WOYWW #442 - Final Desk of 2017

Good  morning, Deskers!
This is the final shot of my desk for 2017. I take all of December off from blogging to enjoy the holidays and prep for 2018. Fitting that you should see my desk at one of its messiest

From the foreground you can just make out my lazy susan  with my implements of creation and a notebook. From there a SPAM can with my journal markers, to the left of that are 2 spools of lace ribbon I picked up at $Tree last night. They are in with the Christmas stuff. The November Paper Pumpkin box from Stampin' Up! waiting to be opened. Just to the right of that you'll see pieces of burlap ribbon. They are part of the Christmas $Tree video I need to film today. That plastic bag are the remnant pieces I need for the process part of that video. My SU collapsible litter bin and a coffee container that held quarters I turned into the counting machine yesterday.

I'm all about YouTube filming today. Tomorrow, Bob and I will enjoy a quiet day of Thanksgiving. I'll start with the Macy's parade. A tradition for as long as I can remember, then on either side of dinner we'll play card/ board games and be very Thankful for our time together.

We found out yesterday that Bob is off work probably until sometime in January or February. For the first time in 33 years he will be home for all of the holidays from Thanksgiving through New Years.

Also, last week I quit my 'day job' with the publisher. While I understand a fledgling business being built mostly on apprenticeships, we need an income the publishing job wasn't providing. 2018 is all about building my creative business and getting some consumable books published. Doing what I love and bringing in some cash.

I'll have at least one more creative post in the coming weeks but mostly about wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Blessed New Year and winding down our eventful year.

That's it for my desk this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground  for all the details. Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list. 

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

WOYWW #441 & Something's Coming

This is my desk for the week. I left on Friday for the film premier in Poteau OK and just got home last night. I was only in Poteau Friday night - Saturday afternoon then drove to Eureka Springs AR where I spent a couple of days just enjoying the rejuvenation I always find just breathing the air in that little community. I followed that up with a night at my sister's before heading home yesterday.

So, my desk. Not a lot of creativity. the bag holds the grandgirls' Christmas gifts and part of their stocking stuffers. The Tim Holtz stuff is still there since I can't get to that tub to put them away. My initial plan was for Bob and I to create my Mixed Media/ Tim Holtz storage unit last Friday but then I found out last minute I was heading to OK to the premiere and birthday celebration for author Dusty Richards. This was a chance for me to meet the co-writers/ co-producers of the film... an opportunity I couldn't pass up. 

Something's Coming!

I'm putting this here because I know I have some planner folks on WOYWW and I'm hoping you'll join us in 2018.

I love planners. I can remember being a planner person as young as the age of 10. I guess with my life in such disarray, planning 'my stuff' was my way of finding some semblance of order.

Over the past two or three years, I've found a whole new side to planning through people I've met in the planning community on YouTube. I've also learned there are a wide variety of ways to plan.

First there are the 'pretty' vs 'functional' planners. Some are a combination of both. 

There are also various styles of planning such as detailed planning, to-do list or bullet journaling.

I am a functional planner but I do like to make them pretty. My life revolves around color so any time I can add pops of color to a plain page, makes me smile.

One of my favorite people in the planning community is Alexis aka Miss Trenchcoat.

Alexis is a productivity guru, entrepreneur and side hustle mentor. I love her thought process. One of the things I've learned is while it's nice to have pretty and to have a To-Do list (she is big on finding your Top 3), the idea of Planning brings to mind (at least for me) setting GOALS then PLANNING how to accomplish them.  If I didn't plan my projects, I'd never accomplish as much as I do.

My stumbling block is that I don't sit down and 'plan' every week. There are days I know what I want/ need to do but they don't always become hard in my planner pages. So one of my goals for  2018 is to make sure I UTILIZE my planner(s) to the best of my ability.   

Functional planning lets me do both. Here's a video from Alexis with her explanation of Functional Planning:

I thought since WOYWW is such fun, brings a lot of like-minded folks together, that doing a Planner Hop would help draw traffic, give us another venue to showcase what we do and products as well as get to form stronger relationships within the Planner Community.

So beginning in January I'm launching POW - Planning Our Weeks. I'm still formulating a 'plan' but my thought is that we will post the last Sunday of each month as to what are planners are looking like for the coming month. You will also be able to INCLUDE in your blog post any new products you're releasing. The GOAL is to actually use our planners for their intended purpose... TO PLAN! LOL

We'll also have the opportunity to see how others use their planners, share/ pick up tips, etc. 

By mid-December I should have a POW button you can put on your blog/ website. 

You do NOT have to have either of those to participate. You may link to your YouTube channel video (the actual planning video - not your channel in general) 

If you are interested in being contacted when more details come out, please let me know via the contact form and I'll keep you updated.

That's it for my desk this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground  for all the details. Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list. 

