Creative Chaos

I'm so excited......

 
We have a little visitor to our backyard.   A mama hummingbird decided to pick our little ficus tree in the backyard in which to build her nest.   I discovered it after I sprayed the tree with water this afternoon.  At first I thought it was a grasshopper flying away.  But I later saw the little nest.  And then upon further investigation two little eggs.   I was so upset thinking that I scared her away for good and that these little eggs would end up orphans.

 

Shortly after the discovery and during everyone elbowing in around the nest, she flew right back and sat where she belonged......with her little baby eggs.

 

I was surprised that she picked this spot so close to eye level and in the flow of backyard traffic.  Although, I'm sure after the spray of water, children clamoring to get a look, frenzied picture taking and general "bird nesting" excitement,  she immediately regretted her decision also.

Carlos and I looked up all the pertinent facts about hummingbird nests and how long it takes the eggs to hatch.   I'll keep you posted on the progress..........

 

One thing leads to another.......

 

While making great progress with with my scrapbook journal Paper Tales class project, I got a bit side tracked with another idea i had floating around in my head for a while.......

 

A Mother's day album.   I hope I can finish it by Mother's Day.   I'll be back with more projects but I have to run to pick up the boys....Talk to you soon!  Karin

It's a start.....

 
 

I know the cover of the book is not very inspired at this moment.  However, I have big plans for it.......BIG Plans!!!

I scanned some of my favorite vintage wallpaper for this page.....

And I got fancy shmancy with this page.....

 

A hidden fold out.  That way you can hide whomever is annoying you most in the family.....like a child or spouse..... 

Oh....I'm just kidding.....

 

Sort of.......

 

Ok.....off to finish the book and decide who's going to be shunned from the family on page four!   Talk to you later!  Karin

 

I feel a project coming on.......

 

I was able to pick up my CHA order at Paper Tales when I worked this Saturday.......I'm feeling very inspired! 

 

Of course, my completed order was considerably smaller than the original one that was placed at CHA.   Thanks to Randi's due diligence and level head, she managed to slash half of what I ordered when she was going through the order form.   Randi is the type of person who is not only amazingly creative, but has a sizable portion of her left brain intact.  Unlike me, who is operating on mainly a right brain, coupled with a puttering left brain that kicks in every so often.    While we were at CHA, she had to wrangle both Michelle and me while we blithely ordered away with no regard to time, space, or money. 

 

She later called to tell me what I really needed and what she was slashing from my order.   I happily complied.  

 

When Randi's with Michelle and me, she's the sober friend who goes to the bathroom for five minutes only to come back to find us ordering rounds of drinks for everyone.....

 

So anyway, I'm very inspited to do something with these papers.  Maybe a Mother's day journal.......we'll see!  Talk to you soon!  Karin

On vacation......

 

Well. Sort of.   My aunt and uncle were here this past week so we just get to go along for the ride.  That's the great thing about living in San Diego.  Even when you're not on vacation you can pretend you're on vacation.

They stayed right on the beach at Pacific Terrace.  I only mention this because if you are looking for a place to stay in San Diego, this is the place.   Loved it!  

 

The boys' loved the poolside accommodations.....

While we adults enjoyed the drinks by the poolside accommodations......

 

And of course there's the sunset.......

 

Ok...back to reality!  

Well. Apparently the competition is heating up......

It looks like someone was able to razzle dazzle some investors in order to increase his inventory......

Then upon further inspection it looks like there is a bit of copying going on.....

 

It now looks like he is offering up art work......
  

 

I'm not too worried though.  My aunt and uncle are in town and he tried to sell them this box for "ninety thousand hundred dollars.....

 

They declined.  

HA!

I think my my prices are much more reasonable.   I've put together some floral grab bags on my Etsy.  You'll get an assortment of at least 30 pieces for $6.00.  Not to shabby....but still chic....hahahaha...I crack myself up.   I can do some bigger assortments too.

 

Ok....off to see what else the competion is up to......Talk to you later!  Karin

 

Still a Listing Fool....

 

 

 

 

 

but not the only one.  Andres asked me what I was doing.  After telling him that I was putting things in my "store," he decided he wanted one too.   He came back to tell me that he also had a store.    And that it was "eben more better than your store."

Hmmmm......I'll be the judge of that.  

Well, he does have signs directing people to his establishment........

 
 

Hmmm....note to self....get signs for Etsy store.....

 

It appears he has a good variety of items.  However, I don't see any vintage wallpaper, nor do I see cute flower kits......phew...

 

It appears he's overstocked on stuffed animals....that's never good. He also has a penchent for Thomas the Train.  That could turn some potential buyers off........ However, I do see a "Reservoir Dogs" DVD as well as Tom Cruise's "Collateral."   So it appears he's trying to steal some of my more mature customers.......

I'll have to find out who his supplier is for the happy face price stickers....

 

I tell you, it's hard enough making a buck in this town without having this as comptition right down the hall........... 

 

I'm a listing fool......

 

I make things......

 

Then I have things that I made......

 

Then I don't know what to do with the things I have that I made.....

 

So they just sit there on a shelf........

Until I get sick of moving them constantly......

 

To have more room to make more things.....

 

That just sit there on a shelf.....

 
 

Next to the things I already made......

 

That's why I'm a Etsy listing fool today.......

 

Contradiction.........

 
A nice spring pink polka dot cake with a Halloween project in the background.   I was asked to submit a halloween tin to a publication and was getting ready to send this little box on it's way.  I loved the contrast of intermixing seasons.

Here's the cake ready to head out the door........

 

 

And another one as well....

 

I'm also going to be listing a bunch of stuff on Etsy.  I'm working hard at destashing a ton of projects that I have done which are currently taking up space on my shelf.   Many will be on sale at really nice prices.  I just want to move things on out the door in order to get ready for some new creations. 

So you may recognize some things.......

 

 

Along with some new things......

 

I love this crepe paper's shade of blue......

 

 

 

I'm trying to focus in more on what I want to do creatively.   I'm going to be doing some substitute teaching at the boys school (much to Carlos' dismay and horror, I was almost assigned to his class the other week but my paper work wasn't quite ready).   So with that in mind, I'm really trying to narrow down my focus of what I want to accomplish.   I'm gearing up to teach more classes at Paper Tales.  I want to write more.  Both on this blog and (I'm putting it out there to the universe) professionally.  I often thought about and actually said out loud to a few people that I would love to write a book about my experience with breast cancer....as a relatively young woman with a family.....as a creative person who used art to heal.....as a snarky person who used her humor to make it through the darkest days....I really feel like I'm ready to start tackling some of my goals.  

 

I'm going to start looking into how one goes about even getting published.  I have no idea so it looks like I need to start taking some first steps in that direction.   I even trying to figure out what the focus and goal for my blog is.  I'm really not sure.   So anyway, that's what I'm doing right now.  I'm doing some spring cleaning,  goal focusing,  art clearing cleansing.  Let's see where it leads me.........Talk to you soon!  Karin 

Just popping in to say........

I have no idea when I'll be back to post again.    Most likely when I get a new monitor for my computer.   The monitor keeps playing games with me.   It will let me just get comfortable enough with it to walk away and then BAM......no more picture on the monitor.   I'm over it.   Of course, not having the computer on all day resulted in a lot more getting done around the Chaos household. 

I'll just post some pictures in the meantime.  I found this little book I did for my mom about Andres.  It's one of my faves.....

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully I will talk to you sooner than later!  Karin