winner :)

and the lucky duck is....



congrats jen! please email me your address at : belladrummer@gmail.com
thank you all for sharing your inspiring thoughts :)
here are a few pictures of what's inspiring me right now

this is from today, out shopping with my mister and loving all this pretty ribbon


and right now,

loving this pretty little corner. brightening it up with new paper garlands, some crochet love and pretty pom poms.
almost ready for a belladrummer shop update :) but for now, it's just me in this sweet corner... making pretty things.
thank you loves,

xoxo
-d

art as life

from the drawing board to this:



i remember back in late 2008 accepting the once in a life time opportunity to design a few scrapbooking items for MAMBI. Never thought it would all come out like this. It's even better than I expected. Despite dealing with a recent diagnosis of CTS, an overbearing work schedule and life... this happened. Good came out of it. i think it really helped me focus my energy on creating rather than worrying too much about everything else negative going on around me.

Life. it's a whole lot of good. and a whole lot of bad. Some out of our control and even still there is a way to come out of it with a good perspective. This was my "happy" during those times. playing around designing with elements i absolutely love and even still use in my art. I feared that i would change. that i wouldn't like it so much after time. but thankfully, it's still making my heart happy.

i thought i could make one of you happy too :)



I am giving away a "Debee inspire: Chipboard Album Kit" that MAMBI so generously donated.
(international entries welcome :) I will pick a lucky winner this wednesday.

in order to be entered in the giveaway, tell me what makes you feel inspired or What you love to create with right now.

ps: thank you for the sweet anniversary wishes!!! it was so lovely :)

xo
-d

12 months

my favorite lyrics from our favorite song, Lucky by Jason Mraz

I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard

They don't know how long it takes
Waiting for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye
I wish we had one more kiss
I'll wait for you I promise you, I will

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
I'm lucky we're in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

and 12 of my favorite art pages ( one for every month :)
with my favoritist person in the whole universe:

























mr. handsome gets all of the attention. but then again he's all i've got :P and it's obvious in these pages he inspires me creatively. it makes my heart happy making pages i can smile at during the process and even after a whole year and going back to them. :)

there is no one like him. he's been my constant support for strength and comfort. I admire his cool. there isn't anyone he can't get along with. (he says it's a guy thing. girls are just crazy :) and most of all, he likes my crazy. these past 12 months we've really been put in tough situations, faced challenges and accomplished so much. we are beyond blessed and cannot believe we are where we are now. Not the condo, not any worldly good, he's what i like to call "home". wherever he might go, i want to be right there with him ( aside from jumping from a plane, then he's on his own :)

it's funny because 12 months have passed by so quickly, and almost every friday we wished each other a smile filled happy anniversary. and life has been good with him. 12 months ago on this very day, april 24th i married my most beloved friend.
i love more, i live more and i dream more because of him.

i'm counting my blessings i am able to call him mine.
happy one year anniversary mr.handsome :)

xoxo
- your babe babe

bad hair decade...over >)

i love the line in ms.congeniality where grace says "I'm having a bad hair day. Bad hair decade, really."

:)

i know how that feels. i feel your pain gracie lou freebush!

but my hair life is much brighter and happier now with my sister sara's mad hair cutting skillz.

i dare to even say the world is a cuter place. because she's cute. and everything she does is cute. even my hair :P

i just don't know what i'd do without her.

look at me.



i'm so happy i'm just giddy :)



or maybe it's the starbucks talking?

nah.
for sure it's the hair.



and this is what i looked like when i was 5 and had pig tails. except i always closed my eyes in the picture. i thought it was all about the big cheesy smile.

yeah, still got it. (the cheesy smile that is :)

ps: i chickened out at the last minute. looks like i will wait for summer for a short do. and i will cut my hair short i promise ;)
just my neck gets cold and i only have one cowl.

fact: i hate being cold
fact: it is 50 + degrees outside and i have a heat dish burning my feet as we speak
fact: debee is the biggest weenie when it comes to cold. even turns into a diva like the snickers commercials when cold.
fact: i have a blankie when i travel and i am darn proud of it.
fact: i sound like dwight Schrute from the office saying FACT: waaay too many times. i'm a dork.

