Happy Thanksgiving

Spending time with family and friends.

May your holiday be filled with love and laughter.

May your blessings be many.

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,

for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not what we say about our blessings,

but how we use them,

is the true measure of our thanksgiving. 

 ~W.T. Purkiser

Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving,

make every day a holiday

and celebrate just living.

~Amanda Bradley

You cannot do a kindness too soon,

for you never know how soon it will be too late. 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like

wrapping a present and not giving it. 

 ~William Arthur Ward

Holiday Extravaganza

*Sparkle*

Recently, I had a vision in my mind that prompted

me to pull out my canvas and attempt to create

star ornaments that glittered.

I challenged myself to include clay and beads.

The weight of my canvas is thin and wimpy,

so I first needed to glue the canvas to a stablizer of some sort.

I'm a bit obsessive about saving things "because

I might find a use for it eventually"......

I had torn apart a sample wallpaper book,

and some of the page separators (really thin cardboard)

 that I had saved was the perfect weight.

Step 1: - Glue canvas front and back to the cardboard.

dry overnight

Step 2: cut out star shapes

Step 3: - Glue a clay face to the center

(E-6000 is AWESOME)

dry overnight

Step 4: Paint front and back with Light Ivory

dry overnight

Step 5: Add eyelets and beaded wire

Step 6: Glue artist info on back

and add a coat of protective varnish

dry overnight

Caution: Cats love this project...

Keep your spray water bottle handy!

Final step:  Add a coat of varnish to the front,

and sprinkle with glitter.

hang to dry and smile.

Mission Accomplished.

I love this wire tree.

It's the perfect way to display my ornaments,

while they are a work-in-process.

It was tedious making 30+ ornaments.

But it feels good to have something accomplished.

I wish I could get my photos to

show how really pretty they are with the

glitter and assorted bevels in the beads

when they catch the light.

With my mom's help, we tried to

come up with a name/theme for these ornaments.

She suggested starlight - starbright,

which I thought was really cute.....

until I decided to limit myself to one word.

*Sparkle*

This past week, I stayed up late, got up early,

eager for each step, with the finished design

even better than what I visioned.

I did the final step 5:30 this morning.

Now that it's the weekend, I can take a break

from creating.  The weather is going to be

a beautiful sunny and crisp day.

My goals are eye exam, 2 craft fairs,

an open house to an antique shop,

 a trip to Joanns/Michaels to use holiday coupons,

ending with garden cleanup.

I hope there is a little *sparkle* in your day!

Burning the Midnight Oil

I've been forcing myself to stay off the computer.

It's not an easy thing to do.

But I realized it really eats up my spare time.

This fall weather puts me in the mood to be in the studio.

So, I dusted off the sewing machine;
and had an urge to make dolls.
So I did!

"Tawny"

"Carmel"

"Ariana"

"Pearl"

Then, I had an urge to make Santa ornies,

but I opted to use denim and camouflage fleece

for their stocking caps,

instead of traditional reds and greens.

I originally thought I would try

making some victorian santa ornies,

until my mom suggested camouflage.

It just popped out of her mouth,

and I thought...hmmmm...maybe.

The fleece was so easy to sew with with.

Love them!

and bagged them up in gusseted cello bags.

Got the itch to needle punch again~!

Snowmen inspired by Kelley Belfast's

 "MERRY WYNTER designs.

These little designs became

 toppers for paper mache boxes.

At the rate I'm going,

Valentine's day will be here before you know it!

(That's how crazy fast my life has been....)

So I'm trying to stay ahead of the game.

The kitty box is my favorite.

Also felt like doing a little collage.

I used book text for the quote

"I see the Moon and the moon sees me"

Added the text on all sides of the canvase block.

Add journals to the list of things keeping me up at night!

Shabby journals using altered book covers,

and stitched with snippets of buttons and lace.

Oh, almost forgot the tags!

Little 2 x 3 tags embellished with paint, paper, buttons,

flowers, eyelets, wire for hanging and sentimental quotes.

I got it all boxed up to bring to

Diddies and Doodads!

So, there is a reason for this obsessive behavior.
I have decided to join this

brick and mortar shop.

One of my co-workers suggested I check out

this cute little shop. 

He said he could vision my things fitting right in.

So I did,

and the rest is history!