Kindles and Water DO NOT Mix.

This post isn't at all related to crafts but I needed to vent.  My husband is deployed and our communication is limited and terrible at best. 

This evening I left my two girls in front of the TV watching a kid's movie while I went to use the bathroom.  My Kindle was happily ensconced in its cover resting up on the mantle of the fireplace well out of my little ones reach.  Well, my youngest is a climber and quite the problem solver.  She apparently used a stool and a chair to climb up and get my Kindle down.  She then proceeded to remove its case and took it with her to the bathroom to give it a bath.  I have no idea why she felt my Kindle needed to be bathed but she did it, all the while my older daughter is busy doing her best to ignore her and what it is she is doing. 

I came out of my bathroom and down the hall past the kids bathroom and found my younger daughter bent over the tub with the water running.  I then noticed she was soaping my Kindle and putting it under the faucet to get the bubbles rinsed off.  Honestly, I snapped.  I grabbed my Kindle from her, screamed at the top of my lungs at her, and proceeded to desperately try to revive an otherwise dead Kindle. 

It took all of thirty seconds for me to realize the futility of my actions.  I can not pull my Kindle apart no matter how much I try so that I can allow it to dry out.  All I can do is shake it (possibly causing more damage) to try and get some of the water out. At this point both of my daughters death warrants have been signed.  I the judge, jury and executioner was on a rampage.  I did paddle the main offender, try to explain why what she did was so wrong and sentenced her to the rest of the evening in bed.  As for her older sibling, she got a paddling as well after it was confirmed that she was aware that her sister had climbed up, got my Kindle and then proceeded to drown it and was also sentenced to spending the rest of her night in bed for not taking any action towards notifying me of this heinous crime in action.  

I have never been so furious with my children nor so sad at the loss of an inanimate object.  I actually cried, not sure if it was for me, the Kindle or the punishment I doled out on my children but it was an emotional and hard moment for me.  I do know that it doesn't help to have my husband, help mate and best friend deployed at a time when I could have really used some his inane jokes to liven the moment and relieve some of the tension. 


Sometimes the joys of motherhood really are not enough to keep me from wanting to throw in the towel and give my two weeks notice.  Being a Mom is hard, being a good Mom is even more difficult and I have to give props to single moms and mothers with more than two.  How do you do it?


I am saddened by the loss of my Kindle and more saddened by the reality that I cannot afford to replace it anytime soon.  I had plans for my Kindle tonight.  I was going to wind down after I put the girls down with a good story, now it will just be me in the king size bed, boiling over with frustration, anger, and self pity, struggling to fall asleep. 

The reality of motherhood is far different from what is touted.  It is not all hugs and kisses but sometimes the death of a Kindle and having to dole out fitting punishment.

Little Mistakes Do Not Ruin A Page

Here is a simple page I completed today.  Basic paper cutting and tearing were all that I did.   No fancy embellishments, just a quick, clean and simple page with one minor mistake in my hand written note. 

Does this bother me? Sure, I am definitely anal enough that it does.  Will I fix it? No.  Why? Because I feel any fix would probably be more visible than the mistake and because I like to think that this is why we take the time to Scrapbook, to put a bit of us, our reality and all its glorious moments and mistakes down for others to enjoy.  It just adds to the charm, right? Sure.  Nothing is perfect.  It is complete ownership of our mistakes and our ability to learn from them or our acceptance of those mistakes that make us more complete people.  Of course this just may be how I feel about mistakes and failures in general.  I rarely see them as bad more often as a challenge to do better or a lesson learned in something not to do again.  So I flubbed when I wrote transforms and had to make that first s look like an n....or sort of, but my page isn't ruined and I've learned that next time I hand write something on a Scrapbook page that I should slow down and take time to possibly avoid minor mistakes like this. 

Scrapbooking for the sake of Art Journaling.

