Sweet!

Stamp credits: Stampin' Up!

After a long weekend with much lazing around and very short on productivity, I can only show you these little holiday projects - the top two immediately got turned into gift tags and have already been given away (on chocolate advent calendars) and the lower two are most likely going to end up on holiday cards rather than tags. There's a little glitter on each one, stickles did the job nicely.

This dear fellow is a friend of my Dad's, 'Toppy'. He lives in a beautiful valley in Western Australia and for many years now has been a beekeeper, bottling and selling the honey from his bees. The honey is stored in huge drums, the little pots on top of the drums are tasters - you visit Toppy and select the honey you like best, he packages it in his 'Top Geer' jars and away you go, another happy customer. The ribbons on the wall are prizes the honey has won at The Royal Show through the years.

Toppy is getting on in years now, his wife has passed away and he's living alone on his property. He had 'a funny turn' (most likely a stroke of some sort) and his doctors have told him he can no longer drive. If he can't drive, he can't get out to the bee hives, so Toppy has said goodbye to the bees and these drums represent the last of the Top Geer honey, the end of an era. I don't know when I've met a more sweet and down to earth person than Toppy, he's a dinky-di battler and represents that generation of older Australians who loved and respected the land, lived simply and well, and got the job done. Not just a bee keeper, he's a keeper of great stories and local history - Toppy's a national treasure :)

Smile

Stamp credit: Stamper's Anonymous (Tim Holtz)

Ah, the post-Thanksgiving stretch. Time to get up a little later than usual, cook up some leftovers ('bubble and squeak' in our house, a colonial twist on an American holiday :) then play with some ink and paper. This is an ATC for a friend - I used a new stamp from the Tim Holtz collection for Stamper's Anonymous (scooped up at the Carson RSC), dolled her up with some metallic rub-ons, and ran some black paper through the labelmaker with some more metallic rub-on to show up the word 'smile'. It's not much to show for a lazy day but I'm telling myself it's better than nothing at all ...

Many thanks to Maria Filosa at UHU - she sent me a fab color 'UHU Glue Stic' to try out. I've been using it for cards and ATCs and I have to say it really does a great job! I really hate to have anything drop off a card of project I've made - I wouldn't like to have someone open an envelope from me and have pieces of the project falling out, or drifting off later as a card is perched on a shelf or mantle, know what I mean? I started testing this glue a while back and held off on posting about it to make sure the items that were stuck stayed that way! I've used it on most of my paper projects in the last two months and everything is still glued in the place I put it, so I'm really pleased with the results. Thanks again Maria!

I'm trying to get revved up to do some cleaning, get rid of some of the junk that seems to clutter up the place (my own mess and assorted family clutter), and plunge into stamping and crafting projects that are on my 'to do' list. That list is always lurking out there. Hope you have a great weekend and manage to cross through a few items on your own 'to do' list.

It's About Time

Stamp credits: Stampin' Up!

It's that time - cooler weather (at last!), Thanksgiving week, and time to start preparing for holiday gift giving. I haven't made any holiday cards yet, but I did play around with some gift tags today and it definitely put me in the mood for more holiday projects. I'm thinking these tags could easily work for Hanukkah too, except perhaps the one with the red greeting, although it does just say 'holiday hello'. Can my favorite punk Christmas music be far away? I think not :)

I like to think I'm always counting my blessings, but as we head into Thanksgiving I become even more mindful of them. This weekend I'm counting mixed blessings.
Molly's soccer season ended today, we've had so much fun watching her team and they have been wonderful together - they won their championship game today to place first in their division. Why is it a mixed blessing? Well, it's so fun to see them win, but it means the season's over - I'll miss the team members and their parents, but I have to admit I'm kinda thrilled to gain back two weeknights - no more soccer practice for Molly.

Next mixed blessing? My son heading off to a dance at school. He's no longer a baby, I have to face the fact he's growing up fast (taller than me now), but it's so fun to see him all dressed up and I wouldn't want to hold back time, just slow it down a little here and there . . .Oh yeah, he'll always be my baby :) The long hair cracks me up - it's so like the way the guys wore their hair when I was in high school, you know, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Flynn's soccer team have finished their regular season, but they are going into 'area play' in the new year, so it's not over yet.

Stamping Convention - Doh!

