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!

~

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!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend!  We went hiking in a couple local areas over the weekend.  It was nice to get out of the city for a while.  Kiah hates to go anywhere that is out of a 5 mile radius because he gets car sick.  So we took his cousin along to keep him company.

It was quite a hike to get to the swimming hole.  But this is the swimming hole of swimming holes.  It is called the Garden of Eden because the Mount Harmon boys used to swim here naked.  I didn't like having to hike along side the railroad tracks with two kids in tow.  Thankfully the train didn't come by.  The kids had a huge pool to themselves.

Then to the other side there was this huge rock they could jump off of.

We got there about 5pm and by that time everyone was heading back up the trail.  There were only a few sets of people down there while we were there.  Which was nice, I hate to be in crowds of people.

The day before that Chris and I had gone hiking at a local hiking trail.  I don't think I sweat that hard in a long time.  It was quite the work-out.  At least I can say I exercised.

Besides that I have been trying not to focus on our financial state, working on a couple things for a Stampington & Co submission, trying to keep Kiah off of video games, and praying my sister gets better quick. 

I was so excited the other day when one of my photos made it to explore on Flickr.

This week I am not going to do my to-do list since everything is pretty much the same as the last weeks.  Once Kiah starts school again a couple of weeks I hope to be better at getting things done.  Yeah, yeah that's what they all say.

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.

Allowing yourself to follow your heart........

Amazing things do happen when you follow your heart.  Sometimes I get stuck in a negative thinking pattern: worrying about not doing things perfectly, stepping on peoples toes, getting drained by making sure everyone else is happy while I am screaming inside.  I am wholeheartedly going to try to change my thought pattern.  Kelly Rae Robert's class has opened my eyes to the empowerment I have inside me.  I have also been reading the book Small Change Little Things Make a Big Difference  by Susan Terkel.  Which reminded me of about the Law of Inertia: objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay rest.  Small changes are better than no change at all.  Get movin' so I can stay movin'.

So after another frustrating family outing I came home and instead of sitting there and stewing.  I came home and created without thinking; just following my heart. I got my paints out and made a mess.  I had been saving this canvas for years waiting for the perfect moment.  I was intimidated to start because I had never painted on canvas before.  I didn't even know where to start.  I just did and watched in wonderment.  I enjoyed feeling the freedom of just being true to myself.  It came out exactly how I wanted it to, so far.  I still have the gluing to do.  That is always my most dreaded step.  This time, instead of fretting that it wont look exactly how I planned, I will be exhilarated that I accomplished my first canvas.

While Kiah and I were walking to my mom's the other day we saw a hawk.  I always get excited when I see one because I totally believe in Native American animal spirits and love the hawk's message.

excerpt from http://www.animaltotem.com

Hawks piercing shriek tears through the air. In its shrill cry lies an important message which represents illumination. Hawk teaches us to scope out the situation and focus on our talents, trying to draw them out. Hawk learns to see the big picture in order to understand the past, present, and future. Hawk asks us to be observant of surroundings so we won't get distracted from our path by others. It also reminds us not to get caught up in minor annoyances so we can maintain our inner balance.

Chris' opinion was published in our local news paper and Kiah had a minor part in a movie yesterday.  So it was an exciting day for them.

This week my goals are to:

Finish my canvas
Post a new item on etsy
Catch up on Kelly Rae's class
take some pics.

Not to much; I don't want to overload myself.  Small steps!

Hope everyone has a nice week!