Goals layout for 2011

This doesn't exactly fit in with my "One Little Word" book but there's definitely some overlap. 

While this wouldn't be my favorite piece I've ever made, I do like it, particularly because it's really not my normal style.  One thing I'm going for this year is to try to get out of my little bubble and try some new things.  I tend to have a very linear, clean style so the really messed up background and collage-like piecing is VERY out of my normal box.

I'm submitting this for
Get Your Sketch On #2
Better Living Through Scrapbooking #1

GYSO:

BLTS:
Use at least two of the following criteria:

1. Include a calendar. On the goal bubble
2. Use paint in some way on your layout.  All OVER the background paper.  White, Black, Yellow acrylic paint, silver "spritz" ink, and Tattered Angels dk. red.
3. Journal on an unconventional surface. Didn't do this one..
4. Sew!  The peace sign is entirely stitched and there's bit of faux stitching for the balloon strings.

Valentine's Card for Challenges

I can't decide if I like this one or not.  It's clean and simple but a bit TOO clean and simple I think.  However, I'm trying to get to a point where I leave well-enough alone and move to the next thing sometimes so I'm going to leave it right where it is.  And again, my grandmother is probably spinning over this use of her button.  :) 

This is for

Tiff's sketch challenge

Top Tip Tuesday's challenge



2011 Organization Boot Camp- 2.1

This week is all about cleaning up our stash of paper.  Luckily, I think I have this one fairly under control.  I used to have a small 3 drawer unit for scraps but it was too small.  Then Dad was foisting some of his unused things off on me and one of those was a hanging file box.  I used it for a lot of other things until I realized it would be perfect for scraps.  I now have them organized by color and have some other files with labels, transparencies and such.  They maybe don't hang beautifully but it works really well and sits immediate next to my work area so I can just reach over and grab a file as I work.

My full sheets of paper are stored in some of the JetMax (?  I think that's the name- they're the ones that Michaels and ACMoore sell- Michaels is substantially cheaper btw) stacked cubes.  The top two have doors to help protect the papers from fading.  I could only get a glass door on one of them so I just covered it over with a piece of heavy paper.

My 12x12" and print papers are in the top cube, first organized loose by color, then themes in sleeves, and then paper packs.  This was redone a bit from last week after I found some plastic dividers I'd forgotten about. 

The middle cube holds my 8.5x11" papers, again organized by color.  I tend to keep them in the plastic they come in just to make it easier to grab a pack and move them around as I change my mind how to store them.  :)  You'll see there's one bag hanging out on top of the paper in that shelf- it's a scrap kit that I haven't decided what to do with- divide up or leave as is.  Right now it's leave as-is and hopefully try to use in the next week or three.  It seems to be the best place to have it right now since it won't fit in the top shelf and I want to keep it "doored."

Finally, the bottom cube is shelved and only the top area is for paper- actually just 2 thick packs that wouldn't fit in the top cube.  The bottom of that cube holds my Big Shot and Nestability dies.



Meet Me on Monday

1. Have you (only you..not a group) ever won first place in anything?
I was in 4H through grade school and my senior year in high school, I made the grand-prize cake for the county fair.  I think it ended up selling for $2000.  Don't get too excited though- I only got the $10 award that a GC place gets. 

2. Are your toes always painted (sorry guys...this question for girls only)?
Only in the summer.  If I can't see them during the day, I don't bother.

3. What color eyes do you have?
Brown

4. Look to your left....what do you see?
The rest of the basement couch and the window full of my husband's sports collectibles.

5. Soft cookies or crunchy cookies?
It depends on the cookie.  I like ginger crisps but other cookies like PB, I like nice and chewy.

Pool Time for Get Your Sketch On

One of my goals this year is to scrap more.  My son is 3 1/2 and I've scrapped a grand total of 2 2-pg spreads and 2 single pages of him.  That means I have a LOT of pictures sitting around and I just ordered another 109 today.  Get Your Sketch On's first challenge:

and my take on it (2 shots- 2 lighting conditions and I can't decide which actually shows the page better.)

I like the buttons (my grandmother would probably be having a conniption to know this is how I used her buttons) and the dew drops.  I just wish the button in the center had turned out better.  It's actually clear and I backed it with a trimmed edge of pool water but it doesn't show very well.

