Long break... Update!

 I've taken a hiatus from a lot of blogging lately, and I am honestly not sure if I'll ever really do this a lot.  I just have a lot of stuff going on!  And blogger has been so weird lately... I try constantly to post comments on my friends' blogs, and it never lets me.  Maybe it's my browser.

Anyway, I figured I'd do a quite montage of my crafting highlights over the last five or six months.  Above and below are shawl pins I made in June, I believe.

19 knitted strawberries for my son's play food stash, made in July from a free pattern on Ravelry.  To get to it, you can see my project page on Ravelry. (I'm KathyCanuel on there, and everywhere else, I suppose, but usually with a space between my names.  ^_~)

In August, I improvised a cute crochet chef hat for Elliott.  He's a bit obsessed with play food and cooking and kitchen stuff.

My first knitted shawl, also completed in August:

I got an order for a trinity link ring, which was a new challenge for me.  But I love the way this turned out, in September.

In September, I got a new bible from my husband, and I added bling to it by gluing crystals on the cover and by adding this cluster charm on the ribbon.

Also in September, I made my first real knitted garment (I've previously done a very bulky cardigan for my son and a little baby sweater, but I don't count those) for my sweet older son.  He gets cold in his classroom at school and they have a uniform policy that states that if they're wearing a cover up inside, it must be navy blue and it must NOT have a logo, and it can't be made of sweat material.  You would never realize just how hard it is to find a plain navy blue cardigan.  So I made one.

In October, I made two more signs for Tempe Yarn and Fiber, to mark sections of yarn in the store.  I had a lot of fun with both of these!

I also made a lot of really, really cool pieces for my trunk show.  These earrings are my super fave.  I don't think I have to point out which pair I'm talking about.  ^_~

In October, I also managed to knit two entire sweaters for my sweet husband for his November birthday, shown here.  He was so excited to get them, which makes it really easy to knit stuff for him.

So far this month, I've finished my second lacy shawl, also made from a free pattern on Ravelry, called Echo Flower.

And I have another trunk show coming up in the beginning of December!  I'm keeping busy.  So busy, in fact, that I apparently have no time to post about it.  ^_~

More JT Imagine Cartridge fun

This time I used the JT Cartridge on my Imagine to make winter layouts and a birthday layout for my son. Again, I'm posting them here because I've got to put them on the web somewhere or I can't add them to the Cricut board.

What I made with the JT Cartridge...

I wanted to just post this on the Cricut message board, but I had to enter a URL for my images, so I need to post them here first. Basically, I used my JT cartridge in my Cricut Imagine to print papers and make a box and then I decorated it and made a card, too. I also made the box bigger than the DS game that was the present so that it would be tricksy packaging.

I finished the box with yarn from my remnants stash and added extra knots and stuff to make it messy and more boy-friendly. Hopefully it all worked out.

Interesting, I think...

Interesting that:

1. Thad is currently engrossed in "The Red Pyramid" by Rick Riordan. He's reading it on my Nook. I barely suggested he might like to check it out and he jumped at the opportunity, I know, because of the technology more than because of the book. Of course the book is proving to be quite interesting or he would have stopped staring at the immobile screen (except for page changes, of course, but that's not really very exciting) long ago.

2. Thad refused to even start the Percy Jackson series by the same author, for which we own paperbacks of the first four books. (Waiting for the fifth to come out on paperback so that my set can match. I always do this to myself.) I wonder if he'll be interested in reading those once he's read through "The Throne of Fire"?

3. I can't read "The Throne of Fire" right now because someone is using my Nook.

4. I don't mind this because my 10 year old is choosing to read instead of playing a video game. Not that I feel that video games are entirely a waste (at least they're engaging his mind, right? Not like mindless watching of TV.). I just like that he's choosing a book, even if it's presented in a non-traditional form.

5. He's going to a birthday party this evening and I have yet to prepare the present/card... I wonder if a 13 year old boy will appreciate stuff made on my Cricut Imagine? I wonder if a 13 year old boy appreciates anything?

6. If I continue buying series of books on my Nook, I never have to worry about the "waiting for the paperback" thing again. This pleases me.

7. Adam's surprise and super secret anniversary socks are moving along well, even though it's pretty slow. I'm throwing myself into working on them every morning. I'm not sure Elliott will recognize me after this is all over if I don't have a dark gray sock in progress in my hands. I have heard a million times that "slow and steady wins the race", but I'm really hoping eventually for some "warp speed and steady" to enter my fingers. This project is dragging.

8. I think that's it... I have to go make packaging for a present for a kid I'm sure will throw it all away within 2 minutes of opening the gift.

9. I will still make the packaging, moved by some inner compulsion to always give my best even when people will fail to recognize or appreciate it.

