Under The Red Roof

Flip & Flock

I got it!!!!!!!!

I was so thrilled; wanted one so bad. Funny, now I really don't know what to do with it. My plan was, and still is, to do tutorials. Of course, now I'm faced with the reality of actually DOING a tutorial and uploading to youtube. You can upload directly to youtube with this camera! Cool, isn't it? Can you imagine the kind of production I could make out of doing a tutorial?? With my anal tendencies, I'll be re-shooting 50 times before I can get one usable upload. I'll talk to myself about being more carefree. The main reason I wanted this camera is to help my blogless friend, Jen, who lives in Tulsa (a couple of hours away from me) learn how to do certain crafty things. Won't this be an easy way to show her long distance?? I can just stick it on youtube and, POW, she can watch and make!

This baby is so light you wouldn't believe it wasn't a toy. The software is built into it so no disc or online download (except for upgrades of course). It's so easy to use that my dad might even be able to do it. Oddly, I wasn't able to get it working when I tried, but of course, Luke started it right up. I turned it on and pushed record. It was just trying to make me look stupid.

Okay, I need to utilize the next hour in the most productive way possible so I'll just let you know that I have a new flocked mini pack listed in my etsy shop.

You will also find more scrap packs. Actually, I never announced scrap packs on my blog. I meant to do it this weekend, but they were gone before I had a chance. I've put together 4 more and I still have an enormous amount of scraps. It takes me a long time to put these together. I want them to be nice and full of variety so I pick and putz around quite a bit. Yesterday, Brian asked me, "why are you spending SO MUCH time on that?" I said, "well, uhhhh, I don't know....I just am." It's really something mindless for me to do with my hands in the living room while everyone watches TV. I don't mind taking extra time to make them nice. They don't look nice, but they are wonderful little packs of goodness. After I get them sealed up, I always think....gee, I kinda want to keep that. Sort of defeats the purpose though doesn't it? It will give me so much pleasure to see what all you creative souls do with my scraps. I know it will make my jaw drop many times over. The best thing about selling vintage treasures is watching what others do with them.

Okay, I'm off to make the best of what little time I have left. Good day to all!

Spring......and Oklahoma Wind

I love Oklahoma. It's home and I'm an Okie through and through, but I am so very tired of this blasted wind. Now that we live on the prairie it's even worse. Wind makes you go a little crazy. You can't hear; you can't see; dust fills your eyes. It's oppressive. When I lay out in the sun on a windy day I never feel like I'm getting tan. Feels like the wind is blowing the sun away. I SWEAR I don't get as tan on windy days.

Given that spring is in the air, I felt like making one of my signs. I really thought I had had my fill of those signs (besides the SEVERAL Merry signs I have promised for Christmas '08.....I will make them.....cross my heart). However, S-P-R-I-N-G is sort of a perfect fit and I bought a grouping of beads that inspired me to use these sherbet type colors.

These are 6mm Article 5000 Swarovskis. I love the colors. I love the purity of the non-AB coated bead. AB coating changes the color and this group would actually be corrupted by it. I think I will use these to make a beaded hanger for the sign. I'm sure I'll put it in my etsy shop when it's finished.

I did a journal page a week or so ago that I am so pleased with. Astrid Haddad is a character in a book I read recently. Oh, what a fantastic book. The kind of book that gets into your soul. It stays with you for a long time. Songs In Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris. One day I was perusing ebay and spotted a pair of old glasses among a lot of found objects. IMMEDIATELY I said, "My God....those are Astrid's glasses!" Had to have them. Got them and waited patiently to find Astrid herself. Thumbing through a fashion magazine and BINGO! There she was.

I'm finding that using small pieces from vintage bottle or can labels is great fun.

Also wanted to let you know that I finally got vintage wallpaper mini-packs listed in my etsy shop. Lovely patterns in non-flocked papers. Fifteen different patterns. I still have a handful of flocked mini-packs too. I have 2 or three more than what's listed in the inventory. Also have a few more of the larger flocked and regular packs than what's listed. My next mission for etsy is the mystery scrap packs I promised. I WILL get that done in the next few days. Next....I NEED to make art. I've been so deprived lately with other obligations. Hoping to be free soon.

Also, if you missed my post yesterday, please scroll down and see Penny's lovely work, photos and life.

Get Ready for the Work of a Truly Remarkable Artist

Sorry it's taken me so long to show you the work of my new friend Penny. Penny's work moves me like the rocky shorline of the Monterray Penensula at sunrise. Like the serene, almost supernatural, beauty of Walden Pond. Like my great Uncle Lloyd's pawn shop back in the 60s when there were still civil war remnants lying about. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it before. The closest I can come to describing the mood of her work would be the book Interior Alchemy. As you know, I love old things. Penny's work, like nothing I've ever seen before, seems to actually carry with it the ghosts of the past. Like if you wrapped this representation of Fagen's daughter around your wrist, closed your eyes and spun around several times you'd be in the factory where Lottie gathered the remnents for her cotton dress.

I think this next cuff might be my favorite:

Some jewelry:

Collage:

Some hand-dyed laces:

Amazing photography:

I could go on and on. Take a look at her Flickr Photostream and her etsy shop and her blog. You will be amazed. Enjoy. ******EDIT****** I've lopped off the right side of some of Penny's photos. I fixed the first collage which was practically cut in half! Sorry. You can get the idea from these photos then go look at her blog, flickr and etsy.

What I've been doing:

I've been cutting wallpaper for the mini-packs I promised. I will have them up in my etsy shop sometime today and will also have the wallpaper scrap packs. The scrap packs will be "mystery" packs so I can just cram scraps into a cello bag without worrying about presentation. If I worried about presentation, it would never get done. I've also been working on two custom collages I should be able to show soon and a little friend journal of Heather's. I'm behind in my Journaling Without Fear group, but there are lots of great pages to view there. Next week I should be able to jump back into that. I think that's about it for now. I'll try to be more efficient at updating my blog. Thanks for hangin with me.