You've come a long way baby! or 2011 Organization Boot Camp 1.3

I'm pretty happy with where things in the room are or are going.  I was REALLY happy when DH got back from a 5 day biz trip last night, came into the room, looked around, thought about it and said, "It looks different... not as... cluttered."  Yea!

Valentine's Card/iCopic Lover Color Challenge

I don't have a large collection of Copic markers by any stretch- 18 markers in red, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown and grey shades.  I picked up most of them last year but hadn't had any real success using them.  Then I had the opportunity to take a morning Copics class last month and now I get it.  I still don't want to load up on them, not at $6-7 a pop, but it's nice having some and I would like to get a few orange and cream ones.  Speaking of which... iCopic's Color Challenge this week is red, brown and cream.  I actually got my 2 brown markers yesterday but as I was working on my card last night, I realized that what I thought I had that was cream was actually warm grey so I had to substitute it.  I'm still QUITE happy with the results, particularly since this is the first time I've done something with Copics other than the 6 images we did that morning in class.

2011 Organization Boot Camp- 1.2

Today's goal was to "take 15-20 minutes and clean one box, basket, bin, cupboard, or area of your craft room."  It doesn't seem like much but I took the time to clean out one of the two storage cubes under my Cricut.  It's full of 12x12 designer/print papers and it was FULL.  Unfortunately so full that I didn't like trying to get anything in or out of it.  I picked up a few pieces of paper this morning at a local scrap shop and realized that I didn't want to try to put them away because the cabinet was too tight- great reason to do some work on it.  I took two thick pads out of it and alternated chunks of print papers (organized by color) with plastic holders of themed (Halloween, kids, Valentine's, etc.) papers.  It sounds a little strange but it's easy to find color groupings or themed papers this way- it's not just one huge pile of all colors now.

2011 Organization Boot Camp- 1.1

I'm participating in an online boot camp to clean up our craft rooms.  Wk1/day1 is essentially a check-in.  My room's not as bad as it could be since we've only been here 2mos and I haven't used it much to date.  However, it still has quite a bit of stuff looking for homes and such so I could use this kick in the pants to finish setting it up.

There's also a requirement to document a few goals for the entire process.  At this point, my

#1 main goal is to find homes for everything in this room and if it doesn't have a home, it doesn't belong in here.

#2 label all of my containers so it's obvious what's in them.

#3 clear the clutter from my work table PERMANENTLY.  There's stuff on this table that tends to accumulate over and over.  If it had a better home, it wouldn't be here and I'd feel like I have some space to work.

I'm not going to try to purge because I did that before we moved.  The main thing is that I need to use what I have.

9pm update- we were supposed to spend ~20min cleaning up our worktable.  I like where I went with it but I realized that all I'm really doing by succeeding here is opening up a new place for a cat to lounge.  :)

I forgot to say that this is all taking place over at Scrappily Ever After!

Meet Me on Monday

1. Do you have any New Year's resolutions?
I'm resolving to move forward this year (see my previous post if you want the real skinny on this one.)  I'm also going to start doing more crafting and try some new crafty things out.  Time to spread my wings a bit again- it's been a while.


2. What food item are you craving right now?
Actually, nothing.  It's 1 in the morning and I'm just not hungry.  Thirsty, yes.  Hungry, no.

3. When is your birthday?
May and this is the big four-oh this year.  Another reason for #1.

4. What were you doing an hour ago?
Working on my Jan. One Little Word page.  I'm pretty happy with it and where I went with it.  It really isn't like anything I've put together before.  It's not big but it's a start.  I'd love to show a picture here but I'll take a few when I finish up- hopefully tomorrow.
5. Last thing you cooked?
We had some NJ friends and her parents over yesterday evening for a NY's get-together so I went a bit crazy.  We had sausage/cocktail rolls, spicy chicken dip, baked artichoke dip, pigs in a blanket, pumpkin cake w/ caramel frosting, veggies w/ dill dip, and about 7 kinds of cookies and 4 kinds of candy I'd made and froze in early Dec.  I was so happy to get it all made just a bit after they got here and amazed I had it all cleaned up about an hour after they left. 