but i'm a dork with a cute do.
so i'm happy :)
xo
-d

i've got bed head

for about 3 years now I've sported the short cut.
and i like it. i really really do. but every time it gets to about my shoulders, i hate it. super duper just want nothing to do with it. i pull it up in a pony tail, try to get it out of the way and just go.

or i use my sunglasses as a headband :)



then i think, and think and think waaaay to hard. when mr.handsome says i know what i'm going to do anyway :) (this was around the same time last year, right before my wedding)



and then bam!



crazy bed head with a crazy short hair do. which i really enjoyed all summer long. no fuss. no gel. no spray. no mess. it was a happy time. a good time.

i grew up with medium to long hair. past my shoulders but never to my butt. my dad really never let us cut our hair short. which i wished i could but never dared to try. until i met my lovely now sister- Sara ( i hate calling her sister-in-law, it's so legal. especially since she's my favorite :) and she really opened my eyes to what a good hair stylist could do.

my point?
i am for sure really sorry for hurting your pretty eyes with so many pictures of me. but there is a point...
second, i have a 4:15 appointment today for my hair with the beautiful sara
i have to decide if i let my hair grow out finally ( mr.handsome likes it longer) or just cut the darn hair again and get it over with (it just grows back right ? :)

oh decisions decisions... but if i were to say for lunch happen to drive up to mc donald's i could for sure tell you i would order a mighty kids meal with hi-C orange drink and a boy kind of toy ( the girl meals always come with silly princesses. i like the cars hahaa) and be on my way.

so i guess that's where i will be thinking about this big yes/no question :)

signed,
bed head xoxo
-d

hey there pretty picture

Yesterday i posted some of my pictures that were taken with my iphone. I learned about this cool iphone app from my brother whom i like to call Nino (because he's the only boy out of the 5 kids, lucky guy :P) So I downloaded this super cool app Hipstamatic and started to play :)

i heart . mr.handsome is not a believer. gasp! but i'm working on it. we have more macs than his one pc. he's definitely outnumbered :)

i heart mickey mouse carousels



i heart drum photos. well, drumming more of course.



it's a pretty fun app especially when you don't want to lug around your heavy digi camera ( my mona) and i don't have a point and shoot digi camera ( last one i had i sent it crashing to the ground. call me butterfingers *blushes* ) so this is a quick fix for quick pics :)

i love the effects, depending on the lens you buy from the app, they even add the grungy frames and textures over your pictures. sweet!

hopefully these make it into a scrapbook page soon.

and here is another peek into another page for my class at Reflections


some of my favorites: hambly lace overlays, tiny type letter stickers, butterfly punches on large vintage inspired pink tickets ( i love the vintage appeal) paint splash rub-ons, mambi soft spoken inspo embellies and of course, my fav anthro picture.

i could take pictures of their store fronts any day. so inspiring!

what's inspiring you lately?
xo
-d

sometimes...it's enough

this weekend was full of rest. i of course was pretty tired from a long week last week. Thinking about so many things ("pieces" from my previous post) out of my control. it's draining. and mentally it's nice to speak things out, and move on. Letting each piece slowly fall into place rather than worrying about every little thing and trying to force everything to work out.



on thursday i went to the farmers market. the pretty colorful flowers cheered me right up. I went home and played with several arrangements (this is one of my favorite, just because the flower vase was a recent purchase at a thrift store and has gold prints on it. Flowers and gold , perfect! Mr. Handsome was there when I was "shopping" and kept asking me where are you going to put it? What is it for? Oh Mr.Handsome, too many questions! You have little faith :P lol! But I in turn gave him my best puppy dog eyes and he happily forked over the money for this cutie. ( i use this method all the time girls. no shame. *smiles*)

so flower arranging/playing was fun :)

and as a way of practicing my teaching skills for my upcoming classes, I held a free little scrapbook workshop at my church on saturday. The only thing is, i had to teach it in spanish! Yikes! I was more nervous about teaching in spanish rather than teaching the actual class. hahaa (this is not good for a spanish native) I kept asking my sisters to help me translate what an "embellishment, glue dot, etc were. hahaa. Sometimes there just are no words and you have to improvise :) So my little class created a pretty little page like this:


thankfully everyone finished their project and they were very supportive. I'm actually looking forward to teaching another class soon.



