The Gift of Giving

I'm patiently waiting to create the most extraordinary crafting space in my new home. I have the whole vision in my head. A closet full of containers and papers, glues, glitter, recycled cool things, stickers and more! A long 6 foot table, all for me to play and make paper messes! Photos on the wall and lots of inspiration! *bliss*

Since that area has not been established (waiting for carpet install on the 14th!) ~ I have been fitting in a bit of crafting fun on the kitchen table. I had a few 'thanks yous' that needed to be sent last week and so I broke out the supplies!

The first one (above) was for my friend Jess. I had picked up a pack of cards from the dollar store and redecorated them. For this card I used a 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece of cardstock and glued it to a page of old phone book paper from my new home town. I added a sweet fabric sticker atop and viola! Neat huh? and easy, it was so cute!



Next was one for my little buddies Layn and Garrett. The sent me a pic and a singing file to my phone for my birthday! I adored my special gift (it's still on my phone!). So I made them this little thank you card. Same concept as the previous card but this time I printed out the pic and attached to the cards using these sweet little brads that I had in my stash. I added the music note stickers to represent them singing. It was SO cute!! I sure hope they like it ~ their smiles really brighten my day!

So, that's my little crafting fix! I hope both recipients enjoy having a special surprise in their mailbox. I think snail mail can be so much more fulfilling for both parties. The best gift you can give yourself is the gift of giving :o)

Recommit or Quit

Recommit or Quit! Twice a year, every 6 months, in June on my birthday and January on New Years, I take inventory and start fresh. I look at the things that consume my time, my life, my energies and I re-evaluate their importance to me.

This allows me to contemplate how I spend my time on this earth. I have dedicated my time to, as Oprah would say, 'Live My Best Life' and the things that are no longer enticing or education or bringing me great joy are omitted from my time and are replaced with delight directed activities.

This Birthday ~ I have quit sailing and a lifestyle of living aboard and abroad. It was no longer giving me joy but causing great strains on important relationships. So, I quit. I don't miss it either. This was a huge omission and freed up an unbelievable amount of energy and time! :o)

I have committed myself first of all to nurturing my relationships with people I love. It brings me indescribable joy to love my partner Tad, My children Cody & Lindsay and to reach out to long time friends and special family members. I want to try to go back to some old fashioned snail mail correspondence and dabble in my art & photography. I want to learn about the plants here at my new home and do some gardening, recycling and landscaping. I want to cook and bake and do some canning. So for now I am rededicating myself to my family, friends, art and homemaking skills as we prepare our beautiful new home to bring in our loved ones and make new memories.

My Special Day

Last Friday .. I turned 41. I have to say, this time in my life is one of the happiest.

Lindsay took me out to lunch and we spent time talking and giggling *girl stuff* ~ We picked up Cody from his dorm and he had a gift for me. 'Sex in Your Garden' a comparison of human sexuality to plant reproduction, complete with suggestive photos of plants that evoke an immediate response. I cracked up at first but then, I was suddenly pleasantly aware of the fact that my son listens to me and notes my interests. We had once been discussing art and how photographic images can be perceived as sexual even if the subject matter is innocent, such as in botanical photography. I stated that I was intrigued by that fact. He rode his bike and found the store and searched out and bought the perfect book for me.

I loved both gifts from my children but the best gift of all is having the privilege of sharing my life with theirs and visa versa. I'm so honored to be their mother.

My love bought me flowers and showered me with tender love. We had a beautiful dinner and a promise for a new photo printer for my crafting *smile* The day really was spectacular, not with a bunch of frilly nonsense but good old fashioned family togetherness and growth.

Blueberry Bliss

I have been having the best breakfast! Oh how I LoVe blueberries! It is one thing that I really missed when I was down in Mexico. I have been slicing bananas atop my fiber1 cereal and adding blueberries & milk. It's just a truly delightful way to begin my morning.

I have strawberries and blueberries ripening in my yard and I cannot wait until I can gather them in the morning fresh from the vine.

