Journaling With Friends

I've been working on a journal collaborative with some talented and fun friends I met at ArtFiberfest out in Portland this summer. Cindy, Tammy, Juanita, Linda and I were "neighbors" in the dorm and spent most of time together laughing as we walked around the campus, ate meals together, attended workshops and just hung-out. In fact Tammy's laugh is so infectious I can still hear it now if I close my eyes and reminisce about that weekend! Love those fun memories! We dubbed ourselves the "Naughty Meadow Girls" (for reasons too complicated and crazy to go into here!) and made up a wild story to go along with that title which seemed to get funnier and juicer every time we added to it! It's hard to explain here but as Cindy says, "It's one of those ya had to be there things."
Anyway, we decided to stay in touch and continue our friendship (and silliness) by working on a journal round-robin collaborative together. We each created a journal, completed several pages and then sent it on to the next person to add their artistic touch.
These are a few pages from my journal which is now in Tammy's hands for her to work in. We'll be posting our pages periodically in our Flickr group here if you'd like to follow along with us.

The Secret is Out ~ She's Finally Here!

An advanced copy of this lovely publication arrived in my mailbox last week and put a huge smile on my face. This new special edition from Stampington has been in the works for months and features a wonderful collaboration I took part in last summer. That's when Dede Warren put out a call for a Marie Antoinette inspired altered book round-robin to which I enthusiastically responded to along with Maria Rodarte and Barbara Smith. It was such an honor to work with such a talented group of artists to create these treasured works of art. And a GREAT BIG hug of gratitude goes out to Dede for suggesting that we submit our books to Stampington when we were finished.

And our fun little collaboration, along with a second one initiated by Natasha Burns, inspired a brand new special publication by the editors of Somerset studios called Marie. Our first little hint that this dream was actually going to become a reality came back in August when Dede told us to check out this post on Jenny Doh's blog. We couldn't believe our eyes because there, in editor Jennifer Jackson's hands, was Maria's and Barb's altered books in a Call for Art for Marie. It is so thrilling to have your hard work be recognized and published in any of Stampington's gorgeous magazines, but to have an entire feature in a special publication ~ well, words just can't describe our excitement!

All of you (and I know there are many of you from my blog & Flickr hopping) who have been inspired by the decadence, beauty, richness of this exhuberant Queen of France are going to be blown away when you see this magazine filled to the brim with colorful eye candy. And you won't have to wait much longer because it arrives on the newstands April 1st.
And to coincide with the launch of this brand new publication, Maria Rodarte is hosting a Marie Antoinette Collage Swap on her blog. Come join in on the fun - you can get all the details by clicking here.

Catching Up

A while back, Heather asked us to do a RAK for Mel because she was undergoing major surgery to remove a tumor from her brain. Happily, the surgery was a success and once Mel returned home she was presented with a container filled with lots of wonder handmade tags and greetings. You can see pics of Mel receiving the RAK gifts here. Pictured above and below is the tag I made for Mel. It was so much fun to make ~ I hoped she liked it! The little vignette pictured below sits atop a cupboard in my kitchen. I have a teeny-tiny kitchen and not much space to have anything pretty around except for the top of this cupboard. I change it out as the mood hits and right now I have this little grouping soaking up the sun from the lace covered window.
These robin's egg blue spheres I made are another of the Casa Bella projects. These were easy-peasy to make. I have them sitting in an antique milk glass candy dish which once belonged to my aunt. I have a small collection of milk glass which once belonged to either my mother, my aunt or my grandmother. I think of them whenever I see or use these pieces. I remember this dish being used on my aunt and uncle's beautiful covered patio in the summertime.

Mission Accomplished!

This is what I worked on today. It's for a collaborative calendar/diary that Lucy is putting together. I just finished it now and hit the send button, so it is on it's way! That's one thing I can check off my "to do" list. I have a ton more to~do's on the list. I seem to add more items than I cross off lately, but that's okay because I like to keep busy. And when the to~do's are creative projects, how can I complain???

I went to one of my favorite antique malls this morning and unbeknownst to me they were setting up for a special event. The store is located in a tiny business district of a cute little town with very limited parking. I had to drive around and around looking for a parking place and NOT because it was crowded with cars. . .it was because all the parking was blocked off in preparation for the big Harry Potter celebration tonight!! I didn't even think about it until I saw the very, L-O-N-G line of kids standing outside the Barnes and Noble!!! It was kind of cute though because all the shops got really into the spirit by having their store windows decorated with items from their shop that related in some way to the book. . .wizards, magic, brooms, etc. It was fun to see the way they really had to stretch their imaginations to tie their merchandise in with the book. One shop, called "Potters" had added the word Harry on top of their sign and when these three girls (all dressed in various Harry Potter character costumes) saw it, they squealed with glee and wanted their picture taken in front of the store! Too funny!! Then I noticed that many of the shops had altered their store fronts in some way or another. Oh how I wish I had brought my camera, but alas it was at home recharging it's batteries. Isn't that always the way?! How many of you are going to be at the bookstore at the stroke of midnight to get your copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?

Busy, Busy, Busy

I recently signed up for a couple fun swaps. First of all is Holly's Crown and Tiara Swap, which sounds like pure fun to me. Who wouldn't love to add a tiara to their wardrobe? Then today I signed up for Jenny's Bits and Pieces Collage Swap, which sounds like a great way to use up all those leftover scraps that I can never seem to part with. (What a pack-rat I am!) Check out Charlotte's post on this same subject. If you hurry you can still get in on this swap. Then Dawn, Melissa and I are working on a Winter Wishes collaborative which sounds like it will turn out to be an amazing keepsake project. And finally, I have a collaborative Recipe Book that I have been working on with an art group that I meet with in my area four times a year. This group started out as a Rubber Stamping group over 10 years ago, but has evolved into a mixed-media art group as the members styles and tastes have changed and evolved. We have some extremely talented ladies in this group. I can't wait to see the end result of this cookbook in November.