Show & Tell Sunday....a bit late

I really have lots to say, but I can't think of it right now and I've got to hurry and get Jackson in the bath so I'll just post some of the photos I shared in this flickr group. The theme was vintage jewelry. Well, I happen to love vintage jewelry! I didn't post last week since the theme was vintage hankies and I have maybe 10. Don't really consider that a collection.

Oh, one thing I've needed to clarify with all you flickr users. I've recently been trying to upload a bunch of my photos into my photostream. By the comments I'm getting it seems everyone thinks I've been really busy and productive lately!! Trust me I haven't. All that stuff is 2, 3 and 4 years old! I wish I were that on top of my game. In order to be that productive over a 2 week period, I would need to be a widow with grown and MOVED OUT children. LOL.

Okay, here are some rather bad photos of some of my vintage jewelry pieces. You can see more by using the above flickr link.

The above photo is only cool because the brooch is so MASSIVE.

And one more. The next photo is a pair of earrings I bought almost 20 years ago. They are antique. Very, very old. I wish you could see the amazing intricate detail, but my camera cannot capture it. These are marked, but all I can make out is "sterling." I'll try to scare up my magnifying glass to get a better look. Please let me know if you know anything about these earrings or could take a stab at the approximate date. They are screw backs (needless to say). I absolutely love these earrings. I wish I could see the woman who wore these.

I will do a more thorough update tomorrow. Last week was one of those weeks where you are never at home. Too many things going on. This next week will be pretty busy too. Can't wait for summer!

I've also found a new blog to share with you. It is soooooooooo yummy. Amazing re-purposing design skills. Love this woman! I'll be sure to post a link tomorrow.

More Journaling Without Fear

Trying to devote all my attention to three things. A round robin I'm doing, 2 custom collages I need to finish and this group. I've been doing oh so remarkably well at keeping my studio picked up. I know I keep going on and on about it, but it's making a huge difference in my life and my ability to be productive.

Here is my most recent journal page. We were to choose a song that would be the background music for our day. This one fit really well last week.

I've also added a few things to my etsy shop.

Some fiber packs because I have way more than I could ever possibly use.

This coming week I will be listing some vintage swarovski assortments. Here are some photos of what will be in the pack minus 30 ss16 Rose AB flatbacks. I'm waiting for those to arrive. If you are not familiar with how they size rhinestones, ss16 is about 4mm or a touch over 1/8". The gold flatbacks you see in the following photos are also ss16. It's a great size. I'll work on showing samples of how I use these stones. Add another thing to my to-do list. The gold stones are known as Aurum and they are pretty hard to find. The finish on these is matte which I really like. I like it better than the shiny ones. However, these can be polished to bring out the shine if you are so inclined. Not me thank you. I think it might be a tad tedious to polish something so small. The cabs (smooth round stones) are vintage. The little fuchsia faceted balls are also vintage and discontinued as are the round faceted bead pendants. The large, unusual crystal rhinestone is not vintage, but very hard to find. I don't even know what they are called. These assortments will be very limited. Note the flat portion of the fuchsia faceted ball. That's where you put the glue (E6000 of course)! They look really cool used as you would use flatback rhinestones. They are 5mm. I've also been encouraged by Kim to get moving on putting together packets of my vintage wallpaper scraps. What keeps me from getting that done is presentation. I can't very well take photographs of each and every pack and there will be little consistency to the packs so I have back burnered the whole thing. Kim suggested I do mystery scrap packs. That way I won't have to worry about presentation and I can just get it done. G-E-N-I-U-S! I'm all over it. I truly am getting tired of that pile of scraps in the corner of my living room. I promise to blow the dust off of them before sticking them in the pack ;). I also had another good suggestion from an etsy buyer. She wondered if I ever sold mini packs of my non-flocked wallpaper. Hmmm. Never crossed my mind and I think it's a great idea. Oooow, I can put together a really pretty pack of those. I'll let you know when I get this wallpaper business under control. Oh! almost forgot to upload the Swarovski photos. I apologize for not having the kind of camera that captures good photos of jewels. I did the best I could and I guess you'll just have to trust that they are spectacular.

Okay, I'm off to do more fearless journaling!

What Have I Been Doing??

Let's see. What have I been doing? Mostly packing orders and cutting wallpaper. Thanks to all of you who ordered over the past week or so. I was pretty much caught off guard with all the orders and I'm afraid I got a little behind. Everything is mailed, but not as quickly as I normally ship. I did go ahead and prepare more mini flocked packs which you can find in my etsy shop. I've changed the front of the pack and the majority of you will receive the new label that's currently pictured in the etsy listing. I still have quite a few more things to list in my shop, but need to find the time to photograph and package all of it. I will be selling some of my wonderful vintage and rare swarovski. I'm thinking I will do little mixed packs. I'm forcing myself not to hoard this stuff. It will definitely be limited because I can only be so healthy. Cannot totally stop hoarding. It's not going to happen. Old dog here. But, I know I have way, way more than I will ever use in a lifetime so I am letting some of it go. Others may as well enjoy it too. Besides, if I sell some, I can buy more. Right?? Yes.

