Easter is almost here!

I cannot believe how fast time has gone by in the past 5 months. It feels like it was just New Year's and now we are sneaking up on Easter. When thinking about Easter I thought what fun it would be to create a few cute Easter baskets for friends, family members, and loved ones. Below is a photo of two of the three Easter baskets that we will be making at my first meetup class on March 28th at 4:00 pm.
If you have not already signed up and would like to attend some of my classes or at least find out when I am offering fun gathers please go to www.meetup.com and search for The Eau Claire Createive Crafters Group. You will find this photo there and more information about this class. The cost is $10.00 and the class is being held in Eau Claire, WI. If you would like to attend the class go to the meetup website and RSVP so I know you are interested and all you have to bring is a basic supply kit that includes things like a scissors, glue or double sided tape, and a fine point black marker if you have one. Not shown in the photo is a sample of the lamb basket that we will make.

A new beginning...

As I had popped on to see my blog off and on in the past 5 months I have needed and wanted to update but just couldn't get to it. Now I am back and after some rough times, I am ready to have a new beginning. I have started a new group called The Eau Claire Creative Crafters Group on www.meetup.com and can't wait for the meetings to start. The first meetup that I have scheduled is March 28th at 3:00 pm and then I have a class scheduled for afterwards at 4:00 pm. If you go to the meetup website and search for my group you can sign up and then get updates when I schedule new meetups. The first class I have scheduled is to make three super cute easter baskets and the cost is $10.00. More details can be found on the website. Watch for another post with photos...coming soon...you can also see a photo on the meetup website!

Many of you already know that things have been rough and I have had some marital problems in the past 5 months. I am ready to get to my blog and keep everyone updated on new fun things. With starting my meetup group I hope to promote Close To My Heart, stamping, scrapbooking, digital scrapbooking through CTMH, paper crafts, Cricut, Gypsy, Design Studio, and handmade gifts. If there is anything else you would be interested in learning or finding more information about feel free to drop me a line as I am always open to what people are looking for.

Close To My Heart Regionals Convention

So as some of you already know, this past weekend I attended my FIRST Close To My Heart Regional Celebration. I had a blast and was definately worth the money!!! We got lots of free products to use and create some fun projects while we were there. I left Eau Claire Thursday evening to head to Minneapolis. I drove...which was a huge accomplishment for me because I am not a cities driver. I got us there in one piece with the help of a little GPS...thank goodness! The convention was all day Friday and went until 5:30 pm on Saturday. There were business classes each day and then creative sessions where we even got to create a journal that isn't even out in the catalog yet! We also got to see a sneak peak of the Jan, Feb, and March stamps of the month sets. It was a fabulous time especially to spend a few days with 300 ladies that have the same hobby and love for a company as I do.

Below is a photo of Jeanette Lynton - the founder and CEO of Close To My Heart!

It was nice to see that Jeanette made it all the way to Minneapolis to share these few days with us!

Below is a photo of my working during the Friday creative session. It was a ton of fun and you will have to check back soon to see a photo of the layout that I am working on in this photo. Friday night I also attended the 5 hour crop that they held. I didn't bring anything extra to work on as I just finished up this layout and talked to all of the fun ladies. As you can also see, I got my hair cut again...love the new shorter hair. Fun, easy, and quick. Gotta Love It!

I am going to be trying to keep up on my blog more consistantly. I hope to be able to post every couple days and I would really like to start some new things such as showing some CTMH products and comparing some supplies that you might not have ever used before. I am also hoping to be able to have a Technique Tuesday or a project a week or something along those lines. The gears in my head have been turning since the first business session and I can't wait to get my CTMH stuff going again. I am going to try very hard to set aside CTMH time and not let my teaching take over my entire life!!

And my last photo for tonight is my precious little JAIDYN! I missed her a lot while I was gone this weekend but it was good to get away. She is so much fun right now and is learning more and more words. Today Jaidyn started saying "nine" (mine) and she now can call me mom instead of "bampa" or whatever else she felt like calling me. I am loving to hear all the words she is learning to say. I am guessing that it won't be long until she will be talking 24 hours a day. :)

Stay tuned for more fun photos from the CTMH Convention...

Photos...finally the photos!

I have finally gotten my act together and gotten the photos of my two duct tape totes that I created. The one below that is red, white, and black (Chippewa School colors of course!!) is a smaller purse size. Really fun size. I took this to the CTMH convention this weekend (that post comes next!!!) and it fit my camera and other little things that I wanted to take with me. Just the right size!

Below is a photo of both of my tote bags. The teal and black one is the first one I made at a class and I ended up adding some velcro at the top to keep it closed. The smaller one sits nicely and is a bit more sturdy. Gotta love the things you can do with duct tape!!!

