daily ramblings....2/27

snippets from my day....

I finished "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell at 1 a.m. 

and started "The Girl on the Train" by Paul Hawkins

while waiting in the school parking lot.  I always have 

at least 4 books going at the same time, I think. lol

I'm in an ATC swap group and we had a swap where

you mailed an envelope of goodies to someone and

then they had to create an ATC with what you were 

given.  Here's my first envelope of goodies.....

 I was able to make four ATC's from the goodies that I 

was given and did not add hardly any of my own embellishments.

I love challenges like this!

At The Art Journal Emporium we are having a post card

swap and I needed to make 10 post cards.  Since these will

be mailed, I decided to do magazine image collages and

finally started working on those this morning.

(Part One of me creating these 

post cards can be seen here.)

I took my post cards with me and worked on them while

my daughter was at dance.  Thank goodness the dance 

studio has tables so I can sit and work while I wait!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Dianne :-)

daily ramblings....2/25/2015

Hello everyone!

I've been very inspired lately watching Christy Sobolewski (aka Gulfsprite) and her weekly YouTube vlog and art reviews.  She's been sharing what she's worked on during that week and I love that idea.  Hopefully, that's something that I can start doing as well!

But for now, I think that I will try to do just a quick update, hopefully daily, on my poor, neglected blog.  Not much chit chat, just photos of what I did that day and what-nots like that.  

I was embarrassed to see that I had not posted on here since September 2014!  Being asked to create some projects for the SCACD Celebration Hop pulled me out of my no-blogging shell and seems to have inspired me to share more on here again.  

I have actually been creating like crazy since January!  I signed up for Wyanne Thompson's class "You & Me in 2015" and once it started up the middle of January, I haven't stopped creating something almost every day.  This has been such a blessing to my soul!  And, the biggest reason for that change was that I was able to move my art area from our cold, dark dungeon of an unfinished basement.  I am now in the "formal dining area" on the main floor of our house, right by the kitchen, and everything else that I need to be by as a busy mom.  The kids and I share this area, so it's half play room/ half art studio and it's been working out wonderfully!  Now I can work in there so easily, even if it's just a few minutes here and a few minutes there.  It is honestly the best thing that has happened in my artist life!  I did a quick walk through of my art area at the beginning of the video today for my Journaling by 5s-Session 5.  You can see it here. :-)

So, I will start sharing photos of the things that I have made these past couple of months, bit by bit, until I'm caught up....

For now, here's what I did today.....

Snow arrived early this afternoon and we went from being 37F degrees

outside to feeling like 10F degrees in just a few hours....burr....

I finished up Session 5 of Shannon Green's Journaling by 5s....

so this journal is all done and ready for "free play"!

I pulled some images to use to make 10 collage postcards

and then realized that I was out of 140 lb watercolor paper.

I like to use the watercolor paper as a base, because it's sturdy.

So, these will have to wait until tomorrow. :-(

We went to Barnes & Noble last night and I stumbled upon

this magazine and couldn't resist buying it.

and....I picked up this magazine a couple of weeks ago at Whole Foods.

I need to get another copy, because there are some beautiful

images in it to use in my collage journal, but too much

great information (recipes and such) that I want to save!

Thanks so much for stopping by and please let me know if posts like this are something that you would enjoy!

Take care,

Dianne

sacred ground....

Well, I feel like I'm running out of things to say. lol  I think it's just because I had another wild day and I'm just worn out.  I really need to go down and try to do some art.  I know that it will help calm my mind so much, but there are so many other things that need to be done instead.  Laundry for one.  Ugh, I loathe doing laundry.   Not to mention keeping my house clean, cooking meals, taking care of my little ones...it all adds up and then there I am not making sure that I made some time for just ME.  As a mom, that's a really hard one for me to deal with.  I tend to get that mommy-guilt if I do something or buy something for for ME.

