And the next Winner is.....

SABRENA!! yeah!! She wins the contest where everyone picked a name for that cute little orange guy with the charlie brown hair. :) Everyone who picked a name got in, you can name him whatever you want. :)

And the winner is......

LIZ!!!! yeah!! She wins the custom made owl. So Liz, you get to pick what color theme and bow or hair or whatever(I will let you know if I can do it or not)!! :)

Due to the fear I have of my life being in danger....

Im making more owls. And im going to give them all away. But its not going to be that easy. MWUAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

So first off MY ANNIVERSARY!! people. Its on my facebook. Find it. Email it to me or comment it somewhere for me. Your name will go in a drawing for a CUSTOM MADE owl. Meaning you can pick the color theme, eye color, hair/bow, whatever.

Second....Lets have a contest to name that last little guy I made. He is soooo cute. Send me your names. Liz I have yours...Henry.If you want to change that let me know. Only one name sugestion per person please.

Babies do not have to ask or participate, they automatically get an owl. That is babies 5 and under, not big kids that act like babies!! So Sophia and Ericka get a free owl, but I pick the colors (only because ive already started making them before the threats to my life started pouring in).

And some of you may just get one in your mail box someday. But until then and for time for me to make more, contests it will be!!!

And dont forget the byline of my Awesome Creativity blog....If you want surprises in your mailbox I need your address. So if you think I dont have yours you better be sending it to me cause my favorites list is a mile long of future cool things I want to make. :)

And the question is....

What month and day is my wedding anniversary?

I can barely remember, well actually I cant, I have to look it up whenever I want to know. Let's now even try to figure that one out.

You can put your answers here in the comments, on my facebook, or email. One guess per person please. I will give it a week this time and then pick my winner!!!

:)

My sample is done...

Im going to keep her though. It was my sample and there are some mistakes. Im thinking of putting a bow on top of her head. :)

So freakin' cute. I can move the eyes around on the winners if you want something different. I mean the little brown part, make them crosseyed. Haha.

So...who wants one???? Watch for the contest soon!!!!!

I have a new project..I have a new project!! (Sing this)

I have had this craft magazine on my table for a couple months with this soooo cute little owl on the front and I finally made him. He is so dang cute. So cute that I want to do another contest and give one away. I will even let you pick the color theme, if you want one.

So, of course, I have made my own changes for these little guys. Like the eyes, im going to make felt eyes. And the sewing, I kinda suck, so its all not straight or perfect. And I didnt like the wings so I did my own, well not my own, I copied them from another owl project. But trust me sooooo much cuter. I will post a pic of mine when he is all pretty and done for show.

Believe me these little guys are way cuter in real. So much more so I want to make a whole basket of them and just give them away to people. Heehee!! And so easy to make. I mean with my sewing it might take a little longer but I can get one done in a day, without interuptions or constant facebook checking. So there!

Stay tuned for the contest. I need to think up a good question for this little guy!!

Oh ps, the owls in the pic are ornaments but mine is more like a little pillow or friend. I was even thinking of putting a bow on the top of one to make it a little girl owl..so cute. Cuteness overload!

Monty Python and the Holy Grail Postal

So I joined a postal. I was never going to do one because my first, one and only, was lost, stolen, held hostage, ?, it has never been found or logged or mailed back to me and that made me sad.

But its Winter and the theme rocked (not for me for Bubba and I said I would do it for him) so I joined this one. One.

I carved King Arthur and Patsy and made a log book. If you dont know these guys I would recommend watching the movie, clips on youtube, google it, whatever. I dont think its funny and have never been able to watch the whole movie all the way through (and I have that British accent aversion so...)but I did my best and made it for Bubba. Haha. I dont know why.

I made the log book to look like a scrapbook of Arthur's adventures on his quest for the holy grail.

Sorry my pictures are blurry but I need to do some practice with my camera. If I use flash the glare wipes out the pic and if I dont its blurry. Haha. I need to try better with this. Next time I will. Promise.

Christmas card

I made this stamp for my AQ Christmas card to put mailings in and whatever. I painted it with watercolors. This one is my sample one. I only sent it to a few people this year so I will use it again next year if needed. I keep a detailed notebook on my cards and images and address' and who gets what, swaps, trades, etc. It helps keep things straight and I dont have to try and remember everything. Haha.

Holiday Card

My 2010 Holiday card. My first Holiday card. I only made a few that I stuck with some mailings and then traded the rest off seperately.

