB account. Hmmm... at least I know she is still alive?

So, what's the deal with Facebook? I can't really figure out what you do on there? What the purpose is? Anyone want to teach this "old dog" a new trick? Is it even worth my learning???

I am a little perplexed by it all. But I did get several emails "confirming me as a friend" to several people tonight. Another strange thing is that people were "writing on my wall" tonight saying "Hi" and "Welcome to Facebook Marta".

Fill me if you can.

Have a great Hump-Day tomorrow!!!!

Excited & Frustrated All At The Same Time. . .

that's how I am feeling today.

Remember at the 1st of the month I showed you the doll highchair I redid for Monkey? And I told you I would soon be starting on a cradle to Match? Well, about midnight last night I started on it. I got it all sanded and painted. Then I started the process of decopauging the G45 papers onto it. At 4:30 this morning I wasn't sure if I was happy with one of my paper selections so I put it up and went to bed. When I got up at 11am I was greeted with "Love the cradle" by my family (they were all in bed when I started it last night). With their praises I was sure my paper selection was fine and that I would be happy with it now. Nope. I tried to be since it was already on there. But the more I thought about it and looked at it, the more I knew it would always bother me. So out with teh handy sand paper to try to correct my problem. Once I got it sanded and the new paper on it I was thrilled!!!! I loved the new paper chose and I thought it just made the whole thing POP!

Sadly I am at a stand still now. I can't do anymore to it. . .I am out of paper!!!!! It is looking so cute and I am so happy with it and woudl love to give it to Monkey on Monday but I can't. I am short 3 pieces of paper! I have called all over town today and no one has it. Hopefully when my friend Judie gets back from her daughter's graduation she will have some in her stash that I can steal? If not I will have to order it online and wait for it to ship.

I can't wait to make the bedding for it too - this is going to be one colorful little doll cradle. I sure hope Monkey enjoys it!

So that is why I am excited and frustrated today.

Excited cause it is looking so cute

Frustrated because I can't finish.

What are you up to this weekend???

Doing anything fun?

Creating any treasures?

Relaxing and spending time with your family?

Whatever it is enjoy yourself!!!!!

Thankful for a crappy Day!!!!!

That's right - I am thankful I had a crappy day yesterday!

Yesterday I started my day hungry and thirsty because I had to fast for my blood work at my Dr appt. But I don't typically eat alot in the morning so that wasn't too bad. But I do have an ice cold caffine and sugar laiden Pepsi every morning as soon as I wake up. Not yesterday I didn't!

I got to the Dr's office and it was packed! This was a new Dr for me (my daughter loves her and thought I would too since my Dr doesn't accept our new ins) I signed in, paid my co-pay and waited. And waited. And waited some more. At 11:45 my name was called (my appt was at 10:30) and I was ushered back to the little waiting room (that's what I call the exam room). There I waited a while longer for the Dr to show her face. She pops in nice as can be until. . . I let her know I only wanted to get the required blood work I needed for my ins and didn't want to come back for a well woman's exam. That really set her off! She got so upset and mad at me that she was litterally pounding on the keys of her laptop as she typed her notes! She actually went on a tyraid about how foolish I was and kept saying "I have to put some kind of code on here (paperwork) what would you like me to put"!!!!! She was actually red in the face as she "talked" to me. I almost walked out of there and told her that I would find a new Dr. But she already had my $25 co-pay and I had already fasted. We never talked about anything other than how foolish I was and how she could not understand me. She told me over and over again "you are making no sense, I can't understand you". Finally she let me out of the little room and sent me to get my blood drawn. I was never so thankful to get stuck in my whole life!

So I leave there with the beginnings of a headache and head off to Chic-fil-a for some much needed nurishment. What a line in the drive thru! Oi Vey!!!! Finally I get my food and start driving home. I decided I would go ahead and get my hair cut off today and that maybe that would make me feel better about my awful Dr appt? I popped in and the gal I like to cut my hair was in and had time - good sign, right? We talk about what I want and she measures my hair to see if I had enough to be donated to Locks of Love - nope 2" short. I had 8" taken off!!!! But I left happy, excited almost to go home and take a shower and do my new do. Well, the excitemnet quickly faded into frustration and feelings of regret. What have I done to myself!?! I tried it curly. I tried it straight. I tried it towards my face and back from my face. I HATED IT!!!!!!