How is everyone doing on the organization/anti-hoarding front?? I must say I'm very proud of myself. I have managed to maintain a clean workspace. Of course it gets crazy while I'm creating, but I have followed Tim Holtz example of completely cleaning up at the end of the work day. It is really working for me. I have also taken measures to be better at responding to emails in a timely manner. I completely cleaned out my inbox which was up to nearly 1,000. I knew there were things in there I needed to deal with so I painstakingly saved everything that needs response and shucked the rest. I try to answer 3 per day at least. Hoping to be caught up soon then be able to stay on top of it daily. Next big move is Google Reader. I am 1/3 finished with entering all my blog urls and will soon be able to check in at Google Reader everyday and only go to the blogs who have updated. As I type in the urls, I mark them as "read" so I can start fresh. Soon, I will be a good little blog visitor. A previous deficiency that has plagued me with guilt. Heck, I might even bother reading Will's blog! Sadly, I put the blogroll of all my friends at the bottom of my priority list. These girls were my very first online friends. So talented and giving. Love these women so much and intend to visit their blogs more frequently. SO! It feels great to take some control back into my own hands. I'm the only one who can change me and I'm determined to do it. There is absolutely no reason any of us should be unable to achieve our dreams. We just need to have faith and confidence in ourselves and our unique abilities. Then get organized and work daily toward making it happen. One thing is for sure, if you do nothing, you will accomplish nothing. The supportive, loving and accomplished Jennifer Paganelli once told me to get a little book called, Write it Down, Make it Happen. She said that book helped her a lot. It's in my amazon cart soon to be heading my way.

Finally, I have had a little time to do some Journaling Without Fear. My plan is to become very involved in this group with the hope of getting back into the art journaling habit and hopefully inspire others to embrace this most liberating form of expression. I've also been slooooowly, but surely uploading all my photos to Flickr. Sheesh. That will take some time. A lot of time. I'm only just realizing the beauty of Flickr. I totally love it and I know I'm behind the times. I'm always slow to catch on. Soon I will have Heather get her butt over here and put me up one of those cool flickr mosaic links. I WANT ONE! Constance kindly offered, months ago, to get on the phone with me to give me a full tutorial on all the ins and outs of using typepad so I will be taking her up on that offer fairly soon. Need to get a few other things behind me then I will do a complete blog overhaul. It's time. I'll do another handmade family history collage for my topper. It's my thing and I'd feel off if I didn't have a family collage up there.

Okay. Enough for now. The new mini flocked packs are up and I'll let you know when I get some new things listed. I'll shoot for getting them up over the weekend. For now I'll leave you with a few photos. First is the new front of the mini pack.

I'm also quite pleased with myself over this packaging. Not so much the topper it's pretty ho-hum, but LOOK AT THAT COOL CELLO BAG!! What, may I ask, were the chances of finding the perfect bag for holding a 1 1/2 x 11 inch pack of labels??? I heart this package so much.

Finally, a Journaling Without Fear page. We were to pick one of our favorite quotes and build a page around it. Heather made fun of this. Well, she said it was sissy-pretty (not her words, but definitely her implication) so I am really working on doing pages that I would do if NO ONE were going to see my journals. I am certainly no Teesha Moore or Pam Garrison or Suzan Buckner. Speaking of Suzan, go look at this post. Love seeing a step-by-step of how she creates a page. Okay, so here's my sissy-pretty page.

I will say this for myself regarding this page. I worked extremely fast and didn't give a single move a second thought. Just slopped it on without giving it much thought at all. Liberating for me who is fully capable of taking 2 days to design a tag!

Ta-ta for now. Thanks for visiting!

Journaling Without Fear

I've got a busy day going on here. I thought people might like to have some mini flocked wallpaper packs and I was right! Thank you for your orders. I'm a bit backed up, but I hope to get most everything out today. Might have a couple that go tomorrow. I've listed more mini packs in my etsy shop.

Here is a look at the journal I made for Heather's Journaling Without Fear group. Of course I'm behind with the prompts. I'm closing in though. I'll post some of the pages here, but most will be posted on my Flickr. I'm slowly but surely getting my photos uploaded there. Wow, it's going to take a while. I'm pretty pleased with this journal. It's a bit wild, but I wanted to use that retro fabric for the spine and it just sort of lead me over the top. It's engineered in a modified version Teesha's construction. If anyone will ever GET ME THE FLIP CAMERA I HAD ON MY BIRTHDAY LIST, I'd do a tutorial.

Continuing to Feel More in Control

I've been doing pretty darn good at staying focused on the things I really need to do. I did not bid on what is possibly the most beautiful wallpaper I've ever seen. A friend of mine won it and she lives near me so I'll be getting me some even if it takes a little aggression to acquire it or bribery. Whatever works. I'll figure it out :).

I've heard from lots of other hoarders and received some good advice. Both Sarah and Michelle suggested Freecycle which has groups all over the U.S. devoted to recycling and reducing the amount of crap that goes into our landfills. Be sure to see if there is a group in your community. Of course there isn't one in mine. I considered starting one, but felt like that would be taking this healthy-level-of-collecting-and-discarding thing a little over the top. Who am I kidding? I'll never be that mentally healthy. Laura (if you have a blog Laura, let me know) suggested donating to the school. DUH! I can't believe I didn't think of it myself considering I spent 3 years volunteering as the art teacher's helper and am aware of how much they need ANYTHING. BTW, I'll be volunteering again next year when Jackson starts kindergarten. Can't wait. I learn so much from those young people and their art. Kim suggested selling my extra stuff on ebay or etsy and donating the proceeds. Great idea and makes me realize I also have a greed problem that should probably be addressed, but I think I'll get my new wood floors and my studio finished before I deal with that little problem. Candice says cleaning the work space every day when you finish is called "equalizing" by the professional organizers. I've been doing it since I did the big clean out and it's a HUGE burden lifter for me. Tim Holtz does it every day. Well, every day he's creating in his studio and not jetting all over the world!

Candice also said I should go ahead and schedule the installation of my wood floors in order to force myself to get it done. Brian and I discussed that this morning and that's what we plan to do. However, what Candice doesn't realize is I need to first paint the entire interior of the house, minus the kids rooms because they are done, and Brian and I had planned to do the painting ourselves. It's this plan that is keeping the whole project on hold. So, we decided this morning, we will hire someone to do all the painting. We will schedule it and be forced to get the house prepared for the painters by a certain date. After the paint comes the wood floors....then the DECORATING!! Brian doesn't begin to have time to do the interior painting anyway and we aren't really all that good at it. Much better to call in the professionals. I HATE taping off and caulking.

