Another month comes to an end

It is hard to believe April is almost over! I am still without a computer but hoping I will be picking up my son's laptop tomorrow. There were some installations issues so we had to take his in too!

I am amazed at everything I used my laptop for, before it crashed beyond repair!! But it seems that all my files were able to be released recovered from my hard drive......and I am very thankful for that!!

I have managed to get a second job, needed to try to get ahead of bills and fix the no computer issue. I never thought at this stage of my life that I would be struggling so hard and having to take a minimum wage job on top of the one I already have, just to try and survive and only have one day off in 10. I truly thought with my college education and experience I would be in a much better position and not having to do such physical work (my back is not doing well).
I haven't been doing too much at my art table lately but completed an ATC swap and my part in The Traveling Art Project started by Joyce van der Lely I will share those pics after they arrive at their dest
inations.

I did do a 12X12 piece using colors way out of my comfort zone of....purple LOL I used my Faber Castell Whipped Spackle, Gelato and some Prima Color Bloom Spray and my embossing folders, punches and my Big Shot.

I can't wait to share more with you....works in progress, finished pieces, backgrounds from my art journal.....so many things!!

Thanks for stopping in!

Have a great week!
Cathy

Easter, Best Friends and Life

Yes....I know my last post was a depressing one. But that's  life some days. Things haven't  improved too much and the job interview that I had and was super excited for, didn't turn out in my favor. I had thought it had gone so well but someone else got the position.

Easter weekend was awesome though!!! My best friend came over from the island for a jammies clad crafting weekend!! Picked her up at the ferry terminal about noonish....talked all the way back to the house then talked some more. Do you have that friend in your life that you can say anything to...no matter how dark & depressing it is, or how silly it sounds. That person that you can say everything that is wrong...ALL of it and there is no judging, just understanding and empathy and then tears (lots of those) and then some laughter (tons of that) maybe some more tears. Yeah that's  my friend  Linda Lou!!! I am so glad she came even though I truly had nothing to offer her...cept tea, but she came, picked up a few groceries & snacks and still came for the long weekend! And I needed that visit even more than I knew! And to top it all off....she spent a bunch of time with my crazy family coloring eggs and then Easter dinner the next night!

Going on 24 years of friendship and we are still the most hysterically funny people we know!! And nope....not everything we find funny is politically correct or appropriate yet we laugh anyways!

We spent Saturday evening dyeing eggs with my nephews...so much fun!! So much dye spilled on the table....we decided we should have white material on the table next year because the spilling made such cool colors and patterns!

Getting all the dyes readyand still using Mom's teacups that we used when we were kids 

There were alot of eggs dyed (and cracked)

 I am very lucky that I am able to do fun things like this with my nephews!

Will post again very soon to share some of my works in progress from my art table and some great pictures I took out at Crescent Beach last week!!

Thanks for visiting!! Have a great start to your week!

Cathy

It's the Weekend!

Another weekend has arrived!

Does everyone have a busy one planned? For those of us with nicer weather....any gardens being started this weekend? Or is it an arting weekend?

I don't have the space where my suite is to have a garden etc so not doing any of that, but I do go down the street and help my sister with hers during the spring and summer. It's kind of nice to be able to do some gardening but not have the whole thing to take care of. It works for me, I get to do some gardening, take pics of the flowers, spend time with my sister and hang out with my nephews, and my sister gets some help in her huge garden areas...win/win!

I am going to work on some art projects in a bit. I have a 12X12 canvas on the go for my sister, should be done tonight I hope. Then I'm going to work on a couple of my Life Book lessons as well.

And at some point I really should grab some dinner. So all in all a pretty quiet day/night for me and I am okay with that.

Next weekend will be busier, it's Craft Night with the girls at my house on Friday, out for dinner for my Dad's 67th birthday on Saturday and the season finale of The Walking Dead on Sunday!! I am going to have withdrawals having to wait till next fall for my Walking Dead fix!!

Have a great evening all, I may even be back later with finished projects, but no promises on that one! :)

Cathy

Two In One Day

Crazy.....I'm still up!! I really should be sleeping at almost 5am, but you know how it goes when you start one thing and just want to finish it, but then you find something else, then you remember that other thing you wanted to research etc etc etc!! I am on information overload!

Trying to find a free watermark program so that I can put up more of my photos and not have them taken and used by others, there's alot out there. Then trying to tie all my online life together, again so much to learn and remember. But in the end will be so worth it I think.

