...procrastinators unite!

...7 pm, new year's eve. i remember that i have a balance left in my flexible spending account.
if you're not familiar with flexible spending, click HERE.

since my employer informed us in december that we would not be getting holiday bonuses, raises in 2009, or holiday bonuses in 2009...and are reducing our mileage reimbursement to the rate we received in 2007, i am in no mood to hand over my hard-earned $ to the agency.

however, i didn't buy as many contact lenses, dental appointments, etc, as i had planned on, so i have a balance - to the tune of $300. so, i started my new year's eve celebration partyin' down over at CVS frantically grabbing medical supplies.
looks like kirk and i are covered in the event of cuts, bruises, sprains, injuries, headaches, heartburn, flu, hemorrhoids, and natural disaster. phew, that's a relief!

out with the old...

...don't you just love new year's eve day? i do. there is just something about the last day of the year that gives me pause. time to reflect. time to plan. hopeful optimism. so...i didn't keep last new year's resolutions, so what? so...i don't even remember what i resolved. all is not lost. so i didn't lose 10 pounds, or move, or have children, or get a new career.

i am happy. it's been a good year; not perfect, but good.

i was more actively creative than i had been in ages this year. i have several unfinished projects, too.
i paid down some of my debt this year. i gained a bit more debt.
our country elected our first black president, and a relatively progressive one at that! our country is in the worst financial straits since the great depression.
we set up my creative space in the kitchen. the space is starting to bulge with tons-o-crap.
kirk made some new songs, new friends, new art. kirk was not able to find permanent work.
i started carrying a caseload again at work, and it was a refreshing change of pace. i am back to 50+ hrs/week.
i stood up for myself more. there are things i did not say that i wanted to.
we took a vacation just for us for the 2nd year in a row. we only took 2 breaks all year.
we enjoyed good physical and dental health all year. we didn't go the doctor or dentist all year.
i got to be on my first paper arts "design team." i learned there's just as much drama in that world as anywhere else.
i helped implement a new foster parent training at work. i am now held responsible for all that is good/bad about this training.
i learned that there really are sincere, altruistic foster parents. i learned there are twice as many who think foster children = easy money.
i have seen friends achieve great things this year. i have also seen friends experience great losses.
i have maintained good friendships in 2008. i have lost contact with some friends, too.

2008 is like a chalkboard covered with a rainbow of chalks, words, images, sounds, places, people, events. today is the last mark on the board. there will never be another day in 2008. this is it, then on to the next thing....2009.

today i plan to sleep in, then tie up some loose ends.
finish my december daily album.
make new year's "kits" to give my supervisees at work on Monday.
take time to photograph & enjoy my holiday decor before i put it all away for another year.
a little shopping, a few errands, a bit of laundry.
make a list of goals for the new year, with attainable objectives. no more "resolutions."
make snacks, clean a little and get ready to relax with kirk tonight to ring in the new year, just the two of us. :)

and then again, it is just another day. another year. more of the same? well that's the thing - we get to decide that part. :) and what's cooler than that?

what will be your last marks on 2008? i'd love to hear!

and just in case your 2008 was not so great, here's a little something to make you smile. it's from youtube, which was another favorite passtime of my 2008. this little guy is too cute for words. even grownup words. :)

A year. An alphabet. 26 bits of me.

...i've decided to play along with Rachel's year-long art journal in 2009. rachel is a blogging genius, and one talented, creative lady. she hosted a similar project on tallyscrapper in 08...i was not able to participate in that one, but i'm over it. :) i am pumped and ready for art in 2009. (more on my creativity pledge to myself later.)

for the art journal/"deck of me", we'll be doing small-scale art journal "pages" based on 2/month prompts and the alphabet...i.e. "ABC's of me" theme. i have wanted to do an art journal for a long time, and have done loads of reading about them this year, so i'm jumping in with intentions of doing every prompt, which can be found at the blog HERE, and maybe even a few more.

