Shhh! Quiet Please

 

Photo from Unsplash

Found the problem

This month certainly started with a splash and a bang. Lots of banging. One Friday morning my husband alerted me that there was no hot water. A quick check of the hot water heater revealed the problem: the pilot light for the water heater was under water. A plumbing company very close to us got us set up with a new water heater amidst a lot of noise. The noise couldn’t be helped, of course, and we were thankful for the quick service. I was especially grateful for the calm and quiet atmosphere once the work was finished.

Unsplash

The following Monday, our furnace was scheduled to be replaced. That destruction/construction started at 7:30 a.m. and went continuously until 4:30 p.m. But wait, there was more noise in store. Tuesday the furnace ducts were cleaned, and those industrial vacuums are noisy!

 

 

Unsplash

As luck would have it, on Wednesday I was scheduled to work a very busy four-hour shift at the food bank to distribute food. Conversation is steady and often involves a lot of pointing and miming for our clients who speak little English.

Unsplash

By Thursday, I was so ready for a quiet day at home, for oleilu: a calm, unhurried state of simply not doing, achieving, or planning, just the quiet act of existing in the moment. This was accompanied by several cups of hot tea and crystal bowl sounds.

 

 

 

 

Quiet and mental calmness help me prepare and enjoy the upcoming busy holiday season in order to fully embrace the blur of celebrations to come. 

Cricut designs

 

Prepping and Plotting

 

The busy holiday season is upon us again! I’ve had so much fun this month preparing Halloween, Thanksgiving, and general fall-themed cards. 

I have stacks of all these types—some needing envelopes and some still waiting to see what kind of card they will be.

 

 

 

While watching card tutorials from Gina K on YouTube, I discovered foiling products I’d never used. That changed quickly! I love foiling and these new materials make it so easy—easy to use up a lot more foil, but they make beautiful cards with plenty of shine.

Gina's products enable me to use both the original foiled design as well as the leftover foil. Another product came out recently that makes it easy to foil without heat and the results were very satisfying.

Leftover foil

Original foil

 

 

But that’s not all the preparations I have going. There are already many, many Christmas cards to donate to the food bank clients, and I’m eager to put more new supplies and designs into use.
 

More stacks of cards--all Christmas

Amidst all this card making fun, I'm also busy plotting for NaNoWriMo. This year’s sweet romance story involves heroine and hero working to keep residents at a senior living facility jolly and safe throughout December. Their two goals don’t go hand-in-hand, so my characters will need a little compromise to find their happily ever after.

What I haven’t planned is the title for my NaNoWriMo story. While the days are growing shorter, I'm hoping for a flash of inspiration for a title idea or two.

All That Glitters!

 

 

Embossing folder, washi tape, and snowflake cut with Cricut.

It’s my favorite card-making time of year! As usual, glitter and sparkle graced each card I made. Every year some of the big card makers and card making suppliers host free classes on YouTube, Facebook, and their own web pages. 

I learned a number of techniques I had to try, bought new supplies I loved, and discovered one very useful new tool. The new tool makes it easy to adhere very delicate pieces such as greetings on a card.

Not only did I use stamps, embossing folders, and hot foil plates, but the Cricut also played a big part in drawing designs and cutting out a lot of glittery snowflakes.

So let’s take a look!

No end of sparkle here! A very simple card, but lots of visual impact. Glitter papers cut with Cricut. (Thank you, hubby, for aligning all those trees!)

 

 

 

 A stamped image with ink blending for the background. Lots of glitter drops for the ornaments, and a hot foiled sentiment.

The fanciest hot foil card I made this year. Breathed a sigh of relief at how well everything lined up!

This hot foil plate arrived a day late for the card to be mailed, but I love the holographic foil and how decorative the jewel embellishments look. I'll be using it a lot for next year's cards.

I loved this design cut with the Cricut and using holographic paper for the background.

