Spillin' the Beenz

Happy New Year (even though it's Friday the 13th!)

2012-01-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

So, it's 13 days into the new year - how are things going for you? It has been busy around here the past 2 weeks. Busy with the girls and busy creating stuff. I am dedicating this post to Tammy (you know who you are) who wants to see what all I have been up to. So grab a drink and a snack and take a look at my new year so far. . .

Gary had the 1st week of January off so he was on babysitting duty, or as we called it "Fun with Grandpa week". He let the girls hang out with him no matter what he was doing. On this day he was trying to get a work-out in so he set up his easle with a scrap of plywood and got out all of his paints and brushes and let Monkey paint. I personally think she has a gift!

On Tuesday he took the girls to the park (complete with a picnic he packed) for over 3 hours!!! They had a great time but poor Bug did come home with a slight injury. I am not sure if any of you have ever seen an 18 month old limp, but it is quite pathetic! It has been over a week and she still has a slight limp. But the x-rays show no breaks - whew. . . we were a little worried!

On Thursday we both took the girls to the Phoenix zoo. We all had a great time

But Grandpa was deffinately the "star" of the day!

Although I was the one that treated the girls to the giraffe exhibit. . .

Where each one of us got to take a turn feeding the giraffe

Then, Monkey wanted to ride a camel! I found out that my big brave hubby is not a fan of riding camels or even being close to them! So it was just Monkey & me that hitched a ride!

Gary offered up a $1 prize to the 1st one to fall asleep once we got in the car for the 1 hour drive back home. Bug won the buck but Gary & Monkey were only 5 minutes behind her! It was a nice quiet ride back home.

I HATE resolutions!!!!! I never make them!!!! But I do make myself a list of goals each New Year of projects I want to get done or special things I want to save up and buy etc. I got my list all done (and even printed it out this year!) and I have been hammering away it.

One of the things on my list was to make my own Christmas stockings this year (before the next Christmas rush). Well, check me out. . . .

I got working on them right away

I wanted to have everyone's initial embroirdered on something (wasnt sure on what) to hang from the sock so we could all tell them apart. The shop wanted $15 EACH to do them!!!! I was making 12 stockings - Way too much money for me! I found these dyeable appliques at Hobby Lobby for $1.25 each and the antique gold frame orniments at Mike's for .80 cents each. I used a combination of Glimmer Mist and Distress ink to dye them the perfect color of gold. I used scraps from the stockings and ironed the appliques on and then framed them all in the frame orniments. I added a jewelry pin to the back to hold them perfectly in place on the stockings. I also got the velvet ribbon at Joanns for 20 cents a spool.

They turned out PERFECT!!!! I am just so happy with them! I made 12 even though I only needed 9, this way if I get more grandkids I will have a stocking ready for them!

Aren't they pretty? You would never know that the initials are iron-on appliques!

Another thing I wanted to do was back my big frame in my studio with burlap and add a banner to it. I was inspired byTHIS months ago and never got around to it. Mom bought me burlap as one of my Christmas gifts this year. So check me out again. . . whittling away at my list!

After adding the burlap and distressing the frame just a wee bit, I decided to go crazy and add 350 rhinestones to it!!!

I spent 2.5 hours painting clothes pins to hang my banner from but for some reason I just didn't like it all together ones I got done. So I opted for a simple twine and crystal bead thing-a-ma-bob to hang it from

The banner just says Moments and I have a bunch of photos being printed as we speak that I will be filling my new frame with. The burlap is mounted on 2 layers of foam board so I will be able to use pins to hang my photos from. Easy Peasy!!!

I use one of the 7-Gypsies receipt holders as my bulletinboard in my studio. As you can see it is quite a mess! But it is soooo easy to just stick things on there and I love it! But this year I really wanted to spruce it up - just a little.

So this is what I came up with. . .

I just stamped the #'s on white cardstock, used a 7/8" circle punch to cut them out then mounted them on a 1" circle I cut from black mat board and then placed a clear appoxy circle sticker from Sticko on top. Viola! Nice and tidy and I like it!

I am not the only one that has been busy creating this year. . .

My sweet hubby has been so busy building cornhole games for himself and now everyone else wants them! Here are the ones he has made so far. . .

The 1st pair (cardinals & steelers) are for his brother Greg - the second set (both cardinals) is for friends of ours (shhhhh - they don't know about this - it's a surprise!) Gary hand painted all of this!!!! No stencils or anything - just his magic fingers holding a brush and some painters tape. AMAZING!

This set is the 1st set he made - these are HIS!!! He did purchase the logos for these.

This set, Cowboys & Bears , is for his boss. They are not finished quite yet, but almost!

Again all hand painted logo here!

Here is the Cowboys getting all taped off - see his sketch for the helmet above all of the tape.

My table is covered with NFL fabrics and my sewing machine and tons of dried corn. It is my job to make the bags - Yippee

More FUN News. . .

The NEW store opened last Saturday!!!!!

That's right, the Occasional Artist is now offically open for business!

And I have some classes on the books too. . .

This fist one is called the "Remember" Envelope book

Saturday - Feb 18th at 10am $50

Lots and lots of black, white & cream Teresa Collins papers. Tons of pearls and a bunch of handmade flowers

Each page is an envelope with 2 large tags inside. This book can hold 36 4x6 photos! And I think you will love the new binding technique used in putting this all together.

These are the 2 tags that come in each envelope. I love the folded one with the big flower on it! And you will love learning how to punch on a curve using a corner punch! Lots of fun new techniques in this class!

This is my 2012 Date Book class -

taught twice, Tommorow and Tuesday - Jan 24th 11am -1pm - $25

Your choice which style you make

Again, Lots of Teresa Collins papers, pick from pink with fluer de lis and dots or Black & Cream with crowns & houndstooth

Next is my "School Days" Cabinet and Mini Book

Saturday - Feb 11th - 10am - 5pm $75

Did you think I had forgotten my beloved Graphic-45 papers this year????

Not hardly!

This is a fun "Cigar Box turned Cabinet" class. I LOVE this collection and I just think this little set just screams SCHOOL with it's little apple and chalk board and all of the other goodies on top.

When you open it up you will find a little spiral bound mini album that will be the perfect place to display all of this extra wallet size school photos us Moms all have shoved in drawers and closets all over the house!

I filled my sample with all of Lizzy's photos from K - 12th grade. She is going to ASU to become a teacher and so she is happy to have this to keep in her classroom. This would be great for teachers as well for all of the class photos each year too.

WHEW. . . did you make it all the way to the end? Do you feel "filled in" and "up to date" now? I need to update my blog for regularly so I don't have to write a novel each time. Too bad I don't do resolutions - I could make this a resolution!

Enjoy your weekend Friends and do something creative - Sign up for a class - or just create some happy memories!!!!

Till we meet again. . .

So, this is Christmas. . .

2011-12-26T00:14:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas always starts on Christmas Eve at my MIL's house. There are over 30 of us there, so you can imagine the chaos. I am the "official" family photographer and so it is my duty to document everything. This means that in 27 years there are about 3 pictures of me on Christmas Eve since I am always behind the camera. I was late this year so my SIL stepped in and did all of the family portraits. And as everyone started opening gifts I saw my SIL standing close by and I handed her my camera and asked her to shoot a few pictures for me.

So here I am with my 2 BIG girls

and here I am with one of my BIG girls and my 2 little girls. I love these pictures!!! Thanks Jeanne!!!

This year we decided to change up all of our traditions for Christmas Day - which typically means opening gifts 1st thing in the morning. No breakfast just trays of Christmas cookies and banana bread, coffee and hot tea, all served on my beautiful china. Then after the gifts we eat an early lunch of ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans and other goodies. Again all served on my china in the formal dining room. After lunch it is 2 hours of dishes and clean up for me while everyone plays and naps.

This year Gary and I both cooked breakfast together - served on chinette paper plates with snowman paper napkins.

After our BIG breakfast we opened our gifts. Bug was interested in her stocking and that was about it. She wondered about the house as her sister and the rest of opened gifts.

After gifts we ate a ham I had baked - no fix'ins this year just 4 different kinds of chips and some buns to make sandwiches, all served on chinette paper plates with snowman paper napkins again. Bug took a nap, Gary played with his new "toys", my Mom rested by the tree and the rest of them played Candyland (Monkey won!)

This is my Son-in-law &I goofing off a bit after Candyland

B&D took Bug & Monkey home for a bit and then we joined them at there house with Lizzy's boyfriend Richard for some pictionary & charades.

It was such a nice relaxing Christmas this year. No dishes to do, no trying to make everything come out of the oven on time. Just fun and family. We all decided this was a great new tradition and we will being this again next year.

Now I have to tell you about my MOST FAVORITE present this year. . .

Some of you that really know me, know about my "Doodle sweater". For those of you that don't know, the Doodle sweater is my magical sweater, it holds all of my "super powers". It belonged to my Doodle (dad) and when he died I asked my Mom if I could have it. My Doodle always wore a cardigan sweater and I just loved this particular one. It was a grape colored wool and he had it for about 10 years so it was nice and broken in but not at all "worn". I just kept it in my closet so I could see it but I never wore it. Then one day I was trying to work on a project and I was just stuck. I just couldn't get it going. I had a little chill and went to my closet and all of my regular sweaters were dirty and so I grabbed Doodle's sweater. Moments after putting on that sweater everything just clicked! I finished my project and was thrilled with the finished product. A couple of weeks later the same situation arose and I once again reached for Doodle's sweater. Viola! It was like magic, everytime I wore the sweater it seemed I just got more creative, more focused, more comfortable. So it didn't matter if it was winter or summer, you could find me wearing that grape, wool sweater in my studio. After a few years of wearing it when I was working in my studio, I started wearing it to cook, to clean, to watch tv in. I just loved the feel of it, I just felt comfortable and peaceful when I wore it. But sadly I have been wearing Doodle's sweater for about 15 years now, and he wore it for about 10 years and it is finally worn out. It has been mended several times but now it just has too many holes to mend. It no longer has any shape. It has paint and ink on it and it is just not comfortable anymore. And even though I still put it on, I am frustrated by it. I have been looking for about a year for the perfect replacement for my beloved Doodle sweater, but I have had no luck. Last week as I was Christmas shopping in Macy's I saw it - the perfect replacement in the men's department! It was marked down from $75 to $19! We have a rule in our family that you cannot buy yourself anything the month of December so I took a picture of it with my phone and sent it to my family letting them know that I REALLY wanted this sweater! I was pretty confident that it would be under the tree today. But I was not prepared for my reaction when I actually opened it. I opened the box, pulled back the tissue and there it was! I was happy but then I pulled it out of the box and something was different about it. There was this orange lettering on it and I looked closer and it said "Punky". Punky is what my Doodle always called me and my dear husband had bought the sweater for me and then had it embroidered for me. I don't know what came over me but I started to weep. Not just a tear streaming, but ugly face weeping. I made my way across the wrapping paper and toy cluttered floor to Gary and just melted in his arms. The whole room went quiet and as I laid there in Gary's arms crying and saying thank you he even shed a tear. It was a $20 gift, and it was my MOST FAVORITE gift I received!

I put it on right away and I am still wearing now at 1am. It feels just like Doodles sweater used to feel like.

I am trying to decide what to do with the Doodle Sweater - I am thinking I might have it framed? Do any of you have any creative ideas of what I can do with it? I would love to hear your ideas. Until I decide, it is hanging safely in my closet, waiting. . .

I hope all of you had a Christmas like mine,

full of

FAMILY

LOVE

RELAXATION

FUN

THOUGHTFULNESS

and Wonderful New MEMORIES!

Merry CHRISTmas!!!

2011-12-24T08:49:00.000-08:00

I wish for you all of the fun and excitement that Santa brings at Christmas

and all of the peace and love that Christ brought us that 1st Christmas day and each one since then.

Merry Christmas Friends

Marta

The Countdown Begins. . .

2011-12-19T12:14:00.000-08:00

That's Right Friends, there are only 6 more days til Christmas!!!

Are you all ready?

I'm not, but I am getting close. . . I think.

I just wanted to share a few pictures of Christmas at my house this year with you.

Monkey & Bug got to sit on Santa's lap this weekend - aren't they just adorable!

After pictures with Santa Bryanna & Monkey went shopping with Grandpa. Darwin stopped by with Bug to show me how cute she was in her elf dress. I LOVE those tights - I wonder if if I could pull off that outfit at my age?

Last week I saw this cute idea for making Santa heads with your hands.

So of course I grabbed the paint and started painting up the girls' hands

Monkey thought it was LOTS of fun but Bug hated it!

This is our tree this year. I think I will have to retire it after this Christmas. It has served us well for a lot if years. But now it is a little wobbly and not all of the lights work. I also want to do a theme tree again. I always used to do a theme tree and my girls hated it. The past 6 years I have let them be in charge of it and it has been fun but I miss my theme. So next year I think it will be a very victorian tree with some of the favorite ornaments that they have collected added to it. This should make us all like it!

For safety reasons I have blocked off my living room - so this is the pretty sight you see when you come in my house. A big shipping box and a big tree blocking little ones from getting to the wobbly tree.

This is the piano where Mom keeps some of her favorite Christmas treasures. I love the Santa, but we have to tie him to the wall so he doesn't fall over and break.

The table is all set - not with all the stuff I usually have on there but at least the cloth is on and the sleighs are out.

I made these sleighs the year we move into this house. They are what I use for place cards. Each one has a gold package with a name tied on to it.

These are some sled/clipboard/frames I made this weekend. I had a nasty headache that I couldn't shake. And for some reason if I start creating something (for no reason) my headache will usually go away. So these are my "headache relief" sleds. I bought these sleds 2 years ago after christmas for 50 cents each, They had a big UGLY teddybear glued onto them and were painted red & green. As you can see they no longer look like that!

I made one for Monkey & Bug and made the little clipboards from 7Gypsies clips. I wanted them to be clipboards so I could easily change out the photos each Christmas. It was a fun project and it all came out of my stash! No purchases for this project!

This is another cute project/gift I made yesterday. I bought this little sign at Ross a week or so ago for $2.99, it said "amazing grace". But I saw "Mickey Mouse" when I looked at it! And since I have a daughter that is in love with ALL things Disney I figured why not!

Other than the sign it's self, everything here was from my stash as well. Gotta love red glitter paper and a cricut machine!!!!

So that is pretty much what is going on around here,

a little family fun,

a little decorating,

a LOT of wrapping,

Some last minute crafting,

and a whole LOT of gratitude!!!!

Merry Christmas my friends!

Merry Christmas To YOU!!!

2011-12-16T10:58:00.000-08:00

Hello to all of my blog friends that have stayed with me during these past few months while I was so sick. I want to say thank you with a small gift. I will be giving the full instructions & page maps for my "12 Days of Christmas" book to anyone that emails me today before midnight - that's 12 hours from now! So send me an email with "12 Days" in the subject line and make sure I have your name and email address to send it to.

You can find my email address on the sidebar at the right at the bottom.

This special gift will end at midnight (Az time) on Dec 16, 2011.

Thank you again

and

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

What is the BEST Christmas Gift???

2011-12-13T10:35:00.000-08:00

That was the question of the day yesterday.

Yesterday, Lizzy & I went out to do my Christmas shopping. It was cold and rainy but I am without a car again and she had the day off so off we went. I need to back up a bit and tell you that there was not going to be any Christmas shopping in our house this year. I don't want your sympathy, but since I have been so sick things have been really tight for us. But this week I found out some of my medical bills were going to paid in full so I had some money to buy a few gifts.

Lizzy and I were out for hours to trying to find the perfect gifts that fit my budget. We got hungry and stopped for lunch at Red Robin. We ate bottomless fries and ate our lunch and were so full when we left, painfully full. We headed over to the mall and after a couple of hours there (with no luck) we headed back out in the rain to her car to try another shopping center. As we were getting in the car I looked up at the doors to the mall and saw an older man, with a light weight jacket on looking in the trash can. Lizzy thought he was looking for a bag he mistakenly dropped in the trash. But I saw what he was really doing. He was looking for food. Then it happened he found some left over food in one of the bags and put it in his mouth. My heart sunk as he did this and I told Liz I would be right back, I grabbed some cash from my wallet and headed back up to the mall. Liz realized what was going on and grabbed a few dollars from her wallet and a Cracker Barrel gift card that had just a little bit left on it.

