Pretty in pink .... sometimes ...

 truth is ... i suffer from SAD ... you can read all about it here if you are so inclined ... and the spring with the worst weather (grey, cold & rain) in 50 years is literally kicking the crap out of me ... so i ignored my blog ... let my emails pile up, curled up with a pile of blankets and prepared to wait it out.  And of course that strategy never works ... so here i am, promising to not leave my blog and friends neglected for so long ... and to get creative once again ...

a few things that broke the sadness for me ....
my daughter, always so intone with what is going on for me
some wonderful friends
lovely flowers from a friend, who doesn't just get all happy looking at pinks and whites
going to my monthly crop with my scrappy friends
encouraging emails and comments on my blog from my wonderful blog friends

So, I am just going to try and think of pink, whenever those grey skies set in ... and get on with life, because it is so much better than the alternative.

For some reason even Honey looks sad ... usually she loves to pose for the camera ... today, not so much

thanks so much for stopping by!
~Jo

off my game ...

I swear this constant rain has knocked me right off of my creative game ... i'm not writing ... not scrapping and not creating anything.  This entire lack of sunshine is just not working for me ... so what to do?

I have a half finished layout on my table ... and even one or two ideas in my wee brain, but i just lack the ability to jumpstart the old mojo.

So tell me please ... what do you do to jumpstart your creativity?

oh, and some layouts i did before i hit this little wall ... one of my daughter and one of my mother, both using the Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden line available at Tiny Seed ... the best little online store ever!

My Mom looks so tiny in this photo ... like a little garden fairy!  This paper is so pretty and easy to work with ...I just cut around the large butterfly on the paper with a blade and slid the photo under it.

Love this picture of my daughter ... we were at pub patio on the waterfront ... along with Grandma & Grandpa ... it was a wonderful day!  There is actually glimmer mist all over this page but the colours i choose were very similar to the paper so it has a lovely glimmer shining on it!

Okay, I think i will pull some more paper off the shelf and see if i can get the old mojo flowing ... and if that doesn't work, its on to automatic writing ...
thanks for stopping by!

peace love & paper, Jo

another rainy day ...

... such a horrible spring and yet i feel blessed that i do not live in parts of the world that are flooding ... and hey, i don't have to water the garden ... in fact i haven't even planted anything yet for fear that it will drown.

But the rain does make for some fun photo ops!

 Honey, getting ready for a rainy day

 A wet wet gnome in my parents garden

 glass ball in rain ... these look so pretty hanging from the trees in the sun ... and in the rain!

 raindrops in a large basin

a reminder of a sunny day and that "life is good"!

hope you are enjoying your day, no matter what the weather!

peace, love & paper ~ jo

Saturday Centus - The Budgie

Our fearless leader Miss Jenny has given us no special challenges this week ... whew ... can you see me wiping the sweat from my brow?  I have problems as it is sometimes ... well for those of you that don't know the drill yet, Jenny gives us a prompt and we write a little something, 100 words or less, not including her prompt ... which, today is "I'd like to teach the world to sing" ... I hope you enjoy ... or think something about my strange little offering ... and please click on the button below to visit other Centusians and their much more interesting stories.

The odd thing about Penny … was that she never sang … or talked … or even chirped.  She stood mute in her birdcage, happily playing with her mirror and bells and bath.  She was often found snuggling close to her cage mate Percy.   It was only in her final moments that she found her voice …singing the most glorious budgie tune … finally finding her voice … an act of freedom. 

“Oh I'd like to teach the world to sing with such glory and abandon” her owner thought, as she carefully picked up the little lifeless body … “without the dying of course.”

peace, love & paper! ~ Jo

Keeping it simple ...

Sometimes i just want to do something simple ... This little mini book is a redo ... yeah, i redid the entire thing ... my original idea was to do it all in white and black paint with splashes of red made with glimmer glam ... the only problem was the splashes of red on the white pages looked a little like .... ummm ... like i went all Dexter on the pages ...

so here is the redo, and simply done ... using white and black papers, and splashes of bright colours throughout the mini album ... and i really like the results as it allows the colours of the photos to really do the talking

 Okay, the cover isn't that simple, but it's not overly ornate either ...

 Not may embellishments in this mini ... i just used some leftover zipper from another project

 Sometimes nothing is needed but the photos and a wee bit of journalling

 a bit of ribbon, a metal tag and a tiny bit of bling

My two favourite photos and just a tiny bit of bling to draw attention to the two coloured finger nails.

 bakers twine, a bit of trim and a metal tag

 just a metal badge on this page ... there was no reason to divert attention or add to  the photos

More left over zipper and a painted wooden butterfly ... this is so much nicer than the Dexter book i had created earlier ...

There are more pages, but you get the idea ... and it was a nice way to use up a line of paper.

peace, love & paper ~ Jo

Get Excited!!!

Love this little pin that my daughter picked up for me at the "Make It" craft fair a couple of weeks ago ... it sits next to my TH box  that i had up on the  blog while i was guest blogger at Tiny Seed ... so here it is now ... and i was excited when i made it ... it was so much fun to create.  I raided my Mom's and Grandma's sewing kits for little treasures .... and i have a frozen Charlotte doll from my friend Lynn in there as well ...

The box ... lacking an photographic studio or even a nice place to shoot we are on the living room carpet and yes, we were exercising hence the stupid ball in almost every shot ... oooops!

"sniff sniff" ... "smells friendly" (says Honey)

"Hey!  can haz picture taken?  Me much prettier than box"

"Box already has nuff pictures ... take me, take me!!!"  (Sheesh, my dog always wants in on the shot)

"See .... I is much prettier than box" (she says blocking the box from getting any shots at all ... )

And finally ...   a couple of shots of the box,  although i had to move the box outside up high on the railing so a could get a semi decent shot.

 You can click on the photos to make them larger .... if you want ... just sayin' ... lol!

Peace, love & Paper ~ Jo

(are you as annoyed by auto correct as i am?)

Saturday Centus - The Paper

What???  Saturday Centus is about paper!!!   It's like Jenny had me in mind when she supplied this prompt "Although the traditional gift for a first anniversary is paper ..."
Nah ... actually she had her little group of merry Centusians in mind because it is the one year anniversary of the Centus ... and don't I wish I had been along for the full ride ... I would have really accomplished something ...
Here is my little offering ... and Happy Anniversay to Jenny and her absolutely fun and fab meme!!!

Although the traditional gift for a first anniversary is paper he knew that was not what he would buy for her.

He had known, long before they were married, in fact before they were even “officially” dating that she was a self described paper addict.  She scrapbooked and had a craft room full of paper meticulously sorted and stacked, then there were reams of specialty paper for home decorating and then the books & magazines … he had never truly realized the extent of her book and paper addiction till after their marriage, when it started to multiply by the month.  No, he thought … this year she’s getting an E-reader.

Now, just click on the button to read the other fab and wonderful takes on the prompt ... you are sure to find some totally enjoyable reads!!!