Happy Grandparents Day!

Today is National Grandparents Day. Although our grandparents are no longer with us they still live on in our hearts and memories. I carry my grandma (on my mom's side) with me every day, since my middle name is the same as hers (Marie). Similarly, my daughter has her grandma (my mom) with her every day too, since her middle name is the same as my moms (Jane). 

My DH and I are grandparents too. . . .of these two fun "grand dogs" shown above! Happy Grandparents Day to all the Grandparents out there!

A Day of Remembrance

- Original Photo by Thomas E. Franklin -

Where were you eight years ago?

Weekend Fun

In addition to working on finishing off the second floor of our cottage, 

we did have a little fun on Labor Day Weekend at the annual Marina Fest near our cottage. 

It was a perfect day without a single cloud in the sky, as you can see.

There was the fun loving dingy boat races. . . .

The daring waterski show. . . .  

And a whole lot of entries in the wood boat contest. . . .

They really were quite beautiful. . . . 

Wonderful craftsmanship. . . .

The one below was my husband's favorite - although I think he was more interested in the 

vintage Ford truck than the wood canoe on top of it. . . .

I liked the way they had the truck bed styled for a day on the lake. . . .

Not a wooden boat, but a woody Ford Sportsman convertible - just look at those whitewalls!

Not sure if this boat was made of wood, but automobile fins on the back had me intrigued!

We ended the day by going to the drive-in movie theater to see Julie and Julia (which was adorable, by the way) and watch a gorgeous sunset.

There's still time to enter my Birthday Celebration GIVEAWAY. You can sign up over here!

Back Home

We're back from a long weekend trip to the cottage. As you can see by the photo above, many other people had the same idea. I snapped this photo mainly because I spotted that robin's egg blue vintage VW Beetle in front of us. It's the predecessor to the newer version that I have. Back when we bought the car we were told the color was a retro color (Aquarius Blue) and this is only the second one I have seen on the road. 

We had a wonderful time - the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Did some more painting of the trimwork on the cottage - will it ever be done???  But we also did some fun things too which I will share with you later in the week after I sort through the photos. 

~ Birthday Flowers From My DH ~

Thank you so much for all your birthday wishes! I really do appreciate each and every one of you. You are such an inspiration to me through your comments, your own blog posts, your beautiful artwork, photos, your support. You'll never know how much it all means to me:) 

It's not too late to sign up for my birthday celebration GIVEAWAY.  You can sign up all week by clicking here.  

Birthday Giveaway!

Happy birthday to me!  It sounds so funny to say that, but I haven't had a giveaway on my blog for quite a while and thought my birthday was a good excuse to have one! 

SO. . . . 

Help me celebrate by leaving a comment on this post and at the end of the week I'll let the trusty old Random Number Generator select a couple of people to win the prizes shown below:

Winner #1 will win this handmade journal created by "moi" and winner #2 will win a copy of the book, "A Note To Self" by Samara O'Shea, which is a great book I discovered about keeping a journal.

Good luck!

Art Journaling

Have you seen the new issue of Stampington's Art Journaling?

The premier issue of this publication was a huge, huge hit. I can understand why, because art journaling seems to have really taken off in the art community lately.  So everyone has been anxiously awaiting this next issue. The cover features the artwork of Dina Wakley from Get It Scrapped. I've taken a couple of online journaling classes from Dina - Art Journaling 102 and Masterful Art Journaling. Her classes are great and I especially like the videos she uses to teach her techniques. Below is one of my journal pages from her Art Journaling 102 class, which uses some of the same techniques she used on her cover artwork above.

The arrival of the new issue of Art Journaling really got my journal juices flowing, so I got out the various journals I'm currently working in and played in each of them. I even put together some new journals for a few special projects I am working on!  

Speaking of special projects, with my birthday coming up next week I thought the perfect way to celebrate would be to have a GIVEAWAY!  Stop by back here on Monday for all the details. 

Back to School

It's that time of the year again. 

New backpacks, new school clothes, new box of crayons, 

new lunch boxes, new school year!

