Craft Insomniac

Happy Halloween!

 
Happy Halloween! We're off to trick or treat in our neighborhood!

Queen for a day

If you know me, you know that we celebrate my birthday for the whole month of October. We just call it "birthday month"! And no, it was my husband's idea, not mine. He's a keeper, huh?

So, it was extra fun to get this goodie package in the mail earlier this month from the sweet Amanda of Hodgepodge by Amanda! I won a giveaway on her blog and she sent me these sweet goodies and a custom made tiara for my birthday! Pink and green, how did she know those are my favorites? (okay, she asked my favorite colors, but still!) Here's my crown:

 
Isn't she so cute? I took a picture of myself wearing it but I look bad in it so I'm not posting that one. Oh, okay then:

 
Note to self: Do not take pictures without makeup on! ;)

Here are the goodies Amanda sent me, how much fun to get this in the mail?

 
Okay, I better get packing, I'm meeting my sister in Dallas tomorrow for market and a little shopping! :)

First day of school

First day of school is always a little bittersweet for me. I'm ready to get back to a routine and have some time for myself but I really love having my kids home for the summer. I love the lazy days with no homework or strict bedtime, taking lunch and a good book up to the pool. Well, summer's over and there is something special about buying new school supplies and starting a fresh year, so many possibilities! I usually buy a few supplies for myself too! :)

 

Here's the first grader ready to go conquer the world. She is such a social butterfly, let's hope we can keep the detentions to a minimum this year. She tends to get in trouble for talking, there a lot of words in that little body that need to get out! :)

 

And here's the junior. Wow. Hard to believe we only have two more years with her at home. We are well into the volleyball season now and it's so fun to watch her play, I never thought I would be so into watching a sport! :)

Okay, now that I have all day to myself again I really have NO excuse for not getting things done, right?

 

Portland Part Deux

I know, I know, I'm blogging for the third time in a week. What is going on?

Well, school starts in 2 weeks so I guess I'm in the "get things done" mode. Or maybe I just have too much time on my hands. Anyhoo, here are more pictures from my trip to Portland...

 Here we are: Stacy, Lonnie, Colleen, Lisa Kaus and Natalie in Lisa's gorgeous backyard. We had classes at Lisa's house, in her basement studio, on Friday and Saturday and each day we had lunch on her deck in the back overlooking her lush garden.

Can you see the chaise in the lower right corner? Heaven! I just want to get a good book and a drink with an umbrella in it and settle in.

 Lisa's house was filled with her own artwork and lots of fun things by other artists. I have a bit of jealousy over these pillows I must admit. The green strawberry is hooked wool,  I love it!!

 More fun artwork in her dining room hutch. It was so much fun to just wander around her house and see all her treasures and she was so gracious to let us. I wouldn't let you into my back bedroom/junk room if you paid me. Okay, well it would depend on how much you paid me I guess...

Here are Natalie and I getting ready to start on our "Let them eat cake" class. I started with a white cake (thank you Colleen for switching with me!) and Natalie's is a robin's egg blue.

Natalie started with the blue cake also and Colleen's was pink. This was a fun class, not as stressful as the gridlocked class the day before which, to me, was more fast-paced. I love how all our cakes turned out!

 Left to right: Natalie, Stacy, Colleen and Lonnie. We took these on our makeshift photo studio in our hotel room. I'd like to thank my assistants for holding the sheet, I couldn't have done it without you.

Natalie's cake is awaiting it's cute little paper clay birdie in it's silver nest. (you can see her finished cake on her blog) I am jealous of Natalie's polka dot feet and envision some polka dot feet in my near future. :)

My cake has an old crystal doorknob on top, Colleen's has a french gentleman, whom she dubbed "Pierre", and Lonnie's has a sweet little paper clay bird. I think we may see more of those sweet birds at her Silver Bella vendor table...

Next installment: our gridlocked class projects, stay tuned, I'm on a roll!

Boots

No good reason for this post, just some cute pictures from this week. My daughter likes to read outside and when I drove up yesterday this is what I saw.

Boots, or as we used to call him, our "backyard cat", just wandered up a few years agoand never left. He used to come in the house but unfortunately can not control his urge to "mark" his territory so he lives outside again. (don't worry, we leave one of the garage doors propped so he can come and go) He walks kind of bow-legged and makes the most hilarious mrrooooww sound. After I sat on the grass to take this picture he decided he needed to come over and get some attention from me too.

Oops

Oops! I meant to just save that last post and add more pictures later, but I guess I published it. Also, ignore the fact that it is written in two different fonts.

 Here is a close up of the purses I made for the girls. My friend, Marlis, digitized my handwriting and stitched the names on for me! Have I mentioned how handy it is to have a friend who worked for Bernina for years? Of course, I made her one too but didn't get a picture of it.  I have to say I was inspired by Rebecca's apron in the latest cloth, paper, scissors. I loved how she stitched all the strips of vintage fabrics together!

 On Thursday, Michelle met us at the hotel to go shopping in Portland. She gave us sweet little goodie bags of vintage supplies but I already opened mine and used some of it so I don't have a picture! Thank you Michelle, you're a sweetheart!  Lonnie had arranged for us to meet Sally Jean for lunch and tour her studio afterwards. Wow! Her studio was chock full of inspiration, made me want to come home and break out the soldering iron! Here are more pictures of her studio:

 Boy, I love this flower pendant on the mannequin. I wonder where I could get that "petal glass", hmmm. You can't really see the chandeliers below clearly but boy they were gorgeous in person!

 

 Notice the soldered bird in the lower right corner? I am just now realizing that I need to add the glittered twig feet to my bird from last years Silver Bella class...

