More finishing what I started

I've been fighting inertia and depression today. It's all I can do not to just go crawl in bed.... but I've been promising myself to get into some kind of routine, even if it means get up, make bed, get dressed, make sure kitchen and bathrooms are clean... most days I make it through the bathrooms but that kitchen is a stinker. I get stuff WASHED but then not put away. It's hard on the inertia days. And I don't remember if I made my bed, but I AM dressed. 

This one I stamped a long time ago with a piece of a shoe liner that looked interesting. I am never reluctant to stamp with oddments, shoes sometimes have interesting patterns, like flip flops, some are better than others. I've used flyswatters as stencils, and printed with leaves. I just get a kick out of the unusual, and patterns catch my attention. 

I think this is the first white on white on white card I ever did. But for some reason, I just had to leave it un-inked. I got that set of word dies, I really should give credit here but I have no idea. 

Another one of those ink swiped embossing folder ones. I could use more practice so there weren't such ink lines. But all in all I love it.

Same issue with this. I was trying to get the effect of a storm, but those lines.... I will definitely try again, and imperfect just means I am human, right? And getting the edge of the work surface in the picture... I'm not professional. I'm just me.

These four are to make a set for whoever. This is a fun embossing folder, I have used it a lot.

So now I should go finish what I started, get those dishes put away. It's way better than I used to be, at least, there's not dirty dishes in the sink. I didn't get very far with FlyLady, but I did get into THAT habit, making sure the dishes are washed before I go to bed. And make the bed when I get up. I don't know how many years it took me to get that far, but hey, I am also not allowed to kick myself when I'm not perfect, that's every day. 

I CAN have a clean kitchen. It does not look like this at the moment. But this was a few years ago, I refinished the floor, waxed the counters and doors and drawers, and put up a new blind (which the cat tore up since then) Just to remind me that I CAN DO THIS. Pulling away from depression is sure not easy. This blogging stuff helps. 😀 and yes there are butterflies in just about every room in my house. 

birthdays and sadness and thankfulness and trusting

so are birthdays sad? Sometimes, because the one who is having a birthday is so very far away and I have not seen my brother in more than a year, and before that,  years, and before that, years. And my mother and brother share a birthday, so that's sad too, because I can't wish her happy birthday, only in my thoughts. 

However, I have a brother. Even if he's far away and we have to work hard to stay connected. And with this pandemic, it makes me feel alone, because I often AM alone. I go outside and there is so much smoke from the fires it's hard to breathe. My little garden is suffering, it's full of ashes, and the zucchini doesn't ripen properly. Feeling like a failure with that. But it's not my fault we're in a heat wave, and there are like 500 fires in California. It's a long time until frost here, probably November, and I will probably have a bumper crop around October. And more tomatoes than I know what to do with. The yellow pear is NOT a yellow pear, however, they are ripening red, but they're pear shaped.

I've been working hard in the craft room, which I'd like to turn into partly a bedroom, so I can move the bed out of the dining room. It seems so endless, like I can't seem to make progress, but I can get into the craft room, and have even been making cards. I cleaned out 4 drawers, so I AM making progress.

Today's cards are odds and ends, things I had started, or that my sister in law did. She died this year, so there's more sad, I miss her lots. And as usual all the sad comes to the surface and demands attention. All the friends and acquaintances who died this year. Which reminds me that I need to write to Dorothy, whose daughter died a couple months ago. The sadness of seeing the numbers rise from pandemic deaths. The sadness seeing the hate and division in our country. Seeing my kitty lying around and wondering if Now is when she's dying. She's about 15 with diabetes, and intestinal issues since she had surgery from eating a bunch of sewing thread. But this morning she was speeding like a kitten from one end of the house to the other, leaping over furniture and landing on a chair and then falling off and racing out to the garage. Who needs television when she's acting like that!

This (above) is a stencil, then home made ink spray with Catherine Pooler inks

Found this stamped on a piece of paper in a drawer. I remember, stamped with crayola markers on a stamp. That was all I had at the time. I don't even know if I have that stamp any more but it was one of my favorites.

In Real Life, the purples match better, and you can't see the wrinkles, I may iron it a bit. This cross stitch was done by my sister in law Loretta, so I may send it to her brother for Thanksgiving.

I made this card awhile ago but loved it and didn't want to let it go. But I'm sending it to my brother for his birthday next week... That house is dry embossed from a little plastic rubbing plate in a kid's play set and then lightly brushed with distress ink. Twine from the Dollar Tree! Once in awhile there's some really good stuff there. 

Little by little, piece by piece, it's either getting put away or going in the out pile. This is still painful, since it's Loretta's, my mom and dad's, my mother in law's... who have all died in the last few years. 

So, birthdays and sadness. Thanksgiving and trusting come a little harder some days. 

More Cardmaking and Thinking

Sad days, it just feels like endless waiting. And in addition to a pandemic and a heat wave, California is burning up. You know how during an eclipse you can look at the sun through smoked glass? Well it was like that. 

There was ash drifting down everywhere. I went outside to check on my little garden and the plants were covered with ash, the ground was covered with ash, the car too. I didn't stay out long because it was coming down like light snow and I didn't figure it was good to be breathing out there. 

So I've been trying to declutter, and get things out to donate, and I decided to do some card making to use up a little stash as well as reward myself for working hard to dig through the piles and be brave and Let Go of Stuff.

