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Sunday, January 30, 2011

Weekly Challenge over at Brave Girls club, and a little crafting...


Y'all know I've been busy with Brave Girl's Club, taking the online workshop "Soul Restoration."  I have to say that the best part of this has been the community of women that I've found.... immensely talented, deeply motivated, and full of caring for each other.  I've been heavily participating in The "What is your challenge" group, which encourages us to make a weekly challenge and stick to it... I've managed to clean my desk (and keep it that way) the bedside table and built in bookshelf by the bed, the nook shelf, and am now beginning on the craft room floor.   I am so loaded down with stuff that I'm overwhelmed by the mess, but I'm making a little bit of progress each week  and nothing feels better than getting a grip on this mess... well, not a lot feels better.  One of the women I've met here runs a nonprofit that supports Birth mothers... and she is a pretty amazing young woman.  Her organization gives going home baskets to birth mothers, and I am donating some journals for her baskets. Blessings in a Basket is a really neat organization and I encourage to check it out.   I love making books, whether completely by hand or altering prestructured ones, so this gives me a great creative outlet and lets me place my books in the hands of people who really will enjoy having them.   Here are the two I made this week:  
"discover" journal
Cherry Blossoms journal




Hope y'all are busy making something beautiful... whether with your hands or in your hearts.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Ten things you might not know about me (and will probably still wish you didn't)

Hmm...  Was just spending time over at Christy Tomlinson's blog and she has a 10 things post that she challenged her readers to do as well... Now... I'm not near as talented as Christy and this will be a much shorter 10 list, and I'm not even sure ten people read this anymore...  but here goes:

1. I love horror novels...  love them... would hate to tell you how many nights I simply didn't sleep because I wanted to finish reading a book!

2. I once lost so much weight (from a size 12 to a size four) that I couldn't adjust my body image to my actual body size.  I had to go shopping with someone because I could not pick out clothes that would fit. 

3. Paper crafting was not my first love... I used to really love to paint and draw and sew...  I made my own clothes, painted huge abstract canvases and drew murals for my school and our local haunted house.

4.  Deep down, I think you are a way better person than I am.

5.  I am physically disturbed by the sound of ripping fabric... It makes my throat close up and I feel as though I cannot breathe.

6.  I prefer night to day but I am more a morning person.

7.  I was adopted before I was born, but did not get to live with my new family until two and half months after I was born.

8.  I never use the last of anything-- I won't eat the last cookie, take the last soda, throw out the little remainder piece of ribbon...

9.  I do believe that people are good and kind and yet, I do not believe that all people are.

10. I survived Hurricane Katrina and have never been the same.


So... that's the ten things that come to mind without thinking about them...   10 lists are actually a great way to get yourself writing, out of a rut, into a new way of seeing, and for cataloguing memories...  Make yourself one...
10 things I'd like to learn
10 things i wish I'd never said
10 things I believe about myself that aren't true...
you pick... share if you want.. or get yourself a nifty journal and write them down... 

hope you're making something beautful...

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Soul Restoration thus far...

Hey there... I'm plodding through the Soul Restoration curriculum.  I am behind on every project.  I am not getting my journalling done and I'm thinking... "wow... haven't I done all this work before? why am I doing it again?"   The answer to that being, of course, simple and obvious...because something in me got broken, again.  the course is wonderful, but what I'm enjoying most is the community of women I have gotten a chance to meet.  Fragile, gentle, brave and caring... and oh my goodness--- out-of-the-box talented.    I'll be posting links to some of their blogs soon... because I really think you'll enjoy seeing their work, and getting to know them through their posts and art.  I am struggling with my common demons of too little space, too little time and an overwhelming sense of guilt about taking time for me to create and explore.  The getting back to me has always been a rough clearing of things in my way and I think it's a project better suited for bulldozers and wrecking balls than pruning shears or even chain saws.  I get overgrown... and there's all these little slapped together partial structures... I know I'm still in here... I can hear her... I just don't see the path yet.   There was one, for a very long time... so that it would always be easy for me to get back to the place where I am most me...  but the stuff in my life has spilled into the inside of me and made the journey a fair adventure instead of an easy walk.  Notice that I said "stuff" and not junk... because it's not just the piles of things that I have to deal with that have crowded me out... it is my job, it is the relationships with others, it is the fact that I am having a really hard time keeping things organized in my head...  Habits... that's what it is... habits... So creating new ones or returning to old ones that were successful for me are what I'm learning to do.  

Sunday, January 9, 2011

An Organized Life...

Gods... I hate cleaning... I hate organizing... and I hate sorting things. But I LOVE the end result. I have been busy trying to clear the landslide that has become my desk and the surrounding four feet... and I've managed to make enough progress that I can actually see some of the surface of my desk. And I can open the filing cabinet drawers... If I were Brave, I'd post a picture of the mess that this was when I started and the mess it still is after about three hours of work... and hopefully the mess it no longer is after I'm finished. What I need though is the ability to then keep it clean and organized. It is so easy for me to create another pile... say "Oh, I"ll put that away later" and the next thing you know... LAST YEAR's Christmas cards are still on my desk... Plodding away but one step at a time, and I'm sure I"ll get there. It's one of my goals for this year... get and STAY organized.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Alright... Here I am...

By gods, I've been away from this for too long. I have the same excuses everyone does... I'm busy, I'm tired, I'm stressed. I have a job, I have a toddler. But let's cut to the quick... if I'm not here, which means I'm not creating, I'm not really me, either. I get excited about new paper, looking at other people's creations, helping people create, see in a new way, do in a new way, and get in touch with what matters to them in a creative sense... thing is, I haven't been doing that for me lately which makes me crabby, anxious and exhausted. ENTER: www.bravegirlsclub.com where I'll soon be taking their online workshop Soul Restoration. It is a six week course on getting back in touch and getting creative and I so need a community right now. I won the course over at www.christytomlinson.typepad.com and couldn't possibly be happier. I've been buying supplies, ordering prints, reading blogs, but not getting anything done... my stash has outgrown my three craft spaces, my desk and craftroom are unusable due to clutter and the precariously perched stacks of stuff. I know that what I love doing is making books... journals, mini-albums, thought books, and I know that it fills my soul to not only make them but to write in them and create art in them. A friend of mine posted a great facebook message which I have attached myself to and I'm going to put it out for you here... http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1353128548#!/profile.php?id=1353128548&v=wall...
and I'll extend the same invitation here... the first five people to leave a comment will receive something handmade by me, but you must post this on your website/blog/facebook page and send out your own handmade gifts. When you comment, please leave me some sort of contact info so that I may get a message to you in private for a mailing address. I am feeling that I have to create again, which is great, but also means that I haven't been doing it enough lately. I've been struggling with getting organized and narrowing down what I want to be making. Slowly but surely, space is appearing in my craft room and I do know that books is what I want to be making. So... I consider this a sucessful start to my 42nd year... an idea, a class to help me get in touch with me again, and a few goals.
here I am...