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Hi friends! Just popping in quickly... I know it's just a week before Christmas, but I wanted to let you know I was able to make a few cottages this year! I almost didn't make it... hehehe.
Life has been good. I am adjusting to my new job and really enjoy what I am doing. I feel like I am making a difference where I am, and that is important to me.
I have a lot of needy and homeless people come through my office every day. It's not part of my job, but it just seems to happen. I feel like this is where I am supposed to be for right now. I am able to chat with them, offer them hot coffee and sometimes food, but mostly a listening ear and a prayer.
This year, I am thankful to God that I am so fortunate to have what I have. My loving husband, my amazing children, my family, my friends, my home and love.
I recently read this story to my family. We had a great talk about being thankful and aware of the needs of others. If you have time, check it out. Follow the link below.
Number 1: I want to say thank you to all of you who have commented, emailed, and "facebooked" me. It's been a rough year and I have felt so supported by the blog communtity. So, thank you for that... I mean it.
I am a real person, sitting here in my real house, with a real family who needs me as a mom and wife, sister and daughter. So, that's where I've been for the last few months. Being me.
Number 2: My blog and shop have need to be on a backburner for a long while. I've tried really hard at keeping it afloat during this year... I was just trying to keep vital signs, to be honest. I've gone back and forth as to whether I should close the shop and delete my blog altogether. I just didn't like doing it half way. It's not good to let it sit and collect cob webs... I am totally aware of that. I just don't have the heart to close up shop... I can't do it!!! I haven't made any decisions yet and I may just take it one month at a time for now.
I am looking forward to the Holidays and I have some things in mind already... I will be offering my Snowy Chaples and Christmas Cottages again this year... I will make as many as I can. Right now I have 12 in the works, hopefully I can make more than that!
So, If you are out there and reading this... thank you!
My life has changed so much. In good ways.
I just started a new job. I'm working 32 hours a week. This has been hard for me to do as I haven't really worked this much (away from home) in over 13 years... since my first child was born! I really like the job and think it's a good fit for me.
Actually, I think it's helping with my creative slump... I FINALLY FEEL LIKE MAKING SOMETHING!! This is big for me. The last year has been no good for making art... no good at all. But, I'm coming around.
Recently, I was honored to be a Sponor at Jenn Hayslip's event Once Upon A Dream (TOTALLY WISH I COULD HAVE GONE!!!). I sent a Kanzashi flower clip to each attendee... They are hand sewn flowers that are the cutest little embellishments or clippies! I hope the gals enjoyed them, they were really fun to make! :)
Well, I feel like I've rambled. Sorry, I forgot how to blog.
Ehhh, you don't mind do you??
Here is a pic of me at a recent masquerade fundraiser... good times.
I've needed to update my blog for quite some time. Needless to say, blogging hasn't been at the top of my to do list. Life happens.
I haven't shared here on my blog about anything really personal since last year. I've thought about writing a hundred times, but things just never came together like I wanted them too. Some things in life are hard to talk about, especially to an unknown audience. My blog has never really been a venting place or super personal journal for me... more of a place to share the good stuff. As of late, the good stuff wasn't really happening either, thus... no blogging.
For almost a year now (scrolling back thru my last few posts, I've only really blogged on holidays!) I've not had it in me to create or to blog. I've been in a cocoon. :)
I'm not blogging today because I feel obligated, like a lot of bloggers do. I want to share. I think it might help someone else, so here I am.
Last summer, a member of my family was a victim of a crime. The crime was committed by another family member who is now serving time in jail for their crime. My family and I have all been in therapy and coping and healing over the course of this last year.
This was the hardest thing I have ever had to deal with in my life. I never thought I would HAVE to deal with something like this. Not that I was naive by any means, but I guess I just told myself that something like this would not happen to my family... I wouldn't let it happen. But it happened.
I've never cried as hard or felt that much hate in my heart as I did those first few weeks. I honestly thought I would never stop crying... I could not see any light at the end of my tunnel. It felt as though my world came crashing down and I would never find my way out again...like, I would never feel or be normal again.
Looking back, that was a really dark time for me and I can see how far I have come. Thank God.
Over the course of a few months, things began to slowly get better. We began to heal. My husband and I attended every court hearing and afterward I was undone again... left to slowly, (very slowly) pick up the pieces again.
This all created some hardships and tense moments in my extended family. If affected us all. It still does. But we are growing and healing all on our own. In our own way, we are finding grace.
In February, my children and I gave statements in court at the sentencing... something I never imagined doing. We did it though. We cried and we were broken and we were brave. That's all...
Now, nearly 12 months later, I am ok. I am healing. I am stronger. I am better. I can hope. I can not only see the light, but I am in that light... living in it.
I changed a lot of things in my life to help me cope. I got a job. I worked with people who have had more hardship than me, giving myself to help them survive their own pain and to recover. I didn't blindly lead them... I walked with them.
I want to share this with you, my readers, to give you some hope.
Things change. Things get better.
It gets better. It does.
My wish for you is this... That you are open to get help when you need it. Let it go. Get it out of you...talk about it. Cry, scream, punch a pillow. Let it go.
I hope for you that if you are a victim of any crime, that you are brave and that you let someone know. Please know that it doesn't define who you are. It doesn't take away your value or make you any less of a beautiful person.
God is doing something inside of me. It's all good and I will update you soon.
For Easter, I want to share a few you tube videos. A little on the cheesy side, but if you know me, you know that music moves me. It helps me understand what I'm feeling at times, help me grieve, helps me cope.
So, this Easter, a few songs of deliverance for you...
I love these kids, Daves Highway This video is a couple of years old, but still awesome.
next, Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill... whaaaat? How Great Thou Art... Love this.
