I {heart} the '80s

It's Homecoming Week at High School! Today, it's wear your favorite decade.... which look did Sissy go with???

 A. The Debbie Gibson, jeans have zippers up the back, the cool jacket and the oh so cool red hat!

 B.  Girls wanna have fun, glittery tube top one piece jumpsuit?

 C.  Manic Monday, one piece jumpsuit with shoulder pads and white pumps?

D. It's Hammer Time, with the parachute dance pants and high hair(darn I cut that off in the pic)?

 Yes, I've told you how much I love Pinterest.  It's a place where people pin (or post) their interests... or as one of the posts says....  where you find other people who like the same s#!% you do.  A few weeks ago when school supplies were cheap, I bought a whole bunch of notebooks for $.40... in hopes to add a cover and tabs and make this SMASH book... a crafty notebook to smoosh all your ideas into one place.  Of course I CASe a lot of these ideas I find on the internet, blogs, websites etc... because they are so dang cool.  So what I'm doing now, is pinning or writing down ideas that I see from Pinterest and putting them in my SMASH book (mainly the quotes, which are awesome and good reminders about life).  Only a person with lots of extra time on their hands can really do this well!! {smirk}

I don't know what's easier.... posting the ideas to another blog page, or trying to find out which tab I put them in and wrote them down in the notebook.  It's combining my interests in words, crafts and knowledge all day long.

If you chose D. Hammer Time, you are correct in Sissy's selection of '80s attire for the day.

Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute! - pinterest

Room in My Heart

It's approximately 11"H x 17" W, a painted white board.  I then took my fun little bottles of acrylic paint and some crappy old teeny paint brushes and painted a sign for the "Jonah Room".  If you recall, last summer I volunteered to paint a mural for a nursery school, you can find the post here I like to move it move it! I love Madagascar! Last weekend I got a request to paint a sign for a room.  How simple is this!  So, you get to see the before and after, and then the text.  I painted the same image on both sides.  Now this! is what I want to do!  Not just paint, but get jobs like this, fun to me!

 It's one of those mornings again.  48 degrees.... I thought I would be an iced coffee person throughout the year, but I'm needing some chai tea warmness!

Life is quiet, back to normal. :)  I miss Bubba, but it's okay for him to open his wings and soar!!  Sissy and I are having a better week as mother/daughters go!  And DH, might take a half day for me and we'll go to lunch. 

"Sometimes" said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart".

Just a Cardboard Box

- My Minds Eye - On Golden Pond A few pictures of cards and the Blossom Box that I made last weekend at the class I took with SG... at Archivers. I thought it would be more of a class class... you know with instruction.. but we got a really nice little magazine booklet that had all the details in it. The instructor was there to assist our reading .... I guess. Anyway... I love going to class. I love to learn... I love to listen... I love to cre8te! Most the time, a class reminds me of things I need to do... special touches to add to the craft that maybe I forget. My Minds Eye is the paper company that 'sponsors' the class.. or creates the designs for Archivers. The paper is gorgeous and fun that it matches. And then we made this cool box ... ripping off the top layer of corrugated cardboard... and then attaching it with ribbons... it's one of those things you go... this is too, too, TOO cute!!!!!!

Look at the paper flowers.... too, too cute!!!! Fun tulle ribbons on the corners.

I'm very lucky... every day on my 5 mile trip to work... I pass by a couple of lakes. One is right off the right side of the road... the others are behind houses, harder to see.... but I love seeing the changes on the lake right off the road. When I first started working 5 weeks ago... it was still frozen solid! Little by little... the thaw. There was an ice shanty on it for a few days. Then there was floating ice.... then the sun started to peek over the roofs of houses lining the lake. One day there were geese swimming and the ripples and circles surrounding them went on forever... it was like glass glistening in the sunshine!!! Another day it was pure serenity. The next day, 2 guys were standing in their boat... fishing off the side. I am so lucky to see this site, every day. Beautiful

Excuse me, what did you say?

- Inspire to c-cre8te
- Vent

This is a very adorable mini scrapbook I made a while back. You can use it for pictures, a journal or tiny keepsakes. I'm very happy how it turned out and love the colors and the embellishments!! Inside are paper bags that create the pages and spots to hold tags. I'm once again taking pictures in natural light on the photo easel.

