Just a little patience

Luke and Lucy have such creative minds. Today they dragged the Pottery Barn Kids chairs from their rooms and Jack's room and lined them up in the playroom - one behind the other. They placed a Sit-n-Spin in front of the first chair. Luke then proceeded to sit down in the first chair with Lucy in the chair behind him and "drive" their newly-made "bus" to school.

And Jack just astounds me with how quickly he's growing up. Aside from the occasional snide remark, he's a joy to be around. A recent trip to Ikea earned him a brand new desk for his room along with a (very) old laptop computer. He feels so grown up - typing in web addresses to starfall.com and disney.com. We figured it's time for him to have a space of his own.

*sigh*

I've given a lot of thought about my intentions for 2010 (not resolutions). I find that I'm easily distracted and can barely sit down to type without little voices shouting from upstairs. It makes it so hard to concentrate, and it's so easy to become impatient and want to scream. Frequently. I've decided that what I need this year is a good dose of patience. And so my One Little Word (idea compliments of Ali Edwards) for 2010 is born.

Patience.

Patience with my children.
Patience with my business.
Patience with home repairs and decorating. Or lack-there-of.
Patience with myself.

After all, one day this will all be a memory. Nothing stays the same. And one day, I am going to miss this.

Happy 1/2 Birthday Creative and Crafty

Happy Half-Year Birthday, Creative and Crafty! Six months ago, you were born - full of promise and excitement and potential - and you're going strong despite the bumps along the way.

But oh - The price we entrepreneurs pay for being in business for ourselves. I've neglected many things in the last 6 months - like:

1) Scrapping for myself and for my family. I miss this so much it hurts.

2) Weekend family time. I'm often so engulfed in projects for customers that I must spend hours on the weekends catching up.

3) My kids. I haven't neglected them in a horrid - never change their diapers - never feed them sense, but I certainly can say that my mind is usually elsewhere when I am with them. It's shameful.

4) My husband. I see him in passing. I vent during our lunch hours. I give him a kiss and dive back in where I left off.

5) My AMOM club. I used to be active in the club and participated in functions and planning club events. I'm supposed to schedule a Mom's Night Out once a month, but the club has ranked so low on my priority list that I've failed to schedule even one night out in the last 3 months. And the last time I did schedule one, I didn't show up.

6) My Blog. I rarely express my thoughts to anyone nowadays. I'm all locked up inside my head.

Before Creative and Crafty was born, I longed for a creative job - one where I could showcase my talents and not have to answer to any corporate entity. I was unhappy in my status as a full-time mom. Playdates and trips to the park were nice, but I didn't want to spend the next 4 years doing it while the twins grew to Kindergarten age. I needed something creatively fulfilling so that when I did hang with the kiddos, I felt complete. I thought that I could have the card business and be a great mom at the same time.

And then it morphed. Cards took over. Customer orders took over. Planning for the next party, the next event, the next business step, took over. Perhaps it all sounds a bit dramatic. But it did. I have never been the type of person who is able to put an incomplete project away for another time. It must be finished - now - at all costs - or I can't sleep at night. So, any unfinished project kept me up until midnight and sent my kids to school on the days they were supposed to be home with me. I sacrificed scrapbooking - a love so near and dear to my heart that I tear up when I think that I've only done 2 or 3 pages this entire year. I've sacrificed so much while trying to remember that I'm doing it for a "new nirvana."

At times I want to throw in the towel and say "forget it." But then - I see the potential. I see a glimpse of a bright future where Creative and Crafty opens a small store and even branches out in avenues never dreamed before. And when I hear the gushes and the excitement from our customers, my heart warms.

And so, I thank you - those who have stuck by me, have listened to me vent, have helped me plan, and have supported me and Creative and Crafty. Join me as I raise my water glass and toast with me to the next 6 months. May it bring balance. May it bring peace. And may it bring time to scrapbook.

Little bits and pieces

I wish I could say I've scrapped more than this layout in the last month, but I haven't. Scrapping has quickly become a lost art to all of the cards I've been creating while starting up Creative and Crafty. (Go see some of the new cards I've posted on the web site!) I've missed scrapping so much that Monday I made a vow to scrap one page a week. Just one. I must not neglect the thing that drives me to be a better mom. Scrapping forces me to record the precious, irreplaceable tidbits that make the Johnson's a family.

The "babies" (at 2 1/4, they really aren't babies anymore) and Jack have grown in leaps and bounds.

* Jack is a master at hula-hooping. He can keep that round thing moving with little effort whereas I move my hips around frantically trying to hold it up for a mere 2 seconds before it plops! The little teacher in him tries (in vain) to show me practical hula-hooping skills and hasn't given up on me yet.

