Uncategorized

I thought about calling this post, "Crap that Beth Gives Me".  But I didn't want it to sound like I didn't like the crap. Its good stuff!

And its good to have a friend who sees stuff like this, knows that I'd love fixing it up, and doesn't think it's trash.

She is always bringing me goodies, like this Pyrex measuring cup for my kitchen, and a stack of old letters to craft with.

And a bagful of mini ruby slippers in glittery, red plastic.

The other day, she filled a bag with ephemera for me.  Good stuff straight from her stash. I can't wait to make something with these.

If you want to make something too, I'll share.  Here is a page of scanned cards from  the pile she gave to me, click on it to open in a larger window, save to your computer and print from that.

Thanks, Beth!

I have another thanks to say too,

Fleur sent this deligthful book that she made for the grand fairies! I look forward to flipping though the pages with them.  Thanks, Fleur!

Its so thoughtful and personal.

Its my week for gifties, apparently!  This cute set came from the Guncles down in Jacksonville.  Guncle Kevin is an avid garage saler and found this for me.  I've already filled it with glitters, ready for our Romantic Gothic Ghost class that Guncle Randy is coming to on Oct. 6th. Both of my sisters will be here too.

I can't wait for my family to meet some of my friends.

Yep, its been quite a week.  My Handsome Husband surprised me with an over night getaway for our anniversary on the 10th.  He said to pack a dress and plan to be home Saturday afternoon, and wouldn't tell me where we were going.

  I didn't even ask. I didn't even try to guess. I just happily went along.  And was just very glad when he drove East toward KC instead of West toward Topeka.

I'd have been thrilled with a free night at a Hyatt Place using his travel points, but instead he pulled up in front of the Raphael

It was pure luxury. He had lots of little romantic details too. 

Best anniversary ever.

 

 

 

Please scroll down to read the current posts. If you are interested in seeing the studio tour, please go to this link.

 New posts are below this message.

 

Before I left for our weekend getaway, I whipped up a couple of fairy pages for the swap.  Some people had asked for examples.

I wanted to show that its okay for ribbons. lace, etc to trail down and over the edges.

And you don't have to make all of your pages the same (unless they want to). All 8 go to 8 different people. 

Sorry, no promises that you won't get one of your own pages back.

Please, keep all 3-D goodies away from the left hand side, I'm not sure exactly how I'm binding it yet, but don't want anything in the way for hole punches.

And the color theme is totally up to you. When I assemble the books, I'll chose pages that look pretty togehter, but there will be a wide range of colors and styles.

I'll have more examples to show when I get back from my little trip. If you want info on how to join the swap, please click on the button at the top of my side bar.

I can't wait to see what everyone creates!!

 

School is out!  And for the next few weeks, it looks like Sugarwings will be spending some time here with me while her parents work.  We thought there would be an opening at her new school in June, but oops! I didn't follow up to double check before she lost her spot at the old school.

So, we are going to be doing lots of crafty things for at least 2 or 3 days each week while she is here with me. And I am hoping to take her to some gymnastic and dance classes, plus hire a tutor to work with her before Kindergarten starts in August.

This project was entirely her idea, not mine. Maybe I won't have to come up with plans, sounds like she could be in charge of that, not me. 

She read in her story book about kids making a fairy doll, so she found sticks laying around that were the right sizes for a torso, arms and legs to make one herself.

I was in charge of hot glue and ribbon to attach all of the limbs, then she picked out scraps for me to glue around her fairy to make a dress.

We added  wings from a hobby store butterfly, and she cut a Tinkerbell face out of her coloring book.

Next came lots of glitter.

And more glitter.

Then a bit more.

If you are looking for a good investment, buy stock in glitter. I see a huge jump in glitter consumption coming this summer.

It took quite a few applications of the coveted sparkly stuff till she was satisfied.  She'd stop, hold it up, and study it for a while, then add more.

Yep, we are definitely related.

When the glitter level finally met her approval, she picked a petunia blossom to add for the dolly's hat and her new best friend was ready to play with.

Thanks for all of your input about blogs. I don't want anyone to think I am contemplating quitting! No way. I'll still be typing away my ramblings long after people have stopped reading them, its become my diary of sorts.