Although it might get annoying to those close to me, I admit that I whine and complain about a lot of things in every day life. Someone doesn't use their turn signal as I'm waiting for their approach to the corner.... I do talk about it and say 'hey, thanks dude, that would have been nice to know'. Or, I'm in the grocery store and someone stops to pick out an item and they block the entire aisle, cart and body and they are oblivious to the presence of other people trying to get by. I'll comment about that (in the privacy of my own home, or here on the blog).

However, I do think to the average Joe or cordial acquaintance they may think I'm nice, communicative and have manners... heck, I might even tell a joke or two...have a little SHINE about me.... but let me tell ya... I'm sick and tired of people who promise things and they can't or don't deliver. I don't want to reveal too much... I'm sure this person(s) doesn't visit my blog... but I will generalize none the less. You may figure it out... it's not you.... I'll call said person "Erma" for ease sake.....

Erma is very talented. Really, very, very talented in the paper crafting world. She has an eye for things. She lucked out, and found her niche..... go her!!! Momprenuer extraordinaire near the Canadian boarder. But I think she is a train wreck.... every time I see her, she makes excuses for not 'keeping to her word', or breaking her promises. I ask you.... why? why.... why, why? Promise anything? Why even give yourself a deadline to finish a spectacular awesome paper craft (for us to view).... when you NEVER do! It is soooooo annoying. The said thing is a 'paper craft' project.... not something life or death. So no worries... it's just one of those things like a reality tv star, a hoarder, a crazy teenager or a fallen sports athlete.... just one of those things that makes you go.... hmmmmm. How do they get through life?

I, would feel extreme guilt if I 'promised' someone a cre8tive do dad... and I didn't finish it.... or didn't even attempt to get it done.... or if I devised an un-attainable goal date. Others allow this creative genius to, or enable Erma by saying... "oh don't worry! life happens! give yourself a break!" I say.... Quit promising things! Quit saying you'll get it done.

I will apologize if I did not complete a task ... but Erma.... every time ... I'm sad to think that she is raising four children who probably make excuses all the time for their behavior and actions. Quit over extending yourself. I think that's one reason I say here.... stay tuned... because life does happen and get in the way. If I say I will get it done by Saturday... by golly unless and Earthquake or Tsunami hit.... I will get er done....

But then on the other hand... it's a good thing.... there are some people... like ***Fern, Valli, Smokey and Jayne .... who do exactly what they said they would... and their paper craft work is totally amazing, refreshing and inspiring... and they are worth watching on the internet, or visiting their blog or getting their newsletter.....*** all names and locations in the above story have been changed for security reasons!!

Thank you.... I will step down off my soap box and go back into my perfect quiet little world... until the next time....

i C u

- Eye see You

I miss my cre8tive lab!

Approximately 34 hours each week .... gone.

It is quite a change.

I'm keeping up with my daily challenge of 365 photos... however... for this period I am working a theme that I've taken all or most photos on one day and spreading/sharing it out during the week. You might have fun clicking here to "C" it! or find the picture of the camera <---- left of this blog post and click on that.

A little bit of this (long)

- Not like the others
- I said so

So, please.... I would never want to become a hoarder, (those shows are like a train wrecks on tv, you can't help but watch and be just totally in shock by all the s&*#) but I'm still at the age where I like to look at things that make me happy. I have a few toys from my childhood, or the kids' childhood that I just like. For instance Furby. He sits in my room, all dusty, I think there is something sticky on one of his fuzzy wuzzy ears, peanut butter maybe?.... fast asleep like Rip VanWinkle.... it would totally freak me out if his eyes opened and he started talking gibberish. Battery power surge!

