silly me

Hehe..i found this photo again today... this is me around the end of 2003. I weighed like a whole lot less and wore makeup (wow!). :) I "painted" this photo back then too. I wonder where the original is...

Okay you must check out Marylin Healey! This woman is chalk full of inspiration! I spent an hour looking through every one of her galleries- she's awesome!! Check out her FABULOUS circle journal entries and her 2peas gallery. Wonderful stuff! We're doing an ephemera swap but I hope to do a project trade or collaboration in the future. :)

PS- Marco.

collaboration

Yay! I found my sewing machine foot pedal. For those who didn't know, it went MIA during the move. So! This is a 5" x 6" "art journal" page I made for the talented Celine Navarro as an ongoing collaboration! I'm only going to show you this one page until she gets the first batch. I am so excited and really, actually honored to be doing this with her because she is one of my greatest sources of inspiration in mixed media collage. She's also a really sweet girl. And you wanna know what I found out yesterday? We share our birthday (March 17th)!! :) How cool is that? You can see some of her work on her blog,, website,, and flickr album.

chocolate to do list

Well I wish my to do list was made of chocolate. Maybe I can just eat a small section of a hershey bar for every task completed. No. That would make me unbearably sick. Here is some chocolate for you though:

This is my 13 year old sister, Sarah. Sarah LOVES chocolate. Last Saturday we had a "Chocolate Party" to celebrate her adoption by our step dad. How cool is that?!? :) Maybe I should be adopted? ;)

So today is my "day off" but I'm caring for the kiddo at my home today for the extra (and oh-so-needed) moola. Here are the things I hope to accomplish (tee hee hee):

• Call the ORKIN man (the ants are outta control)
• Do the dishes (my least favorite chore on this planet. well, i'm sure i could think of worse)
  
• Gather and take out all the trash to offer as a sacrafice to the trash man
• Change the water in Dude's tank (fyi: Dude is our turtle just in case you thought I called Alex "Dude". Well, and kept him in a tank)
  
• Do the laundry (AGAIN?! Jeez, it's like we wear clothes everyday or something) UPDATE: I did one load but we had to turn the water off because it's leaking too much! Ugh.
  
• "Tidy up" the craft room (so I can mess it up again!)
• Cook dinner (If this actually ends up happening, angels may rejoice in Heaven)Hallelujah!
  
• Go to Walmart (wear your blinders and drive really fast past Michael's)
• Package and label things to go to the P.O. (so people who've been waiting for MONTHS for things, can actually get them! Erin, you're awesome! :) )
• Uh, maybe that's it but it's really a lot!
  

SPT {math}

It's so hard to help you when I never understood it myself. I don't have the answers for why it's so important. I don't know what to say. I'm sorry.

Dear Readers,
I had to take algebra three times in high school.

sewing desk

I found this old sewing desk at the salvation army last week when I was looking for good old books. The tag says $39.99 but there was an index card on it that said SALE $5. Now I have this cool old beat up desk in my garage. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it but I figure it will be a fun project... and it was only $5!

* Here is a list of {take flight} players- if you've signed up make sure you're on it
* Check out the art challenge slideshow for new additions

{take flight} information

This is a list of players & will tell you if I've recieved your payment &/or pages:

There are 37 players. Please make 38 pages as we'll be submitting a book to Somerset Studio magazine. Thanks!

Joleen T. - covers 38
Joleen T. - $ - pages 38
Allison P. - DROPPED
Emma L. - $ - pages 39
Erin R. - $ - pages 39
Lisa S. - $ - pages 38
Rosemary T. - $ - pages 39
Jan R. - $- pages 38
Evaly J. - $ - pages 39
Corinne S. - $ - pages 38
Stéphanie L. - $ - pages 39
Kerrie G. - $ - pages 39
Melanie K. - $ - pages 34
Leslie A. - $ - pages 37
Kelly A. - $ - pages 38
Kimber K. - $ - pages 38
Karyn C. - $ - pages 38
Kasha R. - $ -pages 38
Marie L. - $- pages 38
Fast Eyes - $ - pages 37
Rosanne C. - $ - pages
Joni K. - $ - pages 39
Ruth S. - $ - pages 38
Lisa H. - $ - pages 39
Marie O. - $ - pages 38
Edna R. - $ - pages 40
Jane T. - DROPPED
Geri L. - $ - pages 38
Tina A. - $ - pages 39
Audrey H. - $ - pages 37
Ruth S. - $ - pages 38
Elisie S. - $ - pages 38
Vivian M. - DROPPED (have not heard from)
Jill H. - $ - pages 36
Holly R. - $ - pages 38
Heather B. - $ - pages 38
Carol D. - $ - pages 38
Kara K. - $ - pages 39

*Please give me a couple of days within reciept of your pages to upload it here. Then you can double check here!

