Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.  I look forward to spending the new year with you~

Yay!!! I finally made it to the thrift store~

Thinking the e-mail said all Christmas items 50% off I went hog wild and bought a bunch of Christmas goodies.

Does anyone know who makes these sickly sweet little buggers?  I couldn't help but buy them, cutesy wootsy isn't usually my thing but I mean look at them.  Don't they just melt your heart. 

My favorite and most coveted item of the day was finding these vintage Gurley candles.  They sold me all three for only $2.00 and after I saw they were upposed to be $5.00 dollars each.  Score!!

Come to find out all the christmas items I bought were regular price.  Even though some vintage Santas, candle molds, childrens books from 1945, more miscellanious vintage ornaments and my first pair of high heel shoes made it home with me.  I know can you believe it almost 30 and never owned a pair of high hells.  I am going to look like a wobbling baby bird in those things. 

I am still steadily working on all my handmade gifts: layered cookie jars, flavored coffee mixes and necklaces for all the girl cousins are done.  The necklaces turned out quite nice I think.

Next up on the todo is the Rum Balls, Ale and Pretzel carmels, jar soups and assorted fudge.  I know it is making my damn head spin.  The one thing that has me the most stressed is shopping for my 9 year old son.  What do you get a boy who only wants video games?

More gifts.....

Here is some more pics of the various things I am making for gifts.  This wreath I got from the Dollar Store.  Spray painted it and decorated it with some glitter sprays I got a 90% off last year after Christmas.  The picture is a used greeting card with crackle accents applied to it.

This styrofoam wreath was $3.50 and it started out as one of those ribbon loop wreaths but I didn't have the time or tenacity to stick with that so this is what it ended up as.  All the ribbon is from my stash.

These ornaments were so cheap to make especially if you have chipboard frames laying around.  I got all the images for free off the internet.

I participated in an ornament swap and one of the members sent some beautiful napkins like the ones she had used on her ornaments.  They inspired me to make these trivets out of tiles I had laying around for years.  You can get tiles like these for a $1 at the home improvement stores.

The pics didn't turn out all that well, but hey. 

What handmade gifts have you been tinkering on?

Busy making stuff in my workshop~

Call me cheap but I will be sharing with you gifts I am making that cost me next to nothing.  With my financials being the way they are I am having to really stretch my dollar this holiday season and use items I already have on hand.  The first gift I want to share cost me actually nothing to make because I salvaged the frame from the garbage and already had the chalkboard paint.  If you don't have any on hand Walmart carries it for under $5.00, or you could maybe get it cheaper with a Micheal's coupon.  I love this chalkboard paint because you can use on wood, metal, glass,  etc.

The frame is made from....you know I actually can't think of the exact name for it but a house marker where you put your street number.  I love how it turned out.  The natural patina on it is what made me love it so.  It might just be a gift to myself.

I am heart broken this week our shar-pei Mocha passed away.  She was 16.  Two more years and she could have contended with the oldest living shar-pei.  But she was so sick her liver, kidneys, heart.  Then yesterday she suffered a stroke and went paralyzed in her hind legs.  It was the most heart wrenching thing to witness.  Thankfully my mom and I didn't have any kids at the daycare when it happened so we were both able to go to the vet to be with her.  I am feeling so guilty on top of it because I went through the last two years of pictures and couldn't find a single one of her, none the less she was loved deeply.

I wish for everyone to have a beautiful weekend~

I know that we humans,

are like the rest of the natural world and that sadness, fear, frustration, or any other troubling feeling can not last. Nature doesn't create a storm that never ends. Within misfortune good fortune hides.

 
 
This is my entry for the Cloud Echo Challenge.  You can learn more about them here at Chrysti's Blog or here at Susan's.

Oh, it's good to be back~

How has everyone been?  Our computer finally died and it took us a while to get back up and running.  In the meantime things have settled down some. 

Last night we had Kiah's parent/teacher conference and it went really well.  He has been doing so much better~ better behaved, doing his homework more independently, and listening the first time. We have been giving him Synaptol, Omega 3's, magnesium, and some melatonin to help him sleep better.  Now if I can get my husband to get on the regimen since he suffers from ADD also and has all of his life.  Yes, it proves to be quite an adventure doing anything with my fam.  The boys with their ADD, granny with her dementia and me, I am no saint myself.  I suffer from anxiety so bad I don't drive.  So yeah now that the HIPAA privacy policies are no longer needed and everything is out in the open. 

