Taking the Weekend...

It's Easter and I'm taking the weekend to reset.

I have cleaned up my craft stash a bit and made some cards.  My plan is to reorganise my bedroom and tidy up some stuff that seems to have spilled out into the living room.

Yesterday, I slept in and today I had a nap.  It was glorious.

Now, before I go to bed, I am going to sort out my medication and measure out a week's worth of Shelly's meals.

Next week: Cards!!!

Love

Goals and Lists

I have been making lots of lists lately.  I thought this was working well for me.  I was ticking off the items on the list one after the other and feeling quite accomplished.  Yesterday morning I even told my colleagues that I was feeling very calm and relaxed and actually had nothing pressing on my list of things to do.  There were a few things I could have been doing, but nothing that I could make real progress on before I had to get to class.  So, I was sitting at my desk, certain that I had forgotten something.  It just isn't right to be so calm and collected in assessment week!

The bell went and I head off to class.  On the walkway, I saw a colleague and asked her, "when is that meeting about (insert student name here)? "It was this morning," she replied.  Oh dear.  I gasped and apologised.  She then told me that only one teacher (out of 6) attended and she completely understood that we were all busy and had simply forgotten.  I felt so bad.

Moral of the story: lists only work if you remember to put everything on them!!

I was going to tell you about my goals.  If I do that we may be here a long while.  Let's try the short version.

My overarching for this year...

In 2018 I will be the healthiest and happiest version of myself by making good choices for my body, my soul, my mind and my relationships. I will do my best with what I have and be grateful for abundant blessings. 

I'm not going to go into the detail of my action plan and how every step is going; not today.  Instead, let's look at this. 

Healthiest version of myself: We are doing okay.  No soft drink since 2017! No ice cream since 6 January 2018.  I have been dreaming about the ice cream sundae I'm going to have on the last day of term, though! 

Happiest version of myself: While life isn't perfect and I have lots to do, in the grand scheme of things, I'm happy! Yes, I would say I'm the happiest version of myself so far in life.  Not counting those glorious years from 0-5.  They were perfection as far as life goes... shame I don't remember that much of them.  

Good Choices for my body: I'm doing what I can.  It's not the best, but it's something.  More on that later.  

Good Choices for my soul: TICK! More on that one later too. 

Good Choices for my mind: I have been playing games and crafting and getting organised.  All of these things are good for my mind because they help me to concentrate, find things, think and not think.  My mind loves me for it. 

Good Choices for my relationships:  I think I need to dedicate a whole blog post to this one.  Suffice to say, tick.  I'm doing well! :) 

I'm GRATEFUL for abundant blessings everyday.  From the rain and cool breezes, to the chocolate brownies (ahem, good choices) and baked dinners.  I'm so blessed.

Not sure if this was shorter than the other option.. oh well, you're still here!   

Have a glorious week my dear friends. 

Love

The Power Went Out

Before I go any further.. Happy Say No to Bullying Day!  Bullying is bad.  Bullying happens everywhere.  Don't be a bully.  Don't let bullies win.  Be Kind.  Simples! 

Now down to business. 

The power went out on Wednesday afternoon.  I was still wearing my pyjamas and I really didn't want to put on shoes to go outside (did I mention it was raining?) to check the fuse box.  I found a pair of slides and headed out the back anyway.  I flicked the safety switch and walked inside only to discover that I couldn't fix this with the flick of a switch.  Problems that can't be solved with the flick of a switch are my least favourite!
When the power went out I had just finished a 45 minute phone conversation with my BFF and my phone was on 18%.

When you can't watch Netflix on your phone, or play games on your phone and you probably shouldn't make any calls on your phone, because you don't know how long the power will be out, what do you do?

I thought I might do some crafting. Only, it was a bit dark.  Not a great idea if you are using sharp blades!  What else to do?
I took a shower and got dressed.  Still no power.
I filled up Shelly's food containers. Still no power.
Nothing else to do..
I did housework.

Finally, the power is back on and the house is still kind of clean.

Next Week: who knows?

Love

More Birthday Cards and Forgetfulness

I've told you before that there are a lot of birthdays between January and June.  It slows down a little until November then I'm busy with birthdays until Christmas!  Today I'm going to share some more birthday cards with you. Are you wondering about my forgetfulness? I didn't think so.  :)

There a few cards I have made in recent months that I have forgotten to photograph!  Can you believe that?  I usually take a photo of all my creations for a few reasons.

