celebrations – Page 31 – Karla's Cottage

Blue Birds, Blue Berries, and talking about beautiful gifts till I am Blue in the face!

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, show and tell, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / June 23, 2009

Thank you for all your kind comments about the passing of my Great Aunt Caroline. She was a gracious lady who led an interesting and full life. I hope I can inherit some of her longevity genes! Not only did she live to just a few days short of 101, she did so in excellent health up until the very end. And she passed away quietly in her sleep with no trauma. Not a bad way to go, at all. Lucid and no pain.

My flight to Florida is Thursday, and I am trying to get caught up before I go. I added this pearl collar to my Boutique, and have been making some projects to add too, but most likely, will not be able to till I return.

One thing I needed to be caught up on was showing off the pressies I've been getting! It has been feeling almost like Christmas around here lately and I haven't had a chance to get pictures of the lovely loot till now.

My friend, Jenn Queen of the Garden Fairies sent me this Millinery School book. I wish I could really go! And not to a modern one, I want to go back in time and attend this school and play with all the flowers and trims there.

And at our Blogger's Shopping Day in Leesburg, VA, there was a flurry of gifts being exchanged. Amy Powers created the sugared and framed bluebird, that is so cute next to the minuscule flowers that Robin crafted from coffee filters and sticker dots. Can you tell what she has used for a vase? The lid to a spice bottle!

Andrea gifted us with gift tags, all sparkly and pretty and packed in a tin.

Please excuse Twinkle's vanity, but she insisted that I pay attention to her instead taking photos of everything else…

Most of these gifties have been used already, so I can't show you how cute Heather and Stephenie's little straw basket was when it was filled with blooms, or the hand knit wash cloth that Bethmade. I saved the packaging she made for it, (the tube covered in ephemera) but the wash cloth has been hard at work already. She has given me a few of these over the years and I just love to use them. I keep one in the kitchen to wipe the fairy grand baby's face after meals, because the cotton yarn is just right for a baby's soft skin.

In a previous post, I mentioned the great idea that Pamela had for the travel folders, filled with tags to tie to our packages, room for receipts and business cards, etc. And Hope gave us post cards from her shop, that I just can't use, I will save in the folder Pamela made along with other mementos of the day.

You are probably thinking that is all I have to show you???? No way!! It has been a gift-a-thon around here!!!

In today's mail, these wonderful Blue Bird plates arrived from Jenny!! I quickly filled them with fresh, hot blueberry muffins. Don't things taste even better off of pretty plates? It was so thoughtful of her to send these to me, after she saw the post about my mini collection of this china.

Jenny has an antique shop in Raleigh, and I just found out that my husband has that city in his region now. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to travel with him there and check out her store and thank her in person.

And there is more…..

Andrea sent a voluminous bundle of beauty my way! Full of vintagey tidbits and treasures. Including a hand made frame, for a photo of Sugarwings. And out of old pastel wallpapers and glitter. Now that even more yummy than a fresh muffin!

But wait, I am still going- yes there is MORE. How lucky am I?

First of all, pretty lucky to have a friend like Beth, who sent me this wallpaper pack from Holly's shop after I mentioned how much I loved the chocolate brown paper. I am beyond lucky, don't you think?

And so lucky that Sugarwings is fine, no problems from her episode of mushroom munching in the grass. The poison control center thought that the mushrooms were dangerous and sent us to the ER, but a specialist in mushrooms happened to live in the area and came in to inspect them and told us that they were a safe variety.

Thank you all for your concern about her. And now, she has a fairy guardian on the shelf above her bed, a gift from Lori,that is just about as precious as little Sugarwings is!

Thanks, everyone for the fantastic gifts! And don't forget that I have one for you, this month's gift drawing will be on the 30th and is one of my tag journals.

Girls Trip times Three

antiques/junking, celebrations, Food and Drink, Moving to DC

By Karla Nathan / June 17, 2009

Washington, DC is a beautiful place to be. Even if you are not a huge museum fan, simply wandering about is pretty entertaining. Our Girls Trip was such fun. I even let them drag me from one museum after another with few complaints. One thing that surprised me, was how much I knew about the exhibits. I guess from reading Time and Newsweek, I see reveiws of art and absorbed it without even noticing.

One of my pals had lived in the area previously and knew where to go and what to do. Of course, I kind of live here part time, but I sure didn't know much. I can tell you where the best antique shops are, though.

Her advice on lunch? When you go to Chinatown, don't stop on the first block, like a tourist. Go down a block and over and get deeper into the area. Seemed to work for us, my lunch was delicious!

