A New Style of ATC....

I've been working on these ATC's for a couple of weeks now, totally obsessed with trying to make them workout right - and having a hard time with it. I think my wire is too big, but I'm having a hard time finding the right kind....so i'll keep trying. I love the concept of these, but I think they are still a little on the rough side, not good enough to give away just yet because I still need to figure out the techniques to work with the wire to make them look better. The one below is supposed to be a trillium....it has the shape but I had a hard time with the red wire on the top leaf. Oh well, I guess practice makes perfect, right?? That's all for today. I ran on my treadmill for 30 minutes this morning and then went to the bike path with the boy and ran another mile and walked a mile and a half....I'm kinda wiped out rignt now, must need to drink some more water! Have a crafty evening....I'm off to pj land and then NCIS! TA TA, for now that is.

Craft Talk

I interupt this broadcast to make you laugh out LOUD.....you've got to take 3 and a half minutes watch this hysterical video that Vic brought to my attention.

Artsy Sunday Afternoon Gathering!

Yesterday afternoon I had my group of artsy ladies over for lunch, some creating and a birthday celebration. It just so happens that my friend Kelley's birthday is in a couple of weeks so we celebrated it a little bit early. Happy EARLY Birthday Kel!!

From left to right: Karen, Pamela and Lynn. (Susan and Molly couldn't make it this time.)

My lunch, on a snack set plate that my Mom got as a wedding gift 48 years ago. I love them!


My empty plate after the lovely fruity dessert that Karen brought.

Pamela was working on these cute little nugget tag holders...aren't they adorable. She got the pattern from split coast (I think....)

Kelley brought me this cute little card she made...i just love the turtle on it's back, I certainly have days like that too!

Pamela brought me this little basket that she made filled with some beautiful french soaps. Love them, and it looks so cute in the bathroom next to the wire bird I got at target last week.

Now, on to the food. I cooked all morning in a quiet house and at my own pace...it was great! This is an avocado brushetta spread....it was awesome. the recipe came from Vegetarian Times. I should have toasted the bread but ran out of time, it wasn't an issue though. Mu husband came home from his fishing trip and polished the rest off and didn't complain about the untoasted bread either...so I guess it was ok.

Red pepper hummus....not as good as I wanted it to be but it was ok. Kind of a made up recipe.

The counter with some of the food....

Mushroom tartletts with a polenta crust, my own creation. They looked a lot better, and tasted even better than this picture shows.

And the best part of all...these little ricotta/blackberry tarts. Oh they were so good, and worthy of the stomach ache they gave me!

All in all, it was a great day. Thanks to everyone that came, I really enjoyed your company and can't wait until the next time!

To everyone else, thanks for visiting...some crafty goodness coming tomorrow!

Great mail day!!

Saturday was an awesome mail day, I love getting things in the mail!! My friend Karen sent me a little thank you card using an Inka bulldog stamp that she borrowed from me and a great ATC and I got a lovely little package of Crafty Secrets goodies from Vic....THANKS Vic - I love them!

Karen used Graphic 45 papers with the inka stamp, they look so nice together. Look at the detail that she added to the collar on this puppy.

Look at the detail on the ATC....she made a pile of mail and wrapped it in twine....beautiful! These photos really don't do it justice either!

This is what happens...

when you make substitutions to a recipe......last week I made chocolate chip cookies for my brother, the man who has everything or goes out and buys it when he wants it. What do you do for someone like that?? You make cookies.
Since I've been trying to be gluten free, I didn't have any regular flour and the recipe called for 2 cups. So I used 1 cup of Bob's All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour, the course kind not the fine ground pastry type. They tasted great, but they flattened out to thinner than a pancake...and they were very crumbly!
so, the next time you're making substitutions in your chocolate chip cookies for your brother's birthday, don't use gluten free flour!!

correction...

For the peat pots that I told you how to make on the previous post, I dipped the 4" pots 3/4 of the way to the top in blue for the bottom and yellow for the top....yellow and yellow wouldn't have had much variety?? he he.

I told you he had an eye for those....

Remember the other day I told you my boy had an eye for finding heart shaped rocks?? Looks like he has an eye for finding that shape....no matter how far it is!! Yesterday when we were starting our spring training on the bike path he said to me, look Mom, the ice has created a heart shape. I looked and looked and couldn't for the life of me find it without him pointing it out to me....it was about 15 feet away, down a little gully on the edge of a storm drain.

I'm going to start calling him eagle eye. I just don't for the life of me see how he saw that from so far away....

