As you know I am into therapeutic crafting. This is the art of making variations of the same thing over and over and over until the panic, mania, anger or craziness just magically disappers. This craft project saw me through the first two weeks of my daughter having a license. Just in case you ever need a little craft therapy I have put the details below and even a few pics. You will impressed with the magnatude of how many variations I have come up with. I have to go because there is a lot more craziness left in me and a thousand more variations to try! ENJOY :)

This is the only relevant question in my life. Not 24 hours since the season finale of True Blood, I find myself desperate for more. I am a fan of True Blood on Facebook, my Sundays are scheduled around being in the house and stationary at 9:00 and a few of my friendships are dependent upon a mutual love of the show. I am a True Blood addict and 12 shows is just not enough! So in my manic googling I have found that out the following:

From DreadCentral.Com

Thanks to the Ausiello Files of EW.com, we've learned that Tony winner Denis (Quarantine, Duplicity) O’Hare will portray the King of Mississippi with "interesting things happening between him and Evan [Rachel Wood]'s Queen" to look forward to.

As for other new characters, according to Ball we'll be introduced to the werewolf Alcide and "will also meet Sam’s blood relatives, the super bad vampire Franklin Mott, Debbie Pelt, [and] the people who live in Hotshot a little bit ahead of schedule. We’ve already broken four episodes and I’ve sent two writers out with scripts over hiatus." When asked if had any regrets for killing off the well-received character of Godric so quickly, he teased, "He and Eric had a relationship for a thousand years. We can always go back and see him again."

Ball also promised that the new season is "probably going to premiere around the same time it did this year. We’re going to try to shoot one episode before the Christmas break. I don’t know if HBO will bring the show back earlier, but it certainly won’t be later."

For more "True Blood" Season 3 updates, click here for the full interview.

- Debi Moore

Here's hoping for an early Return

Kelly

Oprah's interview with songbird Whitney Houston happend today and I thought she looked beautiful and refined. She spoke like a woman on the mend and who seems to have her life moving in the right direction. She was reintroducing herself to the world alomg with a new song. Wait.....what year is it?

I swear back in 2002 this exact scenario played out except Diane Sawyer was the interviewer. Remember the crack is whack speech as Whitney sat across from Diane Sawyer and told her that crack is cheap and she made too much money to use crack. If I recall she looked good back then and had a song to debut. Oprah's teasers for the interviews said "Whitney-as you've never seen her before" Sorry, Oprah...we've seen that Whitney.

Unfortunately, there is no high profile interview or chart topping song that will take the addict out of her. Recovering maybe, but still an addict. Maybe when she falls off the radar again and climbs out of the dark recesses of addiction she should let Dr. Phil interview her. At least he would have the resources to help her through the early stages of recover. Whitney needs on-going drug treatment more than she needs a hit record.

See some of Whitney's interview with Diane Sawyer in 2002:



See a clip of Whitney's interview with Oprah 2009:



Tags: whitney houston interview, oprah interview, diane sawyer interview

Crafter Confidential: September 13
Crisis Type: Economic Overload
Details: Never home to cook and forced to eat out in spite of high cost
Therapeutic Craft Project: Paper Flowers (Scroll down for How-To vidio)

Sometimes I feel like I am always in the hunt for food. With a busy schedule, I seem to never be at home at meal time. Forced by circumstance to eat out every meal-it is important to look for ways to cut the cost of dining out while still being able to eat quality food.

Well folks I hit the motherload this week as Restaurant.Com ran an unbelievable deal--90% off the cost of $25 gift certificates. I buy gift certificates from them quite often and they have great sales but 90%??? That is a cool $1 bill for a $25 dollar gift certificate. When I first started looking at the site it seemed to be complicated and I could not really tell if the certificates were a good deal or not, but considering that I would be in many of these restaurants any way and paying full price to boot makes them a great deal. I found a webpage that helps break down the math associated with the utilization of the gift certificates and what the savings actually add up to when redemed at a business. Add in the discount on the certificates and the savings almost double. click to see the savings calculator.

The typical full price of a Restaurant.Com gift certificate is $10 and with the 90% off promotion it was clear that this was a deal worth taking. It was such a good deal in fact that I spent $40 and marked several names off my holiday list. It is hard to imagine that for that $40 I got  $1000 (40 x 25) worth of food discounts at some of my areas best restaurants. Like I say, I have been a steady customer but this is the first time I have seen them offer the 90% off promotion. Today was the last day but promotions run continuously so you just have to find a good source that keeps updated codes to use at checkouts. I regulary check the website DineOutAsheville.Com which posts the new codes and even gives the expiration date. Don't worry that you are not local to Asheville because once you click on the restaurant.com link it will prompt you to search by area code. One tip I will leave you with when checking out besides using your promotion code is to pay with PayPal if you have an account. Doing so puts the certificates directly in the account while processing of credit cards sometimes causes a delay.

