Memory Bear

In a previous post you may have noticed a little teddy bear sitting on the chair in my grandson's nursery. Well, let me tell you the origin of Mr. Teddy Bear. 

My dear hubby had a favorite chair in our living room. He wanted a recliner and although I've never been fond of the look of recliner chairs, I have to admit they certainly are comfortable.

As you can tell, George wasn't the only one who loved the chair. Our grand-dogs, Hank and Shooter loved the chair too. Or perhaps they just loved George. After George passed away, those dogs sniffed and sniffed that chair. Eventually they sat in the chair with me. I think we all felt closer to George when we were in that chair.

After a while, the chair finally broke. It was fine as long as I remembered not to recline in it. But somehow I always seemed to forget that simple rule. I managed to fix it temporarily many times.  But eventually it could no longer be repaired. I decided it was silly to hang on to a broken chair. It had served it's purpose of comforting me (and the dogs). So one day I dragged it down to the curb for the garbage men to pick up and at the last minute something told me to grab the arm covers off the chair.

When my grandson Jase was about to be born, I remembered those arm covers I saved from the chair. It made me sad to think that just like my daughter never got to meet her Grandma Jane (my mother), Jase would never meet his grandpa George. I wanted Jase to have something that he could hold when I tell him stories about his Grandpa. I never made a teddy bear before and I wasn't sure how this one would turn out. He's a little wonky with his crooked button eyes and his short little legs, but somehow that that made him more endearing. The arm covers were just the right size to make him...I used practically every inch of them. I hope Jase loves his teddy bear as much as his grandpa would have loved him.

Snow Globe Ornaments

These days I've been a busy elf creating ornaments and decorations in my "workshop." I was catching up on my friend Cerri's Blog the other day and came across some darling snow globe ornaments she made from a tutorial she found on Ashlee's Blog.

I have a thing for snow globes and cloches and just about anything you can put under glass. There is just something about these miniature scenes that has always fascinated me. So I couldn't resist making my own collection of these ornaments.

I used vintage elements and bottle brush trees that I've collected from flea markets and resale shops to create the ornaments.

Well, I think I hear Santa calling so I'd better get back to work!

Ornament Swap

Every year, my friend Natalea Kandefer hosts an ornament swap and I have been fortunate enough to have participated in several of them. Doing so results in a variety of wonderful ornaments handmade by some very talented artisans. This year in addition to Natalea and myself, participants included Kimberly Laws, Vivian Neroni, Sandy Camarda, Patty Szymkowicz, and Linda Richter.

 The extra ornament above was created by "Sandy Claus."

In addition to making some fun ornaments, we all try to package them in pretty wrapping. This is how I wrapped my ornaments.

I've been collecting these tiny one-ounce jars of Bonne Maman preserves for a while now and I thought they would be great for making itty-bitty snow globe ornaments.

I topped the lids with holly, berries and snowflakes and made a hanger out of red and white baker's twine.

Heart Session :: 1

Rebecca Sower is hosting Heart Sessions on her blog during the days leading up to Valentine's Day. It seems so appropriate since Rebecca is such a generous and big-hearted person herself. For proof just check out the blog she started called Haiti by Hand to help in the relief effort in earthquake ravaged Haiti. So starting today and throughout the week I will be posting various handmade hearts here and you can catch links to other Heart Session participants here.

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.

Latest Project

I've become obsessed with journaling lately. I've always had a weakness for journals and would purchase pretty ones that I come across on my shopping sprees. I probably have accumulated more journals than I could possible fill in a lifetime! They vary in size and type - small, large, hardbound, soft cover, spiral bound, hand bound. . . . 
Lately, I've been having fun making my own journals from scratch - binding and all. It is a bit more time consuming than taking sketchbooks and altering the covers. But I still like to do those for certain types of journals.  For these journals I tried to stick with materials I already had on hand - scrapbook papers, chipboard from cereal boxes, old buttons, etc.
I made these little journals the other day with a purpose in mind. I wanted to have one to carry around in my purse to jot down notes. And one to keep by my art table to write ideas that come to mind. And one to jot down quotations whenever I come across one that hits home with me. 

And this one I keep by the telephone for doodling. I tend to doodle while gabbing on the phone and this is usually done on bits and pieces of scrap paper lying around. Some of my best sketches are done at this time. So why not keep a special book so that I can contain all these mini pieces of artwork in one handy spot.

