Guess what came in the mail yesterday!

Woo hoo! It's Blingabella! I got this one for the main image on my bff's Save the Date cards for her upcoming wedding. I can't wait to make them. This isn't how they will look, exactly. In fact, they really won't look much like this except for the Bella, the sentiment, the size and orientation, and the ribbon. I just felt like making a cool card this evening.



In other news, I went to the doctor for my follow-up appointment today. While I feel better, my oxygen level is down which means my lung function is worse. So, I am restricted to working half days through next week then 6 hours a day the week after that. We'll see how that goes...

Sketch #5 - My Paper World and Thank You

Here is a card I created based on Sketch #5 on My Paper World


Design (c) CTMH
Image: Friendship's Flight My Acrylix Stamps
Colors: Chocolate, Key Lime, Sunkiss Yellow, Amethyst, Colonial White
Embellies: small pewter spiral clip, mini-medley (chocolate), craft buttons (Spring), paper cutouts (Serendipity collection)
"Smile" image: Playful Flourishes My Acrylix Stamps
All of the above, Close to my Heart
Other items used: Stickles (Buttercup), Ice Stickles (Grape Ice), random brown waxed thread, McGill mini file tab punch

I love Nicola's sketches and look forward to them. OK, OK, so this is only the second creation I have made from her sketches, but I really enjoyed both. I think I may go back and do 1, 2, and 3 just for fun.

Thank you for the get well wishes during my recent spell of pneumonia. I feel somewhat better, meaning I don't have a fever and headache, but my breathing is still a bit strange. I am scheduled to go to the doctor on Thursday for a follow up.

Off to bed. Thanks for looking!

I guess I went outside with my hair wet...

I have been off work for the past few days. Wednesday I just felt icky, then yesterday I knew something was really wrong. DH took off work for the day to take care of me (another example of how great he is to me), and he took me to Urgent Care.

The P.A. who examined me was awesome. She noticed I was reading Simple Scrapbooks magazine, so we talked about scrapbooking for a while. She just moved here from Oklahoma and needs a consultant. Woo hoo! Luckily I was prepared and had an extra CTMH Idea Book with me.

Anyway, she sent me on for a chest xray. We were worried my lung had collapsed again (that happened last August and resulted in a 3-day hospital stay). Once the results were back, she walked in with a paper copy of this:



My left lung (on the right side of the page) looks great, and that was the one that collapsed before. She showed me the gray, splotchy areas on the left side of the picture, which is actually my right lung, and proclaimed "PNEUMONIA"! She then wrote a prescription for an antibiotic and told me to stay home from work at least the rest of this week. Yay! More time to admire my Craft Creation Station, I thought to myself. Then she gave me the copy of the x-ray to keep and said, "People like us would want to scrapbook something like this!" Indeed...

Craft Creation Station!

May I present to you... The Craft Creation Station!





I have the best husband in the world! He did this in one day. And it was all for less than $300. It is so much fun to sit here and create things. I don't have to worry about being in anyone's way, and everything is within reach. Tidying up is a snap since I don't have to load everything back into a closet.

I'm currently working on a 2-page Before/After layout which I will share as soon as it is done.

Buh-bye!

Wall before
Originally uploaded by rhwcrafts

This is the wall of our dining room before DH installed the shelves thus transforming it into my Craft Creation Station. The photo was taken last night, and he worked on it all morning. However I am here at the office and can't see the finished product until I get home this evening! I feel like a child trying to make it through the day until her birthday party that night.

Valentine's Day 2008

Valentine's Day 2008
Originally uploaded by rhwcrafts

A little late, but I wanted to show you what DH got me for Valentine's Day. A box of dark chocoates, and 5 boxes of Cap'n Crunch! He totally knows me, right? I love him!

Busy weekend

We have been hanging out with my sister and her DH at their house. It has been a nice mini-vacation: sleeping in, eating out, hanging out...

Yesterday my sis hosted a Close to my Heart home gathering which I conducted. It was really good! There were only 4 attendees besides my sis and me and the gathering totaled more than $150. So that means $25 of free stuff for her! Yay! We made these cool cards, which were supposed to have a miniature magnetic bookmark inserted, but the magnets didn't work so well. Instead we secured them with pewter spiral clips. Also my DD was very proud of herself for setting a couple eyelets on it with my Crop-a-Dile. Very cute! See:



I also made a mini-album for my sis in which to keep her seasonal Booking Sets:




Although I love staying with my sister, I really miss my dog, my cats, my home, and my bed. I had to do some yoga the first morning I woke up so my back would reset itself after sleeping on the futon!

In other news, I ordered some Bellas! Yay! I can't wait to use them on some cute cards. I got one to use on my bff's "save the date" cards. She has put me in charge of All Things Paper, so I figured I better get crackin'!

I'm not looking forward to returning to work on Tuesday. Not that work is horrible; I would just rather be home crafting! Oh, and speaking of crafting at home, DH is going to install shelves in our dining room so I can have a great craft space. We were thinking of putting up the shelves in the guest bedroom, but I really like to be around people while I work. I don't like being relegated to a separate room. I know some people are the opposite of me, though. Anyway, I am envisioning my shelving system looking something like this.

