More Mail!

Can you believe the beauty of the tags that Jenny sent to me in our swap!!! Well, first, look at the beauty and attention to detail that she pays in her packing! A beautifu pink feather! A tag AND Note! The note card is actually one from Heather that Jenny sent a note on : )

Now, more beauty~

Each and every tag is special!

I like to call this "Let's EAT"! Of coarse she used recipe paper...IN A NEW WAY! She used it as a ruffle at the bottom of the tag. I love this idea!

Next we have~



~ Three Friends!

They are really playing it up for the camera! The wall paper she used reminds me of a picnic, Which friends always do together. It was a very happy day for them: )

Love this one ALSO! And the last tag: every kid needs to have a bike! Jenny really knows how to make
everything a "Holiday!"

Ok, I have to get back to work. I have to "dito" what Jenny says in her latest post. That is, that I am also hard at work, with any sun kissed skin fading until the next walk or garden project. I will have photos of my VERY OWN SPACE SOON! It is beautiful in many ways : )

~~~~Beautiful~~~~

~~~~SIGH~~~~

This beautiful piece of art is from the so lovely Jenny Holiday! I can not believe that I was so lucky to be one of her swap partners! I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, THIS! I asked for anything sparkley AND "JENNY". I wanted this to reflect herself, a piece that she would make for herself. : ) Each square is so very special. I tried to get individual shots of squares, but some where blurry (my trade mark). Then I saw that some compositions with more than one square showed her piece in another light! I love the over lapping in this photo.

My photo is blurry, not her photo. The ribbon comming up like a wave and the sea glass and
starfish...perfect!

Like I said, the only information I gave Jenny was that I like all things glittery and wanted this to be a piece by her. But you will not believe all of the things on here that do mean something to ME! My Dad would go to the Mall with us. It was an hour drive. He would go off to Sears and come back to our meeting place, always with a pretzel in his hand! : ) My Mom and Dad took us to Lake Michigan for our vacation every year! I collected some glass and many stones. My Grandmother Fraser had a button jar that I loved to spill out in the bedroom off of the kitchen. (Jenny, This Bedroom would make you faint onto the lovely bedcovering. It was All So feminie and gorgeous from, I guess the late 40's, complete with a fluffy tiered skirt dressing table in a kidney shape and all of the necessities. It was one of my Aunts Bedrooms.
I have Many Many photos for you! I wish you could see it in person because my abilities do not even come close to capturing the beauty of this piece!

Notice the confetti hearts she included in the package!

Of Coarse we must have CAKE!!! : ) I think that Jenny might have painted this delicous cake AND some of the wallpaper backing the collage!!! : )

Notice the "M" and then see the "HAPPY" !!! That's Mary!!!

I think that the cake that you can see the bottom of in this photo is PAINTED BT JENNY! I thought it was a cut out! SooooTalented! Enlarge the photos to see the deatail!

This is so very special! I LOVE IT!

Ok! Breathe! This piece is absolutely breathtaking! Jenny surely hosted a very special swap! All of the participants had amazingly gorgeous work! The execution of the artists was rich and inspiring! I am telling you! If Jenny holds another swap you better get yourself over there and sign up! Thanks Jenny from the bottom of my heart!

Now You See It...

Melting! That is what the temperatures here where this past weekend! So the Hubby decided to empty out the office closet (Doug helped) and remove the exicisting shelves. When he did this he found THIS:

A slice in the carpet. I guess the builder put the shelves in before the carpet. This house was already underconstruction when we found it and needed it PRONTO! We came in from Michigan and met with the realtor in the morning. He did not have much to show us but "this house just was reduced!" I thank God for
All of the special blessings that summer!

