Slacker!

That's me! I have actually created...been creating, but have I taken pictures? Why no, of course not! I'm off to take a few pictures...be right back. :o)

Here is the watercolor journal I was telling you about before...

figured out how to do the coptic stitch binding (with the help of this video) and finished it off as a birthday gift for one of my favorite teens.

I loved how it turned out with the hand torn pages.

I'm definitely doing this again! Scored some big sheets of Canson's Watercolor paper on clearance at Jo-Anns a couple of weeks ago for 99 cents a sheet. Yippee!

The altered book I told you about...
I picked this up in the library discards for 25 cents. It actually looks like an interesting book and is about the Bronte sisters. Interestingly, as I looked through it, I saw things that were meaningful to my life.

This page I made with a pocket. It spoke to me as I did not expect it to and I actually cried while making these few pages. We experienced great heartache last year, grievous loss and pain...when I feel ready to, I will write about it and slip it into this pocket.

THEN just a few pages over was a reminder of HOPE.

No, I don't agree entirely with the author's statement, because I think there is so much more that God wants to do in our lives than just "do our duty, be brave", which is kind of a "suck it up" attitude, but I think her statement of comparing our trials to what Jesus did for us is profound. And she is right...if we will let it, our pain will bring us closer to God. It is for this reason that we can be truly THANKFUL for pain and hardship in our lives.


And the VERY next page is entitled "The Creative Years". This was remarkable to me, because being creative has been a gift to me, therapeutic as we have dealt with our feelings and emotions.


I am currently reading the following books(all of which I borrowed from my local library on interlibrary loan...woohoo!):

Warm Fuzzies - Hmmm...I have created a cupcake pincushion from this, which I am too embarrassed to show you a picture of because it is UGLY. Mostly because it was a test run project so I did not use my best materials on it. It actually turned out like it was supposed to look, construction wise, but my color choices and embellishment are ugly. Do you want to see it anyway? Okay, I'm going to take a picture and you are entitled to laugh at it, as I do...





(See my felted i-cord, Aunt Martha? AND I couched it on!)

The Creative Life - Just getting into this one...Danny Gregory has a wonderful way of inspiring. A down-to-earth attitude and reminds you that it's OKAY to not create a masterpiece every time you journal. I am inspired and will probably do another bound sewn journal once my bedroom is in order. Soooo much organizing and cleaning and repairs to do at our house right now. The washing machine is broken, the dryer overheats, the vacuum is not functioning properly and the floor in the laundry room MUST be replaced soon and don't even get me started on the yard. But I digress and it's not really what I want to think about right now, so moving on...

The Decorated Page - this book...well...I'm excited when I read this book because I love working with lots of different media. I guess I get bored with projects easily, so that's why I have to do lots of different things...you can't tell that by reading my blog, can you? Check it out and hopefully I will show you some creativity that stems from this inspiration.

So my cat's favorite toys are these little mice with rabbit fur on them (don't ask me why...seems like they could've put mouse fur on them...just kidding).


When I saw this pattern I knew I wanted to make Sophie a handmade toy.

or two...

Yes, she is spoiled...I mean the gray one is made out of CASHMERE and is by FAR her favorite of the two mice. She is a weird cat and will play fetch with her mice if we throw them for her (when her royal highness is in the mood, of course!). Her favorite game is when we sit on our bed and throw a toy mouse into the bathtub. She will go get it and bring it back for us to throw again. One day she came up and dropped a mouse on my keyboard while I was on the computer. "PLAY WITH ME!" After I made her the first of these mice, she awakened me one morning by dropping the mouse on my face! "PLAY WITH ME!"

I made wool dryer balls for my mom for mother's day using wool yarn from a sweater I bought at the thrift store and frogged (unraveled it for the yarn). They turned out nice, but of course I forgot to take a picture of them before I gave them to her!

And finally, while I was taking pictures I glanced over and saw a little box belonging to Reece and dumped it out for you to see.

He LOVES making guitar picks out of old gift cards. When I shopped for his birthday recently I always asked at the checkout "do you have any old gift cards for my son to use to make guitar picks?". Everywhere I went they were happy to either find an old one or just gave me a new one...it was a small thing, but he loved getting them.