Crop for the Walk

UPDATE!!! We will be having a second Crop for the Walk in my studio on March 29. Same details as the one below....except a whole new set of prizes to give away. My vendor pals and my art pals have just gone over the top with insanely generous donations for this crop...you will not be disappointed at all!

Register by emailing me, or signing up at meetup.com/1950. But most of all, be sure to give your $35 to Rachel! She's at 96% of her goal....just $144 more is needed!

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It was so much fun yesterday afternoon and evening to watch the thermometer on Rachel's site double!!! Thank you so much!!!

And I am sooooo excited!!!

I'm going to offer a 12 hour Crop for the Walk on March 8th. 11 am - 11 pm in my studio here in Lafayette CO.

A fundraiser for the National Epilepsy Foundation and Rachel.

Here's the deal. Just click on Rachel's photo at the top of this blog and donate at least $35.00. It's 100% tax deductible.

Then email me and let me know that you want to participate in the all day crop. It's free!

We'll have pizza for dinner....

And I'll offer you a one time discount of 40% off your entire order from my Product Performers catalog....

AND...Liz from Scrapbook Your Life! is going to donate goodie bags to everyone who attends. Trust me...I've been the recipient of her goodie bags....they are wonderful!!!

There will be hourly prizes and we will even have a few contests! I have contacted 21 of my favorite manufacturers and asked them to donate for the day. As the prizes come in...I will post more here! (Update...After Midnight Stamps is sending prizes!)

Scor-It just emailed that they want to donate a Scor-it Mini!!! And I didn't even ask! Gotta LOVE a company like that!!!

There will be at least 2 make and takes (I'm sure my local artist pals will step up and volunteer for this!)

Seating is going to be limited to 20.

If you want to fly in for the event, my guest bedroom is available....and I have 2 sofas and I'm sure we can find an air mattress somewhere! So lodging is free!

If we fill this one up, I'll have a second crop on March 29. But the one on the 8th has to fill up first!

So....a chance to play and create for a full 12 hours in my studio with access to all my diecut systems, dies, embossing plates, folders and more.....what fun!!!

And we will be calling Scrapbook Your Life! in San Diego to give a shout out to Rachel!!!

I am so excited...



Trust me, I have a repetoire of funny stories about Jeff and his seizures. Not so funny back then, but just hilarious now. We had a system set up...3x5 index cards in our house and at each neighbors. Back then, if you called 911, it locked your phone and we did not have cell phones (oh my, how on earth did we manage?). So when Jeff had a seizure, Jason (5 years older) ran next door to Linda's house and Linda would call my husband at work while I hit 911 from the home phone. Then Linda would call a block away to my kids godmother, Kay, and her daughter, Julie, would run over to babysit Jason while I rode in the ambulance with Jeff to the hospital.

All quite well organized.

Seizures are 100% unpredictable. They can happen at any time. Back in the mid 80s...I was into curly hair and gave myself home perms about every 3 months. So you can only imagine what I'm going to tell you next! Yes....I had started a perm. In fact...I was in that 20 minute waiting period before you put the neutralizer on. And Jeff had a grand mal seizure. Just about the second I needed to apply the neutralizer.

Towel over head, baby in arms, I reached for the phone to dial 911 as Jason ran out the door to go to Linda's house. All I could visualize was lime green hair broken off about 2" from my head. I just knew I was headed for a complete disaster!!!

The paramedics knew our situation and could arrive in less than 2 minutes. They rushed in with oxygen and grabbed Jeff from my arms as I collapsed onto the floor in tears. Linda had called Kay and she was at my house about the time the ambulance arrived. She picked me up and lead me back to the bathroom where she applied the neutralizer and in such a calming voice kept telling me that Jeff would be just fine.

He was. And my hair did not break off. Or turn green or any other odd color. But I have not had a permanent since that day!!! Sometimes, a mom has to give up her "beauty" for her kids! And yes, that's me in the photo above, about 3 months after Jeff was born in 1983. Now you see why I was worried about my hair??? LOL!!!

My prayer is that there will come a day when no one has to give up anything. So again, click on the photo above of Rachel and give to this most worthy cause. You never know who might be on the floor as I was all those years ago. Let's help those we can!

And then let me know that you want to join our Crop for the Walk on March 8th!!!

$49.00 away from her goal

Rachel is at 98%, just $49.00 away from meeting her goal!!!! YEAH!!! And yes, she can go over her goal! Just click on the link above to check out her progress or to make a donation.

