Hands

A bit of something I wrote awhile ago that I just came across again-

I have a strange sort of fascination with hands. I seem to be drawn towards rough hands, experienced hands, hands that never tire. I adore hands that are callused from having seen many days of hard labor. Hands that dominate.

I need a do-er. I need a "build it from the ground up" kind of person. I need hands stained brown with dirt and soil, hands with the strength to grip a hammer, a steering wheel, the strength to wield an instrument of a true days work. I need hands that protect, damp hands that have recently wiped away sweat from a brow with fingernails short and blackened at the tips.

I admire hands that are so incredibly gentle all the same, hands that know the difference between laboring and giving and a loving touch. These hands are the hands that enveloped my tiny fists as a little girl all of the times my daddy took me to the playground, or to ride my bike, or to play volleyball over the speed bump outside of the apartment complex where I grew up.

Now as an adult, a different set on hands but build from the things I love are the hands that ache daily to build and support my family, and now clutch the tiny hands of my sons on their strolls down to the park or adventures in the back yard. These hands hold me until I drift into my nightly sleep and sweep the hair from across my cheek.

I adore those hands.

Its Not Easy Being Green

Etsy Feature: Lauren Alexander Art ♥

Etsy Feature: Lauren Alexander Art ♥

Shop Name:
Lauren Alexander

What do you make? paintings, prints, stickers, cards... and more

What are you inspired by? I love color, music, pattern, nature, simplicity mixed with a little chaos - basically the things going on in my life on a daily basis.

Tell me about yourself: I'm an art teacher and I've been painting with watercolors for as long as I can remember. My biggest dream is to write and illustrate a picture book of some kind at some point in my life. I have a million projects in my mind and can't quite get them all figured out yet. Luckily things have had a way of falling into place. For now, I am enjoying painting on Etsy - my favorite thing to paint is ACEOs (art card editions and originals) because they are small, collectable, and fast to make! Just a few days ago I had my 1000th sale on Etsy and I was elated! I never thought I would make any money selling my artwork. It has been hard work but nothing is more gratifying to know that you are doing something that puts a smile on someone's face.

Other etsy shops you love: SOOooooo many...I'm a big fan of:
Karen Faulkner Art
Apple & Eve
gypsy and twink
but really there are too many to count - just look at my favorites!

Advice for fellow artists/crafters? I think the best thing you can do for yourself is take yourself seriously but not toooo seriously. Everyone has days that are slow, projects that mess up, and words that don't come out right. But don't let the negative stuff drag you down - keep working, keep creating, and keep putting yourself out there so you can inspire and be inspired.

♥GIVEAWAY♥

This weeks giveaway is seriously fabulous!! The super sweet and gracious Lauren Alexander has offered to send the winner a free small print from her etsy shop. YOU can pick out the one you just can't live without!!

How to enter:: RUN, dont walk, on over to Lauren Alexander and find a piece that you love and leave a comment here stating your favorite item from this spectauclar shop! I guarentee that you'll have a hard time picking out your favorite because Lauren's artwork is incredible!

Want and extra entry into this giveaway, then just follow my blog!

Standard Rules apply ---> You must leave a way for me to contact you in case you win! On Monday 03/02/09 I'll announce the winner!

The Spice of Life

I've been a scrapbooker for as long as I've had children. I'm definitely one of those moms who always has her camera on her at all times just in case cuteness is abound. I take all of my pictures and preserve the memories that they hold in sweet little books that tell the tale of my life, my children's lives, my interests and the people and things that hold special places in my heart. If someone really and truly wanted to catch a glimpse at the inner mechanisms of my mind and of my heart all they would have to do is open the cover of one of my scrapbooks.

Over the last couple of years I've tried a myriad of all sorts of different arts & crafts and have had various etsy shops to support the ideas and the love behind them. I've opened and closed shops and divided my time and focus between different genres over and over again, always trying to find my niche. And yet, I still have these gears turning in my brain that keep coming up with new ideas that I want to try, new mediums to fall in love with, new things that I want to create - taking a bunch of nothings and turning them into something.