10. God and I just had a moment of mutual understanding on that one. Touche, Big G. Touche.

Spice Jar Tooth Fairy House

I'm both really proud of and really embarrassed by this project. It's a house for the Tooth Fairy made out of an old spice jar.


I'm trying to trace back to what made me think of doing this and all I can figure is that it started with Thad losing a tooth yesterday morning. He put it on a piece of paper on the counter with the cutest little note: "Mom, please put my tooth somewhere safe. Love, Thad" This empty jar just so happened to be sitting very close to the note. I had used it up in our glorious Chipotle style food night and I was trying to figure out what to store in it.


Suddenly, as often happens, my mind suddenly rushed with a huge mesh of ideas. I thought of the Tooth Fairy. I thought of the wonderfully cute fairy doors I read about on Yarn Harlot's blog. I looked at the spice jar and thought of old fashioned apothecary jars. I thought of a safe place for a tooth. The Tooth Fairy's house, right? And also the idea of a wonderful little place that we could put a tooth where the Tooth Fairy could go in, stretch her wings, relax, grab the tooth, then leave money before leaving. Sort of a Tooth Fairy exchange place. And it all kind of meshed in my mind and this is what happened:


(The tiny door knob fell off during sanding, but I'm going to fix it.)




(I've always been obsessed with chandeliers, so Tooth Fairy had to get a chandelier for her crib.)




And even though this was technically made as a safe place for Thad's tooth, somebody else thinks it belongs to him.

(For the record, Thad, being a wise and advanced age of 10, no longer believes in the Tooth Fairy,
but we still have fun with it.)

A bit of "drama", Sensei style

I don't know why I'm compelled to call my every strong emotion "drama". Why is that? It's perfectly acceptable to have strong emotions. In fact, I believe so many of us desire people in our lives to actually feel through things--to care about things. I felt a little bit embarrassed about sharing this page, but I've done this kind of unspoken thing where I've decided that I'm sharing all of my pages from 2011 on my blog as a way to keep me motivated to keep up on my scrapping this year. This is one of my emotional pages.

The more emotional I get, the more organic my photo layout tends to be. It's like all of that stuff gets jumbled up inside of me and I can't force myself to make a grid of pictures, to line everything up all neatly and perfectly. The stuff I feel doesn't get lined up neatly and perfectly inside of me, so I put a little bit of that randomness onto the page. I had a really hard time getting this together, so I made a few decisions early on to give myself some boundaries so that I wouldn't stress myself out with the possibilities. (This is another one of my tips for getting some of your scrapbooking actually finished... You MUST set yourself some sort of rule that you will not stray from so that you can actually get your stuff on the page. IF, however, you receive a flash of brilliant inspiration contrary to your original rule, then you MUST break your original rule and go with your flash. I just like setting the rule out so that if my flash never comes, I'll still get a good page done. Get it? Got it? Good.)

Prior Decisions:
-2 page layout
-One page would be solely for showcasing the journaling I had recorded on the specific day that this all happened.
-The other page would be for pictures.
-This page would have an old, much loved, vintage feel.
-I would not force myself, as I usually do, to be done in one sitting. This one would take some time and my desk would be a mess and that would be okay with me. (Here that, Self?! The messy desk is FINE on this one for a while. You just shut your mouth.)
-I would ONLY use papers and embellishments from the Colorbok Flea Market collection. (Remember this rule, because I did end up breaking it in a flash of inspiration.)

Those decisions made, I set about making this:


After finally setting my boundaries, the page flowed so naturally and organically, it was another one of those processes where (seriously, I'm not preaching, just expressing my own experience in the creative process) I felt like I had Help. I am a Christian. Most people know that about me. Closer to the truth is that I'm more of a charismatic Christian, which is where people think it gets weird. Basically, I have this open and flowing experience with God pretty constantly in my life and I feel it expresses itself in all kinds of ways, whether through words, or through feelings, or through times like this when as I create, the process is so smooth and flowing that it's like He and I truly become one in mind and motion. We bond a lot by making stuff. It might sound crazy or silly, but you can think of it as me being connected with the creative energy of the universe or something, if that helps you, because it's still technically correct, I guess.

Anyway, the first moment It happened was after I had used the pink measuring tape fabric stickers at the bottoms of both of my pages. It seemed so fitting somehow, but I didn't know why, until later after laying my pictures out and tearing up just a bit again, I remembered the quote I eventually put there. "Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold." -Zelda Fitzgerald.

Then with the journaling, and the borders, and all of that. The other paper strips you see are ones that I took off of the tops of the papers in the Flea Market paper stack. I love these double sided strips and use them all the time. They're like pre-made embellishments. I like working with loose paper anyway, so I always get home and tear my paper packs apart so that I have all loose sheets. In ones like the Colorbok sets (which I love), you end up with all of these double sided strips that you can just tear off at the dotted line. I originally didn't like that they had holes in them, but then I grew to really enjoy the look.

