Good Mail day....

Just a quick post today....it's been a busy clean up 'cause falls around the corner get ready for other projects kinda day... and yesterday I was so tired I forgot to check the mail, and what a great surprise I got today! My great friend Shawn it looks awesome in my 7 Gypsies spinner. THANKS Shawn, I love it!

I also forgot to thank Vic for this award, THANKS dear friend.

I'm going to pass this on, but before I do,here are the rules:

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog

2. Link the person you received your award from

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you nominated.

Colette at A Bird in the Hand
Shawn at Bonorama Mama
Carolyn at Cut n' Paste
Deryn at Something Sublime
Sarah at Whimsy Dreams
Deb at Union Street Musings
Lana at Problem in my House

See you later alligators, I've got a bunch of things to do tonight! One more day until school starts!

We went rockhounding today...

Our boy loves rocks and minerals and especially gems. Anything shiny will do. Or even anything hard as a rock will do. We've been talking about going and exploring some of the Mineral Mines in Western Maine all summer and the plans (or the camp we wanted to rent) never worked out so today we took a day trip to Perhams in West Paris to get a map of the mines in that area and see what we could find.

What we found was the Harvard Quarry on top of Noyes Mountain, it has an elevation of 1503 feet and STEEP as a mother. And it wasn't gradually steep, it was heart attack (OMG I'm carrying the backpack with all the tools and snacks and water) steep. I kept trying to pass the torch on to my husband but he kept telling me I could do it. Finally I just took it off and kept walking...:-) It was heavy! Those dang tools and water were heavy. We had a perfect day. Little V was happy as a clam, and never complained NOT ONE TIME that he wanted to go home. He really LOVES rocks. And hiking too.

After that we took a long cut so we could go through Lewiston/Auburn and to my favorite Thai restaurant. Oh, we were so hungry we ate like we'd never eaten a day in our lives before. It was pretty good though. Big V has said about a million times that I shouldn't have taken him there today because the Spicy Duck was the best he's ever had...he wants to go back again tomorrow night!

Anyway, here are some pictures of our hike for you:

Little V at the top of Noyes Mountain and overlooking the Harvard Mine that we went to see.

Big V hanging off the edge of the mine wall with his tools

pounding away looking for treasures.

Me and the Big V, aren't we cute together?

The view, I think this is a lake in Norway, Maine but I'm not sure. Isn't it a pretty view!
TaTa For Now, I'm wiped out and want to veg. Hope you all had as great a day as we did!

It was a perfect beach day!

We spent a glorious day at the beach searching for sea shells at our favorite spot, enjoying the company of my Mom, eating our lunch sitting on the sandy blanket - and dipping our toes in the chilly water. The weather was perfect - sun shining with a slight breeze, and 74 degrees - not a cloud in the sky. I really wish sometimes that we lived closer to the ocean - like 35 minutes isn't close enough, but I'd like to wake up hearing the ocean and smelling the saltiness of the air. I do love being down there, but yet on the drive down it seems so far away from town. Not that we don't live far from town, probably the same distance, truth be told. I think I'm fickle sometimes. Little V loves the beach...he spent his time digging in the sand making a secret castle. We went on two shell walks, the second because we had to wait for the tide to go out some before we could find the good ones. Still. It was, the perfect day!

This is proof that the water was cold, just look at his face!!

Guinness, she does not like the camera OR the water!

The Coast Guard Station, now a private residence. I love this building!

We were so tired from the fresh air and sun....it was amazing that I felt I could just lay down and go to sleep. Maybe it was because I was so relaxed? Hard telling, but when I checked the mail and got my copy of Somerset Holidays and Celebrations - I tell you I WAS WIDE AWAKE! First, it's a beautiful publication, they always do such a fine job with the design of their publications. LOVE THEM. And second, because I had quite a few things in there! Hope you'll have a chance to check it out for yourself!

Page 74, two postcards.

On pages 14 through 17 I share an article with Jacki Jameson, and Jennifer did an awesome job in putting it together! THANKS ladies, it looks awesome! Well, it's nearly 10 and I have more work to do, so I'll say ta ta for now! Till tomorrow!

Email woes...

I've been having some email issues this week - and it seems as though many of the emails you have sent me have bounced back to you as undeliverable. If this has happened to you, please try again. Comcast has made some changes to their servers and email system and they are "trying to get a hold on this problem" hopefully it will be fixed soon.