This one is done with resist paper from a pad that I impulsively bought last year and never used any of it. Turns out it's fun, and a quick and easy elegant card with the "blessed" word die from I don't remember where. 

Sometimes when I am card making it's for something specific, or sometimes the plan is to replenish someone else's stash of my hand made cards. It's fun to make cards for them, and they love to use them.

Sometimes I am just making cards to make cards and that's today. So I don't know where they're going yet. 

I've been inspired lately by Jennifer McGuire. She comes up with such wonderful cards.

These next two are a two in one thing. I cut a cover die, then used it as a stencil on one card, and then used the die cut on the other card. And yes, I'm on a "blessed" kick, because I have been feeling blessed. Some days are such sad days, like when I hear of another friend or acquaintance who has died, and sometimes I have to force myself to think of what I am thankful for. There's so much. I am so thankful for a roof over my head, air conditioning, and that we aren't in the path of the many wildfires our state is dealing with, just to start. I am thankful I have a bountiful crafting stash. I am thankful that I remember how to quilt even though I haven't for awhile. I am thankful for the technology that helps me keep connected with my daughter and her family even though she's far away. I am thankful this heat hasn't killed off the zucchini plants even though they wilt nearly every afternoon. I told someone today to write down their thankful stuff, I need to follow my own advice more often. 

Simple patterned paper and a flower I got many years ago from an overseas Yahoo group friend. I used most of what she gave me a long time ago but this was in a pile that I was sorting and it matched the striped paper scrap so there you are. It looks like a more masculine card, so I'm going to find a sentiment that says "happy birthday" and send it off to my brother this week for his birthday. 

My brother and I have had our ups and downs, and he lives far away and I rarely see him, but once in awhile we talk on the phone. Sometimes relationships are valuable but need a little extra work, so there you are.

I saw this technique first on a video by MayMay Made It. It is SO quick and easy, it's just swiped ink on an embossing folder image. I've gotten so I do a stack of these and keep them on hand for a quick card. This is one of my favorite folders, and Tim Holtz distress inks, the little cubes, seems to work best.

I miss being out in a meadow like this. Early this spring, I let one little corner of the yard grow into a "meadow" and lo and behold there were some edible friends growing there. So I enjoyed a little browsing in the garden snipping off some tasty morsels, and learned more about mallow, and how to make a throat tonic from it. So even though I am not living in the country any more, I can still have a bit of country here. There's still one plant out there I've been watering, I have no idea what it is, but it's fun to just wait and see. And there's a dove that greets me out there every morning with a little "good morning" song.

A long time ago I made a bunch of cards with the red "Just Because" that I printed on the computer and just cut it to this shape.and tore the top. I found this lonely one in a pile, and saw another scrap of patterned paper to pair it with. The flower sticker on the bottom matches much better in person, it looks purple, but it's really red. 

My craft supplies are getting more and more organized and it is so fun to just be able to go in there, and whip out a few cards with very little effort. 

So if my house doesn't burn down, I should be able to really get going on card making and other crafting again, I feel so much better when I make time to make things. There are a bunch of rocks I washed for painting, some have a base coat on them. A wall hanging just needs quilting. A quilt is all cut out and ready to piece. 

 And so I write and write, and nobody reads, but still I have this desire to document my life somehow. I know my Grandpa Linton was the same, I come by this naturally. I wonder how things would have gone with him if there was internet? Hmmm. 

Country swap...

Finally I am caught up on swaps. It seemed like when I signed up all was good. Not counting on the chaos of life and how it tossed me around there for a bit.

This is a really simple card, inspired by Gina K Designs clean and simple cards. I used the Swiss Dots cuttlebug embossing folder, spellbinders' fancy tags and ovals, and the graphics from pccrafter.com's "By the Sea" collection. Clean is simple is good for today.

I watched a video on mixed media backgrounds from Michael's on facebook for paintings. I still have some acrylic paints from a few years ago (hopefully still good!!) and some mod podge from YEARS ago (my spare bottle from decoupage days, never opened, so hopefully good) alcohol inks, and plenty of paper... and if I can figure out a background, I just might do something. I have a large children's board book-- 8 pages-- that I got at the dollar store, so I might use that...

I have the book of children's poems that I loved as a child and am thinking of illustrating something. One of them is this:

Mud

Mud is very nice to feel

All squishing out between the toes.

I'd rather squish around in mud

Than smell a yellow rose.

Nobody else but the rosebush knows

How nice mud feels between the toes.

-Polly Chase Boyden

or maybe this...

I'm Glad

I'm glad the sky is painted blue,

and the earth is painted green,

With such a lot of nice fresh air

All sandwiched in between

-Anonymous

And of course there are all the unfinished projects-- mostly not started but just imagined--

I am the Idea Person. LOL but they do eventually get finished.

Usually. My goal originally a card a day... but I think a finished project a day would be good. Or at least PROGRESS on something every day...Go with the flow, I say. :)

alcohol inks on foil

Two new cards... alcohol inks on embossed foil. I used spray adhesive to fasten the foil to the card stock, then ran it through the cuttlebug. I added inks for color. The cards were part of a Michael Strong stamps challenge. So finally, I entered a challenge. It has been a long time. I have 2 more foil embossed cards to finish, don't know what I will do yet. These are way prettier than they scan. ;)