Sadness & New Challenges

Here we are.

Time has come to put away our Christmas Tree.

In Italy, Christmas holidays end on January 6 when we celebrate the "Epiphany", the day the Three Kings visited little Jesus and brought Him their gifts.

We usually hang stockings near chimneys or in the kitchen and on January 6 children find them full of sweets and little gift, delivered by the "Befana", an old woman with worn clothes and shoes who arrives riding a broom.

Our daughter being still a little girl, we do celebrate each and every magical occasion we have in this time of the year. When I was a little girl, I did not believe in Santa bringing gifts but I did believe in this old lady riding a broom and I still remember when, at the age of 8, my parents confirmed my suspects that this old lady did not exist.

As we usually prepare our Christmas Tree a bit earlier than the traditional day, we also put it away a bit later than foreseen, the Sunday after January 6. So today is The Day.

I'm sad because I love the atmosphere, the decorations, the lights, all the things which happen in this time of the year, and the corner of the Christmas Tree will be sad and dark tomorrow morning. But Christmas is over, everywhere around us is no more decorated, sales in shops have begun, the school is reopening tomorrow so it's the right moment to put things away.

For our family, Christmas time is really a rich period, with lots of events and - in particular - lots of eating and celebrating.

We start on Christmas Eve when we eat fish at my mom's. Then, we have our Christmas lunch with my in-laws. Then again, December 26 being a holiday, we have lunch at my mom's. Of course, we celebrate the arrival of the New Year on December 31 and we have lunch at my mom's on January 1. Of course, we try to spend time together every Sunday even if it's not an official holiday. We finish with January 6 but these last years we tend not to celebrate with any kind of lunch...

Because... in between December 24 and January 6 we have three important birthdays: our daughter, one of my brothers-in-law and my mother.

Do you understand why I say we spend most of our time eating and celebrating (and buying presents and opening them)?

Sometimes I think it's a real tour-de-force...

To blow away the sadness of these last couple of days, my daughter and I spent some time together painting and creating, so I had the chance to make some cards for the shop and for some challenges.

Today, I show you a card made using a very sweet digi from Bee Crafty http://www.artisangroup.org.uk/page5.htm

Here's the card:

I decided to enter it in two Challenges:

Sweet Sketch Wednesday Challenge # 83, which gave us a Sketch to follow: http://sweetsketchwednesday.blogspot.com/2011/01/sweet-sketch-wednesday-83.html

and

Aud Sentiments Challenge # 19 which says: Only Have Two Words:
http://audsentimentschallengeblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/challenge-19-and-winner-of-18.html

It's the first time I enter this last Challenge!

Well, that's all for today, better go and start putting Christmas things away...

Anything goes...

As I promised yesterday, here I am to show you the card I made yesterday for my mom's birthday:

I used a very cute digi from Whimsie Doodles which I painted with watercolor pencils. And although Christmas is over, I had to put some glitter on the hearts... I LOVE GLITTER!!!

My mom loves lilac so I chose this color scheme especially for her. It's a sweet little card which I'll probably repeat for my shop.

This morning I had some time to have a look to my favourite challenges and I noticed that I could enter this card in two of them, they both have an "Anything Goes" theme.

The first is Digital Tuesday Challenge # 91  http://digitaltuesdaychallenge.blogspot.com/2010/12/challenge-91-anything-goes.html

The second is Bugaboo Catch the Bug Challenge http://catchthebugblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/time-for-our-monthly-anything-goes.html

I'm sorry this time I cannot enter this challenge with a Bugaboo Stamp but I don't think I have time to make another card before the challenge closes.

Yes, I know that one of my goals this year is to make a card a day, but school are still closed, holidays are not finished and I still have a quite hectic schedule.

I'll write a post about our Christmas holidays in the next few days and maybe you'll understand why I'm so busy...

P.S.: while reading what I've written before posting, I've noticed that sometimes I write some words in the English way (favourite) and some otheers in the American way (color). Please, forgive my unconsciuos confusion.

Happy 2011!

Welcome 2011!!

Even if holidays in Italy are not yet over and we still have our Christmas tree on, today I started thinking about the "after".

