be yourself: live with passion

celebration...giving...love...

Last night, I almost burned the green beans.  Not just any green beans, but fresh beans that were hand picked (from the grocery store...I don't veggie garden...thought I'd better clarify :_), rinsed, trimmed and cut into equal lengths...all done by yours truly. 

So what does almost burning the green beans have to do with celebration, giving and love, you ask? Well, let me tell you! The reason why I almost burned the beans is that I was totally caught up in blogging.  Totally intent on the story I was reading, totally immersed in that person's life as she was describing it.  When I snapped out of it and heard a sizzle, I knew there was a problem...there wasn't anything cooking that should have sizzled.  Due to my distraction, I forgot to lower the heat on the beans and cover them so all of the water had evaporated out of the pot and the beans were on the brink...fortunately, I caught them just in time.

Blogging has a way of totally distracting me, which is why I try to limit the time I spend doing it to little snippets in between chores around the house.  It helps me connect with more people and that's one of the biggest reasons why I love doing it.  Plus, I'm intensely curious about people (translation=I'm nosy! :)) and blogging definitely satisfies that curiosity!

Which {finally!} brings me to my point.  To help me celebrate the one year birthday of my blog, I want to do something special. I love sharing my stories and hearing yours because it connects us and so I am totally in the mood to give away something fun.  Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, I'm thinking that a kit for a heart book would be in order...a little canvas book that I premake, complete with felt embellishments, ribbons, and lace.  Add your paints and stamps and voila, a funky little fabric book is yours to keep or to give away.  This, by the way, is the same book that I just taught a class on last weekend.

For a chance at a kit, here's all you need to do:  Just post a comment about why you love to blog.  Since I'm going to be away for several days at CHA, and don't get home until Wednesday night,  I'm going to keep this open until Thursday morning, February 1st, 9:00 a.m., Phoenix time.  I'll print all of the comments and ask Ashley to pick one out of the bowl and we will have one lucky winner!

This is another peek at a part of the book (we keep this going and soon you will see the WHOLE thing :))!

So there you have it...a circuitous route to a give-away...by way of almost burned green beans!  Looking forward to celebrating with you, to hearing what you love about blogging and to giving one lucky winner a fun and funky book kit!

Happy Birthday to Hubby!

Today, January 24th, marks a special day around our house.  It's Vern's birthday!

Just wanted to wish him the happiest of days and to share a couple of pictures...this one is in celebration of his first birthday.  I looked through all of the pictures that his mom gave me and couldn't find one of him at birth...it's hard to believe that back then, every jot and tittle of our lives weren't recorded on film.  Can you even imagine having a baby without having new baby pictures?

Here's another one to share...it's Vern with his sister, Cheryl.  How can you not love a guy who happily holds his little sister's hand?

Since I know he reads my blog, I just wanted to say this:

Babe, hope you have a great birthday today and a fabulous year ahead.  I love you...bunches...you are the best!

Happy Birthday, Hubby!

Come Castaway at CHA!

Just wanted to invite you to come visit me at the North Light booth at CHA.  I'll be doing a demo based on a project I did out of Tena's and my new book, Lifelines, due to be released in late March, early April.  I will be using a product called Castaway which is used to alter paper.

Here is a peek at the background paper that I used in the Lifelines project...altered with Castaway and a bit of black paint.

The paper is a standard construction paper...for those of you who have taken classes with me, it's the paper that I use for the placemats.  Can you believe that a Plain Jane paper like that can become a very funky piece of patterned paper?

If you've never used Castaway, now is your chance to try it.  If you have used it, stop by anyway and make a cool little accent piece to use in a layout or in a travel journal.

I'll be at Booth #1509...each demo will last 90 minutes.

Here's my schedule:

Sunday @ 4:00 p.m.

Monday @ 1:00 p.m.

Tuesday @ 2:30 p.m.