A Day of Sweet Memories

It all seems like a dream now, but only 2 short weeks ago our darling daughter ~ our little girl ~ our only child was married. A year of planning and preparing and it all went by so quickly. It seems like things started out slowly over a year ago when Natalie told us Jon asked her to marry him. They had been dating for 5 years at that time. Soon after the proposal, the prep began for the major things like securing a venue for the wedding and reception, the music, the photographer, the dress, etc. Then, for what seemed like forever, things just seemed to stand still. And all of a sudden, about two months before the wedding, the whirlwind of all the little details and deadlines started to make my head spin. The details are the part that I love to work on ~ you know, the little things that when put together create the aura, the look, the feeling that you want the evening to exude. But the details are the part of the planning that can be exhausting and stressful because you want everything to be just right for this one special day in your little girl's life.

The wedding gown Natalie picked out was magical ~ like something a fairy princess would wear. Afterall she is OUR princess and always will be. All of the flowers were amazing. . .Natalie's bouquet was exquisite. The cream roses, calla lilies, and hydrangeas matched the champagne color of her dress beautifully and the brownish foliage added the perfect touch for a fall wedding. The florist was such a joy to work with. She understood exactly what we wanted and "got it" right away with out hardly any explanation at all. Even her proposal was a piece of art, as it was handwritten in the most beautiful penmanship. For us, flowers are such an important part of a wedding. My own wedding flowers (many moons ago) were the most beautiful that I had ever seen ~ until my daughter's wedding, that is. The bridsmaids wore beautiful truffle brown dresses with sweetheart necklines and the best part of all. . .pockets hidden in the side-seams!

I made the necklaces and earrings for the girls using pacific opals, freshwater pearls and a single wire wrapped Amazonite pendant.
And more bouquets of cream roses and these have blue-green hydrangeas and foliage all elegantly ribbon wrapped. These bouquets lasted a full 10 days and have dried into the most beautiful arrangements which I have sitting in mercury glass bowl vases in my studio. Lucky for us, a couple of the bridesmaids left their bouquets behind at the reception, so both Natalie and I have them to treasure.
I'll have more to share in the upcoming days, so stay tuned. . . .

I can't believe the enthusiastic response you all have had to the kits I put together for Joli Paquet.

Thank you SO much. . . .you guys are the best! I've listed a couple more kits in my Etsy Shop and I have a few more that I can put together this weekend if you know anyone who still wants one.

Today I was busy packing up the ornaments I made for the swap my friend Heather from Speckled Egg has been organizing. We couldn't decide on just one theme for the swap, so our "assignment" turned into a combination of our favorites ~ create an ornament that is a little vintage, a little glittery and all done up in pastel colors. I can't wait to see what everyone dreamed up!

To-Dos and Ta-Das

How long is your to-do list? Mine always seems to be so long and I never seem to get as much done as I hope to on any given day. This was my morning yesterday - there wasn't enough room to fit the afternoon. A friend of mine calls her completed to-do list her "ta-da" list. Funny. But I will never have a "ta-da" list because I'm always adding onto mine.

And then there's the grocery list. Why is it as soon as I return from the grocery store, I always think of something I forgot? It never fails! So I write it on the list for the next time and as a result I never have a completed grocery list either. It seems to be a viscious circle. A couple years ago I heard about this website from Ali showing other people grocery lists. Seems there is a website for everything, isn't there?

Have a great day and I hope all your "to-dos" turn into "ta-das!"

More Craftiness

This idea for sparkley goodness comes to you from Teresa McFayden , who showed us how to add a little glitz and glam to our homes. I like how a just a touch of glitter can add a holiday touch to my everyday decor.
And a little journal to keep track of all your gift ideas. This one started out as a raw chipboard mini book from K & Company.

Halloween Party Treats

I'm getting together with a group of girlfriends tonight and thought I would bring them all a little fall treat. I saw this idea in the current issue of Martha Stewart's Halloween Magazine and thought it was cute idea. I made the mistake of using the wrong size bag, but I did see that Michael's has the proper sized mini craft bags if you want to make some. Instead of the the tendril that she used, I opted for a piece of gingham ribbon. I included the directions from the magazine below.
And speaking of Martha Stewart , if you missed Claudine Hellmuth's appearance on her show Wednesday, you can see a video of it here.