* Lucy is a little jokester. She loves to sneak up on her brothers and me and yell "Boo!", then squeal and run away. She could play this game for hours. She's bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning and loves to barge into Luke's room calling "Woooooo-ke!! Wake Up, Woooke!". Luke, who is slower to welcome in the morning than his sister, usually grunts at her and buries his head back under his blankets. It's almost as if he's proclaiming, "5 minutes to myself! Can't I just have 5 minutes to wake up before I'm a "twin" again! Ugh!" 

* Luke is quiet and more reserved. He loves to see how things work. While waiting outside for Jack's Tae-Kwon-Do lesson to finish last week, Luke spied a Fed-Ex box outside one of the offices. He ran over, lifted the lid to the code box that the Fed-Ex guy uses to extract the packages from inside and sat down messing with the lid and the lock. He stayed there until the lesson ended 10 minutes later. And he screamed as if we were taking him away from a playground when it was time to go. 

I've missed my blog. I also vow to fit in an update on a more regular basis. Sometimes, when something like this gets away from me, it's easier to abandon the project than pick up where I left off. But this blog, well, it's a little extension of me, and abandoning it would be like abandoning a piece of myself.

Until next time, I bid you adieu and good night.

Knee deep in cardstock

What I've been up to:

Sweet little Valentine... part of a set of 12 that I made for Creative and Crafty's business launch party.

I love this card. In fact, I almost hid it away so I could pull it out periodically and admire it's pink and brown sweetness. But no - I included it's XOXO goodness in the samples for the launch party. And of course it sold. Such a bittersweet moment.

I had the most fun making this little beauty. My shamrock may be blue, but it's so lucky it'll make you yearn for green M&M's!

I have finally emerged to take a breath of air from my cardstock hideaway. The smell of acid-free paper permeates my brain matter. Yes, acid free. No tripping on the cardstock. That would just be too cool, wouldn't it? I'd get a little jolt out of my creative process. But alas, my moment of reprieve is short lived. Fortunately, the launch party was a fabulous success, and since then, Creative and Crafty's rounded up another order of 24 Valentines and 6 other custom card requests.

I have a horrid success rate managing my own home business for several reasons. One, I've never shown passion for any of those businesses. Creative Memories, Leaving Prints, Arbonne - those all consisted of selling other people's crap. Each business required a huge time and money investment on my part just to get started, and once I was in, I was several hundred (and in the case of Arbonne - a few thousand) dollars in the whole. But Creative and Crafty is my dream child. I'm selling my work. My art. My dreams. My ideas. They're not made in China. It's not someone else's product.. It's mine. Of course I hope I'm featured as one Oprah's Favorite Things within the next 5 years, but if I'm not, I'd still keep making cards and dreaming up unique ways to say "Happy Birthday."

My friends, I have discovered what I want to be when I grow up. And it feels sooooo deliciously yummy.

My Word for 2009

Every year I pick one word (or 2) and use that word to focus my thoughts and actions through the course of the year. For 2007, I chose the phrase "Experience Life" to help me get through the long days with newborn twin infants. I kept that phrase in mind as I soaked up the newborn kisses along with the flood of spit-up. In 2008, I "Chose Joy". Most of the time. 

But for this year, I simply want to :

Chose your word. And then share. Inquiring minds want to know.

** BTW... though I'd love to take credit for this amazing idea, it is actually the brain child of my favorite famous scrapbook guru - Ali Edwards.

Splish Splash Moo

One of Elizabeth Kartchner's layout in Creating Keepsakes December issue was the inspiration for this sweet layout. I love how the blue, scalloped ribbon mimics waves of water and how the red cardstock appears to bring out the red in Luke's adorable lips. I also love how the photos of Luke and Lucy, both taken the same night and in the same tub, turned out two totally different layouts.

I'm a bit behind creating my website for creativeandcrafty.biz. Life, ya know? Oh - and then those pesky things called the holidays - both tend to impede on my re-learning of Dreamweaver. I figure that, just like a scrapbook layout, the website will come together without me having to think too hard about it. I know what I'm doing. I just have to do it!!

And good news - Angela and I just completed our first official project - 35 cow invitations that look just like the one below only we ended up using green cardstock instead of red. Moo.

Little things to love

I love:

** How Jack explains Bakugon to me. (This is a four-fifty Mom!)

** How Lucy "fed" Elmo milk from her sippy cup this morning. (Elmo dink milk Mommy!)

** How Luke waves when he sees me and exclaims "Hi, Mom!" in a voice that sounds like it's coming from a much older child.

And finally - I love how Jack bends over backwards to make his often whiney brother and sister happy. I remember Jack going through a period where all he did was test his limits and whine when he didn't get his way, and Luke and Lucy are doing the same thing right now. Jack rarely contributes to the problem and works hard to keep peace - even when he feels like he's getting the short end of the stick. He's so cool.