2017 The Year of Change!

2017 Year of Change

Hopefully everyone is having a better start to this year, then many previous. I am not going to bring the mood down just yet, but will discuss some happenings during my journey. 

Since we last spoke I have been trying to make changes all around my life. Mentally, physically, spiritually, financially, and many more. 

I am having an AMAZING time watching my Granddaughter grow, learn and become her own little person. 

And her mother happen to remind me that I'm going to be 40 in 4 months!!! Well she didn't say that directly, but pointed out Gwendalyn will be 2 in 4 months.

So where do I go from here? I'm not really certain. I am in the long process of trying to clear out my craft room and sewing areas first. I've been listening to The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up By Marie Kondo. I can say it is helping me along the way. I will be doing a YouTube video soon showing my rooms and the items for sale. Really, IT'S A LOT OF ITEMS!!! Pretty much 300+ Stamp sets, inks, embellishments, fabric, tools, punches, any and everything will be sold. 

And now on to some of the not so happy stuff. I've been going through some extremely rough times physically! And after doing a little digging and making appointments with new doctors. I have come across in my medical files that they already have FIBROMYALGIA 

listed as one of the many issues. 

Yes, I have been on meds, from different doctors for different things. But at no point have I been treated for Fibromyalgia or was it discussed at any time from my doctors. This information would have been very helpful MANY, MANY YEARS AGO. Instead of making me suffer and not knowing what was actually wrong. Going to different doctors over the years for different symptoms, to never come to an actual diagnosis. When this whole time I could have been treated for the actual problem, knowing that someone put that in my chart but it has never been addressed has my slightly upset and confused. 

And so I try to carry on. I have my bestie, who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis. Guess we just have to start our new chapters in our lives. 

If I must forgo much of what I enjoyed before to become a better me for tomorrow then I will have to try my best. Not that I don't want to give up most days, but for today I will press forward. 

Thanks for listening to me about some of my journey. Hope to see you around soon and you purchase tons of things from my HUGE closing up shop SALE. 

Here are just 2 pictures of some of my craft room. 

See you soon,

be Determined to get things scrapped😁

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Happy New Year's Eve

Now that I have that out of the way, I would like to say hello to everyone and let you all know how much I have TRULY MISSED YOU!!! Being a grandma is a full time gig and I wouldn't trade it for the world. 

I have been terrible with blogging this year, if you haven't noticed already... But I really am going to try a couple new things in the new year. 2016 has to be better than last year. 

First things first. I wanted to give you a heads up that I am getting my stamps together and placing them on EBay. I am also purging other items in my craft space. I have found that I just have too much stuff and I will never be able to use it all. 

Cricut cartridges,  embellishments, STAMPS (Stampin' Up, Close to My Heart, Unity, MFT, LaLa, and many many more), tools, punches, dies, craft blanks, alterable items, etc. New, used,  opened but not used. This list is going to go for a bit. 

So keep your eyes open and I will post a link as soon as I get some items up and listed. I may also end up doing a destash video. 

I hope everyone has been well and had a wonderful Christmas and holiday. Be safe bringing in the new year. 

Can't wait to talk with you soon.

From Gwendalyn and Mindy

Have a Blessed Day

Welcome to October!!!

Hello Crafty Friends

I know it has been some times since I've been actively around and I truly miss everyone. 

The past 2 months have been very life changing and I'm just trying to dig myself back out. 

I was doing well mentally for awhile and then BAM... I was just TKO'd without warning. 

I lost my Father in Law, family friends Father, and that same friends live-in sister in law. Then after all of this I have been diagnosed with more medical issues. We'll go into that more later. 

I have just returned from my fall crop with all my favorite crafty friends that live near me. We had an extended weekend at Sauder Village. One of my FAVORITE places to crop. 

Prior to leaving I had finished up my second quilt. I was asked after completing my moms birthday gift. Her quilt was my very first project and I decided to go big or go home. I made a King size quilt for her bed all on my machine. Did all the patchwork, binding and quilting myself. 

If I would make a quilt for my cousins girlfriends sister in law, that just had her baby. It's hard to say now when it comes to babies. I made sure to let her know that I am not a professional but I will do my very best. 

It turned out very cute and I made it all with baby flannel. It was soooo soft. I embroidered his name on it and it made it much cuter. 

And last but not least for now..... I'm going to be a GRANDMA!!! I mean a Mimi. No Grannies here. I'm too young for that. My son and his girlfriend are due on my birthday May 2015.

  

So hopefully everyone has been well and taking care of business. I will be listing more items for sale that didn't make it to the garage sale that I also had in that time frame. I have the Regular Expression and the Expression 2 for sale. I need to update my list of cartridges as many of those did sell. 

I was lucky enough to purchase the Cricut Explore on HSN for a crazy cheap price for everything that comes with it ( I paid WAY less than listed). But I just went to see if they still had it and again they have sold out. 

Talk with you soon as I would really like to get back on track. I really miss crafting and there is a lot to get done before Christmas.

Blessings

Mindy

The Determined Scrapper

I'm such a terrible......

Blogger

One day, two days, three days in a row. Then what.... I can go for over a week without a peep. I really am trying to get on a schedule I promise. I just have had more bad medical news handed to me and was taking a little rough.

But what other way to get back on the horse than to share my days with my friends around the world. I know there are some that come back on a regular basis and some that just come back when they see that I happen to finally post something.

