I miss crafting

We took a trip out of town today to get a little R&R and do some shopping for the kids for back to school. We decided to stop by Hobby Lobby because our couch pillows are in desperate need of some recovering and fabric was on sale. I tell you, I walked around that store drooling. I've been avoiding craft stores lately because I am working so hard to downsize and declutter and to simplify my life but boy... I miss getting all crafty! The fabric section could have easily been the destruction of my carefully planned budget. There were so many awesome prints and beautiful colors just calling my name. I seriously walked in circles looking at everything again and again while my family sat in chairs over by the patterns looking at me like I had lost my marbles and commenting that they were ready to leave. In the end I opted for some 'knotty' microfleece (raised circles in the fabric) in a plain brown. It is so fabulously soft and will make our couch pillows oh so comfy to cuddle with but boy... brown? I tried to get my husband to go for some awesome paisley print but he about laughed me out of the store. Just wait... I'll go back and get that paisley and recover the chair in our bedroom with it just for kicks. LOL

Anyway, I felt inspired as I left the craft store to open up photoshop and get my craft on in a more virtual, digital way. I think I'll work on a new kit inspired by some of the colors I was drawn to and maybe even create some new wall art for my home. My office is in the middle of a big remodel and the walls are currently a very pale gray with different colored swatches painted on here and there as I searched for that perfect color. The closest thing to art on the walls is a round chalkboard (made out of an old stool from my daughter's table and chair set she got when she turned 2!) hanging on the door. Perhaps the nothingness of my surroundings is contributing to the lack of inspiration elsewhere, eh?

I hope you are all busy scrapping and crafting and being inspired by whatever it is you love!

longing for inspiration

I am in a slump big time. This a slump that has haunted me for years now. Its not a designing slump as you might think (given my lack of new products recently) but rather a scrapping slump. I long to sit down with photoshop, my photo files and an awesome kit and create beautiful art full of memories and stories. I think about scrapping often but can't bring myself to actually start a page. It feels unnatural to me, as though I am a newbie who has never scrapped a page and just isn't sure where to begin. I look at galleries for inspiration but I just end up realizing how much out of the loop I am when it comes to the scrapping side of this business. I design kits and I usually create a few quickpages to go with them (that I actually use for my own photos) but I never sit down and work on a page simply to scrap. I miss it. Once upon a time I was a layout a day kind of girl. There were days I did 4 or 5 layouts even. I used to get so excited and couldn't wait to share them in my gallery and with my husband and kids. Now its so rare that I actually scrap that I don't even bother putting anything in a gallery (not to mention my 'home' gallery closed along with my beloved Elemental Scraps last December) or even show the family. Yep, I'm definitely in a slump.

I have 4 8x8 frames hanging on my wall in the living room. Right now they hold layouts that were created using some Shabby Princess Piece of Cake quickpages. I love them but they are several years old and hold pictures of my kids back when they were 4 and 6 months (before I began designing!). I spent hours and hours recently sanding the walls in the living room to remove some poorly placed wall texture and then repainted. I love the color, I love the new knock down texture and I love the fresh white trim but I'm tired of looking at the same art work! I keep thinking I will make a canvas or at least replace the layouts in my 8x8 frames but when I sit down to work on it I freeze up and give up.

So, what motivates you? What starts you scrapping and keeps you scrapping?

summer sizzles, blogger fizzles

Ah, so my anniversary celebration kind of fizzled out. May isn't a great month for me. June and July haven't been much better. Well, I take that back, they have all been great months, just not productive months when it comes to keeping up with my design business. My kids got out of school just 2 weeks in to May and its been a crazy ride since. We had soft ball and t-ball and swim parties and summer events and a birthday... the list goes on. My baby (he's 5.5 but still my baby!) starts all day kindergarten in the fall and I'm one sad mama. I have had a child by my side nearly 24/7 for the last 9 years. The prospect of having 7 hours a day ALONE is both scary and exciting at the same time. I am sure I will miss the kids dreadfully but I am looking forward to having a little time each day to just be Sherri and not mommy. I dream of going to the library by myself... how crazy is that? I hate the thought of being in a quiet house all day with no one to talk to but I do look forward to being able to jump back in to designing without it taking away time from my family.

So, for my fellow SAHM friends who have school aged children, what do you do when your kids are in school? Do you catch up on sleep, read, pursue a hobby, waste time online, try new culinary dishes or tend to your house?