Even though we had some gloom and rain, we kept going. We didn't get too wet. And luckily, we changed our schedule to go and see the Portrait Gallery before the Haulocast Museum. Because if not, we'd have been there during the tragic shooting. That is the stuff that nightmares are made of.

No tragedies in our group! Even Jen's lost wedding ring turned up in her suitcase later on. My husband had to go out of town at the last minute, so it was just us girls. We stayed up late, sipping wine and telling stories all night. Now, to me, that is the best part. It doesn't matter what location you are in, where the trip takes you, it is who you are with that counts.

While we were exploring the Adam Morgan (?) district -in a down pour that kept us from seeing too much- we did get to see some Hollywood set crew guys taking down a scene from a movie being filmed there. I guess we were a bit late to see Reese Witherspoon, but it was still interesting to watch a fake brick store front being carried away.

This week has been extra special to me, not only did I get this Girl's Trip with my friends from Lawrence, and the Blogger's Day out in Leesburg with those pals, I had Beth come to hang out too. It was like a Girls Week on steroids, three gatherings in one!

After dropping off my first set of pals at the airport, I picked up Beth for the 2nd leg of the journey. We explored Baltimore a bit, drove down to the Wharf and ate crabcakes and walked through Little Italy.

With a GPS, you can go just about anywhere! I had some time between dropping the first batch of friends off and picking up the 2nd, so I drove around a bit all by myself too. Then, on the way home from the airport, Beth and I took a little side trip to Kennsington to look at the old Antique District there.

My husband got back in town just in time to take Robin, Beth, and I out to the Tower Club for an extremely schmancy dinner. I usually photograph the gorgeous food there, but my new camera is so much bigger and brighter, it seemed a bit obnoxious. So, my husband reminded me not to disturb the other guests and to be polite. That isn't easy for me…

Its also not going to be easy for me to get back into a routine of being at home and doing my normal chores, not being wined and dined daily while giggling with girlfriends. But, Sugawings is around and I have a feeling there will be plenty of girly gigglling time with her!

Heading to Leesburg

antiques/junking, celebrations, Moving to DC, parties

By Karla Nathan / June 14, 2009

What a fun group! Here we are in front of Prom Dress Central, other wise known as the "Anti- Hope Room", (Hope is such a funny person to be with, and she came up with that name, since it is pretty over whelmingly beautifully stocked with froof, and she doesn't care for that stuff)

Pictured in the back row is: Jessica http://www.suchprettythings.typepad.com/

Pamelahttp://www.suchprettythings.typepad.com/

Lori myfaeriewindow.blogspot.com/>

Amy http://www.inspireco.blogspot.com/

Heather prettypetals.typepad.com/>

Andrea http://www.velvetstrawberries.typepad.com/

Front is: Hope http://besottment.typepad.com/

Beth http://bethleintz.typepad..com/

Stephenie justalittlebitpink.blogspot.com/>

and Robin http://thriftymissprissy.typepad.com/

We were at On a Whim, a place of pink polka dot loveliness (that I don't have the web address for right now, sorry). One room there is nothing but vintage gowns and hats. I've been there before and have made the appropriate sqeally noises when I first saw the room, so really enjoyed listening as each new person came in and saw it all for the first time. There might have been a happy squeal or two…

The owner, Donna Trexler has done a breath taking, squeal producing job of displaying her gowns.

And her HATS!!!!! I was in love with the hats!!

What better backdrop for a group photo of this group?

By the way, I am loving my new camera! I'm getting used to it, and learning a few tricks. Plus, I downloaded Picassa photo editing and have had a chance to experiment with that. I'd love to learn how to add tint to a sepia photo, wouldn't it be pretty if I had been able to add a blush of pink to the roses in this one?

The Cottage ( www.cottageatleesburg.com ) was as cute as a bug, just as its welcoming front porch implied.

There was lots to talk about all day, and you might think it was complicated for a big group to shop together, but we all had such similar interests we had an easy time staying together while we poked around here and there in Leesburg. There was time to mingle and talk one on one too, and talking to Amy and Andrea and hearing about thier toddlers helped my homesickness about missing Sugarwings. (only 4 more days till I get to hold my little Fairy Grand Baby again!!)

Here is Andrea, Hope, and Amy. I've met them all at Silver Bella, but never really got a chance to spend time with Hope or Amy till yesterday, and am so glad I got a chance to hang with them both.