Looking forward to seeing you again and/or meeting you for the first time.  If it's anything like Memory Trends, I'll have some Artful Memories books to give away, too!  So, you can't lose...a cool product to try, a funky accent piece to take home and maybe a freebie book!  See you there!

HAPPY {BELATED} BIRTHDAY...

TO MY BLOG!

Somewhere in the blur that's been January, I totally forgot about my blog birthday!  It's been a little more than a year since I started and really, I don't have a clue why I waited as long as I did to start.  And, I can't believe I forgot such an important event.

Having a blog has added so much to my life.  Being able to stay connected with old friends, new friends that I meet as I'm teaching and blog friends that I have never even met has just been awesome. 

I enjoy sharing snippets of my life, things that happen in my family, ordinary things that are a part of life, sad times and times of celebration.  But, you will notice that I did wait a year before I revealed my weird side!  I didn't just fall off the turnip truck, you know!  Heh...

What I enjoy the most though, is hearing back from you, getting to know you through the little bits and pieces that you give me...things like who the dog lovers are, who used to have a Bouvier, who loves to shop and decorate, where you all live, who's got kids (and some days who wish they didn't but only for that day :)), who's a collector and loves to junk, who wears socks to bed :)  You know, all of the important things in life! I want you to know that I totally appreciate the opportunities we have had over the past year to share and to form connections.

Last week, I was doing a bit of blogging and went to this site, which I find totally inspirational.  Pam is one talented artist and I enjoy seeing what she creates and what she buys when she goes to flea markets.  Anyway, turns out that she had a blog birthday and created a gorgeous banner in celebration of the event.  Not having a spot to hang such a banner, I decided to do a page for my art journal...a one year birthday cupcake. 

It gave me a chance to use some of my very loved Amy Butler collection of fabrics and it's so sad that the textures just don't show up...the little seams that make the muffin cup dimensional, the beads, the wired chenille that is the candle, the textured paints and inks...  By the way, if you want some additional inspiration, check out Amy's studio pictures...anyone who puts her cool things like beads and buttons in bowls and keeps them out for inspiration gets super high marks in my book!

So, thanks again for a great year...looking forward to another fabulous one!

HELP! I NEED SOMEBODY...

...And in the vernacular of the Beatles, "help, not just anybody" but somebody who also wears socks to bed.   Both Torm and Jeanette made special mention,  OK, a BIG DEAL (all in good fun, of course!) about my wearing socks to bed...I can't be the only one, can I?   I mean, it's not off the weirdness scale, is it?   Tell me I'm not the only one...please...somebody...HELP!

Now I feel like I need to redeem myself...just finished teaching my little fabric Valentine book...what an awesome class it was.  We just had so much fun interacting...having some time to laugh, tell stories and just plain get to know each other.  Here's a little peek at one of the other pages we did...

Hey, Debbie, recognize the Junkitz stamp we used?  It turned out looking really cool!

Anyway, I'm still on a just taught a class high...did I ever mention that I LOVE TEACHING?

OK, hope that outweighs the fact that I wear socks to bed...

Have a great weekend!

Hope your piggies stay toasty :))

she says she's sorry...

So yesterday, friend Teresa sent me an email telling me that she was sorry, but I was it!  Sorry?  Right!  If that email had sound, I would probably hear her chortling with glee as she wrote it!  Know why?  It's because she tagged me and now I am supposed to list 6 weird things about myself. Sure, why not let everyone know some of my strange idiosyncrasies!

Here we go:

1.  I sleep with socks on...all the time...regardless of the weather.

2.  I reread books and rewatch movies.  I know that there are probably lots of others that do that but hubby thinks it's weird when Ash and I do that...what's the point of reading the book or seeing the movie again when you already know the outcome?

3.  I can have messes (artful ones, mind you) on my kitchen counters but I HATE dirty dishes in the sink...almost to the point of OCD.