We've been busy this week getting ready for back to school, which is next Tuesday. New sneakers - size 6 1/2 OMG!! . New pants and shirts. A fortune for new supplies at Staples. Hopefully we're all set now, except we need to venture out of town for some cool shirts. My buddy Hannah has probably thought I forgot about her, but I haven't. We talked about going shopping this week - but I've just been on WARP 90million and haven't had a chance to call. I will though, probably should be doing that right now instead of this.

Wanted to share this page I did for Scrapbooking & Beyond Magazine using my new and WAY cool Wacom Bamboo Fun Tablet. It's a hybrid page so the photo of my boy has been altered and then printed and scrapbooked in the traditional way. I am so in love with this page, and my Fun Tablet too!



Well, I've got to get off this thing. I've been trying to figure out my email since 2:00 and now it's 4:00...thank goodness the Little V went to play at his friend's house today.

Ta Ta For Now. Remember to email me again if you got a bounced message from my server people.

And the WINNER is....

Just a quick thank you to everyone that played along. I was thinking of drawing this out and posting the winner at the end, but that's really not much fun is it?? The suspense and all, I know some of you are sitting on the edge of your seat just waiting for the announcement. So, without further delay........I'll post that the winner of the 5 x 7 Collage is:

Babsarella said...

Your collage is wonderful!! I would love to be entered into your drawing. Just recently purchased your book and can't wait to sit down and savor every single page.

Congrats, send me your address and I'll get your collage out to you this week!

_______________________________________

Some of my favorite pictures from last week:

Vic and I stopped to have a little picnic on the way to Fremont to do some serious junkin' at the Junk store!

One of the many butterfly pictures I took.

I never, ever woulda thought I'd be laying down in a cemetary, but alas - to get the perfect picture I had to. Doesn't she look like she has a halo on?? Just love this picture!

Loved these numbers on the old school building!

A one-eyed toad in Vic's yard. He just sat there and let me take a ton of pictures of him. Isn't he cute?

Ta Ta For Now, BABSARELLA don't forget to email me your addie so I can get your prize mailed out to you!

Old Navy...sunflowers and staging!

Phew, what a busy day it's been. If you didn't make it to the Old Navy denim blowout today you missed out! They had jeans for kids for 7 bucks and 12 for adults. Got the little V and my nieces some pants - 5 pairs of jeans and 2 shirts for 52. bucks. I was there when the doors first opened at 9am, and so glad I got up early to get there while the gettin' was good!

Went up to my garden last night to pick a bouquet of sunflowers, and boy are they gorgeous! I thought about them the whole time I was in Nebraska and how they were coming along...and beautiful was the answer. Gosh, I love them. This year I planted two packets of them and the bed is huge....and attracting a ton of bees. There was a ton of bees on all the flowers, though all the pictures I took of them came out blurry!! And the mosquitoes were pretty bad too, so I didn't get a very big bouquet!

I did manage a few pictures to share. These are the small ones, about 3 to 5 inches in diameter. Did I mention that I love 'em yet?



For the rest of the day we worked outside on the trim (flashing and drip edge and all kinda weird names for wood) and it was up and down on staging, sticky fingers from using the caulking and spreading it out with my finger...holding this, getting that - doing this and that....and we're not done. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be DONE with that project and ready to move on to the others....I'll share some pictures when we've finished tomorrow, though I must add we could NOT have done it without the help of my father. He's a pretty awesome guy and spent most of the day down here cutting and supervising (telling us what to do cause we had no clue really.) I did make him several glasses of lemonade so I think he was happy with that.

Reminder: If you haven't signed up for the little collage giveaway, do it before MONDAY...here....on this post!

Good Luck AND Good Night everyone!

Home Again..Home Again...jiggity jig...

It's good to be home. It's good to get away too, especially when you have a good friend such as Vic to go and visit. She thought of everything, and I mean everything! She had a little gift to give me each night, to discover as I was getting ready for bed. Thoughtful things too! My Mom asked me what my favorite thing was about my visit, and I couldn't put one thing above the other -because it was all GREAT! THANK you Vic, for everything!

As you read from her blog we spend many hours out junkin' or antiquing - or treasure hunting. Whatever you call it, we had a great time at it! The picture below shows some of the treasures I picked up, and also the cute little sign that was in my bathroom when I arrived. See, I told you she thought of everything!