One of my biggest weaknesses in regards to what I've purchased in the last year and a half that I've been on etsy has been paper crafts, fitting because I work with paper myself when I'm making journals and matchbook notepads. I have a serious passion for bits of paper put together to make sweet little tidbits such as cards, tags, and scrapbook embellishments.

I've always viewed my scrapbooks as an extension of myself, holding inside of them the person that I am. So when it comes to what I pick and choose to put in them a lot of thought and love takes place. I've bought more little paper doodads from etsy sellers than I'm willing to admit, and I'm sure that I won't be stopping anytime soon in the near future. But I thought that I'd try my hand at making a few of my own.

You see, I have two wonderfully amazing little boys. And my personal paper bits and creations certainly reflect that. So breaking out some pink papers and making little cupcakes and ice cream cones has certainty been fun! And I'm beginning to see just why I fell in love with paper in the first place.

So that's right, new things are abound for my etsy shop! Variety is the spice of life after all :)

Pennsylvania's Finest

Recently I became involved in the amazing group Handmade in PA, which supports local artisans and crafters from my awesome home state of PA. Seriously, Pennsylvania has got it going on. I mean we've got the Superbowl winning football team (Go Steelers!), the home of Heinz Ketchup, The Liberty Bell, Gettysburg ... and so much more. And to top it all of, we've got some serious talent represented in the etsy community - here are some of my favorite PA crafters!

Lilith's Apothecary from Philadelphia, PA

spread the love from Kutztown, PA

Cupcakes In Jars from Allentown, PA

Red Red Orange from Philadelphia, PA

Cookie Dough from Scranton, PA

Lily of the Valley

Brand Spanking New - Lily of the Valley ♥
Probably one of my favorite necklaces yet!

You can check it out by clicking here.

Monkeys and Cricuts - Oh My!

My husband is the greatest husband in the entire world. Last night, in the midst of all of the hooplah going on around he he ran to the store to pick up some Gatorade for Gage but stopped and brought home a special surprise for me .

Check out my brand new toy! - Its hanging out with BoBo my sock monkey :)

I've been wanting a Cricut forever, and Mike knew that I'd never spend that kind of money on myself so he said that he made the "executive decision" to buy one for me, along with the computer software to manipulate the letters.

Yeah. My husband is pretty awesome.

Momma's Boy

Few things cease to matter when you have a sick child, or so that has been my experience.

Its been a long few days and right now Gage is lying down with his Thomas the Tank Engine sippy cup, all cozy in his favorite helicopter footie pajamas, and is snuggled up with his blankie watching cartoons. He and I spend the better part of the afternoon and evening at the doctors office followed by the Emergency Room where poor little Gage was poked and prodded at, stuck with needles and x-rayed.

When Gage was born his blood work came back abnormal and had to be sent to the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh for genetic screening. It turned out that he has an enzyme deficiency called Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (or G6PD for short). I'm no doctor, and this is a complicated thing, so I'll break it down the best I can - it more or less means that he lacks the enzyme needed to adequately produce and maintain red blood cells. There are also a whole slew of foods and medications that he can't have that can interfere with his already weakened system of making these red blood cells, causing them to die off quicker - thus sending his little body into overdrive to try and produce more, which can lead to kidney failure.

For the past 2 and 1/2 days Gage hasn't been feeling well. He's been running a temperature, vomiting a little, not wanting to eat or drink. He definitely had a bug. Its winter, its that time of the year, and its going around. No cause for alarm for a normal child. But when we reached the 3 day mark and he still wasn't feeling any better and Children's Tylenol no longer seemed to help we called the pediatrician and went to the doctor who immediately advised us to go to the emergency room for blood work and X-rays to be sure that this wasn't a G6PD spike.

