Ornament Swap

Remember that Christmas ornament swap I mentioned that the girls over at Red Velvet Art were having? Well, I finally got my 3 ornaments. The little purple sequin one came all the way from Perth, Australia! Aren't they cute? I forgot to take pics of mine. Sorry. I have some other ones I painted that I'll show you later. I was a bad swapper and mailed mine a bit late. Oops! I was assured by the postgirl that they would all arrive BEFORE Christmas though so we're all good I think. One of mine went to Singapore! The pic above isn't so good. My camera is acting funny which scares me since I just got it last spring. It won't take a pic if the flash is on. Hmmm...

Anyway, hope you all are having a FABULOUS holiday Season. It's the season I like the most. OH, and they say SNOW is on the way!!! WOO HOO I LOVE me some snow!

What's YOUR Snowman Name???

Your Snowman Name is


Freckles Nippy-Toes



Get your Snowman Name at Quizopolis.com

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Christmas Survey


Have you been naughty or nice this year? - Oh how I wish I had been naughty more!

What do you want most for Christmas? - To be naughty with my crush more often

Do you believe in Father Christmas? - Sure!

What is your favorite food at Christmas? - Prime Rib, Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, Pretzel Salad, Green Bean Casserole

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? - Yep!

Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? - Nope

What is your favorite Christmas song? - Christmas Alphabet by the McGuire Sisters

What is your favorite Christmas movie? - White Christmas

What is your best memory of Christmas? - Alison and I getting fur coats

What do you look forward to most at Christmas? - Looking at the lighted Christmas tree.

What are you doing for Christmas this year? - Nothing much

Who do you want to kiss under the mistletoe? - I'm not posting that HERE!

What kind of Christmas tree do you have? - Fake, but I LOVE real ones

Do you take part in a secret santa? - Yes! Fun Times!

Do you go to any Christmas parties? - AA 1st Annual Christmas Dinner

Have you ever had a white Christmas? - YES!!! My FAV!

How early do you wake up on Christmas morning? - I prefer to never wake up early.

Do you still get a stocking? - My fav thing to get!

How many Christmas cards do you normally send out? - Depends

What is your Christmas wish? - For a little vacation




Take This Survey at Quizopolis.com

http://www.quizopolis.com/christmas_survey.php

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Which Deadly Sin Is Yours?



Greed


In the immortal words of Gordon Gecko 'Greed is good', words you live by. Wether it's money, fame or something else, you want it all


Find out your Deadly Sin at Quizopolis.com

Put on your Fancy Pants!

So about 3 months ago I won a Fancy Pants contest. Well, imagine my surprise when my prize arrived today. I was suppose to get stamps but instead I got a bunch of goodies. I got the Sassy felt shapes and buttons; Say it Simple Chipboard; Holly Jolly PP, rubons and ribbon; and Sweet Pea PP and ribbon. Pretty good bounty IMHO.

Happy Gobble Gobble Day

So my friend Christy sent me a pic of the above cookies she made with her DH & DS tonight. This is her description, "Michael and Mason put the icing on for me and cut the turkey (maple nut goodie) slices. Then the mashed potatoes are icing with a couple of yellow butter sprinkles, the cranberries are red sugar and the peas are green sprinkles. The gravy is melted chocolate chips with a little bit of veggie oil in them." Now how cute is THAT!!!

So in true Thanksgiving manner, I thought I would take a few moments to think about some things I am thankful for:

Sobriety
Nana and her unconditional love
AA
God's love and forgiving grace
Friends
Laughter
Tears
Memories
Peace of Mind/Serenity
Safe comforting home
Kitties
Health
Creativity
DSL and Internet
Music
Nature

Those are just a few of the things I am thankful for this year and every day. What are you thankful for this thanksgiving??? Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Violet, like the flower

Saturday night and nothing to do. SO, I spent some time catching up with some of my fav. scrappy blog gals and found out that my personality is Violet.

you are violet #EE82EE

Your dominant hues are red and blue. You're confident and like showing people new ideas. You play well with others and can be very influential if you want to be. Your saturation level is lower than average - You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do. Finishing projects may sometimes be a challenge, but you schedule time as you see fit and the important things all happen in the end, even if not everyone sees your grand master plan. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

I relate. I love this kind of stuff. I LOVE taking quizzes that tell me who I am or horrorscope thingymajiggies, numerology, you know, stuff like that.

