Home Sweet Home Kit

Hello Blog Friends!

You might remember this post about my March class at Stampin'Cat Studio. I have one kit left from that class up for grabs. The kit will include 2 each of the Basic Grey Origins paper used in the class (it's double sided) as well as 2 each of Bazzill Orange Peel Cardstock in Brown, Black, and Olive Green and 2 brown journaling blocks and 2 soft black journaling blocks (not pictured here, but in the link). The kit will also include a small assortment of grungeboard pieces (this can be customized, if you tell me what shapes you like), two jump rings, and a metal word washer. I can also include an instruction sheet with pictures of my book if you feel you need one. You'd need to provide your own paints and stickles. The cost of the kit is $20. If you are interested, leave me a message or send me an email at DianneKNelson at yahoo dot com. First come first served--although if there is a lot of interest, I can make up more kits. Smiles!

I Lay My Armor Down

Right now, this song  from the album "This Ordinary Thursday" by Georgia Stitt, kinda sums up how I'm feeling. I have a lot on my plate right now. Just a little more than my normal busy mom juggling act. It's the kind of thing that I'm supposed to have help for, but so far, three of the five people I asked for help have said "no." I'm not judging their reasons, but I'm really working to fight my inital knee-jerk reactions of being nasty to them or saying something to induce guilt. This will work out; it's just the kind of situation that will. I know it. I believe it. But right now, it feels a bit like a sucker punch to my gut and it makes me sad and tired. So I'm singing this song today, until I feel better. (singing does that for me)

I looked all over YouTube for a good link--lots of good singers out there, but with not so good video quality. So if you click the link--listen instead of watch...lol (I don't want anyone getting seasick!).



For what it's worth, I do believe in God (there's a line in the song that alludes to no God) and I go through every day believing that He's there to love me, support me, and lift me up when I'm feeling low like this. It'll pass. But today, I'm going to lie low and Lay my Armor Down.

Proof that I live with Boys

This bouncy ball stayed on the piano for about a week. We even play this piano at least once a day. Yet there was the ball, just waiting to be noticed. Proof that I live with boys.

20 years on St. Patrick's Day

C's thoughts on what love is

Twenty years ago today, I had my first date with my husband. Twenty years! Wow that went fast! For our first date, we saw the movie "The Hunt for Red October" and then talked until 1am at the little park near my grandmother's house. I didn't want him to go home but was astonished at how late it was! (We both had early church the next day and Spring Break on that Monday). While I don't have pictures from that first date, I do have these, from my 20th birthday, just six weeks later. It surprises me how young we look!

Things I remember from this time:

We had our first date and then I left to spend a week at Seaside with my family for Spring Break. I missed him terribly with an ache that confused and surprised me. I remember asking my brother if that was weird, to feel that way, to feel so deeply and intensely after just one date. He told me "no." and I remember how that made everything different--how I felt I needed to rethink things. I lived with my Grandmother at the time, and I remember hearing the phone ring as I let myself in (she was also out of town) and answering the phone and hearing Joel say "Oh! You're home!" as if he'd been feeling the same feelings all week. We made plans for another date. And another, and another, and another.

How exciting everything was! We couldn't bear to be in the same room with each other without touching--knees, shoulders, holding hands, sitting by each other--not necessarily touching in intimate ways, more like to remind ourselves that this was real. I felt so lucky! (I still feel that way). We spent as much time together as possible. I got a "D" in Organic Chemistry because he was far more interesting to me than how carbon combined with other molecules. I felt like we had to make the most of things because Joel submitted his mission papers about the same time we started dating, and that meant we only had a couple of months to spend together before he left for two years. When he left, we didn't make any firm or lofty promises or committments; we just knew we wanted to be together and hoped we'd still feel that way when he came home.

We did. Six months after his return, about 2 years and nine months from that first date, we were married.

And the rest is history. My history. The best kind of history.

