Falling Mistake

 Monday....did you make it through okay? We had a decent day here. Laila's anxiety got her just a bit when we sat down to do the standardized test, but once she calmed down she sailed through the first 3 parts. Tomorrow is math though and even the simplest problem can get her anxiety going in full freak-out mode.  So send good thoughts our way tomorrow!

This card is one that I totally messed up and tried to save. I was trying to do gesso resist and well, my gesso didn't resist the ink. Oops. So I made it into a fall card. Kinda. lol I think it looks okay now, but it was NOT what I intended. lol 

I'm off to see Jason before he goes to bed. Hope Tuesday is kind to you.

Rita 

Lifesaver

 Hi friends! I missed you yesterday. lol I was so exhausted by the time I got my card made that I didn't get a chance to blog it. I did stamp though. I'm doing this with a couple of friends and we have all made it 12 days in a row so far! Amazing. Today I played along with The Crafter's Cafe Chalelnge blog. It is anything goes. I hope they like my card. :) 

Now I am off to rest as it has been a super long day!!  Super long. We thought that Jack got out the door and we spent a lot of time looking and crying. He must have been napping hard under the guest bed or something because he ended up coming out looking sleepy. I was so scared I had lost him. That put us behind with school, but we made up time and got it all finished. 

Pumpkin Spice Coffee

Good morning. It felt appropriate to do my post for the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop as I sip my first cup of the day. :) I'm having some maple pecan coffee first, but pumpkin spice is up next. I love this cute image from Simon Says Stamp and The Greeting Farm. Her hair can be a bit hard for me, but I keep trying. I used the colors from an Echo Park paper pack which coordinates perfectly.

I hope you had a end to October and a fabulous start to November. It seems crazy that it's already so late in the year. We've actually had some cold weather already here in Texas. Laila had to bundle up for Halloween. We usually sweat and get hot while we're out walking. lol She's been doing great at school too. We are on a big Harry Potter kick in our house, so of course her costume reflects that. :)

I'm off to finish my coffee and get ready to start our school day! Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Easter Peeps

More Easter!! I pulled up some challenges to work on and it seemed like TGIF Challenges! and Cut It Up just worked out perfectly for my Peeps! I need to get a few more Easter cards made and get them mailed. I haven't mailed anything in ages and I feel awful about that. :( Hopefully I can send out some belated birthday and Easter cards soon.

I hope you've had a wonderful weekend. We had a thunderstorm blow through earlier, but its nice out now other than the wet grass. The temperature went down and I'm always up for cooler weather. Good wishes for a great upcoming week!

Rainbow Easter

Hey!  Believe it or not, I'm still alive. lol Feeling a bit like a zombie, but I think I'm still a human...for now. :) I haven't had much time to create lately. I've been in a weird mental place where I haven't been creating or reading much. I think homeschooling just takes up all my energy. I did make this one a few weeks back and thought I'd check in and share it. My goal for the new few days is to actually make a card, so maybe I'll have something else to share.

Homeschooling is going well I think. It's not perfect, but it's less stressful than dealing with school. She's finding confidence again in doing her math. At first she would cry and tell me math made her stomach hurt. So much anxiety from school. It's sad. I'll share a few pictures of some of our learning below. Hope to be back soon!

Rita

Here's how I plan out our day. She can rearrange the magnetic labels into the order she would like to do the tasks. It works out great and allows her to have some say in our days.

Our hummingbird art. That was fun! We learned a lot about them during our week studying the United States.

Last week on our nature walk we found this friend enjoying the sun. Yikes!

Yesterday I surprised her with some muffins and books. She usually gets up and has breakfast before she comes in to wake me up, so she enjoyed it. I added some weird holidays to my calendar to do this occasionally. Dandelions will be coming up next. It will be books and an art project. :)

I'm off to go work in my garden before the rain comes and then maybe I can come color up something. Enjoy the rest of your week.

Pumpkin Spice?

