Happy 2011 to me...

Just caught up with myself since - OMGosh! - November 2010. WTH??? Somehow (gee, I wonder) I fell that far behind. I knew I was behind, I just didn't realize it was almost 2 months worth... Took myself from 455 emails (some with several blogs combined w/in one email) down to 8.

So feeling a bit accomplished..

Speaking of accomplished, my resolution is to craft more. And blog more. At least once a week for both.

My "one little word" for 2011 is: value.

My commitment is to keep up w/my scrapbooking. I am already seveal events behind. Already. ~sigh~

I'm considering going to a scrapbooking weekend retreat in March. Should I??? It's always nice to get away but I can do anything here that I could do there, so why not save the money??? Remember, my one little word is "value," so I have some pondering to do.

Susan Tuttle's book giveaway

EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT! This book, by Susan Tuttle, is available thru Amazon (my favorite website in the whole wide web!): http://tiny.cc/zp3jg

Or you could win one (see link below).

Either way, it's a must have for me. I am so behind in this digital age - you should have seen me, just now, trying to figure out how to post the book cover picture! I'm so stressed over it, I'm sweating (it's either stress or a hot flash - I'm hoping for stress!). Ugh, I get so frustrated with myself for being behind the times. Reminds me of when I was first in the working world and computers were becoming more prominent. There were old school matrons that flat out refused to convert from the manual typewriter and I swore that would NEVER be me! I'd always stay on top of technology, always be open to learning new things, and yet, here I am - can't download songs from iTunes, can't figure out which remote turns on the TV or which one turns it off (yes, there are 2!), my satellite radio is unplugged & in the glove department because I don't know how to tune it when I lose the signal and could NOT stand the sound of static, just realized I can take a picture on my phone AND email it! I've only had the phone 3 years now...

So! With that said, I'm here to BEG to win a copy of this GREAT book and to let everyone else know about this GREAT giveaway. Here's the link - and sorry it's not "here's" underlined & in a different font so it's just one click away, but re-read the above paragraph & you'll figure out why.

~sigh~

Enjoy & GOOD LUCK: http://tiny.cc/zy259

not there yet...

Overwhelmed by my own good intentions... not a card made or a page scrapped since early Feb when I went on my weekend retreat. So much for my goal of doing a page a week and NEVER buying another card from a store again. And my idea of noting newsworthy events thru-out the year to include in my scrapping has fallen flat. Why? Cuz I forgot! Yep, sure did. How? I really have no idea. I'm a news junkie so you'd think the light bulb would have gone off at some point. Ugh. Had an ill-fated attempt at retrieving the info (it's only April, right? Shouldn't be too difficult... ha!). Googled "2010 Headlines" and got nowhere. Double ugh.

Life continues to happen so I continue to capture it. Now have so many pictures stored on the computer I had to buy an external drive (a terabyte? I never knew there was such a thing... guy says I'll never need another storage drive again but you know what? That's what they said when I got the laptop: I'd never use up all my memory. Ha! Damn liars.). Triple ugh.

Put myself on hiatus from the blogs I follow. Well, the hiatus was unintentional. What I really meant to do was put myself on a schedule to look @ them. Once a week, every Saturday. That was 2 & 1/2 months ago... I guess I kept putting it off. I just came back tonight and OMGosh!!! Sensory overload. Finally deleted & started over. Literally. I set up a separate email account just for my subscriptions and canceled under the old, resubscribed under the new (there has got to be an easier way but I just didn't want to take the time to figure that out for fear I'd lose my momentum).

So now I'm exhausted and not exactly confident my efforts are going to prove to be helpful, but at least I didn't do "nothing" as has been the case for entirely too long.

~sigh~

The time has come, the Walrus said...

173 emails awaited me... that is actually not too bad considering I had not checked them since mid-March (the 14th to be exact). On my never-ending-laundry-list-of-things-undone is to reorganize my email subscriptions. I subscribe to an abundance of crafting blogs. They're my inspiration... in my dreams, this blog will be what theirs already is.

I've had this blog for several years. Last year I invested in creating the design for it (about $150) with every intention of utilizing it more often - at least once a week was my goal. Along with working on my creative endeavors once a week, then photographing them, then posting them here and bragging incessantly of how my unique creations came to be so that my many readers (currently 1 and that would be me) can be so inspired as I am inspired by those I read...

oh, ~sigh~ I'm still not there yet!

