Finding Balance

Yesterday I took a break from purging my junk.  Needed to fuel my talent for being creative – and I used up some junk in the process.   I don’t want to get burnt out with the whole de-clutter process.

I decided to finish a challenge after all, but I did something totally different than what I was planning on doing before my ‘Aha-Hoarder’ moment last week.  I decided to make an organizer to old the various odds and ends of a Nintendo DS we have.  I keep one so that when I have to drag Hope with me to an appointment I can plug her in.  Otherwise, she’d be bouncing all over the furniture and talking to everyone.  We don’t play it much, but it makes appointments fun for her.  I’ve been carrying it around in Ziploc bags in my purse forever.  But, this got rid of some of my garbage clutter and helped me organize the games a bit better.

It almost matches my purse.  Lucky me.  And when not going to appointments, I can store it on the shelf next to books.   

I posted a tutorial on how I made it HERE.  Now, I’m thinking I could do several of these types of cases for various things my boys have.  Would make great Christmas stocking stuffers on the cheap.  I only have to be sure to be realistic about what I have time to do and it’s time frame.  Otherwise this idea falls into my addicting clutter frame of mind.    That’s the only thing that stinks about being creative.

I met with ‘Young and Gorgeous’ today!  Of course she thinks I’m doing Fab and going in the right direction.  The one concern that’s overwhelmed me with the whole gutting process is the thought of running around like crazy and monitoring the family to make sure they are complying with our simple dream lifestyle. 

She Said, ‘Fawn, you have a husband right?

‘Yep.’

‘Well can’t he monitor too?’

‘Yes, I guess he could.’

‘And your kids have all agreed that they want this too – right?’

‘Dang, you are so right.’

She pointed out that I am not doing this alone.  We are all doing it together and I shouldn’t put such a overwhelming heavy burden on my shoulders.  We can all Jillian Michaels kindly monitor each other.  Then, I’m not the only Bad Guy.  Plus, having little Hope sweetly ask Prince Daddy to pick up his socks would sound way cuter from her than it would from mommy.

By the time I’m finished with this process, I will practically fly everywhere, my self-imposed burdens seem to lift a little every week. Love my counselor! 

Now, I’ve just got to control this crazy creative brain of mine.  It’s been dreaming of following the ‘Project Runway’ challenges when they are given each week.  You know watch through the show until the challenge is given – turn off the TV, run to the thrift store to buy fabric and see if I can’t create something similar if not better than the contestants?)  How crazy is that idea.  Of course I’d try and rationalize the process by saying I was trying to create a wearable look for a member of my family that fit in the definition guidelines.  But which of my girls is looking for a High Fashion /Couture Look to wear to Pre-school?  Okay, I know Hope would love to wear a princess gown to the dump if she could.  Anyway, that’s the inner ramblings I have to deal with from myself – on a daily basis.  Good thing I’m not the only one that crazy creative.  Commented about it to ‘Grosgrain’ and she loved the idea as well.  Love Grosgrain’s creativity, wish I had as much time to sew.

Now I’ve got to go find something to chuck!  Blah!!!

When the weather gets hot…

I’m on fire right now.  Summer weather has actually only been around for 3 or 4 days.  The heat I mean.  This has been the coolest summer I can remember (WHICH I’M LOVING).  Cloudy, cool mornings (PERFECT for yard work), and the high’s around the mid 70’s.  Seriously, weather created just for me. 

Today was a warmer day – Over 80 degree’s F.  I know, I know you folks in AZ are cursing me right now.   I think we’ve had around a weeks worth of days over 80 all summer long.    Regardless, I’m loving the weather.  In fact it’s been so hot I’ve done something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.

Strip…

the paint off some old furniture.  What kind of person do you think I am?  I’ve been working on 3 different pieces -

A Clock box, and can I say the stripping varnish and stain is a pain.  It’s future will hopefully be an enchanted dream box.

A heirloom rocker that’s been through generations of my family and all my kids and even spent a winter outside.

I pray I can save it, but it’s in pretty bad shape.  I know certain pieces will have to be replaced, but the wood, for the most part  is still okay.

And what of this?  Let’s just say one of my favorite artist has inspired the future of this chair.  Can you just imagine a whimsical Storybook Chair?  I’m beyond excited.

