BusyB

"There is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be it." ~Amanda Gorman National Youth Poet Laureate #InauguralDay 2021

January 1st 2021!! So thankful for a New Year! I started my new year off right by calling and talking with my two young Granddaughters at midnight. Lol So cuute! ❤️ It took awhile but I finally came up with my word for the this year and it's....LIGHT After the darkness of 2020 the world needs some light and a glimmer of hope as we head into 2021.

November 18th...I am loving all the holiday swaps and finally getting into the spirit in spite of all that is going on. I hope you all are safe healthy and happy! Did I mention I love glittery Christmas cards?! Oh yes I know I have glitter on my face! Heehee Happy Holidays, Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to everybody! Stay safe and craft on! xoxo

Happy October 1st! So happy it's Autumn, love this time of year!

Today is September 18th...."Oregon my beautiful Oregon do what you do best...RAIN" It's raining in northern Oregon!! My family and friends are safe! My son in Southern Oregon called early this morning to happily report he can see down the street and clouds (not smoke) in the sky. For the first time in over a week we have windows and doors open. A great day to be thankful!! ❤️

Update: September 14th.... A lot of you have been asking how I'm doing here in Portland Oregon. Thank you for asking. 💛 We are doing okay. We live near the WA state border and are away from the downtown area where most of the riots and demonstrations are happening. The wildfires have affected our family and friends in evacuations, all levels in Southern Oregon (our hometown is there, our hearts are broken 💔) and my oldest Sister living 40 minutes south of us. Two friends lost their homes in Southern and still waiting to hear about some if their homes will be saved. We are in no immediate danger. Except the air quality is awful in most of Oregon.

It's time to update my profile....Goodness, way overdue! Today is July 8th 2020. My hubby is going into week 17 of working at home. He's an IT professional. Lots going on and all we can do is be hopeful and live each day trying not to dwell on everything happening in our world. We are very blessed and for that we are grateful.

During this coronavirus pandemic I have become more creative than I have in a long time! It started off with coloring in my paper doll stamped images while I watched Netflix and got hooked on the "The Talk" ( I don't watch daytime TV!) lol) and lots of baking. Even hubby set a record of baking batches of his famous peanut butter cookies! lol Then I was asked by my granddaughters mom if I would make masks for her as she was going back to work. That led to making masks for family and friends. That led to finding my quilts I started. Finishing one for a friend's birthday this month.

Lastly my son shared some of his sourdough starter that he bartered for from a restaurant where he lives and he's the fermenting king. lol (he makes water kefir and other ferments) It's that time again for making Oregon strawberry jam (I barely got the strawberries I like before they were gone) and maybe some fruit preserving. Yumm!

It's great to stay busy and creative during this time! Keeps both hubby and I sane!

We have one cat who has our heart. Our beautiful Yuki Maru. In Japanese it means snowball thus her white fluffy coat. It suits her. Our little 'sack 'o sugar" At her first health check years ago the vet told her that. It's true, she's the little princess in our home. She is 17 years old. We lost her sister Oni in March 2019. Our hearts were broken. RIP little one. ❤️

When growing up there were always animals in our family and my children loved them too. (hubby not always a fan, lol) I even had a horse when I was 14 but I was not a good cowgirl! Lol We've had rabbits, rats, horses, chickens, an 'onery little black rooster named 'Chuckles' who would chase me all over the yard! Lol My brother had a horse named Shawnee and a 4H hog one year. I miss our little dog Blondie, One year my oldest son and I went Christmas shopping and Blondie came home with us! Hubby was not happy but she was well loved by her human children and our home was hers for 17 years. Animals are amazing!

I'm a boymom! Not much offends me. LOL Seems my hubby and I talk about this often recently. I'm half tomboy and half girly girl. I'm a Gemini. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Lol

Humor is good for your soul! I love it when we can laugh and one of the things I love about my sweet man of 39 years. He always makes me laugh, he's my best friend. ❤️

ABC Easy as 1-2-3...OH wait that's a song..lol This is the ABCs of me..thought it might be worth adding as some of these things aren't listed in the other sections....

• 💙A Art by you Autumn ATCoins Art junque Alice in Wonderland my Art journals Artists (fave art journal artists, Dyan Reavely, James Burke)

• 💙B Barbie Blackberries Blue my fave color Baking Breakfast Beaches Botanicals Betty Boop Bohemian

• 💙C Claude Monet Cats Coffee Children's book illustrations COLOR, Colorful Bright happy Color Cookbooks Christmas Collage Campfires Cookies Cooking Children x3 Cross Stitching Circles especially in art Casper the Friendly Ghost

• 💙D Daffodils Dawn Dolls (had these as a child and now looking for vintage or repro ephemera for my doll journals. Same with Barbie) Disney Dogs doTerra essential oils Dyan Reaveley Dance

