A Case of the Mondays...

I've got a bad case today.

It was such a lovely weekend.... *sigh*

But - the good news is....it's my brother's birthday today!

Happy Birthday Dan!

And just to show how much your big sis loves you, I'll give everyone another peek at that video featuring your mad golf skillzzz:

Check the birthday boy out on the video for Eagle Glen Golf Course here.

Etsy Sales!

I am so excited to have my first few sales on Etsy! WooHOO! Or should I say, wooHOOT, because it's those owl buttons that are getting everyone so excited. Now, I'm working on creating cute packaging for the buttons that goes along with the theme of reduce, reuse, recycle...i.e. not buying more materials to package things in. Kirk helped me make some round labels I can punch out and stick on my packages, and I'll be sending out my first goodies to their new owners on Monday. Having a good time! Photos to come tonight.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Not much to say today. It's just....Thursday. I put some of those owl buttons on sale in my etsy shop (see it on the right over there? --->)

....they look so lonely in the shop all by themselves, guess I'll have to make some of my recycled embellies and put those up, too. :)

Anyway....since I am at a loss for words, here is something more interesting to view:

This video just makes me happy....what a sweet, pure voice she has. Whenever I feel crappy, I just go to youtube and watch this cutie - and somehow, it helps. (Before viewing this, you can turn off my other music by scrolling down and pushing the pause button on the player.)



Have a great weekend everybody!

The owls are not what they seem.

Yep. More clay buttons. I love my new friends. Plus, any chance to reference Twin Peaks makes me happy. Yes, it is nearly 1 am and I'm still baking buttons...and I am having a blast. I think this applies to me in this case:

Addiction: a term used to describe a devotion, attachment, dedication, inclination, etc.; the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to the individual's health, mental state or social life.

It's late, I need to quit with the clay and go to bed. G'nite world! :)

Clay Buttons - My Newest Addiction

There was a recent post on the tally blog by TheresaK about making buttons out of polymer clay...such as sculpey or fimo clay - it's the stuff that some jewelry is made of, along with other crafty goodness. These are super easy to make, look great on cards and scrapbook pages, ATC's, etc, and just like she warned us: totally addictive! Here are some before and after pics from today:

You just shape them, bake them, deocrate them, and glaze them! I made all of these in about an hour. I'm loving them, and having a lot of fun.

What better to do on a steaming hot SoCal summer day than stay indoors, where our temporarily new air conditioner blasts cool breezes, and get crafty? Now that I've played with it a bit, I think I'll try to make some similar design sets and sell them in my etsy shop (which still doesn't have anything for sale, but has a cool logo and tagline - all ready to go!)

100+ & No A/C...

Yes, Kirk and I woke up this morning, came out the living room, immediately gasped at how hot it was in here, and pushed the "on" on the air conditioning unit. Loud screechy squeely sound then....THUNK. Then...No response. We did first aid, CPR, bashed it with our hands, but no go. Luckily, Kirk noticed one of the assistant managers was walking by and asked if he had heard the screeching and he said "yeah, what the heck was that?"

So, interim "until we can get you the right one" A/C unit was installed, and is gladly working, much to our relief. Chalk one up on the side of renting, because we didn't have to do any running to some big ole' home warehouse place, struggle with an instruction manual on installation of an A/C unit, pay any money for anything, etc.! Thank goodness for assistant apt managers with good hearing, a husband with good eyesight, and ice-cold diet coke to get us through the hot spots.

Ask me if I love the summer in Riverside...

Design Team Tryouts

I'm kind of nervous, but I'm giving it a try! Every quarter, TallyScrapper has their new Design Team contest, so I've decided to go for it, why the heck not? The requirements are to upload 3 new layouts, so...these are my three entries:The first one is about Joyce and Lonnie Southall, who you may have seen below in the photos from our Walden agency picnic. They are incredibly inspiring people, and worth scrapping about!

This second entry is obviously about Kirk and me, and how we fit together - perfectly.

This last one is a sort of emotional and tactile "to do" list to myself, as a reminder to be true to myself, regardless of what others think. It was inspired by a layout that Elizabeth Kartchner did, I love her style.

The Tally site members vote by awarding points to the different layouts, and the top 6 winners will end up being the new Design Team for the next 3 months.

As a DT member you are required to be active on the website and message boards, upload various projects (scrapbook layouts, cards, photos, altered items) to the galleries, encourage new members, host challenges, and participate in a "cyber crop" online. In return you get a discount in the online store, and one free kit to play with in exchange for uploading your projects to help sell the kit to the members.

The competition is tough, there are so many creative and talented folks over there....I'm hoping to start adding to my creative resume by doing things like this, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the girls will like my layouts. However, there are lots of great entries, so if I don't make it this time, I can always try out again in September. That's the fun of it! :) I'll be sure to post back when the voting is over - July 1.

A Father is Someone Who:

There are so many great photos of my dad and our family - so I had to choose just a few of my favorites for the little slide show.

I have always loved my father, but in my work with foster children, I have only come to appreciate and value my dad even more. I'm thankful to have had a dad that played with us, taught us things, made us laugh, took us to new and exciting places, treated us fairly, and put us first before doing anything for himself. My brother and I know how lucky we are, and today, I hope all of the great fathers out there are hearing what their kids love best about them.

Happy Father's Day, Papasan! I love you!

Altered Wood Stamp Blocks

Happy Friday everybody! I meant to upload these photos a few weeks ago...after my tutorial on unmounting rubber stamps to store them in CD cases, I got lots of questions on YouTube and TallyScrapper about what to do with the leftover wood blocks. I decided to use mine to make these decorative blocks for a mantlepiece or shelf:

I like how they turned out, and they'd be great to spell out a name or other sentiment...