Moving... forward

That's it.  My word.  One little word.  I'm in desperate need of getting my life back on track and I think I took the first step this evening.  I've never been a particularly positive person, hanging onto mistakes and silly things for years, replaying small events over and over and wallowing in the inevitable outcomes.  However, having a kid, losing my job, and this recent move have put me in a tailspin I haven't been able to get out of.  From childhood, kids were never in my definition of myself but my career was.  My career never happened.  Instead, I've had a string of jobs that have never amounted to anything and I never cared for but at least they were jobs.  That was all turned on its head last year when I found myself unemployed and a stay-at-home mom.  Soon after I was laid off, I took my son to Panera for lunch and we were surrounded by people who were obviously on their lunch breaks.  I felt so out of place and lost because I felt I should have been one of them, not the mom laughing as her kid ate his first unsliced, unpeeled apple.  I was happy with him but still uncomfortable in the situation.  It took a while but through two playgroups in our neighborhood, I met several other moms with kids the same age as mine, some unemployed, some older and so on.  I got very close with them and we usually spent several days a week together at the neighborhood lake, pool, playgrounds, etc.  Then we decided to move.  I knew it was going to be hard but I've been so depressed since we got here that I have a hard time getting things done and creativity is so far from me it's laughable.  I've been trying to catch up with a local mothers' group but it's just not going anywhere right now.  I'm mentally, physically and desperately emotionally stuck where I am.  I've been trying to convince myself to move but I'm still glued here.  Hopefully, that changes soon.

I've been looking at Brave Girl Camp but while it looks, smells, feels, sounds unbelievably fantastic, it's also a several-day, hundreds of dollars trip and they're sold out for awhile.  That just ain't it.  They're also doing an online 6wk "Soul Restoration" seminar starting in Jan (1/11/11) for $100.  I may be signing up for that.  What I DID sign up for was Ali Edwards' "One Little Word" class.  Big Picture Classes offers quite a few creative classes and Ali's is one of them.  The basic gist is to pick one word that defines what you'd like to do/accomplish/move towards in the new year.  The class is supposed to have monthly communications inspiring, motivating, reminding, etc. you to move toward that goal.  In the end you've spent 12mos. working on it and there's some sort of journal you've created in the process of getting there.  I think the idea of it is brilliant, the monthly "check-in" useful, and the journalling process important.  I chewed on several words: Positive- I simply need to be more positive.  Kinda vague to me.  Peace- I think I need to come to peace and terms with who I am now and lay the past to rest.  However, I think I need to move further than just that.  Direction- I need to come up with a direction for my life.  This may be too much to bite off in one sitting given that I don't have a clue right now.  Focus- I need to find it in my life.  Motivation- I need more but I think this word is almost a negative reminder to myself that I don't have it.  Move/movement- felt kinda weird- am I going to dance?  walk?  SO.  After all of those, I realize that I what I really need to do is simply go forward and it feels like that word covers so much of what I was trying to cover with the others.  I need to move forward, think forward not back, look forward and focus, etc.  So forward it is.  Go forth and prosper, to infinity and beyond, and all that good stuff!  btw.  If you decide to take a Big Picture Class, I'd love it if you use me as your reference: A35A8576.  No, I'm not trying to give you a sales pitch because I really don't know how good the classes are, but if you do, we'll each get a 10% discount on the next class.  Every little counts!

2010's Christmas Cards

I knew I wouldn't be getting anything done creatively in Nov. so I started my Christmas cards at an all-day swap right before we left NJ.  Unfortunately, I was only able to get them about 70% of the way there.  I was hoping to send them out the first of Dec. since many people didn't know we'd moved.  In the end, I was just happy to get them finished and out before Christmas.  I think I made 54 total cards with 4 different designs.  I get bored quickly so I kept the same image but changed the cards up for variety.  They all use SU's Dasher stamp and then a mix of Certainly Celery, Cranberry Crisp, Bravo Burgundy and Kraft (or Crumb Cake as they call it now) paper, DSP and ink.  The glitter is Martha Stewart's.

Meet Me on Monday

1. What are your New Year's Eve plans?
Getting ready for New Year's Day mostly.  We have friends from NJ who will be down visiting her parents (who happen to live in the same town we do now) so we're having the whole clan over Sat.


2. How tall are you?
5'6", give or take.  Since the hubby is 6'6", I wish I had a few more inches to my name (NOT around the middle though!)

