My Paste Journal {Finally!}

A while back I showed you the journal above that I made during Teresa McFayden's Sweet Bella E-Zine class. I told you it was the cover of my Paste Journal, which I fill with all sorts of clippings and pictures and ideas gathered from various sources. This is similar to what Artsymama is doing for Rhonna's 21 Day Challenge here. I told you at the time that I would share pictures of the inside of the journal and then as usual, time got away from me and I never got around to posting the photos. So here they are now:

In general I paste in whatever makes me smile, like clippings of favorite colors or combinations of colors that inspire me, pieces of furniture I like, decorating ideas that I want to reference, photography that I can't resist, craft ideas that I may want to try out, quotations, gardening ideas, gift ideas, inspirational words, etc. etc. You get the idea, right?

Thanks for Making My Day!

I was thrilled to receive this award from my sweet friend Joanna at An Altered Fairy Tale. How wonderful it was to receive a nice surprise like this in my inbox. Thanks a million for making MY day, Joanna!

According to the rules, I am suppose to pass this award on to ten people who inspire me. But since it's really too hard to narrow it down to just ten people, I am going to steal Jessi's great idea and present this award to ALL OF YOU! So if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged!

Speaking of the lovely and talented Jessi, she is have the most fantastic giveaway on her blog. You have until Friday the 8th to sign up so hurry on over here and check it out.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Too Funny!!!!!

Looking for a Challenge?

INSPIRATION: Where does yours come from?

I find my inspiration from books, nature, quotations, magazines, art challenges, swaps, round-robins, other artist's work, fashion, catalogs, architecture, and of course from the many BLOGS that are online. I believe this world of blogging has definitely given me the opportunity to step up my artistic game and has provided me with an endless wealth of inspiration. It has made the world a smaller place and allowed me to start friendships with people I would have never "met" otherwise.

One of the first art challenges I participated in after starting my blog almost two years ago was Rhonna Farrer's 21 Day Challenge. I have completed three rounds of her challenges and have learned something about myself each and every time. I enjoy the challenge of creating art EVERY DAY. Sometimes we need a little push, like an assignment or a challenge, to light a fire under us and get us motivated. Rhonna's 21 Day Challenges do just that for me. I treasure those three journals I have as a result of sticking with it right through the end. We all cheer each other on and it's such fun to see how everyone interprets Rhonna's daily quotes and prompts.

I've provided links to my past challenge journals for you to see below.

To see the journals in their entirety, just click the caption below the photos.

ROUND 1

ROUND 2

ROUND 3

If you'd like to join in on this 21 Day Challenge {which starts Saturday, March 1st by the way} you can find the details on the Two Peas in a Bucket site here.

Hippity Hop Sneak Peeks!

Whew! I finished up my swap items for Heather's Hippity Hop Swap yesterday and today I wrapped them up, packed them up, and sent them on their way to Cali. My little pink chicks were thrilled to go, because they were anxious to escape the cold and snow here and catch some rays in sunny California. Bye-bye little chickies!!!


P.S. Don't be fooled by my chickies sweet pinkness. . .I instructed them that their job is to stand guard and protect the packages from any early snoopers - ahem, Cerri and Holly! :)

Searching for Springtime

I don't know about you, but I am getting pretty tired of Old Man Winter. We had another 3-4" of snow dumped on us overnight. The good news is that all the dirty, slushy, icy stuff is all covered and everything is looking pristine and picturesque once again. And the sun IS shining, so I guess I should be grateful for small favors. Yesterday, I decided to take a drive over to a favorite warehouse shop in my area in search of some signs of spring. Funny thing is, there was an awful lot of white displayed there too. But white-on-white is one of my favorite color schemes, so as long as it had a blossom on it and was warmer than 32 degrees inside, I was happy! :)

Once a Mom, Always a Mom

I got this in one of those forwarded emails

making it around the internet. I just couldn't
resist sharing it with all of you.

(Click on the picture to get a better look).

It just put a smile on my face. . .how about you?

Shop Update

As promised yesterday, the shop update is complete so thought I would share a few sneak peeks.with you all. I'm still working on a some additional goodies, but first I must concentrate on a couple swaps that are coming due. I am happy to report that the studio has remained relatively tidy throughout this latest rush of creativity. I must attribute that to actually taking the time to put things away instead of letting everything pile up for later. I'm working hard on changing my procrastinating ways.
As for my new hair cut ~ well, I didn't do anything very exciting. Basically it is the same style, but angled in the front. But I did replace some of the highlights with low-lights and I kind of like the darker look. It's nothing drastic, just a notch darker than what I had before, but I feel like that was a pretty daring move for me.
It's a beautiful day here. . .a bit cold (freezing is more accurate) but the sun is shining and the sky is clear blue! Hope your day is sunny and bright too!

