My First Blog Post, YIKES!

Well, I finally did it! I have been thinking about and talking about starting a blog for some time now and I finally just did it. I don't know what did it for me today of all days, and the day before Thanksgiving at that, when most people probably won't even be online much. They are either preparing delicious meals for tomorrow or traveling to see family and friends. Maybe that's what did it for me, knowing there would not be many lookers today, that took the edge and the pressure off wanting my blog to be perfect the first day I started it. Because I KNOW that's not going to happen! I have been visiting blogs for, geez, over a year now and admiring all the wonderful artwork and stories about other women and their lives as stampers, moms, friends, and bloggers. I feel somewhat intimidated by the fact that I know I am not going to measure up to any of the gals who inspire me through their own blogs, with this or any soon to be posts. So, the best I can do is start somewhere, as I am sure they once did, and hope that with each day and post, I will learn something new and become better and more efficient and not only the craft of stamping, but the craft of blogging in the stamping world as well.

I want to spend this first post just telling you a little bit about myself, though can read a snipit of it in my "About Me" page, here I can tell you more. And you will learn if you ever follow my blog, is that I like to give details whenever possible. For me, that leaves less room for misunderstanding. Also, you will learn, I tend to write as I speak or think. That's not so bad though, is it? It's just "me" so that's what I am here for I guess is to share a piece of me with all of you.

My name is Melissa Caufield, or "twinstamper" on Splitcoast and I define myself in many ways, but above all I am a wife and mom. My current career is being just that, a wife and mom. I have identical twin girls age 8, Raegan and Kaylan. They are very vibrant and outgoing and they remind me the most of me. Our lives changed forever with the news of having twins and when they were born, but despite the lack of sleep the first year (and believe me I thought I would NEVER sleep a full night again!), and the constant juggle of equality spread between them, it has been nothing short of a blessing from God to have them in our lives. They are so much fun to watch and they never cease to amaze us. I am sure there will be stories in many of my future posts about them and the fun of being a twinmom. We also have another daughter, age 5, Sidney. She is a little squirt, but a firecracker for sure. What she lacks in size, she makes up for in spirit. She was nearly 8 weeks premature, but has such a strong personality it's no wonder she decided it was time for her to come out RIGHT NOW! LOL. She of course idolizes her sisters and most of the time, because she see's us trying to be fair and equal between the two of them, that she's their "triplet". She thinks if they can do it, why can't she? She's a spitfire for sure, but the most loving of all of our girls. You see the twins share a bond that only they are privy to, but Sidney is more outwardly loving to the rest of us. She's our little cuddlebug. My husband Todd and I have been married for nearly 10 years and we both enjoy living close to our parents who all live in the town where we both grew up. He is a firefighter and an Advanced Life Support (or ALS) intermediate paramedic on the New Albany Fire Department. He also owns and operates a small local business that sells and services fire extinguishers. Pretty fitting for a firefighter to do that don't ya think? LOL! He is a great dad and husband and the best part is he TOTALLY supports my love of stamping!

I have been stamping for 5 years and have been a Stampin' Up! Demostrator for nearly that long. I first started creating my own things when my twins were born. I wanted to announce their birth because so many people were anxiously awaiting their arrival, but since we had decided I would not work outside the home, I wanted to do it without spending a lot of money. So I went to my local craft store and bought a stamp, some paper, and an ink pad and WAHLA! An addiciton was born along with my twins! HEE HEE HEE. For the longest time, I didn't realize there were much better products out there, at much better cost, than my local craft store could offer (since Stampin' Up! is so much more reasonably priced with what you get with what you buy), and made things the hard way with little or no instruction or direction. But, I knew I LOVED doing it, being creative. So much so, that I started thinking of ways to start a small business and making extra income for our family but making cards and invitations for people for a profit. Then one day, a great friend of mine invited me to a Stampin' Up! workshop. She fully admitted she had absolutely no interest whatsoever in this, but she knew I did, so she asked me if I would be her "bring a friend" friend. I went and thought, where has this been all my life????? LOL. And, to put it all in even better prospective, I had just signed up 3 months prior with another direct sales company that I really wanted to make successful. But, with my sponsor dropping out only 2 months after I started, I felt like a boat lost at sea. And though I LOVED the products offered by that company, I was PASSIONATE about Stampin' Up!'s products and all that I could do with them. I cannot express how good it makes me feel to make something for someone, for myself, or just for fun! It is so the therapy I need from my everyday life. Being a mom and wife is the BEST job to have and I am so blessed that I get to do this, but it can be very draining sometimes. Creating puts life back into me. It gets me going everytime. And, it's what has brought me to this day, creating my blog for the world to see. I have been inspired and wowed by so many wonderful women through their blogs, that if I can give back and inspire just one more person to reach inside themselves and create something from within, then I have served my purpose here. What people don't realize is we are all creative. We really are! I hear so many people say "I'm not creative" or "I'm not crafty" but they really are. Everyone has made SOMETHING! It may not be a card or scrapbook, but they have made SOMETHING. And that counts! It's just that we all have different ways of expressing that creativity. And since each person counts for something, they have something to contribute that's a part of who they are. If by sharing a part of me, inspires someone else to do the same, then we will all be blessed in return.

So in closing of this my first post, which I know was very lenthy, but hey , it takes a long time to grow an old friend, I want to wish anyone who reads this a very Happy Thanksgiving and warm wishes for a blessed time of sharing of themselves and enjoying their friends and family wherever you are. In doing so, I would like to share my first photo of my blog, even though my blog will focus on paper crafting. It's a photo of my homemade, totally from scratch Chocolate Pie that was my dear mamaw's recipe. She is not here with us this year, but in her spirit, I have made the same pie she made for as many Thanksgivings as I can remember. I even made the meringe to go on top, though I don't eat that myself. I think it makes the pie look beautiful and afterall, it's what she did. I just hope it tastes as good as hers always did. So until next time, enjoy!