We approached him quietly and I asked if he was hungry, he looked ashamed and put the bag back in the trash can. I took his hand and gave him the cash and the card and told him to go get something to eat and get warm. The Cracker Barrel was just down the road and he could sit in there and get warm and get fed. He looked in my eyes and said thank you. He said it with both his words and his eyes. I wished him a Merry Christmas and good luck and we left.

As we drove away I thought how blessed I am! And I also thought how petty I am. I have been so bothered by the fact that we have not had extra money to spend on fun stuff and now Christmas presents for a few months. Although we have a beautiful home that is warm and dry and we have food to eat and Gary has a good steady job. This is the first time in I don't know how long that we have had money troubles. This is the first year in our whole married life that we didn't think we would go without buying gifts. We are so blessed! This homeless man, hungry and digging in the trash in the rain reminded me what Christmas is really all about. He reminded me of how lucky and how blessed I really am! I cannot get him out of my mind. I hope and pray that he was not a "real" man but instead an angel that God sent to teach me this lesson. But if he is a "real" man, I hope he found shelter and some warm food last night. I hope he knows that he did more me than I did for him.

I hope that you will find the blessings that are in your life this season and that you will reach your hand out to help someone that seems to not be as blessed as you are. Trust me, you will not be sorry.

Here are just a couple pictures from our shopping adventure yesterday - this was our last stop at 10pm. . .

We were spent!

Merry Christmas my friends!

The Occassional Artist and Other News

2011-12-11T22:47:00.000-08:00

As many of you know The Creative Quest closed it's doors in November, but Kathie and the gals from The Quest have been busy opening up a new store right next door. This new store will open in early January and will be called The Occassional Artist. Friday I popped in and dropped off a few samples for my new classes at the new store. Everyone was busy with either a paint brush or some other tool when I arrived. The Occassional Artist is going to be so cute and have a whole different feel but with the same friendly atmosphere. I can't wait for it to open and I can't wait to start teaching again!

I took a few pix while I was there visiting to share with you all. . .

Here's the girls painting the front door a vibrant red - I love a red door!

Kathie at the new counter - I love all the paned windows and the waynescotting. And I LOVE what she did to the floors - it doesn't show up in the photos but wait til you see it!

A sneak peek at my class samples. They are carefully stored in a charming old secretary until all of the painting and construction is done.

The photos above and below are of the new classroom - tons of open front cabinets for all of the fun studio supplies. The new tables will be lovely wooden farm style tables.

This is one of my first classes - it is a 2012 date book. You will have your choice of which one you want to make in class. There is either a black & pink one with fleur di les and dots or a black & cream one with harringbone and crowns. I will be teaching this class twice. Once on Saturday, Jan 14th and again on Tuesday, Jan 24th. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

This is my next class, it is a cigar box turned nto a little cabinet with a spiral bound book inside. I adore these Graphic 45 papers! And this is a great place to keep all of those wallet sized photos of your kids. I filled my sample with all of Lizzy's pictures from kindergarten thru her senior year. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

I hope you will join me for one of my first classes at the new store!

In my last post I shared a few of the photos I took of Lizzy and her boyfriend for their Christmas cards. This is the finished card. Aren't they cute - they are such a silly couple! The two of them are now busy addressing envelopes.

This is the sign Lizzy has been making for Richard's Christmas gift. He has a poker room in his house and they love to have Texas Hold'em parties. I think it turned out great! And this all came out of my stash in my room. That vintage card paper is like 10 years old. It was one of those papers I just could never part with, I always knew it would come in handy sometime.

For Monkey's second Christmas I made her a monkey rocking chair. So of course I needed to get one made for my Bug this year. So this is her ladybug chair. Both girls will be so happy with this. Bug just wont leave Monkey's chair alone, now she will have one of her own!

After I made all of the lap desks this summer, my Mom asked if I could make her one just a little bit smaller for her room to keep all of her mail in. She has all white, shabby chic furniture in her room - This is what I came up with. . .

Again everything here is from my stash. That has been the goal this year for Christmas, handmade gifts from my stash not the store. I have been pretty successful so far. All of the medical bills have really drained the available cash. It has been a challenge, but a fun one. I never realized how much stuff I had. Okay, that's a lie, I knew how MUCH stuff I had!!!

Have a great week friends, do something creative, smile at a stranger, and be good to yourself!

Is There Anybody Out There??????

2011-12-06T22:48:00.000-08:00

It has been so long since I have written, I'm not sure if anyone even checks in anymore. But on the off chance that you are still checking in, I am going to give you all a "HAPPY" update. After too many months, and lots of set backs and frustrations, I can finally say with complete honesty that I am feeling better!!!!! I never realized how hard it can be to be chronically ill. I also never realized how amazing it can be to feel better!!!

So, my last post I was feeling pretty defeated emotionally and really bad physically. I was denied my insurance company for the tests so that didn't happen that week. As I sat there at the Dr's office the next week she looked at me and said "I'm so sorry, but there is really nothing else we can do for you." These words were a crushing blow to my spirit. I went home that evening and was just so discouraged and so angry! But I couldn't handle the anger on top of everything else so I sat down at my Zentangles pad and started to draw. A few weeks before this I had started "tangling" for something to do. I added scriptures to my drawings and this seemed to help keep my mind and hands occupied. I know it sounds silly but I didn't have the energy for much else and I know creating always makes me feel good inside. So, every evening Gary & I would sit at the kitchen table and Tangle together.

Okay I got a little off track. . . but that night, after the Dr appt, I opened my bible to find a scripture to add to the drawing I was starting and this is what I found - or should I say what God gave to me. . .

Matthew 9:22:
Jesus turned around, and when he saw her he said, “Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

I really needed those words that night. It was as if this was a personal message just for ME.

This is the drawing I did that night

I have held on to those words so tightly. And on the days that I don't feel as good, I say these words to myself. And you know what - I have had very few "bad" days since that night!

This is another of my MANY tangles I have done

So besides being sick and tangling here is what else I have been up to since I last posted. . .

This was my first big outting since I got so sick. I have to tell ya I was a little nervous about my ability to hang all day. But I did and I did great! This was my first ever football game! My dear friend Judy has season tickets with great seats and she invited Gary and I to join her and Ken at the steelers game. We did the whole thing - tailgating and everything. It was a great day!

I went trick or treating with my family and my neighbors. We all had a blast!
We went to the Harvest Daze event in our community with the whole gang. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that I get to spend so much time with my grown up girls and my baby girls!!!

I had another birthday and again I got to spend the evening with all of my family. Although I still had to cook the dinner! But they did bring dessert.

I celebrated Thanksgiving and was truly thankful this year! I even made homemade rolls for dinner! I never make homemade bread on Thanksgiving.

We had a full table for dinner and even added another table at dinner. Some of my Daughters in-laws were in town and we were delighted to share the day with them.

After dinner it is tradition to decorate the Christmas Tree

We had some little hands helping this year

I did a photo shoot for my daughter with Monkey and Bug. She wanted some pictures for their Christmas Cards

Aren't they sweet!

Then my other daughter and her boyfriend asked it I would do some pictures for their cards too. They have 2 weinner dogs and wanted them in the photos. The caption on their card will be "Walking in a Weinner-Wonderland" isn't that cute?

They also wanted to do some pictures with ugly sweaters. They just had so much fun while we were at the park. Although it was soooo cold!!! I think AZ forgot to pay it's heating bill!

I have also been in my studio working - I know, can you believe it! My Mom bought me a fancy air filter thing and it really helps.

The Dr bills were murder on our pocket books so we are doing a homemade Christmas this year. So I have been a busy little elf trying to get something made for everyone. I don't know how Santa does it!

I did take a little break from the gifts on Saturday and made this for myself.

This was really hard to photograph since it is all black, white and chrome and my walls are also black in my studio. But I hope you can make it all out. I had so much fun making this Christmas scene for the wall in my studio - the only place that doesn't get Christmas decorations.

I am also working on a couple class sample for some classes at the new store. I am so excited to start teaching again!

So that is pretty much what I have been up to. I hope to be back again soon. I have missed all of my Blogger Friends! Thank you for hanging in there with me and for all of the nice e-mails and phone calls making sure I was still alive.

Have a great week friends. . .

Some Things Just Don't Last. . . .

2011-10-06T15:26:00.000-07:00

After my "triumphant" return I have hit another set back. The past 3 days have not gone well for me and after a night of extreme pain and no sleep I have called the Dr again. I was determined NOT to go to the hospital again last night and I didn't but I am not sure how much longer I can feel like this. The Dr has ordered a hi-def CAT scan and a doppler test for me. I am waiting for her call as to when I go. It will either be today or tomorrow. I am feeling a bit defeated today and would love some prayers from those of you that are willing. Hopefully I will have another good update soon - one that is permanent!

I’M BACK!!!

2011-10-02T23:46:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This is gonna be long and full of pictures so walk away now or grab a drink and settle in

Well it’s the 1st of Oct now and I think I am going to avoid and hospital visits or ambulance rides this month! I think I am finally on the road to recovery now. I wouldn’t say I feel great yet, but I am starting to feel like ME again. And that in it’s self is a huge step in the right direction!

I saw the actual Dr at the pulmonologist office this past week. She was lovely, a bit disheveled, but a lovely person! I really feel like she listened to me and heard me. I feel like she is really working to make me better. So I have started another, stronger round of steroids – both orally and as an inhaler. I am hungry ALL of the time and have gained 6 pounds already, but if it makes me better I guess I can deal with this.

Now that you all have an update on my health I will share the rest of my story with photos for you . . .

I have started a journal about this whole "journey" I have been on this year, it is called "My Penance for Vanity". This first photo is on the opening page of my new journal. It pretty much sums up what all has been going on.

This is my dinning room - this is where I have been located since August. As you can very well see it is neither comfortable or inspiring! When I had to empty out my studio to remove the offending panels off of my bookcases the stuff had to go somewhere and this is where it all landed!

This is where I communicated from, paid my bills from and did whatever other work I needed to do - this little 3 foot space at the end of the table with a 5 year old, very slow laptop.

After removing the panels from the bookcases on the 23rd (the only part of the room that should have still been outgassing) the problem did not go away as I had hoped. You could still smell the formaldehyde as strong as ever. I was at my wits end and called Gary at work in tears and told him I needed the built in taken out too. Even though we had gone through all of the steps of sealing and painting it to prevent the outgassing I still wanted it gone. And I wanted it gone that night! So after a long day at work on Aug 31st, Gary tore out the last piece of my beautiful new studio. It was a little sad when I walked out to the trash and found it all broken up and sitting on the lawn. For fear of getting the formaldehyde into the rest of the house Gary had the forethought to remove the screens and throw it out the studio window.

The removal of the built in didn't change anything! I was devastated. I had done everything I knew to do. I had contacted everyone I could think of to get help. I had removed all of the new materials, I had bought plants, I had my window open for over a month with a big industrial fan blowing the air out the open window. And still the formaldehyde and it's awful stench remained. So on Sept 15th I got MAD!!! I was mad about everything! I was mad that I felt so bad. I was mad that my house was a wreck. I was mad that no one had any answers for me, and I was mad that my room was still "poisonous" to me! That night when Gary got home I TOLD him (not asked him) that we were going to take charge of this room this weekend. We were going to remove every single thing. We were going to wash all of he walls and ceiling. We were going to wash and sanitize all of the original furniture pieces. And then he was going to repaint the whole room. I had no idea if this would help (and neither did he) but like I told him, I don't like having my butt kicked, but if it's going to happen it's going to happen with me standing on my feet, not laying down! So that night I went to Home Depot and got new paint and some big sheets of sheet metal to put on the backs of my bookcases. I came home that night and started emptying out the cabinets and filling up my living room with the remainder of my things. Friday I had Darwin come over and break down my computer and help me move the rest of the furniture into the garage. Everyone kept telling me to stay out of there and to let someone else do the work. But I was to mad to do that. I was tired of something I could not see making me run in fear and fell bad. I was in the mood to fight! And that is what I did.

So Saturday, when Gary would have preferred to be golfing (or laying on the couch, both of us were really sick with a nasty cold on top of everything else) he started washing walls and painting. I really wasn't sure if this was going to help, nut I needed to be doing something to change all of this. My hope was that I would seal the formaldehyde in with the paint???
My Mom & I hung out in the garage scrubbing down the furniture and doing some other things while Gary painted. Sunday (when Gary would have preferred to be golfing and watching football) we headed back up to Home Depot for a new light fixture and a few other supplies then came home and cut sheet metal and attached it to the bookcases and hung the new light fixture. Now it was time to put the furniture back in the room. All of my furniture is modular so I decided to reconfigure the whole layout of the room. We got it all in and then Darwin came over to set my computer back up. By now Gary was done - he headed over to Darwin's to watch the game. The room was looking good and surprisingly enough, it smelled pretty good too - it just smelled like fresh paint. But with my new configuration of my furniture it left me without a work space. So Mom and I headed to the store for a new kitchen table. Of course it wouldn't fit in my Honda so I had to interrupt the game and make Gary come get it with the truck.

Just to remind you of what my studio looked like in January when I remodeled it the photo above and below is what it looked like BEFORE.

Here is my newest version of my studio. The layout is totally different and I must say I like it much better. I lost alot of storage and now my master closet is full of all of my photo boxes and scrapbooks, but all of the necessities are here. And that is what's important - right?

I love the addition of the warm wood to all of the black and white. I love that all 4 walls are black now (before I had left one white wall for my Mom). I love having the extra room to work on that the table provides, and I love that it faces the doors instead of facing the wall. And I love the new lights on the wall.

The curtains got a good washing too. I had to throw out my chair cushions because they smelled. So I had to steal 2 throw pillows from Monkey's room for me to sit on until I can get new ones.

It took a few days to get everything loaded back into the room and set up in a usable way but I think it is finally finished. Just tonight we did the last paint touch-ups and hung my big white frame over my desk. (if you look on the bottom shelf in the photo below you can sort of see my journal that I made. Of course it matches the room - still having a problem with vanity I guess?)

I tried so hard in my 1st remodel too get rid of or at least camouflage all of the plastics - sadly that can't happen in this version. But I think I can live with it. I need to figure out some artwork to put over the door so that I have something inspiring to look at while I create.

This is behind my table and has all of my papers in the cabinet, and all of my most used embellishments and tools right there handy. No getting up - I just have to spin around in my chair. This set up really limited my space for all of my treasures that I like to keep out. I picked a few of my favorites and packed up the rest. But it still makes me feel good to see it all up on top of the bookcases.

I really like the look of the sheet metal on my bookcases, but it makes for some crazy reflections when you take pictures of it. This is quite a change from the (stinky) beadboard that I originally had put on the backs. Today I made new labels for all of my containers and I really like how they turned out (I used the new Teresa Collins Cricut cartridge).

Well that is the end of the studio tour. It is not perfect and there is still a slight scent of the formaldehyde still, but it's not too bad and I am hopeful that it will be leaving soon.

While my studio was all tore up and I was going crazy feeling bad and just laying on the couch, I decided I could do a little painting on the family room floor while I watched tv. So that's what I did, I painted 4 of these little wooden desks that I had built for me last year and then I altered them up with the new G-45 papers. I cannot tell you how good it felt to do something creative! And I think they turned out pretty cute too!

This is the inside of the desk and a couple little goodies I made to go with them. Two of these are Christmas gifts for my Granddaughters and I am selling the others.

I had cancelled a couple of my classes because I just felt so bad. My last class was only 3 hours long and I was dead before class was over. But I am feeling recharged and enthusiastic that things are going to be better, so Friday night I came up with this idea. I had so much fun making it and this will be my next class - it is already on the books and the sample is in the store already! I hope I will see some of you at this class on Nov 4th (the day before my birthday)

Once again, I have to say it felt so good to create something! I have been wanting to make a book sculpture similar to this for 2 years now - I finally did it! This book is really solid, you can not close this book or even turn a page!