• 💙E Envelopes decorated by you Eighties music Essential Oils Embroidery Elvis

• 💙F Fabric Foodie Forest Food preservation Ferment foodie (sourdough bread and kefir) Flowers Fresh Fruit Farmer's Market Fussy cutting

• 💙G Garfield Glue book Gardening Granddaughtersx2 Glittery Gelli prints Gluten Free mostly (I still cook non GF for hubby and sometimes convert recipes. Been a fun cooking adventure!) G45

• 💙H Hello Kitty Halloween Handwriting History Hand drawing Humor Hubby of 39 years Holly Hobbie Helen Reddy

• 💙I Ice Cream Instant Pot (just got one for Christmas 2020)

• 💙J Junk journals Johnny Cash the word JOY "Julie Dolls" Julie Nutting Paper Dolls

• 💙K Kefir Kindness in many forms... Kate Greenaway Katy Keene

• 💙L Lace Letters Lightening storms Lemon Lilacs Lilies I ❤️ Lucy

• 💙M Marjolein Bastin artist Mail Art Mickey Mouse Magazine cut outs Movies Matryoshka Dolls the Moon Mountains Maya Angelou Marilyn Monroe

• 💙N Nuts Nature Notes from pals interesting Newspaper cutouts Nature walks

• 💙O Ocean "Mother Ocean"

• 💙P Pen-pals Paper dolls Postcards (vintage and new, vintage linen and black n white) Princess:Cinderella Pink my second fave color Painting Pockets (JJ) Peanuts (comics) Popcorn Pansies

• 💙Q Quilting Quotes

• 💙R Raspberries Rubberstamper for over 30 years Rain Recipes (tried and true) Retro

• 💙S Sewing Sea Animals Strawberries Sunshine Snoopy Scooby Doo Snowmen Suzy's Zoo Star Wars Saint Patrick's Day, my Mother was Irish

• 💙T Textiles, new and vintage Tea (green and black, flavors are my fave) Thrift stores Thomas Kinkade

• 💙U Umbrellas Unicorns

• 💙V Vincent van Gogh Vintage real ephemera Vintage valentines Vintage paper dolls Vintage 1930s 40s 50s 60s 70s Vintage stickers Valentine's Day Vintage fabric & sewing

• 💙W Wild animals Wildflowers Whimsy Wool roving and fibers Willie Nelson Woodland animals Walks

• 💙X

• 💙Y Yard sales

• 💙Z Zoo (Oregon Zoo) and Zoo animals Zentangles

I have tried a lot of art and crafts in my life. While I am no expert I do have an eclectic style and appreciation of art in many forms. Handmade is always appreciated and treasured. A few of my favorite things:

• paper dolls, I love my dolls! Have on-going doll art journals; die cut dolls, stamped, magazine and paper cut outs, even clothes etc, made by you, stickers of dolls etc.

• I do love drawing and painting. I started watercoloring with online instruction in summer 2019.

• Sewing was the first craft I learned when I was ten years old. My angel mother taught me and I designed my own shirt. lol After 49 years I still enjoy sewing. Although I made my own prom dress, wedding dress and clothes as a teenager, Halloween costumes for my kids and granddaughters I don't sew many clothes now.. We've made dolls accessories together. (hand sewing or crafting for now) They have lost interest in their AG dolls. Nana isn't there to play dolls together. Lol

• Quilting, My Grandmother, my Dad's mother was an amazing quilter. Still have one of the last quilts she made for my Dad. What a treasure!

• Fabric

• Junk Journals

• 💙 Art Journaling. In 2017 I started attending monthly art journal classes at a local store. I love it so much! Also attended a monthly paper craft club with challenges and incredible peeps' creations, prizes and coupons. I have made a great new friend and sure do miss not being able to attend since the pandemic. Or meeting my friend for lunch before club. I still enjoy working in my journal and have learned a lot from our wonderful teacher, Lori. She has forever inspired me!

• 💙 LOVE true Vintage ephemera! My favorites are 1970s and earlier....vintage textiles, fabrics and scraps, sewing and hand stitching items, vintage magazines, fashion and sewing magazine pages, cookbooks, children's books, readers and song books, old medical, geography or encyclopedia pages, wallpaper and wrapping paper, vintage ads and pamphlets, sewing patterns from 1970s or earlier, vintage rhinestones and costume jewelry, old type written letters and documents, forms and envelopes, old handwritten letters are a favorite

• Die cuts, use them in my journals and collage

• 💙 I enjoy "junkin'" for art junk /vintage treasures My bestest pen pal gave our goodies the name "art junk" And when my sister goes antique hunting she calls it 'junkin'" Well the terms stuck! lol Love that!

• embroidery, cross stitch, needle felting, wool roving or wool fibers

• COLOR (neon colors in small doses but I love Lisa Frank!) Some of my favorites are blue, pink, purple, aqua, and autumn colors

• Love all animals! Except most reptiles, snakes, bugs and ewwww spiders!! forest/woodland creatures, sea creatures, wild animals, pets, especially cats and dogs.

