away in a sleigh - with a little help from Fed Ex

Wow, just in the "Nick" of time (no pun intended).   A special friend needed a few gifts so I burned some midnight oil.

Christmas music on Pandora was blaring - there were charms, adhesive, chain, dominoes, and ribbon on every surface and although not everything worked out on the first try I was satisfied as I taped up the box with the surprise contents........................

 I was excited to hear today that Pam had received the Christmas box!!  But sad, 
because this beautiful dragonfly pendant 
didn't make it in one piece.  I used Multi Medium to adhere the metal and glass layers together, will use her on a different project.

I thought they would look awesome with jeans and a cute sweater.

Domino painted with Adirondack ink, Heart with Wings is created using Tim Holtz's Ideaology pieces and the soldered piece with the crown says on the back "I am woman, hear me roar" - love that!!!  The Joy and Paris pendants are soldered and embellished.

 

Finally a bracelet made with large stainless ball chain and inspirational reminders of what we need to live a "charmed" life.  I had so much fun creating  these for my good friend and I hope you  all enjoy the magic of Christmas and to all a good night ;-)

 

Yikes - Christmas is next weekend !!

3 day weekend = good thing

In the studio - breaks for food, water & sleep only

It's looking like a tornado hit this place

Some things are working really well / Some things not so much

Mind is racing in many directions

Adhesive is drying

Looking forward to Day 2

Stay tuned.....

Got kids ?? Grandkids ?? Do you know any ?? Even if have none, how about something fun for you ?

THIS IS GOOD - REALLY GOOD  

Photo Credit WYSH

I found this today and couldn't wait to share it with you!!  Kelly Rae Roberts, or KRR as we lovingly call her - spotlights her sponsors on her website.  This is a cool way to find new and exciting sites that sell cool stuff.

WE ALL LIKE COOL STUFF .......RIGHT?

Check out WYSH they sell stuff for men and women but it's the darling t-shirts for kids that got me.  You will want all of them - I don't have kids but wanted to buy one so bad I started looking at my dog out of the corner of my eye sizing her up LOL.  

Let me know how you liked it and if you buy one email a photo of your cutie pie with it on and I'll post the photo on my Blog.

Holidays are Coming...ready or not!

Well, a three day weekend hmmmm ....should I keep procrastinating? Or dive in and get it done once and for all? Since I had not been feeling well - it was easy to put off the inevitable MOVING THE STUDIO! I have moved out of the bedroom studio with most of my goodies to one end of the living room. The view was great, but I had to dig out everything I needed. There was no room to stamp, emboss, all the crazy stuff I love. So........... this meant dragging tables from the garage, cleaning them, moving a ton of books to the living room to allow for my "stuff" but what the heck. So I moved furniture, books, cleaned, and had new space all ready. The next day with the help of my brother (who was thrilled I'm sure) we cleaned and dragged in several tables. Unmangled computer and telephone wires, and finally the room was ready. Today I organized, reorganized, stacked, sorted and exhaled. I had a little time to sit back and relish my huge "working" desk station for layouts - I'm thrilled with my big island with stations for stamping, drying or just starting an alternative project at the same time. The armoire still holds lots of valuables, and a corner station for die cuts. My fabulous bookshelves allow me to "see" all my stash and pull it out easily. I'm sooooooooo ready. Now I can come home from work and just sit at my project and play immediately. No more moving everything, trying to get lighting after dark that works and wanting to stamp or emboss a tag but - there was no room to do it! This is going to be fun, so to celebrate I thought I'd give you a peek at 2 of my current projects naked. This is how I begin, the first is a collection of papers that really make the photos pop. I select a couple of embellishments I think might work and start on the design. The other project is a special paper with velvet raised butterflies for a journal. The grey piece is the grungeboard as it comes - boring right? Oh, but just wait ;-) The doodads and trinkets are a collection of items that will be used to embellish the cover. Once I finish the scrapbook layout and the journal cover, I'll post them so you can see the results. Stay tuned!

Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun...

Today was a day just for myself. There are a LOT of you out there that think you can't go anywhere alone, and let me tell you how much you are missing out on. You really need to try it if you haven't. I love to trot around with my best gal pal as much as anyone and if she could have gone, I would have truly enjoyed that. But there are times when that just isn't possible, so you enjoy a different type of day where time has no meaning. You can peruse, and lollygag all you want and have fun, after all aren't you good company? I could have done a lot of different things today but I decided to go to one of me favorite stores, Archiver's in Orland Park, IL. It's jam packed with all kinds of goodies, flowers, stamps, glitter paper, and embellishments in every color and size. They are very helpful whether it be products or technique you are asking about. I shopped every aisle at least once, decided on which technique books I couldn't live without, and dug through all the sale bins until exhausted - I finally dropped into my car seat.
It was a gorgeous day in the 70's ....so I headed down the road to MiMi's and wow did they have the flowers outside, and a cute little cafe sign inviting you in. It is a "chain" but with fresh homemade offerings that change periodically. After much indecision I settled on Seared scallops with grilled asparagus over ravioli covered in tomato asiago sauce. Yes, it was delicious ;-)
I enjoyed a leisurely drive home, and let my mind skip over all the new ideas or applications I saw today.....sugar-coated paper borders, chipboard all covered stamped and blinged out, multi-design paper touched with glitter, summer colors of raspberry and melon, lots of metal embellishments, and paper paper paper. My batteries are recharged, and I hope you had a great day too!!