Busy Vacation!

It has been a crazy and busy vacation week for me. Our offices at Prima were closed this week, so I got a, sort of, unexpected vacation. I’m so glad I did because not only was it much appreciated, but it was much needed!

Things with my crazy boy have not improved in the least. We went to court ordered mediation right before Christmas (the ex and I). Then, we went to our first counseling session (all three of us). Because I’m waiting for the outcome of the mediation and my court date is coming up, I don’t want to share too much publicly. Let’s just say that this was probably the hardest week of my life!

As a consequence, a good one, I spent a lot of time painting and crafting. I’ve been trying to forget about my troubles, at least temporarily, and have been losing myself in lots of Pinterest posts, painting, cooking and, of course, scrapping. Here’s a little sampling of what I’ve accomplished:

I am NOT a home decorator. I lived in my last place for over 10 years and I don’t think I ever really put anything on the walls. We’ve lived in our apartment now for 8 months and I am just now getting around to putting stuff on the walls. LOL! My husband loves my work, and he loves to see me “prettying” the house up for us. Too bad I’m a really, really, REALLY BAD decorator! My mom is so great at it. She would spend months looking for the perfect knick knack thing to decorate the house with. I just do not have the patience for it. But for a great man like my hubby, I’ll make an effort.

So, what do we have here… a collection of wedding photos highlighted by a very cool quote I saw on Pinterest. The 12×12 layout in the top left corner is one you have already seen before. I’ve had it laying around for months waiting to be framed and hung. LOL! I think it made its way around every flat surface in our apartment! The frame has been painted for about 2 months and was just waiting for me to sand it for a little distressing look. It took me all of five minutes to sand and hang it, but it seemed like such a big deal to get done. Ha!

(Please forgive the poor photo quality. I always seem to decide to take photos of my work for my blog at the darkest hour of the day!)

This is a 4×6 photo of all of my husband’s side of the family and my oldest son on our wedding day. The frame is just a $1 frame from Michaels that I’ve had for, oh… about 4 years waiting for me to do something with it. The paper covering the frame is from Prima Printery, some leftovers I had from the class I designed. The flowers are a mish mash of stuff I have in this giant drawer of loose flowers I’ve managed to collect over the years.

This is the centerpiece of the “collage.” Yeah, I know it has nothing to do with love or marriage or home or heart. However, when I saw this quote on Pinterest, I KNEW I had to paint it for myself. I need this reminder every single day. What better place to hang it but right over the TV in the main room of my home! I most definitely need to be reading this multiple times in a day!!

Not much to say here. Another 4×6 photo from my wedding. Another $1 Michaels frame that has been sitting around in the craft piles forever. More Printery leftovers… more flowers. I do have to add, though, that I really felt like this needed a little bit of charcoal help. The cream paper against the cream wall that I can’t paint was a little much, so I ran a charcoal piece around the edges and smudged it with my fingers for the shadowy effect. I’m really happy with it.

And this will fill the hole. I just finished painting the frame a really cool Patina color and am waiting for it to dry before I frame this and hang it. This is my oldest son and me at my wedding reception. My husband took this picture and it is my absolute favorite picture of the two of us! It’s just perfect. The emotion of love that I feel when I look at this image almost makes me cry. I am so very lucky to have such a wonderful kid!

Lastly, I FINALLY finished this painting. I have known what I wanted to do with this for a very long time, but I just lost the passion to finish it. I finished the background months ago and the canvas has just been sitting by my desk waiting for me to finish. I decided it was time to just get it done. I think it was so hard because it’s such a “Mother” image. With me struggling so much with the youngest, I just didn’t have it in me to finish it. Anyway, it kind of still feels like it’s missing something, so I may be revisiting it at some point. But, for now, it’s hanging in my hallway. My husband absolutely loves this painting. I’m very conflicted about it. I chose to leave it for now…

Believe it or not, I think that’s about it. I did work on my blanket quite a bit and it’s almost finished. I cooked… A LOT. It felt really good to spend some time in the kitchen making yummies for my honey. I have another smaller painting in the works, but it’s another one that is hard for me to finish, so it’s sitting by my desk half finished.

Oh, and I discovered today that I did not take one picture the entire month of December! Can you believe that? I didn’t take anything… not that I had a lot to take pictures of, but still. With my birthday and Christmas in the same month, you would think I would have SOMETHING! Ha! I’m thinking of trying for that 365 photos – a photo a day for the whole year thing. We’ll see. Yeah, I know I’d better decide soon. But, I hate feeling like I HAVE to do it because of a project, you know. Then again, I probably need some projects and structure in my creative life!!

