Memories Artwork Designs

It's about time to blog again...

Hi People!

Ever since I closed up my side business, I've blogged even less, which doesn't really make any sense, since it was supposed to give me some more time. ... Yeah, right. The joke was on me. LOL 

This past year just FLEW by! I'm like HELLOOOO?! Now it's 2013! GEEZ! 2012 was a mixed year starting off with my hubby having an operation and one week later it was my turn for my schoulder. It took a good six months before I could do any TaeBo and I thought "YAY", but then I kept getting sick with either flu or stomach problems, etc. All of a sudden my hip starts hurting for no apparent reason. If it's not one thing it's another, right?! Could I get a break here? C'mon! Then I started having stomach problems here and there, then my hands would shake, I got headaches, felt dizzy and out of breath a lot, out of energy, my heart began to race and over the Christmas holidays I lost 3 kilos, which didn't make any sense, because I ate like a horse and did absolutely NOTHING. Someone said maybe it's my thyroid and a light went on. I had hyperthyroidism years ago, but I thought it was gone. The general blood tests never seem to reveal the problem, only when they specifically test all of the hormones, etc. that have to do with the thyroid. I looked at the results and nearly all of the values were off... and I mean scary off! So, I got some medicine to tied me over until I can see the specialist in about a week. Glad I finally figured out what the heck was going on with me. Hopefully I can get the right dosage and turn into a calm person instead of a nervous wreck. Shaky hands and an often resting pulse of 110 bpm will do that to you. 

The good things that will come to pass this year: We will be moving into a brand spanking new house in the summer! It's one part of a duplex house, but it's roomy nonetheless. I'm SO EXCITED! A new place, a "home" to call our own, new rooms for the kids (at 9 and 11 they are still in baby rooms... well, some of the furniture and definitely the walls are baby). We get to get rid of SO MUCH CRAP! Good GOD that stuff builds up over time. We did get rid of quite a few books by selling them online. But there is so much other stuff. I need to purge clothing, scrapbooking supplies and lots of other unnecessary JUNKO. ;-)

At first I was totally keen on having one of those Swedisch country houses built. A country style home, but where we will be moving it would stick out like a sore thumb unfortunately. It's just a totally different style of house, even though I still love them. But, the more and more we looked at houses on the prefabricated lot, I was looking at more and more modern type houses with lots of windows and sleek, simple. No lattice windows and the less wood we have in the house the better. There is SO MUCH WOOD in our apartment...the furniture, the walls are covered in wood, which makes everything look smaller and darker. It was nice for the last 10 years, but now it's time for a change.

What's awesome is that I will finally get my walk-in closet! Awesome!!! I'm already planning how to set it up, which won't be easy since it's in the attic....where our bathroom and bedroom will also be. But IKEA always has great ideas for something like that. For the last 10 years I've had my clothes on a rolling clothing stand and one shelf. It's not been very satisfying to say the least. ;-) Now we have SPACE!!!! AND... I will get my own scraproom with straight walls just for me! Dream come true! Can't wait to design and decorate it. So much fun! I cannot wait. I'm constantly looking at the IKEA catalog and my mind is racing with fun ideas. And ladies and gentlemen "white" is the key word here. YEAH! Hopefully by the end of February they can begin with the basement (if it's not to frosty out there). Yippee!

MY GOALS FOR 2013

1. Well, I plan to become healthy enough to return to my favorite sport TAEBO! I may get into Zumba as well. I tried it a few times and it's a lot of fun. :-) So, doctors, make sure you help me out here, ok??

2. I plan to blog a bit more... no, really I do! ;-)

3. Make our new home beautiful! I'm planning on wallpapering and painting, plus laminate flooring with a guy down the street that does renovations and things like that. So, I get to have a hands-on job, which I'm actually looking forward to. :D

4. More time for the kids - isn't that always the problem?? There is always so much to do, to plan, to organize that the children are shorted out of quality time, which they so desperately need. Especially our son who has ADHD. Often our daughter is short-changed, because we spend more time with our son, not fun time, just organising and trying to keep him on track. Kudos to our daughter who is so independent that she is able to take care of her own schoolwork etc. Good girl. I'm so proud of her! But our son has also made MAJOR improvements with his schoolwork and that is due to his wonderful new school. I'm so happy that we were able to get him in there.

5. LIVE more... there seems to be no time to do fun things. We're alway racing to do this and that and by the end of the year we realize... what fun things have we done? It's really sad, but one of my goals is to change that. I believe the new house will help out. I never wanted to invite anyone to the apartment, because I can't stand the way it looks anymore and there are just all kinds of "crap" everywhere, the old rug is dissolving, the wood is crowding me. If you're proud of your home, then you feel more hospitable. At least that is what I think. ;-) I'm sure we'll have more company over in the future. 