I adore the months from September to December but I do hate January, February and even March. Days are still short, cold and there's no more Christmas presents or decorations to think about. So, I generally make plans and think about clearing out my craft room. This year I need to go further and have a clear out of the entire house.

While reading my favourite blogs this morning, I happened to read an insteresting post with some New Year resolutions which sound familiar to me.

The blog is the lovely Bloggabella (http://stampingbella.com/blog/?p=6459) and I borrow some resolutions from her post because her English is for sure perfect while mine is not.

live simply. “collect less”.. use what i have MORE.. and enjoy the simple things.  PURGE and CLEAN the stuff I don’t need and reorganize

be more ORGANIZED.  I think this will be my biggest hurdle LOL

be healthy. Kick some bad habits and adopt some good ones.  I would usually say LOSE WEIGHT LOSE WEIGHT LOSE WEIGHT.  I am going to alter my focus and focus on HEALTH in general.. the rest should come by naturally (we can only hope!) LOL

While I really need to collect less, purge and clean my craft room and reorganize (and stay organized) I'm not too obsessed by weight but yes, every now and then I think about losing some kilos. Actually, I already started being more healthy back in October when I finally decided to have a go and start swimming again. And trust me, I feel great!

Every January, once Christmas decorations, gift wraps, glitter and trimmings have gone I start to feel the need to throw away old things and make space. Generally, I think about making space for something new but this year I need to make space for nothing, just to enjoy the space. Am I becoming a minimalist as my sister is?

I really feel a bit overwhelmed by the stuff accumulated in our home and I hope I'll be able to let old things go without becoming too emotional...

Anyway, today I've made a card for my mom's birthday but I haven't the picture yet so I'll post it in the next few days. It's been a while since I last sit down in my craft room to make a card and I really enjoyed it so I may add a couple of resolutions to my list:

make a card every day: be creative, take part in the wonderful challenges around the web and hopefully win at least one!

paint at least once a week: I used to paint wood pieces for my ebay shop but when I closed it painting was no more a priority. Recently, I've taken my brushes out of their storage to paint some little plaques and I've found out that I miss that!

That's all for the new year resolutions!

Again, my best wishes for a wonderful 2011!

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I wish all my friends, fellow crafters, readers, everybody a very happy new year!

I hope all your dreams may come true.

I want also to say a special thanks to our military troops in Afghanistan and everywhere in the world. One of my loveliest Ebay Customers is a young woman working amongst our troops in Afghanistan, belonging to the regiment where today a young man has been killed by those he was there to help.

I hope you can all be back safe and join your families again.

But what I really hope is that PEACE will finally reign everywhere.

Sweet Sketch Wednesday # 80

Here I am again, with a new card to post for a challenge.

Actually the original idea was to make a Christmas card for my husband, who is still waiting for his birthday card!

I had this lovely digi from Bee Crafty already printed and thought it was perfect for his Christmas card. Once it was colored, I started making the card following the Sweet Sketch Wednesday sketch (http://www.sweetsketchwednesday.blogspot.com/), just to have a trace and possibly post it for the challenge.

It has turned out more a Valentine card with unusual colors than a Christmas card so I'll probably keep it for Valentine's Day or sell it on my Etsy shop. I really love it: I love the sweet digi, the colors, the sketch, everything! 

Well, here's the sketch:

And here's my card:

I really love Sweet Sketch challenges: even if I managed to take part in only one of them, I was thrilled with all the sweet comments I received and looked forward to having time to make another card to post there!

Only three days to Christmas but, considering that in my family we love to celebrate on Christmas Eve, the celebration is starting in two days and I've still some gifts to wrap!

Better go, I still have a Christmas card to make...

Coffee Anyone?

I know, I know... It's been a week since my last post. I actually thought it was just a few days but this morning I realize that it's Thursday again.

It's been a busy week: I've got some orders for painted plaques so I've had to set aside my papers and digis and take out my acrylics and wood pieces. I'm happy to be back to painting and to have those nice chats with Customers who want customized pieces and ask for advice for gifts and color matches.

Unfortunately, I don't have cards to show, I haven't had time to take part in some of the wonderful challenges that I are there waiting for cards and my Etsy shop appears a bit neglected.

