About Me

Hello, and welcome to my blog!!

Let me introduce myself, I am Robyn, and I was born and raised in small town called Altoona, located in the beautiful mountains of Pennsylvania. I am wife to Justin, Mom to Chanis, Chelsea, Courtne, and Judah, and Mimi to Noelle and Meir.

On a cool fall day, you will usually find me sitting at my old re-purposed wood table surrounded by assorted craft supplies, laminating machines, the fabulous Cricut Explore Air 2,  and a rather large cup of coffee filled with an extravagant amount of International Delight French Vanilla creamer.

I realized at a very young age that I had a love for all things arts and crafts.  My first masterpiece was an early rendition of my mother that included a mole the size of the Grand Canyon on her face.  I have always been a stickler for details!  That portrait never made it to the highly acclaimed "fridge," but, I did not give up.

I spent most of my kindergarten years making Barbie furniture out of playdough.  My Barbies had it rough, between their playdough beds and matching outfits, they had become the outcast of the neighborhood Barbie Alliance.  It did not help that I had that "Aunt,"  Aunt Ruth, that everyone has somewhere in their family.  You know, the one who loved to sew, and thought that they were the Christian Dior of Barbie Clothes, but your Barbies came out looking like Holly Hobbie and Strawberry Shortcake meets Laura Ingals. The one who convinces your mother that there is no need to waste $1.99 on a Barbie outfit, when a yard of material is half that price and can make the outfit as well as matching curtains and a bed duvet.  Thus started my next adventure, sewing.  I was on a mission to be the next Coco Chanel and bring my Barbies out of the shadows of disgrace.

Through the years, I dibbled and dabbled in anything that allowed me to express creativity.  You name it, I tried it, and I even survived the trends of friendship bracelets and pins!  

Drawing was always special to me. I grew up in a home affected by divorce and found that one connection I had with my Dad and his side of the family was art. Everyone was an artist in their own rights.  My Aunt was the illustrator for Belk department store, back in the days before they just took photographs for all their ads.  To this day, I have never meant a more skilled artist.  I love my Aunt Linda, and could only aspire to be half the artist she is.  From the time I saw her first sketch, I envisioned that somehow she must have subconsciously transported her amazing talent into my chubby little hands, and I had no part of this transaction, it had been divinely orchestrated.  

There I am in the yellow with Mr. Paisley.
Circa 1987

Eventually, I decided I was grown and ready to make a name for myself, I was no longer going to live in anyone's shadows.  I signed up for "Art 101" in high school.  I walked into Mr Paisley's classroom with a pencil in one hand and a old worn sketch pad in the other ready to be discovered.  My eyes searched the walls of his highly decorated art room.  There were dozens of portraits so life like, you would think they could walk right off the walls.  And in walked the man of the hour, the man that would once and for all see my hidden talent and I would get the accolades I deserved. He walked to the center of the room with his 3 foot pointer stick and began to point at the walls.  One by one he talked about those amazing sketches.  And then, to my horror, he says this, "Every piece you see was drawn by my star pupil over 20 years ago.  She graduated with honors, attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh on an art scholarship, and is now employed as the Head Illustrator for Belk Department Stores. Her name is Linda Luke.  You should all aspire to achieve what she was able to achieve through God given talent combined with very hard work."  I left school that day, I asked my mom to stop by the craft supply store, and bought my first pack of Sculpey Clay.  

By 1992, I got good enough at taking that magical adult play dough and forming it into odd things. And then I made my first sale, the dreaded Christmas Pickle.  By the end of the Holiday Season, I had sold 843 pickles.  My mother, who worked in the Hospital, had begun to take them to work to sell, and before I knew it, my kitchen turned into a pickle assembly line.  To this day, my tree is probably the only one in this small town that has never and will never be adorned with the dreaded pickle.

The pregnant Virgin Mary and Simeon holding the baby,
Jesus, at the Temple.

I worked hard at mastering that clay in between raising kids, and eventually, many years later began making the "People of Promise."  Originally intended to be used as a "reference" while teaching Sunday School, before I knew it, people at Church were placing orders.  From there, I added awareness angels in honor of my Aunt Donna who kicked cancer's butt, and a ton of other little clay figurines, depending on my mood.  I ran an Etsy shop for almost 9 years selling them, as well as set up at different craft venues.  Clay will always be my first love.

Through the years, I found that I loved mixed media art, all things paper, travelers notebooks, junk journals, you name it, if it had paper, sign me up!!  And yes, I am one of those "Pocket Letter" people who still believes in the old fashioned Pen Pal and prefers creating and trading art via USPS is better than giving and receiving texts, or "following" people on Social Media Sites.

In 2012, my oldest daughter, Chanis "came out," as a Vegan.  Broke my heart.  She began to protest my trash, as well as my animal cruelty makeup and nuclear microwave.  She bantered me about how "unsupportive" I was to her Veganism, so I decided, since I love her, I would save the world with her, thus discovering my love for recycled, reused and re-purposed art.  I discovered that anything can become something else.  I made it my sole mission in my house to never throw out a "usable" piece of trash.  This did not go over big with the Husband, so my "collection" has been banned to some well organized crates he stores in a closet for me.  Everything from cereal boxes to those fabulous Oui yogurt containers, which is my husbands nemesis .  I love finding new purpose for an old thing.  That is a statement I genuinely relate to!

This blog is a combination of all that, with a hint of some hopefully helpful frugal living ideas and recipes, as well as some really great "moments" that I love to share.  It is my palette of life, brilliantly messy, but with the potential to create a masterpiece.  I hope you find a little color that you can take from here and apply to your own palette.

Always striving to find the beauty in the mess,

Robyn