Artsy Chaos

Yesterday was date night. Something I cherish, adore, wait for, long for, etc. etc. etc. *smile* My ever so handsome and manly husband and I drove down to our local Ottavio's Italian Restaurant for some tasty eats, a nice atmosphere and a few precious moments alone together. I ordered the eggplant parmigiana with caesar salad and hubby ordered the manicotti/cannelloni combo with garden salad. Tasty right ?? ....until you spot something little and out of the ordinary hanging out in your salad. Yes, the ladybug. Now, this particular little bug had since passed from it's life of flitting about in the fields so there were no creepy crawlies but still, a bug in my salad. I understand about lettuce and bugs. There's a lot of bugs out there where it grows and sometimes it's hard to get everything off. I do understand, really. The owner came out, apologized and said we do try and we wash our lettuce daily, but sorry. We laughed, I said it did all a little color to my...

Yes, I have it. Right here. In my hot little hands. The new, new, new Love, Elsie Recipe Box. I have been so excited to get this as I have Elsie Flannigan's last book - 52 Scrapbooking Challenges - and absolutely love the ideas in it and have used it for inspiration often. I love Elsie's style and use of color and whimsy in her designs. Although I haven't gone through this recipe box completely, the cards that I did pull out looked like they had some fun ideas. I really like the size and presentation of the box, too. I can't wait to delve into it further !! xoxoxoxox ~Wendy

Yes, it has been a good day. Emily Dickinson said a "mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled." Sometimes this is overwhelming to be needed so. However, on the other hand, being able to run to your own mother in sad or hard times certainly is comforting. I guess you have to be a mother to understand this quote by Lisa Alther : " Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease". In any case, my own little personal corner of the Mother's Day world was lovely. My children gave me flowers and gifts. My husband loved me. I spent the day in a beautiful canyon with the sounds of the melting snow running down a stream and the smells of warm, clean air all around in the company of my family. Happy Mother's Day to all... not just today but everyday, for everything you do !! Because... "youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all" ~Oliver Wendell Ho...

The day is almost here. What day you say ? Mother's Day. The day many mothers dread simply for the fact that most of us never know what is going to happen. Will we be remembered ? Will we receive a bad gift ? Will we receive any gift at all ? Now, don't get me wrong. I don't expect a gift for Mother's Day and I am assuming many of you moms out there feel the same way. I just want to be remembered by those people in my life (i.e. kids and husband) and know that they appreciate me and maybe they'll even leave me be for a day and not make me be 24/7 "mom". I've heard, over and over again, by so many husbands that they don't need to remember their wives on Mother's Day because "she's not my mom". How sad is that ! If you have children together, all the more reason to acknowledge Mother's Day. I mean, after all, she does take care of your children on a daily basis. Now if you're in a situation like I am: step fami...

We (hubby and I) sometimes drive up the road to Park City to hang out on weekends when our kids are away visiting their other parents or off doing their own things. Our favorite thing to do there is window shop and check out the stores along the historic district. This past weekend it was extra fun because my husband is building a very, very large home (around 17,000 sq. ft.) on top of the mountain and I got to have the personal tour of the home, stand on the platform over the concrete pit which will be the indoor swimming pool, see the massive amounts of custom woodwork in this home and get a glimpse of the exclusive community it's being built in. I must say, you feel sort of insignificant standing on top of a massive mountain surrounded by huge vacation homes and towering aspen trees ! After the "personal" tour, we ate an early dinner at a quaint little restaurant on historic Main Street across from the Mary G. Steiner Egyptian Theatre which the Sundance Film Festi...

I wanted to post the layout I made using one of the little beaded flowers purchased from BeadFloraJewels on Etsy. Here it is !! This is my beautiful grandmother when she was young. She is still beautiful as well, inside and out. The beaded flower in the center of the big pink bloom really pops ! If you don't mind lumpy bumpy pages, I really recommend a beaded flower as a great embellishment. xoxox ~Wendy

First off... it's National Scrapbook Day on Saturday, May 3rd !! If you're a scrapbooker or even just interested in scrapbooking please check out the online crop going on right now at Scrap Attack Scrapbooking . As always, there are wonderful prizes to be given away and great promotions in the store. Plus, the ladies on the message board are so friendly and nice and Lauri, the owner, is diligent about keeping it a wonderful place to hang out. Second, I am late posting these but here are my newest acquired Etsy goodies: Aren't these just the most adorable little beaded flowers !! BeadFloraJewels makes amazing beaded floral masterpieces and I had to snag up a couple to use on a scrapbook layout. (I'll post the layout when it's done.) I really think they'll add some great focal interest and unique texture. I also received this adorable little necklace from Goldstar Designs . It's such a happy necklace !! She also makes cute little zippered pouches and ...