And last but not least i traveled up to Scrapbook Oasis yesterday to meet the lovely and wonderful Karen and Susan ( whom are putting together Reflections this year) and they are just the nicest people. They work so well together. I dropped off some materials for my class kits and we had a really nice lunch together. And of course, we did some shopping :)

and after 3 hours of driving, one must rest...



i napped for a couple of minutes... and just hung out on my cloud-like bed. pondering. wishing. hoping.



it was fun :)
and that, was more than enough for me.

xoxo

-i want to thank you for listening/reading and sharing your comments with me. sometimes a girl needs to hear someone else's perspective on things. you guys rock xoxo

-d

the pieces fall and shatter all around

sometimes you need to give yourself a little more credit. maybe a gentle smile in the mirror instead of that mean critical eye. i think it's obvious you aren't perfect and maybe never will be. never feel like yeah, i can take a break from trying to hard. but girl. you need to chill.

the pieces will fall into place at the exact time God wants them. and you will see that perfection is so overrated so relax and enjoy the girl
however blurry
and out of focus
and crazy
even this matters for a better more exciting you tomorrow.

even this is perfect.

(ent'd: aug.08)


i am breathing. trying to force myself to reconcile with this today: ...."what is the point in being "right" or "better" if its just to prove someone else wrong? isn't it enough that i am creative and trying my best at being myself?"

today. its just a little harder to believe. i keep thinking, it just doesn't matter.
seems like everything is the same. and i don't like that.
i'm tired.

with a deep breath,

-d

cinnamon dulce frap. i heart you xoxo

a very sneaky sneak into my class for reflections :) ( we will be making those cute felt flowers, playing with spray cans and of course sewing doilies! I am not so surprising huh? :P

first off... i woke up at about 5:30ish because someone (whom shall remain nameless *wink*wink*) was snoring like a really cute bear. i have never ever been a morning person. it's just not in my programming. i believe in beauty sleep at all hours of the day. sleep=happy debee :)

as i'm sure you understand.

but there i was. sitting wide awake. it wasn't so much the snoring of the cute bear *wink* i just was up and raring to go! I sat there thinking to myself. "Myself, what the heck are you doing up crazy!?" then, i remembered it was friday. a beautiful day in which i celebrate with a nice cold cup of cinnamon dulce frap with whipped cream and sprinkles on top ( i love that they call them sprinkles. it makes it even more magical.)

oh starbucks..... ( said in my most breathy romantical voice)

love. in liquid form. ahhhh..... but then i also remembered that yesterday i had a hard time fitting into my "fat" jeans. you know, the ones you know you don't have to try to hard to fit into? oh my. how did this happen? my thighs were resisting the jeans! my butt grew overnight! yikes! ( no photos please ladies. this is a G rated blog :P )

yeah right. truth is, i need new jeans. ( i'm obvoisly in denial)
truth is, i no longer fit into the junior sized jeans at charlotte russe. sobs. :(
truth is i'm thirty and i'm well, sort of , kind of, maybe just a wee bit in denial.

truth.
i love starbucks.

so i logged into my little iphone app for starbucks and checked out the caloric info on my sweet drink. a nice total of 290 calories. sigh* but then i thought with my quick sassy mind .... i can run for about 2 miles and run the calories off so i can still treat myself to starbucks! right?!

right.
:)
this. please tell me this is common logic. that i'm not the only one. ( mister handsome has dismissed me as crazy. but he's not so good a girl math :) hahaa

i ran 3.2 miles and i burned 444 calories. making those 290 totally disappear. voila!
it's like magic.

