Friends?

Over the last few months I've been thinking about so many things. There are so many, that sometimes, I HAVE felt like I am a horse with blinders on. It is what I have to do to keep my life free from stress because when I am under stress I tend to get migraines that will last for days.(even when I take my medication) I don't like my life with migraines!

One of the things that has been on my mind a great deal has been friends. With all the changes that have been made and that are going to be made very soon, you can't help but wonder. Do you really make a difference to those around you? Why in the face of a tragedy like the death of my brother do the friends you thought were your friends, are no where to be found? I know life is busy for everyone but I truly feel that, that is a choice. Anyone can make a choice to slow down enough to at least pick up the phone, post a email to just say you care. I don't expect anyone to have answers or special words for what I have faced.

Friends coming in and out of my life is something I am not sure I will ever get use too. I really don't like it, it makes it hard to trust people with who you really are. Now don't get me wrong I love my friends, each for a different reasons. I just don't understand the silence. I can count on one hand how many times someone has taken the time to really ask how I am over the course of the last 4 months.(and REALLY want to know the answer.)

I can say without any doubt for anyone that cares, I'm good. I've been able to step past Gregory's death, moving on. He would have wanted that anyway, he wasn't about being fussed over. So to those who haven't called, emailed or phoned. I still love you and I'm making it on my own. I am not angry with you, just realizing that you were in my life for a season. Hopefully, you will be a part of my new season too. It is going to be exciting!!

And the winner is.........

BUT before I tell you who the winner is I must say Thank you to everyone for stopping by the last few days!! It has done my heart good to know that at least a few people read what I write.

Mother's Day was relaxing, which was so nice to not have to do much of anything! I had already purchased my present from Royal Totes so I wasn't expecting anything else. My husband did make me a wonderful Pork Sparerib Dinner with our favorite special sauce.(right from Martha Stewart....lol) He ended up making them to spicy so he made me some plain ones. My son in law brought my daughter, granddaughter and grandson over to spend a little while with us while he went to work for a few hours. It was nice and Miss Piper was on her best behavior, if I do say so myself.

Today has been spent tiding up the house for the realtor walk through tomorrow. I made a trip to Costco and bought some muffins to set out for them. Along with some bottled Starbucks frappicinos and water, hopefully it will make them feel welcome in my home and above all help them to remember my house!!

So with my small highlights out of the way, I will now tell you who has won. I started by printing off everyone's name, cut them into strips and then placed them into a favorite small bucket. My youngest daughter Michaela drew out the name..........Kelly Westlund!!! Now, since Kelly and I are good friends, I decided to choose one more name because well I just LOVE making people happy!! So my second winner is Judy Anderson!!! These two lovely ladies will receive a handmade mini-book and Making Memories paint in there go to colors. Both of you please email me your addresses so I can get your Mother's Day present out to you.

I promise as soon as I know these ladies have their books in hand I will post them so you can see too. Enjoy ladies!!

Little bit of this and a little bit of that

So in the course of getting this house ready to sell I've been doing ALOT of reorganizing. One of my projects that I've been wanting to do for sometime is organize my chipboard. I LOVE chipboard but find it frustrating to remember where I stash it. Then I loose interest in finding just the right piece for my project.

I started by putting my chipboard into piles. On my clean desk I might add and that doesn't happen very often!

Then my piles went into these drawers. I put A-B, C-D and E-F etc. together. Drawers were purchased at Ikea and come unassembled. They are just plain pine boxes that you can do anything with. I LOVE them!! I'm so very happy with the result. They match my other drawers in my scrapbookroom which I painted about 2 years ago.

I drilled holes in the drawers and then tied on the tags.

Yes, my accessories are sorted according to color. I would never go back to them all in one drawer again.

Bottom two drawers here are my larger chipboard on sheets and rubons.

This drawer set I found at a business yard sale for $1. With each of these sets I painted the outside of it with Ceramcoat Caribbean Blue and the drawers with Americana Acyclic paint in Honey Brown. These colors with a few others seem to be my GO TO colors. They make me happy and that is why I've chosen to have them be a BIG part of my scrapbookroom. Tell me about your GO TO colors and why you GO TO them. I'll enter you in on a special drawing on Mother's Day for a special prize. Have a great weekend!!

Not much news


Well, off my list the other day everything got done! I was pretty impressed with myself. I usually start with a list only to get half of what I wanted to get done, then move the rest to another page for another day. Then the list gets misplaced and I have to start all over again. Then I find my orginal to do list. I think I have to made pads of paper or can you really have to many? Okay, that was random, sorry.

National Scrapbook Day was wonderful! I had so much fun and I got a lot done in the midst of teaching a couple of mini classes. My youngest daughter came with me and she worked on a teacher's gift. It is about 85% finished so that is wonderful.

This was part of one of my mini technique demonstration. I was going to have everyone do a hands on but they just wanted to look, so that is what I ended up doing.


The technique was resisting with clear embossing powder over patterned paper.(a nice reminder from Tim Holtz) Then I painted over the whole tag with Making Memories Black paint. Let it dry then wipped off the excess. Love it when people oooo and aaahhh over things they have forgotten they can do.




This card was created from some left over pieces from the above project. No special technique just a lot of tearing and inking with Vintage photo Distress ink from Ranger. Stamps used here and above: Make it count from Close to my Heart.

I didn't create this as part of National Scrapbook Day but for my daughter Nicole's birthday a few weeks ago. It is a 12x12 canvas painted a rust color. Then I modge podged the paper and photos onto it. These are some of the most favorite phtos of my girls I own. They grown up to fast. I did them each layouts for their albums with these same photos which I believe are somewhere in my archives.

Prayer

For anyone that comes across this little blog, that doesn't get updated very often PLEASE, PLEASE pray for the sale of our house. We made the decision this week to drop our price by $10,000. Our realtor agreed with us and did take a look again at the prices around Yakima. They are right in line with everyone else so we feel confident that this was the right thing to do. Next week will be another realtor walk through and probably an open house.

I'm remaining creative and cleaning up after myself, which is a big feet in itself!! I tend to leave my projects out until completed......hello, doesn't everyone? I made a decision to teach at my local scrapbook store this weekend for National Scrapbook Day, so I'm looking forward to doing something for me. It gives me the warm fuzzies to help other people with what I LOVE to do! So four mini classes, three demos with the chance of some hands on for those attending. Then one with just a talk about color, how it pertains to our life as scrapbookers,which will lead into how to pick mats for your photos. A number of years ago I taught this same class as part of a workshop I did. It went over well so with a new group that it would be fun to pull something from my archives.

On my to do list today, which I will bore you with since I'm hoping if I write it here it will get all done!!
*Day starts with picking up the house in case it is shown.
*Onto a couple of errands
*Another cup of coffee to drink
*A a quilt to start on for my niece, fabric is cut just need to start sewing
*Pull everything for my classes together, in one place
*Figure out what projects I'm going to work on for National Scrapbook Day. I will be at the scrapbook store for 14 hours. So help me I better get something done!! lol
*Figure out a meal for this evening.......... I'm thinking soup.
*Love on the man of my dreams, who is coming home today! It will be so nice to have him around more often. Yes, an adjustment but such a long time in coming!! I am sooo ready!

Dang, I'm getting tired just looking over the list.......best get started!! Remember to pray!!