Soul Searching...

Good Morning Everyone!

Let me start by saying Happy New Year, being that this is my first blog posting since the new year.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and you've recovered from all the decorations and food and.... blah, blah, blah.... :~)  I can truly say this has been an eventful 2011 thus far.  I started the New Year off by trashing my 7'ft tall Christmas tree with half of the decorations still on it. {WHY??} I know you all are reading this and wondering why. LOL... It's simple, that is THE same exact Christmas tree that I got when I first got married.  I remember how excited I was that year.  I searched high and low to find the perfect ornament to represent our 1st Christmas.

Year after year, from 1999 until 2004 (the last time I put a tree up while married.  I hung this ornament on that tree.  Christmas 2006 was my first year to put a tree as a divorced woman and for the first time... that ornament remained in it's box along with all the other ornaments I'd collected.  This past year, I decorated with new colors, but... it was still {THAT} tree.  You know how when you were little, you sit and dream what you want your life to be like.  Well let me tell you... at 35 this is NOT how I had it planned, but I am thankful to be here and thankful for the friends I have. 

Until now, I've stayed away from blogging because I never want to come here to my {Happy Place} and not be happy.  Turning 35 really SUCKED buttons, and it took me a while to be at peace with it. Not like I have to be placed out in the pasture. LOL  There is still some good life left in me, but it's up to me to embrace my life and all the challenges.  Seems like since I was little I've always known what I wanted out of life, but at times I was too scared to reach for it.  For once, I've connected with a group and ladies that LOVE crafting as much as I do and they support all my ideas and future endeavors.  You ladies know who you are, so THANK YOU!    Now... it's a New Year and that means lots of new stuff out on the market and new ideas running around in my head fighting to get out.  Having said that... stayed tuned for some exciting things to come!

Happy Crafting...

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to me!  Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birth-daaaaaay to Meeeeeeeeeeeeee!  Happy Birthday to me!

Yep, if you haven't figured it out, it's my Birthday today!  And..... (drum roll) I have a new looking blog!!! {Tadaaaaaa}  The colors are so bright and happy looking!  I will say HTML coding {sucks}, but it's kinda cool when it all falls into place.  I love my new fonts!  It can be found here along with tons of others. 

Anyways... I promised a new look and I delivered.  Pictures are coming!! 

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I know I did and my b-day wasn't so shabby either.  Bought myself some new COPICS!!  They were on sale at Scrap-Mart.com. Use the coupon code BLACK for an extra 20% off their already low prices!! Plus shipping is free!!!  Yep, F-R-E-E!!!

Shop with Caution!

Ummmmm....

Have you ever had one of those moments when all you can think of is, "Ummmmmm"??  Okay so I've been having one of those moments for a while.  Like two months and six days worth of it.  LOL...  It's weird because so much has gone on.  I've actually completed so much stuff, I'm amazed.  (pictures to come).  For some reason... I just lost the desire to blog. I {blog hop} a lot and there are so many COOL blogs out there, then I come back to mine and it looks dead.  The color combination looked good in my head, but it's NOT a true representation of who I am.  I am not walking around as a muted hue of gray, well some days.  Today... I feel like a pretty yellow. (Acid Yellow - Copic Y08)  It's amazing what a hot shower at O'dark-thirty will do for you. 

So, I've been thinking.... I think it's time for a BLOG Makeover....  My b-day is exactly 21 days away.  So I have 21 days to get the new blog up with current pictures and so forth!  Can I do it?  "Ummmmm"???  LOL

21 days and counting..... (insert clock ticking sound here)

Ranting and Raving....

As you can see I am up early!
Didn't really sleep much last night.  Why??  Ummm... IDK.  (If I did know, I wouldn't have fixed it and slept.)  Today is Labor Day and.... there isn't an and.  Just having one of those BLAHHHH moments.  I am excited because I went shopping!!!!! Of course I went to my LSS (Local Scrapbook Store) and got some cool things.  #1 on my list was Colorless Blender refill ink for my marker.  YEAH, I can practice blending again.  While I was there I picked up a few sheets of Bo Bunny Paper and some other paper that was cute.  The main reason I was going there was to get some new stamps.  I like Stamping Bella, but of course the store didn't have the ones I wanted so I ordered them online from Addicted to Rubberstamping.  I can't wait for my stamps to get here.