If you made it this far, I applaud you, I know this was long! But I have been asked so much about an update and I just didn't have anything positive to say - until now that is. In my last post I mentioned that I would post again when I had pictures to share or good news to share. It's that time! I have pictures and good news!

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Thank you to all of you that have been praying for me (don't stop) and that have called and emailed me to wish me well. It has meant the world to me! See ya soon. . .

Well, It’s September Now. . .

2011-09-09T11:36:00.000-07:00

August has finally passed and now I see I am starting September off in pretty much the same manor I started August. On Wednesday (Sept 7th) I got another ambulance ride! This time though it was from my house, not from the ER. About 9:30 pm I had 7 paramedics in my bedroom trying to get me breathing well enough to transfer me to the hospital.

Earlier that day I had an appointment for some tests at the Pulmonologist. One of the tests included an inhaler. At first all of this seemed fine, but as I was driving I started feeling disoriented and had a hard time concentrating. My heart was racing and my breathing was strange. But I had a couple of errands I had to do before I went home. By the time I was heading home all I wanted was my bed! And that is exactly where I went when I arrived. That evening when Gary and Mom got home they asked why I was in bed and I told them. I think they are frustrated with all of this as well and just said sorry and left me be. By 8pm I felt as though I was struggling way too hard to breathe and I just tried to relax and control it. By 9:00 I could no longer control it and I also could not yell loud enough for my family to hear me in the rest of the house. I couldn’t get out of bed either. Gary always goes to be by 8:30 and I kept hoping he would come back and find me, but he didn’t. Then I realized that the phone was laying on Gary’s nightstand (it is NEVER there!) so I managed to grab it and use the intercom function to call Gary in the family room. When he finally answered I could not talk but he could hear me gasping and realized it was me in the bedroom (he did not know we had an intercom on the phone till then). He tried to get me up and tried to get my breathing under control but it just didn’t work. By now I was in full body tremors, both my hands had cramped into what looked like lobster claws and my feet were totally cramped and misshapen too. Gary got my Mom to try to help but nothing they did helped and I kept thinking “why aren’t you calling 911” Gary was starting to panic and I finally was able to say I’m going to die here” this made him finally call 911!

I’ll tell you this, paramedics are quick but when you are waiting for one it seems like forever! I had a hard time concentrating and understanding everything they were saying and doing to me that night. But I do know I looked like a human video game again with all of the wires etc hanging from me. My blood pressure was through the roof, something about my heart and its sinus rhythm and my blood sugar was high. I got several doses of nitroglycerin in the ambulance and a couple of IV’s (they are not as gentle or maybe it was just the bumps in the rode as we drove). Once we arrived I had the nicest people helping me! And the big bonus was they all spoke clear English! Another set of chest films were taken and all of the regular blood work and monitoring. Then they made the decision that I needed to start a course of steroids to help me breathe. So I got the fist 2 doses there in my IV and now I am taking pills at home. I am very tired but this morning I actually feel as though I can breathe easier – this is a BIG plus for me. I even managed to finish packing my kits for my Saturday class (with the help of my Mom)

The other news around here is that the room is still full of gas – I can’t go near it and have had no luck in finding any resources for removing the gas. So for now I just have the big fans trying to blow it out the open window and the forest remains. I have a favorite scripture that I try to live by and remember when things are tough . . .
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. Jeremiah 29:11-12.
So today I am trying to rest in these words. I am trying to understand what lesson I am supposed to be learning from all of this. And trying to keep my spirits up and be happy. Hopefully soon I will have a post that is full of fun photos and fun stories to share with you all again. Thank you to all of you that have commented, sent emails, phone calls and hugs.

Till we meet again. . .

I am Ready for August to be over!!!

2011-08-31T06:38:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This is Really LONG!

Hello Friends, I am popping in to share with all of you what I have been up to this month. Trust me when I say it has been nothing fun! This August has been one of the most trying months of my life personally and physically. It all started off with a visit to the ER and an overnight hospital stay. I wish I could say that my trip to the hospital "fixed" everything and that I felt better. Just the opposite, I am not sure I can feel any worse. It seems that each day brings it's own new set of problems and symptoms. I guess I should back up a bit for those of you that don't know what has been going on since January. . .

In January I remodeled my studio, I was so excited and it turned out beautifully! I was so happy with it and couldn't wait to start creating in it. It had what I though was that "new smell" but figured it would soon go away. I through myself in there and worked like crazy and had so much fun. By February I was having the strangest headaches. I have had migraines since I was 9 years old, but these were different, and I just couldn't get any relief from them. I hate going to the Dr but they were so bad and so constant that I finally went. They had no idea what they were and decided an MRI was in order. That weekend, I was standing in my shower praying that God wold make them go away or help me to know what they were from. And it came to me - they all started with the remodel of my studio! I got out if the shower, checked my calendar (I write everything in my calendar) and sure enough that is when the headaches started! I called a friend that loves research and we both got online and started researching the new building materials I had used. They were full of FORMALDEHYDE!!! So I headed to the Home depot to see what I could do to seal the offending gas in. I bought the products, emptied out my studio again and the next day Gary sealed the new built in shelving. Whew. . . I am home free I thought! Back to work I went in the studio. I cold still smell that "new smell" some but figured it was from the sealant and the paint. No worries, I had a beautiful space to create in and I had taken the steps to correct the problem and my headaches went away.

Fast forward to May when we shut up the house for the summer and turned the air conditioning on. Now the smell was back even stronger. It was not even just a smell but more like fumes now. I could feel them in my mouth and my chest every time I went in there, but no one else really did. My Daughter, Bryanna said she could smell it but she was the only one. I realized that I had added the same materials to my existing bookshelves when we did the remodel and Gary had not sealed them. But I was busy so I just kept working in there. I had lots of upcoming classes to prep for, a big birthday party that I was making things for and some personal projects I was working on and of course I have the girls everyday. I kept telling myself that when I got all caught up I would tear the studio apart again and get the bookshelves sealed. Then there was 2 trips to California, the birthday party and a couple more classes. The trips and the party added about 3000 photos to edit and so I locked myself in there for about 18 hours trying to get them all edited and uploaded before the 9cent sale at Costco photo was over. The whole time I was in there I could myself getting sicker and sicker but I really thought everything would be okay. Two days later I ended up in the hospital!!! I thought I was having a heart attack! I had been having these chest pains and the shortness of breath for a couple of months but not to this degree. After a battery of tests they decided my heart was fine and that I just needed some Zaniex and sleeping pills!!! I knew this was NOT a panic attack or anxiety related, there was something wrong with me and I knew it was from my studio. I made an appointment with my regular Dr, but first I did more research on formaldehyde and typed up some of the info and a document with a timeline and all of my symptoms etc since the studio was remodeled. She was very happy that I had done this for her an I love this Dr - she is able to admit when she doesn't know something. She told me she didn't know much about formaldehyde but wanted to keep the papers I had typed up for her and gave me a referral to a pulmonalogist. She also instructed me to tear EVERYTHING out of my studio that added during the remodel and dispose of it and to stay out of the room!

Meanwhile, I ordered a formaldehyde tester for the room and am waiting on the results from that test. Bryanna came and emptied my studio of all of it's treasures, Gary got the backs off of the bookcases and disposed of them, the room has been sealed off from the house and the windows have been kept open to allow the offending gasses to escape. and I have still felt like crap! There are some days that are better than others but I certainly never feel "well" any more. The headaches are back and my chest still hurts. And now I even have this strange new cough that lasts for about 10 minutes at a time - it is more like a bark - it is nasty!!! My house is all tore up with all of my treasures everywhere. I am working on an ancient laptop in a 2 foot area on my crowded dining room table. I am able to be online and to do Word docs on this computer and that is about all. I have done LOTS of research on formaldehyde these past couple of weeks and it is NASTY STUFF!!! It seems I unwittingly built my own little "FEMA trailor" in my studio. Part of my research brought me to a paper that NASA wrote about plants absorbing the formaldehyde out the air and out of a room. So Sunday I took my list from NASA to the Home Depot and bought myself a forest! My studio is now full of plants recommended by NASA to help clean all of this up.

It has been a very frustrating month for me and sadly I am not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. Yesterday was an especially hard day. I could not sleep at all the night before because my chest hurt so bad and I just couldn't breathe. When I finally came out of my room I was just a mess and could not face my day with my Grandchildren. I went out on the patio and started to pray and just ended up sobbing. I am just so tired, feel so bad and just at my rope's end. Mom took the girls to their house and I stayed home making phone calls to Drs, clinics and poison control. I also made a teary phone call to Gary at work telling him I wanted the big built in (the sealed one that I was hoping to save) torn out TODAY!!!! Over a week of sealing the the room off from the rest of the house, removing the unsealed products from the room and a couple of days with a forest and the room is still as full of the damned formaldehyde gas as ever!!!! I was done yesterday - I wanted it all out of there and seems all I could do was sit and cry. I have no strength or energy to do anything, I can't be in that room without being even sicker so I have to rely on others to do things for me (totally NOT my style). Gary was a good hubby and came home early yesterday and tore apart my beautiful studio and in order to keep it out of the rest of the house, threw it all out the window and is hauling it all away today. Then he just sat on the couch with me all night watching tv shows that I like (that is really something) and playing backgammon with me. There was no dinner last night - just a pop tart as I just couldn't do it.

Today I opened the door of my studio to see what it looked like in there now - wow - what a mess! It is just so sad to see all of my dreams for a beautiful room to create in all turned to rubble! But the worse part is that all of the building materials have now been removed, the window was open all day and night, there is a huge forest of plants in there and yet still the gas is so over-powering! I do not know what the answer is. I do not know how long all of this is going to take to clean up. I do not know what the long-term effects are going to be on my health. I just don't know.

I have added some links on Formaldehyde here for you all in case you are curious about it and what products it is in. Sadly it is in just about everything! Not just in our building materials but in our cosmetics, clothing and day to day things we all use. There is no way to completely avoid this chemical and it is listed under several different names. How many of these names would you have recognized as formaldehyde?

Formalin, Methanal, Methyl Aldehyde, Methylene Oxide, Oxymethylene, Bfv*, Fannoform*, Formol*, Fyde*, Karsan*, Methaldehyde, Formalith*, Methylene Glycol, Ivalon*, Oxomethane, Formalin 40, Formalin, Formic Aldehyde, Hoch, Paraform, Lysoform*, Morbocid, Trioxane, Polyoxmethylene, * denotes trade name.

You might want to check some of the items in your house for these.

Formaldehyde Links:

Public Health Statement for Formaldehyde

Formaldehyde Safety Factsheet

Formaldehyde Test Kit

Plants Soak Up Indoor Pollution

NASA Study House Plants Clean Air

The Cutest Kids Ever!!!!

2011-08-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Just had to share! Have a great day

I'm Back with more Pictures

2011-08-08T10:47:00.001-07:00

I just thought I'd share with you the daily collages I made for my travel journal. I take ALOT of pictures when I travel and I could never have a journal big enough to hold them all. So I like to do a daily collage that reflects the things I wrote about each night on my trip. so here they are. . .

I will try to get some pictures of my finished journal this week to post so I can show you how it looks all put together.

Have a great day!

I Just Can't Stay Home. . .

2011-08-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

That's right seems I can't sleep in my own bed these days. Last night I spent at Arrowhead Hospital!

This is me when I got home today. Yesterday I thought I was having a heart attack and Gary took me to the emergency room by our house. Two hours late I was in an abulance being transported to a hospital! After some tests and such they determined no heart attack. Not sure what it was so I will be going to a new dr next week. Still not feeling great but I am home. Always something exciting going on! Have a great weekend - I will check in soon

I'm Back

2011-07-31T00:14:00.000-07:00

We had a WONDERFUL time while we were away - it was so much FUN to have a "Family Vacation" again! I will be back soon with more pix and stories - but for now I must go to bed.

Toodles Friends

Here's The Scoop. . .

2011-07-23T22:26:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This post is really picture heavy!!!!

July is turning out to be a stellar month for me and my family. Today was one of the highlights!!! Today we celebrated the birthdays of my 2 Granddaughters - Monkey is 4 & Bug is 1 (well they will be in a few days). I wanted to share with you all in pictures what my wonderful day was like. We must of course start at the beginning - with all of the preparation for today.

Bryanna had chose to do a cupcake and ice cream cone themed party for the girls. She asked if I would help her out with the party and I of course said yes and then promptly "hi-jacked" the whole event!!!! Thankfully my Daughter is really good and doesn't get mad when I do this (it happens occasionally).

So this is the invitation for the party - she wanted a photo invite with the girls in their swimsuits since we would be playing in the sprinklers for out "party activity". This is what I came up with (after shooting over 400 photos!)
Because of our theme I used the phrase "Here's the Scoop" alot, but it just seemed to be perfect for our party.

Then of course there were all of the decorations that needed to be made which started with these cute little ice cream cones that I hung from the chandelier. And then there was the the table linens, all made from left over fabrics and scraps that I had stashed away for "that perfect project"

And of course you all know I love banners so I made two of those. . .
One tiny one for Bug's highchair tray

And one BIG one that hung across my china cabinet.

Seriously, do you think I would have such a BIG event and NOT make a handmade book to document it all in? Of course not, so here is the cover. I used all Martha Stewart papers (I love her) with all of these cute little cupcakes and glitter on them.

Of course there was a "Guest book" section for everyone to sign as they arrive. Some people just signed their names, while others wrote a short message.

Then there were the signs made to mimic the feel of an old-fashion ice cream parlour. I even used glitter paper on this one for the numbers - not typical for me! The other side of this sign simply says happy birthday and the girls' names. It hangs in the window by the front door to greet everyone as they arrive.

This little sign served as a sort of "menu board" at the do-it-yourself-sundae bar.

These are the little cupcakes I made. They look like soft serve ice cream cones. Too cute and very yummy!

Of course you gotta have beverages at a party, and since we were serving so many sweet things we decided to serve bottled water instead of soda, etc. But just in case they needed a little bit of flavor I bought these old style diner sugar dispensers and filled them with koolade powder. Pink lemonade and fruit punch so they would match our color scheme. The kids really enjoyed this.

Then there was the lolli-pops served in a sundae cup as table decorations (and of course the kids all went home with one).

Oh, remember the water bottles? You know I couldn't just serve plain old water bottles! These are arrowhead with new personalized lables on them!

And we can't forget the yards and yards of curly ribbon that needed to be curled and hung from the chandelier and the other light fixtures etc.

And here are My Girls! The whole reason I do what I do!!!!

Finally all of the preparations were done and the day was here - time to celebrate! We started off with my Son-in-law grilling dogs for everyone. There was chips and melons too.

Then it was time to do what kids do best. . .PLAY!!!! We set up some water toys in the back yard (my water bill is gonna be HIGH this month!) Our party started at 11am, so it was pretty warm and sunny but not outrageously HOT like it gets in AZ in July. Some of the grown-ups stayed inside with the air-conditioning, but most of them made it outside to watch the kids splash around and have fun.

Monkey got a scooter from her Moma & Papa and even attempted to ride it down the slip-n-slide! Not a good plan in case you are wondering.

Slip-n-slides are not as slippery as I remember them being when I was a kid. So we went through 2 gallons of bubbles, a bottle of baby oil and a bottle of shampoo to keep the kids sliding down that plastic.

Doesn't my Bug look adorable in her tu-tu swimsuit!

I think they were having FUN, don't you?

Bug is still too little to take a trip down the slip-n-slide by herself, but one of the girls let her hitch a ride with her. She just closed her eyes and squealed as she went.

After they were all waterlogged, we headed back inside to play "Donkey on the tail" as Monkey calls it. She saw this game on a tv show and asked if she could have it at her party. Of course you can - Amma will give you almost anything you want! Luckily this request only cost a $1.99! (BTW - Monkey won!)

"I scream, You scream, We all scream for ICE CREAM"!!!!!! That's right, it was time for sundaes! My daughter Lizzy is the "queen of whipped cream" so she was in charge of that for the kids. Oh, and notice the bowls, they look like giant cupcake wrappers! Found them in our colors on clearance for .20 cents each!