Speaking of doing things for ME.....my little GG has always been totally terrified of the idea of riding in our VW buggy with the top down.....until this past week.  She turned 6, you know, so she's all grown up now.  So, there goes my one last thing that I had that was just all mine.  First it was Borders/Barnes and Noble, then JoAnns, then Hobby Lobby, then Whole Foods, then Trader Joe's....and then Dick Blicks....*sigh*.....and now riding in the buggy.  This means that whenever I mention it, she wants to go, too.  And, it's not all mine anymore. lol  How selfish am I for feeling like that? I know I can still do those things, of course, but they once used to be my sacred ground where no kids had ventured with me. lol

Besides that, things are as busy as ever.  I have a long to-do list that I really need to start working on.  I'm hoping that tomorrow I will be able to be home all day, no errands to do, and I can start focusing on important things that need to be done.  Mainly, finishing up some traveling canvases that I'm a part of.  I have 3 to work on and get them into the mail by this weekend.  I'll try to post some pictures of them tomorrow!

Take care,
di

one of those days.

Day 4/31

Yep.  It's been one of those days where I wonder if I'm going to make it through being a mom of two little ones again. My little guy (he's every bit of two) just didn't have a good day.  He was grumpy and if he wasn't grumpy then he was being ornery.  That made out trip to Home Depot and Costco quite interesting.  Let's just say that I really don't need anything else to make Costco on a Sunday afternoon any more worse than it already is. lol  He finally took a long nap and after he woke up, then GG had to start in....she's 6 and acts like she's 16. lol  By then I just wanted to go lock myself in my bedroom closet and hide until morning.  My older kids are 22, 20, and 17, by the way. lol Just a bit of a difference in age from the two little ones. ;-)

Obviously, I missed the memo that the conga line was forming on the kitchen counter top last night....at least I got a picture..... 

 As the FlyLady would say....this is a major "Hot Spot" in my house....

Needless to say, no art happened today. Somehow I did manage to get my desk in the kitchen cleaned up.  It's a big catch-all in there and most of the time a mess of papers.  It's just the easy spot to toss everything.  I actually have it set up to work on my collage journal at.  I have all of the supplies that I need to work on my collage journal right there in the middle of the house, the perfect spot to be so that when I free moment opens up or the kids are playing, I can sit there and create.  Everything else is in our basement and it's unfinished and just not a fun place for the kids to play.  They do have a desk down there, so they have a great space to create art long with me if they want to.  

The best part of my day is that I had about 10 minutes in my car while I was waiting for my husband to run into the store to finally start reading this book.  I picked up a used copy on Amazon and it's in excellent condition.  I think my total bill was under $4.00.  It's even a signed copy!  Too bad my name isn't Margarite. ;-)  I know I've mentioned before how I want to focus more on doing more meaningful journaling and I'm hoping that this book can inspire me.  

So, it's kind of been one of those weekends.  I think a lot of it is just let-down from the chaos of the past few weeks.  Moving my Mom was huge and I'm still recovering.  I've been just exhausted and mentally drained.  I am really, really worried about her, too.  This move was completely her choice and we didn't push her to come up here in any way.  But I still feel terribly responsible for her and her happiness here.  She left her home town.  Her friends. Her family.  Her favorite church.  Ugh.  I keep telling myself that I'm not responsible for her happiness, that it's up to her....she wanted to be here by me and my family, by her 5 grandchildren.....but I'm still feeling the pressure.  And I feel responsible for her well-being, too.  She wasn't answering her phone the other day and after several hours I started getting worried.  She was sick with a cold and then I started remembering her saying that she didn't like to take baths anymore, because she was afraid she'd slip.  Well, her new apartment has a tub and no walk-in shower, so you can imagine all of the horrible things that were running through my head.  Visions of the lady from that commercial, "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!"....or worse.  So, I jumped in my car and drove over as fast as I could.  She wasn't home! She was at the store and didn't know where her phone was.  Ugh! I thought I was going to die with worry on that drive to her apartment!  She's not used to people checking in on her like that, so of course she's used to just getting out and doing whatever she wants and when she wants. lol  We obviously have a lot to adjust to.....a lot. lol

Well, that's enough rambling from me for today.  Tomorrow is Monday.  It's a new day.  Hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight and the little ones and I will have a much better day tomorrow.  Now to go curl up on the couch, under a nice warm blanket, and hopefully spend some time with my nose in my new book. ;-)

Take care,
di

Painty fingers....finally. Blogalong 3/31

Day 3 of Blogalong w/ Effy!