3. What is your favorite pudding flavor?
Tapioca or chocolate depending on the day.  A REALLY good rice pudding (hold the raisins please) is a good thing too.

4. What room of the house do you blog the most in?
Probably my craft room.  Hard to say.  This is only the 2nd time I've blogged in this house but I imagine this will be the place.

5. What is your best physical feature?
Probably the curl in my hair.  While it's got a nice % of white hairs, it does have nice natural curl most of the time.  I can actually get a Bo-Peep curl on occasion.

Been a bit longer...

but I'm still alive.  The munchkin is in school.  I'm still trying to find a circle of new friends to even come near to the group of ones I've left behind and desperately miss on a daily basis.  I know it takes a while but ouch.  We survived Christmas.  We were going to host but MIL couldn't take any time off this year so we went to visit again.  DS is 3 1/2, this was his 4th Christmas and we still haven't had one at home with him.  Next year, we stay.

In any case, the real reason I FINALLY got back to this is that I just HAVE to share something with you.  Last Monday night, I decided I needed to order myself a Sally Jean necklace.  If you haven't seen these, take a half hour or so and dig around her site.  Great, fun, snarky things there that I love.  I actually stumbled onto the site a few years ago when doing some packaging research for MyM&M's and have checked back in every once and a while to see what's going on.  For some reason, last week I was looking at Sally Jean's and decided that I needed to get some of her things for personal inspiration, AKA a kick in the pants.  While the site said it would be 2-3wks to ship, the two pieces I ordered actually shipped a day or two later and were here waiting for me today when we got back from our trip.  They could have been here Fri. for all I know.   However, the thing that really got me was the packaging.  The outer mailer was your typical small padded envelope bag.  But get a load of what I found inside:

I just had to share.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday and your New Year is bright!

I know it's been a while but...

So around the beginning of Sept. we found out we were going to put our house on the market and move to NC ASAP.  In the 10wks after that, we put it on the market, countered and accepted a bid, ebayed/freecycled/yard saled/gave away more than I thought possible, packed up, lived in 3 hotels/houses for a bit over a week, moved into the new digs almost a week ago, cleaned up, had all of the necessities installed, had our stuff delivered (unexpectedly a day earlier than we thought) and have partially unpacked.  I DESPERATELY need to find pre-school/daycare for the Beast because he's becoming truly beastly without a schedule and no one to play with.  We also haven't had a break from each other since before Halloween so we could BOTH use it.  I think I'm off to get a YMCA membership tomorrow morning- I can check him in there for a few hours while I come back to the house and unpack and he get to meet to kids and wear out a bit (there's been a serious lack of naps recently which isn't helping anyone!)  Basically, it's a daycare/pre-school set up without officially being either one.  Maybe I'll even treat myself to a yoga class tomorrow... but probably not.  Maybe next week when more boxes are behind me.

Meet Me on Monday

Wow!  Check me out!  Not only am I posting it, I'm getting it in early.  Of course, if I didn't do it now, it wouldn't get done but that's beside the point!!




1. What is the best dish you can make?
I wouldn't say it's my best (there's the chili that a TX friend of mine scoffed at because I put beans in it.  Then she tried it and changed her mind) but I had the grand champion 4H cake at the county fair when I was a senior in high school.  It was a coconut cake and sold for $2000.  If you're wondering, I only got $10- that's what the GC prize was in any category.

2. How often do you change your sheets?
Usually twice a week, once if we just don't get to it.

3. What is the longest car trip you have ever taken?
A one-way 24hr drive between TX and MD.  We made that trip 4x when I lived in TX.  Once going down, round one year for a Christmas, and back when we moved back to MD after I finished school.



4. What is your favorite fruit?
You KNEW I couldn't get through 5 questions without saying there's more than one answer!  Watermelon is probably my top one but then there are red raspberries to throw a wrench into it.  And grapes.  And blackberries.  And mulberries.

5. Would you rather have breakfast for dinner or dinner for breakfast?
That's easy.  Breakfast for dinner.  LOVE it.  We used to do that occasionally when I was a kid- pudding (the meat kind) and blueberry pancakes for dinner.  YUM.  We don't do it often now but I'd like to think we'll start to more often.

