Stop the Bus I Want to Get Off !

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Do you ever feel like you have so much to do that you could really do with asking God for an extra hour or two in the day?

I have been feeling like this for days now....

There just isn't enough hours in my day to complete all that I want/need to do..

With all the best intentions in the world I still don't get it all done...

My list is just getting longer and longer

Today's to do list looks like this

Write a blog post or two
Write a short bio and product an editorial to send out
Produce a template for Tatter Beans News Letter (look to the right and you will see a sigh up box... feel free to sign up and keep up to date with all that I'm doing)
Research new marking ideas
Do some ironing ( the kids look like scruffs in creased up clothes)
Clean the bathroom
Get some inspiration for Ester,Mothers day and father days prints/cards
Find a company that will fulfill my production needs .... and delivery deadlines
Work on a new product for my shop
Look at blogs to send my editorial to

Ok I am going stop there ... there a few other to dos on the list but Ive done them ....

I have this overwhelming feeling that I'm not going to get it all done today ....  and tomorrow just may be a wash out ... as we wait for the  next snow storm and the anticipation of a snow day for school.

Are you feeling over whelmed with all that you need to do today?
Please let me know I'm not alone .......

Sharing is Caring

Today I needed to come up with something to keep the kids occupied... its snowing outside and its really cold... they where a bit bored with the toys that had for Christmas..

My kids move on fast...faster than I can keep up with them..

So I decided to go see what I could find on the world wide web ... always a good place to start ..

I nipped onto face book.. as you do ..and saw this ...

Valentina Ramos Your kids (or you!) like to paint?
Take those crayons and play a little ;)
download the “Little Tractorcito” coloring page here:

How blessed was I, this kept them out of my hair for a good 45 minutes

Thank you Valentina you saved my bacon this afternoon.

Click on Valentina's name and you to can have this to keep your child happy for a while

and then go check out her work... she is a very talented lady 

This week Im Grateful for : Flowers and ......

 (Imagine by TatterBeans)

Don't flowers make you feel good... they are like a kiss from a lover, a smile of a child and the gift of a friendship all rolled into.

  I'm grateful for flowers cause they make me feel good...and we all need to feel good about something....

I put my flowers in water and then had to steal one to take a photo of it..cause you know I'm also inspired by flower I mean why wouldn't I be right?

So a big thank you to my American Sister Small Town Woman  for brightening up my day ...(they where an early Birthday Treat)

I am also grateful today that my husband doesn't read my blog ... after my PMS Post  he came back from work in an awesome mood.... So very grateful.

What are you Grateful for Today .... 

Come join us all at Maxabella's as we bring the weekend in with some gratefulness

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone...

This week Im Grateful for : Stars in my Life

This week I am grateful for so many things in my life.....

but I promise I'll only name a few

1: My best friend who is a star a bright shinny one..... whatever I do she is always there besides ...she encourage me and supports me ... I think she humors me as well ...and I love her for it ....*


2: The wonderful person (she is an awesome star) who featured one of my prints on her Treasury on Etsy ..... I hope she is truly blessed this weekend as she has blessed me. There is nothing better than waking up in a morning and checking your emails to find out that sort of news.


3: To all of you who left me encouraging comments yesterday .... You are all Bright Shining Stars.

Linking up with Maxabella for I'm Grateful For 

Happy weekend everyone...may it be a blessed one for all of you.

(*out of all my friends she was the only one who entered my failed attempted at a giver away .....) 

Creating The Light.

 (Art Work Credited to TatterBeans)

It has been six months.... Since I quit my day job and entered into Therapeutic Parenting.

Ive regreted it all at times, Ive rejocied in it at times.....

Ive seen the light, lost it and found it again.
Ive pulled my hair out and its regrown.
Ive cried myself to sleep at night, and woke up laughing.
Ive been bored out my mind,but to busy to think.

