A Sneak Peak

For Lynn at http://hercreativespirit.blogspot.com/ . Lynn has been following my blog and I hers for a little while now. She is so creative! I really enjoy her art work. She was also the winner of my One year Blog-Aversary. And has since purchased some stamps from my Etsy Shop. This last time she purchased a stamp I put a mat board tag in her package and asked her if she wanted to do a private tag swap. She said yes and then kicked it up a notch. Asking if we could do an additional item to swap. So in addition to the tags we agreed to do our version of Suzi Blu inspired paintings. I already shared with her my doodle that I think I will do on a 5 x 5 canvas. So here you go Lynn this is the back of your tag.

Lesson Learned

This is a must see Public Service type of clip. It is not religious.

You will not regret taking the time to view it.

http://www.wimp.com/goodsamaritan

Mad Hatteress

I recently signed up for the Alice in Wonderland Mad Tea Party Mail Art Group. And signed up for the PIF (Pay it Forward) Paper Doll Swap to get my feet wet with this group. This is what I came up with rather quickly. Squeezing it in amongst other things I have in my schedule. The Tea Pot was found on line (www.elmspuzzles.com/fulton.html ) I used Catherine Moore's Character construction stamps. Glitter , Rhinestones, lace, decorative papers, brass tea bag charm, feathers, brads, stickers and ribbon. I took creative licence and changed the Mad Hatter into a woman...hence the name Mad Hatteress. This one will be going out to Blanca.

Serenity Now!

This is in the bay area in Michigan thumb region just before you get out to Lake Huron. Monday we went out on it with friends of ours Gary and Cheryl in their speed boat.
(No. 70 on the play list...it goes perfectly with this post.)

So let me back up to Friday of last week...actually the Wednesday of the prior week. I had to run some errands and while I was out on the express way in the middle lane the Semi in front of me had a blow out. It felt like a gun shot had gone off in my chest. I could not avoid the tire fragments spewing at me. The force of a piece of the tire did damage to the bumper underneath the car. This was the start of a roller coaster of emotions that took place that day. I made my delivery of a vase I had painted and then to see about getting some drapes made for my place of worship. I was told that there would be no charged. Tears of appreciation and joy rolled onto my face.

I know this is my blog and I can write what I want to.....I just hate to write about the stuff that rips you up inside. So this next part will not be detailed. I received an unpleasant phone call and messages that were left on our answering machine when I arrived home that day. After coming in from such a happy moment to this. That happened later in the day and flowed into the next day when we received a nasty letter. Good thing I have a wonderful husband who was also affected by this and good friends and a mom who were perfectly supportive for that bit of drama. Totally unrelated to the highway episode and the other things.

Which brings me to Friday and our needed to take the car in for repair...yada yada yada ....half our day was taken up. I needed to clean up the garage because I was having an Open House Jewelry Party on Sunday afternoon. I have to do things in stages because of my back. (a compressed disk and arthritis) We have a very small home and I could not accommodate the 30 plus women that were planning to attend. I figured I could set up the garage. Back the cars out, hose it down and sweep it out. Simple.
Well, don't ya know the pipe inside the basement leaked. All over fabric I planned to use for a fabric collage. Yippee for me. More work.

Then Saturday I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a semi. Migraine city...I didn't have time for this...So next to tears because of the pain...I called Deb and as soon as she could she came over to help me set up. She lives 30 miles or so away. It was a huge imposition but she didn't make me feel like I had. 4 hours later we were all set up. My set up help was coming. But by the time they were able to be free of prior commitments the set up in the Garage was mostly done. Deb is so sweet. I invited her to the party before all this extra work. What does she do....she volunteers to make the most delicious chocolate cup cakes for the party. Oh yeah you bet I took her up on this offer!
So she came over again on Sunday for the party to see if there was any jewelry that was to her liking. Stuff like that is a real hit and miss. This time it was a miss. She couldn't stay for long..I felt bad seemed like she had done so much and didn't get to enjoy much of it. I understood why. Check out her blog and see all the work she has been up to with swaps she signed up for. Thank You Deb for all of your help and the 5LBS (wink)

I was a non stop hostess from 1 PM food set up kinda stuff to when the guests arrived at 4PM to 9:30 PM when the last person left. And I wasn't the only hostess my friend Dorothy was a hostess for this event too. She too was also busy at work. Thank goodness there was the two of us. She suffers from environment allergies and there were plenty of things around to make her sick. Today I found out she is recuperating from an asthma attack she had. The two of us are quite a pair.

Which now takes us to Monday. Serenity now! Chip and I were invited to go out on our friends boat as I mentioned at the beginning of this blog. So we didn't take down the decorations or the tables and chairs we would do that on Tuesday. Now the funny part is I suffer from motion sickness. So I took my motion sickness pills to make it through the day. You can see from the above picture the water was so calm. Just perfect. I think we were out there for 5 or 6 hours. Needless to say I was wiped out. But it really was just what the doctor ordered. A get away for the day. Leaving all our cares and worries on the shore. Getting to know Gary and Cheryl was wonderful. They have a full plate of life as well. These two are very giving, open, down to earth and loving people. The kind you want to be your friends. I'm so glad we had that day to get to know them even better. And looking forward to many more occasions. (Of all the times for me to forget my backup battery for my camera)

Yesterday was 3 more hours of cleaning up and putting things away. And getting my land legs back...just plane ol' recuperating. Today the tables were brought back downstairs. Now I have to set them up so Deb and I can have some artistic fun this Friday!

You Might Want To

Check this out....
http://lorianderson.blogspot.com/ Super fab giveaway! click on the link for all the details!

Another Fan

This is the fan I started to make for the swap. Then I changed my mind after reading some of Renee's colors choices that she likes. So I quit when I just had the paper put on and the image selected. So this past Friday it was another one of those creative Fridays that Deb (It's all Good) and I have from time to time. She brought over her projects she wanted to work on and I was trying to finish up things that I started. So this is as far as I got.
It still needs some more finishing touches like an embellishment of some sort on the bottom and some details to the back side.....but it is mostly done. At least I'm farther along than I was. The plum purple is difficult but not impossible to find things to coordinate with. The photo's colors are way off so. I will need to retake the pictures in natural lighting. I used my Spellbinder to cut out he frame and the wing accents and the patterned paper lace. I really like being able to use the tool I have.