I have had the luxury of getting out a couple times this past few weeks and had a blast  at our annual Halloween party.

     Beginning of the Party~                       

As I digress~

     Hiking Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve~

      Have you ever seen a bird like this?  Look at his beak~

    I just about ran into this spider after I was freaking out and running around crazily because I swear I felt      something crawl in my shoe.

                                      Natural Bridges State Park~  

            

I finished up all my ornaments for the 2 swaps I am in.  Now it's on to planning my son's Baseball Party, finally being able to participate in Julie Pritchard's Texture Town, and hopefully getting more listed in my sorely neglected Etsy store.
How 'bout you what have you been up to?  What crafting plans do you have for this holiday season?

This blog should be called My Momentary Lapses of Time........

The last couple of weeks of been what can you call it.......a mess.  The kind that makes you think you are literally going crazy.  It all started out with a major high when my banner from the previous post got featured at Handmadeology and Tatertots and Jello.  I was literally floating on air.  I also got some new kids to watch which was great because our daycare has been so quiet lately.  It was all starting to look up.  But then two days later the kids were gone.  And I was crying and have yet to get paid.  Everything just came to a apex.  Kiah is still having trouble in school, Granny is becoming more confused, no time to do any things I need and want to do, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  I really thought I was going crazy, I even cut my own hair and totally messed it up.  I am feeling some better.  But I am still a bit nervous because Kiah needs to see a behavioral specialist to get an IEP.  His school won't give him one unless his is two years behind.  Isn't that a little too long to wait when kids need help. I had a meeting with the teacher and principal and I think I made some headway.  Even though they still insisted I give him some kind of medication and didn't even seem to care when I told them his doctor says he doesn't need it.

Thank God for grandparents because Chris and I were finally able to get out of the house for more than a couple hours.  We took some business classes over the last weekend together.  It was an experience and informative but it is hard for me to just sit down and not think about everything else that is going on. 

In my crafty life I finished my ornaments for a swap I am participating in ~

I also made this Halloween door sign for our party.  It is the 23rd annual and once you come you always come back ~

 
I finished this up a couple weeks ago but never posted it.  This is my green ephemera collage ~

I also have another freebie to share.  Here are some vintage assorted poison labels for you crafts and decorating.  Just save image as and print out on cardstock.

Hope you all are enjoying the season.  Talk to ya later~

Halloween is huge in my house, we really get into the "spirits" of things. ~Dee Snider

But I am in the same situation as last year too busy or lazy to go to storage and get the decorations.  So I made a quick banner and want to share it with you.  If you are interested you can print out these and make a banner of your own.  I made mine with some miscellaneous background papers I had made and Dollar Store twine.  Now that it is done though, I want to make another out of just the book pages.  I think I would like that look better.  The skull image came from The Vintage Moth, the banner outline from Dover, and I am not quite sure where the scarab beetle came from but I sure do like him.

 

You just need to click to enlarge then right click and save image as.  Print, cut, and glue.  Hope you like it!

To see last year's lazy decorations see this post ~

My Etsy Success Holiday Boot Camp Mission Statement

Dang, that's a mouthful.

My mission for this holiday season is to not let it pass me by.  I need to stick to my schedules and not procrastinate.  It is already October 4, only 83 more days till Christmas.  I always have big plans and ideas but never bring them to fruition.  This year I vow to do things differently so it will prove to be better than I ever expected.

Dang another week's almost gone by....slow down already

I saw this video yesterday where Claudine Hellmuth and Tim Holtz were using his masks and embossing the sticky side of her Sticky Canvas.  Well wouldn't you know I had some cheap sticky back foam that didn't sell at my garage sale a couple weeks ago.  So I took a break right then and there to see if it would work the same and it did. Now I am glad it didn't sell.

Uncover the sticky side of the the foam.  Lay whatever mask you have laying around and start working the embossing powder all around the mask.  Knock off the excess powder and remove the mask.  Make sure to remove the mask.  Heat with the heat gun.  Now place a coordinating color of powder on the rest of the sticky area.  I love the way they turn out and cheaper than heck to make custom embellishments. 