Well, after a couple of long weeks of not being able to really create anything.... 

I'm happy to share this.....

I was afraid it wasn't going to happen either.  I had a some precious free time open up yesterday evening and finally snuck down into my basement where my "studio" is.  (No, I didn't get all of the things done yesterday that I had planned to do....moving those things on to today now lol)  I hadn't sat at my desk in weeks.  And, then I just sat there.  Ugh.  I felt dry and uninspired to do anything at all.  And it was frustrating me like you wouldn't believe.  I wanted to create something.  And, worst of all, I NEEDED to create something.  Anything.  I really didn't care what I did.  I just was desperate to feel that paint under my finger tips.

So, I grabbed one of my journals.  It's almost full and there are just a few pages left in it to create on.  I found a spot and went from there with no intentions at all.  I just didn't care.  I just needed to feel that breath of calm that I feel when I work in my journal.....These pages already had lots of paint on them and quite a bit of texture from the red, heavy body acrylic paint.....leftovers from other journal pages....next step was to cover it with a bit of gesso....a good place for me to start when I don't know where to go or what to do.....painting on that white gesso is soothing to me and helps my mind clear...

So I did that and then wiped some of it away with a baby wipe and let it dry....

The next thing that I decided to do was to start gluing things down.  I love to glue things and it's kind of freeing and for me, it somehow starts breaking down those walls and sprinkles water on that dryness....I grabbed my box of paper scraps and added some music paper and book text.

And then I added some scraps of deli paper that had been used to lay spray-covered stencils on and just sop up extra sprays and paint while working on other projects.

And then things started to happen.  A lot of neon paint actually. lol  I decided to paint a girl and before I knew it, there she was and I had forgotten to take a few photos along the way.....

I rubbed in a lot of different neon paints and regular craft paints onto the background, then added some stamped book text, color sprays with some stencils and finally used my brayer to add some white, acrylic paint.  And, a good rubbing around the edges with a black ink pad.

I was using some deli paper as my pallet and couldn't waste all of that good paint, so I squished it into my journal....

 This will be a fun one to work on....talk about color. lol Maybe I should challenge myself to not cover this with gesso before starting....

And, here it is, all done....

So, if you learned anything from my sharing this, I hope that it is to not give up when you're feeling dry and have no inspiration.  I think that each of us has something that helps get that spark going and starts to open the door to let our Muse out so she can play.  Mine is putting down some gesso/paint and gluing down bits and pieces.  I think it's also important to just sit down and do something.  Anything.  And with no preconceived intentions at all.  No stress.  No worries.  No feeling like you have to create a masterpiece.  Just sit and do something.  When I do that, then usually wonderful things happen!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful and creative day today!
di

Totally smitten.....

So, once again I have been absent here for awhile, but this time I have a really good reason why.......

My sweet, little Elliot Shane was born on the morning of January 26th.  He weighed 7 pounds 2.4 ounces and was 20 inches long.  I've had a feeling this whole pregnancy that this labor might go quick and I was right! I had my weekly check-up on Monday and I was around 3 cm.  I told my doctor that she was more than welcome to do anything that she felt she needed to do that might help get things rolling down there.  I was full-term and big!   I woke up Wednesday morning around 4:30 a.m. having mild contractions and remember just hoping that things wouldn't kick in for a few hours.  I knew that that was the day.   I really didn't want to have to wake up my other children so early in the morning to tell them I was in labor. lol  Silly, I know.  Things started picking up around 6 a.m. and not much longer than that I decided I should tell my husband that we probably should think about going to the hospital soon.  We left the house around 6:45 and got to the hospital at 7.   It was pretty funny when we got to the hospital, because we walked in and I told them I was in labor and had just come in w/o calling my OB first.  I know the lady was thinking that I probably didn't know what I was talking about.   But, my OB had told me that if I thought I was in labor to not bother calling her, to go straight to the hospital and that they would call her when I arrived.  I think she trusted my mother's intuition and that I probably knew what was going on since it was my 5th child. lol  They get me in a room and finally check me around 7:15.  I was 7 cm!  That's when the craziness began and nurses started scrambling all over to get me dressed, hooked up to the monitors, my IV in, and then answer tons of check-in questions.  By then,  my contractions were getting strong and every couple of minutes.  My doctor arrived (in quite a hurry because I know she thought I was going to go fast, too! lol).  She broke my water at 8:24 and it wasn't long before I told her I needed to push.  She was glad, because Elliot's heart-rate started to go down after she broke my water and they had put me on oxygen.  I pushed once and she told me that I had to give it all I had on the next push, so I did and little Elliot arrived!  The cause of his dropping heart-rate was due to the cord being wrapped around his neck two times.  How terrifying!  My OB told me that if I hadn't of been a "super pusher", I would have been rushed in for an emergency c-section.  So, thank you Lord for giving me "super pusher powers"!  Elliot perked right back up and his APGAR score was 8 and 10.  The nurse told me that she's never seen a baby get a 10 before.  He looked perfect and is absolutely amazing!  He is the most mellow little man I've ever seen.  He hardly ever cries (I know, things change!) and just love to be held and snuggled.  He also is a good sleeper and sleeps well in his little baby bed.  Most of my other children did not sleep well on their own and would wake up as soon as they were laid down.  Not Elliot, you can move him around anywhere and he stays asleep! lol  He's the exact opposite of my little 3 year-old, Gracie.  She's super talkative and high-maintance and he's super quiet and mellow.  Needless to say, we are all in total love with our new bundle of joy!

