Decision...

Hello again my patient friends!!

This post is a bit more personal than usual--

I'm so sorry it's been so long and that I've been SUCH a bad blogger this past few weeks. I honestly thought I would be able to create enough to cover both this, my personal blog, and the a2zscrapbookingsupplies.com blog. HOWEVER, life has had different plans this past few weeks.



This is Isabella. She is the most beautiful, patient, giving, lovely, kind-hearted little girl I've ever met and for under 3 years old, she's ridiculously smart (too smart really!) but this past week or two?! Not so much. She's still all of those things, just not 100% of the time. She's been angry and testy and tired and sick and dramatic and uncooperative (and basically just a standard toddler!) but because she (honestly) is almost NEVER like it, it's left me completely drained.

This is Charlotte:


She is so cheery, it's almost ridiculous. She's happy and relaxed and easy-going, funny, loves Mummy to death (thank Goodness!) and she just lights up my world. But again, these past two weeks?! She's suddenly entered that phase where she knows where I am EVERY MINUTE OF THE DAY...or more specifically, she knows when I'm not right in front of her or holding her. This has made for a very tired mummy. She has also, I might add, 'cut' FOUR TEETH in a week--yes, FOUR. And one of them is a molar!!! She hasn't cried, whinged, screamed, nothing. She's just drooled incessantly and wanted mummy. That's ok. It's just a pity the two decided to have these phases at once!

Add to that starting up the a2z blog, which I'm so proud of and has made my brain work more (on that side anyway!) than it has in 3 years. I've loved it, but it's been non-stop. Blogger has been difficult, we've had 2 newsletters to put out (and a very uncooperative program to write the newsletter on!) and several other things just needed to be arranged and done to get the blog up to my standard--which is HIGH.

SO. with that in mind and the fact that it's HIGHLY likely that there will be many more weeks of the same (months even!! ), I've decided to make this blog about more than just cards.

I LOVE presenting my cards to you. When I started (not very long ago!) I looked at MANY MANY MANY blogs. (I still do) but I used to look at the blogs of cardmakers/scrapbookers and they had posts about their families or recipes etc etc and I thought--huh?! Where is the card?!?! But now, I get it. This community is SO lovely and supportive it makes me teary. I've had such wonderful comments on the a2z blog that I've (literally) cried. I'm SO proud of my work there, but I just can't keep up my intended 3 posts each week MINIMUM on here as well as the same there.

There will still, most ABSOLUTELY be cards, layouts etc. But there will also be short posts saying "I'm so tired I can barely see the keyboard but I'm thinking of you all" or "I tried this recipe and it was FANTASTIC!" or even "Get the Glue Glider Pro IMMEDIATELY!!!" (that one is coming up soon actually--I'm in LOVE with that thing!! lol)

I thought long and hard about even posting a picture of my girls on here, I'm so petrified of the sickos out there who look for pictures of children, but I think I have to revert to my former motto of "I know there is scum out there but surely the world must be made up of more good than evil, or we would have self destructed by now". I firmly believe that. I believe in the good in people, in the kind, caring, thoughtful side of people. I know the other side is there, but if I stay away, scared of it, I'll forget to live and I'll never let my children out of my sight. (or out of the house!) SO...if you are NOT a good, thoughtful, kind, (preferably creative!) person reading this--then GO AWAY!! I want only good things in my life. NO PRESERVATIVES, NO TOXINS, NO NEGATIVITY!!!

OK. so that having been said, this blog will now be about ME. Because I really do believe the title, that "inspiration is EVERYWHERE". I'm constantly inspired by tiny things in nature, stuff my kids do, even the sudden, random kindness of strangers. I think I have to be inspired by those things, or else it all fades into the sad news stories and horrible headlines.

BUT I do have a card for you :) I was going to keep this for the a2z blog, but it's time to reward my UBER-patient friends here first :) (eh, I'll make another card for a2z!! lol)

So here it is:




Here's what I used, all of which I got from my beautiful ladies at a2z (of course!!)

Hero Arts Clouds Rubber Stamp

Hero Arts Hello Flags Stamp

Hero Arts Girl Holding Flowers Stamp

Hero Arts Bicycle Stamp

Hero Arts Graph Background Stamp

Hero Arts Soft Pool Shadow Ink Pad

The Flags:
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad; Broken China ; Fired Brick; Wild Honey, Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed
Weathered Wood and Spun Sugar for her bicycle.
Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black Ink (for girl image)

I used my brand-spankin'-new Martha Stewart Fringe Scissors *LOOOOOVE THESE!!!* to cut the grass, which was also in Peeled Paint.
The whole card was edged with a tiny bit of (as always!) Walnut Stain.
A little twine and a corner chomper to round the edges of the cardstock and the Hero Arts kraft notecard and I was done! (I also stamped the bicycle in Versamark to create a watermark effect on the envelope.)

Copics were used to colour the little girl in, but I've lost the list--SORRY!!!

SO!! That's it for me! Hope you're still awake after my HUGE post!!

I'll be back again MUCH sooner next time :) and hopefully my poor laptop, which is currently away being fixed (it just didn't wake up one morning--very sad) will be back home with me!!

Talk to you soon my dears--