12.24.11 ... merry christmas

we had a wonderfully fun excursion hunting last minute for super inexpensive little gifts. and look how pretty our holiday spirit is. no one can take away your spirit. hotel room or no.

also, here is scout's latest sidewalk freebee find. can you believe someone was just giving this huge, unused portfolio away? wow. it is nice.

now she is set as far as keeping artowrk clean and handy.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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8.14.11 ... a lovely birthday all day long

we had fun today despite the one hundred and a billion degree temperatures. i received phone calls and texts and facebook wishes from so many beautiful friends and families. i loved it. ev and scout pampered me all day and night. on top of everything else, tonight we had birthday cupcakes, thanks to ev...

chocolate with buttercream frosting.

i'm still happy i married a younger man. :) we'll be celebrating for a while yet. that's how we do things here. it works for us. 

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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6.27.11 ... we love love love love our doctor

...scout had her check up today. our beyond fantastic doctor uses the word absolutely and we love the way she says it. so i made this treasury tonight. it was inspired by her. you can see it here.  she is absolutely one of the best reasons to live in austin. we are so very lucky. i hope you all have a doctor you love, too. 

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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5.24.11 ... calling cards and packet

Today i finished up the loose ends of the packet heading to australia.  i made a variety of calling cards. here are my alligator bookmark calling cards.

here are a few of my heart tree and thank you for caring bookmark calling cards.  scout was sweet enough to come in and help me with the bookmark ties.  she is so creative.  i love the ones she made.  and...

... some with my house stamp.

i hope these donations help make a difference. i am honored to have been asked and to be taking part. it's a small world. and environment is, indeed, everything.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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4.29.11 ... another rubber stamp project

scout and i started on another stamp pair. the sun is mine. this is as far as i got because i made chicken salad and needed to get an early dinner together so she'd be well fed before rehearsal this evening. and here is hers...

she got one step further. i'll share the next steps as soon as we finish them. it might be a few days because her show is this weekend; two performances each day. 

i hope your friday was a funday. sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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4.27.11 ... house stamp and framed ephemera

i worked on my house stamp this afternoon and ev made the block and attached it. tomorrow i will try it and refine it. so stay tuned. all i can say is i sure wish i could see as well as this camera can!

this was a project i've had in mind for quite a while but i have been hunting for the right frame. it took some time, but boy did i luck into a perfect fit. this vintage frame is one of a pair which had expensive lithographs inside. from my research on the artist, they are most likely from the 1970s or very early 1980s. anyway, i took them out and will offer them in my joonE etsy shop frameless. i cleaned them up and used this one for my project. the paper is an antique from a Boston candy and ice cream purveyor, bailey's. i've had the doily for about 10 years, wondering why i save it and carefully traipse it from house to house. it is so delicate. but now it is perfect as a gift for a good friend of mine.

i can't believe the mat works so beautifully, too.

i love how this photo came out with the tree reflection so i'm sharing it as a photographic creation. it was a gorgeous day here today. the air was dry and there was a lovely breeze and the temperature was outstanding. the mosquitoes were on vacation. now that is a miracle, folks. i enjoyed being outside. i didn't get to play piano. i will be sure to make time tomorrow. hope your day was just right for you.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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4.10.11 ... good bye cricket

scout with besos (tabby) and cricket (tuxedo) ... three happy girls.

scout is a loving sister to her kitties. you can see why they want to snuggle with her.

i love that cricket had a happy, comfy life. she was dropped on the side of the road as a teeny tiny kitten. i found her when i went to a ladies aid rummage sale. outside was a cardboard sign propped up in the grass. free kittens. i forgot about it as i was shopping - it's not like i was looking for another cat. we had besos and chip, our beagle, already. as i was wandering around looking one last time before i checked out, i suddenly recalled the kitten sign and asked about them. the two males were taken and one kitty was left. when the gal opened her jacket and showed me the minute kitten she pulled out, i had to hold her for a while. well, i guess i never let go. i decided to bring her home and suffer any consequences later. on the short ride there, she climbed up onto the back of my neck and flopped down upside down on her back and fell dead asleep. when i arrived home and ev came out to ask how i did at the sale. i said 'look what i found.' he couldn't even see her even after i pointed her out. when he did he fell in love with her instantly, too, so all was well. that was 10 1/2 years ago.