 

I have such amazing dreams for each of these pieces.  And the weather is perfect for working outside on such dreams as these.

Guess what?  My sweet fairy door is a finalist… okay, to be honest all the entries are finalists.  Let’s just say, there are some pretty creative ladies out there.  Hop on by (by clicking on the button) and vote for your favorite.

And this weekend.  I’ve a special surprise.  I’ll be showing you the treasures I’ll be giving away for my Second Star to the Right Adventure.  Almost put the finishing touches on them.  Now to find where I put my pixie dust?

As you can tell my dreams are in full force, I’m sure my Prince wishes de-cluttering were closer to the top of my dream list.  It will come… eventually.  Until then I’m enjoying every step along the way.

Dreaming

Today was the perfect day to Dream.   Mists of enchantment surrounded my dreams.

 

And a precious rainbow graced my view for a full ten minutes this afternoon.

Every weekend I visit Dreamland now. I escape to it in an effort not to be overwhelmed with the Unbloggable.  And I’m doing a better job at dreaming.  I’ve no doubt that the unbloggable will be with me for the rest of my life, sometimes more present than at other times, sometimes more painful, sometimes full of hope for a peaceful future.  Last weekend it was dreadful but I didn’t let it pull me down.   I kept dreaming.

I was thinking, it might not be a bad idea to give you a glimpse into some of my little dreams that are ongoing as we speak.

I’m still busily creating a dress fit for a fairy queen.  Every weekend it gets a bit more sparkle and whimsy added to it.

 

Last weekend I also picked up an old friend.  Someone I haven’t spent time with for over 11 years.

My crochet hooks.

I was inspired after seeing Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist work her magic on an afghan of delightful colors.  And then I happened on a crochet pattern simple enough for me to read.  Thank you Future Girl – My girls and I love your crochet/bead bracelets.

I think the only way I was able to read her wonderful pattern is because she also included pictures.  Thank you Future Girl.

Nearly every day my girls suggest a new color they would love to have in bracelet form.

We may be busy for a while.  But I’m grateful because it’s nice to know that after so long a time without my hook, I still know how to wield it.  I wish I was better at knowing my crochet terms, but now is as good as time as any to relearn them.  Who knows maybe someday I can try something to the magnitude of what my mother creates.

Can you believe that she doesn’t know how to read a written pattern?  She counts the stitches and figures it out on her own. 

Maybe I owe some of these fine dreams to Rkimedes.  She lovingly created me a little dream catcher.  I’m hanging it at my weekend dream retreat.

 

I love that she included a heart, in the web, inspired by one of my favorite dream songs.  ‘A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes.’

 

Yep, dreams are my sanity right now.  I’m so glad I finally have them back in my life.  I’m including so many of these dreams in my dream journal. 

  

‘The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.’        ~Eleanor Roosevelt

There is no greater feeling in the world than when those dreams come true.  And I, for one, am looking forward to many more dreams coming true.

My Creative Sanctuary – FINALLY!

Welcome Creative Bloggers!  So glad to have you visit.  And if you want to see some more amazing spaces visit my friends over at ‘Where Bloggers Create’ Blog Party by clicking on the picture.

Thank you Karen Valentine for being my kick in the pants to help me start on my nightmare room.  It’s been the hardest room I’ve yet done.  Nothing too fancy.  Didn’t even have time to paint it.  Mostly it was all about De-cluttering and Finding the Floor.  And creating a space where I could,  um, can you guess?  CREATE!  I even managed to add in a space for my little girls to visit their artistic skills as well.

Just a reminder of what the disaster area looked like around 3 weeks ago.  Not even a path to the door.  You had to climb mountains.

And from a slightly different angle – still every inch a disaster.

 

So after blood, sweat and tears.  O.K. there was no blood involved but a lot of tears.  Even carted off a huge truckload of trash to the junkyard, and several boxes to the Thrift Store.

Are you ready?

  Here’s the after.  And Wow! Look, you can even see the floor.

And from a different view.

The Girls Corner…

And guess what – I probably spent less than $100 on the whole room. 

I love my farm girl curtains.  First curtains I’ve sewed in 10 years.  Towel hooks instead of curtain rod holders.  Free stick from the yard and material from my huge stash.  Doesn’t the stick just yell country girl?