As soon as they finished their sundaes it was time to make a wish, blow out the candles and eat some cake!

Monkey usually cries when you sing happy birthday to her - but not this year! She loved it and was all smiles!

It just wouldn't be a "1st Birthday" without pictures of the birthday girl digging into her cake with her bare hands! And we are very traditional around here!

Then there was the gifts. . . Funny thing about invitations - you write "RSVP" on them and no one calls to confirm or decline. You write "Your presence is your present" and everyone brings a gift. But it was very thoughtful for everyone to bring a gift, actually 2 gifts since it was a double birthday!

After the gifts and a little more visiting everyone went home. It was only 1:30 when the last guest left. How nice we all thought, to be done so early in the day. Everyone was tired and ready to just sit and relax. The guys went golfing, Liz and Richard went to the gym, my Mom watched the girls while Bryanna and I cleaned up the mess. A little after 2 my brother-in-law called to let us know he was running late but on his way to the party with his girls. He thought the party started at 2pm!!!! You can't say no - so we got the food & drinks back out and waited to start party #2!

After

they opened their gifts and had some food we headed back outside for more water fun. (did I mention my water bill?)They had so much fun, and had races. We were out of bubbles and baby oil by the time party #2 started, so we resorted to using Gary's shampoo!

With a smaller group around, Bug was able to try out the slip-n-slide with a little more freedom. She loved it!

We were also able to let the dogs out since it was a smaller group and these girls are not afraid of dogs. Zsa Zsa even gave the slip-n-slide a try!

It is no longer 11am and it is HOT now - so hot that Bryanna and I even took a few goes on the slip-n-slide fully dressed!

But now the house is pretty much all cleaned up again. We have had dinner and the girls are all snugled in their beds at home, worn out from the excitement of the day. Our next big event is out birthday trip to Disneyland on Wednesday!

How BLESSED are we to have each other, our health, our friends, our family, and all of ths joy!!!! But now I need to go lay down and get some rest - I am an old lady you know!

Toodles

NEW TAB on My BLOG!!!!

2011-07-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

Look up at the top and see the new tab I have added to my blog. . .
There have been so many requests for project kits and instructions that I decided to add a section for those of you that want to buy my class kits and instructions. I hope you will take a look at what I have available there. Of course I will update this section with new kits and instructions as I come up with them.

My newest one is my Disneyland Travel Journal - This was never taught as a class, just something I made for my own personal use. But I had several people email and ask if I would do an instruction sheet - so I did.

Have fun brosing through this new tab!

Toodles!

I'mmmmmm Baaaack. . .

2011-07-12T20:40:00.001-07:00

That's right - I am back from our impromtu vacation. I must say this is probably one of the best and most relaxing trips I have ever taken. It was so wonderful that we even stayed an extra day. I wanted to share a few photos from our trip with you. I did these collages for my trip journal. A few weeks ago I taught a class called "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" and I took my sample with me on this trip and each night after Gary went to sleep I added allof our goodies from the day to it and wrote in the journal portion. So when I got home I had an almost finished scrapbook our trip. All I needed to do was add the photos we took. I decided to make collages for each day and then one of the hotel we stayed at. I will pick up my prints on Thursday and then my book will be complete. If you are going to be at my Christmas in July class on Saturday I will have the finished book with me if you want to see it.

Wednesday

Thursday Morning
Thursday Continued

Friday

Friday Continued

Saturday Morning

Saturday Continued

Sunday

Our Hotel

So anyways - it is good to be home but there is so much to get done before I leave again in 2 weeks. Have a great week friends!

Toodles

Look - I'm still Alive!!!!!

2011-07-05T13:24:00.000-07:00

WOW - where does the time go???? It has been a tough couple of months for me. It's not been all tough but there has been enough "tough momments" to keep me from my blogs! Tomorrow I leave for San Diego!!!!!!!! Can't wait to get out of the HEAT! But before I go I wanted to share a couple of projects with you guys, so here goes. . . .

First up is a travel journal I made for our trip to disneyland (in a couple of weeks) I am taking the grandkids for their birthdays (can you believe they will be 1 & 4 already!) and now the whole family is coming with - it's gonna be F-U-N!!!!!!

This next one is a fun little class project. Just a simple little quote book made with the new G45 Magic of Oz paper. I made up some life lessons and used quotes from the movie to demonstrate the lesson. This is my August 20th class at the Creative Quest in Glendale AZ
If you want to see more detailed photos of either project just click on the photo for more images of each one.
Anyhoo - gotta pack and get ready for my trip - see you all soon!

Christmas In July!!!!

2011-06-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

So, I went from "My Summer Vacation" to "Home for the Holidays"

I wanted to share my next class with you all - I am so happy with it. Get a headstart on Christmas while we celebrate "Christmas in July" in Old Town Glendale the weekend of July 16th. You will have the choice to make this adorable book just as you see it or as a Twelve Days of Christmas book - Your Choice. Either way, I hope you will come cool off and join us for the fun!

You can click on the picture to see all of the pages in this pretty little book. It is made with Teresa Collins' Noel collection of paper. The book is hand made using bookboard covers and a bookcloth covered spine. And it uses one of the new Tim Holtz Ring Binder as the binding mechanism. The book is 6x6 and has chipboard pages. There are 3 diecut dividers and 6 two-sided pages. Lots of chipboard elements and rhinestones in this. I hope I will see you there - only 12 spots available for this project.

Look What I am Doing on my Summer Vacation. . .

2011-05-31T07:57:00.000-07:00

That's right it is another new class - June 17th from 5:30 - 9pm at the Creative Quest!
Come make this fun portfolio style journal to document what you do on your summer vacation this year. Whether you have a fabulous trip planned or just a quiet summer at home this is the perfect little journal to keep everything together. There is plenty of space for writing, collecting postcards, menus and other goodies and of course a place for your photos. All of this loaded in this fun flip style book.

Class is limited to 10 people and will be $45 - I to see you there!

TEN Days of Creation. . .

2011-05-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

I know it has been awhile since I posted - sorry about that, but I have been so busy! Between the girls, classes, the house and just life I have been going non-stop!

Last week I had had enough of the "hamster on the treadmill" thing and pretty much became a raging "BEEP" (insert bad word). So I decided I was just going to do some creating - wasn't sure what, but I knew I needed some "art therapy"!!!

So, here is what I came up with . . .

please note that with everything else that I is going on here I have been without a car for 2 weeks so I can't go anywhere - nothing is in walking distance from our house. So all of my creations have been made using my healthy stash of goodies! And all of this was made in 10 days!

This 1st item is for an upcoming class - I will be teaching a "how to use your Cricut" class next week and this is one of my sample projects. I love this picture I took of my Bug when she was just days old!

Next I have a quilt for my Niece Christine - she is having baby #2, another little girl. So I made her this quilt. Again - this is all from my stash!
It is a super simple quilt but to me it just screams - okay may whispers little girl with all of the white and just the touch of pink rosebuds in the center of each of the 30 blocks.

Next on my list of creations is the table-scape for Monkey & Bug's joint Birthday party.

I made 9 quilted placemats (fancy ones for the birthday girls and solids for the guests) a table runner, seat covers, a highchair banner and 12 ice cream cones for the chandelier! All from scraps and left overs from other projects! The only thing I had to buy was I sent Mom out for white thread - I ran out right before I finished!

We are doing a joint party for the girls this year - Bug will be 1 and Monkey will be 4 - their birthdays are just a week apart. Their Mom decided on a cupcake/ice cream cone theme with lots of pinks, teals and greens. I had a bunch of scraps left over from Bug's nursery and some aprons I made a year or so ago that were perfect for this theme. My table is quite large and it is hard to find tablecloths for, especially "fun" ones. In passing I told bryanna that I would make a runner and we could buy some cheap solid color placemats for the party. But once I got started I couldn't stop!!!! So the runner turned into a whole table-scape. The family all likes it and we decided we would start a new family tradition and get all of this out for each one of our birthdays when we get together for dinner. How fun does that sound?!?!

So this is Monkey's special placemat

Bryanna was worried about my table top being protected (that is how the runner/place mat thing started) I was worried about my upholstery!!!! So after the runner and the "special place mat" I decided that seat covers would be a great idea - after all I had enough scraps!

After the runner, the "special place mat" and the seat covers I started thinking "I have enough fabric still to make solid place mats for the guests" so back to the sewing machine I went!

Then it was time to make something fun and festive to hang from the chandelier - why not ice cream cones???? I found this idea on Joann's website about 3 years ago and held onto the idea knowing that at some point these would be the perfect touch for something. . . well they are PERFECT for this!!!! Again, no shopping all from stash!

Aren't they just happy and festive!

Just a fabric covered styrofoam ball and a cone made from cardstock ran through the Cuttlebug.

Bug wont be using her placemat this year so I decorated the edge of her highchair tray with papers and a banner cut with my Cricut. The little letters are all cut from glitter paper - I hate glitter but this really works on this!

So I finally left the house (for Christine's baby shower - Bryanna drove) and I had Bryanna stop me by a scrapbook store where I found this great paper for a book for their party! It is a paper collection by my hero - Martha Stewart!!!! Again LOTS of glitter on this collection but it was perfect! There were only 2 different papers so I had to do a lot of "filling in" with other papers and there were no embellishments so I have been fussy cutting all of the images from the paper it's self. I of course have been using my MS punches and my Cricut too!

The color scheme is so not "ME" but it is totally perfect for this party!!!!

I always make a book for Monkey's birthday so her Mom can fill it with pictures of how we celebrated her day - now it will be one book for two birthday girls!

This is the guest book portion - gotta love Teresa Collins for her pink journal paper!

The book isn't finished yet - Life got in the way again and I had to stop. But it has a great start!!!

So, this is what OVERLOAD, HORMONES, and being WITHOUT A CAR looks like in my world!!!!

What have you been up to lately?????

Kits Available

2011-05-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

( For more details click on the photo above )

Just wanted to let you all know that I have one kit left for The Form & Function of the Industrial Strength Woman. This kit is complete with everything you will need except for stamps, ink, adhesives and tools. It also comes with complete step-by-step full color instructions. If you are interested in this kit or in purchasing the directions only please contact me at Garnonzobeenz1@aol.com
Full Kit w/ Instructions - $110 + shipping
Full Color Instructions only - $30

Past, Present & Future - part two. . .

2011-04-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

In June of 2009 I taught a class called "Past, Present & Future" I really liked this project and enjoyed teaching it. I still occasionally get it off of the shelf and take a peek.

A few weeks ago a friend asked for the directions on how to make this book, I gave them to her and she made the book. She then brought it to our Year in the Life quarterly meeting to show me - it was beautiful - she did a great job. While she was showing me the other gals started admiring it as well. Next thing you know they were asking me to teach the class again.

So here is my new 2011 model of Past, Present & Future. . .

Notice the 3 clocks on the cover (for Past, Present & Future - how clever). I used the new "Time" line by Bo Bunny. These are some beautiful papers!

The left side of the book is my "Present & my Future" with photos of my family . It has a pull-out that gives you a place to make note of who is in the photo and what their relationship is to you.

The right side of the book is my "Past" and is a gatefold type of signature - one side for your Mother's side of the family, and one side for your Father's.

When you get to the back you get a set of fan, group charts to document the generational lists for both sides of your family. If you want to see more details just click on the first photo of the new book.

This will be taught on Friday - May 27th from 5:30 - 9pm at The Creative Quest.

Thank you to my ladies that already signed up without even seeing the sample first. Enjoy your weekend friends!

New Project to Share. . .

2011-04-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

This one has a mouthful for a title -

The Form & Function of the Industrial Strength Woman

WHEW!!!
I am really loving this project, it was inspired by several different ladies who's work I admire. I have been watching some of the techniques they like to add in their projects and I have been wanting to try them for some time now. So this book is a "technique book" of sorts. It was a place to play and experiment and learn for me. It was a place to get out of my own comfy little creative box. I have no big plans for this book. I do not plan to add photos or write witty stories or favorite memories. I just plan on enjoying it for what it is.

There are lots of items from the hardware store in this book - which makes it quite noisy and heavy! But there are also lots of roses, corsets and charms which gives it that vintage and womanly feel also.

Each page is an adventure with all of it's moving parts and interactive items.

There are even pages that will surprise you - like this one!

You will not believe all of the materials we will use in this book. Some things you will be familiar with, but we will use them in an unfamiliar way. Some things you might never have thought about using in a handmade book?

If you click on the first photo you will be able see more detailed photos

I will be teaching this book at The Creative Quest on Saturday May 14th. It will be an ALL day class. The fee is $110. This class is not for the faint of heart. You will work every minute you are there if you plan on taking this home complete. This is not a beginners class, it is for the more experienced book artist. There are 5 spaces left in this class, so if you are interested in signing up please call the store right away so I can build a kit for you. When you sign up you will get an email from me giving you a list of tools and supplies you will need to bring to class.

I hope to see you there!

Toodles

Happy Easter!!!!

2011-04-24T01:01:00.000-07:00

Just a quickie to wish everyone the most wonder Easter! I hope you will all have a wonderful day with your family and friends, That you will find lots of Easter eggs filled with goodies, have a delicious ham dinner with all of the fixin's

But mostly I hope you remember why we celebrate today and that you will find everlasting joy in the fact that He has risen!!!

Toodles

Circus Update

2011-04-12T18:02:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I actually have 4 kits left over if anyone wants them. I will be selling them for $75 + postage which will include all supplies (everything is already cut for you), and all instructions complete with color photos. Just shoot me an email at Garbonzobeenz1@aol.com with Circus Kits in the subject line. Hope everyone's week is great so far!

Toodles

Instructions For "My Life Is A Circus"

2011-03-22T14:31:00.000-07:00

I have been asked several times if I will be selling the instructions or kits for "My Life Is A Circus". I will not be selling kits for this project, but I will be selling the instructions (with color photos) to anyone that is interested in them. They will not be available until April 10th.

If you want to purchase a set please contact me at Garbonzobeenz1@aol.com. Please put Instructions For "My Life Is A Circus" in the subject line and be sure to include your e-mail address. Payment will need to be made through PayPal in the amount of $25 and once cleared I will send the Instructions, Supply List & Photos to your email address.

Thanks to everyone that has been interested in this. Have a great day!

M

Having FUN!!!

2011-03-21T01:26:00.000-07:00

and staying busy - that's what I've been up to.

I have some great projects brewing in my studio - I can't wait to get them finished up so I can share them with you all!!!! Today I have been cutting kits ALL day. I must say this is my least favorite part of teaching. But it isn't horrible, so I just keep plugging along. And it is such a joy to work in my pretty new studio and NOT be sick from it! I am so happy I figured it out. It's going to be a busy week around here so I probably will be absent all week. I will be busy with my Monkey & my Bug, as well as cutting for kits, finishing up my projects, doing chores and finishing up my week with my Once Upon A Springtime class.

I hope you all have a SUPER FANTASTIC week. . .

Toodles

Lovin' My Studio Again!!!!

2011-03-12T10:53:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest creation from my Studio. . . .

"My Life is a Circus"

Click on the photo for more detailed pix

My Life is a circus will be taught at The Creative Quest on April 9th. I hope to see you there!

Now I am heading off to the store to teach my "Beautiful Box" class. Have a great weekend!!!

Day 22. . .

2011-02-27T22:32:00.000-08:00

Today is Day 22 of my headache!

That's right - 22 days straight with a headache! Okay that is not entirely true - I was headache free this past Monday. Friday (day 20) I went to the Dr for it - a miracle for those of you that know me - I HATE to go to the Dr.

Diagnosis. . . "I have no idea what is causing your headache"

So they give me 3 different meds to try to see if any of them help. If they do not help I get to go in for an MRI (do you think they will actually find a brain in there?)

Today as I was showering, I was praying and thinking (I do my best thinking in the shower) and I realized that my headache started after my room remodel. So I grabbed my calendar (after I dried off of course) and started looking (I write down all of my bad or constant headaches). Sure enough, I had a headache 2 days after my built-in was installed, after I had done all of the sanding etc to it. Then again the day after I loaded everything into my room. Then again the day after I spent a power day in my new studio working on my YITL project. And these last three weeks I have spent every night in here after the girls go home and during their naps, and every weekend working on class samples and kits etc.

