Mary Jo Says…

This weekend ending up being a pretty good one.  Usually the weekend goes by fast

and I don’t get anything done.   I’ve cleaned out my craft room and made the extra stuff disappear.   THEN on Sunday, I found a great deal on a solid wood standing table off of Craiglist.  I’ve been looking on CL for-ev-ah!!  So I had to switch my organized room around to accommodate for it.

I have a little more organizing and cleaning to do but I am SO HAPPY!  I got a standing workstation.  So awesome.

I’ve also signed up for “A Prompt A Day” by Kelly Kilmer.  It’s a month of getting techniques and prompts from a person who does fantastic art journalling and collage.   I already done the first day’s work.

The background was interesting to make.  Adding a little paint when applying and adding layers of paint as you go.   This prompt was “Things that make me Happy”  With such a great day today, it was easy to make a list.  Jeff is at the top of course and today is our 5th anniversary!  Woo hoo!  Even though we got married on a leap year day, we chose today to be the one to celebrate.

On Friday, i surprised Jeff with a cake. On our wedding day, we bought got one bite of the wedding cake we got from Hoffman’s Bakery in Kirkland.  So I ordered one with what I could remember what we ordered for our wedding day.  Well, it turned out a bit different and freakishly heavy buttercream frosting.  When we got there, I realized I needed to ask for a princess torte.  The inners of the cake was good, but the thick buttercream on the outside was nothing special.  Totally could do without it.

So all is good.   Jeff and I went to Tully’s after picking up the table and the total came to $7.77.  Then later on we went to Relax the Back for a new tempurpedic pillow for me but came out with buying a tempurpedic mattress.  They cost a pretty penny but we got a floor model that hasn’t hit the floor.  So it’s new and we get 25% off.  Such a bargain that we went with it as we have been thinking about it for some time.

I swear we need to buy a lottery ticket with this such luck.

I’ve joined Wardrobe Refashion and pledge for 2 months.   I’ve tried this before and no luck.  Either there is not enough time in the day or my scaredy cat self is too chicken.

So today I start!   I have many projects to start and variety of fabric to use.   A few men’s slacks I’ve been wanting to reconstruct is on the list as well.   Watch for later postings on my refashion adventure!!

Other things that are going on are organizing.  Sounds like fun right?   Well, when there’s too much stuff that you keep cleaning and cleaning and cleaning I doubt any organzing will assist.  So I’m going through my craft room and removing all the extra baggage that is in the way.

A lot of fabric is going to a friend I met at Urban Craft Uprising show.  She makes these wonderful resusable / collasable totes.  Check it out:  Tote2Go.com I’m sure she’ll do fantastic things with the fabric i’ve collected from thrift stores and craiglist.

I’m also thinning my scrapbooking / crafts / art stash.   My sister mistakenly agreed to take it. (HA HA Ami!!) I hope she will put it to good use because I’ve got so much that who knows when I will get it.

I better get crackin’ on some things.  Until I post again!

cheers, MJ

….is….   Ledeczki Anna!   Congrats!   This is my first blog giveaway and having more than 5 people post on one post.    Please send me an address to maryjojo (at) gmail.com and I’ll get it out the door on Monday!

Thank you all for playing.  It was a blast!

It’s exciting that many blog folk are doing this handmade exchange of birds to signify the new year to remind us of hope, positivity, and openness. I’ll post a picture soon but I am going along with the other blog-a-rinos and giving one of my handmade birds. So just comment on this item by Friday at 5 PM PST and I’ll randomly draw a winner. Woo hoooo!

Update: So I just added the lovely first bird I finally got embroidery done on.  Turned out pretty awesome I say.

I got Mochi done a few weeks ago.  It was quite fun to use the same SIS kit as well as the same Hero Arts stamp.   I’m definitely starting to get the hang of some of the tools I’ve had for awhile.

With the same kit, a few more LO came out of the blue. Since it was a kit with music theme items, it was easy to use some of the musical photos I have.


So fun! What a great KIT!

Jeff and I have the fantastic little princess named Xena.  We got her from my sis because they had a full house of kitties.