 I love the big glass jars of doll heads and bodies, does that mean there's something wrong with me? I think I am just jealous because I want some of these babies for my own artwork...

Okay, that's it for now. For some reason when I start to add a bunch of pictures Typepad starts asking me if I want to quit because my script is running low. I have no idea what that means but I don't want to risk losing my post so I'll post more pictures on another post later. Really. I mean it.

 

 

 

Portland

Okay,  I have been shamed into blogging by all my friends sharing their pictures of our trip to Portland.

I want to blog, I mean to blog, I plan to blog, but somehow I never actually get around to blogging. *sigh* I would promise that I'll do better but I think we all know that it would be an empty promise. ;) So, without further ado, or false pretenses of how I will be a better blogger, here is the recap of my Portland trip. (the short version)

First, I have to say that I had an absolute blast! I met Lonnie, Natalie and Colleen in Portland for a girls weekend and to take classes from Lisa Kaus. I have loved Lisa's work for a long time and when she announced her summer workshop schedule I was so excited! Meeting up with "the girls" just made it so much more fun! 

Here are a few picture highlights of our trip:

 

Here we are with all our "girlfriend gifts", it was like Christmas! Lonnie made us all aprons with sweet vintage hankies, notice mine is pink? She dyed it specially for me! How can I not love someone who dyes things pink for me? Natalie made us all cute tote bags with one of her darling paintings photocopied on and handstitched! Colleen brought us glittery (and I do mean glittery!) boxes of goodies including chocolate and a naked doll to decorate/dress/take apart. (you need to understand that Colleen is a dollmaker so this was a totally appropriate idea)

Art and Communion

Wow. I really don't have the words to describe this. Shea and her mom, Deborah, had their first art event last weekend in the church they have been renovating in downtown Dallas. We decided on Tuesday to go visit Kevin's parents in Ft. Worth for the weekend and he suggested I ask Shea if I could come for part of the day. She said yes, and I'm soooo glad I went! I can't even tell you how gorgeous this church is! They have really poured their hearts into this place and it shows.  These are the windows on the east side of the great room, originally the sanctuary. This was the only shot I got that showed how beautiful they were. One of the best things about this room is all of the natural light that poured in through the windows. Here is the other side of the room where we were crafting. I met some sweet new ladies and was so happy to see Lisa and Susan again. We met at Silver Bella 2007 on the plane to Nebraska. I'm sooo glad they are going again this year, they are peaches!This is the back of the church, the view from the kitchen. The two doors on either side of the fireplace lead to guest bedrooms. Did I mention this place has a dozen or more bedrooms? Here's one of my favorite bedrooms, the frou-frou room, as Shea calls it. :) Best of all, look at this sweet little seating area next to the bed! This is the kitchen, originally the front of the church. They used all the original wood from the pews for these two curved walls at the front of the kitchen. It was cleverly designed so that it can be used for a wedding and you won't even know there's a kitchen there. Shea had a gorgeous project for us and the bar on the left was full of goodies for us to use: glitter, velvet leaves, ribbons, feathers etc.. The food was wonderful, especially those red velvet cupcakes and lace cookies! (I need those recipes Deborah!) I had a wonderful time and I can't wait to go back! Thank you so much Shea and Deb for having me, I loved it! Shea and I, I can't believe I didn't get one picture of Deborah holding that adorable baby Stella! What was I thinking? I'll have to get one next time. :)   Here's a shot of our project, you can see sweet Stella in this one: Here's my version, with my new friend Sam. She glued my tea-dyed tulle on for me so she felt some ownership in my finished project. :) Thanks for a lovely day, see you girls in November at Silver Bella, if not before! (hopefully, before!)

 

 

Athletic Banquet

These girls are one of the main reasons volleyball was so fun this past year. Love you guys. Kim, in the middle, actually went to kindergarten with me and years later recognized me in the Trinity parking lot. She says I look the same as I did in kindergarten! (Now if I could just stop making my neck do that when I take my own picture I'd be happy) Two years of varsity cheerleading, it's hard to  believe she's not cheering next year. She made a really mature decision to only do one sport and focus on volleyball.                                                                                     She received the Lion's spirit award for cheerleading. I'm so proud of how how she puts her whole heart into whatever she does!   

 Our two middle blockers, too bad they aren't this tall without the high heels, they would dominate at the net! Our amazing volleyball coach, we're so blessed to have such a quality guy as the head of our program. 

Next up: creativity and a gap-toothed seven year old...

 

Random

Five random things that I have memorized:

1. Selections from the Dr. Seuss book, Oh the Places You'll Go 

My favorite part: You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted, but mostly they're darked. A place you can sprain both your elbow and chin, do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win? And if you go in, should you turn left or right? Or right and three-quarters? Or maybe not quite. Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

2. Chunks of Philippians

My favorite verse is Philippians 2:6.  It follows the widely quoted verse 5, "Have this attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus". Verse 6 says,    " who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped". That's humility.

3. The words to I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta my Hair, from South Pacific.

My favorite line, " You can't put back a petal, when it falls from a flower, or sweeten up a fella, when he starts turnin' sour"

4. The poem, I Have a Little Shadow, by Robert Louis Stephenson. My grandmother made me memorize and recite this when she kept me as a little girl.

My favorite line, "I'd think shame to stick to Nursie as that shadow sticks to me".

5. The words to my junior high school song.

Evans Junior High from the western plains, high our banners we will hold. As guardians of our colors, we salute the scarlet and gold. Let us stand upright with noble pride, may we win with every try, and be known as the fighting eagles from Evans Junior High.  (who writes these things?)

Okay that's five but I think you should also know that I can sing the entire song, "I wanna be like you"  from Disney's The Jungle Book. Yes, including all the animal sounds. we-ba-dee-ba-do-boo.