Benny....Benny the Beaver makes his debut!

Thought I would share a quick video I took of Benny the other day. Not real scared of me that's for sure!

Have a great day everyone!

so much for my dreams of SPRING!!

As you know from reading my last post I'm suffering terribly from Spring Fever. I'm so darn tired of snow and ice and the cold temperatures that I can hardly stand it. I so want the spring thaw to come and to see the bulbs and plants that I planted last fall to come up and start brightening the entrance to my house.

• I'm anxious to smell the dirt.
• Looking forward to scrubbing the dirt from my fingernails.
• Planning my raised beds, like the Pioneer Woman talked about today on her blog.
• Scouring the Johnny's Seed Catalog so I can get started on planting seeds and watching the fruits of my labor bless my garden, my table and my pantry
• I want to open the windows and let the spring air in....turn off the pellet stove and be gone with the dust for a while
• I want to put my hat, mittens and down coat away never to pull them out again!

So, now that you really get a peak into where my mind's eye is, you can tell that when a storm came on Sunday night and took our power, cable and telephone away and brought TONS of snow I wasn't happy. And when our power didn't come back on Monday morning and there was no school after a week of school vacation, and when it STILL wasn't back on Tuesday morning - how happy I was. I went to the gym to take a shower. No flushing of the toilet or warming cups of tea. We ate at the Family Diner (aka my Mom's house) down the street....and went there to keep warm.

This is what I saw when I woke up on Monday morning and walked down to the Family Diner to get some warm food in my Little V's tummy.

What did make me happy is that I got to see our little friend Benny as I was on my way to town to take a shower. He didn't seem to mind that there was no power, he also didn't seem to be to afraid of me either. I took a little video of him chomping away on the branch, paying no mind to me.

Well, have a great day...i've got lots of house cleaning and crafting to catch up on. Thanks for visiting!

Finally, it's Christmas in February!

For two of my friends, that is if the weather holds out on Monday! I made these two 8 x 8 canvas pieces for two of my artsy buddies. We try to get together once a month for lunch and creating art or go shopping or something fun. I've been holding on to these since we were supposed to get together for our Christmas gathering! We're supposed to get together today for our artsy outing. Lunch at Karen's house and crafting too. I hoping we make some stained glass birdies like what I saw on Sally Jean's website the other day! Speaking of birdies, check out the little chicks that Vic posted on Saturday, aren't they adorable. I need to make a trip to Michael's soon to get some! What a cute teacher's gift for Easter!! I think I must be falling in love with birds or something!
I totally love the way these came out, though I'm not sure what the numbers signify....I just liked the cards I guess!
Isn't that tiny rosebush adorable? My Mom gave it to me for Valentine's Day! Well, that's all for today. Have a great Monday! We're got dumped on with snow again! Make the bad snow stop, I want spring! I want to start gardening and working outside. PLEASE go away bad snow.

What the heck??

This afternoon I needed to run in to town and return a few movies at Red Box, put a few Netflix at the post office (what can I say, we've had a sick kid laying on the couch being bored) and get a little mental health hour or two to myself. A trip to Target and the grocery store was just what was needed, ran into an ooooooold friend and gabbed in the grocery store for about an hour and then it was back to sick duty for me. Actually, it wasn't sick duty because the Sicko stayed at his Gram's while I went to town and I went there after and we stayed for dinner. (I caught a little nap in her recliner too ;-)

Anyway, on my way home, almost home actually I caught this weird looking thing out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was a dead animal or stuffed animal or something on the snowbank. After I got way past it I decided to stop and check it out, so I backed up about 100 feet....and this was what I saw.

Well, not really but what I saw I thought was a dead animal. And then the branches in it's mouth were moving...and then I realized that it was a live beaver. By the time I got my camera out to take his picture this was all I could get.

I thought he was kinda cute, click on the picture so you can see the texture on his tail. Well, that's all, just wanted to share my wildlife picture with you! (I had something else typed there but decided it wasn't appropriate, snicker snicker tee hee.)

Making my case....for sewing!

I've been wanting to make a new batch of ATC's for a couple of weeks now, especially since I want to send some more off. But, between sicknesses and life I haven't had a chance. The other hurdle I've had is I wanted to do something that I hadn't done yet. Something different from my typical vintage lovelies, yet still staying true to my style. As I was sitting in the library (he he he) reading Prevention Magazine...(isn't that where you read all kinds of health books and magazines too? ) I noticed lots of nice looking, small images of women doing interesting things. And a creative idea was born. I brought all the magz out to the living room and ripped the advertisements out that I wanted to use. Since all I could find from 3 magazines was 8 images, that's the number in my series this time.

I did manage to use some vintage book paper (I am in love with book paper, in case you didn't know) and my punchinella....and I totally love the way the came out. BTW, I'm on the hunt for different punchinella shapes, got any? I'd love to trade an ATC or two maybe three for some cool punchinella shapes? Anyone?

Ok, so the title of my post was that I was going to make my case for sewing...sewing on everything so let's get to that.

In the following two pictures you can see the completed ATC's before I added stitching. I like them, but I don't love them. Even the punchinella stencil didn't do it for me.

Series of 8 ATC's before stitching.

Close-up of two cards before stitching.

After I added red stitching. Why red you ask, well to match the fortune's..and because that is what was inthe machine when I sat down at it.

Close Up after Red Stitching.

See what I mean. The stitching totally gives them the little oooomph that they need to make them pop and be totally perfect. Not that my stitching was perfect today, I wasn't one with the machine today and made several mistakes and some crooked stitches. I was worried about my boy every time he coughs and he coughed every 5 minutes! Anyway you get the picture...sewing on paper - you've just got to try it! I'd love to see some of your work too, so please share linkw to where I can see what you are sewing on!

