Distress Inks & Zentangles

A bit ago I blogged that Halle was in the hospital for a couple days. Well, as I'm sure you know if you're a parent, or anyone for that matter, and have been to a hospital, boredem can set in pretty quickly. Luckily for me, Mario (Tim Holtz' business manager) was on twitter that day to keep me entertained. He has just got to be the sweetest person ever and definitely improved my day! Well, fast forward to the past month or so and Mario and I continue to chit-chat on twitter (by the way, he totally got me addicted to, "Glee." Ummm.. where have I been?) and the other day he had posted some behind the scene photos at the Ranger warehouse. Some of them were of Tim's 12 new distress ink colors. I think I said something witty to the affect of, "I need those 12 new inks like Jesus needed the 12 Apostles." He replied back saying, "Then you shall have them." Stop. Wait. What? No... he didn't just say, what I think he just said, did he? Yes, he did. And guess what I got yesterday from FedEx? Yup, all 12 of the absolutely gorgeous new distress inks. Ummm... could a girl get any happier? And let me just say... Forest Moss is the new Peeled Paint. Thanks again, to Mario, for not only brightening my day on more than one occassion, but just for being an all-around nice guy. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, "God Bless Mario." He should be getting a little something' somethin' in the mail soon and I'll get to meet him in person this Sunday at my class with Tim. I don't know if I'm more excited to have the class or just chat with my newfound, fellow Gleek.

So, over at Scrapbook.com someone on the forums brought up Zentangles and I was intrigued. These were the kinds of doodles I used to do all over my notebooks in gradeschool when I was bored. And I'm pretty sure I was not the only one. So I was excited to find out that there is an actual name for it. I attempted my first zentangle, it's 9 3x3 decorated tiles on watercolor paper and I used a finepoint quick-drying sharpie. I then shaded with an HB sketching pencil and mounted it on heavy-weight black cardstock using foam mounting tape. Pretty cool, eh? I like these little 3x3 tiles because you can stick them in a ziploc in your purse and take them with you while you're waiting at a doctor's office or for a meeting, etc... I think it took me about three days to complete all 9 tiles. So, what do you think? Pretty cool, eh?


Well, have a great day everyone! I've got to finish off some teachers gifts for the girls. Today was their last day of school, and Emma's last day of preschool. Oh, I'm getting so old. I also have to work on a little project for a contest that Tim is holding over at his blog. Go check it out. And I'm ALSO working on another little kind of Tim-ish project that I'm pee-in-my-pants excited to share with you, if it works out how I'd like! So much to do, so little time!

Hasta Pasta!

Sewing 101

I have to admit, ever since I was a young girl I wanted to grow up and become a mom. I felt that motherhood also entailed this certain sense of self-sustainability. I wanted to be able to cut my children's hair, be a master-chef & baker and be able to sew their clothing. Well, heaven's to betsy, what was I thinking? I think I've actually become a decent cook at this point in time, and enjoy expanding my talent. I love baking bread, making soup from scratch and I really pride myself on my Thanksgiving dinner. I've done it four years in a row now and it gets better each year. My stuffing or "dressing," for the old-timers, was fantastic AND vegan (for my mother-in-law). And no one is able to help me with Thanksgiving, if anything you can bring a salad or appetizer, but that's it. It is literally a 48+ hour-long marathon of cooking and prepping. And it's over in an hour. I'm starting to think I'm crazy! OK, ENOUGH about cooking....

So, anywho I totally chopped off the girls hair about a month ago, too, for the first time, by myself. Emma's was the most drastic, as her hair was almost to the bottom of her back, but it was such a pain to brush. I feel like she aged four years just from that little hair cut. Halle's wasn't very long at all, but her hair is extremely fine and will knot up in literally seconds!




So since I had cooking and hair-cutting down, I felt like it was time to try sewing. I went to JoAnns and picked some "easy" patterns out for little girls sun dresses. They practically spelled it on the package, "If you can't sew this pattern you must be blind and have a bear-paws instead of hands." Yeah... It took me three days to make the first dress. I'm kind of too embarrassed to post it. I made a second dress for Halle, which only took me a couple hours. I got kind of bitten by the sewing bug, though, I'll admit! Patterns and fabric are almost as fun picking out as scrapbooking supplies! I also think I just need to practice sewing in a straight line... and maybe a new sewing machine. My mom gave me her old one from the early eighties... I think I probably wasted about 12 hours of the first dress on just dealing with the bottom bobbin!!! A sewing class probably wouldn't hurt either!!!

Well, that's enough for now! I have to go finish off dinner! I plan on posting tomorrow, I just have to go to Halle's little end of the year recital which I will be sure the share pictures on!

Have a great day everyone!!!