By now my head is really pounding and I feel like crap. Did I mention that I had been having hot flashes so severly all day as well? Well, I had and they were not getting any better. I finally decided that the only thing to do was to crawl into bed with some ice packs, an ice cold pepsi and some cold fresh fruit and just lie there and feel sorry for myself. And that is exactly what I did.

As I laid there bemoaning my crappy day I found myself telling God "thank you". I realized that I could not remember the last time I had had a truly crappy day. I have days were I had a headache that lasted all day. I have had days when I have been sick. I have had days that I argued with my Mother or with Lizzy, but none of those things were crappy days - just crappy things that happened in a day. Is any of this making sense to you?

I realized laying there how truly blessed and lucky I am!!!! I have a happy life and I have great days! I get to spend my days with Monkey just playing with and loving her. I get to spend my evenings and weekends with my best friend Gary. I get to spend my spare time with my art, creating things that bring me joy and teaching classes so that other people can create too. I have a great house, health, enough food and money to pay our bills. I am surrounded by love and happiness everyday!

So, I am thankful for a crappy day! It makes me human. It makes me take stock of what all I really do have. So, today my friends I wish for you a "crappy day". That's right, a crappy day. Not so crappy that you are hurt by it, just crappy enought to remind you of all the things you do have.

Wednesday Night Ramblings

Just thought I'd share a few pictures from the last couple of days. Nothing wild and exciting - just having fun with my Monkey!!!

She is finally old enough to have peanuts!!!! Her and Bapa really enjoyed their PB&J sandwiches the other day!

This is my little hula girl and BIL Greg's puppy. I cannot believe that the dog actually allowed her to carry him around, He just sat there so still. The other amazing thing is how gentle she was to the dog!

When you have no AC in the house you head outside to play in the sprinkler with the dog!!!

Monkey and I went to storytime at the new library that opened up by our house with our neighbors. I had never been to storytime before (I was way too busy for these kinds of things when my kids were growing up) and neither had Monkey. Surprisingly, it was a lot of fun for us both! They sang songs, had a story, played with some bubbles and toys as well as a couple of other activities.

There were a ton of kids there, from babies to toodlers. I think we will try to make this a weekly outing for us. After the library, us two girls went to the mall and hung out. We bought some really cool bubbles from Gymborie, a new card reader for me and a new outfit for Monkey (a really cute skirt & top with monkies all over!). It was a great day!!!!

Sadly when Gary got home I found out that his power steering went out again! He couldn't even drive it home after work. I think this is going to be an expensive month for us, with the AC and now the truck. Less than 6 months ago we put a new ($1300) power steering in his truck. Fingers crossed that it is all still under waranty!

Tomorrow I am going to the Dr for the first time in over 2 years! I HATE the Dr!!!!! Tonight I am having to fast - no pepsi or food till after my blood work. Geez, do you think I will make it??? There's nothing (more than usual - haha) wrong with me, but our new ins recquires us to go to the Dr each year and fill out a health assessment. As much as I hate to go I will do it.

I am thinking that once I am done with the Dr I will run to Joanns and pick up some fabric I want for some Christmas presents I want to make. I might even go get my hair cut off! I am thinking I need to ditch some of this stuff for the summer. What do you think??? Part of me hates to do it and the other part is excited for a change, even if it is just a small change. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how traumatized I am after the Dr. hahaha.

I hope you had a great day! See ya 'round.

Still Crazy!!!

That's right - I am nuts and I am okay with it. I am still slaving away over my digital files. I got 75 CDs full of images loaded onto my PC, got them all organized and have over half of those organized digital files burned onto new CDs. I am feeling pretty good about my progress. Unfortunately I still have another whole binder of Monkey's pictures! And that is ALOT of photos!!!!! As I have been burning them onto the new discs I have been typing a log of exactly what images are on each disc. I am sure this will really help me find the photos I am looking for when I need them.
I must say it is really fun getting to see all of these photos again. It is so fun to remember all of these moments. It is great fun to see my Sugar Marie again as the strong, vibrant, pretty dog she used to be. It is fun to see the old house and the yard and the gardens we planted there. It is fun to see all of the wedding pictures from Bryanna's wedding. It is amazing to see the photos of this new house when it was only a dirt lot.
Here's a small sampling of the photos I am loving. . .

