I'm the Taxman

Ok I'm not REALLY the taxman but since it's tax day in the great US of A I've had that song in my head ALL DAY so I'd thought I'd share it with you! lol Are you singing it now too? You will be soon. Just wait.  It's also Gutter Girlz day and Erosion Bundle day so I've got some pics for you.

First of all though I want to talk about this great post over at Creative Every Day's blog by Kat Sloma.  CED's theme for the month is on the senses so Kat asked these questions of the readers today and I wanted to answer them here as they are questions I've pondered upon occasion myself.

1. What's your favorite sense? By this question, I don't mean the most useful sense to get around in day to day life. But the one that you feel like in your gut that you just can't live without. This probably ties in to your "soul language."  

This is pretty easy for me because it would have to be sight. Being an aritst and happiest when creating my sight is definitely important to me. Also I love to read & can't imagine not being able to. A close second for me would be touch. I'm the bad girl at the museum who wants to touch the art.
 
2. What's your least favorite sense? What's the one you would give up without thinking too much about it? Why?

I think the answer to this question would have to be smell. My allergies are awful and already cause me some smell issues so while smell is so linked to memories if I never had to smell anything stinky again I'd be happy. lol

Ok that being said I wouldn't want to lose any sense. The senses are what makes our world interesting & I know with the loss of one the others become more distinct.  I'd love to hear your answers to this question so leave me a link if you answer them on your blog or feel free to leave me a comment with your answers!   


This months Gutter Girlz challenge is based on one of my old fav songs from Concrete Blonde, Everybody Knows. This song brings back so many memories for me. The title also had some significant meaning as it goes along with some things in the big book. Hop on over there & check out what the other girls did.

Today is also the day to take down the Erosion Bundles but since I put mine up late I'm leaving it up a little longer. I'll take it down around the first of May but I snapped a couple of updates shots of it. I almost hate to take it out of this lovely ivy that is growing all around it doing lovely things to the inside contents I'm sure!

It's suppose to rain this weekend so it'll get at least one more good soaking. Hope you're enjoying the spring weather!

Challenges Challenges Challenges

The new Gutter Girlz challenge is up! Below is my take on it. The prompts this time are  
THE PROMPT:
I'm Still Sugar and Spice
THE SONG:
One of the Boys by Katy Perry
PRODUCT/TECHNIQUE:
Ribbon/Bows AND Dirty Socks

On my lo you might notice those cool flowers. Well I made them. Fellow DT member Carole Stirrat over at Scraptivity showed us this fantastic tutorial which you can see right HERE. I made a couple of minor changes to mine like using Glimmer Mist instead of dye to color them and Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks to color the pearls. I'd been wanting to make these for a while and Carole's tutorial pushed me to try.

 

I really love how they turned out! So girlie and perfect for my Sugar & Spice lo.

I've done a couple of lo's for Tally Idol. The first challenge was to use stars, chipboard, 2 different pp's & the word Climb in the title as the challenge was based on Miley Cyrus's song The Climb.

 

Last weeks challenge was about Idols! Scrap someone who's your idol. I immediately thought of my girl crushes on Gwen Stefani and Kat Von D. Kat's show starts back up this week too!!! Hope Aubrey is G-O-N-E!!! Ok anyway. We were also suppose to use paint and journaling and I think that's it. I've been holding on to these Marah Johnson Tattoo & Rock Star papers and I think they made the perfect lo

 

I've been participating in Happy Mail and since I got sick last month I was a little behind in my mailing but finally got a couple of things sent. First I made this box for one girl

 

And then I painted on this record for the Happy Mail Queen herself. Hope she likes it. It's a little quirky but I think she likes quirky.

 

I finally finished my rainbow lo for my BPS class. It ended at the end of January and I'm on week 3 still. 

Story of my life!

 

Then at Scrapperie I'm the team leader for the Book of Me group and we scrapped about our favorite beverage. I noticed all these Starbucks cups on my floorboard after a weekend spent in Tulsa and knew the pic would be good for an upcoming lo and I was right. Good thing there isn't a Starbucks in Smallville here.

 

I went to a fun weekend crop at my lss a couple of weekends ago and that was a great time. A cold one but still fun. I got 4 lo's done which was amazing. The Starbucks and Rainbow lo's were 2 of them. You'll have to wait to see the others.  I've been doing some art journaling as well. Finally caught up on posting my 52 Self Portraits on my  tumblog and am working on catching up on P365. The pics are taken but I forget to upload sometimes. Loving my P365 app because it helps keep me on track. That's it for today. Just trying to keep being creative every day. I'm lucky that I have a life that allows for such things. If only it also allowed for a cleaner house. You know, one with a maid that's name isn't Susan!