Upcoming Classes

Boy, things have just been crazy for me lately. Along with being super busy at work, and fighting for my son, I have been sick! I think I slept the entire weekend! But, I don’t have time to be sick when there are classes coming up and court dates to attend!

Romantique Card Class

First, I will be in Poway, California for this fun card class. We will be making 5 cards in different shapes and sizes using the Prima Romantique paper line. Cool techniques will be taught and lots of laughter is sure to be had! I hope you will join me. Contact the store to sign up today!

Saturday, January 7th at 10:30am
Stamping Details
14009 Midland Road
Poway, CA
858-513-8024

Printery Layout Class

Next, I will be in Whittier, California! I’m so excited about this class using Prima’s Printery collection. We will be making 3 layouts. You can choose 2 of them for a 2 page layout and have an extra one or you can make 3 one page layouts. Any way you look at it, it’s a super deal! This class will be on a Friday night, and I believe that there will be cropping at the store afterwards. I could be wrong about that, though. Anyway, we are sure to have lots of fun.

Friday, January 13th at 7:30pm
Scraparazzi
6743 Bright Avenue
Whittier, CA
562-907-0083

I hope you can join me for at least one of these great classes!

Well, it has been a crazy weekend of crafting, and it’s not over yet! As you can see, my craft table is a complete mess, along with the house, I might add. I have been making samples and making larger projects for the Craft Fair I will be selling at next weekend. I’m really excited to see all of the fun things that have been beating around in my head for a while coming to life! But there is still so much to get done.

Here are some photos of what’s in store… (Please forgive the crappy photo quality. It’s dark now, so I had to take the photos with a flash.)

I love how this snowflake wreath turned out! Glittered snowflakes with glittery ribbon… totally screams the holidays for me.

I’m not as excited about this as I’d hoped I’d be. It’s a little lopsided, I think, but I still really like it. This was my first attempt at making something like this, so I’m really happy with how it turned out. I definitely learned some lessons and will be making some corrections on the next one.

I adore these! I wish I had bought more tinsel so that I could have made more of them! If they sell, I will definitely be going back for more tinsel to make more of them. If they don’t, they will find a nice place in my home for sure!

Glittery Christmas balls in varying sizes and colors. I wish we were planning on having a tree because I would fill mine with these. If the glue would only dry…

I’ve been wanting to do this for years. This is my take on a craft that I did at the very first Inspired that I attended. Jennifer Stewart taught this incredible class where we made a mantle piece out of cedar garden fencing. Her’s was filled with vintage finds and family photos. It was so dang cute. However, I knew as soon as I did it that I wanted to make a Christmas version of it. I have never made the time to do it, but this was the perfect chance to get it done! I made 2 versions… the one above and this one:

I am super happy with them both and will definitely be finding a place in my home for them. (I will be “accidentally” forgetting one of each at home. ha!)

But there is more to come. My amazing husband helped me make a template for some Christmas village houses. I found some really high quality chipboard in my stash and he will be cutting the houses out for me tomorrow. I’ll be working on those tomorrow night. I’ve also got a couple of frame ideas, but those may not get done. Oh… and I found an apron that I had completed last year that is especially for Christmas! And of course, I couldn’t go to a Christmas craft fair without some cards and gift tags in tow. I have ideas for those… just need to have about 400 more hours to get it all done this week!

The craft fair will be in Corona, California at Calvary Chapel Living Water – 1065 Railroad Street. It will be from 9am – 12pm. What doesn’t sell there will be listed in my Etsy when I return. You can see information about the craft fair here.

Ok… back to it!! Lots to get done…

Crazy Week…

Well, last week was just crazy and I didn’t get to make my Sunday update. Thanksgiving was good, but without my sons with me, it felt a little empty. Don’t get me wrong, I had an amazing weekend with my husband. It was very relaxing and peaceful. I just missed my boys.

Patrick and his girlfriend did come over to visit for a while on Saturday, and that was really nice.

But the youngest boy would not come. I did speak with him on the phone for a bit, which basically reinforced my opinion that Operation: This Mother’s Love is still a good idea.

That being said, I did work on some crafting goodies over the weekend. I was able to finish the apron I’ve been working on forever.