Sorry that one picture is turned to the side. I keep messing with it but cant seem to change it. Dumb. Haha.

Christmas Clue Game 2010

That is the name of the new swap I joined for Christmas. Only 1. I learned my lesson of joining too many due at the same time.

So this clue game is like the one I made Poe and The Raven for. Only Christmas theme. I wanted to have/get some Christmas cards and figured this would be an easy way to get alot of them at once. I dont think im going to play the game this time though like I did with the Literary Theme Clue Game from before.

Im also going to make a Holiday LTC card to give away in a few things im mailing out, including an AQ secret santa swap I am in. And if time im going to carve an image to make Christmas cards, to put in those same mailings. If you want one let me know and I will make you one. :)

Oh, my card for this swap is called Christmas Clue Game 2020: Location: Whoville. Im not really happy with the coloring of the card, my thumbprint on the back, etc.. Haha! But its done and mailed. Not all my work is going to be that great. Im trying to find more detailed images to carve to try and get better at it but I dont believe im getting much bettter than where im at now. But im starting to release some of the pressure I put on myself to be great cause a few cards I put out were exceptionaly good. And I just keep reminding myself of some of the cards I do get and how not as good they are ( that is being nice Haha ).

I havent done a private trade in awhile and if my Christmas turns out good im going to try one again. Or end up waiting until I have a cool card again. :)

Second card for Swap

In an attempt to make sure we all get the complete alphabet I signed up to make another card for the alphabet animal swap. Of course that is still no guarentee. And im not the only one. I can only hope that now we will get a complete set.

It is still in the lines of the H card but my mind was on a roll of collages I guess. Hahaha.

So here is the D card. For Blue Duck.

It's been awhile...Wow.

I guess ive been busy. But I have been working on crafts and stuff. I have Mary's advent done and in a box ready to be mailed. I will be mailing that to Janie and hoping she can deliver.

I also made another card and am almost done with another and have joined a couple more swaps for the next few months AND started my own tracker. I tried once before but only got 3 people so I decided to cancel it and try again at a later date. Which I have not for that them, Sideshow Banners, but I did start another, World of Warcraft. So we will see what happends. If this one doesnt take im giving up hosting my own. If it takes off I will retry the sideshow banner one later 2011 summer.

Im also working on a new contest. I have my fabric, my patterns, and all my supplies to start work on it. I will keep you informed of when that one comes ready.

Winter is here people. UGH!!

Find A Grave

I came across this site by accident one day. www.findagrave.com

It is a very cool site for memorials to passed away loved ones. I had fun searching for relatives. Then I had fun sending emails trying to get 'ownership' of my families memorials and finally taking pictures of headstones and adding pics to the memorials. I havent heard back from anyone about transferring the memorials but im ok with that as I can still add pics and/or sponser them. If I want to make corrections or add info I have to email the creator and ask them to add the info but I havent gone that far yet.

Long story short I have read alot of FAQ and sent a few emails and etc...and as for now im leaving ownership as is. Quote taken from the FAQ: 'The ultimate goal should be to have meaningful, accurate memorials that honor those who have passed away, regardless of who created the memorial or who maintains it'.

If you have any questions feel free to email me and I will tell you what I know. This was just a short intro to the site, my part in it, and so you can go look up relatives and whatever.

Also I have no idea who Keith Justus is or any information on him or why he is making memorials for our family (alot of people on this site do it just for a hobby). I have emailed him but he has not responded yet.

Anyway...have fun. Click around in there and most importantly leave a virtual flower to let me know you visited or at least email me and tell me what you think.

In Limbo

I feel like im in limbo right now.

I am going to Texas in a couple weeks and have some stuff I have to mail there before I go so I dont have to deal with it flying. Im not even ready.

I have a card due, a box to trade, and 6 dz cookies to make for someone (yes, she did it again, My Mother told someone again)

So im going to bake my ass off the next two weeks for the 6 doz cookies AND im going to try a new recipe my cousin shared with me. Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins. Doesnt that sound freakin' delicious? They are actualy a pumpkin spiced muffin with a cream cheese/powdered sugar filling. Mmmmmmmm...Im going to share them with co-workers so they can feel the love too. Well really its so me and Bubs dont eat our selves silly. I love to bake but eating the stuff is what makes us so plump. Ha.

Time to get motivated and organzied!!

Oh and I got some really nice papers for Mary's Advent calendar. I need to get on that too. :)

Well I only work 3 days next week so I need to stay focused and should be able to get most of it done. If only the internet was so addictive. Hahaha!

