Skype And Art Journals!

We did it!!  On Thursday Twinnee and I skyped and worked on two pages together in our Dylusions Art Journals.  It was so much fun.  Earlier in the week we chose three projects each, emailed them to each other and then made our choices.  On Wednesday we did our prep work - gessoed our pages and gathered everything together so that on Thursday all we had to do was focus on the project.  Of course we found our ideas on Pinterest.  The one we chose was from Dina Wakley.  I'm really happy with how mine turned out and am looking forward to using the techniques we learned in other projects.

Then we moved on to the second page.  At first I wanted to do something that tied into the first page but that was a bit of a disaster so out came the gesso and I started again.  I used a cake decorating sheet that Twinnee had given me and pressed that into the gesso whilst it was still wet.  It's hard to see it in the photo but you can see it in the flesh!  I used the same colours as the first page and added a few butterfly stamps that I'd just bought at Michael's the day before!

The time flew by.  We were very happy with what we achieved and are planning on doing it again on Tuesday!

I've also been busy out in the garden.  I'm just doing "clean up" at the moment but have some big plans for my sad looking vegetable garden.  I'd like to set up my little bistro table and chairs and put up my umbrella that I made hubby carry home from Europe a few years ago - it's just a cheap thing we bought for the beach, but it has lots of fun memories of that holiday!  Hopefully I can get out there this week in between work and meeting up with a couple of girlfriends.  Maybe a trip out to some Garden Centers and a purchase of a vegetable or two might motivate me as well!!

And yes I've been taking my photo-a-day again.  It seems like I've taken quite a few from inside the house watching the birds and this one squirrel.  Well here goes, these are from this past week.

This weeks pix are my guinea pig mug with a hot cup of Vienna (the mug is from mum and dad from this last visit - we have a thing for mugs!?!), a Carolina Wren building a nest in a wall mounted planter by the kitchen window on the front porch, my work table with my stuff for my travel journal, the seat of a shopping cart (at Target) - we thought Bean was funny 'cos that's what I call my first grand daughter, my resident squirrel, the stamp on the package I received from Twinnee and lastly the beginnings of a fern unraveling - a bit blurry but you get the idea!

Hope you all had a fun weekend, looking forward to another busy week so until next time...

I'm Back!!

I had the best time with my Twinnee and BIL (brother-in-law) over in England.  Time flew by but I think we did just about everything we'd planned on doing.  We wanted to do a couple of projects in our Dylusions Art Journals, spending time with our parents, playing games and doing a little sewing.

We found a video on Pinterest (no surprise there!) by MixedMedia Jenn and followed that.  It was a good first project as it was quick and easy.  Mine is the first picture and Twinnee's is second,

Our next art project is not quite finished, mainly because we think it looks awful, but we have plans to work on that in the not too distant future so I'll hold off showing that pic at the moment.  Again we found our tutorial on Pinterest but when we work on them next, we'll be on our own!!  More on that in another post.

In between our art projects we began our vacation journals.  Twinnee chose to do hers in a mini Smash book and I was making mine as I went.  I took photos at the airport, on the plane and everywhere we went.  Picked up ephemera along the way and had planned on putting it all together so that when I got home all I had to do was to get my photos developed and put them in the journal in the appropriate place.  Let's just say it didn't quite happen that way!  I'm slowly working on the entire journal at home but I'm really enjoying putting it together.  I did journal most days in a small notebook that I'd bought from TJMaxx a long time ago (I have a love for notebooks) and that is a great reference for all my photos and stuff.  We also did some Zentangles in our composition notebooks.  I'd like to do more of that but have a bit too much going on right now so I'll look forward to that soon.

Over the first three days at Twinnee's we enjoyed a delicious home cooked meal the first night as I was a little tired from lack of sleep on the plane, a traditional English dinner the next night of good ol' Fish & Chips, a yummy Indian buffet the night after that, breakfast in bed each morning consisting of a cuppa (tea) and toasted hot cross buns, a trip to Hobby Craft and a follow-up appointment to the doctors for Twinnee's back surgery.  We then headed down to Mum and Dad's to spend a week or so with them.

Our plan at Mum and Dad's was to go out for coffee and cake in the mornings and browse some shops.  Come home and spend the afternoon up in Mum's sewing room making our bucket bags,

                                       

our aprons,

I made mine from a Crate & Barrel napkin - they have the best selection of napkins and dishtowels! and our leather journals - another from Crate & Barrel (leather swatches!!)

