where is all that time I was going to make

I am at least getting the journaling done, which for me is an accomplishment…although I’m lacking in the creativity department mostly because of time these past few days…above is days 11, 12, and 13…but I’m telling myself that that is ok….
It doesn’t help that tv is getting great again…I have to admit I watched the Bionic Woman last night…and while it had some cheesy spots I really liked it…I love TV shows where a woman kicks butt…I can’t explain it… I just do…and the show after it.. Life.. was really good too and then tonight Grey’s Anatomy…yes I am a McGroupie…but really Alex Corev is my favorite character on the show…and after that Big Shots…which has Michael Vartan, formerly of Alias my other favorite butt kicking woman show which ended in 2005…how am I supposed to have time to create anything!! LOL…This is why my husband won’t let me have TIVO, I’d probably never leave the couch again…
I did make these though…I have been trying to figure out what I wanted to do with these band aid tins forever…I made a travel kit and a manicure kit….how stinkin’ cute is that??? I ask you!! this was so easy and cheap to do, I used scraps, the trial size isle at target and about 20 minutes each….

We’ve had a bit of a rough week with the boys…not horrible just regular boy stuff…boy goes to recess, boy decides he can’t make it to bathroom, boy decides to go behind a tree and pee on the playground ..boy gets suspended from school for one day (this would be 8 year old boy)….if you could see me right now you would see me shaking my head again…and then some drama with 12 year old boy, typical adolescent locker room behavior, having to talk to a mom about her boy (never easy) and a really great outcome which had everyone ending up on great terms…which is an amazing blessing….soooo
God Bless America…I am off tomorrow…and have so much to get done!! I recieved my order from 7 gypsies today…maybe I’ll get something created tomorrow…anyone want to go shopping?
love and kisses

Better late than Never

I’ve kept up with the journaling, but not the posting…sorry here is 8,9, and 10… we had a really busy weekend and not such a great day today…my youngest, Landon is having some trouble at school so this will be pretty short tonight…anyway hope everyone is doing great out there and hope to catch up on checking blogs tomorrow and maybe get some work done so I can get a couple kits up here for sale soon…
thanks

Changes

I’m really kind of proud of myself for sticking with the journal challenge for 7 days…and it really has been life changing…in small ways everyday it has changed the way I think about well everything…Thanks Rhonna!!…instead of thinking “someday” I’m now thinking “today”…here is my day 7
In other news, my recently turned 12 year old got invited to a girl’s birthday party tomorrow…something about this invitation “feels” different…not bad different just “omigosh I have an almost teenager” different…you know? it’s from 5-10 and I’m picking up one of his friends to go with him…so here I am… wanting to let him go and excited for him but also not wanting him to go, because I am so not ready for this…but it’s not about me I know that so I will take him ….and know that we have watched him grow up a little more which makes me weepy and sappy and I don’t even know why…
want to see something else that’s going to make you weepy and sappy….go watch this and don’t turn it off until the little girl sings I promise you, you won’t be disappointed….it is such an overwhelming example of the innocence that is still present in this world ….and well wow just watch it

21 day journal

Here goes nothing….I had to work today and I honestly can’t believe after coming home I was able to create anything…I’m usually so exhausted I shower and crawl into bed…but this project has inspired me. My goal should have been to complete this project, as I’m really good at starting things but not always so good at completing them. So that will be my mini goal. I can’t wait to see everyone else’s work. If your interested in joining this challenge see my blog roll for Rhonna Farrer.
take care everyone

Moments

Day 6, “First say to yourself what you would be and then do what you have to do”-epictetus… I’m lovin this quote it is so empowering…
today I placed my first order for supplies to get my “little” business started here..so hopefully next week I hope to have a project posted here with some kits for sale. My goal is a new project every week to start with. Soooo please come back and check, even if you don’t want to buy one I’d appreciate your opinions…ok? please? if that sounds like begging it’s because it is…shameless begging….
TOMORROW..the projects I made for the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure are going up for auction at Homegrown Hospitality…it’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like this so please go bid it’s for such a great cause..(more shameless begging)….