This year have been lucky enough to get to visit with Andrea once in April, then again in May, and now here in June. We both have husbands that travel a lot, and she joked that we might see each other more than we see them.

Amy has invited me to come to a craft day at her home when I "head" back this way again. Can't wait.

Most of the things that I was really attracted to, like this statue, weren't feasible for my suitcase. I guess the shopping part of the day was more for social than for buying purposes for me. The stores in Leesburg will always be some of my faves, but on this day, I was too busy chatting to be seriously shopping.

Although, this little guy might have fit into my suitcase…

We did manage to buy a few goodies, and Pamela provided the cutest travel folders filled with pockets for receipts, business cards and custom tags with our names on them to tie onto our shopping bags so we could tell whose was whose. When Beth, Robin, and I loaded my trunk, Beth saw this and said we had to snap a picture of the tagged loot.

If you travel with bloggers, there is one photo op after another!

I'll have some pictures of the little (did I really say little? I meant extravagant and generous) gift exchange as well as the haul from shopping later on.

Thanks, Heather for pulling it all together for us to meet! What a fun group, and a beautiful day.

More En Le Jardin with Jenn

celebrations, Etsy Goodies, flowers, parties, show and tell, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art

By Karla Nathan / May 20, 2009

Everyone is asking what we made at En Le Jardin. Here is my flower pot, I didn't exactly follow directions…. They are supposed to be covered in chicken wire and then the embellishments added to that, but I left off the wire. I also went a little crazy with the foofs, its about as gaudy as can be, huh?

I'd brought lots of goodies to embellish with, plus we were given loads of treats to use in our swap bags. But when I saw this vintage gift wrap paper that Jenn had out for us to use, I had to go for it. Its actually two different papers, the little ladies were cut out and glued onto the floral paper. All the glue is still wet in this photo, so it looks a bit murky.

The day started out blistery, smelty hot. But then, the sprinkles came, not bad, just a little steamy. We were all having so much fun we didn't even notice, really. But, then the skies let loose! There was something about being under the tent, all together working away while the rain poured down around us that was kind of intimate and cozy.

But not so cozy, that I didn't want to get out and splash around in the "water slide" with Tiffany!

I think that if Tiffany and I were neighbors, we could get into some trouble. That girl is a blast.

Our other project was a fairy ball. Cheryl had the idea of adding the streamers, so Kim and I both used it. Mine is the one in the middle, the left is Kim's and the right is Cheryl's.

Mine is a little different. Instead of a little girl's photo made into a fairy, I used a fairy ballerina perched on top of a faux cupcake. Then, I drenched it in rhinestones and jewels and millinery.

Just like the photo of the planter, this one still has wet glue. The rain might have been fun, but it made the air so humid that my creations were still slightly damp when I packed them up the next day.

Since this was the fairy's nest, I added some pastel eggs to the top of the cupcake too.

Although, what do fairy eggs really look like? These might be pretty pastel colors, but they are a bit blah to have been laid by a little sprite. I should have tied little ribbons onto them and added millinery flowers. (Ouch-that might be a bit painful for the fairy to lay, huh?)

To the top, I added a vintage chenille bee, and one of my plant markers, this one says "Fleurs" in honor of the event.

The day in the tent was remarkable and the craft projects were really interesting. But, my favorite part of the trip was in our downtime, when we chatted for hours. Evenings went on way into the morning hours, and the sharing never slowed.

Lots of the attendees have been posting photos, if you'd like to see more, Jenn has a really good sampling on her blog. She has complied photos from our Flickr site and used some from different photographers. From her blog you can follow links to other people who have posted pictures, if you'd enjoy seeing more. I gotta tell you, the details that went into the weekend were pure perfection!

And while talking about details, I have to tell you how much I am loving my new camera!!!!!!!! Tiffany and Carol both gave me priceless tips on how to use it better.

They convinced me to be brave enough to venture on from the point and shoot options, which I figured would be all I could handle and since I refuse to read how to manuals, thought I'd be stuck with just doing that. I learn much better from Show and Tells, and these two always took time to show me.

Look at the center of this partial roll of vintage crepe paper! yep, I LOVE that camera!!!!

I've been adding a few odds and ends to Etsy and to the Boutique. I'm plugging away at it. I have a goal, to get 50 items back in Etsy, mostly craft supplies. As far as the Boutique goes, I really don't know what works well for it. I'll experiment with inventory levels and see what works best. I know I prefer fuller to emptier myself, but I'll see.

