A Lovely Dream

fur mama day

If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been.  ~Robert Brault

Just because these fur babies didn't squeeze out of my vagina doesn't make me any less than a mother. I fret over them constantly. I wipe their eyes, make sure they eat, brush their teeth, worry they are bored, and on and on.  My babies rule my life and make it worth living.  They share my joys and my saddness and worry, especially gi, when I bang into things and curse loud. She'll always rush right over and glare at me like "jeez louize be careful. I rely on you!" I once kept a 700 a month apartment I couldn't afford so pooh the cat had a safe place to call home.

I sent my mom flowers and we'll skype later. I have live chat at 3:00 central (4 eastern, 1 pacific, I think) but mostly I will be doing what I have been doing the last few days is making dread extensions, dreading my hair and attaching them. Golly I have a lotta hair.  Lots are done but right down the center of the back is not.  I'll watch too many episodes of Law and Order SVU where I can watch Fin say "You have the right to an attorney and if you throw up in my car, I'll kill ya."

My Dread Journey and MY BOOK

They are back.

About 2 years ago I had someone dread my hair and add dread extensions and it was fabulous. But I was left alone to do the aftercare and the sort of dreads I had, crochet, were not a big thing then. Not many youtube videos on it, which is of course the only way any of us learns anything. So I didn't get how to do the roots. I didn't understand about sleeping with a t shirt or about how to wash them with baking soda. All the wonderful things I know now as I embark on another dread journey.  So the first time they lasted only 3 months and I cut them off rather then be overwhelmed with the paramount questions I had on maintaining them. But now they will be here to stay.  My friend Goog put in some but now I am finishing the rest myself. Its just easier to sit in front of the tv and dread and I don't feel guilty making someone else do it. Cause its a long process.  I will make a how to video on it after I get mine up. Ill save one for you to demonstrate the technique.

Here is a photo of how it looked 2 years ago.


I'm making the length only to my shoulder because too long is too long. I want length and fun stuff going on but I don't want bother.  My mother hated when I had dreads because it goes against what she thinks is pretty. But I dig em.  And I feel prepared now. I know what I'm doing. I can dread my own hair, the extension hair, and attatch it in myself. Empowering. But why dreadlocks you ask? I like hair brushing against my shoulder. I like hair covering my neck.  And something about ratted up hair sticking out like, well, sticks, with beads and shiny things stuck in it, makes me happy. Makes me feel creative. By golly I could put anything in my hair! Little fake birdies and butterflies. That in itself is worth the experience.

So if you think you are stuck with your hair the way it is you are not. And you don't have to wait to let it grow. You can do whatever you want to your hair Suzi Says So. Dreads are tribal and makes me think of goddesses and strong women and art.  That's why I like them. But it's a pain, for sure, to put them in. Fun too, but tedious. I do a little each day because I can't sit down and do the whole thing. I don't have that kind of stamina. But I should just do it so I can get on with my life already. I think I started a week ago.  I have like 30 more dreads to go.  Im going to add felted wool ones for color. and make my own big fimo beads TELL ME THIS ISN'T FUN!

 

In other news....my book was spotted today in an Alabama Barnes and Noble by my friend Ajae McCain. I haven't been to our local B&N in Minnisota so I don't know if it's there yet. I need to go and experience that. It is very not real. I get emails and I know people are reading and love the book but the fact that it is in a bookstore I regularly shop at feels unreal. As does most good things after my father has passed away.  I can't touch it or put my finger on the feeling. Not a lot feels real. It has been 6 months since he has been gone and it feels as unreal as ever. But at the same time I know it's a good book. I know how hard I worked and that it is worthy of being on those shelves. It explains exactly how to do what I do. I don't hide away secrets or leave you only with pretty pictures. I want you to learn. I want you to do what I do. I'm already down the road onto the next thing so I'm not worried. I want you to catch up. I want you to want to go where I am going. I want to go with you.