On the other end of my “trying to get a business going” front …a friend of mine who is going to school to be a funeral director took a memorial album I made to the funeral home she works for to offer my services to make albums out of the pictures people always post of their loved ones at the visitation…it turns out that her boss really liked the idea but has to talk to his boss about it….soooo fingers crossed….(if you are now wondering why or how on earth this ever occured to me it’s because I used to be a hospice nurse and have been to a lot of visitations and I really feel in my heart that it is important to remember a person for how they lived and not how they died)
Today I worked just part of a shift, then kids, soccer game, pizza and homework..I really need to get some laundry done around here…I’m looking forward to Saturday my friend Leslie is coming over for the afternoon for some cropping time…haven’t had a chance for that in what seems like forever.
I’m going to bed now…work again tomorrow…Take care everyone and have an awesome Friday!!
in the meantime…here’s a little bit of happiness for you…I just love corny musical numbers…

dreams

Day 5…
I had to work today ( I have to get up at 4 and spend about 14 hours on my feet) I’m not saying that so you’ll feel sorry for me, I’m saying it so you’ll forgive me for my not so creative page…I’m sticking to it though…and I really liked the quote…I love how I don’t really have to think about what I’m going to write…when I think about the quote the ideas just flow…
I want to give a big shout out to my cousin Menka who has just recently opened a new boutique ” A New Day” in Hartville, Ohio…she sent me some of her products today and they are just like their name absolutely AMAZING…I’m hoping to talk her into letting me buy in bulk and maybe sell here…hmmm…
take care…

Perspectives

Today after running around doing my least favorite errands, grocery shopping being at the top of that list I had a little time…so I started organizing my crop area, I always seem to have about 3 or 4 projects in the works so it’s pretty much always a big fat mess…anyway I got sidetracked (not a new thing) when I was organizing scraps when a found a piece of 8×8 white cardstock calling my name…a blank canvas…what to do? Well I’ll get to that in a minute…I’ve been reading Visual Chronicles, (see their blog in my blogroll) a totally cool book by the way and I’ve been working on the projects in there, the first one was to create a personal color palatte or pallatte, or however you spell it. At first I thought ok, me, my husband, my boys what next?? well I found myself after getting started assigning colors to all sorts of thoughts and feelings like “autumn” and “coffee” and “thai food” and it turned out to be a really cool challenge for me to stretch myself creatively….back to my 8×8 canvas…I found myself grabbing specific patterns and assigning them certain places in my life, (I guess the color pword got my brain thinking in that way) and I made this
A pattern journal! A way to tap into your inner journaling goddess. I just wrote down in the pattern whatever came to mind when I looked at that specific pattern. like “I am a denim girl, please keep your pantyhose” and ”I am not a domestic Goddess” in the very tiny red gingham scrap… It was fun.
So here is my Challenge #1.
PATTERN JOURNAL…you know you have a bunch of scraps hanging around and you can make it any size you want do whatever you want with it and the bonus is it doesn’t take very long…when you’re done email me a picture and I’ll post it here…
something else I did today while I was waiting in the line to pick up Landon (we’ve all been there) was snap some pictures from my car window I got this idea from an Ali Edwards article…now I’m sure I’m probably going to get a phone call or something because I got some strange looks but it made for an interesting perspective…here are some of the pics…I thought the “no parking” signs with cars parked all around were kinda funny…
I’m looking forward to starting Rhonna Farrer’s 21 Day Journal tomorrow..I have no idea what this is about but it sounds fun!! I have to work tomorrow too so my day 1 project will probably be kind of sleepy….
take care everyone!

Making Time

“The only thing you can’t get more of in life is time”- Frank Ferraro
That’s my Dad by the way, for Day 4 I used his quote as well as the one in the challenge. We used to laugh at my Dad because he was always in such a hurry to get to the next place, do the next thing and being the father of all girls, waiting on us was a constant so he was always using that phrase. He was right in that you can’t ever go and get time back, but you can make time for the things that matter, the things that are important. All too often we forget that and like in the Kenny Chesney song you “blink” and life has passed you by.
I loved our quote today it is so true, you can never “find” time because it will never be there, you have to make the time…take the time…
Today I made time to create, in between laundry, soccer, homework, cleaning house, and dinner and preparing for work tomorrow (I say that because even though I’m not here to get the kids ready, I still get the kids ready kwim?) I didn’t take the time to make chocolate chip cookies however, and I am craving them like crazy…I didn’t quite accomplish as much as I thought I would, but I did get some things done I didn’t know I would…more on that soon…but I hope to have a small online store going here soon…I mean very small probably starting with some monthly project kits so keep me in mind on your sites to see lists…ok? please? thanks….
My husband will be home soon he’s had to work a lot of late nights lately, and even though it’s a school night we’re going to take the time to watch a movie together as a family. “We Are Marshall” (love me some Matthew McConahey )
Anyway…here’s my page which was pretty easy today the paper is already so beautiful…it’s my minds eye bohemia and I used diamond glaze to accentuate the butterfly and the quote cardstock stickers by chatterbox….l
ove to all and ttfn

