Tuesday, too!

There's a giveaway on Tuesday, too!!!!

(there's a giveaway Mon - Fri this week....)

Today's giveaway is a Puffy Heart made by BFF Virginia!

(who was HEAVILY inspired by Roben Marie!!!)

And a little pad with a topper I learned to make from a Teresa ezine!

Two of my bestest online friends are

having giveaways, too....

Nathalie's ends like tonight!

(she's drawing in the morning)

and

Patty's ends Friday night!

If you need more information.... look at yesterday's post!

Today is my daughter's one month anniversary!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Anniversary, Debbie!

Happy 500 Posts to Me! To Me!!!

So we will be celebrating all week here....

(above is just a picture of what I was working on over the weekend and I thought we needed to start putting more embroidery on this blog..... rofl... It's something a friend and I were working on for someone...)

Sooooooooooo......

You will need to leave a comment on the post that shows what you want to win to be eligible...

You will have all week to do this,

so tell your friends!

If you want to leave a comment on a particular post,

but you don't want to be entered in the contest

for that day

(for example, you might already have today's prize)

then in your comment say "please don't enter me in today's contest".

Today's giveaway

is this wonderful book by

Tracie Lyn Huskamp titled Nature Inspired, published in 2009.

There are 112 pages of great stuff....

I apologize for the quality of these photographs...

I went outside to take them and since the humidity is BACK... my lens kept fogging up....

So leave a comment..... and if you are a "follower" of mine, leave a second comment and just write "follower" in it for a second entry.

If you blog about my giveaway, leave another comment with that note inside!

...and be sure I can contact you...

Clear as mud?

Speaking about clear as mud...

I cleaned up my desktop....

(oh...I probably won't DO the drawings until Sunday the 5th..

so you can comment on Friday night...

and Saturday ...

well, you know what happens Saturday in the U.S.A....

College Football!

So I'll be gone on Saturday to Kyle Field!)

Thanks for playing!

Fly Away Home!

Finally did my August fragment for Virginia.

I could no longer resist doing the free-motion stitching.

Found my darning plate... as I can't drop my feeddogs on my old Kenmore.

And I even used a piece of my silver painted stick from the backyard!

Yeah me!

And every so often I run muslin through my printer (ironed to a piece of freezer paper)

and I print words and images on it to have on hand.

That's where the word "home" came from.

See that rusty clip it's hanging from?

You can get those from Nathalie!

They are sooo great to hang our "stuff" from.

About as Steampunk as I've gotten!

They're rusty suspender clips.

I'll be adding them to Christmas ornaments soon!

(some junk ornaments we are calling them...

or a variation of that word I'll share with ya soon)

Here is a direct link to Nathalie's Etsy Shop

known as Ruby Floy... ya better hurry.

Guess what next week is?

Well it will be a Big Giveaway...

right here on my blog!

Come back and see!!!!!

I think I'm going to do several giveaways...

need to go take some pictures....

Button Flower

I keep forgetting to show you this!

A few months ago, Virginia stumbled upon a button with a flower embroidered in it on a flickr site.

After much searching, she found the blogger here!

I couldn't share until she sent a bunch out as RAKs!

But I found my stash of them that I had promptly sat down and made and thought I'd show you!

Virginia made the one on the blue and white fabric as my "starter button".

I think you can figure it out... you need a button with 4 holes!

Show me what you make!

Back to School....

School started here today!

My daughter is a teacher...

I know she's going to have a great year

and her students are so blessed to have her.

If you have someone returning to school today,

I know you are praying for them!

Be sure and click on an image above and then right click to save it!

Friday Frenzy!

Do you think August is too early for glitter?

I drug mine out yesterday... just seemed to hit the spot.. so to speak!

I looked at Lynn's blog yesterday and was

so impressed with her willingness to show her mess.

LOL

So I thought I'd show you mine...

Below is my worktable top..........

I do my best work in chaos.

I'm not good with tidy.

And since it's Friday ....

thought I'd give you a Henry "fix"....

the dog loves the water!

He reminds me of a spider in this first one...

Here he is digging in the water!

And ... yes.... he gets to go to the dog park and play!

He's in Wimberley for the weekend...

His parents should get some great pictures there of the wild man!

Have a great weekend!

Look What I Won!

Do you enter many blog giveaways?

I try to!!!

Once in awhile I win and this time I reallllllly won big!

Saturday I found the below box in my mailbox.

I wondered what in the world did I order from Etsy this time?

Then I remembered I had won Sue's giveaway.....

Yes.... that was it!

I took pictures as I opened the box, being the good blogger that I am!

So you have to excuse the lighting....

Sue has her blog titled My Arts Desire... and believe me... it's my desire, too!

Please go visit her... she does great stuff, sees great stuff and has great stuff!

I can't begin to show you it all.

Above that is a little playing card that has the birds on the pink background!

And two great button cards are under it... and those flag labels,

and lace and a handkerchief...etc!

Those are metal letters above!!!

What shall I make with them?

and that SWEET Frozen Charlotte doll!

And...a gift card to my favorite store!

On the right above is an old linen piece with an embroidery design for me to stitch!!! There were keys and tags and just so much... look at this dog tag below... Thank YOU, Sue!