we named her cricket because she was so tiny and shy and quiet. she lived up to her name in one way. she never did meow and eventually chirped a little now and then. in another way, she was completely different from a cricket. she really grew. and grew. and grew. she was always nervous and afraid of strangers. she loved to run behind the washer or into a closet or behind a tub. but she was never startled a whit by chip. we got a kick out of that because he was a puppy when she came into the picture. and a beagle puppy is no calming element. a year later we got ginny weasley. so all these years we've had the three girls and mr. chippy. life is a journey and ours takes a different path now.

we miss her already. and are so glad she came into our lives. sweet dreams, cricket. oxoxoxoxoxo

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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3.26.11 ... dictionary ephemera gift box wrap

i received an order in a recycled gift box and, naturally, i loved that. i want to use it yet again and hope the next people in line will be encouraged to reuse it as well, but it was getting a little worse for the wear so i decided to give it an edge and wallpaper it. i went through my old discarded dictionary looking for something interesting and with the right page placement. i love this hieroglyphics illustration --- i just now noticed it is about a gift!

well, prior to finding that .... this was my favorite aspect of the particular piece - that it had the hieroglyphics bit and that higgledy-piggledy are situated perfectly for the latter to rest exactly on the box top edge.

and i love that flounder is on hand and that the top edge flaw which bows out has the words 'higher and lower' right on the 'hilly' section.

and i love this flourish. how groovy is this?

i am thinking about what i'd like to use for the interior. i'll be back with that one day soon. or later. 

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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2.21.11 ... little packaging fun . snoopy . gregory peck . home .

today we went on a trash/recycling collection walk about. we collected a total of 617 pieces of litter and recyclable trash in 50 minutes. this is part of my project snowflake. for every item sold in my etsy shops i pick up 13 pieces of litter. i had no idea i was doing so well! i am behind but we made great progress today. i need to clean up 490 more pieces to catch up with my sales. i started this challenge on march 17th, 2010. so far, evan, scout & i have picked up 1330 pieces of litter. it's a good feeling and the neighborhood looks that much neater. meanwhile ...i have four packages to get ready for the mail and these magnet and pin packaging cards are my creations to share for today.

as usual, i had fun with these. the snoopy pin is from a very old paperback book so the paper is very fragile. i folded & sewed it and added the piece of tagboard for extra stability. the 'home' set is on a bit of christmas card. i forgot to get a photo of the back but it has a pretty pale blue card stock with a heart tree stamp that turned out to be exactly the right size and shape.

i hope the recipient will enjoy the presentations. sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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2.14.11 ... valentine's day ♥♥♥

happy hearts day dear readers. i do hope it was a lovely one for each and every one of you. we made old-school cookie gun heart shape cookies with sprinkles but i was not able to get a photo so i will do that in the morning. meanwhile, i took these photos last month in preparation for today's post.

this arrived a number of years ago in my mailbox from a sweetheart of a friend. anyone who knows me knows of my aversion to all things barbie, but those feelings melt away in a heartbeat where this is concerned. i just love it. it's one of my favorite things. i miss my friend very much and seeing this i am sure you can easily understand why.

i really love the dodge truck bit. the whole concept is perfect. hope you enjoy seeing this and that it inspires you as much as it does me. {for those of you who do not know, before i was joon, i was laura. so there's that.}

and here is what scout came up with for our email wishes. ...

isn't this wonderful? enjoy your chocolate high. sleep tight. extra oxoxoxoxo for you all this evening.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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2.12.11 ... teeny little guy space rocket man

how is your saturday, everyone? we've had such a lovely day. i found an old board game recently while thrifting and planned to use it for paper ephemera packets that i am developing for my joonE etsy shop. then we would make a wall shelf out of the board for scout's room because the game is like new. but, as happens quite often here in the wilkinson household, someone falls in love with a find and - change of plans. this game is called rat race. ever heard of it? i had not. it is from a canadian company and i can't find but one or two references to it via google. seems kind of rare. anyway, scout fell in love with it. so she read the directions and she and ev played a test game while i worked in my art room - where i came up with this little guy for ev. he's a magnet surprise gift because ev loves space and because he's been taking such good care of me and doing my house work all week. i will be very happy when my back is all better. but i bet not half as happy as him.