The photo above was taken when Elliot was one day old.  He's laying on a quilt that I made for him a couple of months ago and I will share all about it in another post!  I will also be sharing some more blankets that I made for him with you all soon.

Now the fun part.....for me.....is to try to work in some daily creativeness while taking care of a newborn and a 3 year old.  I wouldn't think too much about it, if I didn't know how important it is for me to be creative and make things.  It helps keep me sane and when I go for days and days without doing something creative, I can really feel it.  And, it is not good!  I get grumpy, anxious and just not a happy person to be around.  ;-)

I hope you all have been doing well.  There is so much going on and so much I'd like to share.  I just hope I can get on some sort of a schedule soon, so that I can do all of those things that I'm wanting to do.  Plus, this weather.....ugh!  I am SO ready for Spring!!!!!  It has been so miserably cold here in the Heartland.  It's been so cold that I just haven't been going anywhere.  I can't stand the bitter cold!  And, now that Elliot is here, it's been just too cold to take him out, too.  It's been white with snow for months and I'm ready for green!

Take care everyone and stay warm!
di

A new beginning.....

I've been wanting to do things different here for awhile and I think that nows the time! So, hopefully you will enjoy these changes and the information I want to share with you all.
To make things easier, I am going to start having daily themes for my posts. Things are pretty busy here right now with the end of the school year approaching. I have two children graduating this year. One from high school and one from 8th grade! So, I'm not sure that I will be able to share a post each day until things calm down a bit. But, here is what I've come up with as to what I would like to share with you and when.

Sunday- Living the Liturgy

One of the things that I really want to start doing is to incorporate the daily rhythms of the Church into our daily lives. I plan on sharing the ideas, activities and cooking that I have chosen for that week each Sunday.

Monday – Meal Plan Monday

Our weekly menu with some recipe shares and links.

Tuesday – Time with Tots

Another goal that I have is to start doing more organized and planned activities with my little 2 (almost 3!) year-old daughter, GG, so I will be sharing those ideas with you each Tuesday.

Wednesday- Sharing the wealth....

One of the ways that I de-stress at night is to surf the internet for fun blogs with craft project and recipes. I'll share my discoveries with you on Wednesdays!

Thursday- A Homemakers Tale

A time for me to share how I'm trying to make the most out of being a country girl at heart living in the city and all things homemaking!

Friday- Papercraft Projects

I'll show you any scrapbooking layouts, cards and other paper crafting projects that I've completed that week.

Saturday- Sew Wonderful

I'm trying to do more sewing (of all types!) so I keep you posted on what I'm working on and the finished product!

I hope that you enjoy these changes that I plan on making and if you like what you see, please share my link with your friends. Please let me know what you think and I look forward to sharing with you all!

Oh where, oh where have I been????