The red pincushion came from my friend Shawn (BonoRama Mama) She did all the crocheting - isn't it gorgeous! She drove all the way to Nebraska to visit on Saturday. I love it! She also brought me the vintage metal butterflies and a package of glittery ones too, THANK YOU Shawn. I really enjoyed meeting you, I wish you could have stayed longer too!



This bracelet Vicki's friend Deb gave to me on Saturday at the party. Isn't it beautiful. It has a little hanging star charm too, THANKS Deb, I love it.

And, for those of you anxious to see which little collage I'm giving away on Monday, here's a little picture of it. So fitting as a give away next week, as it says "ah! remember" and remember what a fine visit I had with Vicki.

If you haven't left a comment on this post yet, please do so and I'll add your name to the drawing I'll be having sometime on Monday! This is a 5 x 7 collage using an original photograph and vintage papers along with scraps of printed papers and stitched with gold thread onto watercolor paper, perfect for framing!

Well, TTFN, gotta get some groceries. Laundry is caught up, floors are vacced, beds are changed - and now it's time to go to town and get some food!

Inspire Me Wednesday!

Just wanted to post my i INSPIRE me page today. Vic and I went to this really cool bead shop to look for inspiration last week and this was what I found. Don't you just love the dark black/brown with the red/orange? I did. I'm going home today. Have had an awesome week, Vic is the best hostess and tour guide. THANK You from the bottom of my heart Vic - I had a great time!

Venice AntiqueS

the BEST thing about the town of Venice?? The name! Love you Mom, see you tomorrow!

Oh, and I forgot to tell you before I left for Nebraska that I'm going to give away one of those little 5x7 collages that I brought to give away at Vicki's tea party on Saturday. You can see them here, here, and here.

Just post a comment here on this post and I'll pick a winner on Monday, August 25th!

Stay tuned for the I Inspire Me Blog post tomorrow! Our inspiration was jewelry.

Tuesday...

Today we're going to Venice Antiques...gotta get a picture of that for you Mom! This morning we finished up our projects for the I Inspire Me for tomorrow. Didn't sleep well last night so I'm foggy headed. Today is the first day in about 8 months I have wanted a cup of coffee - didn't drink one though! Check out Vic's blog for pictures of our trip to Omaha yesterday!

Not just another Monday....

today we're going to Omaha....yesterday we drove around the corn fields and had a lovely dinner with Vicki's Mom and family. It was great. Check out the photo's that Vicki has on her blog! Though I must admit I'm missing my boys quite a bit today. Love you guys. Ta Ta For Now!

Friday....a JUNKIN' Day in Heaven!!

Friday turned out to be a lovely weather day, and we ventured out for a picnic and to see the town of Fremont! We had a great time going to all of Vicki's junking spots, and things I never EVER see at home I've seen AND found here. That lovely wire basket that I posted with my blue berries, well i'm on the hunt for one because I just sense I'll find one. My Mom jokes that she'll have to leave me hers in her will, but I don't want to wait 'cause I want her to live forever (love you Mom!!) I love that wire basket - but it belongs to her! There are so many wire things here - what i call clam baskets - Vic calls cob baskets - made from wire, may be in my near future too! We had an awesome day looking at other people's junk - and it was heaven. Truly. I love this old picture of me on a telephone, you can see we were having a great time.

Later in the day we met Vic's son and his girlfriend at a little hole in the wall, then off to dinner (which neither of us were to impressed with either - I always leave Applebee's saying I'll never go back and last night was no exception!!

One of the things that strikes me as so different here in the Mid West is that LACK of trees and hills or mountains. You can see for miles and miles - and get a pretty clear shot of the sunsets (when the corn fields aren't in your way). I must have made Vic stop 5 times so i could take some sunset pictures...She thought she was going to get a picture of me taking a picture of the sunset, but i fixed her didn't I?? LOL.

Today we're having a little tea party so we've been busy scurrying around doing last minute things to prepare. My job was to dip the strawberries in chocolate - don't tell her I ate more than I dipped, k??

Wanna know another other thing I learned about Nebraska?? The train comes blowing through every three hours...12:30 - 3:30 and 6:30...yawn.....Well, TTFN. I think I need a nap now!

Safe and Sound in Nebraska!

I made it to Vic's house last night safe and sound, but have no cell phone reception dear husband...so please don't worry about me. Oh, how I don't love At&t...can we please get something different?

