Happy New Year 2009

Pink Artists continued...

I think I told you that I sent my quilt square to Monica? Well, she has them uploaded on her blog now. You really need to go look at all of them.

The Wall Art Quilt 2009 project or (aka) THE BLOCK PARTY is officially underway! One day the blocks will be assembled into a SINGLE art quilt to be shared on Monica's blog at a later date, and our art quilt will be sold in 2009 in a fundraising event to help raise even more donations for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

It was a wonderful time...

I thought you'd like seeing some pictures. Here are Charley and I! I've got Stephanie's necklace on.....I know..you can't see it. ha! I hate to really exhibit it here. The gifts are now removed!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

For UNTO YOU this day in the City of David...

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" Luke 2:11-14

While you are waiting for Santa, check this out...

Sometime around Thanksgiving I received the above Marie Antoinette award from Shannon at Faith and Chocolate! Shannon and I are in Christian Paper Artists together and we are also Silver Bellas...so we are ALL THAT! I so appreciate Shannon passing this on to me...it is an award for being an Inspiration in our little crafty/blogging/creative world. Anyway.... my life has been so upside down the last month...I am sorry I haven't passed this lovely award on. But now I'm ready. This blog is "tag free" as in I cannot be TAGGED, but I can be GIFTED! So..... here are the rules: 1. Please put the logo on your blog 2. Link to the person from whom you received the award 3. Nominate at least 7 or more blogs 4. Put the links of those blogs on your blog 5. Leave a message on their blogs to tell them. Here are my inspirations that have not...to my knowledge...already gotten this award: Nathalie's An Artist's Legacy.... one of the first blogs I read each day. Anna's Nest Happenings....one of the daily readings. Margaret's Alice and Camilla.... I love everything she does! Natalea's Kandeland...now she has probably received this award already as she does run with a verbal and productive crowd! She's my original Silver Bella buddy. Jeanie's Marmelade Gypsy...she inspires me in the written word... Cindy's Junque Art....she is quite the over achiever in my art world and I met her at Silver Bella 2007. Stephanie's Doojies... Stephanie is the one that made the necklace that I have worn almost every day since Thanksgiving. I'll photograph it soon for ya. But she is a transplanted Texan and Aggie and a Silver Bella...and so fun.

If only in my dreams...

I'm getting there! Praise the LORD!

I went to a cookie exchange last Thursday night....first one in over 20 years. I think this is a tradition my friends and I need to revive. Mary Magnusson hosted it.... Mary retired this year - she's a minister in the United Methodist Church. She is such a blessing in my life and I get tears in my eyes now just thinking about her. She did the funerals for both of my parents. I love her! We even went to the same high school in Mobile, Alabama.... Murphy High School - Go Panthers.... Anyway...I digress ...although I did dream I was at a high school reunion last night - isn't that bizarre? Mary graduated ahead of me.... by a number of years.

Okay...I promise I'll be back before Christmas Eve!

Online Friends

I know you have some online friends that you dearly love .... and most of them you've never met in real life. One of my friends that I've known on the internet for many years now....well we often send a box back and forth with things in it that we know the other will like. Just little stuff...often stuff we find at a thrift store, things we make, etc. I got this box on Monday. Go visit her blog! And, yes, she made the stars...I can BARELY make one out of paper...to make one out of ribbon is definitely beyond my abilities. I like them just the way they are. (she thought I might want to glitter them) The box makes me a little weepy. Must be the time of year.

...and yes, I smudged the note so you can't read it.....I do have my standards ya know....did it with software...duh!

Merry Christmas....

Mini Banners!

Merry, merry Christmas!!!

I have more pictures to upload and talk about....maybe I'll get that done today. But thought this could satisfy you for the moment! It's a mini holiday banner swap I was in on In This House Yahoo Group. I REALLLLY like the size of this. Watch out Christian Paper Artists...we'll be adjusting our pennant size for the new year!

P.S. added 12/19..... I should've told you that the banner second from the left is by Margaret of Alice and Camilla. I am sooooo excited to have some of her artwork!!! Actually I'm beyond excited!

Ding, dong the bells are gonna chime!

Look whose engaged!!!!

My little boy proposed on Saturday night!

Please Mr. Postman!!

I mailed the decks!

The decks are gone! Ding, dong the blasted decks are gone! Hooray! Hooray! I really like the decks....and will share more about them later...when I recover. Meanwhile.....these are the blogs that I want to spend time with and just haven't been able to... but I don't want YOU to miss out...

My idol Pam Garrison is having a coffee filter fetish that you are going to DYE for.

My idol Charlotte Lyons is having a Sweet Mountain Holiday you simply must not miss. My idol Rebecca Sower is having a Merry Make-Do Christmas that you will l o v e! Teresa McFayden's Comfort and Joy E-zine is up and going and I am loving it! Tim Holtz Twelve Tags of Christmas just ended! I will have to catch up on that one. You should check it out.

SNOW!!! SNOW!!! SNOW!!!