I’m super happy with the way it turned out. I can’t wait to hear what the girl who bought it thinks. I hope she likes it as much as I do. After I posted a photo of it on my Facebook page, I got some comments that made me think I should possibly make a few more of these. So, what I’ve done is listed it on my Etsy shop as a custom order. Basically, if you are interested in buying one, you will need to pre-pay for it. I will be making them to order. They take about two weeks to complete, but they are worth the wait. If you are interested in one, check it out in my shop!

I’m also excited to announce that I will be participating in my first craft show! It’s a small one that my church is holding, but it will be the first time that I do anything like this. So, I will be crafting away for the next couple of weeks. The craft show will be held in Corona, California. You can read more of the details here. It will be on Saturday, December 10th from 9am – 12pm. It should be a lot of fun. I’ll definitely be sharing photos of some of my goodies in advance!

Alrighty… of for more crafting… uh, and to make dinner for my hubby! Have a great week!

Here’s another one of my favorite photos. This was taken in December 2009. I think it perfectly depicts what it is like living with 2 teenage boys. We were setting up the Christmas tree and I gave the camera to my oldest son, Patrick. This is one of the photos that he took that night. It makes me laugh every time I see it. Patrick is now 20 years old. He is an incredible kid. He’s in college, has a full time job and just got his driver’s license! I cannot tell you how incredibly proud I am of him.

Donovan is there in the background. He’s an amazing kid as well… when he wants to be. This last year has really done a number on him, as it would for any teenager in his situation. He is angry… really angry. He spends most of the time, when he actually accepts my phone calls, blaming me for all of the wrongs in his life. I have tried to reason with him many times with no success. My hopes through all of this is that he will get into counseling and once again remember how very much I love him.

But I digress… Here’s what’s been going on around here lately:

Lots and lots of supplies hanging around waiting for new homes. We have raised over $400 in less than a week! You guys are absolutely amazing. I really do not know how to thank you enough. We are almost a quarter of the way there and I’m feeling really encouraged that I will be able to get my time with my son back soon!

I’ve also been working on this:

I think I have all of the difficult elements done now for the apron I’ve been working on. Now I just need to spend some time with the sewing machine! YIKES! If any of you know me well, you know that the sewing machine and I have a very tumultuous relationship. Just the sound of a sewing machine running can give me the hives! Ha! Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating just a bit, but I will never claim to be a good seamstress. Thank goodness I only need to make a few straight stitches with the machine. Everything else will be hand sewn. I’m really excited to see this finished, though. I hope that the person who bought it will love it as much as I love mine! I’m pretty sure she will!

Anyway, I’m taking the rest of the night off! I need to get a little R&R before I head back to work tomorrow. Hooray for a 3 day work week!! So looking forward to some quality time with my hubby this weekend… since the little one won’t be making it for Thanksgiving. I thank God everyday for my biggest supporter…

Isn’t he cute? I really don’t know how I would get through this mess without him!

Please remember to keep sharing my blog with everyone you know. I know that I only have so many friends and that you all can only do so much. But I also know that there are so many scrappers and card makers out there. You never know who might be looking for a particular supply that I might have listed. They say it takes a village to raise a child. I’m going to need lots of villages to help me win the right to raise a child! Here are the links to my Etsy store and my Ebay listings again:

Etsy
Ebay

All of my thanks for the love you have shown to me!

Operation: This Mother’s Love Continues…

This picture cracks me up! This boy is so much fun to be around when he is in a good mood. This was taken after I was first separated from the ex on a laundry day. He and I were living alone together (my oldest had moved out already) and Donovan and I did just about everything together… when he wasn’t stuck on his computer, that is.

Anyway, I’ve just spent my morning and afternoon getting supplies together and listing them in various places. As I’ve said, I’ve raised over $300 so far, which is totally awesome! I’m just a bit closer to raising the $2500 I need to retain the lawyer. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the goodies that have been listed:

I should have listed everything on ebay! After listing the paper packs in my Etsy shop, I decided that I wanted to list my stamps on Ebay for a little more exposure. I didn’t realize that the buy it now option is free right now! Oh well. I should have listened to the kind girl who emailed me!! Dummy… Ha! Anyway, here are the links to the two sets of listings:

Ebay
Etsy

I’m so excited to say that I have sold almost everything that I posted originally, and even sold the apron that I’ve been working on! I got an offer from a friend to purchase the apron sight unseen! I was stumped, shocked and speechless! What an amazing person she is! So, I’m off to get that finished. As for the Copics… I still have not heard back from my friend at work. I’ve sent her an email and am waiting to see if she wants all of them. As soon as I know, I will be sure to post something.

