Good Bye November!

Where has the time gone? This morning I watched the news a little bit before I got up and got to thinking about time...and the fact that the bad weather is approaching tonight and tomorrow...and then thinking, well it won't be long and spring will be here and the bad weather is gone. wha?? I guess that kind of thinking will get me through the winter :-) I still can hardly believe that Christmas will be here in 25 days and I still feel like it should be summer. I guess that means that I've been crazy CRAZY busy these last few months.

Even though I've been busy with work for EK Success, volunteering at school and furiously making things for craft fairs - I haven't been to busy that I can't have a little fun too. Last week I had two of my good friends over for a collaborative lunch and a lazy crafting afternoon. Kelley and Karen came bearing food (soup and dessert) and I made muffins to go along with the soup. It was a lovely day - as we all finished up our cards for a swap today - here again at my house. Another respite from the frenzy of making cool stuff to get together with a group of kindred crafting spirits. A bunch of ladies (and myself) that used to shop at Kelley's store (and one took my classes) have started getting together once a month. Today it's my day...at my house. I shouldn't be doing this computer business, I should be doing those last minute cleaning up organizing things..but anyway. We're going to swap cards, chat, eat, craft and have a lovely afternoon!

I hope you do too! ta ta for now!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hope you all had a wonderful day with family and friends - and lots of turkey. I ate everything BUT turkey and it was wonderful!

I've got another card up on ScrapScene today. Check it out for instructions and supply list!! Nighty night...goin' shopping for a special Christmas present for my boy at 6am so I've got to get to bed!

What a GREAT week!

Sorry I haven't posted, it's been crazy here!! The weekend was good, I met some really nice ladies and sold some good stuff - and good things happened! I met Betina Clark from Artascope Studios in Portland. She also works for Lovell Designs in Freeport. She has the most beautiful silver jewelry - I don't know why I didn't buy any but I will the next time I see her. She has beautiful ornaments too! I plan on asking for a weekend intensive class for Christmas from Artascope, it looks seriously cool.

Betina also took a couple of my cards to show her boss at Lovell Designs and called me on Tuesday saying they'd like to have them on commission in their gallery. Wow. I am so very happy about that! I trucked them down on Wednesday and think they look awesome, check out the Lovell Designs website, they have some gorgeous pewter work. Thinking of a few Christmas gifts from there too!


Then on Wednesday I got an email from Angie at Scrapscene that she was posting one of my Christmas cards for Day 19 of her Card a Day series.

I also found out this week that we've gotten a space at the Village Baptist Church for Prelude to Christmas in Kennebunkport on December 6th. Plus, I've been so busy working on my EK Success assignments, finsihed up the last one this afternoon so I've got about 2 weeks to work on replenishing my supply of cards before Prelude to Christmas....phew...my head still feels like it's spinning!

Gotta run now, dinner is ready! Ta Ta for now!

Project for Scrapbooking & Beyond Magazine

Just a quick share today - this project should be available for download on the Scrapbooking & Beyond website soon. I've got a lot of work to do before the end of the day, hopefully tomorrow I can put in a better post! Ta Ta for now and thanks for visiting!

A Conspiracy to Create...

Don't forget that tomorrow is:

A Conspiracy to Create...

You can become a Deputy Crafter for a Crop Scene Investigation. Visit this website : http://cropscene.com/learn-more and register for some crafting fun! Until November 10Th, the site will host daily giveaways and give you clues to help solve a crafting mystery. Celebrate on November 15Th at participating local stores for even more fun. Join EK Success, Martha Stewart Crafts, K and Company, Inkadinkado, and Prism for the some crafting excitement.

Look on-line here http://cropscene.com/learn-more for a store near you!

Thankful for...FRIENDS!

Just a quick post to share some Thanksgiving ATC's I made for a swap with some friends - both on-line and in person! I just love the Organza that I used, though I wish I'd had enough to use it on all of them! I love the old stamps don't you - my friend Hannah gave them to me. Can you tell which one I made for myself?
Well, gotta get back to work now....hope you all are having a great Friday...it's raining cats and dogs here today - please make it stop! Ta Ta For now...probably won't post until Monday due to the weekend craft fair I'll be in!

A few pictures...

and not many words because I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open!

Nighty Night!

Here I am...

busier than I want to be...I was away from the house all day today - and when I finally got home at 5pm I was frazzled and ready to sit down and relax, but I didn't....work work work and laundry too! We watched a movie - well Big V did while I worked on the computer...it was good. Funny at times, sad too! Not a must see though.

