live . craft . learn

creative therapy : my dream home

i long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever i find myself. - maya angelou

this weeks catalyst and the maya angelou quote i chose was perfect for me. perfect for where i am in life right now. perfect because for the last year of my life i lost myself. lost myself in ways that i didn't realize until a few weeks ago. i centered my life around something that shouldn't have become more important than my family, than my children, than the life that i lead, right here in this house that i live in. and yet, even though i know better i lost parts of me and i lost sight of the most important things to me.

when i was younger, before having my littles. before i fell in love with mike. i thought my dream home was huge. a wrap around porch. lots of pretty things inside. decorated and perfect. like a magazine. but it isn't. my dream home isn't filled with things and objects that i purchased at target or pottery barn. it's filled with laughter. it's filled with love and trust and support. it's filled with tears and struggles and lessons learned. it's filled with 2 children who love me because i am their mama and they need no other reason. it's filled with a man who has been by my side for 9 years. a man who knows who i am at the core of my soft heart. a man who will put up with my silliness and sometimes crazy expectations because he knows that eventually i see the truth, and i am not afraid to change my path when i am unhappy or when i am wrong. it is filled with my friends who trust me and can be trusted, because they see me, the real me and they ask for nothing more because it is always enough.

so this house. my dream house. it is being built on a daily basis. it gets tattered and worn. it needs strength and support. it receives laughter and love. it spills tears and sadness. but it is real. it is mine. it is everything to me. it is perfect and i will never, ever, leave it untended again.

happy wednesday.
xo

love market friday

urban prairie magazine : refueled finding maddie's self portrait on her new camera new vintage treasures for a new vintage project kit thursday night audible wars with jayney

back to {my} basics

i spent last night rocking out to this girl's tunes and making this shadowbox for a dear friend. it just felt good to get my hands dirty and create something with the things that i love the most. back to my basics, the things i always gravitate towards, the old, the forgotten and the recycled vintage ephemera i shop for at thrift stores and flea markets. i used vintage buttons pierced with brads {ala my leesa peesa} and chenille fabric to trim the frame and i've been saving that vintage little girl place card for quite a while.

the sides of the shadowbox {ikea} were created by raiding my scrap bin and decoupaging with gesso and gel medium; i just tore the scrap pieces i chose and layered them haphazardly on the wood with gel medium and then coated it all with gesso. nothing scientific, but it gives the sides a sweet & worn white-washed quality.

and, the interior. i adore the interior. that pink paislee background paper is to die for, and i used my beautiful october afternoon butterfly silhouette stamps on the vintage date book which was repurposed from an older project that i just wasn't feeling anymore.

the basics. my basics. that is what i'm excited to start exploring. learning what i like. learning what i love to use. learning how i love to use it. experimenting and discovering myself in this craft. that's something i haven't really done in quite a long time.

also, just found out that silver bella registration opens up on monday. eeks!! cannot wait to be back at that glittery event. new teachers, including the soldering goddess sally jean {double eeks!} who alone will make the entire event so worthwhile for me. are you going??

happy thursday.
xo

he is everything to me

i made this two weeks ago for the man. a little simple thank you. he's always there. always supportive. i couldn't have picked a better man if i was shopping for him at tar-jey. in fact i know i wouldn't have. which is why i am even more thankful that one night, exactly 9 years ago today, he walked up to me and whispered a sweet sentence into my ear. from that moment on i was his. i had no choice. i was his.

the skies here are full of brown smoke & residue from all of the nearby wine country fires. so the littles and i are hiding out inside as i'm quite worried that it will make ben's asthma flare. when we woke up this morning and headed to maddies' speech lesson it seemed that it was better, but the heat is making it worse. so sad to know that so much of this beautiful county, and the ones near us are burning.

also, for those of you who asked about my book... gigi finally started posting the directions on her blog. such a simple & amazingly brilliant idea. make sure you go see how it's done.

