A Room With A View

I never really thought I needed a room with a view. For the last 8 years I have lived with a view of a building that is 20 feet from my window. But when I travel, I have a need for a view. I went to New York City, stayed in Times Square on the 18th floor and had a view of a building. I went to Chicago and had a room on the 23rd floor at a hotel on the river and had a view of the other side of the building through the court yard. So, the next time I went to Chicago, I paid extra for the Room with a View!

We stayed at the Congress Plaza Hotel, not the nicest hotel. It is old and shows its age, but I had a room with a view. Straight in front of me was Buckingham Fountain, with Lake Michigan behind it. Every hour on the hour the fountain would spray water way up into the air! I could sit there all day and gaze out my window. As I watched it I thought of many things, including new projects to work on! At night I would lie on the bed and watch the fountain. It made me think that a Room with a View is something I desire out of life. Will I get it? Probably not. I will continue to look at the uninspiring view of the yellow building. If I step outside, I do have a view of the CN Tower, but the side walk isn't a comfortable place to hang out. But I do know, from now on when I travel, I am looking for that view! It is worth the extra money!!

What is your Addiction?

I have many addictions. If you are a Scrapbooker or Paper Crafter you too probably have an addiction or two. But my addictions go past some paper and glitter!

I am addicted to Art Supplies!! I am a Jack-of-all-Trades. I can't stop with one medium. I have acrylic paints, then Fluid Acrylics, Shiva Paintstiks, watercolours, Copics, Prisma Pencil Crayons and PanPastels on the way!! Plus dye inks, pigment inks, distress inks, alcohol inks and solvent inks. Glimmer mists in a pile of colours, luminarte sprays and Adirondak Sprays! For me scrapbooking is about trying new techniques and getting messy!!

And how do I learn all these new techniques? Why books and magazines of course. You can't judge a book by it's cover, but if it pretty I will buy it!! I love to buy books!! I love to read the instructions and look at the pretty pictures. I love paper crafting books from Japan! I can't read it, but the pictures are still pretty and I can totally get inspired by the way they look at design. Plus almost all magazines from Somerset!! They are all so inspiring that I can't bare to get rid of them!!

My next addiction is Dies. I love the dies by Quickutz and the new dies by Tim Holtz released through Sizzix. I also have a pile of Spellbinder dies! The good thing is that they don't take up too much space! I could easily use my dies in every project I do. From an alphabet, to a label design to a cute shape!! I love to use my dies!!

Outside of the paper crafting world I also collect Blythe Dolls, which can be a bit on the pricey side! My collection has held at 10 dolls for a while now. But there is always clothing to buy. Between Etsy, Brilliant Haute Couture and This Is Blythe I could spend a pile of money!!

Then there are necklaces - I have to avoid Anthropology. I am guaranteed to buy a necklace every time I enter the store. Then I get an idea to make necklaces. How many necklaces can 1 woman have!! But they are so pretty!!

Oh wait - I also have a music addiction!! I love music!! With over 15000 songs in our iTunes library - probably over 80% are mine, I would never be able to listen to it all. But that is 20 years worth of collecting. Now I mainly buy individual songs, versus the whole album.

Some past addictions have been beads, expensive shoes and purses (OK, I am still working on the purse addiction).

What are some of your addictions?

Crafty Goodness in NYC!

A couple weeks ago I was in New York City!! I hadn't been there in about 16 years or more. When I did go it was in University, so I had different priorities. This trip was for Mark - who had never been and wanted to see the city, Gemma - who needed kid friendly activities and shopping, and Me - who needed a little bit of crafty inspiration! And I am going to share with you some of the inspiring stores!!



While I was there I hit about 3 Kate's Paperie's! I love this store!! So many fabulous papers and embellishments!!



Then I went to M&J Trading! This is 2 stores filled with ribbon and embellishments!! So much beautiful goodness!!



I bought some ribbon here. But you could spend an hour here looking through everything. I had about 40 minutes, while I was waiting for another store to open.



Around the corner was Tinsel Trading! This is more of a vintage store with some amazing older ribbons and finding!







