Attitude of Gratitude - Day 11

Hi again. How's your day been since I last was here? Just dandy over here.

Today I am grateful for this:


A new day. Very simple I know, but isn't it amazing how God gives a new day filled with endless possibilities? I look at this picture and I am filled with hope and faith that with every turn there is a new day waiting on the horizon.

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself," The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." Lamentations 3: 22-24

AOG/AED - Days 9 & 10

What's shakin' friends? I've missed being here! My phone got froze up by a little someone I know using it to text her BFF so I was without for a couple days.....both phone and net. I have to tether my internet through my phone because of living in a dead zone, so it was a little rough. LOL!

I can't wait to see what everyone has been up to!

Attitude of Gratitude

I've been plugging along with my thoughts on gratitude and am making sure I let those I am grateful for know.

On the 9th I was grateful for the strength and energy to get chores done for our kennels. There are so many things to accomplish in order to be set for winter and since we had rain, cold, wind, and blech starting - I needed to get the girls set up. I'm grateful my kiddos had willing hearts to help me finish off what I wanted to get done when they arrived home from school. Don't get me wrong, they had no choice LOL, but they did so willingly.

Yesterday, the 10th, I was grateful for my crock pot and food to fill it with. I had forgotten how lovely crock pot cooking was. I made teriyaki chicken to go along with some sesame ginger noodles. Yum! I decided to play with some lenses and films with my iPhone in Hipstamatic (<----LOVE!) so here's a peek at the chicken cooking:


It made the house smell so, so good! I was grateful for crossing tasks off my lists and adding new ones. I was grateful for my hubbie being able to pick up our DD from basketball practice on his way home from work. I really was dreading having to go back out in the cold. Too bitter for this chickie. I was grateful for finding a couple of books I am ready to dive in to.

Art Every Day

On the creative front, I spent Wednesday and Thursday working away at some projects for upcoming deadlines and chipping away at a sketch. I've been determined to play along with my friend Heidi's sketch site, Sketchy Thursdays, for a LONG time, but always let something take its place of priority. So in celebrating art every day month I decided it was high time I get at one of those sketches in between the artsy tasks I had to get done.

Here's the sketch I used:

to create this LO:


Give Thanks 2 God


Tessa, from Perfectly Precocious, is sponsoring this challenge and in following along with her Attitude of Gratitude project the LOs have to have a theme of thanks in some way. I couldn't think of anything better to scrap than my vow to give thanks to God in the storms and sunny days of life.

Here are a few close-ups for you to enjoy:


I know this one looks almost exactly like the first and it basically is, only cropped to bring the bulk of the page a bit closer for viewing.










I played with papers, mists, paints, gesso, and beeswax to create this page and I love it! Thanks for the fabulous sketch Sketchy Thursday gals and I'm going to triple dip with this one and post it for an MSW challenge and send it off for the Crate Paper monthly color challenge. Fun, fun.

Hope your days have been creative and filled with joy. See you later with today's actual post. ;0) No more catch up, YAY!

AOG/AED - Day 8

Happy Tuesday! What's shakin'? I had a really productive day here and am soo pleased. It was cold, really wet, and dreary so I really had no desire to do anything, but alas things were calling and I must say between the Attitude of Gratitude and Art Every Day project my heart is really in the right place. I feel open to many things and am ready for what's next on my path.

I'm grateful for getting much needed paperwork and mail items off to where they needed to be. I have still some things to take, but they can wait til' later in the week. I'm grateful for a husband who is supporting me fully in a new life adventure. Taking the time out to plan, research, and create for opening up my shop is no easy feat. I really want to have all aspects covered, but I also really want to launch this thing, LOL. Patience is a virtue I'll ever be working on. All I know is no matter how it all plays out, my love is right there by my side. I'm grateful for the vacuum working and remembering to take meat out of the freezer for dinner tonight. Seriously, this type of stuff really makes my day. When I can clip along humming to myself or chatting with whoever is around, its a good day. Today was good.

Art Every Day

The art was definitely going on for today as well. I clipped through 2 cards and 4 tags with barely a blink. YAY! I'm going to share my tags tonight. They will go in my Attitude of Gratitude album - check 'em out:


This one will go in the album. I already journaled on the back and its set to go.


A fun and funky stenciled, stamped, painted tag that I had no clue what to put on. There were no images speaking to me and then I say this stamp. Aha! That'll work beautifully.


Stamps, stencils, and scraps on this one.


This one will end up with some thoughts for my daughter on it. I love this sweet stamp from Unity Stamp Co and had the best time making her my own.