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

FRIDAY FREEBIE - Tim Holtz goodies + Hot Buy

We went into the city earlier this week and I can't go without a trip to Michaels. Well, this time I had to return a duplicate of Tim's Crazy Cat set but Sunday was a big sale day. Sadly, the items I picked up were not included. But timing is difficult for me to hit the store when there is still plenty of the Tim Holtz seasonal stuff to be had. Here's what I picked up:

I love this 8x8 pad.

Collection of Ephemera pieces. I get so nostalgic with his flash cards. I have several sets.

I need another paper pack if I do, but I'm thinking my 

December Daily may be Tim Holtz inspired this year.

I was also lucky enough to be in when the Hot Buy paper packs were $5. I found three.

I think this one is going to be my Paper Pad Christmas Card Kick-off in January.

This last one, I could not find a second pad of. 

I was going through the paper pads with another gal I met at the rack 

(does that surprise anyone? LOL)

We both loved this pad but she insisted I take it since I lived so far away. She'd been to my blog and said she looked forward to seeing what I did with it.

Finally, I saw the pearls in the Tim Holtz stuff but had no clue what I'd do with them.

That night at the hotel I watched his FB Live launch of the holiday items and saw what he did.

When I saw this larger package at Hobby Lobby for a fraction of the cost I grabbed them.

2 words - Alcohol Markers

And SU has a fabulous new set of Stampin' Blends I can play with!

My next purchase will be at least 3 stamp sets with coordinating dies from his Stampers Anonymous collection.

To see what I fell in love with, go to Tim's Blog post HERE

and watch his FB live recording of Stampers Anonymous (3rd one down)

There's my haul. Now to just make time to play. 

Creative Blessings!

WOYWW #440 + Fall Door Arrangement

Good morning, everyone.

First off, here's my desk for this week:

A bit busier than I usually show. You can see my most-used tools/ embellishments along the back. In the front from left to right the Character Naming Sourcebook, not sure what's at the bottom of the next stack but my recently purchased Tim Holtz Christmas items and misc. stuff kind of dropped when we got back from the city.

I'll have pictures of the Tim Holtz items on Friday if you want to see what I picked up.

Notice the Vagabond chord, Julia. The old one is down and the Vagabond 2 in place. So happy to hear you are continuing the legacy of your 'new' Big Shot. I'm sure your creativity is being smiled upon.

I apologize for not getting 'round to many of you last week. I am the Social Media person for a publishing company. One of our Western authors - Dusty Richards, had his 150th book made into a movie... which they gave us all the launch go-ahead on social media LAST MINUTE... and they wonder why we only have it in one theater so far. Painted Woman releases Friday, Nov. 10th. Based on Dusty's book, The Mustanger and the Lady. Great Western with a strong heroine showing the empowerment of women... and romance. 'Cause you know, the Good Guy always gets the Girl. ;-)

Here's the trailer:

Quick picks of the Fall arrangement. Everything except the basket was purchased at $ Tree. I found the basket at a thrift store for $2.

I wound up not using the pumpkins.

they had been purchased for flower box arrangements I never made.

Hopefully, next year.

Now that the Asian Beetles have died off or gone back into hybernation I have hung this in place of the witch hat.  There won't be a Christmas one as the screw I hang this on is one of the anchors for a horizontal flag pole my Gingerbread Man flag hangs on. 

Unlike some of the houses we saw last night with their outside Christmas lights on, ours does not go on until the weekend after Thanksgiving. 

That's it for my desk this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground  for all the details. Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list. 

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

WOYWW #439 - Halloween Hat Door Decor

Here's my desk as I left it last night:

I finally got all of my often-used supplies lined up along the back of the work table again. Nice to have stuff in reach rather than on the floor. My trimmer, day planner and my October Daily album are most current. I am going to change the date on the October Daily to a 2018 so maybe I'll be ahead of the game next year instead of so out of sorts.

On Day 1 of the 13 Days of Halloween I showed you the beginnings of a project. You can see that first post HERE.

Yesterday, on Halloween, I was finally able to finish the door hanger... though I hung it to the side of the front door.

The hang up, well part of it, was that I needed to get more flowers from $ Tree. I failed to realize how many flowers I needed to fill the hat, and I wanted sphagnum moss to help cover the floral foam.

Here's what my table looked like when I began:

There are 21 purple roses, seven spiders, two purple picks and five black picks. Considering I only started with eight roses, you can understand why I underestimated how many I needed. 

This is how the arrangement looks hanging next to our front door.

I 'think' I picked up the sign at $Tree as well. The hat and the sphagnum were both purchased at $Tree.

I'm really happy with how this turned out. Next week I'll show you the Fall hanger I've put up in it's place. 

That's it for my desk this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground  for all the details. Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list. 

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly