Guess What's in the mail?

Guess what came in the mail today? I am so excited!

Even the package was cute and built the excitement as I began to open the package.

It was a bag in a bag

I was not disappointed.
The monogram ring I ordered is so beautiful.
It fit perfectly too.
Cap Creations have other beautiful pieces of jewelry so check out their sight.

This was the picture from their site.
I thought the top of my ring would be black based on this picture
but was fine with it being silver.

February journal cover

As you all know I have this new system of creating my journal. I have a signature for each month and sew it into a big journal as I go. No system is perfect and this month I ran into a snag that I had to solve.

January was a slow month for creating and so when I got to the middle of my signature I took out a couple of pages and was able to end the month with just the right amount. Then, February came along and I thought I would do the same amount of pages in this signature. Problem was, I got creative after the middle of the month and needed more pages. I came to the end of my signature a whole week early. Either I was going to have to not do any journal pages for a whole week or solve the problem. Below is my solution because not journaling for an entire week was just not going to happen.

The polka dot paper was the original cover and I decided to keep that. I had used a Martha Stuart edge punch on it to make the scalloped edge. The flap on the left front is canvas paper that I painted on and is larger than my signature paper. I let about 1 1/2" show on the front and wrapped it around to the back. Because it is bigger than the back of my signature I was able to fold it in a couple of times making 2 1/2 pages more to create on.

Then on the front I tried a technique of sewing buttons onto the edge with colored wire. I got that idea from Ingrid Dijkers. I saw the idea quite a while ago and wanted to try it and I like the way it turned out. I'm going to share it with my art journal group next month because it is really fun to do. If you decide you want to try it, I would suggest that you cover the edge of the paper with packing tape to make the paper stronger. The first hole I started with I pulled the wire right through it.

I just realized that this is #46 on my list of things to do before I'm 50, YEH! One more to cross off the list.


This is a journal page made from all the snippets of things I collected in one day. I wrote a little something about each one. It was a pretty good day as you can see. I rate it a 10! For those wondering the gold paper is from a Harry & David truffle, much too scrumptious for my own good. On the edge I sewed buttons and beads with embroidery floss. I think I am going to have to get a button collection going.This is a page in progress. It is one of the added pages in the back of my journal and is done on canvas paper. I will work on it later. That is it for now.

Sick day

Woke up with a sore throat and stuffed up, YUK! I have pictures to show and a journal project I worked on a bit today but I am just going to crawl into bed and share later. Too tired to do anything else. See you all in a couple of days. I'm thinking I should be better by then right? UGH :(

Creating

I had some fun today and decided to make some crocheted flowers. I was trying out a pattern for a later project. I am going to decorate a pair of jeans and thought these flowers would look so cute stitched on them. Then I got the idea to attach them to a tag so that I could give them to some friends. It was a fun afternoon of creating.

My husband's birthday is this week and so I baked a cherry cake for him.

I only had a bite but it was very yummy.

Just a quirky journal page I worked on this week.

I broke out of the pink streak I have been in.

Valentine Surprises

I was so surprised when my son showed up today with a card and box of chocolates for me.

How sweet is that. My other son came home with french fries and a large diet drink for me just because he knows these are some of my favorite things. Both of these came without any prompting or hinting which makes them even more special.

Love you boys!

My journal pages are mostly made of what my days are filled with.

I take snippets of things from my day to use on the pages and incorporate them into the page.

When people look at my pages down the road, they will see what I was doing that day or thinking about.

I have this appreciation for hang tags. Some of them are really cool. I have been saving mine for years. Didn't know what to do with them but now I can put them in my art journal.

Happy Valentine's Day

This has been a great week. I got to spend time with two friends who are so talented and busy but still take time out of their schedules to meet me for coffee. I am blessed by their friendship. And I am so encouraged every time I get to be around them. Now I have so many ideas rushing through me head and I hope I get to try some of them.

Michelle Allen

Paulette Insall

I have also gotten to spend time in my art journal this week.

All my pages this month have to do with Love, hearts

and most of them have red and pink on them.

Of course, the ultimate sacrifice and love was shown when God sent his son to save us all.

I hope you all have a very Happy Valentine's Day.

Remember those you love and those who love you.

My Valentine took me to the movies to see "Valentine's Day" and then we went to dinner.

It was a very nice meal of spinach and cheese tortellini with Turtle cheesecake for desert.

Then when we got home, I was surprised with a pajamagram.

What a great guy I have!

Hippy Convention aka Portland

I went out this morning and met a friend for coffee in Portland then stopped by my niece's house to chat a bit. When I got home I checked in with the guy who is doing some of our remodeling. When I poked my head into the familyroom he sized me up and said, "where have you been, to a hippy convention?" It was so funny to me and I can't stop laughing. Maybe my sixties roots are coming out. I was pretty excited to wear the vintage necklace I bought in a Paris flea market though and stashed away in the back of my jewelry box was a pair of earrings that matched it perfectly. Unbelievable. When you never throw anything away; you have all kinds of treasures to uncover. I am trying to rectify that problem, as you know, but jewelry will be the absolute last on my list to de-clutter, if ever.

