I made this

Yesterday I whipped up this simple blog banner for my bestie Joleen's, reactivated blog. Yay! I have missed her blogging so I am excited to know that it is back in action.

Speaking of back in action. I have been pretty busy with bloggy stuff behind the scenes here. I have been working with Jenn on her spiffing up her blog and I am excited that my new Brave Girl friend Kathy is having me redo her blog too (its not up yet). Their styles are all so different from each other, its fun to stretch in different artistic directions.

Today finally felt like summer. School is out, it was warm and we hot the pool with friends. I got a little sunburnt even though I was sitting in the shade. It was great! Looking forward to many more days like today. Happy Summer....

battle of the blogs

I have been trying to get my blog back.. its been so weird as I have been doing some sprucing up over at Jennifer's blog and now Safari will NOT LET ME LOG OUT. Its been doing this for two days. Before that they locked Jenn OUT. I thought we'd have to swap blogs there for a minute.

I have tried all kinds of ways to get logged out of her blog, and it it keeps tossing me back in there. I finally had to use my FireFox browser and it allowed me to blog over at Garlic Festival and here. Yay!

One of the things I have been wanting to share is some of my Truth Cards, which is part of the assignments from Brave Girls Club Soul Restoration class. I have to admit I have fallen quite behind in my assignments but I am trudging along slowly and the best thing that has happened is that a small handful of us participants have set up a private Facebook "Brave Girls" group. We feel very safe there and free to open up and rant and not edit our feelings while knowing we can get good feedback and support in a SAFE environment. If that is the only thing I take away from this, it will be worth it!

Anyway, here is one of my cards, I have a whole big stack for myself and a few swaps. This card is particularly pertinent to me today.. the part about forgiving myself. I had a bad Weight Watchers week and a little tiff with my hub and I am feeling sorry for myself and frustrated. I know its all on me so I am working on letting it go and starting over fresh today. I can do it!!

If I don't get back here before the weekend, hope everyone has a GREAT holiday weekend. :)

CA here we come

right back where we started from...

Hi Gang,

Tomorrow is the day we return home from our week long adventure to Oklahoma to visit with Donna and her family and Holly and hers. It is so beautiful here, very different from CA and very HOT. Apparently this week was breaking all kinds of heat records.. figures. At least it wasn't so humid. The kids stayed up late most nights and ventured out to play in the evenings when they could run around and not pass out of heat exhaustion.

I have been VERY bad at taking pictures and the three of us have been so lame and busy talking, sharing and visiting that we failed to get any pictures of the three of us together that Donna will let us share. Shown is proof that Holly & I did in fact meet and to my left is Donna's shoulder. I haven't got internet access out here so I am having to use images stolen from Donna. The pictures that I did take are largely of random weird things like kittens (they have 4), 5 year olds (there are 2) and Donna's wallpaper (she has lots) . I will be sure to share what I do have and what I have picked up in our shopping excurions when I get home and unpacked. I was not very good about "buying light" and picked up some bulky things. I was fretting about how to get them home but we put out heads together and managed to get most of it packed up to carry home with one box to be picked up by Fed Ex + my tube of wallpaper from Holly & Donna to be mailed, just because it was unwieldy. Donna has been so generous sharing her wallpapers and old ephemera. Her collection is simply unbelievable. I brought gifts that I feel pale in comparison to hers so I did soem comp work for her while I was here and designed a handful of labels for her as well as an enclosure for her orders which will be professionally printed on card stock when I return home.

Speaking of Donna's generosity and amazing stash.. I finally was able to weedle her into letting me assemble a "Heather's Picks" collection of wallpapers. I chose 12 papers and gave Donna a fit by mixing flocked and non flocked papers. I gave her even MORE of a fit when she saw that one of the papers is amongst her (and my) most coveted. There are only 4 packs and several of the papers and retired from her sale pile and in her permanent hoard stash. They measure approx 8 x 10" depending on wide the roll was and my lame wallpaper cutting skills. I imagine they will appear in her Etsy shop in the next day or so, so keep your eyes peeled because there will be NO MORE of some of these papers. Once we get pix uploaded I will update this post with sneak peeks.

More on my trip, once I get home. Hope everyone is well. I am really going to miss Donna and her family but it sure will be nice to sleep in my owen bed tomorrow and Hannah is MORE than ready to see Daddy.

