My book review of The Misremembered Man

The Misremembered Man by Christina McKenna
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A heartwarming story of Jamie, an orphan boy, seemingly locked away forever who overcomes the hateful and sinister discipline doled out by the authorities in charge of these precious souls, each of which were dumped into a life of endless so called righteous abuse and how he comes to triumph over the past into a future that he's only dreamt about.

This surprising tale of two people who are linked from the beginning without knowing it and their misguided journey to be together with the help of friends gives a few chuckles even during one scene I actually laughed out loud and it stills brings a smile to my face.

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A Box of Crayons...

Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the 'creative bug' is just a wee voice telling you, I'd like my crayons back, please. - Hugh MacLeod

My book review of Faithful Place

Faithful Place by Tana French
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

5 STARS! Faithful Place by Tana French, set in Dublin, Ireland, captures the dynamics of a dysfunctional family with well defined characters and their personalities so that each one becomes a tale all in themselves. A decades old mystery brings together family members in a gutwrenching horrible conclusion. I will definitely read this again!

This story should be made into a movie!!!!

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Dumpster Dive...

...Crafter style! This kleenex box was headed for the trash can but the colors and design were so pretty I just hated to throw it away. So...to the rescue came my Fiskars 4XL Squared Lever Punch to cut out the little hummingbird,

and ta-da! a cute card! finished off with Fiskars 1/2 Round Corner Squeeze Punch & Fiskars 3-in-1 Rotating Corner Squeeze Punch, Summer Fun!

movie review...

...of The Hunger Games. Excellent! After reading the entire trilogy I knew I just had to see the movie and I was not disappointed. It stayed true to the books especially since the author, Suzanne Collins, was in on writing the screenplay. Exciting, suspenseful and there a few moments I actually jumped and ooo'd and awww'd from the drama. The casting was right on but I wish Woody Harrelson's character was given a bigger part as in the books. I want to definitely see it again, 142 minutes runtime but you would never know it!

Spring Blog Hop!

there's a Spring Blog Hop! going on today and tomorrow, March 24th & 25th by my friends at Fiskateers!



If you are thinking a “Fiskawhat?”, you should know that Fiskateers is an online community of craftiness (paper crafts, sewing, gardening, etc.) all based around our love and appreciation of Fiskars (think orange-handled scissors to start).There is a blog, gallery, and message board led by four lovely Lead Fiskateers who along with the other Fiskateers are fabulous at getting creativity flowing via chats, challenges, on-line crops, and interviews with other crafty celebrities. After hopping with us today (see complete list of hop stops below), if you would like to join in the inspiration of Fiskateers, or would like to learn more, you can hop over to Fiskateers to join :)

Start hopping now! there are awesome projects and how-to instructions using Fiskars tools, ...and some suprises, like a chance to win some of these fantastic supplies! So go on over to Kelly's blog and start the HOP!

sweet layout but ow!

When my niece showed me her new piercing I just had to take a pic! It's her first. Will it be the first of many or the one and only ;)

my take on...

...this card sketch from My Favorite Things



using Pure Innocence "Fresh From the Oven"





love putting these papres and images all together, adding buttons, gems and ribbon! doing a little fussy cutting to paper piece the hat, bowl and pants.
very relaxing :)

countdown to Halloween...

...this time of year is one of my favorites. The colors, the creating and all the fun memories that go along with Halloween. When I was younger, much younger, for Halloween my costume was a princess. A blonde hair plastic mask for my face with two little holes to breathe through making much condensation on the inside of the mask. I can still remember how damp and wet that felt.

Trick or Treating was always a treat. Candy galore! and the fun of running around after dark bumping into ghost and witches :) Very scary but oh so safe because our parents were right there behind us.
(with garlic to ward off vampires) LOL

mysterious passage of time...

...why as I get older does time go by so much more quickly? I mean, now as I have time to while away, my time is "whiled" away. I notice this today as I look at my blog. Can it really be almost two weeks since I've posted anything? It seems like yesterday.

So that's why I've decided to start my Halloween decorating now! The stores are all decked out in spooky decorations and treats. If I wait 'til October to start putting out the eerie fun decor the season will be over and I'll just have to take it down the next day. Or maybe this is more likely to happen...I will buy my batty windsocks, ghost garland and jack-o-lantern sign posts, bring them home and then forget about them or at least forget where I put them when October rolls around to "deck the creepy halls".

Today I have bats in the belfry! "jacks" dancing around the pine trees and ghost peeking in the windows...and it makes me smile :)

busy, busy, busy

here it is the last day of August! Summer is almost over and I haven't got around to doing half of what I wanted to do ;)
Oh well, "tomorrow is another day"...
Busy is the word for the last few weeks, busy with making projects for challenges I'm hosting for the online crop at the Fiskateers site :) and then joining in on some of the challenges which include "lifting" other Fiskateer's projects, being inspired by them and then creating to make it my own. These are a few projects that I've completed,

Love making Halloween cards, orange is one of my favorite colors :)

first pinwheels that I've made

created this layout playing Simon Says challenge, what a Fun! game...after following the directions you just don't know what it's going to look like in the end, it's a surprise :)

I have realized that I am hyper-motivated by challenges! not competition but the challenge to get 'er done :) and working under pressure seems to push me to complete the project. Not sure if this is a good thing or not but just looking at my work, looks pretty good to me ;)

Harry Potter in 3D

...the 3D was AWEsome! and it was sad to think it was the last movie but...being the last one it just didn't live up to the previous episodes' adventure, action and whole magical & mysterious drama, IMHO :)

two of my favorite crafting companies...