New art piece

My new favorite shop in town is A Little Bit Shabby. They have Kelly Rae plaques and products, Brighton and Paris themed items. I am in heaven there. On top of that they have a massage room with a heated table. The massage therapist is really good too. So I can go for a massage and indulge with a little shopping. Yesterday I bought one of Kelly Rae's wall art. I also got a new hat that I will wear on Valentine's Day. It is pink velvet and oh, so cute!

Creating in Pink

I really feel bad that I don't make it here much. Life is just very full of people right now and not a lot of personal time to do much creating but I did sneak in a Valentine card making session. I never make cards so this is unusual for me. I did have fun though.

I need to either print out some Happy Valentine sentiments or write on this card because it is a little plain for my taste.

This was an idea I got off of the Martha Stuart show. The green stem is one of her stamps and the border punches are from her line as well.

And, I finished a journal page of things that I love. This month is all about hearts, pink, red and things I love. Pink is such a happy color.

Pink Hair

Yesterday was such a beautiful day. As I was driving home I pulled over to the side of the road and snapped a picture of Mt. St. Helens. This is just two minutes from my house. When she blew in 1980 this is the spot that the barricades went up and you couldn't go past this spot because you would be in the danger zone. All the news camera crews set up right where I am standing. Anyhoo, I thought it was worth stopping and taking a photo of.

Well, I did it! I got pink put in my hair. I have wanted to for years and so I finally went ahead and took the plunge. After it was all done my colorist says he didn't think it would look good but he was pleasantly surprised. Now, that is something that might have been good to know ahead of time. I thought he was just trying to talk me out of it because he was thinking I was too old for such foolery. Apparently, purple is the color to get. It is the new neutral. I'm a pink girl and tend to do what I want, a little rebellion runs in my blood, so I went with pink. So FUN!

Karla's give-a-way

A friend of mine, Karla Dornacher, is having a give-a-way on her blog for scrapbookers. If you are one be sure and head over and check out the beautiful books she is giving away. Awesome!

Ground Hog Day!

I hope everyone had a great

Ground Hog Day.

Every year my husband and I have a Ground Hog party. It is kind of crazy but fun at the same time. We are kind of crazy anyway. We started the evening with a simple dinner of potato soup, stew and Jambalaya (with ground hog, ha!). I couldn't decide what to fix so I fixed it all. Everyone had their favorite so I was glad that there was a variety.

Then, we cleared away the dishes and played the Ground Hog Game. It is a trivia game that has questions about the movie and about the holiday. You would be surprised how many people know nothing about this holiday. Some of our friends wouldn't have even known it was Ground Hog's day if they weren't coming to our house, shocking!

After we were done with that and prizes were distributed we settled in to watch the movie, Ground Hog Day. Three of the six people that came hadn't seen it before so that was fun.

It was a great evening full of laughter and food and good friends. The only bad part was that I totally forgot to take pictures. I am kicking myself over and over today. I get into hostess mode and taking pictures goes right out of my head. Now, there is not a thing I can do about it. UGH :(

Oh well, there is always next year.

Sitting area

Saturday, when I woke with headache and just needed the day to chill from a busy week, somehow I got myself rooked into doing a huge de-clutter project. I own a laptop and so I move it from my bedroom and my art studio. I have a desk in my art studio that I use when I am in there but the one in the bedroom was in a tiny corner with no room to put a decent chair so I always sat on the bed. Like every other flat surface in our house, if it sits for a day something will get set on it and then another something until it is piled high. That is what the computer desk had become. I was tired so I forgot to take a picture of it before. Probably a good thing because you would have been horrified. I condensed all the stuff to one box, moved the desk to another room for my husband to use when he wants to do some writing and set up a sitting area for myself in the bedroom. Now I can sit and rock, have my cup of morning coffee and spend time reading and listening to God.

This particular rocking chair is meaningful to me. I bought it at the church rummage sale for $2.00 a few years ago. It was owned by the most godly woman. She raised a family who all are believers and she led biblestudies in her home up to two weeks before she died in her 90's. This was the chair she did her morning devotions in. I don't know why the family didn't want it, maybe because it is pretty worn but I like old stuff. It is really comfortable with the quilts and sometimes when I sit in it to do my devotions I wonder what wisdom was shared with Mrs. Whitney as she sat rocking and praying.

In the study I am doing right now the question was asked; If the church was filled with people just like you what kind of church would it be? Makes you think, am I representing Christ in a way that would impact the world in a positive way by the love and grace I'm showing? Or are there things that need to change in me before that can happen? That's my thought today.