to prepare for the project, before i go back to work and let craziness overtake me, i cut my "deck of me" cards down to size to fit in this tin, which i altered for the occasion:the tin is just one i kept from my favorite tea (Harney & Sons peppermint, and i'm OUT, santa done spaced out & forgot to put some in my stocking this year, boo hoo! or maybe i was bad...) and then i sanded it a little, painted it with ceramic paint, sanded again, painted another layer, and so on. i left some of the tin's original design showing through because i like it looking grungy. then i used rubber stamps, went crazy with alphabet stamps, added some ribbon, jute, flowers, letter stickers, and wallah!

my cards fit perfectly, and i have room to grow as i add to them through the year. the cards themselves are just cut down from cardboard backings from yellow lined pads we use at the office and from other paper packs i've purchased, i've been saving those all year.if you'd like to join in on this project, you can find more information at the blog by clicking above. you don't have to do them on cards, the format is up to you. some people will be using books, some will be doing ATC sized cards using playing cards, etc. i hope you consider it, even if you don't think of yourself as "creative." it's in everybody, and nobody else has to see it! so why not give it a go with me?

a few of my favorite things...

1. 1984
2. sting, bono, and george michael all in a row
3. humanitarianism
4. long hair in abundance
5. christmas music
6. did i mention sting, bono, and george all in a row?

it's like a little package perfectly wrapped just for me, i have to share.



see? the 80's weren't quite so selfish after all.

our holiday...

elf
christmas story
chili dogs
baking
wrapping
staying up late christmas eve
sleeping in late christmas morning
cookies, candy and sweets oh my!
peace
playfulness
love
indoor mini golf tournament
turkey & ham sandwiches on olive bread
calls from family far away
lovely cold rain
lights
music
video games
books
decorations
hugs
gifts


100% joy.

wishing you joy as well today. merry christmas.

r.r.r. and d.i.y. this holiday!

...if you know me, you're likely aware of my obsession with patterned paper. i have a lot. a whole lot. i use it for everything from making cards, scrapbooking, collage, tags, and notes around the house to making gift boxes, wrapping candles, and mixed-media art. wrapping paper is no exception, but for some reason this year i couldn't bring myself to buy pretty paper that will just get ripped off of a package and tossed in the garbage on Christmas day. yes, i do save some pieces, but let's face it, in the unbridled avarice of Christmas morning's loot-fest, the majority of that pretty printed paper gets trashed.

i've mentioned before that kirk and i are determined to have as much homemade, handmade, thrift-bought, or non-commercial holiday fare as possible this year. so, why not make our own gift wrap?

here's what we did:
for those days you forget your re-usable eco-bag at the supermarket, opt for the paper and save it...then cut the bottoms out (save these to make your to/from tags!) and down one side to make one large rectangle.

if you want your wrap to be nice and smooth, quickly iron the rectangle on a dry setting for about 20 seconds per section. makes it all smooth and smooth-like.


next, get out some stamps or other items to create texture. we used some foam stamps i have in my art supplies, some container lids for circles, some stickers and stencils as masks. you can also use cut potato stamps, yarn/string, cut sponges, or even stickers on a coaster (see below).
(we just stuck some foam sticker letters {american crafts "thickers" work GREAT} onto a thick chipboard coaster to make letter stamps. remember to put the letters on backwards to create the correct image when you stamp.)


get out some acrylic paint, ink, or other coloring medium, and make yourself a palette of colors . ink/paint those babies up and get ready for the fun part.


start stamping! get paint everywhere! flick, spatter, speckle, drizzle, drip, splat, doodle, have fun.


cover the whole rectangle for a large piece of wrapping paper.


wrap your "loot," marvel at your creative genius, and bask in the oooh's and ahhh's of your gift recipients.

