Odds & Ends

We went to the cottage over the weekend and I took this photo down at the beach. It looked so calm and peaceful. It's hard to tell where the water ends and the sky begins. It looked just like that real life - no trick photography was used! It reminds me of one of those infinity pools the rich and famous have.
I am in love with the mailman today. . .well, not really! But I sure do love it when he leaves little packages at my door. The above goodies were ordered from Collage Stuff. They have all sorts of fun vintage ephemera for sale on their site. And below is my long awaited copy of Eye Candy from Heather over at Portals-Zine. I plan to sit down with a cup of tea after dinner tonight and take in all the beautiful artwork inside. Oh, and the little porcelain bluebird I picked up while antiquing last week. Isn't he sweet?
This afternoon I drove over to Michael's to see what all the hoopla was about Martha Stewart's new paper crafts line. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The packaging is great - very graphic as is her usual style. She has quite a nice selection of papers, stickers, rub-ons, glues, glitters, ribbons, labels, tools, albums, and organizers. I do like the colors she uses for all her product lines and as you can see I managed to find a few things I just couldn't live without. You should go in and check it out. It was nice to see something new and different at Michael's. . .I was getting a bit tired of the same old stuff there. Happy Monday!

New Things

I was working in the studio today organizing and creating. Here's a peek at what I put in my ETSY shop today. The organizing part didn't go so well, but the creating was a lot of fun! : )

New Inspiration

This is a peek at what I have been reading lately. The book above is called "Kaleidoscope" by ARTitude-Zine's Suzanne Simanaitis, although many artists have contributed to this publication both in the way of art and articles. Most of the artwork pages consist of several different artists work collaged together onto one page. Every page is so chock-full of wonderful ideas and images that I can only read a couple of pages at a time in order to let everything sink in properly.

Then below is a book called "Patterns" by Tricia Guild (founder of the Designer's Guild) which I was attracted to initially purely on the basis of it's brilliantly designed cover. I don't think you can tell just by the picture, but the cover is flocked! Yes, the black floral image is flocked onto the cover of the book, reminiscent of flocked wallpaper. It just called out to my hand to touch it - talk about making use of all the senses!! Inside, the photographs are so rich and succulent that you can't help but want to absorb all the wonderful color combinations and patterns. As an additional treat, throughout the book there are vellum pages with photographs printed on them allowing the subtle image of the next page to peer through. I have never seen a book designed so beautifully. Gorgeous, gorgeous, GORGEOUS!!!

Mother's Day Cards

I finally got My Etsy Shop up and running with this Mother's Day card and more. Go take a peek. I'll be adding more things this week, so be sure to check back again. What a beautiful weekend we had here. Sunny and temperatures are in the mid 80's. My favorite kind of weather :)

Fresh Baked

'Nothing says lovin' than something from the oven' - Remember that slogan? Well Pillsbury sure knew what they were talking about . Especially when it comes to fresh bread baking in a warm oven. I got this recipe for Ann's No-Knead Bread on Alicia's Posy Gets Cozy blog. The pictures she posted of the bread looked so yummy that I just had to try it myself. It is a very easy recipe and the taste is heavenly. Yum!

Tags, Tags, Tags!

Some of you have asked me about the tags inside the pockets of the Her Stashaway project, wanting to know what they look like. . . here they are!

And The Award Goes To. . .

I just found out that PJ nominated my blog for a Thinking Blogger Award. I never thought of my blog as thought provoking, but nevertheless I am very honored to receive this award. Thanks PJ!

One you have been nominated for this award, it is your job to nominate five more bloggers for the award. I have to think about that. . . just kidding! Here are my five:

1. Norah's - Sharon's blog is one that always makes me think about new art techniques and inspiration. Just the name of her blog is something that makes you think. . .Norah's is Sharon spelled backwards. Sharon likes to post partial pictures of works in progress that cause her readers to use their imaginations and think about what the entire piece looks like.

2. Art Junk Girl - Lia's blog is very inspirational to me. I adore her one-inch square project. She has a goal to create 1000 of these squares in 2007. These tiny works of art are so amazing. I never thought you could express so much within one-square inch.

3. Past Present Collection - Heather's blog is full of visual eye candy. I love the gorgeous colors and photography she uses. She has a passion for vintage items, as do I which is probably what attracts me to her blog.

4. Garden of Pink Shadows - Melissa has a wonderfully fresh looking blog which is a reflection of her artwork. She creates the sweetest little collages, many of which feature a bird theme which I love. Even her crocheted grannie squares have a bright, vintage-modern look to them.

5. A Little Birdie Told Me - Tricia is such a creative artist. I enjoy checking out her blog to see her latest collage creations. She makes primitive, vintage-looking collages using old photographs. Looking at them makes me think about my ancestors.