I'm excited to announce the winner of my blog drawing and giveaway ! I copied everyone's name down, printed them, cut them apart, mixed very well and drew out one name. (I usually use an internet randomizer but it wasn't working today, poo.) And so the winner is.......... "the mommy" also known as MandyMagoo . Congrats ! THANK YOU to everyone who signed up for the giveaway and THANK YOU for reading my blog because I know I enjoy reading everyone else's !! xoxoxoxox ~Wendy

First off, I am so excited to have been nominated for a blogger award. I think I've seen blog awards... from a distance...I've certainly never had one of my own ! How fun !! My scrapbooking friend, Alecia from the MB at Scrap Attack Scrapbooking has nominated me for a Arte y Pico award. This award celebrates creativity, design, interesting materials and contributions to the blogging community, no matter the language. Thank you Alecia !! I am nominating Desi (Juicy Creations) , Lia (Omg! Lia?) , Kristin (Goldstar Designs) , Xue (Xue Originals) who already has an award but her creativity is amazing and worth another !, and Ellen (Down the Street Creations) ... all truly amazing artists and so unique in their own ways. Second, in my busy life-of-late (LOL) my daughter is running for student council at her school. Anyone who has had a child run for school office understands the posters, flyers, promos, speeches, handouts, etc. that must be done. She had to make a vide...

I'm a blog reader. I love the differences, the themes, the colors, the styles and the people. Opening a blog is like being given a backstage pass to someone's private space... their home, their studio, their work and their life. Each post is unique. Some you savor, some you read quickly but every single one leaves an impression. Whether you learn a new technique, get a history lesson, find a fabulous recipe you must try or stumble on a heart wrenching story each blog article I find intriguing. I'm humbled as I "travel" around the world through this medium of blogging and discover incredibly talented and wonderful people. So, as a thank you to everyone who blogs and to my own readers here, I would like to give a set of my ribbon owl tags away. Just leave me a comment and next Sunday, April 27th, I will put the names into a random drawing and pick one winner. :) xoxoxoxox Happy Blogging !! ~Wendy

It's almost that time of year again.... National Scrapbook Day ! I always try, try, try to get to the sales and I never seem to make it. This year, I think I'll attend the crop at Scrap Attack Scrapbooking . Lauri is always generous with her prizes and throws an awesome crop. No one is ever sorry after attending a crop at Scrap Attack ! There is a sneak peek of some of the prizes over at the message board, including Shimmer Shapes, stamps, some great patterned paper collections and this amazing bag !!! So save the date and head on over for a blast !

Awhile back, I was notified by yellowfence.com that I had won a drawing on their blog for a t-shirt. Well, today it came in the mail. Yay ! They sent me a lovely t-shirt in my favorite shade of pink. They offer a full line of scrapbooking themed products including t-shirts, sweatshirts, maternity and baby items, mugs and tote bags. What a wonderful way to show everyone how much you love this hobby ! You can also check out their blog . They often do contests and giveaways and I can wholeheartedly recommend their product. It's almost Friday ! ~Wendy

This is fun for me. My first treasury ! A few of the sellers at Etsy are doing a "one a day challenge" and I decided to participate. One of my fellow challengers... challengees?...challenge participants.. put together a treasury and my new little ribbon aliens are there. It's a proud moment for me *sniffle*. Hehe. Oh, and please take a moment to participate in the new poll I have on the right side ! xoxoxoxox ~Wendy

So Mother's Day is almost here. I say this with a certain tenseness in my voice. Not because I have a very bad no good mom (haha), I have a great mom really. It's because I have NO idea what to get her anymore. I think she probably has everything and I can't even figure out what she likes anymore. I've given her so much jewelry, body products, clothing, books, altered scrapbooking gifts, gift albums, home decor, gardening knick knacks, etc. etc. that I am left blank. One year my kids and I popped over early in the morning on Mother's Day and delivered a basket of fresh bagels, cream cheese, jams and juices and she always says that was her favorite gift. However, I now live 45 minutes away from her and it's not that easy to just jet over anymore. So with all this in mind I went on an internet search and came up with these unique, if not totally hilarious, options.... From baronbob.com comes these interesting gift ideas: Ok, she might be offended by the r...

