Celebrate Pooh & Friends Card

I made this card a number of years ago for a charity auction. While I'm not a huge fan of Winnie the Pooh, this paper collections is one of my favorites. I just love the sketchy look to it. While you can still by the papers, the matching rub-ons are hard to come by.

Supplies

• Rub-ons - Celebrate: Making Memories, Piglet/Bee - Sandylion
• Ribbon - American Crafts
• Patterned Paper - Sandylion

Women with Head Down

Pen on Newsprint

Workspace Wednesday

While my folks are out of town, I took it upon myself to drag their kitchen table out into the family room in front of the new HD tv and make the ultimate crafting workspace. 80" of table space, Blu-Ray player, stack of Disney and Christmas music, WI-FI for the dvd player to stream Netflix, and a super comfy desk chair. So far I've managed to do 13 scrapbook layouts! And I've watch way too many movies!

Photos of New York City

A collection of photos I took during a trip to New York City on December 29, 2008.

Rollin' in Doh

I've been on a bit of a purging streak lately - eBaying items I don't want, giving toys to children of friends, stuff like that. I was saving all this stuff for a future life that I am no longer seeing in my future. So it's time to go.

In my purging fit I've come across quite a bit of Play-Doh. Man, I love me some Play-Doh. It has to be my all time favorite smell! I love the way you could make anything you could dream of. The way it felt in your hands. The kits to make food or give someone hair. It had to be my second all time favorite toy. (Legos are at the top of my list)

The oldest can of the Doh I found was dated 1987. The newest 2009. As someone with a graphic design background, I was most excited to see the way the logo has changed over the last 20+ years.

L to R: 1987, 1993, 2000, & 2009

The other things that were interesting were all on the 2009 can. Play-Doh has gotten rid of its little boy mascot and added the words "Fun to play with, but not to eat." The 2009 can also added a "Notice to Parents: Contains Wheat." 1987 can... no mention of Do Not Eat. Sign of the times. Another interesting thing... 1987 Doh, still good. Some the of the cans from 2000, hard as a rock. Another sign of the times.

Sometimes I miss the 80s. Clearly, my generation survived them, even without warnings not to eat our Play-Doh. And our playing in the dirt. And playing outside till the streetlights came on. But that's a topic for another post.

Not sure what I'm going to do with all the cans of Play-Doh, other than smell it. But oh the smell... good times. It's my own personal brand of heroin. Yes, I'm also a Twilight fan.

Listen to me rattle on about Play-Doh. Clearly, I need a more interesting life.

Workspace Wednesday

Getting set to do some major scrapbooking next week! Got a 40 page album I need to get done ASAP!

I believe...

Disclaimer: I'm not one for discussing religion or even politics in public, but something has been bugging me. Warning, religion is discussed in this post.

Lately there has been an increase in people on Facebook posting about religious topics... which is perfectly fine and they are totally within their rights, however, some of this postings have been to the point of downright nasty to people that don't agree with the poster's beliefs. I'm all for expressing oneself and standing by what you believe in, but don't degrade or bully people because they don't agree. The most current example that has been causing heated arguments is the keep Christ in Christmas related posts. In fact, in one post it got so ugly that a Jewish friend of mine was basically called an Atheist because she wasn't Christian.  To sum up the post it said something along the lines that Christmas is a Christian holiday and people need to stop taking it away from them and turning it into their own holiday. And it got pretty nasty, on both sides of the discussion.

So why am I telling you this? Oh, right, so I can express what I believe.

• I believe in the Big Bang, Dinosaurs, and Evolution.
• I believe that if you are black, white, purple, gay, straight, man, woman, 6 toed, 1 eared, or a any of those combine you are all equal and should be treated so.
• I believe humans should be able to marry any other human they want as long as both are of legal consenting age and not related by blood.
• I believe that no one should be bullied by another person. For any reason.
• I believe we are responsible for taking care of our planet every chance we get.
• I believe everyone has the right to express themselves and their opinions, as long as it is done respectfully and doesn't bully another person or group. 
• I believe that tolerance is sorely lacking in the world.  
• I believe that Christmas doesn't belong to any one group. It belongs to everyone and it should be celebrated in the way that person sees fit. If anyone demands to know who owns the Christmas, it is the Pagens and their Winter Solstice celebration that kick started the party. It then grew from the traditions of different cultures and religions. 
• I believe that the holiday season kicks off with Thanksgiving and goes through till New Year's. This includes Christmas, Boxing Day, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Festivus, and any that I might have missed. Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable to say Happy Holidays to anyone who you do not know their personal beliefs. Merry Christmas should be saved for the day of (or even the week of) Christmas and to people you know for a fact celebrate the holiday.