Sick Sick Sick

I guess I'm better now or I wouldn't be blogging. I am keeping food down now which is nice, although I'm not eating any to keep down in the first place.  Gaterade/Sprite diet for me today. I'd planned on starting back on my eating plan this week so I guess that was quite the kick off weekend huh?
I got some Happy Mail this past week from Meep from Vermont and you can check out her blog HERE. I swear she is psychic because I had just put a new zip drive thingy on my WM list.

Then I've got some lo's that I've done over the last couple week. First I did this one for Scraptivitiy's blog. I just love this pic of the full moon over the Bay Bridge in SF last Feb.

Then the new Gutter Girlz Prompt is up and here is my take

 

Over at Scrapperie I'm the new team leader for the Book of Me prompts each week. Our first prompt was to scrap your Word of the Year. My word is Feed: feed my soul. feed my spirit. feed my spirituality. feed my body with healthy food and exercise. feed my recovery. feed my creativity.

Next is one of my assignments for my class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. We were to scrap a color or around a couple of colors. I picked my fav color of course

 

My friend Amy is having a little boy in a few weeks and his name will be Owynn. We had her shower the other night. Owynn's room is a jungle theme so I painted her an elephant for Owynn's wall

The first prompt is up over at Year in the Life Art Journal. You can join the ning site by going HERE. Here's my cover page and my page for the prompt of What

 

I'm also participating in another art journal site called Your Life Spelled Out. They have daily journal prompts and weekly art journal prompts. I'm a little behind but I'll catch up soon. Here is my first prompt. Again with the color

 

Ok I think that is it for today. The headache is back so back to bed I go. Hope none of you get this. Have a happy week.

 

Adios 2009

So another year gone and the end of a decade. 10 years ago tonight I was living in Denver and working at Palomino's Rest. I was mad that I had to work on Y2K because I wanted to be in KC partying with my friends. Seems silly now considering it's almost midnight and here I sit alone on a computer and I'm completely happy about it. All the pressure of having 'fun' on New Years gone with sobriety. What a decade it has been too. I've lived in Denver, Tulsa and Independence. I've worked as a waitress, retail, nanny, hairstylist, graphic artist, student, envelope stuffer,  transcriptionist & a caregiver. I've seen terriorism, war, and natural disasters beyond belief. I've buried my mother. I've escaped an abusive boyfriend and been accused of abuse myself. I've overcome alcoholism and drug addiction. I've traveled to Dallas, Austin, KC, Sacramento, San Francisco, Napa County, Las Vegas & LA.  I've found a piece of serenity and my own soul. I've made a spiritual connection with a higher power. I've rediscovered my passion for reading and creating. I've made long lasting friends both in person and thru the World Wide Web. It's been a busy 10 years! I suddenly feel a little amazed at all that it has held.
I'm really looking forward to 2010. I've got tons of things on my todo list. Mostly creative endeavors. I'm taking an inspiration class at Big Picture Scrapbooking with some friends from Twitter. I'm going to hang an Erosion Bundle outside and document it's changes for the next 4 months. I'm a guest host at A Year In The Life Art Journal. I'm on the Scraptivity,  Scrapperie, & Gutter Girlz DT's. I'm going to take a doll making class with another scrappy gf. I plan to visit Dallas & Kentucky & Austin & Sacramento/San Francisco/Napa again. I haven't really decided yet on any resolutions yet. I'll get back to you on those in a few days. In the meantime here are 10 of my fav. lo's from this past year. Wherever you are I hope your having a WONDERFUL New Year's celebration. May 2010 be everything you've hoped and wished for!

Playing Catch Up

Do you always feel like you are trying to 'catch up' with your to do list? I do. And the fact that I'm lazy doesn't help nor does the medicine coma I'm in today. I think I'll have to have a little nap before anything REALLY gets accomplished today. Anyone cooking Thanksgiving dinner? I am for Nana and a friend and I. So since I've got lots to do and a nap to attend to I'll just show you a few lo's that I've done this month.

Here is last months and the current Gutter Girlz challenge. Pop over there and check out the challenge and what the other girls did. Do the challenge and post your lo to the thread and you could win a $10 Tallyscrapper Gift Certificate.




