Random Photo Share Wednesday

Here are a few more photos from the memory cards I downloaded a couple days ago.  Technically, they’re not perfect, but I love them anyway.

Here’s another from the race.  The headsets with the microphones were a big hit.  That’s my mom wearing the other ultra-fashionable head accessory.

Yes, this is a photo from last year’s family beach vacation.  Yes, I just downloaded it.  No, I have no excuse.   The boys still let me dress them alike, and this was just post-hair-donation.

And the last just cracks me up.  Covered with sand, running full-tilt, giant grin on his face.  That’s my boy!

That’s all for today, I’m swamped!

Until next time…
C.

Creating frenzy

I mentioned last week that I was on a massive creative streak, spending night after night in the craft cave pulling my Designer Showcase table display together.  After late nights and buckets of caffienated beverages I’m almost there.   Two more projects left.  Sleep is overrated, right?   The creative binge is fun, but the aftermath leaves a little to be desired.

Here’s one of the late-night projects made for Helmar Adhesives:

I finally got my gallery up and running this weekend.   To see more projects, click on the “Gallery” tab up top.

In other news, while preparing for our upcoming adventures, I made sure all the memory cards from our cameras are empty and ready to go.  In the process, I found quite a few photos I had forgotten about.  Here’s a little gem from our recent NASCAR race at the Kentucky Speedway.  Kid #1 was super-excited about being able to stay up late and go along.   He was fun to watch.

I’m still lamenting the lack of photos from the NKOTB concert last weekend.   We got a random upgrade to pavilion seats.  Total retro cheesy fun.  Completely different from *coughcoughtoomanyyearsagocoughcough* when I was 13 seeing them the first time.  It was a ball.

Off to head back to the cave.  Those projects aren’t going to make themselves!

Until next time…
C.

Wait…what? July?

I turned the calendar page to July yesterday.

Usually, I enjoy turning the calendar.  A fresh new page of possibilities before the commitments get scribbled all over.  But today I’m wondering where the summer has gone.  I’d swear the last day of school was just yesterday, and here it is almost mid-summer already.   Between chasing the kids and craft assignments, it has been a busy month already.

The CHA summer show in Orlando is just a few short weeks away, and I’m waist-high in preperations.  My friend Niki is visiting from North Carolina, and we’ve been crafting fiends over the last week.   Because of some other prior commitments, I have to have everything ready for the show by next week.   My usual pre-show panic has set in early, and I’m scrambling to make sure everything is in order.  It doesn’t matter how early I start prepping for shows, I always end up finishing 5 minutes before my deadline.   Luckily, my deadline is earlier this year.   I’m imagining the night before the show to be relaxed and calm.  I won’t know what to do with myself!

I wanted to share a project I did a few months ago that became a product header.  The layout features “Smooch”, an accent ink from Clearsnap.  I love that ink, the brush lets me color even the tiniest spaces.

I’ll be sharing some more of the work I’ve been creating for the show as I photograph it this week.

Until next time…
C.

Creative Mess

And by mess, I truly mean MESS.   That’s right, all caps.

For the last few weeks I’ve been knee-deep in the craziness that happens when a home-remodeling project coincides with a big deadline.    So there is mess in the construction zone, mess in the craft cave, and a big mess in my brain.

Our new floors are finally installed.  (Hooray!)  We took out all the carpet and 20 yr old parquet flooring on our main floor and replaced it with a stranded bamboo plank.   I love it!    It updates our ’80s house tremendously.    However, everything that used to be in the toy, china, and crystal cabinets (and anything else that was small enough to be carried) now resides in our master bedroom.  Who knows when it will return to its proper home.    What a mess!

I’ve also been working on some projects for Clearsnap, a fabulous company whose products I’ve been using for years.   I had the opportunity to be introduced to them at the winter CHA show, and they are as wonderful as their products.   With all the construction and those wild steroid side effects, I was a manic stamper.  The result?  Utter destruction of the Craft Cave.

I’m not one of those highly efficient people who must return each and every craft supply to its proper home and wipe all traces of the current project from my desk before beginning a new project.   Instead, I toss all craft debris off to the side or onto the most convenient, least cluttered surface, leaving me a progressively smaller workspace in which to create.   At the end of the creative streak, I triumphantly cross off the last project on my list, take a deep satisfied breath, and lift my head.

Then I make a face not unlike that of the kid from “Home Alone”.    What a mess!

As for my brain, well, it’s always a mess.

What I could really use is a magic lamp, a genie, and 3 wishes.   Ahh, all my mess problems solved.

Until next time…
C.

Hoping the “flitting” is gone.

Poor neglected blog!

I’ve been bouncing around like a gnat on caffeine these last few weeks, flitting here and there doing everything and nothing all at once.    I’ve been on a 2 week steroid pack for poison oak I managed to find while geocaching, despite looking carefully.

I realized, while taking the pack, that my brain functions in slow, methodical processes.   I like to take my time and make sure a task is completed thoroughly before I move to the next one.   While this method has it’s imperfections (ie.  the long list of uncompleted tasks always waiting their turns), I can be sure that my current task will be completed well.

But for the last 2 weeks, I have been experiencing life as a “flitter”.   From a land somewhere beyond my comprehension, this “flitting” took over my brain, and turned me into a mess of random chaos.

