Character Drawing

Last month I was lucky enough to take a character drawing e-coarse

taught by Tascha Parkinson.

I would HIGHLY recommend that anyone interested in character drawing

join in the fun when next the class is offered. 

I learned so much!!!! 

The fox and bear illustration will be included in my next digi kit

available sometime next week.

Wizard of OZ Masks

I often refer to myself as a gluten for punishment,

always trying to tackle more than what's really necessary.

The more chaos around me the more I seem to be able to accomplish. 

Although I must admit I'm also prone to anxiety attacks when things

aren't exactly going my way or sticking to schedule.

Which is pretty much all the time...

But when life settles down, when there's no foster kiddos

driving me batty and draining my energy

well something really sad happens -

I loose my creative mojo! 

We decided to close our home to new foster placements

before starting IVF and while the break was nice,

it was rather difficult for me to stay focused on my projects

even though I seemingly had all the time in the world!

Now I'm prego potatos (and starting to get sick)

have a new born foster baby in the house,

a rather moody pre-teen, and in just two short weeks

possibly a 4 and 7 year old. 

LOL I'm tired, but once again I feel reenergized creatively...

if only I could find the time and energy!!!

So if I were off on my own adventure 

to meet the Wonderful Wizard of OZ

I'd ask for bounds of energy

and to possible take away my recent super smelling

that has me not wanting to leave my house for anything! 

So whilst I was in a creative slum

we designer chics at Kitschy Digital were each challenged to 

create a diy (print yourself) mask in celebration of Halloween.

At first I was terrified (have I ever mentioned I don't exactly love trying new things?!)

But then I thought of Tim Gunn of Project Runway

and decided I was going to rock this challenge and have my very own 

"Make it work" moment. Now seriously,

this was in no way a competition, and I'm not even a competitive person in the slightest

but thinking each day and each mask through in this way,

as if Fashion Week was just within arms reach made it exciting

and well frankly GOT THE JOB DONE!

I know, I must sound like an oober geek!!!

I'm certainly not the only designer that got inspired though-

the team pulled together and Kitschy Digitals is just chalked full of some amazing

and truly unique mask for kids and adults alike.

CHECK THEM ALL OUT!!!!!

So are you a Wizard of Oz fan?

Excited for the new movie The Great and Powerful Oz

coming next March?

I was a huge fan of Wicked as well,

more so the book than the play...

Here is silly lil me back in 2009

with my Wicked tickets in hand.

You can check out the post,

but long story short I wanted to wear my wedding dress

 just one more time

so my hubby and I pretended to have just gotten married.

It was a blast, I highly recommend it!!

I also once had a small role in our schools musical 

of Wizard of Oz. I wish I could recall just how many people

were part of the production, but it was nearly half the town it seemed!

I think one of these days when I have the right set of kids

we will have to do a family movie night and after we watch the flix,

we will have the family act out the most memorable scenes. 

Although I really should start by readying them the book first. 

I just finished reading Oddfellow's Orphanage by Emily Winfield,

but you might know her as the Black Apple

Danielle Thompson founder and originator of Kitschy Digitals

did such a wonderful job photographing everyone's masks.

I was so tickled with how they turned out and how much fun the kids appear to be having. 

Isn't that the best part, that something as simple as paper and a stick can 

entertain and spark the imagination of us all! 

Wizard of Oz Masks available exclusively 

at Kitschy Digitals!

Tiny Blessing

Life has been pretty exciting for us this past week,

last Monday we welcomed a new foster child into our home.

A tiny little 5lb. 5 day old baby boy

And just a few hours after picking him up 

we found out that I'm PREGNANT!

It's still very early (5 weeks this Thursday)

but I feel so lucky and blessed and of coarse

beyond thrilled that I couldn't possibly keep quite!

Hopefully all will continue to go well, 

and 9 months from now we will finally 

be on our way to starting a family. 

So as you might be able to imagine I'm tired!

Thankfully I can take things easy during the day now,

but by the end of this month it looks like we will

be back to our usual 4 foster kiddos in the home.

The two new kiddos coming are from another foster home,

and I'm so excited to have them transition into our life.

It's so much easier to take in kids you know and have some relationship with,

so I'm not too worried about the extra work and inevitable chaos. 

Speaking of work, I just added a sweet little freebie to my Kitschy Digitals shop.

The Little Stinker digital kit includes 6 1.5" squares featuring some really adorable vintage skunks.

You can easily create an adorable banner, cupcakes picks, 

gift tags, or incorporate in your scrapbook layouts and art journals.

How cute would it be to go all out with this theme for a baby shower!?

I also wanted to share that

in celebration of our exciting news I'm offering my 

Tie A Bow digi kit for $1 through the month of October!

Thanks again for all the love and support you have all been sending our way!

I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family of blog friends

who have been there for us through out these last 4 emotional years.

Embry & O

So last week Jenny and Aaron challenged us to work with a specific theme in mind.

For the last few weeks I've let my emotions dictate my journal entries,

and I was sick and tired of them going all dark and gloomy on me,

So having one subject in mind really helped me to stay focused on how I wanted my 

page to look rather than just feel.

We will find out Monday if any MAGIC happened!!!!

We were told we would most likely not have any embryos left for freezing

which was hard to swallow because that meant that all our hopes and dreams were

wrapped up in this one transfer. But luckily the other two smaller guys

(in the picture below)

survived to the freezing process!

I can't even begin to tell you what a relief that news was,

 but I'm still terribly anxious,

I just want this SO bad that I can't imagine 

finding the courage and positive spirit to keep trying. 

But of coarse I will have to...

We have the best neighbors in the whole wide world,

and earlier this week the gal told me how she dedicated her prays each

morning to my little Henry and Annalea.

I was so touched that she had latched onto the names

my husband and I have always wanted for our future children.

Henry came to us maybe two years ago,

but Annalea has been our chosen girl name for almost 9 years.

These two names may seem like just dreams,

but to me they are little souls just waiting to come into our lives. 

They are real to me, and I ache that they can't be with us

and that their coming into this world has been so difficult.

I hope we will not have to wait long,

Don't forget to check out Jenny and Aaron's weekly journaling class.

I've learned so much, and I've certainly gained a new passion

 that without their encouragement and amazing how-to's  

I may have never pursued on my own!

Live the Questions

I came across a quote today by Rainer Maria Rilke

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart 

and try to love the questions themselves, 

like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue.

 Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you 

because you would not be able to live them. 

And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. 

Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, 

live along some distant day into the answer.” 

Arn't they such comforting words?!

Tomorrow is the BIG day

and my emotions are EVERYWHERE.

I need to allow myself to experience all my emotions

but not get stuck on any one conclusion.

I believe there has to a happy ending for us

I just don't know when or how it will all work out. 

I'm not looking forward to the next 3 days stuck in bed

(yes my husband is insisting I stay put for 3 whole days)

but I am excited about the online drawing workshop

I signed up for that starts this Saturday, September 15th

I just can't wait to see what I can take away from Tascha.

Maybe I'll see some of you there? :) 

Thanks again for all your continual love, support, and prayers.