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?

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 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

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." 

~

My mojo is actually on a roll for once.  This is a good thing and a bad thing.  I consider mojo as a state of mind where everything is clicking- good thing.  The bad thing is when my mind is clicking all over the place.  So much so that I can't t seem to finish the first thing that clicked, which leads to a pile of half clicked ideas.

But with everything in it's current clicking state I feel confident enough to post my creative biz to-do list.  I have even accomplished some items from previous lists.

I was amazed at how fast it actually took me to read the 240 page e-course by Kelly Rae Roberts.  Thank you Yvette for convincing me to sign up.  It has been the best workshop ever and has been paramount in me finally believing I can take my creative biz to another level.

I also finished up and posted my first tutorial you can find it here.


This Week my goals are:

1. Work on my magazine submissions
2. Post another item to Etsy
3. Fix up shop page, bio, and shipping
4. Work on blog features 
5. Creative Color Challenge- Yellow

Kiah and I have been having a hard time with each other lately.  We couldn't be more different personality wise.  I just can't seem to get through to him sometimes.  He acts like I am completely irrational when I ask him to do simple every day things.  "Why do I have to brush my teeth everyday!!!"  "Um, because."  You would think he would get it by now.  People probably  think that since I work from home I have all the time in the world to spend with him.  But it is quite the opposite.  So this week I also want to work on spending more one on one time with him. 

1. Go for a couple walks throughout the week. Or one at least for crying out loud.
2. Do at least one drawing activity
3. Do a science project
4. Play a board game

Don't get me wrong, we do lots of things together.  But it's hard for me to get him to even take a walk.  Somehow I have to make him think these are his ideas.  We'll see how it goes.  Hope you all have a good week!

How to use left over beauty care items for scrapbooking~

So I have been meaning to post this tutorial all week, but with my sister in the hospital I never got to it.  Finally I found time today  to take pics and such for it when my friend called and said she was in the hospital all morning.  Um.... okay all you guys I care about, just chill out with your weird afflictions. 

If ever on some off chance you broke your eyeshadow and were down to the dregs of your nail polish.  Don't throw it away make a couple cards with it and call your self eco.  Using eyeshadow can be a cheap alternative to pigment powders.  You will also need a VersaMark pad need to make this technique work, it will act as the binder.

 Take your broken eyeshadow and break it up in to separate containers.

Stamp your paper with a stamp inked with VersaMark.  Then brush the eyeshadow over the VersaMark ink with a soft brush.  This is a close up of it.  It creates a soft sparkle. 

You can also add a border with that nail polish you have.  You know the one it's so far gone that it leaves clumps on your nails but you still keep it around.  Put it to good use before throwing that sucker away.  It won't matter about the acidity because you are using it for cards and they're temporary, so just go with it.  You will want to be sure to spray with a clear sealer to set it all.

There you have it, a makeover for your paper.  Enjoy!!

Linking up to ~

Sorry this is a rambler~McDonald's Coffee High

 Wow, it's been almost a week since I last posted.  It shouldn't seem so busy. Especially since we only have a couple kids in the daycare.  It has been really hard on my mom and I for the last couple months.   We will have parents come to look at the daycare, but we never get a call back.  I think it is for various reasons: old dog, wanting educational based care, cheaper care.  Whatever it is, we're hurting and wondering if we should even still do daycare.  My mom has been doing daycare for 20 years and I have helped her for at least 13.  I love being able to work with her because it enables me to also care for my son and also my dad's mom.  And who doesn't love working from home (or mom's home).

I have hope that my little online shop will flourish so I can really do what I love and not have to worry about not having very many kids.  And that in lies a bunch of stuff I not sure I can handle. 

I should be jumping up for joy because I finally made another sale.  But instead I felt discouraged, frustrated, and to tell you the truth plain stupid. 

I have been doing a lot of reading on entrepreneurship, Kelly's workshop, Deepak Chopra. There has been a lot of questions like, "If you could do anything, what would it be?", "What is the one main thing that's calling to you?" Or implying it's better to pick one thing to specialize in.  But thinking of just one thing makes me feel like I have Crafter's ADD. My mind jumps from one photo, scrapbook page, vintage item, sewing pattern, clay brick, paint bottle.........I could go on and on.  I wouldn't want to have it any other way.

So as far as etsy goes.  I would like my shop to be like a gift shop of sorts.  Some vintage items here, natural body products over there,  with my other crafty whatevers interspersed.

I became enamored at the possibility of making collaged canvases with the ton of ephemera I have collected over the years.  Some being images that I have cut out of various calendars/books/magazines.  But then came the issue of copyright, since I have no way of remembering who the images are from.  Granted I can just make them for myself but what fun is that.  Copyright laws are so obscure and hard to figure out anyways.  Anyone have any advise or a link to some that are easy to understand?

Lately I have been posting my business-type stuff to-do list here on Mondays as a form of accountability.

1. Practice driving!  (I know I am almost 30)
2. Change shipping on etsy.
3. Fix up shop page- policies, bio, what-nots
4. Work on website
5. Finish up tutorials

 I feel like I can babble on for days but I'll spare ya.

Hope you all have a good week!