As I kept going, though, I started to realize that the stuff in the Colorbok Flea Market collection wasn't going to be enough to help me out. I left the page, and the next day I went shopping for a 7Gypsies Letterpress Tray at Scrapbooks Etc., which they didn't have. But while I was there, I bought some Basic Grey rubons (Designer Rubons, 843940029959 rub-2995... they didn't have a specific name, just numbers... They're the black old fashioned travel themed ones, really cool) and rubons from Melissa Frances called "Vintage Transfers", which had a whole bunch of crowns and wings. Also very cool. I also picked up a sheet of pearl stickers, also from Melissa Frances, labeled "1962 Trinkets and Baubles".

I wasn't planning on using any of these things for the page I was working on. I just grabbed them because I loved them. They spoke to me. I'm developing more of a vintage style, like everyone else, so I resisted it for a long time, until I realized I just love it and I always create most easily with the products I love.

When I got home and I began working on my page again, I realized that some of the images and pearls I just bought would look perfect on the page. So I broke my rule. I put some of them in there. I added a whole bunch of old fabric accents I had in my stash. I put pearls everywhere (to indicate how precious I felt it all was).


Just working through the page gave me such a sense of fulfillment. It was emotionally releasing to get this kind of stuff down on paper. I realized how grateful I was for my son's growth, and what a joy he has been in our lives. He gets funnier every day he gets older. I wanted to express what I felt today as I made the page, and not just what I felt on the day I took the pictures. I made a custom journaling spot, which is one of my favorite things to do. It's very easy. Just take some good border stamps, like the ones I used here (the straight flourish), and stamp yourself a box. The corners were empty and, again, It happened when I saw that in the same set (Pink Paislee Pop Fashion) there was a tiny crown stamp, and I stamped the corners with the crown. (I used crown rubons earlier on Elliott's two pictures.)

I then basically drew lines across my stamped box with a normal gel pen and using a ruler. I like to push at different strengths as I draw my line to make them look more like the worn out, store bought stuff you usually get. Again, a lot of scrapbookers think they like "perfect", but what they usually like is "store bought" and the store bought stuff is almost NEVER perfect.

I worked through a lot of emotions about my kids growing up as I made this page, and it was so nice. One of my favorite tidbits I added was from the BasicGrey rubons, of the little ship at the bottom right corner of the picture of Elliott in the playpen. It's sailing off, towards outside of the bounds of the picture, symbolizing that his journey and his adventure are continuing. It was a quick little thing to put, but as soon as I did, there was a kind of release emotionally in me. I celebrate his journey, not just his times as a baby. And I'm so honored to be a part of it all.

Lost Coffee Cup, Birthday Layout

I'm talking about this:


...later. So scroll down to read about that, or stay here and read about my coffee cup first.

This morning I lost my coffee cup.

I was somewhat beside myself, to say the least. I'm not one of those people who can get overly dramatic about coffee and how it's the "brown elixir of life" and all of that, but I have grown quite fond of having a cup in the mornings. It really does help me wake up. I don't know if it's because of the caffeine (by this point in my life, I'm not sure the caffeine content of a cup of coffee could even matter to my system) or because of the mental thing that happens when I take my first sip. That "ahhhh..." feeling that comes over my brain. This is how I start my day. My day is now started. Before that point, my brain hasn't reconciled itself to being awake. Until I have my "ahhhh..." moment, I'm not too happy. I mean, I'm not a mindless harpy or anything, but I'm not perfectly content.

I think it's really more the mental thing. As of this morning, I had very strong evidence to support my theory. My coffee doesn't taste the same if I use a different cup. It's about the ritual of the thing for me. My coffee, in my cup, with my raw sugar and my fat free half and half is what equals "ahhhh..." for me. I used to be lazier about this. I would just use a different mug. But it would never be the same. I've started washing my mug before I make my coffee if it's not already clean the next morning. I want my mug and my coffee and my "ahhhh..." and it's not going to happen unless all of that comes together. Again, not having this doesn't mean I make it my excuse to be horrible to people in the morning, but I don't have my own inner contentment. I'm just faking it.

I looked on my desk. I looked on my other desk. I looked on the counter. I moved some dishes to make sure that I wasn't missing it behind something else. (The fact that my kitchen is currently in that kind of state is not something I'm entirely proud of, of course, but I also know it's not permanent. I just have been focused on other things lately. Give me 45 uninterrupted minutes and that space will look like Martha Stewart's kitchen. Give me 15 minutes and I'll have every counter cleared. It's not as bad as it looks.) I went into the dining room, I looked in the dishwasher. I looked behind the couch. (With my boys, you never know.) I even went so far as to post on Facebook that I couldn't find my cup. I found myself nearing my end when I pulled the bread machine off of the counter (we made homemade pretzels for Family Fun Night this week) and I still didn't find it.