6. Stop sweating the small stuff - I have come to realize that there are just some people you can't get along with, no matter how hard you try to be nice you always get slapped one way or another. These are people you are forced to deal with, so you have to cope. I've decided I'm not going to worry about it or get upset about it. I'm going to slap back and feel good about it. Not really the neighborly way, but I'm tired of being the "nice girl". I'm patient to a certain point and will let a lot of unneccesary and impolite comments and sarcasms pass by, steaming about them inside, but biting my tongue. Why should I let inconsiderate, bitchy and downright mean people get me so upset? Well, I'm done doing that. I will not initiate or instigate anything, but I won't take bullshit anymore. That is over now. The scorpion in me will be coming out, so watch it. No more nice girl. I can play that game too. Don't worry, you treat me nice, I'll treat you nice. That's the way it's supposed to work, right? ;-)

7. Organise myself. Good Lord I'm so bad. My attic is closely resembling a messy's house with papers, books, scrapbooking supplies everywhere! It's driving me insane, but my ADD is kind of hindering me, because I get so overwhelmed when stuff starts to build up. (No, I'm not using ADD as an excuse...it's just a fact.) I can't seem to get myself to start, because I just don't know where. Moving into the new house will help me as we will be able to junk a lot of "stuff" in the process and start new. We will not have little knick knacks standing around everywhere driving me nuts every time I pass by them. What for? Are they useful? Are they appealing? Not so much. It's a collection of decorative items I've gotten as gifts over the years and I feel bad throwing them out. But, sorry, I'm going to have to if I want to be organised. "Stuff" needs to GO! Note please: Handmade cards, scrapbooks, etc. will be kept FOREVER!

8. SCRAPBOOK more. Since I closed down my scrap for hire business, I just hadn't had much mojo for scrapbooking. Only the necessary cards or gifts for friends and family, nothing really for "us". To scrapbook you need fun memories...so that comes from the goal of "living" and I plan to take many photos along the way. Especially about the house! Yay!

9. LOVE - spend more time with my sweetheart, because we as parents seem to never have time for each other! Now that the kids are at an age where they are ok to stay home without a babysitter, we can finally do something fun together, alone, no kiddies. :-) Don't get me wrong, I love my kids to death. But, sometimes I can only take so many "Mommmmmy"'s per day. LOL We need time for us! And I will visit my parents as often as I can. I love them so much and want to cherish each moment with them. Life is too short. 

10. CHILL - And... of course, I need more time for ME! The first step is getting back on track healthwise so I can do some fitness. Then scrap more... (time for me) and just go out with friends (rareity). It's so important to make sure you're happy, or else it's hard to make anyone else happy, right?! Right!

So...these are the thoughts that are going through my mind, besides the fact that I need to throw in the next load of wash and start cooking the Sauerbraten! LOL In between, I might organize just one little part of the attic. Computer desk or scrapdesk. ;-)

So, until hopefully soon. I'll be talking about the house plans a lot in the future obviously and will blog in detail once we move in with lots of photos of the construction and then decoration inside. Cannot WAIT!.

I hope everyone enjoys their Sunday! Chillax people. <3

Jax

 

Christmas past

These are the Xmas cards I made this year....which is over in less than twenty minutes!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

It has been a long while I know. My mojo has been in a hole somewhere and I haven't been able to get it out. I've been having pains here and there, my shoulder, my hip, etc. I so cannot wait for winter vacation. I'm truly tired. Working, household, kids & school, planning our house....well, it's starting to do things to my body all of this stress. Not being able to do sports, namely TaeBo is stressing me out even more. I've become a real homebody, but not out of choice, believe you me.

Hopefully, I can get up enough mojo for some Christmas cards or I will feel extremely bad about not sending any this year! Yikes!

Hope to be able to blog more frequently next year. Much of it will probably be about moving and the house. So exciting!

Until then....happy winter!

 

Cutting it short... or loose, if you will

Hey Everyone,

A few weeks ago I announced that I was ending my business as of the end of this year. Well, I've decided to cut it short and end it effective immediately. No hard feelings, it's just something I really need to put behind me to just move on and "live". When I wrote that blog post awhile back I felt a large weight come off me, so my gut feeling must be right,..right?

