a sneek peek

I'm so happy to be able to say this!!! I'm re-opening my little Etsy store this week!! I've changed things a bit, and added lots of new products! I've been working extra hard to create pretty items and taking so many photos of everything. So, I suppose it would be a good time to add a few sneak-peeks before the store opens!















and on Friday I'll also be having a giveaway!!! A cute embellishment kit from my store, so be sure and check back!! xo~ T

Easter Highlights

it's a bit late, but better than never. Holidays always go by so fast, I know I say it all the time, but by the time all is said and done, I always feel like I didn't take enough photos.... maybe a bit of mommy guilt? eh, who knows. So here are some photos I took Easter morning, before guests started arriving for dinner.



Alaina wanted to make one special prize egg, a pink egg covered in glitter of course. We hid that egg first on Easter morning, and our dog promptly went over and retrieved for us. Such a good Lab. We got it out of her mouth but the glitter was gone and Alaina was less than impressed with her puppy.




I found these cute little yellow baskets just before Easter. I filled them with edible candy grass and jelly-beans. Every plate had it's own mini Easter basket, and next year I'll put little flags with each person's name. cute* cute*

We made chocolate macaroons too, so simple and so good! They were a hit at Peter's
salon.

I think the best part of Easter was this: we asked Alaina to tell everyone how her Easter egg hunt went, and she said "well, the Easter egg hunt...was a bust." I'll be scapbooking that later. :)

a little crafty this afternoon

I have quick break while baby Chase naps.(I wonder how old he needs to be before i stop referring to him as the baby?) Sweet crafty time all to myself! I am planning on re-opening my Etsy store sometime soon, most likely the first part of April. I have some other deadlines to meet first and then I can focus my attention to my tiny store. I do miss Etsy alot, I've just taken on so much more lately that I haven't been able to dedicate the time it takes to run a cute handmade business. So I'm working on creating a good balance for myself.

I'm having this for lunch today, I love pretty food!


and I'm listening to this: it's kind of the perfect song for cleaning and creating and it makes me want to dance :)


I made lots of tags with vinatge buttons this morning, and now I'm going to finish up some gift wrap sets, paper garlands, tiny felt flowers, shaped tags and the cutest little cake boxes. Happy crafting!

and the winner...

of the Something From Almost Nothing class is, by a random number picker, #11

Tinkersdamn said...
Really excited about this class... I have more than a few supplies lurking around! I'll cross my fingers. :) Mail me at rosas07@msn.com, and we'll get you signed up for the class!!

Thank you to all who left comments!! Want to see some sneaks of my LOs for this class?





and I fixed the links to the class in the previous post, I just caught that today!! So here's more info for the Something From Almost Nothing class. There are some incredible guest designers, and for only $15 it's well worth the inspiration you will walk away with! Check it out!! Class starts on the
10th :))

Give Away Time!!

as promised!!



I was invited to be a guest artist for this upcoming class, Something From Almost Nothing. It's the newest class taught by the ever so fabulous Shimelle Laine. and the super spiffy part of being a guest designer is that I get to give away a 'pass' to attend the class! This class looks incredible and I love-love the idea of using what we already have to create with!

Just leave a comment on this post and I'll be back on Sat., the 6th, to pick a winner!! Good luck!

what's going on?

I've been doing some early Spring cleaning. It feels so good to be organizing all my stuff, especially my craft room. It's amazing how much stuff accumulates in such a short time, which has lead me to start another destash box . Time to make some room!



I want to put together a post and answer a few questions. I know a few have asked about Etsy, so I'll get to that later this week. I also wanted to say that there may be a **give away** here on my blog sometime next week.... *hint*hint. :)) I love surprises!

a quick hello,

I've been popping in here and there. A little time on Flickr, a little time on Facebook, but I've been spending most of my time being crafty. This past week I managed to start and finish a few new layouts, a journal, a mini album, and a note-pad. I love weeks like that! I have one last project to finish and then I'll be able to spend some time catching up on blogs, and photos.

I did want to share a couple of photos. I did a post this summer about caring for Orchids. They are the only flower and can keep alive!!

**For example, I purchased one of those Amaryllis bulbs for Christmas, (you know, the ones you can buy at Target for about $10,) and they're suppose to be fool-proof? Well, I grew it for 4 weeks and no flower!! Alaina was crushed. My green thumb seems to be out of order.**

Back to Orchids. Mine are making their way back!! They seem to bloom about every 6 months, so the one Peter gave me for our anniversary back in July is ready to bloom this week. I'm a lucky girl... flowers in February!! sweet!



and Alaina's little orchid is busy growing a new stem. It should be ready to bloom next month. She's been anxiously watching it's progress! :)



I'm a flower girl at heart :))

shiny and new

While I'm spending the afternoon waiting, I thought I'd update the blog! I have been working everyday for the past couple of weeks and while I love to be busy creating stuff, it sure is nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel. My term for Bad Girls has come to an end, and I'm super excited about my next job. I'm joining the creative team for Celine Navarro's magazine, entreARTistes!!
I've been a huge fan of Celine's work for some time now, and being able to make pretty scrapbook layouts and projects just seems like the perfect fit for me!



Here's a left-over photo for my very first post on the entreARTistes Magazine blog. This was an extra project that I didn't end up including. I've made a few of these lately, little books for holding notes, tiny photos,and quotes. Just something pretty to hold. Watch for my post this month on their blog!!