Today I felt like doing something entirely different.  I dove into my scrap bin and pulled out bits of paper and pieced them together to create a 12 x 12 page to work on.  I had no intention of scrapbooking in any traditional format.  No photos, no jotted down funny moments from the day...though it was interesting, just me, and an outlet for my art, which I feel I have much neglected since getting married.  Oh I do crafty things but don't often sit to do art for arts sake.  It sure felt good putting this page together. 

All the doodling is ink, crayola colored pencil, and some cheap-o glitter from the Dollar Store.

 I certainly enjoy diving into my scrap bin.  This project is a great way to use up some of that paper.  My bin sits right next to my table on a tray table.  That way I am more likely to look through it first for usable pieces before I start cutting up full sheets.  I keep some pretty small scraps but they all get used up pretty quickly as my daughters love digging through the bits for their projects.

I made a full sheet of these tags on my machine and just keep them in my stash.  I used Bic Mark It pens and an ink pen for these, plus a bling.

This is a mini flip pad with four pages.  I only wrote on the first one.

Pull out tag.  "Bloom" is a stamped word.  One of the few stamps in my girls collection.  I am not really into stamps.

Some random journaling on the tag.

My hand drawn and glittered rain cloud.

How I attached the tags.  They are actually stationary as I used a photo square on each to keep it in place.

I really enjoyed making this page.  I love to draw and really need to get back into the practice.  I forget how much you can do with some pens and a few colored pencils.  Don't forget to get out there and create something yourself.  True self expression means not being afraid to fail.  Just do it.  You may find you like it.

Finished Pages, My Junque Journal, and PIP that keep sitting.

Sorry, I have been more busy just spending time with my husband (who deployed on the 8th) and girls than any time spent blogging or reading blogs.  This is what I have been doing during my "Me" time when ever I can get it.  I have a lot more time now to myself in the evenings once the girls go down.

Hopefully I will get back into the swing of things and update my blogs.

This is my Junque Journal, a continuous work in progress, that I created out of a cheap-o composition notebook.  I put all sorts of odds and ends into it and in no particular order.  Great little artistic outlet and a way to save those items you wouldn't otherwise scrapbook and don't want cluttering up your space or filling a random box but you just can't seem to part with.

My daughters each created one.  My older daughter loves hers and it is actually fattening up quite nicely with pictures, drawings and things she likes that can be taped or glued down.  My younger daughter just scribbles in hers and occasionally glues in a button or a piece of colorful paper.  They are pretty cute and will definitely make a neat conversation piece later in their lives.

I actually created a bare bones one for a friend that I need to mail off. 


Now these are 12x12 Scrapbook pages I have completed in the last few months.  Actually I didn't actively take up Scrapbooking until very recently.  Oh, I have made pages while with friends or family but left any pages completed for them to keep.  Not sure why, may have been that I moved around a lot and didn't really have any where to safely keep them or they were made with the intent to give them to whomever I was scrapping with.

My pile of completed pages.

As you can see the last four pages are WIPs that for whatever reason I have been unable to finish.  Also apparent is the fact that I have no particular scrap style or preference for I believe scrapping is best done however you please.  Anyone who tells you there are rules to expressing yourself through your chosen medium should be shot and quartered.  If there is a rule, it is to have fun. 

The first column, second row picture background was created purely from pieces of scrap paper chosen at random that I glued together to create a 12x12 page.  Probably one of my more relaxed pages as I do tend to want to make things neat and can be a bit anal about my work.  I am learning to just relax when I build my pages.  They come out a lot better IMHO when I do. 

I don't have a very large collection of scrapbooking items, I just create with what I have.  I do have a Pazzles and use that often in all sorts of crafting.  Since I crochet, sew, draw, and love crafts in general I have a little bit of every thing but not a lot of anything in particular.  I think I am more creative if I work from a more limited amount of stuff and since my hobby budget is tight everything I do purchase needs to be at a discount and if not it must be a multi purpose item of quality and have long term longevity or it isn't worth paying full price. 

Just get out there, use what you got, and express yourself.  It is very therapeutic and relaxing.