The snowflake design was drawn with the Cricut and I added jewels for sparkle. The card with all foil is made with the first 3D embossing folder I bought after watching a class where it was used. Another chance to embellish with jewels!

 

One more card I made to announce a very special day--an historical day!

That's 44 years at the University of Washington.

I'll have so much more time to use my crafting supplies now. I'm going to need a bigger Christmas card list! 😁
 

December Wrapping Up December

 

 

Stenciled, inked, and stamped

 December saw a continuation not only of holiday card making, but other crafts as well. As always, I didn’t get as much done as I’d planned due to a short illness. Doesn’t something always mess up holiday plans? (Note to self: this is why you plan further ahead!)

But, no time for digression, Christmas is coming! Lots of wonderful cards got made thanks to the Cricut. Frustrated with the lack of options on the Cricut site, I searched online for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) files for Christmas cards. I was not disappointed! Here is one of my favorite, whimsical cards in a gate-fold style.

Another style of card I like to make uses patterned paper. This design allowed me to incorporate five different specialty papers. A Facebook group I follow had many wonderful examples of cards using patterned papers and unique folded cards. I found plenty of inspiration!

Because I had so many new designs I wanted to try, I ended up with just one card of each type--Cricut, patterned papers, and stamped. No one will be getting mass-produced cards from me this year, nor did they last year.

I made way more cards than I know people to send them to, which begged the question “What to do with extra cards?” My husband came up with a great suggestion to send them to nursing staff at our local hospital. We can drop them off at the visitor information center to be distributed to different floors.

Mint soap

Cards weren’t all that I worked on. I’m really happy with the mint and orange soaps I made for family.

 

In addition to cards and soaps, this year I tried my hand at a soup mix in a jar. The mushrooms I grew and dehydrated over the summer are part of what make this homemade gift special. 

I had one success at making ornaments (I don't sit still long enough for hand-sewing projects). So I'll end this post with a gold star. 😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Two Craft Rooms

 

 

 

We recently organized our craft room in preparation for the holiday season. I love that the crafting table now has so much more space for working on projects. All of our inks, papers, stamps, vinyls, and embellishments are together in drawers, on shelves, and in paper cubbies.

Fall is also the time of year I'm busy in the kitchen making jams, applesauce, apple butter, herbal salt, and my husband's favorite, fruit cobblers. I try variations on old recipes and some new to me, making the kitchen what my husband refers to as my tastiest craft room.

I am so happy to grow and cook good food for us. I mentioned to a friend at work that I’d planted cabbage for the first time and he introduced me to the ease of making sauerkraut. Not only did I find out it is extremely simple, but it is a fermented food that has great health benefits.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiNl0Jv6xTw&t=619s

Since my cabbage won’t be ready for six to eight weeks, I purchased a bag of coleslaw mix and added a bit of jalapeño pepper from the garden. This video provided easy instructions, and in just two weeks our first batch was ready. The result was excellent.

Our first batch of sauerkraut!

With the fresh jalapeño, we found out as the video mentions, a little goes a long way! I'd like to try adding a bit of garlic in a future batch, which will be fresh from the garden next year. 

As the garden vegetables produce their final crops for the year I'll be back in the other craft room making holiday cards. The kitchen craft room will be busy as I cook up gifts of soaps, pasta, cookies, and other ideas I gather from that great internet resource--Pinterest!

Herbal salt and apple butter from our garden.

 

 

Thanksgiving Hangover and a New Holiday Season ~ by Darlene Kuncytes

 

Well, we did it. Thanksgiving is over. Black Friday is done, and we are now in full on holiday mode!

This year is going to be different than any other before. The holidays are so special for so many different reasons, but this year we are living in a different reality. One most, if not all of us, have never faced before.

That being said, it doesn’t mean that it has to suck.

I always take time on Thanksgiving to reflect on all the things I have been thankful for throughout the year, and I will admit that this year it has been a little tough.

But I still found some!