Look what I saw today, on the Vintage Workshop newsletter- a project I did for Amy last year:

NEW DOWNLOAD COLLECTION –
Garden Collage

The Vintage Workshop would like to introduce a new type of multi-image collection called Elements . These collections will contain a series of coordinating elements including single images along with background images. The number of images in an elements collection will vary. Elements collections will still come in two versions – the resizable Designer's Choice and the pre-sized Click-n-Cut (all backgrounds in click-n-cut version are sized 8.5” x 11”).

The first collection in this series is Garden Collage – emt100. This collection contains four vintage seed packet images, two sheet music backgrounds, and four different vintage wallpaper backgrounds.

The sample note cards shown here use images from our new Garden Collage collection. Use these as inspiration to create your own projects.

Click here to view more garden imagery.

In the land of never ending cupcakes

celebrations, fairies, Food and Drink, give away, paintings, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / May 18, 2009

My weekend at Jenn's retreat was such fun, I'm still running it over and over in my head today. So, I gave in to the daydreams and did a little cartoon of the event. Here are a few highlights, hmmm, maybe you needed to be there to get it?

Maybe this one will explain the cupcakes all over the drawing? It was a weekend full of never ending cupcakes!

Jenn was the Queen Flower Fairy, so she is the one flying in the center of the painting, wearing a crown.

The luncheon and craft tables were set so beautifully with pastel colors, lots of flowers, and each had a concrete cherub.

The crowns that Jenn made for the lil angels inspired the one I drew on her fairy portrait.

Jessi and Kim were across from me at my table. I also got to sit with Carol, Suzanne, and Analise.

Poor, sweet, Carol had a painful black eye. That explains the big purple smudge on her face in the drawing. She and I were roomies, and I am afraid that in the middle of the night when she had a leg cramp and fell face first onto the floor, I laughed way too much.

Honestly, I didn't realize she was hurt! But it might just be one of the reasons why Angela said that she was so surprised when she met some of the people whose blogs she read. She says we aren't at all what she expected. I asked her what she meant and she said, "I thought Karla would be NICE!"

That has to be my favorite quote from the whole weekend. And there were lots of good ones!

I'm afraid that Typepad is giving me fits, and I can't do links to the people I am mentioning. If you'd like to visit them, all of their links can be found on the En Le Jardin site, here.

We had such a lovely luncheon! Jenn had set up the room ahead of time and kept it under lock and key till the surprise unveiling at lunch time.

Definitely worth waiting for!

Carol is a pro with her camera, so we got in early to get some good shots. Don't tell anyone, but while we were getting a sneak preview of the room, I also got a sneak taste of some of the treats.

Tonight, Typepad is being extra unkind to me, I need to finish before my screen locks up again. There are plenty more photos of En Le Jardin and I'll be back with more later on. But I wanted to remind you that all comments all month of May are entered into the drawing for this hand painted charm, and vintage paper tag.

Also, I added some tags to the Boutique. I'll leave you with a few photos of the newly listed pretties.

Happy little Garden Fairies

celebrations, fairies, parties, Travel, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / May 17, 2009

This past weekend at Jenn Hayslip's home was over the top beautiful, just like she is. Every inch of her home is swathed in gorgeousness. She never missed a detail of making our visit the best it could be.

It was all such a pleasure, that this is how I felt all weekend, ready to burst with joy!

We weren't just treated to Jenn's graciousness, we were treated to a giant dollop of Southern Hospitality by her neighbors too. They offered up guest cottages for some of us to stay in. Here is the view from our balcony.

Not a bad scene to wake up to each morning, huh?

You guys might have heard me gush a few times about Silverbella and how much I love going there? Well, of course, I love that event and always will, but this trip to Macon was even more special. I always say that the best part of Silver Bella isn't the classes(but of course, they are interesting and its great to meet the talented bunch of instructors). My favorite part of Silver Bella is the camaraderie, of meeting like minds and spending time with a group of women who feel the same way.

Jenn's classes were adorable, her home, the treats, the day trips, the limo, all of it was abso-freakin-lutely special. But most of all, it was the time to just hang out and talk, bond, and laugh for hours that made this so remarkable.

Jenn never missed a detail, and provided for all of our needs in her own extraordinary way. And I love details! Her attention to our care and happiness created a magical time, where we could forget about "real life" and be silly, happy garden faires for a few days.

Thanks, Jenn, for bringing together such a delightful group for such a memorable weekend!