It snowed in Houston on Wednesday night! We were so excited!!! DH and I had to go to an "event" in Houston.... so we drove to the Galleria and it was pouring snow all the way in! On the drive home everything (except the roads) was white! The snow didn't all melt in my yard til almost noon!

Anyone know what movie this blog title is from? I just got out the camera to take pictures of my Ali Edwards' project .... the December Daily book. Nathalie and Anna are doing it, too. Only Nathalie has posted her book... so I was feeling pretty guilty since I had just insisted we all do this!

I will take better pictures before it's all finished! I really like doing a small monthly journal like this! I used red matboard for the covers.... Soooo....all it took was for me to start working on this book at 6:30 p.m. and photographing it.... to bring the FedEx truck to my door! Oh my gosh! I've been waiting for a couple of weeks for these decks of cards to arrive!

I'll be stuffing shipping boxes tonight!

Christmas, Christmas time is here....

So last week I drove into Houston (something like 25 miles away)..... to do the social thing for business purposes and stay in town a few nights....

Here is my annual picture of the Galleria Christmas Tree.

Neiman Marcus puts puppies in their windows from the local SPCA at Christmas. It's a good thing I was spending a few nights at a hotel or this pup might've found a home with me! One night while DH had a dinner without me....I ate with the kids. Here are Bob and Kacee: ...and here are Cary and Debbie:

Here is what I did today. These are based on the ones in the current issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. I'm giving some of them as gifts tomorrow night at the annual Dirt Diva Christmas Party!

The eyes are nails, the mouths are upholstery tacks and I had those orange noses made from clay already! I made them years ago when I was making snowmen out of white felt! Glad I kept them. (like I would throw something like that away?) Most of the hats are earrings!! They have to have jewels because they are for divas. The head is made of "paperclay"....they sell it at Michael's. Remember all those bottles I bought in October? And you thought I was crazy!

I think they are done...may have to add something tomorrow when I have fresh eyes!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas....

Creative Thinking

I go to a few formal events every year at this time and I like to reshuffle my attire among them. I keep a little spiral notebook that tells what I wear to business functions that happen during the year. People really don't care what you wear and they can't remember anyway. Tonight I have such an event. I'm wearing a dress I've had for a few years and I've worn to this event once before. But I bought a new necklace yesterday from White House/Black Market to wear. Well I got home yesterday and it just didn't work with either dress I was considering. So I was going to return it on Thursday. But what to wear tonight? Now you may already know this trick...and maybe I did, too...but if I did ... I had forgotten it. I thought if it was just longer it would work. So I used a bracelet as an extender!!!! First I tried the silver one below..and it looks fine, but the black one may be the better choice. I am SO pleased with myself. I knew you'd appreciate it!

A day or two before Thanksgiving I went to the nursery to buy something to put in the pot on my front porch to replace the dead mums! I ended up with four small pots of Cyclamen. They are sooo pretty...and they are really hard to kill. They use them at the shopping malls ya know. Anyway.... they were so pretty that I decided to first use them for my centerpiece. I drug out a white serving dish and I was going to cover the dirt with that fake snow stuff I have.

But then.... I remembered the chili bowls! So I got 4 white chili bowls down and put them in those.....we had 3 on one table and 1 on the other table! Yea!!!

And now they are outside!

Christmas Blog Banners Envy

I need to spend some time figuring out how to make a better blog banner... and a background. I don't have time to look it all up. Anyone know a quick tutorial site? I need to learn how to use my photoshop elements and do this myself. I want a cute Christmas banner! I have banner envy.

Turkey and Art were both done!

It's actually been a productive week for me! I DID do Thanksgiving. 14 people showed up and everyone seemed to have a good time and enough to eat. We have so much to be thankful for! Above is my quilt square that I mailed to Monica for Part Two of the Pink Artist Project. It seems a little plain now that I see it like this....but I'm not much of an art quilter - although I would LOVE to be! And......I made my mini banners for another swap and will mail those tomorrow! Yeah me!!!

And......below are Christmas inchies that I also made on Saturday! I didn't get dressed all day. It was great!! Ohhh....and I made this ornament below to put on top of my sister's birthday package... her birthday was last Wednesday! I've made about 24 of these in the last few days! It's a Charlotte Lyons pattern.

More pictures next post!

Hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, I'm as ready as I can get. Gotta blow dry my hair though.

Life after Silver Bella

I HAD to get my act together and make ornaments for a swap that's due next week. So above is a tiny peek at them. I also had to clean off the dining room table as Thanksgiving dinner is at my house Thursday!!! So Silver Bella had to be put away. Thought you'd like a glimpse. The canvas bag is my Prada Schmada from Charlotte Lyons' class. I still have to add more embellishments. And I need to make mini banners for another swap. My DH says I've over-committed myself. Really? I should never have agreed to do Thanksgiving.

You should go look at Debby Shuh's blog. Also check out Suzanne Duda's !

Inspiration comes in small ways....

BFF Virginia framed some of her inchies. Isn't this awesome.