Garbage day, one of my pet peeves because I walk my dogs daily and I observe. When the directions all over the lid of our city provided garbage cans say.... Please put this side toward the street..... why? why? can't people do that? Okay, so you were too lazy to try and smoosh something in the bin, so you put it on top of the lid.... how do you expect the long arm of the garbage retriever to balance the bin with your crap 'on top' as it tries to lift it to dump in the trucks bin. Thirdly... okay lean up more trash on the side of the bin all over your driveway....cuz I'm sure the garbage man wants to weed through the difference between garbage and recycling since you couldn't make the decision to which bin to put it in! Oh yes, here's another one.... stack the bins behind each other.... the truck arm reaches up and above the first garbage bin to grab the second bin... it also says on the can... face this side toward the street.... approx 5 feet from each other. I give garbage men a lot of credit... I shake my head at people in my neighborhood... which government employee would you miss if they were not on the job for a month? The mayor? or the garbage man??

I found a cell phone in the snow on one of my dog walks last week. It was on a street in the neighborhood, but not on the street we live. I wasn't sure what to do. It was open, so it actually looked like the phone on the right... and it was getting wet because of the melting snow. I picked it up and brushed it off. Noticed a picture on the screen of Robert Pattinson (British teeny bopper heart throb from the twilight series) and on the back was a sticker signature of Justin Bieber... so I figured the phone belonged to a teen who was rushing to catch the morning school bus. What to do? I took it home, dried it a bit. It didn't seem to be working. Let it sit... was able to go to the address book and saw mom.... but I decided not to call. Since I'm a parent (duh) I didn't want to have to wait for whomever to call me back to pick it up, yadda, yadda.... so, I took it to the local AT&T store and let them handle it. If my teenager lost their phone, I'm sure they'd be frantic and not even know where it was....and I guess I wanted the parent to be involved of having to go to the store to retrieve it. The guy at the AT&T store said it was a nice $$ phone, he thought it was kind that I picked it up because who knows what kind of water damage it might have gotten through the melting snow. I left my name and number and where I found the phone. but no one has called me.... this probably happens all the time.... I know one person who has dropped two iphones in the toilet.... within a few months of each incidence... goes out and buys a new one!

Although the kids and the hubby each have one, I got my first (electric?) battery powered toothbrush right after Christmas. I couldn't fathom the price... but since it was on sale with a coupon I snatched it up as my treat. I can't tell you how much I love my little toothbrush. I feel like I've come from the dentist every morning with a great cleaning. My recommendation of the day!!!

So one of these things is not like the other..... Furby is my picture, the rest are from Google Search!

SketchBook Project - tour 2011

I completed and am ready to send in my Sketchbook Project . Sending my book to the Art House Co-op in Brooklyn NY. This was fun!! And I'm happy to have completed this project!!

Lolly, lollie, lolly pop

What's old is new again?  So, I thought this was a new kind of flower, crafters were making on their blogs, now I'm seeing the tutorials came out last year.  Something has been rejuvinated.  But I like it, cuz I missed it the first time around.  So, these lolly flowers are just tiny fans made into a circle, to create the folded flower shape.  But so cool when you remember making those paper fans in 6th grade, now on a smaller scale you can create a fun embellishment.  I used a page torn from a book to add this one.  If interested here is a tutorial I found on Rhonna's blog

I really like the tiny ones that measure less than an inch in diameter.

In other news.... Yay, Sissy made the sophomore v-ball team for high school.  It was kind of scary there for a day, cut throat!  But life is happy, but a little sore in our house.  Registered Bubba for his senior classes.  Had to reschedule a few things, he had lunch 8th hour (9 period day)  they only have lunch 5,6,7.... so it was weird the schedule could even be printed that way.  But now, everything is ready for him!  Yay, and boo!!!!  And it's Friday, going to go see Eat, Pray, Love.

Special Delivery Mini Scrap Book

This is so fun!!  a mini scrap book in the shape of a diaper bag for someone expecting or who has a baby girl! I found out how to make this in a 6 hour (yes you read that correct) tutorial off of Laura's Ustream channel....

Following the Paper Trail she is a material pattern maker(?) by trade, or originally an interior Architect... but she puts on these tutorials both on You tube and U Stream, sells kits to make these cute mini scrap books.  I love her because she makes things from 'scratch' because SHE CAN!! She is funny and has the gift of gab, but her instructions are wonderful!!!  Click on the bottom of each page to see what is unique about the layout when the slide show rotates. 

 I may have another post today...I made about 5 other mini scrap books, why?  gifts of course.  for who???