A Blast at CHA!

I'm back from CHA... actually, you've probably guessed that I've been back for a while now.  It's that whole life thang getting in the way.

I had a blast.  I spent some amazing days with fantastic friends scoping out the various booths at the convention center.  Here are just a few photo snippets of my adventure...

California Dreamin'...

Guess who's headed to California?

Yes, me!

Guess why I'm going...

 CHA Conference and Tradeshow!!!!

I'm so stinkin' excited!  I just need a trip AWAY and why not go someplace where you are literally surrounded by paper?  Who doesn't love paper?  I still, no matter what kind, surreptitiously sniff paper when I get it my hands.  I love the smell!  Mmmmmmm....

Anyway, I digress. 

This has been the first time since joining the team over at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out that I have been able to swing a trip out west.  I am so very much looking forward to meeting up with the SFTIO founder, Rachel, and her teen design team leader for CreateU , Sophia, and spend DAYS wandering around aimlessly (yeah, probably not aimlessly) through booths and booths, and booths of new, fantastic scrappiness!

Yes, I'm California bound... bright and early Friday morning.   I'll be sure to share my stories when I get back!  :)

I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing...

Today, I want to share with you something that makes me happy...

These little ol' Angel men look so completely happy as they sing.  (The music box plays "I'd like to teach the world to sing"... can't you imagine these little dudes singing that?)

They came to be in my house because of my mother.  One day, long ago, she was visiting me here in Ohio and we went shopping in a little place that no longer exists, called the French Market.  In one of the stores there, these little guys were singing away and I remember my mom looking at them.

This was in the midst of her battle with ovarian cancer and the look on her face was of pure happiness.  I wanted her to always look that way.

I asked her if she liked them and she smiled and said, "they make me laugh".  I immediately picked this up and purchased them for her, against her vehement protests.  Anything that made her want to laugh... anything that brought that smile to her face... she just had to have!

After she was gone, I asked my dad if I could have them back.  Since then, they have always been perched happily somewhere in our living room.  Every time I look at them, I think of her on that day, and they make me smile.

For more stories in the Pick Your Precious theme of Storytelling Sunday, visit From High in the Sky.  Thank you, Sian, for once again hosting our Storytelling Sundays in 2013!

The End of Achieve...The Beginning of Reduce....

Happy New Year!!! (plus 3 days)...

Weeellll... here I am!  I said I'd be back in January and I ended up actually posting toward the end of December.  I'm so glad to be back!

So... how ARE you?!  It's been a while, and I want to know what's going on in your world...
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Uh huh... really?   How did that happen? 
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Oh my gosh! What did you do then?
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Wow!  That's AMAZING!
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Can I tell you something?  I think that you are soo creative and fabulous and absolutely priceless.  I love that about you!  Thank you for being here.  Thank you for sharing with me.

How have I been?  Well!  Let me see....





Perfect... complete with dead ends, backsliding, monsters, black-outs, screams, turns, hills and valleys.  Hence my "break" from blogging.

But.  2013 is here.  I know it will not be without it's own adventure (and I've already had one!), but I took some time toward the end of last year and really set up some plans and goals, including... again... my One Little Word.

Last year's word was Achieve.  I used that as my topic for 10 Things on the Tenth last January (can anyone tell me if that is still going on? Is Storytelling Sunday still a "go"?).  I can't say I was super successful with Achieve.  However... within my "10 Things", I listed one item using the word "reduce".  And that is the One Little Word that poked me in the heart when I was pondering it toward the end of last year.

REDUCE...
...reduce my stress level.
...reduce my time spent away from my home.
...reduce my weight.
...reduce the amount of bad foods I eat.
...reduce the clutter in my head, heart and home.
...reduce my debt.
...reduce my over-commitments.

I guess many of the things on that list are similar to my "Achieve" list... but you know what?  I am so much more at peace this time around.  Reduce does not mean "eliminate" or "perfection" or heck, even "achieve".  It means "make smaller or less in amount, degree, or size".  And I am so in love with that... I have already ACHIEVED many of the REDUCE items listed above... and I know I can reduce MORE.  Every day.  A little bit at a time.

And that makes me happy.

Along the lines of reducing my stress level and over-commitments... I am INCREASING the amount of time I spend on art-y/craft-y/scrapbook-y each WEEK.  So many weeks went by, last year... in a row!... where I never touched a single thing creatively.  This year... I've already started.

While blogging is a creative outlet for me, and I most definitely am BACK, the break I took toward the end of last year really helped me REDUCE the pressure I was putting on myself to be here.  And that has made all the difference in the world!

So... *insert Kermit-the-frog 'Yay' and arm flail here*

I'm BACK!