My through-thick-and-thin friend William, says he loves me just the way I am. Thank you my precious enabler. I love you too. Finally, it's clear that me, Jeanne, Cerri, and Heather are just plain screwed up. I did buy two things from ebay yesterday, but they were cheap and I need them. Really, I do. Oh! When the mail came yesterday, I spotted John barreling up my drive and thought, "what the hell is he doing pulling in??? I don't have that much stuff coming." Well, this and one other box is what he hauled in.

I told John I must have been drunk when I ordered it because I had no recollection. Of course I don't drink much at all so I thought maybe my xanax had kicked in. Anyway, I opened the smaller box and put away the contents (already can't remember what it was) then I was ready to see what was in this HUGE box and try to figure out where the heck I was going to put the stuff. Then I saw them. The words Media Mail. Awe....a cookbook lot I got for William. Not my clutter. Relief. Kendra's problem not mine.

I'll wind this up by saying I am so very glad my dad was a pack rat. My mother was little-miss-perfect who never knew a day of clutter in her life, but Dad, oh my.....the King of clutter. If it weren't for him I would not have the old wood burning stove from Grandma and Grandpa's farm. The South Place where my mom was born. Who, I say, who would throw away something that dates all the way back to The South Place???? Mom and Grandpa that's who, but NOT Dad. He carted that thing home to our storage shed and now it resides in my storage shed :). Where it should be. I mean it is from The South Place. I also wouldn't have this gem if it weren't for my dad.

My grandparents first telephone. "Sarah, would you get me the diner?" (you've got to be an Andy Griffith fan to get it). Honestly, though, who wouldn't want this?? It weighs just about a thousand pounds. Brian was afraid it might take our wall out if we hung it. It didn't.

Okay, I've got lots more to say, but I'll save it for another day. Oh....I'm putting these little flocked packs in my etsy shop.

Just two for now. See if anyone is interested. It's an assortment of 12 patterns each 5x7. Thanks to all of you who have commiserated with me on the hoarding issue. Hopefully, they are making strides in finding a cure :).

How Hoarding/Acquiring Adversely Effects Me

This morning I watched the Oprah episode I blogged about on the 27th. Since that post I've begun to realize this hoarding/acquiring thing really is a problem for me. I buy way, way, way too much stuff from ebay. When I watched Oprah's hoarding episodes (2 episodes) this morning, there were many things the hoarding woman said which I could completely understand. I've been agonizing over this quite a bit not because my house is even remotely to the point of the woman's house on Oprah's show, but that I can completely understand how it happened to her. Ten years ago I would not have been able to fathom it. My psychological well-being has diminished in the past 10 years to a point that I am barely the same person. Now, how do I find my lost self? How do I remember who she was and how do I go about finding her again? I know there are many and varying emotional blows that have brought to the place I currently dwell. It's not like I need to dig to figure out what's caused my problems. I've never buried any of it and I'm over all of it, but I still have this obsession with acquiring. I'm not saying I intend to stop acquiring cool things for my art. Vintage finds give me great pleasure and creating art from those things brings even more. What I am saying is I haven't really made anything in months. Yes, I worked my fool tail off on my Easter swap, but that was an obligation. I haven't made anything for the sheer pleasure it brings in a very long time. My free time is devoted to searching for more stuff to cram in drawers. I've been looking for my tin type collection for over a year now. I, of course, have started another tin type collection, but I still can't find the original. I've cleaned out my entire studio twice and it still hasn't turned up. Now, get this, I've never made A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G from a tin type. Nada, zip, zilch. I have too much trouble parting with them.

With the tin type revelation we have a seed of understanding the problem. The joy of acquiring cool things should be nothing but an extension of the joy it gives to transform those finds. For those of you who acquire and actually use your acquisitions, you don't have my problems. When the woman on Oprah talked about the high she gets while shopping, finding and buying the bargains and how, when she comes home, she feels miserable about it. It made my cry. For her because I understand how someone could get to that place and for me because, although, I don't buy nearly the panoply of things she buys I still get a high knowing that John will be barreling down my drive with packages he can't fit into my rather huge mailbox. The thing is when I open all that stuff I often think, "now why did I buy this especially since I already have hundreds of the same thing" that I haven't used BTW. Not that I don't buy many things I love, and use, and share. I do and I don't want to stop getting cool vintage things to use in my art and share with my friends and sell in my etsy shop. What I want to do is take control of it all. I want to be discerning instead of reckless. I want to stop buying things with the idea of selling part of it and then deciding, when I receive it, that I really NEED to keep it all. Scroll down and look at all the vintage rhinestone jewelry I have. Go over to ebay and search "vintage rhinestone jewelry." It's gonna be a while before that well runs dry and that's just what's on ebay. I'm going to force myself to put some of my jewelry in my etsy shop. No matter how painful it may be.

Problem Part 2: After my big studio purge, I mounded a bunch of vintage trims I either don't really want or don't have room for on the dining room table. They have been there for the past two weeks.

A few other things on that table too. Those gold wicker type cup holders are now in the trash. The kids always lay their stuff around. My stuff didn't bother them at all they just put their stuff on top of mine. There were several stacks of vintage greeting cards on the table too. Still haven't found a place for those because I also have several more stacks in my studio. Hundreds and hundreds of those things not to mention postcards. I haven't even looked through them and I've had them for months. See.....ya think I have a problem?? I also put all my wallpaper scraps in tubs and put the tubs in the corner of the living room where they have been sitting for 2 weeks. My plan is to make scrap packs to sell cheap in my etsy shop.

Today I cleaned off the dining room table and took photos to sell that trim in 2 lots on ebay. PURGE. We even had dinner at the dining room table again. Works really nice for dinner. Almost like it was made for serving meals.