man, being a girl is so hard sometimes. lol

now I just have to buy new jeans. :)

have a beautiful caloric free day my dear friends,
xo
-d

oh mister handsome, you are famous :)

poor guy. we need to have children soon. i'm pretty sure everyone is tired of seeing mister handsome everywhere :P
But this month, is our month. So as I planned the next few layouts for Kenner Road I made sure to use pictures of just us. waaaay back in september, a few days after my 29th birthday...mister handsome and i were engaged. I of course forced my man to take pictures to celebrate... and all he gave me were profile pictures. No, he's not a felon. He just doesn't like cameras. or smiling at them. Or forced poses. Can you see how this made our wedding pictures a little complicated? hahaa.

mister handsome's motto: just take the picture already!
The sad thing is, he has such a great smile!





i snuck a little card in for some fun :)



and one that got kind of out of hand... i sat there finishing up this page then this cute purple prismacolour started winking at me. I asked what it wanted and it said it really loved the color orange. something about how purple and orange were made for each other. and then it reminded me i haven't colored in such along time. so sad mister color :( i'm very sorry. So i made up for it by scribbling all over this page with my now happy purple prismacolour :)



i like it when my colours are happy :)

I challenge you to use anything in your studio that you have years of not using. I hope you do. I feel like scribbling up my walls now with prismacolour love :)

so far, this month has been awesome.
I have a few sneak peeks for my reflections class coming up.
i'm doing a giveaway again :)
and updating the shop one more time this month with some art love

i cannot wait!
*smiles*

ps: sorry, mister handsome is not for sale :P

xoxo
-d

i love rest

sigh*

i would like nothing more than a happy nap right now.
who's with me?



this week has been jam packed with really cool fun stuff. it all started with some ETSY love. Gosh I really love my little shop. I have made such a mess packaging kits but then again, it's a lovely mess :) And so it's not so bad. Thank you so much for the lovelies whom purchased the Sweet Lily kit! So happy to share some creative energy with these kits. The above picture is a little packaging love for the kits. I managed to remember to take a quick picture for the archives :)


On saturday handsome and i took a break from the shop and headed up to california adventures to visit our little pal mickey mouse. It's so funny that it seems like just yesterday we went to visit but in reality it was back last november! How does time do that? remember I shared getting my first "mickey ears" at 30 :)



( And I did wear them for the first part of the day. They got wet in a ride and then they were tucked away safely. Gotta take care of the cuties :)

Then Sunday I had the blessing of rockin' the drums at church. whoo hoo! I LOVE playing the drums :)
I just felt SO tired from our trip the day before... but nothing that a little starbucks couldn't heal hahaaa.



Next I finished my class project for Reflections! Oh my it feels so good to be able to say that! ( it felt like I was back in final exams and had to turn in a 10 page paper hahaa! I don't miss that :P) 7 pages of art yumminiess. I Cannot cannot wait! I am very excited since MAMBI so graciously is sponsoring my class with loads of goodness. Including a "Debee- Inspire Chipboard Album kit" for each of my students!!! yay!

TRUTH: i have owned a "debee-Inspire kit" since last April of 09 ... and just this weekend was the FIRST time I've ever made anything with it. how odd is that?! Anyway... better late than never. *smiles*

hmm...I feel a giveaway coming up.
*wink* wink*

rest & take it easy,
xo

-d

Sweet Lily Paper love & a sweet sale :)

A lovely Friday to you :)

yesterday I shared the front cover of my little mini book I made using the Sweet Lily kit in my ETSY shop. I framed the cover in a little shadow box I had purchased at IKEA a few weeks ago. Hoping to stay true to my goal of celebrating the everyday... the rest of this mini evolved :)

Cover framed in a shadow box


Page sharing my love for crochet circles & handmade pom poms ( not to mention my undying love for Liberty of London :)


I'm celebrating my little studio space that is so close to being finished ! Ah, feels so good to say that :)


My motto.


a bit of color and flowers in the studio to cheer me up :)


and a very fun little page on my crochet side project. still learning and practicing. i heart crochet *** smiles***