This picture above in my take on the Echo challenge - Stripes.  You can visit the group here.

Happy 4th of July!

 I was lazy again and decided instead of getting up in the attic and finding my decorations; I would just make some.

This is very simple to make with items on hand and adapted for any holiday.  I did something similar to this for Halloween.  To make the pleated circles, take 4 pieces of paper in equal size and fold them accordion style.  Glue the strips together and then glue all the edges together in the center.  For the red crepe paper use a running stitch along the bottom.  Next you want to gather and pleat the crepe paper and sew the ends together.  Glue on to your pleated paper circle.  I had these vintage Americana milk caps.  They were perfect to finish it off.  I added a little ruffle of white crepe paper and glued it all together.  I glued all the ribbon with Fabri-Tac.  I added the feathers to honor our Native American ancestors since our land was their's first. 

 

The pic's aren't the best.  I swear my camera's begging me to get a better one.  

Linking up to the wonderful weekly wrap up at  

Better Homes and Gardens makes it so easy

They share some super easy ideas here. I love the side table they made out of an old ladder and frame and I have to make a butterfly canvas like the one the have here. The boys wouldn't like it, but I would.

A Home Decor Makeover with Crafts

Well, here it is almost the end of May...

I swear the months go by way too fast.  I wanted to share this picture I took while waiting at a red light on the way to a winery we went hiking at.  Doesn't the cloud look like an airplane or space shuttle?
Crazy, huh?

I have been working on at lot of crafty things, lately.  I made this Dream keeper out of a little box I found left for garbage at the flea market.  It was this~

Then I glammed it up.  I just love the way it turned out.  I was taking pics to post when I noticed that my first dream might come true.  On June 4th I find out if Schmaps Guide to San Francisco wants to feature one of my photos in their magazine.  This project is inspired by two workshops I am in. The Artistic Mother's vision statement banner and the Mondo Beyondo workshop I am in is about finding and realizing your dreams.  I needed something smaller than the vision statement banner because of limited space and wanted something I can tuck away when needed.  I used mostly Prima for this.  The paper is their watercolor paper, and the feather bouquet is one of their pin bouquets.  I went a little psycho with the Stickles I must admit.  I finally got my hands on some Creative Imaginations Mini Foil kits, so I used it around all the edges.  When I went to the scrapbook store they told me they would give it to me for 50% because it was missing the sticky sheet.  Um, okay. When I was putting everything away I noticed it said "free sticky sheet included"  They gave me 50% off when the item missing was free anyways.  I love when that happens.

I also made this really cute frame, in the Artistic Mother they use little inchies which make for a darling frame.  I got the frame for a dollar at Michaels.  I first painted it with a tan color.  Then used a custom creamy beige color for the top coat, then sanded the edges so some of the bottom coat can be seen.  I used my Martha Stewart postal stamp punch instead of cutting out squares.  Glued them on, used some assorted pastels on the edges then mod podged it with the Shimmer color which added a gold tint.  Turned out very cute for a dollar frame.

I am a bad daughter and didn't get anything for my mom on mother's day so I made her this walling hanging using this adorable photo of my great-great grandma Lulu and my great grandma Dee.  My grandma Dee is 96, last week she was hospitalized for having a  minor heart attack.  Come to find out her artery was 90% obstructed.  Despite that, she was begging the doc to let her out because she needed to go play cards.

I love how the Tim Holtz crackle paint looks on it.  I accentuated the cracks with his distress ink.  Fun times.  When I am having good mojo on my paper crafts, my photo editing projects usually lack.  But I was able to process a couple that I was happy enough with.

Hope everyone had or is having a good weekend!

Make sure to check out my giveaway~

~Giveaway - Yeah!

I am doing a giveaway, since it is the cool thing to do nowadays.  My brother claims it is shameless self-promotion - but, hey I call it good fun.  From now until June 15th 12:00am PST comment here for 1 entry.  For the second entry you have to become a follower of my blog then post back here again.  The winner will be announced June 17th at 12:00pm.  I will ship world wide depending on where the winner lives.  It includes vintage: book pages, milk caps, buttons, labels, photos, game cards, a greeting card, and a stamp.  Plus a while you were out memo paper, carnival tickets, shells, a doily, a Mucha illustration, Cavallini & Co stickers, a lace flower, a remember stamp,  a today stamp, a butterfly and a ornament I made out of a vintage chandelier crystal.

Well, my hopes of submitting to Stampington were dashed.  I waited till the last minute.  8:30pm rolls around and I am a scatterbrain trying to figure out what to type as Chris is distracting me by claiming, "Come on we still have to go to Target."  "I thought you wanted to go to Target."  " Aren't you done yet!"  Yeah I was frustrated and near tears.  That seems to be happening a lot lately.  And as soon as I hit the send button, I noticed a mistake in the first sentence.   Thanks Chris.

Kiah and I walked to a couple garage sales yesterday.  I got a ton of vintage craft supplies: buttons, trim, Holly Hobby appliques, fabric, scarves, and fabric transfers.  I also got this cute shoe kit where you can make your own shoes.  It is called the Suburban Gypsies Shoe Kit.  Isn't it cute.