I'm actually really looking forward to making my blog more than just my ramblings, but also sharing of more things that interest me or meals/dishes that I make or have tried from others, of course all my art related things, my photography and maybe some custom orders for cards or scrapbooks or canvasses. And maybe one day the place to share my projects for a design team I get chosen for, but that is probably very far in the future, but I'm going to start trying!

Have a wonderful Monday everyone!

Cathy

Life Book and Life

Wow....the days and weeks just seem to be going so fast lately. I have worked on and completed a few more of my Life Book 2015 lessons! I am really looking forward to working on the ones I have waiting for me. So many new things to learn and so many techniques to work on getting better at. And the supplies!!! Oh lordy I need 5 jobs so I can shop for art stuff whenever I want too!! You all know what I'm talking about! LOL Especially now that I'm actually using the supplies that I have been "collecting" for so long, I need to replenish the basics regularly!

As for life....well it's the everyday ups and downs. March 15 would have been my Dad and Mom's 42nd anniversary, but this was the second one without her. Mom has been gone for a year and a half now, some days it still feels like it happened yesterday and some days it's not as painful, for me. For my Dad it's always painful and he misses her and still cries almost everyday for her. He keeps busy and looks after his littlest grandsons (7 and 3) and they keep him on his toes and he does things for his Mom (93) and his brother so he's on the go alot, and I'm lucky that I get to spend time with too and with the little ones. But somedays he just mentions Mom and he tears up, or he forgets the words to a song he wants to teach the little ones and cries because he says Mom would remember all the words. I know everyone in my family struggles with the loss still, but we all had our own lives, but for Dad his whole life was wrapped up with my Mom's.
I miss her every day, I know people say it gets easier, I haven't found that yet. It's just different. I miss showing my Mom all the things I make or create, she was my biggest fan when it came to my creative stuff. And she was usually the recipient of all the new things I came up with. My kids miss her, they were very close to her and there was no one in the world aside from me that my son was more loyal too. It broke my heart that his 18th birthday (legal in Alberta) had to be celebrated just 8 days after my Mom passed and 4 days after her service. He didn't want to celebrate at all, but we had to remind him...if Grandma was here she'd be all over taking him to a pub and buying him his first legal drink and I think it helped that my Dad said he was coming out. The things family does to protect and help the ones they love. I still have days where I just don't feel like it's real and I have days where I'm angry and days where the littlest thing or a song makes me cry and then there are the moments when someone says something about Mom and we all laugh. Those are the best moments, doesn't mean I don't miss her, but it's nice to laugh when we talk about her sometimes too.

Life in general is......challenging. Still looking for work as my current job is not enough hours to survive. There has got to be the right job out there for me!! I just keep getting up everyday and trying and applying and really try to not let the negative take over....ans sometimes that is a job all on it's own! But I can't wallow in the bad stuff, it doesn't do me any good and it certainly won't make the day better.

I have been doing some work with The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and making a few steps forward with that. Trying to declutter and  organize was my first month's goals and my second one is too make a more concentrated effort on updating my blog at least weekly, sharing more of the creative things I love and find on my interent adventures and also to put myself out there and work on some projects and apply for some design teams! These are things that although I can't make them my job, they do make me happy and I love to create!

Thanks all for checking in and we'll talk soon!

Cathy

Hello Everyone.......

It's hard to believe that the second month of the new year is almost over already!!

I started Life Book 2015 on January 1, 2015 and it has been an amazing learning adventure so far!! There are amazing instructors, so many things to learn and so much color and creativity! It is a wonderful journey to be on with some wonderful people. The group of people all on this journey are so supportive and caring and make all of us feel good about what we are creating. One of the best things about all the lessons is that you can follow exactly how the teacher does something or you can take the basics and create something that speaks to you more. So far I am following the teachers pretty closely, but I feel like by the end of this year I'll be venturing on my own when it's time to create, scary I know! But the confidence building and ignoring the "inner critic" that derails us all at times, is quite amazing and you truly could not find a safer more accepting place to share your work or ask questions.

I am a bit behind on my lessons, thank goodness for working at your own pace :) And I am kind of jumping around to complete ones that I feel more of a connection with. It's amazing to be learning from so many wonderful artist that I admire!

I have added my completed week assignments here on my Life Book 2015 page. This is where I'll add all my classes as I complete them, if I'm not afraid to share my finished project!

I have also started working on "The Happiness Project" with my sister and a friend of hers. We have decided to meet monthly to keep ourselves on track and it's nice to bounce some ideas of other people and see where they are too.