Put away glass…see water spot…water…laundry…add load to washer…see random toy, take to kid’s bedroom…notice stray shoe, take to closet…”hey, how did that get here”…”I should take down the shelf in the dining room”…walk through the kitchen, see the dishwasher still open and full…

Definitely NOT my usual nature, and it drove me crazy.  I’m glad it’s done and my regular brain has returned to it’s plodding, sedate pace.   Welcome back sanity!

Until next time…
C.

Perhaps I should have been more specific.

A few posts back, I mentioned I’d be kicking my little “black cloud of bad health” to the curb upon it’s one year anniversary of hanging over my head.    I should have mentioned the cloud should leave my household as well.    On Sunday night, after a great afternoon of hiking and geocaching, we ended up here again:

(yes, that’s the old photo from last time.)

No, it wasn’t me with the injury this time around, though I would have taken the pain for her if I could have.    My daughter fell and cracked open her lip, and off to the ER we went.   Apparently the wonderful warm weather had everyone outside falling off of stuff, because the place was packed!

I was so proud of her!   She didn’t fuss as we waited hours to be seen, even though we didn’t arrive at the ER until her bedtime.    No complaints while we waited in the room for the lidocaine to numb her face, and not even a whimper as the dr. added 3 stitches to her upper lip.   She was a real trooper, and all the doctors and nurses were impressed with her behavior.   She left with a handful of stickers and a blown-up rubber glove that made a great balloon, rooster comb, and cow udder.

She’s fine, and her lip is healing nicely, thank goodness!  Plus, she got a kick out of showing off the stitches at school yesterday.    And apparently it felt good enough that she could eat peanuts and chocolate caramel corn at the Reds game last night, so I think she’s on her way.

Now…black cloud GO AWAY!

Until next time…
C.

Check out this project

I’m the featured guest blogger today at Helmar Adhesives!   I love working with Helmar, and this is one of my favorite products.  It works wonderfully straight out of the jar, but I added Colorbox Grey Whale Chalk Ink color to create a coordinating background for this plaque.

Learn the technique here!

Have a great weekend!
C.

Totally Random Monday Afternoon

I’m still trying to catch up around here.  It’s amazing that 3 weeks of being sick can mean almost double that in catch-up time.   My “to-do” list is out of control.   Since the last time I made it here:

• I finished a magazine assignment
• “Mount Laundry” is no smaller than when I started washing it.   (How do all these clothes get so dirty this fast, anyway?)
• We went to our hometown for Easter to do some family visiting.
• The kids participated in no less than 3 egg hunts while we were there.   We will still have candy left next Easter.
• I have not yet stooped to secretly stealing my favorites from the kids’ baskets.  My own stash is still being carefully rationed.
• I’m steadily planning our Disney vacation, even though it’s not for months.    I’ll be going non-stop leading up to the departure, so it’s now or never for the planning stage.
• Kid 3 has successfully stayed dry since awakening this morning.
• I’ve been changing diapers for almost 9 years straight.
• Our old dinosaur computer finally gave up while I was sick.   PSA:  automatic backups only work if the old pc transmits the info to the backup hard drive.   Lesson learned.  Pictures were recovered, but emails from the end of Jan. to mid-March are gone.
• Cool file of my work to be seen in stores soon has disappeared because of the aforementioned crash.    Luckly the Clearsnap folks are top-notch, so I think I can get another copy.  I’ll post when I get it again
• No fewer than 3 people ran by my window this morning in the drizzly rain.   Since my Chiari 1 malformation diagnosis in September, I now understand it doesn’t hurt everyone else to run.  But seriously, I can’t understand the pleasure of getting soaking wet while I exercise.
• Rain has broken for a bit, so I’m taking the kids on a walk.  I should have started my 30 Day Shred workout today, but I’m feeling too lazy.   At least I’m getting outside, right?  And I won’t be wet.

Until next time…
C.

I missed it?

It appears I have completely missed Spring.

When I got sick 3 weeks ago, the trees outside still had bare branches and the tiny tips of green leaves were just popping through the ground.   Skies were overcast, and the midday temperatures were barely hitting 50.   If we were lucky, we could wear our light jackets in the afternoon instead of the heavy winter parkas.

While I was in quarantine (NO ONE wanted to be anywhere near my germs!), time froze.   The blinds were pulled down to accomodate my 20 hr./day sleep schedule, and the weather outside was none of my concern.    After my two weeks of solitary confinement, I spent another week trying to shake the residual exhaustion and wacky Chiari side effects.

By the time I finally made it out of the house and shook my head to clear the cobwebs, what did I find?    Blossoms falling off the backyard pear trees, droopy daffodils, and a forecast of snow!    Here in Ohio, that means that spring is over and we have moved on to the least popular of our seasons, “Mud”, which has already caused the cancellation of 3 baseball practices last week alone.  “Mud Season” isn’t nearly as pretty as the flowers.   I feel cheated.

On a side note, I’m coming up on the 12 month mark of this incident that seemed to start the plague of lousy health I’ve gotten stuck with this year.    I’ve decided that upon reaching this noteable milestone, I’m passing off the black cloud to someone else.   The dratted thing wore out it’s welcome rather early into it’s stay with me, and has rather impolitely refused to leave.  I’ve had quite enough thank-you-very-much.   Time to go.

Now, I’m off to enjoy mud season and all it has to offer.    Good times.

Until next time…
C.

Brief Update

Not just sick.   Really sick.

Turns out I have Influenza A and Strep.

Family in town turned right around and left.  We canceled the birthday party we were hosting.   I’m currently quarantined, as no one wants to be anywhere near me.

Fun.

C.