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.