One last thing that I’m adding the the Etsy shop now…

I’m sure that there will be more to come! Hope you all are having a great weekend. Please remember to share my blog and my links with everyone that you know! You never know who may be looking for scrapbooking supplies…. including those who may be looking for gift ideas for you!

A Quick Update from my phone

I don’t think that I could properly express my amazement and gratitude in words. Operation: This Mother’s Love is in full swing and I have already raised over $300 thanks to all of you! I have lots more goodies to list including Copic markers, a garden apron, a painting, more papers, rubber stamps…

I spent the evening tonight trying to finish the apron, but I just ran out of steam. I really wanted to get it done tonight, and I made some good headway, but the traffic getting home tonight was awful and I didn’t get home from work until almost 7pm!

A very, very special thank you to those who have been able to help. Your generosity is overwhelming. And to all of you who have shared your incredible stories of strength, endurance and difficulty… You are all amazing! I have truly been touched.

Keep sharing my story and link to my shop, please. We are well on our way and I am one step closer to having my son back in my life again… All because of you. Thank you so much, from the very bottom of my heart!!

Operation: This Mother’s Love

I need your help!

This is my youngest son, Donovan.

This picture of Donovan was taken almost exactly 3 years ago, when things were a quite a bit better in his life. It was taken at Disney World on one of our family vacations. I absolutely adore this picture of him.

This is a picture that my husband took of us earlier this year… in April to be exact. This is pretty much the last time I have had the opportunity to see him in the last 7 months. I’ve spoken to him on the phone several times and have caught him on Facebook to chat. But, I have not had any real time with him since this photo was taken.

It’s time that things changed…

Here’s my story in a nutshell. Almost 2 years ago, I discovered that my ex-husband was cheating on me… again! He met a girl on the internet who lives in Canada. I won’t go into all of the gory details of that. Needless to say, I left him after 17 years together. Some of you may know this, some of you may not. I struggled… a lot! I didn’t have a job or a place to go. I moved in to my brother’s house for a short time. Needless to say, it has been a very hard year and a half for my son.

At Christmas time last year, I met my future husband. I didn’t expect it. It came out of the blue when I was at my very lowest point ever. We had, what you would call, a whirlwind romance and were married in June. Before my husband and I got married, we moved in together. My son had a very hard time with this. He did not like the area I was moving to. He didn’t like my soon to be husband. He was really struggling and feeling like I was choosing my new husband over him… despite the many, many attempts by me to assure him that he is still the number one important person in my life.

After the move, my son came to visit me two times. He very quickly decided that he didn’t like it here and that he did not like me anymore. He told his father that he didn’t want to visit me anymore. Although I continued to call and ask him to come over, he would not agree to come. His father told him (and me) that he would not “force” him to come and visit me. By the way, I have 47% custody of my son.

Now, after months of this going on, my ex-husband has informed me that he will be marrying the girl from Canada and he wants my permission to take my son with him to Canada. I have been struggling with this decision for about a month now. I have been feeling so hopeless and out of control. My son hates me. My ex doesn’t allow me the visitation time I’m allowed to have. I really didn’t know what to do. I was all ready to sign the papers to let him go… until my ex-husband decided that he would not allow me to have my son for Thanksgiving. That was the straw that broke this camel’s back!

Enter Operation: This Mother’s Love. I spent the entire day today on the phone with the courts, on the phone with paralegals and visiting an attorney. Low and behold, there is a lot more I can do than I ever thought… for a fee, of course. Here is where I need your help. The attorney that we spoke to is a trusted family friend. I know that he will represent me in the absolute best way possible. However, it is his job, and there are fees involved. I need to raise $2500 as quickly as possible for the retainer fee. There are other fees involved, but I will just have to take that as it comes. For now, I need to raise as much money as I can so that I can get some papers filed quickly.

I’ve just spent the entire evening with my husband wading through my mounds of scrapbook supplies. I have way more than I will ever need and I need to save my relationship with my son. I have listed 18 items in my Etsy shop tonight. There will be lots more to come. For now, I’ve listed some coordinating paper packs with some embellishments. The prices are low and the kits are full of yummy goodness. (and for those who question all of my Prima goodies, I have purchased everything that is listed myself… at retail prices. Most of it I bought over the years working at scrapbook stores, some of it was purchased at the parking lot sales. I assure you, this is on the up and up…) ALL money collected from these sales will be going to my attorney, so it’s for a good cause.

