it's the little things - LOTS of little things...........

 

It was a beautiful day at the European Market in Chesterton Indiana

I got there early hoping to beat the unseasonable high of 80 degrees expected by noon

There were so many handmade delights

Darling felt pumpkins!

Bracelets and more Bracelets

Lots of furry friends were busy making new friends ;-)

But the longest lines and most attention was paid to fresh varieties of cheese, gourmet cupcakes and gooey delights.  It seemed like everyone took home french bread, croissants and cookies for later.

There were pumpkins, veggies, concord grapes, popcorn, lamps with carved shades,

peppers and flowers galore.

If you have a Farmer's Market near you 

make a visit before it's too late ;-)

I had so much fun, ran into people I knew and have to make one 

more return trip because I got home and realized I had forgotten to purchase the 

yummy Balsamic Creme that will be so wonderful on my fresh tomatoes and french bread.

Enjoy yourself and tell us all about it!!

This was such an inspiring day, I got lots of ideas for new items, took lots of photos and can't wait

to go back before they close on Halloween.

Happy October everyone 

YUM

Peek A Boo, let's see you...

Whew!  The days are just FLYING by, sorry I'm late on my promised post.
After making the books you saw this week for my good friend, I found some little 4 x6 books I could recover and create as little brag books that fit into your purse (grammas liked this too).  Say awwwwww, ready?

As you can kind of see in the bottom photo, mommy just slides her picture in the empty place, too cute huh?  Wish I could find some more of those little sheep, just love 'em.  What "baby first" do you think is a good one?

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!

Pretty Post

I finally woke up early on a Saturday. I really wanted to get started this morning because I had promised a friend at work that I would have a garden post finished for her this week. It's for a Memory Garden honoring her gramma. I hadn't painted in a while, my scrapbooking took me on a long journey and it was fun to get that brush in my hand again!

Meet Miss Ava

Well, this little cutie is Miss Ava. She is the beautiful daughter of Melissa and David, very good friends of mine. I'll be featuring Ava in many of my posts as I am lovingly working on her "First Year" of memories scrapbook. It is easy to work with such a photogenic baby and really sweet cutie pie - well you'll see soon enough. It also helps that her mother is an awesome and helpful photographer. We have done several things that should make this book very enjoyable for years to come and an especially personal look at the love that surrounds her. Melissa generously gave me her pregnancy journal so I would be very connected to the entire process of bringing Ava into the world. Also I gave her a list of very personal and thought provoking questions which will be included as "advice" for Ava - kind of "things your Mother wanted you to know"...I think Ava will like that. Well, that's all for now - stay tuned!

Outside the Zone

I decided to use the collage pieces I made in a class with Bernie Berlin as my Header. Mainly because it was so exciting to do mixed media and completely out of my comfort zone. I'm usually really controlled and plan every detail out and this was free, wild, anything goes. She was a great artist and teacher, fully aware that most of us didn't want to get paint all over us (LOL). We laughed, we asked a million questions but in the end we all had unique, awesome pieces that we loved. It was all about layers, most of us worried about covering up a layer we really liked, or a stamped image that turned out "just right"....It really changed us, changed how we create and taught us a lot about different techniques and mediums. We used, stamps, gel medium, paint, metal tape, alcohol inks, gesso, fiber, and too many other things to mention. So there we have it, I like it, and am so glad I ventured into the unknown for a change - I think I like it out here ;-)