Friday Pin Finds #2

from here

from here

from here

from here

You can always follow me on Pinterest if you want to see more of what makes me smile

Talk about it Tuesday – Fears

Fears. We all have them, am I right? Some of us are scared of things like bees or spiders while others are afraid of heights or inclosed spaces. Some of us have many fears, some of us only a few.

For today’s Talk about it Tuesday, let’s talk about Fears.

I dislike being afraid so I like to face each one head on as they pop up. I know that I won’t be able to do this forever, but it’s worked well for me so far. The ones that have a specific start place (for me needles) are seemingly more easily overcome than the ones that just see m to be there (for me failing/disappointing others)

To over come my fear of needles, I forced myself to give blood every time I can. I don’t love it, but I’ve now donated 20+ units of blood over the last few years and don’t even flinch when I get a flu shot. This is a far cry from even 10 years ago when the mere sight of a needle coming at me was enough to send me into a panic attack.

I’m also afraid of failing at something. I know. I know. I shouldn’t be, but the fact remains that I am. I don’t share half of what I create (or only share with my innermost circle because I know they’ll be honest with me about my creation…and do it gently if it’s not up to snuff.) This morning I took a step that I’m terrified of. I opened Court is Crafty online.

I’ll either succeed or fail, but I can only try my best. I just hope I don’t disappoint.

So let’s talk about it. What are you afraid of? Snakes? Spiders? Being alone? Open water? Does it come from a specific instance? Or is it just there? I want to hear about it.

And so it goes, and so it goes…

The start to this year has been both a whirlwind and stagnant month if that makes any sense at all to you. I will try to explain if it doesn’t: While it feels that it went by in a flash, I can also say that some weeks felt like they took 2 and some days went on for hours.

Work is going well. I enjoy my coworkers, a good number of my clients and I’ve come to a point of actually liking what I’m working on (mostly) rather than just seeing it as a potential stepping stone to different projects. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the other projects too. I have the constant need to do something different here and there, so it’s a good mix here.

Alternately, I’ve struggled with this swim session with some difficult children and with keeping my head in the game. I think I’ve managed well, but some days it’s just really hard. I cried for the first time during a lesson and am constantly fighting the dreaded burn out. I have some time off from the pool coming up and I’m going to make the best of it to recharge.

Crafting is going well and I have a potential opportunity that I’m both excited and terrified to even consider undertaking. I’m excited because it would be an amazing opportunity and a feather in my cap -  terrified that I’ll get rejected or even worse, it’ll take off and I’ll fail from success. I’ve convinced myself to try though. I’ve been excited that Court is Crafty has started to take off a bit with interest and interaction via the facebook page. I’ll be opening an actual online shop in the coming weeks and making the grand announcement over on the facebook page so click on over and like it to stay up to date.

I’m working on a post about making cupcakes with Em which was really fun, but it’s taking longer than I’d hoped to come together. It’s really hard to convey the fun we had that day baking, coloring, dancing etc. I hope you’ll come back to see it when it’s ready!

How has the start to your year been?

Pin finds

As any good crafty social media person, I’m on Pinterest. (Are you?) Sometimes, I can get sucked in just poking around so I try to limit my time there unless I have nothing else to do (Riiight)

But! Here are some good ones I found recently:

From here

From here

From here

From here

And last but not least

From here

Have you found anything good lately?

Queen of Hearts Event Donation

Not too long ago, my friend Robin (who wrote this post) put out a call on facebook to see who wanted to go to a fun event hosted by Delaware County Down Syndrome Interest Group (DSIG) (a group she works with) that would benefit Downs Syndrome awareness. They’re having their 2nd Annual Queen of Hearts Event. While I couldn’t attend this time, I clicked over to see about making a donation. (I’m blessed, I give back when I can.)

I noticed that part of the night was a silent auction and figured that anything I sent to be auctioned off would likely net them more than I could donate in cash so I put on my thinking cap and came up with the idea of turning one of my recipe art pieces into a package deal.

This is what I came up with:

It’s colorful, busy, a little whimsical and a lot of fun. I used the colors in the fabric to color the recipe art which can be framed to be displayed in the winner’s kitchen! (It’s my go to chocolate cupcake recipe.)

AND it was fun to pick out fabric again and sit in my new sewing space to create. Bonus.

Working digitally.

I’ve been working on some neat-o digital crafting lately. I find it to be fun and relaxing. I don’t have to be good at sketching or have decent handwriting. I can let the computer do that work for me. My brain is free to do the rest.

Here are just a few examples.

If you’d like to see more, you can find it on Court is Crafty.

What have you been up to?

Hide & Seek and Giggles & Smiles

I’ve felt out of sorts lately, I’m chalking it up to running ragged and being sick over the holiday, but wanted to find a way to get back sooner than later. It’s no fun being out of sorts.

This past weekend started off a little rough and by Friday I was just DONE. You know the feeling? You don’t want to deal with anything, human interaction should be kept to a minimum, and it’s time for quiet. Luckily my husband was alright with staying in and shuffling plans. (I couldn’t even tell you what we did or what we had for dinner. I think we watched Star Trek: The Next Generation and had chicken nugget parm for dinner.)

Saturday got off to a rough start and while it improved, I was still feeling glum as I picked up lunch and headed to my dear friend, D’s house for some quality time with her and her kids.

Em is 2 years, O is 3 weeks old and the two of them along with their momma was just the medicine I needed.

We played Hide & Seek, a new game for Em, but one she quickly caught on to for the most part. We found hiding places (mostly) big enough for the two of us and D would come find us. Then she and I would count to 10 and go find D.

It was really a lot of fun.

It was in either while hiding in the shower as we were covering our mouths to stop our giggles or the pink castle that Em’s giggles and smile told me I’d be just fine.

Kids have this way about them, their love is so simple and honest. It’s a nice refresher for life that sometimes giggles while hiding are just what you need to get back to you.