I’m so sorry to put this out there. It’s ugly and I’ve tried to be as discreet about it as possible. That being said, I would appreciate any help you can provide. Please share this post with your friends. Please share my Etsy store with them as well. I am desperate and will do just about anything at this point to save my relationship with my beautiful boy.

Thank you…

Sunday Update

What a great weekend I just had! After a little over a year, I FINALLY was able to get the rest of my craft supplies back from my brother. After my separation, I spent some time living with my brother until I could get on my own two feet. I took all of my craft supplies with me to his house and when I moved out, I took as much as I could load. There has been one last load of supplies sitting in his garage for the last year. Man, is it good to have that stuff back! My brother and his wife are saints for letting me store my stuff there for so long. They never complained… not even one time! I’m not sure I would have had that kind of patience! Ha!

But, it’s amazing to me how much stuff I had left over there. So much of it were things I thought I had lost forever. My husband was laughing at me as I would find new, fun things in the boxes. It took me most of the day today, but i have it all organized and stored in the appropriate places. My husband was so wonderful through it all. He packed and unpacked boxes, lugged stuff out to the garage and moved things around in the house so that I could have all of my stuff easily at hand. How can you not love a man who supports your crafting life in that way?

Needless to say, I didn’t have a whole lot of time for actual crafting this weekend. I did manage to do a couple of things…

As you may know, I have really taken up crocheting lately. It’s such an easy craft to do while watching a movie with my husband, riding in the car, or on my lunch break at work. The projects just travel so easily. One of the things I have always loved is vintage doilies. They are so beautiful, but can be pricey and hard to find. So, I decided that I would just start making my own. The photo above is my first attempt. Let’s just say that it’s not easy… at all! At least not for these big, clumsy hands. Not to mention that I can’t seem to keep my count very well. I think I crocheted each round in this one at least two times, if not three! I also discovered that crocheting with a tiny size 7 needle with thin thread while driving in a car is not easy AT ALL! Being jostled around over all of the bumps and turns certainly does not make for ideal detail crocheting conditions! But, I pulled it off and I absolutely love it! I’m hoping to pick up some speed and pump a few of these babies out to add to my Etsy shop. We’ll see…

I also managed to get this painted…

This started out as a dark wood frame. It still needs another coat of paint, but I’m really loving the direction it’s going in. I plan on making this a beautiful shabby chic frame for one of my wedding layouts. I just ran out of steam to get it finished tonight. I’m hoping to get it finished this week after work, but, again, we’ll see what happens. I tend to be quite wiped out by the time I get home and fed on weeknights!

One last thing… I was looking at my blog stats today. I had no idea that I have made over 300 posts! Woot! But I also noticed that I had over 130 hits on my blog today! My husband was laughing at me because I kept looking at the stats all day. I just couldn’t believe that I got that many hits today. I’m not sure why that happened, but thank you to all who take the time to read my silly stories about crafting and life. I do really enjoy having a blog. I just wish I had a lot more time to dedicate to it! One more thing I’m evaluating in my life right now…

Have a great week!

Is It Snowing?

Ok, it’s not snowing where I live. I think that would be a major news story if that happened, considering I live about 5 miles from the beach in Southern California! But, I am starting to prepare my Christmas crafts. Today’s adventure was finishing up my snowmen from last week.

Aren’t they just the cutest things you’ve ever seen? I got the idea back in 2007 from A BHG Holiday Crafts magazine. I made a whole bunch of them for a Silver Bella swap I was in. Oh my goodness! They were so cute all lined up in the box together! I’ve had that image in my head ever since. Well, since I’m starting over with all of my holiday decorations, I decided that I was going to make a little army of these for myself! Ok, maybe not an entire army, but I definitely will be saving several for my tree. The others that I make will be going into my Etsy store waiting for new homes. The two above will be going in the store, but I need to get better images of them before I can list them. I just couldn’t resist getting them up on my blog today!

Plus, it seems to be becoming a tradition for me to post on Sunday night. I think that’s when I have just about used all of my available energy and free time up, so I’m able to kind of wrap up my week in a blog post. I always wish to do more posting, but I refuse to make myself do it. If did that, I would end up hating it… and ultimately not doing it at all! And that’s no fun at all!!

Not much more to report this week. I purchased a mound of muslin and some burlap today. I have some fun plans for those. I have an apron in the works, but it’s still a little ways off. Hopefully I’ll be able to work on that this week.

Off to waste what’s left of my weekend scrolling through the pages of Pinterest…