Getting the wallpaper ready for scrap packs will take a while, but I'm determined. Next, I'm going to move ahead with this home remodel. I'm going to stop being stifled by the overwhelming thought of all that will need to be done. I'm going to put one foot in front of the other continually until it's ready to paint. Then we will rip up the carpet and get the wood floors in. Then I can have SO MUCH FUN decorating. First, I've got to get everything purged. I'm doing good. Need to work on Jackson's room.

Here's a picture of the dumpster outside. I actually threw away some fabric and it was VERY HARD. You know those massive bags of fabric they sell in thrift stores? Well, I got out the few fabrics I wanted and turned to stone when I was faced with what to do with the rest of it. After watching those shows this morning I marched to the dumpster and threw it away. Then resisted the urge to fish it back out. Now, it's covered with lots of other things so it's GONE forever.

I promise it's a bigger pile than it looks like here. The next thing I've had a problem pitching is these tins I bought several years ago. Do you remember when these tins were all the rage??

There was a point when these things were impossible to find. A friend of mine had found a bunch of the Singer tins at Walmart and sent me 4 or 5 of them. So, tell me why in the world I bought 3 more of the plain white ones a couple of weeks later when I found them at a scrapbook store?? I've now had them for 3+ years. The really funny thing is I like the Singer tins much better. I was fully ready to keep the one remaining Singer tin because I intend to alter it and keep my own cards in it. While heading out the door to the dumpster with the white tins, I happened to see the bottom which revealed I had paid $5.50 each for them. BACK into the house they came where they still sit. I have no room for these things. I am going to try with every fiber of my being to throw them away tomorrow. I'm gonna do it.

Finally, I see from my comments and emails that I'm not the only one who felt like I was looking into a crystal ball while listening to that woman talk about her problem. I don't want to get to that place and I want to enjoy acquiring cool things for my art in a healthy way. I know we all do. Many of you girls don't have this problem and I know many of you do. Kari Ramstrom is a great example of one who runs her finds out as fast as she brings them in. She's a great example in this and so many other ways. She actually experiences the joy of creating prolifically with all her finds and lets go of the excess. Let me know where you stand on this. We are all devoted to a hobby that can bring great joy and growth, but it also lends itself to developing a problem with hoarding and acquiring. I noticed the woman on Oprah had at one time been a pretty serious crafter. I wasn't surprised by that. This is all about making a decision and following it through. Just like Peter Walsh advised, we must visualize what we want our lives to be and maintain limits to insure we have the quality of life we and our families deserve.

Since I put so many ugly photos in this post I thought I would leave you with something pretty. I love the little brown lines that run inside the negative space of the damask pattern while not running outside the pattern. Very nice.

Are you a Hoarder, a Shlumpadinka or Both???

Well, I'm afraid I'm both. Actually, I might well be the poster child for both categories. I'm not quite as bad as this hoarder, but I think I'm more representative of the typical hoarder. I took this test and found that my Clutter score is 4, my Difficulty Discarding score is 13 and my Acquiring score is 16. After I took the test, I walked around my house and realized my Clutter answers weren't really accurate. I guess I visualize my house to be in much better order than it actually is. When giving my test results, they believed I would probably need professional help to get my problems sorted out. Yikes. One more thing I need professional help with. I've not yet watched Oprah's hoarding show (it aired on the 26th), but while I was watching the online previews I was straining to actually see all the things that woman had. I would have sworn I saw tub of old ribbon!!! How can Oprah call old ribbon trash?? The woman also seemed to have mounds and mounds of clothes all over the place. Don't these Oprah people realize how many purposes there are for vintage clothes?? If nothing else the fabric can be used to make art quilts! All I could think while watching the previews was, "man, I'd like to get in there and pull out all the treasures then sell the rest on ebay!" Oh Lord, they're right, I do need professional help.

On top of all these problems I'm also a Shlumpadinka. I've often thought I really need to show some pictures of myself on my blog, but that would mean putting on makeup and clothes that match. Or I could just do head shots and get by with the Shlumpadinka clothes. The days I do wear makeup I just don't have it in me to make Brian spend an hour taking several hundred shots of me in order to get one usable shot. I did put a picture of myself on my Flickr Profile which makes me feel a little better. It's kinda weird not to know what someone looks like. BTW, I'm slowly working on my Flickr account. I need to add about a gillion contacts and a gillion more photos. Eventually anyway. So, I can't use the photo I have on Flickr anywhere else because it's a thumbnail only. I copied it from, I think, 2peas a year or so ago after I had a computer crash that cost me about 2 years worth of photos. That photo was among the losses so I only have the thumbnail. It's about 3 years old I guess, but I look exactly the same. Same hair. Actually, my hair has been different several times over the past 3 years, but it's back to that style now. I guess what all this proves is that I'm a Hoarder, a Shlumpadinka AND ridiculously Vain. OMG, how much is therapy?? I'm sure I'd have to curtail my ebay habit in order to afford it. Ouch! at the very thought of that.

I've been so busy organizing my studio and getting things ready to sell that I haven't made a thing. You can go look at my etsy shop to see all the new things I've added. I've got lots more stuff to sell, but I'm going to make some things before I prepare more items for sale. Since I haven't made anything I'll show you pictures of one of my jewelry box drawers. Love that vintage jewelry.

Here are a bunch of old, tiny watch faces and old ladies watches. Love these things too.

Now, for what's probably my biggest obsession. Vintage Swarovski. Particularly the stuff that's no longer made. C-a-n-n-o-t get enough of it. Love the way it's packaged. Especially when the paper is all yellowed. Big smile.

These are very unusual faceted bead ball type things. They are in Swarovski's Fuchsia color and they have a flat spot so you can use them like a flatback rhinestone, yet they are round. About 5mm. Seriously cool. I have quite a few of these and I'm going to make myself list some in my etsy shop. If not, my sons will put them back up on ebay when I die because I could never use all I have. I sure need to get a better camera in order to take pictures of things like this. I'll work harder to get good pics when I get them listed.