The right way to get the day you really want!

antiques/junking, celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, give away, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / May 6, 2009

Thanks for all your happy birthday wishes! It was a fun day, I invited some pals over for a tee shirt embellishment day and for birthday cake. There were some issues with the transfer paper, we never did figure it out. But I had bought a bunch of different types of printable fabrics to try too, and those worked out well. For this brown tee, I added a copy of one of my favorite vintage paintings, then some velvet and lace trim under it. To finish off, it got old seam binding around the neck. The shirt is Lycra, so I stretched it as far as I could and straight stitched the ribbon to the neckline. When I let go of the pulled fabric, the ribbon ruffled just like I hoped that it would!

Everyone brought their own shirts or bags to work on, and then I had an assortment of goodies for them to go through and add to them, as well as a bunch of pictures I had downloaded and printed onto fabric. Of course, nothing was exactly right for what they needed, and we spent most of the day going through my supplies and my folders of images to see what they wanted to use for their pieces. Isn't that how it always goes? The stuff set aside for a project is never quite what you want, something buried or squirreled away is much more intriguing.

The crystals and glitter pens were popular though. Well, dur! Of course crystals are great to use!!

After the group left for the day, I sat down and worked on a couple shirts for myself, it had been hectic earlier with so much going on and I wanted to wear a new shirt when my boys and I went out for dinner. Ryan and Sugarwing's Daddy took me to my favorite Italian place, then we went to see Wolverine. Hugh was my favorite Xman before, but after this movie, I love him even more! And Ryan Reynolds is a fave of mine too, so it was fun to see Van Helsing take on Van Wilder.

Thanks also for your get well wishes for poor little Twinkle's toes. She is no longer whining and whimpering, and is back to running around, so I'd say she is feeling better.

Especially after a visit from one of her puppies, Bella.

Sugarwings (who by the way, is an excellent helper when it is time to blow out birthday candles) was glad to see Bella too.

Are you noticing anything different about my blog today?

Guess what came as my birthday gift! The CANNON REBEL!!!!!!!!! yep, that one. The one I've whined about and wished for. And you know who gave it to me? I did.

The best way to have a wonderful birthday is to throw it for yourself. I bought a cake, invited friends over for a craft day, supplied the crafts, picked out the restaurant and movie to to take my sons to, and bought the gift I wanted for the last year. The perfect birthday, perfectly orchestrated by me. Everyone was happy to have the burden of what to do for mom lifted from them and I had exactly what I wanted. Now, why did it take me 51 birthdays to figure that out? I guess wisdom comes with age.

Good camera, huh? What a nice gift!!!

I realized that I never showed you the goods that I bought last week at the flea mkt, so I'll leave you with a few photos from my OLD camera of my finds.

Can you see the difference?

Now, that wasn't a horrid camera, and I will still be using it quite a bit. It fits so nicely into my jeans pocket. But I love my new Rebel XSi!!!

Well, that photo sure isn't very good. I wonder what makes me show them any way, when I know they are bad?

Last week's shopping trip was a day for figurines and babies, as well as millinery and jewels. Lots of small things, I liked not having much to carry in at the end of the day.

Before I go, I need to announce the hand painted Birthday Cupcake Charm-

Claudia

And to say thanks again for helping make my day special with all of your kind comments!

Hoppy Easter!

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / April 12, 2009

Happy Easter! We've had a fun one so far, lots of egg hunting excitement, and we've decided that instead of Sugarwings, the fairy grand baby's new name is "Sugar Rush".

She might have had one too many jelly beans today! Although, her Daddy did buy organic ones and only hid one treat in each egg, she was insistant on opening them up and devouring the treat the moment she found it.

After all the eggscitement, she has been tucked in for a nap (well, we HOPE she'll take a nap- tucking in Miss Sugar Rush was like trying to convince a Tasmanian Devil to get some rest).

We are having a small dinner tonight, only about 9 of us, so we'll fit in the dining room. I didn't have to clean the studio after all!

My Handsome Husband is smoking a pork tenderloin, stuffed with apples and brown sugar plus a turkey breast, I am making baked mac and cheese, and Sugarwing's Daddy has whipped up vegetarian beans in the crock pot. My sister-in-law is bringing some other dishes. Aren't pitch ins the best meals ever?

Sugarwings did her part of preparing dinner by helping to decorate this cake. And it has taken over her mind, even with all the jelly beans she has consumed, all she can think about is this cake she created. Every other sentence she speaks includes something about Easter Bunny Birthday Cake.

And I don't blame her! This cake is a candy lover's dream! Sprinkles in the batter, as well as 3 kinds of sprinkles on top, 4 colors of sprinkled sugar, edible glitter, peeps, and little coconut nests filled with Cadbury eggs. I can't wait either!