Took the piles and piles of the stuff that survived the sort and…

Ready for my redneck moment?

A friend got me some crates which I spent some money to spray paint.  I didn’t want black crates.  Bought a few pieces of shelving.

Loaded them up.

 

Thank you thrifted sheets and Velcro!

Used the left over spray paint from the crates to refinish an old abused storage center.

Then took some extra material after sewing a cover for my shelves.  Took that little bit of fabric and cut it out to fit the front of my drawers.  Slapped the material on with another favorite Modge Podge.

 

I think they look great together.

I loved being able to display some of my little creations and treasures instead of having them buried in piles of clutter.

I know you’ve already figured this out by my color scheme was hydrangea blue and lavender.

And when I’m not crafting on the tables I can show off some of my vintage linens like this lovely lilac trimmed hand-embroidered cutwork tablecloth I got for less than $15 at an antique mall.

Now that the room is mostly done.  The girls and I can’t stay out of it.

I love that I finally have a calm place to go a create dreams and make memories with my girls. 

      

Can’t wait to invite some of my friends over so we can get some quality girl craft bonding time in. 

Thanks for visiting.

Finding the Floor

So my success with the patio wall motivated me to finally undertake the Room of Horror’s. You know the room I’ve been throwing everything into that doesn’t have a place. The room my husband promised could be my little craft studio. Well I’m in a manic creative phase and I really want that room. I just had no idea how long it would take me to find the floor.

Remember what it looked like last spring? There wasn’t even a path to the side door.

You had to embrace your inner mountain climbing skills to navigate all the junk piles.

At one time we were convinced that an animal of unusual size had climbed into one of the craft caves and died because there was an unearthly, rancid smell emanating from somewhere within the piles. Brave Prince Erik fought the clutter monster to discover a bag of groceries with (previously sealed frozen) warm, rotted, chicken that had somehow been mistakenly thrown into the room with other bags of homeless crap. Someone must have stepped on it while navigating the piles and broken the bags seal. The room was a Nightmare.

However – I WANT MY STUDIO!

I’ve been working on this room for over a week. Spending every spare second I can back there. And guess what?

I’ve Found the Floor.

I’d show you some after pictures, but I’m not done. Maybe I’ll show you some teasers.

Before I started the room I couldn’t find a pencil or pen to save my life. Now I have drawers full of them.

And all my sewing material has been sorted and stacked as is patiently waiting some thrift friendly bookcases I’m building.

I’m even dedicating a corner of the room for the kids. So they won’t be tempted to get into Mom’s goodies.

I can’t wait to show you. But I really want this room to be done, done, done before I do. So I’m setting myself a deadline. To have it done by this date.

I’m just too excited! Believe me – You’ll be amazed at the change. I love reclaiming things.

Spreading the Artistic Love

Believe it or not there are some people out there who actually take the time to peruse my little spot of blogging ground. I’ve been given a couple of awards and I’m flattered beyond belief. So I thought I’d spread some warm fuzzies and pass these awards onto some of my favorite places to lurk and learn.

The first award was given to me last June by Debi over at Who Says Eight is Enough? . See what a procrastinator I am. She nominated me based on ‘Fawn is an amazing writer and mom and just is inspiring and so creative.’ Wow. I think it’s the first time ever I’ve had three compliments on one sentence. Thank you, Debi for my first ever blog award.

So this little ‘Beaut’ of an award is called the “Arte y Pico” Award. Way back when, and across the ocean blue, it was started at this site.

Someone said it’s in Portuguese, Not sure because my foreign language skills consist of backwoods Idaho - English, a dozen Spanish words and a handful of Danish ones. From what I can tell, the original intention of this award is “dedicated to many who nourish and enrich the spirit and creativity. They see dedication, creativity, camaraderie, joy and above all, ART - much art. I wish that this prize is entertaining to all bloggers who share this space and enrich it a little more each day." ~ Arte Y Pico

The rules accompanying this award are simple:

1. 
   You need to choose 5 blogs you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, or contribution to the blogging community regardless of language.


2. 
   Each award should have the name of the author and a link to her blog to be visited by everyone.


3. 
   Each winner should show the award and put the name and link to the blog that presented her with the award.


4. 
   The award winner and the one who has given the award should show the Arte Y Pico blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.


