Wednesday, September 21, 2011

My Print and make journey book!

Hello my lovely friends!

I just wanted to share my latest digital design, it's a hybrid mini journey book kit. It's so easy and so much fun to put together, you can print it right now and make as many of these little books as you like! The best part is, there is so much ephemera that you can print again and again and use them on other projects! Also every week I will be coming out with new inserts for this book design such as pockets, journal cards, and new cover designs so you can keep adding and junking up your book! I hope you like and thank you for stopping by!











You can find the digital kit to make this book here!

And other extras here!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Prima and Tattered Angels Blog Hop

First up we have this sweet give-away:





Included are:

  • Prima Innoscense alterable flowers-3 packs
  • Prima Winter Roses
  • Prima Royal Verbena Silver Flowers
  • Prima Miss Sophie Lace Flowers
  • Prima Sugar Plum Roses-Banana
  • 3 styles of alterable Prima lace
  • TA Glimmer Mist-Sunflower, Blackberry Cordial, Bronze and Timberline
  • TA Glam-Nightfall & Dirty Martini
  • TA Chalkboard-Cherry Cola & Monolith

For a chance to win the LOVELY prize above just visit some of the other blogs listed below and then go to the Prima blog and let us know your favorite altered Prima product spotted on one of the blogs!

(Comments will close September 14th at midnight PST. One lucky winner will be chosen on September 15th.)




Hello everyone!

Welcome to my blog I am Marion Smith and I'm a Prima product designer and educator. Below are some pictures of some of projects made using the latest and greatest Prima products as well as Tattered Angels Glimmer mist. Believe it or not, all the distressing was done using glimmer mist in different shades of tan and brown. I'll be teaching these claases at Custom Impressions in Bellflower, California on September 23-24th and we're going to have so much fun so maybe I'll see some of you there! I hope you enjoy them!












Prima Blog:

www.prima.typepad.com/prima

Prima Educator Links!

Janine Koczwara

Nathalie Kalbach

Cari Fennell

Birgit Koopsen

Jamie Dougherty

Marion Smith

Sharon Laakkonen

Design Team Links:

Ania Lexander

Trina McClune

Hege Lundquist

Anna-Maria Wolniak

Trudi Harrison

Maiko Kosugi

Stacey Young

Leslie Ashe

Karola Witczak

Steph Devlin

Emeline Seet

Marie-Nicolas Alliot

Finnibair (Anna Dabrowska)



And finally hop on over to the...

Tattered Angels DT Blog:

Tattered Angels Blog

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

What am I up to?



Hello my dear friends!

What a happy update this is as I am back in the swing of things and phew it took some work this week! Lots of new stuff going on this season, first new workshops at Custom Impressions can't wait for those as I have a fabulous gift for everyone that takes the whole weekend and I also like to give freebies away during the workshops so that is always fun!

Also we have lowered our shipping rates on the website, shipping to the U.S. now will never be over $5.99!!! I'm sure you'll all love that! Also we've doen away with most of our individual products and are putting our focus back on fabulous kits! Of course we will still carry specialty items and hard to find vintage goodies. Also, A Piece of Craft will be debuting it's own line of products designed by myself this winter. These product are not available for wholesale they are specialty items only our website will have available and possibly some other kit clubs etc. These will not be mass produced.

Lastly, my book if coming along nicely it's taken a lot of hard work to update everything and since I was sick all summer I got to give it a little love and care.

I want to thank all of you for being such wonderful support this summer, it means so much to me and I truly value your friendship.

Ok enough rambling, have an awesome day hope to see you all back here tmw as it is the Prima/Tattered Angels blog hop and I have a special post just for you and you could possible win prizes as well!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

A very happy update!

I feel so relieved! I got my pathology report back and was happy to find out that the masses I brought in did not have any fetal tissue or placenta tissue which is very good news. So, we don't why I bled or passed the clots but lately I haven't had much bleeding just minimal spotting. This may be the norm for awhile.

Garett did get me a fetal Doppler so I could listen to the baby every day and he/she is still going strong! If you could see the smile on my face every time I hear it you would probably laugh at how love sick I look. I'm smiling as I write this right now lol!

I've been resting a lot, haven't left the house much but I think after this week I will be able to do more. Nausea at night has come back which is strange so I've been unable to sleep well, so I've been painting again.

Since I've been on bed rest I've also been working on my book and I'm so excited about that, my goal this year is to finally finish it. I'm actually working on a second book as well on mixed media painting, but that is only in the beginning stages. You guys know me, I always have to be doing something!

Anyway, I wanted to thank all of you for being there and for me and for all of the kind words. It's very comforting hearing your own experiences, it really makes me feel like I'm not alone in this. Thank you so much!

xoxoxo
Marion

Friday, July 29, 2011

Sometimes being strong is hard to do

Well I'm glad I have a handy iPad since I will be in bed for awhile. I thought I may as well blog about this crazy week and maybe in a few months when I'm holding this baby I can look back and be reminded how lucky I am. I hope that's how this turns out. I'm so scared it feels like I cant think about much else. I've searching the Internet all day looking for answers and all I could find was horror stories, well they are horrific to me.

