Bloggie Awards & Weekend

I'm always flattered and slightly shocked when someone actually thinks of MY blog when they hand out awards. And I've received 2 in the last week! So fun.

Fancy Picnic (remember her?) sent me this Brillante Weblog Award. Isn't that sweet of her? I've already received it once and blogged my choices here, so go look at those fabulous blogs and Fancy Picnic too for massive inspiration!



Altered Attic considered me worthy of the 'I Love Your Blog' award. So sweet. Always nice to hear I'm not the only one who reads my blog! lol Thanks so much to her for this honor.



What are you doing this weekend? We had plans to attend the Renaissance Festival they hold here for a couple months but the hurricanes down south are pushing all sorts of rainy weather up our way. I'm sorry, but I just don't feel like slodging through a soggy field to watch people joust in the muddy muck (or whatever they do.) DD has her heart set on wearing her Halloween costumer early though. lol



Sunday we're heading to church and then dinner at my parents' house. Mom invited dh's and my whole (small) Sunday School class over for dinner potluck. It should be a fun time. Hoping to get some art time to myself today. Maybe if I hand money to the kids and ask DH to take them to the mall? lol

P.S. Kris Hubick of Retro Cafe Art is having a drawing for free collage sheets! Go get em'!

Feature Friday!

It's that time again! You know you've been waiting with bated breath for this week's feature (Lily! lol) What else would you be doing with your Friday? (sorry, tongue in cheek.) Sorry for the lateness of the post. We've had a great day of schooling and this evening we've been through several tornado warnings. We did manage to go to dinner and now I'm finishing up this post.

Today I want to share with you one of my new favorite Flickr artists. If you don't regularly frequent Flickr, I encourage you to do so. I love the amazing artists, photographers, textile sew-ers and all other manner of people on there. Here's a link to my favorite people: Collage Contessa's Contacts

CROWABOUT

Something To Crow About Blog
Nancy Baumiller's Flickr
CrowAbout Flickr Challenge Group
CrowAbout on Etsy

I found Nancy through another blog (can't remember which) on a post about her Flickr Challenge group. I went to her Flickr and was blown away. She's doing things I'm wanting to do in my journal if I can ever let myself be free and quit with the matchy-matchy (as Jennifer Perkins likes to say.) Of course I joined her challenge group right away (although I haven't had a chance to play along) where she is giving out a sheet of free digital images for you to use in your art each week.



Nancy is not scared of color, or mixing colors, or letting colors run into each other, etc... She uses whatever she can find in her pages apparently because I can see parts of magazines, ads, books, junk mail and more. She feels free enough to talk about anything in her journal, it is, after all, her journal! The pages are a symphony to the creative senses, full of vibrancy and daring freedom. Each is an amazing piece individually.



She has even taken some of her favorites and decided to sell them on Etsy. Beautiful pieces she has there as well!




Make sure to visit her today!
Something To Crow About Blog
Nancy Baumiller's Flickr
CrowAbout Flickr Challenge Group
CrowAbout on Etsy

Slightly-Wordy Thursday Post

It's one of those days. Overcast. Dreary. Although Thursdays happen to be my favorite days (don't ask me to explain my nonsense logic that they're green days, and that's my favorite color...), there's something to be said for dark comfy days spent in the house. All I feel like doing is curling up by a fire and reading books. Or in today's case, catching up on emails, twitter posts, blog visits, surfing etsy and uploading pics to flickr. I was reading! It was just on the internet.

(For those wondering 'isn't she homeschooling today?' Yeah, I am. It's just a day of self led school really. Little one has been reading books all morning on pioneers/gold rush/westward expansion and doing some beadwork like she saw in a book on an indian headband. Teen has been working in her textbooks. Right now they're working together finishing up a dress they started the other day (for their art.) It's a smooth day for now with only math & spelling to finish up.)

Anyway, my reason for blogging is I'm frustrated with my time management. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. I've really had most the morning to myself except for the occasional check in with the kids, check some work, make sure they're doing what they're supposed to, making breakfast/lunch. I could have done so much! Think of the art I could have produced! The rooms I could clean/laundry to fold, art room to organize. I really need to get my priorities in check. I'm thinking of making myself a little schedule. It should be flexible so we can do school but when I have open time, I have things scheduled to do. I'm not one for too much scheduling so we'll see how it goes. I have so much I want to accomplish in life but never get to it. How do other people organize their time?

Anyone wanna share what they do to stay on track with house, family AND art time? I'm dying to know.

P.S. Update. I had to share. Via a friend on Twitter, I learned of a color test to see what is the best job for you.
Career Test
They gave me two career recommendations, the first was that I should be an ORGANIZER! I had to crack up. The second was a Social Manager. They don't know I'm a self-proclaimed hermit. lol I will admit that the descriptions sound like me, when I work outside the home. Inside the home is a different story. Hmmm. I need to think on that and why I'm different here.

UPDATE: Today (9/15/08) I came across this blog post that sounds like exactly what I need. You can go here to download it easily.