Christmas is fast approaching and family chores require more attention and dedication than in other moments of the year.

I have no new cards topost but I want to show a picture of a little hanger I've just painted for a lovely Customer. I had the coffeepot already painted on sale on ebay and she asked for a matching teapot and here's what I did:

I love them! I'm thinking to have them painted for my kitchen too!

I hope to be back sooner and with new cards and new challenge posts!

Bugaboo Anything Goes Challenge

Although today it's not so cold as in these last days, I was still in the mood of snowmen and winter days.

Despite the sun, I decided to take part in the Bugaboo challenge this week with one of their adorable snowman images turned into a very big tag.

The challenge says "Anything goes" and this is my submission:

I LOVE their digis - as you probably should have already understood - and this one was free a couple of weeks ago! The whole set is adorable and I wanted to buy one but I'm still deciding which one!

Well, better link the post to the Catch the Bug Challenge:

here's the link if you want to take a look!

http://catchthebugblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/bugaboo-anything-goes-challenge.html

Baby, it's cold outside...

Yes... it's defintely cold.

Foggy, wet and cold. At least Christmas lights cheer me up, there are many things to be done before Christmas and gifts to be packed, so I'm quite busy and I don't have time to stop and freeze!

This title is inspired by one of the two challenges I'm submitting a card to today:

Digital Tuesday Challenge # 88 - Baby, It's cold outside

http://digitaltuesdaychallenge.blogspot.com/2010/12/challenge-88-baby-its-cold-outside-plus.html

and

Mojo Monday Contest # 168 with sketch

http://mojomonday.blogspot.com/2010/12/mojo-monday-168-contest.html

Fist of all, here's my card:

This lovely digi is from Whimsie Doodles: I adore these snowmen, it's been love at first sight. They are so sweet under the snow with their lunch, despite the fact that... Baby, it's cold outside!

I simply used a light green card and the digi was matted with a darker shade of green. A dotted pink ribbon and green pearls add the final touches.

If the theme was given by the Digital Tuesday Challenge, the sketch was fron the Mojo Monday challenge:

Well, better come back to the worktable and finish some other projects!

Have a nice day!

I Love Dots!

I really love dots!

I always add dots to dresses or backgrounds when I paint and create something. A real girly girl dress is pink with white dots, an elegant bride's dress is washed white with white dots, a boy's tie is blue with white dots...

Last weekend we spent a day at the Aquarium in Genoa and I managed to take some pictures of fish, penguins, turtles and seals. They are not great pictures but this one is very beautiful and... dotty!

This jellyfish is incredible! There were so many in that basin, with their wonderful dots, they seemed like flying in the water, gentle and soft.

My daughter loved them too but the fact that they hurt if you touch them did not convince her of their absolute beauty.

So, something different for today's post.

Back to cards, yesterday I painted a new stamp with two adorable snowmen and I hope to be able to mount it on a card and post its picture tomorrow. I'm so happy with the result, I love it!

Have a nice day!

Let the Shopping Begin!

I LOVE shopping!

It's absolutely one of my favourite activities!!

And in this period there are so many reasons to go shopping: gifts, family reunions, decorations, parties...

This week I did not manage to work too much on challenge projects as I was quite busy with family chores. Yesterday, we decorated the Christmas tree and spent some time in the Christmas market my daughter's school organises to raise some extra money to pay for activities and books.

Now, with the tree on we are really in the Christmas mood!

The only card I've managed to prepare for a challenge this week is for the Bugaboo Catch the Bug Challenge which has a shopping theme + something black.

This is my card:

Unfortunately, the day is dark, even if it's only 9:00 am there's little light. I went outside to take the picture but light was still not enough.

I imagine this little boy so proud of his Christmas shopping. Maybe a gift for his mom or dad? Maybe a gift for himself!

I bought this digi from Bugaboo because his face reminds me the face of my 20-month nephew and I simply couldn't resist. I already colored the same image in light greens and yellows but I made a more elegant (and black one) to follow this challenge rules.

I mounted it on a black card with patterned paper from DCWV embellished with matching punched stars. The digi is colored with watercolor pencils and the gift is covered with crystal glitter.

Happy Christmas shopping!