Here is a tip for making coconut nests, I had never done it before, but figured out how to do it.

Mix one cup of sweetened, flaked coconut with a few drops of green food coloring

Add a splash of milk

Stir in a 1/4 cup of powdered sugar

The trick to make it work, was the powdered sugar, that and the milk make the coconut easy to form into nests. Kind of like play dough.

My home is now covered in pink Easter grass, but I think I kind of like it. I was going to clean it up before dinner, but its festive, so I'll probably leave it all over the floor. But I do need to go and put together my mac and cheese casserole and set the table. I hope you are having a wonderful holiday too!

This one is all about the FOOD

celebrations, Food and Drink, Moving to DC

By Karla Nathan / April 5, 2009

As wonderful as so many things about my week in Virginiahave been, I have to say that the food at the Tower Club was one of the highlights! Right up there with the day we spent in Gettysburg (no, I'm not a Civil War buff, but man, that Cyclorama!!! What a painting, that painted battle scene was like magic, it comes to life with a light show).

But how many restaurants have a view like this?

And special treatments like this? Our name was on the mints when we got to the table. Now, I might just be a country hick, but I was sure impressed.

And yes, a country hick would photograph all the food. The waitress remembered me from the last time I was there a year ago. Apparently, not a lot of people take pictures before they take bites.

I had scallops as a starter, followed by Caesar salad prepared table side. Anything made table side is always extra good!!!

See why I pulled out the camera? Lobster and fillet, nothing prettier. Not even the foofiest of flowery hats! (oh, and I have been in top hat whispering form, and filled a SUITCASE with flowers! photos when I get home)

Since I'd been there before, I knew what a treat the coffee was. So I had the Baileys and coffee in place of dessert.

Was it rude of me to dip my spoon in the whip cream, then in the chocolate shavings and eat both little bowlful?

Then, yippee!! Treats to go with the coffee, as a surprise! (That mini hamburger looking thing was really tasty)

Hip Hip Hooray!

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), give away, holiday decor, Miss Frenchie's

By Karla Nathan / March 4, 2009

"I did it, I did it!! Yippee, Hip- Hip- Hooray!"

I am quoting Sugarwings there, that is what she says when she is proud of something she did. I was telling Beth today while we were working, that its too bad we don't cheer ourselves on more as adults the way a 2 year old does. You can learn a lot from a toddler. They take so much joy in small accomplishments. Sugarwings gives herself a good old, hop-hip-hooray quite a few times a day. I've adopted her habit and have taken on that chant, it really makes the day more exciting.

So, here is a hip-hip-hooray to myself for hitting 500! And a thanks to all of you who take the time out of your day to visit. As a thank you, I drew a name from comments on post #499 to send out a pair of earrings to:

Gail Horowitz

I was looking through a list of things I'd been giving away over the last couple of years, and believe it or not, I've passed out more than 50 prizes. Which averages one every ten posts. Geez, I had no idea I was able to ~~get rid of so much crap and clutter around the studio,~~ I mean, gift things to so many of my friends.

Twinks took time to chase bunnies today, that was a good sign she is getting over her pups leaving. Its good to have hobbies.

Beth and I SEWED today. We decided we wanted our tables for Miss Frenchie's saleon April 17th to look professional, so we made table skirts. I had some ticking that I had dyed to look old and she had a tub of ivory table clothes. As soon as we saw each other's stuff, we traded! I made a "collaged" skirt, as she was calling it, from a hodge podge of whites and creams and lace and pillow cases, and doilies and curtains.

This picture is of the skirt, in progress. A far cry from the ticking stripe I started with, huh?

Yesterday, I spent about 12 hours in the studio all alone with my papers, glitter, and glue.

Do you ever have one of those days where you just slide into your zone? Well, today's sewing project sure wasn't one of them, but yesterday's glue fest was.

My favorite part of the day was sugaring the little lambs and bunnies and chicks. My fingers were all goobered up and stuck together with glitter and glue, but in a fun way. It had been too long since I'd had the glitter out. I'd been missing it, and didn't even realize.

I'm going to have to raise the glitter quotient in my life back up to a respectable level. Some sparkle and that self cheering I learned from my fairy grand baby are a couple of things that can take a blah day and turn it into something a little more special.

Or is it just weird that I sit for a dozen hours in my studio with my fingers all glommed together, yelling out "Hip- Hip- Hooray, I did it, I did it!!"?

PS- Beth is having a good Giveaway , you should check it out.