Quick and Dirty Birthday Cards

I realized last night that I owe two little girls birthday cards this and next weekend so before I pack away all of my stamps, I should do them. 

The first is done to the CPS Sketch #186

The second is very similar but done to Card Patterns #83

Both cards were stamped with SU's Birthday Whimsy and embossed with a shimmery EP.  The cakes were stamped with Positively Pink, the balloons just with Versa Mark, and the sentiments with silver ink.  The papers were from Michaels.  The stitching is faux and completed with a silver pen.

Meet Me on Monday

I imagine there will be a week when I again post a "Meet Me on Monday" on Monday, I just don't know when.

1. What is your favorite all time movie?
You should know me well enough by now to know there's no ONE answer to a question like this.  There's the Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Ring trilogy, Love Actually, Beautiful Girls, The Nightmare Before Christmas...


2. How often do you go over the speed limit?
If I'm highway driving, daily.  If I'm just on the backstreets and in the neighborhood, pretty much not at all.

3. What really gives you the creeps?
Worms.  I hate worms.  I don't know why, I know they're ultra-valuable and life would pretty much end if they weren't around but I hate worms.  They creep me out to no end and one day, I'm sure I'm going have to talk to a little boy about why he can't wave or throw worms at mommy.

4. What is your favorite snack?
I'm just not picky.  Anything sweet, many things salty, occasional healthy items.

5. Would you rather be a dog named Killer or a cat named Fluffy?
Fluffy sounds pampered and taken care of in a soft life.  Killer sounds like he was raised to be intimidating and spends a lot of time outside in the rain.  What do you think?

Meet Me on Monday

Sorry not to have posted this for a week or two but it's been a bit hectic around here.  We went from thinking that we might be selling our house and hopefully moving to NC in 6+ months to putting our house on the market, scrambling to make it showable, taking an out-of-state vacation with our parents and accepting a bid on the house in the past 2 weeks.  Needless to say that brings a lot of baggage with it and I think the insanity is JUST starting.  ugh.  ANYWAY!  Meet me on Monday.

1. What is your favorite pasta dish?
I'm actually not a huge fan of Italian.  I don't mind making some at home but I have a hard time going out and paying a lot for tomato sauce and boiled pasta.  That said, I LOVE the Penne Rustica at Macaroni Grill.  I have a knock-off recipe for it that I HAVE to try one day after I get over the fact that it takes about 12 gallons of heavy cream and contains a bazillion calories in one serving.  It's easy to not think about those things when you get it in a restaurant but you slapped with it when you make your own.  Of course, a good pumpkin ravioli is a good thing too...

2. What is the last thing you do before going to bed?
Turn out the light.  ;)  Seriously.  I'm probably on the computer surfing or working on something or working on a puzzle in a GAMES magazine which nearly always lulls me to sleep.

3. How many nights a week do you go out to eat?
1 or 2.  Usually I fix a meal for the week on Sunday and we'll eat it through the week.  By Wed or Thur, we're generally bloody sick of it so go out for a change of scenery and/or flavor.  Sometimes I'll fix something different mid-week but we still want the change in scenery.

4. Are you an avid book reader?
Sometimes.  I used to practically eat books but I don't tend to read much these days.  My spare time in the evening is spent on the computer or those GAMES magazines.

5. Would you rather have x-ray vision or bionic hearing?
X-ray vision.  Heck.  I'd be happy with 20/20.  HECK.  Even 20/100.  I have 20/750 and 20/900 when I don't have my contacts in or glasses on.  Anything would be better.

Card Patterns Sketch Challenge 80

Hey all!  Happy Labor Day!  I hope you're all having a good, and hopefully extended, weekend!

I just finished making this card for my cousin.  I was supposed to go to her baby shower this coming Sat. but due to complications she was having last week, Ian was brought to meet his adoring fans about 2mos. early.  Apparently he's doing well and was breathing on his own from the start.  In fact, he was doing so well that I heard that even though he was only 2lbs 1oz., he was taken to meet his father before being taken to what I'm guessing is NICU.  In any case, rumor has it that the shower is still on?!?! but we won't be going since 1. we suspect it will be postponed and 2. with the house on the market, we'd like to be here to keep an eye on things rather than travelling down to VA.  At some point though, I think I'll be getting a shower gift to Katie and here's the card.