LTC Break

I am taking a break from LTC's.

I am missing scrapbooking and sewing and playing around with other crafts so much im having anxiety over these darn trading cards. Hahaha. One BIG problem is feeling like there is this expectation to do a great card that impresses people on my trading site. I can not live up to that, I dont want to live up to that, and it spoiled the fun of doing the cards for me.

So as of now im not making anymore for awhile, including the Carrie card.

And honestly I feel GREAT with my decision. :)

And another positive that can only mean more blog posts about cool things im making. Hahahaha YEAH!!!

Ugh!

With the kitchen in shambles, the Carrie card kicking my butt, and just lack of motivation I havent done crap lately. :(

I havent forgotten Mary and her cool advent calendar. I did make a sample one for practice and I think they are pretty cool. Small but very cool.

The Carrie card is due in 2 weeks so im going to get that done, even if I dont like it. And then get back to business!!

:)Tess

H is for Bushman Hare

Made this card for an alphabet of endangered animals. Kinda cool swap theme. They gave us the letter to carve but we could what we want for the rest of it.

And the winner is.....

Today is the day, the last day of my contest. I had a few entries.

Matt, Sabrena, Janie, Mary, Sierra. The only correct answers came from Mary, Janie, and Sierra. Matt had a good answer and Sabrenas were so close.

The answer is Tulips. :)

So on to the drawing of the winner..........MARY!!!!! ***throws confetti, balloons drop, cheering*** Haha!!

THANK YOU all for entering!!!

Hosting my First LTC swap!!!

Yikes. Im a little scared. But I know I have great ideas and Janie and Jordan with their great ideas so I want to get this started so I can implement some of those ideas.

So my first ever LTC swap is.....SideShow Banner art. You can google that to see what im talking about.

I think a set of these cards will be awesome to have.

I posted on my LTC site today and have gotten one response so far 'I would love to join but dont have enough pink stuff (carving material) I have to pinch my pennies these days. I hope you fill up and have some great cards' Lord, I hope that isnt a big..well I cant think of the dang word, it was right there on the tip of my tongue, DANGIT...well you know what I mean anyway.

I will keep you informed.

My Frist Contest....

Yahooo!!

Answer this trivia question about me and I will draw a name out of the correct winners to win:

An Advent Calendar!

Now the colors and embellishments will be different and I will fill it full of treasures before I mail it.

Question: What is my favorite garden flower?

I will give the contest 2 weeks and give everyone 3 trys.

Laffy Taffy Swap

Made this card for a swap based on the jokes on Laffy Taffy candy. I bought a few pieces and the jokes were dumb as hell but I picked one and went with it. So the joke is What has 4 legs and ticks? A dog with fleas. I kinds dont get it but then again maybe im thinking too hard. I mean I get it but..well...who cares. Its a dumb joke but I like how the card turned out. I only made 7 of these cards. Haha. I was in a time crunch. I signed up for a couple swaps for Fall. One is a Stephen King theme and the other is the 1950's theme. I already have my subjects picked out, now to find just the right image to carve. :) Im excited to make them. Both are fun and cool subjects. You will have to wait to see them!

Another Cookie Day

I made these for a private part at the Nature Center. Mmmmm!! I will do better next time, I learned a couple things. Maybe I could make a little extra money with cookies. Haha. I dont want to advertise though. Just word of mouth or something. :)

Another Cookie Day Part 2

This is how much I rock.....

Letter from a new fan.....

Hi,

My daughter, zyrxy, participated in the Literary Clue LTC game, and I was just admiring her cards today. I was really, really admiring your Poe cards, and I was wondering if you had any left you might be willing to trade for.


I don't usually trade through the mail individually, so I mark my cards unavailable until they are gone from gatherings and such, and then I mark them retired. So any unavailable cards are up for grabs in trade.

Your Poe cards are so beautiful, and if you would be willing to trade, please let me know.

Hopefully,

Thunderbird

...yes, I got this letter in my AQ mail today. Because my cards ROCK!!

And just so you know.....its not the first time.

