Its a good day, especially for a Monday...

Wow, today has been a GOOD Day.
Its beautiful outside, hot but not unbearable, pretty, clear and springy.

I got a text this morning from my bestie Joleen who recently let the cat out of the bag that she is expecting her first child in November!
I blogged about this before with a little sneak peek of the baby journal I was making for her then I finished it up and sent it off. Joleen blogged about the book yesterday and then this morning was the text... (sorry about the circuitous route this has taken) that Sweet Stamp Shop had also featured it on their blog! What a compliment. I only wish I had a few more journals ready for my shop. There is only one listed now but its super cute :)

cover of book with button and ribbon closure

Below are a couple of the pix that Joleen shared in her blog posts of the journal I created. I used this vintage chenille as the color because it just SCREAMED baby. Its soft and pretty and even if its a little feminine for a "boy" baby it is for Mama to record her memories of the pregnancy. Check out this layout she did with a bunch of the trims I sent her and her first sonogram:

First sonogram layout by Joleen

She still doesn't know if the baby is a girl or a boy and I have to say its killin me because I have so many crafty things I want to make that require me to know! LOL She is planning to find out though so I know that news is forthcoming as soon as she hits that magical mark where they can tell. I'm so excited to be an "auntie".

sneak peek of some of the pages

the book open

NOW, in OTHER awesome news... I got a call today from the school I have been trying to get Hannah into for the last 5 months (while I have been homes chooling). I haven't posted the day to day tribulations of that whole adventure here but if you follow me on Facebook you have been privvy to a few rants about it. Anyway, today I got the call that I have been anxiously hoping and praying for! I got the call that we had been accepted into the school for the next school year, for 4th grade! It totally makes it worth all the hoops I have had to jump through. She is excited and so are we!

So, to celebrate, these good things and the fact that you made it this far reading ( lol) I am offering up a little give away of a packet of my art postcards. All you have to do is leave a comment on I will draw a comment next Monday in hopes that I can pass along a "Good Monday" to someone else. Good luck!

Corners of my Home

Been slacking a bit this week. A wrench kind of got thrown into my schedule with STAR testing for the pea. Even though I hauled my computer down, the wifi at school was down so I had to just sit and wait. At least I had my Kindle on day two.

I feel bad that I missed Work Table Wednesday yesterday, but honestly I haven't been working on much I can share yet...



I DID manage to finish up a tiny project yesterday when I framed one of my art postcards in an up cycled frame that I painted white. It's from a stash of wood frames I scored at the Goodwill some time ago. I made a little "matt" from some vintage book pages. I think it's very cute hanging in this little area next to my coatrack under my "Blooms" sign. I am always drawn to things that say "bloom" as it is a play on our last name and I'd meaningful.

So I will leave you all with that this find Spring day. What are you up to?

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Seems like all the other girls are being slackers today. I am tempted to join is but I am martyring myself for your enjoyment. Ha ha.

I spent most of my morning at a clients. I do some part time work for a small local winery so I was there and even scored lunch and a nice glass of wine. I have not done anything crafty today but I DID finish up my stitchery last night.

As I mentioned before, its a sampler from Charlotte Lyons' Etsy shop. It is called Mr America and it just one of a bunch of CUTE samplers she has listed. I got a sneakie peek of another one she is working on today on Instagram. Heehee

Now I need to decide what to do with it. I think I will make another pillow similar to the one I made with my last CL sampler.

Here are links to the other WTW girls.. you can hop on over and see if they managed to get their rears in gear for WTW or tease them for slackin' this week :) Barbe, Julee, Sherry and maybe even Kathy :)

Earth Day

So yeah, I am a little late posting for Earth Day, which you probably know was yesterday. I also feeling a too lazy to actually plug my phone into my computer to pull down pictures because that actually requires cords and stuff.


Despite a BEAUTIFUL (and HOT) weekend Mother Nature has popped back in with clouds and wind and rain is eminent; as is this headache that is coming on. Hence the laziness.

Anyway, I have been bitten by the stitching bug lately. I had this cute sampler that I bought from Charlotte Lyons on Etsy and it was begging for some color. Since pulling it out last week I have been stitching obsessively and it's almost done. Here's a couple of sneak peeks. (Earth Day inspired)


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Giveaway

Hey Kids.. I RARELY post about this kinds of things on my blog but Michele's things are just TOO cute and I want to win!! You can get a chance to win too.. just hop on over and check out her giveaway! Which thing do you want to win?

Work Table Wednesday...

Its Wednesday! and you know what that means?? Work Table Wednesday!!