So, I mentioned that I got 192 stamps from Inkadinkado the other day, right? But I didn't get any of the inchie sets....and I've been totally crying and biting at the bit to get some. (boohoo) So I took my JoAnn's coupon and bought the set that this little gem is one. Isn't she adorable? I thought it kinda looks like me when I'm wearing my glasses, and I was inspired by my pal Stephanie. She puts a little tiny picture of herself onthe back of her ATC's and I thought this was kind of a cool thing, thanks Stephanie for the great idea!

Well, that's all for now. More crafti-goodness coming soon!

I'm still alive!

But my little guy is sick!! Take a look at him this morning...he's got what I had. He woke me up out of a dead sleep this morning with his coughing, poor boy. It's been school vacation week too, though he did go to a great Nature camp for three days...the other days we didn't do much of anything hoping he'd feel better. He didn't. He hasn't. Look at those dark circles. <sigh>poor baby!

So I'll give you a quick run-down on my week. The dog was happy that she got to go in the car everyday as we went to CREA to pick up the little V at his camp. Look at her, checking out the outside! I spent Monday and Tuesday working on assignments for EK Success. I made some cute things....hopefully I can share something with you soon. It was nice to feel better than I have in weeks, though still tired. I think I just need to get my butt in gear and start exercising. I've also been thinking about joining a Yoga Studio in town to jump start myself. I love yoga. Little V and I decided we both want the Wii Fit. Maybe I'll splurge and see if I can find one around. Anyone have it? Love it?? Would love to know what you think.

Why do I always do this to myself?? 35 miles until empty. Gheez!

I was really loving my new Claudine Helmuth paintbrushes, until I used this one the first time! I wasn't putting much pressure on it either!

Nothing that a little duck tape can't fix....gotta love that duck tape!



I got a big shipment of stamps from Inkadinkado this week, 192 to be exact. Now where to put them. I was thinking I need a narrow shelf around the top of the wall in my studio to put the wooden stamps on. Then I can see each stamp and get inspired by all the cool designs!

Clear stamp sets by Inka....


This was taken out my backdoor on Wednesday. Notice that the snow has melted quite a bit and I almost feel like spring might be on the way.

This was taken out same back door...just before I started working on this post, notice all the snow coating the trees....so my dreams of spring didn't last long....it's back to shoveling and having the driveway plowed. We've got MORE snow coming tomorrow night....10 more inches...CALGON make it go away!

I've gotta to run and get something for the sick child, stay tuned for a craft post in a bit!

One World, One Heart WINNER!

I'm pleased to announce that the winner of one copy of my book, Art from the Heart and one ATC is comment number 221 which is Melissa !!

Melissa said... Thank you for the great giveaway & the chance to win! :)~Melissa January 31, 2009 2:54:00 PM EST

I'll contact you through your blog and get your address!

CONGRATULATIONS Melissa!

Cupcake Bites...

I talked about making these cupcake Bites from Bakeralla on Monday for my Little V's Valentine party tomorrow, but only IF I got all my assignments that are due on the 13th for EK done. I'm happy to say that I got EVERYTHING done, including the bites.

If you click on the link in the previous post to read Bakerella's recipe, it calls for peanut butter cup type candy molds - I looked everywhere in my town last week and over the weekend for them and no one had them. bummer. But, I ended up improvising! And they turned out ok, NOT perfect by any means, but they look cute, and how long do you think a bunch of 9-10 year olds are going to look at them and pick them apart and contemplate whether I had a mold or not???? THEY aren't!! One of the other issues I had is, I don't have a microwave so I had to use a double boiler to heat up the chocolate and I think I got the pink to hot...because when I dipped the cupcakes into the pink for the frosting some of the chocolate ended up melting. Oh well, it all goes to the same place and tastes the same too!

So, you want to know how I improvised without a candy mold? I followed her recipe exactly, except instead of pouring the chocolate into a candy mold I poured it into mini-cupcake liners that were in a mini-cupcake pan. When the chocolate had set completely, I tore the liners off and moved onto the next step!

These were actually pretty easy, and I think they're going to be tasty too.

Have a great day everyone, and go make some cupcake bites!

Valentine's Day is closing in on us!!

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post....so much has happened...well not really but it sounded good! I started today saying I was not going to let another day go by without a blog post...so here I am! Sorry I spaced on you guys last week, starting with Saturday, January 31st I was sick. What started out with a bad headache on Saturday quickly progressed into the full blown flu on Sunday. I spent two whole days in bed....only getting up to go to the bathroom, I barely ate at all. I didn't leave the house until last Friday, and that was because it I had to!! Last week was awful, but now I'm better. Now my husband is sick and on the couch!

I did manage to make a few Valentine Cards on Friday night. The two pictures below are one of them, I just love that stamp from Stampington, don't you? For this card, I stamped the image using Staz On on regular white cardstock, then painted it using a combination of watercolor paints and Rose Glimmermist. When it was dry I cut it out, and added it to the top of this little collage. A little fancy stitching using my sewing machien and pink thread added a lot of texture to it. Instead of sewing the button on I used my Hot glue gun. This one has a little tab at the top so it can be hung after VDay.

That's all for now, I've got a lot of assignments that I need to get caught up on this week! I'll leave you with these lovely cupcake bite Valentine treats I plan on making for my Little V to take to school on Thursday. Let's hope I get all my assignments done in time so I can!