I hope everyone is having a great Sunday. If not, I hope your Monday is better!

Inspiration from Sketch #4

I stumbled upon the most wonderfullest (yes, it's a word - shut UP!) weekly challenge on My Paper World. I love MPW's clean lines, use of color, and geometric balance. Here is this week's sketch Sketch #4. Check out the adorable Bella! Even though Bella's aren't CTMH products and are thus considered contraband, I am thinking I might have to procure one or two. They are simply too cute!

So, I present to you, my take on MPW's Sketch #4:


Please send positive vibes my way and hold positive thoughts about me. I soooo want to win the blog candy -- the paper flowers and stamped lady images!

View from my desk at work

View from my desk at work
Originally uploaded by smcknitter

This is what I see each day as I look across my desk. I have only been in this office for 2 weeks, but already I am loving it! I have have a window that faces east and provides a glorious view of the southern part of the Sandia Mountains. But my favorite view is of all the crafty things! Right now on my desk are the card I made for my first challenge, a candy jar I decorated, and the desk caddy I made. And on the wall in the background is a framed, 2-page L.O. of my DD's 10th birthday aboard Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas last October. And, you can't quite see them, but I have a few idea books on the small table between the two chairs. I figure if people are going to be sitting there, how nice it would be for them to check out an idea book!

Used Stamps for Sale!

Check out the link on the top right. It's a new blog devoted entirely to selling all my used stamps I no longer want. Head over! Tell your friends! Check it out! Buy them!

ETA: All of the sets are up now. I have some great SU sets. Gotta get the competition out of my craft closet ;)

Lest you think I don't knit...

A good friend of mine talked about the cyclical nature of the focal point of crafts. She said for months she has been scrapbooking and hasn't even touched her beadwork, but she's confident she will pick it up again when the time is right. I can relate.

For the last two years I have been knitting up a storm. Every family member has a hand-knit hat and/or scarf. A lucky few have a felted bag. However, during this yarn squall, I didn't go anywhere near my paper arts, which seems odd considering it was my lifeline for five years.

You see, I took up scrapbooking at the time my xh and I were dividing our property, emotional and physical, in that all-too-common and gut-wrenching dance known as divorce. So as to avoid speaking to him, I jumped in feet first creating scrapbooks. In the evenings after I put an oblivious 2-year-old DD to bed, I had no desire to be available emotionally or physically to him. So, I sat in the same place on the floor, my plastic bin as a desk, and I poured my broken soul into those scrapbook pages. Looking back on them now, they were disjointed and naive, but in that six weeks in 2001, they were all I had to call my own. They were created by me with no input from anyone else, and I was (and still am) darned proud of them. I look fondly upon that scrapbooking spoke on my artistic wheel.

My goal now is to achieve a balance among my crafts. I don't want to fall down the rabbit hole of solely making cards, or knitting hats, or altering Altoids tins. I want to do some of each. So, may I present to you, a sample of my recent knitting projects...

First, a felted bag I made early in January in between Guitar Hero sessions with DH.



Next, a felted bag I made in January also. I absolutely love these colors.


And for a bit of teh cute, I give you America's next top dog model of knitty goodness, Molly, showing off a scarf I knitted over Thanksgiving. And peeking out from the right-hand corner is Leela, our one-eyed cat.


I'm off to work on a pair of socks, my first pair of socks I should add. It is taking extreme willpower to get up from this table where I have been the last several nights stamping and scrapping. But in the spirit of balance, I am going to the couch to knit.

Sleep. It's what's for breakfast.

Can I just say that I can’t believe how little sleep I have had in the past week. Here’s what typically happens…

Around 7:30 p.m. I get really tired, but I figure it is way too early for bed; plus DD is still up, and I know she won’t put herself to bed any time before 1 a.m. --never mind the possibility that she will dress up all the pets in Build-a-Bear clothes if I’m not watching. So, I stay up. Around 9:45 I think I should go to bed, but then I realize that DH will be home in just a little while, so I could stay up just long enough to say hi to him then go to bed.

Right around 10:15, this second wind thing kicks in. I’m not tired! No. I can do anything! In fact I have more energy than a 3-year-old on Christmas morning. So, I start some sort of craft project at the kitchen table. Then Mark gets home and gets on his computer. How nice this is, chatting while we each do something we love – I stamping and he computer games. Sigh… Before I know it, I am headlong into stamping the most beautiful card this side of the Mississippi. I can’t go to bed now! No. The paper arts community is depending on me to blaze a new trail, raise the bar, and what ever other cliché is appropriate!

