Where has my mojo gone? Maybe this is my WOYWW entry

It's been almost a week since I've shared with you. In the meantime, JoZart has honored me with a couple of awards - Stylish Blogger Award, and My Blog Has Attitude. Many thanks to Jo for her kindness.

Needless to say, I've been trying like a madwoman to get the graphics installed on the sidebar gadgets with no luck. So I guess I'll just have to brag about them here. lol

Now I have to tell you some things about myself that you might not already know - 8 things. Here goes:
1.  I have ...danced the samba in the streets of Rio de Janeiro with about 10,000 other people (1998 World Cup Soccer); have been an extra in an Italian film; lived in Italy for a year long, long ago. (no, not during the Renaissance!)
2.  I love...listening to the blues, or real rock n roll, none of this "new" rock for me! Classics only, please.
3.  Favorite thing to eat...penne bolognese with carrot cake for dessert.
4.  Colors...shades of yellow and orange sunsets.
5.  I try...to laugh everyday.
6.  My biggest wish...to be close to all my loved ones, to see them often and for health and happiness to follow them always.
7.  I fear...being alone, all alone, lonely. But I won't let that happen.
8.  Amongst the jobs I've had...working in a printer's shop and unloading a truck filled with boxes of paper! I'm not put off by hard work. 

Now I'd like to pass this along to 4 of my favorite bloggers

First, to Lori H. whose artistic ability always amazes me - not to mention we share the same quirky sense of humor.
Next to Nancy C. who is so busy and yet finds time to make a beautiful array of art.
Also, to Jude whose heart is in the right place all the time.
Finally, Helen, who shares my love of Stampotique designs.
These women probably don't know the impact their blogs and creativity have had on me, but they have kept me company many a late night and their ideas have inspired me to make something fun.

 Thanks for your inspiration, your personal style and for sharing your attitude.

I did make something fun over the weekend - a Tim Holtz configuration box for Halloween. I know, it's a bit early, but it's a perfect time of year to put something together to have it ready to go. Sharon, owner of my LSS Buffalo Stamps and Stuff, offered the class on Saturday. We all had such a good time tissue taping, inking, gluing and adding our frightening goodies to the sweet little cubbies. The skull on the right side has a hole in its neck and sits upon a battery operated tea light so the head flickers. The bottle of blood/poison is really cool, too. Just love Tim's papers and all the little details that go into this config. 

Finally I leave you today with a picture of Ophelia dressed to kill. She is such a diva in her 4 foot long red feather boa and loves to carry it around the house in her mouth: down to the basement then back upstairs through the living room then under the bed.

It turns out that she is a mouser. Last night she brought my husband a mouse trap, complete with trapped mouse (deceased, thank goodness), up from the basement! She was highly praised for her bravery and success. Not a bad day in the life of a spoiled only child! What a puss.

Hope you make something fun today, even if it is "just" a laugh or a smile.  To be continued... 

WOYWW I won blog candy!

Yesterday afternoon the postman brought me a wonderful package from my friend Jo in Liverpool, England! I am so excited to have won one of her bitty buckets plus a few jewels and stamps - many thanks, Jo.  You must check out her work at JoZart; she is multi-talented and a sweet soul.  Here is the cool bitty bucket that hangs off the edge of my desk to keep scissors, pencils and other bits n' bobs handy.

 Don't you just love that cool print fabric of people in conversation? And that hot pink liner is so cheerful on today's snowy afternoon. 

 Thank you for your kind words of welcome to Ophelia, my Christmas gift from St. Donald. Believe me, I didn't put her under the tree, she did this all by her little self. She has settled in nicely and likes to sit by the window and watch the birds at the feeder as big fluffy snowflakes float by. 

Here's hoping you make something fun today. Hugs!


 

Wow, two weeks since my last WOYWW

Hello and Happy New Year to all on this eleventh day of Christmas! What with Christmas travel out of town for a week and all, I didn't have anything to report. The only crafting that I've done is online shopping for stash stuff. When that arrives I expect to hit the atelier with a full head of steam.