Whew. Well, I've been gone for awhile, that's for sure. A lot of things have been going on, some good, some not so good..... Right now we have more sickness going through our house. I am so tired of germs! I can't wait until we can get outside and I can open up the windows and let some fresh air in. Spring is here, but here in Nebraska, Winter is fighting w/ both fists to stick around! We had more snow last Friday.....I am so tired of snow! lol

So here's a little photo journey of these past two months....

First of all......we went to Vegas! I was asked by a dear friend to take pictures at her niece's wedding, so me, my husband and our youngest flew out there on a Thursday morning and came home on Monday night. What a time that was! Wow. The wedding was beautiful and I was totally terrified because I had never done anything like that before (I'm not sure if I ever will again! So stressful! lol). I had a lot of fun playing tourist and took a ton of pictures. My favorite part was Fremont Street. Vintage Vegas is what I really wanted to see and it was something else. We also went to Red Rock Canyon and it was so beautiful! The craziest part about the whole trip was that we left home with several feet of snow and freezing temps and stepped off the plane to 50 degree weather, blue skies and green trees! Wow! That was so refreshing! We were totally covered with several feet of snow from the beginning of December until just a couple of weeks ago!

Lent had started while we were in Vegas and we couldn't wait until Friday, because Friday during Lent means: FISH FRIES!!!!

Yum! Oh boy.....this is the best fish ever....cajun spiced....all you can eat. lol We have really enjoyed going to Fish Fries every Friday during Lent this year. It's an evening full of wonderful fellowship and amazing food!

How totally fun is this cake batter? I needed to make some cupcakes for a benefit dinner at church and since St. Patrick's day was close, I decided to make these fun cupcakes. I found the recipe at Real Mom Kitchen. Oh wow! They are SO GOOD! The frosting is so yummy! These were gobbled up really quick. I had to make extra so that we could have some for ourselves. My kids always get on to me, because I bake all sorts of yummies for bake sales and such and never make extra to have at home. lol So, this time I made a double batch and kept a pan of cupcakes for ourselves.

Aren't they fun?????

Now the really fun part. lol Like I already said, we have had TONS OF SNOW! I mean, TONS! And, now we're paying the price of having our roads snow covered for 2 months. We have potholes like nothing I've ever seen before! I'm talking pot holes that are like the Grand Canyon! Look at this:

Isn't that horrible? And, it gets better. So far we have had 2 flats and a broken drive shaft from hitting a pot hole! You just can't miss them. You can try, but you will either hit another one or hit a car beside you. It's crazy! Driving is pretty stressful and you can't take your eyes off the road or you'll hit one!

So, that's pretty much what's been going on here. Well, the things that I've gotten pictures of. lol I haven't been able to do much scrapping or any crafting at all. But, I did get one fun project done and I'll share that in another post. It's a crochet laptop sleeve and it's pretty neat! I also started new sewing project last night that I'm really excited about and I'll share more about it soon.

I hope you all are doing well and that you are starting to feel the wonderful wakening of Spring! We actually have blue skies today. Something that we haven't seen much of for the past 4 months! Talk about depressing weather here! loll I'm so ready for green grass, green trees and to start getting my hands dirty in our new garden that we're planting this year.....Come on Spring!!!! ;-)

Let's Say Thanks

Please be sure to do this! It only takes a few seconds and it will mean so much to our military! My husband was in the Air Force for 10 years and it is so important to let our military personnel know how much they all mean to us!

Let's Say Thanks

What a week.....

Wow. This week has been something else. I woke had the stomach flu Saturday night through Sunday and then my little GG started throwing up at 10:30 on Monday night. I stayed up all night with her and didn't get to bed until 5 a.m. on Tuesday. I am so grateful that my husband is able to work from home, because he stayed home on Tuesday, so that I could nap awhile and to help take care of GG. She is just now starting to feel better. I felt so badly for her and even worse because I gave her the germs! I must admit that I am still not feeling great and I haven't been able to eat a meal since Saturday. Actually, the one thing that sounded good to me and the only thing that GG ate today, was some homemade potato soup. I made a batch of it last night and it really hit the spot! It's such a simple recipe, too. I'll have to share it soon. This stuff is really icky and I hope and pray that no one else gets it!