So, what is it about the new built in? After talking to a friend about my theory and looking online, the materials my beautiful, new, built-in was made from is full of formaldehyde!!! I am VERY chemically sensitive and have to use products with no perfumes or dyes etc or else I get terrible headaches and feel sick. I do not know why it took me so long to figure this all out? After all I know this about myself and I could smell the "wood" every time I came in my studio or walked past it in the hall. But it wasn't a "bad" smell so I guess I never thought about it.

Now what do I do????? It's not like I can just take it out - it is after all "built-in" and I really like it and I paid to have it built. There has to be a solution - right? Well there is. How do you get rid of the formaldehyde? Ventilate the room, and paint the built-in. The paint is supposed to seal the formaldehyde in.

Next problem, it can't just be painted. It needs to be primed first with a product called Gripper Grey by Glidden - a product I can't use because of my sensitivity. So, tomorrow after a long day at work my dear Gary will be coming home to caulk and prime my new cabinetry. Then on Tuesday he will come home to paint it all. He is NOT looking forward to this at all! But like he said, he promised me he would get it all painted after Super Bowl was over.

In the morning I will get things cleaned up in here (I have been busy working on a class sample using the new Le Cirque papers from G45 and it is everywhere and I love it!) and then I will start the process of unloading and prepping things for Gary to do his magic. Hopefully all of this will work and my headache will be gone by the end of the week. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I hope you all had a fun and creative week and wish you another one this week!

Toodles

Another Project from the New Studio

2011-02-18T22:28:00.001-08:00

Who doesn't love fairies???? This is just a sweet little envelope book featuring G45's Once Upon A Springtime papers. What a fun way to document Easter this year or just Spring and all of it's wonder. I will be teaching this project on Friday March 25th at the Creative Quest. And it will be in the store to see in person as of tomorrow.

Click on picture to see all of the details!

Enjoy your weekend and do something creative!!!!!!

Toodles!

Working in My New Studio

2011-02-17T09:32:00.001-08:00

I gotta say I LOVE working in my new studio!!!! Here is a new project I just finished. . .

Click on the photo above for more detailed photos

This is my class sample for March 12th. I will have it in the store this weekend if you want to see it in real life. There will only be 9 spaces available for this class.

Well, I have little ones running around so I better get going. I hope you are all having a FANTASTIC day!!!!!!

Toodles

I'm Finally Ready To Share. . . .

2011-02-02T20:26:00.000-08:00

So - the studio is not completely finished but it is looking pretty good! And I figured it was time to share some pictures - probably TOO many pictures - but oh well. So, let's start the tour. We will begin with a few "Before & After" shots.

The Studio as you enter BEFORE. . .

The Studio as you enter AFTER!
The Studio's "Creative" side BEFORE. . .

The Studio's "Creative" side AFTER! The Studio's "Business" side BEFORE. . .

The Studio's "Business" side AFTER!

I have to say that I loved my room before - I loved having my own space and a place just for me to create without being in every one's way. But it was never "pretty" and it felt like a runway. It seemed so narrow and small. But now with the new paint, the built in and all of the trimmings it feels bigger and finally it's "pretty"!!!!

Those of you that know me, know that I am a pretty "black & white" kinda gal. I love the contrasts and the strengths that both of these "colors" offer. So I decided that my room would be ALL black & white - no accent color at all! I am also a huge fan of damask & Fleur dis les, so I filled my room with those as well.

I painted 3 of the walls black, but left the one wall on the "business" side white. I did it for a couple of reasons, but mainly for my Mom who hated the idea of black walls and she sits here to use my computer. I figured this way the wall she would usually look at would be white and she could "pretend" the rest of them weren't black.

I added beadboard to the backs of all of my hutches and then Ken topped my built in with beadboard as well - it looks pretty cool!

I have double doors coming into my room and I love the way the 2 white doors look on the black wall.

I kept the basic concept of my "zones" like they were before, but I did change the locations of some of the pictures etc.

Just look at how pretty this looks! I can't wait to start creating in this room!!!!

This is the built in that Ken built for me. I designed it to fit my needs and my junque. I LOVE how it turned out! It still needs to be painted and caulked but that can't happen for a couple more weeks and I couldn't live with all of my stuff all over the dinning room any longer! This gives me not only great looking storage but also quadruples my working counter space in the room. Now I can keep my Cricut plunged in and ready to use all of the time and I no longer have to squat on the floor to use my cutter. Thank you Ken - I LOVE IT!!!!!

I am a big fan of binders and of course I had to recover all of them to match the room.

As you can see I have LOTS of them!

These are some of the metal baskets that I altered. They hold most of my embellishments. I always leave one empty shelf or drawer when I reorganize so that I can still "grow" in my room. So this is my empty shelf. I am sure it won't be empty for long though.

Here are more of my altered baskets and my jars. More embellishments in the metal baskets and my ribbon in the jars.

I got rid of most of my plastic (you should see it all in my garage!) but there were some pieces that I really wanted to keep because they work well for me. I had Ken build this to fit these particular pieces as well as my 15 black photo boxes. But I did spiff the plastic up quite a bit by adding a mix of 3 different damask and striped B&W papers to the fronts. This is an easy thing to do to add a custom look to generic plastic and it also hides all of the clutter that usually lives inside the plastic! And it also gives you a great place for a label - you know I love my labels!!!!

This is one of my favorite calla lily photos that I have ever taken (I took it in feb 2005) it is also what is on my calling cards and I used them to color match my black paint for the walls. So I decided to print this out as 11x14 for my studio - I love it!!!!

I also used it on my tool spinner with my favorite quote. This quotes has hung on my bulletin board on a scrap of paper for almost 10 years. I decided it was about time that I do something better with it. (Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.)

This is my new punch storage - they are just brushed nickle cafe rods hung on the wall. The large punches just hang right on the rods. Easy to get to, and easy to see what I have. My little ones are still in a drawer. Thanks Ann for hanging my rods!

MY "M&G" have been painted so many colors and have had so many different papers on them through the years. They got another coat of paint and another layer of paper. I plan to add some rhinestones and flowers to them too - but for right now they will just have to stay like this. This is also my corner unit I got on clearance for $3!!!!

Just a close up of the paper covered plastic drawers and my photo boxes.

This is my "Grandmother" Frame. It's about 36" wide and I took out the glass and the back, spray painted it a hi gloss white and hung it on the wall. Then I hung eight 5x7 borderless frames inside it. Right now those frames just have paper in them but soon they will be filled with pix of my granddaughters.

And here is my cool black chandelier that Gary bought me for Christmas.

So this is my new, BEAUTIFUL studio! This is what I have been spending this past month on. There has been hours of sewing, painting, purging, cleaning, moving and so much more. But it has been worth EVERY minute! And I am so thankful to everyone that helped me make my dream studio become a reality! Thanks for taking a look and sharing my joy!

Toodles

Are You Still Checking In????

2011-01-31T08:37:00.000-08:00

Sorry it is taking me so long to post pictures of my new studio, but I want it to be PERFECT when I show you! We had a little set-back but it is coming along great and I LOVE IT!!!! It is turning into everything I wanted it to be. I will be back soon with real pictures soon.

It's NOT EASY to be BEAUTIFUL!!!

2011-01-15T23:25:00.000-08:00

But I am really gonna give it a try!
Not me personally but my studio!
That's right I am finally going to get my studio decorated. It is the only room in the house that has never been decorated, heck, it doesn't even have curtains! The main reason I never did anything in here was because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I really wanted a "pretty" room but I also needed a functional room. And I really needed a place to work, so I just put everything in there and just waited. It has almost been 4 years since we moved in and I am done waiting!

So this is what my studio has looked liked. Pretty plain - all white furniture, beige walls and LOTS of plastic storage containers! (The chandelier is new - Gary got it for me for Christmas since I now know what I want to do in here)

So this is my take on "pretty". Lots of glass jars, beautiful black & white metal baskets, a black & crystal chandelier. And NO visible plastic storage!

Christmas night I started on my room - well on the storage containers at least. I have had about 20 of these metal baskets in my garage for 2 years. I got them REALLY cheap - under $1 each! But they were covered with ugly paper and the white part was a cream color. So I started painting Christmas night and made them all black & white. I even added rhinestones around the tops of the small ones. The day after Christmas I went shopping for glass jars and white china dishes - I got a ton of them! Then it took me two days to get them all filled and labeled and the old storage out of here.

The next step is to paint the walls. I just have to get rid of the beige! So this Monday Gary is going to paint for me. This meant getting EVERYTHING out of my room today!!! I packed up 2 boxes last night and thought I could finish everything else in the morning, it shouldn't take me too long - right? Well, it took me almost 10 hours!!!! But look at it now! It is so hollow in here - each click on my keyboard is echoing in here!

Once I emptied it all out I went ahead and scrubbed down all of the furniture, tightened the bolts on my chairs, clean the walls and doors and swept up the floor. It just looks so BRIGHT in here now!

As clean and bright as my studio looks, my dinning room is the complete opposite! It is FULL of all of my stuff! Well, everything that was "out" in my studio. All of the cabinets in my studio are still full - Gary says we can move them full for painting. I sure hope he's right!

So now you've seen my studio as it was, and you've seen my new containers, and you know I'm painting. Do you want to know what else I'm doing in here???

I am going EXTREAM in here - ALL BLACK & WHITE!!!! That's right, no color at all! I (okay, Gary) am painting 3 of my walls black and one of them white. I can't wait!!!! I am making my window treatments and my chair cushions myself using a black & white damask. My friend Judie's husband is building me a built in counter with custom sized cubbies in it for all of my storage needs. In fact I am meeting him at Home Depot tomorrow to pick out the final items for the built in (it will be going wall to wall under the window and I will be getting rid of the bookcase). I am adding some beadboard to the backs of my hutches, pretty trims and details around the room but keeping everything either black or white. I typically would not be this brave all on my own but about 10 months ago I found this gal's room and fell in love!!!! As I looked at her space I kept thinking "how can I do this in my space"? I certainly cannot have the square footage she has or the furniture, but I can adopt her color scheme and the over all feel of the room. Right???

Well, wish me luck and I will be back soon with some after pictures. But I will be away for a couple of days, I will have to tear down my computer tomorrow night so we can start 1st thing in the morning Monday.

Enjoy your what's left of your weekend!

Toodles

A Year In The Life Has MOVED!

2011-01-10T23:28:00.000-08:00

That's right - I decided that this BIG of a project deserved a blog of it's own. So now you will find "A Year In The Life" HERE.
I have transfered all of the info (and added more) to this new blog. From now on I will be posting all of the updates and information to this new blog. I hope you will take a few minutes to check it out.
There are four different pages on the YITL Blog -
The Front Page - all of the updates and basic information
Quarterly Updates - a great reference for what we will be doing and when we will meeting
Layouts - I will post pictures of my finished layout and album pages here
Tutorials - Here I will post some "How-To's" for you

Please add this new blog to your favorites.
Have a GREAT WEEK Friends
Toodles

I thought I was sooo Cool. . .

2011-01-06T23:35:00.000-08:00

but then I realized I was NOT!!!! Last night I was so proud of my low light/slow shutter speed photo. Then today I decided it was not all that great. I also decided that if I could get that shot on my 1st try that I could do even better today. So that's what I didI set everything back up (and more) and waited for it to get dark and for Gary to go to bed. Then I started. . .

I set up a practice shot 1st for composition - not to bad I thought. (notice that I added a mirror on the bottom, black backdrop, different colored ribbons and swavorski (sp) crystal flutes). It's not in this picture but in some of the others, but I borrowed a bottle of champagne!

The 1st two in this threesome are the same picture - I just turned one sepia. The 3rd picture only shows half of the glass because one of the sparklers went out BEFORE the camera had a chance to take the shot! That would be because I was too slow and I also forgot to turn the camera ON!!!!

This one just looks like a ribbon volcano errupting!

This one is kinda fun but at the same point - totally useless!!!!

My BLACK backdrop seems to have turned GREEN in this shot!!!

I spent a lot of time on the phone with Ann as she critiqued my photos and agve her ideas (only because I asked). I went through TWO BOXES of sparklers tonight, filled my house with smoke, tore it all down to change it back to white drops, cheap glasses and apple cider and was still not half as thrilled as I was with my ONE shot I took last night!

But I finally did some cropping and editing and I think I like this one enough to use it. I just don't think I can light one more sparkler until the 4th of July!!!!!

Any comments???

Have a great Friday!!!!

Toodles

I did it!!!

2011-01-05T22:46:00.001-08:00

I really suck at slow shutter speed/low light photography! But tonight I got this idea for a photo to put in my YITL album for the "Celebrations & Holidays" section. This section of my album will be all of those "other" holidays as well as birthday parties etc so I needed something generic but yet still festive. So I dug out my tripod and my camera binder (yes, I have a binder for everything) as well as some curling ribbon, wine glasses and sparkling cider (no wine or champagne in my house). Then I thought "I need some confetti" which is another thing I never have in my house. But then I remembered the HUGE bag of bling I bought Sunday while I was out with the girls - Perfect Confetti! I had exactly 15 sparklers left (well that were handy - the rest are under the bed and I am pretty sure Gary would hate it if I woke him to get them) So I knew I had a limited amount of chances to get this pix right. Well, it is far from perfect, but this is what I got on the 1st try!!! For fear that I would set the ribbons and tablecloth on fire if I tried it again. I decided that this was just fine. It says "Festive" to me and that is what I wanted.

Well I guess I should get back to the dinning room to clean up my mess. I just had to get my picture loaded and ordered. And I figured I might as well share my joy with you all here. I hope you had a great day and that Thursday is even better!

Toodles

What's Up?????

2011-01-04T07:19:00.001-08:00

So I thought I'd share quickly what I have been up to. I do mean quickly - I have a Monkey on my lap! So I can't promise all of this will make sense and I bet I will have A LOT more typos today!!!

So this is the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve - I set a timer so I wouldn't miss this shot! Everyone but me was already sound asleep in their beds here and I was taking down the tree.

This is New Years Day - I treated myself to a nice HOT bubble bath - no candelight but I did give myself some nice classical music to listen to. I made it a point to start my new year off relaxed and happy!

After the bubble bath the family arrived. We played bingo and loaded questions and ate "fun" foods like potato skins, chili, beans and weinnies, rice krispy treats and chips. YUM!
My Mom does not like to play games, but even she joined us for bingo and played 3 cards at a time!!! We had prizes like gift cards and a few gag gifts too. Everyone seemed to really enjoy this. I bought this bingo game about 10 years ago and it has only been out of the box once before today!

Here's everyone chowing down and teasing one another. I LOVE having them all around the table like this!

Some more board games - Mom dropped out on this one. But there was LOTS of laughing at the table. And even some tears - Bryanna still laughs until she cries - I love that about her!

We also did headshots as soon as everyone arrived. No one even complained - I was so impressed!

On the 2nd I went to my friend Judie's house to hang out with her and Ann. Lots of laughing and nonsense going on there too!

Judie's husband had been cooking omlets and it smelled so good that I could not concentrate! So us girls had to go out to eat. And of course we had to stop at Joann's and Staples for a little shopping while we were out.

I have been working on my studio too. Gary got me the chandelier that I have been wanting and hung it for me. Judie's husband is going to do a big built in for me all along the back wall with the window. I gave hime my drawings while I was there on Sunday. I can't wait to get it done and installed!!!!

Gary also gave me some spending $$$ so I bought new containers for my studio. I am trying to get rid of all of the plastic storage in my studio. I think this looks much nicer!

I have also been working on my "A Year in the Life" album and really enjoying that!!! I got the kits all packed this weekend so I am ready to share with the gals that have signed up.

Yesterday was our 1st day having Monkey and Bug back with us for over a week. I miss thise guys when they are not here. Yesterday Monkey and I went out and did a little shopping while Bug napped. Of course I got the things I went after and we also brought back prizes - a stuffed turtle for Monkey and a stuffed lady bug for Bug.