** Thank you to everyone who has sent me goodies! :) I appreciate them and will put them to good use!

{flyin high}

This is my page (front +back) for the {take flight} skinny fat book. I really wanted to use bright colors and with this style it was a lot of fun. It was a fun experience to play with the images and alter things digitally, too. Right now I am printing the pages and then I'll embellish 'em. I have to create the cover too but I think I'll keep that on the DL (down low) until the book goes out. ;)

*edit* here it is copied + embellished:

absent

{the most recent entries from my quick journal}

{crap space}

oops, that should be "craft space". ;) i need a professional organizer. but really, what good what it do? i can clean, clean, clean, then after one project i will have worked myself into a tiny corner of my work table. and i don't mean to complain but sometimes i get overwhelmed with having so much shit stuff i don't know where to begin...and believe it or not there is relative rhyme and reason here... sort of.

i have so much to live up to! check out my mom's craft space after HOURS of hard work:

happy box

ooooweeee!! :) Look at all these FABULOUS goodies that came to me from my pal, Katie! I was so excited to open my happy box of fun, fun stuff!! Thank you, doll! More photos here and here.

PS- only two ONEspot left in {take flight} so be quick!! Sorry, this swap is FULL!! If you missed it there is always next time! :)

{to do}

click to enlarge

AHAHAHAHA!! It's just been brought to my attention that there is a huge blunder on this list!! Can you tell me what it is? :D

I "need"

{fairy shadow box} hehe..see my camera in the mirror?

I know this is going to sound weird but I'm looking for graph paper. I've tried my local office supply and grocery stores to no avail. I'd also love international newspaper(s)/catalog(s)- especially those not in english. Lastly, I'd love cancelled postage stamps (preferably international). If you have any of these things (or other cool ephemera) and would like to trade for various collage items lemme know!

PS- Still some spots open in the {take flight} skinny fat book but they're filling fast!

back tack ii buddy

{an excerpt from a christmas gift i am making ;)}

To my Secret Buddy:
1. What are your five favorite colors (in order)? aqua, purple, "lime" green, pink, + red
2. What are your least favorite colors? I don't think I have a least favorite.
3. What decorating style is your favorite? I like pretty much every style but my least favorite is "country". I would say my favorite is flea market. That's the most fun. :)
4. What is your favorite crafty thing to do/make? mixed media collage
5. What is your least favorite? I am not good at ceramics which is really too bad.
6. Are there any crafts/projects that you've never tried that you'd like to? I'd love to learn to spin my own yarn or felt with pretty fibers. Right now I am really having fun experimenting with mixed media- collages + assemblages.

Thanks for the great questionaire! Sorry it's taken me so long to post my answers.

PS- Don't forget to read the {take flight} skinny fat book information! Spots are filling fast!!

{take flight} sign-ups

please click on the image to view better. i hope you'll join us!

an example- this gorgeous skinny fat book is from a swap on art-e-zine.
i wasn't a participant but i sure wish i had one of these beauties!
view the individual pages here.

{embrace}

Tomorrow is the first day of fall but we got a beautiful taste of it yesterday evening. It was the kind of yummy last summer storm that brings beautiful smells and skies. Then rain, lightning, and thunder through the night. You can see two of the three rainbows we saw, here. Thank you to Alex who captured this beautiful moment, perfectly.

Tara also got some beautiful photographs which she posted here.

SPT {grow}

original photo here

{redesign}

Thanks for all of the compliments on my new banner and blog look! :) It still has a little work yet. Two questions for those who have changed the look of their blogger journal: #1 How do I get rid of the blogger bar at the top of the page. I will add a link in the footer but this is really bugging me. I've looked at the html coding in the template and tried so many things to no avail. #2 On Firefox the sidebar is correctly placed on the side of my posts. I've noticed on Internet Explorer it starts at the bottom and that's SOOOO annoying. How do I fix it?

