Welcome 2013!

Happy New Year! One of my resolutions this year is to reconnect with people. So I'm back to my blog to say hello and to wish everyone the very best in the new year. I want to share with you 3 wonderful creations that my dear sister made for me this Fall. My birthday gifts included this handmade birthday book, which is precious beyond words... each page a treasure. This hootingly fantastic owl pillow which she made- she even drew and created the pattern! And then this collage she made for me for Christmas. "Playmates, come out and play with me..." was a song that we sang as little girls and holds a special place in our hearts. The image of the little girl with her "dollies three" is one of my favorites! Oh how difficult life can be sometimes, and this year hasn't been the easiest. But these wonderful handmade gifts made just for me by my one and only precious sister remind me to be grateful for the many blessings in my life... the most important blessing being my family and friends. So Happy New Year to you, dear blogger friends! I hope to see more of you in 2013

little witchy feet

I collect baby shoes...snatching them up anytime I see them at estate sales. And one of my dear friends finds them for me as well. My favorites are the black Mary Janes. Who can resist them? I saw one made into a baby witch's shoe on Pinterest and I couldn't resist making some! Here they are. They were so much fun! Special Note to a certain Sister of mine: If you are looking at these, AND you recognize one of the photos as being one of your own babies... AND you leave a comment... you MIGHT just be lucky enough to receive it as a gift.

Swapping

I took a really long break from swapping. But this one, hosted by my dear cyber friend, Joyce, was one I couldn't resist! It felt great to create something special for a special someone. My partner was Marie, and I made her this canvas in reds/teals. I wanted it to be happy and cheerful and something she would really want to hang.

And take a look at the stunningly gorgeous pastel one I received in return! She sent some wonderful goodies along as well. And I just LOVE the tags she tucked in there too! I will be hanging this in my bedroom, and will think of Marie each time I see it.

Thanks, Marie, for the wonderful artwork, and thanks to Joyce

for hosting this fun swap!

knitting

One of my knitting resolutions for this year was to make a scarf each month and then I'd have a MAJOR jump on Christmas gifts for next year, plus some for charity. Well, after the 3rd scarf I am TIRED of scarves!! I moved on to a pair of booties for a family friend... not to mention a sweater, a blanket and a tote bag that are now on the needles. The red scarf in the picture I made for a local charity- women at a local hospital who have a heart attack/surgery, etc are given a hand knitted or crochet red scarf in support of women's heart health. A nice idea! The bright pink scarf will be a gift. It was my first attempt at knitting cables, and it is called an Irish Hiking Scarf. What did I do before I started knitting? It is my favorite thing to do and I do it everywhere... in waiting rooms, in the car, and during my quiet TV time in the evening. I especially love to watch Cardinal baseball, so I get alot of knitting done during games.

Hello again! Nearly a year has passed since my last post on this blog as well as on my swap blog. I guess I just needed a break. I needed to do other things for awhile. Not to mention, I discovered Pinterest! Wow! What a diversion that is! More inspiration there than you could possibly ask for. I also spend quite a bit of time working on my Etsy shop, which I really enjoy! But here I am, back to say hello and to see if anyone is still out there. I think I am finally ready to start posting again. I have been knitting up a storm and have some photos to share. Knitting has been my main creative outlet, with a few art projects here and there. I'm hopeful that Spring will breathe some new creative life into my windows and get me moving again! If you see this, leave me a hello comment. I'd love to hear from you again! xox Linda

my may tag

i've had this scrapbook paper for so long. i love it so much i've never wanted to use it! but i added it to my paper stash for the Happy Homemaker Tag Swap and decided to pull it out this month and actually cut into it... gulp... they are such simple tags, but the paper is so cute it doesn't matter!

the language of flowers

atcs for a swap with my Red Lead Swap Sisters. so fun to make atc's again!

the necklace round robin... round 2

becky chose a mix of vintage and new metals for her neckace. she made the 18" starter, then it went to halley, and then to me for the 3rd installment of metallic goodness. it's looking great! I had such fun putting it together... and i didn't buy a thing! it's all found treasure from my studio stashes! it has just one more stop! (gee, i wonder how mine is looking about now!!)

such a sweet gift

could anything be sweeter than this mother-of-pearl "mother" pin? except maybe the precious pink handmade pocket it is pinned to! i received this as a swap hostess thank you gift just in time for mother's day from cami. i absolutely LOVE it!

