Don't do anything I wouldn't do! Or don't do anything I would!

The healthier side of the Hardy family is finally making its appearance into our everyday life. Sarah still has the horrid cough, but I'm hoping it'll be gone soon. Otherwise, she's a crazy monkey, running around the house and making us laugh all the time. Just this morning she tried to fit into her baby chair. When she couldn't get into it I told her she was growing (which she is usually very proud of). But this time she pouted, hands on hips and yelled, "THAT'S IT! I changed my mind. I want to be three forever!!" Gotta love her ;)

Then in a quiet moment, she snuggled up next to me and said, "Mommy, when you were gone last weekend, I found one of your shirts and I hugged it because I missed you very much." I nearly melted into tears.

And her favorite exclamation right now is: "Aye Chi-MA-MA!" Totally cracks me up. That and when she calls me "young lady!" :D

The layout above was done for the latest catalyst at Creative Therapy. I was totally honored to be the Guest Artist this week!! My catalyst was: What’s something you do every day just for yourself? (If nothing comes to mind, create the art around what the one thing would be and why you’re not doing it.)

And here's what I had to say about it::
This catalyst spoke to me immediately. Every night, before bed, I set aside some time to read a good book. It’s my way of escaping the day and clearing my head so I can fall asleep peacefully. When I thought about how to represent that feeling artistically, I knew I had to incorporate actual book pages into the design with some splashes of my favorite colors. Overall, I think it really captures how it feels for me to escape into a good book!
Those flowers were so much fun to make!! I know I'll be making a bunch more in the future. Here are the steps I used to create them::
In order to connect the theme of the layout with my embellishments, I created my own flowers out of old pages from a Reader’s Digest. First, I laid three torn book pages on the large piece of scrap paper (to protect the floor). Next, I sprayed each page with turquoise and mimosa Glimmer Mist in smooth, sweeping layers and allowed them to dry. Then I cut two 4×4 squares and one 5×5 square from the misted book pages. I took a pencil and drew a spiral starting at the edges of each square, swirling in toward the middle (the spiral does not need to be exactly perfect). Next, I cut out the spiral and discarded the remaining paper. Finally, I started rolling the paper up, starting at the outer end. Don’t roll too tightly or your flower will appear closed. Keep rolling all the way up to the inside and you’ll find that you can use the last part of the spiral as a base for the flower. Play around with the layers, loosening them up where needed. You can use a Glue Dot at the base of the flower to hold it all together.


The layout turned out to be my favorite one this year. And I have Creative Therapy to thank for that. The artists on that site truly inspired me to step outside me box and do something a little more artsy than my usual. I really enjoyed and I can see myself delving into this style more often!!

I'm heading out with the chicas for a weekend getaway and I can. not. wait. I need it more than words can say. Of course, I'll be bringing the awesome Label Tulip kit with me...you're going to love it if you love COLOR...and you know I do ;)

Quote of the Day: Mermaids