Her Stashaway

I just put the finishing touches on my Her Stashaway kit from Paper Bella Studios and I thought I would share it with you all. It was so much fun to make. I just love all the tags! I am definitely a tag-lover. Most of the papers were from 7-Gypsies . . . aren't they simple yummy? Teresa always does a great job putting these kits together. Well Monday is errand day, so I am off and running. Have a great day!

Sweetness

I am dog sitting for the "grand dog" today. He is such a sweetie - loves to give kisses and curl up next to you for a nap. Life is good!

An Inconvenient Truth

Global Warming??? Not in my neck of the woods! I woke up to a blanket of white this morning - totally unexpected. The weatherman is predicting 2-4" and more is coming tomorrow. Too bad for the tulips, daffodils, hiacynths, scillia, and other various spring flowers that had begun to grace the landscape the past couple weeks. Sure the snow looks pretty, but come on - enough is ENOUGH! I think today will be a stay-in-the-house-art-day and I will have a chance to play with all the new goodies that have been arriving at my door. {see previous posts} This sheet of unmounted rubber stamps arrived from the lovely Claudine Hellmuth yesterday. I think it's going to turn out to be a fun day afterall.

And One More. . .

It is almost like Christmas around here with all these little goodies arriving. A Bevy of Birds collage packet came in the mail today. This one is from Melissa's shop here. I adore the presentation of the packaging almost as much as the collage papers themselves. {Note the vintage wallpaper package topper attached with spring green staples.} These images should be fun to use in some of my collage work.

Monday Eye Candy

I thought I would catch you up on what arrived in my mailbox this past week. First of all, I received the new Gudrum Sjoden home textile catalog, which is appropriately entitled Inspiration. It is chock full of beautiful scenes of dream rooms and accessories. The pages remind me of Anthropologie's lovely catalog. You can get one for yourself here. Below are some of my favorite pages.


I was thrilled when the postman delivered this sweet Bird Ephemera Kit that I ordered from Cerri over at Little Pink Studio. She always has the most wonderful little things in her little shop. I love all the "birdie" related papers, book pages and stickers, as well as the yummy lace and ribbons! She even tucked in a little "surprise" egg filled with goodies as a bonus.
Below is the Her Stashaway kit that I ordered from Teresa Mcfayden at Paper Bella Studio. All the wonderful papers and ephemera will be used to make hanging pockets to stashaway fun little keepsakes. I especially love all the colors (and birdies) included in both of these kits.
I thought I would share with you the way I store some of my vintage lace, ribbon and trim. I wrap them on old clothespins (not the spring type), secure them with a straight pin and place them in this tiny robin's egg blue colander that I found recently at Marshall's. I keep this one on the desk in my studio where it is handy, but also pretty to look at. They also had a matching full-size colander that I bought to use up at the cottage. I think I may have to go back and see if they have some more of these as they are great for extra open storage. Well, I think that is all for now. Have a happy Monday everyone!

Happy Easter!

I made these little baskets after seeing Andrea Singarella's creations on the cover of the upcoming issue of "Eye Candy" by Portals Zine. They were easy and fun to make and I filled them with Cadbury's Mini Eggs.

Ready and Waiting!

I am all ready and waiting for the Easter Bunny {and my guests} to arrive. The table is set with my Laura Ashley plates. Nothing fancy - we use these everyday. I found them a couple years ago, piece by piece, at Homegoods. The table runner was made by a friend of mine. The center-piece I put together myself.
Below is another view of the center-piece from last year when the color scheme for my table was yellow and lavender. This is my Easter feather tree that I have by my front door. I got it {and a smaller version also} for practically nothing at the little shop I used to manage. This one stays up from Christmas thru Easter as it gets decorated for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day as well. The little baskets hanging from the branches hold jelly beans and fluffy little chicks and are made from peat pots which I painted pastel colors and added a little ribbon for the handle.

Easter Baskets

Here are some sweet little Easter baskets sitting around my house. Don't you just love all the soft pastel colors of easter? They are all so yummy. Gotta run and get the rest of the house ready for tomorrow!

Altered Book - {Book of Intentions}

Here it is - all finished! I decided to turn my altered board book (see how it all began in this post) into a book of My Intentions. These are things that I want to keep in the front of my mind everyday in order to live a more full and happy life. I really got motivated to complete the book before the holiday weekend after being inspired by Linda's work here and Patti's work here and Marilyn's work here. These gals are awesome artists!

Easter Finds

I found this happy couple over the weekend at a cute new little shop in my area. I love the pale, soft color of their clothing. They have a vintage feel to them and make a nice addition to my Easter collection. Speaking of vintage, the basket below also has that feel to it. It is glass and covered with aqua foil and it is embellished with a crepe paper ruffle, tiny velveteen flowers and silver leaves. Very sweet .