Tag: 2015

My Top Crafty Card Picks of 2015

My Top Crafty Card Picks of 2015

Today I’m sharing a throwback post to my days of creating cards for Operation Write Home. It became a yearly tradition to pick your favorite cards of the year and post them to an OWH new year’s blog hop; but alas, OWH has closed its doors and I’m left to my own devices. So here’s my personal walk down this year’s card crafting lane. I hope you enjoy my personal picks (in no certain order).

 

Firefly Dreams
I really like the simplicity of this card and how it became a farewell to summer for me. The paper and the lightning bugs just capture the season.

fireflycard

 

Washi, Pleats and Butterfly Feats
This card answered an OWH sketch challenge and turned out to be quite a colorful and multi-textured creation. I just recently sent it to my niece in college, and apparently it arrived at just the right time.

butterflysketchcard

 

Colorful Marine Critters for OWH
These cute little cards were designed with kids in mind and were submitted to OWH as part of an Our Daily Bread Designs monthly challenge. I enjoyed playing with my Spectrum Noire markers to color these cute little critters.

animalcards

 

Cozy Lodge Christmas Cards
This was one of only a few Christmas cards I made this year. I quickly discovered that my creative time was at a premium and focused on a few different things for the season. Even so, I was really pleased with how this card and its companion piece turned out.

adirondackcard1

 

“Down Home” Card Answers Sketch Challenge
This card was created for a Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge, and I really like the worn and tattered feel I created with all the different elements. I don’t normally do many patriotic cards, so this was a fun project.

PatrioticMojoCard

Small Talk’s Top Posts of 2015

Small Talk’s Top Posts of 2015

topposts2015As the year rapidly comes to an end, it’s always fun to see where the last year took us and how my blogging life was received. After the complete meltdown of Small Talk Mama the fall before, I was forced to make some decisions about the future of my little space of bloggy bliss; and after much deliberation, a false-start and returning to my first love, Small Talk Mama was reborn (slowly) and is still in the repairing process. I continually discover old posts that simply vanished forever, and I’m just so sure those were some of my best stuff.

Okay, enough wound licking. . . let’s get on to my best posts of 2015. These are not necessarily my favorite items, but now that’s why statistics exist. Here are the top five most visited posts of the year and although I find a couple of them surprising, I’m just going with it and hopefully learning a lesson or two. If you see something you missed, I hope you will give it a visit before we move on to 2016.

 

#5:  Secret Subject Swap — Mike Rowe, Come Clean My Dreamcatcher
 This was a post for Baking in a Tornado’s monthly Secret Subject Swap. You just never know what subject I will be writing about when it comes to these posts, but surprisingly it’s a lot of fun. This particular subject started out as one of my least favorites, but ended up being a lot of fun.

 

#4:  My Saltine Packin’ Sister’s Spicy Ranch Crackers
My sister arrived for a visit one day toting these highly addictive and super delicious homemade crackers. While she was here, we made two more batches and a family favorite was quickly born.

crackers

 

#3:  Cozy Lodge Christmas Cards
I created a couple of cards using some new Cozy Lodge Christmas paper and submitted them to Cards In Envy’s weekly challenge. To my joy, I won the top “First-Class” award for that week’s theme, which was a first for me.

adirondackcard1

 

#2:  DASANI Drops — Delicious Anywhere, Anytime
Talk about a surprise! This was a sponsored post for DASANI Infusions that flavor basic bland water into something more enjoyable. It was a lot of fun trying out the different flavored drops; and in fact, I have several cans of DASANI sparkling water in my fridge right now. So I guess my little trial worked. . . for at least one person in the world.

DASANI 

Top Post of 2015: Mad for Plaid at Home for Christmas
This was a fun little post for a blog hop hosted by Country Living and Hometalk. It showcased just a few of the ways I used plaid fabric throughout my home for Christmas. Next year, I promise to start decorating early so that I can take some better photos, but first I have to take down all of the current holly and jolly. *sigh*

Iantern

 

photo credit: Sparkler / Wunderkerze II via photopin (license)

My 2015 Resolutions: A Step in the Right Direction

My 2015 Resolutions: A Step in the Right Direction

2015So it’s the season of resolutions, and I began these days of goal setting by focusing on three areas of life improvement. . . which quickly became five, no eight, no ten and so on. So I started thinking about how a girl who clearly doesn’t have it together can possible narrow it down to so few areas of change. I mean there is always do these things less, do these things more, finish this, be a better that and lose weight. Yes, the weight thing is always a given.

For example, the wonderful photo collage hanging in my living room was a great, yet slightly expensive, project of mine this year. The conglomeration of frames is nice, but when your four year old starts asking who all those people are, it’s probably time to fill them with actual family photos.

I have three partially started scrapbooks begging to be touched, but instead I keep creating cards because they take far less focus to finish. Of course if I wrapped up the remodel of my craft room, I might find more space and time to work on said projects. Oh, oh, I also want to create one of those cute little “Favorite Moments” mason jars posted all over Pinterest. . . for three years I’ve wanted to make one of those cute little mason jars.

Oh, here’s a good one. . . we have a bathroom light, heater, fan combo for our master bathroom that has been sitting in the floor of our closet for over a year. I can install it, but I can’t wire it because of it’s special needs, so instead of calling the electrician I just look at it longingly and wipe the steam off my mirror after every shower.

I bought a gym membership in October but I haven’t worked out in three weeks, and apparently I partook of way too many Christmas cookies and candy canes. So included in my list of “do mores” is to exercise more, along with read books more, study my Bible more, be a good mom more, finish projects more, scrapbook more, clean house more (that cleaning thing is kind of just an alternate goal). More, more, more, but when I’m already behind, shouldn’t I be more focused on less, less, less?

Ah yes, the “less” column, which includes eat less, procrastinate less, start fewer new projects, lose my cool less, bite my nails less, go to bed with makeup on less, watch TV less and how about go out for family dinner less. I mean these lists could just go on and on.

So after some thinking (which apparently doesn’t need to go into the “more” column — I find plenty of time for just that), I finally came up with a few life-changing resolutions for this year. Mind you, I’m not holding my breath that I will permanently be able to mark any of these items of my to-do list, but I figure if I’m at least headed in the right direction, that’s a good place to be.

My 2015 Resolutions:
• Put God and Others First
• Simplify
• Follow Through