Two art retreats I went to this year both had this topic come up and I hated to think that blogs were considered passe.  I'm glad to hear from my friends that we don't agree with that sentiment!  Yay, blogging!

Kim out did herself with her latest party.  Oh my. That lady knows how to embellish every detail with sweetness and beauty!

Everywhere you looked there was something even prettier than what you'd just seen. An explosion of gorgeousness!

She plans down to the smallest detail and it all pays off in how smoothly her events run.

Yet, she is welcoming, friendly, and seems to be having a good time herself while she is at it.  The perfect hostess!

I was thrilled to have my painting as a backdrop for photos by the Fancy Farmgirl, my pal, Tiffany.
(yes, I had trouble keeping my eyes open for photos, as always!)

So, I told everyone just to give up and photo-shop some googly eyes onto my lids.  Picmonkey didn't have any, though.  I subbed buttons. I think that works nicely. Especially since they are Tiffany Blue.

We all had fun posing for pictures, and I was glad that my roomie, Lori, convinced me to borrow her extra black dress. I'd only packed jeans to wear. After Birdsong, I was BEAT, and didn't really care what I packed. I was thinking comfy and relaxing. But it really was a formal affair for the first evening, and it was nice that Lori had something with her that she could talk me into wearing.

I had the wrong shoes, and hairy, pasty white legs, but I still felt festive.

Lori is a good friend, and was a fun roomie. She even brought a gift for me to open in bed when I woke up on Saturday, for my birthday! 

It was the best birthday! A few of us rented a car and went downtown to shop in the garment district, and they all took me out for a special lunch.

One of my favorite parts of travelling is trying local restaurants, and this one was quite the treat. Really glam, I felt like I should be seeing movie stars around the room, but was having so much fun with my friends I forgot to look.

 

 

Lori and Andrea

Hitting the downtown wholesale areas was a good idea, all of us found some tidbits for our artwork.

I'll have some photos of the projects I made later.  The classes were fun, I learned some interesting tricks and came home with completed items that I was happy with and am already using in my home.  That is a plus! Not a single, "hmmm, what am I going to do with this thing?" piece.

  I like them all.

Dear Kim surprised me with this Tiffany's box inside a Tiffany's box as a thank you for the banner I painted.  Its a precious little thing, that will be a treasured memento of the weekend. Not that I need something to remember it by, It was a remarkable trip!

 

The kids have some new pets out at the yurt, a flock of baby banties. (Silky Bantam chicks)  These are the fancy kind that look more like llamas than chickens, and are super cuddly and friendly, since they have been hand raised and live indoors.  Yes, they are house pets, till spring and a new coop can be built for them. In the mean time, they have a chicken wire encased dome over a giant, sand filled litter box to live in.

The family stayed here with us at the cottage most of the week, so we could all be a team in nursing our Sugarwings back to health, and I was really tempted to bring the chickens back with us when we all drove out to the yurt to visit and feed them, but I had a feeling that Twinkle would have enjoyed their visit a little bit too much.  

And so would the kittens. 

We are building an area for chickens at our own place, but we won't have house pet chicks, ours will be big, fat, laying hens that have their own house and a fence to keep the dogs out.  We plan on letting them roam around the yard to keep fleas, ticks, and chiggers away from us during the summer, but it will only be when the dogs are indoors.  The chickens will have to learn to take turns with the dorkies on yard time.

I am so excited, day dreaming about a chigger free summer…. Oh, what lofty dreams I have.  I can't imagine the joy of going bug bite free for the season.  Years ago, I raised birds and they really do the job. Then I decided to transform the chicken coop into an antique store, which was great for a while, but has not been in use for a few years now. Time to fill it back up with bug eaters! The fresh eggs are just a bonus for me, its the pest control quality of hens that excites me.

While I am enjoying this extra mild, no-snow winter we are having, I'm already dreading the on-slot of spring time bugs that a mild winter means.   As much as I hate snow, I love to have those pesky biting bugs zapped by ice.

Notice that both grand fairies have a favorite bird? This one is Marshmallow and seems to enjoy her cuddles.

I like Phoenix, the ginger one. I think the other is Licorice.  There are a few more orange and black ones, but only one white, and that is the fur ball that both girls seem to want to latch on to.

