Coming back to life

Hello everyone.

Man... I can't believe it's been so long since I've been here.

Back in the spring, southern MO and N. AR were inundated with more than their share of rain. Our house sits on a bit of a rise. However, MO and AR are famous for their underground springs. The water table rose and seaped into our basement from underneath the house.

My office/art room, storage room and quilt room/sparebedroom are all in the basement. Everything had to come up off the floor. In the office, we would up taking out all the base cabinets as well as my scrap cabinet. After cleaning up the water and giving the concrete floor ample time to dry out, we replaced everything. This time, the cabinets were all risered on treated timbers, giving approximately a 2" air space and (hopefully not but just in case) water flow for future issues.

It took most of the summer to put everything back into place and I can get to everything much easier than I could before. (Did I mention I hadn't unpacked everything when the water came in and so there were wet boxes of stuff to deal with as well?)

The art space is back together just in time for NanoWrimo. www.nanowrimo.org If you've not heard of this, it is a crazy 30 days when thousands of us join together on line and in our local communities to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. This is year number 6 for me and I am determined to ket that pretty colored tracking bar.

If you want to keep an eye on my progress, check out http://cauldroncafe.blogspot.com

Once I'm through November, I'll be back to Creative Saturdays and getting some new stuff posted.

In the mean time, tell me what you've been up to. Link me to your blog so I can see your work.

Creative Blessings
Kelly

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Yep -
Today is the official day for creating permanent memories in archival safe albums.
I never really thought about not having photos around for future generations until I began teaching scrapbooking at my local Michaels Arts & Crafts. I began working on redoing my wedding album and was horrified to discover pictures (only copies) of that memorable day were already beginning to deteriorate. They had only been in that 'magnetic' album 20 years! What would be left of them by the time my grandchild was old enough to look through the album? I became a advocate for preserving those pictures.

So today, I'll work on an altered album for a special man in Texas. While it dries, I'll work on my granddaughter's First Album. What else can I play with today? Who knows. But when I'm done, I'll share.

Creative Blessings!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ahh.... Corned Beef & Cabbage, pint o' Guiness... what a way to celebrate your heritage. Me, I'm a discredit to my ancestors. I prefer my corned beef sliced thin between 2 slices of homemade bread slathered in Miracle Whip. Cabbage makes better saurkraut unless you're frying it crisp in bacon drippings. Now, the Guiness... even this Irish girl has to conform to some tradition. LOL

Speaking of Irish, have you checked out Ten Two Studios lately? Lisa Volrath has another countdown in progress. http://countdown. tentwostudios. com She doesn't leave these Freebies up very long so spread the word then download the goodies.

Creative Blessings!
Kelly

Busy Day!

I finally have made time to sit and catch up on some of the projects I've been wanting to do.
Last month I joined a monthly ATC swap through a rubberstamp store in Kirkwood MO called The InkSpot. http://inkspotofnatalie.com/index.html
Every month is a different theme. January was 'When I Grow Up'. Here's the ATC I made...

Can you tell what I want to be? I've always wanted to be a writer - even with all the crafting/art stuff I do, writing is my first love. I enjoyed having the chance to combine the two.

I've done other ATC's but I think this group was my favorite so far. February theme is St. Louis so I'm on the hunt for riverway images. The Coast Guard has a pretty cool site of Lock & Dam locations. I have the ones for the IL river bookmarked but am going to have to do a search for the Mississippi ones.

Ground Hog Day!

Can you believe it? That furry little guy saw his shadow today! For those of us who believe nature rules, that means we're in for 6 more weeks of winter. Personally, the three inches of snow we were blessed with on Thursday was the closest thing to winter we've really seen in this part of MO. I guess that means we're entitled to a few more days.

But that's cool. More days to hole up inside and play with the art supplies before Mother Nature beckons me to plant something in her freshly-warmed earth.

Check out the new link. Lisa Vollrath over at TenTwoStudios has some awesome clipart you can download for FREE. Between Feb. 1 and Feb 14th, she'll give you one new Valentine clip art image. All you have to do is link her page in your blog, on your website or broadcast it to a message board/loop. Aside from the FREE clipart, she has some awesome collections for purchase and cool project ideas. If you need some fresh inspiration, check TenTwoStudios out.
She is also connected with www.gomakesomething.com

Check it out and if you post something to your blog, let me know. I'd love to check out your creativity.

Blessings
KellyS

Creative Day

Ever have one of those days when you just want to play?
The daily grind of responsibilities can prevent us from doing what our soul screams for us to do.
It is up to us to make time to create and explore the artist within.
Today I am getting out the inks/rubberstamps/cardstock and making cards. I have a list of ones for various occasions. Today is my day.
When was the last time you answered the call of your inner artist?

Picture of the Month

This picture will run through mid-February. The card was made using a retired stamp set from Stampin' UP called See With The Heart.

Not only do I love this set for it's Victorian theme but the sentiment itself. If we only take time to see things with our heart rather than our eyes, the reality carries so much more depth.

I would love to see your comments about this card and future works shared.
Blessings

A New Journey

I'm big on goals. One of them for 2008 is to have a blog for my writing and my other artistic creative endeavors. My daughter said Blogger would be the easiest for me to start with, so here I am.

Give me a few days to get the feel for this venue.
Comments are always welcome.
Blessings