Happy Birthday Sandy

Check out Sandy's blog to see how she has come to term's with new year's eve being her birthday.........she's my personal banner maker....and she can make one for you too!

Happy New Year!

Count Down to the New Year

Tonight it's Sunday, December 28th....Wow only 3 full days til 2009. I am so looking forward to 2009 and having even more fun with friends creating art and sharing ideas.

Our remodel is in the drywalling stage and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is pretty stressful and then add Christmas to the mix and it makes it a frenzied time. Every year I declare I will take the time and enjoy the season but every year there is something going on....hey, I guess that is just life. I have enjoyed the holidays and have been able to see christmas thru my niece's and grandkid's eyes.

When the clock strikes Midnight on the 31st I will give thanks that I have been blessed with family that supports and loves me, friends that share my joys and accept that when I talk to myself that I'm not crazy. ha ha

Do you like the picture on my banner. I had fun with Elf Yourself this year. You can import pictures of yourself and/or friends and put them on elves and email them off. This is one I did with some of my friends. If you don't see yourself there, fear not (or maybe fear) that sooner or later you may appear on my blog :}

Happy New Year...........

Cricut For Sale

You may or may not have read on my blog but I picked up a Cricut Expressions on Black Friday and so now I don't think I need a Cricut and Cricut Expressions sooooo anyone out there need a Cricut? $80 like new. I have the box. It WILL NOT come with any cartridges or extras.

Oh, I also have an extra Cricut power cord (don't ask :} but if you are missing one, this one is $40 BRAND NEW bought directly from cricut.com.

If you're in town we can meet and exchange. If you are not, I will only charge you the exact shipping cost.

I was going to list these on Ebay but I have decided to start listing some of my items on my blog.

Today we got Insulation in our remodel Woo Hoo it's warmer already. Now it's like 60 in here instead of the 50's. We have become adapt in building fake walls to block the air flow from the living room to our family room....where we live during the day...it's small and compact and pretty cozy when we have our floor heaters on :}

The room addition is moving along pretty smoothly so at least we can see the light at the end of the tunnel and all will be amazed when they see it...I hope.

Night...stay warm.

Holiday Tour, Friends and Presents

It's that time of year, rushing around making gifts, shopping for gifts, hoping to fit in time for friends and family before the BIG Day!

I found out about a Home Holiday Tour in my sister's neighborhood and decided to invite 2 friends and take the tour of 7 beautifully decorated for Christmas. Then I imposed a little on my sister, whose home was one of the homes in the tour and asked if after the home tour we could end up at her house and have lunch and do some gift wrapping.

What could see say to her older sister except SURE!

So I invited Bonnie and Jane a couple of dear friends to join me. I wish I could of invited more of my close friends but sometimes smaller gatherings are fun. Hopefully my other friends will understand sometimes bigger groups are harder to organize and I'm clearly not organized at this time of year :}

Jane, Bonnie and myself met and started the tour in Rancho Santa Fe. Here are a few pictures of the homes we toured. Oh I wish I was a better photographer or able to capture the magnitude of some the things we saw but it was beautiful and put me in the holiday spirit.






Jane had to take a ride in this home's elevator! If you know Jane, you know this is her FaBUlUoUs Pose :}








Now after the tour, which we could have used a few more hours to drool over all the decorations and collections....we went to my sisters and had lunch and a then went to work like little elves to create presents of beauty from my stash of "junque". I got this idea from Heather Bullard....she has so many elegant ideas. Thanks Heather :}

I wrapped/created the following two presents before the party. For the first one I used wallpaper and a twig from a bush and the cute clip-art from Kristin of Retro Cafe. The second package is for my niece and I hope she appreciates the uniqueness of the package. I used alumunium foil and then covered it with bubblewrap.




Here's some pics of our wrapping party.








Here's some of the "finished" presents....they were so fun and beautiful. I know the people receiving them will be crying when they have to unwrap them.







Here's wishing you and yours a happy holiday season.

The Art of Building

I haven't posted in awhile but it has been hard to be creative with the remodel going on here at our home.