I'm so happy to have these little pages done and know that I'm documenting the little things in my everyday that make me smile. Not letting that pass me up and go unnoticed. So many times I just take the picture and move on. Never thinking twice about printing them. And time is just passing by ever so quickly, i forget. So i printed a few of my favorites in my flickr stream and voila! Now my everyday is a little more special in this little mini :)

So today, and just for today the Sweet lily paper kits are on sale. I love a good deal :)
The kits are only $10 and include all of the embellishments and papers you see ( mostly handmade :)

So have fun and make time to make your everyday a little more special.

love and some happy mojo to you,
-d

color love

I made these pretties a couple of weeks ago thinking I would use them for some pillow cover project crochet thingy i have no pattern for... but instead they made lovely product shots :) or better yet on flickr, interestingness. Which is such an funny word. lol. funny enough 5 of these circles are making their way to their new home. A sweet friend wanted a few for her daughters upcoming birthday party. How sweet is that?! She is such a good and wonderful mom. I cannot image the wonderful memories she is making for her little one to enjoy. So sweet :)

ahhhh! hold on! earthquake!

... yikes. whew... srsly my little condo just shook for about 5 seconds and (ps: heather, nothing broke! my jars didn't even shake. yays!) have you ever been in an earthquake? it's a little rattling and scary. Then you feel a wee bit dizzy. but it's gonna be okay. right?

mr. handsome just called to check up on me.

funny side story... after the earthquake sunday, i guess I had it on my mind all week. On tuesday i was feeling a bit tired but still wanted to walk on the treadmill. I was a wonderful person and let mr.handsome use the treadmill first. >) i went upstairs to lay down for a bit. (i guess just thinking of working out makes me tired LOL) he came upstairs after he was finished to wake me. and he asked me if i was awake or something... and i responded.. "but nobody came to save me".

how sad huh?
hahahaaa! ummm.... apparently this isn't the first time I've talked in my sleep.
helllllllooooooooooo crazy. :)

now, mr. handsome jokes about "saving me". what a funny guy.

sigh*

so this makes my newest little work of art even more appropriate:
( made using the sweet lily paper kit here



1- I love ingrid michaelson
2- she has the most cutest lyrics
3- she inspired me to make this pretty. using a few lyrics from her song : "can't help falling in love"
4- last but not least, i love mr.handsome. whom has professed to come save me. (except today since he has to work.)

my subconscious is funny.
except it doesn't make me a bit more sane.

but who wants to be sane anyway?
:P

xo
-d

ps: tomorrow i'm having a little one day sale on the paper kit and sharing some more pages i made using the sweet lily paper kit :) so excited!

spray paint junkie

some people are addicted to caffeine.
others to sugar
out of allllllll the things in the world to be addicted to...

I'm addicted to spray paint :)

I remember back in art school in my first illustrative painting class there were people using different mediums to create their art. Some used watercolours, others used acrylics & oils and even still there were a few crazies using spray paint. Can you imagine the fumes one inhaled in that class? Sometimes I don't have to wonder why I'm all crazylike. :P

And even then I didn't realize what a fun medium spray paint is. Yeah I'm bad.
I spray paint paper. :)
how cool is that?

and let me just pose the question... Napoleon Dynamite style
"you got skillz? You know, like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills."

so let's get you some spray paint skillz shall we?
*wink* wink*

yesterday I talked with both Karen & Susan and they are just wonderful to work with. I'm so excited about teaching at Reflections this year.

what are we going to do in my class?

Kid on Bus: What are you gonna do today, Napoleon?
Napoleon Dynamite: Whatever I feel like I wanna do. Gosh!

hahaa. i kid, I'm bringing some cans of spray paint to show you how to rock the spray can. You'll be adding funky splatters all over your pages in no time. I'm also having sewing machines available to use. I'm lugging mine around and you just might get your hot hands on my little hottie "Nena" (aka: my sewing machine). ps: She bites. >)
lol

and here is a little sneak peak at my favorite papers I'm using in my class projects. I'm still packing the kits full!



hellooooooooooo- O color punch.
sweet, yes?

happy Tuesday!
xo
-d