Building our new house - Nov 2006

Bryanna's Dress Fitting Jan 2006

My Beautiful Iris from my Friendship Garden at the old house

My Sugar Marie on the wall - YES, I said on the wall. Since she was 10 weeks old she has climbed and walked on walls. She is 16 now and can barely walk on the floor without falling. I miss my old Sugar!

But isn't she a proud and beautiful dog here?

Also, if you are interested, I am still wihout AC!!!! Hopefully tomorrow???? If not tomorrow we will have to go the whole weekend without. Yuck!

Oh well - I hope you all are having a great week and have some fun plans for the weekend. We have a birthday party on Sat and I have my travel album class on Sunday.

Well, back to my digi files

Toodle loo!

Am I Crazy or What????

I have decided that I have nothing better to do with my time. So yesterday I started loading ALL of my digital photo back-up CD's onto my computer. YES, that's right ALL of them! I have 100's of them. But I have found that even though I really made an effort to back-up my photos in an organized matter, I have realized I have not. I am sick to death of searching and searching for a photo I need. Hence forth why I am doing this. A few months back when my SIL built my new PC for me he asked me "do you want it big or OBSCENLY BIG"? I went for OBSCENLY BIG! So now that I have all of this space (a terrabyte) I guess I can do thsi without slowing down my PC too much. I am hoping that within a week I will have all of my images neatly organized and backed up again. I found as I was loading all of my images that I have somehow lost 2 years worth of Christmas photos and some other random pictures. Breaks my heart. Thank goodness I always back things up in three places:

1. Costco online (edited images)

2. CD (edited images)

3. CD (SOOC)

You never know what might happen and it would be so sad to lose photos that you love. Thankfully the ones I lost are on Costco and unedited on a CD. I hope this will inspire you to make sure your precious photos are all backed up.

On another note, it was 106 out today and one of our AC's went out!!! Yeppers that right - and it is no fun to have a hot house and hot flashes all at the same time! Thankfully Gary has someone coming out 1st thing in the morning. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it will be a quick and inexpensive fix! We have Monkey for the night tonight too (her daddy had his wisdom teeth pulled today - ouch!) I am glad the AC that is still running cools the bedrooms. I would hate to have her (or the rest of us) miserable all night.

So that is all of my borning news for today. I hope you all had a great day and that it was nice and cool where you are today.

It's that time of the month again!

Can you beleive I have been away from my blog for a whole month! Well, for those of you that have asked, I am fine. I did get a crazy flu bug the first part of May which put me behind on several things. It also made me cancel one of my classes and I had to reschedule it. Not everyone could get together on the same date and since it was my fault that the original class got scratched I did this class 2 weeks in a row so that no one would miss out. This ate up a little bit of time for me as well. But it was great to be with the gals 2 Friday nights in a row!

I have a few other classes that I have been preping for and some just fun personal projects. I have been keeping my hands dirty with ink and glue and having a blast! I will try to share some of them with you in the next few days, starting with this one. . .

This is a little vintage highchair I brought back from Califonia a year ago. I loved it the minute I saw it and knew I had to get it for Monkey. I also knew I would have to alter it a bit.

So this is it after I got my hands on it! Thank you Chris for the G-45 paper I was missing to finish this!

Monkey really likes it, but there is one problem. . . She wants to eat HER lunches in it too! I just can't seem to make her understand that it is only big enough for her babies.

I have recently picked up an old wooden doll cradle that I will be altering for Monkey. And I am also working on a board book for her. All of this is being done with the G45 Playtimes Past paper line. It is just so fun to work with, and really gives these toys a vintage, girly feel.

Well, I will be back soon. Be sure to check out the new class list to the right and get yourself signed up for few classes. It's a great way to get out of the heat this summer and spend some time with the girls!

Happy Monday!!!