21st Century Pillow Book

This week's Twilight Tuesday Challenge had us creating something about the Northwest, to which I've never been. So, since I have no personal stories I can draw from, Gene did a little quick research for me on just "stuff" Northwest- ie . He found old Native American tales about various animals, one of which being the Raven, which is one of my favorite creatures. The Raven is a very important animal in Native American cultures for lots of reasons. One of which is that he put the moon and the sun in the sky, which is what I have written on the card I made. Here's a link to one of the websites he found. It's pretty cool, so you should check it out! http://www.nhusd.k12.ca.us/ALVE/wow/Northwest%20Cultures/stories.htm Now, about my card... First of all, the colors are all off, I don't know why. I must have had my camera on the wrong setting , because I was going for a dawn/dusk sky effect for the background . Second, I really don't like this card. The idea...

This has been a difficult bunch of months regarding my store. The economy is in a terrible place, my store location isn't the best, not enough folks know about my store and my web site needs revamping. Put all this together and you have a recipe for disaster. I am miserable, but I've gotta close my little shop. I am hoping that I will be able to reopen in a couple of months. We're going to run some crops at different locations, and look for a new place. My landlord has someone who's wanted the spot for a while, and we're just not going to make it there. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that this will all work out. That our customers will attend the crops, and then come to our new location...wherever that is... But I'm sad. Really, really sad. My family and I have put so much into our little store, and everyone loves it... it's just that everyone is having a tough time right now. We are going to keep doing custom work (which, amazingly, I've been ...

It's Monday and I finally made my Twilight Tuesday Challenge for the week! This week's challenge was to make something suitable for graduation. It's supposed to be a gift... but, I'm shy on time so, I made a card... suitable for putting a Gift Card inside!!! I was gonna do something with grad caps and tassles... but yawn... that's already been done. So I decided to go for some words of encouragement. "May all your dreams come true." I used some refreshing blue and lemonade yellow, I wanted to keep the card light and happy... not serious like many grad cards I've seen. I punched 2 stars out for a little dimension too. Not my best work, I know... but, I think it's cute! Make sure you check out all of the other projects at www.twilighttuesday.com ! We're also supposed to talk about something graduation for this challenge... be it from our own, or someone else's. What I remember most about my college graduation (which is a moment that still ...

My daughter is a very lucky girl. She is fortunate to not only have her grandmother living right next door, but her great-grandmother living just 1 mile away. It's not too often that you can have 4 generations in one photo! We ladies were all together at my store the other day, and I had enough sense about me to have my sister Pam take a picture of us. Surprisingly enough, my mom agreed with NO hesitation! And for those of you who know my mom, that's quite a big deal!!! So this is the picture. I think it's awesome. Grandma-ma, Nana, Me, and Rhi. 4 generations of strong, smart women. It's a beautiful thing.

This is a layout that I just finished yesterday. In these photos, Nix is dressed in a Sailor Suit with a Sailor's jacket on. Here's why it was important for me to complete - yes, this is gonna be weird - before he was born, we nicknamed him "Riceball." Gene and I weren't fond of "Peanut" or any of those other silly nicknames we parents to be give our unborn babies. So, we fluctuated between Spawn (yes, Spawn ) and Riceball. There's this anime that I love (and I'm not usually a fan of animes) called Fruits Basket. Awesome show... you should watch it... Anyway, it's about the Chinese Zodiac and how all the main characters in this one family (the Somas) represent each of the animals n the zodiac. But the most important character is Tohru. She is a girl that discovers the secret of the Soma family. Basically, she doesn't have an animal that she becomes but the Somas think of her as a Riceball. There's a lot more to it than that but... I...

I am a Mom. It's still weird for me to say that even though I've been a Mom for over 2 years now. I guess I still feel like a kid myself sometimes. But, I am so proud to have the title. My babies are awesome. Phoenix is the cutest, funniest little kid and he never ceases to amaze me. Have I mentioned that he recognizes every letter of the alphabet ? Yes... at 2 years old! But I digress... And my little Rhiannon is getting prettier every day. I love those HUGE smiles that she's always giving me. I look so forward to the many things she will do to amaze me. Mother's Day this year was nice. We got to see both my mom and my mother-in-law... But, honestly, I think it's kind of a silly holiday (don't get me wrong, I will always want handmade cards from my kids on this day!). Mother's Day is a day when you're supposed to tell your mom how much you love her; which is great... we should all tell our moms (or anyone that's important to us) how much we love th...

So last week on TTIC , the question was asked if reading Twilight has gotten you into reading (again). I added my 2 cents to the inquiry and then resumed reading Betrayed from the House of Night Series by PC Cast and Kristen Cast. More about these books another time... Anywho , I was reading a bit this morning, as I was nursing The Girl (as we affectionately call Rhiannon), and I was reading about a girl in the book (I'm now up to Haunted ) who writes poetry. I thought, " Hmmm , I haven't written a poem in, like, years." And put it out of my head. Shortly thereafter, I was eating my delicious Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal ( mmmmmmmmm ...) and pop! A poem bubbled up from wherever my creative thoughts come from. It's about rediscovering my love of reading. Enjoy! I turn the pages -awakened . I lose myself -elated . I longed for this -forgotten . I turn again - revived .

This week's Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge is about the relationship between Bella and Jacob, and how they're best friends. I am very fortunate to have 2 Best Friends, other than my sisters and husband. My Best Friends are Lisa and Terry. Sorry Lisa, but this time I'm gonna talk about Terry. Terry an I have been friends for... over 10 years. I lost track. We met at work. And, although she was afraid of me at first (a manager dressed in goth could be a bit intimidating I suppose!), we soon hit it off. We've been through a bunch of crap together, but she has always stuck by me, when no one else would. One of my favorite things about Terry is that we can be total dorks together... which we do often. The things we have in common are so... I don't know... campy, I guess... our relationship could be viewed as silly, but it's much deeper than that. I could talk to her about basically everything, and she knows that she could do the same. We're always brutal...

So this layout I was so excited to make... but had a helluva time at first. I put Rhiannon in Phoenix's high chair for the first time a couple weeks ago to try to keep her occupied so I could maybe get some work done. But then I looked at her... she's just so small in that big high chair! She kinda disappeared! So, instead of doing my work, I pulled out the camera and started snapping. She's just so tiny! I love this high chair because of all the bright colors. So of course, when I made a page, I knew it needed to be just as bright. But, as luck would have it, NONE of the paper in my ENTIRE store was what I needed. I went through my paper at home... still nothing. The greens were always just a little off... and of course, that just won't do!!! I was vending at a crop this past Sunday, as was another store. I was passing by their stuff (it's always fun to see what other vendors have!) and saw the green leaves paper. I freaked! I just so happened to have printed th...