Happy Easter!

the necklace round robin... the first exchange

I received Heidi's necklace last night. It is a four strand beauty with a vintage clasp in the center of the 18" starter. What a joy! I couldn't wait to get started on it! This morning I rooted through my vintage estate sale stash and my bead boxes and pulled out everything I thought might match. This is what I came up with.

For the middle strand, I used a great vintage necklace (I just snipped off the clasp), and added 2 short additions to each end to make it long enough, and to turn one strand into 2 for the ends (to keep the necklace at four strands overall). Where the vintage necklace connects to the smaller chain/pearl chain duo, I added some vintage buttons for accent and dangle.

For the 2nd strand, I took apart a broken necklace to use the chain pieces. Then I made some sparkling ivory trios to connect the chain pieces together.

The 3rd strand is a great old length of chain that I found on a bolt at an estate sale. It is perfect!

I think I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out. I really hope Heidi likes it. I had so many other great pieces I wanted to add, but I couldn't use it all!

We have 2-3 weeks to complete our necklace, and I finished in less than 24 hours! I had a blast with this and I can't wait to get the next one! I'll keep you posted!

a necklace round robin

My knitting buddies and I decided to start a necklace round robin, after seeing one in a recent Somerset Studios jewelry magazine. We are each starting our own 18" necklace, then will pass it to each other every 2-3 weeks and we will each add another 18" to each person's necklace. There are 4 of us, so we are talking 72 inches of glorious handmade wonderfulness when our own necklace returns home! Here is my 18" starter necklace, ready to swap for the 1st time tomorrow night. Each person will try to keep to the theme or style that each person sets for their necklace. I guess mine could be considered "junk drawer bliss"! I will continue to post them as we swap, so check back once in a while!

My April Tag

I'm really enjoying the Happy Homemaker Tag Along! Visit and take a peek at all the great tags!

Look what came in the mail today!

I participated in an Easter Tag Swap over at 521 Lake Street ...and here are some of the delightful goodies I received from my partner Becky. I love the jumbo tag and the Easter banner (which is already hanging on my mantle!), and she also included some great vintage sewing notions, (those yellow buttons won't last long- I put them out on my studio desk to use in my Easter projects!), a lovely vintage hankie, and some blank tags (which also landed right on my desk for Easter projects!) I must confess that she also sent me some Easter sweet treats like chocolate, a reese's pieces carrot, and some marshmallow bunnies & chicks but, um, they weren't, um, available for the photo shoot. (they were delicious:)

Thanks, Becky! I enjoyed swapping with you! I hope you enjoyed your swap goodies too!

2 things I love today

First of all, I LOVE this picture of my daughter, Mary Grace! I took it last week while she was on Spring Break. She was looking in the mirror, and I just happened to walk behind her, camera in hand...

And secondly, I LOVE my 7 Gypsies Atc Holder! I recently changed the ATCs to some happy Spring ones. It hangs in my kitchen where it brightens my day every time I walk by it!

That's it... I just wanted to share these 2 happy things today!

Welcome March!

This is my March Tag for the Happy Homemaker Tag Along with Bluebird Papercrafts. I couldn't resist this little Irish cutie!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Favorite ATC's Revisited & Repurposed

I found this 7 Gypsies Frame at Archivers the other day. What a great way to display seasonal ATCs! I have a huge collection from years of swapping, hidden away in binders in my studio, and I rarely take the time to look at them anymore. Such beautiful artwork. The light bulb went on when I found this frame. I dug out those binders, and found 12 Valentine-ish ATCs, and they are now proudly on display in my kitchen! It adds such a punch of color to my kitchen and I just love it! I've already chosen 12 Spring/Easter ATCs to replace them with next month. I went back a few days later and purchased the 7 Gypsies metal carousel style stand for ATCs as well. (with a little help from my 30% off coupons and a Christmas gift card from my husband!) I've been busy filling that up with even more of my treasured ATCs. I've placed the carousel on a side table in my dining room so they can be enjoyed as well.

