Frayed Canvas (and whatever is left of my sanity)

Hi friends, posting quickly my projects for Cocoa Daisy's Feb kit Frayed Canvas. Why you ask? Well, I've got a run-in tomorrow with the DMV, time to renew my driver's license. The day before my birthday. And it's not the first time I've tried to get a new license in this state either. I couldn't even find the DMV last week. My aggravation meter is solidly in the red. Fear not, not one to suffer I am medicating heavily with guacamole. :)


I got the Mixed Media and Assemblage add-ons. Happy (probably) Monday morning to you. Until tomorrow. (And all I want for my birthday is this F$%(#! drivers license. Oops, time for my guac. :) )

CD Feb sneaks

Sometimes a kit comes out of nowhere and steals my heart. This is my favorite Cocoa Daisy kit. I wasn't expecting that. I didn't even get all the add-ons! I didn't know, couldn't for see just how much I would love it. Sigh, it's perfect. I don't know how Christine does that?


Hanging in there. It's been a tough two weeks with illness, etc. The highlight of my week was going to J's school. His whole class knows me and screams "It's J's mommy!" I was dropping him off one morning when a kid in his class coming in said to his Dad pointing to me, "That's J's mommy." It made me feel like a rock star. Except that well, it's a pseudonym like vtpuggirl. Such is my life, I'm ok with anonymity. :) Happy (probably) Monday to you! Until tomorrow.

One Little Word

Sorry about the big face photo, not sure how to make it smaller, ugh. My word for 2011 is :

Thought really long and hard about this one. I was kicking around 2 at one point: calm and do. But I was afraid that calm would be like permission to be let off the hook at every turn. (Example: I need to be calm, I should calm down on the couch and not do whatever it is I should really do.) That lead me to examine do. Which is still a good word, but I can be a bit hard on myself and I was afraid that do was permission to whip myself into shape every chance I got, and truthfully, I have to practice being kind to myself because on the occasional occasion I am a bit too hard on me. Polar opposites I know, which is why I was stuck.

Then I thought about resolve. And I liked it. It's the perfect combination of calm and do. It gives me a calm because there is decision in it, the indecision is what gives me stress. But I also like that it's bold, it's earnest, it's a fist on the table when needed to get up and get something done. There is intention, and a willingness to solve problems. And I love that design is a synonym for resolve, that's just cool. :)

I Resolve to:

Take more photos, I got a new camera for Christmas and I am just excited about it.

Scrapbook more. This has been hard since I went back to work. But I'm starting to get the hang of everything now so things will get better.

Spend time outside in my garden with J. I resolve not to put the mulch down myself this year, way too much hulling of dirt around, it was hard to do, took me almost a month on the weekends. I'll stick with weeding, watering and planting. :)

Donate the stuff I've purged to a good cause. I found one last night online, will have things picked up 3/7/2011. This includes household goods.

To not take minimalism to extremes. I suppose I could get by with 100 things, but the truth is in an empty room I would be unhappy and it wouldn't make me want to play with my child, or create things or read anymore then I already want to. I'm all for reducing distractions and clutter, but for keeping the heart of the room, the home, the family. We will keep what is necessary, what is wanted, needed and loved. Our home still needs to feel like us.

Keep my priorities toward the top of the list. And peace and kindness. No matter what life throws at me, getting through it peacefully and with gentleness of spirit is all the is required of me.

Be in the moment. Not just this moment or the next one I designate, but every moment.

Accept what I can not change. This is a big one. In fact, this might take me all year to get this one down alone. Recent health issues have caused to rethink everything I know and believe and truthfully, denial sounds pretty good right now. Also possibly facing another military deployment with dh this year. Perhaps my word should have been denial? I think I'll be walking more in my faith to accomplish this.

Happy Thursday to you! Until tomorrow.

Happy new year!

Happy New Year! Here we are, nearly 3 days into 2011 and I have no idea what my word should be. I'm missing precious bonding time with said word and it's starting to freak me out. Maybe my word should be "Chillax." (Somewhere in the world my mother just hit my father's arm and said, "Chillax? What's she talking about chillax?") It's ok, I'm kidding. :) But, my word of 2011 is still up in the air. I'll share it when I know. I did love last year's word/phase: good enough. My word the year before that was focus. See, I focused so long and hard that I had to put the brakes on my perfectionistic tendencies and therefore, 2010 became the year of good enough. I really loved good enough, and I'm having trouble moving on frankly. Enough of that. :)

This is the new January kit from Cocoa Daisy called Domestic Bliss. It's such a cool kit, I'm really enjoying it. I got a new camera for Christmas and I'm in the process of uploading photos from it right now to use with more of this kit. (Sometimes, while I love technology, I feel like I am constantly having to learn something new, or a new way of doing the same old thing. It takes me out of my comfort zone and shakes me up sometimes, but this camera software install went much better than expected.) A couple layout of J:

And a birthday card:

I'll be back once I settle on a word. I won't be gone as long, I'm feeling much better now. Thank you to everyone who posted, I could feel your support and it made me brave on that day. The power of prayer is an amazing thing. Until tomorrow, happy (sun)day!