"I am not bound for any public place, but for ground of my own where I have planted vines and orchard trees, and in the heat of the day climbed up into the healing shadow of the woods. Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup." ~Wendell Berry

Sweet bunch of Pansies

My sweet little bunch of pansies. I found this little surprise right outside my back door the other day.

Oprah Winfrey once said, "Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure."

Bird Bath

Right off my front porch, I have this amazing little fountain that pools into a small goldfish pond. I envision spending many summer afternoons sitting in a rocking chair, sipping tea and listening to the water trickling down.

The other afternoon I noticed a quick glimpse of bright yellow outside. Much to my delight, I discovered these yellow birds bathing in my fountain! They were splashing and fluttering about. Can you see this little guy in the photo? They didn't sit still very long.

With all the remodeling work we have been doing inside our new home, I have yet to discover all the outdoor surprises that await me! I am overwhelmed with the pleasures of this new environment between 'nesting' inside my new home and all the nature outdoors. Hopefully we will get enough remodeling finished that we can explore and enjoy the outdoors before fall arrives!

Coupon Fun at Safeway

I used to have this hobby of couponing and refunding years ago when my babies were little. It fed the obsessive organization freak inside of me. As the kids grew and I worked full time, my hobby went to the wayside.

A few weeks ago, I began clipping my first set of Sunday newspaper coupons again and began a new file. Yesterday I checked out the Safeway ad and started matching coupons to things on sale. I only look for super bargains (called loss leaders - stores use them to get you in the door!) or stuff I would buy anyhow. Guess what? After shopping and adding the coupons last night, I saved a whopping 38% off my total grocery bill! Talk about stoking the fire! ~ That's only with one week set of coupons! AND I bought things I didn't have coupons for, like frozen chicken. Can you imagine what percent it would have been if I had only bought items with coupons?

Safeway still remains a great place to shop ads, even though they dont have weekly double coupons anymore (boo). Their receipts are catagorized. You can see how much you saved by using your club card, how much you saved with manufacturer coupons and then totals that for you and gived you a percentage. They also have a great website where you can look at sales and print out coupons online. - Here's the finale .. Our local Safeway has a gas station. By using my club card and spending over $50, I got a .20 cents off per gallon of gasoline on my next fill up! Wow!

Needless to say, I'm a clipping fool once more. Why pay full price if you don't have too?

"Money in the bank is like toothpaste in the tube. Easy to take out, hard to put back." --Earl Wilson

Our New Home

This morning I am pinching myself. I rolled over and cracked my eyes, peeking over at Tad and thought, wow! Yesterday I bought an amazing home with my beautiful man. A home where we can learn and grow and share our lives. Sometimes I feel like I must be the luckiest woman in this whole universe *dreamy* ... I guess I should snap out of this dream state because the truth is, there's a lot of work to do! Starting today! LOL. We have a pickup truck of stuff to unload and quite frankly, that's all we got since we have been living on a boat for the past 2 years!

We need to paint and re-do the flooring in the house before we can actually move in but there is a small apartment over the garage in which we will lightly furnish and live in until the main house is fresh. I'm just SO excited and happy right now in spite of the huge amount of labor I am about to punish this poor body of mine with ~ exercise is good, very good ~ (must repeat over & over).

My first post on my new blog...

Hi! and welcome to my new blog! Some of you might be directed here from my blog with my partner and love of my life, Tad! So, WELCOME!!

Here's the thing, I rise up in the morning with the chickens! Drives Tad nuts but I just cannot help myself. It's like my brain is working in overtime and I have no choice but to write it all down just to get it out of my head. I also have spastic bouts of creative moments in which I am driven to cut and paste paper. It's a strange obsession but oh so satisfying! This can be fulfilled with cutting and sorting coupons, making artist trading cards, altering books or just working on my kids scrapbooks (one day I might actually finish one!)

The past 9 months we have been living on a sailboat and sailing down to Mexico. Not a conducive place for scrapbooking. I reverted to Photography and took some beautiful shots. Now that we have reverted back to landlubber status, I can rediscover my paper collection! I will use this blog to share all those random, fun things I do with my spare time..LOL .. hopefully it will inspire others to find their passion and spend time playing uninterrupted.