I've been tired lately, so coffee has been on my mind a lot. lol I thought it might be fun to use this cute set today. I feel like it's one of the most difficult sets I have to color. The hair is just HARD to do. I need to spend like a week practicing or something because I can't get it. It doesn't look too bad on this one, so I was happy with it overall. I liked the colors of the clothing enough to overlook it anyway. ;)   I wanted to enter Pammie's Inky Pinkies and Crafting from the Heart challenges.

(Have you noticed I've pulled out the Spice Cake DSP? I still have some hoarded saved and thought it needed some love.)

One of my pretty visitors for today. :) It was a great day for butterflies in our area!

Fine and Beautiful

Here's another card from the card kit. It comes with this pretty cards, I'm guessing they are like Project Life cards, and they make creating pretty easy. I didn't have to stamp anything on this one. :) It has so many of them and that makes it hard to use up the kit!

Our library has some of the best programs. Once a month they have a group of ladies who have therapy dogs some in so the kids can read to them. It's more petting them, but it's fun. Laila is a little timid around some of the loud or large dogs, but she loves Dakota. Dakota's mom also has a beagle named Scout and that's Laila's favorite. She just happened to be a little under the weather this month.

Yesterday at the new program was awful. I am hoping it is better today. It's feeling like we made a big mistake agreeing to it. :/ It has yet another reward system to help with behavior and those are useless with her. With the way it's going, there would be no way they'd let her go back to her school after the 10 days. I don't know the maximum time they can keep them, but she's the only girl and maybe even the youngest. Someone asked about autism testing. I've asked and asked and all the professionals say no. Her testing last year included testing for that and they said no as well. I did read some about it showing up once the ADHD was under control, so we'll see I guess. Most of the testing was developed around boys and it tends to present different in girls. I do feel that it's more than what we've been told so far, but I don't know what. The special ed evaluation that's due next month may have more answers or lead to more questions. It does seem that we (school, teacher, us) all agree that she does need someone with her, but I'm guessing that would only happen if she is granted an IEP. I don't know. It's such a process to try and get your kid the help they need. They don't make it easy at all. I see why people end up hiring advocates to navigate the process.

I'm off to try and create a bit before it's time for pickup. I cried all evening after picking her up yesterday, so let's hope this evening is better.

Edited to add a picture we got from one of the specialists:

I like to see her smiling. :)

Thank you CASE

I'm up to five cards made with this SSS card kit from March 2015 in the past month. Woo hoo! I do think I need a break, so I'm going to switch out to something else for bit. I'll keep it nearby though, just to remind myself that I still have tons left to use. I was going to go for a month of no buying, but I forgot and got the newest card kit. Ugh! Bad me. lol I think after that I will break for a while though. I want to save any extra month for paint and maybe some organization stuff.  I am still finishing up the challenge on my kitchen, but I know the craft room/office comes up at some point. I'm scared. Why do I have so much stuff???? It's addicting, right??

Anyway, the kit comes with an inspiration sheet and this was CASEd from that. It's from a lovely card by the fabulous Debby Hughes. I am always in awe of her work. Mine never turns out half as good, but it's fun to try.

I hope you had a great week! I think this coming week will finally be a normal one for us. Well, kinda. Laila is now attending a behavior program at a different campus, so that will throw things off. She gets out an hour earlier and it's the opposite way of her other school, right through two other school zones. I hope she doesn't have to stay longer than the minimum ten days, but we'll see.

It has become so clear to me why so many parents of kids like her end up homeschooling. Things are just not designed for them in public school. She's at almost a third grade reading level, but stuck learning sight words like he and she in class. I'm sure she's bored. The results from the gifted and talented testing come back soon and I hope she qualifies and will get something more challenging to do. Unfortunately though, she doesn't handle frustration and failure well, so challenging can bring about tantrums. She's a perfectionist like her momma and we don't like messing up or not being good at things. I hate that she's dealing with that. I know I've missed out on a lot of things because of it. I hope to help her not have a lot of regrets like I do. Anyway, send good thoughts that something falls into place soon and we can all stop being so stressed out. Her evaluation for an IEP isn't due until the end of February, so it may be a while before we get there. I fear we will end up in a battle, but we'll see.