Lots of things going on right now. Not all good, but some are wonderful!! Work is a struggle as I don't have enough hours, but I keep looking, everyday and try to stay positive that the right thing will come along.

One of my personal goals for next month is to commit to keeping my blog current and updated at least weekly and really spend some time sharing what I learn, what I find that is creatively awesome and building a real presence in the blogging world. I'm starting a bit early and want to be into the habit soon. There is so much to share and learn from and I want to be part of that.

Check out my Life Book 2015 page for my completed art assignments and I'll be back soon!!

Have a wonderful weekend ♥

Lifebook 2015 - Official Participant

I am still reeling from the excitement in my world!! On Friday I was messaged and told I had won a seat in Lifebook 2015!! A year long art workshop with an amazing line up of teachers, some I already follow and adore and some new to me that I am loving learning about.
I am excited/nervous/terrified/happy and so many other emotions!! I love the creativeness that I know I have, but this will be out of my comfort zone as I"m not an artist...I play with colors and mixed media and alot of cards and pages etc. My sister is the one who can draw and paint...so I may have to ask her for some tips! This is going to open a whole new world of expression and learning for me and I am so damn excited about it!!

Short post tonight, but also put up a new page all about Lifebook 2015 with links and that will be the page that I share some of my journey on when the workshop starts on January 1, 2015!!

Thanks and have a great beginning of the week!

C

Back to blogging

Wow!! I have been offline and away from my blog for far too long!! With having no internet at home and needing all the data I had to use on my phone for work (although it went way over and cost a small fortune) being active on my blog has been put aside.
But I am happy to say that I have internet again and so glad as I see so many online art classes and workshops coming up!
One of the best ones up and coming is LifeBook 2015!! The list of talented instructors for this amazing course is mind boggling! I follow a number of them and just love their work and the thoughts that they share with everyone and I think that anyone taking this course is going to get so much out of it!

http://effywild.com/2014/09/15/kermit-flail-life-book-2015-squeee/

This link will take you directly to the blog of one of the teachers and one of my personal faves! She is sharing a journey through life with all of us and I love that somedays she has the words to describe how I'm feeling when I don't have them myself. It's like I start reading her blog and a little light bulb goes on above my head! :) 

Let's get back to blogging and creating and sharing!

Talk soon,
Cathy

Where does the time go.....

Already at the May long weekend here!  The time has flown so fast it seems. My Dad has only 9 more days of work left then he is officially retired.  He is then moving down to Langley, to his wonderful suite at my sister's house, which is right down the road from my little rental suite too.

I haven't updated much and won't be for a bit due to lack of internet/cable at home.  After being unemployed and job hunting for much longer than I had anticipated, it has been hard to play catch up with all my bills and keep food on the table. So unfortunately I could only catch up on the cell phone bills this month :( But I need that more for work than anything else as I have to call in the minute I arrive at a store to start my merchandising.  It's very difficult not having internet as I use my computer for so many aspects of my life, my art class I just signed up for, sharing my cards that I try to sell to help make ends meet, my photography stuff. It's so strange how dependent so many things I love are on the internet. But it has brought me into contact with so many amazing artists and people that I am very grateful for that.

I am working now and have pretty good hours, but trying to catch up on my bills when so many other things need my money is stressful. I also need a more reliable car as my job is dependent on my having a vehicle as well. I merchandise books and mags in a number of different stores and need to be able to get to all of them. So that adds to my list of stressful things, also I'd really like to be able to afford a new bed lol I am getting too old to sleep on a too short (even for me!) love seat or an air mattress. But all things in time and I know that things are getting better slowly, it's just frustrating to keep struggling right now.

Not too many adventures lately as my son has been working overtime, which is great for him. So hopefully next week end we get to get out and do something. I enjoy the Sunday afternoons with my grown kids, it's nice to just get out and see something new and spend some time just being together, not talking about bills, rent, jobs etc.

I made some cards this week for a card exchange I'm in.

 Also had a nice Mother's Day with my kids and then dinner at my sister's house. It was the first one without my Mom so some moments were making me teary and the weeks up to Mother's Day had me emotional as well as I saw all the Mother's Day ads and cards and everyone getting cards etc. I know it's only the first one but was so sad not making a interesting new project to give my Mom for her special day and making her a card etc.