Just so everyone knows...

I do plan to have a class on making duct tape tote bags. I am thinking that I will leave it open to create a bag of choice. I don't really care what size you want to make and you can even decide when you see my two bags when you get to the class. I was thinking of having the class at Down Memory Lane so it is a public class but then I am also wondering who else is interested because I was also tossing around the idea of just having a class at my house or at one of my schools in Chippewa Falls. Leave a comment here or send me an e-mail if you have interest in a class and that will help me decide where I want to have my class.

Duct Tape Tote Bag

Tonight I attended a class at one of the local scrapbook stores and created my very own duct tape tote bag. It was a ton of fun and fairly easy to put together. I cannot wait to try to create a smaller one or different sizes of them. They could work out for cute little gifts. I made mine teal and black...watch for a photo soon. I am heading to bed for the evening but hope to post a photo sometime tomorrow after school.

Yes I am still here...

I know that many of you are probably wondering how everything is going and if I survived my first few weeks of school. YES YES YES...I certainly did survive and am loving it. As most of you already know, I am no longer working at Down Memory Lane (the scrapbook store) as I got a teaching job in Chippewa Falls. I am teaching at the alternative school there, one of the elementary schools, AND the high school. I was so scared of the high schools but at this point, they are my favorite! At this point, I somewhat dread going to the elementary school each day. I never thought that would ever happen! I think it is just so early in the year and the kindergarteners and 1st graders are not into the swing of school quite yet. Those are the only kiddies that I teach...the REALLY young ones. They are fun but they never close their mouths or sit in their seats. There is constantly things being blurted across the room or kids coming to me asking me to tie their shoes or if they can go to the bathroom when they just had a bathroom break before class. I also get a lot of hands in the air wanting to tell me about their birthdays or their teeth or their shoes. I even get lots of stuff that I don't want to hear and try to get them to stop talking mid sentence because I feel like I shouldn't be hearing the words that are coming out of their little mouths. Oh kids - they can be so cute and funny and SO frustrating at the same time. Gotta love them. My alternative school guys are pretty good. The first day I asked them to come up to the front of the class to come look at something that I wanted to show them and they all just sat there and stared at me. That day I thought I would have my hands full as I had to think long and hard to figure out how to get them to move off their lazy butts and how I could motivate them. After a few class periods they are much better...they will actually get up and walk around if needed. There are 12 boys and 1 girl at the alternative school and the majority of them are really fun to work with. Now for the high school and that darn computer animation class. I haven't really stressed about the class much, yet kindof just slid by at this point. We have been working with a program to create our first project so we haven't even started on the animation program...that starts this week. Let the stress set in! I am still waiting to figure this darn thing out. I worked with it a little bit and then school crept up on us and I started to focus on things that were taking place at that time and set the animation stuff aside. Now the time has come to begin frantically (AGAIN) getting ready for that part of the class. Overall, I have had no problems with my older students, just those little guys. I even had to send one kindergartener to the principal's office already...after his 2nd class of Art. Oh how those little tykes can be a CHALLENGE! So overall school is good.

I have been keeping busy with trying to get things situated for my Close To My Heart convention in Minneapolis in the beginning of October. CAN'T WAIT! Should be a ton of fun. Just trying to get the rooms situated and we will be all set. Oh, I cannot forget, I still have to create my 16 cards for my card swap that I am participating in but that shouldn't be too hard and shouldn't take TOO long.

My mom and I have been super busy lately with trying to get a bunch of "stuff" created. We are going to have a booth set up at a chuch festival this weekend near Mondovi. Should be lots of fun. We have created lots of fun creative things that we hope everyone likes. I am hoping to get more of this stuff in my Etsy shop in the near future so you can all see it and purchase any of it too.

Well, I am off to bed now as the week is only about to begin. This week is going to be a LONG one as I am taking a duct tape tote class tomorrow night (super excited!!) and then lots of other stuff. Noah's first teacher conference, Nate has two meetings, Scrapbook Til Midnight this Friday night at Down Memory Lane, and the festival fun on Sunday. Wow what a fast week this will most likely be. I hope to be back soon to show you some of our fun creations!!!

Doc Martens

Here is the photo for those of you that are looking for the photo of the Doc Martens shoes that I have for sale. They are a womens size 8 and tan in color.

Like I mentioned, they have only been worn a week or two and are like new. I am asking $85.00. If it were my choice I would keep them but they keep bothering my neck when I wear them. There is nothing wrong with the shoes, if I was not a chiropractic patient, I would most likely be able to wear these shoes just fine.

Please let me know if you have any questions...