See you tomorrow with another yellow and black card. lol

Flowers for a Friend

Hi! Just popping in to share this second card I made with the March 2015 card kit. It sure doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I got it, but I guess time really does fly!  I still have a ton of papers and stuff to use from the kit, but I figure I need to take a little break and work on Valentine's Day stuff. Those stamps and papers need used as well! :)

It's been cold and believe it or not, it snowed for the second time this winter. Laila was all excited about it yesterday. They haven't had school all week, but she'll finally go back tomorrow.

Off to finish up dinner. I made Emeril's red sauce recipe today, so we are having spaghetti. I found a lot of pasta during the pantry clean up. I probably won't have to buy any this year. lol Costco strikes again! 

Stay warm. :)

Freshly Made Sketches 319

Hey guys!  Talk about behind... I was the hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I never did get my blog post done over here.  It has been a rough transition back to school for Laila. Add in that yesterday was the anniversary of Eli's death and that I joined this crazy home organization challenge and well....I've been a busy mess.  I like to stress/angry clean, so it was a perfect week for that. My kitchen and pantry are almost finished and it's so nice. So anyway...

One of the things on my list this year is to use up some of the card kits that piled up on me. I am starting with this one, so this is my first project with it. I got some awesome new inks for Altenew for Christmas and oh boy do I love them!  Four shades of gray and they are beautiful and stamp so well.

I hope you were able to join us and I apologize for being so late. I hope to get back to creating once I finish up the kitchen. I just haven't felt creative at all lately, so I've poured my energy into other areas. It makes me sad, but creativity just seems impossible to force. I may try to color a little today just to get my fingers inky.

Thankful for You

Hello!  I can't believe it's almost the middle of November! It's going to be 2018 before we know it!  I hope you all are doing well.  I apologize for not posting for a while. To be honest, I've been struggling and stamping hasn't been something that I've wanted to do.  Or blog either I guess since I made this card back in October. Oops! I have been reading a lot and trying to keep myself together. This morning I got up early and have been cleaning and organizing my craft room. I'd love to start out the new year with it cleaner and more appealing to work in. Anyway, this card uses the Simon Says Stamp/The Greeting Farm collaboration from STAMPtember. I can't resist a coffee stamp even if it includes a girl with hair that is SO HARD TO COLOR! lol

Laila  had a great Halloween. She was so excited about it this year. We did get rained out, but she got plenty of candy before the heavier rain came. She loved her Monarch costume and I loved how happy she was about the whole holiday. :)

This week her school dismissed at noon on Wednesday, so we had more time together. She was so good and helped me with a lot of chores. I'm hoping to keep that up. :) She was excited to help. I guess laundry is fun if you only have to do it occasionally? 

Other than that, we are still working on things. Her days at school are up and down. Wednesday was an awful day, so I'm sure her teacher was glad it was a half day. Thursday she had an amazing day. Yesterday was a little rough in the morning, but great in the afternoon. I got to volunteer at the school three days this week which was nice. I love being able to help out. Today they are having a color run to raise money for the Rebuilding Warriors Foundation.  I'll have to go get everyone up and ready soon so that we aren't late!

I hope you have a great weekend.

Simon Says Sing

Just checking in really quick and sharing another card with the Carol Singers set from STAMPtember at Simon Says Stamp.  I think these guys are so fun to color.  They are a bit of a challenge, but still fun. It's always relaxing to come in my room and color for a bit at night, so I stamped out a sheet of images just for that purpose. I love walking in and picking up my markers without having to decide what to color.  I started a box to keep stamped images in too, so I can just browse that when I get ready to make a card.  It doesn't always have what I want in it, but it's like wining the lottery when it does! Well, like a small $5 scratch off, not the millions. I would love to know how it feels to win millions...