• It really helps me to see the progress I have made since my first attempt at card making and now.
• I can easily re-create cards that I have made before, because I can look at them again and again.
• I use them as a springboard of inspiration when I need to make a card and don't have any ideas.  I like looking at photos of my own cards because I know that I have all the supplies available to me. 
• Layouts and colours that worked well are right there for me to use again.  In the same way, layouts and colour combinations that didn't work so well can be easily seen and remind me not to use them again!

So, when I forget to photograph a card before giving it away, it makes me a bit sad!  In a few cases, I will be able to ask the recipients to take a snapshot of their card for me.  Some of the cards are lost forever.  Sad! :( Moral of this story: don't forget to take photos of your creations before you give them away! 

Let's get into these cards. 

Card #1

Coloured Card stock, Memento Inks: Rhubarb Stalk and Blue Sky. 

Cole's Numbers by Lawn Fawn. Hexagon Dies and Happy Birthday Die by Kaisercraft.

Wink of Stella clear shimmer pen was also used on the 50. 

This card was made for a friend who turns 50 at the end of the month.  He is a soccer coach so I used hexagon dies and a happy birthday die from Kaisercraft and number dies from Lawn Fawn.  Maroon, Sky Blue and Gold Yellow are the team colours for the West Ham Soccer Club (the team my friend supports).  While it was fairly easy to create, it was time consuming, as the hexagons had to be run through my Cuttlebug one at a time and I wasn't sure how many to make so I made more than necessary! I didn't have the exact colours of card stock, so I used a trick I learned from my Aunty.  I started with the colour of cardstock that was close to the colour I wanted, then used an ink blending tool to blend ink over the coloured card.  I started out lightly at first then kept blending until I was happy with colour the cardstock had become.   I'm very happy with the card.  I can't wait to give it to the recipient.  

Card #2

This card was created for my niece.  She loves rainbows and painting and art.  She also loves bubbles.  I think this card is perfect for her.  She turned 6 this week!  

Memento Inks, Happy Birthday Die from Kaisercraft,

Ring in the Celebration by Winnie &Walter. 

Card #3 (a set of cards)

Stitched Circle Dies, Hexagon Dies, HB2U stamp set by Sugarpea Designs, 

Eva's Favourite Flowers stamp set by Winnie & Walter, Lovely Flowers stamp set by CP Designs, 

You Did It stamp set by CP Designs.

I went a little nuts the other night.  I decided to use up some patterned paper!  A basic layout and a set of stamps can help you create some great stuff.  These were inspired by Catherine Pooler's KISS card series.  Now I have quite a few cards in my stash, ready to go, and it took me less time than I spent on the first card in this post! 

Card #4 (another set)

This was time consuming! I used square punches and patterned paper to make these cute presents.  Four squares of patterned paper are glued onto a larger square of plain card stock. Then use a circle punch to make a circle of the same plain card stock.  Cut the circles in half and attach them to make bows.  You don't have to make circles, you can tie some ribbon bows and adhere with some liquid glue.  A sentiment and some stickers (enamel dots), gems, sequins or tiny stamps and it's done.  Easy!  Just a bit fiddly! 

Tuxedo Black, Dandelion, Sky Blue, Paris Dusk inks by Memento. 

Flowers are from Lovely Flowers stamp set by CP Designs.

The blue gift from Ring in the Celebration by Winnie & Walter. 

Card #5 (the same layout)

Stamps are from the Love is in the Air Stamp of Approval Collection (no longer available)

Inks by Memento.

Block stamps are from the Love is in the Air Stamp of Approval Collection

Sentiment from the You Did It stamp set by CP Designs

I know these aren't birthday cards, but the first one could be!  Basically, a rainbow with border stamps (or little block stamps) and a sentiment.  Easy!  So Easy! So Quick! So much Fun! The trickiest part of this layout is lining up the border stamps.  You can use grid blocks or a stamp positioning tool or stamping platform to help out.  This layout could work for almost anything, just change out the sentiment.  

So, no specific technique to share this month, but a couple of tips I shared along the way.  I hope you found it entertaining at the very least.  Most of the products I used are available from the following online stores or Kaisercraft.  

Catherine Pooler Designs

Craft Online

Craftie Café

Happy Crafting, See you next week! 

Did you say hot?

It has been very hot the last few weeks.

The Air Conditioner has been busy.

I'm melting, melting!

The days seem longer.

The nights seem stickier.

Clothes feel heavy and restricting.

Water? Water?!

I'm thirsty just thinking about it.

Like standing over a hot stove... for hours on end.

I have been sweating... a lot.

Why aren't I thinner?!