I first saw this ruler advertised in a scrapbook mag and have been very excited to try it out ever since. I'm always drawing pencil lines on layouts to keep things straight... especially when gluing down titles. This laser ruler seemed just the thing to make my scrapping simpler. I ordered it from my favorite online scrapping site and today I received it in the mail. I paid around $17 for it. I was immediately and sadly, disappointed. It feels much like a cheap plastic ruler you'd purchase from the dollar store. The mechanism that contains the laser is also very cheaply made. You can adjust the laser to different angles and the little dial has a lot of play in it, it just never fully snaps into place to hold the laser line perfectly straight. The ruler itself also doesn't lay flat, it sort of wobbles. The pluses are the fun colors. I got the pink and green, absolutely adorable. There are also little rubber feet on the underside of the ruler to keep it from slidi...

UPDATE: It seems my plugboard was the cause. I had to delete it. Unfortunately I'm not all that great with the coding stuff and so I deleted a few of my widgets also until I could figure out the cause. Sooooo... I have to start over with a new counter since many suggested that it was probably the cause (however, it wasn't). If you had plugged into my plugboard, I do apologize and I will try to get a new one up and running soon. I seem to have somehow picked up an unwanted pop-up ad here on my blog. I did not add it so I am going to have to track down where the code is. In the meantime, I do apologize for the inconvenience to my readers !

The art of Japanese kanzashi has always fascinated me. The elaborate hair ornaments are so beautiful and exotic. I had been wanting to attempt creating a flower in this style, but I much prefer paper as my medium. To make a long story short... using THIS TUTORIAL , paper and tacky craft glue instead of rice paste I made a paper kanzashi flower ! I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do with this large paper flower but it was fun to learn a new technique ! And I might mention... wahhooooo it was quite a lovely, warm day here ! I think maybe spring has finally set in. The mountains are still snowy but it was a wonderful 70 degrees this afternoon down in the valley. I snapped some photos from the front yard of the clear blue sky: xoxoxoxox ~Wendy

Over at Etsy , there's a discussion in the forums on what keeps you coming back to a blog OR what turns you off from a blog. It got me thinking. As a parent, I have tried my darndest (dangdest? are these even words?) to raise my children to be individuals... to be true to themselves... to not follow the crowd just for the sake of popularity. I want them to be comfortable in their own skin, to trust their own feelings, observations and preferences. I want them to know that it isn't the person who does something big who stands out from the crowd over time, it's the person who does smaller things consistently who ultimately stands out. I never want them to feel that they have to conform just to "fit in". Yes, there are times when it's necessary to be part of the crowd but I want them to understand the difference. You could say I am fierce in defending the right to stand out and be unique in a world of cookie-cutter thinking. What a boring world we would ha...

Today was my baby's birthday party. My 12 year old baby ! Does that make me old if my baby is nearly a teenager ? Well, let's not go there. *smile* Seems just yesterday he was such a little guy. Now he's big and grumpy ! Seriously, why does this junior high age, pouty, know-it-all, bad attitude, leave me alone, listen to me but don't give me advice, I'm going to blow my eardrums out with my iPod age happen anyway ?? I, for one, find it completely unnecessary and I am sure parents everywhere would be in complete agreement. I can't help but love him to pieces despite all that though. :) Hugs your kids, tell your parents you love them and smile despite it all... xoxoxoxox ~Wendy

I'm currently reading the book The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory which is loosely based on the life of Mary Boleyn, sister of the more famous Anne Boleyn, 2nd wife of King Henry VIII of England and mother of the great Queen Elizabeth I. I say loosely since not a whole lot is known about the details of Mary's life. My sister loaned this novel to me since she's an avid reader and devoured this one in just a few days. I was particularly interested in reading it because I knew that in our family pedigree charts, Mary Boleyn was in our line and always found it fascinating that somewhere in the really not so distant past, I am related to royalty and well-bred courtiers. (You'd never know this by coming to visit at my house though !! haha) Seriously, I just think genealogy is so cool. My husband doesn't have much in his pedigree charts so we've decided his family popped up from a rock somewhere. ;) You may have to click on the image below to make it bigger and...