Here's a close-up so you can see the heart.

Here's the heart, right about where my heart is in my shadow. I zoomed in as far as my little camera would zoom.
Here's the heart at the edge of the storm drain. Can you see it? It's pretty far away....

I hope he always pays that close attention to detail, especially when I send him to the pantry to find the dogfood...that's right in front of his face and he can't find it.

On to other things...wanted to share how the chickies look in their peat pot baskets.

aaaawwww.

These peat pots were so easy to make. I had a bunch of left over paint from when we painted our house, so I popped the tops off of the cans and dipped them in the yellow for the bottom. Let them dry and then dipped them in the yellow for the top. When they were dry I used a hot glue gun to add the flower, ribbon and Prima center. So easy.

Right now though, the chocolate bunnies have my attention.

Spring Training

Spring has officially sprung, and we've started training for Cross Country Running. Since it will be his first season with this sport, we've decided to spend the month before it starts doing pre-spring training with him. Saturday we ran on the bike path in our town, it runs along the river and is a pretty nice place to be on a beautiful day. Here he is, after we'd cooled down and were walking back to the car.

We were almost finished....and he was happy to be in front of me, really happy!

There's a little hut on the trail showing some information about the area, loved the signs.

It really was a beautiful day!

More creative stuff later on. Have a great day!

Knowing the Flowers and feeling creative!

I've been creating up a storm over the weekend. It seems like whenever I have a lot of contracted work on my table I just want to create things other than what I am supposed to be creating. Case in point, I've been thinking of these plastic bugs that I have - hiding in a jar on a shelf in my studio. Now, only half of them are hiding in the jar because the other half are on these ATC's.

I've had these 7 Gypsies ATC's with the tabs for the spinner already punched out. But I didn't like them....(oh, and the other thing is I'm on another mission to use up STUFF that I have) because the tabs were cut out of the ATC. So, I re-invented them by sandwiching them in-between the front and back of my ATC - sticking out just enough to allow the card to sit on the spinner and still have a full sized ATC attached. I also didnt' think these ATC's would fit in the plastic sleeves that go on the spinner because the bugs make them pretty thick.

These bugs were pretty ugly before I got my hands on them! They were all kinds of bright and ugly colors....now they're pretty and iridescent. I'm really happy with the way they came out.

I also made these little chicks. I picked up some small paper mache eggs a couple of weeks ago and wanted to use them for Easter baskets. I was pretty disappointed to find out they were PLASTIC covered paper mache eggs and they aren't very easy to cut. I was using an x-acto blade - and praying that I didn't cut myself because it would have hurt!

They're going to look so cute in the peat-pot baskets I'm working on...more on that tomorrow night! Thanks for the visit....ta ta for now!

Maple Syrup Sunday

Sunday we went to my cousin's house for a sample of his Maple Syrup and to check out his sugar shack. The weather was really cold, well not below zero cold - but it's been so warm lately that it felt really cold. And then we had snow showers....but I digress. Jim, or Big Jim as we call him in the family has been making maple syrup for a while, and it's lovely. He collects local sap and boils it down. Last year we bought a half gallon of syrup for our waffles, pancakes and whatever we wanted. It tastes so good, and it's quite pleasing to know it was made by someone in the family....I know he made it with a lot of TLC, that's just the way he is. I just love this picture of the syrup against the light....the color is pretty, dontchya think? My boy enjoying his ice cream with fresh, hot maple syrup. It was pretty delicious, thanks Big Jim!

grrrrrr......

and this is why!! Today a freak snowstorm came - and lasted for moments really. it was just enough of a reminder that winter is still here that I wanted to put my head under the sand and wake up next month! I suppose if I was putting my head in the sand then the snow would be gone and the ground thawed out.....hmmmm. Sounds nice to me. 15 minutes later the sun was shining...I guess it was an April shower a few days early!


The neighborhood children were playing outside today with a ball, and the dog kept taking over the ball and the game...she had to sit on my lap instead. Here's she's looking longingly at the game....but most likely at the ball. She wants that ball even if it is bigger than she is, now that's a sight to see.

My lovely boy brought this to me in the middle of the game....he's got an eye for this shape. I have stacks of them everywhere. Love them. Am thinking of a way to make a cool canvas out of them.

More pictures from the weekend tomorrow. Today was Maple Syrup Sunday at Big Jim's (my cousin) and Saturday we started training for the boy's first season of Cross Country. I keep telling myself it'll be good for me....I mean him ;-)
Ta Ta for now and sleep tight.