Here are the latest and greatest creations...it was a productive day :)

These are all for sale in my Etsy store....and I just opened a Zibbet account to try and sell there as well.  I am trying to use the talents that God gave me to fund the Missions that I am feeling called to go on.  We shall see if it is meant to be.

Latest and Greatest

So I have been pretty creative lately, this past weekend at the Mega Meet only fueled me on more! I had such an amazing time hanging out with the girls, helping out in the classrooms, seeing (and touching) all of the new products out there...oh yeah, and MEETING TIM HOLTZ!

I was pretty bummed out when I found out I didn't get into any of his classes because I was waiting to see if I had been accepted as a volunteer for the show. Then I found out I would be a floater...which meant I wasn't assigned to any particular room, just going where needed. Well, on the first day, I was LUCKY enough to get to to into HIS class and help out for the first hour....nothing else mattered!

I am happy to say that he is a truly great guy...down to earth, EXTREMELY talented (like I didn't know that already), and FUNNY! It really was awesome. Anyway, here is what I have been playing around with lately:

Help for Haiti

Hello out there to everyone in Blog-Land! I am very excited to be writing this to share my newest goal :) As you can probably tell from the title of the post, I have decided to listen to the call and go to Haiti. Maybe I should start at the beginning. Last year, as many of you know, I took the BIGGEST leap of faith I have ever taken and committed to a mission trip to Zambia, Africa.
Now this was no easy feat, as my family and I are by no means wealthy....we are among the many that live paycheck to paycheck. After hearing about the work that our church, DAYBREAK, was doing there over the past few years, I couldn't get it out of my mind! In fact, it took a full year to finally take the leap and decide to go! The deal was, if I could RAISE the money to do it, I could go. So, being that here in Michigan we have been in the middle of the downturn in the economy, this was not going to be easy. Still, the impression left on my heart was great. I began what was to be four months of intense fund-raising, which included two Craft Days (by far the most fun), a Bake Goods Sale, a sub sale, and door to door pop can drive (definitely the most humbling). After all of these efforts and some generous donations from friends and family, I was still almost $200 short with about two weeks to go! I had no choice but to believe that it was in His hands and wait for him to make it happen! Make it happen He did, and I spent 10 Life-Changing days among the most awe-inspiring people I have ever met in my life! I thought that I was going to change the world, but I think in the end the world changed me! My heart has always been soft for people that need help, and it has only grown more so. Please follow this link to view some pics from the trip.
Fast-forward to today and what I hope to accomplish in the next few weeks and months. What I plan to do is use the talent that He has given me and make an altered item to auction off to fund this next mission trip. Here is a link to our Church's website that goes into detail of what we plan to do while in Haiti.
http://www.daybreak.tv/ (click on Haiti Relief or Experiencing Haiti)
LET THE BIDDING BEGIN! At the end of the bidding, The winning bidder will be directed to my church to send the payment there (bonus...this will make it tax deductable!) and I will ship out your lovely picture :) Thanks so much for taking the time to listen to my story, and I'll see you all soon :)

Portraits

So here are the finished portraits that I will use to make the commissioned paintings with....LOVE LOVE LOVE the way that they turned out! I have also listed them on Etsy...not these exact ones, but these were perfect for an example!

Wow....I am soooo not good at posting on here....I think that FACEBOOK is the reason :) Anyway, here are some of my current projects that I am working on.
*I decided to go in on a Craft Booth from now until the end of the year with a friend of mine. I am making Paper-Flower wreaths that I saw on the Fancy Pants blog :) They are really turning out cute!
*I took an online painting course from SuziBlu (That girl is FuNkY! I LOVE IT!) and just ADORE the results!
*Because of said class, I was asked if I can paint boys. I had never tried, so I decided to try some sketches of my boss' sons and LOVED the results. So now she has commissioned me to do two paintings before Christmas :) :) :)
*From the same painting, I am working on another piece for a friend!
*From the sketches, I am working on a few other surprises for a very close personal friend....MUM'S THE WORD on these :)
THE CREATIVITY IS POURING OUT!!! Maybe it will continue into the new year and help me reach my creative goals...same as last year...1. Make a design team (Look out Memory Works....I am gonna try) 2. Attend a Creative Conference and 3. Maybe get a new Digital SLR Camera. I have to make enough CREATIVE MONEY to do these, so HERE I GO! And with that, I will leave you with some Eye Candy :)

So I have decided that the only way to get out of the creative rut I seem to be in lately is to create! I have made a commitment to make or do at least one creative thing each day, so here is what I did yesterday:


Not sure that Purple was the right choice, but it is done, and now everything else will be easier than taking that first step....I HATE FEELING CREATIVELY BLOCKED!!! What do you do to overcome it? I'll keep up with doing one thing each day in hopes that I get the creative mojo back :)

My Africa

These are some of my images of Africa. The pictures tell the story so much better than I can! I hope that you enjoy!