• 💙 My favorite artist is Marjolein Bastin (née uit den Bogaard) (born 1943) is a Dutch nature artist, writer, children's author and illustrator. She is the creator of the character "Vera the Mouse" I discovered her 25 years or so ago when I use to buy Hallmark cards that featured her beautiful watercolor artworks including Vera the Mouse. I have a large framed print "Nature's Sketchbook" hanging on the wall by my art desk that I love!

• the sea and all it's many beauties

• quilling and origami

• interesting metal embellishments

• 💙 hearts (collected since I was a teenager)

• Halloween, Valentines Day and Christmas are my favorite holidays.

• Disney, Hello Kitty, The Peanuts, Scoobydo, Garfield, favorite Disney Princess Cinderella

• 💙 Vintage Barbie and Dawn dolls

• Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, vintage Barbie, Katy Keene, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s Rock n Roll, Dance, Fairies, Butterflies, Birds, Nature, Retro, Quirky and Colorful, Skulls/Skeletons, Quotes and Poetry, Cats and Dogs, Zentangles, Humor, Repurposing and Recycling, Fashion (paper dolls or old magazine cut outs for my paper doll junk journal)

My husband and I watch a lot of TV through the week in the evenings because it's the best way to relax together after our long days....This Is Us, Big Bang Theory, Survivor (since the beginning) NCIS, still watch the original with Gibbs Use to love CSI (with Grissom) Firefly, Bones and Grimm, That 70s Show, So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing With The Stars, Americas Got Talent, Mike and Frank on American Pickers, Food Network, Anne of Avonlea, DinersDriveIns&Dives .... Sad to say some of my favorites are no more. Fave movies: Grease, Ghost, Dirty Dancing, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Avatar, Breakfast Club, Original Ghostbusters. Old shows: I Love Lucy, That Girl, Gilligan's Island, Mork and Mindy, Welcome Back Kotter, Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days, Lassie, Bewitched, Little House on the Astroid, I mean Prairie. Sorry I had to, my hubby hated that show! Lol

My favorite music is from1970s, 80s, 90s. Also love Elvis and music from the 1950s. I like old school country; Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Easy listening, James Taylor, Jewel, Enya. I grew up with a country music loving family, but I'm a rock n roll girl! In 1980 I met my dear hubby at an under 21 club, a discotech called "Fat City" in Medford Oregon. Yes I still enjoy disco music and love dance! The days of our dancing together, what magic!! I enjoy watching dance reality TV, ice skaters and ballerinas, hip-hop It's just wonderful live art to me!

*I enjoy making ATCs for others but I don't collect them anymore except once in awhile if it's something I really enjoy. Just running out of space to store more binders. I still enjoy ATC coins especially when I can use them in my journals. Flat is better. For some reason I have always loved circles and polka dots. *pencils, erasers, reward stickers, window clings(I don't have small children) *Please DON'T send your scraps of paper. I have plenty of my own. *please no more washi tape rolls, but samples are great! I have run out of storage for rolls. Lol *glitter, any, but I do I LOVE glitter in art that you send. I just have a big stash already. *socks, make-up or make-up bags, mug rugs/coasters. I appreciate all the handmade coasters and mug rugs but now we have plenty. My BFF has also made some for hubby and me. The exception is if I sign up in a swap of course. Spiders, eeek! Most insects and reptiles. Bees especially honey bees are okay. :-)

I always send my swaps and rate promptly and say thank you. I always communicate with my partners when needed via the swap-bot messenger system. Sometimes an occasional email message. Please do the same for me. Our mailbox where we receive mail is locked. I drop off mail inside the post office (always my first choice) or drop off in the Blue Box. The pick up times are not coinciding with their lobby open hours. The post office has different hours on the weekends and the lobby certainly isn't open 24/7! When I drop off my swaps, that's when I mark sent. Sitting right in the parking lot! I mail multiple swaps and wishes together so I make less trips to the post office as driving in Portland takes a lot of my time and gasoline. Stay safe and craft on!

Updated Feb. 2021

• Vintage fashion fussy cuts from magazines, brochures etc. 1920s-1960s

• Vintage children and/or animal fussy cuts 1920s-1960s

• Vintage postcards, linen or black & white

• Anything Alice in Wonderland

• Anything for slow stitching

• Anything Hello Kitty

• Vintage or new scraps of fabric

• Nature inspired junk journal goodies for my Travelers Notebook I just started.

• Fabric favorites for quilting swaps; bright, pastel, white tone on tone or colors tone on tone. Not fond of dark, muted colors for the quilts I sew.

WTA Sent:

RAKS Sent:

WISHES SENT:

COLLABS(homers) and Mystery Supply Sent: