Gathering things up for today's crop

It's happening today at Treasured Memories in Englewood and

I can't wait to hook up with my pal Holli.

Of course I have every tool, punch, stamp and embellishment I own

packed in the back of the car.

I only kitted a few a few pages....

Such as...lil miss fashion chic playing.

 Love this photo.....

 And these pix are just too adorable.....

 What I didn't photo was the baby album I'm putting together 

as a gift. I had a white 6x6 album but being

the decisive person I am - I have always done chipboard albums

and I want that choice....so here are a couple

additions to give me that choice.

It's gonna be fun and I hope to get to everything today.

If not, as a challenge, I am going to do the "kits" at home.

It'll be an adventure.

Happy Birthday to my Favorite Eldest Son!

He was always in great hands.

and loved.

Totally.

I'm proud of the man he's become.

Happy Birthday - Love you so.

My take on making your own flairs tutorial

After checking out some online tutorials about homemade

 flair badges I decided to check it out for myself and relate my results.

I know you're excited.

I was.

Would you believe I had to buy a one-inch punch?

Isn't that crazy.

 I used my brand new one-inch punch and punched out 9 circles from some chipboard.
It was pretty thick chipboard - as I use them for my baby albums and
I like them sturdy.

 Glued 3 together to make the recommended thickness.

And then painted them gray.

As I made more due to some man-made disasters

I switched out to this less thick chipboard as the first one 

was threatening to break my punch.
I also decided to not paint them this time and honestly,
I'm okay with the "rustic" chipboard look.

 The less thicker chipboard with 3 glued still had the same thickness.

 I purchased some one-inch epoxy stickers at Hobby Lobby

 and I also had some glossy accents to test as well.

 I stamped some designs on regular pattern paper and used some

watercolors to make them pretty.

 Waited not so patiently for them to dry and added the expoxy sticker

and as you can see - it has the depth of a flair badge.

Below are my versions - I added die cuts, punched out labels too.

The one that says "its a girl" is glossy accent and really

you can't tell the difference.

The only fatal flaw is that you have to wait for it to dry.

Using a heat gun is disasterous and leaving it lay around can lead

to other types of catastrophes, such as laying stuff on top,

using a heat gun, and leaving your finger print as you poke it

to make sure its dry.

Just to name a few.

 The glossy accent was my 3rd try.

Just sayin.......

Above are my homemade flairs.

I will give this another whirl as I have some

other ideas in mind.

And below in a not so pretty photo - showing my badges

against the real deal.

They turned out pretty good and its nice to have the ability

to customize them.

As you will see below on a page.

The themed ones from Avacado Arts called my name -
actually screamed heritage.

As you know I adore heritage.
The black, grey, gold are lovely colors together
and they became the inspiration for this page.

 They are not as crisp as "real" flairs though the rustic-ness works well for this page.

Broke out my diecuts
And doesn't that photo make you swoon.
My great grandmother.

 And the doily.
Love the daintiness it brings.

I love how the badges worked out on this page, they really added flair.
yunk yunk.
If you give this awhirl, please share the results
I'd love to see them.

My great grandmother -as a young woman.
I have no idea how young - so I'm guessing maybe 20.
Its hard to tell back then.

Homemade tag inspired a page

Yes its true!

An entire page built around my homemade tag.

Doesn't get any better than that in jumping the ole mojo.

 The next bonus find that totally blows away the tag mojo

is finding my mom's handwriting on the back of this photo.

I copied it and added it to the page.

Love little finds like that.

 Broke out some die cuts and my rolling stamp because

I didn't want the watercolors to be lonely.

 Sweet homemade enamel dots.

Sorry they still blow me away.

It's the little things.

It's a bit wild but I love that.

Love the photo of me and my boy.

When I looked back at him in that outfit it blew my

away at how tall he was.

And slender.

We have some Studio Calico, Shimelle, and Kaiser Craft going on.

It's been a little over a year in my Crossfit adventures

And my butt doesn't jiggle!

Scoff if you will but(t) this is a really big deal.

No pun intended.

I have made amazing friends and WOD buddies.

I'm amazingly disciplined.

I'm getting amazing results.

I'm doing amazing things.

Every.single.day.

Monday - Friday.

Everyone needs rest days.

Just sayin'.........

This was the last WOD of 2014 and it wasn't pretty.

I can't explain why I look like I got hit by a train and everyone else looks as fresh as a daisy.

It just ain't right.

I love tanks - especially snarky ones and this one fits the bill and it's fitting for the last WOD of 2014, because I am becoming a badass.

I'm expecting great things for 2015 - because from 2013-2014 made me a Crossfit believer. A believer that if I could do it - anyone can. And not only do it - but do it well. And not only do it well - but I keep getting better.

Just a few stats I can be a tad brag-a-docious about:

1 mile run - 12:34

5K- 36:25 

Hang Clean - 60 lb.

Back Squat - 95 lb.

Deadlift - 140 lb.

Push Press - 60 lb.

Snatch - 40 lb.

Strict Press - 45 lb.

Squat Clean - 70 lb.

Not bad for 60 years young.

And wait until February when I'm 61 years young.

You will be amazed.

Just to recap- Whatever head games you got going on saying you can't - read this post again - and know that you can. All you have to do is start.

Following the waving green leaves

Every now and then I get an email from ancestry.com

telling me I have some hints.

And out of curiousity I'll check them out-always.

Never let a green leaf pass you by.

And what do I see is a teasing green leaf waving at me.

I have been researching off and on for years.