There is a nice step-up into the room. But what shall we do now that the carpet is sliced? K.C. loves hardwood but not right now. He knows I have wanted to paint the stairs to the uppper level and paint our masterbedroom floors also. WHITE GLOSS! LOVELY!!! I have wanted this for YEARS!!! I mean YEARS and YEARS! Even before Caitlin and I went to visit my brother Matt in New York in Sept. 2001! When he opened the loft door there they were! Beautiful white floors. His girlfriend let us know how he wanted to get them painted in honor of our visit. Oh so sweet is my big Brother! He was also doing some great pieces of white textured natural materials that I was invited to help him with!..But events changed.

There is a perfect pocket door, hardwood and paneled that you can not see right now since it is opened.

There is also an octaganol window that opens. :)

The room is 7' by 5 1/2'. Huge and wonderful through my eyes! It is going to be My spot! I can have the sewing machine set up permanently! Ready to go by just a flip of the switch. Ah heaven. I have not had that luxury since I was a young girl at my parents home. Soon, very soon it will be done! I plan for it to be all white. the moldings, floor, walls and ceiling. I am very tempted to put color on the floor. something like Green, pink or a beautiful shade of summery blue, like the dining room walls :) Lovely. I was thinking of painting a border on it that I have been dreaming of, but there would not be much of it visible once the room is loaded. I can put color on the chair! Oh need to go shopping for a chair..note to self start in the basement! That is were the best deals are found hahah.
I have not forgotten about all of the things I am making for you all out there! The week has started and I am back to the kitchen table Where a beautiful array of colors drift and float.

Look at what came in the mail last week!!!

This is from Justiss for the Tag Swap that Tammy hosted. This was her very first tag and swap also! She made a different tag for each of us! She also included several sheets of music and some cute shell like buttons! Totally above and beyond! I love the Eiffel Tower that she put on mine and the modern pattern she placed on the body of the tag! I do like some modern things. Did you notice how they can add energy to a room when they are used in decorating! Same with tags! Oh and it is pink and a yumy shade of milk chocolate. Love it! Thank You Justiss!

So I am working hard for you all and for breaks I am going to paint that closet! Oh please no more wood putty on the floor!

Bits~n~Pieces Collage Swap

Gottcha!!!

Oh no not another sneek peek and then wait for eternity to see the final product...again!!!
Nope, no way!
Here it is done and Jennyhas it at her home now, so I can show you the collage.

This was a very fun challenge as I am not a paper artist but I sure had fun making this. Jenny was the host and I was very happy to get her as my swap partner!!! The Challenge was to use up our bits~n~pieces as we made a collage for our partner. Our partners sent us specifics on their favorites and any non-favorites! That made me happy! No guessing.

Here is a close-up of a cute poodle pup I found. It is not a cute pup like Carlos but it is glamorous!

A few close-ups of a sparkely "J" (I love sparkle and sparkely letters) and a close-up of a ballerina I dressed up. Jenny loves these details too : )

A Signaure wreath piece : )

And a signature Christmas house piece : )
I had been a looong time in fulfilling another swap I did with Jenny. This was just we two and we did not give each other a time frame. It was also pretty much after Tammy's Tag Swap I
was in. So I made another tag, of coarse the same one I made for Tammy's swap! Yes, so you see, everyone
gets one of these tags!!! All the same pretty much! SEE:

I am a Mom of two!!! Oh yes, and my mom would get my sisters and I the same cute summer outfit each year! Awww we looked adorable. Until she brought home the modern outfit for just Kelly and me!!! The shorts were striped, and the top was a no sleeve REVERSIBLE little shift type top. One side was striped and the reverse was POLKA DOTS!!! We both did not like this ensemble. Kelly, being more clever at this covert operation then some previous ones (namely hiding the food she did not want to eat in her POCKETS, where our mother would find it when she checked pockets before laundry!!! yuck.) Oh I digress. Kelly being quite clever and about to impress her older sister (me) went to the summer arts and crafts afternoon, with me, wearing THE outfit. I think we were both wearing it! She had had enough of it and "spilled" BLACK PAINT all over it. She carefully got it on her top and shorts I believe. She never had to wear it again. Of coarse I am not as quick as she. I thought it was an accident but she let me know that it was not. Oh so clever!