I did NO work on a table this week.. I DID, however, work on a garage floor, easel and my lap while visiting Julee and her daughter the past couple of days ago And what I discovered is that A) I am WAY too old to work on a cold garage floor (even if it was fun) and B) I need an easel and C) The 2 for $5 readers I bought yesterday are SUPER helpful for my needlework. My BIL was on to something to use them as magnifiers for close up work. Yay!

This picture is of Lexee sitting across from me while working on the garage floor and our little helper is Sweetie Pie.. isn't she cute?? Sweetest little things.. we are now in the process of trying to convince Daddy that Hannah needs a similar little friend.

 Here are a couple of shots of my canvas as it progressed. I went Alisa Burke style on it.. soo much fun. Its been way too long since I just got messy with paint and ink and stamps and stuff. My bird it kind of lame, but its IN PROGRESS so hopefully I will actually finish it up and share it.

I have other shots from our visit on my camera but I am too tired to go find wherever I stashed it so I will share them later this week.

Finally, here is one of Hannah's pieces.. she did a couple of stretched canvases. We need more wall space!!!

Be sure to go visit Barbe and Sherry for WTW too, and maybe Julee will pipe up soon too.

Happy Monday

Just a quickie post today. I have been busy today doing chores and packing to go to Julee's tomorrow! I am so excited for another artsy play date and hope the girls enjoy seeing each other again.

Wanted to share that my art cards came in and they turned out better than I had hoped. I posted some packs in my Etsy shop along with other bits and pieces that Hannah and I have been creating in the studio. Hannah recently got her first sale and was OVER THE MOON with excitement. so cute!

See you for Work Table Wednesday!

Testing, 1 2 3

I am trying out my new blog app that allows me to blog from my iPhone and/ or iPad, if I can manage to get it away from the family. LOL


I am loving that I can blog my Instagram photos directly without having to upload them to my computer (because I am lazy)

Also, if any iPhone users know how to make Siri stop randomly telling me what letters/ words I am typing, I would love you forever!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Work Table Wednesday

Wow, Wednesday snuck up fast this week. We're kind of in a continuous cycle of dreary rainy weather this week. Fortunately we had beautiful weekend weather that allowed for an Easter egg hunt and all sorts of outdoor play. My friend Vicki was here over the weekend with her 3 kidlets and we spent much time in the studio with the doors flung open.

I had cleared the decks before she arrived and dug into my stash of fabric and paper so we could make ROD style journals. She wanted to make a travel journal for her girlfriend and I had a pregnancy/ baby growing journal for my bestie who is preggers!!

I am only sharing a few sneak peeks here because I haven't bound it yet and I don't want her to see the whole thing.
In this picture I am showing the flap I had to sew on because I made the cover and when I went to stick the signatures in it was too fat! Soo... I improvised and thus the flap was added. I am hoping I can get my sewing machine to sew the signatures in but I may have to hand bind it. I don't mind but my right shoulder has been killing me.

Anyway, following are a few more sneak peeks at some of the pages.

We don't know yet if the baby is a boy or a girl so I had to try to stay neutral in theme/ color but I tended a bit toward the girlie side. Even if the baby is a boy I guess its ok since the journal is for Mama :)

The other thing currently on my work table coffee table is some stitchery. Hannah had wanted to work on this piece that I had lying around and in the process she found the latest sampler I purchased from Charlotte. (Lying underneath) I will probably pop that in a hoop soon and start stitching on it. You may recall what I did with my last sampler from her.

This pattern is a freebie from Bad Birds. We'll probably make it into a pillow when she is done.

What are YOU working on? Pop on over to check out what these other WTW gals are working on: Julee, Barbe, Sherry.

Happy Easter

Work Table Wednesday...

Its Work Table Wednesday and we're so excited that our pal Sherry is joining in the fun this week. Also, be sure to see Barbe's cool post. She has been a busy bee. I think Julee is otherwise occupied with driving her little around but she may make an appearance. If you post a WTW post, be sure to let me know in the comments!

So, onto my worktable. Well, I have been busy experimenting with more soldering lately. I have been inspired by Facebook pal Christine Alane to go a bit outside my box and tackle soldering these hearts. I have had the stashed since I dug them out of an old barn at a friends ranch. The aunt that lived there was a serious hoarder, er collector of STUFF. I found so many treasures there and so much I have "stashed" for a special project. Some of the ornaments I used on my vintage ornament wreathes were from there.. along with these hearts. And to think these almost went out of the studio in my cleaning binge..

I have about a dozen or so of these blank glass (heavy) hearts. I set about adding foil tape after cleaning them really well. This is the first one I did:

and I have to say that I am really tickled with how it turned out. My husband saw it sitting on my table today and said he thought it was super cool too.

The next one did not go so well.. its the one with the pink embellishment. Its better now and Hannah soldered a loop to the bottom so I can add some danglies too it.