Quick and Easy Michael's Makeover

So, you are probably familiar with those initial notebooks--cute idea, but towards the end, only the weird letters are left? Well, yesterday I picked up a couple of those little notebooks for 50 cents. I liked their sturdy covers and the large rings, plus they are the right size for my purse so I can carry something around to jot notes or quotes or deep thoughts on. With a little ingenuity and some help from Technique Tuesday stamps, I went from this:

to this:

I also got one in pink and tried some hand-lettering on it:

The lesson? If you like the book but the letter doesn't seem to match your life, give it another thought. You just might make something you really like--and for only 50 cents!

Home Sweet Home! Stampin'Cat Class for March

Lots of pictures here. This is my next class at Stampin'Cat Studio in Salem, Oregon. We are doing a 4x6 minibook about our homes and what we like about them. I had such fun putting this book together! I took some pictures that were not "perfect" because I wanted to show what my home was really like. I used chipboard covers (painted with green paint, gold paint, and off-white crackle paint), some grungeboard, a charm, and papers from Basic Grey's Origins line. The class was inspired by a book done by Elise Blaha. Lots of pictures ahead! Enjoy!

Shhh--don't tell my husband!

But Dandelions are some of my favorite flowers! I love that they signal the start of spring, and everytime I see one, I think of something my mother said once--that the only difference between a flower and a weed is that someone decided which was was which and we believed them.  There is so much yellow and purple in my neighborhood right now. I wish we weren't heading into a week of rains so I could take pictures and show you! Daffodils, forsythia, azaleas, hyacinths--all gorgeous and welcomed signs of spring.

What are the signs of the season where you live? Leave a comment and let me know which are your favorites!

The Last Baby

Today I watched your thin little gangly arms as you manipulated buttons to add and subtract your way through your math sheet. I watched the sprinkling of freckles across your nose and cheeks. I noticed how beat up your glasses were—rust spots, color rubbed off the frame, not to mention the dot of E6000 industrial strength glue holding one side together until we can see the eye doctor next month and order our yearly pair—and I just wanted to eat you up.

I am acutely aware of time passing in moments like this. You are only mine for a blip really, only going to be with me for a very short part of what I hope is a very long life. And it hurts. It hurts that you won’t always be a little boy that comes up to me and says out of the blue “I want to hug you Mama” and then after a short (but satisfying squeeze) you run off to continue building your legos or your K’nex or playing your wild imaginary game.

Katherine Center wrote a beautiful essay to accompany a video she created for the Mom 2.0 Summit that included the phrase “I have to love you this fiercely” and that thought, that idea, that intense mother love has been on my mind ever since. I have to love you this fiercely because oh-so-soon, you will grow up and go. You will leave my nest. There will be no more sprinkle of freckles with skinny arms sitting at next to me as we work our way through the necessary exercises of our individual lives.

I know that this is the natural order of things. I’m okay with it really. You should grow, progress, reach goals, find a life, find a wife, and find your own sprinkle of freckles to love fiercely. It would be weird and off-kilter if you didn’t. I knew all of this before I built your body and brought you here. I just didn’t realize that this delicious time would be so short. That wasn’t in my “What to Expect” books.

So I’ll work harder to keep each precious moment, each snuggle, each hug. I may hold on too long some days. I’ll kiss your neck and hold you close and share frozen yogurt and love every aching minute of it and as you grow and progress and move forward in life, I’ll try to do the same. That way, when the day comes that you fly away, I’ll hopefully be able to let go easily, to handle the flight, even just a little bit.

And I’ll always remember this day, with the freckles and the skinny arms and the buttons and be glad of it.

Katherine Center's video (in case you haven't seen it yet)

30 Strangers Project--I LOVE THIS IDEA!

Justin Hackworth, photographer in Utah, is taking applications for his 30 Strangers Project. I love this idea, and want to try to recreate it.

Anyone live nearby and want pictures of their Mother/Daughter combinations? Let me know!

How neat is this? I want to play!

I saw this while blog hopping this morning. I want to play along!

One Hundred Photos

Anyone else?