What have you been creating? Anything inspired you lately? I've been super inspired by all particpating in AED. Amazing, amazing work. I am so ready to go paint after seeing a beautiful quilt tonight. Ahh...its lovely to have so many ideas!

Blessings to you and yours tonight.

AOG/AED - Day 7

Real short and sweet tonight friends because I am so very grateful that my whole lil' family is together again this evening. We're chattering away and enjoying each other so much. I'm so blessed. I even got to spend the entire afternoon alone with hubby. We went to run some errands and then had lunch together. It had been a really long time since we'd done this so it was such a treat!

Art Every Day

My art for today focused on some gratitude as well. I made a quick card using the Sunday sketch from 365 cards and my friend Bev's challenge from My Sketch World.

Here's my creation:

Give Thanks - outer



and the inner:



Bev's challenge was to make a peek-a-boo card. This meant create a window with something from the inside of the card showing through. It went perfectly with this sketch from yet another scrappy friend Pam at 365 cards:



Be sure to stop by both 365 cards and My Sketch World to play along.

Have super evenings!

AOG/AED - Day 6

It's evening time and all is quiet here. Guess the weekend wore everyone out - how was your Sunday?

Today I was grateful for today. To have had nothing lined up on the agenda was nice. I hung out with my lil' lady - she's grown too quickly into a tween and is ready to take on the world. Of course I can't remember a point in her life when she wasn't. I'm grateful for my hubby and one of our dogs doing so well at a competition today...so well in fact they took 1st and qualified for a National level of competition. Too cool especially considering what he's been through over the past number of months. I'm constantly amazed. I'm grateful for my boy bringing home some fun pictures of cousins from Auntie's house. They are adorable and I can't wait to do something fun with one of them for her. A creative lil' present is in order I think.

Speaking of creative, I took today to work on a number of things while hanging out with my peanut, who of course was doing her own thing. I should grab some pictures of her stuff and post here soon too... anyways, I decided, after doing some other little finishing touch type work on some pieces, that I's make Sundays the day to work in my gratitude journal. Here's what I got done today, along with one more photo of the card from yesterday. I added some gold paint and like how it brightened the background.








I still have a couple pictures to add here. I want to some tiny, tiny prints.







And here's the updated picture of the card:


Now I feel like this is set to upload for Lisa's challenge. WooHoo! I haven't done a challenge for fun (beyond AED, LOL) in a LONG time. So happy.

Thanks for stopping by.

AED/AOG - Day 5

Hey there. How was your Saturday? Pretty good over here. It was a really pretty day and I was able to get lots accomplished. Wanted to be sure posting here was one of those things.

Attitude of Gratitude

Today I was grateful for getting things accomplished. Everything I did throughout the day was something small in scale, but we know all those little things add up. ; )

I'm grateful for my DDs BFFs mom/coach (<---did you follow that?! LOL!). She has been so good to my peanut in many ways and to me as well. I love when I'm able to grab a chance to chat with her - always such good conversation. I really need to make an effort to plan something with her and I and the girls. I think it would be a blast....and I mean outside of a sporting event, LOL.

Art Every Day

I accomplished finishing off the second LO I had started yesterday. Its crazy because both the LOs I've completed since AED started have been 12x12. I haven't scrapped that size in a bit and it felt good to do that size again. One of them even had 4 pictures on it!!! My oh my.

I've also made a point to do things unrelated to deadlines, like this hand decorated piece of muslin fabric:


I started off with a scrap of muslin on my table and sprayed it up with some Shimmerz mists. Then I used some Ranger Archival ink to stamp some leaves onto the piece. You can vaguely see them. I really didn't have any good idea what I was going to do with this piece until I saw my friend Lisa's card challenge at My Sketch World. The challenge is to create a card with layers and the theme of thanks. I got to it and this is what I came up with:


Lots of paper, fabric, and paint layers going on. I think the background is still a bit too dark for my liking so maybe a bit of gold paint will be in order. We shall see. I always walk past a project a number of times before I decide its truly done, but for now I'm happy with this one.

What did you make today?

Attitude of Gratitude - Day 4

One more time for today friends and I'll make it short and sweet.

Today I was grateful for hanging out with my boy. Its rare that we get time together one on one anymore, so being able to have dinner together was oh so delightful. He's growing up and in to such a fine young man. He's always a smile on his face (unless he's dealing with his little sister, LOL and sigh....), helps out willingly, and is to a place where he understands things more fully and on a different level. Its really rather cool to have conversations with him and hear all the haps in his life. Here's a picture of him:



He's the cutie with his hands raised in the air. As his team went by he threw his hands up and shouted, " WOOOO, that's my mom with the iPhone!" I was beaming with pride I tell ya', LOL! The fact my 15 year old still acknowledges me in public, around his friends, happily makes for a blessed mama right here.