The Quiet...

Betcha didn't think I was ACTUALLY going to post today, eh? Well, it's about 10pm and I am enjoying the peace. Girls are asleep... Matt and I are listening to music and playing dominos. We're kind of old souls; we like to play card games and such. So let's just say I'm going to make it quick!

I've been a member of the "All Things Tim" (aka Tim Holtz... see previous post) Yahoo group for quite some time but always been a "lurker." A lurker is someone who watches the discussion boards and doesn't frequently contribute to the main conversations. Kind of like the dorky kid in high school that managed to hang out with the cool kids and watched all of their popular high-jinks but never participated in them themselves. Well, I finally signed up for my very first All Things Tim swap with the other members of the group. We all created nine 6x11 triangle pennants to swap and I made one extra for Gloria, the group leader. I had SO much fun creating these. I took advantage of my newly purchased SCAL (Sure cuts alot) software to create my own scallop triangles. I used a LOT of foam mounting tape. I also used Tim's idea-ology line, distress inks and grungeboard. All of the backgrounds were collaged with sheet music, vintage paper and a shopping bag from the "Frenzy Stamper" store. Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for looking! Enjoy the following picture splurge!

There's An Elephant in the Room...

Yes, and it's a big one. Can you guess what the elephant's name is? It's called "Sara's a Bad Blogger." Go ahead... throw a tomato at it. The elephant deserves it. (Sorry, I just couldn't help the photo.) Just don't hurt the elephant.

I feel as a "craft" blogger I must present you all with something that is said crafty each time I post. I realize now, that I'm crazy for thinking this so I'm going to try... REALLY hard... to be a better blogger. It has been pretty crazy around here, though. Soon after the last blog Halle had to go to the hospital for a lovely three day stay... Let me tell you, hospital food has not improved much over the years. But all is well with her now. She was running a low Spo2 (oxygen level in the blood) and needed breathing treatments for a couple days to get her back up there to where she needed to be. We took a family camping trip to the lake with the jet skis and the water was WAY too cold but the girls didn't care. I have problems with "lake water" in the first place, and if you already know how I feel about the cold... forget about it. After that we took a family trip Las Vegas which was great fun until I woke up our last day with a massive headache and throwing my guts up. And no, it wasn't a hangover or anything like that. (Oddly, too the same time Brett Michaels went into the hospital w/his hemorrhage) Anywho, I laid curled up on the floor of the hotel room for a couple hours debating whether or not to go to the hospital. Having an aneurysm, they (the doctors) tell you if you wake up with a bad headache and puking, get to the hospital. It literally felt like someone took a cinder block and bashed it up the backside of my brain. I couldn't even think straight. So we went. I was fine. "Lightning Migraine" they said. I would take a bolt of lightning over that experience any day. And one more thing... Las Vegas + Hospital = NOT A GOOD TIME.



The above photo was one happy thing that happened in Vegas. Emma met a little girl from Germany at the Superdome at Circus Circus. They hadn't the slightest idea what one was saying to the other but they were just the best of friends. They held hands, sat next to eachother on all the rides. Emma would help fasten her safety belt... Too cute.
(Just a photo, not a link, sorry)


In other exciting news on May 22, that's right... THIS SATURDAY... yours truly will be a featured photographer over at Becky Higgin's blog for her "Big Photography Giveaway" sweepstakes. One lucky family/couple/duck/cow that comments on my section will get a FREE photo session with me. And if I'm feeling in good a mood I might just have a drawing here at the blog for a second opportunity for someone to win. We'll see...

And in OTHER Pee-in-my-Pants-It's-Time-to-do-the-Happy-Dance NEWS I'm taking a class with the AMAZINGLY phenomenal Tim Holtz at the end of the month at Frenzy Stamper. All day peoples... ALL DAY. Ok, 10am-5pm, but that's still a long time. We'll be altering a curio cabinet that I imagine we will also be filling little niches with bits of vintage craftiness and magical goodness. And do you want to know what else is awesome? I was told only to bring ONE thing as a supply... an apron. That's it... no scissors, no adhesive, no ruler... just my little self in an apron and maybe some scoobie snacks if I want them. I am so excited. My voice was shaking when I talked to Debbie (owner at 'Frenzy') to see if she still had openings. I've taken two classes with Tim before and they're always fantastic. I'm also SUPER excited because I'm meeting Mario, too, this time. Mario is Tim's wingman and helps put kits and such together. Mario and I have been chit-chatting over twitter the past few months and he always brings a smile to my face!

Alright, that's it for now. Tomorrow I'll be back and posting pictures of my pennants for the All Things Tim swap (my first!) And don't forget to check back on Saturday and take a peek at Becky's Blog!

Have a Great Day!
Sara