Opinions and feelings......

A lot of art marketing workshops and books I have read; stressed the importance of not mixing business with personal life on your blog.  But my life and art are so tightly entwined I can't help it.  It's just the way it is.  I don't know why I wanted to make a note of that here.  Maybe it's because my balance has been off lately.  Where there is no time for business and no time for family.  There seems to be a missing part of the equation and I think procrastination and defeat have to do with it.  There are so many things on my to do list I get inundated just looking at it.  I have been getting some things done, but they are just menial little things.  Not the big life dreams I have been carrying around for so long.  Scheduling has always been difficult for me.  I feel so defeated when things get in the way of it.  So now I have a why bother mentality.

How do you balance your personal life with business to make it all happen?  Any secrets you would be willing to share?  How do you feel about having a blog for business and family?  Should people keep separate blogs?

Hope you all have a magnificent weekend!!!

I am sorry.......

It has been very hard for me to get back in the swing of back to school things.  Kiah has been having trouble staying focused.  This caused a lot of problems last year.  I thought we had it pretty much controlled by the end of the school year.  The doctor said if he did have ADD it was a slight case and he didn't need medication.  The school said he didn't qualify for any support because his IQ was too high.  Well here we are this year and the teacher is already hinting at putting him on medication.  Not those exact words but I am not dumb.  He is always trying to get me to let him stay home, saying he hates school.  He has a lot of friends and does well on his work.  We just got some of the standardized testing scores home and he is basically in-between basic and advanced.   In math he is so close to being advanced; so what the heck!  We have started him on a vitamin regime and I am in close contact with his teacher.

Besides that things are picking up at work.  Which is good I was really starting to worry.

Here are a couple of crafting things I have done to stay sane along the way. 

A soldering class with my friend Raquel.  It was a fun technique to learn but will take a little more practice and a new higher powered soldering gun.  Oh my God when I typed that I heard the Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunting sound.   Yeah baby more power.

My Orange mixed media canvas

And some cards I made for a challenge at Stampington & Co.

I wasn't sure about the top picture at first but now I really like it.  She is the Goddess of Our Burning Desires.  The butterfly and image of the woman came from The Graphics Fairy.

These photos are from my camera phone that's why they look so washed out.

Hope all is well in your land

There goes the 3 day weekend.

I love those long weekends. On Friday Chris and I went to visit some friends at the last minute in Santa Cruz.  We walked down to the boardwalk and made it in time to hear The Tubes playing the second to the last song.  We missed most of the show but it was still cool to do grown-up stuff for a couple hours.  Saturday I had my garage sale and actually did better here than at the Rummage/Boutique sale.  I made $60.00 that's enough to re-comp one of my son's X-Box games and got rid of a little chunk of junk.  The rest of the weekend I did pretty much nothing ~ just the way I like it.

Long time, no post.......

Hope this post finds everyone happy and well.  It's still been busy over here.  On Saturday I tried to sell some of my misc. craft goods and vintage items.  That was a bust.  In the beginning I was really excited because we made $40 in the first two hours.  But only made $5 more throughout the rest of the day.  When you calculate it out I paid $20 for the table, bought my mom and Kiah lunch (which ended up being $10 for 2 hot dogs and two bags of chips) ~ I only made $15.  Absolutely no one bought my boutique items and I was so excited because my prints came in the day before I had specially printed on Kodak Endura Metallic paper.  One lady came up and picked up one of the photos and said, "What do you do with this?"    So, I think next time a more fitting venue would be better.  This was a Rummage/Boutique Sale at the local American Legion.  The $30 I did spend there went to the local veterans so I feel good about that.  I also got an order for some of my soaps from someone who picked up my business card, that is a total bonus.

I finished another mixed media collage last week.  I like how this one turned out even though I hated it in the middle of the process and was going to just throw it out.

It is supposed to be my version of a nature study.  This particular plant the Life Root is good for soothing pain, everybody needs a plant like that in their life.  The bronze fern is made out of the new Viva Embossing Creme and is the reason why I wasn't sure if I liked it in my previous post.  It didn't seem to work right.  The only instructions they have are in Swedish.  I watched the video and got the point but it may have not been the exact point.  I had high hopes for it since they were $8.59 each.  I wish I wasn't such a sucker for new products.

