Keeper of The Light Lantern, Cup of Tea & Haiku

I have been spending my time at home crafting with my new cricut joy and items I have purchased at the dollar store. I found these $4 lanterns at my local Dollarama and I used permanent black vinyl and added my decal, a Lighthouse. I added the words Keeper of the Light. Which is part of my Haiku, I wrote below. 

Keeper of the light

Strong, and steadfast, unswerving

The Beacons of Hope

by Karen M. Gibson

It was so much fun creating yesterday and having so much fun. Waiting out the Moon was worth it too, I cannot wait to try to paint what I saw in my night sky!

I think it looked like a painting already. So I am going to try to paint it.
Thank you for joining me this Friday for a cup of tea and a Haiku. I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

May The Fourth Be With you

It is May the fourth and in my family that is Star Wars Day. This year on my brithday I binged watched the Mandolorian, ( not sure how to spell) with my oldest son and then I found these cups and saucers that were plain at the dollar store. I added some free SVG clips which I printed on my cricut joy and made the perfect cups and saucers for my Star Wars loving niece in London England, but I had to try them out before I sent them.

I made these on Saturday and they were a labor of love. I made one with "The Child" aka baby yoda and then on the back of each of them this...

While they are not perfect they are perfect for me and I hear my niece in London England is pretty excited to see them. I made these using the Cricut joy, permanent vinyl and some free SVG patterns. They are not dishwasher safe, as all good china should be :) nor should they go in the microwave. 
I had so much fun making these and debuting them today for May 4th. I hope that you can add a little Star Wars Magic into your day.
Thank you for joining me for a cup of Star Wars themed tea and a Monday morning check in.
I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com 

Sunday Morning Breakfast Birthday Tea...

It's my birthday today. I started my day with nod to my childhood. When I was very young my mother would set up a blanket in the middle of the floor and leave me a picnic of fruit loop cereal, a cup of milk covered with a plate and a new doll. My mom died ten years ago and it is funny what you remember and what you miss. So in a nod to the wonderful memory, I ordered Fruit Loops with my groceries this week, made my self a cup of tea in my Queen Anne Birthday Teacup and set up Bath Time Barbie, which my best friend sent me for my birthday. I felt the love surrounding me as I sipped my tea, ate my Fruit Loops (which still taste like I remember) and played with my new doll.

The thing about  my birthday is I share it, with my twin nieces Cadence and Hannah. They turned 13 today, they live in London England and I was able to get their gifts of to them in time and looks like they both enjoyed them from the photos I saw on Facebook this morning. I saw them last in October, they are both much taller than me now, I hope that in time I can get over to see them again. 

My cat Squirrel came to join me at the table as she normally does first thing shared her love and cat hair with Barbie and I.

I have been playing with my new Cricut Joy and made myself a little nightlight, I have to perfect my cutting still around the handle but I love how this turned out. I got the little light at the dollar tree and am planing on doing other crafts through out the day.
I hope wherever you are today that you find time to sit and sip some tea, turn off the world, craft, garden or play. Thank you for joining me here and I look forward to sharing more with you again soon.
I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

Happy Easter From My Table To Yours...

Happy Easter, if today is a day your family celebrates I hope you are able to find comfort and distant connection today. On Friday I had a fun idea to set up a tea party I thought my boys might enjoy, no tea just cups of chocolate and I put it all around this white charger I made for my table center piece. I used my new cricut joy and made one for myself and one for my sister, which I later delivered safely to my sister and nieces.

It took seconds to print the decal and a few more minutes for me to weed the vinyl and then transfer to the clear plastic, and then apply to the charger.

I have found it very helpful to keep my mind and hands busy creating and crafting. I hope that you also find pockets of joy this Sunday.
Thank you for joining me, I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com

The Cricut Joy...my favorite impulse buy.

I am having a great deal of fun, "joy in pockets" they call it, between the bouts of over and under reacting to what is going on in the world. I recently impulse bought the cricut joy when I was at Michael's getting much needed sanity supplies (I was masked and it was in and out) when I was standing in line  (6-8 feet social distancing from others sanity shopping as well,) I thought oh I hope they have a kit kat.  Where they normally have the kit kats they had the cricut machine and it was a split second decision that I am thrilled I made. Tuesday I personalized my machine with this adorable tea decal I made from a free image on the easy to use site. I am not being paid or sponsored by cricut, I just honestly bought it on a whim and am crash coursing my way through the process.

 There are a few really easy steps to making these personal stickers and labels.

I honestly have been very impressed, only slightly frustrated as I did not know about the weeding tools and the scraper so I ended up ordering them and a few other supplies on Michael's website and they got delivered in just a few days. 

I made a new sign for my gate as the first beautiful one I decoupaged got wrecked in the rain. It is not as colorful but it made me smile and it looks cute on the gate, while I figure out how to make the old one look new again.

 Using a dollar store chalk board sign and the white vinyl I am thinking this will hold up better. 

I have even started to make over my door, though I need to order more purple to go over the rectangles. This is removable so I am not wrecking the door!

I am really enjoying this fun new tool. If you have experience with cricut or you have a cricut joy as well please let me know, I would love some tips and tricks. 

Please know that I am taking the situation of being  temporarily laid off and helping my boys with their home learning, that there are moments in the day where I am full of anxiety and stress, but I am also making sure that I have time for joy, that I make time to turn off the social media, turn off the news and focus on being creative, getting out of my own head. 

I hope you can make time too. Oh and if you have a spare kit kat send it my way I still have not gotten one. 

I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com