Saturday Sightings

Once my foot had healed enough following my surgery in April,

I had to find a dress for my daughter's wedding.

Then there was all that other "pre-wedding" stuff!

I've finally been able to make my way upstairs to my art room

and spend some time with my paper and glue!

In the next few days I will be having a giveaway to celebrate a significant number of posts!

I can never remember what it is.... remind me to look at that number and write it down!

The above postcard will be in amongst all the goodies I'm gathering for said giveaway.

I felt it needed some text at the bottom.... so I looked in a local telephone book for an appropriate name.

Have you ever done that for your art piece?

It's amazing what is in there!

And I'm in a Dove wrapper tag swap

on Christian Paper Artists yahoo group....

People keep joining...making me eat more candy

to find just the right quotes!

....and here is a peek at one of the embroidery round robins I'm in....

not gonna say which one it is....

Be watching for my giveaway!

It's a good one!

(aren't they all?)

Shakespeare Didn't Live in Houston

It's monthly fragment time!

Seeing as how I haven't even BEGUN my August fragment for Virginia!

However, above is her August fragment for me!

I dooooo love the image of a house!

The Christian Paper Artists (link on left) has been having

a stitchery round robin this year.

Dear Anna has moved to Oman.

She flew there yesterday....

But before she left, she mailed each of us whose

sampler she hadn't worked on yet.... an "add on".

Below is what she sent me....

I get a choice.... I bet I use both!

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" - William Shakespeare

Do you think he would have written that if he lived in Houston?

Maybe, if the woman was HOT!

Hello Ladies...

Okay... I have to admit that I LOVE this commercial.

I always stop what I'm doing and watch it.

I've noticed when I'm in a waiting room anywhere and this guy says "Hello Ladies"...

all the women in the room turn and watch. The men.... not so much.

There are several new versions of this ad, but the original is still my favorite.

I have been working on some paper art and I am stitching...

will show you very soon!

When Do You Throw the Flowers Out?

I do have a cut flower obsession. Especially for "flowers after the event".

I bring them home and coddle them for days.

These are bridesmaids bouquets.

How could those girls not have wanted these?

Yes, some did take their's.

(they are the girls like me)

So when you open my fridge you see flowers!

Do you see that the "stock" is turning brown?

I cut those parts off (last night)

and the roses (God love em)

are standing in vases drying now.

No, I'm not going the silica route.

I DO have silica... I'm just trying to free myself!

Below are flowers from the tables that I brought home and they've been in water.

I gave lots of arrangements like these away.

I wonder how they are doing?

Kacee???

Claire?

Jessi?

Magen?

Brittany?

I love those little blue blossoms opening on the hydrangaes! I left 8 vases of orchids and curly willow..... I know.... ....but I can only handle so much! OKAY.....moving on... The only things I made for this wedding were some things for the attendants gifts... I made photoblocks... fashioned after Julia's. Debbie helped me do everything but the sachets. Remember those chiffon flowers we all made? We sewed them on flip flops for the reception... (just for the bridesmaids)

and I showed you these sachets previously, too....

We packaged these up and put them in the girls' bags they got...

along with other goodies.

I promise I'll be finished with wedding talk soon!

I have nothing else right now though!!!!

...and in case you are concerned...

the staff assured me they would

take the orchids and branches home...

some to their mothers...

I'm sure they are thriving

and making people happy and obsessed today!

So...I no longer have any in my fridge....

but they are all over the house...

waiting for their next photo op!!!

Let them eat cakes!

If you have never been to a wedding cake tasting....

let me just say you will love it and you'll need to drink a lot of water the rest of the day!

My daughter's cake turned out beautifully....

For you novices out there..... hee hee.... that bottom layer is fake!

You can adjust which layer is fake by how many slices you want to get out of this cake!

Sometimes at weddings they make a smaller cake and just have sheet cakes in the kitchen.

That's a great option, too!

But this seemed easy and it was!

Makes the cake look so big!

The part that I found amazing,

and

why I'm dedicating a blog post to

the wedding cake,

is the drawing of the cake.

My daughter just talked with the cake designer

and .... as we sat there...

the designer just drew it off on her graph paper!

I was blown away by that!

It's like FUN DOODLING!

So I scratched out on photoshop all the

personal info from the drawing

so I could share it with you....

BC is buttercream... just so ya know...

In the USA we do a "groom's cake" also. Tradition started in the American South...

you know we like everyone to have a piece of chocolate if they'd like....

but I think the tradition has spread across the country.

I know my friends in New Zealand and Switzerland didn't know about this tradition,

so thought I'd explain.

My son-in-law wanted German Chocolate Cake for his groom's cake...

They were both delicious!

Yes, we had a "rod iron stand".

I mean....... she could design a cake...what do you want?

Daughter Married....

I don't have a lot of pictures yet.

These are just some from my camera.

I didn't want to interfere with the professional shots.

Afterall, I was paying a lot of money for some great pictures....

I didn't want to get in the way of that!!!!!

So the above were some the professional was setting up and I tried to discreetly get some of them...

Below are the moms....... Claire and I!

And...here are Frank and I....

Everything went great. It was all beautiful and happened so quickly.

More tomorrow.......