 So far so good on school.  She had so much fun on Thursday and kept telling us it was AWESOME.  She was happy to go back yesterday.  I don't know if it's all kids or what, but it is like pulling teeth to find out anything about her day.  We've tried some different approaches with her, but she doesn't like to share at all.  Maybe in time that will change, but man! I'd love to know about her day.  She did share that she got upset and cried a lot at recess yesterday because she wanted to get on the seesaw.  She is not good at waiting her turn, so that will be a challenge for school and recess.

I'll share a bit about her second day on my next post. :)  Have a great weekend!

Freshly Made Sketches 304

Here I am late as always. lol Yesterday and today have not been my best mental days, so I'll blame it on that. I did actually get a card made for our new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. I'm still working on getting back in the groove over there. I thought I would once school started, but then Harvey and the delay. Maybe this week will be the week. :) Narelle has a great sketch and I used one of Simon Says Stamp new sets for STAMPtember. It's a month long celebration of fun, so be sure to check that out. I love this cute kitty singing her heart out. I'm sure she's probably fake singing and secretly plotting how to eat that bird on her head, but we'll pretend she's singing Jingle Bells.

I know there's so much you can do with the sketch, so come join us! 

Today has been an amazing day in our butterfly garden. I think the butterflies are loving the cooler weather as much as I have. They've been flying around all day and it was such a pick-me-up.  I am hoping I can get out there and work in this week while we are out of the 90 degree temperatures.

I'm off to finish getting Laila's stuff ready for tomorrow. Yikes! Wish us luck!

Freshly Made Sketches 303

I just realized that I forgot to do my blog post for Freshly Made Sketches. I worked on my card to take my mind off things Tuesday, but I guess I didn't get to the posting part.  Karren really challenged us with this sketch!  Who doesn't love a challenging challenge, right? :) You get to put on your creative thinking cap and that's what I did. I had pulled one of my card kits from Simon Says Stamp from my stash to attempt to use it up as much as possible this week, so I worked on a design using that and only that.  I think it turned out okay and I hope it's close enough to the sketch.

I know Texas is getting a lot of news coverage, but we are fine.  We were some of the lucky ones in our area who didn't flood.  All of my friends here are fine as well. School is still delayed and next Thursday is the best case first day.  Laila's principal's house flooded and was still full of water as of yesterday. I'm sure our school will be helping with that as much as we can. The school itself did not flood, so we are thankful for that. There is just so much devastation around the area that it is almost unreal right now. It will be a long time before anything is close to normal again. But, we are lucky. So lucky. If the worst thing facing you is waiting in lines for hours to enter a grocery store, that's not much you can complain about when people lost their lives and homes. Things did begin opening back up yesterday, but some will be months coming back. It is just truly heartbreaking. 

It has been amazing to see how the community, both individuals and businesses, have jumped in to help. We've gathered supplies to take to temporary shelters twice now and their needs were already met before we could get there. Restaurants are closing to focus on making food for first responders. Churches quickly opened up as shelters. People with boats and lifted trucks assisting strangers. I know on our local group a truck owner picked up a pregnant lady having contractions five minutes apart and got her to the hospital so she could give birth. Political and racial divides went out the window and it has been people helping people. We need more of that. 

I'm off to make coffee and turn on the news for a bit. Have a good week and keep sending good thoughts this way. 

Hugs. 

Dare to Get Dirty Day Something or Other

I'm back!  This card here totally derailed my creativity.  I struggled forever to find a layout that worked and tore it apart several times.  I had to color the girl a couple times.  It almost made me give on the challenges, but I'm back in the game now.  :)  I love this sweet little image.  Perfect get well card for a tea lover.

I've been trying to play with my watercolors a bit more, so this one is pretty simple.  A watercolor wash and then the die cut and sentiment.  I decided to add some sequins because I have so many!