Last, Selah, Unredeemed. This song has really helped me thru the last 8 months of heartache and I pray it helps you too. (Thank you Martha Smith for sharing this with me last August. This has been my theme song.)
January is almost over and that makes me happy. January didn't bring me much sun and therefore, I am ready for it to be over. :) I need some sun and warmth and the grey skies to go far far away.
I wish I had more time to devote to my shop and to creating right now. I am finding myself blog browsing, flickr browsing and etsy browsing more and more and making things less and less.
Happily, I did find time this month to try something new. It is a bit of a small project but it took me over a week to finish it just because I was getting frustrated with the project. Do you ever do that?
I do it quite often... I start something and begin to hate it when it isn't working. I walk away from it, leave it for a few hours or days and come back to it when I am not so angry at it anymore. The projects and I have a heart to heart. Sometimes I win the argument and sometimes the project wins.
This time, honestly, I am not sure. I don't know if I'm totally happy with the outcome...
I set out to make an altered journal. I see other people make them all the time and I've wanted to make one for myself for a while.
I started with a really old Girl Scout Handbook. I glued some of the pages together to make thicker pages and tore a bunch of pages out to make room for embellishments.
This is what took most of my time. The pages were quite fragile and kept tearing and breaking. grrr. Then I couldn't close the book because the pages were too thick!
I finally decided to cut off the spine of the book and use round rings to hold it together. I used my Crop a Dile Big Bite to chomp the holes through the thick pages and book cover. Waaaaay better! Now the pages were more flippy and easier to turn.
One of the reason I don't do traditional scrapbooking is that I find that I tend to "over- do" and overthink on the embellishments and placement of things. For this project, I tried my hardest to keep it simple and remember "less is more".
So there you have it. Finished product, only it's not really a journallike I wanted, instead, it's more of a scrapbook.
I put away all of my Christmas decorations yesterday... now the house feels kind of empty, but I do like the clean feeling that January 1st brings.
As I told you all before, 2010 wasn't the best year for me. I am looking forward to what 2011 will bring. The words to "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" keep running through my mind...
"Gone away is the blue bird Here to stay is a new bird He sings a love song as we go along Walkin' in a winter wonderland"
I am hoping that it represents the new year for me and my family.
Merry Christmas my friends!! I know I'm a little late, but you probably weren't reading blogs yesterday anyway.... right?
We had a nice Christmas, celebrating with friends and family and eating waaay too much junk. Ehh, what's is Christmas without pie, cookies, fancy appetizers and cheesy potato casserole? I think I'll get a head start on the exercise and start this week instead of waiting until the 1st.... maybe.
I thought I would quickly share a few photos of some of my Christmas decorations around the house, since I never shared them before Christmas. Here you go...
A few friends and I had a small "Secret Santa" gift exchange. I opened my present today and was so blessed! I received so many treats, and the packages were almost too pretty to open!
Thank you Secret Santa! You spoiled me!! ♥♥♥♥♥
Adorable hand crafted ornament, made with vintage sparkles and bling, so cute!!
This lovely vintage angel comes with a light, I know right where she will go....
Sweet little handmade tags, made from a sweet pink santa... he's so cute!
This amazing vintage flocked deer has a new name, "Candy". She is already getting acquainted with the other girls around the house. ;0)
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
I am going to try to take the next week off and spend time with my kids and get as much rest as possible. I hope the same for you all, that you get plenty of rest and relaxation and that this season brings you new hope, new vision and the fortitude of accomplish all of your dreams.
I hope you are all enjoying the Holiday season! I've had hot cocoa almost every evening and when I get the chance, like today, I keep the Christmas movies on all day.
One of my favorites is White Christmas... I love all the dance numbers and extravagant costumes. This is one of my favorite scenes... the "Sisters" song.
Too funny!
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Because this year has been so busy for me, I only had time to make a few Christmas goodies for the shop. I've had these Chapels ready and waiting, but they weren't quite complete until today. I've listed them in the shop, you can find them HERE.
I only made 4 this year, so once they are gone, they're gone!
These chapels are larger than the Sugar Houses I made last year and also come with a built in light, not shown in photos, but it is really pretty in the dark!
I also made 2 bright and fun "JOY" Christmas banners! I've got one HERE, in the etsy shop and one HERE at the Sugar*Sugar website.
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In other news, I am working a part time job... did I tell you that? Not sure if I've mentioned it here, but ya, I've been working part time for the last couple of months. It's nice to have another outlet, get out of the house and the best part is my job is very flexible! I make my own hours and am free to do the things that I need to do and be available for the kids when they need me.
My job? Purchasing agent. That's all I'm going to tell you, but yes, shopping is 95% of my work... don't be jealous.... I know you are tempted. :)
Well, I'm getting my groove back. This is big! I feel like I'm slowly coming around.
You know the Miranda Lambert song, The House That Built Me?
Watch:
I love this song!! For a lot of reasons, but mostly, after this year, I feel more and more that need to "go back". To find myself, to heal the brokenness inside me.
My studio is included in that "house that built me". It's something that I've kind of avoided for a while because of the brokenness. I couldn't make myself be creative if I wanted to... I know most of you will relate to that.
But, thank God, things change. I am healing and getting better. Some of that brokenness is being repaired. One way I can tell is that creating actually seems fun again, not a chore. It's exciting again... not something I am trying to make happen.
So, this is good. This is a step.
For now, I am happy to make a few small things here and there for my enjoyment and for yours. :)
Christmas goodies are making there way to my shop! I've listed some items just today and will continue to list items here and there until Christmas. Here are some of the things I've added to the etsy shop so far...
I'll post again when I add more to the shop... should be this week sometime... I'll give you a hint...