I'm grateful to all of you stopping by to read these posts. Thanks for sharing in my slice of life. Its really rather different posting these posts instead all craft, all the time.

Night.

Art Every Day - Day 4

Hey again. I love how AED is really pushing me to get something accomplished that I'm willing to share, LOL! Instead of just pushing things around on my table or walking back and forth, I'm completely focused and have so many ideas its insane..... the good kind of insane. ; )

Today began with working on a LO background for an upcoming deadline, putting the finishing touches on another, using leftover goops and paints from said LOs to create some AJ backgrounds, and finally (or at least for now) some tag bases (<--- These are what I'm sharing).

I really want to be prepared for Christmas this year with some homespun goodness, so I decided there's no time like the present to get started. I want to create a surplus of tags and other items for gift wrapping so I can grab and go. If I make enough then I'll put some in the shop I hope to open soon. But enough blabber. Here's the first shot of my tag bases:


I used some Avery tags and gave them a good misting. Then I stamped with some snowflakes and heat embossed them. Next came the really fun part. I got out two little tubes of rub n buff and rubbed and buffed to my heart's content, LOL. I really like the effect it gave the misted background.

I totally didn't want to cover these bases up, but I love to add all sorts of little details to stuff as well so I got to that part. Here's where the tags are currently at:



Maybe I should have shot at least one of these by themselves, huh? I could do that. Anyhoo, I punched some circles out of patterned paper, dry embossed them, and then coated them with some clear embossing powder....it looks really pretty, but you totally can't tell. I love doilies so I had to add them and an equal love is burlap so a little of that went on as well. I had some bits and pieces of trims on my table from my earlier projects and added those scraps to the bottom.

The tags are drying now with the addition of a punched blue scalloped circle and over that is some White Opaque Flakes gel. It really looks like snowflakes and I'm diggin' it.

I'm off to post my link at Creative Every Day and check out some others Day 4 projects. It is so amazing the variety of art being done so far this month. Definitely a cool thing to be a part of.

Until later, Happy Creating!

Attitude of Gratitude - Day 3

Morning Friends! I didn't get a chance to come here last night, but wanted to be sure to pop in bright and early this morning to stay on track and accountable for getting my posts here.

There were lots of little things I was grateful for yesterday, but out of all the things I lifted up two stood out.

First I was grateful for God's strength and companionship. I really needed His presence yesterday and He was by my side, led me to some fabulous scripture that was just right for the time, and kept my heart filled with the positive as opposed to the negative.

I was oh so grateful for all of us being at home together for an evening. Typically someone (my husband most of the time) is out of the mix. Everyone has lots going on so having all of us together for dinner and hanging out was fantastic. Even when we were done hanging out as a foursome, it was fabulous to know everyone was at home.

Here's the quote from yesterday that Tessa posted:


She also has a great LO and other info posted on how you can play along with a challenge and take a free class. Be sure you go here and check it out.

I'll be back later today with some art and another gratitude post. Hope you have a fantabulous start to your day. Be joyful in all you do and make some time to make art!

Art Every Day - Day 3

WooHoo! I am on top of it today boy! I didn't sleep well and the best thing to do when that happens is create. I got to it in the wee hours this morning and finished up my Attitude of Gratitude album cover. It started like this:


and now looks like this:

I used lots of stencils and stamps along with paint, gesso, mists, and my NeoColor crayons. The addition of some chipboard pieces and letters finished it off.

It felt really good to get something finished up so early, and I mean early LOL, in the day. I've got some chores calling my name, but after that I plan on getting back in my space. I think this time I'll be focusing on some stuff for the store I want to start. Maybe I'll be back later with some more art, as well as, my Attitude of Gratitude post.

Happy AED!

Attitude of Gratitude/Art Every Day Month - Day 2

Today was hard. It was one of those days where any calamity that could go wrong just kept coming. What made it turn around was this quote from Tessa's blog:

That's a whole lotta seconds, isn't it? Although I hadn't gotten through all of them I knew I hadn't taken any of them up to the point where I was in my day to thank Him for anything. So I went about changing my attitude for the day. These are the things that really resonated with me today:

I'm grateful for having time during my day to sit and be alone with God. After I read this quote that's just what I did. I have a teen and a pre-teen and what they're faced with daily is unbelievable. I'm grateful they know Him and that He watches over them. The fact He has entrusted their care to me in amazing and I'm ever grateful and know I need to be doing more to help them know Him better. I'm grateful to have a husband that knew and loved God long before I did and still does today. He is an honorable, loving, kind, gentle man - perfectly designed for me. Wow. I feel so blessed to be with him.

