It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I have been searching for some new Christmas rubber stamps. Finally I found one I like. And it was half price today. My goal this weekend is to get some Christmas tags listed in my Etsy shop. These are my first attempts with my new Santa stamp. Many rubber stamps are too "cutesy" for my style, so I have a hard time finding what I like. My style is more shabby, vintage, rustic.

So glad it's Friday and ready for the long weekend. We are traveling to Illinois this weekend. I am going to a wedding shower for my cousin Daniel's fiance and then to a going away party for my cousin Jeremy who is leaving for Afghanistan soon. It will be a busy weekend with family. Also hoping to make time to go to the Arthur, Illinois "Cheese Festival". Happy long weekend to everyone!

Never Enough...

Oh goodness. Do you ever get stuck in a rut where there is " Never Enough" ___________ (fill in the blank). With school starting I am feeling like I never have enough time for creating my own art. Therefore my blog and Etsy have been neglected. It's weird like that when you are a teacher, You spend so much time preparing and teaching that you don't have enough time or energy to create. That's how I have been feeling this week. So please excuse my whining. Hoping to have some time to enter some blog challenges soon.

Birthday Party!

This weekend my family celebrated my nephews birthday and mine too. He just turned 12 on Saturday. My birthday is a week from today...I will be ummm, well never mind. I live about 4 1/2 hours from most of my family. It is always good to go visit. We had the party at the local Chinese Buffet (my nephews favorite place). That is Brandon with the Buddah statue at the restaurant. It must be good luck because he won his first football game 20-6 later that day. Our cake was a combination of Hello Kitty and Skateboards. What a nice way to spend my last weekend of the summer. Back to school tomorrow.

Frosty Christmas

I start back to school tomorrow, but I am thinking about Christmas today. Tag you're it is trying to get us motivated for the Christmas season with this weeks challenge. I decided to create a tag with more of a winter theme, but using Christmas colors. Enjoy!

Good Bye Summer

Oh goodness, good bye summer. School starts on Monday. I am enjoying my last few days of summer break. My husband is taking the day off work tomorrow, so we can have a long weekend together. We are traveling to Illinois for my nephews birthday. And will celebrate my upcoming birthday too. Since I won't see my family on my actual birthday. (Aug. 24th)

I have been trying to get my classroom in order. The camera above is one of the many old cameras I have in my classroom. I currently teach high school photography. We still use manual 35mm cameras. We develop and print photos in a darkroom. It is a pretty nice set up. But I am wondering how much longer film cameras will be around. hmm, it's quickly becoming a lost art.

Looking forward to my last weekend of summer and hoping for a great new school year.....
CHS, Go Minutemen!

Vintage Glam 1942

I discovered this great photo at a antique/junk shop a couple of years ago. I purchased a box full of photos and even some negatives. I scanned the original photo, dated November 1942, and printed it on vellum to create this collage. The collage is for Mixed Media Monday's "Fashion" challenge. I also used scrapbooking paper that I tore & pasted to create a border. I rubbed the paper doily with ink to keep the piece monochromatic. The tag was inked & stamped, with the word "Glam" added. I hope you enjoy this piece....thanks for stopping by. Comments are always welcomed & loved.

Full Sunshine

It's a beautiful Saturday morning. I decided to post this collage I created. The quote on it says "I am in full sunshine now". Perfect for this lovely day. This will be my last full week of summer break. I am a school teacher and head back to school on August 18th. Kind of bittersweet, I hate to see the summer end, but excited for a new school year to begin.

I am feeling the Etsy/Blogging love this week. Some of my work is featured on Friday Findings at Star-of-the-East blog. Their Friday Findings include all things coffee related. I am so happy to have my Coffee Break Notecards feature. Go check out the rest of their findings, you won't want to miss it.

Treasury

Oh, for the love of Coffee! If you have ever read my blog, you know I am a Coffee Lover. I got an email yesterday saying my coffee tags were selected for a Treasury on etsy. This is a pretty big deal, because it really helps bring people to your etsy shop. To check out this Treasury click here. It will only be up for a couple of days, so don't miss it. Thank you to PeanutandTommy for creating this fun Treasury.

It's Friday and I feel like I have been out of the loop this week. I traveled at the beginning of the week and worked in the Cafe all day yesterday. I haven't spent much time on-line. And I haven't entered any challenges this week :(. Hope to get back into the groove of blogging.

Also you still have a couple of days to check out this weeks Handmade Network newsletter. There is an article about me and my Etsy shop. The Handmade Network is a group of Etsians working together for support and networking. Check out the blog and newsletter.

Silly Tag

CLICK on the Photo to see it up close
Kind of a silly tag. I couldn't decide what to do for this weeks challenge on Tag You're It. I had been wanting to use the tranparency I had made of an old photograph. The text came from the pages that were cut out while making an altered book. When I started reading the text it just became silly and I thought it was fun. I hope no one is offended.

Today is a lazy Sunday. I will be traveling the next couple of days to visit friends in Illinois. I probably won't blog again until Wednesday. Oh I almost forgot. I opened the Sunday paper and the headline was "Obama will Speak at Concord High" That is where I teach. Would be interesting to see him, not sure if I will go. Have a great week & enjoy my silly tag.