My guys gave me a wonderful day full of fun, relaxation and good eats. First they took me to the Sonoran Desert Museum. Despite going early, the sun came down on us hard, with a high of 97 degrees! So, it wasn’t long before our guys started pooping out on us with sweaty brows and rosy cheeks. Ice cream cones seemed like the only remedy for the poor guys and wouldn’t you know, it worked like a charm. It gave them enough energy to want to go through the mineral cave several times. After the museum, we spent a good portion of the day hanging out in our cool house just relaxing. A wonderfully delicious dinner, brownies and soy cream ended my perfect day.

Now I leave you with this: Ice Cream Eating 101

1. Lick repeatedly until ice cream is gone.
2. Quick, short licks make is last longer.
3. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

I thought I’d share this picture.  It is of me and my guys in May of 2005.  My first mother’s day with my two little guys.  It’s amazing how quickly time passes.  I look at my guys now and am in awe of how big, strong, amazing and dynamic they are.  It is them that have made me what I am today.  Inspired, concerned, loved, crazed.  A mother.  Exactly what I’ve always been meant to be.

I send lots of love to my mother, my grandmother and my two sisters.  Four of the most amazing, strong and beautiful women that I know.   Happy mothers day to YOU too. All of you, out there too, that share the same funny life stories of parenthood. Thank you!

You guys are so great!! Thanks for all your kind words of encouragement and support for my last post. It means so much. It’s no wonder I love this crafty community so much!

Copyright infringement is SO crazy complicated. Many, many, many folks have written countless posts on this very subject. I’ve found the following links to be very helpful.

Blogging pitfalls: Stealing other people’s photos
Bandwidth theft
Copyright thoughts and links
Creative Commons

For those of you who asked, it’s absolutely okay to link to someone’s blog or post. It’s nice. Most people really appreciate it. I don’t even mind if someone uses my photo as long as it has my link attached or close by, explaining that the work belongs to me. Heck, Craftzine and Whip-up do it all the time and I’m pretty sure no one is gonna get mad about that! It’s super cool as long as you are not “hot linking” which is the same as stealing bandwidth.

Sorry, had to get that out there. Now on to other news.

I sent this beautiful stack of vintage linen to Lisa of Polka Dot Creations for her Summer Sheet Skirt Swap. Such a great idea for those of us who are collecting way too many vintage sheets. I have so many and never use all the fabric from one sheet. This allowed me to rid myself of some excess and gain some new prints. The idea is to make some summer skirts from whatever you get back. Check out the flickr pool to see all the great stacks of vintage sheets.

but I just can’t help myself!! I really was only going to a church rummage sale that I saw a sign for, then one house led to another and before I knew it, I had a car full.

More stuff to add to my piles and piles of stuff. Remember me complaining about my stuff piling up all around me? Well, this definitely doesn’t help matters. I need some kind of help!

Despite my need for some kind of thrifting control, I just have to share what I found…

All of the quilted items are unfinished quilts and large patchwork squares, hand pieced, not machine sewn. Amazing! I had to save them and do something with them like, dare I say it, cut into them. They would make amazing potholders, pillows, small blankets, oven mitts–so many things. I’ve thought about just finishing the quilts, but there are lots of stained parts that didn’t come out in the wash and small holes too.

Other miscellaneous stuff like a ceramic rooster and old books. The rooster is going in the kitchen (even if the hubby doesn’t like it) and the books are fun to look through. There were more, but my Super-E snatched them up when I walked in the door and I haven’t seen them since.

Attn: Notecard swappers. Almost all notecards are in, just waiting for a few from oversees. All of the cards so far are amazing and beautiful! It will be well worth the wait, I promise!!!

Boy am I pooped. We had a packed weekend with lots of activity. A farm, artisan fair and crafting in the wee hours.

On Saturday we spent a fabulous day out at the Agua Linda farm, where we get our produce through the Tucson CSA. What a wonderful experience. The weather was beautiful, the farm was amazing, as were the farmers, and we had deep down good feelings about it. You can see more picture HERE.

Then I stayed up late preparing for a small Artisan Fair at a local coffee shop (nothing like last minute!). Despite the heat and beating sun, the day went well. I actually sold a few things!!! Much better than the last artisan fair I did. I made better signs (that you can’t really see in this pic) and I gave out lots of Moo cards too. The best part though, was swapping with other crafty-artisan-fair folks. Look what I got….

This gorgeous, gorgeous zipper pouch from Rikkianne at Chakra Pennywhistle. Thank goodness she wanted something of mine, because I fell in love with this the minute I saw it.

Pretty headband and hair clips from my friend Alexandra (Spellmonster). I love that orange!!

I love having weekends like this every once in a while. I feel like I accomplished so much! Now I’m going to rest and prepare for the next two days of work.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

We survived a weekend of hopping from home to home visiting family in Prescott and then came home just in time for me to go right to work for two days.  I’m exhausted mentally, physically and creatively. I am really behind on my blog reading, emails and comments and I just keep starring at my long list of things to do.  My head is spinning and spinning and spinning, which would explain my title~~too brain dead to think of something clever.

Anyway, here are some pics from my weekend.

I plan on getting a good nights sleep, and hopefully will accomplish something on my next two days off.

It’s been well over a week since my last post. I’ve been super busy with work, another cold and a small craft fair. Mostly busy making stuff for the art fair that was less than lucrative. Very, very little money was made, but I’ve learned a lot and met some great new people. I had a friend sit with me each day, and that was really fun too.