Well I will share with you the schedule I have worked out and what I will try to accomplish over the next couple of weeks. I will be down again for sure on July 25th due to a medical procedure I will be having done.

So here it goes - 

Tuesdays - Tour or Technique  Tuesdays

This will hopefully be a way to get me doing more videos again. It will consist of a tour of parts of my craft areas or a different technique. Hopefully I will be able to advise what the next project will be incase you would care to join along.

Wednesdays - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesdays

 This is something I have been following along with for a couple years now and truly enjoy talking and meeting new crafty friends. The main link up place is over at Julia's The Stamping Ground. This is when you take a snapshot of your workspace and give a little info as to what is going on in your world that day. I LOVE Wednesdays when I get to travel the world from my desk in just a couple of clicks. I also want to start doing videos for this when I'm able, but of course we will see how that goes. 

Fridays - Find your Mojo Fridays

Since I have dealt with my fair share of losing my Mojo I thought it would be fun to help each other find theirs. Maybe if I'm having an off day someone can help me find mine. Hopefully Fridays will consist of ways that I have gotten myself back on my feet craftwise after many many knockdowns. 

I will also be posting about my new machine.... My Janome Memory Craft 350E Embroidery Machine! I am so excited to add that to my collection of wonderful machines. I have been blessed with a hubby that helps me try to combat the ever changing medical conditions I have to deal with. 

As many of you know I am not tied to only posting about one craft. I was in the past mainly scrapbooking, cardmaking and paper crafts. But I have been sharing more and more of the fabric things that I have been working on. I would like to continue to keep my blog about all things crafty. This is how we can meet new people and talk through ideas and tough times. 

Since I had a really nice ending to this post and my internet crashed my post, I totally forgot what I ended with. 

I do remember that, I will be adding a couple new pages to my blog. Since I am a crafty girl of many crafts, I have come to find that I have a LOT of stuff. New stuff, used stuff and what was I thinking stuff. So that's good news for you. Why, you may ask. Well I will be posting items for sale with payment through PayPal and hopefully most of the items will be free shipping. 

So for now, that this has become a long post, I hope you all have had a blessed and safe week. 

Blessings
Mindy
The Determined Scrapper

Fabulous

Everything is coming up FABULOUS!

This has been a very busy week since we last spoke. Last Thursday and Friday I attended the women's conference at my church. Fabulous - A conference to uplift and empower godly women. All I can say is it was FABULOUS!!!

This was my first year attending the conference and not only did I attend I volunteered both days to help. I will do that again in a heartbeat. Not only did I get to work with some wonderful women I had already met, but I was able to make many many new friends. It helped make my church feel smaller by getting to know more people on a personal level.

Not only did I get to meet new friends, but I attended with my Bestie Carrie. This was some of the BEST QUALITY time we have spent together in a very long time.

To top off our Thursday evening..... MANDISA was there and did a concert and had very uplifting and encouraging words. She was on stage for almost 2.5 hours. Of course I had to get her new CD, and I have already memorized the whole thing. It's AWESOME!!! 

I think I could go on for days about the fun I had and telling you more about everything I did but I have other fun stuff to tell you. If you are interested in finding out more please stop by the website and check it out on Facebook.

So after those 2 very busy days, I had to take time to relax. That took a lot out of me and I was not sure I was going to make it at one point. So Saturday it was time for a change. 

I thought it was time to cut my hair. I will only cut my hair when it is long enough to donate it. This time around I cut 16 inches off. I am loving how easy it is to take care of and how much lighter my head feels. 

You can't see the ends of my hair here but it is past the middle of my back when it is brushed out. 

And now it is just barely touching my neck. It is so nice and easy to take care of. 

Still more exciting stuff to tell you.

So Sunday I went for my acupuncture and when I arrived there was a wonderful sign welcoming me.

My birthday was on Tuesday and they made sure that when I came in on Sunday that they had a sign for me. I was very nice to see. (The owner was also a speaker at Fabulous)

Upon my arrival home from acupuncture that day I was going through emails and was just FLOORED by one e-mail I had received. It was an email from Wood Magazine. Now it's not the typical magazine I would expect to get a message from but I was so excited when I read it and responded back, it had made me even more excited.

They are doing a special towards the end of the year that will be covering craft rooms. They had watched my room tour on my YouTube Channel and liked a lot of things about my room. They had pointed out a lot of things they  really enjoyed and asked if I would be interested in being in this special..... HELLO OMG YES!!! So I messaged him back and he told me what all I need to do. I'm so excited, you just don't understand. So as soon as I find out if for sure I'm going to be in the article and when it will be published I will let you know. 

As of today, Tuesday, May 20. I have assembled the first 8 rows of my quilt and have 7 more to go before I can start quilting it. It really is not taking as long as I thought it would for my first quilting project. 

Okay, so as for the past week, I've had a lot of things going on. BUT, they have been FABULOUS. I hope you have all enjoyed your week and I will be back again tomorrow for WOYWW. See you then.

Oh here are some of the PhotoBooth photos from the first night of the conference. 

Blessings

Mindy

The Determined Scrapper

Craft Show Today

Please make sure to stop out at the craft show today if you are in the Toledo, Ohio area. We would love to see you. There are tons of wonderful crafts by some very talented people.

Stop out and do some last minute Christmas shopping.

Hope to see you there, if not, I will post info on my booth later today.

Have a wonderful Saturday.

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