 We've had a nice time with all of the kids staying here most of the week.  Sugarwings is an energetic, little force of nature and doesn't like to be told not to run and play. But her injury is a serious one and she needs to rest it for the nerve damage to heal properly. So, we've done our best to entertain her while keeping her down. 

 She has spent a lot of time in her "force field" as she calls it.  I made up a fort under the dining table with lots of pillows to lay on, and her portable DVD player to watch endless movies on.   I've crawled in there too, with a good book (I'm on book 4 of Game of Thrones), and its pretty cozy.

One day, we all decided that we had to get out of the house before cabin fever set in, and we spent a day junking in Topeka.  I was on a quest for vintage necklaces to take apart for my Birdsong 2 project and its surprising just how many beads you need to make up 25 kits plus a couple example necklaces.

My goal is to use only vintage materials, so I can't simply figure out what I want to make, then order the supplies. I have to make sure that I have plenty of supplies before I design the piece.  My thoughts on kits is that they should be complete with everything that is shown in the example, so I've searched high and low for just what I needed for the project.

I think that after a few junking trips, I've got enough to get started on the creating part.  There are pearl beads in cream, white, ivory, taupe, and tan.  Crystal beads in aurora borealis, clear, amber, and pale pink.  Plus some hand carved mother of pearl ones too.  As well as a couple of surprise elements to make the pendant extra fun.

There is room for a few more people at our gathering if you are interested in joining us!  I'll have photos of the 4th project up soon.

And please consider that the Valentine Wreath class is still on schedule for Saturday, Jan. 28th at 10am.  We'll make a wire wrapped wreath, topped with vintage goodness and two nesting love birds. There will be lunch, treats and supplies for making Valentine cards too. 

$65 for the whole day

$100 for two if you want to come with a friend!

 

 

Sugarwings fell yesterday while at her cousin’s birthday party at a big indoor playcenter. She has a broken arm and is now going into surgery.

She has been much braver than I have. Her therapist father and nursing student mother have been great. I just cry.

When the Dr. asked her how she was she said she was ok but her grammie was not.

Earlier in the day my husband gashed his leg open with a chain saw. He is doing better and our fairy baby will be soon.

I'm still on my never ending task of Christmassing up my house.  Just when I think its done, I do a bit more.

Nothing big, or complicated. Today I stashed glittered stars in my potted plants on the windowsill.

And sat out a little angel.  2 minutes and I was done. And it makes me smile when I wash dishes.

This little cabinet has been sitting on my counter waiting to be decorated every since the remodel and I have not put it to use yet.

Now, its happily filled with little putz houses.  There went another 2 or 3 minutes of decorating time!

This one was just about as quick.  I had this feather wreath (from a garage sale), and after I hung it up, I was thinking it was looking a little molty.  So, I grabbed a bagful of millinery blooms and stuck them onto it with pearl head pins. One pin for each flower, so it will be easy to take apart when I put the wreath away.

One more speedy project was adding a set of feather angel wings to this lamp.  I tied a crystal to it too, this one was one that we made in the Romantic White Christmas online class last year, the back of it is covered with a vintage image and glitter.

Jen Rizzo is having a holiday party, I'm linking up there today.

And please leave a comment here if you'd like to win a Cuff bracelet or Dress Form tutorial.

Altimount Illinois has the coolest old junk/antique store! I need to go dig some more before I hit the road.

Well my vacation is ending. Today I am driving back to Kansas and back to work. I eased the transition between being with all my fairy friends in Asheville by stopping to see my sisses in Indiana.

And the best part there? Craft day! We made Halloween creatures, witches, goblins, and spiders.

Here is Sissy’s hat and spider along with my spider.

Her witchy hat is made of sparkly felt over which she sewed vintage beaded chiffon trim she found on our junking day.

Our spiders are from the same box of vintage goodness her piece of trim came out of. Mother of pearl and rhinestone buttons with wires twisted thru the shank on the back. We then Slid jet beads (from her same box of treats) onto the wires and bent the ends. The heads are a flat bead with two old rhinestones added.

Well, time to hit the road. If I can find some good antique malls along the way home I’ll post from there too.