Kelly

P.S. Don't forget to watch the paperflowers how-to found on You Tube. IT is a great project to make with scraps of scrapbook paper and you can make them in various sizes for various projects. Try them out!



Tags: restaurants coupons, online restaurant coupons, coupons for restaurants,
restaurant savings, food coupons free, coupons. restaurant

Crafter Confidential: September 09

Crisis Type: Parenting

Details: Teen daughter gets license

Therapeutic Craft Project: Dual-Sided Gift Tags -View-


I have just survived the first two weeks of my daughter having a driver's license and have been crafting up a storm. It's not like I wasn’t prepared--to the contrary I have been preparing 16 years for the day that I would stand misty eyed in the yard and watch fade into a world without me. I choked back my tears and went inside to tell the dogs about our newest milestone and reminded them of their need to fill the void. I then spent the rest of the day in bed-not out of sadness but because it was the first time in 16 years that I was officially relieved of my job as the chauffer. Living in rural NC everything is far away. Couple that with being a single parent and the hectic schedule of a teen social butterfly and you have the makings of a life lived behind the wheel. After clocking on average 35K miles annually, I was tired and on that day as she drove off something else came back ---freedom.

It was nice while it lasted but within a few days freedom was replaced with fear. I was lying in bed listening to a violent thunderstorm roll in. The rain began to beat on the roof and the lightning cracked and flashed a little to close for comfort. At that moment it struck me--what would Jordan do if she was out driving in this storm. I realized that while we had driven for an entire year there were still many hazards out there that she had no experience with. I began making a list in my head…rain, ice, drivers with road rage, wild turkeys and that god awful pothole on Baker street…the list grew. I could not sleep with this list in my head and decided that I had to find some way to get her defensive driving experience. I reached for my laptop and began franticly searching for defensive driving classes for teens. Bad idea! My first search brought up various websites one of which was “teen driving and crashes”. Against better judgement I clicked only to pull up the most disturbing images of teens in fatal car crashes. As you can imagine, I stared in horror clicking through the most horrific car crash fatality scenes imaginable. Upond closing the site I swore that the next day I would wake up and tell Jordan the DMV called and demanded her license back. I was so scared infact that I wanted to hand over my own. Bottom line was that I had a reason to be scared because like it or not my child was driving a vehicle and statistically speaking the odds were against her. Don't believe me--just take a look Click for teen driving and accident statistics.

Back to the search engine I went and this time a little more careful with my search term. I entered in “defensive driving classes for teens”. Far more appropriate results were given including one for the organization Alive at 25. The organization's mission is the prevention of deaths among teen drivers and young adult drivers through education. They do this through intensive 4.5 and 8 hour classes that give those much needed defensive driving skills. After pouring over the information contained on their site, I am still uncertain that wild turkeys are a part of that training, but it looks like a very thorough training taught by certified teachers. A strong component of the teen defensive driving class is building confidence and taking control and accountability of one's self as both a driver and passenger. While it seems that very few states have dedicated Alive as 25 websites,I was easily able to pull up a list of classes being offered in my home state with several in my local area. Class fee is about $50 which is a small price to pay for a child‘s safety and my own piece of mind.


Tags: Teen driving, accident driving, statistics driving, teens driving,
teenagers driving, driving for teens, teens and driving, safe teen driving,
road crashes, safety drivers course, driving safety, a defensive driving,
driving online

Before I get start posting on a regular basis, it is important for any crafters finding their way to my little blog to understand that crafting is therapeutic for me. You will see this in my projects and posts. I can tell you before it happens that when I post something crazy going on in my little life in NC that a great project is sure to follow. Currently I am processing my daughter starting her junior year and anticipating a life without mom. I have also just managed to live through the first 2 weeks of her having a driver's license! Like clock work I have begun to craft like mad. I have therapeutic crafting down to a science and feel like its worth sharing. Stay tuned for the adventures in craft therapy!


Kelly

I am excited as I type this first post....almost manic:) Anytime that I have an overload in my personal life I can always reach for a piece of 12x12 paper and slowly but surely work my way back to sanity. Being a single mom of a 16 year old has its way of unraveling my delicate nerves and in order to keep from coming completely unglued on any given day, I will often shut myself in a room and craft away. The hours roll by unnoticed and I emerge a refreshed woman. No medication or yoga position could ever relieve stress like creating handmade treasures.

I have created Crafter Confidential to add yet another facet to my escape for the hectic world and invite you to join me. I look forward to meeting all my fellow crafting addicts and welcome your posts and project ideas.

Kelly