I started collecting all of the pages I make in this small suitcase box. I love filling up the box, it makes me feel so accomplished by the end of the day!



one last photo, just a dainty tag I made from a photo negative :))



Peter got me flowers last week. Maybe a pre-Valentines Day gift? I don't think you could ever go wrong with flowers as a gift, and it sure beats the frying pan I received a couple of Valentines ago. ;)) With Valentines Day being on Sunday, I'm having a cute little dinner party for us and the kids, and Alaina and I have some school things to work on. I hope everyone has a lovely and romantic Valentines Day!!

my newest project.

It's a very big work in progress at the moment and my guess is that it will take me months to complete it... and again, it's nice to work on something that doesn't involve paper or glue. :))) I love quilts, but I wanted to make something a little more artsy-fun-young..... and not your typical grandmas quilt. That's when I had the fantastic idea of making an Inside-Out/Art-Quilt. (okay, so I don't even know if that's a real term for a quilt, but I like it!!) Lot's of crazy sewing lines, seams showing and mis-matched frayed fabrics, try saying that 3 times fast, and I wanted each square to look a little like my scrapbook pages that I've made.



I'm using mostly repurposed fabrics, some of Alaina's old clothing, and vintage linens I've collected over the years. It's probably the perfect project for me, as I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to pretty fabrics. Just can't help myself! I still haven't decided on a size yet, but to date, I have 36 squares completed. Each square is 6x6 inches and has about 8-10 layers of fabric. I thinks it's just the right project to keep me creatively challenged for awhile!!



I've been a bit under the weather lately, so I haven't really made any more progress with it, but as soon as I start to feel better, I'll keep updating with new photos!

I Heart Valentines Day

For my Bad Girls Blog project this month, I wanted to take a break from paper and use some of my favorite crafty products. Paint + Clay + Cookie Cutters = cuteness! I thought about lots of Valentines Day themed projects, but making magnets to hang some of our favorite Valentines Day cards on the fridge would be fun!

Here's what you'll need to make these Conversation Heart magnets:


Polymer Clay
paint
cookie cutters
wooden stamps
magnets
strong hold glue ( E6000 )

Directions:

1. Roll out clay to about a 1/4 inch thick.
2. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes in the clay, and transfer to a covered baking sheet.
3. Use the stamps to create words on the clay hearts.



4. Bake clay according to package directions.
5. After the clay hearts cool enough to handle, add paint to the letters. Use a damp paper towel to remove any extra paint.
6. Once paint had dried, glue on a magnet to the back of each heart.





Alaina and I want to try using pink and red clay for our next set of heart magnets. It's the perfect rainy-day crafty project. Hope you enjoy the tutorial!!

brb

my computer is having some tech. difficulties at the moment!! I have no photos, so sad... I'm really hoping to pick up my computer from the repair place this weekend so I can get back to work! I want to share some of the photos of my newest creation, I started working on a quilt this month. It might just be my new hobby!! Happy weekend!

My top favs. of '09

reading Sasha's post on FB gave me this idea and yah, I'm a day early, but wanted to share this anyway. I chose 9 of my favorite paperish projects from this past year. Looking back on everything I've created, 4 things stand out the most to me, I love my sewing machine, spray paint, Elles Studio & Kitschy Digitals!!

Out of all the fabulous-wonderful most beautiful creations you've made this past year, what are your favorites? Happy New Years!

Happy Holidays to you,

Did you survive the whirlwind of the holidays this year? I actually took a very long and much needed nap this afternoon. One stressful trip to the airport and I needed a rest! That whole week before Christmas just seems to go by so fast, and every year there is more and more to do. Next year, I will definitely have a schedule planned out and will sticking to it!



Alaina with her new Barbie. (I hate to use the flash on my camera, but it was so early when she wanted to open presents that it was still dark outside. Too bad kids don't unstand the importance of naututral light for good photos!! haha ;))



my little guy on Christmas morning, with some serious bed-hair!!

After presents and breakfast Christmas morning, we decided to pack a picnic lunch and head out to our favorite park. Alaina brought along some bread to feed the ducks. Chase didn't quite grasp the concept of feeding the ducks bread, but that was okay too because he was too cute walking around eating his slice of bread!



Alaina danced around in the sunlight and posed for a few pics.





and for 3 days, we had 2 doggies. Leonardo DaVinci, a 4 yr. old Westie, came to join us for the holidays. Chase loved him and Alaina had him sleep in her room. He was a cute little boy dog, who had one trick of sitting up and begging that was quite effective with the kids!




Now for the clean up!! We have lots of family arriving soon and I'm kind of looking forward to doing some touristy stuff in the next couple of weeks. Oh, and getting back to crafting again!! I took the entire month off to focus on the holidays, and I did make a few things for some custom orders, but nothing for myself. So, I'm really excited to pull out the sewing machine and play with some paper this weekend!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday this year!

a Winter Wonderland

I'm usually a big fan of color, but this time of year, things seems a little simpler and I end up leaning towards white and other light colors. Alaina has spent the last few days at home with me, (too much shopping this past weekend) and we came up with an idea to take 'light-white' colored photos. It was actually a fun (and a little challenging) idea for a photo theme, while we searched the house for items to photograph. It was also a great excuse to get out the Anscoflex and play with some ttv photos. Oh, how I love that little old camera!!













I'm going to finish my afternoon with a little more gift wrapping, some old holiday music and a Pumpkin Latte. Have you started/finished your gift wrapping already? I feel like I'm behind this year, Christmas is coming much sooner than I anticipated!! I have a small surprise to share, hopefully this weekend and it kind of ties in with my winter white theme. So excited about this one ~ Be back to share photos soon!!