I am so excite for her, but I think I'm more excited for this Saturday! Our first of two Walk for the Crops at my studio! The gift packages and prizes just keep rolling in! Kerry has been calling me daily....from the sounds of it I won't be able to get into the house through the front door! LOL! I'm heading home today and going to stop at several of my friendly manufacturer's in Colorado Springs to pick up even more.

If you missed the details for the first crop this Saturday, just click here: Crop for the Walk

If you missed what I wrote about my youngest son, just click here: Jen's Story

And for all of my dear friends who have contributed and helped Rachel get so far so fast, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!!!

I have to say this has been such a fun journey. I have made new friends, "met" so many artists via the internet, heard so many stories about other mom's who have struggled to raise their children through seizures and so many other problems. I do love the internet because we are not quite so alone as we were twenty years ago. It allows us to reach out and be with others and un-isolate us when we need it the most.

To each mom or dad who is raising a child with special needs, you have my compassionate understanding. The professionals can tell you what to do. I can share what I did to survive. Trust me, there were many moments when I thought I could not live one more moment...but here I am!!! And you will make it, even when you think you won't!

Why am I supporting Rachel? Because her mom, Liz, owns Scrapbook Your Life! in San Diego. And I think it's hard enough to run a successful scrapbook/stamp store, let alone the interruptions of having a daughter with seizures. So my month of March is devoted to raising funds for Rachel's walk.....and giving back to the National Epilepsy Foundation.

TWO DAYS until our first Crop for the Walk! We still have a couple of openings, so make your donation, then email me! It's going to be so much fun!

Oh....if the house isn't clean...just look the other way! LOL!

Edited to add: Pretty funny....Rachel's goal is now at 82%....because the goal was increased to $3000! I'm sticking to the original $2500 goal....and when we meet that, we'll celebrate!!!

Mom's Teacup

 The last time I posted, we were in Kingman AZ, and Kerry's mom had just passed away.  The very next day, I got a note that mom was failing and Kerry and I drove back to Colorado.  We got to see mom several times on Wednesday and talk with her.  On Thursday morning, we went to say goodbye and Kerry flew back to Kingman.  She knew who we were, but that was the last time.  Kerry's mom's funeral was on Friday (9/21) and mom passed away that day.

And while I have no doubt that she is in heaven, relieved of all of her pain and suffering and I should be so joyful...it is hard.  I am so grateful for so much.  Grateful that we moved here and I had the summer with her.  Grateful that we found a little house just 2 blocks from where she was living.  Grateful that I was able to tell her how much I loved her, and that I knew she loved me. So grateful that she believed in Jehovah Jesus Messiah and was such an amazing role model.   Grateful beyond everything else that God picked her as my mom.

The next day was a weekend crop here at the Abbey.  I decided to go.  What better way to remember mom than to make something so beautiful.  It's a teacup!

Well, really, it is.  It's a sizzix bigz xl diecut.  Cut it in pretty thick chipboard, then covered each side with Graphic 45 "Ladies Journal" paper.

And then I took my hot glue gun and went to town.  I don't remember what I was thinking - there were plenty of others around, and my dear friend, Kathy, was sitting right next to me.  I'm sure we talked.  But mostly the world went silent and I just kept thinking, "oh!  mom would think this was so cute....what can I put here?  there's a space there, what do I have to put in there?"  and one must take some serious time to find it all.  See the clear acrylic dressform?

Many of these are chipboard cutouts from Bo Bunny - "Little Miss" - but you won't find them in the store like this.  Loads of stickles, added the flower and heart to the teddy bear....see the dressform shaped paper clip in the center?  Little words cut out and inked.....

Phrases cut out and inked...."Life is about creating yourself".  I felt like mom would enjoy that as a theme for her teacup.  Most of the flowers were white - inked and stickled.  So pretty!

Even the little girl was inked, stickled, flowered....I love the chipwood laser cut dressform behind her.  

I did all that in about 4 hours as I was in and out all day long.  I'm so glad Kathy was staying with me.  I'm not sure I could have managed being alone at night.  Timing.  Who could have ever imagined my mom passing on the day of Kerry's mom's funeral?

To the ladies who were at the crop, I really am sorry.  Normally, I'm chatting with everyone.  But on this day, I was lost in my own little world.  Thank you for giving me the space that I needed.

I went back on Sunday.  And decided to start a journal to go with the teacup.  I think it's going to be glamorous!

I made my own templates, cut out acrylic cover and back and about 4 inner pages.  Each page has a different sheet.  You can click on any image to make it larger.  The fun thing about acrylic is that you have to cover the back of everything on the front and then put things on the back of the acrylic to cover up the front.  Makes decision making a little more complex.

