Time Flies...

...whether you are having fun or not!

The kids are on summer break and my time is not my own.

(Hence the huge lag in blog posting.)

The wooden handled rubber stamps have been flying out of my shop!

So I have been busy packing, listing and relisting items.

Lots of library pocket cards sold along with them.

One woman wanted 100 white ones to use for "save the date" cards.

Clever!

I love to hear what people use them for.

Next week we are boarding the dogs,

packing up the camping trailer, the kids, and

taking a road trip up to Michigan to my sister's for a few days.

My mom and brother will be there too.

I haven't seen my family in awhile, so am really looking forward to it.

What are you doing on your summer vacation?

Well, you might consider joining in on Carole's journal workshop.

I'll be slipping into my seat a little late

(when I return from our road trip),

but I plan to be there!

It's not too late to register!

I AM PUBLISHED!

I still get all jiggly inside and want to whoop and yell whenever I think about it!
I AM PUBLISHED!!!
(I only just learned today- this afternoon, in fact.)
It's a wish come true (time to wish a new one!) For some of you, the following images will look familiar. For you new readers, here are my original posts about creating them. Click here, here and here.

Pages 180 and 181.

My art is on the right hand page.

I am really glad that they chose to publish ALL three pieces I sent them.

And they spelled my name correctly!
I AM
PUBLISHED!!!


On to the next.

Special Delivery Office Surplus

When I first opened the box, that arrived via UPS, I wanted to jump in and roll in them.

I know, "OW!", but that's how exciting it was for me to get all of these lovely wooden handled stamps! I wanted to run them through my fingers and laugh, "mwooohahahaha!".

They are just SO cool!

There were also a bunch of contemporary plastic handled date stamps like librarians used to use. I am offering both kinds of stamps for sale in my etsy and the date stamps come with a few library pocket cards (naturally!)

If you do art journaling, you gotta have one of these babies!

Open Your Door

In June, I'll be hitting the books.

I can't wait! It will be my first on-line workshop ever and first workshop of any kind EVER.

I hope you might join me! There is still time to sign up.

Promises to be a unique experience.

For one thing, the teacher speaks Kiwi. :)

For another, she wants everyone to feel involved (there will be no lurkers in the back of the classroom!)

Go here and look for the sign up in Carole's side bar.

The course starts June 14th.

Hope to see you there!

My Muse is a 5 Year Old

Kids make the best art. They really do. Their design sense is perfect because it isn't shaped by convention. And that is why I am recently so inspired by my daughter Rebecca's drawings.

She im mediately recognized this ATC as a portrait of herself, but vehemently pointed out that there was no "K" in her name! And no "Y" for that matter either! Then rattled off "R-e-b-e-C-C-a" with fierce precision, because obviously I had forgotten how to spell.

So my muse is a critic.

No matter.

I am still The Mom.

On a side note: I got a phone call from Carole yesterday and we chatted for over an hour like she lived down the street instead of half way around the world! She validated my child-like drawing idea so next you will be seeing "Rebecky" translated into stitchery for our next QB5 swap.

This ATC was an inspired warm up.

Thanks Carole!

(((hugs)))

I See Possibilties

Call me "Trash Whisperer".
I hear empty (or nearly empty, or sometimes they are even yet unopened!) packaging murmur to me.
"Use me."
"Yessss, use me."
"I can be be something else."
"Something so much more exciting!"
"Then you can blog about it, yessss, blog about it..."

And so this is why I walk around distracted all day and get little done.
My husband fears that I am getting senile on him, when in fact it is creativity on overdrive.

Bet you didn't know you could make "parties" from "pasteries".

Scary, isn't it?

There's a Dressed Up DOG in My Bookcase!

Do you have this problem? Your house is a flea market without price tags and yet you venture out weekely,even daily, looking for that elusive something you won't know to buy until you see it? Or am I alone in this?

Surely not!

The other day I was absent mindedly going through the bookcase in our dining room, one I haven't really looked at since we moved into this house (3 years ago) and found, "Teddy the Terrier". If someone had asked me, "do you have any children's books featuring photographs of dressed up dogs?" I would have flat out said, "no!"

And yet, here it was.

Teddy is adorable! Every page is suitable for framing and the story is a page turner too. Adventure, romance and a cute terrier. What more can you ask for? And yet I haven't the foggiest idea how I came to own him. It's bugging me.

He is going up for sale in my etsy, along with a bunch of other books, I very clearly remember the places and occasions that I bought them on.

So I am trying something new, although it will be really hard for me. I'm going to try "shopping" in my own house and rediscover forgotten treasures. I wish I could have you all over to help. I might get through it faster. So I can leave the house to shop once again...

OMG, did I just talk about cleaning without calling it what it really is? Am I in denial?

Someone help me.