She is…

• very very affectionate.
• loves to sit on laps.
• lets you know when she needs petting.
• lets ya know when she’s done being petted.
• very good alarm clock.  Even on weekends! (ugh)
• BEAUTIFUL!

So for a Hero Arts challenge, I made a fantastic scrapbook page.

This layout used the SIS kit called SongBird.  So much lovely paper and items in this kit.  I only made a dent in the kit.  I might have to make another layout for our other kitty - Mochi.   Stay tuned…

or at least helpful.  I’ve finally had a weekend where I didn’t just wish I could get myself motivated to do projects.  I created a motivation list and BAM!  I was working to get it the list done.

Over the weekend, the Craft-a-long had it’s debut.  The first ever!  Washington state had it’s first snow fall of the season and a freakin’ cold snap that has been going since then.   That definitely had an effect on who was going to show up for the event.

In the end, it was just mum and I.  We had fun no matter what.   She worked on some cute Halloween pictures of grandchildren into a layout.  I worked on some snowy pictures from Jeff and I going up to Alpental for snowboarding.  The layout took all my time, some veggies, two cups of coffee, and a cookie.   Oh that cookie was good.  It helped create some cute chipboard covered in some embossed white powder.  Turned out really awesome.   I also added some felt and transparency flakes.    This layout also popped the cherry on my new Making Memories Slice machine.   Quite awesome to use on crops.  So small and compact that is was easy to transport around.  I loved the fact that I didn’t have to feed the paper into the machine.  I also realized that I could position the cut where I needed it.  I could fuse the letters together by watching where the blade was placing itself according to the previous cut.

I was working on another layout after this one, but with my sister’s family stopping by, I started to talk more than work.

So tonight I finalized the layout and here is the fun layout I got to breathe life into tonight.

yes.   I admit it.   I love paper designs.  Almost so that it pains me from cutting any of it as just looking at the patterns themselves making me jump with glee.   So put paper on the list of my things that I adore along with small sized things, boxes, containers, and cute kitties.   I’m sure there’s more on my list, but I’ll save that for another post.

Besides my paper packages I got today, I also got a few other things.   Some brads, stamps, and buttons that go well with the paper designs.  Actually, i don’t remember buying the buttons on ebay but maybe the lady was very happy that I bought so much paper that she threw it in.  Maybe no one else was buying them and decided that my house needed them more than hers. :)  I don’t mind buttons.  i am a button whore as well. ;D

After being overwhelmed by my stack of packages today, I decided to do another layout of my wedding album.  I am almost done actually which freaks me out because I thought I would slaving away and perfecting it.  Maybe it’s because the design is so simple and clean plus that the design is pretty set in how it goes that it does go pretty fast.

The layout didn’t go as I thought it would when i ordered the prints, but this seems like a good fit.  I pondered putting the best man and lady’s name on it but thought that maybe I’ll write them in or do some journaling on each page as well to stick into the album.

I also finally took pictures of the bottle cap necklaces i made.   I saw a few bottle cap necklaces on etsy.   Different than how I did it.

With all this jewelry making, I’m thinking of getting a crimper.  Not sure which one to get though.  Anyone in blogland got suggestions?

Sure it’s over four years since our wedding, but maybe it’s a journey I needed to take.  I am so scared of not doing my wedding album “right” or “perfect”.  It’s very difficult to get any experience or anything done if I hold out on doing a page or using material unless I actually go at do it.  So I’m excited and amazed that I got a couple more layouts done.  It wasn’t too difficult to decide what to put on the pages since I have most of the idea settled from previous pages.  I dig the simple design these pages has.  I’ve also add some new letter stamps that I got from the CKC show.  Such fabulously stylish Technique Tuesday font.  Very sleek that I might go back and add some to the previous pages.

The other pages I did end up having two sizes of what seemed like the same picture of me, but I went with it anyways.

In this layout I thought a mirror layout would be nice and adding a stamp that went across the two pages.  In another set of Technique Tuesday stamps I had this great big ampersand.  It was huge and fit perfectly across the two pages.   Then I added more of that lovely script with Jeff and I’s name.  Not sure what else I could’ve written on these pages.   I did write a little journalling on one of the album’s early pages.  I might add some later on when the pictures aren’t so staged.