 And what fun detail.  The lady is in the paper, but the stickled diecut above her hat was the perfect embellishment.  And note all the ink on the paper - you won't find it nearly this colorful in the store!

I put stickled diecuts on top of another laser dressform that was inked.  I think I could have played all day long.

Now everyone grieves their losses in different ways.  In November 2010, I wrote several blogs in an 8 or 9 part series titled "Does Art Heal?"  You can access it from the home page of my blog, down the right hand side.  Knowing what I do about grief and the healing process.....creating is probably the most perfect way for me to grieve.

Inside the journal, each page will have a journaling spot.....embellished....and I will write my thoughts about mom in this journal.

I have a long way to go!

The teacup and journal are over to the right on top of some glass cases.  On the left is a collection of things that remind me of mom....surrounded by her paintings.    A jar of her paint brushes, one of her coffee cups.  An artist doll I bought her once, red glass cats she had.  She did love cats!

And while I will miss her always, I will not grieve her passing.  My joy is in knowing her destination.  In having a home filled with her paintings, and the ability to create art in her honor.  Colleen and I made 30 more teacups (ok, nothing this fancy!) and stuffed one of her hankies and some candy in each one and took them over and passed them out at the retirement village where mom lived.  We will continue to sing on Mondays as mom really liked that.  I will continue to blog as she loved reading about what I was doing.  She always said I should write more on my if-isms blog...maybe in time I will add to that.

Kerry is staying in Kingman with his dad and I am here getting the house ready for winter.  We laugh and say we have a "skype" marriage.  Yesterday I skyped him the valve box for the sprinkler system and he was able to walk me through the steps of draining the sprinklers for the winter.  Pretty amazing.  It's really not much different than when he traveled all the time with IBM.

Life will never be the same, but we will slowly evolve what we knew into a new routine.  I know many of you heard about mom through the grapevine, but I wanted to write this blog for those who didn't and to share my celebration art.  Thank you for all of your kind emails and cards.  It's wonderful to have so many friends around the globe.  This has been a difficult post to write, but I'm sure I'll be back soon!

Meet Up with me!!!

I've joined Meetup as a sponsor and will be hosting classes, crops and lots of play days in my studio!

Check out my calendar


My first Meetup is this Saturday, the Crop for the Walk to raise money for Rachel Chiecuto who's mom owns Scrapbook Your Life! in San Diego.

There's still plenty of spaces if you want to come and play. And if you can't make it, please donate to Rachel's fund

And then check out the other class offerings on my calendar for this month. I'm offering:

Introduction to Art Clay Silver

Make a Kimono Pendant or Pen

Dichroic Glass and Metal Clay

and a second Crop for the Walk at the end of the month.

Bookmark my calendar and check back each month to see what's going on in my studio.

Let the child in you play hard today! That's what a meetup with me will do for you!!!

Play hard....or hardly play?

Today is the National Epilepsy Foundation's walk on Washington DC, and my little Crop for the Walk. So today's blog is going to be a little different. I plan to post updates to the same blog all day long. So, if you get this on digest (in your email), then you may want to just log onto my blog's website to catch the updates throughout the day.

At first, I thought I was going to play hard today. But we had 5 overnight guests last night and we stayed up past midnight...and ate most of the chocolate.....which leads me to now believe that we may hardly play at all today....and just end up eating, sharing stories, eating, chatting about life, eating.....you get my drift? LOL!

My first photos are of the "quiet" studio.....before anyone arrives. Oh, it's so nice and clean it just scares me!!!



We've set up a full body massage chair...and it's heated!



So many make-n-takes planned that I think this little work station will be busy all day long!



I really do believe in total comfort, so another place to get your back massaged and your feet rubbed!



Loads of prizes to giveaway and a HUGE mystery prize for 9 pm!



Each person gets a bunch of tickets....and then they can pick which cup to put all of their tickets in. I'm going to put mine in for the stamp storage system by MSE!



And I believe in staying connected, so a desktop and 3 laptops....no one has an excuse to miss a single email today!



The diecut station is ready to go. 3 Wizards, a Big Kick, Cuttlebug, Sidekick and Bind-it-all. My goodness....do we have all the toys to play with or once again...will we hardly play?

3:17 pm. My gosh...the day is just flying by! So amazing!!! We learned how to do collage stamping and I have step shots and will blog that tomorrow:



So keep this page up and just hit your refresh button. I probably won't upload again until lunch or shortly after that. Just depends on how much we play....or if we just sit here and gab all day!