I need to get to work scrapping, too! I have next weeks focus to work on for Practical Scrappers! It's a great one, too and I'm really excited to do a layout for this one!

I hope that you all are all doing well and are staying healthy and warm. It's feeling like winter is coming here in the Heartland. I am totally shocked that next week is Thanksgiving! I have been working on my menu and pulling out some new dessert recipes to try. I will share with you all, if they turn out super yummy!

Video from Detroit about Noah.....

Here is a video from a local new station about 5-year old Noah and his family...........

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/21525126/index.html

It's a sickness.......

......it really is. I am totally addicted to collecting recipes. I admit it and here's the proof. A tub full of them, 3 binders and a file box. All of them are full of recipes. The sad thing is this.....I have thrown a lot of them away. And I do mean A LOT! And, even worse. This doesn't include any cookbooks. Those are tucked all over my house and when we moved recently, I was forced to face the fact that I had way too many of them and I ended up purging out several hundred cookbooks from my collection. It's amazing what moving into a smaller house does to your collections of "stuff". lol If you're wondering why they are all sitting on top of my table....it's because I was desperately searching for a recipe this morning. Well over an hour worth of searching, too! I was trying to find two recipes that I've had forever. I knew exactly what they looked like, what type of paper they were on and how they were printed out. Every detail. Excpet the most important one. Where they were! I am happy to report that I did finally find them. But, this has made me see that I really, really need to do something about this mess. So, this is what I'll be doing for awhile. Organizing my recipes. I have a few ideas that I'm working on and I will be sure to share.

I hope that I'm not the only person who's addicted to collecting recipes. And the crazy thing is that there is no possible way that I will ever be able to make them all. lol It sure is nice to know that I just might have that perfect recipe filed away and waiting for me to make it.....as long as I can find it first!

time for some creative therapy....

It's been one of those days.....

It sure doesn't help that it's been raining, again....gloomy....again....cold, again.....

So, I am going to try to make some time for some much-needed creative therapy today. Dinner is in the crock-pot, the kitchen is clean, my bed is made, laundry is going.....it's time for some fun. I plan on sharing the recipe for tonight's dinner later; after I can get a picture of it. It's Ranch Stew in the crock-pot and one of my favorite comfort foods from when I was a child.

I have some fun challenges in mind and here's what I'd like to start working on today:

• Practical Scrappers - Office Supply Challenge - I think I'm going to use some brads :-)
  
• The Paper Cut - Twilight Challenges - Chapter 1 - I want to do this totally for fun and just for me. I have read all of the books. I wouldn't say that I'm a die-hard fan, but they were fun to read and these challenges look like they'll be lots of fun. The awesome thing is that they also have a non-Twilight spin on the challenge, so you haven't read the book or have but don't want to do the Twilight-themed challenges, you can still play along!
• ScrapFIT: Workout #6 - This is a new challenge blog that I recently found and this looks like a fun challenge!

Look at what I found also, while doing some blog surfing last night:
\

New album from Prima Wow! Look at those pages!
A neat way to add texture with paint from Studio Calico - I need to try this!
Look at these darling pumpkins! These would look cute on my mantle!

Okay, I know that I found more, but my free time is going fast! Before I know it, it will be dinner time. Take care and I hope you're all having a wonderful day!

A layout share and some rambling....

Here's my layout that I was able to do on Sunday! I dug into my stash of alpha's to do the title and mixed them all up because I didn't have matching letters to do her name. I would really love to be able to do a layout a day......just that little bit of being able to be creative would be so wonderful!

We actually had to turn the heat on last night! The low was supposed to be around 37 degrees! Wow, we had such a cool summer, I wonder if Autumn is going to be colder than usual. Last year on Halloween we didn't even have to wear a jacket! I was able to put out our Halloween/Autumn decorations today and I also ran to Hobby Lobby and bought supplies to make an Autumn wreath for my front door. I think it turned out pretty nice and maybe I'll share a photo of it later. With the cooler weather, I have really been craving chili and hot soups! I plan on sharing some of our favorite recipes here as I make them. I did share my chili recipe already and you can see it here.

I hope everyone is enjoying their last day in September. Can you believe that? It just doesn't seem possible that tomorrow is October! Take care!