1. on your graduation, Mako!, 2. Higher education, 3. ticonderoga #2HB's, 4. anxious, 5. School Locker Memories, 6. Skipping Schoolgirls outside Victoria Station, London, 7. composition book, 8. Anything Seems Possible When You Open a New Box of Crayons -- Aug. 23, 2009 [Explore]

In other news - Last week I received the sweetest email from Jennifer (The 3 Maries) asking me if she could feature my etsy shop on her blog. What a nice surprise! The feature is up on her blog here today. Be sure to check it out!!! And after that you should run on over to Jennifer's wonderful shop here, where she sells both handmade and vintage items. She has a huge selection of vintage children's books that are worth the trip. Thanks again, Jennifer:)

Rainy Day

It's been crummy here the past few days. Rain, rain, go away! I really shouldn't complain, as the plants and grass have needed some rain for a long time. But it always makes everything seem so gloomy and I seem to move a little slower too. So I decided to whip up a few of these cheery goodies to brighten things up around here.

I just listed them in my shop. They are fun to use to embellish your needlework or scrapbook pages or whatever your imagination can think of. 

I also added a few more of these popular hangers to the shop too.

Watch for my Halloween update in the shop coming soon!

After reading this post, I just had to try French Press coffee for myself. I can't tell you how different (and oh, so much better) it is from regular drip brewed coffee. I am totally hooked! Hope your day is sunny and bright wherever you are!

Spread the Word

~ Joli Paquet logo designed by Cindy Gilstrap ~

Something wicked is stirring here and I am inviting all of you, my pretties, to join in on the fun starting September 21st. We're adding new kits, new tutorials, and new artists into the cauldron for a devilish good time! See you there!

Friendship

A friend of mine sent this link to me today. I thought I would share it with all of you, my "Quiet Angels."

Pooch Collage

Just a little collage I made yesterday for a friend.

Thrifting Finds

I've found some wonderful vintage goodies recently and I finally got the camera out to photograph some of them. Love this pink wicker purse and pearl trimmed pink gloves.

Some pretty millinery flowers and hankie laying on top of a beautiful textured pink tea cozy.

More millinery flowers, vintage pink seam binding and a McCall's apron pattern. I love the pink and orange combination. . . . .do I see some inspiration bubbling up here???

Sweet cards from a children's game. I love the old maid cards.....brings back fond memories of playing that game with my family when I was little.

A beautiful lace collar in perfect condition and a couple of white plates that are just like the one's my mom used to have.

A combination sugar and salt container???  Well, it's going to hold glass glitter in my 

craft room.

I couldn't resist the pale pink color of this adorable vase. 

Finally! A blue velvet lined jewelry box. . . . . .I've been searching for one of these for ages!

And a girl can never have too many rhinestone shoe clips, right?

Journaling Days

I thought I would share a peek at a new journal I am working on. I made this one myself using fabric, book board, and watercolor paper signatures. It's still a work in progress as I want to add some embroidery and other embellishments to the quilted cover. All the pages are at various stages of incompleteness and still have a lot more work to be done on them, not to mention the most important component - the journaling!!!
The page above shows the beginning of a technique I learned from Pam Garrison using vintage wallpaper and Copic markers to extend the wallpaper design on the journal page. Still lots to do on this page.

I used some heart and hand masks and Glimmer Mist sprays on the right page.

Watercolors and doodling.

More watercolors, masking and Glimmer Mists.

Lots of washes of color to fill in with journaling later.

While we were at our cottage last week, I picked up a few new ready-made journals to jot down notes, thoughts and ideas. I have such a weakness for notebooks and journals. I can't seem to resist when I see a new one. The top one features a favorite quote of mine from the SHE book on the cover and I see that Cerri just listed some of these journals in her Little Pink Boutique here. The middle one is a blank journal from the talented Kelli Rae Roberts. Her drawings are always so full of whimsey. The bottom composition book-type journal, with the blue & green color palette, bird cage and another wonderful quote, just called out to me. It's available from Live-Inspired here. Happy journaling!

Books & Magazines

Her stores may have closed, but there's still some "Shabby Chic-ness" to look forward to. Rachel Ashwell has been working on a new book that's due out this fall. I can't wait!!!


Speaking of publications, I just picked up the lastest issue of Somerset Life the other day and discovered my Parisian Bon-Bon Dish is shown in the article entitled, Martini Magic on pages 56-57. What a nice surprise! The photo in the magzine is a little out of focus, so I thought I would share some of the details with you here.