Boys, Balling, And Buttons

I'm not at all prepared for my kids to get older and grow up. Not. At. All. I mean, I always knew that I was a bit neurotic when it comes to my mothering. And I'm so proud that I have two sweet little mommas boys. But, *sigh* they do get older.

My oldest son had Kindergarten registration today. I'm not at all prepared to not have him home with me on a daily basis. I'm already having a slight nervous breakdown and its only the end of February!!!

Anyways, we got to go and meet the school nurse and all of the teachers and the librarian and plan out his bus stop and all of that jazz. I'm going to be ok, I know that and I'm excited for my son to go to school and learn new things and make new friends. I suppose that its just that up until today it was just something we were talking about, and now after going there and meeting everyone and officially registering him, its somehow real now.

Ahhhh, empty nest syndrome and my oldest son is only 5!!

I'm determined to make the rest of this year and this summer memorable and great since this is really my only time left to really enjoy him being this age and being home with me. We've booked a 8 day trip to Disney World this August that we're all excited as can be for and I'm getting in all of my mommy time every chance that I can get!

My husband has been AMAZING through all of my meltdowns and worries. He knew today was going to be hard for me, so he surprised me by having the most beautiful flowers delivered :-) He's so awesome... I think I'm going to bake him some cookies this weekend!

Anyways, I've been trying to keep myself pretty busy lately as a means to not let this whole "my baby is leaving me" thing get to me. About a week ago I got some precious little buttons from luckychelle7 and decided to give a new altered photo album and journal a little bit of buttoned up flare! I have kind of a thing for buttons, a have ooodles of old vintage ones I found in my Nana's stuff after she passed away that cherish, and ever since, I've been kind of a button-a-holic

All Buttoned Up Altered Photo Album

Button Button Who's Got The Button Altered Journal

No Sleep Makes Amanda A Crabby B*tch!

I cant sleep anymore. And I'm a bit crabby lately because of it, and maybe flying off the handle at times when I normally would not. (My poor husband!)

I have periods where I can sleep at all for 2 to 3 weeks at a time, maybe catching a few hours of sleep a night, finally laying my head down after the sun has already came up and the few birds that are still around begin chirping in the early hours of the morning.

Then those weeks are usually followed by a week or so of extreme fatigue where I just cant sleep enough, I'm tired and lazy and STILL crabby and iritable.

Then the whole process repeats itself. *sigh*

My family doctor says its a result of my anxiety. I get pretty bad panic attacks, especially when I'm in crowded, enclosed situations but I take some wonderfully delightful Lexapro to negate the effects of my anxiety. Except that its not at all working for the whole not sleeping/over-sleeping thing I've got going on now.

Oh and I'm scared to death of sleeping pills and I refuse to take them.

So where does that leave me? Up all night long looking at ooodles of stuff on etsy usually, curled up on my couch under a blanket with my laptop. And yes, I'm STILL crabby.

Etsy Feature - sixhours

While searching for lots of fun skeleton key related things for my All Locked Up Treasury I came across an AMAZING artist sixhours and was just truely captivated by her photos and thought that would share some of them with you all.

Seriously, go and check out her shop, because this is just a taste of some brilliant, captivating photography!

Smile and Say Cheese!

You know that you have them laying around. Lurking inside of dusty boxes, stacked in piles and forgotten about on shelves, tucked away inside of cabinets they lay, lost and forgotten. So go on, get out your pictures, relive those memories and get 'em organized!

I'm so excited about my newest project, altered photo albums. I suppose because as as mother of two and an avid scrapbooker I've somehow gatewayed that into being a self described photo-hound. Its ok, I admit it. I like to take pictures. LOTS of pictures. (Like the neurotic mother that I am, I have to take a zillion pictures for fear that I may miss or forget an important milestone in one of my childrens lives.... and they are just so darn adorable!) And when I print those pictures I have to always print them out in doubles in case I decide to use one of them in my scrapbook, that way no blank pages will be left in any of my photo albums.

Yeah, the invention of the digital camera all but robbed me of my sanity and certainly fueled my OCD. There should be a 12 step program for us click happy gals!

Anyways, for your viewing pleasure, my 2 newest photo albums, each with 12 double sided photo inserts able to display a total of 24 photos. Oh, and because I'm totally obsessed with any and all Amy Butler prints I thought they'd make a suitable choice for my first two.

Sola Daisy Chain

Gothic Rose

Sylvia Plath

I picked up the Sylvia Plath Journals today at Barnes and Noble. I've been facinated by her life as much as her writing for sometime now and thought that I would share this passage as I think that it is just beautiful in a hidden, methaphoric sort of way. She writes about her own life in the same fashion as she wrote about the lives of the characters in her stories.
Eastham, Cape Cod

July 15, 1957. The virginal page, white. The first broken into and sent packing. All in dreams, the promises wait till I can write again, and then the painful, botched rape of the first page. Nothing said. A warm up. A detective. It is almost noon, and through the short spined green pines the sky is a luminous overhung grey. Some bastard's radio jazzs out of the trees like the green-eyed stinging flies. God has to remind me this isn't heaven by a long shot. So he increases the radios and the lethel flies.

Words By Momma

I did a very special project for a very dear friend of mine and she has been gracious enought to let me post the results here to share with all of you. This is a personalized journal that I've created and if I dont say so myself it is just so sweet and beautiful and is just, well, perfect!

I just love the combo of the pink Amy Butler background and the sepia toned pictures, together they just make the whole thing POP!

As a mother, it just makes my heart happy to know that something that I created will hold memories and thoughts from one generation to another. I'm just so fond of this project and am so happy that I could make something this special for such a wonderful friend!

(inside front and rear covers)

Violet, Youre Turning Violet, Violet

I think the randomness of this sweet little bracelet is just delicious! Life is about living it to the fullest and having fun while doing it and in an attempt to do just that I'm throwing out structure, starting with this bracelet!

I havent listed much jewelry in awhile due to the fact that I am currently trying to mesh both of my etsy shops into one at This Old Hen House and this is my first attempt at testing the waters. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed and with a little luck I'm hoping that there are many more pieces to come!!

Budding Little Business

The last time may have fallen through, but today I shipped out a box of journals to New York. Yes folks, Amanda aka This Old Hen House is now a wholesaler! I'm thrilled with the thought that something that I made is acctually being sold in a store somewhere!!! I'm really hoping that this brings lots of exposure to my budding little business, but even still, I feel like I am fighting against mass merchandising and couldnt be any prouder!! So if you're ever in Troy, NY head on over to River Street and check my journals and all of the other handmade goodies at The Paper Sparrow, and if you're not in NY you can always find me on etsy :-)