Lovely

Don't you love this photograph? I am sorting though old issues of magazines deciding which ones to keep and which ones to recycle. I found this lovely photo in Real Simple Magazine as a part of an article about "New Uses for Old Frames." I was drawn to the dreamy colors and that vintage box of Elizabeth Arden powder. I think I'll hang it on my inspriation board so I can gaze at it whenever I want.

I've been busy in the studio working on swaps and also some new items to put into my Etsy Shop. I'll be doing a shop update either later today or early tomorrow, so stay tuned.

We made a quick trip up to the cottage this past weekend to check things out and to plow out the driveway. We didn't stay as long as planned since the weather forecast was predicting an icy rain storm. It is good we came back when we did because the next morning the streets were encased in an icy-coating. . .pretty, but not much fun to drive or walk on. And up at the cottage there was a 9-inch snowfall (so much for all the snow-plowing we did the day before!) The trip wasn't a total waste though, because we stopped at a flea market and two thrift stores where I managed to pick up a few goodies. I will share my finds with you in a day or two, once I get them photographed.

I have an appointment to have my hair cut and highlighted today. I would like to have a "new do" of some sort, but I feel I should try to drop a few pounds first. (Does anyone have access to a magic wand???) I'd love to have one of those Oprah makeovers where the women come out looking all young and hip afterwards. Ahhh.....nice dream, but that will never happen, so I guess I will just stay here in reality and get the same old haircut. Besides my appointment is in less than 90 minutes from now, so chances of me finding "the perfect haircut" in that amount of time is close to nil !!!

Hope you all are having a terrific Tuesday!

Chocolate Withdrawal

I don't know about all of you, but I am just starting to come down from my Valentine's Day sugar high. We seem to have more chocolate in this house than any family should be allowed to have. I swear I can feel my face starting to break out just from writing about it. It is awfully yummy, so I'll just have to eat it fast to make it all disappear!

Mr. Postman has been good to me again. Personally I think he's just after my chocolates. He's been bringing me lots of Valentines as well as the little pretty pictured above from Karla's Cottage. It's a beautiful handmade folder filled with lovely wallpapers which will turn into something wonderful once I dream it up in my head. Karla said that it wasn't selling in her shop, (can you imagine that?) so I just couldn't let it stay there and think it wasn't loved. I love just opening it up to look and touch the beautiful papers. I got another delivery yesterday of even MORE wallpaper from the lovely and talented Miss Holly Doodle. I am so anxious to start working with all of this fun stuff!

I was at Michael's today and found this cute little metal wall pocket in their new spring decor section. There are some pretty nice things in that aisle and I may need to go back and take a second look VERY soon.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy *heart* day to you all! Does anyone have anything fun planned for today? Not sure yet what hubby and I will be doing, but I'm sure it will involve dinner out tonight. . .well, at least I hope so!
I have to tell you about an eerie coincidence between my pal Heather and I that occurred during our "For the LOVE of Supplies Valentine Swap." When Heather's beautiful heart box arrived, I immediately sent her an email to say thank you for all the goodies she sent. Heather then asked me if I looked underneath the candy tray, which I had not. The coincidental part was what I found there. On top of the pile of papers was a vintage prescription from a "Dr. Byers", from Belvidere, Illinois. Now Heather lives in California, but I live less than an hour from Belvidere. And guess what? My maiden name is BYERS! Isn't that spooky? Unfortunately, we don't have a doctor in our family, so Dr. Byers is not a relative of mine. . .at least not one that I know of. Isn't it fascinating how pieces of vintage ephemera can travel around the country (or world) and end up right back where they started?

Best in Show ~ FINALLY!

Photo courtesy of Jessi Nagy's Blog

I forgot to mention that we watched the Westminster Dog Show finals last night on TV and we were jumping for joy that Uno, the Beagle won Best in Show! You see, we have a sweet beagle of our own in the family, whose name is Shooter (shown below). A beagle has never won in the history of Westminster so that made it especially thrilling. Uno was the crowd favorite and received a standing ovation from the crowd when he was pronounced the Best in Show! And today he spent the morning making the rounds on the morning talk shows including The Today Show and Martha Stewart.Photo Courtesy of My Darling Daughter

Who could resist a face like this?