It seems like only yesterday when we made the decisions  that I would come out of the white collar world, and become a SAHM to our two RADdlings.(not sure what RADdlings means check over in the right hand column)

I had great visions of grandeur to begin with, I always see roses before I see weeds. Then for whatever reason I lost my mind vision
A wise woman said to me around this time of losing my mind vision


"You need to be doing something for you, something your passionate about, something that inspires you" 

This did strike a cord with me, I enjoy the creative side of life but had not done anything creative since leaving my job as an Art Director for our local Boys & Girls club.

The only photography I did was quick snap shots of the kids... Id stopped drawing, didn't do any crafts, everything had gone.

I did start to do some creative work again slowly but it was surely.
I then asked a question to two women online who I admire, one for her ability to put into words what we are all thinking  and the other for her artistic talent ....

"What do you think to my work?''
There response was positive, they told me to go for it and not look back.
I am crap at self belief .... Im even worse at self promotion.

I'm scared of failure ...and I always think everyone else is soooo much better than me ... which as I write this I still believe to be true...

But and here is the positive, I have stepped out ...Ive even stepped up .... I took a leap of faith ...... and I did just what everyone had been telling me to do....

It is early days and all business take time to grow and be known ..... maybe I will succeed maybe I wont.
It wont matter either way.......the important thing is Me is back ...the one who is alive and kicking ......



*And if anyone wants to know what it is I'm up to...there are hints of it all on this site 

Flogging my Blog on Thursday for Flog Yo Blog Friday ....... 

Come flog with us .... @  Random Ramblings of a SAHM

I ♥ Quench Metalworks.

Have you ever been just trolling over web pages, facebook, Etsy and suddenly something hits you smack bang in the face and your in love. Yes/No?

This I have to say doesnt happen that ofton with me but it did today.
I was just checking emails and facebook while Bop was eating her lunch (remember Im homeschooling this week) and on the front page of my facebook this little gem shows up.

I have for sometime admired Quench Metalwork's work, they are unique in every sense of the word.

They are on my after Christmas list which I informed my husband a few nights ago (we also buy each other something after the Christmas session as affording something before is nearly always imposable)

The piece that made me fall in love today is in fact a custom piece of jewelry, which might not be offered to the public but even still it caught my eye and made me whoosh.

The embroidery is by Cindy Steiler of Mary's Granddaughter....her work can also be found on Etsy 

The rest  is Quench Metalworks

A totally wonderful collaboration!

 
Quench Metalworks Facebook page

Quench Metalworks Etsy Store

Quench Metalworks Blog

Go have a look round and then come back and tell me how much you love their work.

Signing off and going back to homeschooling .........

Sharing Sunday : A Faviortie and a Wonderful find.

Happy Sunday to you all.

I cant believe its Sunday already where did our long weekend go? but let me say I'm grateful we didn't get snow, unlike my homeland that did. It makes a change its normally me screaming about snow instead this weekend its my UK friends post all over Face Book that they have snow.

Sharing Sunday, I love doing this post cause it means I have the perfect excuse for finding Stores and Artists to share instead of feeling guilty cause I'm spending to much time scrolling through stuff.

So My first fine ..... (yes that's right I have two for you today, I just couldn't pick between them both)

A Life Through The Lens, my dear friend Kristi, a true inspiration to me in more ways than one.
Her work draws me in and I hope it will you to as she has a fabulous sale on for the next two weeks buy one get one free.

This is what Kristi says about herself and her work

I capture life's little moments through photography. Photography helps me slow down and look for details that I otherwise might miss. I feel most alive when I am creating & sharing things of beauty. I believe Aaron Siskind best describes how I feel about photography perfectly, “Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”

I'm a self-taught photographer; constantly growing and learning. I find inspiration from my children, nature, the simple things, soft colors, natural light, quotes and life.
 
I want to share with you the print that sits above our bookcase, it use to sit in Bops room but it looks better above our bookcase so I stole it from her.

If you look closely you can read the names of all the books and I just love that

 

This print is in the shop at the moment and I'm ordering one. I love the texture of it and the color theme will look wonderful in my kitchen

Along with 

So pop on over to A Life Through The Lens

and then go show her some love at her blog she does some wonderful tutorials

Life Through The Lens Photography 

The next Artist is

Teconlene - Le Petit Monde-

An Illustrate with so much talent I was pulled in and didn't come out I scrolled through her entire shop with lots of ohhhhh and arrrrrrs going on ....

