My Turn :-)

Welcome to the Sisterhood!

Today is my day to tell you a little about myself. I've put it off until the last minute since I don't like to talk about myself and writing....well, I like that even less, lo. But here it goes....

My name is Michaela Harper but everyone calls me “Micki”. I was born and raised in Bad Hersfeld, Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1977. I am married to Chriss who is my biggest supporter, have a 26 year old daughter, Rachelle; an awesome son-in-law, Kyle and two awesome, beautiful granddaughters, Emma & Gracy and grandbaby no. 3 due to arrive in August.

Having been raised in Germany, I‘ve always been exposed to all sorts of crafts. However, scrapbooking didn‘t catch my fancy. I even dabbled in stamping 17 years ago, but at that time that “bug” didn‘t catch my fancy either. (Gasp, imagine that, lol. I jumped on the papercrafting bandwagon about 5 years ago. Yeah, I’m always on the last train it seems, mainly because I dance to the tune of my own drum (you know, the one in my head).

Ok back to being serious. Like I mentioned earlier, I grew up in Bad Hersfeld, Germany where arts & crafts are taught at an early age. Sewing an apron in 1^st grade home economics, knitting a sock and then in 4^th grade, knitting a sweater. Art class included assignments of watercolor flower shop window, Medusa’s head with Caligraphy pens to ornate paper cut-outs called Scherenschnitte. Was I good at any of it? Nope, I convinced my grandmother to knit the sweater for me and my grandfather, who was an artist, to create a masterpiece floral window shop picture. And that was all the crafting I did until I reached middle age. I started to crochet & knit and amazingly it wasn’t as hard as I remembered it. Painting too and then the ‘Trash to Treasure’ craze hit me. Stamping at that time (about 10 years ago) was what seemed to me too time consuming. Bought a couple of stamps, some embossing powders, which by the way I still have, and stored it all away. Enter a Stampin’ Up! Workshop and well, the rest is history as far as stamping & papercrafting goes.

I don‘t have that natural “knack” for art, be it stamping/scrapbooking or photography but I am persistent and keep at it. It‘s fun for me to look back at some of my first card creations, comparing them with a recent project and realizing how my crafting has evolved. I tend to create with the ‘less is more’ philosophy but force myself to step outside of my comfort zone and try new styles. Although I tend to gravitate towards the ‘less is more’ style, I appreciate any crafting style and find inspiration from just about anything. Which kind of leads me to why I started blogging when I hate to write (don't even ask how long it took me to write this up, lol).

I started my blog about 18 months ago. Why? Honestly, because everyone else has one, lol! But mainly because I was so intimidated seeing all these perfect creations and blogs. My crafting is never perfect and at times is very tedious for me so I am hoping to inspire others in some way, be it in creating, photography, or just by providing you that sense of “if she can do it, so can I”.

I have been so very blessed to have met so many awesome, talented, generous & loving people through this craft. The rest of the 'Sisters' are exactly that to me.... family. They have helped me up on more than one occasion. This new challenge blog will be so much more than just a challenge blog. For one, this is a stress free zone, lol. No pressure, just fun, friendship, inspiration.... welcome to The Sisterhood!

Hugs

Micki