We are not Moving to Hawaii

Ok so first let me say that while I only work outside the home 3 days a week they are loooong days 5am-about 630pm or so depending on when were done…anyway Rob (dh)calls me at work at about 1 and says “we got orders to !!HAWAIIi!!” now we planned to retire here, (here in Belleville, ILL) and weren’t even trying to get an assignment so this was a bit of a shock..we went back and forth with the whole “no way” “yes way” uh uh” “uh huh” thing and then agreed we needed to talk about what we were going to do… I mean wow !!HAWAII!!!… RUKM? so I walk around work more than a little dazed after that…going “huh?”…and at about 5pm Rob calls me back and says “We’re not moving to Hawaii”…well it turns out some computer somewhere made a mistake and gave us an assignment that it shouldn’t have…bummer I was already daydream surfing and snorkeling…
truthfully though…it makes me feel really good to know that I was actually thinking I’d rather stay here…I mean sure it’d be really hard to turn down !!HAWAII!!…but what we have here is pretty great too…

Day 3

Day 3
I am blessed to be here, happy, healthy with 2 healthy children and a wonderful husband. It is easy to let yourself get wrapped up in negativity when things aren’t quite going your way or the way you hoped.
I am making the choice to focus on the positive.
Keeping this journal, even though it’s only the third day really has helped me to organize myself better toward my goal of making scrapbooking/life art how I make my living. I’m not there yet, and probably won’t be for a while but at least I’m getting a clearer picture how to get where I want to be. Where is that?
Well…I want to create life art for people who don’t have time or want to do it themselves, I want to teach those who do, I want to create pieces of art using my photographs that people can purchase by opening an ETSY store, I want to make project kits and sell them to people like me who love creating but also appreciate having it somewhat “put together” for them once in a while and maybe, someday design products.
Whew! I can’t believe I finally got it all out there. It is such a vulnerable feeling…actually putting your dream into words. I guess because until you do you can’t really fail at something that you haven’t actually admitted to yourself wanting. This experience has been so life changing already.
I’m ready. I’m scared, but I’m ready.

birthdays

Here is the cover to my journal and Day 2…I am so enjoying this!!
Today we spent most of the day having Britain’s birthday party at Dave and Buster’s. I can’t belive he’s going to be 12 on Tuesday. ok enough of that I’ve been tearing up all day…his big present was a little handheld camcorder that I got here…he’s been playing with it since we got home and it is really cool and perfect since it wasn’t terribly expensive so if they end up dropping it somewhere I’ll be mad but I won’t give birth to a large farm animal… anyway we’ve spent the last several hours watching my mini director’s epic short films…when we get it all figured out I’ll have to post one…they’re pretty funny..right now they’re in their underwear and bush hats hunting in the kitchen with nerf guns and singing “in the jungle” so I just don’t have the heart to make them go to bed yet…
here’s a couple pics from the party…yes I made him open underwear in front of his friends…a mom has got to have some fun too right?

Hope everyone is having as much fun with the journal as I am…take care and god bless
until tomorrow…

Grace in Their Steps

Today I got to meet some friends for lunch who I haven’t seen in ages. It was so awesome getting to chat it up. Kat and Stefanie (I seem to be blessed with several stefanie’s in my life right now..) My friend Kat who has a five year old boy is also about to have twin boys any minute now and while personally I can’t even begin to imagine all the stress that comes with that (not to mention how much I’d be freaking out, which I’m sure is why God didn’t bless me with twins) she is handling it with an amazing amount of grace and acceptance. She is probably one of the most laid back people I know. As a matter of fact when she called to tell me she was pregnant, we were probably on the phone for about 20 minutes before she got around to telling me this most important news…. Are ya kiddin’ me? (that’s one of her favorite phrases) ….anyway here’s to you Kat, you know I love you and can’t wait to hold those babies.
Speaking of GRACE…I’m working on an album of my grandparents, both deceased, for my Dad. He doesn’t know. This is page one…(I wish I knew how to make pictures bigger on here)…anyway the title is “There was GRACE in all her steps…” I don’t know who to credit it to, I read it somewhere and it stuck in my mind… Yes it is a very simple page as the album will be, but I feel that the power of the words and the photos don’t seem to need a lot of embellishing. This album is slow going for me because as I look at these pictures I know that I didn’t know my Grandparents the way I wish I did…and I know because of the life we live (being military and nowhere near extended family) that my children will feel the same way someday…although I hope to remedy that. Look at this picture ..it’s an old 35mm so not terribly clear but my grandma’s eyes in this picture…she looks like a giddy teenager looking at her first crush…they were married for over 60 years and she still looked at him that way…funny..kind of sad funny…how I never noticed that until now…
I feel as though I am incredibly blessed with both an incredible array of close friends that are both nearby and far away of which I consider all a part of my extended family (whether or not they want me and mine as their relatives:-) ) and the amazing roots that began with the enduring love between the two people you see pictured above.
This is why I scrapbook…
because they have GRACE in all their steps…