There was a picture that I really loved from the group of pictures I worked with today.  The photographers really had a great idea for posing.  Maybe it’s just a standard poses and not so “new”.

That’s all I have for now.   I do have some bottle cap necklaces to show but didn’t take pictures of them.  So something to look forward to reading my log tomorrow eh?

Today is the last day of my long weekend.

Thanksgiving was a good day.  The ability to sleep in has always been easy for me.  I didn’t do much on turkey day except relax and enjoy the day off until it was time to go to my SIL’s house to enjoy their great cooking.   They are quite fabulous at making a great feast for all of us to enjoy.  I save my turkey alotment for such occasions and I wasn’t disappointed.   One day at the ballpark, Jeff and I gave in to eating a hotdog.  I could recall such times of eating one as a good experience.  Man were we disappointed.  The hotdog had no flavor and was salty.   So even though I get those fond memories of foods when I was growing up, I realize that my taste buds have changed and to not just go with my instincts to endulge.

Anyhoo…   After eating a lot of cheeses for appitizers, I couldn’t eat much of the main course.  I didn’t eat any of the four choice in pies.  I did help Jeff a bit as he picked out a little of each pie.  I was rolling out of the place at the end.  OMG.  Such good food…

The rest of the weekend wasn’t too busy.  Still sleeping in and taking naps when I felt like it.   I did do some cleaning, laundry, etc to not fully waste away my weekend.   I did work on some souvineurs for Artfest 2009 as I know trading goes on.  These tins are something I found at the thrift store.  A whole big bag had different sizes: Large and Small.   So I found a bunch of smallish stamps to choose from for various designs.  One of the ideas I had was that most goers would be from some other state and it would be cool to have the space needle on some of them.  I had to perfect size of the needle for this project.   So most of my tins have the needle with artfest written on it. I also went with some standard stereotypes for Seattle, even though the classes are happening in Port Townsend.   I put some raindrops on a few and the small latte cup on some others.   It was fun how they were starting to come out.   Check out the whole collection.

I also started to play with the many bottle caps I have stored up over drinking various beers, sodas, and waters.   I have a few necklaces created and working at perfecting my technique.  I’m unsure if I might start making a bunch to put on etsy.  I wonder if anyone would be interested in buy them or if they would just steal my idea to create their own.

Eventually, I started to put items away and clean up my craft room.  The room can now be entered without having to step around items to get to the desk.  I can’t imagine getting any more organized than this without letting items go.   I don’t wanna let items go but I know I’m gonna have to use what I got before getting new stuff.

After cleaning up some room and noticing that I have stuff to go through from previously bought items, I recalled all the goodies and fun that I had at the CKC Seattle Show.   It was a fun two days hanging out with my mum.  The classes were interesting as was the crop.   It definitley opened my mind to what classes are for these events.  I wonder if I would really benefit from them or not.   One of my classes definitely wasn’t what I thought it was.  The description stated it would be about using Mod Podge and stuff that sounded like mixed media, but it wasn’t.  Quite sad I thought.  Another class was taught by Technique Tuesday which was a blast.  It moved quickly and we still didn’t get the project done in the time allotted.  I did learn that  you can use a part of a stamp to decorate as well as using the opposite side of a cling stamp for a shadow / blackout.  Great ideas!   So i went bananas at their booth.  I just dig their designs.

Shopping is always fun especially when there is good deals.   I went crazy at the show.  I even bought a MM Slice machine.  I think it’ll be easier for me to cut up things when it’s small and handy like it is.  Not that i’m going to give up my cricut machine.  With the “Sure cuts a lot” program, it rocks for doing whatever I want.  I do notice that other machines are out there that can do that as well.  I wonder if I should’ve gone and purchased one of those a long time ago, but oh wells?  Hind sight is 20/10.

What’s cool about the Slice machine is that I hear it probably will allow someone to input their own memory card to do their own designs.   In that case, I’m excited as this would be a definitely plus for traveling and quick hits and my cricut can be used for bigger, multiple uses.

Anyhoo…  now I gotta get to using my stash.  Finally get some craftiness going for some ATC trading cards and some scrapbooking of various pictures…  maybe finish my wedding album.  SO much to do!