I struggle a lot with inner issues and people pleasing. I'm grateful God has brought this clearly to the forefront of my life at this point right now. It is something I can no longer ignore because its destroying the person I could and want to be. I'm grateful for other brave women like, Virginia, that have realized this about themselves, been brave enough to share it, and do something about it. Check out this post to see what I'm talking about. The book she refers to is getting ordered from Amazon by me today.

Finally, I'm grateful for friends that 'get' me. I don't have many women I'd call true friends. I've had lots that could be considered acquaintances and even pals, but my true friends can be counted on one hand. They are the ones I know for sure in my gut I can trust with anything. I had the chance to talk for some time with one of those friends today and I'm grateful for that.

With an attitude change, the calamities of my day didn't stop coming, but they certainly were easier to take in stride.

Art Every Day stuff

I've been wanting to take some time to get some pictures of stuff around or house whether it be animals, buildings, or some of the fall colors - but it just wasn't happening. I decided today was the day, grabbed a dog and my phone, and off we went. Sadly, it started raining (ooo, was that cold!) and we had to head back sooner than I'd hoped for. I did get some pictures of some cows I'd been wanting to capture, so playing with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone was my art for today. These 2 are my fav of what I took:


I love the one cow looking at me in this picture. I had been there for a bit with my dog and I think it finally wondered what in the world I was doing. I was the clarity of the cows was a bit better, but I still really like it.


I love the grainy, vintage look this one came out with.

I haven't decided if I'm going to scrap these photos, use them in my AJ, or both yet - super happy I have them now though. YAY for art every day!

Are you participating in either of these projects? If so, do tell. If not you should check them out. There is a TON of blogs and inspiration to be found at Creative Every Day, along with Leah's personal posts there, and the posts Tessa has done at Precocious Paper are really wonderful and heart warming.

Have good nights and see you tomorrow!

Off to a Good Start - Art Every Day Month/Attitude of Gratitude - Day 1

Hey there, I'm back..... that's a totally good sign, LOL! I'm off to a good start and in fact I couldn't get these projects off my mind today. I was busy bustling along doing what needed to be done and thinking about all the things, big and small, that make my life amazing - even when I'm thinking otherwise.

Today I'm grateful for being able to watch beautiful sunrises from my living room window while the kids and hubby get ready for their days.

I'm grateful for my husband who gets up everyday (most weeks 7 days a week) to work and provide for our family.

I'm grateful for friends who make me laugh and not feel so alone in being a crazy lady at times, LOL.

I'm grateful for a new pup to the kennel settling in and knowing our home is now hers as well.

I'm grateful for this project.

I pondered throughout the day how I was going to best capture all of what I'm grateful for each day, along with some photos, and some contributions from my family. I decided I'd put together a journal with some Maya Road canvas pieces and a bunch of scraps. This is where the Art Every Day part comes in!

Today's art (so far) has consisted of a LO I can't show you yet, putting together my Gratitude journal, and painting/misting up the cover.

Here's the journal:


I'm not quite skilled yet on the best ways to photo journals so please bear with me. You can get the idea though, right? It has lots of canvas pieces and then paper cut mostly into 5x5 squares. Some papers are rectangles, there are tags, and I also busted out some journaling cards from Crate Paper. There are 30 pages so a front/back per day? I don't know, I'm not sweatin' it either.

Here's a couple peeks inside to see what makes it up better:






I started on the cover and can't wait to get back at it.
Here's what I have so far:

I'm not worried about getting it done tonight, but I would like to log Day 1's grateful entry while all is fresh in my head.

I'm off to post my link for Art Every Day. Until tomorrow I'll leave you with the quote Tessa posted on her blog for today:



Night!

Art Every day Month!!

Hi Friends! Guess what?! Today marks the start of Art Every Day Month!



I found this happening on the Creative Every Day Blog. What's fabulous is this is a no pressure event. While the badge might say art every day month your interpretation of what art and creativity for the day is is up to you. This is the direct link to learn how to play along. Are you going to? Do share by leaving me a comment if you're playing along. I'd love to come visit you!

I'll see you later this afternoon/evening for my first posts relating to Attitude of Gratitude and Art Every Day Month. Happy Creating!