Friday, February 26, 2016

Real life


February 22

Good morning.  I know, I know.  I missed a post.  Well, I thought that my time was mine now that my children were grown and on their own.  No one really warned me about the grandchild thing.  Miss Z is not feeling well and my DIL is starting a new job, so grandma is on duty for a couple  days until everyone is feeling better.  Right now, she is napping, so I am trying to get a bit of office stuff done.  Letters need to be written, blog needs to be updated, checkbooks need balancing and bills need to be paid.  And ..... Go!



She is so sweet (and still) when she is sleeping.  Once she gets up though ... the busiest little person I have ever seen.  She is crawling and cruising furniture.  Everything goes in her mouth!  So grandma must watch her every minute!  LOL  I am so blessed that I get to do this.   

I have slipped on my enthusiasm for crafting every day this month.  I was doing so good!! And then, I guess real life intrudes.  I have come home from work tired and un motivated and that makes it hard for me to get back in my scrapbooking room.  Does this happen to you?  I think it helped when I was on top of my calendar and goals for the week.  That is the next step today.  Get the calendar out and plan the rest of the week.  Make some goals.  Get them done!  

I'm very excited to be taking a bit of a mini class with my photography club this weekend.  We are going to be touring and learning from a portrait studio.  Making pictures of people is my favorite type of photography, so I am excited to soak up a bit of knowledge.  When I took a weekend workshop this fall, I had so much fun and learned so much.  I want to continue to move forward with this.  


February 26

The heart is committed, it's just the world that thinks I shouldn't do this!  I start a post and life interferes.  Oh well, we move on and continue to the goal, isn't that how it is done?  Maybe this is like Yoga, it's a 'practice' not a 'thing'.  LOL

So, this week.  I have finally painted the upstairs bathroom and the flooring people should be here in the morning to get the new lino in there and carpet in G's bedroom.  Big steps forward in moving on with life.  I am pleased to see things happening finally.  There is light at the end of the tunnel.  I know that I can survive this, especially with the support of such wonderful friends.  Thank you all so much for being there for me!  It is my heart!  

I got to babysit Miss Z Monday night instead of prepping the bathroom for paint.  I thought it was a good trade (wink wink!) She was so much fun!  And, I got to see the little Irish temper come out. She was not happy when I wouldn't let her climb my stairs.   She yelled at me quite loudly for a long time.  Funny, it didn't change my mind, but it was sure entertaining. 

I've got the CLUB orders in for CTMH and I am excited to get the new papers we will be working on!  I think they are going to knock our socks off when we see them in person.  I'll be spending some time this week looking for pictures to scrap on them.  I don't know that I have many with the KALEIDOSCOPE colors, but maybe I'll have time to set some up!  

And, now that I have finally finished all of the Christmas lay outs, I will have time to play!  
 I was still using up the WHITE PINES paper pack and ideas.  I added the holly CRICUT cuts to all of the pages I did.  And Made more embellishments with the CRICUT in the form of the beads and tag cuts.  I thought they turned out cute!

 I'm not sure how well you can see it, but I accented the beads with a white pen to give it dimension.  This little step makes all the difference. My favorite white pen - the SAKURA GELLY ROLL. Mine is really old and I don't bring it out much, but it works like a champ when I do!

The last 2 pages of Christmas, I promise!  LOL 


So glad to have Christmas in the bag!  It really makes me feel caught up, even though I am no where near caught up with all my scrapbooking, at least my Christmas pages are all caught up.  Now to catch up the in between!  See you next week .... connie

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

February Retreat Update!

Good morning all!  As you can see, I missed a week writing on the blog.  Not the plan for this year, and I have to tell you, I almost talked myself out of writing today.  I have plenty of excuses.  'my phone isn't working, I can't take any current pictures', 'I don't have much to say today', 'I am feeling pretty blah - do I really want to share THAT?'  But, my commitment this year was to write on my blog, to show up, so, that is what I am going to do.

I know you are dying to know why I didn't write last week!  LOL  Well, let me tell you, getting ready for my SPRING RETREAT  takes a bit of time.  Combine that with a week of work and hanging with my D-I-L and grand daughter, and time really gets away from me.

Confession time.  I only manage to inventory my stamps and get them scanned before retreats.  I don't know why I feel the need to add this stress to my life just before retreat, but I always do.  I think right now I have about 90% of my stamps scanned and on my computer.  That is good.  I still have several out in WORKSHOP bags and I have several in my storage unit. So, I am not totally on it like I would like to be, but moving forward, and that is the goal for this year.  Keep moving forward.  Starting with my next order, I plan to scan every stamp before I use it or put it away.  Maybe I can stay current that way.  Such a big project!  But, now that I know how to do it with my MAC, which was a learning curve for this PC user, I should be able to do it every month!

RETREAT!  What a great time - every time!  This time was exceptional!  We had a very small group which made it much more intimate and calm.  I think all of us got a lot done, and enjoyed the fellowship of other scrappers and the wonderful setting of STORM MOUNTAIN.









What amazing talent I have coming to my retreats!  These ladies totally rock!  Beautiful pages and cards came out of Storm mountain this weekend.

Personally, my goals were to finish Christmas 2015, November 2015,  and January 2016 for me and for each of my boys.  I think I got all of that done.  I also wanted to do the WORKSHOP YOUR WAY for my Club this month.  I did get that done.  (LOVE IT by the way - think the new workshops ROCK!)  I wanted to get the Constant Campaign Card gifts done - didn't.  Didn't even start them.  Not sure why.  Did get my planner all caught up.  Not the plans for this week, but the decorating for last month and all the pictures in it.  When I have my phone back and can take some pictures with it, I will share.  And, I wanted to get miss Z's 1st year albums caught up for me, Gary, her mom and dad, and her other grandparents.  A total of 4 albums I am making almost exactly the same for each of us.  I know it might be silly, but I wanted her other grandparents to have one since they don't live here, and it just kind of grew from there.  ( some one shoot me please!  LOL)   Any way, I didn't touch her album.  That must be a project for my next retreat!

I slept this time at Storm Mountain.  A new experience for me!  The C-pap I got in Oct.  has made such a difference in my life it is amazing! Not being sleep deprived is such a new experience!  Usually I get about 6 hours all weekend.  I think I slept 6 hours each night.  I know I felt much more rested, more energetic, and less stressed.  A big benefit for me and the girls who have to work next to me.

I am already looking forward to the next retreat I host in October!  I am putting some plans in place and jotting down ideas for fun gifts and goodies.  If you have any in put on what you would like to see at retreat - give a shout!  I'd love to hear from you.

Well, that's probably enough rambling from me today.  LOL   I should get going so I can work on my taxes.  I really don't like this time of year!  Another area I need to learn to stay caught up on!  ;-)

See you soon - keep playing' - connie