swaps n stuff...

MJ!... you are the winner of my drawing for goodies for providing me with input on which picture I should send to Stampington. I do not have contact info for you so please email me with your snail mail addy so I can send you a prize package.

Thanks everyone for your support and comments. I HATE posting pix of myself on line. I hate seeing pix of myself too, but I am trying to get more comfortable with it. I really admire my friend Joleen who posts pictures of herself all the time even though I know she struggles with her self image like so many women do. I think she is beautiful, but I also see her beauty beyond what her hair looks like on any given day, or a few extra pounds or lack of sleep. I think these are the things that we females always judge ourselves on but we need to remember that people who matter can really see in the inner us. Its something for us all to strive for I think.

I ended up sending in the top photo as it got the overwhelming number of votes. I am tempted to send her thr sombrero picture too. I sent my final things in yesterday but I bet we can sneak in a few other things :)

On another topic, I have been working on some things for a few projects and swaps. I did the Vintage Halloween swap that Lilia hosted and my partner was Mendy. I have always admired her style and work on flickr so it was fun to have her as a partner. I was a bit naughty and got my package out to her a week late but she'll get it on plenty of time for Halloween. I made her a fabric banner:
I don't know if she will put it up in her home but she teaches kindergarten so I know she can use it in her classroom if she wants. I send her some candy and some bits of ephemera and trim to use in her artwork in addition to this pin cushion which was kind of an experiment. I like how it turned out so I am planning to make more. This is the one I did for a swap at AFF...

projects....

As my SIL so eloquently posted on her Facebook, because we have been in this together.. "I have been sewing like a sweatshop worker" over the last week. My big project was this mini Marie Antoinette dress for the little person. Its her favorite colors. I had never sewn with satin before and I'll tell ya I won't be again any time soon! Still, despite the difficulties with the satin, and the pattern being a little bit too advanced for me, I think it rurned out pretty cute and Hannah LOVES it so that is what matters most. I found this lavender and pink feathered fan to match on eBay and was delighted that it arrived before we go to the Renn Faire tomorrow where our little princess will debut her gown.

I have also been sewing a new vest and tunic for my own Renn Faire outfit. Lots of tweaking the pattern and a last minute decision to dye the tunic. Its in the rinse cycle now, so no pix yet. Maybe tomorrow when I have it on.

Aside from all the sewing, I have been plugging away at design work. I have been working on bits for Adair's site.. I shared the splash page below. I am just so excited about this project and I love working with her and bouncing ideas off of each other. Just a quick note that she is having a fun giveaway on her blog this weekend. Go check it out!

Brian and I are just tweaking some little details on Jessica's site and then it will be live. I think she is going to have some really cute things so be sure to keep your eye on her launch.

I also have been working with Amanda on a new look for her website. I got kind of stuck on the font but then remembered my good friend Joleen had made some digital freebies including this big font. She graciously let me use it for Amanda's work and we were all thrilled with how it turned out. I hope Joleen makes some other stuff because her doodles and writing are so cool. I just saw on her blog that she is having a clearance sale in her Etsy shop to get ready for new things for the holidays. Maybe you can start your holiday shopping early!

Oh, and speaking of Etsy.. I have a few things listed in MY SHOP.. including a batch of my JUNQUE packs which are great for ATCs, cards and mixed media projects. They are chock full of all sorts of stuff from buttons, vintage wallpaper scraps, papers, collage images, fabric, trim, crepe paper, cards, bits, bob, doo dads, findings, amd more. I mention this because I will be moving my shop to Lollishops once it opens in November and probably most of this stuff will not be listed there. I will be changing my focus so i am trying to clean house a bit. Have a great Sunday!

a few boos

I was in kind of a funk this weekend. Not feeling up to par but today was a productive day getting caught up on "filing" and recording jobs and CLEANING... especially the kitchen floor which was calling for a good scrubbing on hands and knees. I hate our old floor with virtually no finish, ugh.

Anyway, this little collage is one I made while Joleen was here. It was to use one of the images on her new collage sheet. It was nice to have a break from design work to play with glue and paper and the sewing machine. I miss it and with my calendar so full its been hard to squeeze in much "me" art time.

I have been bitten by the kit bug, with all the Joli Paquet excitement, I keep coming up with new ideas to try to put together in my "copious" spare time. Be sure to check out our blog site so you can catch sneak peeks of the behind the scenes goings on in Paquet-ville.