Did another craft fair this weekend. Not so profitable but WAY interesting as I got to see my first outhouse! LOL I know. Like THAT is something that you have been dying to lay your eyes on, BUT, I luv me some dorky tourist traps, especially with interesting photo ops to scrap. This had many. It was the "Outhouse Tours" in Elk Falls, Kansas. I'll look for a link and upload some pics tomorrow. I could have done that on my Saturday night, but I am sure glad to find out that I am Violet!
Ta Ta

Swap Time Once Again

I was cruzing thru my fav blogs earlier today and found out that the girls over at Red Velvet Art are having a handmade Christmas ornament swap! I'm super excited for this since 1) I LOVE Christmas and ornaments, & 2) The girls that check out RVA RAWK!!! Maybe I will luck out and get one of Rachels killer 'love' birds. If the Swap Gods smile down upon me. Either way, i'm sure to not be disappointed. If you are reading this go check it all out HERE Sign up. The more the merrier.

Fall Foliage

The trees this year have been just AMAZING!!! I am totally in love with all the bright colors. These are a few pics I took last weekend. I'm thinking I need to drive around and take some more. I have a layout that I did with these pics that I will show later. I found this poem by Robert Fitzgerald that I think goes with the photos perfectly. Enjoy!

Lightness in Autumn
The rake is like a wand or fan,
With bamboo springing in a span
To catch the leaves that I amass
In bushels on the evening grass.
I reckon how the wind behaves
And rake them lightly into waves
And rake the waves upon a pile,
Then stop my raking for a while.
The sun is down, the air is blue,
And soon the fingers will be, too,
But there are children to appease
With ducking in those leafy seas.
So loudly rummaging their bed
On the dry billows of the dead,
They are not warned at four and three
Of natural mortality.
Before their supper they require
A dragon field of yellow fire
To light and toast them in the gloom.
So much for old earth's ashen doom.

All Souls Day

Today is All Souls Day. I did this LO about my sister for a GDT contest. It is almost her birthday. It is nice to stop and think about all the good times we had together. I miss her mucho!!!



Speaking of birthdays: Happy Birthday to me! Sobriety birthday that is. 2 years ago today I stopped drinking. I've been pretty melancholy the last couple of days thinking about the events leading up to today. I'm really glad that craziness is gone from my life. I'm off to Tulsa to get my chip from my sponsor and to celebrate with friends. I get to do it again here in Independence at the end of the month, but that seems like a long way away right now. I've been going through some rocky times here lately but I think I am over the hump. A few things have gone my way lately, one that is definately putting a smile on my face and a quickness in my step, but i'm not ready to share that yet. Happy day all!

Pirates, Princesses & Superheroes

Hope everyone had a great Halloween tonight. We had some cute Trick or Treaters. Last week was Neewollah here in Indpendence. Just wanted to share a few pics from the craft fair that I did with Brook and Teresa.


Teresa, Brook & I in front of our booth.


Our booth


Hand stamped baby onesies



Hand painted Christmas ornaments



Teresa's pretty cans

Happy Halloween!!!

So some friends and I are jumping on the craft fair wagon. In a couple of weeks our hometown here in Kansas has a week long celebration called Neewollah. Teresa, Brook, and I are busily making our wares to sell during the Arts & Crafts fairs. Brook is doing some recipe boxes and Teresa is doing some altered paint cans. They are both making Cookie Sheet Calenders. I'm making hand painted Christmas ornaments, hand painted tins for girly girls and boys, stamping some onesies for the fashionable tot in your life and these fabulous pumpkin tins below. Stop on by and say hello that day!




Here is the Happy Halloween hanging I made for the mantle. I LOVE the scary vampire face and hands. They are for the top of a cake! LOL

Paying it Forward

Our church service today was lead by the youth. We had a cute/funny skit, great singers and a interesting sermon. The sermon was about how we never know what effect we have on people, the good deads we do and paying it forward. Now I am definately a believer in Karma and the fact that what you put out in the world you will get back, but I also know I can be quit selfish. It is easy to get bogged down in everyday life and its difficulties, but many days, in many ways I see the good in the world. As Sam gave his sermon and talked about "paying it forward" I really thought about how I needed to do more 'good deeds' and be a little less selfish. Then tonight, while reading a post on a message board which lead to this blog I again was confronted with this idea. This story was really amazing and brought tears to my eyes. My challenge to myself this week is to do a good deed each day. I challenge anyone that reads this to do the same. Notice the positive effects it has on you and others.