Speaking of redesigns, there is going to be some overhauling on love, joleen. I will also be having a major update to get ready for the holidays. The shop has been too neglected because of my busy schedule but I plan on setting aside some time to work on this soon. So much to do! So much to look forward to!

what is more important

than our children?? Answer: NOTHING! So why is it I hear stories about "dad" who forgot his 5 month old baby in the car while he worked from home only for the baby to die! Because poor dad had his schedule changed and was TOO busy to be bothered with such a minor detail.

Why was it that while at the store today the cashier had to make a public request for the person with the gold van parked out front to go to her screaming + crying babies?! Why did this woman rush to the front, only to CHECKOUT before going to her children? Why did it take an angry, yelling "mob" of people to point out to this "mother" that children die in hot cars, that there are BAD people out there that steal cars + kidnap children. Did she need this reminder? The news isn't enough? This is heart wrenching. This is pathetic. This is a time to treasure your children and to protect them. Nothing in your shopping cart is worth the loss of them.

question...

If I offered classes* of various projects, would you be interested? Tonight I started throwing around some ideas for different classes I can offer in a wide variety of content and cost. I am considering maybe one class a month. All just ideas at this time...

*in Southern California ;)

s-o-r-e

It's been a couple of days, with the exception of yesterday's announcement, and I am s-o-r-e! Thursday was moving day and ended up being quite a long day at that. We had a little trouble getting the truck as the truck reserved was to be turned in there and we wanted a one-way truck. We drove around for quite a while looking for the other location while spending much too long a time on hold (phone) with them. Because of this we had a 3 hour delay in packing up the truck. After many, many trips up and down three flights of stairs we finished- at 2:00 am! Our new place is 45 minutes away so we didn't get to bed until around 3:30 in the morning. Friday we had to be at work early- at 5:30!! That really hurt, let me tell you. I got to sleep (sort of) for another couple of hours there until the baby woke up but I was still miserable most of the day. I did step on the scale and saw that I had lost 2 pounds the day before (ha!) but I'm sure I've gained it back by now. Unloading the truck (which we did this morning) took all of an hour! An hour!! It was so awesome going from truck to garage (for the most part). This is our first one-story with a garage together and it's awesome! :) There is still so much to do (i.e. unpacking) but all I want to do right now is craft. Which would make you laugh if you could see my craft room...which is a giant mass of boxes right now.

*here- I'll show you!

hurry, hurry!!!!

♥ a HUGE thank you to our winning bidder, Kellee, who won this book for $77.00!! What a wonderful contribution this is towards the American Red Cross. Thank you to everyone who bid for your amazingly big hearts!

There are only a few more hours left to bid on the AMAZING collaborative chunky book, {Coming Together}, to benefit those effected by Katrina! It is ebay item #7349635755. For more information on how to bid visit this post. We really want to earn a lot of money with this project as all of the artists worked really hard to provide you with a GREAT book! Here are just some of the contributions (click to enlarge):

joleen/karine

susan/tania

{moving}

{coming together} chunky book contribution

Tomorrow is moving day. This move really hasn't gone as planned, well, at all really. Tomorrow it'll just be Alex and I and a moving truck. The good thing about this move is we have a lot in storage and we've been able to fill the Tahoe and bring loads of boxes down for the past couple of weeks. It could be far worse but I'm still not looking forward to the many trips up and down three flights of stairs. Ah, well. So! On the good chance that you will not be hearing from me tomorrow, I leave you with some shops to check out:
♥ papier valise
♥ sky blue pink
♥ wendi speciale
♥ the turtle press
♥ grassroots
♥ paperbag studios

{looking up} SPT

* It's been trying times but I'm okay - still creating (keeping me sane)...thank you to everyone's comments yesterday! they were well recieved + appreciated! :)
* Notice my lil' but pretty nails? I'm 22 years old and I think I'm done biting them. This may be the longest I've let them stay - over a week now. Go me!
* Only 3 days left to bid on the fabulous {coming together} chunky book!
* Don't forget to check out the submissions to my art challenge: here. It's been so inspiring to see everyone's work! I can't wait to see the rest!

why God is good...

ALL the time.

Psalm 86:17
Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

PS- Welcome to the world, sweet Adelaide!

the culprit

{the water heater which reaks havoc}

This damn old water heater was the cause of very unhappy + unfortunate happenings and I am not amused. Alex and I packed up the Tahoe with boxes and small furniture to take over to our new condo last night. We get there and Alex's opens the garage door and I see it.