Happy Mother's Day

Its been pretty quiet around here lately. I guess I feel I haven't had much to share though there has been a lot going on. I just figured you all don't want to hear the gory details of my dental woes or how the kitchen plumbing got backed up during the hottest days we've had so far his year. I sometimes really MISS my blogging when i don't post for a day or so but sometimes I just need and break and at those times I am going to stand by my membership in Tiffini Elektra X's

Today however, is not one of those days. I have been really proud of myself lately. I have been keeping my muse busy and I think I have discovered that she is definitely a Use it or Lose it muse. If I get too distracted and fail to create.. some how, at least a little each day, she thinks she can run off on vacation and everything becomes a struggle again. I haven't had too much to share on my blog lately because I am working on a TOP SECRET project for a client and friend. I am having such fun working with her and giving life to her vision. It pleases me to hear how excited she is and that I am able to put on computer screen what she is envisioning in her head. The other day we talked about how badly we want to share these secrets but WAIT we must.

I was able to get my fingers sticky and dirty today when I took a much needed Mom break from the little and hid out in the studio. Daddy has been traveling a lot lately and man, 3 year olds are HARD! Anyway, I made a card for my Mom for Mother's Day. I had no idea what I wanted to do and almost caved by going to BUY one but resisted, when a package arrived from Ruth Rae!! Inside were these ATCs for a swap we did. Aren't they the coolest? And she sent me a fun birdie and nest charm too. All of the goodies were packed in these fun waxed bags she made and sewed shut. It was so hard to open them!! I am glad I did and THANK YOU Ruth!!

These lovely ATCs got my creative juices running enough to make this card for my Mom for Mother's Day and the following three for a note card swap on Speckled-Egg.

So that is about it for now. I hope my post isn't too disjointed, its kind of late and my eyes are tired. I will have more goodies up on Etsy soon. I have lots of packages packed for those who have ordered in the last couple of days and swaps but waiting for the new postage rates to kick in so I can print my postage and not have stuff returned. Ugh..

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms!!!

and the award goes to...

My sweet blog friend Lisa recently bestowed upon me this lovely blogger award:

"It is because of you that I feel bathed in light most days."

Thank you so much Lisa. This really means a lot to me.
In addition, Karin recently nominated me for the Thinking Blogger Award

which means that I am to nominate 5 more blogs that I love to share. Its a really tough decision, because I like LOTS of blogs and it seems unfair to choose just 5 but I will; though I highly encourage you to visit all the blogs in my side bar that inspire me and make me laugh. So here are my nominations, in no particular order and they may not be the blogs that make me THINK the most but really inspire me:

(edit: this had been hard and now I am behind because blogger just was NO cooperating the other day so I saved and went to bed. Now I am finishing up but a couple of my choices have been nominated already.. oh well)

1. Tracie Lynn Huskamp/ Red Door Studio- I met Tracie last year at ArtFiberFest. She was so sweet and I enjoyed chatting with her. over the past year we have kept in touch and I have participated in her Fiber ATC yahoo group, she has done things for Portals and over all we have just been friends. Recently she has lent me a hand in finishing up issue #5 of Portals while juggling her busy schedule. Great things are happening for her. Though we are close in age, she has a wisdom beyond her years and has been a great rock for me over the last month! It was so wonderful seeing her at ArtFest again where she gave me this lovely ATC she created. THANK YOU Tracie for being a friend and mentor to me. I am excited about the prospects before you!

2. Heather Bullard/Present Past Collection- "The other Heather". We have had this little running joke since Heather found me and asked me to design a blog banner for her. I feel a connection with Heather. We have similar taste and I love everything she shares on her blog. I am still hoping she will follow through on her threat to come take me flea marketing.

3. Marilyn Healey/ Outside the Lines- What can I say about Marilyn? I adore her! Not only is she so sweet and thoughtful but I LOVE her art! Seriously, I don't think I have EVER seen a piece that she has done that I have not liked. She needs to write a book!!!

4. Judy Wise- I can't really remember how I "met" Judy, it must have been through some online swap or Yahoo group. I was so lucky to MEET her in real life at ArtFest and there just wasn't enough time to soak in her enthusiastic, creative and warm energy. I hope that there will be another time that I get to spend more quality time with her. Plus, I adore her paintings!

5. Ruth Rae- Unfortunately, by the time I met Ruth Rae at ArtFest there wasn't much time for us to visit. I am so inspired by anything that Ruth does. I especially love how she layers fibers and fabrics to make everything from books to charms.

Ok, so unfortunately that ends my list though as you can see my list is long and grows longer nearly every day. I get so excited when I find a blog I want to add to my list. Hope my choices have inspired you as they inspire me...