awww, thanks!

Imagine my surprise when I opened up the Lollishops home page last night & found my sweet lil store as the featured seller. Thanks Sadie!

Have you heard? The Lolli website has a new unified look. So sweet! AND Lollishops & Glitter & Grunge are forming an alliance. We're doing Silver Bella together , among other things :) Definitly cool stuff.

Downtown DC

Air & Space Museum

National Museum of the American Indian

The dudes

The Butterfly Gardens

The Natural History Museum

Last week, we spent the day at the Mall in downtown DC. We were able to visit 3 of the Smithsonian Museums. It was a nice visit as the family has been on a 48 hour notice for our move. We're just waiting for 1 more item. Hopefully, we get it sooner rather than later. I'm ready to go & start this new journey.

My personal favorite was the gardens. I'm having a thing with photographing flowers right now. The group ditched me so I could take my time taking pictures. I had a ball. I took 240 pictures total for the day! I have more pictures on the flickr set.


Picture # 240. Happy Birthday little man!

Capture Your Dreams Workshop Week 1 Day 1 & 2

I've been iching to do lots of creative things this summer with the kids & with my "me" time. Yes, you moms out there know what that is, right? I purchased a spot in this workshop Capture Your Dream in late June & couldn't wait for July to get here fast enough. It's only day 2 & I'm having a ball! Avital is creative & encouraging. I think you can still join in on the fun if you want.

We are making a mixed media journal using all sorts of fun stuff & jounaling about our dreams in the process. I seem to be at a crossroads with my creative dreams, so this is perfect. What's not so perfect is I'm in the middle of this move & most of my artsy stuff is on some airplane/slow boat on the way to the desert. I figure I'll wing it until then, or go shopping :)


Since I'm so into this digital thing, I made an ATC of what photos I needed. Below are 3 of the photos I've used with some of the journaling. I still need to get the other 2 done. I was wondering how to unify all these random photos together. Some photos I just took today & others are a bit older. I decided to reverse saturate all the photos, use frames to emphasize some of the objects in the photos & journal right on top of them. I selected the strongest characteristic & used a different font.
This first picture is my jewelry. I was sorting & packing lots of pieces today & decided to take a picture. Just like my pieces, the materials, & the techniques I use, I love to describe myself as eclectic.
How could I not take a picture of my many bags & pieces of luggage I've been living out of. Not only have we been living out of luggage for the past 7 weeks, we really have never been settled since 2004. Before the birth of my second son (who turns 4 tomorrow!) we've had a move, cross country, cross base, up & down the coast. You name it, we did it. I'm not the most flexible person, but it's opened me up to lots of possibilities. I love a good adventure ~ especially when it involves looking for good inspiration & junk!

I LOVE this picture. I've been crafting all summer with the boys. They decided to draw a family portrait. I'll get the other 2 pictures up tomorrow. I may actually get to bed tonight before 2am!

Doin' the Happy Dance

Hi all! It's been forever & a day! I FINALLY have my computer back from the repair shop & a screen that no longer flickers :)

I've been dying to get my computer back because I've wanted to play with my new PSE program. I got it waaaayy back in April for my birthday & have not had much of a chance to play with it. This is what I've been doing all weekend, well, in between laundry & running to the post office. I have my first download available for you :) It's a collage sheet with artwork sized for ATC's but can be used in other ways. I've included fronts & backs.

I'm having so much fun doing this, that I hope to be able to make this a regular thing on my blog.

How did I do this? First, many thanks to Rhonna Farrer & House of 3 for the inspiration & tutorials. By the way, my blog decor is courtesy of them!! Just by reading the tutorials, I was able to load brushes & flip them! I didn't even have to watch any videos. This girl's good!

The second place I've been hanging is DeviantArt. I didn't know so many free brushes exsisted! The artists are super generous with their work. I have links to the brushes I've used over on the flickr page.

You should be able to download the sheet here on my blog (just click on the picture) or off flickr. It's 8.5 x 11. I hope you enjoy it & just a quick note that the items on the sheet are only for personal use as all of the brushes are not comercial. I would like to honor the requests of the artists that have so generously shared these brushes.

On the moving note, well, we're moving eventually! Our passports are just about done. I'm so anxious to go get settled. I'm having insomnia problems so photoshop has been my friend in the evenings.