Etsy Project Embrace IMAGINE treasury challenge

I am grateful to be part of Etsy Project Embrace. I was shocked and excited to have recently won the EPE treasury challenge. I mean, I am a total noob (as my teenager would say) ha ha! No, but seriously, I am a big time newbie with this team! But having been voted as the winner has given me an even greater glimpse of how amazing this team is. I have organized a treasury challenge on a small scale for my local team, so I know that organizing a treasury challenge with the amount of entries EPE receives is a pretty big project. But EPE is a true team! Everyone volunteers to help out to make things happen. It is pretty awesome! I like to see people working together for a common goal. The EPE goal is to increase awareness and support for those who have been diagnosed with cancer. Through our treasuries, blog posts, Etsy shops, social media postings, etc our team gains exposure so we can further spread this message. It is great to see people work together and so many Etsy shop owners donating to American Cancer Society and other cancer awareness and support related organizations.

I have been appointed one of three judges for the current treasury challenge round, along with the other winners of the JOY treasury challenge. For this round, I selected the theme Imagine. I have been looking through all the Imagine treasuries and am awed by the wonderful eye some of our team members have, however most of them ARE artists. And very talented ones at that. So why should I be surprised? Maybe, more like, overwhelmed with thinking I have to pick three favorites and an alternate (sigh). That is going to be tough.

These next two treasuries feature items created by Tricky Fox Designs. I am very honored to be part of such wonderful collections. Thank you, Suz, of simplysuzula, for including my shell and stone bracelet.

 

And thank you, Mollie, of RoughMagicCreations, for including one of my dichroic fused glass pendants in her gorgeous collection. Can you find IMAGINE in this trej?

Weekend Blog Hop

Graphic Design by Tara is hosting a Weekend Blog Hop. Anyone can join in on the blog hopping! Click on the graphic to visit her blog and join in on the fun! And while you are here, let me know you stopped by so I can visit you back! Have an amazing weekend everyone!

No alarms and no surprises ...

I feel a bit more like a hipster putting my baby to bed the past two days. I have been looking for a nightly lullaby collection for a long time. I wanted something I would remember as the CD I listened to as I rocked Eldon to bed every night. And also something we could appreciate musically. Well, thus far we have seen songs by Jewel and Johnson & Johnson and Disney. I loved the Disney collection of lullabies when my teenager was tiny, but now when I hear it, it sounds so 90s. I never thought in the 90s there would be a sound that sounds 90s, but there is. Jewel is just too dumb and passé and everything else a bit too mainstream, which is not something we Naylor's are known for. What I ended up getting is "Rockabye Baby - Lullaby Renditions of Radiohead CD." 

So, we are listening to "serene interpretations" of No Surprises, Karma Police, and Paranoid Android without vocals. Gotta love that! And these Rockabye Baby people have also put out lullaby versions of Bjork, The Beatles, Bob Marley, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Journey, Guns and Roses, U2, Queen, Pink Floyd, No Doubt, Metallica, Tool, NIN, The Pixies, Elvis, Black Sabbath ... and the list goes on and on and on! I think I just might get the Journey album for when my dad babysits! And nevermind that there is Hushabye Baby with songs by Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Let's keep that under our hats. I must not let my peddle steel playing in a country band husband know about that. :o) 

Treasury Love

I was featured in an amazing treasury tonight by fellow Etsy Project Embrace member, AudreyGardenLady, on Etsy.

The collection is very beautiful! Thank you, Audrey, for featuring my pendant in this very meaningful treasury. Audrey's store on Etsy has beautiful jewelry and bath items! I think this bracelet is especially pretty!

Bikini Body

Some people may know that after having my second child, I am on a mission to have a bikini body! I am not sure at what weight I will be at that point or how much working out it will take. I will have to keep trying on that suit until I feel good in it. So at this point, all I know I want to reach my goal weight by Christmas! The total is a 40 pound weight loss. Occasionally, I am going post here about my progress.

