Happy Friday afternoon blog friends!

I hope you haven't missed me too much, lol. I know, I keep promising to have posts more often, but with the schedule I keep, it is not an easy thing to do.  Working P/T for two churches and then coming home to my 91-year old mother is not easy!  My day starts very early; I'm up at 5:00 in order to get to work by 6:30 (I start at 7:00 am). Why so early, because before I leave I have to make sure my mom's taken one pill (she needs this on an empty stomach before breakfast), that she's taken a shower and dressed. I then make her breakfast and have to insure her other meds are on the table to be taken with her meal.  Why do I do all this? Well, my mother also suffers from some dementia, and when she first wakes, she's extremely confused and doesn't know what she should be doing.  It is true what is said about the elderly: "once a man, twice a child". When I follow this routine, it not only helps me, it helps her as well.  If I don't do this, I will come home and find her still in bed, in her PJs, unkempt. With this schedule though, I come home to an alert mother, who is coherent and able to carry on a conversation without a mental hiccup.

Once I come home (I'm off work at 11:00 and home by 11:30 am) I prepare her lunch and go about taking care of things such as cooking dinner, cleaning or washing, and spending time in studying the Bible.  I also sometimes (if time permits) take a nap.  With the exception of Tuesday and Friday, I'm at my church in the evenings. On Monday, I lead a small group Bible Study.  We're currently reading "When I Lay My Isaac Down," by Carol Kent.  If you haven't read it, I recommend you purchase and read it. If ever you find yourself facing trials or going through life changing events in your life, this book will give you the tools you need to handle them.  Anyway, back to what I was saying. On Wednesdays I have choir rehearsal, on Thursdays dance rehearsal (praise dancing), Saturday mornings praise and worship, then on Sundays my duties vary: On first Sunday, I teach Children's Church (8:00 am only); on third Sundays I sing and dance (both at the 8:00 and 11:00 am services) and on fourth Sunday, I sing again.

Phew! That's a lot, isn't it? Seriously, I don't mind. Everything I do at church brings me joy and fulfillment and in all of this I still find time to create! If I'm not making greeting cards, I'm putting together a flyer for some event or the other.  These last two are my passion. I love being creative. I get a thrill from seeing the joy in other's faces when I create a card or make a flyer or invitation for their event.  For all of these reasons it is so hard to get on this computer and write!  But, I will try, my friends. Just bear with me as I get myself more organized to do so.

I don't want to leave you without showing off some of my creations.  Though I haven't been blogging, I do create. Here are a few of my newest cards. I made collages as I've made so many in the past few months.

 The images above are digi stamps by Robert Jackson Fine Arts. I used Gimp to make changes to the images (paint, patterns) as well as Copics (in some cases).  I also used Washi tape and paper piercing (the image in the lower bottom left and right).












These cards on the right are the birthday, get well bunch. I used MTC to cut out the boot, but prior to cutting, I changed the pattern on the boot and the shoe in Gimp using their pre-installed leopard pattern.  The Dr. Who card was for, you guessed it, a doctor friend, lol! As for the Fight like a Girl card, well October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I have a few friends who've been fighting this disease and was inspired to make this card for them.

This other set of cards below are again Robert Jackson digis. A few of them are exclusive to me (I have ideas about the type of image I want and I order them to my specifications).  This is the case for the two male figure cards below.  Once more I used Gimp to create the look I want for the digis, then I print and cut in MTC. I made two copies of the images so I could use mounting stickers to give them a 3D look.

For the ladies, I used Copics to paint the bodies as well as the dress of the lady in blue.  For the other lady, I used Washi tape wrapped around the paper pierced skirt and top. I then wrapped the same Washi around the background paper.

 Here are the final four.  For the moustache and bow tie card, I used my Cameo Silhouette to cut.  The Sister Act card digi is from Mo's.  I used Copics to paint the image and Stickles to embellish.

Inspired

Good morning, blog friends!