A couple days ago our little chihuahua  Baby was almost eaten whole by a german shepherd who was let off the leash by it's owner.  Thank God Chris was right there and Baby only got a few nicks from it.  The owner was so far away it didn't even know it happened.  Kiah was so shook up by it because he was holding the leash.  Our dog is already pitiful enough as it is.  He was a rescue dog and is really old, has only one eye, and can't control where his tongue goes.  He doesn't need anymore drama.

I am going to try this weekend to peddle more of my wares and have a garage sale.  Wish me luck I need the room and the money.  Have a good rest of the week!

Ha! Who was I kidding......

when I thought I was going to have extra time because school was starting.  Time has been moving at warp speed it seems.  Even with me not really working, time has been evading me. 

Still, my hope always springs eternal around this time of year.  Fall is like a New Year's second coming for me.  I get so inspired when I see all the new organizers secretly promising a more scheduled and balanced life; making me believe I have a second chance at my resolutions that went out the window three weeks into January.  Even the Wii Fit Mi's are telling Kiah they haven't seen me in a while.  And that's putting it nicely.

Thankfully though, I have been able to do something creative everyday. Which has helped me keep my mojo going.  I got a chance to use some the new Embossing Creme by Viva, and I don't know if I like that product.  I bought two different colors and the bronze color was so dry I couldn't even get it to smear properly.  I exchanged it for one that seemed better, but when I was smearing it on the stencil it dried up too quick and ended up getting clumpy.  After you smooth it over the stencil and have removed your stencil, heat it with your heat gun.  It will raise to a bubbled surface, which is neat but not really practical for scrapbooks or cards that will be mailed.  On the other hand, their Pearl Pen is the neatest.  The bronze color makes dots that look like raised studs.  I still have a lot of playing around to do.  The new Radiant Rain is very pretty but my bottle leaks and leaked all over one of my favorite skirts.  Glitter Glam is glamorous and now I need it in every color.  The only con that I had with the Glimmer Glam is it is hard to get the glitter evenly dispersed.. 

Besides all that, my son has now grown up and on the first day of schooled exclaimed I couldn't kiss him, call him Baby, or pretty much acknowledge he was mine.  Talk about heart breaking.  And to top it off I forgot my camera.  He tried to make it better by exclaiming, "I wouldn't have let you take my picture anyways." 

Raspberry Red Color challenge~

This one didn't end up how I thought I wanted it, but hey.  This is for Louise Gale's Creative Color Challenge she is hosting on her blog.  You can also check out the flickr group here.  I have been extremely busy this past week, with school starting on Monday, there is a bunch of last minute things that need to be done.  I can't wait to breathe a sigh of relief next week.  I survived another summer.  I almost ran for the hills crying a couple of times, but for the most part it went by smoothly.

My mojo is still on a pretty good run, hence me not really posting last week.  On Thursday I meet up with some friends Jen and Sylvia from Kelly Rae Robert's workshop at A Work of Heart.  We took Andrea's Juicy Houses class. 

These are the little houses we made.  We had the option of these 4x4 or a 12x48 canvas.  It was was fun and very inspiring to work along side these crafty ladies.  Thanks Jen and Sylvia for inviting me.  If you are in the area and want to check out any of Andrea's classes you can see them here.  Next time I want to take one of her soldering classes.

On Friday we went to a friend's birthday party and went hiking -well walking at the Alviso Slough.  Where I got the hawk picture in the previous post.  While I was there taking pictures of the hawk a man walked up to me  looked at my camera, smiled, then looked down at his much better camera and started taking pics.  He sealed the deal for me.  I am saving up for a DSLR.  I know it's not the camera but photographer but it's time to take my pics to the next level.

We went to an Oakland A's game and my son got an autograph and picture with Jerry Blevins.   My aunt took the pic so I haven't seen it yet.  Kiah was so happy but a little bummed he couldn't get Coco Crisp's autograph.  They won and my uncle and Chris were on the jumbotron.  So it made for an exciting day.

I have been readily working on my magazine submission and I think I might have it this time.  So wish me luck!

Beside that I haven't gotten to much else on my to do list and I still feel exhausted.  The kids start back to school on Monday so I am banking on that time.  Hope you all have a good rest of the week.

Please let me know if anyone is having trouble with my blog loading.  I will re-size the photos if so.