So far nothing but happiness in 2011 - I think it is going to be a GREAT year!!!!

What have YOU been up to???

Toodles

Happy New Year!!!!!

2010-12-31T11:41:00.000-08:00

I hope you all have a safe and happy New Year and that you have nothing but joy this coming year!

Marta

The Countdown Begins!!!

2010-12-30T19:22:00.000-08:00

We are just hours away from the begining of "A Year in the Life" and I can't wait!!!! I have made the first entry into our A Year in the Life tab here on my blog. I hope you will take a moment to check it out. And if your are signed up for this year long project I hope you will check back often and use it as a great refence and ancouragement to stick with it to the end.

On another note - I am trying to get my Christmas photos edited so that I can share some with you all. But I got a wild hair on Christmas night and gutted my studio! It has taken me until 7pm last night to get it back together so I have not even started editing. And today I started packing the Year in the Life Kits so I probably won't get to it until early next week. But we did have a magical holiday and I am so truly blessed to have been able to spend it with my family. I am especially blessed to have 2 little ones to share my Christmas with - there is nothing like a child to show you how to really enjoy Christmas! I hope you and your families were well and happy over the holiday weekend.

Toodles

Lady Bugs!!!

2010-12-17T15:22:00.000-08:00

This week I have been wasting time and totally enjoying myself at my sewing machine! Mind you there are LOTS of things that are more pressing that I SHOULD be doing, but oh well. . .
I callmy newest granddaughter Lady Bug and so I have been busily making her some new lady bug treats.

Isn't she the sweetest little lady bug you've ever seen?

So here is what I have made so far. . .

a couple of bibs and a burp cloth. . .

a tummy-time pillow with rings to hold her toys close at hand

Here it is without the toys attached

Here is a little "lovey" "Taggy" "sensory blanket" everyone calls them something different

I even made the ladybug that is attached in the center. The lining is that great minky stuff in bright red!

This is her quilt but I made it right after she was born.

Bryanna liked all of the goodies so much and since they are all staying at MY house I ended up making her a quilt and a tummy time pillow to match her nursery. I forgeot to take pictures of them before I sent them on their way.

So I am officially done sewing now until after Christmas. But I wanted to share what I have been up to.

Now it's time to clean up and start getting all of my Christmas stuff done!!!

If I don't get back before next week -

MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS!!!!!

Success!

2010-12-10T23:50:00.000-08:00

That is what I feel tonight was!

I had my first "A Year in the Life" open house at the Creative Quest. It is a busy time of the year for everyone and parking was a nightmare in dowtown Glendale tonight, but yet 10 brave woman showed up for my presentation! I have been so excited about this project for months and have kept it under wraps for the most part until now. And now I am excited about the way my "baby" was received and can't wait for January when we can all get started on this journey together!

I wanted to share this simple collage I did for my Year in the Life album. One of the sections is called "The People that Touch My Life" so I took pictures of all of my family holding my little "Life" sign (that I shared the other day). I captured only their hands and the "Life" to symbolize that they touch my life.

If you live in the Valley and want to know more about my "A Year in the Life" project you are welcome to joing me on Sunday from 1-3pm at the Creative Quest or you can email me with questions.

I hope you all have a great weekend and feel like whatever you did today was a SUCCESS!!!

Toodles

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!!

2010-12-06T22:17:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is my "baby's" 22nd birthday! Where has the time gone? Happy birthday my Love - I love you more and more each day. I am so very proud of you!

This will be the first time EVER that I have not spent Lizzy's birthday with her. I am not even sure how to process that? She is now living in the dorms and has finals so she will be tied up. I probably won't even be able to catch her on the phone between her work and school schedules. So we celebrated her big day yesterday. The whole family was here for dinner and cake (and football too). It was a fun evening and she was able to blow out all of her candles in one breath even with a baby in her arms. It seems like just last week she was a baby in my arms.

Have a great

Tuesday,

Pearl Harbor Day,

LIZZY's BIRTHDAY!!!

Toodles

Life's Little Ups & Downs

2010-12-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

There is a purpose to these pictures (besides just being cute) If you are attending the "Year in the Life" open house next weekend you will get the whole scoop! Until then just enjoy how cute the pictures are.

Have a great weekend Friends

Toodles

I am SO Excited!

2010-12-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

In 10 days I will be introducing my newest project. A project that I have been planning for months! A project that will take a WHOLE year to complete!! A project that I can’t wait to get started on!!! This project has been a big secret for months and only two people have gotten to see what it’s all about. I am hoping that many of you will join me on this memorable & creative endeavor.

Starting in January I will begin a hybrid scrapbooking project at The Creative Quest called "A Year in the Life" that will give you the opportunity to document all of the big and little moments that make up one year of your life. Don’t let the word “scrapbooking” scare you away; this is NOT going to be your typical 12x12 scrapbook full of embellishments and do-dads and pretty little things glued to a page. Don’t think your life is not exciting enough to do this, it is. Even if you have never scrapbooked before you can do this project.

The Creative Quest will play host to our quarterly get-togethers and even though it is a year long project, it will not be a huge commitment of your time away from home. We will get together in January, April, July and October, with one last get-together in January of 2012.

I have set up a special tab here on my blog just for this project so that you can follow along with me, keep up to date on where we are on the project and to get some tips and ideas as we go along. Another one of the reasons I am doing this on my blog is so that I won’t get too “busy” to actually work on the project. You will make me accountable.

On Friday, December 10th from 6-8pm and also on Sunday, December 12th from 1-3pm The Creative Quest and I will be hosting an open house to share all of the details of this exciting new project. Of course there won’t be a finished sample for you to see since I will be working along side you all year. But there will be lots to see and touch. I will share all of the details, outline and costs. You will get to see all of the products we will be using (and here’s a little surprise – NO Graphic 45 paper in this one!).

So, I hope you will join me on either Friday night or Sunday afternoon for some cookies, coffee, and creativity!

Toodles

I am So Very THANKFUL. . . .

2010-11-27T22:18:00.000-08:00

***WARNING: VERY LONG POST - PICTURE HEAVY!***

I have been thinking all week about how blessed and thankful I am for my life and the people in it. And so tonight I decided to share with you all some snipets from my life and the people that make me so thankful!!

Oct 29th - Family dinner night for our 26th wedding anniversary - My youngest Daughter (Lizzy) & my oldest Granddaughter (Monkey).

I am so thankful for these two girls of course, and for the rest of my family, and for my dear, sweet husband that still loves me after all of these years! But I am also so thankful for all of the laughter that fills my home when we are all together!!!! I am blessed

Oct 30th - Trick-or-Treating On Halloween Night with My oldest Daughter (Bryanna) & Granddaughters (Monkey & Bug)

I don't celebrate Halloween and never took my own girls trick-or-treating. But now I'm an Amma (Grandma) and I am not about to miss out on any part of my granddaughters' lives. So, since they go trick-or-treating, I do too! I am so thankful to get to share all of these moments with my girls! I am so thankful that they live right down the street so I can be there so easily!

I am blessed!

Nov 5 - My 47th Birthday

This was not an "exciting" birthday, but it was a full day. I took Bug to the Dr for shots, played with her and Monkey. I got a new sidewalk poured, and since it was my birthday Gary let me put the girls' footprints in the fresh cement (something he really hates!). I taught Lizzy how to bake pies and cooked dinner for my whole family that evening. I am so thankful for healthy grandbabies, a beautiful home, a Husband that is willing to "give in a little", time with family and food on my table! I am blessed!

Nov 6th - My friends, Judie and Ann on our way up North

Judie and I share the same birthday and Ann's is 12 days later. So the three of us headed up north to Prescott and Jerome for the day. Fall is my favorite season and I adore all of the colors of Fall - sadly we don't get any color in the valley, but a short drive got me some color and crisp air. It also got me a meal at the Palace Saloon on Whiskey Row (my 1st time). I am so thankful for GOOD friends and time out with the girls as well as a husband that totally gets I need some girl-time. I am so thankful that God sent beautiful colors to fill my world and excite my spirit! I am blessed!

Nov 9th - Monkey & Bug

Just a tuesday afternoon with my little girls. I am so thankful that I get to have such a BIG role in their lives. I am blessed!

Nov 10th - Monkey Paints

I started Monkey painting at an early age and she loves it! Usually she "dabs" her paint on today was the 1st time she actually made "strokes" while she pained. I try not to "teach" her how to be creative, I just let her do what she wants to do. So I was so excited to see she discovered strokes on her own and advanced into the stage of development. I am so thankful that she likes to do the things I like. And that I get a front row seat to her ever-changing development and abilities!

I am blessed!

Nov 11th - Waffles with Monkey

Just another morning together making waffles for breakfast. She loves to cook with me and loves my heart-shaped waffle iron. I was never paitient enough when my girls were little to let them help me cook - I wish I had been. I am so thankful for our mornings together and that smile and the way she calls me "Amma". I am also thankful that I have learned paitience and found the joy in slowing down and helping little hands learn and have fun! I am blessed!

Nov 20th - My Sister Terrie's Handmade purse

After many years of being astranged, my big sister and I have found our way back to each other! We spent 4 hours on the phone together this night and 2 more hours on the phone the next day! And 2 days later I got an email with some photos of the vintage style, handmade purses she is making. I now have a way to contact her and she is coming for a visit!!! I am so thankful for a relationship being healed, technology that helps us connect, planes that bring our loved ones home and for a heart that no longer hurts! I am thankful for my Sister! I am blessed!

Nov 23 - My Little girls with Santa

Monkey was sooo excited to go see Santa this day and was all prepared to tell him what she wanted for Christmas. But once she was face to face with the bearded man she changed her mind. After some tears, walking away, the bribe of some candy, and standing in line once again, she was ready to at least talk to him and get her picture taken with Santa and her sister.

This is my Monkey and my Bug in the same dress on their first visits to see santa - 3 years apart. Bryanna is not tanner now, I just learned how to use my camera. I am so thankful for the magic this time of year, both through the make-believe parts and the real reason for the season - Christ's birth! I am thankful for the way my Little girls make me feel such intense joy just by looking at them! I am thankful that Bryanna lets me be here for all of these "moments". And i am thankful for the knowledge I continue to gain about my camera. I am also very thankful for my favorite toy. . . my camera! I am blessed!

Nov 25th - Thanksgiving Day - Lizzy & Richard

Everyone was sick this year and so we had to postpone Thanksgiving until Saturday. But later that night, Lizzy & Richard stopped by to pick up her new laptop. This is her Christmas present and birthday present from us, her sister and her 2 Grandmothers. Hers died this past week adn finals start on Monday and she really needed a new laptop NOW! I am thankful that in these hard times we had the money to do this for her! I am thankful that she is so diligent about her schooling! I am thankful that they came over! I am thankful that although Bryanna, Gary & Monkey were all sick, that it was only a temporary bug and that my family all has their health!

I am blessed!

Nov 27th - Our "Thanksgiving Day"

The day started off with my two favorite guys (hubby & SIL) going off to golf together

Then we had dinner together as a family - Monkey of course had to oad her fingers up with black olives.

Four generations of my family all at the table together!!!

A quick visit with the neighbors. Monkey just loves playing with their son Charlie.

After pie Monkey decorated the window in "her own way" with a varity of window clings with a little help from her "Yo" - that would be her Aunt Lizzy.

Now it was time to decorate the tree - and the first thing to go on the tree each year is my Mom's 50 year old angel. I take a picture of her doing this every year.

Now it's everyones turn to add some decorations to the tree (wow, I am actually in the picture)

Bryanna made a little boo-boo and broke Mom's whole box of glass Dwarfs (Snow White). I think we were able to salvage one. It's funny though because I didn't think Lizzy new how to use a broom, let alone know where to find it!!!!

Bug has passed out on Mom's lap but we managed to get a (smiling) picture of her holding the one salvaged dwarf. I am so thankful for more than enough food - not just for the holidays but everyday! I am thankful that everyone was feeling better (even if Gary did get a bad case of allergies at the golf course that knocked him out) I am thankful for traditions and memories of days and holidays gone by. I am thankful for a house big enough to put up a big Christmas tree and a table big enough for everyone to sit together (for now anyways)! I am thankful for neighbors and good friends! I am thankful that my Hubby & my SIL get along so well! I am thankful for a husband that is so kind and so generous that HE insisted my Mother come live with us! I am thankful for my Mom and for her health and for how young she is at 75! I am thankful that we were all together and that we spent most of the day lughing and having fun! I am thankful for a country that has a national holiday set aside just being thankful! I am thankful for all of these things and soooooo much more!!!

I really am blessed!

New Class Sample

(you can click on the picture for a more detailed view)

What does this have to do with being thankful??? It reminds me how thankful I am that God intrusted with some amount of creativity. And it reminds me of how thankful I am to the gals at the Creative Quest for seeing something in me and allowing me to share my passion for creating with their customers and friends. I am thankful for all of the beautiful women I have met and friends I have made while teaching there. I am thankful for the peace I feel when I sit at my desk with paper, ink and glue at the ready!

WOW!!! Did you make it all the way to end of this post??? Thanks for sharing my Thanksgiving with me. I hope you are reminded at this time, and the whole year through, of all you are thankful for!

Toodles and God Bless you all!!!

Just a Quickie. . .

2010-11-13T19:58:00.001-08:00

So I taught my Santa's Workshop Curio class today and everything went great! I think everyone had a great time and was happy with their creation. No two were the same and it was really fun to see what everyone came up with.
At one point during the day we got to talking about how I come up with stuff and I was asked if I ever dream a project. The answer to that is a hearty YES! But I told them I also dream recipes and I share how I dreamt the recipe to Girl Scout Cookies years ago (the Thin Mints - my FAV!!!). They taste just like them and they asked if I would give them the recipe. I promised I would post it on my blog tonight so here it is girls - ENJOY!!!!

Marta's "Girl Scout" Cookies
Cookie
1 Stick Butter -
1/4 C Shortening
1 C Sugar -
2 Eggs
1 tsp Peppermint Extract -
2 1/2 C Flour
1/2 C Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Baking Powder -
1 tsp Salt
Coating
1 Pkg. Chocolate Candy Quick
1 tsp Peppermint Extract

Cream sugar, butter & shortening. Add eggs and peppermint extract. Blend in flour, cocoa powder, baking powder & salt. Roll the dough out on lightly floured tea towel or counter top to about 1/8" thickness. Cut out with 2" round cookie cutters. Place on un-greased cookie sheets & bake in pre-heated 400 degree oven for 6 - 8 min or until light brown.
Melt the chocolate and mix in the peppermint extract. When cookies are cooled, dip them in the melted chocolate and let set up on a wire rack.
Makes approx 4 doz cookies These taste just like Thin Mints

From the heart & kitchen of Marta Gladden

I will check in again soon
Toodles!

Good Morning Bloggers! UPDATED 11/14/10

2010-10-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

Most of you know I NEVER blog in the morning - always in the wee hours of the night, but not today! I have a special offer for my Blog friends (this again is something I never do on my blog!). After a full weekend of teaching classes I have found that I have a few extra kits left and wanted to offer them up to all of you that are not able to take my classes in person. Each kits will have all of the supplies (minus, inks, tools, adhesives & stamps) needed to make the project, a CD with full sized color & detailed images of the project and all of the step by step instructions needed to complete the project. It will also include a list of all the supplies, cut sizes, tools and embellishments needed in case you would like to make more of the same project.

So here is what I have available for you. . .

There is only 1 of the Measure of a Woman Shrine kits available

This was a $55 class and I am offering the kit at $25 + postage (US Only)

In this kit you will be building the shrine from scratch, then wall-papering it and embellishing it. It is super fun and I think you will love learning how to build the shrine for different occasions.

You can click on the photo for more detailed images of the shrine.

And there are no more of the Hallowe'en in Wonderland kits available Now

This was a $95 class and I am offering the kit at $50 + postage (US Only)

This was a VERY popular class - I had to teach it twice! You will be altering this book box and then making a mini for inside. It has a great wire and bead binding on it and lotts of interactive parts.

You can click on the photo for more detailed images of this Project.