I hope you are enjoying this Monday morning. In my neck of the woods (Los Angeles) it promises to be a hot sunny day. This is typical for this time of year. Twenty-eight years ago today, I gave birth to my oldest daughter and it was HOT!

After my little vacay  (see previous post) I came back to chaos. I had to get rid of my mattress because I had a bed bug! Don't ask me how it came into my room (according to a pest control friend it could have come through the window - I live on the lower floor of my apartment unit) but it wreaked havoc with my body.  Prior to me leaving on vacation, I had been seeing these bites on different parts of my body (mostly arms and legs). What was different about these bites was, in addition to the extreme itching, my skin would inflame as if I'd been bitten by a bee (I'm allergic).  I brushed it all off thinking that it was some type of gnat bite.  While away, my youngest daughter came home for a spell (she's been living in China, where she works). She texted me to say she thought she was allergic to the food (after a year of eating vegetables and noodles she thought she couldn't eat regular food, lol) because she woke up with bites on her body. I replied back that there must be something in my room. So, she switched rooms and slept in my mother's bed.

When I got back home on July 9th, I immediately called my friend because he said that I might have bed bugs. He came over armed with a flashlight and proceeded to go over my bed frame. I have a queen size Queen Anne bed and it took a bit of looking for him to find the bug. Yep, there was only one (can you believe it) and that one insect caused me a pretty penny.  I had to get rid of my mattress and purchase a new one.

The one good thing that came from this was that I was inspired to change the look of my bedroom.  I decided to DIY my whole room by not only painting it (with the help of my youngest), but I also picked up the carpet and I'm working on putting down flooring.  Here's what the room looks like now without the bed and prior to putting down the floor.

As you can see, I painted the room Purple and Lavender (Lavender is my favorite scent, so it didn't take me long to figure out the colors I would use).  As of today, I'm still working on my flooring.  I should have it done in the next two weeks and will post photos of the finished space for you to see.

Because of the havoc that little insect caused, I was uninspired to make any cards for a while, but in August I had this burst of inspiration and started making, not only cards, but these framed pieces.  I will showcase just a few here for now.

Card
I purchased the image for this shoe from 123rf.com I printed and cut the shoe in MTC and used glue dots to make it 3D. I printed the Scripture in MS Word and cut it out and attached with glue dots. The background Damask paper is from mygrafico.com and the brown paper I printed from MS Word and embossed with Cuttlebug Anna Griffin  5x7 Pirouette embossing folder.

Framed Art

Card
Digi file purchased from Robert Jackson. He made this image file exclusive for me. I used Gimp to add a pattern to the dress and color in the skin, hair and purse. I then print and cut the image and attached it with glue dots. As with the previous card, I printed the sentiment in MS Word and cut and pasted it to the card. The background paper I used from a Kente file I had in my stash and which I created a background for in Word and printed in color to use for this card.

Framed Art

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Hello blog friends!

I know you wondered where I've been. Wonder no more! I have had a very busy summer. After writing my last post, I prepared myself for a three week break. I went to Orlando, Fl. for a much needed vacation.  My first stop was in Ft. Myers, though. My youngest sister's best friend lives in Labelle, so we made her place our mini retreat for a few days before the madness of family and park outings.  For four days I did nothing but wake up, eat, relax by the pool for a few hours, and read (oh, I also baked). For me it was bliss!

Here is a photo of the pool and the serene scene I enjoyed. This photo was taken from the pool, which is located outdoors and enclosed in a mesh-type enclosure (all year round). The photo next to that is of the pool itself (that's my sister in the pool).

Scene outside the pool area

The pool

After those four days, we began our vacation in Florida in earnest. We were in Florida to celebrate my sister-in-law's family reunion.  We met up in Orlando on the Saturday before 4th of July for a time of fun with the kids (at theme parks), laughter, and good eats (the in-laws have two brothers who are Chefs as well as their father). The food was 'fine dining' at its best. 

The first theme park we visited was Gatorland. I'm just going to show you the photos and let them do the talking :-).  I will follow up with you in my next post to fill you in on my busy summer.