5. 
   
   
   Show these rules .

So the first recipient of my award goes to LIFE, RIGHT NOW Susanne is the talented mother of two darling munchkins and she expresses her creativity and art through the medium of photography. I happened to know her personally before I ever started blogging and she was one of the main reasons why I’m here today. Ya gotta check out her darling tykes.

Then I can't help but plug Just for Today. Ms. Trenadoll got my nod because she's just so darn witty. Oh, and she's a genius and funny too. I've envied her writing style since I was a wee gradeschooler. I definately am waiting for her to write professionally one of these days. As luck would have it she lived One and a half years in Portugal so this award is aptly placed. Oh, and Trenadoll be sure and translate the award so that I know I'm really complimenting you instead of spewing unintended insults.

Faith of 'Has Anyone Seen My Cape,' shows her creative artistic style through her writing. I’m so waiting for her to get discovered, be offered a book deal and then let me pay her a bucket-load for a signed copy. Several times I catch myself just wishing she would go on and on and not stop. I love her talent for putting two words together and not sounding like some hick like me.

Take a look at Haylee of Live, Laugh, Love, Capture it all… Haylee share’s her amazing creativity through the art of photography. She is a professional photographer but takes the time to blog some of her favorites. The music, the children, the whole feel of her amazing blog makes me want to run barefoot through the grass with my kids. I love, love, love her art and so wish she lived close enough to me so she could capture my family. After visiting her blog I'm often tempted to swing in tree swings and play dress-up with my girls.

My last award goes to Empress of the Home. Mrs. Homemaking Cottage, Creative Mom of Seven amazing kids, Queen of Domestic Craftiness, and so on and so on. When I grow up I want to be just like her. Oh, yea, she’s all that and younger than me too. Her creative artistic style is on full display with the darling things she sews, wonderful food she creates, and sound advice she generously shares.

So check out all these fine, artistic, creative, and dedicated women! If you’re anything like me they will bring a little bit of joy into your life and make you want to be a better person. So spread the love and leave them a comment thanking them for spreading their artistic talents.

I’ve got another award to give out so keep your eye’s peeled over the next couple of days. I promise I won’t wait four months before I pass it along.

No Swimming Pools Allowed at School

It doesn’t matter that it’s freezing cold outside, or we’ve only had maybe two days without rain out of the last gazillion. Or that everyone you meet is so sick of the gray drizzle they can’t think straight. The outcome might have been different had we been living in one of those poor places going through a heat wave. But since we don’t it probably doesn’t matter.

Abner has a creativity streak a mile wide. Probably inherited it from me (poor kid) but instead of being creatively crafty he is creatively adventurous.

Insanely our school district is still in school. I know we must be the last on the planet to let out for summer. But you can tell it’s almost here because nothing is being taught anymore, videos are being shown, books read and finals are over. It’s party time at school, for the next week or so.

So Abner get’s this brilliant idea that it would be fun to fill up the bed of our super duper full sized truck with some liner and ice water. Ice water because it came from the hose and its still winter here regardless of what the calendar says. Here is Abner and his warmly dressed friends at their pool party dress rehersal. They had to make sure the old tailgate and tires could handle the additional pressure of a new man-made lake.

And wouldn’t it be fun if he just happened to drive that truck like a turtle, or else the lake would slosh all over, to the school parking lot so that he and his friends could have a few minutes of fun at lunchtime playing in their redneck swimming pool.

Now Abner is not a rebel by any means. I’ve rarely gotten a report card where the teacher doesn’t mention that he’s a pleasure to have in class. In fact, teachers seek him out and practically beg him to take their continuing classes the following year. However, being the most likable, respectful dude at school doesn’t prohibit the school principal from enacting brand new school rules entirely for his benefit. Like the time Abner took a toaster to school as a freshman because he wanted something different for lunch. No you can’t bring toasters to school because with an electrical cord and what-not they could easily disguise a bomb; you little wanna-be terrorist.

New School Rule #1 – No toasters at school.

He did get away with bringing a waffle iron this year and was the hit of the lunchroom crowd who gladly begged for a waffle bite to wash down their rubber burritos. Maybe the principal was gone that day. Who knows?