Briefly, the tags and origami gifts for the teens were a huge hit. How can I top that for next year? The nephew liked his tag so much that he put it in the family xmas tree. That made me feel special.

The husband, St. Donald, surprised me with a second xmas gift yesterday that I suspect will be on my work desk in the next few days.  Meet Ophelia! 

 Since he brought this one-year old female home from the shelter yesterday, she hasn't left our sides. She is super curious and extra affectionate. Can't wait to introduce her to the room of stash.

Well, it's time for you to hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and see the desks of our dear blog friends. 

Hope you can make something fun even if it's only just a smile!  Hugs to all.




  

Hello WOYWW -ers

Another Wednesday, with Christmas just 3 more wake-ups away! I've put the finishing touches on the Tim tags/gifts for my 5 nieces and 1 nephew. Thought I would post them for you to see tonight. No, the kids aren't going to peek. Nor will their parents. After all, teenagers don't read blogs by their crafty auntie. 

Hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and have a look-see at work desks around the world. There are some very talented and ultra wonderful people with really cool things going on. I highly recommend you turn on the Christmas music and grab a cup of cocoa to enjoy as you hop about the world.

First, a very merry Christmas to all. Second, a very happy New Year. May you have health, happiness and enough of what you need.

On with the show and a little bit of tell. Here you see one of the 12 tags of Christmas directed by none other than Tim Holtz. After adapting his tag (faith) I origami-ed some money (butterfly) and glued it on the back. Actually, I didn't glue the cash to the back of the tag, just the pipe cleaner body. 

 Next I used my new Stampotique stamps with Prismacolor pencils, and cut out the image. I distressed inked the edges and mounted it on distress inked and stamped card stock. I love, love, love the holiday background stamp (stampotique, too.) Isn't this dear the cutest thing!

 These are the finished gift packages. Card on top, tag and origami-ed money inside. And to think it took soooooo long to get to this point. For just 6 kids. Nothing for the adults and gasp! nothing, nothing, nothing yet for St. Donald. Yikes, I better do something quickly as we leave Thursday, yes, in just a few short hours, for Indianapolis, IN - Christmas at mom's - age 82 and going strong. I don't know what to get him - he gets what he wants or needs throughout the year and has all the electronics, gadgets, golfballs and golf clubs a man could want. To top it all off, he doesn't believe in gift lists. It couldn't be more maddening! sigh

Past years' gift for him haven't gone so well, at least 4 returned items; the idea of and A-Z Christmas fell flat. I bought him gifts that started with the letters a-z, for example, ABCE were children's Erasers in the shapes of A-B-C clever, right? Wrong. Evidently there were too many packages to open or something. I had fun putting it together, I guess that in itself is a kind of a gift.

As I write this I'm kinda feelin' like this guy...

but then I jest.  I choose to wait for more snow to fall and enjoy the Christmas tree and lights on the houses around town.  Remember....

Be sure to make something fun. ...and to all a good-night!  





 

Hey there, hi there, ho there!

I'll explain this photo at the end of today's post. But I just had to pique your curiosity. 

 

 The first of the holiday's guests have come and gone. St. Donald and I are dad and mom to 7 international exchange students. Because they are so far away we are lucky that the youngest of the crew, Ghufran age 20, lives in Toronto now. He is in his 3rd year at Ryerson University and is originally from Afghanistan. 

There is a long version and a longer version of his saga. In short, he came here when he was 16 for a year of high school and then returned to Afghanistan to his family and to start college. Unfortunately, he and his family received threats and G (Ghufran) wanted very much to return to the States to be safe. A resourceful young man and entrepreneur, G managed to get an invitation to be a counselor at an international youth conference that was held in Washington DC. He had done this once prior to leaving the states and found the experience wonderful and enriching, thus he wanted to do it again.

 We made arrangements for him to come "home" to Buffalo to spend a week with us in August before he planned to return to Afghanistan. Just before our visit was up, he skipped the Canadian border to seek political refugee status. Can you imagine any 17 year old that you know who might be willing to give up everything and start over in another culture and country?  So this is where he went to high school and has lived on his own for the last 4 years. For those doing the math, he'll be 21 in April. So that's the short version.  

