Birthday Boy and Projects In Progress

We have a teenager in our house now! Our creative, cute, and quirky son, Owen, turned 13 today! He was so excited in anticipating his birthday presents and party that he didn't sleep but a very short time last niight. He kept getting up and waking us up to tell us he couldn't sleep. He spent most of the night in hubby's "man cave" watching cartoons, reading comic books and playing his Game Boy. When we awoke at 5:30 he was right there ready and waiting, bright-eyed and wound up. What he had hoped he'd get above anything in the world was a die-cast Transformer that is basically the size of our cat.

Isn't it wonderful to be so excited about something that you can't sleep?!  That's one of those wonders of childhood that I want to keep with me always! The last time I had a hard time sleeping and got up VERY early was when I was going to the Big Flea with my BFF Suzy.

I am inspired by many things. Some of those things are on my inspiration board. Right now is it chock full of things I like and want to glance at now and then. The colors, textures, and spirit these things evoke keep me on my creative toes. Here's a sampling:

What a mess! But it's a fun mess!

LOts of things that dangle and sparkle! A party doll Suzy gave me. A yellow bunny ears bag closure from Japan which shows that even the most mundane of objects can have good design. Baby shoes from long ago.

A prototype for my corsages offered on etsy, the first one I made when the idea was just a little nugget in my brain. And of course a few Elvis souvenirs from when we stopped by Graceland on our way home from driving from D.C. to Vegas and back in 2004. It is, after all, the 30th anniversary of EP's death.

I found the daisy push pins at this wonderful Japanese store that, alas, is no longer in our area, The diploma is the only one I display. I mean, kindergarten was the BEST wasn't it? On a previous post I showed you the house of my kindergarten teacher which was next door to the cottage where I attended kindergarten back in 1965-66.

I have been very busy with writing a new romance which I'm quite excited about. It's a contemporary set story, a departure from my first book, a historical romance. After my writing morning ends (which starts at 6:30 a.m., I am happily busy in the afternoon creating new pin cushion and purses, and some other things too. Sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed at having so many options for creation set before me and some days I feel like I spin my wheels and just get a little bit of this and a little bit of that done without finishing anything. But every project must have a beginning and here is how my totes begin:

Stacks of fabric and interfacing pieces cut and ready to be ironed. These are a total of seven smaller totes I'm making for the fabulous maeven of quilting, Pat Sloan at Quiltershome.com. And speaking of Pat...

She requested pin cushions too! Here are the pin cushion bodies I made ready for trims, adornments, and a vintage figurine on top!

I was inspired from looking at the dangling items on my inspiration board to make some lush, dangly keychains. I'm not sure if these are close to finished, but I like the colors and textures. Something different, something for a little gift sometime...Well, back to work. I ahve a birthday party to go to. Water balloons and silly string and PIZZA!~~~Give me strength ;) XXOO, Beth