Thanksgiving

We always travel to my sister and brother-in-law's home in Chatham, New Jersey for Thanksgiving. We come from Arizona, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York for a nice long visit and a lot of eating!

This year was the first time Great Grandmother Bunnie and Barbe & Dick and niece Wendi and her family got to meet Charlie. We all had a fun time and Charlie decided to walk (alone) while we were there so that was really special. I don't have a picture of that event....I'm hoping that someone will send me one. We all did lots of other things too...

Some colored....

(Fiona and Michelle)

Some read.....

(Eric)

Some celebrated their Birthday again with more presents and singing...

Some hiked in the cold at The Great Swamp..... (Eric, Charlie & Jane)

We all ate turkey birthday cake and Eric's cherry pie....

And others carried on the tradition of Black Friday shopping....

sneaking off in darkness at around 7:30 AM, armed with shopping totes and clutching coupons and lists. David is the brave soul who takes whichever of the girls wants to go. This year it was just Michelle, Jackie and me.

Our first stop is Starbucks at the Mall where we load up on some caffeine...

(Michelle, David, Jackie)

This year David & I stayed together and let the girls roam free. We are usually ready to go back to Barb's at around 11, but this year Michelle & Jackie wanted to stay longer and finish their shopping. David & I left them at the Mall and someone went back and got them hours later. We are doing our part to help the economy.....

More playing.... (Uncle Mike & Charlie)

Lots of talking....

(Jane, me, Michelle....sorry for the blurriness)

We love our kids and really appreciate Thanksgiving because it's the only time of the year when we can all be together. Our Blessings......

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.