It's a start.....

In November we traveled to Maryland to celebrate Charlie's First Birthday. He loved the tissue paper more than the presents.....

He loved the balloons.....He loved his Birthday party and the cake......and he especially loved it when we all sang Happy Birthday and clapped!This part.....not so muchI am always behind the camera but I was there, really! Of course, it's hard to take Charlie away from this man when they're together.....so much love there!

Happy Birthday Charlie!

It's this boy's Birthday today!

and David & I can't wait to see Charlie on Friday!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY CHARLIE!

We Love You!

The Craft Show is Over.....

For three years, I hosted a Holiday Boutique in my home. It was usually held in October so that Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas things could be included in the sale. Each year I would invite friends to participate and we would use the entire first floor (living room, dining room, family room, kitchen and entry) to display our art. Some of the artists changed over the years but there were always at least 4 of us participating. I thought that this year we might have to rent a space to hold the boutique. Several other friends expressed a desire to be a part of the event and I knew our house could only hold so much. As we started to move closer to Fall, two of the crafters, one who had been with me since the beginning, felt overwhelmed with other things taking up a lot of time in their lives and asked to be excluded. Maybe the time had come to let it go for a year. I decided not to have it my home, but instead, to share a table with my good friend Bethanie at a local church's Craft Show. It was a good idea for this year. It gave me a break from having to whip my house into shape, print invitations, make sure I had cookies and coffee or cider for the shoppers and then put the house back together, in addition to getting all of my things made for the sale.

The church, where the show was held, did a wonderful job of advertising the show in the community. We were told that 550 people visited on Saturday. The crafters were given free snacks all day and the committee at the church had everything very well organized. We were allowed to come in at 7:00 AM to set up. The show was open to the public from 9-2 (which was perfect-any longer and I would have passed out from exhaustion!) As I said, Bethanie & I shared a table and another good friend, Mimi, and her mom, Joni shared a table right next to us. The tables were all dressed in red tablecloths and Mimi and I also brought quilts for our tables. Joni is a quilter and she made beautiful handbags and jackets, baby quilts and cute pillowcases. Mimi had a lovely assortment of her soldered charms and her baby scrapbooks, cards and art boards. (I'm sure Mimi will be posting pictures on her blog, too) Bethanie and I are paper people. She had vintagestyle cards, flash card banners and beautiful gift sets for baby with decorated and filled suitcases of goodies. She also had magnetic notepads.

My big project is a set of cards called "The Girls". There are 7 cards (and envelopes) in the set and they are the kind of cards that women send to each other for no particular reason except to laugh. I happen to think everyone must laugh every day to keep their sanity. Anyhoo, the cards are done up in an acrylic box with a fancy label. Many people bought the cards with the intention of giving the set as a gift.I had them displayed in a basket and had samples of each of the cards so people could read them before they bought them. My happiest moment is when someone picks up a card to read it and starts laughing. Then I know I've succeeded in my goal!

These are the cards from this year's set.

Are you curious about what they say inside? I'll tell you at the end of this post. (I made 17 sets of cards with 7 cards each....paper pieced and decorated. You can do the math, it makes my head hurt)

I also had small decorated journals and collaged canvas art boards. The boards are one of my favorite things to do. I use vintage images of postcards or other pictures, ribbon, buttons, sheet music and whatever I can find in my vast collection of "stuff".

The journals are purchased inexpensively and then I decorate them with bits of music, scrapbook paper, vintage images or embossed dies and tie them in ribbon. We can never have too many journals to throw in our purse, right?

I even made new business cards. They have my blog address on them so I knew I better get blogging again.Also on our table, were some hand-sewn felt items made by my neice Wendi, who lives in New Jersey. I will show you pictures of her work in my next post and also some other things she has made. She is an exceptional woman!

Now for the phrases on the insides of the cards....