 He came from Toronto to Ft. Erie, Ontatio, Canada by bus on Friday afternoon. The it is always better for either the St. Don or me to go pick him up and go through U.S. Customs with G than for him to go alone. It's always best to have a sponsor in his situation. 

 So at Customs we do the usual routine, pull up to the booth, turn off the car, hand over our documents and car keys and wait for 2 armed Homeland Security folks to come escort G into the building. A hour and a half and many questions and statements later, we are free to go and on our merry way to Christmas in Orchard Park. Yippee! I'm still in the short version.

  He spent 2 night here in his own bed: friends to see, lunches and dinners with former teachers, bowling, movies and laughter. G left today on the next leg of his journey - off to NYC and then San Diego, California for Christmas, then the reverse again on January 2nd back to Toronto. I promise this is the short form!

 Then straight away off he will go to Prague for a 10 day international youth conference. Remember I said he was an entrepreneur? He found scholarships, donations and matching funds to cover the $3,000 cost of the trip. This and manage a straight A average in his courses.

 Not only am I proud of his accomplishments, I am in awe of his ability to set and reach his goals. More proud momma details in another post.

 This in short is why I haven't done any crafting of late. Now to the explanation of the above photo. Tonight I did manage to do some origami folding of cash-ola, moolah, bucks, dollar bills as gifts for the nieces and nephew. a necktie, a heart and butterflies. I'll tape these to the back of the tags I made a couple weeks back and voilà, gifts will be finished. We don't go in for all the rushing, buying, wrapping and spending. There is already enough to do for the holiday food and guests.

 Tomorrow I'll explain my families silly and simple method of gift exchange...it's inexpensive and fun. Until then, make something fun, If you can't craft, then make a smile! 

WOYWW - go see Julia and her friends

I forgot to send you over to see Julia Dunnit's Stamping Ground to join in the fun blog hop of WOYWW. Enjoy the ride!

Wake up - it's WOYWW & tags#6, 7, 10 & 12

Phew! I've been tagging like a madwoman to complete Tim's 12 tags of christmas and forgot to post what I've done. Has that ever happened to you? Yeah, I thought so. 

So I slept until noon today (fighting another 2 day migraine) and thought I'd better march on and get these goodies posted to share with you. This is the aftermath of the 12 tags of Christmas! Stuff everywhere on the desk and floor, too There is a little clear space on the craft mat for some new projects tomorrow.

 Here' my next love...some sweet holiday stamps from Stampotique. I've ignored them since they arrived, but now they will be the center of my universe. 

 I'm not very good at doing original things, but I'll consider using some of Tim's techniques as a jumping off point to make a little something extra. 

 Here are my tags #10 and #12. Improv and -ish were the name of the game since I didn't have the snowman die or the corners for the Joy card. I also failed to read and follow directions for the snowman, pretty typical of my impatience to finish something I think is cool. I continue to work on patience as a virtue!

Tags #6 and #7 turned out well. I love the texture fade technique, but that was the easiest part of the poinsettia tag. Pretty labor intensive. But I'd do it again in a heart beat. A little PS here, I've decided not to do #8 since I don't have any  of the materials. I'll try to do an -ish post after the holidays.

Since I was a couple days late and a dollar short I was completing 2 and a half tags per day to catch up. Oh yeah, I had that cold thingy that laid me low for several days.  St. Donald was doing sudoku and watching movies while I played tag. We're compatible like that - each has own interests and we don't mind being alone while being together. 

I shipped off a box of tags to the mother for her Advent card surprises and brought a couple more to Charlie in her new assisted living home. 

Yesterday was another lake effect blizzard here, but being the good Buffalonian that I am, I drove to Canada for the monthly appointment chez la coiffeuse. The hair is now ready for holidays in Indianapolis with the fam. Driving was somewhat dangerous, but then loyalty to one's hairdresser is more important, just drive slowly on the most traveled highways. The Queen Elizabeth Way was closed, so I took the scenic route, what I could see of it. lol  

That's about it for today, I do blather on, but at least it's in large print. rofl  Hope you've had time to make something fun. Warm hugs.