I often question what got me to where I am at with my weight. I do know that prior to the birth of baby Eldon in January, I had two consecutive unsuccessful pregnancies. I think after not having a baby for 15 years, my body didn't know how to be pregnant, but it learned! :o) After three pregnancies in 2 years, I was up to 167 pounds. In addition to that, I had quit smoking several years ago, and it didn't help that I had a job sitting in a cube for 8 hours a day pretty much chained to my desk. All the weight that accumulated was not flattering on my 5'3" frame. Eight weeks ago I told my husband I was fed up with being Mrs. Stay-Puft and WE had to do something (he gained weight with me during my pregnancies and was just over 200 pounds at 5'9"). I am still nursing my baby son and needed to find a way to lose weight without compromising my milk supply. After a lot of research I found that Weight Watchers has a plan that accounts for lactation. I told my husband about it and explained how the program worked. We liked that it was based on portion control and that we didn't have to buy food from them, but we would buy whatever kind of foods we wanted in our regular grocery store. Then we made the biggest first step for us ... We had to swallow our pride and decide that we were not too cool to attend meetings. At 40 pounds overweight and feeling like a giant blob, I decided I was not too cool for anything.

The meetings keep you accountable and that really does work for us. Plus we get little ribbons and stickers when we reach goals. At last weigh in, I had lost 17 pounds and my husband is down a little over 20. We had lost 10% of our body weight and were rewarded little brass keychains. This is only after 2 months! And I have 4 months to go. We are very happy with the program thus far. It is a lifestyle change that we can easily live with. I still eat ice cream every night or have popcorn with M&Ms mixed in while watching a movie.

At first, it was hard. I won't make you think it was completely easy. I think the first two weeks I thought I was starving and trying to figure out what we could eat in a day was a challenge. I was told it got easier and it most certainly did. Now I feel like I have to eat all day just so I don't lose weight too fast and stop making milk. We also know what we can eat each meal to stay within our daily POINTS. Menu planning has become easy and we know what we can have when we go out to eat. Our teenager even eats whatever we eat, but in larger portions because he is growing and working out a lot. He doesn't complain, at all, and likes that we eat at home a lot more.

Keep in mind that I get more calories than most women as long as I am nursing ... which only helps me stay on track with my other goal of nursing for a full 12 months. As baby Eldon is getting more and more wiggly while nursing and teeth are coming in, I need all the motivation I can get for sticking that out. Nursing is not completely convenient or always enjoyable.

17 pounds lost and I don't miss them. I have to agree that "No food tastes as good as being thin feels." 

Custom items

A friend of mine asked me to create a charm for her based on her daughters school colors and mascot. It had to have a lion and be maroon and gold. I found a cute little lion and centered it on the maroon paper. Then I used a star punch to make some gold stars and glued them on. Next came the all important glitter and swavroski bling to add a bejeweled touch.

She also asked me to make her a butterfly charm on red. I have two in my shop currently, on turquoise and purple, but red is her favorite color. The butterfly looks really nice on the red.

In addition to making more charms, I made my first necklace with letter stamped tags. It is for my God-daughter who had he sweet 16 this past week. I still haven't got to see her to give it to her, but I think she will love it. The stamping was actually easier than I thought. I still didn't get it perfect, but I expected more of a disaster and frustration. Not so, whatsoever. I am quite happy with the results.

It is a busy birthday week!!! I also made three charms for parties for today. We had a birthday lunch for my friend, Jill, and it was also her mom, Janet's, birthday. I made them both charms using print-outs of photographs that Jill took. She is a very talented photographer! It is also Rachel's birthday today and I made her a charm with her boyfriend, Shea's, photograph in it. I am excited to see what she thinks of it. In addition to the birthday charms, I made a dichroic fused glass pendant and a HOPE cancer awareness charm that I am putting in my shop tonight. 10% of the proceeds for all the items in Tricky Fox shop are donated to American Cancer Society.

Hooray! I am a finalist!!!

I am so excited ... Excited like a little girl or something! Haha! I am a finalist in Etsy Project Embrace's Treasury Challenge! It is exciting because I have seen all the submissions and there were so many ... and so many gorgeous ones! Click here to vote for your favorite! (Voting is over. P.S. - I won!!! Thank you if you voted for me!)


And also ... my custom soldered photo frame was featured in another curator's trej! Yay! This Keat's inspired treasury is super sweet!