The journals aren't quite finished yet but they look pretty good so far!  And then in the evenings playing board and card games after eating delicious meals that Mum had prepared ahead of time.  We even got to spend some time with Big Brother and his family and Twinnee's best friend from school.  It was a busy time but we had the BEST time and were sad to leave to go back up to Twinnee's.

Once back at Twinnee's we did another Pinterest found art project - a cupcake collage inspired by a pin of a cupcake by Nancy Standlee.  I don't have a completed pic of Twinnee's but here's mine

I have to say this is my favourite so far.  I love it.  We tore pages out of my magazine I took from the plane and one I'd picked up when we met up with Twinnee's best friend.  I watercoloured the background and did a little stamping and that was about it.  The photography is not the best as you can see my shadow to the left but oh well!

Another trip out to the Indian Restaurant - Table 27,  lunch with my niece at Prezzo followed by cocktails at The Alchemist, a little shopping and then my vacation was over.  It went by so fast but we had so much fun being able to spend all that time together.  I can't wait until we can do it again!

So now that I'm home and back into my routine I'd like to get back to taking my photo-a-day and posting them here.  I also need to finish knitting my fox.  So for the remainder of this month I'm going to CHALLENGE myself to do just that!  So until next time...

Challenge!

Yes, that's my word for the year and for the next two weeks I'm going to challenge myself to finish a few unfinished projects and to organize my sewing/craft room so when I get back from England I can dive straight in and create!

I've had a good week knitting my fox.  I am working on the dress at the moment and then I'll sew everything up.

On Wednesday last week I had breakfast with a best friend at our regular spot - Panera - where we catch up with our craft projects, questions, ideas and sometimes a little show and tell! It's always fun and something that we both look forward to and I always feel motivated when I leave there!  I also did a little shopping at Michaels beforehand and picked up a few goodies for Twinnee and then on my way home I stopped in at Joann Fabrics to look at fabrics for me, Twinnee and mum for our bucket bags that we'll be making when I'm home in a few weeks.

We've also had some great weather this week.  Tuesday night was a little slow going home from work at 9.30pm as we'd had snow and freezing rain and then just regular ol' rain leaving a big slushy icy mess and then on Thursday we had about 8-10" of fabulous snow!!  It was a great ending to a somewhat disappointing winter.  I know I'm 50 something but the kid in me is still there when it snows!  Hubby and I and Lucy (our black Lab) went for a walk and just enjoyed the moment.  We couldn't take Maddie (our yellow Lab) as well because I would have been flat on my stomach being pulled down the street because I'm not the best at walking in slippery conditions!  We did bring her out when we got back and Hubby took her for a walk which she absolutely loved.

Friday was another great day weather wise.  The sun was out and the sky was very blue.  It was so pretty and reminded me of the days when we got to go skiing whilst being stationed in Germany.  In the evening we met our friends for a simple dinner at Panera and we were having such a fun time that we were still sitting there after they had closed!!

On Sunday we went to Barnes and Noble for a morning coffee and cake and read a few magazines. Again I did a little shopping for Twinnee and picked up a few ideas for some future craft projects.

This weeks photo-a-day are the usual sampling of "stuff" so here goes

The first photo is a puzzle of a box of Roses chocolates (I love love love puzzles!). Next are some stamp pads and notebooks from my stash. Coconut Cream Eggs - need I say more?! A view from the front door when we were having freezing rain.  Gift bags for my stuff for England and my all time favourite magazine - Country Living.

Off to Joann Fabrics to buy some fabric so until next time...

Hello March

Today I have exactly 3 weeks before I fly home to spend time with Twinnee whilst she recovers from her back surgery.  I'm so excited, I can't wait.  We have so many things that we'd like to do that we've started a separate board on Pinterest!!  Over the next couple of weeks we'll narrow it down and kind of make a schedule of art stuff we'd like to accomplish.  We'll also be spending time down at mum and dads crafting, playing games and going out for coffee and cake!  We've been slowly gathering supplies for each other and the other day I ordered and received, from Amazon, my dylusions journal like the one they are using on The Documented Life Project.  Twinnee already bought hers so at least I don't have to bring two of those over.  One thing I know for sure that I want to make is a Travel Journal/Album.  I want to keep it as simple as possible so that I don't get bogged down in making the pages pretty.  The pictures and ephemera that I pick up along the way should be enough to tell the story.  I can always add later if need be but I'd really like to have an almost finished project when I come home leaving just the photos to put into the album.