Okay here's my small tiny rant... Why is it when you go into a store and you're asking questions the employees get attitudish??  1- If I am the customer and I want to spend MY money, be happy.  2 - If you don't have what I'm looking for I am going to go someplace else. 3 - We're "in a recession" < I've always wanted to use that saying in the middle of a sentence> so the least amount of money I spend at one place the more I can spend at another.  DUH!!!!!  This small tiny rant was brought on by an incident at my LSS.  Rudeness is NOT needed and I personally will not tolerate it.  I'm already down to 1 LSS, I'd hate to have to start driving over 45 mins away to buy paper.  LOL

Now, back to my new purchases.... I'm up to over 36 Copics!  As Chandler reminded me only 298 more to go!  That's my little mathematician! Don't have anything new to post (finished items).  Give me a day or two and I hope to blow you away.

Things I've working on:
Cards for the SOC card swap!  OH YEA, I'm the Hostess with the Mostess this Month!!
Practicing/playing around with my Copics
Chandler's Chore Chart
Misc Altered Art Projects
STILL working on the curtains ((UGHHHH... I do not like to iron!!))
Other stuff, but I haven't had any coffee yet so I can't remember right now.

Before I start to ramble... Happy Labor Day.  If you're traveling, may you and yours make it to your ending destination and all points in between safely!

Happy Creating!

Crafters vs. Non-Crafters... What's the Difference??

Good Morning Everyone!

I'm just waking up and for once it doesn't feel like hell has caught on fire! In case you didn't know, I live in {Texas}.  For those of you that have never had the pleasure of visiting, DO NOT!!  LOL... at least not during the months of June or July, or August. Then again one year it was almost 90 degrees at Christmas!

So, I'm sure by now you're wondering, "What's the difference between a Crafter and a Non-Crafter?".  Besides the obvious, one crafts, one doesn't. Well DUH!  That was too easy.  This is what I have observed in recent years.  Crafters love the following stores:  Michael's, JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, and A.C. Moore.  Crafters are on their mailing lists, we get coupons and probably know the layout of our local stores with our eyes closed.  Crafters bond instantly with another crafter when you use the words, "Cricut, Stickles, Distressed and or Cardstock".   Crafting is a sisterhood and in some cases a brotherhood of creativity.

Then you have the Non-Crafter (NCs).  These are the people that go into the above mentioned stores and pay FULL PRICE for everything, unless they happen to grab something on sale.  Full Price?? WOE (what on earth) is that??? LOL....  NCs receive handcrafted cards then throw them out like cheap Dollar Tree cards, days later.  ARE YOU SERIOUS???  They don't appreciate the hard work and thought that goes into their "handmade" goodies.  NCs, you all need to wake-up and see what you're getting is far more precious than the Hallmark card with all the rhyming words.

Below is a Get Well card that I made for a family member that just had surgery.  You'd have to know this person to know this card was PERFECT for her!

  Bugaboo DigiStamp - Nurse Margaret.  Copics used: 100, C7, C1, E47, E37 RV19 and the Colorless Blender.


A Crafters response... "WOW!" or "Nice coloring" or "That is too cute".

Non-Crafter response, "You did all of that for a card?" "All the time it took you to do that, you could have just ordered flowers online."  -- LOL, that one made me laugh, but my most favorite response was sent to me via text message that simply said, "Ok".


Well, no matter what a NC may say, not say or think, I do this because it's something that I enjoy.  Everyone has a God given talent be it singing or dancing, mine just happens to be crafting.  I plan to use this gift to it's fullest, as much as I can, whenever I can. 

On that note, be blessed and have a wonderful day.
Happy Creating!