L to R: Sue, Lianne, Penny, Nell

I'm a goober! Let me just start out by making that very clear. Yesterday I had such fun meeting Penny, Lianne, Monica and Nell at the Carson Rubber Stamp Convention - good friends who 'get it', rooms full of rubber stamps and great samples, and an afternoon to indulge in such delights. Did I get my camera out and get a photo of our wonderful group? Nope. In my own defense I was slightly giddy at the opportunity to wander around the RSC and not be working a booth or setting up displays, but still, one photo of our rarely assembled group would have been a good idea. Maybe it also had something to do with the fact that I was sitting in the weak morning light at 7:00am at the soccer field on a Sunday morning - yes, really!! DD had a VERY early game, and after that the day was a bit of a blur. The photo you see above was taken a couple of years ago - sans Monica. Next time I'll get it right - photo first, then dive into the ink, stamps and general fun.

Dee Greunig and Tim Holtz were there doing demos (for Sunday International and Stampers Anonymous). I scooped up some of the new Tim Holtz cling stamps that are already mounted and come on an index / storage board, very fun. Also some unmounted stamps from Invoke Arts and Lost Coast Designs. Apart from that I was content to wander 'round and check out the displays and the goings on. Magenta also has cling mounted stamps now, so next time I might pick up a couple of those - I was being so good and strictly limiting my purchases this time around :)

Hope you had a great weekend, are you ready for a wonderful week? My kiddos are home from school today - Veteran's Day holiday. What do you get when you don't have to rush out the door at 6:30am on the first of two school runs? A kitchen positively glowing with the scent of fresh baked cinnamon rolls - mmmm :) But now I have to head off to work - why don't we all get a day off work on this holiday?

Hi ho, hi ho ....

Grilled Eggplant and Baked Postage Stamps

Yeah, that's what happens when a crafter gets hold of an oven - especially an impatient crafter like me :) I wanted to make a healthier eggplant parmigiana, so I tried grilling the eggplant instead of frying and it's looking great so far, now that it's layered with tomatoes, garlic, onions and cheese - mmm good. In the interim I soaked some postage stamps off envelopes to send them to a fellow crafter, but they weren't drying fast enough (read 'instantly' - I wanted to use my Xyron to turn them into stickers) so I popped them in the pre-heated parmigiana oven to speed up the process - perfect! Who says you can't have it all?

The theme of the postal package is 'recycled' so it includes maps, Chinese newspaper, tea bag tags and packaging, Italian wine packaging, dictionary pages, Bee & Flower soap packaging, train/travel themed cardstock and paper images from a fundraiser catalog at work, stickers from fruit, and mini-envelopes made from map paper. I hope the recipient likes it - it's kind of a funky thing to send out to someone but I'm thinking a fellow arty will know just what to do with it all (and no, that doesn't mean throw it in the bin!).I also made this little tag using an image from the fundraiser catalog and a stamp from Purple Onion Designs, plus a definition from the dictionary, to tuck inside one of the map paper envelopes. I'm thinking even the tag could be recycled by sticking it onto something else, or pasting paper over my writing on the back ... yes, I'm obsessive ...

What have you been cooking up lately?

Stamp credit: Purple Onion Designs (frame)
Recycled map paper and image, dictionary definition
Eyelet, cardstock and ribbon - Stampin' Up!
Scallop punch - Marvy Uchida (oval)

Fiesta! Dia de los Muertos

Ballet Folklorico group at Olvera Street

Last year we went up to Olvera Street in Los Angeles for Dia de los Muertos - this year we're staying closer to home. Part of the fun at Olvera Street was seeing local dance troupes performing regional dances from Mexico - most of the children are first or second generation Angelenos, and the adult dancers are mostly from Mexico, come to settle here in the USA. I love to see people keeping the traditions and culture from their heritage alive. The music and the costumes for the folkorico groups are wonderful - and you just can't beat a Mariachi group decked out and playing their hearts out - wow!

DDLM Shrines, Olvera Street

One of the aspects of DDLM that I enjoy most is seeing the colorful, kitschy arts and crafts - little shrines and figures with plenty of color and often a sprinkling of humour too. There are some very fun fabrics too, like the sugar skull material I used for my DDLM journal cover :)

Quilted journal cover

Store display, Olvera Street

What's not to love about celebrating DDLM here in Los Angeles? Total sensory overload, including the music, dance, ofrendas (altars), decorated cemetaries, crafts, decor, store displays, and last but not least really great food (finished off with a warm, cinnamon scented churro).

Molly w. churro, Olvera Street