So anyway back to the original story. Mr. Principle meets the Abner and a couple of his friends and a few more gawkers in the parking lot at lunch. The boys had stripped down to their very modest, it wouldn’t even embarrass grandma, board short swimwear and were ready to take their polar bear dip in the back of the truck. But no.

New School Rule #2 – No Swimming allowed at school.

He did mention that they got an A for creativity and originality (should have had him put that in writing or on the report card), but if they proceeded to swim in the dangerous foot deep water they would get a D for detention.

Abner was tempted but seeing that he is a very likable and respectful person he declined from breaking this brand new school rule. I mean you have to respect the principle. If he let Abner get away with bringing a truck to school then soon everyone would be bringing their own personal Jacuzzis filled with freezing water in frigid weather to school. And you wouldn’t want a bunch of kids in modest swimwear running around because that would tarnish the schools non-hick image and administrators just couldn’t have that.

After school hours are different. So after school Abner hopped in the ice tub with a friend then quickly hopped out. At least they could say they swam at school. Unfortunately he forgot his camera. Sigh! That would have been a keeper. He then proceeded leave a large puddle in the middle of the school parking lot to serve as a reminder that his creativity is still intact.

I kind of feel sorry for kids nowadays, because of the climate of fear and paranoia so prevalent in society, they are going to have to carefully re-think spontaneity and creativity which will limit some of the fun things they can do. Hopefully it will lead to them being even more creative than we were at their age, instead of the opposite.

And no, I haven’t forgotten to post about my War with the Clutter Monster Dream – but Friday isn’t over yet is it?

Brain Vacations

I have a love/hate relationship with my imagination. I’ve been relying a little bit too heavily on it for the past couple of weeks and even had to bring it up with my young and gorgeous counselor when I last saw her. See the problem is that not only does my imagination supply me with a fairly consistent creative list of things to do and try, but it also, I think is the source of some of my biggest addictions.

I know, you are probably sick and tired of hearing about all the weird things I’m addicted too, Food, chocolate, de-cluttering, B.A.B, and most recently reading. How in the blazing’ bowling balls is imagination related to those you might be wondering? Well I finally figured that out with my Y & G Counselor’s help. It was one of those Ah-Ha, Wow, Bulls-eye, Light-Bulb, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding moments for me.

We figured out that I rely on my imaginary comforts when things get a bit stressful at home or with certain people. And when you’ve got a house of eight active and loud human beings, who wouldn’t want some inner peace and quiet every now and again? I have also never been a conflict/confronter type of a person. When things headed south for me as a kid, which was rarely, seeing as I came from a very functional family; I would escape to the world of my imagination. Heading south meant someone in the house was arguing or I would see neighbor’s go off to play with their friends but not me. I was, I think, a quiet kid and I never had a best friend until I met my husband. I had friends but not the close let’s-share-clothes and talk-on-the-phone-all-night-long type of friends. Let me clarify something; no I don’t share clothes and talk on the phone with my husband all night long. He’s better than that type of friend. So anyway, as a child, I made up some imaginary friends. Now most of these friends were created by someone else I just let my imagination borrow them for playtime. Like swinging through the huge willow tree with Tarzan or building a tree-house out back by the chicken coop with Fritz from Swiss Family Robinson, or creating a cardboard cockpit in my bedroom with Apollo from the original Battlestar Galactica, my friends all kept me company when I was a kid if it got lonely. And if they couldn’t play then I would pick up a Black Stallion book and forget everything and get lost in that world.