we LOVE how these turned out, and we had a blast doing it. our wrapped gifts looked really good and the paint didn't crack or peel off at all. this would be a great activity for those of you with kids who are soon to be on winter-break bugging you with "i'm booooorrrreeed...." all day.

hope you give it a try!

reduce, reuse, recyle, and do-it-yourself! :)

hooray for

holiday action the likes of...

shopping for unique and thrify gifts in cool bookstoresdickens, traditional stories, and local community theatresecret snowman at work, i loved my surprise office decorations
and scrappy shopping with good friends on a friday
sending off packages full of love and music to people i love
connecting with people i haven't heard from in a long while via e-mail, snail mail, phone...
chili-dogs
helpful hubbies
and general holiday merry-making

(sorry photos of these favorites are still stuck in my camera)

and....drumroll please....you asked for it, so it's coming soon: d.i.y.dilley - how to have a do-it-yourself holiday the heidi way!

hope you all had a good weekend. i'm coming down with the flu or something, so off to bed with me....g'nite!

dec daily in the house

so here it is, day one of my dec mini album...i got photos printed yesterday at cvs, so am working on the first 5 days tonight, and they are going really fast, just as the concept promises! loving it.

(you can click to see the big photo for more detail)

this year, dec 1 just happened to be the annual holiday party that the agency i work for puts on for the families and children, so that is what i chose to document. it is a treat every year to see the kids' smiling faces during an otherwise stressful time for the kids who cannot be with their birth families. ( i have blurred any faces of the foster children because due to confidentiality i cannot show them online, but you will get the idea of the pages i did nonetheless.)

i used my page 1, and added journaling and a photo to the back, then added another matching page by adhering 2 photos together and journaling directly onto the photo, and adding a few stickers, and some ribbon tabs in between the photos.

hope you like! i will post a few of the other pages too, but not likely every page for dec.

we'll see. have a great week everybody.

speaking of...

...procrastination...i forgot that tonight is the deadline for the 9th survivor challenge at tally, too! i think i've posted my LO's about an hour before midnight almost every single week....except this one! they gave us 2 weeks to work on it, so i'm EARLY! lol, well, 4 hours before the deadline, i think it might be my new record.

challenge was to print a B&W photo the size of scrapping you normally do, and scrap ON it, like background paper. no patterned paper, 2 embellishments, colorful title, photos in color. here's my take:
i like how it turned out. the photos are my contact sheet from a recent vacay to CO to visit family. as always, thanks for stopping by!

p.s. i've been awarded a few bloggies (grammy type awards for blogs) and thus will be awarding my own in the next week or so, stay tuned, it may be you.

digi love

...what? you were expecting some december daily action? what's with all the e-mails asking when i'm posting pages? hey, i never promised that i'd have my layouts done on TIME...i am queen of procrastination, after all, and i wouldn't want to lose my title NOW, after all of that not doing stuff on time and whatnot. i HAVE taken the photos for each day, so as soon as i can hit a cvs to print them out, december daily you shall see. the ideas are cooking, i'm just letting them marinate a bit. :)

i'm thinking i should have done THIS little project for december instead, maybe? i love this idea, and everything Kristina Contes does plain rocks, too, so you should check it out either way.

almost done with this year's Jingle Bell Jam! the whole project is d.i.y. except the cd face itself which i sent off to be printed at mixonic, and they did a great job. i always forget how much work it is, because i just love how much people enjoy the holiday music every year. you should see my battle wounds from folding and scoring and gluing 100 paperboard cases together, and making 100 little tags to attach to them.

i have given up on making christmas cards for everyone this year. a few will be going out, but most people will get a Jingle Bell Jam, which should serve as my holiday card anyway. i'll just keep telling myself that and try not to feel guilty.

so, to make up for my lack of dec documentation, here is a recent digi i did for the 12 days of christmas challenges over at tally. (yeah, i overcommit, you talkin to me?)

i don't do a lot of digital scrapbooking, but i love scrapblog for quick, lovely digital layouts like this one:

peace.