Make it Monday

I had plans to post this earlier, but then got thrown for a loop when our school district announced they were letting out early. I still had to finish my grocery list and hit the store. So glad I went before I got the kids, because what is normally about a 15 minute drive home became a 45 minute drive home. UGH!!

This week I will make:

• Valentine's cards for etsy shop. I have some really simple and basic designs and some more detailed ideas as well
• Valentine's banners. I really need to find a box of conversation hearts to get some other ideas for wording. 
• Card for the secretary at the kids school who's father passed away over the weekend.
• General greeting cards for a friend
• Thank you cards for a friend
• General greeting cards for my etsy shop. 
• Finish Audrey's snowman dress. 
• Make some doll clothes??? 
• Embroidered bookmarks for etsy shop???

I really want to do some sewing and so those last 3 would make me really happy. I don't know that I will get to the doll clothes and bookmarks, but we'll see.

So pretty outside. Only because I'm inside and don't have to go out. It was HORRIBLE out there.

7 on Sunday

1. My brother is doing awesome after his surgery. Was on facebook today, watching and I'm sure screaming at the Chiefs game, was back to texting, and also being his ornery self. So thankful for all the prayers and the skill of his doctors.

2. Expecting 4-6 inches of snow. I really hope it's the higher side of those 2 numbers. For one I would love a snow day, Christmas break was way to short this year. Also I want a good snow. I love snow! Although I'm not looking forward to the artic temps that are coming with it. Although if it's going to be that cold it should be pretty outside.

3. I have spent a little bit of time everyday lately decluttering. Man does it feel so good. I spent most of the morning today cleaning up all of Audrey's art stuff. Went through all her markers to make sure they all worked, went through all the crayons and pulled out the broken pieces and went through all her coloring books and got rid of those that were completely colored in. Then I spent a lot of time going through old magazines and articles I had torn out. Tossed most of them. I do have a huge stack of recipes to go through still. I love the way things are looking, still have a long way to go, but love how it's looking which is keeping me motivated.

4. I really hope to get some time with my sewing machine this week. I made my grandma a case for her kindle last week and I really want to get some more time with my machine. Have a few ideas of things I want to make and a few things that need to be made.

5. Audrey is sporting a very nice black eye right now. She got it Friday at school. Still not real clear on how it happened. She says she slid on the concrete. It was during first recess. I thought at first she had make-up on, and was wondering where she found that at school. Then as I looked closer I realized it was not make-up. She never cried or went to the office. Crazy!

6. Decided a week late that I'm going to give Project 365 another shot. I plan on doing something more with my photos than just posting them and adding a caption. I'm still working on my idea, but have started posting my pictures on shuttercal. As soon as I get my idea worked out I will put up the new pictures, they will be the same images, just with a spin. I wanted to get them posted though.

7. My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the horrific events that took place in Tucson, AZ Saturday.

You can kind of see her black eye here. This was taken Friday. It's really bad now. Although, thankfully not too swollen.

3/365

Watching something on Animal Planet on the internet.

I think starting next week I will do all my pics just one day a week instead of daily. Most likely make it a Saturday evening post.

Words that mean something...

I had grand plans to get a lot of crafting done and it wasn't happening. It was one of those days where everything I was trying was not working. Trying to hard to do things that just weren't me. Even got in a discussion with my husband about expanding lines to appeal to everyone. I was trying to explain to him that I have a hard time with anything other than simple. I like the clean lines and less junk. He on the other hand loves all the other stuff. It just doesn't work for me. I can appreciate it and love looking at it and even would love to have some things with more stuff on them(at a minimum of course), but for me I struggle to create that. Because art is so personal I came away from the discussion feeling defeated(nothing my sweet husband said or did, just my feelings). I sat at my table for a long time trying to talk myself back up. Trying to understand his side, but also trying to figure out how to get my side across to him. I decided to just walk away from it all for a few minutes and checked my twitter. In it was a tweet from iheartquotes that read "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone." Bill Cosby.  WOW!! That was just the thing I needed at that moment. I can't please everyone. Yes, I could make some simple changes to expand who I might appeal to, but I don't have to try and appeal to everyone. Thus the reason we have Coke and Pepsi, Skinny jeans vs baggy jeans. Those brands don't appeal to everyone. I am one person, I don't need to make everyone like my stuff, there are plenty out there who will like it, possibly even love it. I just need to make sure that it is still something I love and am proud of.

A reminder to myself to always go with what my heart says!!

Just a little something I made to remind me of my one little word! 

Put this together in Wordle. I could waste spend all sorts of time playing on that site.  

At the Moment:

Listening: Itunes is playing on my computer. Current song is the Cha Cha Slide!

Eating: Nothing, just had leftover Tuna Casserole for lunch.

Drinking: Cherry Coke. It was a long night and I need the caffiene

Wearing: jeans, MU sweatshirt, socks. Need to find my slippers, my feet are FREEZING!

Feeling: RELIEF! My brother's surgery went perfect! Cried major tears when I got the phone call.

Weather: Cold, windy and icky. Gonna be this way for awhile.

Wanting: Major creative time. So much I want to do.

Needing: New blades for my trimmer and groceries.

Thinking: about how after I get the kids from school I am putting on my jammie pants and may not change until Sunday.

Enjoying: The fact that my brother's surgery was successful and all the posts of facebook from people letting him know they are thinking about him.

Wondering: How much snow we will get next week? I hope it's enough for a snow day.

So I feel like this is New Year's Day. I know that sounds crazy, but for the last week I've been thinking/worrying about my brother's surgery. Now that it's over I feel like the New Year can begin. I didn't realize until a little bit ago how much it was consuming me. I can't imagine being my mom or my brother. I have so many things I want to make and now I'm excited to get busy. Won't feel like I'm just going through the motions now.

Bad blogger

How is it that we are already 6 days into the New Year?? I can't believe it's been a week since I last updated. Things got crazy and I'm still trying to settle back into a routine.

Had a great New Year's Eve. Hung out and helped my mom prepare for a "Heart Warming" Party for my brother on New Year's Day. Watched the ball drop and banged pots and pans with the kids.

New Year's Day was spent in last minute preparations for the party and celebrating my birthday. I'm 34 and according to my wonderful son, now OLD! 33 wasn't old, but man 34 sure is according to him! My mom threw a "Heart Warming" Party for my brother so his friends and family could wish him well before his surgery on Friday. There were roughly 55 people there, mostly friends of his. It was great to see so many people there. He will be having open heart surgery on Friday to widen his single coronary artery. You can read more about it on his Caring Bridge site. We spent that evening playing Wii and Apples to Apples with my cousins Brent and Charles. All in all it was a perfect birthday.

My goofy brother on the right who would not look at the camera.

The kiddos went back to school Monday and let me tell you Christmas break was WAY TO SHORT this year. I'm really hoping for a longer one next year. We are slowly getting back into the swing of things. I've been busy doing a major declutter of the house. Slowly though. Just spending a little bit of time each day in different areas. I LOVE looking at the areas that have been cleaned though. Such a calming feeling. I have a few blog posts going on in my head. One about the handmade industry and small business industry as a whole and the others about various projects I want to tackle and a fun photo project I'm trying to work the details out on. I promise to be a better blogger.

I will update here on Friday after I hear from my mom that my brother is out of surgery.