Even though today is the 1st of March we're having a wintery mix of snow and freezing rain and yes you've guessed it - I'm loving it!!  Spring will be here soon enough so until then I'm enjoying the snow!

The other day (Monday) I started my fox.

On Wednesday I went to Michael's and bought the yarn for her clothes.  I bought two balls of the Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly and am also using some pink 3ply from Sirdar that I've had for a while.

I really haven't done much but hopefully I'll get some knitting done this week.  My work schedule is kind of all over the place this week but at the moment Thursday is looking like a good knitting day.

I'm still keeping up with my photo-a-day but will admit to taking a few pix on the same day cos I forgot the day before!

My photos this week are another mish mash of stuff.  The buttons are from one of my tins that I'll probably never use!  The scrapbooking stuff is out waiting for me to try out my new stamps and paper.  The little notebooks are just covered mini composition notebooks.  Sophia the First is currently The Bean's favourite princess!  Cadbury's - YUM.  The money is just to get me started!!  And finally this is Prickle - he originally comes from my Grandad's cactus plant and I've had him for about 30 years.

Hope you have a great start to March.  Until next time...

Meet Pepper(mint)!

She's finished and I love her!  What a little cutie.  I took her to work to show a friend and I think everyone saw her!!  What a great pattern - I MUST write a review on her Etsy Shop page - littlecottonrabbits.typepad.co.uk

Now I'm ready to start on the fox.  I'll take pix as I go - I'm hoping to knit her up by the end of the week but we'll see!  I have work at 1pm today so probably won't start until tomorrow.

Here are my photo-a-day pix for the past week

The little quilt set was something I made a while ago so I'm taking it home so Twinnee has a gift for one of her friends who's having a baby this summer.  Don't look at all the junk in the pic with my sorry looking valentine box! Not much to say about the bowling alley.  But I have to say I do love the pic of Lucy on my bed!  A trip to the mall was where I saw the candy machines. The lottery ticket was NOT a winner - never is for me and Barnes & Noble is where Hubby and I go to have a Starbucks and read magazines on lazy afternoons!!

Have a great week.  Until next time...

It's Been A Busy Week...

Wow! What a busy week it's been.  First of all on Monday Twinnee had her back operation.  Everything went well and she was allowed to go home on Tuesday.  It's amazing how quickly they let you leave hospital these days, but I guess if they think there's not much else they can do that you can't get at home, it's one more bed they can fill.  I finished sewing up Pepper(mint) - my adorable little bunny I've been working on from littlecottonrabbits.typepad.co.uk

Now I'm knitting her dress but have only knitted a few rows as I had to work on my Valentine project for work.

Over the past couple of years since I've been working at Crate & Barrel I've been participating in our little holiday crafting competitions.  This year for Valentines Day we had the choice of using a brown bag - lunch bag size or a size 3 C&B box.  I chose the box and made a stuffed whale.  Originally I was going to make a "beached " whale (being me out by the pool!) but decided that someone might take offense so changed my mind at the very last minute.  It's okay - but it won't win.  The flip flops and bikini are still sitting on my dining room table with the "what might have been" look!! 

I booked my ticket home to England for two weeks in March/April to help Twinnee with her recovery so had to go out and start my gift shopping!!  Then on Thursday I had to clean the house because M and K were coming home for the weekend.  We had a lot of fun.  We went out for dinner on Friday night and then on Saturday we played some board games, went bowling, ordered in food and spent a lot of time with The Bean and Sissy (grand daughters).  They left Sunday afternoon and then in the evening I went to Bahama Breeze for dinner because we won a free dinner at work for everyone.  That was fun as I don't get to spend much time with a lot of the people at work because I work in the back and they work on the sales floor.  And then this morning we (hubby, daughter and The Bean and Sissy) went to the mall to get a few clothes for me and the girls.

 So I'm way behind on doing anything craft related and even looking on Pinterest!  And I'm a day late posting my photo-a-day.  Here they are

Peanut (on the right) and Pixie - the other members of the family and dear Lucy our black lab.  Maddie our yellow lab doesn't like her picture being taken so I doubt she'll ever make it to my blog in a picture!

I'm going to try and sneak in a few rows of knitting now before I have to babysit.  Sorry for such a long post, I'll try better this week.  Until next time...