Trash to Treasure

One of my guilty pleasures is plundering the local Goodwill store. My neighbourhood has a pretty diverse population but it also sits on the edge of a very affluent neighbourhood. It seems that many residents with good taste send there cast offs to our Goodwill. I've found many, many treasures in the last 17+ years. (Geez has it been that long?!)
The other day Sid and I were hunting and came across an rather ugly picture holder. It was anitqued brass and really dirty. The wires were bent out of shape. I passed right by. Sid said "Mom, look at that thing? What is it?" I told her what it was and she replied "You could make it look pretty!". Being half off it came to a whopping $2.00, so we bought it. Here's a peek of it's original ugliness. (I forgot to take a before shot).
I bent the wires back, spray painted it white and die cut some frames, added photos and crafted the heck out of it! I used Crate Paper's Portrait Collection and some green embossed stamped images. Right now it's holding a black and white selection of Christmas pictures. I will rotate the pictures from time to time but right now I like the colour scheme to brighten the winter dreariness. Click on the pictures to make them bigger!

Tutorial Tuesday and some good news.

So... I have two big exciting things to announce!
First off my Tutorial Tuesday staff grew a little this week. The picky princess herself, Miss Sidney, joined me on my new video. We are making name/One Little Word necklaces..especially for kids. Please take a peek!














Secondly, I was very happy to be asked to join the Momenta D-Lite team! It's a design team of sorts but it also involves helping with product testing, feedback and development. I also get one heck of a selection of goodies. Wee!
You can see the announcement HERE.
Thanks for stopping by.

A little page...or two

There's a few things brewing in the princess-dom (that's not a word but you know what I mean!) that I am super excited about. I will be able to post both of them soon, In the mean time here's a recent page I did without pictures featuring Sidney's Nutcracker acceptance letter. And here's the little mouse herself, about to go onstage. I'll leave you with one final layout...about yogurt, the frozen kind. Both layouts were made Studio Calico's Glee club kit.

One Little Word: 2012

Happy New Year!
This year Sidney and I both picked words. She's old enough to get the concept now and I thought it might be a good experience for her. I chose "active", she chose "calm" and we both made necklaces to give ourselves visual reminders for the year. It wasn't until I photographed said necklaces that I realized that are words are pretty much opposites and that they are what we need from each other.
She needs me to be more engaged in her life than I have been. I'm good at going through the routines, getting her to places on time..etc. I'm not always so good at paying attention.
I need her to learn how to not take everything so seriously and enjoy a little more. I worry that her perfectionism is keeping from experiencing all that she can.
On a more personal note, I chose this word as an extension of last year's word. I need to implement many of the strategies I came up with last year, in other words I need to act on them.
I've made a good start health wise so far. I've begun to meditate, lost 11 pounds and started to understand my health a bit better, but there is so much more to be done. Gradually, I'm getting there and I know it's the right direction.
Share with me your word this year and your plans for it!!