4.  I hardly ever watch TV...I feel guilty and unproductive if I do, so I just don't bother.

5. I talk to the goldfish in the pond...even call them by name.  But what's even weirder is that they respond...by name.  One of them is a playful little boy which Ashley named Beethoven.  When it's time to eat, I have to call him by name.  As soon as he hears me calling, he comes blasting through the water to get his food.  Weird...

6.  I slow vehicles down with the imaginary brake pedal when I am a passenger.  I hate backseat drivers so try really hard not to be one...but can't seem to break (no pun intended) the habit of hitting the brake to stop, even when I don't have access to the brake...weird and so totally silly!

So there you have it...six of the many weird things about me.

I guess I need to tag some others...let's tag friends Jeanette, Torm (as though she doesn't have enough to do prepping for a kidlet to be born), Carlene and Liz...OK girls, tell all.  Can't wait to read about the strange things you do!

ah, the wonders of genetics...

Have you ever looked at your children and thought, "Oh, I wish that trait would have skipped a couple of generations!"?  Or, "Why couldn't they have gotten all of my wonderful and glorious traits and none of the undesirable ones?"  'Course you have...well, except for my mom.  We have teased her over the years about how every not so nice thing about my brother and me has come from my dad's side of the family...AS IF!

When I saw this lovely pile in my family room earlier this week, I had some of those thoughts. 

Ashley has definitely inherited my tendency toward packrattiness.  After spending some of her winter break cleaning her room and her closet, she had this stack to take to Goodwill and a stack of equal size that went to our storage unit.  Poor girl...she has it in spades.  Vern and I have often teased her about the black hole in her closet...I'm beginning to think that there really IS ONE...how else could she fit all of this and the other pile into it?

Maybe collecting things isn't a negative trait but being a packrat can be a bit of a burden, especially when collections grow large and a little out of control.  No house is ever large enough to be uncluttered and there is never enough storage to house it all.

I don't suffer from buyer's remorse...but I often have "throw away" or "give away" remorse.  Right after I purge and get rid of stuff, my immediate thought is "what if I need that next week"?   And, you know, sometimes I really do need the very thing I had just gotten rid of!

So, Ash...sorry about passing on the packrattiness...but at least you don't complain about the collections and clutter around the house...we are in total accord...they are necessary parts of our lives.

If you have some wonders of genetics to share, please pass them along...all of us need a good chuckle every day!   

Could this possibly be Phoenix?

Hard to believe, eh?

This is what the fountain in our front yard looked like yesterday morning.  Definitely a bit of a cold spell around here.

The flowers in my pots look quite yucky!  Oh well, time for a makeover this spring anyway...

I was wondering why the hummingbirds in our backyard were so grumbly yesterday.  Turns out that their feeders had ice as a top layer and slush right under the ice...guess their beaks weren't meant to break through ice.  They were much happier when I gave them fresh sugar water!

My mother-in-law and father-in-law, who spend several months here during the winter, are going to be scurrying back to Pennsylvania where it is reportedly warmer than here!

Actually, it's a nice change from 110 degrees!  The natives are not complaining (unless they have busted pipes!).

In non-weather related stuff, just wanted to share a craft project I started working on New Year's weekend.  I needed something mindless and repetitive as my brain just wouldn't engage and the creativity was pretty well hibernating. 

I saw some cool looking pearl trees at one of my favorite home decor stores (Domestic Bliss) just before Christmas.   They were gorgeous but the pearls were in various shades of pink which just didn't fit with my Christmas color schemes.  Plus, the price tag seemed steep for just a little tree.

So, I went to Michaels, picked up bags of pearls, some pins, sequins and a styrofoam cone and got to work.  OK, now I know why they charged what they did.   There are HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of pearls on this tree and HOURS and HOURS of pinning...it seemed like it would take forever to finish it.  Of course, I started at the top...and the surface area to cover expanded the further down I got...bad move...should have started at the bottom.  Anyway, I added a few pearls here and there over the past two weeks and finished it up last evening before I went to bed.  It's really pretty but I have to say, a bit like buying Christmas wrap, ribbon and decorations after Christmas...definitely anticlimactic.  I am looking forward to unwrapping it from its tissue next Christmas, though...bet it will feel like a new discovery.