1. I'm not perfect............but I'm so close it's eerie!

2. Just how many Healthy Choice cookies can I eat before it's no longer a healthy choice?

3. Mid-life is when we no longer have upper arms...we have wing spans and look like flying squirrels in drag.

4. Girlfriends.......who else can we be ourselves with?

5. Elanore & Ruth were always a hit at the church choir picnic....they brought their Mixed Berry & Beefeater Jell-O Mold. There's always room for Jell-O.

6. I used to think I was indecisive.......now I'm not so sure!

7. My idea of housework.....is to sweep the room with a glance.

That's it for now. Did you laugh? Or at least smile? Good! That's my goal!

My fingers are aching and I'm sure you're tired of reading if you've even made it this far! I will post more very soon.

I will leave you with this because I always leave you with this....Charlie the dragon on Halloween!

And Papa (David) got to be there to see him. I was home doing the final crafting for the show! In less than two weeks we will be in Maryland for his First Birthday! Where did that year go?

Where have I been?

I have been swamped for the past several weeks working on projects with definite deadlines. I wish I could do frequent posts while I'm working on other projects but I haven't been able to squeeze everything in.

Before I show you what has been occupying my time, I want to mention that the beautiful paper-pieced picture shown in my last post, made by Elizabeth (based on a vintage postcard in my collection), is now in my possession. I was so touched when she wrote that she was inspired by seeing the postcard on my blog and created her depiction of the image. When it came to me in the mail.....I was a screaming banshee!!!!!! You cannot see in any picture the fine detail in this piece. When you hold it in your hands, you notice immediately that this was not done with punches and dies. It is all cut and trimmed by hand. I need to get just the right frame for it and then it will be displayed in my craft room. I love it! Thank you again Elizabeth. Go to her blog and view her Flickr pictures and you will be in awe of the art that she creates...and, she is a gifted writer as well.

On to the projects! I was asked to make a framed layout using a wedding invitation. This would be given to the bride and groom by a friend who was in the wedding party. I've only done a few of these but I agreed to take the assignment. When I was given the invitation, I was surprised that it was black. I had never seen a black wedding invitation before . This project was a challenge to find just the right paper and embellishment as to not take away from the drama of the invitation itself. I agonized over it for weeks and finally decided on this.

I hope the bridal couple is pleased.

I also put two gift baskets together for my former employer to be used as prizes for two local schools at fundraisers.
Gift bags for a wedding tea.
While working on the previous projects, I have also been amassing items for 2 one-on-one swaps with blogging friends. The first one is with Marie ,who I have come to discover, shares many common interests with me. She asked that we do a swap based on what we know about each other. This was so much fun! I received my package from Marie on Friday and am enjoying everything she sent. Everything from vintage cotton gloves to a darling jar of buttons, a sweet bear in a lace collar, a fat white birdie, one of Marie's lovely ATC cards and many other goodies, was packed in a shabby chic white wire basket. I took a picture of the basket before I dismantled it so you could see how cute it looked. Thank you Marie for choosing just the right items that I will treasure for a long time. Here's a peek at the packages I sent to Marie.
The other swap is with Viv. We too, share some common interests and she makes the most beautiful cards and layouts. Viv is on the Design Team for Crafty Secrets, a company whose products I love!!!

On November 1st, three other friends and I are participating in a Craft Show at a local church. That's 2 weeks away friends, and I hardly have anything made yet. YIKES!!! I'll try to post pictures of some things as I get them made but I have to really put my nose to the grindstone. (boy, that phrase shows my age!!)
Have a good week!

I haven't gotten any new pictures of Charlie in a few weeks so today, I will leave you with a picture of my husband's "other" girl.....Edith! She comes when he calls and he's so well trained he immediately gives her what she wants...peanuts!!!!

What a sweet surprise!

