Craft Menagerie's Awesome Poster!

Craft Menagerie is coming to Bockfest!

Craft Menagerie

Our poster, made  by the lovely Hilary Nauman of Ceci & Cela. Hilary is the greatest partner and friend a gal could dream up! 

I hope you are thinking about next Saturday as much as I am! 

There are so many amazing vendors!

imagine gnats

adam elephant

keith neltner

rob warnick

uncommon stitches

cards couture

emily lyn

ovenfried beads

BLDG

kelly rogan

monsters ink

paper acorn

copyright propaganda

flora sun

luvkt

geri shields

flowerby

shannan 

ceci & cela

robot inside

Please help support our first local craft show and share our event page with all of your friends! 

Show our vendors some lovin',

 hug Rome from Far-I-Rome Productions 

& mostly, here's a great big shout 

out to Chris Breeden from Arnold's Bar & Grill, 

home of the greatest, friendliest 

staff you could ever meet! 

We don't know what they put in the water, 

but we could all use a little more of it!

Share the Love!

I am busy making things for Craft Menagerie...

my first embroidery pattern attempt!

 But Not too busy to attempt RG's embroidery patterns! You can find them over at imagine gnats!

 My intention was to have these done for VD, but it didn't quite happen that way. I love the patterns and her instructions are super simple, which is perfect for me. I also used the guides for stitches that she sent me from Wild Olive and 

Little Dear Tracks. imagine gnats embroidery patterns will be at Craft Menagerie!

just adorable! my stitches are a little rough, so I will keep practicing!

 So, for Valentines Day, I thought I'd use this huge box of old crayons we had to make some new, heart shaped crayons for Hannah's class. 

 I mistakenly thought the kids would think it was fun, but I lost them after peeling the paper off the crayons. 

Pre melt!

 I used silicone molds I got from Target (love those $1-5 bins!). The instructions are so simple. I love simple! I peeled the paper off the crayons, broke them up and put them in the molds. You have to overfill the molds a bit to get bigger crayons. then, pop them in a 250 oven for about 7-8 mins, just until they melt. Pull 'em out and cool them, then peel them out of the molds. Easy peasy! 

Cutey patootie!

Not edible- make sure you tell Kindergartners that. they WILL try to eat them!

So, that's what I was up to last week.

That and organizing Craft Menagerie!

If you haven't heard, go to our Facebook page and check us out! We'll be at Bockfest March 3rd from 11-4 pm. 

We have 20 incredible vendors!

All at Arnold's Bar and Grill, home of the greatest staff on earth! Seriously!

I was there Friday night to see the amazing Sassy Molasses and I can assure you, the food is delicious and the venue is awesome, but the very best part every single time is how nice the staff is! Now, go visit!

     imagine gnats + ceci & cela + ROBOT Inside

uncommon Stitches + Keith Neltner + Rob Warnick

     Ovenfried Beads + BLDG + Paper Acorn

 copyright propaganda + florasun + loveworn     

     cardscouture + luvkt + adam elephant                     

  kelly rogan + monsters ink + shannon/ margot

                   jules l+geri shields

Saturday, March 3rd 11-4 p.m. 

    at Arnold's Bar & Grill

            Bockfest 2012

A little sneak preview of things to come for you, my friends! Another exciting day here with the Robot!!

Ecclesiastes 3:1, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven." (NIV 1984)

Oh, what a beautiful morning!

Oh, what a beautiful day!

I've got a wonderful feeling

everything's going my way...

Hey Everybody!

Today, I will dare to be courageous! 

Shells

So, I haven't written a post in about a week and there are many reasons why, but I wanted to share some things now that all the dust is settling...

a family member of mine overdosed on Friday. that may sound a little shocking if you don't have any family members who are drug addicted, but for my family, we have some experience with this area of living (or not living). It would have been a "routine" overdose had she not also been in the bathtub. I am not attempting to sound callous, it is just that like my family, I have seen and been the one overdosing, so as disturbing as it can sound, my skin is a little tougher around this subject matter. Let's call it scar tissue...