People love me.

the cookie caper

The cookie nightmare. Fast version - new bird store in town. Nice lady, know her from other store. Friends with Mom. Mom and I went to store. Lady said oh would you make us some cookies for our open house, you mom said to ask you. I said yes but wanted to say NO so bad but its a new store and I like her and FUCK! Then later she called me to verify and said that my mom had told her that I should make 24 dozen. WTF!! shape sugar cookies decorated. I told her its a buck a cookie. she said of well just frost them with a knife then. I said no. I dont do it like that. So I said let me do some figuring and would get back to her. So im making cookies and frosting on my two days off in a row and im getting angry for not having any time for me and no way in hell can i make 24 dz. so i called lady Thurs morn, open house is Fri,sat,sun but they only wanted cookies for sat. So I told her no way can i do 24 dz and that is alot anyway and if she wanted I can make some choc. chop cookies also. She paused alot. I dont care and getting angry at this. but it ended ok and they get what they get I guess they can buy some from the store if they want. So i called my Mom to say not to ever suggest me again and I only got about 4 words out my mouth and she started screaming with lots of cuss words (usual mom) and I hung up on her. I WILL NEVER AGAIN FROM THIS DAY FORWARD EVER! EVER! LISTEN TO HER SCREAM AT ME AGAIN ON THE PHONE. NEVER!! ESPECIALLY WITH THAT LANGUAGE!! NEVER! So it took me awhile. she claimed she did not suggest me, nor suggested 24 doz. I belive she did not suggest me cause Dad was there with her i guess and he verifyd but not so much the 24 dz. that I do believe she said. anway back to me. so im angry i lost both my days off work. i wont get anywhere near the worth of time i put into these and doing this just made me feel ever more bogged down, I actually mailed the vacation cards today also. UGH! So again another late night baking. all cookies are done and im ONLY charging her $50 cause I want my fucking money, I want her store to make it, and I just want to have a lazy summer. Normal price what I think I should get is $100, so im going to make them a bill with the $100 price with a discounted price of $50 so they know if they ever want me to do it again....its a buck a cookie!!!!! Jordan...im making yours for free. I was thinking of making the tiedye tshirts for your and Janies visit. not the picnic just for us to eat. haha.

Summer Vacations Card

This card was so difficult to do. Its a swap that involves kids so I should have red flagged it right there. Not because I cant do cute, as we saw with Mowgli, but for t his theme I just had a shit difficult time finding something to do that wasnt already taken. My fault there waiting so long to pick what to do and I had my ideas I just didnt move fast enough in all areas. I also joined about 3/4 swaps and didnt pay good enough attention to how close the due dates were and I didnt want to drop any. I should have. I am not happy with my last two cards but they are good enough. This one is Summer Vacations. I wanted to do ghost hunting in Texas or Sasquatch but having a damn hard time finding kid friendly images. I just settled for this and quickly made it. Im taking a break from swaps this summer maybe even making LTC's until September or so. I just overloaded myself and need a break. I was looking forward to making some traditional boxes and carving for them and hiding them. I have hid two, only posted the clues for one so far. Those cards just burned me out and I ended up making an even bigger mistake by taking on a cookie job. More about that later. Anyway I just need to take a small break or at least slow down a bit and concentrate on few things I have wanted to do for a few months then get back to swaps. I want to host my own swap this Fall/Winter also. That will be fun I think.
So this card im not that happy with my carve and worse my letters, they are my first though. I need to get good at letters, Im scared of them. Haha. From now on I will just drop a swap if I feel too crazed. Its not worth it.

This is my yard in the Spring from the cottonwood tree that is our neighbors yard, she doesnt get any cause most of the tree is hanging over my yard. It gets this bad and WORSE when there isnt any wind. I missed the days where it looked like it was snowing out the window and the yard was covered in white.

Facebook

Im getting kinda bored with it. I log in and tons and tons of crap. It is a good way to keep in touch but there really should be more choices on what we want to see on our wall. I like all my friends and dont want to hurt anyones feelings but I can not stand all that gaming stuff and worse..worse...so and so became a fan of...or so and so likes...Im actually kinda shocked that adults keep clicking on these pages. I mean I know some of them are dang funny but still.

I find myself spending less and less time in there. Sometimes I log in and log right back off after all I see is junk information.

I dont know if I will post on here any more than I do but im pretty sure facebook is becoming a thing of the past for me. :( If they would let me choose what kind of information is on my wall I would probly continue. I wont leave it for good, like I said its too good of a way to contact people and stay in touch but im definatly not going to waste good crafting time or any other time scrolling through person after persons likes, games, etc.. to get to a few personal status updates that are actaully worth reading.

Its nothing personal to anyone, its just my opinion.

