Now, back to the cards...

a new wedding card, a thinking of you, a birthday card...

It's a beautiful day!

Sunshine, blue skies, puffy white clouds...and inside peace and quiet!! There are advantages to having days alone...no real pressure to "do"...although I do need to get moving on these cards! But first I have to share some updated photoes of my jonny Angel...such a big boy now! He's 9 months old and quite sure he runs things in this family LOL!He sure does at Gramma's house, anyway!!

So much for that...

All those great intentions I had of keeping up with my blog seem to have fallen by the wayside, yet here I am again! Life has a way of running away with us sometimes...until we remember how to put the brakes on!

In the big gap between my last post and now, I have launched a new venture. I have decided to muster up the courage to make my greetings cards and offer them for sale! They have been well received so far, so I am going to put up some pictures here on my blog and offer them to all who will look and feel the need to own a few :):). I am offering sets of cards...buyer's choice of assortments or all one kind. And even though it's still "only" August, orders for Christmas cards are welcome...the sooner the better!!

Prices are $20.00.doz...3 doz or more receives a 15% discount...plus shipping.

In the next few days

I plan to show you a few fun crafts I have learned over the years...simple things like altered keys...we all have those old obsolete keys laying around, so why not make something pretty out of them? And it is easy and fun to embellish simple hairclips to cordinate with a certain outfit or holiday. And clay pots make so many different things...how about a Christmas tree? So stay tuned...meanwhile maybe I'll figure out this slideshow thing!!!

It's Monday yet again...

Well it's back to work today...the only downside to a 3-day weekend!! But funny how that mortgage has to be paid...

The sun is shining bright and there are two little birds drinking and bathing in the bubbler fountain out front...

I hope you all have a wonderful day and a productive week. I'm trying very hard to push past this creative block in my head...I guess we all face it at one time or another...just soldier on LOL!

Well I'm hoping to eventually figure out how to insert a slideshow of my work into this blog...so far my repeated efforts have been...shall we say...fruitless !! :):) SO I will keep trying...in the meantime I'll post a few pics of some older pieces I did in polymer clay. it's such a fascinating medium to work with!

happy 5th!!!!

I'm hoping everyone had a great 4th of July holiday...aside from being a time shared with family and friends, it is such an important reminder to be grateful for this amazing country God has given us. We are so blessed!

We had a fun day...Derek (my youngest) and I were off to see the new Transformers movie...awesome! And since he is making a career in film and i am following along, it can count as research !!! then it was home to cook out with family...especially my scrumptious little grandson!!...and watch some awesome fireworks in the front, set off by the baby's dad and uncle!

A disappearing act

...so much of life has gotten in the way since last I posted...I really need to try to be more faithful but sometimes that great big hand seems to hold me under. Fortunately and even bigger Hand holds me up...I'm so sorry I forget that at times, but He is ever faithful in spite of me!! So i will do my best to press onward and upward and come back to doing my job!!

So, now...about this TWILIGHT thing...

maybe because after months...YEARS, it seems!!...I finally got my hands on "Breaking Dawn".I am indeed a Twilight addict...I read the first 3 books in a week, way before Christmas, so I had to wait way too long for my final fix. :):)Stephenie Meyer is an amazing writer...it is such easy reading that you never realize how much you read at a sitting...you just want to keep going and see what's around the next corner. If she writes 10 more I'm there!!! Maybe I swim against the tide, but I have always been partial to Jacob...how about you?

My BFFF Petrie

I can't go long without sharing my BFFF Petrie...no, that isn't too many F's...he is my Best Furry Friend Forever! He is my shadow, my baby, my protector, my comforter...all the things a 4-legged, flop-eared, brown-eyed,hairy, polkadot guy should be, and we are devoted to each other. So I was scared to pieces the night about 3 weeks ago when he suddenly couldn't hardly get his rear end up off the floor, could hardly walk,couldn't jump up on his favorite chair, or do ANYTHING much but lay there and look at me with those pleading brown eyes asking mommy "what's wrong with me? It hurts!" Now mind you, he is only 4 years old...not an old guy...and this came on out of nowhere in the middle of the night. After a day of this, my two wonderful awesome sons took him to the 24 hr animal hospital, knowing their mom was freaking out JUST A BIT (and they love him too). Two prescriptions and a lot of dollars later they brought him home and the verdict seemed to be a pulled muscle or pinched nerve in his back. After a week or so of enforced "lie down and don't move", all the pills, and LOTS of love and hugs and kisses, he is now back to his bouncy, jumpy, hyper, ADD-dogness and I AM SO GRATEFUL TO GOD!!!!

Being a Bunco Babe

Anyone out there play Bunco? What an amazing excuse to be totally silly, playing a basically pointless game, stress-free...and maybe win a neat prize here and there!!!!! I so look forward to Bunco night...we have them once a month, rotating between homes. It is so liberating to have a perfectly "reasonable reason" to do something meant only to be fun and thoughtless and a time to be with friends and bond!! And a little scream of "BUNCO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" here and there is very good too...don't men have their "male bonding" times where they go into the woods and howl or something ? :)

Winter musings

Cold...warm...colder...warm...cold...colder...around here, winter can never make up it's mind from one day to the next!! This is the "high desert"...but this desert got its share of snow this year...comparatively speaking of course!! I enjoy a good snow and a cold winter, at least a "New Mexico" cold...but come Feb. 1 I am ready to move on to spring. We have navigated our way through 3 seasons now in our new and changed family structure, and done so somewhat successfully. We have conquered bills, holidays, birth, pet illness, shortened job hours, loneliness,redecorating, car issues, income tax...made new friends, begun new challenges, determined to forge ahead in our new lives. God has never left us alone for an instant...never let us down. So onward to the new life we have been given...along the twisty road we go!!

Creating something out of something else...

or making lemonade out of old discarded lemons! It's really rewarding to take an old slab of wood and with a torn piece of scrapbook paper and a photo aged at the edges, to create a neat-looking picture that is far more appealing than a photo in a frame (though it does depend a lot on the subject of the photo :):)!!) Or use the same slab of wood, add a bird's nest, some silk leaves and little birds, and you have a sweet little naturescape that looks real.
For me the reward is not always just in the results, but in the process and in how far out of the box I went to get those results. That's why I tend to avoid premade scrapbooking kits...if it's all there for you and all you do is stick it together, then who actually created it?

This is a Harley Davidson clock I made awhile back. I truly love recycling CD's into fun stuff! It is primarily polymer clay on a wood base, with a few scrapbooking embellishments thrown in for good measure!

Even the cover is fun!!

Lots of people love to journal...it gives them a release and a way to compose and pour out their thoughts and feelings. Being a bit of a different sort, I find myself drawn more to expressing myself on the OUTSIDE of the journal...personalizing it on the covers.

A cozy corner

I was just thinking today how my crafting corner... not a CRAFT ROOM, you notice, since it is actually my living room...(see the background? Thank Heaven for plastic drawers!!!!)has become my safe haven of sorts. My computer also resides there, so it has become the place I spend most of my at-home time. ( Yes, I do laundry and stuff every so often too!!) But even when my hands are still and no crafting is being done, it is still my favorite place to be...my "comfort zone".