I woke up at 5am today and couldn't go back to sleep. I figured I'd come color a bit.  I ended up with this card.  I love these little critters and it's been ages since I'd used them.  I don't have a lot of birthday cards for kids, so this will be gladly added to my stash. 

And finally this guy.  I don't have a clue about steampunk, but I found this image and thought it would be the closest to my style that I'd find.  It was fun and HARD to color, but I did it!  Whew!

I'm off to shower and then head out to the doctor.  It's a rainy blah day, so maybe I'll get more cards made when I get back.  :) 

Dare to Get Dirty Day 1 Continued

I managed to get four cards and a background for the fifth completed yesterday.  I swear it's impossible to stamp without interruptions, so I'm proud that I was able to knock out that many.  Why do husbands need you to come look at stuff when you're busy crafting?  I swear it's ONLY when I'm stamping.  There's nothing that needs looked at any other time.  lol  Crazy! Anyway, I thought this card was kinda fun. The paper seemed to go well with the sentiment.  I kept it black and white to match that. I used the Geek is Chic set from My Favorite Things, as well as their Blueprints 18 that I scored in the retirement sale last week.  It's been on my wishlist for ages, so I had to get it while I could.  :)

This was my card I made after everyone was in bed last night.  It was way too messy to attempt with a kid and kitten constantly invading my room.  I don't usually like heat embossing because I make a mess and it always looks bad.  I think this one turned out okay.  The distress inks distract from any bad embossing. ;)  It's made with the Flora background and Sketch Ranunculus sets from Simon Says Stamp.

I'm off to watch some morning shows and try to do a bit of creating before laundry.  Enjoy your Sunday!

SSS Flowers on My Mind

Over the weekend I came in my room to stamp and felt stuck.  I decided to pull out a card kit from Simon Says Stamp and try to recreate one of the samples.  Shari Carroll made an amazing card on the reveal post so I decided to try it.  Mine isn't half as awesome as hers, but it was fun to work on it.  I appreciate her ability to layer and do a collage type design.  I learned that I need a medium gray ink pad though.  My SU Basic Gray crapped out and they don't make it anymore.  Hopefully I can find something similar as I love that color as use it a lot.

I'm not feeling creative today either as I have a headache, but I'm heading to my desk to try it. I might have to have another sample recreating. :)  There's actually a lot of learning involved in that, so I might need to do it more often.

I hope you are having a great week!

Freshly Made Coffee

Back today with Freshly Made Sketches and that technique I promised you.  :)  I did struggle with this week's sketch because tilted panels make me a bit nuts. lol I tried a Christmas card, but I did the "shape" first and it was most of the card front once I put it together.  Then I saw the backgrounds I'd made last week and thought I'd try one of those.  It is made using a technique called Shaving Cream Stenciling.   I know we used shaving cream back when I first started stamping, but this was a fun new take on it.  I forget what colors I used now, but I know Bermuda Bay and Lucky Limeade were two of them. I'm also adding it to Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday.  I love this coffee set by them.

I hope you'll take time to come play along with us!  And go try that technique! It's awesome!  I might have to do more today with my new plaid stencil I used on yesterday's card.  

Happy Wednesday! 

Freshly Made Sketches 296

Back with a new card for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  I don't usually make square cards, but I tried this time. I love yellow and black (or gray) together so much.  It's just so elegant and really makes a statement. I used two Simon Says Stamp sets from past card kits.

I hope you'll join us! Have a great rest of the week. 

Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop

Talk about last minute!  We've been on vacation and after a 17 hour drive yesterday, we're finally home.  I was sad to miss the Coffee Lover's Blog Hop, so I took a bit this afternoon to make a card.  It's the summer edition, so I thought I'd make a fun, bright card.  Hopefully you can see the coffee cup.  My photography when tired is SO bad.  Goodness.

I'll share some pictures of our trip and Laila's birthday a bit later.  I have to run and check on the kitten and make sure she's not climbing the curtains.  :)