The name of the Artist is Sara and she lives in Madrid ... a wonderful part of the world, many a drink drank in Madrid in my miss spend youth, but that's another story.

Here is what Sara has to say about herself and her work.

This is the corner where the Little World take its place.

Hello! My name is Sara Olmos, I work doing what I love: playing with images and ideas in order to gear them and transform them in small visual puzzles. I am a graphic designer and that is the way I face my work: searching for each project the solution that fits the best. A few years ago I started to look through a camera lens and I discovered that it allowed me, in an immediately way, to communicate my particular vision of the world, where the objects and the small things are filled with live and look at me in such way that it is impossible to deny them a photo.
Recently I have also begun exploring my illustrative side, where I let the fantasy govern and search new forms of expression.
Nowadays I am developing a series of illustrations called "le petit monde" (little world) inhabited by characters who interact with objects with a different scale finding in its relation new meanings.

So now let me blow you away

I'm leaving hints around the house as to what I would like for Christmas, not sure its going to work but if I was to post my husbands email address do you think you could all lead him this way please ..... 

and this way .....

This draws me in to a place that I know I could get lost in 

Sara also makes brooches which are totally adorable and she also has some Christmas cards

here are a few of them that are in her shop at the moment

How wonderful would these be to wish a friend a happy Holiday totally adorable.

Her shop address is Teconlene

and her blog address is Caleidoscopio 

Her blog maybe all in Spanish but trust me the photo's she posts are to die for and it will give you an insight into her wonderful colorful world.....

I hope you have enjoyed this Sunday Sharing and if you have something that has inspired you this week please leave me a comment and a link I love to see what inspires others.

Have a wonderful week people.

Thankful ......

 Thank you for the The Notebook Doodles for this Doodle.

Happy Thanks Giving to all my friends in blog land ......  you are all a blessing and are truely appricated.

Childrens Books and Illustration

I know I dont always share alot of my findings... except for Spill the Beans Saturday.

Sometimes an exception to the rules needs to happen, So Ladies and Gentleman (if there are any gentleman that read my posts) ... today is that day...

I found something that totally caught my eye.

I'm a lover of  books and illustration .... I buy books and prints like its going out of fashion ..when I say book I mean children's books.... and there not always for the kids.....
 
I don't even remember how I found this artist .....

All I know is she has illustrated some of my favorite stories.

So without further a do 

I Introduce to you 

Becca Scholes.

The Real Ugly Duckling

One of Bops faviorite stories

My all time faviorite story and movie

The Secret Garden

Bip is loving the Movie right now

Olive

Go check out the rest of her site...... she does some amazing stuff

This is a Flog Yo Blog Post

on a Thursday

Now its your turn go join the Hop

New Layout and Maybe Some Help :)

Do you get bored?
I guess I must do.... second blog layout change in a week.
Ive been trying to do my own I don't want to copy what others have done and I do really enjoy messing about in photo shop.... but and here is my problem ...and just maybe there is someone out there who could help me
how do I get the HTLM code for a background .... the header is no problem I can do that with my eyes closed so to speak but I have no clue as to the background and what size I should make it to up load it....
So My real personality is shinning through here.... I'm totally in awe of STEAMPUNK.

I just love the concept.

When Hubby and I meet playing Secondlife ...One of my Toon was Steampunk  Hubby was Vamp, but that soon changed.

So its a fascination so to speak and an outlet of frustration, I mean can you really see me dressing like this and taking the kids to school..... Oh My Goodness..... how totally hilarious.

My layout comes from a site called Itkupilli I totally love her stuff and want to give her a huge shout out.
I will be working yet again on my own layout but for now will use this one Itkupilli made.

So if anyone out there would love to give me some pointers I sure would love you for life
And please note there will be more steampunk around ..its about time the real me stepped up to the show....