We decided to add a bedroom, bathroom and shower downstairs to make it easier for my husband to get around. Wow, no more dragging laundry downstairs fun!

Remodeling does come with some drawbacks...noise, dust, no privacy, arguements over accessories, cold drafts, etc. but we must keep our eye on the prize :} Soon this will be history and we will be happy campers.

We are using Marrakol Construction and have used them in the past. Great company to work with very professional.

We started at the end of October and it seemed like it was dragging on but now here we are in December, demolation was done, concrete poured, framing up, roof and windows this week...oh my....it's moving right along.

Here's some pictures to give you some idea of what is happening.

Here Comes Christmas

Yesterday was BLACK FRIDAY as they call it, was a fun day. I had intended to JuMp out of bed at 5:30am and rush to the stores to get the bargains. When I woke up at 5:45am and looked at the clock and felt the chill, I snuggled back under the covers til 8am.

I got up and made coffee and enjoyed my emails and then decided to get going. I am sooo glad I didn't JuMp out of bed at 5:45am because I still got the deals I wanted without being a sleepy head :}

I was at walmart and got some cute shirts for my nieces for Christmas for $4 EACH!!! I also went searching for the Cricut Expressions which was suppose to be on sale for $199. Now, I didn't expect it to be there but when I looked in the scrapbooking section and saw the empty slot, I knew they were gone. There was a sales ladies a few aisle's away and we struck up a conversation laughing about the crowds and her trying get work done while people asked her questions so I asked her about the Expressions.

She said you know they may have put some over in the material aisle so check there and electronics. Well, I wasn't going near Electronics as it WAS a madhouse so off I went to material. Taa Daa there they were on the end of the aisle! I deemed this a sign that I should have one :} so I threw it in my basket and happily sang christmas carols to myself as I wandered through the store.

I do love shopping and I like the crowds even though you can be playing chicken with your baskets sometimes :}

I wanted to mention my NEW Christmas banner too. I had my blog banner professional, Sandy of The Blog Banner Queen from Canada make me my holiday banner. Isn't it cute? She always does such a good job and I sent her some photos of the doggie, bird and santa in the banner and she does her magic and makes them pretty and interesting. When you get a chance, check out her blog too because she has some beautiful works of art going on.

I leave you with pics of a beautiful paper bag book I purchased last year and must use this year.






Let me know the deals you got on Black Friday! Always love to hear about great deals :} HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!

Fun Stuff to do with Vaseline

Wow can't believe it's been 10 days since I've had a birthday and posted on my blog. We are in the mist of a room addition and I am learning to embrace concrete dust. tee hee

Now, I don't know about you but my skin is dry and the heels of my feet are cracked and dryed.....it's really an ugly thing but I saw on Oprah some beauty hints and one was about making your feet BooTeFul and smooth by using Stridex and Vaseline on your heels at night to clear up that dry skin...hope it works.

Well, since I had Vaseline on my hands I decided to do some Vaseline resist type art.

I got a digital collage sheet from Retro Cafe she calls them "Hello Dollie German Heads".





For this ATC card I used a cute Oz playing card. I adhered the dollie head with gel medium and covered the face with gel medium too. I let it dry then I spread Vaseline on the face and any part I wanted to show through after finishing. I then painted the entire surface with pink acrylic paint and let dry.

After the card was dry, I took a tissue and wiped away the part that had vaseline on it. Wa LA my Vaseline Reist! I took some stazon ink and inked the edges. The rest you can guess.

Now my second fun Vaseline piece.....First for the background piece I am using a piece of tin so that I can use it as a magnetic board. I spray painted the entire 5 x 7 tin piece with white paint and let dry. I cut out one of the bigger dollie heads from my collage sheet and ahered it with gel medium back and front and let dry.

Rubbed the Vaseline over the face part and painted with pink acrylic. I let dry and rubbed the vaseline off the face and WA LA....AnOtHeR vaseline resist.

I glued the tin piece to the shabby chic frame and added lace for a neck piece. The 3 buttons are magnetic so this little framed collage can be cute and useable as a small memo board.