If you are interested in any of these kits please email me at

Garbonzobeenz1@aol.com and tell me which one(s) you are interested in. Please include your name, mailing address and email address. I will send you a paypal invoice once I receive your request. Your Kit will be mailed out on the first Friday after I receive your payment.

Well, I gotta get back to Monkey and The Bug . . .

Happy Monday!

Toodles

Today Was. . .

2010-10-21T21:41:00.000-07:00

Just an Ordinary Day. But it was a day I never want to forget!

Mom was gone all day and so it was just the girls and I all day today. I woke up to a very cool and wet morning - ahhh, so refreshing this time of year. The rain quickly gave way to sun, but the cool temps and the breezes continued throughout the day. We did all of he typical things, bottles, diapers, snacks, and the Disney channel. My Bug was a little fussy today so Monkey was left to entertain herself (with the Disney channel, toys and books) while I tended to her sister. Finally, my Bug drifted off to sleep and then Monkey asked to take her nap. As I tucked her into her big girl bed she gave me the regular daily assignments. . .turn off the light, shut the door all the way. After I turned off the lights and was turning to go out the door, she called me back to her. "I need to say my prayers Amma" she told me. My heart melted! This is a new thing, she has just recently started to go to Sunday School and without prompting has been asking her Mom to pray with her at night before she goes to sleep. But this was the first time she has ever asked me to do it with her. I am ashamed to say that I never think of it when I put her down for a nap. My mind is usually fixed on the things I need to do while she sleeps. So, with my heart so full, I kneeled there next to my 3 year old granddaughter's bed while she folded her hands, closed her eyes and said the simplest prayer "my mommy, my daddy, amma, grandpa, nana, stud, rifle". She was asking God's blessing on us. Then she looked at me and said "you Amma", she wanted me to pray with her and so I did and she sweetly repeated every word I said. After saying Amen, we had to do the little poem with the hand gestures, here's the church, here's the steeple. . . .you know the one. I taught her that a long time ago and she loves to do it. Now it was time for one more kiss and once more to be reminded to shut the door all the way and off to sleep she went. I never want to forget that 3 minutes I spent kneeling on the floor. I have always believed in the power of prayer and have spent a lot of time in my life on my knees praying, but I don't think any of those times were as sweet, as innocent, as powerful as that 3 minutes were to me today! How I would love to have a photo of the two of us in there today.

But here are a couple of sweet photos from the day. . .

This is my bug in her vibrating, musical chair holding onto a rattle and giving me some giggles

After the girls woke up from their naps, Monkey wanted to see her sister and I thought it would be funny to lift her into the crib with my Bug. She looked up at me and said "we're cute Amma, take our picture" who could ignore such a request?
What a great day!!!

Tuesday I wrote about how close Christmas was and how us crafters are needing to get busy with our homemade gifts. Last night I took my own advice and got busy on my stocking stuffers for Christmas Eve at Gary's Mom's house. There are 30+ of us when we are all together and although we draw names for gifts we do put something small in everyone's stockings. That's A LOT of little gifts to come up with. People put all kinds of things in there - nothing big. Someone usually puts a disposable razor in them, some lip balm, lotion, candy and so on. I usually try to make something (surprise, surprise). Something that can easily be duplicated several times (like I did snowman poop bags one year). This year I am taking care of the girls' stockings and making Gary take care of the boys.
So here is what I made for this year. . .

They are homemade facial puffs. I cut out and sewed 55 of these little cuties yesterday. Today I got them bagged up in pairs while the girls napped. I will make a little tag to attach with them soon on my computer (and maybe a little stamping).

In case you were interested I took pictures along the way to show you how to make them if you want to give it a try.

I used a 3" cork coaster that I had lying around as my pattern to cut out my circles. Each little facial puff needs the following:
1 circle of cotton fabric (I used muslin and and broadcloth left over from a quilt)
1 circle of cotton terry fabric
3 circles of cotton flannel
4" of twill

Sandwich the flannel in between the terry and the cotton fabrics

Lay the twill on top of the cotton fabric and sew a 1/2" seam all the way around your sandwhich twice. The twill be a nice handle to hold your facial puff.

Once you have them all sewn up, you cut from the edge up to (but not through) the seam every 1/4 inch. It should look all fringey like the photo above.

After you have all of them fringed, throw them all into the washing machine and then into the dryer (warning: you will have LOTS of lint in your machine if you do a bunch of these). When they are all dry you will need to give them all a little bit of a "hair-cut" to get all of the frayed strings off of them (easy to do while you watch tv)

After their hair-cuts they will look like this and be ready to be used.

They are really soft and cute and are great for eye make-up removal, face cleansers, applying bronzers to you skin, anything really. And they are reusable, just toss them in the wash like you would a wash cloth! Super cool, inexpensive, useful, eco-friendly gift! Give them a try - make them any size or shape you want. If you are a powder user, trade the cotton fabric for a satin, the terry layer for another flannel and the twill for satin ribbon and you will have a beautiful powder puff to put your face powder on with. I always think of my Grandma Peterson when I think of a powder puff. I bought her body powder with a beautiful puff every year for Chistmas when I was a little girl. I wonder if anyone uses those big dishes of fragrant body powder anymore?

Well, I better get ready for bed - teaching tomorrow. I am teaching my "Measure of a Woman" class tomorrow. I wish I had some satin fabric in the house. I would make some of those powder puffs as my door prize for class. It would have fit in perfectly! Oh well. Have a great weekend friends!

Toodles

65 Days, 22 Hours & 11 Minutes Left

2010-10-19T23:46:00.000-07:00

That's right, that's how many days left till Christmas!!!

If you are a crafter, it's crunch time!

Have you made all of your plans?

Have you gathered all of your supplies?

Have you started anything?

These are the questions we are asking ourselves right now.

I was running around today (Hobby Lobby, Joann's, Michael's) getting some last minute supplies for my class on Friday when my cell phone rang. It was my Sister-in-law, Char (the only other crafter in my family) wanting to know what I would be bringing to Thanksgiving dinner. As if she didn't know - I always bring pumpkin pies, have for 26 years now. But while we were on the phone the subject quickly changed to what we were each making as Christmas gifts. It's important that we don't make the same things. At this time of year I especially wish there were two of me, one to do all of the things that need to be done in my life and one that could be busy creating and enjoying the process of making the gifts.

I have started a new habbit while I craft these days. As I am working on something I pray for the person that I am making the item for. I pray for their health, saftey and happiness as well as for our relationship. I got this idea from a woman I have never met that emailed me from my blog one day. She told me how I had inspired her to start creating again and that she prayed for me while she worked on her latest project. I was so moved and I thought what a great yet simple idea. How much more meaningful the item had when it was finished, even though the receipiant would probably never know that I was praying for them. Typically I just allow my mind to wander (all over the place) while I work on things, and it still does at times, but I really try to stay focused on the person and my prayers these days. It has added a whole new level of joy to the things I create now.

Well it is late and I have much to do before the munchkins come in the morning - one of the things I want to do is sleep! So I should run. Just wanted to check in with everyone and wish you a great week!

Toodles

Busy, Busy, Busy. . .

2010-10-15T00:29:00.000-07:00

That's what I have been these days and that's why I have been so absent from my blog and blog friends - Sorry. But tonight I am going to try to catch up on the past few weeks. Lots of pictures tonight.

So, one of the things I have been busy with is creating and kitting class projects for The Quest. This Saturday is the 1st session on Hallowe'en in Wonderland. Next weekend is the the 2nd session (yes, I am teaching it again!) and the Measure of a Woman Shrine class. There are lots of jumbo ziplock bags ful of pretty papers and such in my studio right now.

This is a new class sample called Santa's Workshop Curio - the photo here does not show the completed project - it is missing it's really cool Tim Holtz legs. But you can see the finished product at The Quest if you stop by. I will be teaching this class on Sat. Nov 13th.

Another thing I have been busy with is playing with my Monkey! Oh My Goodness - she is just the funnest (is that really a word?) kid ever and I just LOVE playing with her. She adores her doll house and plays with it everytime she is here. This was a night that she asked me if she could just come to my house for dinner. Who could refuse this face?

Another thing that took up ALOT of my time was the planning a surprise birthday tea party for my Mom's 75th birthday. This is no simple feat when your Mom lives with you!!! But it came off without a hitch, she was surprised and everyone seemed to have a great time. For about 2 weeks I lied almost daily to my Mom and she was banned from certain areas of the house and from the refrigerator in the garage - that one took a very creative lie to keep her out of there and not be suspicious!

After sewing all of the bedding and curtains etc for both of my granddaughters, I have fallen in love with my sewing machine again. The week before the girls came back (Bryanna & my maternity leave ended on the 4th) I made 2 rag quilts. They are super fun to make! So this is the one I made for my Lady Bug (my newest granddaughter). I made a Monkey quilt for her big sister when she was a baby for her to use as a pallet at my house, so I figured I better get one made for my little Lady Bug! I just love all of the fabrics I used on this, cotton, corduroy, flannel and chinz all in pink, black and red - very fun!
This one is a Christmas present - can't say for who just in case they are checking in here! But I really think it is pretty and feminine.

Then of course there was one more trip to the pool before the season is over. This summer I actually never made it to the pool all season so I couldn't pass this up - had to get some pix of my Monkey and her grandpa at the pool. They are pool buddies and this is their special time and place.

And of course before the girls started coming here everyday I felt it was important to wash EVERY toy in the house!!! There wasn't a flat surface in my house or on my patio that wasn't covered with toys drying after being washed!

BTW - washing Leggos is NO FUN at all!

And of course there were all of the new bottles that had to be washed and sterelized

This past weekend I took some pictures of my little Lady Bug - this is one of them. I ordered this Union Jack Flag just for this purpose when she was first born. I don't usually use my grandbabies names here but I will make an exception this once - her name is London, that is the reason for the flag. She is almost 3 months old now!

Here are some pictures of My Girls just hanging out at Amma's while Mom and Dad are at work.

They are just the sweetest and happiest girls ever. I was a little worried about how it would be with a baby in the house again. But that was just wasted time. She is a great baby - so content and happy and no problem at all.

Gary made breakfast Tuesday before work for Monkey. She loves for Grandpa to cook for her. Since Lady Bug can't eat his cooking yet she was the entertainment! Gary had her dancing on the counter and trying to stomp on Monkey's plate. Everyone really enjoyed this. He has such a great way of playing with the girls and they just love it!

Gary took the rest of this week off and yesterday we took both girls to the zoo. That was really fun but man was it HOT! Typically it is only in the high 80's this week each year - but noooooo - it was about 100 degrees out yesterday! After 4 hours in the sun we were all ready for the AC in the car and to get home. This was our first outting with both girls with out their parents - it takes some coordination to have a toodler and an infant out and about like this. Sadly I didn't get very many pictures and the ones I did get were just snap shots. Gary was in charge of Monkey and I was in charge of the Bug, the stroller, all of the bags, and the camera. I was a busy girl!

This weekend the WHOLE family is heading up north (where it is cool) to the pumpkin patch. There will be six adults and only the two girls so I should be more free to take pictures - I can't wait!!! I am taking pictures like crazy these days, trying to rebuild a collection of photos of the girls since I lost everything when my back-up drive crashed. (Still super sad about that!)

So, that is pretty much what has been going on in my world lately. It has been a really busy time for me, but a really great time as well! I am truly blessed to have so much joy in my life!!!

I will be back soon with more pictures and news about a new year-long project I will be hosting at The Quest, so come back and check it out - I think you're gonna like it!

Toodles

"Hallowe’en in Wonderland Book in a Box". . .

2010-10-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

IS BACK!!!!

I am so excited to tell you that a second class for this project has been added! So if you did not get signed up for the first sold out class, call the store right away to get signed up for this one. This class will be limited to only 8 students and no extra kits for purchase. Click the "Upcoming Classes" tab at the top for full class info. I hope to see you there!
Sun, Oct 24th / 10am – 5pm
Class fee $95

Click on the photo above to see all of the goodies inside!

Toodles

It's Official. . .

2010-09-22T13:50:00.000-07:00

Everything is gone! The guy from Data Doctors called this morning and the damage was too severe and they are unable to retrieve any documents, files or images.

I feel as though I am mourning the death of a loved one here. I know that sounds silly but The things I am most passionate about, the photos of my family, the photos of my art, the written instructions for my classes and so many more things were on that drive, and now they are gone and I cannot ever get them back. The thought of trying to recreate the ones that can be recreated seems too daunting of a task.

So I am going to send out a plea here on my blog to all of my friends here. . .

If I have ever sent you a file with any of my class instructions would you please take pity on me and email them back to me? I would be so appreciative if you could do that.

Well, I guess I should go and try to take care of some other things

Have a great day and back up your computer!!!

Toodles

Garbonzobeenz1@aol.com

WARNING. . . It could Happen to YOU!!!

2010-09-16T23:30:00.000-07:00

Back Up your files NOW!!!

I am going to be MIA for a bit - I have had a BIG - no HUGE loss on my computer.

*I have lost EVERY photo of my newest grandbaby (that I took and that her parents took)

*EVERY photo of my Monkey for the past 18 months (that's half of her life!)

*ALL of my day to day and other family photos for the past 18 months

*Every photo I took for other people

*ALL of my class files (instruction documents and project photos)

*As well as all of my personal and financial documents!!!!!

I am just sick over all of this - I know better!

I have always backed up all of my photos monthly onto discs and my other documents quarterly. When I got my new 1 terabyte seagate drive added to my computer for all of my back-ups and photo storage (this is in addition to my regular hard drive) I was told it was not neccessary and I got lazy. Now it is all gone and I am just heartbroken.

My seagate is currantly with the Data Doctors and I am praying that they will be able to do a full recovery or at least almost all of it.

So heed my warning - back up your files.

I had no warning at all that anything was wrong .

So until everything gets straightened around I will probably be gone.

I hope you all have a great weekend - see ya soon

Toodles

This is the House that Love Built

2010-09-04T14:55:00.001-07:00

Okay so that title is a little dramatic for what this really is but - If I didn't really love my granddaughters I would not have gone to all of this work!

Here it is. . .

The MARY HOUSE

to go of course in the Mary Room!

This is the little house that originally sat in the Mary Room when I first showed it to Monkey (and you). I made this little house last October just for no reason. I got the little kit (I bought several of them) on clearance at Mike's for a buck a piece!

Everytime Monkey is in here she asks to play with the house but there is nothing to play with really, it is just an empty ol' house. No furniture, no dolls, no nothing! So I bought a kit of the furniture and decided to make her some furniture so she could play with the little house. Of course I needed to get her some doll house people too.

But then I had a thought (this equals too much time and effort usually for me) Why not make a brand new doll house that actually matches the room - a true MARY HOUSE!!!

So that's what I did! I spent hours on this thing (probably a total of 30 hours) but as I did it I could just see my Monkey playing with it and looking at me with those big dark eyes and saying "thank you Amma" the way she does! It melts my heart to be quite honest!!!

There is NOT a lot of Mary paper out there so I had to be creative. I cut up some ME paper placemats for some of it, used some of my beloved G-45 papers and then some stock polk-a-dot and check papers.

I bought this little brass door knob about 7 years ago or more and have held on to it for just the right project. This is the RIGHT one! Doesn't it look cute?

The trim and the big flower are more parts of the placemats I bought (also for a buck for a pack of 6)

Today I finished the furnishings - it was my plan to do that yesterday but I woke up with one of those headaches and only got out of bed for an hour before crawling back under the covers!

This is the downstairs (unfurnished of course) I added more placemat images (I love the cherries!) and some ME chipboard pieces that I also bought at Mike's for a buck. They were the perfect touches for art on the walls I thought. Notive the door knob on this side of the door? This was an old brass snap that I just glued on - gotta love Ultimate Glue!

This is the upstairs

Here are all of the furnishings I made. I was gonna break out the sewing machine to make pillows and spreads. But then I decided that was a little over the top for even me! After all they woudl just get lost while being played with by a 3 year old.

Here's Monkey's Room

A little bed, a night stand and a rocking pony

This is Mom & Dads Room

a big bed with a pretty spread and red dust ruffle, a night stand and a cradle for Monkey's little sister

This is the Dinning Room

Lots of bright green and cherries in here. I made a little runner for the center of the table and little seat cushions with cherries, complete with stitching for the chairs.

