MIXED MEDIA ART CARDS

These look like fun!!!

This would be a great swap!!!   6x6??  5x7?  

I feel a swap coming on......

MORE INSPIRATION!

I love this style  of scrapbooking.  I always did "more is better" scrapbooking and find that I no longer like it at all!  I am going to try this and see how it goes.

ANYONE HAVE SOME OLD SHOES THEY DON'T WANT? THINK AGAIN!

THIS IS JUST SPECTACULAR!!!!!

I will never look at a clearance rack the same way again!!!

COLOR ME HAPPY!!

I really need to do a weekly segment on "new products" or "new toys", or something.  Just a little segment to share the new things coming into my already overflowing studio.

All the things on this table have just come home to mommy.  Lol!!

First up, two new Project Life core kits:   Vintage Travel, and 5th and Frolic Addition.  Somehow, I did not have either one of these.

As I had already blogged, this is the first month of Ali Edwards' class, Story Stamps. I have printed out the first class and have my first stamps. I'm ready to go.

I signed up for a Project Life project called Unabridged. It is with Big Pictures Scrapbooking and looks to be really great. I really love the teacher. I have never had a class with her, but really enjoyed the trailer of this class.   It uses a studio calico card kit which I received today also.

I received the first month of Cocoa Daisy's monthly agenda kit. It is really cute.

Curvy Cutter by EK Success.  I hope it works as well as I am told.

I have bought several of these already. They are quite comfortable to use, but I am very disappointed in how quickly they get ruined. God forbid it falls off your desk, that's it, it's done.

I wanted something cute to use on a birthday bag to decorate it and I thought this would be cute.

Some project Life goodies from Cocoa Daisy.

A small Project Life kit by Kelly Purkey that seems really great.   I really like the stamp set that comes with it

A set of Project Life stamps by Kelly Panacci. I got them on eBay. The entire set cost me $35!

I had pictures printed for my story stamps project. They came in today and I am so excited to have them. I cannot wait to get started.

I want to do one of Kathy Orta's decorative boxes. I want to do it with Christmas paper. So I ordered the paper line (KaiserCraft Yuletide) and everything that goes with it.

Last but not least, a Project Life 12 x 12 album and a couple of boxes of the inserts. I also got 6 x 12, 8 x 10 and 4 x 6 inserts from STUDIO CALICO.

I absolutely love Studio Calico.  I get all three of their monthly kids, Project Life, scrapbooking, and card kit.  If you're not familiar with them, and you do any scrapbooking, cards, or if you are a Lifer, stop by and check them out. They are fantastic.

Well, that's it for today! Have a great night and do something nice for yourself.

What an amazing thing to do!!!

A feel good video for all of us!

We ARE all enough.

SERIOUSLY???

Okay, so let me see if I understand this correctly.

Our government cannot agree on anything. Nothing. Yet they can agree to arm and train terrorist countries which will probably use those weapons and the training to attack us? Is that right?

This is exactly why I hate politics!

Terrifying day.

Today we are officially at war with Isis.  It is terrifying to see how these men have no souls and no conscience.  How their hatred for people they cannot even know is so overwhelming.

I can't help wondering how many Americans do not really understand what has started today.

I don't want to make this a political statement. There are arguments on both sides of this issue that are valid.  Right or wrong, the day has arrived to understand that we are all in danger. The day has arrived for all of us to understand that our way of life is being threatened.

God bless every one of us and this country.

Ali Edwards Story Stamps!!

I signed up for a new Ali Edwards class, Story Stamps.  I have always been a great fan of hers because of the simplicity and vlean look.  Her work is totally sincere and honest without the need for all the "fluff".

This class involves a set of stamps which she sends to you every month.  They are what I would call Project Life stamps.  With those stamps, you work on a class that she teaches once a month.  

I received my first set of stamps today and I love them!

I did the first class online today and I'm amazed at the kind of beautiful yet simple work that she does.  I can't wait to do my own.

This class is more about telling the story than it is about pictures or embellishments.  The stamps are meant to be prompts for your storytelling.

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am a picture addict. I love pictures. I have tons and tons and tons of them.  But at the end of the day the pictures are nothing without the story.  And that is why I signed up for this class. I will keep you posted on how it goes and post my stories along the way.

HAVING FUN!

I am so excited about the new Becky Higgins Project Life App!!!  It is WONDERFUL!  If you are a lifer and haven't tried it - RUN!!!

I did these yesterday in just a few minutes!

What a great way to catch up with all those layouts you haven't gotten to yet!!!!

Mini Distress Ink Pads.

so I hear there is a new set of many distress ink pads for Halloween.

I have been looking for it online and can't seem to find them. 

Does anybody know where they are? Or even IF they are?

JUST FOLLOWING THE ADVICE OF FRIENDS....... (that's my story and I'm sticking to it)

My sweet friend Eileen told me to do something nice for myself every day. 

So, since I am SOOOOOO good at following directions,  today I started early.  

I got myself (an my daughter) the iPhone 6.  

It's bigger and faster and well...... just a new toy.  

Did I NEED it?  Of course not!  I had the 5.  

Did I WANT it?    Not really, my 5 is only a couple of months old.  But my friend George who manages the AT&T Store right in my building offered to hold one for me so.....

yep!  I can get used to this being nice to myself!!  LOL!!!

MY POOR ABANDONED BLOG!!

Life has become so hectic.  So many things have happened over the past six months - some good - some not so good.  I miss blogging.  I miss the camaraderie of the blog, the blank page, the sharing.  So why have I not written?  Don't really know.  Just haven't felt like it I guess.

It's funny how you always put the things you enjoy most on the back burner when you are stressed or pressed for time.  We deprive ourselves of the things we enjoy and yet still find the time to do the things we don't.  How does that work?

Waking up this morning, in that space between drowsiness and wakefulness, I thought about the fact that I feel ..... I don't even know how to express it..... empty maybe?  Does that make sense?  Probably not.  I feel like there is something missing, that I am not living my "best life" - isn't that what all the psycho gurus call it?  But how to change it?  How do I live for "me" without feeling guilt or a sense of selfishness?

WAY too deep for so early in the morning, but these thoughts have been weighing on me.

My word for this year was PURPOSE.  I was determined to live every day this year with purpose - not just live a day at  time like petals we remove from a flower singing "he loves me, he loves me not".  But I have not done that at all.  I have not focused on goals to reach this year, I have not lived with purpose at all.

There is still a few months left of this year.  And I can always use the word again next year, but what good is the word when you don't live it?  When you don't get up each day and remind yourself of why you chose it in the first place.

The first mistake for me I think is that I have not journaled this year.  At all.  Journal therapy is something that has always tended to keep me on course.  A tether when I feel like I am going to just float away.  I love to write!  So what is wrong with me that I am not writing!?  It may be that everything and everyone else around me is SAPPING me of all energy, of all happiness, of all peace.

Maybe.