Well I'm off to do some more vaseline resist on my feet. :}

It’s My Birthday and I’ll Cry If I Want too!

My 60th birthday was Monday, November 10th. I was watching the CBS Today show and they were showing the lifestyle and the highlights of the 60’s. It did bring tears to my eyes to think I had lived through many a historic moment. At the time, it was just LIFE growing up and shared moments….

Staying up late with my father to watch the first man walk on the moon. We marveled at the feat.

Getting up early with my Mother and standing with a crowd at the Sears entrance waiting for it to open so we could rush in to search for bargains.

My Mother letting my sister and I take a day off from school and going to the movies and watching Gone With the Wind….sobbing and eating Bons Bons.

Watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show and my parents shaking their heads.

Going to the high school dance and the band “The Spiders” playing great tunes as my girlfriends and I were drooling over there band manager. Oh by the way, “The Spiders” changed their name to “Alice Cooper”.

Watching the election of JFK, watching the funeral of JFK and crying.

Watching Martin Luther King give his “I Have a Dream” speech on TV, hearing the sad news he had been killed.

The Vietnam war, the protests, hippies and more.

Lots of memories and the small wonderful times with my Mother, my Father, my Grandpa, my Grandmother. Oh so many other memories that elude me and I wish I could recall. What I do know is I’m becoming my Mother and now understand the things she told me. I used to scoff and laugh at her warnings that life is short and so I should get up and get moving. :}

One important thing I have learned as I get SOOO OLD ha ha is that friends make my life so much better. I enjoy the camaraderie and the inspiration that each friend brings into my life. So I am crying tears of joy to know that somehow I have been blessed to find a wonderful circle of friends that support and inspire and make me laugh. How great it is to have friends that not only remember your birthday but spend time with you and make more valuable memories.

On Monday Maryam invited me to a little store, Chuao, Chocolatier for a yummy birthday celebrate. Melanie and Elena made it a party. Gelato, chocolate….. such fun.






Maryam gave me this cute bag…can you see the sparkly bird pin? Inside the bag glass slides for my soldering……can’t wait to try that again :}

Melanie made me this beautiful memo board…..it’s hard to see the details but it is gilded with buttons and beads. She painted the cork board a whitish beige and laid on ribbon and pearls. Can’t wait to hang this in my new studio




Tuesday, November 11 more celebrating for me. Lucky me………Bonnie and Jane took me to lunch and we did some shopping at Solo in Solano Beach. What a wonderful shop.
Look at these little Santos hands we found there…cute huh?



Presents? Yes there were lots. Bonnie gave me …….wait for it…….
The book “Where Women Create” WoNdErFul…more, yes, Bonnie made me a spring bracelet in my favorite colors….pink! More??? Yes, Clear Impressions rubber stamps…lovely. oh my I’m crying again ha ha





At lunch Jane shared some the things she has been working on……..check this out…..need better pics but these cards can be printed on your printer, embellished and tied together with strips of material and beads and used as garland on a tree, put on the wall, put on a package…ideas endless………..what a fantastic idea!



Lookey, looky what Jane made for my birthday………this little girl is a pinhead…no I’m not being mean…….she has an actual pincushion in her head…….cool huh Jane said I should name her so I am naming her BICKIE. Bickie? You ask why! Or maybe or didn’t but you still get to read the explanation…ha ha






The other day I was watching Oprah and she had Hugh Jackman on talking about the movie Australia with Nicole Kidman. He brought biscuits for the audience. These are basically shortbread cookies…….in Australia they call them Bickies……The name stuck ha ha Like it? I do :} Wow, when you’re old you just go on and on but I had to tell you the story :}

If I overlooked a moment or gift in this post, forgive me I’m 60!!!!! Ha ha

Memories make me cry but that is not necessarily a bad thing on my birthday. It WAS my birthday and I’ll cry if I want too :} Thank you all my friends I hope you know how special you are and how I am sincerely happy to know YOU.





Hey, It's my party and I'll cry if I want! Do you know who sang that song? Be the first one to email me and I'll send you a Prize :}