happy wednesday.
xo

the beauty of sonoma county sunsets

i ran out the door the other night to catch these. the pictures are unedited. straight from the camera at sunset right in front of our house. sometimes the truth of the picture is more important than the editing.

i love this time of year. the sky here is so magical, all those pinks and blues.

mike used to have an apartment downtown with the best balcony. you could look straight west and see amazing sunsets full of so much color. we'd spend alot of evenings sitting out there, taking pictures and hanging with friends. pre marriage. pre babies. such good times.

i love sonoma county. love.

happy tuesday.
xo

because this is what it's all about ...

a day spent frolicking outside with my two littles. splashing in fountains. feeling the warm sun upon our faces. laughing. giggling. being together. i lost sight of that a while ago, but thankfully, i have found it again.

tomorrow i'm heading to pmp for a day filled teaching two workshops, scrapping with friends and definitely more laughter. yes. it will be just what the doctor ordered.

happy friday! happy weekend!
xo

it felt good ...

last night to spend a few hours making things. completely inspired by gigi's class last weekend {which was brilliant!} i took this old vintage book and made a sewn page mountain. to be filled with the everyday thoughts that i write down and always have floating around on itty bitty strips of paper. to hold the daily inspirations that i cut out of magazines. to hold whatever my heart and my creativity desires. bound together, it will be a collection of new beginnings.

happy thursday.
xo

it was just perfect

yesterday was a perfect day. the kiddos and i stayed in our jammies for "lazy friday" as maddie bean has started calling them. something i'm really appreciating right now, these friday mornings when we're all here, me, ben, maddie. i'm usually scrapping or doing chores or we're playing games. this will be our last year like this, next year it'll be and my little boyfriend while the girl is in school, and although i am looking forward to having him to myself for a bit, i'm going to miss our pony loving girl. sigh. it happens too fast, this growing up thing.

in the afternoon the kiddos headed off to nonnas and then i had the house to myself. *sigh x2*. seriously, i covet those hours i get, covet them. i headed over to sistv and played in angie's round robin. SO MUCH FUN! seriously, i don't think i've had this much fun scrapping in months.

and of course the hambly dt call was finally announced and i am so honored to be the dt coordinator. i adore allison, she's become such an amazing friend and she is so talented. and the product is just luscious and being such a supporter of all things handmade it just makes me so proud to be part of such an amazing company.

we're taking the littles to see kung-fu panda this afternoon... cannot wait!

happy saturday!
xoxo

the things she says

* "i can do it myself"
* "when i'm in kindergarten i can __________________ "
* "i only cried a tiny bit" {when getting her shots yesterday}
* "you don't have to watch me mommy, i can do it"
* "can i wash the dishes... mop the floor ... laundry ... dust ... ???"
* "will bubba miss me next year when i'm at school"
* "i can say 's' now mama, isn't that great?"
* "i can take a bath by myself now mommy, you can go do something else" {not quite yet ...}

she's come along way, my baby girl. she's not a baby anymore, i have to keep telling myself that. i see this pic and i can recall how she smelled as a baby. my endless nights worrying about how her palate would effect her future. the way i feel because she always wants to hold my hand in public. how she hugs all of her friends when she sees them and when she says goodbye. how i love sneaking around a corner and listening to her play ponies, all those sweet little voices she uses. her sensitive heart. how her doctor/hospital anxiety has subsided and disappeared this past year, no more stress, worry or screaming at checkups. she's not a baby anymore...

i'm so proud of her.
my girl.
my sweetness.
my maddie bean.

xoxo

poser

someone sent me this pic of stacey and i passing out the hambly at the saturday night layout classes at scrap etc ... and unfortunately i can't remember who {sorry!}. do you see all those transparencies and rubons? *swoon*

and, because i'm under a mountain of hambly at the moment, kitting for my sisiversary class i thought i would put up a random shot. cause i'm silly. and cause i can't at the moment think of anything else to post.

happy wednesday!
xo