Thankfully all Gage has is a run of the mill virus. But it scares me to death that from now until forever that every time my poor little guy so much as gets a stomach ache he has to be rushed to the hospital.

His diet is already so strict as a result of all of this. What's going to happen when he goes to school, or wants to go over to a friends house for a sleep over? I'm scared to find out what's next?

Inspire Tuesday

For the Love of Birds
This weeks bit of daily inspiration courtesy of the Flickr Mosiac Maker

♥

1. Love Bird #2 - Yellow, 2. My Talking Bird, 3. 8 Jul - the birds, 4. Morphe II: Drawing on Bird, 5. The Littlest Birds, 6. Small bird on a small branch, 7. Sugar bird (Cambacica, Bananaquit), 8. little bird, 9. Linen Bird Ornaments

Sparks in the Dark

Well I didn't get to post a lovey dovey blog post yesterday wishing everyone a Happy Valentines Day (sorry about that btw!). I didn't get to run a fun V-day sale in my etsy shop, as I had been planning on doing. I didn't get to awnser convos, list my new journals, pay my etsy bill... any of that good stuff.

What I did get to do all morning on Valentines day was play Mahjong on my computer until my battery died.

We had a not-so-lovely wind storm here in PA the other day, which apparently knocked down a rather large pine tree on the street around the corner from my house. That pine tree decided that it wasn't going down without a fight and thought to take out some telephone wires and an electric pole with it along its way down to the ground. So yesterday our local electric company came to replace the giant pole, turning off all of the electricity in the neighborhood while they worked ... for SEVEN FREAKING HOURS. - I'm telling you, I could never be Amish! I crave technology and mindless stimulation waaaaaay too much!

But no electricity in my house means that the blower to my furnace doesn't run, resulting in no heat. And as you can imagine Pennsylvania in February with no heat in your house is not very pleasant.

So by the time everything here was situated and Mike and I were able to take the kiddos up to my parents house for the evening, who kindly offered to watch them for us, every single restaurant in this town and the next had a gigantic line hanging out the door. So we ended up having our romantic Valentines Day dinner at CiCi's pizza, which we laughed about the whole time we were there... but still, we were together. ♥

So... happy belated Valentines Day my bloggy friends :)

I'd gather that your day was a bit better than mine!

Splurge

When you are a mom who is 99% of the time broke thanks to the sacrifices you've made for your family (personal example being myself, a stay at home momma) you come to realize the magic and utter joy of this time of the year.

Yes folks, I am talking about tax refund time. I'm speaking especially to you moms who also enjoy the extra funds thanks to the child tax credit.

So what did you do with or plan to do with your moolah?
(And I'm don't want to hear about paying off bills, credit cards, and all of that crap ... what did you treat yourself to?)

I ordered myself some gorgeous fabric from ScabooFabrics and some dried lavender from Glass House Supplies to make some heart sachets to hang in the windows around the house.


Oh - and I got incredibly sick of trying to share one computer with my husband and my son - so I bought myself a fancy schmancy new laptop that is strictly mine for business :)

Yeah ... not only did I splurge on a new computer, but in some small and stupid way I feel kinda official now because I have a computer totally dedicated to me.

I'm pretty sure its love ♥

Lovlies

I snagged a treasury today - my first one in quite a while!

Show it some love by clicking here. ♥

Sweet Dreams

Luna - Limited edition print from Carambatack Design

I don't sleep. Seriously, not ever. Not at all. And no... I am NOT a vampire (*wink wink*)

I have sporidic insomnia and I go for periods at a time where I just cannot seem to sleep. Its related to anxiety and its something that I've gone through for years now. I'm tired, but when I lay down to go to sleep at night I just start thinking of totally random things and before I know it, its 5am. And let me tell you, getting around 2 or 3 hours of sleep at night really isn't fun.

Hmm. Considering all of time I seem to have on my hands you'd think that I'd be a bit more productive.... yet I still have 3 unfinished journals sitting on my table right now.