Not a Mall Person

We all had no specific place we had to be today, a rarity in this family. It was a rainy day though so we couldn’t really do anything outside. I thought bowling might be a good idea, but one of my patient’s knocked me on my butt yesterday which landed me at the Urgicare and my back was still pretty sore (this is a long story) sooooo we decided to go out and shop. First we went to Kohl’s I love Kohl’s, great clothes, great sales what’s not to like? Rob, my hubby, got some much much needed new clothes. Did I say much needed? Then we went to Circuit City to get Britain’s Birthday present he hasn’t gotten it yet btw, he’ll be 12 on the 18th, and omigosh whenever I have to say that out loud I actually get butterflies. Anyway so far so good we’re enjoying the day together and having fun…then (there would be melodramatic music here if I knew how to do that) we went to the mall.
I know there are people out there that have been born with the “mall” gene, they live at the mall, eat in the food court, know all the employees and can maneuver their way around in the dark if they had to but I am not one of these people. Apparently though, my brain seems to forget this about every 6 months or so and I go just because and it takes me several days to recover from the overstimulation. I like people, but crowds make me very nervous. We actually walked into the mall over to the food court, which was completely overflowing, to get there we had to maneuver through a group of about 15 screaming 9 year old girls with pink hair and there was actually a line to use the men’s room….and I can’t be sure but I really think that the bears in the build-a-bear workshop were pointing at me and laughing…..whew! we got out of there fast…with Britain staring at us open mouthed going “what?” ” you guys are so old!”
what is so horrifying is that I am sure by Christmas I will have a reason to have to go there again and will most assuredly have to repeat this whole process……oh crap!…is that a hive??
I hope to do something creative tomorrow right now all my synapses are misfiring….

A Productive Day

EDITED *

I was off again today…unfortunately back to the real world again tomorrow, but I did get some cute projects done. It was a great day for creating since it was raining and I suppose I could have done housework, but who am i kidding? right? Ok so first I made this mini book for an auction for the Susan G Komen Race For the Cure, Stephanie (that’s Homegrown Hospitality Stephanie) is going to put it on her site I think. So go there probably Friday Sept 21st (see my blogroll on the right) if you want to see the juicy inside pages because I’m not very good at this yet and am having trouble uploading images…but to tease you…here’s the outside..
It’s altered chipboard and I used my cropadile to make holes…I so love that tool..most of the paper and stamps are CTMH everything else is well other stuff I had hanging around….ok and then I made these really cute “survival kits” for my boys teachers…I scraplifted this idea from another blog, and modified a little…but I can’t for the life of me find it to link to right now so sorry and I’ll try to do that when I find it.
and this is what was in them…tylenol, anitbacterial gel, shout wipes, hand lotion and chocolate HERE’S THE LINK!!!http://knitandpurlgrrl.blogs.com/scraphappy she has a lot of other cool stuff on their as well…
….this is part of my new self make over. “What is your self makeover?” you may ask, well let me tell you. I am trying to embrace a new way of thinking and improve my life by being “proactively grateful” for what I have on a daily basis and spreading kindness whenever possible. It’s a challenge, but kindness is contagious don’t you think?
Anyhoo…you will be pleased to know that my skin condition, (see my earlier post about nair) is improving and now I just look like I have really bad sun burn.

This is me

Okay this is my first entry on my first blog. Today I am inspired, or trying to be. You know that 6 degress of separation thing…this has so happened to me…except it was more like 3 or 4 degrees…anyway I got an email with a link to a blog, with a link to a blog and so on and ended up here Homegrown Hospitality. Is Stephanie not one of the coolest people ever. I love her artwork…I am so inspired and soooo not worthy. Go buy the Homegrown Hospitality magazine, it is so full of cool projects. Ok so back to me and nair not mixing…I have accepted the fact that dark hairs have taken up residence on my upper lip forcing me to resort to all kinds of painful rituals to remove them. Have you tried waxing your upper lip?…seriously…all I can say is OW…so last night I tried some Nair…I am not a Nair virgin mind you I’ve used it on my upper lip before, but it doesn’t ever seem to work that well but after waxing …well I wasn’t going back there…anyway so the Nair…OMIGOSH I guess I left it on too long…because I think I burned off the entire top layer of skin and now I’m slightly resembling a cross between a molting bird and a shedding snake…so no I will not be showing you a picture of my right now…
Despite the state of my skin I was off today, so decided I needed to shop. I hit pay dirt at Hobby Lobby they have paper and stickers at 50% off right now. Which didn’t help my skin, but made me feel better about it. So tonight I hope to get some creating done and I will post pictures tomorrow…