Keeping Warm

I will try to type this post the best I can, but it isn't easy to peck out words while your teeth are chattering and wearing gloves on your hands. Yes, you read that correctly. . .I am wearing gloves because it is 46 degrees in my house! Well, it is 46 degrees and rising now that my husband has finally fixed the furnace. I was out most of the day yesterday and when I came home the house felt a bit chilly. I proceeded to put the groceries away first and afterwards checked the thermostat, which said that the batteries needed to be replaced. After obeying what the thermostat told me to do, I failed to hear the furnace go on. I finally had to break down and call my DH, who had just arrived at the Chicago Auto Show with his buddies. I asked if there was anything I could do or try, but alas, there was not. So I trekked through the deep snow out to the potting shed to fetch the space heater we have out there. After cranking that baby up to the highest setting, I bundled myself up in layers of clothing and braced myself for the cold air that was slowing filling the house. When my husband returned home, he discovered that a part (the glow switch?) was broken. However replacing it would have to wait until the morning since the stores were all closed for the night. More clothing layers were added to get us through the night. This morning I couldn't even feel my hands as I prepared my oatmeal and hot coffee. 20 hours of cold weather will do that. Fortunately today is a sunny day (a rare one here lately) and we have a lot of southern facing windows, so that helped to raise the temperature a tiny bit. The thermostat now reads 57degrees, so I guess I can take my gloves off and enjoy the heat wave.

I added this sweet little springtime tag to my etsy shop today. I'm glad I made it yesterday, while my fingers were still nimble.And this is the Mosaic Journal that I made over the weekend for Sweet Bella. What a fun project this was to put together. I hope teperatures are much warmer in your neck of the woods!

Trying to Thaw Out

Brrrr. . . I am sitting here in the house trying to thaw out from the cold and snowy weather we have been experiencing here in the midwest. We have had close to 12-inches of snow dumped on us this week. Beautiful as it looks from the inside looking out, shoveling and driving in it is quite a different story. This was the heavy, wet kind of snow. My windshield wiper had to be replaced because it was so heavy! The snow plows weren't able to keep up with the snow as well as they have in other storms, so as a result the roads were spotted with huge chunks of icy snow. That, along with all the potholes which have suddenly appeared, makes driving on the roads similar to riding in a covered wagon on a bumpy dirt road!

Since the snowfall kept me indoors, I was finally able to complete one of the Winter-Bella projects, pictured above. This is a store bought jar candle (of which I have many) collaged and embellished with vintage images, rub-ons, rhinestones and ribbons.

I also was able to make this red Valentine Mobile ("Love is in the Air") which I added to my etsy shop.
Then a wonderful present arrived from Heather, which instantly brightened my day. This was what she sent me for the Valentine Supply Swap ~ looks like I'll be keeping very busy playing with all the goodies.

Last night we went to a local production of Neil Simon's "The Good-bye Girl." I remember seeing the movie years ago starring Richard Dreyfus and Anne Bancroft. I vaguely remembered the story line, but had forgotten how funny it was, especially Richard Dreyfus's character, Elliot. The actor in this particular production was excellent and really made the whole show! What a character!!!

Now that the roads have been cleared, I am going to take a ride out to Junk Warehouse which is our local version of Ki and Sue's Junk Market . They always have some fun and interesting pieces to look at, as well as refreshments! One of my favorite garden centers is nearby, so think I will stop in there too. Even though it's the dead of winter here, they have a wonderful gift shop full of treasures and walking through the greenhouse amongst all the colorful flowers and plants makes my heart skip a beat with delight.

I hope you take time to do something fun today!

VOTE and SHOP!

I added a few spring items to my etsy shop today before going out to vote in the Super Tuesday Primary Election. It should be interesting tonight to find out who won, although if you listen to the polls they say it's pretty much decided ~ kind of takes the fun out of voting doesn't it? However the Giants did win unexpectedly over the Patriots in the Super Bowl this past weekend and I do believe the polls were wrong a couple weeks ago, so nothing is really decided until the votes are all tabulated. As the saying goes, "Every Vote Counts," so if you live in a state that has a primary today, be sure to go out and VOTE!

What's New?

Heather over at Speckled Egg is hosting this neat little swap. The deadline is Feb 8th so hurry and get your name in here to sign up.
Most of you know that I have been going through a studio (and home) clean out and as a result I am finding all sorts of goodies that I no longer have the space to keep. So the result is that MY LOSS can be YOUR GAIN. I will be offering some of these delights HERE first before the weather thaws out and I am able to have a yard sale.

And now that my studio is tidied up and I can actually see the surface of my desk, I have been having fun working on some Spring and Easter things for the shop. I plan to start adding some items during this upcoming week, so be sure to check in and take a peek.