Some of you have commented wanting to know how Saturday went, and I've been avoiding talking about it. It was a long day for sure, up at 5:30, and rainy - and not so busy, very frustrating to say the least. It was really busy in the morning and then in the afternoon the traffic completely died down. It wasn't a total flop, that's for sure - but I was really geared up for lots of people all day long - and was really hoping to have a sell out and that didn't happen, maybe I set my sights too high. I'm hoping for a better weekend this weekend - it's another fair - but two days at the Brunswick Hockey Boosters Show. It's been around for a long time and supposedly gets over 2000 visitors. I have one more show after this and then it's smooth sailing for the rest of the year! Cross your fingers and toes that we have some busy days!

Since I haven't posted for a couple days, I thought I'd share some cards I made recently. I just love all the wooden stamps I bought from InkaDinkaDoo and Stampington. So easy to paint the images and do pretty things with, you should get some for yourself too!
You can't tell, but on the Season's Greetings above I painted Tattered Angels type of stuff on and the letters and scrolly thing are all iridescent, a lot nicer in person that's for sure. The silver thread matches the iridescent stuff I painted on. It gives this card a very elegant look to it.

Also wanted to share these pictures of our local Elks Lodge that I took yesterday, Veteran's Day. It was such a powerful sight to behold, 200 flags on the lawn of this Federal Style home. The minute I started clicking away the tears started flowing down my face. It was so beautiful - so very meaningful - it made my heart swell with pride for all the Veteran's out there (including my husband). On the way home all I could think of was the news that had made me angry the night before. They had interviewed Americans that had moved abroad to live and now that obama is our president-elect they are "proud to say they are American but they couldn't before". I'm always proud to be American, no matter what color, political party or religion our president belongs to! grrrr, that made me mad!

Well, I need to get to bed, tomorrow is another BUSY day for me!

Ready, set......GO!!

Tomorrow is the first show of the season, and I've been busy getting ready for months and months....a little bit here there and everywhere in between all the other things I do. Last night I whipped these tags up while I was watching TV and stitched them this morning. I love the way they came out. My goal this year was to use up a lot of old things I've had and been meaning to use. That paper ribbon I got when I lived in Washington State over 5 years ago....and the postcard paper - I got at Absolutely Everything several years ago! I'm happy to be using this up, it feels very good! Though, I'm so happy with the way the paper ribbon looks I may have to see if I can find it again...now to remember where I found it If any of you are in the vicinity of the new Brunswick High School tomorrow and have time to drop by, I'll be there from 9 to 3 selling my wares!

My Little Kitchen Helper

Every night as I get my groove on to start cooking my little kitchen helper wakes from her slumber to come to the kitchen to cheer me on, and to offer some assistance. Hi Mama, I'm here, can I help you her eyes say to me. Well, you can let me take your picture?? No, no thanks. Please don't take my picture she says as she looks away from the camera. Do you want a piece of zucchini? Oh yes, I thought you'd never ask. Thank you Mama.... and don't worry if you drop any pieces, I'll clean them up for you!

Why thanks Guinness... you're the best dog in town.

That's all for today, I've got a million things to do still before Saturday!!

Mish Mash of things....

It's Wednesday and I'm frantic....not sure why. I think part because I stayed up too late watching the election coverage - then fell asleep on the couch with the TV on and woke up at 2am and went to bed. Was too tired to brush my teeth so I woke up feeling all icky. (I've since brushed them :-) Feeling a little stressed at what this election means for our country....I hope it can be only good.

Frantic because I'm working on assignments - and love that - but also have a the craft fair which I eluded to a couple of days earlier. I've been spending my days working on things for EK and my nights working on craft fair goodies. I'm feeling a bit stressed because I'm not sure I have enough things for my display, and also because I'm afraid my tables won't be big enough....I may just rent a table if it's not to late and not stress over that. Anyway, I snapped a few photos this morning of the corners of my studio to show you sneaks of the things I've completed or am still working on....BTW, I asked my father to slap some boards together one day to make me a stamp shelf. You can see he didn't slap them together but made a beautiful oak shelf for them. I love having my wood blocks out on display, they're all so inspiring!

I'm almost done with my EK work, today should wrap it up and that will leave me two whole days to plan and scheme and otherwise get prepared for Saturday....say a prayer for me, will ya? ;-)

In other news, I was contacted a couple weeks ago by a lovely woman, Angela Fox from Creative Day Cafe to see if I'd be up for an interview. I'm happy to say she uploaded that yesterday, I hope you'll all check it out. THANK you Angela for asking, I'm honored to be on your site!