Hope you're having a great week...are your hands dirty?

 

paint on my fingers...

...and a grin on my face.

Getting my hands all grunged up with inks and paints makes me happy.

This weekend, I finished the project I'll be teaching at Ink It on Saturday, January 20th...this coming weekend...from 11:00-2:30.  It's a heart book which I handmake before the class so there's no sewing involved for the students.  Don't you just love starting with a blank fabric canvas?

That's what we're going to do...then we'll add paints, stamping, felt accessories, little pearls, some lace and ribbon.  It's such a touchable funky book and the bright colors make me smile.

Here's a peek at one of the inside pages...I actually made this book for Ashley for Valentine's Day so the journaling is about her but, shhhhh!  Don't tell her! :) 

If you'll be in the class, prepare to get grungy...but know that you will have tons of fun playing with the gorgeous Jacquard fabric paints and Lumieres, plus you will have a chance to use some of the new felt accessories from the store.

Speaking of getting hands dirty, I taught my first class at Scrapbooks, Etc. on Friday and it was really awesome.  I knew going into the class that it was a very full project and that we'd have to play pretty consistently to get it done.  I'm so tickled with the girls that were there...they were so creative and diligent and most got their backgrounds and stamping done....yay!  Something I overheard several times was..."Wow, my hands have never been so messy...or LOOK AT THESE HANDS!"  Made my heart sing...these girls were in the zone...big time.

So, here's to a week of dirty hands and smiling faces.  Happy creating!  And, if you're signed up for my class, see you on Saturday!

Edited to Add:  Vern just found this quote from Robert Redford and forwarded it to me:

"There is something about the hands of an artist.  The painter's fingers almost permanently stained with pigment, the nimble hands of the weaver in constant motion, the poetic rhythms of the potter."

How cool is that?

         

cruisin' together....

Doesn't that sound like fun?

Think Alaska in August...think a Scrap-Art Experience...think of instructors like Teresa McFayden, Catherine Moore, Tena Sprenger, Holly Dye, Suzi Finer and yours truly...think scrapping/art while at sea and sightseeing while at port...think midnight buffets and HUGE dessert tables...think 7 days without cleaning, cooking, laundry and kids...

Have I gotten your attention?

I'd love to cruise together with you in August.  Check out this site, then click on the Sweet Peas and Snapshots link for details on this cruise.  The art portion of this cruise is being sponsored by Sweet Peas....need I say more?

Just to whet your appetite a bit, I thought I'd post a picture of a small part of the cruise ship from the last cruise I was on...of course, it's not Alaska (it's Key West, FL)..but since I don't own the copyrights to any Alaskan cruise photos and this ship is the same cruise line (Royal Caribbean),  this will have to suffice...just picture snowy mountains and moose in the background!

I've got three classes planned for the week.  Here they are:

Spelling it Out: T.R.A.V.E.L:  This funky accordion style travel journal is based on large chipboard panels that spell out the word travel.  What better way to record your 7 days than to fill the journal with photos, journaling and memorabilia from one of your most memorable times? 

It's All Good:  Create your own funky, chunky mini book and fill it all things good...good times, good friends, good things.  And when your cruising, isn't it ALL good?  A great reminder of all of the good things in life that we will experience together.

You Can't Sing if You Ain't Got Bling:  Hey, girls, we all know it's in the accessories, don't we?  And, aren't purses one of our best accessories?  In this class, we will be altering a funky clutch purse with cool papers, ribbons and trims and of course, BLING!  What could be more fun?   Well, maybe a night out on the town with your new purse!

OK, girls...time is starting to run out.  Reservations and deposits are due by February 9th.  So, take a cruise with hubby...or leave him home and join up with some girlfriends...eat, sightsee, scrap, eat...you get the picture.  Would love to go cruisin' together with YOU!