We are just days away from 2018 and like many people, I’m thinking about what I would like to change in the new year. Pretty much every year of my adulthood has included resolutions to “be healthier,” “eat better,” “lose X amount of pounds,” etc. The problems with those kinds of goals is that they aren’t SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely, for those of you who didn’t know that was a thing). We set goals without plans and as Tony Horton says, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” That’s good life advice right there! This year I’m going to set realistic goals, like, staying awake until 10 pm or to remember to open the vertical blinds in the kitchen when we leave so that Sansa doesn’t knock the slats down with her tail while barking at something she may or may not see outside and then murder them, leaving bits of white plastic strewn throughout the house.  See? Those are some attainable goals. I’ll have to work on the staying up later one though. I’ll have to plan for how I’m going to spend my time so that I don’t sit on the couch taking Buzzfeed quizzes about how my candy preferences will reveal whether or not 2018 will be a good year for me. Spoiler: It will just be okay. Apparently being partial to KitKat and pink Starbursts will kick my new year right into mediocrity 🤷🏻‍♀️. 

I have picked up a new hobby (big surprise, I know) that I have been filling my time with. Well, to be accurate, I’ve rediscovered my love for an old hobby.  I loved painting when I was in high school but I haven’t done much of it in recent years. During our staff Christmas party at the center we did a paint and *chat* (ahem) which really sparked my love of painting all over again. We sponsored a community adult painting class in November that I participated in but my painting turned out horribly and I thought I had lost my creative ability. Turns out I just needed an easel, versus painting on a flat surface. That change made this second go round a million times better. So here are some of the pictures I’ve painted recently: 

For my oldest nephew. 

For my oldest niece. 

For my friend, Marsha Claus 😉😂🤶🏻. That’s only funny if you know about her side gig during the month of December. I’ll leave it to your imagination 😆

For my favorite 5 year old 😏

For my friend, Kim, who pinned this from me on Pinterest with the intention of painting it herself, only I didn’t know that and took it as a sign that she liked the pic so I painted it for her 😂. 

Just some “Pin”spirational pics. 


These last two are from the staff Christmas party. My bff Marsha took this pic while I was painting. 

*Pinterest has some great inspiration. Most of these paintings were replications of ones I found on there. Full disclosure 😉. 

I will soon have yet another hobby to share because I have the best husband ever, who got me a pottery wheel for Christmas! If you have ever watched someone using one on TV or in a movie and you thought it looked easy, you were wrong, my friend. Philip and I spent several hours watching YouTube videos and trying to center the clay the first time I got it out. There was clay on the walls, on the floor, on the table (top and legs), on my coat that I had moved a couple of feet away, and definitely on us. There is a very specific way to do it and if you don’t, the clay will make fun of you and call you names while it whips itself across the room and splatters all over the wall. I’m totally not kidding about the flying across the room part. You have to keep your left hand angled from 7 to 11 o’clock and pushed firmly onto the bat (that’s pottery talk for plastic plate). The woman in the video that I was listening to and not watching told me to “chop” the clay and to Philip’s amusement, that does not mean to karate chop it. You just hold your hand in a karate chop position on top of the clay and push down a little. If you karate chop it, it’s likely to go flying across the room and splatter against the wall. Are you sensing a theme here? Once (or if) you get it centered you can start to create something, usually a cylinder or bowl to begin with. I made a bowl and Philip made the start of a coffee cup. I made a second bowl directly on the turntable and not on a bat, which meant I had to move it when I was done and let’s just say that one turned out very special looking. I’m going to have to use a kiln to fire the clay at some point. I know of a place where my friend, Chris, goes to and she is going to show me the ropes soon, so more to come on that in the future! 

*this one can’t go in a kiln because it’s not the right kind of clay for that. It will never be waterproof but will work fine for, say, holding pens or more likely, chapstick, because I have a tube in every room of the house. That’s not an exaggeration. 👄👄👄

I’ve made some vinyl crafts this month also, but I couldn’t share them before because most were Christmas presents. This is an example of one I made several of, with different names and dates, obviously:

Today I spent the afternoon working on these cups: 

 

I LOVE coffee cups. We’re going to have quite an assortment before long, once I can make them on the wheel and then adorn them with vinyl. I should have bought more iridescent ones at Target yesterday, now that they’re 70% off, since people only like iridescent coffee mugs at Christmas time, apparently 🤷🏻‍♀️. 

Did you hit up any of the after Christmas sales? It’s the best time to buy wrapping paper for next year (or this year, if you haven’t had Christmas yet with your in-laws and you’re doing it tomorrow..just sayin’). While searching for all the decorations I wanted this year but was too cheap to buy, I found this cool WV emblem for Philip to build from tiny Lego-like pieces. He took this pic using my lightbox, and I gotta say, FoCo, the company that made this, should buy this as their stock photo because it’s much better than the one that’s on the box. 

Another cool gift I got from Philip was Yoga Joes; pink G.I. Joe characters striking yoga poses! 

They are going to sit on our TV stand and inspire me every day. I have resolved to commit more time to yoga in the new year and have several advanced poses that I intend to conquer. One of them is a headstand, like the one the Yoga Joe in the back center is doing. There are steps you can take to become better at balancing and holding it that I need to learn, because knowing is half the battle (see what I did there?)

Now you’re all caught up on my December craft news so it’s time for some Sansa pictures. You’ve been missing them, I know. 

using me as her personal pillow 

I get way too much enjoyment from taking pictures of her when she’s sleeping funny, which happens every day 😆. 