Some lines fall into place and some

lay stagnant for years.

This was one of them - my great great grandfather

Alexander Altemus always fascinated me.

He had a short life but interesting life.

He married a woman named Rebecca Jane.

Of course no maiden name.

For 10 years.

And then ka-blam.

Out of the blue last night while I was being annoyed

by my sinus infection - a certificate of death

popped up.

It is for their son Charles - my great grandfather who

also led and interesting life.

My handsome great grandfather Charles Altemus.

And what do my sinus-infected eyes see?

Mother's maiden name.

Banghart.

Different name but so very very cool and a long time coming.

So is this not the bomb or what?

So now I have some lines to trace and you need

to be very very careful.

It's amazing how many names and dates are alike, similar

not to mention hometowns.

And another thing - handwriting is subjective, so when the archivists

are transcribing, names and spellings can be close or not so close on

the documents.

 So be very very careful.

Below is an example of similarity.

My great great grandfather from another line - Nils Anderson

immigrated from Sweden - married a woman 20 

years younger and had 8 kids.

And here is another Cerificate of Death only it says 

Neil Anderson (of course they changed their name) and

it says he died from acute indigestion (heart attack to me)

in a home for the indigent.

Now they were not well-to-do but never heard stories

of being an indigent.

But here's the conundrum.

Look at the informant name - Nils Anderson

Now except for the birthdate - every other date including

where he was born is exactly the same,

including the cemetery where he was buried.

Greenmount in Philadelphia.

My eyes were crossed at 2 a.m. and sent this FB message to

my cousin who is now the patriarch of the family

and we got into a spirited conversation - in my defense I didn't 

think he'd be up at that time either.

I don't believe this is going to pan out but I need to look

further into it. 

Its the story of the hunt.

Watercolor run amok

I'm still battling these rotten sinuses.

Called for more drugs.

I'll keep you posted.

Which could have a teensy weensy impact on the mojo.

So in looking for inspiration I had a look at

one of Wilna's videos - don't think about it - just do it.

So I did. 

She also mentioned that there is an "art" in knowing

when to stop.

Obviously, as you shall see, that's a skill I need to work on.

As.......

I love watercolors.

They're fun, forgiving and frugal.

And because they're so many colors its an easy match.

 If you're into matching.

 These are the rest of the rubons you saw from my tag post.

And again, with the watercolors acted like a resist.

I got a tad messy with this.

 The white seemed.....welllll

too white.

Therefore - bring on the color.

 You can also fling watercolors about like mist too.

And then things got out of control.

But 'tis done. 

And hopefully jumpstarted the ole creativity.

Studio Calico, Paper Issues Swag Bag, Dear Lizzy rubons, 

Lawn Fawn leaves die, and Spellbinder tree die.

And doesn't this photo go way back. 

It went by so fast.
And big hair - the only bonus was that we all looked alike.
LOL.

Made some tags to egg on the mojo

Yup. I'm still whining about mojo

or lack thereof.

I should be over it in a millenium or two.

In the meantime,

I took some white tags and slapped on some gold rubons

from Studio Calico.

They were laying around and instead of throwing them out

I decided if it didn't work out - no harm=no foul.

Broke out the ole watercolors - the new pearlesce ones.

And went to town.

I apologize for the photo - it looked good when I checked

it on the camera window.

The rubons acted like a resist which was kind of cool.

I splattered both tags but the one with the camera looked dumb

so I managed to paint over them.

Found some bits and pieces from K&Co and Kaiser Craft

 and whacked them down.

I'll be letting them simmer a bit and then find them a home.

Love how they turned out.

Stay tuned to see where they land.

Whining about mojo. Again.

If you see it/encounter it/grab it please pack it up and ship it back.

I'm all good if its used. 

I'll pay the postage.

I seem to be having creative issues. 

I know it'll pass - but I want it to pass like yesterday.

I've tried all the standards:

Lifting

New stuff

Playing

ARRGGHHH!!! 

Even awesome photos aren't working their magic.

So I hope you hang in there whilst I work this stuff out.

There are some things on my to do list in the meantime:

1. Taking more photos because that wouldn't overwhelm the lack of creativity at all.

2. Learning Lightroom because Apple dumped Aperture much to my dismay.

And I can really wax a blue streak about that one.

3. Maybe head on back to ancestry.com and follow more leaves. 

Alot more stuff has been added to the archives and I know there's gold in there.

I did enter one of my photos in a photo contest.

Crossfit is rocking

That is going way better that I ever thought.

I have made some improvements that even blow me away.

And I feel terrific about that.

This is one of the best decisions I've ever made.

I have a couple creative gifts I'm working on - and I'm hoping those will lead to a restoration of happy mojo-ness.

Boom.

Continuing in busy paper mode

And using more stash.

Like the Creative Cafe tag. 

Love them and I think my supply may be dwindling.

Also, the stars, that worked out perfectly by Freckled Fawn 

highlight the top of the page.

 Shimelle's die cuts and stickers came in real handy 

and it feels great to move some product along.

 And the MAMBI sparkly letters have been around a long long time.

However, they are perfect - but the popular letters

are all but gone. 

Creative titles need to be considered.

Wa-la - this Studio Calico paper has been laying around.

I couldn't decide if I needed to whack it up

or use it all.

The perfect photo happened and there ya go.

Amelia on wheels - has to be scary.

Love the concentrating tongue.

Very important.

I did let it marinate overnight and decided that some gesso

and watercolors need to be included and it helped soften the busy up and also

points you to the photo.

I have a lot more stash to go.

:D