Charlie Brown

My latest card. After I made it I kept thinking it was too gang like. Bubba disagreed. I loved it when I first saw it online, I thought it was so cute. So I just put a notice on the swap tracker that isnt was made in fun not to offend. I still like it just worried some people might take offence to it being gang like.

My Blog

Maybe its more about me than others.

The Raven

This is my Raven card for the Clue swap I talked about in my Poe post.

Edgar

This card was made for the Literary CLUE swap. We have to make a card of a suspect, weapon, or location to play an online game of Clue. We will be playing May 23. The swap/game was set up for 25 deck, 7 each but not enough people signed up. Enough signed up to play the game but there were only 2 weapons so I am going to do another card of another weapon...The Raven. Haha!! So I need to get on that cause they are due in a month. I think my raven card is going to be simple though, just my image stamped in black on white paper. But we shall see what I come up with. I should mention our cards had to be based on literary from long ago. Also this is my second face carving so I think im getting a little better. I have a long way to go though.

And I found an awesome image for the Charle Brown stamp. So my interest has been a little renewed. :) But im still behind in some other areas I want to catch up on...my own traditional letterboxes, some odds and end stuff around the house, the rest of my LTC's. Spring is here and I need clean up my flower patches. The list just goes on and on.

UGH!!

I love making LTC's but im totally burnt out. I have 2/3 more to do and that is about it for awhile..summer at least. I want to go letterboxing this summer and carve for my own boxes to plant. So I just finished one, then possible one more for that same theme, a Charlie Brown one, and a summer vacation one. My ideas are not flowing as well as they once did. I need a break. I tried to watch my due dates and got carried away so I really dont have alot of time but I can wait until May 1st maybe to do the Charlie Brown one and then right after that I would have to do the vacation one. Im debating on dropping the Charlie Brown one, I really want a set of Peanuts cards but I cant find a good Charlie Brown image that hasnt been done to death. I found a couple of him dancing and thought that would be cute. NOT the baseball mound one, nor the Christmas tree one, or Lucy's help stand either..boring. Still love them but too common.
And now I have this money making idea. God. I know. But the brain never stops trying and I just have to find that one thing.....
Hahahahaha!! This time is not that one thing BUT it is for that one thing right now kind of thing. Haha. Coffie Cup Cozies. Cute, look easy and a local coffee shop said they would like to see them after I make a few to consider selling.
Our small little main street is going to have their Thursday night late night thing again this year but new they are opening it up to crafters to set up tables and sell stuff. But I do not want something cheap and cheezy but I wanted to think up something, or various somethings. I dont know. Maybe nothing either. Haha! I just want a way to make some vacation money. We want to go to Austin again of course always but also Arizona and maybe somewhere new neither of us have been, even something like the black hills.
So this is just some rambling thoughts going around in my head.

Pez LTC

This LTC was made for The Old Fashioned Candy Barrel swap. We had to pick a candy and make a retro card for it. I picked Pez. Then I made a wrapper and wrapped the card in foil then glued the Pez wrapper around it. Haha. I thought it turned out pretty cool.

This is also my first portrait carve, well besides Mowgli but I dont count that one. It was a very simple image so I figured it would be an easier carve. I had a little trouble with the eyes and that is mostly because I kept looking at the pic to carve them but forgot the image was backwards. Duh!! Hahaha! And her hair pretty much sucks. I should have recarved it. But I want to get better at carving portraits so I can carve one of Sophia.

Current LTC

My latest LTC card. Its Mowgli. For a Jungle Book Swap. Sophia just loved this one, I made it while she was here. So she ended up making one of her own, but it got lost so I made her one and tucked it into her trip bag for when she headed home.

I'm tired.

I'm crazy tired. This kid NEVER stops. As for my pics a day...I posted a buttload on my facebook and im counting those. And as soon as I can say my name without her running by with something new in her hands I will get back to this blog.
Thanks.

Disaster!

This is Dad hammering away at the ice dam. It had been melting for a week by this time so imagine it was about 4 inches higher, it is solid ice like an iceberg, its what was causing the lovely wrinkles down my wall. And my Dad just couldnt leave it alone.


I am just so very happy it wasnt Dad laying down there. So that pile used to be my gutter, an outside table I use for crafts and planting and pots of soil, and a snow shovel.

If take a close look at picture number 3, to the right, the trim on my house in that area looks to be raw wood....it is. That is where I have fighting a squirrel from knawing on the wood.

Have I mentioned how much I hate Winter!!!