Talk to you guys next year! 🙄🙄🙄 (That’s such a dad joke. Autocorrect tried to change it to “bad” joke and it wasn’t wrong). Happy new year to you all. Remember to set those SMART goals! 😉

My baby is 2 today! 😍 We’ve been patiently waiting for this milestone because people tell us that Labs finally calm down between 2 and 3 years old. Most mutter under their breath that it’s closer to 3, but we are optimistic that 2 will be her year! 😉 Honestly, she’s a really good girl most of time. Don’t say that to her though, unless you’re prepared to give her a treat. That’s the magic phrased used to reel her back in when she’s getting a little too bossy on her leash. Tell her to be a good girl and she’ll be by your side in an instant, tongue hanging out the side of her mouth (dripping slobber down your pants 😩), waiting for a treat. It doesn’t last long though because as soon as she gets one, off she goes again. I’m pretty sure she only likes walking for the snacks 🙄. 

I lugged the Christmas tree up from the basement today. For most of my childhood we went and chopped down a live tree. I was upset when my mom bought an artificial tree when I got older. So when Philip and I first lived on our own I was adamant about having a live tree for our first Christmas in our own place. When I was still finding pine needles around the apartment in July, I knew why my mom caved to the fake side. I’ll just spray some pine essential oil around the room and call it a day. 

Christmas is usually a pretty rough time of year for me, and anyone else who has lost someone they love. There have been years that I didn’t even want to put up a Christmas tree but my husband makes me do it anyway because he knows my Christmas wouldn’t be right without it. He’s pretty good at knowing what I need. He’s pretty awesome overall, but don’t tell him I said that 😉. Anyway, I’m feeling okay so far this Christmas season and I enjoyed decorating our tree with ornaments that have such special meaning. Most are ones that have been given to us by friends and family over the years, or ones we’ve given each other. This is one my mom got us when we first bought our house: 

I even have some that my mom saved that I made in grade school. Tell me this isn’t the best reindeer ornament you’ve ever seen... 

We have a hot pepper that dried up in our old apartment and we thought Pretzel ate it but I found it several months later so I kept it and now it’s an ornament. You know how some people do that Christmas pickle thing? It’s like that only not a pickle and you don’t win anything for finding it 😏. I was trying to find a picture of my mom to put in a remembrance ornament that I bought a couple of years ago but never really wanted to mess with, and it wasn’t an easy task. My mom was known for never taking a normal picture. She would always be talking, or chewing, and looking pissed off 😂. We used to laugh about it and I even made a scrap book page called “The Many Faces of Mom” one time, when I was into that. So anyway, this isn’t the ideal pic because it’s dark but it’s one of the few I have that she was A) facing the camera, B) looking at the camera , and C) smiling, which was pretty tough criteria to meet for her lol. I have a really great pic of me and her but I didn’t want to cut that one up. So here’s to keeping my momma in my heart during this Christmas season and always ❤️. 

The stockings are hung on the fireplace with care....(insert your own rhyme here). Sansa’s says “My First Christmas” and that’s not true but we won’t tell Santa. I bought her some new toys and they were going to be for Christmas but then we figured she doesn’t know that it is or isn’t Christmas so she got most of them already. Besides, new toys keep her busy and away from the tree, hopefully. 

I’ve been crafting necklaces still and spent the entire day last Sunday working to open my Etsy shop. Philip helped me build a light box, I finally used my fancy camera that I bought this time last year to take pics, and I posted them at www.etsy.com/shop/creativekimpire. I have several more to post. I’m kind of at a standstill right now though while I wait on beads to arrive that I ordered from the Wish app. 

This is my light box, built from a cardboard box, white fabric I had on hand, and a piece of cardboard. Because I had to buy the cardboard and bright light bulbs it cost about $3 to make. Here is example of a picture I took using it: 

They all turned out nicely. 

I used my handy dandy vinyl cutting machine that my awesome mother-in-law bought me for Christmas last year to make this sign: 

I didn’t distress it, it came that way. I only added the vinyl. I think it looks pretty 😊. 

Of course, our Christmas decorations wouldn’t be complete without some WV insignia. 

I made the snowman a couple of years ago during my scrap wood crafting phase. 

Philip got a new toy, virtual reality googles, and we’ve been playing with them lately. He bought a pair and then returned them for another. The first pair had me concerned because I could only see double vision in them and so I thought I needed an eye exam since he had no problems. Turns out they just weren’t adjustable and I can see out of the new pair just fine. There’s a sky diving simulation and it’s very real feeling, minus the coldness, and makes me very nauseous. I said before that I would consider sky diving again but I think I’ve had enough now 🤮😝. The roller coaster ones also make me nauseous, and the moving games. So pretty much the only that hasn’t made me want to barf was the Stone Henge visit 😂. It’s almost as much fun to watch someone play with VR googles as it is to play yourself. I had to record Philip while he was playing this game where you move side to side by moving your head to collect rings or something. I thought he was gonna fall out of his chair and it took everything I had to keep from busting out laughing so he wouldn’t know I was watching him. I showed him afterward. He got me back though and recorded me but I look really cool when I’m doing it 😉😉. By the way, I’m thankful for the winking emoji because I can’t wink for nothin’. We used to play a card game in our younger days that involved drinking and winking and that’s not a good combo when you can’t wink sober. Needless to say, I wasn’t very good at it. 

Speaking of being thankful, Thanksgiving was last week and we had two nice dinners, one with each of our families. But I gotta tell ya, if I don’t have Thanksgiving food again until next November, I’ll be ok with it. We had far too many leftovers and eventually you’re just like, “I want pizza.”  Pizza is the opposite of Thanksgiving food, right? 

After two days of company, Sansa was just pooped. She rarely has that sort of interaction with other humans so she immediately took a nap as soon as everyone left on both days. She woke up and caught me taking her picture. She doesn’t look too amused 😂. 

 

We wish a happy holiday season to everyone, no matter what you celebrate!