Fast Forward twenty plus a bit more years and I’m a much larger version of myself but something’s just don't change. I still don’t like conflict or confrontation. As a mom I can’t really walk away when things go south with my kid’s. I get to be the referee, the decoy, the lawyer, judge and jury, counselor and sometimes jailer. There isn’t really the opt-out option when the kids brawl. But when the crisis has passed and things calm down I really don’t want to think about what happened and that’s when I turn to my comfort zone. My problem is once I turn on my imagination world it’s really hard to turn off.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my life, my family, my husband and even the rainy Northwest weather. But sometimes it’s great to focus on something that has nothing to do with any of the above. I call it my brain vacation. In the last month my brain has taken an extended vacation to a delicious place called Chocolateville, Build-A-Bear and most recently to the Twilight Zone. Well not the actual Twilight Zone but to the Twilight book series by Stephanie Meyers. I got sucked in after it was recommended by some family members, (THANK YOU VERY MUCH with a load of sarcasm). Darn-it if I didn’t read all three books within four days and if that wasn’t enough I enjoyed them (Very GUILTILY, I might add) so much, I did what? Insanely I re-read them all again. Now come-on!!!, there is something definitely wrong with a sleep-deprived, do-it-all, mom of a crazy half dozen, who would rather stay up until 2 a.m. to re-read something she just read less than a week ago rather than re-charge. Not only was I reading the series but I was taking mental notes of trying to take a field-trip to my backyard of Forks, WA, and La Push’s First Beach to visit locations mentioned in the book. So label me hopeless and pathetic with a Capital P.

Thank goodness I held onto my Young & Gorgeous counselor even after my 20/20 weight loss program had ended. She always makes me feel great about myself. After I tell her about my O.D.D. child and everything going on in my life she thinks I could definitely benefit from some needed brain vacations. Wa-hoo! However she is making me schedule them so they don’t get in the way of self-care: sleep, exercise, you know the basics and of course, eating right (Sigh, I guess that means no more visit’s to tremor inducing Chocolateville).

I’m doing a lot better with avoiding Chocolate and I haven’t been to B.A.B. in almost two weeks and if you haven’t entered my B.A.B contest please scroll down and help me avoid that place. I think I might make my husband take the Twilight books to work and get me the Book on CD so that I can only take a brain vacation while driving my kids to and fro. My, doesn’t that sound safe? Hopefully it won’t encourage me to drive more because I can’t afford too many trips to the gas station when it costs me $146 to fill up my Tank-mobile’s tank. Ugh!

Now I just need to figure out how to get my brain to stop advertising those appealing and welcome brain vacations while I’m on the job.

Hey and thanks for reading about Me and my insufferably long brain vacations.

Creativity = Clutter

So February is over and you know what? Believe it or not I’m a wee bit glad I can plug my kids into electronics occasionally. Our non-electronic-entertainment month was as always, an eye opener. Every year we do it we learn something new. This year, yes the kids benefited from many things like ah, more frequent human interaction (both harmonious and non-harmonious), more physical exercise time (wrestling with siblings, running, playing tag), Etc. But the biggest breakthrough this last month was creativity.

I’ve concluded one thing about creativity. It equates with clutter.

People have told me that I’m very creative. However my creativity is also a clutter problem for me. And guess what my kids have inherited this creative gene from me.

Over mid-winter break I came home from an afternoon of classes with my O.D.D. child and found that Abner and T-rev in my absence had made a quick trip to a local home improvement store to buy a couple large sheets of foam board. I headed into our home-school /library room and found our lesson table covered with a nightmare clutter filled landscape looking like a miniature war zone.

Here's T-rev working on his mini Coliseum.

The floor didn’t fare much better and was covered with thousands of static cling foam kernels that had been shaved off from the main project. Even though my eyes were assaulted with the mess I couldn’t help but be impressed with their imagination.

Abner explained that they were making a movie with little miniature pieces, and they only had a few measly days to complete it because they wanted to enter it in a contest. Wow, I was impressed that they were doing this on their own and I didn’t have to make lists of different things that they could do to keep themselves from being bored. Since it was a school break I allowed for mess. They locked themselves off from the rest of the family for probably a good three days and then they were done. I never saw the finished project until they posted it on U-tube. Abner was having trouble with his email so he used someone else’s address but they got it on within minutes of the deadline. I didn’t think too much of it until last night. My husband and I were upstairs and all of the sudden the house started vibrating and there were some strange noises coming from downstairs. I guess they were strange to me because Abner isn’t too vocal with his excitement normally. This time was the exception.

Yeah, we are proud parents. T-rev and Abner made a mini-movie and out of over 30 entries they won. Wa-hoo. Unfortunately winning means a prize. $500 dollars worth of mini-plastic figurines and accessories. Oh, thrill more clutter. I can always hope they might want to turn around and sell the stuff on E-bay, if not then we will have to negotiate the clutter rule of more-out-than-in and see what they are willing to get rid of before they acquire their award haul.