Then around 12:15 it hits me. I am tie-ERD. I really need to go to bed. But this card needs just one more teensy embellishment. There we go. Now I take pictures of my gorgeous creation. Next I must upload the pictures to a host site so I can share it with all my crafty scissors, uh, I mean sisters. Yes, at this point my mind is not working. Did I say sisters or scissors? No worries. So, now I can post the pictures on my blog, but the problem is I don’t quite remember how – even though I have done this several times. Do I copy and paste a link? Do I… My head feels heavy. Oh I can’t wait to see what other people have created. Gosh, that one that the other lady made… So… Pretty…

Aaaaaagh! I just tripped over the curb! Wait! Why is my husband laughing uncontrollably? Where am I? Oh crap. I was nodding off! I look at the computer screen and I don't recognize anything. How did I get to that point? Good thing I wasn't knitting. I could have poked an eye out!

Speaking of knitting... I'm planning to post some knitting projects today, lest people think I only say I knit.

My first challenge!

Since I'm a joiner, I hunted down some cool stamping communities. One of the great ones I found was Sisterhood of Blogging Stampers! So, I joined SBS-12, the twelveth group of blogging stampers. Currently there are only 2 of us, but, hey! We'll get some more...

Inside the SBS Cafe, I found a challenge. And I didn't even hesitate to do it. Just jumped right in. Here is the original sketch from which we were asked to create our own card inspired by the original creation. I chose the first sketch, and here is my finished product.

Hostess Club Mini-Album

This was so fun to make!

Here's the deal... If a hostess has 3 guests book parties of their own while at the hostess' party, that hostess will get an adorable incentive set! I am taking this one step further with a suggestion from my upline, Buffie. If a hostess agrees to host one party each season, she will get an awesome mini-album in which to keep her booking sets! This album perfectly fits the 3x3 card and stamp carrier sheet of the incentive set. Such a cute idea!

Sympathy Card

Sympathy Card
Originally uploaded by smcknitter

Is it terrible that the second thing I said after hearing of a coworker's son's death was "Oh! I get to make her a card! Yay!"?

CS: Bambo - CTMH
B&T Duos: Serendipity - CTMH
Stamps: Joy Forever - CTMH
Exclusive Inks Stamp Pads: Black, Bamboo - CTMH
Sentiment: With Sympathy - Hero Arts

Sisterhood of the Blogging Stampers - 12

Woo hoo! A community of crafty, bloggy goodness! SBS-12

For the first time in my life, I finally feel grounded. No, not grounded like no-phone-for-a-week-because-you-brought-home-a-"C" grounded; like rooted and a part of something bigger and better.

A big part of this is because of my DH (and this time the "d" stands for dear); his plentiful patience is an inspiration. As some of you may know, I tend to expect a lot and react quickly, then I freak out when things aren't like I thought they should be. DH's patience with others, especially me, is immense. I really need more of this. Good thing I met him. Saturday, one the 3rd anniversary of our 1st date, I will tell that story. Anyway, patience allows me to see the world and more easily be a part of it. Patience also allows me to be comfortable in my own skin and in my own home.

Another first is that I want to be at home. For as long as I can remember, I needed to be constantly on the go, even if it meant just riding in the car to 7-11 with my mom to get some milk. In fact one of my mom's favorite stories illustrates this. When I heard my mom's keys jingle, that meant she was removing them from her purse (everything in its place all the time), and that meant we were going somewhere! Woot! One day, I heard the ol' familiar jingle, and came running like a cat hearing the can opener on a can of tuna. When I got there, I asked where we were going. My mom said we weren't going anywhere, why? I told her I heard her keys jingle so we MUST be going somewhere! My mom burst out laughing and told me she was just cleaning out her purse. Oh how the tears rolled down my cheeks!

Now I want to be at home at my table stamping or scrapping or sitting on the couch with DD and DH, watching tv and knitting or playing a few songs in Guitar Hero. That, my friends, is pure joy.

No Hundertwasser

I got the call from the online store that says they are the exclusive Opal yarn dealer in the USA. They are all out of the colorway I wanted. I sent them an email earlier asking for a receipt and wondering when it would be charged to my card. She replied to the email with a phone call (wth?) and left me a voice mail message. She didn't offer any other colors, which I thought was strange, but oh well.

So, now it's on to find some different yarny goodness for my mom's socks!

ETA: Oh, and it is so much more fun to watch the Superbowl while knitting!

Birthday Present

For a friend's birthday, I made this candy jar and matching card. She loved it and said it was her favorite gift this year since it came from the heart.

Congratulations!

Today DH's sis is getting married. Although we couldn't be there in person, we have been thinking of them all day.

Here is the card I created for them:

Hundertwasser

On my newly commenced journey to learn to knit socks, I came upon the knitty goodness known as Hundertwasser. This yarn is totally gorgeous! I can't wait to knit some socks with it for my mom.

Now for the rest of the story... I first saw the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna in May of 1991 on choir tour. For some reason, it really stuck with me and was truly one of my favorite things I saw in Europe. Then 10 years later, I had the opportunity to see more of Freidensreich Hundertwasser's work. The Hundertwasser public toilet in Kawakawa, New Zealand. How many architectural masterpiece bathrooms have I seen? Um, one. And it was sooooo fun lookin'. And yes. I went potty there.