I got up each morning this year.

I continued to write and to work and was able to talk with friends and family. I am so grateful that I can say that.

So, let’s remember to enjoy the season as much as we can. There are so many things we can still do to make is special! Video chat with loved ones and sing carols!

Pile into the car, grab some hot chocolates and drive around to see the lights. It’s a safe way to enjoy the beauty of Christmas!

Don’t send out cards this year to the people you talk to. Instead, how about sending those Christmas cards to a retirement home? That small gesture might just mean the world to someone. 

Yes, things are going to be hugely different this holiday season. But we can do our darnedest to make sure that it is STILL a wonderful, magical time of year! 

Don’t you think we all deserve it?

No matter what holiday you celebrate, do something to make it mean something this year. 

More than any other year, we need to do something that might just inspire someone. 

Be safe. Be happy. And know that we will persevere! 

We kind of rock like that! 😉

Have an amazing holiday season!

Love and kisses! 

Dar 

Pictures courtesy of Google 

Hitting a Brick Wall? ` by Lexa Fisher

 

I usually don't think of a brick wall so pretty as the embossed pattern above from one of my fellow card makers. This example inspired me to challenge myself to see what I could do with cards that start out as empty brick walls. Along the way I also looked at a few examples of brick sayings--hit the bricks, gold bricking, and hitting a brick wall.

 

Hitting the bricks with my first attempt provided a much needed warm-up opportunity. My favorite card supply shop closed last January and I was a little rusty from the lack of camaraderie and inspiration. Starting simple, I colored bricks using a stencil my husband designed and made on one of his 3D printers.

My second card has raised bricks that were done with the stencil and tinted modeling paste. My husband shares his 3D creations on Thingiverse and this is his most often downloaded design. Sounds like other card creators like Thingiverse.

My card making muscles are warm now, so my next card used the Glaminator to create a shiny red brick wall. Another tool I pulled out was my Cricut to cut out the letters J and Y. 

 

 

Here's where I recalled the phrase "to gold brick", meaning to cheat or swindle. My first idea was to use gold glitter for the bricks. A lot of crafters hate working with glitter, and I'll admit that after this trial I've had my fill for the year :) 

Then I switched to gold leaf--still a bit messy, but not as much as glitter, and it's not something to be used during allergy season! It may look like you're pulling out a tiny pinch, but it really fluffs up and  breathing on it will send it all over the room. Here is a card made with gold leaf.

That's enough designing with bricks, so I'm hitting the yellow brick road to make other holiday card creations!

Photo by Akshay Nanavati on Unsplash

 

 

 

Celebrations ~ by Grace Augustine

So many things to celebrate! In our modern society, every day is jam-packed with celebrations. Today is no exception.  



Today is a special day in our home. It is the 6th anniversary of the day we found our sweet Babou, or I should say, she found us. What makes it doubly special is that it's also International Cat Day! =^.^=




Not only is it a day to celebrate our adorable cats, but here are a few other things to celebrate.  Let's hear it for--

• Bullet Journal Day
• Celebrate Your Lakes Day
• Dalek Day
• Happiness Happens Day
• International Hangover Day
• Middle Child Day
• National Bowling Day
• National CBD Day
• National Dollar Day
• National Frozen Custard Day
• National Garage Sale Day
• National Model Aviation Day
• Odie Day
• Scottish Wildcat Day
• Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night
• The Date to Create
• Universal and International Infinity Day
• Wear Your Mother's Jewelry Day

Deposit Photos

Anyway you slice it, there is something for everyone to celebrate.  Now, if any of you have spare zucchini, I would welcome one or two on my patio...and you don't have to sneak it there. You can knock and I will wave a hearty thank you!

Mmmmm! I see mushroom garlic Alfredo zoodles in my not so distant future!

Interested in reading more of my blog posts? You can do that by clicking HERE which will take you to my member page where you can explore posts, podcasts, and more.