I love them! I'd love to see what you do with your leftover wood blocks, so feel free to post a link to your project in the comments section!

I'll also be making more of these sets as I continue the process of unmounting my wood stamps, and I will begin to sell them in my NEW ETSY SHOP! What's Etsy, you ask? It's kind of like eBay for artsy fartsy people, like me! It's all about buying and selling handmaDe, and I love some of the other shops I've found there. More on this adventure coming soon.

Hope you have a GREAT weekend and a happy Father's day to all of you dads out there!

Post-it Keychains

I made these adorable post-it note keychains last night. I don't know about you, but I keep stickies everywhere, and these are so cute I couldn't resist making some. I can't take credit for the idea, I got it from a tutorial on YouTube (told you I was a tube addict) from a gal named Angie aka chicnscratch. She has some really neat tutorials on her blog. These are 2x2 inches, and would be a great gift tie-on or party favor!

Summer Banner Swap

I signed up to participate on a banner swap at Rachel's blog, who is the go-to creative guru over at TallyScrapper. We are each creating a banner to spell out the word "summer" and sending the pieces to Rachel, who will mix-n-match them and send them back out to us ready to hang. I'll get pieces back from 6 other scrappy types from around the country - I LOVE the idea of swapping creative projects like this! I can't wait to see the completed banner I get back. Here are are a few of my pieces:

Artist Trading Cards: A Family Affair

Recently, I picked up a book at Borders that grabbed my attention in the art section. I ended up looking through it cover to cover, and decided to get it for my dad for his birthday. The book was about Artist Trading Cards, or ATC's. ATC's are small works of art (2.5 x 3.5 inches) that are traded between artists and others, much like traditional sports or character trading cards. The cards are not to be sold, only traded. This art form was started in Switzerland in 1997, and you can read more about ATC history here.

My dad has been making tiny drawings for many years, and as I browsed this book, I thought this would be right up his alley - so I gave it to him, along with some collage scraps of paper and other supplies to get him started. As it turns out, it IS his cup of tea, and he has made TONS of ATC's since he was here in early April! I will take some photos of his ATC's to upload soon, I'm expecting a package from him this week, actually, with more ATC's.

I also began to notice that folks in the paper crafting community are getting hooked on ATC's, and I have participated in a couple of ATC Swaps in the last few months. One swap was on Mitchell Kraft's blog, and another was on TallyScrapper. I'm finding the small format fun, and the rules are that there aren't many rules! Just keep the artwork to 2.5 x 3.5 inches and never sell the cards, and you're good to go! People paint them, embroider them, draw, stitch, cover with paper, collage, sew, watercolor, the sky is the limit, and they're fun!

After we saw my dad's first batch, even Kirk got into the action. Here are some of the ATC's Kirk and I made, along with some that I've done for swaps so far:

Fun in the Sun

The Walden picnic was a success...good turnout, good weather, good food, and lots of fun for all! I think the kids had a good time, and the parents got to let them loose for a few hours so everyone could relax. Of course I had camera in hand...however, to protect the foster youth's confidentiality, I can't display any of their faces publicly, so I can only share a few photos with you to highlight the event.

What is a summer event without JUMPERS!


My friend and colleague, Danielle....she's a fellow crafty chic, AND a diet soda freak like me. She's good people.


Everyone's warm weather favorite....water balloons!


This is Joyce and Lonnie....Not only are they beautiful people inside and out, they are long time foster parents with Walden. This couple has provided a strong, stable home for hundreds of challenging teen boys (their house is usually full with 5 boys at a time who need support and care) over the course of almost 15 years! They are an inspiration to our entire staff, and to me, they are the true heroes of foster care.


A heartfelt thanks goes out to all foster parents out there, thank you for your dedication to showing some of our most needy children what it means to have a family.

a happy saturday

Today is our annual Foster Parent Appreciation picnic for Walden Family Services in Riverside. Our parents do a tremendous job caring for children with special needs, children from abusive backgrounds who require a great deal of patience and understanding from the adults around them.

It's a wonderful thing to know there are some people out there who genuinely want to help create a better future. Our kids matter, and I'm thankful that these amazing folks have stepped forward to make sure these youth are not left behind.

The best part about today is...I'm going to be doing face-painting for the kids! Yay!

You can read more about Walden and what we do here. Have a great day!

My Little Brother

...aka Golf Professional. Check him out here! Ladies, he's single, bright, and a great golf teacher...and looking to move out of current bachelor pad full of lamebrains...so don't hesitate, he's a catch!

I bet you weren't going to tell me about this video, ey Dan? Well your adoring mother gave me the scoop...I've never seen you say so little in a span of 10 minutes, though, so I'm pretty sure you were nervous. Anyway, congratulations on your promotion - don't forget us little people when you make it big.

As for me, I've still got some kind of flu-ish-y bug. I can only breathe when I'm standing up...which makes most of my daily activities very interesting. Still, I am keeping my fingers crossed it'll be gone before the weekend.

See you tomorrow or Friday with some pics of recent projects I've been working on...

Feeling...

Uninspired. Tired. Spent. Burdened. Weak. Too responsible. Unknown. Slightly bitter. Bitchy. Unimportant.

A little alone.

However, I do have some sort of flu, and it's late, and I was in a tedious and soul-squashing meeting from 10-5, and the homestead is messy, and it's Monday.

So maybe things will look better in the morning.

Tomorrow is a glass half full, I think. :)