Swap Happiness

So, one of the reasons I started this blog was so I could particpate in a swap over at Red Velvet Art. My swapmate was Michelle from Washington. The top 3 pics are my fav things that I sent her. She sent me the stuff in the bottom 3 pics. Thanks Michelle!!! I LOVE your favorite things. Now the pic does NOT do the beautiful journal justice. It is exquisite! Mucho beautiful vintagish papers, a lovely quilted apron and stationary with pretty english roses. Just divine!!!

Balance

One Little Word: Balance

I found the quote in one of my meditation books. It said everything that I felt.

Seek Balance
Balance emotions with reason.
Combine detachment with doing our part.
Balance giving with receiving.
Alternate work with play, business with personal activities.
Balance tending to our spiritual needs with tending to our other needs.
Juggle responsibilities to others with responsibilities to ourselves.
Balance caring about others with caring aobut ourselves.
Whenever possible, let's be good to others, but be good to ourselves too.
Today, I will strive for balance.

I have other things to post so I'll be back tomorrow! Happy Friday!!!

WOOHOO

So yesterday my LO was Layout of the Day over at AllyScraps.com. My "Weaknesses" that I listed are: Shopping, Coffee, Soda, Cranberry Juice Slushes, Scrapbooking Supplies, M.A.C Makeup, the Internet, Dessert, Magazines, Books, Shoes, & My Kitties.

Today I woke up with a crick in my neck. OUCH! I went to the chiropractor. I can turn it to the left now but it is still a lot of pain. I slept all evening due to a muscle relaxers and now it is almost 2a.m. and I am wide awake. Can't take any pain pills so I also laid on Nana's back massager. It helped a lot. Nothing exciting has been going on lately. Just scrapping. Hoping to get back in the groove tomorrow.

40 before 41

So Elsie had a blog party today. She also had a challenge which was to make a list of things you wanted to do by your next birthday. You needed to come up with the number of items of your current age. That is 40 for me. YIKES!!! I can't believe I came up with them all considering that is only a little over 4 months from now. I actually believe that I can do most of these also. So here is my list:

1. Give up soda AGAIN!
2. Start 365 self-portrait challenge
3. Write down Nana's stories
4. Start scrapping the pics in the chest
5. Get & keep my room clean
6. Attend as many AA meetings as possible
7. Read a book a month (at least)
8. Go see Keith
9. Go see Renee
10. Take a roadtrip
11. See Plaza Christmas Lights
12. Ride a roller coaster
13. Learn to scuba dive
14. Start exercising
15. Meditate daily
16. Find a Nana sitter
17. Finish collage projects
18. Finish painting projects
19. Swim as much as possible before they close the pool
20. Stay Sober
21. Participate in Doo Dah parade
22. Have stamp party
23. Make all my xmas cards
24. Keep current on blog
25. Learn new haircut technique
26. Go blonder
27. Finish my AA steps
28. Watch all Tivo'd shows
29. Make birthday cards for everyones bdays
30. Apply for GDT Spot
31. Get LO published
32. Apply for DT position
33. Start saving
34. Start "The Dares"
35. Go to Austin, Tx. to see Anna & Colleen
36. Enjoy all the holidays
37. Get a new tattoo
38. Go scuba diving
39. Swim with Dolphins
40. Go to Mexico for 41st birthday!

So, what's on your list?

Hi!

So I decided to join the world of blogging. I've been thinking about it for awhile. I want to do a swap over at Red Velvet Art and you have to have a blog to do it so I figured it was the push that I needed. I read a bunch of awesome, inspirational, crafty blogs (almost) every day so now I can pass them on to whomever might read this. And if you are reading this, well, THANKS!!!
I think it will be a great place to pass along all the great stories my 93 year old grandmother (Nana, aka Lillian) tells me. I'm her sole caregiver. I am also Kitty Momma to 4 cats: Autumn, who is my sweet baby; Lily, who is the main alpha cat of the house and was my moms before she passed away; Boo, who is solely Nana's cat and only comes near me when he wants treats; and Windsor, our newest addition. He is definately the life of the party. I am NOT a crazy cat lady, but I do love each and every one of them. No husband and no kids so I have lots of love to give. I am an artist, crafter, hairstylist, traveler, and caregiver. I am constantly evolving. I'll share more about that later!