One more thing. As you know, I've been purging my studio and I'm moving through the house. I have one more HUGE hang up. My email inbox is almost to 1000. I have several recent emails that I will answer in the next few days, but I'm thinking I might need to do a "delete all" and start fresh. I think it's bogging me down and making me feel guilty. I know there are emails from way back that I never answered and I feel awful about it. Some are so old that it would just be plain embarrassing to answer them. I mean the people wouldn't even remember who the heck I am....ya know??? So, I may do a big flush. I'll let you know if and when it happens. Also, if you've emailed me in the past couple of weeks, I'll get back to you soon. Please write back if you've been waiting to hear from me because I have lost some emails and I also don't always receive them. I've had proof of this on several occasions most recently from my sister-in-law who sent me some links in an email that I never received.

Oh! Reminds me....one more picture to share. My beautiful niece, Emily, was asked by a local high end boutique to model a red dress for a local suburban magazine. Isn't she lovely?? Straight A's too. Love this girl so much.

Here she is regular:

I know she'll become a Hoarder, but I wonder if she'll ever become a Shlumpadinka?? HEY! I'd never have guessed I'm become one.

Happy Easter!!

Well, I think I've got just about everything ready to upload to my etsy shop, however, I'm having trouble getting into etsy. Last night and today. My computer is so gummed up I'm thinking that's most of the problem. Of course, I'm having no ebay problems (which I kind of need to have so I'll slow down on the buying) and I didn't have a problem getting into Typepad so I'm not sure what's going on. I've done all the maintenance I can do on my computer. Defrag, delete cookies and still nothing. I need a new computer. I need to change the little note in my etsy shop which says it's empty and will be filled soon because I do have wallpaper packs listed. I have All Flocked packs as well as a new wallpaper pack I put together. It contains 15 sheets and they are all very good patterns. I sort of realized yesterday that I really do have a pretty good wallpaper collection. HA! Usually my obsessions wane given some time, but the wallpaper obsession is still going strong. Not sure it will ever end. I'm always anticipating the day it will all be gone. The day it becomes antique rather than vintage. The day it's almost impossible to find. The thought freaks me out so I keep buying. Here's a look at the new pack.

I will also make these patterns available to international buyers by cutting them 1 and 1/2 inches smaller on one end so they will fit in a flat rate shipping envelope. This will make the shipping cost to Canada $9.00 and $11.00 to any other international destination. I will list the international packs separately with shipping available only outside the U.S. I'll work towards getting the international packs cut over the next few days.

Hippity Hop Easter Swap Final Three Days

Oh boy, more amazing gifties to show you. Day 10 came from Beth Quinn. Man, is this girl ever talented. I'm sure most of you are already familiar with her work, but, if not, go NOW and take a look at her site. She's amazing.

I love the way she wrapped with a vintage doily. It's a test tube with a glittered cork, lovely soldering, old looking worked wire and the most precious vintage chickie topped with a crown. Love it.

Next is Heather Kowalski. I swear, looking at Heather's blog does something to me. It's extremely inspiring. I wish I could explain how it makes me feel. I'm on the edge of my seat being smacked over and over again by the overwhelming visual impact. It's almost like I think I'm going to bust from all the stimulation. I have never in my life seen a person who can put things together and arrange things like Heather. I swear to you it takes my breath away.

Now, please go look at this post on Heather's blog for much better photos of these amazing feather wreaths. Wow! Awesome.

Wrapping things up with the 12th day offering is Cerri Campbell. This sweet, diminutive ornament is totally darling. I really wish you could see it in person because you just can't grasp how tiny it is by looking at the photographs.  It's just over 1 1/2 inches tall from the top of the bird's head to the bottom of the saucer and it's about 2 1/4 inches wide. Darling. Tiny and delicate, but very sturdy and well put together. I'm not one bit scared to handle it because I know I'm not going to mess it up. Excellent craftsmanship.

Okay, that's it for today. I still plan to do a "seven weird things about me" post. During my Mean Red sabbatical, I made a list of my idiosyncrasies as they came along. I can't ever think of anything off the top of my head, so I thought I'd do better to write the weird things down as they happen. Hopefully, I'll find the list. LOL.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter Day!

Hippity Hoppity Swapity Boppity Moppity Cloppity

Thanks Heather for giving this swap a name that causes me to have words like these running through my mind. Like I don't already have strange enough thoughts. Oh! that reminds me I need to do my list of 7 weird things about me. I've got a list around here somewhere. Because I realize that I truly am very weird in many ways, I thought it would be fun to tell you some of the seriously ODD things about myself. I'll try to do that post in the next couple of days. I need to scare up my list first. Of course.

A BIG thank you for all the "welcome back" comments. I needed to hear them. I really don't want to let myself fall into oblivion again because staying connected with all my blog friends gives me acceleration, the will keep going and the hope that maybe, just maybe I could find a place for myself among such extraordinary women. I intend to start working hard at the process of growing and getting better.

I'd also like to join Teresa McFayden in the fight to stop the overuse of exclamation points! Oh....guess I'm not off to a very good start. I see I have one in my first paragraph. You know this wouldn't be a problem if we were writing a magazine article, a letter, an essay, a tutorial or any number of other writing projects. The thing about communicating via a blog and emails seems to draw out the need to be more conversational. We need to somehow portray our voice inflection through our typed words and the exclamation point (along with LOL whether we are laughing out loud or not) seems to convey our enthusiasm. I have a feeling the blogs of professional writers would be found devoid of improperly inserted exclamation points. Maybe we should all work on our writing skills as much as we work on our art. Of course that ain't NEARLY as much fun!!So, I am going to curb my immense desire to insert the biggest cop out of all punctuation! Now, I would dearly love to see Barbara try to survive without this particular interpolation. She is so upbeat, encouraging and enthusiastic that I'm sure she would suffer a breakdown if she tried to fight the overuse of the explanation point ! Don't try it, Barbara, I'd hate to see Mark & Blair have to institutionalize you due to extreme withdrawal!......see?? there I go again. I used it here so Barbara would realize I am kidding. Like she wouldn't know it anyway. It's an odd habit and I think almost all of us have it! See?????