If you look closely, you might just see one that you made! Anyway, I am so excited about this, I wanted to share it. (I got the typical "oh yeah mom, that's nice" from my family, but I knew YOU would truly share my excitement!)

my february tag

for the Happy Homemaker Tag Along Swap. take a visit here to see the other fabtastic tags! ...

for my red lead swap sisters

My January "Happy Homemaker Tag Swap" tag

I am participating in Bluebird Papercraft's Happy Homemaker Tag Swap- a year long tag swap! Each particpant chooses a theme for her tags, picks a line of paper to use for the year, and then creates 2 tags each month. One tag from each month will be given to her partner at the end of the year. I've chosen "vintage kids" as my theme. Shocker, right? Do I ever make anything that doesn't have a vintage kid on it? (Don't answer that.) What "happy homemaker" doesn't (or didn't) have a "vintage kid" around at some point, right? (I hope I didn't stretch the theme too far :)
So anyway, we're also suppose to show a picture of our "paper stash" for the swap. It was hard to narrow my paper choices down! It's a bit of a hodge-podge of a few different lines, but it all coordinates- 10 sheets in all. I hope my partner will like these!

My January tag is called "Snow Day". I used this image in a project for Christmas, but I didn't get enough of her yet! I just love her winter coat and hat!

Was there anything better than a Snow Day when you were young? I can remember listening to the radio, waiting and hoping to hear the name of my school announced in the school closings! Now let's fast forward to last night... my daughter Mary Grace put an orange in the freezer before she went to bed, put her pajamas on inside out, and slept with 2 spoons under her bed... all in hopes of getting a snow day today. (Her classmates and teachers put their heads together at school yesterday and came up with these tried and true methods of trying to bring about a snow day!) Know what? It worked! I never even woke her up- she's still sleeping in! We got 3-6 inches overnight. Some things never change!

New Year's Resolution in Progress

One of my New Year's "Art" Resolutions is to get more of my jewelry photographed and listed in my Etsy store. This is the first step...

thanks, sweet sis!

my sister susie made this for me! it's a picture of my 3 kids! isn't it beautiful? i love the softness and the cream/sepia combo. and of course, i love the image! thanks, sis!

Happy New Year!

Happy Pink New Year to my Pink Saturday friends!

The first picture I am sharing today is one of my parents on New Year's Eve in 1953! New Years Day is especially bittersweet for me, as it is the anniversary of the day I lost my mom to cancer. My dad passed shortly after. So I remember them on this New Year with gratitude and love. I just love the happy faces in the background in this picture!

Since New Year Eve and Day is not a holiday that I celebrate with gusto, (but at least I no longer stay in bed with the covers up over my head- time heals!) I often work the New Year Holidays in an effort to be off on Christmas. The second picture represents me at work! I have the best job in the hospital, as I work with newborns! I wonder if my hospital will have the "First New Year's Baby" this year?

Happy New Year, everyone! I wish you all the best of health and an abundance of blessings in 2011.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Enjoy this special time with your family and friends!

This is a picture of me as a baby, under the Christmas tree, "singing" a Christmas song! That aluminum tree looks new in this picture! Notice the color wheel too! I wish this tree had been saved, but we used it for so long I'm sure it was pretty well mangled when it was finally retired!

If you are a Pink Saturday visitor, I am not sure why, but this picture seems to have a "pink cast" to it, although nothing in it is really pink! It seemed perfect for our special Christmas Pink Saturday !

Beverly asked us to share what we are doing this Christmas Day on our Pink Saturday Post. I am spending a leasurely day with my husband and 3 kids. Justin is 24, Andrew is 21, Mary Grace is 15. Justin's girlfriend, Julie is also with us this year from Kansas. We will leasurely open presents, eat our traditional breakfast of "Monkey Bread",stay in our pajamas, watch movies, take naps, and then later in the day have a special Christmas Dinner, just the 6 of us. This year we decided on a turkey instead of ham, with all the trimmings! Heaven on Earth to me!

Wishing you all a blessed Christmas Day, and thanks for visiting!