Finally, I did the one with the cameo today. I am only using a soldering iron and don't have a torch so I haven't been able to attach the embellishments with solder. I have been using clear silicone caulk and it seems to be doing the trick.

I am in the process of taping some others up and trying out different patterns. There is only really so much I can do with the tape itself so I think I might order a sheet of foil to play with on future versions. Its kind of fun to focus on this series of pieces. I have so many ideas!

Here is the picture I took just before heading back into the house. Its my main work table in the studio. It hasn't been this cleared off and organized in a looooong time :) It will be put to good use this weekend when my friend Vicki comes down.
What's on your work table??

WTW-

Hey kids.. Its Work Table Wednesday!! Problem is, I have been in a court room and jury room for the past 3 days so my "work table" looked like a pile of notes, a styrofoam cup and some Tootsie Roll wrappers. They take your phone away when you enter the Jury Room so I couldn't even sneak a peek for you all.

The most recent thing I have been working on is creating some images to make into some art charms/ necklaces. Here is one that I am creating from one of my paintings. That's about as close as we're going to get today because all I feel like doing is vegging on the couch and waiting for Survivor to come on. LOL

Hopefully I will do better next week.
Be sure to pop over and see what Julie and Barbe are doing. And, PLEASE join us next week. If you plan to, just leave a comment below so we can add you to our little WTW blog hop.

Cheers!

I am a Brave Girl

One of my goals this year was to push myself to do things that aren't so comfortable to me. It means reaching out to new people/friends. Trying new things artistically and sending off my art into the world more. I am happy to report that I have been doing well on all fronts so far.

One of the most recent things I did was to send off some of my artwork to Kathy & Melody at Brave Girls Club. If you are not familiar with Brave Girls... please take a few minutes to go check them out.

There are lots of classes, art and inspiration featured on the site and each day they send an inspirational and motivational, encouraging email to your inbox. You can sign up here.

Lately they have put out a call for birdie art so I sent some in. The piece shown here was directly influenced by Melody's Soul Restoration class. It created when I was working on my truth cards and it is one of the pieces I send to Kathy. Well I was delighted to receive an email from kathy today saying that my artwork was featured on their mailing last night. Here is the Daily Truth that accompanied it..

"Dear One of a Kind Girl, Think about what happened last week what felt really great, and then what made you feel small. Think about the things you accomplished and the things that you wish you could go back and do a different way. Think about the things that were on your to-do list and then think about why some of them didn't get checked off. Then congratulate yourself for the things that did. Think about what you want more of in your life and what you most definitely want less of.So many of us just go through life without evaluating how things went. When we don't think about how things went what was great and what wasn't so great. We find ourselves going in circles. We have to know where to change things, what to change, how to change things and what to do MORE of. We get to be in charge of ALL of that!!! So this new week, dear friend take some time to think about how things have been going and if they are not going the way you would like them to go make some changes. You are worth that time. Your life is important and valuable and you are so very loved."

I have to say it was a very nice surprise to come home to on my Jury Duty break today. Its amazing how the little things can change up your day. And I am proud to be featured by these wonderful women. Hope you find some inspiration there as I have.

new stuff...

The "big sale" at my printer encouraged me to turn some paintings I have been hoarding into new art cards for the Etsy shop. I could have ordered a whole slew of them but DH would probably freak out with me spending that much $$ right now since we just took it in the rear with the IRS. (gah!)
So, I limited myself to my three favorites and I hope you love them as much as I do ( or think I will once they actually get here)..

They are flats and they have printed backs too. I can't wait to send my friend notes on them!! Squeal. Isn't it nice how "little things" can make you feel so excited? Its going to be like Christmas when UPS arrives in a week or so. 

Looking at these, and working with the images to add text and crop them right, etc. makes me want to go out and play with all my scrap paper and paints. I have been deep in soldering and jewelry. I can't seem to stick with any one thing. At least its easier for me to find and put away all my stuff now that the studio is clean and relatively organized. I guess we'll see how the week progresses. It might not progress to well..

I have to report for jury duty tomorrow.

be creative

:source:

Work Table Wednesday...

Hey everybody, I am a little later posting this than I had hoped but its still Wednesday!!

Today was super busy with homeschooling and work and trying to get out into the studio. I did some chores and took advantage of the gorgeous weather outside to spray some weeds and then work with the studio doors open.

This morning early, I was busy editing our mailing for work which is due to go out tomorrow morning. I have spent time on and off today trying to get all the details lined up and get it proofed by all involved so I still have to go back and schedule it. Long process..

