End of week 5: Too Busy &Too Awesome!

(Edited to add: Scroll down for a giveaway!)

Wow, I accidentally skipped last week's blogging, but it was because I was too busy MAKING STUFF! Hahahah! What a wonderful feeling. :)

For starters, allow me to celebrate that I've had a piece ACCEPTED TO A MAGAZINE! Yeah, wooooooohooooooooo!  I sent a query into Green Craft over a month ago, and thought I'd never hear from them again. "Oh surely," I thought, "I'm nowhere near as advanced as some of those REAL artists."  But, surprise surprise, I got a letter back from the Editor, saying, "It looks great! I love it! The deadline is March 15th, but we need to see where it will fit in." 

I'm pretty sure my feet didn't touch the floor for the rest of the week!  However, the bad news was that the journal I'd queried with had been half-destroyed by...well...life, so I had to make a new one.

Not bad. :)  The reason why it was accepted is because its made entirely from cereal boxes, paper bags, junk mail, and covered w/ vintage book scraps that I found on an antique store floor.  "Oh, we're just going to throw that away," said the manager.  "You can have it."

I made a few bookmarks from the same material, only used a cracker box for the base.

Also, this past week, I realized that I could sell some of the recycled die-cuts on Etsy, so I started building my stash.

Then, my hand hurt so bad that I said, "Dangit, I'm getting a Sizzix!" I found this one for 15 bux on Craigslist. Score. :)

Dies are going in this month's budget. :)

I then realized that some people were just selling vintage ephemera on Etsy.  I was like, "You're kidding.  You mean people actually buy that stuff in packs?  Why not rummage around an antique mall?"  I'd taken for granted how blessed I was to be surrounded by junk stores, and forgotten that not everyone has that.  Heck, not everyone gets a spine-tingling thrill from it the way I do, haha!  I've got TONS of that stuff....

...and can't wait to start wrapping it up in pretty lace and selling it.  My new goal is to have my Etsy shop, HappyScrappyStuff, open by March 15th.  :)  

Today, while I took all the studio pictures, the five-year-old had a "wood sale" on the kids' side of the studio

Everything was sorted by size, color, and function.  She tried to tell me why I should buy them all--I loved it!  But she hates the flash, so I couldn't get a decent pic down there, with her wiggling around.  Then we went "camping," and stayed in "Jesus' Forest," and she caught a whale with her fishing pole.  I only caught a minnow, though.   Sigh. [Big Contented Smile.]  She's so herself.  She's the strongest personality I've ever even heard of.

The two-year-old got ahold of my beads, and threw them.  Lots of them.  Everywhere.  I didn't take a picture of that.  I felt too silly for actually keeping that box at her eye level. :) To make up for it, here's a pic of her  finishing an ice cream sandwich.

I can't believe it, but most of the time, I really can work with the two-year-old beside me.  She's an introvert.  She wants to play quietly. Her favorite thing in the world is cutting paper and watching colors mix together. ("Yeah, honey, mine too!")  We have a routine now--every day Mommy takes her to the studio, gives her some safety scissors and some paint, and we *both* make stuff. 



I never thought the day would come when my kids would say, "Can we please go down to the basement and cut paper/glue things/paint/sew...with you?"  That day is not only here, it keeps coming back for more.

Last Saturday, my five-year-old said, "Mommy, can we sew with you in the basement?"  The two-year-old joined in with clapping and cheers, and then my Dear Husband even said, "I'll come down too."

My five year old made her "very own blanket," (a denim scrap with a real chain-stitch down the middle, which she promptly wrapped her Zhu-Zhu Pet in), my two-year-old "made hearts" by cutting up paper scraps into triangles,  and my husband developed his own font, tentatively titled "Wall-E."  (The movie has been burned into our consciousness recently.  We can't help it.)  I worked on this quilt...

...made from their jammies and old jeans.  They were excited. :)

I didn't take a picture of that time, because honestly, I felt like it was the World's Best Family Time Ever, and didn't want to say, "Hang on a sec while I get my camera, so I can update my blog." I just felt (rightly or wrongly) that it would have been an Epic Mother Fail.  But as I looked around the room, I felt like those moments were the first part of a serious Dream Come True for me---my family making stuff together, and enjoying it.  We're not addicted to the TV (overly much), we're not sitting around consuming junk food (all the time) we're able to enjoy things together.  How did we get so blessed?

I want to spread the blessing around a bit---leave a comment on this blog, and you'll be entered into a drawing for one of those bookmarks. :) Just a little thank you for joining me on my journey. :)