Finally, since I am all over the place tonight and I need to get my photo order together, here are a couple of pictures of the wee one in her "scary witch" costume from one of the Halloween parties we attended this weekend.

tappity tap

I've been catching up on my work after a week of being down with the crud. It left me in a tired funk which was not really conducive to getting much done. I have finished up several blog banners and am working on other items to coordinate with this one for Karen at Karen Eileen designs.

I was delighted to finally get to dig onto Linda's new blog banner. She let me pick things from her blog to use as well as some pictures I asked to send. She wanted something a bit more contemporary so I had fun putting this banner together for her and used her new painting as the background. I love the colors.

As you can see by my new look, I have still been playing with Halloween goodies. Vicki was inspired by the witchy banner I posted earlier and asked if I could make her a banner to coordinate with the look I already created for her so I did a little retouching and voila:

On the flip side I have also been in the studio packing some last minute orders, playing with glue and paper and fooling around on my sewing machine for a holiday swap I am involved in with 11 artsy friends. We are doing a 12 days of Christmas swap a la Lelainia Lloyd and we have all been busy little elves keeping holiday secrets... You can visit our blog here and keep tabs on our antics.

banners, banners, everywhere...

I was delighted to work with Cindy of Yapping Cat Studio on her blog banner. Cindy is very nice and does fun work and I just could not resist her studio name or her darling yapping cats. It was a refreshing change to be able to work in deeper colors for Cindy. Lately I have been inspired but the colors of autumn even though we don't see much change of colors here in California. I have to get my fill on pumpkins and dried corn stalks.

Speaking of which, I think I mentioned I'd have a few banners available for those of you who might like a little change of scenery for the month of October. Here are a few banners that are available for adoption.



Any of these a banners is available to be customized and plopped in your blog for only $15. You can email me if you are interested. Of course, I am happy to create custom banners as well (at regular price).

Tomorrow I have some exciting news to announce and its also the day I will be drawing a name in my "Favorite Things" give away so skim on down to the Favorite Things post and leave a comment to enter.

hocus pocus

If it seems a little early for Halloween, well they were putting up CHRISTMAS stuff in Target today!! ugh.. I hate retail. Anyway, this is my little witch. She keeps talking about dressing up as a ghost for Halloween but I am sure she will change her mind 5 times between now and then. I did get her a fabulous witch's hat today so we'll have to take more pictures but this was a fun little photo shoot.

Thanks to all of you for your well wishes about my Mom, She found out today that she has 2 "nodules" on her lung that "appear benign". They have decided to watch them until December to see if they grow or change or hopefully go away. She is having some other health issues and we are waiting for some test results on those. I hate worrying, and waiting. I am sure she feels worse because she "feels" yucky but at least she is in relatively good health and takes care of herself.

trick er treat

First year trick or treating. Check out these wee darling girls!!! We had so much fun and have much candy to show for it.

We are fortunate to have a street here in town that goes ALL OUT for Halloween so we ventured over there early on and saw the sites. Some of the people's houses looked like theatre sets but it as so hard to photograph in the dark. We were glad we went early because by the time we left it was packed!!!! Hope everyone else had a very happy and exciting Halloween too!
 

whole lotta cute

So Etsy finally let me post some new stuff in my shop. I have been making some wee collages to adorn these fun metal coat hooks I found. I wish I had bought everything that they had but c'est la vie!

In addition to the hooks I have listed I am working on some more paper ornaments and the wands I previewed here. I seem to keep adding little bits and bobs which is holding me up, and to top it off SOMEONE who shall remain nameless but who is very small and cute broke my camera today!! Gah! Halloween is tomorrow! What am I going to do?!!

Anyway, in addition to posting these and mailing off some Zines I also made this "vintage Halloween" page for amonthly swap I am in, add another check mark to the DONE list.

its all good

My Dad came through his procedure fine. He sounded really chipper and feeling good when he called me this afternoon. He was on the table for about 2 hours, where they placed a stent into another stent which is already in a third stent! He said that he was having no drug reactions or headaches which is really good and he was very chatty. If all goes well tonight he should be able to go home tomorrow. Thanks again to those of you who have send well wishes and support.

In artsy news, above are pictured the Halloween trick or treat pails I made for the wee one and her little buddy. They are altered paint cans inspired by the one Joleen made for her charge last year. I also have been doing some more soldering. I really need to find a bottle of the cleaner used to clean the junk and flux off the finished pieces. Hopefully I will have some pictures of soldered goodies to share tomorrow.