On the positive side, my creativity hasn't stopped, and I'm quite good @ capturing it, but I'm terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE at displaying it.

And, apparently, terrible, just terrible, about keeping up with those that inspire me.

Currently, I've reduced the 173 to 119... and I'm fearful I'll just need to delete the rest and start a-fresh this week. Which, by the way, TODAY, Easter Sunday, is an EXCELLENT day to renew oneself with positivity and re-establish some goals. Thanks to some inspiring words from the great and fantastic John Schuerholz, I am in a mind frame of renewal and recommitment and optimism and hope. I may have lost my way - uh, lost my New Years Resolutions focus - but I haven't given up actually achieving all my goals. So, today I'm recommitting myself to this blog, to this part of my life - the creative side of me - and I'm getting back in the saddle (office chair), taking the reigns (laptop) and stepping out on Faith. Cannot think of a better day to come up with this decision.

self imposed restrictions

Read a blog today - wish I could reference which one! Someday I'm gonna get good @ this blogging thing - about "self imposed restrictions." I think the idea was that if we focused our efforts within parameters & guidelines, we could possibly produced the results we wanted. My mind immediately went to cards & scrapping.

I do have some, what I now recognize as, self-imposed guidelines, but sometimes I forget! It won't be until I'm done with my project that I'll say, "ooooh, you were supposed to..." very frustrating! So this year, as part of my resolutions - which include challenging myself to do 1 scrap page a week AND to make any cards I need (not buy them!) - I am imposing my (now recognized as) "self imposed guidelines" into my resolutions (which, needless to say, I've failed both already!). I realize it's not easy to change overnight so I'm not giving up on me just yet. Trying to find my mojo and totally blaming a wonderful 2-week break over the holidays for my inability to get back on track yet, here @ the end of January (almost).

BUT moving forward, I intend to follow these guidelines:

• use an inspiration but not copy
• include something handwritten
• have at least 1 hand-drawn element
• use what I have - do not buy anymore!*

* oh, yeah - another resolution already broken! ~sigh~

Baby Shower Blues

So, here we are in the THICK of the Christmas season & one of my neighbors decides to have a baby in January! Meaning, the neighborhood gathered to throw her a grand ol' baby shower TODAY. With 12 days of Christmas to go.

Now, in all honesty, I'm not complaining. It didn't dawn on me the timing was bad until I went to log my weekly shopping spree totals in the budget worksheet. I get to her receipt and realize, "this is not a Christmas gift..." and the light bulb goes off! Who the heck would plan a baby shower in mid-December?

Despite my consideration of their inconsideration, it was a great turnout, I'm happy to say - and I'm so glad I went. Although getting "there" took entirely too much effort.

By "there" I mean: clothes woes, wrapping issues and.... dare I say it?... CARD catastrophes!

Yes, that's plural. Catastrophes. Third time's a charm.

Wanted to wear jeans, ended up in slacks. Assumed I had baby wrapping paper, but didn't. Found some folded up and in the bottom of a bin - it was just enough for what I needed, but ugh. The cards... well, this is most troubling because I have MULTIPLE stamps, PILES of cardstock, INK galore and IDEAS by the file cabinet full. But when it came down to it, I had nothing. My first idea flopped because I don't have a scalloped oval punch. WTH? How did that happen? My alternative to that didn't work out because my cardstock wasn't a close enough match to my ink. My next option didn't work out with the first run but I pulled it together w/the second. And I ended up with something special, unique and quite adorable, if I do say so myself, and depressed. Yeah, you're reading that right. I was depressed at the end of the day.

I have all this stuff and can't put it together. My workspace is out-of-whack and I'm over-cluttered. The solution is on the horizon but the economy prevents us from actually acting on any renovations just yet. Meanwhile my atelier, and my creativity, sit & collect dust.

It's depressing. :(

Aaaahhh... where do I begin?

Early October marked a major change in my lifestyle - nothing drastic, but definitely major. My world, as I had been running it, stopped. I had to put the brakes on & re-evaluate how things were being managed and it's been a slow process of getting back in gear. We're not there yet. As a family we're still struggling to find the balance. I haven't hit the craft room in months and I miss it! I think about this blog everyday but finding the time to focus has been difficult. The holidays are approaching and yes, that's definitely time consuming but I'm hoping by the new year, I'll have a plan of action so that I don't have to give up ALL of me in order to have our family in a good place. Priorities...