In more, other news; my friend Tammy Tutterow honored me this week with the Kreativ Blogger Award. THANK You Tammy, I'm blushing. I'm gonna have to list those that inspire me later as I need to get back to work now. Stay tuned!
Have a great day everyone! Thanks for visiting!

Remember to get out there and VOTE!

If you don't go out and vote today then how will you help change the course of history? If there was ever a time to express yourself, today is the DAY!! My husband and I spent an hour or more last night talking about our political views, who we thought we should vote for, should we support this or that tax, and though I had a firm grip on the who - it was the what that I didn't really get. We read the editorials in the newspaper - and fully realized what we need to vote for. So, I'll be off in a bit to do that. We also watched the Saturday Night Live thing on last night. Some of it was funny, some of it was not. But I'm glad that someone out there still has a sense of humor!

I wanted to share a few pages I made recently for one of those clear albums. A bunch of friends and I got together to make an album for another friend that's having a tough time of life lately, to help cheer her up with some art and inspirational words. I'm hoping that it worked! The page with "friends" ended up having a picture of her and myself on it but I didn't take a picture of it before I sent it off.

Well, I've got to get myself motivated! Between assignments, volunteering at school and getting ready for a craft fair this weekend I'm busy. REAL busy. TA TA for now, and thanks for reading!

Happy November!!

Wanted to share a few pictures from our Halloween. Every year I say I'm going to get really creative with carving - and every year I don't. We wait until the 11th hour and we're carving at the last minute...The two on the left are electric...The one with the funky nose was designed by the Little V....I love the teeth on it. We didn't stay out trick or treating for long, a lot of the houses had their lights off already and someone was in a mood - not me or Big V either! I think it's hard being an only child and nights like Halloween bring it out, makes me very guilty that we didn't have siblings for him.

Anyway,. I can't hardly believe that October is gone and we're into the first days of November!! And, 52 days until Christmas, eeeeek where has the year gone? I've got a bajillion things to be doing right now, so ta ta for now...I'll try and share some arty things with you tomorrow! Nighty night!

My Little Helper...

On Sunday when I was at Pamela's house she had a lovely gift for everyone. One of the ladies got a box filled with these York Peppermint Patties decorated with pumkins and scalloped circles. She had picked up the pumpkin stamp at Joann's for a buck and lucky me she didn't mind that I stamped a bunch of them to make my own for a Halloween treat for my 4th Graders at our Friday Crafting Class. Tonight my Little V. helped me punch and assemble the treats, he's such a great crafter! I bought the largest bag of peppermint patties, not the extra large patties but the one bite patties. One bag made 37 party favors with 3 patties left over for the taste tester. I used the 2" EK Success Scalloped Punch and the 1 1/2" Nesting Circle Punch for this project. One scallop on the bottom, one on the top and add the pumpkin in the center. We used a small piece of double stick tape to stick everything together. Little V did most of the punching - didn't he do a great job?

Look at the concentration on his face! I've got a million things to do this weekend so I may not post tomorrow.....have a great weekend everyone!

Before AND After....

I made this little collage on Sunday while I was at Pamela's house. After the Technique Show & Tell we got our supplies out and started making things, and besides eating a lot of little chocolates that were on the table I made this. I just cut and pasted, no ruler - no paper cutter - just my scissors and a piece of chipboard so I could get a semi-straight line.

I did everything for this little collage, on the 12th Day of Christmas except the stitching while I was there. It's been silently calling to me from the bottom of the pile of scraps on my desk since Sunday. Begging me to finish it. Add the words and the golden stitching that would transform it from blah to oooooooh la la!

So, while I was procrastinating, looking for something to do - anything but what I am supposed to be doing - I decided to stitch this lovely and share it with you.

Notice I even stitched the red Christmas light reflector thingie.

Sewing on Paper is easy. If you can sew on fabric you can do this. If you've never sewn on fabric, I challenge you, TRIPLE DOG DARE YOU to try it. You'll never stop. You'll become addicted to it, just like me!

BTW, I never heard from two of the winners of the EK Success drawing - and I still have the chipboard books left. I decided that I'm not going to wait any longer to hear from them - so I'll send one set to the 10th poster and one set to the 11th poster....and posting twice doesn't count ;-) no internationals (sorry) - but Canada is ok.