When I finally made it out to the studio I cranked up the soldering iron for the first time since Julee was here. I have a little project in my head that I am working on but it has gone off in various directions and now I have too many ideas. The good thing was that it pushed me out of my comfort zone and I tried soldering some "alternative" things for me..
So fun!

preparing to solder

after soldering... still needs some touch up.

Be sure to hop on over to see Julee and Barbe's worktables too and join us next week!!

Cat House

Just a quick post today.. wanted to share the super cute piece Hannah soldered with Julee. She has a black cat Sophie so when she saw this on a collage sheet she grabbed the image and made this cute collage. Love the colors and think it will be so cute on our collage wall.

cookies!!

This post is a bit overdue but I feel behind on everything these days.. LOL
Anyway, awhile back I posted about the work I was doing for sweet Michelle and her daughter Emily at ButterBlossoms. I shared the business card fronts I had designed using their gorgeous photos and every time I created new collateral for them I drooled on my screen. ;)
Once it was all said and done and I had finished all their stuff I was in for a big surprise because the sweet ladies sent me a gift tin of a dozen of their amazing cookies!! They let me pick which flavors I wanted, so I tried the Classic Shortbread and the Luscious Lemon. OMG, not only are their cookies packed beautifully.. (heehee) but meticulously and securely. Not a crumb out of place. They came out of the package crystal plate ready!
Well of course I dug right in and OMG they are the BEST shortbread cookies I have EVER had. I have had them hidden away with strict instructions to the family NOT TO TOUCH. I have been slowly allowing myself to have only 1 a day and I was getting low so I figured I had better take some pictures before all I had to share was the satisfied smile on my lips.

Look how pretty there are. Perfect buttery hearts sprinkled with just enough sparkling sugar to feel extra decadent. So whether for a special occasion, a gift or a special treat for yourself, I highly recommend ButterBlossoms cookies!! Can't wait to try some of their other flavors.. like the Bacon Chocolate or Honey Espresso. Yum..

of art & Etsy...

Happy St Patty's Day!

We just finished up a yummy dinner of Corned Beef & Cabbage with all the trimmings. Super yummy. Plus, I harvested some lemons from our tree and made yummy lemon pie (which we dyed green) for dessert. Mmmmmmm.

Since it was pouring rain all day and the feast was simmering on the stove, I got a fair amount of computer time in and managed to restock the ole Etsy store as you can see over in my sidebar. Hannah and I have been busy in the studio making fun pendants out of old keys, vintage jewelry bits and Swarovski crystals.
Also, since I have been cleaning the studio, I ran across a pile of back issues of Portals Zine so I listed a few issues of #7 in the shop... last chance! LOL

Also, as I teased a couple of days ago. I finished a couple of my soldered pieces. Here they are...

The first is my mermaid piece. I collect mermaids and have a mermaid tattoo. The focal on this was a little card someone gave me ages ago that I had been saving for just the right thing. I threw together this little collage when Julee was here and I love how it turned out. I soldered 3 rings to the bottom to dangle things from but it looked kind of sparse so I added the chain and was able to dangle lots of goodies!
Our bathroom is decked out in mermaids so this will be going in there. love it..

My other piece was more of an affirmation piece for me. I have had the beveled glass just hanging around so I created a house shape with words cut from a PaPaYa Art calendar. The little bird is from a Teesha Moore collage sheet and then just pieces of wallpaper and deco paper. Its very meaningful to me and I think it will end up next to my bed. Been loving the vintage faux pearls lately so they are getting used a lot as seen here, in the dangles. Love the happy colors and positive affirmation.

Work Table Wednesday...

Last week my Brave Girl friend Barbe started a feature on her blog called "Work Table Wednesday" to share what is currently on our work tables.

Hannah soldering her first project.

Mine has been undergoing some serious cleaning up and clearing up. I had a little extra motivation because I was expecting a visit from my friend Julee and her daughter for an artsy visit. They arrived yesterday at about lunch time and in the 26 hours or so that they were here, Julee taught us how to solder. She is a whiz at it and has taught many classes and makes all kinds of cool stuff. We were super fortunate to have such a cool, patient, funny, (careful) teacher and we experimented and made all kinds of neat stuff. Hannah had a blast!! Julee was GREAT with her.

So, anyway, that is what was on our work table today:

Hannah cleaning and buffing the soldered edges of our "finished" pieces

Experimenting with soldering bottles.

We still have some hangers and dangles and other things to add so the finished piece reveal will have to come later. The kids got tired and started melting down so Julee decided it was time to hit the road. All in all, very productive and fun visit. We are looking forward to next time and maybe heading up to her neck of the woods.

I you are interested in learning to solder, Julee now has an online class! Its only $55 for four parts and four complete projects. I cannot recommend her style enough, even for "conscientious" kids.