The Countdown Begins. . .

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!!!

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???

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

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??????

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. . . .

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!!!

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 feel 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, but 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. . .