Blog Links from Swap-bot

Besides my family & work, the thing taking up the rest of my "free time" these days has been Swap-bot. If you love getting mail the old-fashioned way, you'll love it! Its my first time joining any sort of online swapping group, unless you count Postcrossing (for postcard lovers!)

One of my recent swaps was a blog swap, not only to promote our blogs, but to see what others are doing. I wanted to share some of these blogs with you!

I love to travel & thought Olivia Arrow has a great way to discuss her escapades. Another fellow Swap-botter has not one, but two blogs! I was very impressed with her creative blog, but then I read her other one - Ramble Time - Reinvented - and liked what she had to say even more. (Have a look at her June 24th post.)
Jessica, one of my Swap-bot friends in Italy has a super-cute blog. Check out some of her beautiful creations! Lil' Miss Polkadot has an adorable blog, as well as a shop and one of her items made it to Etsy's front page last month!! She gives me inspiration for the Craft Pad...
Jennifer, at Just Add Water Silly is also very talented, and shows it in her zentangled bookmarks. I'm really into Zentangle lately! Did you know there's such a thing as a CZT?? (certified Zentangle teacher) Who knew?!
Another crafty swapper is Tally; here is just one of her cool ideas on her blog I Could Make That. (I love the name of her blog!) Our Simply Crazy Life is a beautiful & inspiring blog. She has a great idea for posting links that she calls "link love". Why can't I think of these things??
Speaking of great ideas, "cricutcritter" (her Swap-bot name), does things that I never would have imagined you can do with a Cricut! One of the cutest blogs I've found is out of Indonesia, called Sugar Crawler. I can't wait to try salted butter caramel ice cream...YUM!
Finally, a girl after my own shoe-lovin' heart is Soraya, a.k.a. Dissloved Girl. If only I had some place to wear such fabulous footwear....

I'm back.....

Once again, it has taken me way to log to post! This is an on-going struggle within myself. I'm always worried that I don't have anything interesting enough to write about or that people will want to read. Recently I found some blog idea websites that I hope can help me overcome my fear, or lack of motivation. For me, there's a fine line.

I have been somewhat* creative during my silence over the past few months. I've done some spring cleaning (per my husband's request), organized random things around the house and continue to work full-time. I'm also trying to be more engaged and "in the moment" when spending time with my 3 year-old - my other full-time job. For me, that means less time on the internet & getting next-to-nothing else done. I'm sure most other moms reading this know exactly what I'm talking about! And, I'm proud to say that at this very moment my craft room is clean!! I still have quite a bit of organizing to do, but there's room to walk around in there without stepping on several things. I have eliminated the "piles" on the floor, mostly because my husband was claiming it was a fire hazard. (If you ask me, he was exaggerating. But I don't keep anything too flammable in there anyway.)

I'm off to work now, but here are a couple of things I've been working on...

Zentangle for "white-on-black zentangle" swap on Swap-bot.

Paper dress garland. So cute & fun to make!

Cupcake "cake" for Ella's 3rd birthday party.






*I'm only "somewhat" creative because I don't make something everyday. If I was truly creative, I would have hundreds of pictures to post of what I've made. I'm still trying to find out how much caffeine I need to be truly creative.

Motivation & Time

Where have I been?? You can see, I haven't blogged in over a month and I don't have a good excuse! Everyday I tell myself, "I HAVE to blog today!" and then the next day comes...
Yes, motivation & time are partly to blame - I'm not too motivated lately and I have no time!
I don't have any excuse for taking so long to post something; for me, the trouble is deciding what's interesting enough that you'd want to read it! As always, I'm open for suggestions.

Something that has kept me busy over the last few weeks is organizing my craft room! After BANG!, it was a disaster and I didn't know where to start. There was no room to walk without stepping on or around something, and no place to work because my craft table was covered with brads, ribbon scraps, paper and other debris! It took a lot for me to show this, (I'm only able to after my mother sent me these pictures), but here's a before picture...

That's just one view; you're unable to see the floor....trust me, you don't want to!!

At first, I was just moving stuff around & creating organized piles. Then, after a few late-night, several hour-long cleaning sessions (the only time I get anything done), I started to have some hope....

And here is a during picture....

Once I got the desk cleaned off, it began to look like a place to create, rather than just a storage room. Note all the piles on the right! Someone saw these pictures and described it as "a nice juxtaposition of super-organization with real-life piles"! I thought that was a nice way to put what my husband sometimes refers to as my "crap" room.

And then I FINALLY got most things put away & in the places I want them. I added an old dresser that we were going to get rid of, as well as taking advantage of the space under my work table. By the way, the dresser is full already! What did I ever do without it??

I still have several "piles", but at least they're not on the floor. I can't describe how good it feels to walk through my craft room freely, without watching where I step!

Like my life, my craft room is a work in progress. There are still things I need to go through, condense and organize further. Now I'm able to work, walk & find things easily.....until my next project or craft show!!



                 (**Pictures are from Mel Stampz**)