I'm haunted by what a Doctor told me today, he said that this may mean that I may miscarry but we'll keep an eye on it and get lots of rest. Then I read stories about women who miscarried just after seeing and hearing their baby. Boy am I dumb for reading those because that just made more afraid. Not afraid of the pain etc. But afraid for my baby, and afraid that if that were to happen I could never come back from it. "You have to try and rest and not stress out." says the Dr. Easy for you to say, it's I impossible!

Thankfully I have Garett who keeps saying, "Everything is going to be fine, I just have a really good feeling." Did you know when I thought I miscarried the other day he went straight to the computer to look up how to console someone going through a miscarriage? He amazes me! The kids are good to have around too, you can't help but smile when Brooke is walking her baby around the house in her pink stroller singing. Blake, he keeps bringing me cookies and food he really knows the way to my heart! Even when he sneaks a bite!

Anyway to shed light on what happened this morning, I woke up with more blood and clotting. Not as much as last time but it was not pretty and so scary. Got to the OB and listened for a heart beat and baby was still going strong. I really want to buy one of those dopler radios now so I can listen every day. Okay maybe every ten minutes, I cant help it. So I will continue to post about this pregnancy and hopefully soon these posts will become more happy and uplifting. Till then I'm going to search online for one of those radios!

Thank you all so much for the kind words and prayers, it means so much to me I can't even express how amazed and thankful you are all in my life!


Xoxox
Mare

Thursday, July 28, 2011

A horrifying start today.

Wow, is what I have to say about what happened today. I'm going to share another very personal experience, because this is my life and it's who I am. I'm an open book with nothing to hide and this is important to me.

I woke up this morning and I was having contractions, contractions that were a lot like labor contractions. I had a bad feeling right away and woke up Garett telling him I was scared because I know these kind of pains. A few seconds later I felt a gush and when I saw blood I immediately began whaling, "No, no, no, Oh my God!" when I reached the bathroom I expelled two fairly large masses and quite a bit of blood.

My whole world came crashing down and all I could do was sit there and cry aloud uncontrollably. Garett had to take the kids out of the room, and I called my OB. I explained what was happening and she told me it sounds like a miscarriage and that I needed to be seen asap because I'm so far along that it's rare and can cause other complications and they also want to figure why I miscarried. So we made an appointment for 11pm which was a few house from then.

I cried the entire time, I felt like I had already gone through so much the last few months and now that I am finally feeling better this happens. What did I do wrong? Then Garett came in to console me some more and I just said, "I really wanted this baby." I just kept saying it. I couldn't help but fall in love with it as soon as I found out I was pregnant. You know some people don't know that sometimes you feel that attachment right away, and the love is there and it's very strong. I sat there for what felt like forever just crying. Then I had to scoop my baby into a bag so the Dr. could run tests and I thought, "This is my baby, in this little ziplock bag, why?" it was the hardest thing I've ever done.

Finally we get to the Dr. and she does her tests and we all knew what it was but we wouldn't get an answer that said for sure till Friday. So I asked her, "Is there anyway we could find out more today?" and she said she could look for a heart beat and do an ultrasound later today just so I could lose any false hope I had. So she gets her little radio wand out and we start searching to make sure there wasn't a heart beat. Awhile goes by and I start crying then Dr. gasps and we all hear a heart beat.

I just started crying, I couldn't even hold it back. So she goes on to explain that sometimes people have what is called a vanishing twin. Where one baby doesn't develop all the way early in pregnancy and either your body absorbs it or you miscarry it later. She said that may be what happened but we don't know for sure till she sends the mass to be tested. She said it could also be hemorrhaging or a few other things.

Then we go in for the ultra sound to see how the baby is doing, and the baby is just full of life with a strong heart beat. They also checked for other complications or injuries in the uterus and didn't find anything. So, now we just wait to find out what happened.

What did I learn from this?? I learned that I am one very lucky, and fortunate person to be blessed with a family and a healthy baby. I also learned, that I don't have control over everything in my life and that some things are left to God and are a part of his plan. If I did lose a twin, it will be a very sad day Friday, but I will be happy still knowing that there is still a baby growing and living inside me that I will love forever. I will still love the baby I lost and feel like a part of my family is missing, but I know it wasn't meant to be, and maybe this was meant to happen so that I could learn how precious life is and share that experience with you.

I really hope that's not the case, because I know I'll take it harder than I think. There's still a good possibility it's not and so I hope it's nothing serious. What a roller coaster! So I have to take it easy for a few days at least and just ask that you bare with me this week as this will effect me getting things done that was requested, and answering emails. Artsy Addicts kits will still ship this week, but if you email me or requested something from me this week please be patient with me as I will likely stay off the internet for awhile and sleep off the stress. Thank you guys so much.

xoxo
Marion Smith