Anyways, todays blog is all about the joy of sleep - and my attempt to experiance it vicariously through etsy since I'm obviously not getting any on my own.

Oh - and if you have any relaxation tips, feel free the share em!

Moonlight Sonata Cold Process Olive Oil Soap from The Lote Tree

Edsel Takes a Nap 5 x 7 Print by Elegant Snobbery

Sweet Dreams Tea from Wildroot Botanicals

Praise Song For The Day

If you are an Obama nut like me then you probally watched the inauguration coverage all day long when it was on. I caught this poem from Elizabeth Alexander and thought that it was absolutely beautiful and holds so true to every day life - Enjoy ♥

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."

Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

-- Elizabeth Alexander

Scrap Paper Flowers

I have paper scraps. I'm talking heaps and heaps of paper scraps in every size, shape, pattern, and color you could imagine. My paper scrap collection is growing by the second and I'm pretty sure that if I leave it unattended much longer its going to come to life and eat me while I sleep.

So what better to do with all of that fabulous paper than make pretty paper flowers! I mean really, you can't go wrong with paper flowers.

So here is my first ever bloggy tutorial - that pretty much just "blossomed" out of me being bored and trying to figure out something to do with my mounds of paper. Oh and the camera just happened to be sitting next to me throughout :)

Materials needed:
Paper (obviously!)
Stapler
Double sided sticky tape

I used 15 strips of paper measuring 12 inches long x 1 inch wide. But you can use shorter or longer pieces of paper depending on your desired size of flower. And you don't have to use 15 strips, more or less works too, depending on if you want your loops squished down or not. Its not an exact science, but you'll be able to tell what works for you and what doesn't.

Start out by stapling the ends of your paper together to form tear drop shapes

Next line up the bottoms of the tear drops as a guide one at a time and affix a small piece of double sided tape to the upper loops. Do NOT tape the stapled ends together.

When you have all of your teardrop loops taped together you should have a garland that looks similar to this.

Next grab a pretty piece of ribbon and loop it and tape to the inside of the last loop. (regular tape works fine for this)

When you're done, using double sided tape again, tape the last 2 loops together as shown to form the basic shape of your flower. Now this flower as is will not hang without the middle popping out, so when laying down it should make a natural line in the middle forming 2 separate parts of the flower. Using a long piece of double sided tape, tape the two sides together to secure the flower into its round shape.

You should have something looking similar to this at this stage:

Next cut out two circles of another pretty designed paper - I used a 2 inch punch, but the size of the circle can be left up to you, just make sure that it covers the joints of the flower petals. Using 2 pieces of double sided tape, make a cross on each circle and then affix in the middle of your flower, one on each side.

Now hang up your pretty flower and enjoy! - Mine is currently dangling from the ceiling above my craft table.
**I used scrap paper for this flower, but if you used papers in coordinating colors and designs, particularly paper with double sided designs, this would look a lot better! These paper flowers make really sweet party and shower decorations too!!**

Identity Crisis

I'm having a bit of an identity crisis all across the board. If you frequent my blog then you probably notice that I chance banners ALOT - and today is no exception. That's the problem of featuring the bits and baubles you make in your banner, when I create something new I fall in love with it and want to feature it - thus resulting in a overhaul.

But lately its been more than just that for me. I go back and forth between being 100% all about making journals to 100% all about making jewelry. I love doing them both so much... just not at the same time. This week (and last in fact) its jewelry. I have 3 journals half way done sitting on my desk right now just begging for a bit of attention and I just can't bring myself to finish them. But I also don't want to flood my etsy shop with the oodles of new jewelry I've been busying myself with. Gotta keep that variety thing I've got going on up. So I'm stuck somewhere in the middle. Bah!

Oh - and happy Super Bowl Sunday to those watching! - Go Steelers!! (Gotta show my hometown love!)