Just when I was reconciling myself to not having my coffee in my cup with my raw sugar and my fat free half and half and was ready to settle for my coffee in not my cup with my raw sugar and my fat free half and half, I decided to look in the dishwasher one more time.

There it was. No kidding. It wasn't there the first time I looked. I mean, I know it was. But there it was, big as day, sitting exactly where the cups in the dishwasher go, looking all innocent like it had been there all along, and part of me just knows that it wasn't in there the first time I looked. But I know it was. But you know what I mean. I pulled it out, all shiny and clean, with its beautiful green interior (which I love... it's such a beautiful compliment to the color of the coffee... makes the whole experience so nice) and I stared it down for a second, wondering if it was off fooling around with one of the bowls or something the first time I looked. It managed to look a bit sheepish. (I might have caught it.) And I proceeded to make myself my coffee in my cup with my raw sugar and my fat free half and half.

But this morning, I ran out of sugar. So I either have to go shopping or switch to my coffee in my cup with my German rock sugar (from Teavana) and my fat free half and half, which is a good substitution. I can't use white sugar anymore. I've gotten spoiled to the richness of the raw sugars... They taste different. Coffee with white sugar will definitely not make my "ahhhh...".

I guess it's true what they say... as you get a little bit older (Notice I did say OLDER and not old, for heaven's sake. I know I'm not old. No one hit me.), you begin to become set in your ways. People can think of it as high maintenance. I tend to think of it as just being clear about my wants and desires. And the fact that my sweet husband knows all of these little details about me and he can make me a my cup of my coffee in my cup with my raw sugar and my fat free half and half... Well, that's the best "ahhhh..." of all. It gives him another opportunity to know me down to the details, and I love that about him--that he cares enough to know these things about me.

Anyway, on to the scrapbooking:

I am caught up with all of my 2011 scrapbooking for now. Basically, it's May, so my goal is to finish all of April's scrapbooking before the end of the month. Once I complete April 2011, I go back and work on my catchup stuff. I finished February 2009 with this page about my son's 8th birthday.

Basically, I usually start my scrapbooking time with some kind of a challenge to myself. I wanted to use the Basic Grey Nook and Pantry collection, and make most of the design out of paper scraps. (I'm using a non-specific color of light blue cardstock for my background. It was from a textured cardstock pack at Walmart.)

I set up my photos how I wanted them and then cut paper scraps to fill the holes and make a nice grid. Here, I've got everything placed but not glued down yet because I decided I wanted to antique the edges of everything. I'm using Vintage Photo Distress Ink.


One of my favorite things to do with these newer double sided kits from Basic Grey is to cut off the bottom strip of paper from each sheet, where the label is. If you flip it over from the label, you get all of these fun 1/2" strips of the other pattern. I use those on my pages all the time. On this page, I used two of them. I cut across a strip of leftovers with my scallop punch and then used the tiny bit left over from that at the top of the page there. I really, really love the way this all turned out.


I added some fun buttons in the design triangle thing, along with other embellishments (my title, the "tasty" and the journaling block are another triangle). I did two button triangles on the page, actually. I decided to make my title French because I didn't feel like writing "Happy Birthday" up there. It felt lame. So it's "Bon Anniversaire" instead. This is one of my favorite things to do. If you can't think of an interesting title, just make it a different language. (I usually use French.) Get the Google translator to tell you how.


The "8" from my sheet of stickers that came with the collection was totally not the right color for my page or this accent, so I colored it brown with a marker and it turned out great. Also, I felt the page still looked a bit plain once I was done, and I considered adding stitching, but my 10 year old was standing behind me, looking over my shoulder, asking for about the 100th time (don't feel bad for him... it was the 100th time in about 2 minutes real time, which is more like an hour in his time or 10 seconds in my time) if we could play Star Trek Scene-it. I don't like leaving pages unfinished, so I just decided to add some dots with a brown marker around the central block of the page, and that worked out fine.

The stickers and buttons on this page are also all from the Basic Grey Nook & Pantry collection. It makes coordinating so simple if you don't try to match everything yourself. It may feel lazy, but if you actually get pages done, it's worth it, right? I no longer think of it as lazy. I think of it as boundaries that produce freedom, kind of like with your children. You put boundaries down so that they feel safe and loved, and they flourish within those boundaries. Hopefully your flourishing will involve less crying fits, but hey. We all have those days. Especially if we can't find our coffee cups.

(Luckily I found mine today, though...)