I could go on and on, but I'm going to stop there. You really don't want to hear about my thoughts on the current generation, the obesity epidemic or heaven forbid the Occupy anywhere situation. 

Hedgehog Candy Christmas

This is a card I created for Operation Write Home.

Supplies

• Stamps - Stampin' Up 
• Patterned Paper - American Crafts
• Cardstock - Recollections
• Colored Pencils - Crayola

I Need a 12 Step Program for Pinterest

Hello, my name is April and I'm addicted to Pinterest.

I love Pinterest. I love Pinning things and finding new ideas. And I love finding new recipes! I can spend hours on there! There is just a small problem.

This...

Yup... I spent so much time on Pinterest, I never get any crafting done! I always think I've had a creative day, but I never have anything to show for it! I have managed to try a few of the recipes I pinned... some good, some only okay... but I've never done any of the crafts. Someday. Maybe today I set a goal to try one project a week from Pinterest. Maybe then it won't be just time wasted.

Are you on Pinterest? Look me up... you can find me here!

Hand

Pencil on Paper
18" x 24"
2006

Workspace Wednesday

With my dad's help I've been working on carving out space to setup some studio space in the basement. Still a long, LONG way to go, but it's finally started after months of attempts. Can you tell that I like blue and green a lot?

My Little Secret

I was going to title this post my dirty or dark secret, but it's not really either of those. And to my close friends it's not really a secret. But to the general public some of this isn't known. See, I don't work. Not because I don't want to, believe me most days I do. It's because I can't. I can't because, well, I have fibromyalgia AND Crohn's disease AND an anxiety disorder. Fun, huh? Each one alone doesn't stop me from being able to work, but the combination of the three... well I'm just a big old mess.  All this also leaves me without an income. Thankfully, I have really great parents.  Though at my age, that is a big kick to the psyche.

So why am I telling you all of this... well, I guess because it helps explain a bit why I'm so inconsistant at posting to this blog and all my other websites. Somedays I just can't move very well. Or I forget. Or I'm sleeping. I do that a lot, sleep. And sleep is not my friend. I want it to be, but if it was it would be like that friend you want to really like but they just wears you down. Sleep is never refreshing. If you are a fellow blogger you know what it's like to try and write or create art when you are super tired. It's hard. It brings typos. And rambly posts. Kind of like this one. Or no posts at all. And I do it sans coffee. I don't like coffee. And I only allow myself no or maybe one soda a day. So, yeah... I live mostly caffeine deprived. That doesn't help with the always being tired.

I thought with the challenge of NaBloPoMo I would be blogging more... clearly that isn't happening. But it is still early in the month, so I'm going to try and do better. Do better on all my blogs. And I hope to get a burst of energy and some mojo back to make some new projects. Or at least finish posting the ones from my last burst of creativity.

So there you go... my little secret (or four). And with that it's about 10pm. Time to go meet my nemesis the sandman. Maybe tonight will be a good night.

I'm sucking at NaBloPoMo!

Looks like I'm not off to a very good start for NaBloPoMo. Missed a few days just because I simple forgot to post. I'll do better this week... I hope!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Broke out the Christmas music today as I was working on my wish list for Santa! Seeing we have already had our first snowstorm of the season I thought it was time. Speaking of snowstorms, here is a picture of the Autumn Nor'easter (as the news is calling it) on October 30th. You can see some of the leaves haven't even changed yet! Would be really pretty if it wasn't in October.

Workspace Wednesday

This week's workspace photo is of my new shelves that sit above my desk. My dad installed them last week and since then I've been busy filling them with lots of good stuff! Now I just need to clean off my desk and get back to work!

It's National Blog Posting Month!

Today is the start of National Blog Posting Month AKA NaBloPoMo! I'm going to try and post everyday in November, I think I can do it. Back in August when I tried to post everyday I didn't do so bad and I actually felt better about thinks and crafted more. Maybe it was the pressure of having to write a post each day that made me feel like I had a purpose, or maybe it was the therapy of it all. So I look forward to trying it again. Maybe it will inspire me to write more on all my website blogs too, seeing I've lost a bit of the joy of working on them.

Here's hoping November is a good month for writing! And a good month for everything else!