I bought their book, some vintage twill ribbon, plus a vintage assorted pack.



We also made it to the Ink Pad in the West Village. This store may be small, but it is jammed packed with stamps and inks! Small as it was, I was still able to easily spend $100.



And I even found some Crafty goodness for Gemma at the Children's Museum of Art in SoHo. For $10 a person, you child can go in to the Museum and create all day! There was painting, clay, dress up, puppets, plus activities with instructors. Gemma did Chalk drawing Stop Animation and helped build a piece of Rome.

Plus just being in NYC is inspiring!! Do you have any favorite Crafty stores you like to visit? How about in Chicago - I am going there this summer!!

Day 2 (or 3) of the Big Purge!

Yesterday was successful! Round 1 through the scraproom is almost done! I just need to go through my cardstock and be ruthless! I have over 2 bins of cardstock and seldom use it on a project.

All the cabinets of the kitchen have been emptied. I found Baking powder that expired in 2005, chocolate that expired in 2006 and Truffle Oil that expired in 2001. I moved in 2002. Hmmm... Anyway, although I have emptied all the cabinets, I haven't restocked them, so the kitchen is a little messy at the moment.

But since Gemma is at school I am working upstairs in our open area. I have recovered Gemma's table. I have made a box for all the American Girl stuff. I have removed some toys she doesn't play with. I am determined for her to have a table she can actually work on! I am setting up a great little art studio up there for her! Which later can be her homework zone!

When she gets home I will hopefully put the kitchen back together!

Tomorrow is the big task of Gemma's room!!

Purging away!

I have a few days this week to work around the house (vs. getting scrapping projects done) and I am on a purging spree! Scrapbooks By Design is having another Garage Sale in May which gives me a great reason to get rid of stuff!! I have already filled 2 bags, a box and started a pile on the floor! But I feel I can still get rid of more!

But my next quest is that darn kitchen I keep talking about! I am determined to make it feel a lot cleaner/emptier! I want to transfer my bowls and serving dishes out of there. I haven't hosted a party in a while and these beautiful pieces sit there. Well, they can sit somewhere else!! Since I barely cook, there must be stuff I can get rid of!!

Then there is the upstairs area! Determined to get rid of more of Gemma's toys she doesn't play with! The school is having a Rummage Sale at the end of May and my goal is to be through this house before the sale!

I will keep you updated!

Can I really be a Happier Person?

Cleaning makes me happy. Organizing makes me happy. Shopping makes me happy. But can I be a Happier person? I sometimes wonder because I am a bit of a cynic. I don't want to make small chat with the Mom's waiting to pick up their kids from school. When I am at the park I would rather watch a movie on my iPod. I don't like loud kids. I don't like some kids for no reason. They just bug me. I like to gossip. I even get Gemma to tell me the goings on her class so I can be involved in the Grade 2 gossip. People I haven't even met bug me. I am happy creating by myself. When I am at work I avoid some customers because they bug me. I could never own a store where I had to be nice to everyone. Do I want to make the extra effort to be a happier person? I just don't think I necessarily have a happy disposition.

But don't get me wrong. I am a happy person, with friends. I do like people. I am just picky with who I want to be friends with. I am just questioning, do I have what it takes to be a 'Happier' person. The first step to be a happier person is having the energy, and I think that is what I am lacking. The energy to be a happier person. I guess the question is: Do I want to find the energy to be a happier person? Or do I want to stay the way I am? And is that a bad thing?

Does a Clean Living Room Bring Happiness?

I want to believe so. I left the Kitchen behind for now to concentrate on the Living room. Our Living room is definitely a multi-tasking room. It is a dining room, an office, a tv room, a craft room, a filming studio and the only room to find a couch to relax on. All this in about 300 square feet. I am constantly trying to find a 'home' for everything. When I can't I continue to purge. I don't want to walk in to the room to find a pile here, some stuff there, I want order. And I think that this order is what will make me a little happier. Or at least, less tired.

So my hopes this week is to find a home for everything in my living room. I want to walk into the room with a sense of happiness and relaxation. And then, hopefully, this will stimulate my creativity. Because, this is the room where all my creating happens.