Need some inspiration?

One thing I struggle with is finding inspiration but I have a few place I go to when I find I am in a rut:

1. Sketches - PageMaps is my favorite but Becky Higgins is also a great sketcher!
2. Scrapbook Magazines - Scraplifting another's layout can sometimes spark your creative mind. You see something you like but then you change it up a bit to make it your own.
3. Advertisements - Yeah I mean it sometimes an advertisement will spark something in my creative imagination...
4. Art - You can find inspiration every where.

All of these items below were in some way shape or form inspired by one of the four point above:

I scraplifted this one.

This one came from a piece of art
This one came from a sketch

This one came from an advertisement

Water Anyone???

This afternoon my daughter brought me one of her wooden toys that goes to her doll house. It is a little patio table complete with an umbrella. It had been broken and needed to be glued back together. So I told her to go and put it on my work table in my craft room. She came back upstairs just as excited as could be... "Mom there is water on the floor" So yeah my first question was "What do you mean?" She just looked at me with this confused look like "Geeze mom are you stupid... how much more clear do you need me to be?"

So I head downstairs while she goes and tells her father... yep water on the carpet, water on the concrete and water on my craft room floor... poor wood laminate... it is toast. There is visable standing water not just a little puddle but all over the floor. My poor husband... comes running downstairs... We start emptying out the storage room the where the majority of the water is. While I'm going through stuff and doing damage control, my husband is frantically trying to find the source of the water... He couldn't find it. No water on the ceiling... walls, pipes... nothing just on the floor... but the water doesn't stink like sewer water so we are just not sure where the water is coming from. Clean up continues and hubby decides to sent me out to run a couple of errands with the kids.

One reason could be that there were bags sitting on the floor in my craft room. Like the bag from the funeral home for my dad. My paper bag that I carrry to crops. All of it is ruined... I just think he wanted me out of the house so he could deal with it instead of me... he is thoughtful... By the time I got home he had is all cleaned up and he helped me go through all of it. Of course I'm bawling because my dad's obituaries are ruined. All my paper, some pictures of my dad... I just can't even begin to express how upsetting that is...

Is it too early for me to want 2009 to be over with?

Kidney Stone

Uhm ok, I just want a quiet year... and how do I decide to start my new year... yep with a kidney stone. I can honestly say I hope I never experience that type of pain ever again! Hmmm I think I may do some scrapbooking therapy this weekend! Yep... always looking for an excuse!

Make The Grade Book by Tricia Morris CRAFT TV WEEKLY

Technique Junkies rejoice. Finally a great tutorial on how to bind a book! This is a great tutorial and be sure to download the design guide from http://www.flipdrive.com/fileops.php?download=SBL099_MakeTheGradeBook.pdf

The Scrapbook Lounge

OH I am so sad. I love the weekly webisodes on TVWeekly.com

Sadly, the webisodes will no longer be produced. I am so glad that I found the show and the yahoo group connected to the show. It has been a great learning experience for me and a valuable resource.

I guess I'll just have to go and drown my sorrow in my craft room!

I will miss the shows very much!

Reflections

Well it is almost the end of 2008. Tomorrow is Christmas and I am finding it hard to really get into the holiday spirit. It is difficult for me to really feel the spirit of Christmas this year. So I thought if I listed out all the major events in my life the year it would give me some perspective on the whole thing and maybe I could get into the spirit of Christmas.

In January, my Uncle was murdered. This in the end caused huge issues in my family. People fighting and lashing out at one another, it was and continues to be just awful.

Also my girlfriends and I planned a great scrapbooking retreat weekend. Which should have been a nice way for me to relax and unwind... not so, it turned into being a really stressful weekend and I ended up going home a day earlier. The end result is that two of my really close friends had a very strained relationship for a really long time. Again... awful.

In February, my dad seemed to be struggling with some health issues but he kept telling all of us he was fine. It turned out the he had congestive heart failure and he was pretty much drowning on the inside. Luckliy the doctor figured it out in time and he was able to get rid of the fluid.

In March, I turned 37...

April and May were pretty calm.

In June, my oldest turned 7, we went on a trip to South Dakota and missed one of the worst storms that Omaha has ever seen and when we returned home we had a lot of downed branches and minor damage to one of the gutters on the front of the house.

In July, my youngest turned 4, we had mini tornado touch down in our backyard and rip one of the neighbors trees out of the ground and into our yard destroying the back fence, it was a mess for WEEKS back there.

In August, my baby brother got married so a trip to Colorado was on the agenda. It was nice to see my mom and step-dad along with my baby brother and his new wife. Although the stress of finding a dress and getting it altered was excrutiatingly painful. I'm a plus size gal and I don't really care to have my upper body exposed but every dress I looked at seemed to be strapless, spaghetti straps or very revealing. YUCK... who wants to see that!

In September & October things seemed to be going well.

In November, my dad had a sudden heart attack at work and died. For those of you that have had a parent pass you know my pain. For those of you who haven't I cannot even begin to describe the pain you go through. For me I haven't been able to really grieve because one of my siblings finds in necessary to yell and scream at me every chance he gets. It isn't pleasant and it isn't an easy thing to deal with. In addition to that he has been the most vocal about what he deserves period. Which I cannot for the life of me even begin to understand.

So most of December has been spent dealing with my dad's affairs and trying to get it all done and over with, I really just want it to be done. I'm ready for 2008 to be over with and I hope and pray that 2009 will be better. It doesn't even have to be spectacular.... just calm and quiet would be nice.

Thanks for reading, I'm usually not an overly negative person and I know things could always be worse. I am thankful for what I have, I'm finding it hard though to appreciate anything at this point.

Hugs,
Michele

One Week Until...

THANKSGIVING!

This year we will be hosting our family Thanksgiving dinner. While I am excited, I'm nervous too. Last time we had Thanksgiving at our house it was CROWDED... We've got a new house now but our family is also larger so I am hoping that we've covered our bases and I have enough things to keep the kiddies busy!

Now normally I won't allow my MIL's oyster stuffing anywhere near the turkey but my FIL had some surgery last year and we didn't have a big family dinner. He love's the stuffing and he especially likes it when it is cooked in the bird, so... since he can actually eat solid food this year I am throwing my disguist out the window and stuffing the bird with oyster dressing. My DH is extatic as well. Truth be told the only two people who eat it is my FIL and my DH. Go figure.

The other item on the menu that has never made sense to me is baked beans. My MIL won't give me the recipe or even tell me how she makes hers so she is making them and bringing them over... Growing up we never had baked beans for any of the winter holidays but I am told it is a southern tradition... Which I don't get because none of us are from the south! Anyway they are out of this world rock star yummy so I'm looking forward to it.

I haven't gotten any of my projects done so I am sad about that but I'm hoping that over this long holiday weekend I'll get back into the swing of it and get stuff done! I'm also sad that I missed an online crop at Paper Popscicles...

OK and this week I've discovered Facebook... well I've always known it was there but I finally created an account and have slowly started adding friends. It is kind of fun and a great way to stay in touch with people.

Well I better get back to work... happy creating!