The first day my set up wasn’t so great. I had Corinne selling very pretty jewelry on one side, and another jewelry table on the other. Basically, people were whizzing by my table without even a slowing of pace or glance in my direction, but they were stopping at both jewelry tables at either side. Okay, I realize that jewelry sells, but c’mon folks!

I went home that night thinking hard about my set up and what I could do to get people to just glance in my direction and maybe slow down a bit to a slow idle. I had cards in a card stand with my pillowcase bags hanging on the same rack, clocks and plaque art hanging on a stand and brooches, tissue holders and little things on a table. I totally rearranged the next day making my table longer, spreading things out a bit. It seemed to help a little and people even stopped to look at my art plaques and clocks, but no buyers. It was extremely depressing. Maybe I need to learn more, rethink what I’m making or pick better venues. I think my prices are very fair. I just don’t know. You can sorta see my set up in my flickr set. Please shout out if you have any suggestions or tips.Everything will go in my Etsy shop this week.

The best part of this art fair, was by far, meeting other great Etsy shop owners! It’s pretty amazing how many there are in Tucson and how super talented they are. Here is who I met~please check out their shops if you can:

Beauties & Baubles
Gift Idea Works
Handmade by Diana
Rainstorm
Joe Momma
Feral Empire
Dragon’s Spark
Chakra Pennywhistle

I’ve got a lot to share. I’ll be posting a lot more frequently from here on out.

A while back, my little I-guy was tagged by ExPat Mom to list eight random things about himself. I thought this would be a really cute way to post for his 3rd birthday, which we celebrated yesterday. I’ll translate, his very good, but sometimes hard to understand I-speak.

1. I am three years old and had the best birthday yesterday with my three favorite people. “I am very bigger” and can do almost everything by myself even though my family insists on trying to help me sometimes.

2. I am also “very stronger” and “super fast” when I ride my tricycle. That is why I call myself “Super-I”. I even got a new bicycle for my birthday that is even “more faster”!!! I rode around the yard last night in the light of the moon until I crashed into the pokey rose bush. What a bad way to end such a great day.

3. I’m not potty trained yet and my parents don’t seem too worried about it yet, but I have a feeling that they are going to get serious soon. They keep going on, and on, and on about how I am three now and they keep getting corny potty-training story books at the library. Geez!

4. My best friend is my brother. He always likes to play with me and hugs me a lot. Sometimes he likes to takes over and rule the games, but I still think he’s the tops. Sometimes if I let out a big cry, he’ll give me whatever I want. Isn’t he swell? He likes to read to me and he’s really good at it. Almost as good as mommy. He’s also very good at getting me things I need like water, snacks and things I can’t reach.

5. I breast-fed for 32 months and it was the greatest thing ever. My mom says that it made me really healthy and smart. Now, I’m a big boy and I don’t do it anymore, but I miss it sometimes. Snuggling up with mom is the second best thing, especially when I don’t feel so good.

6. I love riding on the back of daddy’s bike when we go bike riding. He goes super fast. He also carries me in a pack when we go hiking too. He says that I’m getting too big to carry and I’ll be hiking soon all by myself. I know he’ll still carry me when I need a break though.

7. When ever I am eating I like to take a long time. My mom and dad will say are you done yet? and I’ll say, “3, 2 bites”. That means I’m still working on my food and have 2 or 3 bites left. Some of my favorite foods are broccoli, rice, beans, and any kind of fruit. I love drinking soy, rice, almond and oat milk. They are all very yummy. If it were up to me, I’d only eat candy and cookies. I guess that’s why my mom doesn’t keep that kind of stuff in the house very much.

8. I still like to dance and listen to music. I love watching and listening to Animusic a lot, but I thought I could play with the dvd’s and now they are all scratched up. I especially like to listen to music while I am playing. It makes me very happy.

I am thankful for so many things today…

1. That my children are no longer sick with the flu, and are healthy and in very good spirits these past few days. The sad whining has turned into happy laughter. Yay!!

2. Spending time with my family and doing little things like eating at Govinda’s for lunch.

3. The amazing and crazy weather that has been Tucson. One day it is warm and bright, the next it is cold and snowy. I love the variations.

4. For little gifts in the mail. A little P.I.F bird from Susan at Art Esprit ~thank you! Holiday ornaments from Amy’s swap (thank you for working so hard to get these out), and a special Valentine from Raesha, who never ceases to amaze me with her generosity and kindness.

5. That my child has a kind and patient teacher who is allowing her students to blossom, explore and grow.

6. For my friends at work, who make things easier. For old friends that I am getting back in touch with and for new ones that like to play crafts!!

7. For all of you who stop by to visit and leave kind messages of encouragement and support. For people like Elizabeth and Marcia, who tagged me with the “You Make My Day” award. Thanks you so much! You both made my day for sure.

Now, as a part of this, I am to list ten other bloggers who I find inspiring and full of happy goodness (this is the hard part because there are so many I find inspiring and great).

Geninne
tiny happy
greeting arts
kleas
twelve22
green kitchen
Chara Michele
Trail Mix Designs
Nikki-shell
Artsy-crafty babe

Thank you all (Elizabeth and Marcia included) for inspiring me with your amazing creativity, warm and thoughtful words, funny stories and for sharing so much of yourself!

Thank you again, for all of your warm comments. I appreciate and adore them all.

I picked 3 random winners…… (per Random.org)

# 17 –Lisa   Will get the love fairy & hand stamped notecards.

# 35–Teresa  will get some hand-stamped notecards.

#44– Hilde C   will also get some hand-stamped notecards.

Sorry I can’t give you all a valentine fairy, but I haven’t even made any more like I had planned.  The notecards I carved today and will share with you tomorrow.