Sure I'm Sober Sure I'm Sane

Yup.
Not so hard to stay sober really. Just never leave the house. I need to start meetings again for sure because things like anniversaries aren't a lot of fun. Instead of an accomplishment you think instead about what you felt that day you got drrunk last and how terrible you felt right before the shot hit the back of your throat. The reasons you had for drinking that night and why you drank so much. And those reasons are still there. The feelings you will take with you forever. You may work through them, you may not feel them all the time but they will always be there. Just there, laying next to your dna.

So I need to get to a meeting.  It's on my to do list. Get back into being grateful for being sober and remembering that not being will be really bad. Cause you forget about that when the years wrack up.

So no congratulations necessary. I've simply been too busy to get into trouble. If I don't start doing the things I need to be doing, though, trouble will surely find me.  It always does.

Journal Page from my class A Lovely Dream

 

Suzi Stamps for Mothers Day

I might have an ego but that is quite alright. Especially when you walk through a large Scrapbooking store like Archivers and see that yOur stamps are the best.  Seriously. Mine are the cutest.  They are pretty AND versatile. Archivers just started carrying my line online but we must tell them they have to be in their store.

If you would like to watch a Live Demo presentation of the making of this mothers day card then go to the Creative Adventures chatroom at 3pm EST (2 Minnesota time!) and I'll be there for 30 minutes making the card.

The stamp I am starting with is Angel Of Art

  Have no fear when starting off with a Suzi Stamp. I know there seems to be a lot of open space, but that is good. You are just coloring, not drawing, there is nothing to be afraid of. I know you can color.  And if you use prismacolor pencils you can get a smooth finish easy peasy.  The reason my stamps are large are precisely because you can change them in so many ways. What starts off as an angel will soon turn into my mom's pain in the ass daughter, me, sending her a cute little card that says, hello I'm a pain in the ass and thank you for having me. So you start off with one stamp and can wind up with so many others. Just watch!

 

I color in the girl but ignore the crown and the art supplies she is holding.  I round off the top of her head and make the hair on her left side longer. I press lightly with shadow colors, a little under her eyes, then press HARD with the white prismacolor pencil. Prismas have a high wax content so when you *burnish with the white you are actually pushing wax around her face. Not so waxy like a crayon but a nice blend that is more pencil. Prismas are really one of a kind.  They can cover an area as well as paint. I am also going to ignore the wings for this card.

 

  The harder you press with a prismacolor pencil the more *opaque the result will be. You can keep the pretty face but change the girls look entirely. NOW THAT is new in the stamping world.  Aren't you glad that she doesn't have a tiny face like all the others that you can't do much with but what the artist intended? Where is the fun in that? I want you to add your spin on it your creativity. Start with a suzi girl and see where she takes you!

 

 

 

Next cut her out. Cut off her crown and her wings and lookee she is just an ordinary girl, like the rest of us.  She can be you. She can be your daugher. She can be your mom. She can be anything you want. That is the point. Just because she started off one way doesn't mean that is the only girl you can have.  You are creative I know you are. Make a new hairdo on her and away you go!

 

 

 

 

Now it's getting really fun.  Because I make my stamps easy to alter you can add any of your other stamps to my girls.  I cut a slit into her arm and wiggled in the bottom half of a little house. You could put anything in her arms though, a cat, a heart, a bunch of flowers, a puppy dog, the kitchen sink! What stamps do you already have that you could use as an object for your figure to hold? Fun yeah? I told you!

 

 

 

To finish I glue stuck pretty paper to a card stock card then glue stuck her to the pretty paper. I glue stuck some words and on the inside it says:  "You will always be my home." I recently moved to another state and I know my mom misses me a little, even though yes I am a pain in the ass. But at least she knows I love her and have made her a cute card.

VOCABULARY:

Burnish: When you take an impliment and press hard over something, like a colored pencil over another color pencil to lighten the shade, or let's say you are folding a piece of cardstock and use a bone folder to smash in the crease. You are burnishing.

Opaque: When you cannot see through something.

Sunday Stamps with Suzi: La Belle Card

Card design by Kelly Heggem

 

Find Suzi Stamps Here

 

Right click here (cntl click mac) to download this video

 

 

 

 

To Paper Piece stamp image onto  text and decorative papers 

this paper is by Basic Gray

Emboss edges of papers then cut out and arrange.