Thanks also for your kind words about my Easter swap piece. I'm so glad it's done and my studio is cleaned out completely. I have the HUGE watercolor papers on my island now ready to be cut into a handmade journal. I'll be doing MUCH journaling after I finish a couple of project commitments. I'm excited to work in a clean studio. For me, it helps the creative process. I have so much trouble with distraction as it is. Family, kids, dogs. A messy creative space causes severe distraction for me. You know, Tim Holtz cleans his art mess at the end of everyday. He never leaves the mess overnight. He believes the clean palette helps you start fresh the next day without being stagnated by the endeavors of the previous day. I think he's onto something. I mean his creativity never stops and he is seriously productive. Might be worth taking his advice to heart. Of course, it surely helps that he is single without kids. Dontcha think?

Okay, enough of my crap. Let's get on with the show. I am one lucky girl to be involved with such a top notch group of artists for these countdown swaps. Just sit back and enjoy this eye candy overload (I really want to use an exclamation point here....resisting).

Day 1: Miss Doodle herself.....Holly Abston

I wish I had a better camera. Holly puts the most amazing detail in her work. She has a signature style too. It's all her own. Sometimes you see people copy it, but Holly owns it.

Day 2.....The maestro of Fiber/Textile......Martha Brown

Paleeeese....this is a brooch. I wish you could feel the craftsmanship. The woman is remarkable. Isn't this totally funky/cool? Can't wait to wear it on Easter Sunday along with Karin's earrings which you will see when you scroll down.

Day 3.......Miss Is-There-Anything-This-Girl-Can't-Do?........Shoshanah Jennings

This is a walnut. A teeny little assemblage. So cool along with a diminutive glass blown bird. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she had hand blown the bird.....I just happen to know for a fact that she didn't have time.

Day 4....With the heart of an angel & jaw-dropping talent...Jeanne Szewczyk

All fabric with an acetate pocket to change out the image. The craftsmanship on Jeanne's work is always completely stellar. Love this piece. Love her work. Love her.

Day 5....The Hostess with the Mostess (insanity that is)....my dear friend Heather Bluhm

Heather and I commiserated with one another about how we didn't like our own swap gifties. I KNEW hers would be great. She made them all individual. Look at the mushy faces on those chicks. So cute. Heather is one who really supports and inspires me. She's become a trusted and special friend. You know, one of those people you instantly mesh with?? We had total comfort zone immediately and now I feel like I've known her all my life.

Day 6....Smart & snarky, cute & creative....the world without Karin Aguirre would suck

Karin ran out of time to do her original plan and I'm glad. Looks like jewelry making is another of her many talents. Karin is also one I mesh with just right. You know what???? I'm drawn to smart-a$$ people. Yes, I am. Hmmmmm......wonder why???

Day 7.....Me

The thing about pushing yourself to the very last possible second on a deadline is there is no time to fix disasters. I had to wrap three of my gifts in different wrapping paper because I didn't have enough of the turquoise even though I had an entire roll. Obviously, not a very long roll. It's this sort of thing that trips my anal retentive trigger, but I HAD no choices. NONE. No time to drive into the city for more paper. Here is another reason one shouldn't push a deadline so close. Check out this mini-disaster:

I obviously slipped when I cut the canvas paper so the bottom was 6" wide and the bottom was not :(. Fortunately Brian was able to trim the edge without screwing up the artwork. Ack.

Day 8....The Encourager.....the lover of life....the extraordinary Jenny Heid

Hello???? Could one be any more talented??? I simply cannot stop looking at it. It's beyond amazing. Indescribable really. If you don't own any of Jenny's work go straight to her etsy shop or her ebay store to make one your own. Fabulous and I do mean FABULOUS.

Day 9....The master of her craft....The Queen of Halloween.....Debra Schoch

Everything from the wings down is mounted to a rusty metal piece. I love the whimsy that is so much a part of Debra's distinctive style. This girl fits perfectly in my little art shrine. Giving it just the right balance. I'll have to show another picture of it, but I'll wait til all the swap pieces are opened and placed.

Whew. This is one long post. I think it took me about 2 hours. Ahhhh to be caught up. Feels good. I was going to tell you the big story on my ribbon dying, but I'll save it for another day. I will have more undyed cream ribbon in the etsy shop very soon. I've done a lot of photographing and I've chosen the papers for my next wallpaper pack. Still need to cut. I'm also in the middle of making a journal so that's taking up my cutting space at the moment. Hoping to wrap that up in the morning and start cutting wallpaper by noon. Not sure if I'll wait and list all my stuff at the same time or let it trickle in. I'll let you know. Oh....please forgive me for my rather lame photo styling. L-A-Z-Y, but HEY I had just finished that major studio overhaul. I think the blob of forget-me-nots was about the best I could do at that point.

Good night my friends.

So.....were you expecting "The Perfect Red"??????

My, my where does one start?? At some point in February a dreadful case of the Mean Reds set in on me. If you don't know what the Mean Reds are PLEASE go immediately and rent Breakfast At Tiffany's. It was bad. Nothing bad happened except me being eccentric and crazy. I spent the month totally out of sorts and in a full blown art crisis. Who am I?? What the hell am I trying to say or do or be with whatever-it-is-I-do. I still haven't answered that question by any stretch of the imagination, but I figured it's high time I come out of hiding and face whatever it is I need to face. The Mean Reds have long passed, and from that I dove headlong into a swap commitment. Not feeling at all like making some sort of an Easter craft in the midst of an art crisis, I proceeded to make an mixed media mess. I decided I wanted to paint & collage & layer (what was I thinking???.....we're talking about a duplication swap here). I started with a piece of canvas paper (Fredrix) cut to 6x10. Layered some wallpaper and ledger paper then started painting. Well, first I researched the origins of the Easter Bunny tradition THEN I started the paper, painting, collaging nightmare. I made the first piece and decided what needed to be done differently. Then I set about to cut 11 pieces of canvas paper and tear all the ledger paper and wallpaper I would need to produce 11 of these babies.