I love Fiskars and My Favorite Things! Here's a card I made using both :) Two border punches by Fiskars and a stamp set by My Favorite Things.



These stamps are so adorable and fun to color. I'm going to try and practice more with my Copics. And I can never have too many punches from Fiskars ;)

there's no place like home...

...on this layout I went pictureless ;) for the first time!



But I did create 3 journaling pockets out of an old shirt which had lots of decorative patches and embroidering. Just backed each patch with cardstock and pop-up foam squares to create a "pocket" then cut cardstock to size to slip in, stapled rick-rack to tag and ta-da! recycled upcycled journaling tag :)
Did a little fussy cutting on a flower laser-cut sheet and the airplane & map, added sheer turquoise ribbon, the embroidered collar of the old shirt, more rick-rack and baker's twine. Lovin' baker's twine in all different colors :)

what a cutie...

...my kitty, Jack :) He usually doesn't like bags, paper or plastic, because of the noise they make when crumpled...he goes running. But this morning I heard the paper bag rustle and turned to see Pretty Boy, my nickname for Jack, in the bag! How adorable! He stayed in there quite a long time so I was able to snap several great photos, that is a miracle too :)


This was the layout I made with one of the pics and the Furever Friends collection I picked up at Paper Studio. Isn't Jack so cute! and don't ya love my title, "Jack in a Bag" instead of "Jack in a Box" :)

a Gate-Fold card

here's a different spin on making a card, Gate-Fold. This card is scored and folded so that the two side flaps come together and meet in the center, then an added piece is taped onto one side flap to create a spot to embellish, stamp a sentiment or like I did, use a tag from a paper collection. Super easy card to make using the Scor-pal and I just love this new collection, Friends Furever at Paper Studio :)

The Front...

and the Inside,

and here's what I came up with...

This week is the CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) convention in Chicago. My lss, Paper Studio, is there scouting out the new products for fall, winter, holidays and especially Christmas :) Can hardly wait to see what Micaela finds! Check out Paper Studio's Facebook page, Micaela has posted some pics :)

Also the Lead Fiskateers are there having fun working with Fiskars products, showing off what wonderful projects that can be made with crafting companies products. While they are gone, over at the Fiskateers site we are having an online crop with challenges to make and share in the gallery. Love this! It motivates me to create and think of other ways to use my supplies...inspiring! I love seeing what everyone comes up with, totally amazing and awesome!

Here's one of the challenges I worked on making the card below. In this challenge we needed to come up with a crafty C-H-A! Create a project that includes an item, embellishment or technique that starts with a “C”, an “H” and an “A”.


My "C" was Chalk ink around the edges of my pattered paper, "H" was cutting my patterned paper in Half and "A" was for Accenting with gems :)

There are 24 challenges and I've gotten 18 completed so far!

dreaming...

what a night! All night long I kept dreaming about food! Pizza, hamburgers, ice cream... I have a friend who's on vacation out west with her family. She keeps posting on facebook their journey which is so very cool! She also shares where they eat :) and you know, people can eat alot on vacation for 8 days! and it's always the good stuff :)

taught a card class today

I am in love with the My Favorite Things stamp sets and their die sets! So I created this card with the "Something's Fishy" stamp set and the Die-namics "Fishtail Banner" set. Isn't she just the cutest! and in the stamp set there are three sentiments that are adorable! "Feeling a little green around the gills?" and "That's Just Crappie"...see, aren't they fun!



...and here's the inside of one of the cards that I wanted to use for a birthday card, I used a sentiment stamp from Hero Arts. It's OK to mix and match stamp sets :)



I'll be teaching this class again next week at Paper Studio which includes making two cards with envelopes and the stamp set!

Yay! I finished....

...the book with 760 pages! Whew! I'm so glad to be done, even though it was an interesting informative fictional tale of a true and horrifying event occurring in our own country. Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor written in 1955 told what might have or better said what probably had happened to Union prisoners of the Civil War being held captive in an inhumane fenced in area for almost 2 years. This act of utter dominance and irreverence of life is shameful.

Here is an interesting quote from this book; "But he felt also that he must not lie to Pepe. He had been taught that there was an infallible virtue in truth for its own sake. Solomon Dreyfoos said that even in business it was not necessary to lie. There were wiser and more diplomatic ways to avoid offending, or to convey an intended meaning; a man should cultivate these methods, and not burden his conscience with untruths." - page 536

Would these methods be...ignorance, denial or out and out evil to avoid the truth.