I'm not finished posting about Silver Bella...but I must show the inspired artwork below. When 4 of us Bellas....Virginia, Peggy, Debe and I boarded the flight from Omaha back to Houston we were on a glitter high and wished we had make and takes for all the passengers... but since we didn't, one of them made some art on a "barf bag" for us. Here it is:

We, of course, had no scissors. And he used bubble gum for adhesive. We were so impressed. We later learned that his wife scrapbooks - so he does have some insight. Here it is.... Mr. ashearer @ ...well I won't put his email.... Thank you!!

Strains of Silver Bella

Above is Virginia's and my "shrine" that we made in our hotel room. Each night we would place our newly made treasures on top of the tv in the living room.....yes, we had a suite...everyone did.

Of course, nothing is finished. Virginia didn't like the bottle she brought for her Pam Garrison project, so her's is blank. Mine still needs more stuff. But I haven't had time to work on any of my Silver Bella stuff yet. Security searched my carry-on bag twice trying to find what the "man" was seeing that was "suspicious" in my bag. We finally found my Pam Garrison house project - with the bottle wrapped in wire!!! Too funny. I need to warn her that those should not be in carry-on luggage! The two houses on the left were made by the woman sitting next to me and I can't remember her name.... my little beach bungalow is to the right! My pink cottage...that is still not quite finished is shown in a better picture on Charlotte Lyon's blog. I have a pewter watch and you can see it where I'm holding mine at an angle for her to photograph. Go take a look.

I will try and get more Silver Bella projects and goodies photographed soon. I know.....it's been one of those weeks.....had my every ten year colonoscopy Wednesday. Just wait...you'll be old one day, too.

Silver Bella Hangover!

I made it back! It was awesome.... as expected. First stop after checking into the hotel..... that's Debe and Virginia!

Here we are........... Pam and I!!!! You know...I never realize how tall I am until I go to something like this where we are taking lots of pictures. I'm 5'9". Pam is TINY!!! But she was a wonderful teacher... just like everyone says ... she is so giving of herself and of her STUFF! Loved the project. I want to add more to mine now that I'm home with my stash. I will definitely be making more of these. Silver Bella was wonderful - better than last year. I will ALWAYS seek out Embassy Suites! Great hotel!

Above is a photo of "my table" in the Rebecca Sower class - Prayer Collage.... which I must say was my favorite project. I loved every class I took this year. Sitting is Carol Wingert...link below...and Pam Keravouri. Behind them are Debe Leon, Rebecca Sower, Virginia, Natalie Hansen and me.

This is the centerpiece for the tables at the Mary Englebreit luncheon. You need to visit Julia's blog for a good read regarding the luncheon. I didn't get a good photo of ME. She was wonderful and the things Julia says on her blog were the things I would write about her talk. I didn't order a poster to be signed.... I had ordered two of her newer books from Amazon and hauled them to Omaha for her to sign. I did not fit into the "signing category" and the line was a mile long and I had a class right after the luncheon....so I just hauled my books back home. But that was okay. Cari Craft did the centerpieces!

My BFF Virginia went with me to Silver Bella this year!!!! We had a great time. She hates having her picture made....so she did suffer a great deal at SB - but I figure it was a growth experience for her. ha! Here she is with Peggy who is also from Houston. Peggy flew home on our flight.....which was quite fun. Remind me to tell you about that. I have an art upload made by a passenger who was inspired by us. hee hee! Maybe I'll get that scanned tomorrow.

Here is beautiful Natalea!!! We met at SB last year and hung out together then and we got to be together a lot this year, too. She is a wonderful girl with a good head on her shoulders. I could be her mother... in fact I'm older than her mother. But she seems to put up with me.

Vendor night this year had a Prom theme. These are the girls that wore prom dresses!

Here is a lovely shot of Charlotte Lyons and me!!! I am a huge fan of Charlotte's and was so excited to get into two of her classes this year!

Virginia thought we should be lookin a bit livelier....so we were trying to laugh for her!

The first class I had on Thursday was Charlotte Lyons' "Prada Schmada". Here is Julia as referenced above with her bag! Julia lives in the Houston area also....we flew out on the same prop plane. ha!

We were all obsessed with getting our grommets in our bags. Here is Julia after she pounded her's in!

Here is Carol Wingert whose blog I've read for a few years and it was after probably an hour in the class when I realized who she was!!! And this is Debe from Houston that we hung out with all weekend, too. She flew there and back with us on the Silver Bella Express!

This is Shannon Johnsonand me and Virginia! Shannon is on Christian Paper Artists yahoo group with Virginia and I. She's from the Dallas area and we were so excited to get to finally meet! She is so sweet. Isn't it great when you meet your online friends and they are so great - just like you knew they would be.

I wish I had gotten a picture of Suzanne Duda and I together. We emailed, talked on the phone and text'd while we were going to and at Round Top/Warrenton in October and never found each other there..... so we finally got to meet at Silver Bella. She's great.... very sweet, friendly and down to earth!

This picture looks artistic.... ha..... obviously it didn't focus well. Maybe Natalea will have a better version.

Here is Janey and I!!!! She's from Chicago and she, Natalea and Sharon hung out with me last year. Sharon didn't come this year. We missed you, Sharon!!!!

Tomorrow I'll upload photos of projects and other goodies!