An of course The Parlor

I was trying to upholter all the seats in this room but after making several mistakes I decided that painted sides would be just fine for a 3 year old! I did add some flowered rub-ons to the coffee table to spruce it up a bit.

So, this is the house that love built! I hope you enjoyed the tour. I can't wait to show Monkey - but first I must find some tiny people to live it!!!!

Enjoy your holiday weekend

Toodles

A Full House

2010-08-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

So today we started our new family tradition of Sunday Brunch. I got up early and started making 2 different kinds of bacon, fruit salad, eggs, toast and waffles. Gary made his famous fried potatoes too! The girls and their others halves showed up at 10 and we all ate and laughed and acted silly and it was GREAT!!!! I actually used paper plates (something you never find in my house) so clean up was a breeze and didn't interfere with my time with my family. After we all ate Monkey took Lizzy back to see "HER new room". It was just so sweet watching Monkey show Liz all of her new things. Soon enough everyone was hanging out in there. Well, Gary and Darwin popped in to check out the festivities and then ended up on the couch in front of the TV.

Even our newest addition came to hang out with everyone!
Monkey has gotten a little "crush" I guess you'd call it on Lizzy's boyfriend Richard. He was very sweet and laid there in that Mary bed showing her all of the pictures of his dogs and other people he had stored on his phone.
After a while we sent Monkey back to use the bathroom (she is pretty much all trained now but still needs reminding when there is a lot going on). Pretty soon she came out and said "it no work". We weren't sure what she meant since we had all heard the potty flush? So we went to check it out. She had been unrolling the TP into the toilet and flushing and it got stopped up. This was a brand new roll when she went in there! First things first - I grabbed the camera as she explained how she had only played with the paper and not even tried to go to the bathroom! Then I snapped a few pix before clearing out the l-o-n-g strand of toilet paper stuck in my hall bath. She is just so darned cute! Even (or should I say especially) when she is being rotten!!!!

By about 2:00 Monkey' Mom said it was time to go home to take a nap. Gary and Darwin had already left to go golfing and Lizzy & Richard were on their way out too. But Monkey insisted she wanted to stay at Amma's house (that's me). We told her she could but she would have to take her nap in her new room. That was just fine with her. She still sleeps in a crib, so I was interested in seeing how this would work out. She did great! She slept for a couple of hours and never moved around and most importantly, never rolled out of bed! She just looked so sweet and so little in that big bed while she napped.

While Monkey slept her Mommy and her sister and I watched a movie. Baby Sister got a little fussy for a few minutes so I took her and danced with her. Be still my heart, the little peanut looked right at me and just smiled - like a REAL smile, not a gas or reflex smile. She just watched me and smile and melted my heart! I told Bryanna "I have to write this on my calendar - my first real smile". I write all of my special moments on my calendar - since I don't have a job or big appointments to keep track of, my calendar is just for things like this - the little moments that mean so much to me that I never want to forget them.

What is that saying. . .

"It's not the breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away"

Nothing could be more true!

Well that is my day, I hope your Sunday was every bit as lovely as mine was!!!

Toodles

It Was A HIT!!!!

2010-08-28T21:38:00.001-07:00

Monkey Loves HER new room!!!

She got to see it for the 1st time today and she was just so sweet. Gary brought her by after swimming today and so I figured I'd show it to her. I had no idea what type of response (if any) I would get from her. So I told her I had a surprise for her and took her down the hall. She was so cute - she looked in the door, looked at me and then let out the loudest squeal! She then turned to me and gave me the BIGGEST hug, said thank you Amma and then ran over to the bed, climbed up on it and started jumping up and down. It was adorable. I made Gary watch her while I ran for the camera. She played in there for about 2.5 hours only coming out to tell me her new room was "awesome" (a new word she has learned). So I guess it's a hit and she is happy. That makes me happy!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend

Toodles!

WOW! Where Have I been????

2010-08-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

I have been on "Maternity Leave"!!! While Bryanna is home on ML with the baby I guess I am too since I don't have Monkey everyday now. I am taking this time to get some projects done and be available to Bryanna and the girls. Since I last posted, lots of stuff has been going on around here - some good - some not so good. . .

Of course lots of GOOD with our newest addition to the family! She is one month old today and just so sweet. She is quite the little sleeper this one, seems everytime I am with her she's got those beautiful dark eyes closed! Us four girls went out all afternoon yesterday and She slept pretty much the whole time!

And of course there is lots of GOOD with my little Monkey - man is she CUTE!!! She is just getting so big and so smart. Everyday I am amazed by how her vocabulary is growing! Yesterday while we were out and about we had to go to Joann's so we could get her some wood to paint. I promised her and she did not let me forget!!! She loves those little cut-outs of wood. She paints them all up and we add magnets to the back for the fridge. Gotta start them out early crafting!!!

More GOOD for my Lizzy. She is loving her new job and her new classes. And her NEW HOME!!! Yeppers I said new home! My baby has left the nest. She has moved into the dorms and is loving it! I have mixed feelings - but mostly I am just so thrilled for her. But I do miss her and knowing that at some point during the day (or night) she would rush through the door with all of that energy! Her last night at home we had a going away dinner for her and everyone was here - we all had a good time with lots of laughs around the table.

I have had some GOOD times playing in my studio working on some ideas that have been rolling around in my head. Things like. . .

Measure of a Woman Shrine. . .

This will be a class in Oct, check the classes tab above for details.

Or the Alice in Halloween Shrine with it's tiny accordion book full of photos Lizzy took in her High School photography class.

So, like I said above my Lizzy moved out last week but before she did, we had LOTS of boxes to fill!

And LOTS of messes to clean up!!!! Lizzy did NOT inherit my "neat-freak gene" as you can tell by this photo of her toom. . .

Although it makes me a little sad to see my baby leaving, it did give us a solution to one little problem around here. We have been trying to figure out what to do about nap times once I have both granddaughters everyday. We all know that babies and 3 year olds do not take naps on the same schedule. And with no extra bedroom in the house I was struggling to figure out what to do. I also hated to take Monkey's crib that's in my room away from her to give to the baby. I just didn't want her to feel like she was having to give up her special stuff for her her sister.

Well, with Lizzy living at the dorm I had an extra room in my house. A perfect solution for the nap time dilemma!

Now to decide on the decor. . .

Easy - I have always wanted a Mary Engelbreit room - now I have one!!!!

More GOOD stuff!

So, I started buying fabrics. But it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Most of Mary's fabrics are out of print now. Thank God for ebay!

So last Friday night I started sewing and today I put the machine away - I am not completely done, but I needed to stop for a bit.
So here is the beginnings of my Mary room - I hope Monkey will like it as much as I do!

I made the patch work quilt out of pillow panels I bought online and other fabrics I bought locally. I used Lizzy's old comforter for the batting (saving my pennies) and lined it with black & white ginham. It is a button tied quilt and has big black buttons tied off with yellow threads. It is just so HAPPY looking!

I also reused Lizzy's dust ruffle (saving those pennies again)

I HATE making pillows and have never made a pillow sham that actually looks good on both the front and the back. But I managed to do it this time! I am just so proud of me!!! There are 7 pilllows on this bed - I figured at least one pair should just be in pillow cases for actual sleeping. So I made the very plain, but very sweet white ones with a Mary border and some lace. I even made a little candy roll pillow.

Monkey is not used to sleeping in a big girl bed so I put the bed against the wall, hopefully she wont fall out of bed too many times!

I kept the window treatments simple and out of reach! She has been known to pull curtains down before so I nice, simple valance was just the ticket in here.

I love the little dark haired cherry girls. And since they have dark hair they were perfect in my Monkey's room! So they are all over the curtains, on he quilt and even framed on the wall.

No Mary room would be complete without tea cups and sunflowers! Thank you Micheal's for having all of this on sale for 80% off this week!!! The little shelf was already in Lizzy's room, but I decided to give it a little lift with some black paint to make the stripes.

These are some of the toys I have made for Monkey in the past that have been scattered around the house. Now they can all be in one place.

I also made this banner a few weeks ago - just because. It says Life is a bowl of cherries. So it was only natural that it hang in here.

As a going away present FROM Liz TO me, she bought me a ME Nursery Rhyme book to read to Monkey. And I also put Monkey's ABC toy I made her in here.

This is a little antique highchair I refnished for my Monkey a year ar so ago. The baby is a Madame Alexander doll I got for her Mommy when she was just a little girl. Bryanna never played with her, but my Monkey likes her. I decided that after 23 years she deserved a new dress so I made one to match the room.

So, this is just some of the GOOD that has been going on in my life over the past couple of weeks. I feel very blessed - in fact so blessed I wont even share the few bad/not so good stuff that has been going on. I hope your life has been equally GOOD!

Now it's time to clean up around here so I will be ready for our new tradition of Sunday Brunch. The girls came up with this idea that we would all meet here on Sunday mornings for brunch together just so we all keep up with everything going on in each others lives each week. What great daughters I have to come up with this idea!

Did I mention being blessed?

Toodles

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. . .

2010-08-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Do you remember how Mister Rogers opened his show with that song each time as he changed his shoes and sweater? I loved that part of the show (that and Mr McFeely. . .speedy delivery!!!) Well this has nothing to do with Mr Rogers except that I find myself singing that song alot these days! It truly is a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood everyday now. . .
I just love having my daughter and granddaughters so close to me - right in my very own neighborhood!
Today was super cool because it was Monkey's THIRD B-Day Party!!! Nothing big and elaborate, just family. But she picked Mia (aka Minnie Mouse) as her party theme this year.
As of last night her Mommy still had not decided what to do for a cake for the party so I offered to take care of it. Here is what I came up with for a last minute cake. . .

Gotta love that Cricut machine - it makes anything more festive and special!
Monkey got a quad from her Great-Nanny and all of the cousins (as well as my 21yo daughter) took turns riding it. Monkey was a TOATAL daredevil on this thing!!!

Look - even Mommy and baby sister dressed up like Minnie for the party

Obviously she is not ONE - but we could not get her to do THREE fingers

She even made it through "happy birthday" without crying! She HATES that song - sung to her or anyone else and always cries uncontrollably when she hears it. I was very proud of her today. She even blew out all of her candles on her own without help this year!!!

Here is Monkey with one of her cousins playing with her new castle. Last year right after her birthday they got a Fisher Price catalog in the mail. In that catalog was this castle, she has carried that castle around with her for almost a year now saying "this is what I want for my happy Dupa (that's what she calls birthday). The catalog is a little worn now but she has saved it and never asks for anythingelse out of it - just this castle. It was just so sweet. I have never seen a little one be like that with a toy before. So anyways of course she got it and it was the first gift she opened. This afternoon while she was taking a bath she told her Mom thank you and that it was her FAVORITE! How sweet is that!

This was the last picture of the day because I forgot to put a new battery in my camera bag. So no pix of our trip to the solar park or blowing bubbles or any of the other fun stuff.

So that was my day - I hope yours was even half as good as mine. Like I said, It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!!!

Toodles

Another Wonderful Day. . .

2010-08-04T22:36:00.000-07:00

Lucky Me!!!

One wonderful day after another around here. But how could it be anything but? Look at this beautiful baby. . .

We are working on pictures for her birth announcements this week and are going for a traveling theme (because of her name). That's why she's laying in a suitcase. I have ordered a Union Jack flag to wrap her in but it has not arrived yet so my dear friend loaned me this great vintage suitcase (thanks Judie!). I think this looks super cute. . . can't wait for the flag to arrive to try that one too.

Anyhoo. . .I have gotten to spend the past several days doing the things I love most -

*Hanging out with my TWO Granddaughters

*Helping out my daughter

*Playing with my camera

What could be better?????

I hope your week is going great too

Toodles

What a SPECIAL Day!

2010-08-02T23:05:00.000-07:00

Today is Monkey's THIRD birthday

AND

London is ONE WEEK old!!!

I got to spend the day with these two lovely girls (and their Mom) taking pictures. This is just one that I thought was so sweet. As the day was coming to an end and it was time for me to go home, Monkey asked if she could come home with me. How could I say no? So we had a special little dinner guest tonight. We grilled burgers and dogs and spent a little time playing together. Then it was time for my Monkey to go back home with her parents. What a beautiful and special time in my life this is. I want to remember these moments ALWAYS!!!

Toodles

No New Pix Today. . .

2010-07-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

Bryanna got released from the hospital today (a day early because she begged) Now she is hurting and not feeling good at all. We took dinner over to them tonight and while we were there she asked if I would stay the night to take care of the baby (and her). So I am heading back over there now to spend the night with them. Darwin has to go back to work in the morning so I will be on nursery duty. My poor baby. . . I hope I remember how to feed and take care a newborn tonight! And I really hope Bryanna is feeling better by morning!
Maybe I will get some pictures tonight?
Sleep Well Friends. . .and pray that we all do too!
Toodles

How AMAZING My Life Is!!!

2010-07-27T22:28:00.001-07:00

That's right you heard it here!!!!

My life is just AMAZING!!!!!

How could I be any happier?

Look as these 2 beautiful little girls.

And to think that I get to be such a huge part of their lives! What a blessing it is NOT to have a job in my case! This makes me completely available to care for, love and teach these 2 wonderful children. It is like a second chance to do what I loved most in my life - only without the pressures I had the 1st time around with my own children. God is truly good!

Toodles

What an AMAZING Day!!!!!!!!

2010-07-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

Mommy and baby are doing great! Everything went really well and I could not be happier! She was born just a few minutes before 1 this afternoon. She weighs 7lb 6oz and is 19 3/4" long. You would not believe how much hair she has!!!! She looks so much like Bryanna did when she was born. I have loaded a couple of photos here for you. . .

This was taken when I very first laid eyes on her (after I wiped my tears that is). She looked as though she was praying. I hope she will always know how much we prayed for her!

Here she is in Lizzy's arms

Look at how tiny her little toes are. . . this is Gary's hand here next to her teeny little foot

Thanks for the prayers friends!

Now I am off to lay down, more pix in the coming days

Toodles

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!

2010-07-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

That's right - Bryanna is scheduled to have London tomorrow at 12:30pm! I can hardly wrap my mind around it. We are so excited to see this beautiful little girl and hold her in our arms.

To all my friends I would like to ask you to be praying for Bryanna and London as well as the Dr's and nurses that will be helping her bring this new life into the world.

I will be sharing photos as soon as I can. I am getting ready to pack up my camera gear as soon as I finish here.

Have a great week friends - I know I will!!!

Toodles

2010-07-22T20:11:00.001-07:00

WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!!!
Gotta run now. . .
Toodles
Edited Friday morning: False alarm. . . stay tuned

Just Poppin In. . .

2010-07-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

To share a NEW Change to my blog and a new class project with you all.

First the NEW Change:

If you look right below my blogs title you will find two new headings, HOME & UPCOMING CLASSES.

Home is where you are now. This is were I will write all of my nonsense and share the things I am working on with you.

Upcoming Classes is where you will find all the details about my classes. There will of course be photos, dates & times, the description, class fees and any supplies you will need to bring.

I will still share photos of the projects I make here (Home) but you will no longer have to scroll down and look at the right column to find out all of the details. I hope the larger photos and bigger text in this new window will make it easier for you to keep up to date on my classes.

Next I want to share with you my latest class project:

This is a style of journal that I love to make. I have several of these that I keep for different reasons (a photography one, a Christmas list one and so on). I have been asked several times to teach it and I finally decided to do it. So here it is Ladies. . . My "Note Worthy" Journal
What do you think????

I personally love these because they are so easy to take with you if you are on the run. You do not need a table or desk to write on since the covers are nice and hard. The other great thing about it is that you can easily change out the paper if you wanted to once all of these pages are written on. It's got a nice magnetic closure so all of your pages stay nice and straight. In the words of my idol, Martha Stewart "It's a GOOD Thing"!

I hope you all had a great weekend whatever you did. Make it a GREAT week too! I know I plan to, we only have 14 more days to go until granddaughter #2 arrives! My oh my how time flies!!!
Toodles