Last night we went to a lovely mexican restaurant where I had a lovely vegetarian fajita...yum it was good. You can check out her blog for some pictures of my demise with the margarita :-) Well, I'm off to get showered up and ready for the day...yup it's 10:15am and we're both still in our PJ's blogging and chatting and having fun!

Have a great day everyone, ttfn! Oh, I forgot to tell you that the first thing we did yesterday after Vic picked me up at the airport we went to a junk sale and both picked up some cool things!

Today is the day!!

Goin' to Vic's house today! woohoo! G0tta finish packing now.

It's the day before....

I leave for my trip to Vicki's...and I'm pretty excited about it. Though my laundry is done (he he Vic, finally huh!!) I'm not packed and I still have an assignment to finish before I leave - I've got plenty of time as my flight isn't until noon tomorrow!

Here are my 10 minute Collage's I've been working on. Each one takes me just a little bit of time to create, but aren't they great? It's great to park myself with my scrap box in fron of the tv with my scissors (yes NO paper trimmer used on these - and mostly SCRAPS and discarded paper) and make these. They get fancied up with a picture and some gold stitching. I've made almost 40 of them - so some will be available on my Etsy when I get home from Vic's and the rest I'm going to approach a local upscale store with....wish me luck on that!

There are a few inparticular that I am planning on making into prints. I had so much fun with these...anyway - gotta run for now - to finish my article that I'm working on....TTFN!

And thanks for sun today...it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood for a change!

I'm turning in to a DUCK!!

We've gotten so much rain over the last month it's been AWFUL!! Kinda depressing to be honest.

I've been busy trying to get things done and do things with my Little V...I find it harder to spend lots of time creating and computing during the summer because he's home from school, he spends enough time doing things alone because he's an only child, so even if we read next to each other or hang out in the living room together it's better than me being holed up in my studio and him alone in the livingroom, like right now!

We've been busy too though, doing stuff. Goin' places....

• Yesterday afternoon we went to see Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was AWSOME, but I had to bribe him just to get there....he was happy after though!
  
  
• Went and climbed a small hill and picked blackberries on Sunday, didn't get much because someone picked them all the day before but we still had fun.
  
  
• We picked blueberries AGAIN last week! I've got about 6 quarts in the freezer now.
  
  
• Went to the local Country Fair...to the demolition derby. That was fun - though the fair didn't look like it was doing to well - with all the rain and economy crap going on.
  
  
• Been working on some new artsy collaged stuff....FUN!
  
  
• Getting ready to go to Vic's house on THURSDAY! YAHOO looking forward to a nice visit and a break from the rainy weather!
  
  
• Working in the garden, made some pickles, organized and moved some things around in my house to get ready for our new pellet stove. It's red and just like the picture below. It should keep us warm and cozy this winter!
  
  

TTFN, I'll take some pictures of the collage's I've been making and post them a little bit later!

I Inspire Me #5

Today is the reveal day for I Inspire Me Challenge number 5!! We were inspired by Stationary this time, you can see my inspiration piece over at the blog. I had a great time coming up with this page, from drawing and cutting the leaves to all the stitching, and I couldn't wait to share it today! Lana has worked so hard for each challenge to make sure we all send our work in to designing the blog and putting it all together. THANKS Lana for doing such a great job. I hope you'll hop on over and see what some of the other designers created for this challenge.

In other news, it's been rainy most days here and we've been pretty busy. There was a break in the rain so we went and picked berries again, that was fun! And, I've been working on some other projects - like my 10 Minute Recycled Collages...so fun. They all need their finishing touches - stitching! But after that I may consider sharing one or two of them!

TTFN, Have a great day everyone!

Haiku's from an 8 year old...

Not much going on so I thought I'd share some haiku's my little V wrote this week!


Camping
Setting up the tent
sleeping in our sleeping bags
waking with the sun.


Mom
Kind and likes to craft
favorite bugs are dragonflies
caring and giving.

Dad
Easy to talk to
Always takes good care of me
an expert at chess.

Blueberries
Growing on bushes
blueberry pie and strudel
Really sweet and big.

Trees
Trees are beautiful
slowly swaying in the breeze
sturdy as stone

Clouds
They're white like cotton
puffy and beautiful
pouring down the rain.

The Garden
Lots of plants growing
picking out the bugs and weeds
plentiful harvest.

Summer Fun
Long, hot summer days
lots of playing and ice cream
it ends way to soon!

Could he be any cuter??