Pretty Paper Blog

I’ve been working on my very fist “online” swap.   It’s a Halloween Charm and Tag Swap that my bloggy friend Cyndy is putting on.  To be completely  honest, I have never made a charm in my life.  These here Scaredy Cat Charms are my first.  I absolutely love buying  charms but I have no idea how to actually make them.  I’m totally wingin’ it….living in the moment, I guess.

“Savor the moment.  Search for a little joy, and you will find a great deal of it in unexpected places.” -Anonymous

The other day I was talking to my Mom on the phone…I went on and on about all the projects I want to pursue now that my kids are back in school.

The conversation went a little something like this:

Me:  Jeeze, There are so many projects that I want to do now that I have a little extra time.  For instance, I want to re-finish my desk, paint a wall in the living room…I want to scrapbook on canvas, work on a shadow box. I’ve written all of this down but I get overwhelmed just thinking about where to start.  I usually end up just taking a nap.

Mom: I feel the same way.  There are so many projects that I want to start.  So many wonderful ideas…so many, that I don’t know where to start either.

Me:  *Sigh* Maybe I should just make a list of projects, put them in a jar and pull an idea out…then I’ll know where to start.

Mom:  That’s a great idea!  I’m going to do that!

Me:  Really?  You think so?

Mom:  Yes!  You can decorated the jar…ooo…put it on your blog.  Yes, it’s a great idea.

Me:  Whatever.

Mom:  Seriously.  The jar is a great idea.

Me:  I guess.  I could pick one thing at a time, take however long I need to finish, even if it’s a couple days…a week.  Then pick another one.

Mom: Yes, yes!  I think other people will benefit from this idea.

My mom has a way of making me feel special - don’t you think?

Mom:  What should you call it….?

The conversation with my Mom went on…we ended up liking: “Creative Juice.”

Yeah?  What do you think?  Here’s mine:

I made my LONG list of projects:

Then I cut out idea strips and put them in my jar.  Simple enough.

Here’s a close-up of the jar:

And the lid:

Now…what will the first project be?  Guess I’ll go digging for a little strip of paper in my Creative Juice Jar.

Have a wonderful day!

-Christie

I’ve been working on a few things for my Etsy Store.  I still have plenty of irons in the fire.  Lots of projects started (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) that need to be finished. Hopefully that will happen some time soon.  

I used the lovely new Graphic 45 papers (of course).  Speaking of Graphic 45 click HERE if you want to read my most recent blog post on their site, it’s called “Scrapbook Treasures”.

Here’s a little Christmas Garland I whipped up:

My kids planted some sunflower seeds in an egg crate a couple weeks ago. Today I let the kids plant them in the backyard along the fence…We probably waited a little too long, the poor sunflower sprouts were clinging the the cardboard egg crate for dear life. Now that they’re in the ground it will be fun to watch them grow and bloom!

My friend Jen came to visit today and we decided to take the kids and go rose shopping. Jen and I have been meaning to do this for at least two months (seriously, emails and phone calls…crazy how hard it is to hook up these days). We finally made it happen and Jen showed up on my front porch.

I’m so excited to finally have roses again. We bought our house last July and I haven’t planted any until now! It’s been a long time waiting.

I took some photos to share…if you’re curious, the names of the roses above are (from top-bottom, left-right):

Golden Shower, Sentimental, Double Delight, Don Juan, and Angel Face. It’s hard to pick a favorite they’re all so beautiful and smell WONDERFUL! I’ve been feeling down in the dumps for a couple of days…planting the sunflowers and roses totally lifted my spirits. I think i just needed to get OUTDOORS. I need to pamper myself like that a little more. It’s funny how something that can seem like a “chore” can actually be so rewarding.

Seriously…for those of you who have never visited Etsy online - go there!  It’s your place to buy or sell everything handmade!  It’s just plain fun to see what other artists are creating!  The pictures above are a tiny example of handmade items on Etsy.  Click HERE to visit Esty right now.

I have my own little shop on Etsy.  I moved my Pretty Paper Book store items there…if you want to check out the projects I post on Etsy you can hit the link at the top, right hand side of my blog “Pretty Paper Store”  or simple click HERE. 

I have so many projects stuck in my head…sometimes I just don’t find the time to do all the “fun” projects when “life” projects seem to take up most of my time. I drove up to PSB today and bought one of those new ATC holders from 7 Gypsies. Believe me that is the project that I want to be working on. Instead, today is filled up with work, kid’s homework, cleaning stalls for my parent’s horses, driving to the airport…yeh, it’s pretty packed full.

I needed to do something creative so I threw together a little hanging flower arrangement. After all, I did buy the silk flowers earlier this week. The arrangement didn’t turn out as “lovely” as I imagined but it’s a little something pretty. What’s not pretty about flowers, right?