I will still keep this hobby up, but will no longer be practising it as a side-business. That means I will update my blog now and then, will facebook, pinterest and instragram the heck out of everything. LOL - That keeps me busy enough as it is. :)

Stay tuned for anything that interests you on my blog....my now private blog. I'm keeping the name though! Just like the ring of it! :D

See you around in the scrapbooking world!

Should you have any questions, feel free to shoot me... an email that is. ;-)

Cya soon!

Jackie

 

 

 

 

Happenings in July/August ;-)

Hey there, thought I'd blog since I realized yet again....that it's been about a MONTH. sowwy

My dad's 75th birthday was on 25 July 2012. Wow! He has been truly blessed with a ton of guardian angels, which we are all very thankful for. I made him this card and he will be getting a nice album (when it's finished) ... I'll post photos later. ;-)

 

What's been going on... well, on 2 August we celebrated Jenna's 9th birthday. Time flies as they say. Incredible how she's grown and how independent she's become. She's just getting prettier by the day....boys, watch out! She's going to be a heartbreaker for sure! :D My little cutie.

Since her one grandma wanted to get her a bike and we wanted her to be able to pick it out, I made a pop-up card with a bike (cut with cricut expression) as a symbol of this plan. ;-)

She loved it! 

We celebrated at the pool, which was a fantastic idea since it was pretty much empty except for us. People were unsure of the weather, plus it's summer vacation (people are away) and the kids had a super time.

They either took over the entire sand box (had parents asking for "permission" to get a bucket of water for their toddlers - LOL) or they were jumping around in the pool. As a little gift and thank you for coming, I made these cool wallets out of iced tea cartons that I got directions from at this site: http://spoonful.com/crafts/carton-wallet

Well, the kids thought those were just so awesome. Made me feel awesome too. ;-)

 

In August also, we found out that we got a place for Jenna at another daycare (where some of her friends and classmates are) after we had actually received notice that they could not provide a place. We had been ok with that, since the place she was at was great as well, offering so many things to do and lots of sports. We decided to leave it up to her, so she wanted to go to the new daycare, which is only for another year anyway. We were all happy on the one side, but it was sad as well since she has been there from the beginning of her Kindergarten days. So, I decided I needed to give them something to remember both Jenna and Danny by and made this little mini tag book, which I think they liked.

 Then it was my best friend Christine's birthday on 8 August who lives so far far away from me... :-( So, I always make her a nice card to show her how much I miss her...

 This card was made entirely with the heat embossing technique...using SEI Mimosa and Hero Arts stamps, plus Zing embossing powders. I love these colors! And she enjoyed it too.

Currently I'm working on a customer order for a few pages of a Marriage Travel Book. Neat idea actually. I may show a few images if I get permission from my customer. ;-)

Sunday it was hot... about 103°F or 39°C HOT. So, we decided to go to the pool...so did about a gazillion other people. At any rate, we had an awesome spot that had shade all day long. Danny is so creative... he started gathering leaves and little twigs, etc. and made lunch... on his shoe. ;-)

 He's just cool like that. ;-) Love him so much!!

In almost a week, we will be vacationing in Turkey!!! I cannot wait to be by the ocean and not have to worry about silly things, such as housework and accounting stuff. Yeahhhh!

Then school begins again.... oh boy. Danny is going to a new school, 5th grade, and will have to take the bus. New school, new kids, fresh start. I hope he likes it. Jenna will be entering 4th grade, same teacher, so nothing new there. 

And... we... are in the process of planning our house. Yes, I said house. We are building a house, our own, us... YES! YEAHHHH! Should be finished around May/June 2013 and we are so very excited. It's a duplex house, but can't be picky in these parts. I will finally have a scrap studio with STRAIGHT walls! Finally! And I won't have to sweat in the attic anymore...hehe. 

Otherwise, not much else is going on at the moment...thankfully.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and spending time with their families!

xoxo

Jackie

 

 

 

 

 

Memories Artwork Designs closing up shop as of 2013

Actually, almost past the "considering" since the wholesaler I had was taken over and the new company now charges sales tax, which I am not able to deduct being in the certain tax bracket I'm in. So....I've come to the conclusion that I will be earning even less (meaning not profitable) than I was in the past. It's not worth the headache in the least. As much as I really LOVE designing and all, but if nothing remains (and seriously, my time is darn precious to me!), then what is the point.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up on the hobby, but as of the end of 2012 I will no longer be taking custom orders for customers. Nor will I hold classes. What I will do is scrap, for myself and my family memories and of course ALWAYS make my own cards. I'm so used to that by now, that I refuse to buy and manufactured cards. 