Well, I must be missing her alot more than usual. That is two stories about her in just a couple of days!
Just so you know, here are the Four tags I made for Jenny...Three were new ones.

I had to think of what I knew of and I wanted to give her something different. So this is what came forth.

Here is the front and back of one tag. I guess I was thinking of those glamorous dresses with the great faux flowers!?

The front of one that is actually derived from another project I am currently working on!!! : ) : )

And here is the last one. A wire tag. You may notice that this Pix is not quite the same as the group shot up above in the post. Well, I was tweaking this tag up to the the very end. I added little pink rick-rack that I have had for awhile.

A SNEEK PEEK

Here are several sneek peeks of the very fun Bits~n~Pieces Collage Swap I am in over at Jenny's

I do not know how to manipulate a photo to show tiny parts only . I hope to figure that out soon! And I think "blurry" adds to the effect..(just covering my behind from my "in-house editor" heheh.
With this sneak peek I started thinking about Christmas especially and those who love to sneek a peek! Do any of you now or when you were little check out a gift??? Do you tear a little corner to see the box labeling??? Or...Do you unwrap the entire gift and put it back together???!!! I am not sure if one of my sisters, who shall remain nameless, may have actually practiced both of these techniques! Hehehe. I remember seeing our Christmas gifts once in our parents closet. They were piled HIGH!!! There were Six of us kids!!! It was enough for me to know that I had been good and that there were presents!!! Oh, not that my parents ever threatened. I think it was just more widely "known" that "you better watch out, I'm tell'in you why, Santa Clause is coming to town". Did I stop to think why the gifts were in my Mom and Dad's closet!? NO, not me. I was quite content just knowing that the gifts would be under the tree! One year the SAME sister woke ME up on Christmas morning! That shows how she too loved Christmas and gifts! She came BACK in our bedroom barely able to contain herself!!! WELL, she did NOt contain herself!!! She spilled it all out immediately, without missing a beat to catch her breath...she was breathless from the excitement!!! She was very thrilled to announce that we were getting BIKES for Christmas!!! 4*NEW*BIKES!!! I was thrilled and mad all at once! I was getting one of the bikes (she said one had my name on it, hahah) On the flip side...I had no surprise left when it was time to get up and go out to the livingroom where our tree was. I actually love this story because it really is one of those funny stories, and to look back now I have a great visual of Kelly (OOPS)( heheh) coming in to tell me our wonderful news. We rode our bikes all around for years and years and years. I learned to ride "look Mom no-hands" on that bike. I could ride from our driveway around our entire block (4corners).without touching the handle bars. (Our Mom raised us all without any of us breaking a bone!!!) We all loved those bikes. After my husband and I got married he wanted to get me a bike, since old blue had since been let go. He got me another Sears(I insisted) blue bike! Oh yaya, I still have it, he up grades the tires to a wider tire....but I need to start riding it again!!! Oh what a good cue for THIS!

Beaut`e

Beauty is all around us always. A smile from a little child, the grace in a face that has lived many years. The baby ducks, geese and birds, the abundant and aromatic flowers around us. If we can take a moment to stop and B*R*E*A*T*H*E ... we can see and feel, and relax.

Can you believe the Beaut`e in the tags that Karin has made! Gorgeous! She only had to make one, but she made us three each!!! I will post all of them together in one pix at a future date!
The various flower pix, all of peonies, are from my garden. When planning my patio beds I knew I wanted a number of peony bushes....6, then 8 then finally, I now have 9 happy peony bushes : ) They are singles, doubles, parfaits, pinks and whites. This is one thing I have no trouble using up! They are too beautiful not to cut and share! And they come back year after year!

"Schools out for summer". What beaut`e is around you this time of year? What beautiful faces will you get to see and visit with? Let me know! : )