These photos were taken after I moved most of my boxes out of the water. After I stopped crying because my purple plastic tub with all of my "favorite" craft goodies had somehow fallen over and was thrown up all over the garage floor. After I had taken out and examined every single book in a water ruined box. After I'd thrown a fit out of anger and sadness. Why has every single step of moving into this place been a problem? Am I missing something here???

So you think it didn't get any worse, right? Wrong. We decided to stay the night but we can't park the car in the garage since we had to move all of the boxes to the side. We knew we'd risk the chance of getting a ticket because the home association has some really stupid rules about not parking in your own driveway or even in the available parking (without a permit) but what choice did we have. Our apartment is 45 minutes away and it was 11:30 at night. We were supposed to be to work early today because Alex and "the guys" were going golfing for some benefit.

We were running late this morning and I needed to get everything off the floor for the carpet cleaners who were going to be there at 9:00. I picked up all of the blankets we'd slept with on the floor and carried them to the car. At least, I would have if our car was there. It wasn't in the driveway and not one of the two parked across the way. I said, "Alex, where's the car?" Alex- "Very funny." Except it wasn't. Those @#%@#$^% people towed our car. I have it back now but what a mess. All because of that damn water heater.

goodbye, couch

{school days} mixed media collage painting on 8" x 10" canvas

The couch in our living room was a heavy sofa bed. When we moved in to our second story (but three flights of stairs up) apartment last year it was a real task. We said then that we would not move it again. This brown sectional sofa was my parents. They had it back when I first met Alex (I was fifteen). They had it during his first trip to visit (17). They gave it to us when we got our first apartment together in Los Angeles now over two years ago. We carted it to our storage unit after being married and then again here. This couch has been around and we've been lucky to have it. But now, it's time for a new couch. One that's new and all our own. I didn't think I would miss the brown couch but when I was vaccuming it and getting it ready for it's new home, I started to get a little sad. My mom was nice enough to list it on Freecycle and I knew the family coming to get it would be a good one and really needed it. I started to think about my own memories with my things- my "stuff" and then feeling sad for all those people that lost ALL of their "stuff" in natural disasters like the tsunami and hurricane katrina. Even if it was just stuff, that stuff means something to them; it holds memories. Reading fellow scrapbooker, Aimee's story, just ONE PERSON, is so sad!

family photos

4" x 5" mixed media collage painting on canvas

I've been forgetting to tell you! Alex and I are so excited because we were able to book the über talented scrapbooker and photographer, Tara Whitney, to take our family photos in March. That was the earliest she could fit us in but it's perfect because it'll be around our anniversary. We both love her work and are really looking forward to working with her. You can view her portfolio here.

{coming together} chunky book

{Coming Together} is a chunky book made up of 23 pages (front and back). This book is mixed media, as artists used a wide variety of mediums to complete their pages. The pages are thick, typically cardstock or watercolor paper to help withstand the many times this beautiful book will be looked through! Most of the pages are embellished to help give the book the "chunky" or "fat" look! Each of the pages are originals (no copies), and many hours have gone into creating it. The book measures 5" x 5" and is spiral bound. It's absolutely gorgeous and you will not be disappointed! To view each of the pages go here.

You can bid on this book by clicking here. If you would like to do a search on ebay the item # is 7349635755. If you can, please also post about this on your own blog so that the book gets the most possible exposure!

This chunky book was orginially created to benefit those effected by the Tsunami. While those people are still being effected the participants were generous enough to allow me to auction this now. We've briefly discussed doing another project in the future to benefit those effected by the tsunami. If you think you might be interested in this project please tell me and when the time comes I will give you more information. Thank you!

christmas 'n collages

I started thinking about Christmas yesterday. I created two excel files- one for gifts and one for cards. This way, as I think of people, I can add 'em to one or both of the lists. This year I plan on making all of my gifts. I am actually quite excited about it but the key will be to space things out. This year has gone so fast it'll be the holidays in no time. This will probably mean I won't be posting everything I make before so as to keep the element of surprise!

I got this amazing book today: Making Memories: A Season of Giving. It has the most beautiful handmade gift ideas for the holidays in it. I also got collage discovery workshop by collage expert, Claudine Hellmuth. It has soooo many great ideas + techniques- I think I'm in love!

I made my very first mixed media assemblage/shadowbox this afternoon. I am very happy with it and see more in my future. ;) You'll have to click on these wee images to see them better.

PS- Go check out Sabrina Ward Harrison's new website. It's gorgeous; so inspirational!

PSS- To see all of the art challenges so far go here!