There's a quiet roar going on right now as we're doing a make-n-take using opals and more opals...this is Rose moving that hand fast and furious!



Peggy is hanging on to one of our guest puppies!



Shannon's first time here and she obviously fits in quite well!



Ginni hanging on to the other guest puppy! Now tell me they are not getting their fair share of attention today! LOL!



And Kathleen.....showing off the fun haircut her 11 year old granddaughter gave her.....we all thought it just fit her personality perfectly!!!



I am just not doing well posting today....I guess that means I'm playing hard!!!

7:24 pm and SIX whole pizza's, a crockpot of queso and 3 tubs of cookies and candy later......

Well, I think we are all stuffed. I can sense the mood is trying to slow down....but our minds just won't let us. The chatter is non-stop. My wonderful neighbor Bo, baked us brownies so in turn, a few of us made her some thank you cards (I have amazing neighbors who love it when I have play days.....especially when it's all for a charity!)

I showed the girls how to sponge-ink pewter using a Spellbinders edgeability die that I cut up. Then I turned that element into my card for Bo:



Shelly did a make-n-take using "thirds" and this is the card she made for Bo:



And Ginni made this card for her:



Here's Laura....I think she's having a bit too much fun!



And I just don't think Shelly is having any fun at all!



And that Kathy! Just having the worst time of her life! LOL!



And my sis, Colleen....doing some rather tedious paper cuts I'd say!



What a mess. Surely a bit different than when I took a photo this morning. We still have more make-n-takes, more raffles, and the big prize coming up at 9 pm! It's valued at $90.00.....I can hardly wait to see who wins! We still have a ton of fun coming up and I hope to blog one more time tonight!



Another thank you card:



The guest puppies sleeping on the steps.....so cute!



And then Kathy taught us how to do paper quilting cards....they are just lovely!



inked and stamped:



emobssed and inked:



And then Shelly showed us how to make "thirds" cards:



uninked, but still so cute!



Well, I think this is my last blog today. Oh....Rose won the big prize at 9 pm....it was a Cuttlebug system. That was a separate raffle and we raised over $100 more and this money went to Women's Breast Cancer. Another wonderful cause!!!

What an incredibly fun day....all for two fabulous causes....good food, good friends, good fun.

So, did I play hard....or did I hardly play? I think I truly played hard today!

San Diego and Me!!! August 29, 2008

What do you love about San Diego??? I LOVE the shopping!!! And although I will miss the San Diego Shop Hop, I wll be there for the Expo! If you want to join me for a fun filled morning of shopping, we'll start out at Scrapbook Your Life at 9 am!

Then at 2 pm, back at the store, we'll make this great new "book of me" bind-it-all purse! The questionnaire for this book will include places you love to shop, why you love San Diego, your best fashion tips and more! After all, breaking down a huge "book of me" into small mini books with specific topics just gives us more reason to play!!!



But where is the bind-it-all binding???



That's one of the techniques I will teach - how to hide the binding!!!



And even with such a tiny coil, we can still get plenty of pages inside this little purse.



Scrapbook Your Life! is famous for their "wall of paper". And since this is all about shopping, I wrote a quick little poem:

When I see that wall of paper, I los all of my control
I can't be held back - it rips out my soul!
I have such a weakness for paper is my love
My money tree is dead, I need help from above!
I am a shpaholic. Went to therapy this week -
I didn't do a bit of good, I'm such a paper freak!
Ineed a 12 step program that can help me behave
But I walk into SBL! and my brain has a short-wave.
The credit cards are maxed. Can I clean the floors for you?
I need to buy that paper, and everything that's new!
Paperholic, shopaholic, I can't let it be.
That paper MUST be mine! It was just made for me!!!



And then one more:

At the San Diego Shop Hop it was shop til you drop
Then the Scrapbook Expo it was just go, go, go!!!
Scrapbook Your Life! so much is new,
Where do I start? What do I do?
SBL! let's shop! shop! shop!
Hop, drop, stop, plop and crop!!!


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Call the store at 619-298-7871 to sign up for this class. Again, Saturday, 8/29, 2-4 pm. Only $10.00!!! The template is a JLo original! If you can't make it to the class and want to order a class kit for the same price (+ shipping), just email me. Class kits will be mailed about 9/14/08 - after the class!

Class kit: scissors, craft knife, ruler, paper trimmer, tape runner, wet glue, non-stick craft sheet, apron, glass mat, Ranger's Fired Brick Distress ink. If you don't have these, come share mine!!!