We all do it. You're reading someone's blog and they show a fabulous picture from someone else's blog and you click on that link and before you know it, it's 27 degrees of seperation from where you started, but you've stumbled on some really amazing bloggers. That happened to me (for the 100th time) last week. I was on a blog and that blogger was showing things that Elizabeth, at Creative Breathing, had made. They were so cute, so I went to Elizabeth's blog and from there to her Flickr site. What a treat to see the art that Elizabeth creates. Small pieces, for the most part, intricately detailed and flawlessly executed. I've sent her two messages begging her to sell her things somewhere. I guess all the begging sent her to my blog (to see if I was some kind of crazed lunatic) and my Flickr site where she found the following.

A while ago I posted a picture of a vintage postcard I purchased on one of my excursions with my firend, Mimi. This is the postcard.

The postcard is cute enough but now look and see the paper piecing that Elizabeth did. Isn't it lovely? Take some time to skip over and check out Elizabeth's blog and the pictures on her Flickr site. It will be like a little breath of fresh air today. And you might find yourself a few degrees from here.

Enjoy your Friday!

Don't be confused....

I can't manage to get Part I of these posts to upload before Part II. Sorry about the confusion. Read them in whatever order you choose.

Artsy Autumn Swap-Part II

Here are the things I included in Susie's bag of goodies.Susie has named the crow Edgar-fitting, isn't it? I found him at Michael's and thought he needed some dressing up. I free-hand cut the crown from vintage sheet music and then pinned it on his head to hold it in place. A bow around his neck and he's ready for the Halloween party. The paper mache box was covered in papers from Melissa Frances and vintage sheet music (because I can't seem to make anything without it!) and embellished with a giant layered flower and a quote card from My Mind's Eye. It was filled with newspaper shreds using my super duper mini shredder from Target! I thought Susie might like a super-duper mini shredder of her own so she gets a pink one to match the journal I covered in Melissa Frances (flowered) and Making Memories (checkered) paper. I did the quote on the computer and the fairy girl is from Lisa's Altered Art (see my sidebar) Twill ribbon from Martha Stewart and diecut initials using Quickutz cookie cutter Cosmopolitan font finishes it off. Some of the other items were an altered mini notebook, a squirrely bag of acorns, socks, Halloween stamps and some copies of ephemera. Oh yes, those layered paper flower are made using the font I got from ScrapNfonts here. If you sign up for their free newsletter, you can get 3 free fonts.There are additional pictures on my flickr site here.



We are really missing Charlie and his parents! We haven't seen them since August....too long between visits. Charlie will be 11 months old this month and is growing like a weed and learning so many new "skills", as his Daddy likes to say. These pictures are from their vacation at Cape Hatteras in September. We love you kids-big kisses from Gram!

Artsy Autumn Swap Part I

The Artsy Autumn Swap is over and I can now write about it knowing that Susie has received her package from me. The swap was very well organized by Linda Smith and from what I've read, all had a good time participating. I will start by showing the goodies that Susie sent me.

First of all, the box that everything came in is fun. Plastered all over it are reproduction coffee labels.

Upon opening the box, I saw all of these packages individually wrapped in tan tissue paper and tied with hemp string. (Brown paper packages, tied up with string...these are a few of my favorite things! Sing along now.)
I took my time opening each one and marveling at what Susie figured out about me from reading my blog. Her choices of treats were perfect for me and I love everything she sent.

The painted and altered canvas featuring the dress form is going right up on the wall in my scrap studio. Don't you love the tape measure and vintage earring trim? (You can click on the pictures to make them larger)
Candles and hand cream that smell good, chai tea mix that tastes wonderful with a square mug to drink it in. Trims, buttons, lace and twine to embellish with. Candy corn towels and a crocheted hot pad. Ephemera and the dearest little pixie stamp to use in my art projects. Two sweet handkerchiefs, a great book of quotes and a wonderful CD that I've listened to many times already.
I'm a pretty lucky lady, don't you think?

Susie is a gifted crafter and I'd gladly be partnered with her again in a minute!

Linda is getting ready to post information about the next seasonal swap. Check the updates here. thank you to Susie for all of the wonderful treats and to Linda for organizing and coordinating this Swap.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story.....