It's a difficult thing for me to do since I wanted it to become a success to where I could earn at least a little bit of profit, but as business owners well know....there are other costs such as tax consulting or accounting that suck what little you may have made right out from under you. Sad, but true. Business taxes should be done by an approved tax consultant, so there you go.

Also, I would just stress myself with deadlines or take on custom work at the very last minute (which is silly) and make deals that were definitely to my disadvantage (because sometimes I just can't say no). With working 75% in my day job, two kids, a hubby and a household to organize, it's just something that unnecessarily stresses me out. That is something that I was not aiming for. For some custom designers (especially in Germany...since many people do not appreciate the craft or your time, etc.) it's just not worth the effort...as sad as it sounds. 

Any design team I can be on is just fine for me. It's something I can handle. So, I apologize if I'm disappointing anyone out there that was counting on me, but I truly hope you understand my situation and my reasoning. I'm still there until Christmas time, so no worries. 

Oh, and I will try to blog more and make some free tutorials here and there, plus stay on top of the trends of the business, so we'll keep in contact!

xoxo

Jackie

 

 

Finally some scrapbooking JUST for me!

For the last few weeks I've been working on a monster custom album ....with ca. 47 pages, only it wasn't for me, it was for a client. After finishing, I HAD to do a few things for me.

Since Danny needed two A4 sized pages dedicated to his two teachers he's had this year, I made those and had him write and doodle on the journaling spot. All of the papers were from my stash and scraps. Photo worked over with Instragram.... gotta love those.

 

 

And since my daughter loves the color blue and the things I make....I found this Ikea frame underneath the mess on my desk (literally), I thought of something quick and simple she might like to decorate her wall with.

 

Alright....that's all folks.... SOMEBODY has to do the cooking in this house! ;-) Thanks for looking!

Everyone have a great Sunday or Sunday evening or Monday morning... depending where you're at in the big wide world! ;-)

 

4th of July Mixed Media Canvas (Design Team Scrap-Art-Zine)

For the Scrap-Art-Zine Design Team I was asked to create something for their blog for Wednesday Inspirations. My date happened to be on the 4th of July. :) Since I've never had any decoration where the holiday is concerned as I've lived in Germany basically my entire life, I thought I would create something to decorate my home. And since I'm dabbling a bit in mixed media (by no means expert), I thought I would make...yes....yet "another" canvas. LOL 

I had a LOT of fun with this one, using my cricut and free clipart to depict a few symbolisms of Independence Day. For instance, the .svg file for the Statue of Liberty I found here and the bell and flag I found under free clipart on the internet and printed on cardstock. The stars I cut from Prima patterned paper with my cricut expression using the basic cartridge that came with the machine. First I painted the top part light blue and the bottom sea blue with acrylic paint. After I cut out the Statue of Liberty, I inked all the edges and assembled and adhered her onto the canvas. The chipboard clouds were painted white, inked and a thin layer of modge podge was put on top to give them some shine. On the flag I also put rock candy distress stickles and on the bell I used rock candy crackle paint (both Ranger). The metal accents are from Tim Holtz's Ideology metal collection and I found some old Making Memories threads to adhere the star with. Slapped on a few letter stickers and doodled here and there. The 4th of July may be over, but it will definitely be sitting on my sideboard for awhile. ;-)

 

For more close-ups, please visit the Scrap-Art-Zine Blog here - http://scrap-art-zine.blogspot.de/ and check out all of the other inspirational creations from the Design Team.

Have a super weekend! (Yes... I do realize it's not Friday yet. ) LOL

Jackie

 

Butterly & Moth Mixed Media Canvas

I supposed I'm starting to get hooked on canvases for some reason! LOL - Gabrielle Pollacco inspired me with her recent work. I decided to make this one, possibly for my daughter... if she likes it. ;-) Used Making Memories Acrylic paint.. yep, it was a little thick being so old and all, but I was able to thin it with some water. Papers are from Marioposa collection (Die Cuts with a view), Prima shabby chic bird cage, Holtz metal corner, Prima flower & pebbles. Modge Podge and Glossy Accents holds it all together...

 

Make yourself a canvas today.... so easy and so much fun!!

Have a great week!

 

 

 

Recent Cards - Sympathy & Birthday

I just wanted to share some recent cards I made. One is a sympathy card, which I find really difficult to create... especially if I knew the person. It's hard to try to draw the line between being too cheerful and getting the message across.

 

On a happier note...here is a card I made for my hubby... :)

 

That's all for this rainy Sunday. I vow to post more often in the future!

 

Have a great Sunday!