Don't Be Blue

Vintage Feel card with vintage paper dollie.  I never thought I was an Elvis fan however I do like many of his old songs. 
I am Linking my card to Make It Monday-Anything Goes and Paper Playtime Summer Challenge (blue reminds me of the ocean and summer holidays--Hope it does you too).  Have a wonderful day; thanks for dropping by.  Comments always appreciated. 



Image from Dezinaworld True Beauties Set 





Wordless Wednesday (the Hexies from Portugal--gasp!--Edition)

Let the Games begin!

I love the Olympics, and am much more partial to the Winter Olympics than the Summer Olympics. This year they are even in our neck of the woods. Sort of. Well, straight north of us anyway. And apparently Mother Nature is enjoying the little joke she is playing by dumping too much snow on the Midwest and East Coast, while the Vancouver area is having to truck it in.

(picture by John Thurlow)

I was windowshopping on etsy, and in honor of the Olympics and the Canadian venues, I found these items by amazing Canadian artists, in the five colors of the Olympic rings, of course.

by Minaude

by Mooka Soap

by Wild Woman Jewelry

by Kimberly Jones Designs

by Savage Artwork

by Penny Glass Girl

And because you just never know what will strike your fancy,

by Rock Your Nose

Good luck to all the Canadian etsy artists, and to the athletes from around the world. Let the Games begin!

Craft Hope

There have already been a lot of posts on this amazing etsy shop that is raising money for Haitian Relief, with all proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders. The initial goal was to raise $5,000, but then things just took off and at last count over $10,000 has been raised.

I had planned to donate an item, but I was too slow (another hard lesson on the price of procrasination). There has been such a tremendous response and the shop is closed to donations of items for sale at this point. So....to compensate, I tried to do my part by doing a little shopping.

Three quilt patterns by a great designer, Kate Conklin.

A PDF for this super calendar, especially great if you hang out at the public library (with places to write in the name of the books you checked out and the due dates--you can also get a version without the "date due").

And this T-shirt because it was too cutely irresistible.
Craft Hope is being run by a mom with three kids under the age of 5 and another mom who is seven months pregnant and homeschooling two kids. This undertaking was such an act of generosity on their part. The shop will remain open until everything has sold. Etsy shop owners have been extremely generous and there are LOTS of great items still remaining. This is a tremendous opportunity to multi-task--buy handmade and receive something great, and above all, help those who are in such need of help.

Note: All purchases are made directly from the Craft Hope etsy shop. The individual links are to give more info on the generous artists and crafters who donated items to the Craft Hope shop.

Mess Mass Production

Mark and I never seem to learn our lesson. After vending a show, and going nuts for a couple of weeks right before the show because we're trying to get too much done in too short a time, and saying we will NEVER do that again, and will be "extremely organized from now on," we almost immediately lapse back into our old behavior. You know...."we have plenty of time to get ready for the next show." Pfffft.

It wasn't even that long ago. End of September. And here we are, in the same predicament. Only this time we have shows on back-to-back weekends. Yikes! What were we thinking?

The first is the Madera Wine Trail's Holiday Spirit Weekend. We have never vended for a wine trail weekend before. We haven't even attended a wine trail weekend before. Not really knowing what to expect, but based on the assumption that there will be a lot of people who are going from one winery to another, we are making a lot of wine charms, wine bottle stoppers, slumped wine bottles with cute little knives for serving cheese.

This is what it looks like around our house.

Kitchen counter:


Inside our oven. (Because we have to rinse out all those alcohol bottles, so we dry them in the oven before we put them in the kiln.)

In case you were wondering, we don't fuse or slump our glass work in the oven, even though Mark likes to tell people that we fuse and slump in our microwave. He says it takes about fourteen hours in the microwave. You wouldn't think anybody would fall for that, but you'd be surprised how many people say, "Really?" Maybe you have to actually know him. He gets that reaction a lot. Even from those of us who know him well. He says it with such a straight face, and then you I end up feeling so dumb after I fall for it, after all these years. Yeah, anyway...

(Side note to Mom and Dad: Mark doesn't drink anything stronger than diet coke, and while I like my glass of wine every night, I was not responsible for drinking my way through all these bottles. Although lately we have become friends with many a bartender.)

On top of the washing machine,
and the dryer.
Until after our second show next weekend--our annual open house--this is my new motto:

Blog-hopping to the holidays

Mark and I have never spent a lot of money during the holidays. We both come from families where that wasn't an option, as the money simply wasn't there. But there is still a way to celebrate in a special way without spending a lot, and these are the places I'll be checking out on a regular basis:



Handmade Holidays is packed with ideas, with these categories each day. Make it: Lots of great ideas (complete with all the helpful tutorials). Buy it: Affordable things already handmade. Mix it: Yummy new recipes. Print it: Lots of free things like cute gift tags--just print them out on your computer. Win it: A chance to win something everyday.

Great decorating ideas, including ideas using things you may already have (plus a chance to peak into someone else's house...)

And of course, I couldn't leave out the quilters. Some of the top pattern and fabric designers will be sharing their latest and greatest.

And last but most certainly not least, I recommend checking in with How About Orange. Jessica always seems to find paper artists willing to share their creativity (check out these cute printable cup wrappers), plus she hunts down do-it-yourself projects from all over the place.

So happy blog-hopping. Spend a little time now and you are sure to find something to make your holidays special, without spending a lot of moolah.