These next 3 I did with this months Tallyscrapper kit. It's seriously gorgeous! I've got another lo from this kit that I'll post later and I still have tons of stuff left to do some more lo's! These pics are all from my trip to California too.






These next 2 are from a couple of challenges over at Tally's.

Scrappiness Ahead

I'm a bad blogger. I THINK about blogging but then I go and do something else. This computer is so freeeeeaaaaakkkkkking slow that it takes forever just to get thru my emails and message boards and then the last thing I want to do is blog. But alas, the situation will be taken care of in the next month or so because a new computer is in my near future! Aja always says that I hide my lo's from her and since she is all the way in Kentucky now I thought I'd just post all the ones I've done in the past couple of weeks.

I found these pics of when my sister and I went up to KC to World's of Fun with my KC friends about a year after I had moved away. Makes me want to go ride a roller coaster BAD!

Here is my friend Kary & I in Old Sac Town last February. Can't wait to see her again in October! This was for the last Design Experiment Challenge Blog.

I love this picture of my sister. We were in Chicago on vacation during spring break in March 1997. This was almost a year before she passed away. This is also my lo for lo tag over @ Scrapperie that is still going on. Shhhh....

This is for the LO tag that is still going on over at Tallyscrappers. It's a lift off one of Michelle Clements fabulous lo's. Oh how I love her style. A good memory to scrap as well.

My Kitty Autumn that passed in April. Oh how I miss her. Leftovers from my July Scrapperie kit.

My friend Christy and I at her house on Christmas night. We are all about the crazy hat pics. Wait until you see 4th of July!

This was for a challenge where I had to use a circle for my lo and friendship was the topic. Love me some Tally girls!

I've been leading the journaling challenges this past month over at Scrapperie and I wanted to do some art journaling about my fears. Putting them down on paper and getting them out of my head can really be helpful to me. It also helps me see how unwarranted they are. I know I'll always do what I need to do to survive now. I also know I won't have to just survive because now I'm in recovery.

Brandy at Tally's challenged me to do an 8 1/2 x 11 lo. NOT my usual size but I do have a few. Also to use black and no flowers. I accidentally got some flowers in there anyway. I wasn't thinking that pattern was flowers until I was all done. lol Hambly LOVES to lay at my feet when I scrap and always has to be touching one of them. He also gets stepped on a lot because I forget he is there.

This is the current Gutter Girlz challenge. And where was I with this large purple penis on my head you say? Well, I was at the Texas Tally Rally playing Dick Head Hoopla of course! Go see the other girls lo's at Gutter Girlz Challenge Blog


So that's it for now. I've got a couple of others from this weekend but they need to be edited still. I'm off to clean the scrap table and get to work. Hope you all have a great Sunday!

Inspiring Stories

Recently I spent some time in Austin, Texas for a little scrappy retreat with some fellow Tallyscrappers. I met 28 other fabulous women. I got to know some better than others and am still learning lots about most! When I clicked on today's Gutter Girlz post I was excited to learn more about Staci Compher. She sat at the table behind me & was a total doll but I had NO IDEA what an amazing journey she has been thru. I knew she was well published & that her lo's rawked (so it's only natural that she did too!) but when I read today's interview I was even more amazed. It also just gave me a totally different glimpse into my own mother for Staci's story & my mom's had some similiar situations happen. But you won't read about it here. You can, however, read about it HERE @ the Gutter Girlz Blog.

I've got pics to edit from my trip today & hope to be back with some for you all to see tomorrow.
Ciao!

Get in the GUTTER!

It's all about ME! That's the title prompt for today's Gutter Girlz Challenge. The song is You're So Vain by Carly Simon and the tech. is foil. Kinda fitting for me huh? LOL Ok so I admit, sometimes (ok most of the time) I'm pretty self-involved. But who isn't these days? And if I'm not then who is going to worry or take care of me? No one so I best be taking care of myself. You know AA teaches us to think about ourselves less often and to be of service to others but to also learn to take care of ourselves and stop waiting for someone else to save us and to also surrender to God & let Him run the controls. It can be quite confusing at times as I'm sure you can see! lol


If you like ads then head over toh Scrapperie and check out todays Ad Challenge. Scrapperies has been having daily challenges now with some fun inspiration to get your creative juices flowing. This is my example & the girls belong to my cousin and her new husband. It was so cute to see them all dressed up and climbing all over the banister.


Last weeks Ad challenge at Scrapperie.


I'm off to Texas next week and the 4th is upon us. Lots to do, lots to do!