after i made this little rocket man, i joined them in a new game and we had lots of fun with it. so far. no one is winning yet or even close to it. poor scoutie keeps landing on the divorce square and had to go back to a lower class AND pay a bunch of fees. ev has been 'divorced' a couple of times, too. meanwhile...

i haven't been divorced even once but in order to win you need to accumulate $100,000 so you can retire. we played a good two hours and i only have about $27,000. sheesh. times is tough in the old rat race.

oh ... have you noticed rocket man's moon boots? :)

and last but not least, here he is on the {tortilla} moon planting the American flag even. could not believe when this photo opportunity strolled by me. 

time for tea. oh --- dinner: we had cheese ravioli with butternut squash sauce. oh. my. gravy. so delicious. what did you have?

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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1.27.11 ... pencil valentine & pastel flower magnets

i was cleaning up my art room a bit and sorting through papers and came across a rescued paper pencil bit that i had clipped out of a discarded children's book and punched a row of mini hearts across. that gave me the idea for this illustration with the single heart punch and the traditional puny sentiment. i used my regular colored pencils for this drawing and my beloved le pens for the sentiment.

then i dug out my pastel pencils and made these simple flower magnets based on a little sketched flower i had done one day and saved. i love how they turned out. i don't have many opportunities to use my pastels because they smudge easily but the mylar on buttons and magnets preserves them. so they're good for these projects. i also made the background paper using the three flower color schemes. all in all, highly satisfying creative spurt. ciao for now.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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1.24.11 ... confidential valentine

we found this fabby office supply resale place today and scout spied these message pads (10 cents). irresistible to the both of us.  we also found a CONFIDENTIAL stamp in the old stamps bin (1.00) . again, could not resist.  we were gone most of the day and i needed to accomplish my project late this evening so i knew it had to stay simple and be something we could scan instead of photograph. this is the idea that came to me.  i made a template of different sized hearts so i could stamp their shape with the confidential stamp and then stamped the word in the message space. checked the urgent box and there it is - an old school hand made valentine that's one of a kind and ready for personalization.  hope your day was a lovely one. 

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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1.13.11 ... happy days line

i designed and have been working on these on and off over the past few weeks. these are my first original prints pins and magnets (or thumbtacks). i've always used vintage and recycled papers , fabrics or original art. i wanted to create a line of my little happy drawings that i could print out. so here they are. the republican and democrat best friend pins idea came to me over the holidays when a loved one of mine and i were brainstorming for a perfectly unique gift and this situation of being best friends with someone from the opposite political party popped into my head because it fit. we got a kick out of it.. so here are a few photos which, once again, were taken outside on a very dreary day. i did what i could.

 

See and download the full gallery on posterous

the bacon dude was my first happy days character. at our house, it's all about the bacon. this one is a magnet.

blueberry gal magnet

miss watermelon magnet

polly pear magnet

the happy houses are a pair - one pin and one magnet. i have more sayings and happy days characters in the works. what do you think of them? i'd love some feedback. i will be listing this line in my joonwalk shop.

i had a busy day of creating quite a few things. hope you enjoy this sample.

sweet dreams, everyone. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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1.3.11 ... our folk art houses

these are our first little house ornaments we made a few days before christmas. they inspire me and i have plans for variations on the theme.

i made the two on the left. scout's are in the center and ev made the polka-dot house.

 today was a busy day and i worked in my art room de-cluttering. we were out all afternoon and evening. this morning scout helped me edit my posterous blog design.  i added a banner and changed a few colors.  i am going to work on an illustration or two before the day ends so i can achieve my goal of creating something every day of this year. thanks for stopping by. until tomorrow. happiness to you. from me. with heart. ox joon

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