She was under the water for an undisclosed amount of time before her roommate(a nurse) found her. She was not breathing and was unresponsive to CPR. The paramedics could not revive her and she was rushed to the emergency room. The doctors put her on life support and my family was notified. When I say notified, I mean her parents were notified, they called an aunt and then we were all notified via our family hotline, most notoriously used to gossip when someone isn't in the hospital. 

I got the call from my mom around 6 and was at the hospital by 8. The prognosis was not good and didn't ever get promising in the next 4 hours. I prayed a lot, talked to my cousins, aunts and uncles and waited my turn to go see her.

My cousin and I used to be really close. We went to see shows together- Bon Jovi, Richard Marx, I convinced her to go to a couple of skate contests with me. She dragged me to some metal shows. No matter how different we looked from one another, we always managed to have a good time together. We started drinking and doing drugs together in our teens and every Christmas Eve, we'd get hammered and share pills. When we didn't spend a lot of time together, we caught up when we could and kept in contact through the years. The past few have been a little different. I got sober and she did a bit of jail time. I quit overdosing and she started. I got late night phone calls and we talked about what it is like to be trapped in that nightmare between wanting to get sober and not knowing how to stop getting high. The reality...it's midnight, I'm on a family vacation in bed and my phone rings. She is on the other end, desperate to quit using drugs and I am the only person she can think of to call. I answered that call for 6 nights in a row- by the 3rd night, I expected it. I sat in the warm ocean air, hearing the waves hit the shore as I talked to my dear cousin about how I got sober. That was 2 years ago. There were a couple of phone calls between now and then.

Fast forward-

it's been 6 days since she went into the hospital not breathing. The doctors told us on Saturday to prepare for the worst- it didn't look like she would make it and if she did, there may not be much of her left. On sunday morning, after a fitful, sleepless, teary night, my aunt called and said she woke up, not only alive, but kicking and screaming. "A miracle" they said. 

I just got home from  a two hour visit with a bright eyed, coherent girl I remember from a long time ago. I hadn't seen her in so long, I wasn't sure if she was still there in the shell that resembled my long lost cousin. We talked about sobriety. We talked about how. We talked about the trickery that was happening in her brain as we talked. She talked about back pain. I answered honestly. I cannot tell you what is going to happen to her once she leaves that hospital, but I have hope that she won't go back to that life. I know it's a slim chance, super slim, I know she will have to fight for her life and fight herself. I hope she calls, I hope the girl I sat with today doesn't fade away until there's nothing left of her. I told you I have thick skin about these overdoses, but not today. Today, I feel like a naked little crab who shed her shell and is out here, vulnerable, exposed and the wind just picked up. The perfect storm just blew in- better batten down the hatches!

"If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming." — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

What I'm up to...

I am working on an inspiring gift for a friend to give a friend.

My head is full of clock faces...towers...as the time ticks, I am reminded that each day has value and has the perfect amount of time, even if I don't appreciate it. 

I looked for the just the right image- from the book, from the google search, sketch and dream it. When I paused to look at my child's homework assignments on a science teachers black board site, there it was. The message above, clock and all.

I will find what I need when I least expect it.

Logo by Keith Neltner of Neltner Creative

Craft Menagerie is a new endeavor I am embarking on with my friend, Hilary. We are throwing a craft show! 

Right now, we are finding vendors with work we adore and asking them to participate. If you know someone who has work  worthy of adoration, you can go here and make a suggestion for us. We are way excited- I think you might as well be, too!

The vendor list is growing- we'll share it with you soon!

A beautiful Mermaid, customized! What a gal!

I love making Mermaids! I love it when other people love them! I have books and cards and art and ornaments... 

What a tail!

 I love it most when someone else's vision comes to life in my hands...

In a sea of blue, she looks for you...

Her tail was a lot of fun to come up with. I wasn't sure how the list of colors I was given were going to incorporate together, but they did and this is what happened...don't you think she's cool? I do.

Let's hope for another sunny day!