See the tree?? I had to tear 11 trunks and 77 branches. See the flower clusters?? I had to tear 44 of those. See the black swirls?? They constitute 88 torn pieces. Eleven doily suns. Print and cut 11 bunnies and we can't forget the easter eggs. Those were hand cut from watercolor paper then painted, doodled and stamped. There are 77 of those. Then, of course, I had to mount the the canvas paper on something so I had Brian cut me 11 6x10 pieces of masonite. Then I did the beading, wire-working, ribbon stringing, glittering and, my favorite part.....the vintage Easter grass. Love that stuff. I have lots of different vintage Easter grasses, but this is the waxy stuff. Most cool. I also used some crayons here and there and doodled with a Pitt pen and a white gel pen. Insanity is the only word for this CLEARLY. I even had to mail them out individually because I was running so behind. Do ya think I bit off more (almost more) than I could chew?????

I have MANY pictures to show. The Hippity Hop Easter Swap is in full swing and we are on Day 8. I will get to those pictures in a minute. First, I've decided to show you a couple of photos of how horrible I had let my studio become. You will see these pictures and realize that ANYONE would become depressed if they allowed their lives to spin this far out of control. I think I might show a few more of these in the coming days. I can't possibly expose you to them all at once. I'd fear for your well-being.

Here is a shot when you walk in the studio and look to the left. For months I couldn't access anything in this corner of the studio because I had it plugged up from both ends. My punches, which I store in an old shoe holder, had to sit out on my bookshelves because I couldn't get to the shoe holder.

Here is an after shot from the same spot although I aimed the camera up a bit so you can see the shoe holder which now holds all my punches....ahhhhh.

Major relief to say the least. I've just about decided to stain my concrete floors with a turquoise stain. I'm going to put glitter in the sealer. I like the existing concrete floors because I don't have to worry about paint over spray or any other disasters on the floor, but I wouldn't be too anal about stained floors either and they would spruce the place up so much. I think I'm going with a nice soft pink for the walls. I had wanted a vintage aqua, but if I do the floors in turquoise, I can't do the walls in aqua. So much work to be done in this studio. It's really small so I need to plan and have things built to use my space in the most efficient ways. Honestly, the task seems so overwhelming sometimes that I just stay with the status quo. Need to step up to the plate.

Here's a shot looking to the right when you walk in the door....before:

Shipments of things laying around all over that never get put away. I had to clean some things out in order to have a place to put things away! It's all done now....oh happy day. Here's the same view after:

Here is a tight shot of what I finally did with the charm Shosh Jennings made for our Christmas Swap. I knew what I was going to do with it the day I got it and it took me 3 months to pull it off. Sad, especially when it took about 8 minutes to complete. It's a VERY old metal frame with red flocked wallpaper inserted.

Okay, I'm getting tired and I don't want to bore you to death with a super long post so I'll come back tomorrow and bring you up to speed on the Easter Swap. I'll post Days 1-9. Oh some gorgeous things have been made. You can go check out the Flickr Pool to see some incredible eye candy. There were, I believe 5 groups of 11 to 12 each. Wow! That's a huge swap that only this over-the-top-insane-I-can-do-anything-in-the-world person would take on. Amazingly, there wasn't a flake in the lot. Over 50 swappers and no one dropped. Cool, isn't it?? You gals are something special.

I'll leave you with a rather pathetic throw together of some of the art I've received from my friends (and the angel piece in the middle made by me continues to be one of my favorites). This is temporary just to keep it safe and out of the way until I get the room painted and properly decorated. I love being inspired, not only by the amazing things these ladies make, but by the amazing friendship they offer. We art bloggers are a lucky group aren't we??

I also have some MAJOR etsy shop updates coming in the next few days. I just have too much of some things and I'll be selling some of it. I'll list more flocked wallpaper packs and a new non-flocked pack. I will also be putting together Journaling Packs to encourage everyone to keep an art journal. I desperately NEED to spend excess time in my art journals. I'll be sharing some of those pages over the next few months as well. Heather has hooked me and a few other gals in as guinea pigs for a possible future art journaling online class. She is FULL of prompts. The Idea Queen. I think she would do a great job of teaching online. It works for me because I think my whole problem lately is putting my art journal on the back burner. It's a mistake for an artist to do that. When we are not journaling, our self-criticism soars because we have no place to play without expectations. Artistic freedom is what feeds our creative spirit and spawns idea after idea in an unlimited waterfall that can only be partially captured. When we have no playground for messing up, we tend to do the same old thing stunting the evolution of artistry. Art should never be still.....it should always be moving....soaring.

The Perfect Red!

I think this is pretty much the perfect red. I'm calling it Crimson. Candy Apple Red or Cranberry might also be appropriate names, but I'll stick with Crimson. I think I'm going to try coming up with a lime green tonight. I haven't done any dying in a few days. I'm in the mood. If you can think of any colors you'd like to see, please let me know. I probably should do some brown/rust/gold type colors and some other shades of green. Please tell me if you have any ideas. It's hard to describe how much I love this ribbon. Why, oh why can't they make ribbon like this anymore??? I love the way it flows. I love watching it get more and more beautiful each time I pull it under the iron. Oh, the lusciousness of vintage silk.

I also did one more glitter frame. I'll list it and this ribbon in my etsy shop. Hopefully, I'll have more ribbon colors to show in the next few days.

The Hand Dyed Vintage Silk Ribbon

I didn't expect to get this done so quickly. I've got lots more colors to experiment with, but I'm currently adding what I've already done to my etsy shop. I think I've got 8 or 9 colors. Lots of different shades of pink. I'll be doing a bit more dying in the next several days. See if I can come out with a really good red!