But my kids were good to me, my daughter made me a card using some of my fave things, purple, flip flops and Mickey Mouse :)

Beautiful flowers from my son. He was up early and went out and got me all the purple flowers the store he was at had, then came home woke me up and put on the coffee :)

The month has been going by so quickly, yet at times has felt like it was dragging. I miss having my internet, the cable not as much as I thought, except missing all the season finales of my fave shows lol
I brought my laptop and printer down to my sister's to use her internet to download and print all my work plano's and info that I needed, so thought I'd use the time to update here too! Hopefully I won't be gone too long and will update when I can, I am hoping to get everything back up soon so I can really make a good informative daily blog post about artists, classes, supplies and really get into my classes etc.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!! :)

Has it really been two weeks?!

Wow!! Time sure does fly and some of it was fun!

We did Easter a day early because my sis and bro-in-law were going on a trip on their own, no kids. We colored eggs on Friday night and it was so much fun having little ones around to color eggs again. Although my grown kids colored eggs and so did the rest of the adults too. Egg decorating is some serious business in our family.

My daughter using the dip technique to get multi colored layers

My son did one egg with his fave band and it turned out great

You know shit just got serious when Dad puts on his glasses to decorate eggs!! LOL

 It was also another first.....our first Easter without my Mom. I found it very hard as I have with all the other "firsts" we've already gone through. I pulled out the cups that we used as kids and that my kids used for eons to color eggs and took them over for my sister's boys. They are only 6 and 2 so the Easter egg dyeing cups will get a few more years of use and that makes me happy.

Can you tell which one is used for the blue dye every year?! haha

Getting the dye ready and using Mom's old china cups ♥

Then on Saturday night we had a big dinner with family and my sis made the potato salad that Mom always made for Easter, I made the rice salad she used to make and Dad did alot of "Remember when..." and teared up a few times. But he did okay and then spent the following week looking after his little grandsons while their folks were having some time away.

Dad has gone back to PG and to give his notice this week. He is finally retiring at the end of May and moving down here, so it will be good to have him close to all of us.

Last week was busy busy with work and aches and pains but it seemed to fly by and my evenings were just gone with napping and lounging. Not terribly productive last week, but I'm hopefull this week will be a better one.

The weekend just past, my kids and I continued our "Sunday Afternoon Adventures" and went to a great little British Car Show in Fort Langley. I'll add pics of that tomorrow evening :)

Hope you all have had a wonderful start to a wonderful week!! And for all things glittery and creative, please go and check out Effy Wild's April Blog Along post, she is truly such an inspiration on so many levels

Be Positive

It is something I need to work on every day!! Things have been a struggle for awhile and I need to work on thinking positively on a daily basis. And I need to consciously make the the effort to stay positive. Even if it is only a baby step forward, it is still a step forward.

I think it is time for changes, small, large and all sizes in between. I am going to work on a vision board for myself and put on there the things that I want in my life, I have put it off for months but I think it's time to get to it. I signed up for a card exchange and I haven't done anything like that in years, so it is a positive step to being creative on a regular basis! I have a small girls night of stamping and swapping coming up, yup just found a demo in my area and contacted her and signed right up!! And that is out of the norm for me since I don't usually do things like that unless I know someone!

And this time next year I am going to be part of a couple of online art classes that I have been following and reading blogs from the various instructors, that is my creative goal that I am working towards. Maybe even by summer I'll be doing some classes with amazing teachers like Effy Wild or Suzi Blu These are just amazing talented ladies and I just love what they do, how they relate to all of us and how accessible they are to learn from. Definitely on my bucket list going to do list because it's something I love and want to learn!

And today I went and got all my hair chopped off and dyed it back to a darker brown color. I will post pics of the new do soon, but right now I have an infection in my mouth and my jaw is swollen up to the size of a large orange..lol I'd rather not have pics taken right now. But I went from having hair almost all one length and to the middle of my shoulders at the back to having it chopped, layered, thinned and now doesn't even touch my collar in the back. Big change but I think I like it! :)

No pics to add tonight, but tomorrow I will as I've finished a couple of small mixed media canvasses and I have pics of my cards for my card exchange.

Have a great night all

Tim Holtz Inspired

Quiet couple of nights here.  Was out tonight trying to get some ideas for Christmas gifts for my nieces and my nephew. Got to talk to my Ethan on the phone, he will be 4 on sunday and he sounds so grown up already :( But he's so handsome and his Auntie loves him so much and wishes he was closer!


I'm very excited for tomorrow night!! Tim Holtz 12 x 12 Framed art class at The Scrapyard with Jackie!! Really looking forward to this one and hope I can use some of the things I learn for my other projects I have for Christmas :)